'Sir, we are homosexuals . . .' So began the letter penned by Roger Butler and sent to several British newspaper editors - some of whom were so shocked they thought it was a hoax - in June 1960. Writing such a letter seven years before the decriminalisation of homosexuality was a radical and dangerous move. This is the story of the first man to com...

Owain Mulligan was never what you'd call a career soldier. Nor even a particularly good one. At weekends he trained with the Territorial Army and dreamt of swapping the mayhem of teaching in a tough school for the adventure of service in Iraq. At least they'd let him wear a helmet in Iraq. But when the job in headquarters he's been expecting doesn'...

This affirming and thoughtful guide outlines how and why we need to fundamentally shift our thinking about neurodivergent people. We need to accept differences rather than framing them as a problem, abnormality or disorder. At times challenging and radical, Sonny Jane Wise explores the intersections of neurodivergence with disability, gender, sexua...

The remarkable true story of America's first women astronauts. When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed too fragile for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA relented and opened the application process to eve...

Born in 1957 in Deptford, south London, Danny's first job after dropping out of school at the age of 15 was in One Stop Records, a small record shop in London's West End. His career in print journalism began in 1976 when he co-founded the fanzine Sniffin' Glue leading to an offer from the New Musical Express, where his first job was as a receptioni...

The best queer history book you'll listen to this year. Shoulder to Shoulder is a love letter to the LGBTQ+ pioneers of solidarity and coalition. Offering a new global look at forgotten moments when those from marginalised backgrounds stood shoulder to shoulder to build a better future for all. Through astounding research and fascinating storytelli...

Danny Baker is a national treasure with a well-documented - thanks to the recent eight-part BBC TV adaptation - and colourful life. For over a quarter of a century, he has amused and entertained audiences on both radio and television. Beginning his career at the age of 15 in a small record shop in London's West End, Danny went on to become an accla...

Danny Baker's first volume of autobiography, Going to Sea in a Sieve, was a Sunday Times best seller, acclaimed for its nonstop humour and anecdotal flourish. It told the exploits of Danny's extraordinary childhood and the wild living of his teenage years. Now he is 25, and it is 1982, and he embarks on an accidental and anxiety-induced career in t...

Joanna Lumley is one of Britain's undisputed national treasures, who has lived many lives: a single mum; a voiceover artist; a TV presenter; an author; a former model and Bond girl; a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign; and as an iconic, award-winning actor, best known for her roles in timeless shows li...

One of the many strange effects of the 2020 pandemic has been to make us much more vigilant about the state of our health in general and about minor symptoms in particular. And this, in turn, has made us more conscious that we all feel slightly out of sorts a great deal of the time; maybe even every day. This book is not about what happens when we'...

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you lo...

Rachel is a palliative care doctor who looked after some of the most gravely unwell patients on the COVID-19 wards of her hospital. Amid the tensions, fatigue and rising death toll, she witnessed the courage of patients and NHS staff alike in conditions of unprecedented adversity. For all the bleakness and fear, she found that moments that could st...

One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains, flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. For millennia it has been worshipped as a god; for centuries used as a tool of imperial expansion; today it is the cement of Pakistans fractious union. Five thousand years ago, a string of sophisticated citi...

A landmark book that charts humanity's changing relationship with birds—from the ancient Egyptians to the twenty-first century 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...

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident. Though her brain and the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira's parents and siblings agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max had been hospitalised...

Fear is Just a Word begins on an international bridge between Mexico and the United States, as fifty-six-year-old Miriam Rodriguez stalks one of the men she believes was involved in the murder of her daughter Karen. He is her target number eleven, a member of the drug cartel that has terrorised and controlled what was once Miriam's quiet hometown o...

When a travel writer is stuck on home soil in the middle of a pandemic, he meets Kris Rodgers, one of Britain's eminent metal detectorists. Dipping a toe in the hobby, Nigel quickly finds himself swept up in the world beneath the surface. Above the ground are a cast of fascinating and passionate people who open Nigel's eyes to a subterranean world...

Shortlisted for the 2018 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Today was his first climb to the top. He knew if he was there, watching, then she would never leave him. Her name was Bernadette, and he climbed the shed every day. This is a not a football book, as such. Rather, it is a memoir by someone who happened to have superior ability at the spor...

Hollywood legend and British national treasure Sir Michael Caine shares the wisdom, stories, insight and skills that life has taught him in his remarkable career. One of our best-loved actors, Sir Michael Caine has starred in some of the best and most-loved films ever made - from the classic British movies Alfie, Zulu and The Italian Job to the Hol...

Dogs have been the common link between the key moments in Nicky Campbell's life: there was Toby, the dog he never knew and who sat devotedly by his cot before his adoption, and then the adorable fox terrier Candy, who arrived soon after he was happily adopted. Nothing could replace the loss of Candy when he died suddenly, when Nicky was only 11. Ye...

When Joan Bakewell, Labour Peer, author and famous champion of the older people's right to a good and fruitful life, decided that she could no longer remain in her old home, she had to confront what she calls 'the next segment of life'. Disposing of things accumulated during a long life, saying goodbye to her home and the memories of more than 50 y...