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David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all.
Jen’s hen party is going to be out of control. She’s rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won’t be back for 72 hours. They are alone – or so they think. As well as Jen, there’s the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It’s a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that, unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. Problem is, everyone has a secret. And nobody wants to tell.
Born to a well-known political family in Olinda, Brazil, Catarina grows up in the shadow of her dead aunt, Laura. Melissa, a South London native, is brought up by her mum and a crew of rebellious grandmothers. In January 2016, Melissa and Catarina meet for the first time, and, as political turmoil unfolds across Brazil and the UK, their friendship takes flight. Their story takes us across continents and generations – from the election of Lula to the London riots to the darkest years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard’s library. He knows not to ask too many questions, stand out too much, stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve ‘American culture’ in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic – including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret. Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find her.
He was born into an ancient powerful dynasty and, through no fault of his own, became one of the most recognisable men on the planet. His life was a constant barrage of press intrusion and manipulation. Until finally, he demanded that it stop. In order to get the privacy he so craved, he has written a warts-and-all book that goes deep inside the castle walls and exposes every shouting match, fist-fight, betrayal, teddy bear, awkward hug and tear-stained wedding rehearsal for the world to feast their eyes on. All for privacy! This is his story.
No other group of animals has had such a complex and lengthy relationship with humankind as birds. They have been kept in cages as pets, taught to speak and displayed as trophies. More practically, they have been used to tell the time, predict the weather, foretell marriages, provide unlikely cures for ailments, convey messages and warn of poisonous gases. ‘When There Were Birds’ is a social history of Britain that charts the complex connections between people and birds, set against a background of changes in the landscape and evolving tastes, beliefs and behaviours. It draws together many disparate, forgotten strands to present a story that is an intriguing and unexpectedly significant part of our heritage.
Britain’s foremost woman travel writer Sara Wheeler records her life of adventure, from the Antarctic to Zanzibar. Sara Wheeler is Britain’s foremost woman travel writer. Glowing Still is the story of her travelling life – what is ‘important, revealing or funny’ – in a notoriously testosterone-laden field. Growing up among blue-collar Conservatives in Bristol where ‘we didn’t know anyone who wasn’t like us’, Wheeler knew she needed to get away. In her twenties she began a dramatic escape: Pole to Pole, via Poland. ‘Glowing Still’ recalls happy days on India’s Puri Express; an Antarctic lavatory through which a seal popped up (hot fishy breath!); and the louche life of a Parisian shopgirl. Corralling reindeer with the Sámi in Arctic Sweden and towing her baby on a sledge, a helpful herdsman advised her to put foil down her bra to facilitate nursing.
This is a forensic examination – by the man best placed to do so – of what it costs to run the United Kingdom’s economy. To follow the money. To provide an explanation, of where that money comes from and where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change. We are heading off, in fact, on a journey to not just follow the money, but to track it and pin it down, to find out how much of our money government takes and spends to keep the country we recognise as the UK running. Government decisions determine the welfare of the poor and the elderly, the state of the health service, the effectiveness of our children’s education, and our preparedness for the future: whether that is a pandemic or global warming. As a society, we are a reflection of what the government spends.
During WW2 there was a rumour that German spies were landing by parachute in Britain, dressed as nuns. Conradin Muller was an unusual spy. He was recruited in Hamburg in June 1943, much against his will, and sent on his first, and only, mission in late September that year. He failed to send a single report back to Germany, and when the War came to an end in May 1945, he fell to his knees and wept with relief. From a highly reluctant German spy who is drawn to an East Anglian nunnery as his only means of escape, to the strange tale of one of the Cambridge spy ring’s adventures with a Russian dwarf, these are Alexander McCall Smith’s intriguing and typically inventive stories from the world of espionage.
William Benson knows what it’s like to be accused of something you didn’t do – the fear, the vulnerability and the nightmare of watching your life unravel. Now he speaks on behalf of those who have no voice, defending anyone who claims to be innocent. This time, it’s Karmen Naylor, estranged daughter of a south London crime boss, fighting a murder charge and desperate to be believed. But Benson becomes trapped into a grudge match between two rival clans, endangering himself and those he loves. Tess de Vere is by Benson’s side but she’s keeping something from him. A stranger on the trail of a state-sanctioned death squad operating in Northern Ireland during the Troubles brings a terrible secret into the heart of her own life. And he won’t go away. Can Tess and Will find their way through all the secrets and the lies? Should justice always be served – and if so, at what cost?
In 1942 there was a domestic crisis in Britain. Public morale collapsed with a widespread feeling that Winston Churchill was no longer the right man to lead the nation. In the course of the crisis, motions of No-Confidence were debated in Parliament. A credible rival for Prime Minister emerged. This panic followed a series of major military fiascos. If its war effort folded, Britain would have had to negotiate a truce with Hitler. Had Britain been forced out of the war by this in 1942, it would have been almost impossible for the US to fight back in Europe. The survival of fascism, the outcome of the titanic battles on the Eastern Front and the ultimate result of the war could all have been very different. ‘1942’ tells the story of this precarious moment when the British people nearly lost it.
Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can’t resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe’s detective Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious. Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive, but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West – a bewitching combination of beauty and danger – as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon.
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