Harlan Coben’s thrillers have ingenious plots, psychological complexity and the kind of suspense that keeps you turning the pages into the early hours. Our four novels feature some of Coben’s trademarks – mysteries of the past creeping into the present, family, and final, breath-taking twists.The four titles included in this set are:Run Away (Read more...) Home (Read more...) Fool Me Once (Read more...) Don’t Let Go (Read more...)

Our language is full of well-worn phrases from much-loved poems, but how often can we recall the rest of the poem, or the first line, or even the poet's name? This anthology presents the complete poems that gave us such immortal lines as 'Water, water everywhere/Nor any drop to drink', 'not waving but drowning' and 'They also serve who only stand and waite'. The poems are arranged chronologically, from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy, and indexed by title and the famous bits.

The son of a blacksmith, Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. He ended up as Henry VIII's right-hand man, and exercised enormous influence during some of the most momentous events in the country's history. This biography from the Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces goes beyond the fiction of Wolf Hall to reveal the true story of this controversial, complex and fascinating figure.

This book explores the lives and achievements of three unconventional, creative women, and the sacrifices they made for the artists they loved. Fernande Olivier (1881–1966) was Picasso’s first love and muse; Sophie Brzeska (1873–1925) lived with the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 19 years her junior, until he was killed in the First World War; and Ida Nettleship (1877–1907) bore five children to Augustus John while living in a ménage à trois with him and his mistress.

If Frances Shea thought her marriage in 1965 was a passport to a glamorous life of West End nightclubs and celebrity friends, this biography reveals how she was misled. Leaving Reggie Kray after eight months, she was dead by 1967, allegedly of a drug overdose. Slightly off-mint.

Best known for her graphic illustrations, Dora Batty’s posters for London Transport were designed to encourage people to spend their holidays in the countryside surrounding the city. This 500-piece jigsaw is one of many such posters now available as a jigsaw.

Best known for its DFV Formula 1 engine of the 1960s and 1970s – the longest lived and most successful in the sport's history – Cosworth has produced a host of high-performance power units since its foundation in 1958. This history of the company describes the engineering innovations and partnerships with leading motor manufacturers that led to racing legends such as the Lotus 79 and performance road cars including the Ford RS Cosworths.

Robert de La Rochefoucald was a French aristocrat who was taught sabotage and combat skills by Britain's SOE before teaming up with the French Resistance to organize cells, blow up munitions factories and assassinate prominent Nazis. Drawing on family archives and wide-ranging historical documents, this account tells how he was captured and tortured for months, making two remarkable escapes, one of them from the hands of a firing squad.

Novelist, playwright, essayist and journalist, Klaus Mann explored the sinister appeal of Nazism in his chilling 1936 novel Mephisto, and was the first person to link racism and fascism with homophobia. This first English-language biography provides a powerful account of his tormented life, dealing frankly with his drug addiction and his troubled relationship with the overpowering figure of his father, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann, while shedding new light on his mysterious death.

Charles Darwin was fascinated by the way the flowers of orchids had evolved to attract specific insects. Noting the very long spur of Angraecum sesquipedale, he predicted that it could only be fertilized by a moth with a 35cm tongue, a statement that was ridiculed until such a species was discovered after his death. This limited edition facsimile of his seminal 1862 book on the subject is bound in cloth using traditional methods. Slightly off-mint.

Although assigned to major towns by the 1930s, postcodes were not in general use until towards the end of the 20th century. This humorous diary of a tour of Britain visits all 124 modern UK postcodes, making anecdotal observations about each area and identifying historical, geographical or cultural trivia, such as the fact that Strontian in PH (although not in Perth) is the only place in Britain to have a chemical element named after it.

Following on from the bestselling Lost London 1870–1945, this book presents some 280 photographs originally commissioned by the London County Council to record streets and neighbourhoods on the threshold of redevelopment. Enlarged and cropped, the photographs reveal the built environment and life within it in great detail. They are, as Dan Cruickshank writes in his foreword, 'photographs which record not just the appearance of the building but also, in some uncanny way, its atmosphere, its grand but crumbling soul'.

Philip J Hatfield’s history of human engagement with the Arctic draws on the collections of the British Library and uses a great range of books, maps, photographs and prints to describe the indigenous populations of the region and their culture; European explorations, from the early voyages in search of a ‘Northwest Passage’ to 20th-century polar expeditions and scientific research; and the legacy of that history for the modern Arctic.

