Historical
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A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong: The Diaries of Chaloner Alabaster, 1855-1856
In August 1855, 16-year-old Chaloner Alabaster left England for Hong Kong, to take up a position as a student interpreter in the China Consular Service. He would stay for almost 40 years, climbing the rungs of the service and eventually becoming consul-general of Canton. When he retired he returned to England and received a knighthood. He died in 1898. Throughout his adult life, Alabaster kept diaries.
In the first four volumes of these diaries, collected here by Benjamin Penny, the teenage Alabaster recorded his thoughts and observations, told himself anecdotes, and exploded in outbursts of anger and frustration. He was young and enthusiastic, and the everyday sights, sounds and smells of Hong Kong were novel to him. He describes how the Chinese people around him ironed clothes, dried flour and threshed rice; how they gambled, prepared their food and made bean curd; and what opera, new year festivities and the birthday of the Heavenly Empress were like. Like many a young Victorian, he was also a keen observer of natural history, fascinated by fireflies and ants, corals and sea slugs, and the volcanic origins of the landscape.
Alabaster’s diaries are a unique, vibrant and riveting record of life in the young British colony on the cusp of the Second Opium War. With A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong, Penny sheds new light on the history of the region.
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£15.50£19.00 -
Executioner: The Chronicles of a Victorian Hangman
James Berry, a dour and somewhat pious ex-policeman who hailed from Yorkshire, was Britain’s hangman from 1884 to 1892 and was responsible for carrying out 200 executions. As an amateur criminologist he built his own black museum and kept scrapbooks relating to his activities. He was also something of a showman, and not averse to publicity, whose press coverage caused the government acute embarrassment. Capable of cold, even callous detachment, Berry’s sensitivity meant that he was often too upset before and after one of his 200 executions to be able to speak.There were also a few horrific incidents on the gallows and his job evidently had its effect on him as, in retirement, Berry became so depressed that he took steps to commit suicide. In this biography, Stewart Evans here takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of Victorian crime and punishment. Evans is a leading crime historian, widely considered one of the Victorian era. His previous books include Jack the Ripper, Letters From Hell and Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Murders. He lives in Cambridgeshire.Read more
£11.60£17.10Executioner: The Chronicles of a Victorian Hangman
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A Victorian Lady’s Guide to Life
In this delightful and engagingly eccentric treasury of life lessons, redoubtable Victorian Elspeth Marr (1871-1947) reflects on the fundamental topics of life as well as the nuts and bolts of everyday living.
Part journal, part commonplace book, among many gems you will find enlightenment and advice on everything from Dreams to Garlic; Patriotism to Wrinkles.
Written throughout her life but only discovered after her death, by her great-great nephew, Christopher Rush, Elspeth’s (known as Aunt Epp) journal was never intended for publication but her style of writing and the subject matter she covers nonetheless reaches a universal audience. Not afraid to put forth views on the big topics – religion, evolution, and ethical issues – she also tackles the nuts and bolts of living – food, sex and health.
Vital, refreshingly frank and always amusing, A Victorian Lady’s Guide to Life provides a wealth of sound advice.
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Voices from the Asylum: West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Almost forgotten by time, tucked away beyond the sight of the passerby, there is a little piece of old England, which was for many years a forgotten wilderness. If it were not for a weather-beaten plaque on the gatepost few would realise that beyond the rusted gates there lies, in unmarked paupers’ graves, 2,861 former patients of the once formidable Menston Asylum. To be admitted to a lunatic asylum in the nineteenth century was fraught with danger, and in many cases meant a life sentence hidden away from society. It is estimated as many as 30 per cent of the asylum population was incarcerated incorrectly and up until 1959 there was no form of appeal. Looking into the faces of the long dead, the forgotten former inmates of this once bustling institution, it is impossible not to feel a certain sadness at their plight. Abandoned by an intolerant society and their families these people all had one thing in common, when death came there was no one to shed a tear or collect their remains. They were given a pauper’s funeral and forgotten, until now.Read more
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Black Victorians: Hidden in History
A landmark history exploring and celebrating the lives of Black Victorians.
Beyond the patrician vision of Victorian Britain traditionally advanced in our textbooks, there always existed another, more diverse Britain, populated by people of colour marking achievements both ordinary and extraordinary.
In this deeply researched and dynamic history, Woolf and Abraham reach into the archives to recentre our attention on marginalised Black Victorians, from leading medic George Rice to political agitator William Cuffay to abolitionists Henry ‘Box’ Brown and Sarah Parker Remond; from pre-Raphaelite muse Fanny Eaton to renowned composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. While acknowledging the paradoxes of Victorian views of race, Black Victorians demonstrates, with storytelling verve and a liberatory impulse, how Black people were visible and influential, firmly rooted in British life.
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£11.40£12.30Black Victorians: Hidden in History
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Victorian Murders
This book features fifty-six Victorian cases of murder covered in the sensational weekly penny journal the Illustrated Police Newsbetween 1867 and 1900. Some of them are famous, like the Bravo Mystery of 1876, the Llangibby Massacre of 1878 and the Mrs Pearcey case of 1890; others are little-known, like the Acton Atrocity of 1880, the Ramsgate Mystery of 1893 and the Grafton Street Murder of 1894. Take your ticket for the house of horrors.Read more
£9.10£10.40Victorian Murders
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When I Were A Lad…: Snapshots From A Time That Health & Safety Forgot
When I Were a Lad… looks at the glorious-yet-risky childhoods of yesteryear before the Health and Safety officers told us we couldn’t do everything because it was too dangerous.
