Showing 1–16 of 111 resultsSorted by latest
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£14.99
Telegram is one of the world’s most popular social networks. Its low-moderation, privacy-focused ethos has made it an ideal platform for organising social movements – but it also facilitates extremists, violent terrorists and disinformation networks. Having avoided attempts by governments around the world to curtail suspected illegal activity on the platform, Telegram’s Russian founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested for alleged complicity with organised crime, drug trafficking and the distribution of child sex abuse material – charges he denies. Durov and his team had long approached the matter of content moderation with a laissez-faire and libertarian philosophy. Now a fierce debate has emerged: could a CEO really be held liable for what was said and done on their platform? Based on years of reporting and intimate access to his employees, friends and associates, ‘Killer App’ tells the story of how Durov’s social media platform changed the
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£9.99
Illicit queer crushes on a family picnic. A nightclub singer lecturing her Communist nephew. Drunken feuds at the seedy South Kensington Hotel’s staff dance. The eccentric spinsters tempting a little boy to grotesque acts. Welcome to the singular world of Angus Wilson. An overlooked legend of the post-war queer landscape, he casts a waspish, tragicomic yet oddly tender eye across mid-century England. Jitterbugging, espresso bars, spivs, Angry Young Men, teddy boys, satanic masses in village living rooms: all of life is here in these beloved stories. Savage in their deadly anatomy of social class yet compassionate in their portrayal of misfit outsiders, these are mini Austenesque novels-of-(bad)-manners, seething with high-octane dialogue, baroque humour and macabre secrets.
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£20.00
Go to any street in Britain and ask people what they think about politics, and most will tell you that it is broken, that they ‘don’t trust any of them’ – our politicians. In other words, they believe our system doesn’t work, or that it works only for a chosen few, the elites. A searing work of political analysis, ‘Abolish Westminster’ makes the case that most people are in fact correct: our politics is broken. Lifting the lid on the British state and society, the book explains why. Examining the lack of accountability faced by our major governmental departments, the pliancy of our cultural institutions and the malleability of national identity, it reveals how power and money are often bent back to the powerful and wealthy – and how, historically, this has almost always been the case, producing disastrous effects. And so, Adam Ramsay points to a radical possibility in an effort to re-establish democracy: breaking up Britain.
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£10.00
A beautifully curated collection of Maya Angelou’s most beloved poems, accompanied by the vibrant artwork of Aurélia Durand.
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£12.99
Tara Selter has become someone new. It becomes clear just how ridiculous it is: life in progressive time. Or was. Before we came to a halt. How foolishly one can spend a life in a time that moves forward. The nonsense of the ceaseless grind. Tara has returned to Thomas, but she is no longer the person he remembers. She has now spent twelve years in the eighteenth of November, while Thomas has endlessly repeated his identical day. He struggles to reconcile Tara as she is now with the Tara he loves. And so she rejoins her friends, with whom she finds companionship and understanding.
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£10.00
Sylvia Plath always knew that she wanted to be a writer and she always wrote. This unique gathering of excerpts from her journals, letters, poems and prose offers razor-sharp, inspiring, amusing and painful insights into what it means to commit to a writing life. Plath wants, above all, to be truthful and exact, whether unlocking a childhood memory, exulting in new landscapes and lives or squaring up to marriage and motherhood. She doesn’t think poems should be all that chaste; and reaches past decorum and convention to capture her subject exactly with an astonishing image or phrase. This is a book for writers as much as for readers, and for anyone wanting to understand how a commitment to craft, to precision and technique, to looking hard and seeing clearly, is what lays the foundations for work such as Plath’s with all its radical genius and enduring emotional power.
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£9.99
It’s the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war, and everybody knows it. On a final night of abandon, Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young financial secretary (and ‘not an entirely good girl’), pursues a one-night stand. Some people, if you make the mistake of sleeping with them, leave you with a rash, or regrets. It seems that sleeping with young Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC’s nascent television unit, leaves you pursued by a creature from another world. As Britain threatens to fall apart and the Nazi bombs descend, Iris finds herself stepping off the known world’s edge, into a reality where otherworldly powers lurk and act, where spirits can be called and enslaved, where time can be warped and rewound, and where a magical fascist is plotting her path back in time, gun in hand, in search of Churchill, to fire a shot that will end the war before it ever began. Naturally, only Iris can stop her.
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£14.99
A guest at a New Year’s Eve rooftop party finds a parallel universe in the building next door. A woman discovers her boyfriend’s family are all made of cookie dough. A man bites into a bar of Alpine chocolate to realise it’s infested with maggots. Mini and Miki live in Vienna. They are not from here, but they try their best to fit in and carve themselves the perfect middle class routine. Nevertheless – and perhaps because of it – there’s something not quite right about the place. Danger seems to lurk in every corner: a family breakfast, an office cubicle, a well-deserved holiday.
