A wonderful novel and perfect book club choice,and The Right Stuffand is a wildly vivid and entertaining chronicle of America's early space programme.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY US ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY What is it,' asks Tom Wolfe, that makes a man willing to sit on...

A wonderfully assured and utterly riveting biography that captures not only the much-maligned Machiavelli, but also the spirit of his time and place. A monumental achievement.' - Jessie Childs, author ofand God's Traitors. A notorious fiend', generally odious', he seems hideous, and so he...

A world history of citrus, from the art of classical antiquity to the science of the modern era.Mandarin, citron, pomelo, bergamot, kumquat… Citrus traces the history of today's global superfood from its cultivation in the ancient world from just a handful of original wild'...

A World in Disarray is a wise and visionary examination of the current world by Richard Haass, the president of the US Council on Foreign Relations. It is rich in history, examining how we got where we are today, and what needs doing to...

A World of Struggle reveals the role of expert knowledge in our political and economic life. As politicians, citizens, and experts engage one another on a technocratic terrain of irresolvable argument and uncertain knowledge, a world of astonishing inequality and injustice is born. In...

A world-leading military strategist and an IDF insider explain the improbable success of the Israeli armed forces.When the Israel Defense Forces was established in May 1948, it was small, poorly equipped, and already at war. Lacking sufficient weaponry or the domestic industrial base to...

A writer of genius' - William Dalrymple'Remarkable' - Kwame Anthony Appiah'Utterly captivating' - Anthony DoerrCan anyone really own a culture? This magnificent account argues that the story of global civilisations is one of mixing, sharing, and borrowing.It shows how art forms have crisscrossed continents...

A.J.P. Taylor's bestsellingand The Origins of the Second World Warand overturns popular myths about the outbreak of war.One of the most popular and controversial historians of the twentieth century, who made his subject accessible to millions, A.J.P. Taylor caused a storm of outrage with...

A book about one apocalypse - much less five - could have been a daunting read, were it not for the wit, lyricism, and clarity that Peter Brannen brings to every page.' Ed Yong, author ofand I Contain MultitudesApocalypse, now?Death by fire, ice, poison...

A city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land'and - Fourteen-century Syrian scholar al-Dimashqi Trees all about the city, olives and almond groves'and - Twentieth century historian Ibrahim SkeikThis was Gaza. Not the Gaza devastated...

A darkly entertaining tale about American espionage, set in an era when Washington's fear and skepticism about the agency resembles our climate today.'and New York TimesAt the end of World War II, the United States dominated the world militarily, economically, and in moral standing...

‘A delightful piece of writing and research which describes the remarkable history behind the handover of this unique and exciting city' Jasper Becker‘Deeply researched and beautifully written' Mike ChinoyA superb new history of the rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to...

A History of Jerusalem should be read, not only by travellers and potential travellers in Jerusalem, but by all of us.' Stephen Tummin, Daily TelegraphJerusalem has probably cast more of a spell over the human imagination than any other city in the world.Held by...

A landmark work giving a global panorama of Mao's ideology filled with historic events and enlivened by striking characters' Jonathan Fenby, author ofand The Penguin History of ChinaSince the 1980s, China seems to have abandoned the utopian turmoil of Mao's revolution in favour of...

The work of a lifetime, a forensic, fair-minded examination of the Hussein-McMahon correspondenceand that exposes how the British government broke its promises to the people of Palestine.'The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the YearThis is the untold story of Britain's role in the Israel-Palestine...

A major book that will enlighten the layman and guide the statesman or geopolitical student' DR. HENRY KISSINGERTwo leading authorities - a bestselling historian and the outstanding battlefield commander and strategist of our time - collaborate on a landmark examination of war since 1945.Conflictand...

A novel like none other' AMITAV GHOSH A masterpiece' AVNI DOSHI Wise, funny, touching' ROBERT MACFARLANEFour lives, uniquely linked, in a story that journeys across continents and centuries…For Shai, lost and drifting, a visit to her hometown in India's Northeast offers the possibility of...

A wonderful book'and -and GuardianTruth, murder and the birth of the lie detectorHenry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife's blood. But was he a grieving husband, or a ruthless killer who'd conspired with bandits to have her...

An excellent contribution to our knowledge of Iran and Soleimani.' Kim Ghattas, author of Black Wave When the US assassinated Qassem Soleimani, he was one of the most powerful men in Iran. Known as the shadow commander', he enacted the wishes of the country's...

An incredible and important story, finally being told'and - Mishal HusainOn 28 May 1940, Major Akbar Khan marched at the head of 299 soldiers along a beach in northern France.and They were the only Indians in the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. With Stuka...

An intelligent, sensitive writer'--and Financial Times Her bold vision of a single egalitarian stateand is the only way to break the current log jam'--and Nur Masalha, author ofand Palestine: A Four Thousand Year HistoryIn 1948, Ghada Karmi and her family in Jerusalem were among...

As a public intellectual, I. A. Rehman devoted his whole life to the cause of oppressed classes. Besides campaigning against religious extremism and the violation of human rights, he actively participated in democratic movements, generating political consciousness in Pakistan and beyond. His work (and...

Bill Bryson on two wheels'and IndependentSelf-confessed loafer Tim Moore, seduced by the speed and glamour of the biggest annual sporting event in the world, sets out to cycle the Tour de France. All 3,630km of it.A few weeks before the actual Tour de France,...

Brilliantly funny' SHAPARAK KHORSANDI Immensely enjoyable'and BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE Every page contains delights' LINDSEY FITZHARRISWhy is Italy called Italy? How old is curry? How fast was the medieval Chinese post system? How do we know how people sounded in the past? Who invented maths?Responding...

