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Off-mint.

Not marked on any official map, new islands are emerging from the ocean, villages are disappearing beneath it, sea-forts declare independence and utopian communities are founded. This book explores 39 such extraordinary places. Here are the elusive Minkies in the English Channel, islands created in the South China Sea by a People’s Republic determined to expand its territory and influence, a ‘city without ground’, and the new Arctic being revealed as a result of global warming.

Bletchley Park may be famous for the exploits of Alan Turing and the team operating his first 'computer', but at the peak of its operations Station X employed as many as 12,000 people, two-thirds of whom were women. From language students to society debutantes and even a former ballerina, this book explores the extraordinary secret life of these women during the Second World War and the significant contribution they made to the Allied victory. Slightly off-mint.

‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends’... The redoubtable readers and letter-writers of the Daily Telegraph confront the era of Trump, Twitter and Brexit in this ninth compilation of wit, opinion and getting the facts right: from Forston in Dorset, a reader asks, ‘How can I distinguish fake reports about fake news from real reports about fake news? Slightly off-mint.

From the case of the killer worms to budgies with itchy beaks, Pete Wedderburn documents some of the most memorable mysteries from his many years in veterinary practice and as vet-in-residence answering readers’ questions at the Telegraph. Among his patients are a ginger cat with a bad cough, a Newfoundland who wouldn’t budge, and a parrot who refused to talk; and after each case of veterinary detection, there are owners’ questions and answers about similar problems.

Having mined the archives of readers’ letters ‘like a chaffinch in search of the juiciest worms’, Iain Hollingshead presents a hugely entertaining selection that illustrates the British love and respect for animals, whether tame or wild, mammal, bird or amphibian, and the occasional stick insect. Violent dislike is reserved for flying insects, and the Scottish midge in particular. Slightly off-mint.

Like his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle enjoyed applying his mind to unsolved crimes, and the murder in 1860 of wealthy widow Mary Emsley was one such case. This book tackles the problem afresh, picking apart the evidence against the man who was hanged for the crime and, unlike Conan Doyle, reaching a conclusion as to the identity of the real killer. Off-mint<./i>

Organized by seasons, this anthology mines the Telegraph’s archive to present over 100 years of food writing, from ‘Cooks Compared: French v. English’ in 1899 to profiles of today’s famous chefs. There are articles and recipes from cookery writers including Elizabeth David, Clement Freud and Bon Viveur (aka Fanny and Johnnie Cradock), occasional pieces by writers, such as Germaine Greer’s lament on the death of True Parsley, readers’ letters, and even a survey of biscuits for dunking.

At the end of the Second World War, many of the Bletchley Park codebreakers were moved on to the newly formed GCHQ to keep tabs on Britain's new foe, the Soviet Union. This book explores their work in the early period of the Cold War as Western and Eastern blocs were established and cryptanalysts attempted to uncover the secrets behind flashpoints such as the Berlin Blockade, the Cambridge spy ring and the revolution in China.

‘Sir, It has all been a terrible mistake. We thought we were voting to leave Eurovision.’ In a year dominated by the EU Referendum, the Telegraph’s letter-writers were in full spate – and not just on the momentous vote. Here, in sections such a ‘The Use and Abuse of Language’, ‘Box Gogglers’ and ‘Royal Blushes’ are readers’ opinions – frankly stated – on everything from family life to ‘Benito Trump’.

As Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the Queen is seen by many as a calm, reassuring presence in an era of restless change. But what of the institution she represents? This revelatory book takes a glimpse behind the scenes at the machinery that sustains the monarchy today: its constitutional role, its leadership of the Church of England, its finances. It also takes a clear-eyed view of its future, and the pressures that will face an heir to the throne. Slightly off-mint.

Famous for its record-breaking express service on the LNER in the 1920s and 1930s, then as a globe-trotting preserved locomotive after 1963, the Flying Scotsman is now a national icon. This history of the engine, from Nigel Gresley’s drawing board to the National Railway Museum in 2016, is illustrated with over 130 photographs and reproductions, from a rare shot of the newly constructed locomotive at the Doncaster shed in 1923, to a stunning picture of the train on an evening test run, 2016.