At the end of the Second World War, as Germany lay in ruins, the Western Allies looked with alarm towards a new adversary in the east: Stalin’s Russia. The Italian port of Trieste, occupied by Yugoslav troops, was a flashpoint. Like a Cold War thriller, this history charts the destinies of a British SOE officer, an Austrian SS general, an American spy and a teenage Italian female partisan in a true story of espionage, escape and revenge.

The ‘frontier’ between Scotland and the English invaders of medieval times, the principal battlefield of the Wars of Independence, and a region rife with ferocious family feuds, Dumfriesshire had a long and often violent history until the Act of Union in 1707, which brought not only peace, but land improvement, agricultural development and industrialization. Andrew McCulloch, a native of south-west Scotland, presents a comprehensive history of the region, from the Stone Age to devolution and the 2016 Independence referendum.

In June 1945, a charred body was discovered near Madrid. The man was identified as Mendel Szkolnikoff, a Russian Jew and one of the biggest black marketeers of the Occupation. Drawing on 6,000 boxes of archives in five countries, this first biography uncovers the shadowy deals that bought him prime real estate in Paris and the Riviera, the identity of his protectors, what happened to his vast wealth, and the mystery of his death.

Only two of Yorkshire’s wartime airfields are still in use by the RAF but during the Second World War the county was home to 33 stations of No.4 Group and No.6 Group, staging raids against the Ruhr, Hamburg and Berlin. Brief histories of the airfields are given in this volume, together with stories of notable characters and events and details of what remains of the bases today.

Childhood in the 1950s was very different from what it is today. With no video games and few televisions, children played conkers, climbed trees, constructed go-karts and built dens on bomb sites. This book recaptures that lost era, bringing to life the experiences of home and school, childhood illnesses, simple toys, sweets, comics, films and music of the period, along with games such as 'It' and 'Knock Down Ginger'.

When a Crusade was launched against them early in the 13th century, the Cathars were dominant in the Languedoc region and had won widespread support from nobility and peasants. Martin explains the movement’s development, the fractious political context in which it flourished and the principles of simplicity, equality and non-violence which lay at the heart of the Cathars’ heretical teachings and their implacable opposition to the Catholic Church. Second edition.

From the 12th century onwards, Newgate Prison played a key role in the development of the British penal system, housing well-known prisoners from Captain Kidd to Ben Jonson and Daniel Defoe, as well as murderers, rapists and arsonists. Illustrated with historic prints and portraits, this book explores its traditions and lexicon of slang, and offers accounts of executions, the pillory and famous escapes.

Trained to precisely target individual combatants, marksmen were deployed in the First World War to tackle the static nature of much of the fighting. Featuring eyewitness accounts, this study analyses their role on the Western Front and in other theatres of the war, describes the training, fieldcraft and counter-sniping measures that were employed and outlines developments in rifles, ammunition and sighting equipment.

Thousands of miles of Britain's railways were closed during the 20th century, many following the infamous 'Beeching Report' in the 1960s and early 1970s. Since then, some of the old trackbeds have been converted to footpaths and cycleways – hidden byways through beautiful, tranquil countryside. Richly illustrated with maps and photographs, old and new, this book explores 50 of these routes, outlining their history and describing what they have to offer today's walkers, cyclists and railway enthusiasts.

By the summer of 1940 nearly a million and a half British men had joined the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), a response to the very real threat of invasion by a rapidly advancing German Army. This book explores the LDV’s transformation from an enthusiastic yet ill-equipped organization into the capable Home Guard, which, as the threat of invasion receded, nevertheless became key to the UK’s local defence strategy, as well as a means of combating the purported Fifth Column. Off-mint.

From where I sit writing Postscript entries, I look out on an old Devon hedgerow and an ancient stone wall; John Wright's Natural History has rendered them both very much more interesting. The book covers the origins and history of such boundaries; the present condition of hedgerows and the need to preserve them; the amazing array of fauna and flora they support; and other ways of making boundaries, from movable hazel hurdles to dry stone walls (mine, I've learned, is the 'random rubble' type).

The Porsche 911 has been in continual development since its launch in 1963, the 1997 revamp introducing a water-cooled engine for the first time. This fifth volume in Brian Long’s history of the car reviews the design, specifications, marketing and racing performance of the 996 version.