The sleeper hit of Christmas 2009 – more than 4,000 copies sold through Bookscan.
A book to send shivers down the spine of any parent who has spent years protecting their children from the slightest bump and bash.
A glorious romp though some of the most reckless photos from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, tagged with side-splitting captions.
Ah, the past. A time when children could play in the snow without a helmet, crampons and a risk assessment report. When footballs were made from rhino hide and cricket was played with one pad, if you were lucky. When I Were a Lad… looks at the glorious-yet-risky childhoods of yesteryear before the Health and Safety officers told us we couldn’t do everything because it was too dangerous. It reflects on a time when children were allowed in with the animals at London Zoo; a time before the car seatbelt was invented (let alone used); a time when you were allowed to dress up endangered species in goalkeeping kit and take penalties against them. The authors have trawled through the major historic archives to find some glorious photo opportunities where the safety angle of the participants was the last thing anyone thought of. Children perch happily on lethal, limb-mangling machinery, stand all-smiles on live crocodiles, feed brown bears with their hands and get scooped from the street by passing tram conductors! These truly were the days that Health and Safety forgot, back when I were a lad…
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The Deals that Made the World: The Billion Dollar Deals and How They’re Changing Our World
‘The book to read’ GQ
‘A revelatory book’ John Lewis-Stempel
While the laws that guide our lives are written by the politicians we elect, much of the world around us – from the food we eat to the products we buy to the medications we take – is shaped by private negotiations and business deals few of us know about.
For twenty years, Peretti has interviewed the people behind the decisions that have altered our world, from CEOs of multinational corporations to politicians, economists, and scientists. In The Deals that Made the World, Peretti draws on his vast knowledge to reveal a host of fascinating and startling connections, from how Wall Street’s actions on food commodities helped spark the Arab Spring to the link between the AIDS epidemic in 1980s San Francisco and the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. He proves a sure guide, combining both eye-opening on-the-ground reporting and a narrative flair that makes esoteric financial and business concepts clear and understandable.
Like Steven Levitt, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Brad Stone, Michael Lewis, and Malcolm Gladwell, Peretti takes the ordinary and turns it inside out to give us a compelling new perspective on our lives and our world.
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Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The Making of the Prophet of Islam
In Muhammad and the Empires of Faith, Sean W. Anthony demonstrates how critical readings of non-Muslim and Muslim sources in tandem can breathe new life into the historical study of Muhammad and how his message transformed the world. By placing these sources within the intellectual and cultural world of Late Antiquity, Anthony offers a fresh assessment of the earliest sources for Muhammad’s life, taking readers on a grand tour of the available evidence, and suggests what new insights stand to be gained from the techniques and methods pioneered by countless scholars over the decades in a variety of fields. Muhammad and the Empires of Faith offers both an authoritative introduction to the multilayered traditions surrounding the life of Muhammad and a compelling exploration of how these traditions interacted with the broader landscape of Late Antiquity.
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Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Acclaimed worldwide as the definitive biography of the Prophet in the English language. Martin Lings life of Muhammad is unlike any other. Based on Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries, of which some important passages are translated here for the first time, it owes the freshness and directness of its approach to the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life. Martin Lings has an unusual gift for narrative. He has adopted a style which is at once extremely readable and reflects both the simplicity and grandeur of the story. The result is a book which will be read with equal enjoyment by those already familiar with Muhammads life and those coming to it for the first time. This book was given an award by the government of Pakistan, and selected as the best biography of the Prophet in English at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad in 1983. In 1990, after the book had attracted the attention of Azhar University, the author received a decoration from president Mubarak.Martin Lings, formerly Keeper of Oriental Manuscript in the British Museum and the British Library, is the author of three works on Islamic mysticism, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century, What is Sufism? and The Book of Certainty, all published by The Islamic Texts Society.Read more
£15.20£18.00Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
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Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Spiritual Beliefs and Universal Wisdom
Author of bestselling ‘Falling Leaves’ weaves together for the same audience her own personal experiences with the best of Chinese philosophy.
Adeline Yen Mah, whose autobiography ‘Falling Leaves’ is an international bestseller, here interweaves her own experiences with her views on Chinese thought and wisdom to create an illuminating and highly personal guide for Western readers.
Adeline Yen Mah was born in Tianjin, and through the conversations and wisdom of her grandfather and aunt learnt a great deal of traditional Chinese thought, history and religion. Through her father’s second marriage to a Eurasian woman, and their subsequent move to Hong Kong, she learnt more about the Chinese attitudes to business and to family, and the strength of the Chinese in exile.
Since living in London and California, Adeline Yen Mah has studied Chinese thought, looking at both the strengths and weaknesses which it gives those who follow it and now, in ‘Watching the Tree’, she takes us on a journey through the Chinese language, religions and history, using both Chinese proverbs and her own experiences, to bring to us an understanding of the richness of China and the ways that we can take and use some of the wisdom for ourselves in the West.
