From battlefields, cathedrals and museums to castles and stately homes, from the Lancastrians and Yorkists to the Roundheads, Royalists and an abundance of kings called Edward (and Henry!), the history of our island nation unravels its rich tapestry beneath our very feet - if only you know where to look. Take, for instance, the Tower of London, whi...

For decades, the question has haunted the Arab and Muslim world. Was it always so? When did the extremism, intolerance and bloodletting of today displace the region's cultural promise and diversity? In Black Wave, award-winning journalist and author Kim Ghattas argues that the turning point in the modern history of the Middle East can be located in...

A radically honest and uplifting memoir about defying death and learning to live. Juno Roche was born into a working-class family in London in the '60s, who dabbled in minor criminality. School was a respite, but shortly after beginning their university course, Juno was diagnosed with HIV, then a death sentence. Juno is a survivor; they outlived th...

In the seventy thousand years that modern human beings have walked this earth, we've come a long way. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we're real winners. But, frankly, it's not exactly been plain sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we've managed to really, truly, quite unbelievably f--k things up. From Chairm...

In elite sport, the margin between victory and defeat is minuscule, and the pressure is immense. Chris has built a glittering sporting career on understanding these moments: how to feel for them, how to cope with them, how to make them count.Last year, he faced another life-changing moment. He found out that the ache in his shoulder was in fact a t...

How did little Jenny Hargreaves become Jenny Eclair and elbow her way into the male dominated world of 1980s stand-up? Daughter of Major Derek Hargreaves (spy?) and June Hargreaves (spy's wife?) sister of Sara (born to be Head Girl) and Ben (the usurper), Jenny's comedy career took off via drama school, cider, sausage rolls, sleeping with men who l...

The winter 2024 edition of our exclusive member newsletter. This issue includes an interview with cosy crime and saga author Glenda Young, lots of book-ish chat and our winter competition!

Al Murray's passion for military history and the Second World War in particular has always run parallel with his comedy and was brought to the fore with several acclaimed and award-winning television shows and the recent huge success of his podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk which he hosts with fellow bestselling military author James Holland....

Throughout history, the centre of gravity in Budapest and among Hungarians has shifted between this division of East and West—culturally, politically, emotionally. Invaders have come and gone, empires have conquered, occupied for centuries or decades, and left a few footprints behind: the remains of a Roman bath house complete with wonderfull...

Surprisingly little has been written about second-generation Bloomsbury who tantalised the original 'Bloomsburies' at Gordon Square parties with their captivating looks and provocative ideas. Young Bloomsbury introduces us to an extraordinarily colourful cast of characters, including novelist and music critic Eddy Sackville-West, 'who wore elaborat...

In 1973, Myra Hindley, the most notorious woman in Britain, is serving a life sentence for the Moors murders—a case that shocked the world. Behind bars, she has fallen in love. When Hindley is refused parole, she persuades a sympathetic prison officer and former nun to help her break out of London's grim Holloway prison. The women plan to run...

HRH The Duke of Kent has been at the heart of the British Royal Family throughout his life. His royal duties began when, in 1952, at the age of 16, he walked in the procession behind King George VI's coffin, later paying homage to The Queen at her coronation in 1953. No member of the Royal Family has spoken extensively of the modern reign and their...

An enthralling 6,000-year journey through the history of books and reading Long before books were mass-produced, scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world. Emperors and Pharaohs were so determined to possess them that they dispatched emissaries to the edges of the earth to bring them back. In Papyrus,...

A landmark exploration of one of the most consequential and mysterious issues of our time: the rise of chronic illness and autoimmune diseasesA silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans: these are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether....

Behind the humour, swearing, dogs and nonsense,  Never Enough is a no-holds-barred account of life through Pete Wicks' lens. He shares his mental health trials and approach to life - starting with his journey as a 16-year-old who had the words 'NEVER ENOUGH' tattooed across his body, a marker of a time of anger and sadness, but also of his struggle...

The second part of the best-selling novelist's dramatic autobiography about his time in the Gurkhas during the Second World War. This is the second part of John Masters's autobiography: how he fought with his Gurkha regiment during World War II until his promotion to command one of the Chindit columns behind enemy lines in Burma. Written by a best-...

The first of John Master's evocative memoirs about life in the Gurkhas in India on the cusp of WWII. John Masters was a soldier before he became a best-selling novelist. He went to Sandhurst in 1933 at the age of 18 and was commissioned into the Fourth Gurkha Rifles in time to take part in some of the last campaigns on the turbulent North-West Fron...

As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In this deeply personal memoir, he tells how his family history has influenced his view of the world, introducing us to his Windrush generation parents, a great grandfather who helped build the Panama C...

Funny, heart-wrenching, generous, and true, in Finding My Voice, Nadiya Hussain, shares the unforgettable memories and experiences that have made her the woman she is today. I am writing this for everyone who was told no. 'No, you are not rich enough. No, that is not credible. No, you can't. No, you won't. No, you are not allowed. No, that is not a...

This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at 11 years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. We meet the PGA Tour player who robbed banks by nig...

Leif Bersweden has always been fascinated by wild plants. From a young age, his afternoons were spent hunting for and cataloguing the plants in his local area. But it is a landscape that is fast disappearing. Climate change, habitat destruction and declining pollinator populations mean that the future for plant life looks bleaker than ever before....