Devised by Mensa, the high IQ society, this set contains the boards and pieces for chess and solitaire, tangram, pentominoes, the matchstick game and jailbreak, as well as a 72-page book of brain benders, cryptic crosswords and rules for the games. This diverse collection of over 100 puzzles and games will exercise your brain for weeks, but you don’t need a massive IQ: we are assured that logical thinking and persistence will prevail. Boxed set.

This characterful animal activity book features creatures from all around the world and includes a large pull-out poster to colour in, 30 drawing activities and 50 stickers. Age 5+

Helen Macdonald was devastated by her father’s sudden death. Already an experienced falconer, she set herself an awesome challenge to confront her grief: to rear and train a goshawk, a member of the species she had thought of as ‘things of death and difficulty: spooky, pale-eyed psychopaths that lived and killed in woodland thickets’. This award-winning book records how, with TH White’s The Goshawk as her guide, she dealt with bereavement by adopting Mabel and living alongside ‘the hawk’s wild mind’. American-cut pages.

What garden evokes manual pallor? Where does the gold fin not wink? Who or what is pit-pit? Since 1904, pupils of King William's College on the Isle of Man have been sent home for the Christmas holidays with a fiendish quiz. Its popularity led to its publication first in The Times and, from 1951, in the Guardian. This book presents 30 sets of 180 questions dating from the 1920s to 1980s (pre-Google!).

Designer John Willis Griffiths’s conclusion that a sailing ship built for speed required ‘a sharp flared hollow and concave bow’ and a stern designed for ‘minimal drag’, revolutionized shipping well into the 20th century. This erudite history of the clipper, the fastest of all merchant sailing ships, considers different designs, including Yankee, Australian and tea clippers, as well as their cargoes and trade routes, with a focus on the treacherous seas around Cape Horn.

A technical rundown of Rocket forms only a part of this guide to the groundbreaking locomotive, presented in the Haynes workshop manual format. Further sections include the story of the Rainhill Trials and how the engine became the foundation of locomotive design thereafter, first-hand accounts of what it was like to operate and travel with Rocket, and an analysis of a series of working replicas that have been built since the 1880s, and what can be learned from them.

After Michael Robinson’s succinct, illustrated essay tracing the progress of the Impressionist movement from Édouard Manet’s Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862) to Monet’s Waterlilies (1903), this volume from the Masterpieces of Art series presents 88 full-page reproductions of some of the greatest Impressionist works. In three sections – paintings of modern life, landscape and domesticity – the selection includes Renoir’s The Theatre Box (1874), Degas’ L’Absinthe, and The Sea at L’Estaque (1878) by Cézanne.

Before being let loose in a Supermarine Spitfire, fighter pilots would have to familiarize themselves with the 'Pilot's Notes' which comprehensively detailed the aircraft's equipment, controls and operation. These instructions are reproduced in this book together with examples of log books, combat reports and other contemporary training booklets advising on such skills as identifying enemy aircraft, estimating range and combat flying.

The youngest ever Director of the National Gallery, Kenneth Clark inspired a generation to appreciate the beauty of art and architecture through his groundbreaking TV series Civilisation. Yet his urbane, erudite public image concealed a troubled private life. Nominated Book of the Year by the Sunday Times, the Spectator, the Economist and the New York Times, this biography perceptively analyses the emotional and intellectual contradictions of a complex and charismatic figure.

This blend of history, nature writing and memoir examines how people have responded to the land from the 18th century to the present day, including the Romantic poets’ fascination with the Lake District, and the more practical considerations of the agricultural improvers. Anna Pavord celebrates the beauty of the British landscape, considers how it has affected and inspired its inhabitants, and explores the ways in which a sense of place can help to define cultural identity.

Why are some pubs called ‘The Seven Stars’? Hugh Kolb has analysed the surviving pubs and their history and the symbolism of Seven Stars over the past 3,000 years to find the answer. In chapters illustrated with photographs of the pubs, Kolb pursues topics as diverse as the origins of hostelries, the immaculate conception, the solar system and the Anglo-Saxons, and concludes that the Seven Stars are the Pleiades – the ancient Greek Dionysians’ celestial bunch of grapes.