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Politics On the Edge By Rory Stewart & Politics A Survivor’s Guide By Rafael Behr 2 Books Collection Set
Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image Shall be Dispatched Collectively:Politics On the Edge By Rory Stewart & Politics A Survivor’s Guide By Rafael Behr 2 Books Collection Set:
Politics On the Edge:
ISBN-10 : 1787332713
ISBN-13 : 978-1787332713
Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister – before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise. Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow our democracy and government had become. Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today.Politics A Survivor’s Guide:
ISBN-10 : 1838955046
ISBN-13 : 978-1838955045
A new crisis erupts before the last one has finished: financial crisis, Brexit, pandemic, war in Ukraine, inflation, strikes. Prime Ministers come and go but politics stays divided and toxic. It is tempting to switch off the news, tune out and hope things will get back to normal. Except, this is the new normal, and our democracy can only work if enough people stay engaged without getting enraged. But how?To answer that question, award-winning journalist Rafael Behr takes the reader on a personal journey from despair at the state of politics to hope that there is a better way of doing things, with insights drawn from three decades as a political commentator and foreign correspondent.Read more
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Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors: 50 Places That Changed British Politics
‘’F *** ing brilliant. I would describe it as like a bag of political nuts – moreish and fabulously salty’ JOE LYCETT
Forget Westminster bust-ups and PMQs, some of the key events that have shaped modern British politics happened not in the cloisters of parliament or Downing Street’s many corridors of power, but in car parks, village halls and seaside resorts where the mundane have played host to the mighty. From Pitt the Younger’s Putney Heath duel to finding Margaret Thatcher a voice coach on a train, Harold Wilson’s ‘Scilly’ season holidays to John Major’s dental appointment clearing his path to No10 – these (and many more) are the places where chance meetings, untimely deaths and snap, sometimes daft, decisions changed the course of politics.
Matt Chorley has spent almost two decades covering Westminster, interviewing prime ministers, mocking ministers and chronicling the serious, and sometimes unintentionally absurd, events which act as unlikely turning points in the direction of a nation. Illustrated by award-winning political cartoonist Morten Morland, Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors combines Matt’s insider-knowledge, smart analysis and detailed research with his background in comedy to create an hilarious history of how politics actually happens.
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Voices from the Back of the Bus: Tall Tales and Hoary Stories from Rugby’s Real Heroes
Voices from the Back of the Bus provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at international rugby at the height of a golden period. Recounted with genuine warmth and much humour, over a hundred players recall the scrapes, the games, the laughs, the glory and the gritty reality of the pre-professional game.
Packed with true rugby tales from the days when men played purely for the love of the game and of their nation, and multimillion-pound contracts and sponsorship deals were unheard of, this refreshing, revealing and often hilarious collection will inspire sports fans of all generations.
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Irish Rugby Top 50 Players
We talked to leading rugby journalists, we talked to ex-players, we talked to fans and we looked at the playing records of all the stand-out internationals to have played rugby for Ireland before compiling a list of the 50 greatest Irish rugby players in the sport s history.
Many players were impossible to leave out such as Rory Best, Mike Gibson, Jamie Heaslip, Jack Kyle, Paul O’Connell, Brian O Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Jonnie Sexton and Keith Wood. While Lions’ legends such as Willie John McBride, Tom Kiernan, Syd Millar and Tony O’Reilly were also a shoo-in.
There is also a hefty selection of modern-day players including Keith Earls, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Rob Kearney, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahoney and the new whizkid winger Jacob Stockdale. While there is also space for the great characters of the game, none more so than Peter ‘The Claw’ Clohessy, Willie Duggan and Moss Keane, who didn’t win the most caps but were fans’ favourites because of the spirit in which they played.
With a foreword by Ollie Campbell, the Ireland and British and Irish Lions flyhalf, each entry lists the key facts, statistics and achievements that help show why the selected players are part of the game s elite.
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£10.80£12.30Irish Rugby Top 50 Players
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Behind the Silver Fern: Playing Rugby for New Zealand (Behind the Jersey)
Go behind the scenes with the world’s most successful sports team. This is a complete history of rugby’s most famous yet enigmatic team, the New Zealand All Blacks, told by the men who have had the honour of wearing the iconic black jersey. From the legendary 1905 ‘Originals’ all the way through to Richie McCaw’s record-breaking back-to-back World Cup champions of 2015, this is a history of the All Blacks like you have never experienced it before. Thanks to exhaustive archival research and exclusive new material garnered from a vast array of interviews with players and coachesfrom across the decades, Behind the All Blacks unveils the compelling truth of what it means to play for the team that has dominated Test match rugby for over a century – all the trials and tribulations behind the scenes, the glory, the drama and the honour on the field, and the passionate friendships and bonds of a brotherhood off it. Absorbing and illuminating, this is the ultimate history of New Zealand rugby – told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it.
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Arthur Gould: Rugby’s First Superstar
Arthur Gould is the definitive biography of the record-breaking Welsh international player who is widely acknowledged as the first superstar of rugby. Such was his fame and renown, that upon his tragic, early death in 1919, aged just 54, Gould’s funeral in Newport was reported as the biggest Wales had ever seen. Nicknamed ‘Monkey’ due to his childhood fondness for climbing trees, Gould played the majority of his club rugby for Newport RFC and won a then-record 27 Welsh caps; 25 of which were at centre (a record only bettered by Steve Fenwick in 1980); and captained his country 18 times (a record only beaten in 1994 by Ieuan Evans). A true sporting sensation, when he retired in 1899 Gould had played more first-class matches and scored more tries and drop goals than any other player. Gould’s superstar status was illustrated late in his career when a testimonial appeal received widespread public support and resulted in the Scottish and Irish unions cancelling their fixtures with Wales in protest at the apparent breach of the game’s strict amateur ethos. The controversy deepened when the Welsh Football Union (now the WRU) stood firmly behind their iconic player and withdrew from the International Rugby Board. Fearing that lucrative fixtures with Welsh clubs might be lost and that Wales might join forces with the newly established Northern Union of professional rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union brokered a ‘one-off’ dispensation which enabled Gould to benefit from the testimonial while retaining his amateur status, and ensured that international fixtures were resumed. Comprehensively researched and written by acclaimed rugby historian, Gwyn Prescott, with the full support and encouragement of the Gould family, Arthur Gould – Rugby’s First Superstar includes over 100 illustrations and will be enjoyed by all who love rugby and treasure its sporting and cultural heritage.Read more
£14.80£17.10Arthur Gould: Rugby’s First Superstar
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The Jersey: The All Blacks: The Secrets Behind the World’s Most Successful Team
The phenomenal international number one bestseller with exclusive interviews with Richie McCaw, Steve Hansen, Beauden Barrett and Dan Carter, The Jersey is the definitive story behind the greatest sports team on the planet.
