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‘The twenty-first century’s counterpart to Hobbes’s Leviathan.’ EMMANUELE COCCIA
What has happened to the nation-state? From a prizewinning writer, After Nations offers a sweeping history of this most unquestioned of modern structures and a bold speculation about its future.
When Tom Feiling moved to Tokyo as a student in the early nineties, Japan was a beacon of the future: a rising superpower, a technology giant, a global symbol of prosperity, civility and success. When he returned 24 years later, the country was still a sign of things to come – but, he began to realize, it was no longer a beacon. It was a warning. This is a unique account of contemporary Japan, which travels from the quiet of its furthest flung villages to the aspiration and dynamism of its cities. It tells the story of how, from the mid-seventies onwards, Japanese society unknowingly embarked on a vast, silent process of transformation that is still unfolding today.
One of the most inspiring and counter-intuitive thinkers of our age, the author of ‘Seven Brief Lessons on Physics’, transforms the way we think about the world with his reflections on science, history, and humanity. In this collection of writings, the logbook of an intelligence always on the move, Carlo Rovelli follows his curiosity and invites us on a voyage through science, history, philosophy, and politics.
The explosive debut from political commentator Ash Sarkar, Minority Rule breaks down how the power of ordinary people is under attack by an elite minority – and how we can focus our energy on the real problem at hand.
More than half of the world’s population can speak more than one language fluently and over a third of the population in the United Kingdom is multilingual. And yet life in multiple languages is rarely discussed publicly, and the pressure to keep heritage languages alive has become a private conflict for millions. Linguist Malwina Gudowska, herself trilingual, takes us inside that private struggle, shedding light on the ways in which we navigate language, its power to shape and reshape lives, and the ripple effects felt far beyond any one home or any one language. It takes one generation for a family language to die. One generation – like mother to child. ‘Mother Tongue Tied’ is about the emotional weight of raising multilingual children while grappling with your own identity and notions of home; as a child of immigrants, and as a new mother.
In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky’s study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The killer? Ramon Mercader – an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet assassin. The mastermind? Joseph Stalin. But this was no simple hit. It was the climax of a decade-long global hunt: a story of seduction and betrayal, of fake identities and secret loyalties, of idealists and fanatics, lovers and spies. While Trotsky raged in exile – still clinging to his revolutionary dream – Stalin’s agents closed in. And at the heart of it all was Mercader: a man trained to lie, charm and ultimately to kill.
‘Captivating, mind-boggling and deeply disturbing’ – Maureen Freely
‘Humane, thoughtful and urgent – this book will make you think, make you laugh, make you cry, but also make you burn with rage’ – Dr Mary Wellesley
A thought-provoking deep dive into the global fertility industry and the commodification of the maternal body
Over two years and three monsoons, Yuvan Aves pays scrupulous attention to the living world of his coastal city. The result is a diary of deep observation of coast and wetland, climate and self. Set in beaches and marshes, and the wild places of the mind, ‘Intertidal’ comprises daily accounts of being in a multispecies milieu. In language that is jewel-like and precise, we hear frog calls through the night, spot butterflies miles into the ocean, find blue buttons washed ashore, see the churning of longshore currents and meditate on the composting abilities of worms. We also witness communities stand together to preserve the homes and livelihoods of the human and non-human inhabitants of the coast and the marsh.
Beautiful, sensuous and enigmatic, great carpets follow power Emperors, shahs, sultans and samurai crave them as symbols of earthly domination. Shamans and priests desire them to evoke the spiritual realm. The world’s 1% hunger after them as displays of extreme status. And yet these seductive objects are made by poor and illiterate weavers, using the most basic materials and crafts; hedgerow plants for dyes, fibres from domestic animals, and the millennia-old skills of interweaving warps, wefts and knots. In this book, Dorothy Armstrong tells the histories of some of the world’s most fascinating carpets, exploring how these textiles came into being then were transformed as they moved across geography and time in the slipstream of the great.
Unlike her distant ancestors, a queen isn’t shielded from enemies by suits of armour. The women of the House of Windsor – Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, Wallis Simpson who would become Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II – faced abdications and assassinations, revolutions, the rise of fascism and war. Their sartorial decisions projected power and perpetuity, diplomacy and even defiance. In this cinematic, vivid story of soft power and couture, Picardie uncovers the fascinating, little-known lives of the couturiers behind the clothes, figures like Hardy Amies, Edward Molyneux and Norman Hartnell, and traces the ways in which visual iconography safeguarded the monarchy even when their reign seemed to be hanging by a thread.
The Langham Afternoon Tea Book celebrates the historic London hotel that introduced Afternoon Tea in 1865, sharing signature recipes, expert tea-pairing tips and elegant inspiration for re-creating this timeless ritual at home.Â
An inventive new look at the entwined histories of Britain and Ireland’s nations – and the people who have called them home.
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