Rising in a remote corner of Tibet, the Yellow River (Huang He) flows 3,395 miles through arid desert, the steppes of Inner Mongolia and the Lijiaxia gorges and past monasteries, dams, cities and industrial regions before reaching the gulf of Bo Hai. The Italian journalist and photographer Aldo Pavan followed the river from source to sea, ‘getting under the skin of China’, and in over 200 photographs he portrays one river and a tremendous variety of landscape, peoples and cultures.

Victorian newspaper reports, Old Bailey transcripts and coroners’ inquests offer a catalogue of grisly and often bizarre crimes: husbands murdering their wives, suicidal lovers, and mistresses taking revenge on their rivals in love. Drawing on these archival records, this book identifies three main types of offence: crimes of passion; theatrical crimes such as the fatal stabbing of the actor William Terriss at the door of the Adelphi; and unsolved mysteries.

Legend has it that without its ravens the Tower of London would crumble into dust and the kingdom would fall, so there are always at least six ravens living at the Tower. Another resident, Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, is the Ravenmaster, responsible for the birds’ safety and welfare. Chris’s love for his charges is obvious from his light-hearted account of their work together and his character sketches of the seven ravens: Munin, Merlina, Erin, Rocky, Jubilee II, Gripp II and Harris.

Klop ('Bedbug') Ustinov (1892–1962) was an MI5 secret agent tasked, not with killing, but with bemusing and beguiling his enemies into revealing their deepest, darkest secrets. Through the Russian revolution, two World Wars and the Cold War, Klop bluffed and tricked his way into the confidence of everyone from Soviet commissars to a Gestapo Gruppenführer. Journalist Peter Day tells the epic tale of an agent whose missions remained obscured by his socializing and womanizing.

The Easter Rising in April 1916 saw civilian deaths, the destruction of a large part of Dublin and the true beginning of Irish independence. Coogan's account of this turning-point in Irish history introduces the major players and the ideas that drove them, and vividly describes the events which they set in train. He also examines how the British government's mishandling of the aftermath had the effect of galvanizing popular support for the rebels.

In 1939 Polish Army lieutenant Slavomir Rawicz was sentenced to 25 years forced labour in a Siberian prison camp. In this controversial story of endurance, Rawicz describes his imprisonment and alleged escape to India across the Himalayas and Gobi Desert.

How much do you know about Bible stories? With more than 5,000 questions and facts, this book will challenge you whatever your level of scripture knowledge. ‘In which town was Jesus born?’ is easy enough; but who was Solomon’s mother and how many wings does a seraph have? The 15-question quizzes are organized under headings including War and Peace, Family Ties and Apocalypse Now.

Before dying without a male heir in 1135, Henry I named his daughter Matilda, widow of the Holy Roman Emperor, as his successor. Upon Henry’s death, his nephew Stephen seized the throne, igniting an 18-year civil war. Combining eyewitness accounts with modern analysis, this history describes the period that became known as the Anarchy, in which there were battles across the country, large areas became ungovernable, and those who experienced it declared that ‘Christ and his saints slept’.

Described by the Financial Times as ‘an excellent antidote to prejudice’, this concise account of Muslim history emphasizes the importance of rethinking the Western mistrust of Islam which dates back to the time of the Crusades. As well as challenging stereotypes and highlighting how the faith has inspired scholars, mystics and poets, it reveals how Islam’s ‘sacralization of history’ means that the religion, its past history and current events are woven together especially closely.

Hobbies and professions all have their unique and colourful jargon, which is often completely baffling to outsiders. But now Countdown’s resident word expert has decoded these mysterious idioms by interviewing hundreds of members of Britain’s ‘tribes’, from twitchers to spies. Here she presents the idiosyncratic vocabulary that she has learned, so that you too can discover why bin collectors love a ‘Tiffany’, what a publisher means by ‘deckle’ and how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up.

In 1817, when John Corry was writing his history, Macclesfield was the third most important town in Cheshire; it had been notable for its manufactures of silk and mohair buttons, but in the mid-18th century a number of silk mills were built, followed by cotton mills which brought prosperity and, in Corry’s opinion, a ‘deterioration of morals’. His history of the town is followed by short accounts of Congleton, Knutsford, Stockport, Buxton and Leek. Facsimile reprint. No jacket.