‘Extremely well written. Compelling, accurate, insightful and brilliant in the way it captures the New Zealand way’ – John Hart, former All Blacks coach.
With a better winning record than any other sports team in history, they stand head and shoulders above their nearest rugby rivals. How did a country of just 4.8 million people conquer the world?
Peter Bills, who has reported on international rugby for more than forty years, was given exclusive access to all the key figures in New Zealand rugby as he set out to understand the secrets behind the All Blacks success. Peter talked at length with ninety people, both in New Zealand and around the world, with intimate knowledge of what makes the All Blacks tick.
The Jersey goes to the heart of the All Blacks success. It is also an epic story of not just a rugby team but a nation, whose identities are inextricably linked.
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The People’s Game: How to Save Football: THE AWARD WINNING BESTSELLER
*WINNER OF BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023*
*Out now: Includes brand new material*
THE AWARD-WINNING SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘Neville at his authentic best. [He] is the closest thing to a spokesman there is for English football.’ Sunday Times
‘Brilliant.’ Mail on Sunday
‘Gary Neville usually talks a lot of sense, and writes it too . . . Neville’s words are timely.’ Henry Winter, The Times
__________The beautiful game is under threat. The greed and selfishness of the biggest clubs is harming the sport, with smaller clubs struggling for financial survival and supporters being left behind.
It’s time to fix football.
__________Football is the people’s game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world.
But football is broken. Beneath the glamourous sheen of the Premier League, it’s a game that’s rusting and rotten. The growing influence and wealth of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and smaller clubs clinging to survival. The European Super League, which looked to eradicate competition in favour of guaranteed profits, was just the beginning.
This isn’t what football is about. Something’s got to change. Enough is enough.
Gary Neville has had a front-row seat in football for over 30 years, witnessing the sport at every level – as a player, a coach, a pundit and an owner. Most of all, he’s a fan. Shocked by the state of the game, Gary looks to find out how we got into this mess, who’s responsible, and what we can do about it.
The People’s Game is Gary’s vision for a brighter future. Drawing on interviews with those at the epicentre of the sport’s biggest issues – from the role of ownership to the lack of funding in the football league, the rise in racism, ownership models and the future of the women’s game – he explains how football has sleepwalked into this mess and offers a new path forward. With stories from his own playing career, as well as insight into some of the biggest footballing decisions in recent history, this is a total look at the game today.
This is a passionate, personal and critical account of how football lost its soul, and what we can do to get it back.
__________Read more
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Get It On: How the ’70s Rocked Football
SHORTLISTED FOR BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023
“Sheer joy” – Patrick Barclay
“Exhilarating” – When Saturday Comes
“Perfect” – Josh Widdicombe
“★★★★★” – FourFourTwo
Four years after the crowning glory of 1966, and a decade after the abolition of the maximum wage, a brash new era dawned in English football. As the 1970s took hold, a new generation of larger-than-life players and managers emerged, appearing on television sets in vivid technicolour for the first time.
Set against a backdrop of strikes, political unrest, freezing winters and glam rock, Get It On tells the inside story of how commercialism, innovation, racism and hooliganism rocked the national game in the 1970s.
Packed with interviews with the legends of the day, this footballing fiesta charts the emergence of Brian Clough, Bob Paisley and Kevin Keegan and the fall of George Best, Alf Ramsey and Don Revie, presenting a vibrant portrait of the most groundbreaking decade in English football history.
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£11.20£12.30Get It On: How the ’70s Rocked Football
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The Celebrated Captain Barclay: Sport, Money and Fame in Regency Britain
On 1st June 1809 Captain Robert Barclay undertook what was then the greatest sporting feat ever attempted – to walk 1000 miles in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas. Six weeks later, exhausted and on the verge of collapsing, he completed his challenge and instantly became the most famous sporting figure of Regency times. Gentleman, pugilist, athlete, trainer and soldier – Captain Barclay’s life was reckless, extravagant and thrilling. Enormous sums of money were won and lost on him and he himself earned several fortunes, though he was to die in deranged poverty. His remarkable story opens a window on the world of 18th century sport – a rough, dangerous and often corrupt world driven by money.Read more
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From the Mill to Monte Carlo: The Working-Class Englishman Who Beat the Monaco Casino and Changed Gambling Forever
This is the story of a man who went from Yorkshire mill worker to Monte Carlo millionaire. Amongst the men ‘who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’, Joseph Hobson Jagger is unique. He is the only one known to have devised an infallible and completely legal system to defeat the odds at roulette and win a fortune. But he was not what might be expected. He wasn’t a gentleman or an aristocrat, he wasn’t a professional gambler, he was a Yorkshire textile worker who had laboured in the Victorian mills of Bradford since childhood. What led a man like this to travel nearly a thousand miles to the exclusive world of the Riviera when most people lived and died within a few miles of where they were born? The trains that took him there were still new and dangerous, he did not speak French and had never left the north of England. His motivation was strong. Joseph, his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was only two, faced a situation so grave that their only escape seemed to be his desperate gamble on the roulette tables of Monte Carlo. Today Jagger’s legacy is felt in casinos worldwide and yet he is virtually unknown. Anne Fletcher is his great-great-great niece and in this true-life detective story she uncovers how he was able to win a fortune, what happened to his millions and why Jagger should now be regarded as the real ‘man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’.Read more
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A Gambling Man
Charles II was thirty when he crossed the Channel in fine May weather in 1660. His Restoration was greeted with maypoles and bonfires, like spring after long years of Cromwell’s rule. But there was no going back, no way he could ‘restore’ the old. Certainty had vanished. The divinity of kingship fled with his father’s beheading. ‘Honour’ was now a word tossed around in duels. ‘Providence’ could no longer be trusted. As the country was rocked by plague, fire and war, people searched for new ideas by which to live. Exactly ten years later Charles II would stand again on the shore at Dover, laying the greatest bet of his life in a secret deal with his cousin, Louis XIV.
