'Funny, smart, soulful and sometimes devastating, this book shows life in all its shades. It made me laugh and cry.' Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self

'Hilariously, painfully, Freynefully brilliant' Joseph O'Connor

Patrick Freyne has tried a lot of stupid ideas in his life. Now, in his scintillating debut, he is here to tell you about them: like the time...

Orson Welles' classic 1958 noir movie Touch of Evil, the story of a corrupt police chief in a small town on the Mexican-American border, starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Marlene Dietrich, is widely recognised as one of the greatest noir films of Classical Hollywood cinema. Richard Deming's study of the film considers it as an outstanding example of...

Rosemary's Baby is one of the greatest movies of the late 1960s and one of the best of all horror movies, an outstanding modern Gothic tale. An art-house fable and an elegant popular entertainment, it finds its home on the cusp between a cinema of sentiment and one of sensation. Michael Newton's study of the film traces its development at a time when...

After landing on D-Day, 1st Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment fought through France, Holland and into Germany as part of the 3rd (British) Infantry Division. Ever cheerful, the Battalion were opposed by an increasingly ruthless enemy determined to deny the invader their homeland.

As the campaign developed, 1 Suffolk acquired an enviable reputation for...

On the face of it, Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast (1989) is a film in which the eyes – and mouths – of religious zealots are opened to the glories of the sensual world. It is a critique of what Nietzsche called life-denying religion in favour of life-affirming sensuality. But to view the film in that way is to get it profoundly wrong. In his study of the...

The overlooked story of how ordinary women and their husbands managed financially in the Victorian era – and why so many struggled despite increasing national prosperity

Nineteenth century Britain saw remarkable economic growth and a rise in real wages. But not everyone shared in the nation’s wealth. Unable to earn a sufficient income themselves...

The first comprehensive history of the DREAM Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

In 1982, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Plyler v. Doe that undocumented children had the right to attend public schools without charge or impediment, regardless of their immigration status. The ruling raised a question: what if undocumented...

Traces the remarkable life of a feminist poet through the items and images that have have defined her experiences

My Life in 100 Objects is a personal reflection on the events and moments that shaped
the life and work of one extraordinary woman. With a masterful, poetic voice, Margaret
Randall uses talismanic objects and photographs as launching points for her...

"Nothing's bulletproof," the salesman said. "The thing's only bullet resistant." The New York Times journalist Kenneth R. Rosen had just purchased his first bulletproof vest and was headed off on assignment. He was travelling into Mosul, Iraq, when he realized that the idea of a bulletproof vest is more effective than the vest itself. From its very...

Coffee--it's the thing that gets us through, and over, and around. The thing--the beverage, the break, the ritual--we choose to slow ourselves down or speed ourselves up. The excuse to pause; the reason to meet; the charge we who drink it allow ourselves in lieu of something stronger or scarier. Coffee goes to lifestyle, and character, and sensibility:...

What is the environment, this elusive object that impacts us so profoundly--our odds to be born; the way we look, feel, and function; and how long and comfortable we may live? The environment is not only everything we see around us but also, at a lesser scale, a hailstorm of molecules large and small that constantly penetrates our bodies, simultaneously...

In an election year, political signs can be impossible to avoid. They're in front yards, on bumper stickers, and in some places you might never have expected. Tobias Carroll chronicles the permutations and secret histories of political signs, venturing into the story of how they came to be and illuminating how the signs around us shape us in ways we often...

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Feared and worshiped in equal measure, snakes have captured the imagination of poets, painters, and philosophers for centuries. From Ice Age cave drawings to Snakes on a Plane, this creature continues to enthrall the public. But what harm has been...

Discover the audacity to be comfortable and confident with every relationship status.

Single That gives you an immediate nudge toward the belief that you, alone, are enough. Whether single, dating, in a relationship, or in between, this practical guide offers authentic advice on being happy with who and where you are. 

Single That will help you take...

With its winning mix of gripping narrative and easy-to-implement performance-raising tips, this book has become a best-selling classic. It’s garnered 5-star reviews and wide-ranging endorsements – from Sebastian Coe and Dame Kelly Holmes to Lord Digby Jones. The book tells the inspiring story of how Ben Hunt-Davis - an ordinary guy in an ordinary team –...

Growing up in the hardship of a South Wales mining community, Aneurin Bevan developed a passionate conviction in the need for collective action by his class. In 1929 he began his long career as the Member for Ebbw Vale, shining as one of the most brilliant debaters in Parliament.

In 1945 he entered the Labour Cabinet as Minister for Health and Housing and...

Trial by jury has historically been the citizenry’s protection against prosecutorial and judicial overreach. But more recently, jury trials have been disappearing, as criminal defendants in federal court are overwhelmingly pleading guilty instead of testing the legal system. In The Vanishing Trial, accomplished lawyer Robert Katzberg explores why trials...