In this funny, acutely observed and engaging social history, Brian Viner celebrates the British holidaymaker at home and abroad. A surprising recent phenomenon is the increase in holidays in Britain, while the holiday abroad appears to be in decline. From holiday flings to hen nights, and from the 'full English' to the long-haul gap year, the minutiae of British holiday-making is examined here in all its glory. Slightly off-mint.

A former Professor of Russian History at Oxford University and the author of several important works on Soviet history, Robert Service has been described by a fellow biographer of Stalin, Simon Sebag Montefiore, as ‘the founding maestro of Stalinist history’. This trilogy comprises a single-volume life of Lenin (2000), the critically acclaimed biography of Stalin (2004) and a genuinely revelatory study of Trotsky (2009). The three titles included in this set are: Trotsky (Read more...) Lenin (Read more...) Stalin (Read more...)

Zircon crystals found in Western Australia have been dated to 4.4 billion years ago, the oldest things found so far on Earth and remnants of the original formation of the planet. This highly illustrated manual explains the processes that have shaped our world from the Big Bang to the evolution of life-supporting conditions and the physics of our current environment. Hundreds of diagrams, illustrations and infographics explain the natural forces at work.

With characteristic urbanity and wit, lifelong Francophile John Julius Norwich recounts two millennia of French history, from Vercingetorix’s last stand against Caesar, via the folies de grandeur of Louis XIV and Napoleon, to the end of the Second World War. He explores the contradictions of a nation torn between autocracy and egalitarianism with insight and sympathy, while enlivening the narrative with personal anecdotes.

Aimed at adults, these hardback gift titles showcase the wit and wisdom of AA Milne through the observations of his best-loved creations, complemented by EH Shepherd’s original illustrations. Each book offers carefully selected quotations that highlight the most distinctive traits of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood – from Pooh’s endearing greed to Eeyore’s stoic misery. The four titles included in this set are: Deep Thoughts and Ponderings for the Wise (Read more...)Little Somethings and Smackerels for Food Lovers (Read more...)Doubt and Disquiet for Worriers (Read more...)Gloom and Doom for Pessimists (Read more...)

A bestseller and former BBC Countryfile Book of the Year, this is the ultimate guide to what the land, the sun, moon and stars, plants and animals, sky and clouds can reveal – when you know what to look for. Drawing on two decades of outdoor experience, Tristan Gooley explains how to focus our powers of deduction and prediction on the natural world and provides over 850 clues and signs to get us started.

Everything in the universe is made up of just 118 chemical elements. This illustrated companion outlines the nature and properties of each of these basic building blocks of matter, as well as anecdotes about some of the most notable scientists involved in their discovery. Age 9+

This encouraging guide includes many tips for budding artists, such as how to look properly, simplify what you see but include key features, get the basic shapes correct, and understand how shading can transform your drawing. There are sections on depicting landscapes, animals, people and cartoons, and each is accompanied by step-by-step illustrations showing how to build up your drawings and create texture, while assignments enable you to measure your progress.

This irreverent guide takes a peek at a perennially fascinating subject. A romp through the biological mechanics and history of human intercourse is spiced up with intimate true stories, public scandals, censorship, sex toys, fetishes, and a concise glossary of filthy language. Eclectic, entertaining and original, it reveals everything you always wanted to know about sex – and quite a few things you probably didn’t. Sexually explicit.

London has fascinated painters for centuries, and central to that appeal has been the Thames. The 158 paintings in this book follow the river from Whistler’s Chelsea in the west to Turner’s Greenwich in the east, accompanied by an introductory text for each area and extensive captions giving historical context. Along the way are Monet’s Houses of Parliament, Lowry’s Piccadilly Circus, and St Paul’s, depicted both in 18th-century splendour by Canaletto and amid the ruins of the Blitz by David Bomberg.

‘A remarkable and successful king of the Anglo-Saxons’, but overshadowed by the illustrious reputation of his father, Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder reigned between 899 and 924 and was pivotal in the transformation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into a recognizable, unified English nation state which his son Æthelstan developed further. Drawing on tenth-century sources, Michael John Key gives an assessment of the reign and, as far as possible, an account of Edward’s early life and kingship in Anglo-Saxon Wessex.

