Showing 1–16 of 22 resultsSorted by latest
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£10.99
You may think about the Roman Empire every day, but I bet you rarely think about the plebs. The plebs were the commoners, the general populace and lower social classes, and as such their feelings, thoughts and voices are seldom captured in the sources. Most books about Ancient Rome treat the plebs as irrelevant ‘lowlifes’, which is indeed how they were viewed by the patricians at the centre of the existing popular histories. ‘Plebs Romana’ is a history of Ancient Rome to centre the class of people who made up the empire’s majority. A 700-year story that begins with the founding of the Roman Republic, historian Peter Jones traces the rise of the plebs, from being a powerless group to a political match for the ‘patrician’ elite.
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£14.99
Persevilience (noun): the ability of an individual, group or organization to turn any situation, setback or meaningful experience into a positive opportunity to grow, to advance and secure their core interests. In an era of multiple unprecedented multiple challenges, new ways of thinking about how we meet them are called for. Enter Persevilience: Yes, it combines perseverance and resilience. But it does so much more than that. It is the ability to turn any setback into an opportunity, by embracing a mindset that is not just tougher, but more positive, and built on belief and integrity. Blending the sharp political analysis for which he is known around the world with candid, personal reflections on grief, disappointment, mental health, friendship, family and love, Alastair Campbell’s work introduces a new value to strive for.
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£14.99
Millions have already benefited from the wisdom dispensed in ‘The Courage to Be Disliked’, its simple yet profound advice showing us how to harness our inner power to become the person we would like to be. A philosopher and a student have a discussion. Their conversation reveals a profoundly liberating way of thinking: by developing the courage to change, set healthy boundaries and resist the impulse to please others, it is possible to find genuine and lasting happiness.
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£10.99
‘A fantastic and varied collection of problems authored by some of the best puzzle setters around’ – Alex Bellos ‘A book of delightful puzzles. It’s just as good as you’d expect.’ – Tim Harford ‘A marvellous miscellany of mysteries’ – Simon Singh ‘Hours of arguing and puzzling. I loved it.’ – Matt Parker This highly engaging collection of 70 puzzles comes from the popular weekly column in New Scientist magazine. You’ll find puzzles that are great for sharing with friends at a pub, problems drawn from real-life situations, games with intriguing strategies, and puzzles with such creative and whimsical storylines that they need to be explained to be believed. With the solutions you’ll read the untold back stories behind the puzzles, and a fascinating exploration of related puzzles and mathematical ideas. You’ll learn why a particular puzzle adaptation involved talking to an expert in sheep genetics, which solution was thought up by
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£12.99
Brought here by the Romans, adopted by the Saxons, formalised by the Tudors and perfected by the Victorians, the public house has been with us for millennia. When travelling to a new part of the UK it’s almost inevitable you’ll end up at one – whether it’s to drink, eat, sleep or all three – and pub culture is a brilliant way to explore our beautiful country. Jonny Garrett’s here to set you on the right path with a personal journey through some of the UK’s most beautiful, historic and culturally significant pubs – all of which happen to serve up amazing beer or cider. From Penzance to Glasgow, via Belfast and Conwy, One More Round shows how you can be hundreds of miles from your house and still find somewhere that feels like home. It’s an exploration of the UK’s absolute greatest pubs – the kind people make pilgrimages to visit, write poems about, take selfies in, and most importantly walk into and never want to leave.
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£14.99
When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he ended the post-1945 Pax Americana which had underwritten eighty years of global stability and opportunity since World War II. After military interventions in Iran and Venezuela, and with Greenland on the cards, the United States seems to be returning to a former imperial age, dominated by itself, Russia and China. With its unparalleled military capabilities and its status as an economic guarantor to almost two thirds of the planet, this seems the likeliest outcome. But is the old world likely to reemerge from the shadows? Or can smaller states like Taiwan, Switzerland and Singapore provide a blueprint for how we can chart a bolder, more promising future? From the former Director of Chatham House, ‘After America’ is an original and surprising analysis of the post-America order – and a bold vision for the future of geopolitics.
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£12.99
After coming perilously close to blowing his life savings on a convertible he can’t afford, Rob Temple shares his tragic journey through the absurd impulses, bold reinventions and utter cringe of the midlife crisis – a wild ride we all face if we’re lucky enough to keep on aging. Are you suddenly training for an ultramarathon despite your lower back pain, asking the hairdresser for a mohawk regardless of going very thin on the top, or planning your first tattoo saying ‘no regrets’ even though you in fact have about forty years of regrets? Then this book is for you.
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£12.99
Ockley hates being an octopus because as the only octopus at school, he is often the butt of jokes. But when he meets a wise old hermit crab, how he sees himself starts to change. A charming tale full of inspiring tools to empower young readers to build self-confidence and embrace their own individuality, as well as appreciating it in others.