Christ! You guys look like a couple of Feds.'and 1977, the Thunderbird Motel.and J. J. Wedick and Jack Brennan, two fresh-faced FBI agents, were about to go undercover. Their target: the charismatic, globe-trotting con man Phil Kitzer, who was responsible for swindling (and spending)...

Eddie looked evil in the eye and met it with joy and kindness . . . [his] philosophy is life-affirming' -and Daily ExpressHolocaust survivor Eddie Jaku made a vow to smile every day and believed he was the happiest man on earth'. In his...

Essential reading for anyone interested in Turkey and its future'and Literary Review Essential reading full stop' Peter Frankopan It is a must'and The TimesWho is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and how did he lead a democracy on the fringe of Europe into dictatorship? How has...

Fascinating and compassionate' Horatio ClareThe King of France - thinking he was made of glass - was terrified he might shatter…and he wasn't alone.After the Emperor met his end at Waterloo, an epidemic of Napoleons piled into France's asylums.Throughout the nineteenth century, dozens of...

Ferrara's book is an introduction to writing as a process of revelation, but it's also a celebration of these things still undeciphered, and many other tantalising mysteries besides. -and Theand SpectatorThis book tells the story of our greatest invention. Or, it almost does. Almost,...

Fiercely intelligent, very funny and unlike anything else I've ever read' MARK HADDON'Original...witty...playful…a wonderfully funny book' JAMES WOOD'A triumph - a genuinely new story, a genuinely new form' A. S. BYATTEleven-year-old Ludo is in search of a father. Raised singlehandedly by his mother Sibylla,...

Hoodbhoy's richly textured inquiry into Pakistan's evolution from early days onward brings out reality, myth, hope. With penetrating insight and scrupulous care, he explores and dismantles multiple poisonous fallacies. But this is no Jeremiad. The cures, he shows, exist as do hopes for a...

Hums with living history, human warmth and indignation' New York TimesLess a mystery unsolved than a secret well keptThe mystery has haunted generations since the Second World War: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why?Now, thanks to radical new technology and the...

I learned something new on every page of this totally essential book' Sathnam SangheraIn this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how male domination became embedded...

If I had to choose just one book that I want everybody of any age to read at this moment in time, this would be it' Brian Eno Clear-eyed, frank, wise and joyous!' Andrew Sean Greer If you read only one book this year,...

People often say that non-fiction books read like fast-moving thrillers, but this one genuinely does… This is a splendid book - and highly recommended.'and Daily Mailand and A remarkable piece of investigative journalism into one of the most pervasive and troubling mysteries of recent...

Popular history at its very best, thought-provoking and accessible. Underpinned by serious research, and written with panache, it summons up a vanished world'and SUNDAY TELEGRAPHThis is an astonishing new account of Alexander the Great - one of the most important figures of the ancient...

Sean Carroll has achieved something I thought impossible: a bridge between popular science and the mathematical universe of working physicists. Magnificent!'Brian Clegg, author ofand Ten Days in Physics that Shook the WorldImmense, strange and infinite, the world of modern physics often feels impenetrable to...

Spellbinding' JJA Harwood An entertaining and dark read'and Stylist An absorbing novel'and Guardian Beautifully written' Elizabeth Chadwick Power is not something you are given. Power is something you take. When you are a woman, it is a little more difficult, that's all'1768. Charlotte, daughter...

Superb. A visceral, heartbreaking, and powerful account - with personal testimonies and deep research - of the October 7 Hamas invasion, massacres, and atrocities committed that day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what exactly happened.' Simon Sebag MontefioreThe gripping, true story...

The most important book of the year'and and Daily MailThe brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn…'Inand...

The movements of people change the world. The currents of change are turbulent. You wanted me to write a history, but history is a smoothing of ripples...' It is the sixties and Britain is in the throes of a revolution with a difference. Recently...

The people want' - thus began the slogans chanted by millions of protesters in 2011 in what was dubbed the Arab Spring'.  While the protests revealed a long-suppressed craving for democracy, they also laid bare a deep structural crisis.In this landmark work, Middle East...

The supreme fabulist of modern man's cosmic predicament' John Updike The stories are dreamlike, allegorical, ghoulishly detached, exquisitely comic, numinous, and prophetic'and New York TimesThe essential stories of one of the twentieth century's greatest and most influential writersNo one has captured the modern experience,...

The very grubby coalface of foreign policy … I found the entire book most horribly addictive'and Independent One of the unexpected responses to reading this masterful study is amazement at the efforts the British and French each put into undermining the other'and SpectatorA fascinating...

This Hindu Sahiya dynasty is now extinct, and of the whole house there is no longer the slightest remnant in existence. We must say that, in all their grandeur, they never slackened in the ardent desire of doing that which is good and right,...

This is a wonderful, mind-expanding book. Prepare to be surprised, enlightened and awed as Wagner reveals the sources of human and natural creativity.'- Alice Robertsand In Darwin's survival of the fittest, each step must be uphill as life progresses towards an evolutionary peak. There...

This is history bursting at the seams with English eccentrics and Indian gentry…the charm of Tunzelmann's approach is to restore her cast to full and vital life'and Observer A compelling narrative, sometimes controversial, occasionally perverse, never boring or unintelligent'and SpectatorFully revised and updated for...

Uthman ibn Affan (d. 656) was an early convert to Islam and the third successor to the Prophet Muhammad. As caliph he established the first Islamic navy, consolidated the text of the Qur'an, and expanded the Arab empire. His opponents, however, accused him of...

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive … 'Hunter S. Thompson is roaring down the desert highway to Las...

Women and girls worldwide will find inspiration and strength in the pages of this beautiful book.' Malala YousafzaiRiseand celebrates the inspirational stories of 100 remarkable women of colour. From the entrepreneur with a homemade marmalade business who went on to found Women's World Banking,...