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Although predicted by Einstein’s general relativity, it was not until 2015 that gravitational waves – ripples in space and time – were first detected. This accessible introduction to their discovery explains how the technology required to record movements 100 times smaller than the nucleus of an atom was developed, and how, with their ability to travel through barriers that stop light, the waves offer a new way to investigate the universe.

After the Second World War, the ‘iron curtain’ divided Germany, leaving the British, American and French sectors of the devastated capital stranded in the Soviet-controlled East. Only three air corridors remained open, and between June 1948 and September 1949, Allied air forces defied the blockade, delivering food and fuel by plane. Barry Turner gives a full account of the crisis developing between East and West, the events leading up to June 1948, and the heroic Airlift that saved a besieged city.

Using examples from a vast range of writings, Mark Forsyth presents an amusing and wonderfully erudite guide to the ‘formulas, flowers and figures’ of rhetoric. For each of 39 figures, he explains some that are well-known - hyperbole, paradox, rhetorical questions – and other, less familiar strategies that work their magic behind the scenes, such as diacope in the immortal phrase ‘Bond. James Bond.’

The world’s grandest hotels offer luxury, service and splendour, and each has its own story of love affairs conducted and revolutions fomented beneath its roof. Arranged geographically, this book visits 50 of the greatest, including New York’s Algonquin, where Dorothy Parker held court; the Dorchester in London, favoured by Hitchcock and Hemingway; and the Imperial in Delhi, where the details of India’s independence were negotiated. Slightly off-mint.

Herne Hill Velodrome has been at the centre of British cycling since it was built in the 1890s. Although in decline from the 1960s it was at the heart of the new boom in the sport from the 1990s. This history of the venue recalls its many important competitions and the great riders who were regulars at the track, from Tommy Simpson to Bradley Wiggins.

This third part of Rolls-Royce’s company history picks up the story in 1987 when privatization began a new era for the firm. Both the aeronautical and car businesses struggled in the 1990s, after the recession, and the rights to make Rolls-Royce cars were subsequently sold, but the introduction of the Trent family of turbofan engines restored the company’s fortunes in the aero engine market. Off-mint.

The midget submarines that were famously used to attack the battleship Tirpitz in 1943 were developed further and the improved 'XE-class' craft were used in a daring attack on Singapore harbour in 1945. This history recounts how 18 British, Australian and New Zealand submariners, two of whom were awarded the Victoria Cross and several others decorated, piloted two XE craft through the Japanese defences to successfully incapacitate the heavy cruiser Takao.

While he commanded the German submarine fleet, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz earned Allied respect as a military leader and formidable enemy, but after he succeeded Hitler as head of the Third Reich, his name became more closely associated with Nazi ideology. Turner's study looks in depth at the Admiral's character and conduct, particularly his Operation Hannibal, which rescued two million civilians and troops from the Russian advance; his negotiations for ending the war; and his actions in its aftermath.

As he challenges the persistent myth that the Middle Ages brought little scientific progress, Hannam shows that the Church did not hold back ‘natural philosophy’, and that even astrology and alchemy were important in the development of modern science. He discusses the period’s sophisticated technological achievements, which include lenses, mechanical clocks and the blast furnace, and highlights the debts owed by Copernicus and Galileo to their medieval forebears’ pioneering ideas. Off-mint.

In 1915 Albert Einstein produced his masterwork, the ‘General Theory of Relativity’, which describes the evolution of the Universe, black holes, the behaviour of orbiting neutron stars, and why clocks run slower on the Earth than in space. Here, Gribbin explains the basics of the General Theory and places its genesis in the context of Einstein’s life and work.

This personal selection of great ecclesiastical architecture features buildings in 27 countries. Chosen both for decorative interest and for the stories behind them, the structures range from Ethiopian rock-hewn churches to Rio de Janeiro’s colossal concrete cathedral.

By building and populating a virtual universe, Clegg demonstrates that reality is not a system of immovable absolutes; instead, the ever-shifting world of relativity is what provides the frame of reference that allows us to understand both the universe and humanity’s place within it.

John Henry discusses how the 16th-century astronomer Copernicus not only disproved the ‘common-sense’ view that the Earth was stationary but also showed what mathematics can reveal about the material world, setting in motion the development of a completely new physics.

This survey of the ancient Greek scientific tradition introduces pioneering figures, including Archimedes, Aristotle and the Hippocratic doctors, and explains the theories with which they developed a rational attitude to the natural world.

The fast-moving 20th century brought extraordinary medical and technological advances as well as some of humanity’s darkest hours. These 50 snapshots encapsulate the century through defining moments from the Boxer Rebellion to the exponential growth of the World Wide Web.

This introduction to political theory surveys the various forms of rule by the few and by the many, including key elements of democracy and different schools of communism, together with concepts in the fields of political economy and international relations.