After the 1918 Armistice and until his death in 1928, Douglas Haig was hailed as a British national hero; by the mid 1930s, his reputation lay in ruins, with Lloyd George’s war memoirs in particular portraying him as an incompetent general. In this major biography, based on Haig’s writings, official documents and the writings of contemporaries, Professor Sheffield offers a more rounded portrait, and combines conventional biography with an examination of Haig’s role within the British Army of the First World War.

Modern digital technology has seen gadgets predicted by early science fiction – such as videophones – become reality, and a host of ideas proposed in more recent productions, such as the Star Trek series, offer intriguing possibilities for the future. From the Terminator to the Death Star, this book investigates some of the most celebrated concepts of recent science fiction and explores the potential technology behind them, revealing that some are closer to reality than we might think.

Through the centuries, army wives have had to contend with anxiety, separation, injury, bereavement, post-traumatic stress, and the struggle to maintain a normal home life in abnormal circumstances. Using interviews, letters and diaries, this remarkable history gives them a voice, sometimes for the first time. It traces their experiences from the Crimean War – the last in which wives followed their husbands to the front – to the new breed of independent women supporting their men through the war in Afghanistan.

Beginning with the dramatic events of 10 May 1940 and the beginning of the coalition government with Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, Roger Hermiston provides a meticulously researched account of the men and women of Churchill’s war ministry, among them Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, Anthony Eden, Lord Beaverbrook and Ellen Wilkinson: ‘the government that would win the war’.

Compiled by the Telegraph Travel team, this is their third collection of signs gone terribly, but often hilariously wrong. The photographs of misspelt, mistranslated or simply incomprehensible English signs, mostly on foreign soil, include the memorable ‘Good slag porridge’ in Beijing, an Indonesian shoe shop called ‘Athlete’s Foot’, and in London E1, the street sign for ‘Beaumont Sqaure’.

Stonehenge was built to observe sunset on Midwinter’s Day, not sunrise on Midsummer’s Day; and Galileo did not invent the telescope. These are just two of the surprising facts discussed in this unconventional history of astronomy. Focusing on the stories of breakthroughs that overturned accepted wisdom, two leading science communicators celebrate the important work of maverick scientists, enthusiastic amateurs and those unsung heroes and heroines who helped to promote the ideas and discoveries of others.

The Battle of Britain may have been won by 'the Few' but resistance to German aerial attack in the early part of the Second World War also relied on a well-organized network of support staff. Based on interviews with members of this formidable team, the book pays tribute to the men and women who enabled the Spitfires and Hurricanes to prevail, from radar engineers and coastal spotters to Wrens in the control rooms and pilots in the air.

Slightly off-mint.

Arranged alphabetically from Jonathan Aitken to Oscar Wilde, this entertaining selection of miscreants from the pages of the Telegraph since the 1850s covers the whole spectrum of scandal, including adultery, espionage, fraud, cheating at the Olympics and selling sex for luncheon vouchers. The book reprints articles on 78 high-profile cases and encompasses a great diversity of swindlers, low-lifes, sleazy politicians and spies, but also two kings, a duchess and a US president.

A vintage year for readers' letters, 2015 offered up Poldark on TV (an excess of chest hair), Fifty Shades of Grey, Nicola Sturgeon vs the English, a royal birth and, to cap it all, a general election starring Labour's pink bus and David Cameron with his shirt sleeves rolled up – but not much gets past a Telegraph reader: '... the fact he has no breast pocket shows that he is truly a toff.'

Bletchley Park may be famous for the exploits of Alan Turing and the team operating his first 'computer', but at the peak of its operations Station X employed as many as 12,000 people, two-thirds of whom were women. From language students to society debutantes and even a former ballerina, this book explores the extraordinary secret life of these women during the Second World War and the significant contribution they made to the Allied victory.