The Restoration decade was one of experiment: from the science of the Royal Society to the startling role of credit and risk, from the shocking licence of the court to the failed attempts at toleration of different beliefs. Negotiating all these, Charles II, the ‘slippery sovereign’, played odds and took chances, dissembling and manipulating his followers. The theatres were restored, but the king was the supreme actor. Yet while his grandeur, his court and his colourful sex life were on display, his true intentions lay hidden.
A Gambling Man is a portrait of Charles II, exploring his elusive nature through the lens of these ten vital years – and a portrait of a vibrant, violent, pulsing world, racked with plague, fire and war, in which the risks the king took forged the fate of the nation, on the brink of the modern world.
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£12.20£14.20A Gambling Man
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Gunpowder and Geometry: The Life of Charles Hutton: Pit Boy, Mathematician and Scientific Rebel
August, 1755. Newcastle, on the north bank of the Tyne.
In the fields, men and women are getting the harvest in. Sunlight, or rain. Scudding clouds and backbreaking labour. Three hundred feet underground, young Charles Hutton is at the coalface. Cramped, dust-choked, wielding a five-pound pick by candlelight. Eighteen years old, he’s been down the pits on and off for more than a decade, and now it looks like a life sentence. No unusual story, although Charles is a clever lad – gifted at maths and languages – and for a time he hoped for a different life. Many hoped.
Charles Hutton, astonishingly, would actually live the life he dreamed of. Twenty years later you’d have found him in Slaughter’s coffee house in London, eating a few oysters with the President of the Royal Society.
By the time he died, in 1823, he was a fellow of scientific academies in four countries, while the Lord Chancellor of England counted himself fortunate to have known him. Hard work, talent, and no small share of luck would take Charles Hutton out of the pit to international fame, wealth, admiration and happiness. The pit-boy turned professor would become one of the most revered British scientists of his day. This book is his incredible story.
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Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
The tenth anniversary edition of the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. With a new Foreword by the celebrated astronaut Neil Armstrong.
‘Sobel has done the impossible and made horology sexy – no mean feat’ New Scientist
Anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that ‘the longitude problem’ was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day – and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution.
The quest for a solution had occupied scientists and their patrons for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, Parliament upped the ante by offering a king’s ransom (£20,000) to anyone whose method or device proved successful. Countless quacks weighed in with preposterous suggestions. The scientific establishment throughout Europe – from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton – had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution.
Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, LONGITUDE is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking.
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Mind Game: The Secrets of Golf’s Winners
Eye-opening contributions from the stars of game make this a powerful, groundbreaking investigation into the mind of the professional golfer. The perfect gift for Father’s Day.
* SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS *
Professional golf is the most remorseless of sports, unique in the complexity of its demands. Technical perfection must be produced in short, concentrated bursts of synchronised movement. Huge mental strength is required.
Why, then, do we know so little about what it takes to succeed – even survive – at the highest level?
What separates the good from the great? What are the rituals of preparation and execution?
How does an elite team come together?
In a truly groundbreaking exposé of professional golf, Michael Calvin and Thomas Bjorn – captain of the 2018 European Ryder Cup Team – capture the distinctive nature of the game, and the principles and philosophies of players who dominate the world rankings. With unprecedented access to the European Tour players, and in-depth interviews with the European Ryder Cup team, Calvin reveals a sport which operates entirely within the finest margins of excellence.
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£8.70£9.50Mind Game: The Secrets of Golf’s Winners
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Rise: The Brand New Autobiography
‘Siya’s rise from humble beginnings to lifting that World Cup trophy is the stuff of fairytales.’ MARCUS RASHFORD
‘Siya Kolisi is a warrior on the field and an inspiration off it. This book is an extraordinary reminder of what can be achieved with inner belief and an indefatigable spirit.’ JAY SHETTY
‘Siya’s story is well documented, and I am so impressed by the way he conducts himself. As the captain of his team and as a statesman he is measured and thoughtful. He is a leader in every way. An inspiration to a dynamic South African nation.’ EDDIE JONES
‘Few people embody the tenacity of what the New South Africa stands for, like Siya does. His story mirrors the nations’; in its trials and tribulations and also in it’s triumph against all odds. This is a real life heroes journey.’ TREVOR NOAH
‘There is no doubt Siya has made a significant impact on World rugby, especially within South African rugby. [He] is passionate about changing people’s lives for the better and uses his position and status to do that.’ MARO ITOJE
‘Brilliant’ THE TIMES
‘Moving’ THE GUARDIAN
His truth. His story. In his words.