From life’s origins to humanity’s future, this overview of evolution covers such topics as the geological record of early organisms, the processes by which natural selection created millions of species, and the development of our modern understanding of genetics.

For anyone wanting the quick answer to ‘what is free market capitalism?’ or a brief profile of David Ricardo, this illustrated crash course brings together the 50 most thought-provoking economic theories and theorists and explains each of them in half a minute.

Questions about Dracula’s blood temperature, risk-taking behaviour, sexuality, social status and wealth are among the many issues raised in this sharp-witted dissection of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.

James Clerk Maxwell’s famously challenging thought experiment in which a Demon controls a door between hot and cold gases, suggests that the second law of thermodynamics can be broken. In this very accessible biography, the Demon as a narrator helps Brian Clegg argue that Maxwell’s work in fields such as electricity and magnetism not only laid the groundwork for much modern physics, but put him on a par with Newton and Einstein.

In 1968 the singer Serge Gainsbourg, devastated by his break-up with Brigitte Bardot, met Londoner Jane Birkin, who would revive his career and his personal life. Following the author’s itinerary as she zigzags across France from Deauville to St Tropez to interview their friends and associates – and in Paris, Jane herself – this book explores the charismatic couple’s 10-year romantic and creative partnership.

Adolf Hitler had a wide array of British sympathisers, some of whom were abusing their positions of power while plotting a fascist coup. This study of the treachery and spying of fifth columnists relies on recently opened MI5 files to show how the establishment often ignored the activities of aristocrats such as the Duke of Buccleuch or the traitorous pilot who worked at the Air Ministry throughout the war, while pursuing humbler members of society using false-flag and spycatcher operations.

Starting with a chapter on the background to the composition of Frankenstein (1818), John Sutherland explores the conundrums and ‘narrative obstacles’ in the novel, posing questions such as ‘Who makes the Creature’s trousers?’ and ‘Why go to the North Pole to commit suicide?’

Roxelana, the 16th-century slave girl who became an Ottoman queen, is depicted as a woman who dealt with her situation with great common sense, ingenuity and ambition in this detailed social history. As Hurrem Sultan, consort and wife to Suleiman the Magnificent, she had to navigate the complexities of the harem, court life, and domestic and international rivalries, strengthening the role of women in Ottoman society in the process.

This investigative history of Reagan, Gorbachev and the Cold War’s final decade draws on many previously unpublished sources, including classified Kremlin documents and interviews with political leaders, scientists, military officials and diplomats. As well as cataloguing the Russian automatic nuclear-control system called the ‘Dead Hand’, the book shows how the regime persisted in their paranoid belief that the US was planning a first strike strategy.

Throughout history, human society has been threatened by earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. This chronological survey of natural disasters, from Pompeii to Fukushima, examines their causes, effects and how people have responded to them. It demonstrates their global consequences – a volcanic eruption in Iceland, for example, caused a famine that may have ignited the French Revolution – and contemplates how they might be dealt with in future.

The world’s grandest hotels offer luxury, service and splendour, and each has its own story of love affairs conducted and revolutions fomented beneath its roof. Arranged geographically, this book visits 50 of the greatest, including New York’s Algonquin, where Dorothy Parker held court; the Dorchester in London, favoured by Hitchcock and Hemingway; and the Imperial in Delhi, where the details of India’s independence were negotiated.

Brian Clegg’s quiz book-cum-science compendium explores surprising facts about physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, technology and the history of science. Each of the 100 questions is accompanied by related facts and anecdotes and, on the following page, a fully explained answer.

The author and activist Harry Leslie Smith recalls how, as an RAF serviceman stationed in Hamburg, he met the love of his life, a young German woman named Frieda. In a city reduced to rubble by Allied bombing, and populated with refugees, black-marketeers, corrupt businessmen and cynical soldiers, their relationship flourished, despite suspicion and disapproval on both sides. Slightly off-mint.

The letters folded inside Christmas cards can say more about the writers than they would like, revealing the lives they want rather than those they have. The correspondents satirized here include the teen blogger and the hypochondriac, the newlyweds married in a field of cows and the ex-MP completely lacking in self-awareness. ‘Any similarity to persons living or dead is entirely to be expected.’ Slightly off-mint.

During the 20th century it became clear that our traditional understanding of cosmology was too simplistic, since there must be not only some invisible material holding together galaxies but also an unknown phenomenon that is driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. Brian Clegg describes how the existence of this ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ was discovered and explains the different theories and experiments that researchers have been employing as they seek knowledge about this challenging aspect of modern science.

By building and populating a virtual universe Clegg demonstrates that reality is not a system of immovable absolutes; instead, the ever-shifting world of relativity is what provides the frame of reference that allows us to understand both the universe and humanity’s place within it.

The strongest substance ever discovered, a better conductor than any metal and able to act as a molecular sieve to purify water, graphene is set to revolutionize technology. This guide explores the properties and potential uses of this remarkable new material.