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£16.99
In between the partying, the drugs, the love affairs, the ‘squalid overboogie’ of it all, Eve Babitz made time to chronicle the world as she saw it in works like ‘Eve’s Hollywood,’ ‘Slow Days, Fast Company’ and ‘Sex and Rage.’ But Babitz considered her letters ‘the kind of writing I do best,’ calling them ‘practically a diary,’ and rarely depositing them into a mailbox. Her missives to friends like Joseph Heller, Annie Leibovitz, Paul Ruscha and Steve Martin – fresh and frank, dashing and droll – are irresistible, as highly spirited as they are acutely perceptive. In ‘Too L.A.,’ Babitz’s biographer, Lili Anolik, has performed a remarkable feat, not only raising these letters from the tomb but accompanying them with informative and irreverent commentary, guiding the reader through the uproarious lifelong party that was Eve Babitz’s real masterpiece.
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£25.00
From taking office amidst the cost of living and energy supply crises and the panic caused by Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, through the agenda-dominating Ukraine and Gaza wars and the Rwanda Asylum Plan, to the stunning 2023 local election results, this book is the definitive and jaw-dropping window into Rishi Sunak’s premiership.
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£9.99
Since his marriage ended, Desmond Leaks has been stuck in rut. But living alone does have some upsides – for one, there’s no one to tell him that he’s ‘not allowed’ chocolate spread on his toast. And for Leona Lennox, a fresh start might just mean she can finally open that rescue centre for abandoned dogs she’s always dreamed of. That’s if she can learn to let people in occasionally – and accept help. Take this Desmond guy, he’s so nice that he’s offering to get his old band back together to play some fundraising gigs for the rescue centre. If only Leona could say yes, just this once. The Stray Dogs might actually be decent, right? But the band haven’t played together in years, and if they have any chance of making this work, Desmond will have to track down charismatic frontman Darcus McGuire. But how do you find someone who doesn’t want to be found?
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£14.99
Ewer’s Rock, Virginia, 1917. Roy Young is restless, determined to leave this rural valley and make his mark on the twentieth century. Samantha Hatton, the minister’s daughter, knows the town expects her and Roy to marry, but she hungers for more. The arrival of Ennis Duke – a mysterious wild boy tending to a lost herd of cattle up the mountain – will change everything. Within a year, the lives of these three young people will be dramatically transformed. In the crucible of conflict, Roy and Ennis forge a fierce bond. Meanwhile, back in Virginia, Samantha’s love and courage endure unthinkable sacrifice in a corner of the world fractured by violence.
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£9.99
Corsica, 1993. Seventeen-year-old Séverine Guimard has always felt destined for fame. Beautiful, charismatic, and able to seduce whomever she pleases, the daughter of the French Prefect of Corsica and an American poet knows in her heart that it’s only a matter of time before she’ll escape this provincial island for Hollywood’s glimmering lights. But fate takes her on a different path when three men tear her from her bike, duct tape her mouth and wrists, and ferry her in the trunk to a safehouse somewhere in the island’s remote interior. Left to make good on their threat to kill their hostage, the men ultimately balk at hurting the headstrong girl who has slowly begun to win their affection.
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£9.99
No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace. So goes the family curse, long handed down from generation to generation, ruining families and breaking hearts. And now it’s Eniiyi’s turn – who, due to her uncanny resemblance to her dead aunt, Monife, is already used to her family’s strange beliefs, as well as their insistence that she is a reincarnation. Still, when she falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak, or can she escape the family curse and the mysterious fate that befell her aunt?
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£9.99
Girlie, a 30-something Filipinx-American, works a day job at a social-media moderation centre, flagging and removing the very worst that makes it on to the internet. She’s good at it, too – dispassionate, unflinching, maybe because she learned by necessity to cauterise all her emotions when she was still a kid – so it’s no surprise to anyone when the social-media company for which she works offers her a big pay rise and an office to start moderating its new venture: virtual-reality theme parks, stunning simulations of civilizations long-since dead. Girlie takes the job, and it almost seems too good to be true. Almost. But she notices two deeply troubling things: that there might be something much darker built into the very code of the company, and that William, technically her new boss, a man whose barriers are as mighty as her own, might just be that long-forgotten thing – Girlie’s type.
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£12.99
All golden ages are marked by periods of spectacular cultural flourishing, scientific exploration, technological achievement and economic growth; yet no two are the same. Their beliefs, societies and place in the wider world all vary. Despite this, all previous golden ages have ended, whether it be because of external pressures or internal fracturing; too much hubris or too little wariness. Looking at seven of humanity’s greatest civilisations – ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, Abbasid Baghdad, Song China, Renaissance Italy, the Dutch Republic and the Anglosphere – historian and commentator Johan Norberg seeks to distil their strengths and shortcomings in answering the question: how do we ensure that our current golden age doesn’t end?