There have been many comments made and books written about Siya Kolisi, captain of the Springboks, and the first black man to lead his country in over 128 years of South African rugby.
But now, for the very first time, Siya Kolisi shares his story in an extraordinarily intimate memoir, charting his journey from being born into the impoverished Zwide township, to leading his proud nation to an astonishing victory at the Rugby World Cup in 2019.
However, Rise is not simply a chronology of matches played and games won; it is an exploration of a man’s race and his faith, a masterclass in attaining a positive mindset, and an inspirational reminder that it is possible to defy the odds, no matter how they are stacked against you.
In 2020, partly in response to the pandemic, Siya and his wife, Rachel, launched The Kolisi Foundation, providing personal protective equipment to healthcare workers and delivering food parcels throughout South Africa.
The title Rise is inspired by Siya’s mother – Phakama – which translates to the book’s name, as well as a celebration of his Xhosa heritage.Read more
£7.90£10.40Rise: The Brand New Autobiography
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The Fastest Men on Earth: The Inside Stories of the Olympic Men’s 100m Champions
With an exclusive foreword by Usain Bolt, The Fastest Men on Earth tells the fascinating inside stories of the Olympic Men’s 100m Champions.
It takes just under ten seconds to run, but the results of the Olympic men’s 100 metres are etched forever into history. In The Fastest Men on Earth, journalist Neil Duncanson tells the stories of the 25 athletes who’ve been crowned champions in the event, and earned the coveted title of ‘Fastest Man on Earth’.
Each chapter explores the fascinating, inspiring, and occasionally tragic lives of these supremely talented sprinters, as well as the intense drama of the record-breaking runs that wrote them into history. Immaculately researched and featuring exclusive interviews with several Olympic champions, including a new conversation with Usain Bolt, The Fastest Men on Earth brings the stories of some of the greatest athletes of all time to life like never before.
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£8.70£9.50 -
Running with the Firm: My Double Life as an Undercover Hooligan
‘Of course I’m a f**king hooligan, you pr**k. I am a hooligan…there I’ve said it…I’m a hooligan. And, do you know why? Because that’s my f**king job.’
In 1995, a film called I.D., about an ambitious young copper who was sent undercover to track down the ‘generals’ of a football hooligan gang, achieved cult status for its sheer brutality and unsettling insight into the dark and often bloody side of the so-called beautiful game.
The film was so shocking it was hard to believe the mindless events that took place could ever happen in the real world. Well, believe it now…
Almost twenty years on, the man behind the film has explosively revealed that the script was largely a true story. That man, James Bannon, was the ambitious undercover cop. The football club was Millwall F.C. and the gang that he infiltrated was The Bushwackers, among the most brutal and fearless in English football.
In Running with the Firm, Bannon shares his intense and dangerous journey into the underworld of football hooliganism where sickening levels of violence prevail over anything else. He introduces you to the hardest thugs from football’s most notorious gangs, tells all about the secret and almost comical police operations that were meant to bring them down, and, how once you’re on the inside, getting out from the mob proves to be the biggest mission of all.
A disturbing but compelling read, this is the book that proves fact really is stranger than fiction.
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£10.40£12.30 -
Roar: A Celebration of Great Sporting Women
From the tennis court to the boxing ring, the athletics track to the football pitch, the visibility of women in sport has been gathering pace. Women’s competitions are increasingly popular.
In Roar Sam takes a deep dive into the experiences of some of sport’s most high-profile female athletes – some have overcome heartbreaking adversity to reach the top of their game; others have succeeded in the face of prejudice. Like Sam, all have been propelled by sheer grit and determination to succeed. Many now campaign for women’s equality and acceptance in sport, knowing the confidence it can bring young girls and the message that they can achieve anything.
Featuring a series of candid interviews from some of sport’s most successful women, Sam lifts the lid on what it takes to reach those heights: from coping with puberty to foregoing teenage fun to pursue a dream; from the punishing physical training schedule to the mental power needed to win or bounce back from defeat; and coping with the pressure of the media spotlight. And, what it feels like in that magical moment when you step up to the podium knowing every sacrifice has been worth it.
Roar is a celebration of the bold and fearless – the women empowering future generations to follow in their footsteps – but it is also an inspiring look at how sport can change lives and challenge society.
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£17.30£19.00Roar: A Celebration of Great Sporting Women
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The Bottom Corner: Hope, Glory and Non-League Football
In these days of oligarch owners, superstar managers and players on sky-high wages, the tide is turning towards the lower reaches of the pyramid as fans search for football with a soul.
Plucky underdogs or perennial underachievers, your local non-league team offers hope, drama or at least a Saturday afternoon ritual that’s been going for decades. Nige Tassell spends a season in the non-league world. He meets the raffle-ticket seller who wants her ashes scattered in the centre-circle. The envelope salesman who discovered a future England international. The ex-pros still playing with undiluted passion on Sunday mornings. He spends time at clubs looking for promotion to the Football League, clubs just aiming to get eleven players on a pitch every week, and everything in between.
One thing unites them: they all inhabit the heartland of the beautiful game.
‘The Bottom Corner is a wonderful journey through life in the lower reaches of the football pyramid. A fascinating tale of a very different world of football from that of the overpaid stars of the television age’ Barry Davies
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The Boys of Winter: England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup Win, As Told By The Team for the 20th Anniversary 2023
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and must-read book for the Rugby World Cup 2023.England have been in four Rugby World Cup finals and only won one of them. In 2003, this team was the one that did it. And this is their story in their words.