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£14.99
Ebenezer Scrooge detests Christmas. There’s no reason to be merry, in his opinion, and certainly no reason to forgo work in order to take part in some foolish celebrations. One particularly vexatious Christmas Eve, he’s visited by a ghost and swept along on a fantastical journey examining his past, present and future Christmases, leading him to reflect on his life and the things he holds dear.
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£9.99
1899. As the new century approaches, English hack-writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt. As the unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice at Palazzo Dioscuri – the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo – a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn’s already frayed nerves: is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city or is he losing his mind?
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£9.99
The Pratts had planned for festive cheer, despite the wartime shortages: with Elva’s map of the hotel and Anthony’s prop weapons to use as clues, the guests in their parlour game would move through the rooms to figure out whodunnit. But when Anthony discovers the cook’s sister Miss Silver beaten to death, they instead find themselves investigating a shockingly real crime.
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£8.99
TV detectives need a gimmick. Mine would be not caring who did it. If, when one door shuts, another door opens, there’s something wrong with your doors. They shouldn’t be doing that. Where’s the box to tick if you ARE a robot? My mother used to say Manners Maketh the Man, but I didn’t think it was very mannerly of her to make fun of my lisp. Plato, Aristotle, Montaigne. Men who have searched for meaning with, let’s face it, mixed results. Whither the one who can solve it? Cometh the hour, cometh the Richard Ayoade. Finally, Ayoade has set down some of his most enormous thoughts for the benefit of all who dare to read them. Wisdom distilled from a life lived in relentless pursuit of Truth. ‘Afterthoughts’ goes beyond rumination, past pondering, probing further than ever before, drawing from a deeply private pool of questions: a reservoir so refreshing you may never need to think again.
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£9.99
Is it a truth universally acknowledged that a young Austen heroine must be in want of a husband? You are in the world of a Jane Austen novel. As the events of Pride and Prejudice – and Austen’s other novels – start to unfold around you, you must choose your own path, avoiding social scandal and unsuitable engagements, and write your own destiny, whether it’s to marry a single man in possession of a good fortune or to become a famous author yourself. A witty and irreverent celebration of Jane Austen and her novels, this literary game will test all your powers of propriety and prudence.
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£10.00
It was Christmas Eve in the little farmhouse. The air was full of good smells of spices and jam and hot cocoa. No one was expecting any presents, but there would be leaf bread, and cookies, and Grandmother’s embroidered tablecloth, and they would all do what they could to make the Yuletide bright. Picking his way home across the lava field, Tómas knows that this Christmas won’t be quite the same – not without his Grandfather. But as the war draws closer, Tómas devises a plan to ensure his Grandfather’s stories will still be at the heart of his family’s Christmas – even if it means being braver than a boy ever dreamed he could be. Donning his grandfather’s jumper for courage, working hard at chores for neighbours, he takes his hard earned pennies to shop for presents – only to find all the shops empty of stock. This is war time and rationing. There is just one shop still open – a bookshop.
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£7.99
‘Merry Christmas!’ said Fox. ‘Merry whatmas?’ said Hedgehog. ‘Merry whichmas?’ said Tortoise. You see, it was Hedgehog and Tortoise’s first Christmas. So they didn’t know what Christmas was. Fox thinks Christmas is about presents, Badger thinks it’s about pudding, Magpie thinks it’s about singing. Tortoise and Hedgehog begin to feel rather overwhelmed with all the noise and fuss. But in a quiet moment of reflection they learn the most important lesson of all – Christmas is about being with the ones you love.
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£14.99
Gilgamesh originated in Ancient Mesopotamia nearly 4,000 years ago, yet its themes of power, loyalty, love and loss resound with contemporary relevance. The eponymous demigod tyrannically rules the kingdom of Uruk. To establish peace, the gods create his counterpart, the wild man Enkidu. The two rivals-turned-comrades embark on a series of extraordinary adventures including battles with Humbaba, guardian of the Cedar Forest, and the Bull of Heaven. After tragedy strikes, Gilgamesh sets out alone on a desperate quest for immortality that leads him to the very edge of the world. Simon Armitage’s fresh and propulsive version brings Gilgamesh alive as poetry. He harnesses the rhythm of its orchestrated language and conjures a sense of poetic wholeness while honouring its inherent fragmentation. Enhanced by illuminating commentary, this accomplished translation transports us back to the very origins of civilisation and storytelling.
