An inspiring, witty 'East End growing up' memoir by leading Labour MP Wes Streeting. Wes Streeting might have ended up in prison rather than in parliament. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, spent time behind bars, as did his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner. Brought up on a Stepney council estate, the youn...

When Pete's parents moved from Cyprus to Birmingham in the 1960s in the hope of a better life, they had no money and only a little bit of English. They opened a fish-and-chip shop in Acocks Green. The Great Western Fish Bar is where Pete learned about coin-operated machines, male banter and Britishness. Shy and introverted, Pete stopped speaking fr...

This audiobook is read by Olivia Vinall, and Elif Shafak reads the Note to Reader at the end of the story. This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgo...

Something has gone really wrong in Britain.Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it reall...

Brought to you by Penguin.This audiobook is narrated by Daisy May Cooper and includes an exclusive, bonus interview with Daisy and her Dad, Paul Cooper.The funniest memoir of 2021, written by the most relatable woman in the world - Daisy May Cooper, creator and star of BBC's award-winning comedy This Country.Life hasn't always been straightforward...

The Sound of Being Human explores, in detail, why music plays such a deep-rooted role in so many lives, from before we are born to our last days. At its heart is Jude's own story: how songs helped her wrestle with the grief of losing her father at age five; concoct her own sense of self as a lonely adolescent; sky-rocket her relationships, both rea...

Isobel lives an isolated life in North London, working at a nearby library. She feels safe if she keeps to her routines and doesn't let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher are all it takes for her ordinary, careful armour to become overwhelmed and the t...

A frank and inspiring memoir about letting go of what we're told to want, risking everything to find happiness and the brutal salve of nature. Ben Short has a successful career in advertising, a flat in a trendy part of London, a flashy motorbike. But after years of suffering with anxiety, he's a wreck. A drastic change is needed. For a time, he fi...

The Hostage. Police officer Helen Weeks walks into her local newsagent's on her way to work. Little does she know that this simple daily ritual will change her life forever. It's the last place she expects to be met with violence, but as she waits innocently at the till, she comes face to face with a gunman. The Demand. The crazed hostage-taker is...

It has been a decade since Alan Langford's charred remains were discovered in his burnt-out car. His wife, Donna, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder her husband and served 10 years in prison. But just before she is released, Donna receives a nasty shock: an anonymous letter containing a photo of her husband. The man she hates with every fibre...

The seventh book in the Tom Thorne series, from bestselling author Mark Billingham. THE MESSAGE DI Tom Thorne has seen plenty of dead bodies in his time. But when he starts receiving sick photos of murder victims on his mobile phone, he soon realises that the next body could be his. THE KILLER And even when the man who has been sending the phot...

It has been a decade since Alan Langford's charred remains were discovered in his burnt-out car. His wife, Donna, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder her husband and served 10 years in prison. But just before she is released, Donna receives a nasty shock: an anonymous letter containing a photo of her husband. The man she hates with every fibre...

Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time. What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a wheel and the first approximation of pi. But they also capture...

A missing boy Teenager Luke Mullen was last seen getting into a car with an older woman. No one can understand why he has disappeared. His father - a former police officer - knows all too well that the longer he is missing, the more likely he is to turn up dead. A terrifying video Then Luke's parents receive an anonymous video. It shows their son,...

From Titus Andronicus with the RSC to media magnate Logan Roy in HBO's Succession, Brian Cox has made his name as an actor of unparalleled distinction and versatility. We know him on screen, but few know of his extraordinary life story. Growing up in Dundee, Scotland, Cox lost his father when he was just eight years old and was brought up by his th...

As stunt double to Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potter film franchise, stuntman David Holmes helped to move J.K. Rowling's era-defining story from the page to the big screen. In living his own hero's journey, David was also one of only a handful of people to have worn the iconic wizard's cape, glasses and scar in front of the cameras. That is, unt...

A generation defining exposé of toxic beauty culture and the realities of coming of age online We are living in a new age of beauty. With advancements in cosmetic surgery, augmented reality face filters, photo editing apps, and exposure to more images than ever, we have the ability to craft a version of ourselves that we want everyone to see...

2:19pm, Moscow time, 16 February 2024. The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District announces that Alexei Navalny is dead. In Murder in the Gulag, award-winning journalist John Sweeney goes behind the headlines to reveal what really happened to the Russian opposition leader in the freezing Polar Wolf penal colony in a r...

People have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, these lines might often have looked very different if a war or treaty or the decisions of a handful of tired Europeans had gone a different way. By telling the stories of these borders, we can...

Brought to you by Penguin. The #1 bestsellerPacked with hard-won wisdoms and gentle revelations, this is Miranda's honest exploration of the lessons that have helped her.Hello to you, I am with news. I have a new book: I Haven't Been Entirely Honest With You. I know – what an intriguing title!Basically, I have had an unexpectedly difficult de...

The classic first novel from Mark Billingham introduces DI Tom Thorne in a unforgettable and terrifying case that changed crime fiction forever. Alison Willetts has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel but she is completely unable to move or communicate...