The image of Jonny Wilkinson’s last-minute winning drop goal is etched deep into the nation’s consciousness – everyone knows where they were during that iconic moment on the 22nd November 2003. Twenty years on, with their achievement still unmatched, the affection and respect this band of brothers command is as great as ever. There is still no modern player as beloved as Jonny Wilkinson, no captain as celebrated and respected as Martin Johnson, and no coach as revered as Sir Clive Woodward. And there is no one with the aura and drive of Lawrence Dallaglio.
In The Boys of Winter, Dallaglio and writer Owen Slot tell the inside story of England’s triumphant 2003 Rugby World Cup through interviews with those involved, revealing how the team planned it and executed it; the iconic memories as well as the unseen moments.
But what has become of those heroes of our youth? This book also tells the story of how the tournament has shaped the lives of those involved, for better or worse. For many it was the pinnacle, for some a missed opportunity and for others a curse from which they never recovered.
– Includes never-before-seen interviews with the squad and coaching staff
– Reveals how the team planned and executed the 2003 Rugby World Cup win
– Uncovers for the first time the impact of the achievement on the players
– Explores why this success has never been repeated
This is the definitive account of a legendary sporting moment and an examination of the costs of our dreams.
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£9.10£20.90 -
The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion
Muhammad: a frank look at his influential (and violent) life and teachings In The Truth about Muhammad, New York Times bestselling author and Islam expert Robert Spencer offers an honest and telling portrait of the founder of Islam-perhaps the first such portrait in half a century-unbounded by fear and political correctness, unflinching, and willing to face the hard facts about Muhammad’s life that continue to affect our world today. From Muhammad’s first “revelation” from Allah (which filled him with terror that he was demonpossessed) to his deathbed (from which he called down curses upon Jews and Christians), it’s all here-told with extensive documentation from the sources that Muslims themselves consider most reliable about Muhammad. Spencer details Muhammad’s development from a preacher of hellfire and damnation into a political and military leader who expanded his rule by force of arms, promising his warriors luridly physical delights in Paradise if they were killed in his cause. He explains how the Qur’an’s teaching on warfare against unbelievers developed-with constant war to establish the hegemony of Islamic law as the last stage. Spencer also gives the truth about Muhammad’s convenient “revelations” justifying his own licentiousness; his joy in the brutal murders of his enemies; and above all, his clear marching orders to his followers to convert non-Muslims to Islam-or force them to live as inferiors under Islamic rule. In The Truth about Muhammad, you’ll learn – The truth about Muhammad’s multiple marriages (including one to a nine-year-old) – How Muhammad set legal standards that make it virtually impossible to prove rape in Islamic countries – How Muhammad’s example justifies jihad and terrorism – The real “Satanic verses” incident (not the Salman Rushdie version) that remains a scandal to Muslims – How Muhammad’s faulty knowledge of Judaism and Christianity has influenced Islamic theology–and colored Muslim relations with Jews and Christians to this day. Recognizing the true nature of Islam, Spencer argues, is essential for judging the prospects for largescale Islamic reform, the effective prosecution of the War on Terror, the democracy project in Afghanistan and Iraq, and immigration and border control to protect the United States from terrorism. All of which makes it crucial for every citizen (and policymaker) who loves freedom to read and ponder The Truth about MuhammadRead more
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The Life of a Medical Officer in WWI: The Experiences of Captain Harry Gordon Parker
The Life of a Medical Officer in WW1 documents the experiences of Captain Harry Gordon Parker and provides a rare insight into the conflict that engulfed Europe from 1914-1918. Having joined the Naval Medical Service as a Royal Navy Temporary Surgeon, Parker’s first taste of war was aboard a hospital evacuation ship, which regularly crossed the English Channel, from Southampton to France, picking up casualties from the battle grounds. Somewhat disillusioned with the whole experience, he requested a transfer to the Royal Medical Army Corps and soon found himself transported to the trenches in France. It was here, first serving with the Lancashire Fusiliers and then later as permanent Regimental Medical Officer with the 2nd Manchester’s Regiment, that he spent the remainder of the war, witnessing first-hand the horrors of Passchendaele, Arras and the Somme. Parker’s account not only reveals a record of the conflict, but also encompasses a totality of military life as it impacted on the medical fraternity. From bureaucratic red tape, lack of medical supplies, lice infestations, trench foot and absurd missions where the incompetence of his own side was as dangerous as the enemy, his thoughts are penned with sincerity, the utmost compassion as well as a certain degree of sardonic humour: We went into the trenches for the first time at Givenchy. It snowed heavily, and our rations did not arrive. The Royal Welsh, however, generously shared their rations with our men, who repaid the kindness by (accidentally) shooting one of the Sergeants through the stomach!’. With endorsement from family members, author Lorraine Evans has revised Parker’s notes and scribblings for clarity and added complementary text to provide historical background. What transpires is a lasting and classic chronicle, an extraordinary human account of history as it ensued.Read more
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War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line
A powerful and intensely moving memoir by an NHS surgeon who volunteered in war zones, operating under the most extreme circumstances.
‘Brave, compassionate and inspiring – it left me in floods of tears’ – Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt
For more than twenty-five years, David Nott has taken unpaid leave from his job as a general and vascular surgeon with the NHS to volunteer in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993, to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out life-saving operations and field surgery in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major London teaching hospital.
The conflicts he has worked in form a chronology of twenty-first-century combat: Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Darfur, Congo, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and Syria. But he has also volunteered in areas blighted by natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal.