While books about prisoners-of-war usually focus on daring escapes, this one is about the men who not only survived incarceration, but turned the experience to their advantage. It describes how, as well as setting up universities to study subjects ranging from French and German to pig-farming, prisoners kept busy and stayed optimistic through performing as actors or musicians; playing sports; and becoming makeshift doctors, cooks, birdwatchers or gardeners.

The northern section of the Pennine Way runs from Cumbria, past Hadrian's Wall and across the Cheviots to the Scottish border. One of the most rewarding and challenging trails for the walker, the route is comprehensively explained in this guidebook, with Ordnance Survey maps, background information on history and wildlife, circular routes for shorter walks from the trail and details of public transport and accommodation.

In an illustrated guide to the Great Detective as both literary character and cultural phenomenon, Smith provides synopses of all four novels and 56 short stories (without giving away the endings), and profiles Arthur Conan Doyle and other figures – real and fictional – in the history of Holmes. The book includes interviews with actors who have portrayed Holmes and Watson on film, radio and television and chapters on themes including the stories' original illustrator, Sidney Paget, and the detective's literary lineage.

SN Pike's legendary hand-drawn route maps are a guide to Britain's major railways on the eve of nationalization, with notes on the view from the train as well as trackside data for railway enthusiasts. The original three routes covering the LNER, Southern Railway and LMSR are reproduced here; plus a new route, faithful to Pike's style, for the GWR, which was missing from the 1947 pamphlets. With new introductions to each of the 'Big Four' lines by Peter Herring.

Still evoked as proof of a nation's innate resilience and ability to come together in a crisis, the evacuation of more than 338,000 troops from Dunkirk by a ragtag fleet that included car ferries, lifeboats and pleasure cruisers seems as unlikely as it was miraculous. This book draws on the first-hand accounts of veterans, both soldiers and civilians, to recount how the army came to be stranded, how the unlikely extraction was achieved and how the subsequent myth was established.

The building of the railways made seaside holidays a possibility for workers in Britain's industrial cities and transformed a host of small coastal towns into glamorous entertainment centres. Using archive photographs and ephemera and the memories of people who worked and holidayed in places such as Margate, Scarborough and Blackpool, this nostalgic history recalls the culture of donkey rides, lidos and variety shows that was the pleasure of millions until air travel drew people away from the traditional resorts.

Using the same cartographic method as SN Pike in his legendary Mile by Mile on Britain's Railways, this book logs every mile on the historic Golden Arrow (Fleche d'Or) and modern Eurostar lines: gradients, stations, the sights to be seen from the train, the history along the route, and how both railways were built. The old and new lines are mapped on facing pages, interspersed with illustrated articles on topics such as the terminals, ferries and the Channel Tunnel.

Angus Konstam’s landmark study of the victory of Robert the Bruce over Edward II's army at Bannockburn in June 1314 shows how the battle was a turning point in history for the English as well as the Scots: a medieval clash of arms that helped define the political landscape of Britain and became, for many Scots, a patriotic talisman.

The story of the Redgrave family is a febrile mix of ambition, scandal, dazzling success and appalling unhappiness. For more than a century, the acting dynasty has dominated British theatre and film. Drawing on many interviews, this biography charts their private and professional lives, from the brilliant, troubled Michael Redgrave and his wife Rachel Kempson, through their children Lynn, Vanessa and Corin, to the triumphs and tragedies of the latest generation.

During the course of the Second World War, the Entertainments National Services Association put on countless productions for the troops across the world, offering everything from music hall turns to Laurence Olivier. The enormous number of shows meant that the talent was spread thinly and performances were often delivered in difficult circumstances and inhospitable climes. Drawing on interviews with surviving ENSA performers, this book tells the colourful story of this most unusual and complex theatrical enterprise.

The 1951 Festival of Britain brought a breath of excitement and optimism to the drab post-war years of rationing and austerity. This book explores the intentions of its creators, charts the effect of its satellite festivals all over Britain, and records how it transformed London's South Bank with buildings such as the Royal Festival Hall and the futuristic Skylon, spawned the Miss World contest, introduced Britons to Scandinavian design ... and offered them their first experience of soft lavatory paper.