Walking is one of the simplest things we do as humans. It’s how most of us experience life.

In The Way Under Our Feet, Graham Usher conveys how exhilarating it is to walk into the depths of our humanity. We become more ready to recognize the needs as well as the joys of others; we sift our thoughts; we seek to heal our battered world, even as we glory in...

 A powerful call to step into your full potential that biblically affirms the need for women to rise up and work together to make a better world.

“Jo is one of my most trusted voices in Christian leadership… She leads auditoriums full of people, and she leads me one-on-one.” –Jen Hatmaker

In this particular cultural moment, where the momentum of #MeToo meets...

Who says your financial life has to be hard? It can be simple—just make a date with your money, and you'll be on your way!

It turns out that many of us have spent years being fed inaccurate information about how money works and about our abilities to manage it.

Author Dawn Starks, a Certified Financial Planner practitioner and financial advisor, is here to...

The Bible includes many stories about women: some well-known, others lesser known; some named, others whose names are not given. In some of these stories, men are depicted negatively by the storyteller; in other men barely feature at all, except in the background or as powerful outsiders. All the compilers of these narratives were probably men, and all of...

Introducing 10 Leadership Lessons to Win and Grow, an end-to-end guide to leadership, starting from the definitions and concepts involved in approaching leadership for the first time, through real experiences touching on all principles for practicing application, to making the extra mile of success with mature leadership. Hee-man Harry Ahn’s experiences...

HACK YOUR LIFE. GET RESULTS.

Live, Love, and Hack Life: A Fresh Look at Understanding Law of Attraction is a book that brings fresh perspective to the fascinating idea that people “attract” or manifest things they want in life based on how they think. It’s a phenomenon that’s been known for generations, but didn’t become mainstream until 2006. Since then...

In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the...

For readers of Educated and The Glass Castle, a harrowing, redemptive and profoundly inspiring memoir of childhood trauma and its long reach into adulthood.

One Omaha winter day in November 1978, when Debora Harding was just fourteen, she was abducted at knifepoint from a church parking lot. She was thrown into a van, assaulted, held for ransom, and then...

Discover the story of the disease that devastated the Victorian population, and brought about major changes in sanitation. Drawing on the latest scientific research and a wealth of archival material, Amanda Thomas uses first-hand accounts, blending personal stories with an overview of the history of the disease and its devastating after-effects on British...

In 1906 the Metropolitan Police Commissioner was asked by the Home Office to make available skilled investigators for murder enquiries nationwide as few constabularies had sufficiently skilled – or indeed, any - detectives.

Thus was born the Reserve Squad, or Murder Squad, as it later became known. Despite a reluctance by some forces to call upon The...

Marie Antoinette has always fascinated readers worldwide. Yet perhaps no one knew her better than one of her closest confidantes, Marie Thrse, the Princess de Lamballe. The Princess became superintendent of the Queens household in 1774, and through her relationship with Marie Antoinette, a unique perspective of the lavishness and daily intrigue at...

The origin of the names of many English towns, hamlets and villages date as far back as Saxon times, when kings like Alfred the Great established fortified borough towns to defend against the Danes. A number of settlements were established and named by French Normans following the Conquest. Many are even older and are derived from Roman placenames. Some...

Food is always a hot topic - Food waste, food banks, food miles, local versus imported. As we all need food, we can't ignore it.

But as some families struggle without enough food to live on, others are challenged to consider how much they throw away, or how to make the food they have go further.

Which is why Claud Fullwood set herself the challenge of living...

Crochet Betty, an Amigurumi-style doll, with patterns for her fifties outfits ranging from shopping to movie-going. There’s a detailed explanation of how to make the basic Betty doll, and also her cute cat Bert.

Each section has patterns for a selection of stylish removable garments and accessories on a fifties theme, with a few added extras for Bert...

When World War I began, war reporting was a thoroughly masculine bastion of journalism. But that did not stop dozens of women reporters from stepping into the breach, defying gender norms and official restrictions to establish roles for themselves—and to write new kinds of narratives about women and war.

Chris Dubbs tells the fascinating stories of Edith...

Anna Komnene is one of the most curious figures in the history of an intriguing empire. A woman of extraordinary education and intellect, she was the only Byzantine female historian and one of the first and foremost historians in medieval Europe. Yet few people know of her and her extraordinary story. Subsequent historians and scholars have skewed the...

All is fair in love and war. At least the Nazis thought so. They deployed sex like any other weapon in the service of the Third Reich. Al Camino examines many shocking cases, where brothels were hotbeds of bugging and blackmail, and pillow talk could topple nations. 

Cases include: 

• The bugging of Salon Kitty, a high-class brothel in Berlin which was taken...