Driven both by compassion and passion, the desire to help others and the thrill of extreme personal danger, he is now widely acknowledged to be the most experienced trauma surgeon in the world. But as time went on, David Nott began to realize that flying into a catastrophe – whether war or natural disaster – was not enough. Doctors on the ground needed to learn how to treat the appalling injuries that war inflicts upon its victims. Since 2015, the foundation he set up with his wife, Elly, has disseminated the knowledge he has gained, training other doctors in the art of saving lives threatened by bombs and bullets.
War Doctor is his extraordinary story.
‘One of the most brutally vivid evocations of modern warfare that you will read . . . superb, unforgettable, simply written and painfully clear’ – Sunday Times
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£7.20£10.40War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line
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Messi: The must-read biography of the World Cup champion, now fully updated (Guillem Balague’s Books)
‘I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi’ Diego Maradona
FULLY UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE 2022 WORLD CUP TRIUMPH & MESSI’S TRANSFER TO INTER MIAMI
As Lionel Messi raised the World Cup triumphantly into the air, the world watched on in awe. Messi’s final peak conquered; his final dream achieved. It was the fairy tale ending to a glittering career. Yet despite delivering Argentina their third World Cup, Messi’s time at Paris Saint-Germain came to a dramatic conclusion, and Miami awaited the Argentinian legend.
Guillem Balagué has had unprecedented access to Messi’s inner circle including the player himself: his coaches, team-mates and family. From tracing the origins of Messi’s precocious talent in Rosario, Argentina, to chronicling his peerless seventeen-season career at Barcelona, and his tumultuous Parisian adventure, Guillem takes us behind-the-scenes of Messi’s World Cup triumph and his long-desired move to the MLS. This is an epic, authoritative and compelling account of an enigmatic footballing genius.
‘I can tell my grandkids one day that I coached Lionel Messi’ Pep Guardiola
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Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Bestselling Political Biography of the Year
***THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER***
‘Excellent… first class… both fair and damning.’ Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
‘Authoritative, gripping and often jaw-dropping’ Andrew Rawnsley, Observer
‘Invaluable’ New Statesman
‘Explosive’ Isabel Hardman, The i
After his dramatic rise to power in the summer of 2019 amid the Brexit deadlock, Boris Johnson presided over the most turbulent period of British history in living memory. Beginning with the controversial prorogation of Parliament in August and the historic landslide election victory later that year, Johnson was barely through the door of No. 10 when Britain was engulfed by a series of crises that will define its place in the world for decades to come. From the agonising upheaval of Brexit and the devastating Covid-19 pandemic to the nerve-shredding crisis in Afghanistan, the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the Partygate scandal, Johnson’s government ultimately unravelled after just three years.
This gripping behind-the-scenes work of contemporary history maps Johnson’s time in power from start to finish and sheds new light on the most divisive Prime Minister to have led the United Kingdom since Thatcher. Based on more than 200 interviews with key aides, allies and insiders, Johnson at 10 gives the first full account of Johnson’s premiership, the shockwaves of which are still felt today.
***A WATERSTONES BEST POLITICS BOOK OF 2023***
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Winston Churchill & The Queen: An Unlikely Friendship
A light-hearted look at royal life during the beginning of Queen Elizabeth the Second’s reign and the final days of Churchill’s prime ministership. How did two people from two different generations come to be such good friends?This readable and relatable Churchill-Queen Elizabeth II book talks to the reader instead of lecturing them. The moment you become immersed in the first pages, you are transported back to what it must have felt like for a young queen to suddenly lose her father and have the elderly Churchill step in to guide, assist, and comfort her, and also tell a great many jokes along the way!
There is a reason why Sir Winston Churchill consistently tops the lists of greatest human beings of all time, and every time it happens it must warm Queen Elizabeth’s heart. Despite the 52 year age gap, the monarch and possibly the best Prime Minister Britain will ever have, cemented a friendship of a lifetime as they continued to bring the United Kingdom out of its post-war slump.
This book is not for history buffs, although it is historically accurate; it’s a book about friendship and how these two famous people found so much about which to talk and laugh about (with the occasional disagreement thrown in for good measure).
The more you read about Churchill and the Queen’s many interactions through the years, the more it is easy to see why theirs was not an unlikely friendship at all.
With dozens of interesting facts and never-before-noticed details and observations, not only is this book hard to put down and easy to read, but it also offers the reader a tiny glimpse into royal and parliamentary life in a post-world war Britain.
Finally, a history book about two fascinating people for fans of friendship everywhere!
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Jerusalem: The Biography
A new, updated, revised edition of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, the wider history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, from King David to today.
The story of Jerusalem is the story of the world.
Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilisations. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.
A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and co-existence, but also a freshly-updated history of the entire Middle East, from King David to the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wars of today. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem – the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.
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£12.90£14.20Jerusalem: The Biography
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Queen Elizabeth II: A Glorious 70 Years
Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne for a glorious 70 years. This book pays tribute to this long serving monarch charting her journey, in words and pictures, from the 25 year old young woman who ascended to the throne in 1953 to the much loved elder stateswoman of today. This celebration of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II offers the definitive illustrated story of her public and private life spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. Featuring the incredible tradition, history, glamour, and culture of Her Majesty, this book also follows the international tours, state functions, royal weddings, and jubilees, and showcases the glorious royal photography of some of the most well known Royal photographers and archives.Read more
£13.90£20.00Queen Elizabeth II: A Glorious 70 Years
£13.90£20.00