When Russia erupted in revolution, some members of the imperial family managed to flee abroad, but for the tsar, the tsarina and their children, months of imprisonment ended in brutal death. Why, when they were so closely related to all the ruling houses of Europe, were they not helped to escape? This searching history examines the responses of their royal cousins in Britain, Germany, Norway and Denmark, and asks whether enough was done to save the Romanovs.

The book that sparked the award-winning TV series details Jennifer Worth’s experiences as a young midwife based in a convent amid the chaos of post-war London Docklands. Her true-life stories show how tough conditions were in the East End, especially for women, who often lived in slum accommodation – grateful if they had a cold-water tap – with ten or more children to look after.

Mark Linley reveals the secrets of his craft and provides tips and assignments as he guides readers to produce drawings that capture the essence of a character. From doodling to focusing on facial features, he explains how to caricature friends and famous people. First published in 1999.

This children's reference book presents colourful and attractive maps of the world alongside information about the culture and history of countries and regions. The pages include fact boxes, statistics and photographs of notable sites, buildings, natural wonders, local people and wildlife. There are also games and quizzes to play, a section on flags of the world, and links to further content online. Age 7+

Beginning with horse-drawn carriages and progressing to buses, trains and the Underground, this 1,000-piece jigsaw shows how transport has changed. It includes a frameable print of the image, which was created in 1928 by artist Richard T. Cooper.

Challenging the view of plants as passive vegetation, Mabey approaches them as ’authors of their own lives’ and explores our relationship with them, from prehistoric cave painting, through cultivation and exploration to the ‘astonishing revelations of 19th-century botany’. Among the intriguing plants whose lives he discusses are the baobab tree; ginseng, the panacea; the carnivorous tipitiwitchet; an Amazonian giant water lily whose leaves were the model for the Crystal Palace; and the intelligence of mimosa.

The suffragists of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) - as distinct from the suffragettes - did not disband in 1917 when the vote was given to some women. Although franchise had been their primary goal, they had other aims for women. This book looks at the lives of eight suffragists and how they continued the struggle for equality in various fields, among them Eleanor Lodge in higher education, Ellen Wilkinson in Socialist politics and Dr Isabel Emslie Hutton in medicine.

Inspired by the earlier book of the same title by the American author Bill Adler, the gardening expert Anne Wareham shares her own practical tips on how to outsmart garden pests large and small as well as offering advice on dealing with the horticultural challenges posed by weeds and the weather.

In 1893 the aristocratic Alfred Monson was charged with the murder of Cecil Hambrough, a young army officer, on the Ardlamont estate in Scotland. The case captivated popular imagination, but few realized that the two expert witnesses, Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn, had been solving crimes together for 20 years. This book charts their adventures – exploits which inspired Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes – and probes the mystery that would challenge even their experience and skill in detection.

'All the key facts without the flab', this book covers almost 2,000 years of British history in around 150 articles, each no longer than 250 words. The result is a concise and accurate introduction to and overview of our history. As well as the articles – from 'The Roman Invasion' (43 CE) to 'The Founding of the United Nations' (1945) – there is a timeline, a list of monarchs, suggestions for further reading and an index.

Peter Rex presents ‘an alternative view’ of Edward the Confessor’s life, character and achievements, drawing on the wealth of research into his reign since Frank Barlow’s major biography of the king appeared in 1979. Discounting the traditional emphasis on the influence of Earl Godwine, Rex examines Edward’s achievements in foreign policy and statecraft, looking in particular at his contribution to advancing the administration of the Old English state; and in a final chapter, he discusses the cult of the Confessor’s sanctity.

Combining technology developed by the German Aerospace Center with the experiences of great mountaineers, this volume profiles 13 mountains, including the ‘eight-thousanders’ Everest, K2, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and the ‘killer mountain’ Nanga Parbat. The chapter for each peak comprises photographs, a history of early ascents, geographical information and a mountaineer’s personal account of their climb: in effect, a history of mountaineering, accompanied by 3D maps created from high-resolution satellite data and ‘virtual’ images of some of Earth’s most challenging terrain.

Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story, turns his attention to Wallis Simpson, the twice-married divorcée who claimed the heart of Edward VIII, causing his abdication. Drawing on interviews, secret letters, diaries and previously unseen primary sources, Morton charts Wallis’s life, from falling in love with a female teacher as a teenager to ignoring the cries of her husband as he lay dying. While Morton makes plain Wallis’s disdain for the duke, it seems his devotion to her never wavered.

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) was one of the 20th century's greatest writers, the poet of The Hawk in the Rain, Lupercal and Crow, but also a children's storyteller, translator, critic, letter writer and the husband of Sylvia Plath. In this biography, Bates draws on the complete archive of writings that Hughes left for posterity, exploring the mental landscape it reveals to give the full story of the poet's life as it was lived, remembered and shaped in his art.

‘I used to think it was a narrow road/ From here to the underworld/ But it’s as broad as the sun’. Reflecting on mortality and her own journey, this was the final book by the poet and novelist Helen Dunmore (1952–2017). It was Costa Book of the Year, 2017.

Alexander McCall Smith’s anthology of Scottish poems is arranged in eight parts, on themes including love and marriage, islands, and war, conflict and loss, with poets spanning the centuries, from William Dunbar in the 15th, to Hugh MacDiarmid and Kathleen Raine in the 20th.

Born in 1917, Dame Vera Lynn was 92 when she realized that her great age gave a better perspective (she wrote her first autobiography in her fifties) and she had to 'get everything down on paper in a final account'. Here then is the life of 'an ordinary girl from an ordinary family with a voice that you could recognize' – but also an embodiment of British spirit during the Second World War.

Growing up in a humble shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley dreamed that success would free him from poverty. So how did he become dependent on bank loans even after achieving huge worldwide fame, and why did he despise his own movies and songs, even fearing that he would be forgotten after his death? This biography focuses on identifying the origins of the contradictions and frailties that lay behind Elvis’s charming, confident onstage persona. Slightly off-mint.

Telling ‘the story of Winston Churchill’s appointment with destiny’, the historian Ashley Jackson begins at his place of birth: Blenheim Palace, with its legacy of military and political greatness that was to profoundly influence Churchill’s life. From ambitious, headstrong subaltern to the nation’s war leader, and into the post-war years, Jackson presents a focused, even-handed portrait of Churchill as soldier, politician and statesman, and as a journalist, Nobel Prize-winning author, husband and father.

This introduction to British history begins with the geographical description of the island itself which, Roy Strong believes, has shaped the nation, its people and its politics. Invasions, migrations, civil wars, and two world wars have all been influenced by Britain’s uneasy relationship with mainland Europe, while a desire for self-sufficiency produced the empire and the Industrial Revolution. This new edition has been extended to cover the years from 1996 to the 2016 EU referendum.

Against a backdrop of shattered monuments, neglected villas and ghostly backstreets, a daydreaming boy seeks refuge from family discord in the imagination. In this highly original memoir, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk interweaves his own life, and the lives of his glamorous, unhappy parents, with that of his home city. The result is a blend of family reminiscence, history, philosophy, literature, art criticism and urban myth. This edition contains a new introduction and more than 200 additional photographs.

It was as a poet that Samuel Beckett launched himself in the little reviews of 1930s Paris, and as a poet that he ended his career. This volume is the most complete edition to date of his poetry and verse translations, and the first critical edition. The contents establish a definitive text and canon for the poetry, including previously unpublished material, with extensive commentary and notes placing each poem in context and identifying resonances across Beckett's work as a whole.

Thomas Bush Hardy was one of the most successful and prolific marine watercolourists of the 19th century, depicting the elements of sea and sky and the vessels that were then undergoing rapid change, with drama and subtlety. This account of his life and career, illustrated with over 200 reproductions, provides a chronicle of his trips up and down the English coast, to the Dutch beaches and French Channel ports, and to his beloved Venetian lagoon.

In a career spanning almost seven decades, Sophia Loren has achieved recognition as one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of all time. Part one of this photographic tribute traces her life from childhood poverty in wartime Pozzouli, near Naples, to Academy Award-winner, singer and UN Goodwill Ambassador. In part two, her films are each introduced with a concise text and illustrated with film stills, posters and rarely seen photographs.

Guy Burgess, who passed classified material to Moscow in such quantities that much was never translated, remains the most enigmatic and least studied of the ‘Cambridge Spies’. This first full-scale biography is based on recently released secret files and on interviews with more than 100 people who knew Burgess personally. It offers new insights into his chaotic private life, his Foreign Office work and the fabled charm that won him personal access to Winston Churchill.

An ‘outbreak of talent’ was how Paul Nash described the group of students he taught at the Royal College of Art in 1924–5. Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman and Enid Marx formed the core of a network of artists, friends and lovers influenced by Nash. This group biography explores their lives and relationships from the 1920s to Ravilious’s death in 1942 and, with reproductions of over 200 examples, it examines their painting, illustration and a variety of work in commercial design.

The six daughters of the eccentric Lord Redesdale and his wife Sydney have inspired many books, but this group biography is widely considered to be the finest. It skilfully weaves together the dramatic, often outrageous lives of the sisters: the novelist Nancy; Diana, who married Oswald Mosley; Decca, the communist; the lesbian horsewoman Pamela; the socialite Deborah; and Unity, the doomed admirer of Adolf Hitler.

This collection of over 50 recipes focuses on one-pot soups, casseroles, stir-frys and risottos, with some calling for a separate pan for accompaniments. Each entry has been contributed by a bestselling WI writer and chosen for its simplicity, with ingredients and equipment kept to a minimum. Slow-cooked options, including Beef in Guinness Cobbler, and Bean and Vegetable Hotpot, feature alongside quick, family-friendly dishes such as Chinese-style Chicken.

Following her bestselling I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Ana Sampson’s second anthology of half-remembered poems includes ‘unforgivable omissions’ pointed out by readers of the earlier book, along with some of Sampson’s own favourites, arranged by themes including the natural world, childhood, battle and talking to gods. The book ends with biographical notes on the 80 poets represented and an index of titles, first lines and the famous bits.

Described by the Guardian as 'irresistible small books for very young children... The words are just as much fun as the pictures', Shirley Hughes's Nursery Collection introduces the alphabet, numbers and first concepts – of shapes and sizes, opposites, noises and colours – in everyday toddler activities with Katie, her little brother Olly and their mum and dad. The six books are ABC, 123, All Shapes and Sizes, Opposites, Noisy and Colours. Age 3+

The five teenagers in Anthony Horowitz's series of adventure novels discover that they are ancient magical gatekeepers, reincarnated and equipped with special powers to renew their age-old battle with the mysterious Chaos and the evil Old Ones. Involving occult practices and time travel, and played out across dimensions and around the world, the five-volume saga is an epic struggle between good and evil. Age 12+

This illustrated collection contains a whole menagerie of animal hats to choose from, and each project is clearly laid out with an easy-to-follow pattern and concise instructions. The designs supplied can be easily adapted to create a unique hat for children or adults with the help of the techniques section at the back of the book.

Three children, Joe, Beth and Frannie, and their cousin Rick, live in a cottage deep in the country, near the Enchanted Wood where the Faraway Tree grows. High in the tree live the children’s friends Silky the fairy, Moon-Face and Saucepan Man, and at the top there is always a new magical land to explore. First published in 1943, this famous adventure story has new, colourful illustrations by Mark Beech and large print for young readers. Age 5+

These ten fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, some familiar and others less well-known, are read by the finalists of the Naxos Audio Books/The Times Voice of the Year competition, with each story accompanied by classical music and sound effects.

Jenny Agutter reads this abridgement of Jane Austen’s ingenious tale of the five Bennet girls, single men in possession of good fortunes and misunderstandings all round.

Ten years before the phasing out of steam on British railways in 1968, BR’s fleet numbered over 16,000 locomotives; some were as much as 80 years old when decommissioned and some almost new. Thanks to the preservation movement, there are now operational examples of about 150 different classes, but a large number are extinct. This comprehensive illustrated reference book provides detailed information about these lost engines, representing almost 350 classes and over 10,000 machines.

The first part of this fully illustrated introduction to all aspects of drawing explains the materials and equipment required and explores a variety of techniques via guided exercises. Part two contains over 25 step-by-step projects commissioned from leading artists and a series of ‘quick sketch’ tutorials which demonstrate how to approach these subjects in less than 30 minutes.

Beginning with the Vindolanda tablets, written by occupying Romans around 90 CE, this treasury tells the story of Britain through 50 of its most important documents. As well as milestones in political and military history, such as Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech, the book covers the arts, literature, science and industry, with entries such as Stephenson’s steam-engine patent and Mary Quant’s miniskirt design. Accompanying the illustrated accounts of each document, the book includes ten facsimiles in ‘memorabilia’ envelopes. Slipcased.