This golfing history explores the early game and the first courses built in Britain and America, before examining the careers and courses of four of the most celebrated architects from the 1920s and 1930s. Their designs include many of the best in Britain as well as famous tournament venues such as Augusta National, Sunningdale and Cypress Point, each of which is profiled and illustrated with archive and contemporary photographs.

Against the backdrop of the blitzkrieg on Poland and the disastrous Norway campaign, Britain waited tensely for an invasion that never came. Drawing on unpublished letters, this narrative history presents the stories of ordinary people as the lights went out, theatres closed, food and petrol were rationed and thousands of women and children were evacuated. While the hard-hitting measures caused morale to plunge, there was still humour to be found in the absurdities of the ‘Phoney War’.

An outline of the major events of 1926–1930 – the return to the Gold Standard and the General Strike – introduces profiles of seven notable figures: Virginia Woolf, Radclyffe Hall, John Logie Baird, the car manufacturer William Morris, Ramsay MacDonald, Noël Coward and W Somerset Maugham.

Along with a sketch of the social and economic background and a timeline of events, this volume profiles the lives and achievements of Robert Baden-Powell, the fraudster Horatio Bottomley, Marie Stopes, David Lloyd George, Lord Reith and Bertrand Russell.

How did France’s youngest-ever president assemble the network, team and finances to sweep to electoral victory in just twelve months? Based on previously unpublished interviews with Emmanuel Macron’s friends, mentors, opponents, and key members of his team, this first-ever biography in English charts his meteoric rise. It outlines his political vision, examines his support-base, analyses his strengths and weaknesses, and asks what his presidency means for Britain and the EU.

In 18th-century scientific circles, astronomer Caroline Herschel often played second fiddle to her illustrious brother William, yet as this thoughtful biography reveals, her dogged enthusiasm led to discoveries which more than secured her place in the annals of science. Icon Science series.

Anomalies in the storylines of over 30 mainly 19th-century literary classics, including Vanity Fair, Wuthering Heights and The Pickwick Papers, are pulled apart and mostly resolved in this second collection of literary whodunnits.

In the 1880s Suzanne Valadon was a model for Auguste Renoir and other Impressionists. She was also a painter of considerable talent – a fact that she initially kept secret. Born in poverty in rural France, she was acclaimed by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, and became the first female painter exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. This illustrated biography traces the life and career of an exceptional woman whose art spanned many styles and who made her mark in a male-dominated world.

Napoleon Bonaparte was not the first exile to end his days on St Helena. In the 16th century, the Portuguese conquistador Fernão Lopes set out to invade India, only to defect to the Muslim side and fight his own countrymen. This compelling biography tells the long-forgotten story of how he was captured and tortured before jumping ship en route to his homeland to live as a hermit on the uninhabited island for 30 years.

This unconventional biography of Michael Faraday, among whose numerous inventions was the electric motor, explores episodes in his career, including his discovery of electromagnetic induction, in order to understand why he flourished in a complex and hierarchical Victorian scientific community.

John Henry assesses Francis Bacon’s ineluctable influence on the methodology, content and organization of science both in his own time and now, revealing how Bacon’s fascination with bureaucracy, magic and religion inspired his best-known works, including The New Organon.

Looking at the social and political context of Austen’s work, this analysis shows how she was able to use her stories to comment on serious contemporary subjects, such as feminism, slavery, the treatment of the poor and the power of the Church.

John Sutherland explores the hors texte, or life that goes on in the opaque world behind the characters and events in over 30 classic novels, including Bleak House, Middlemarch and Frankenstein.

During the late seventies a series of security breaches within the US Embassy in Moscow led not only to several CIA agents being expelled from Russia, but to the execution of their Russian-born ‘assets’. This story of how the embassy was compromised follows several CIA and National Security Agency officers in their investigations into innovative Soviet tradecraft, uncovering advanced surveillance technology, moles, ‘walk-ins’ and microwave attacks.

The internet has become a market for data, amassing behavioural and factual information about its users. In the face of online and ‘real-life’ threats, investigative journalist Yasha Levine traces the origins of the internet as a method to control insurgents in the Vietnam War; follows the case of Edward Snowden, who leaked National Security Agency information about America’s global surveillance apparatus; and traces the covert links between tech giants such as Google and Facebook and intelligence agencies.

Tom Rodwell, Chairman of the Lord's Taverners, spent six years running charity cricket tours to help disadvantaged young people in some of the world's poorest districts. This book recounts his amusing adventures, from playing in cricket-mad cultures in Sri Lanka and Jamaica to unlikely locations such as Cuba and Israel.

Andrew Nahum considers the invention of the jet engine, from Frank Whittle’s first drawings of a gas turbine and his troubled attempts at jet manufacture during the war, through to the post-war development of the first commercial jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet. Nahum also re-examines Whittle’s relationship with government agencies: far from struggling against unsupportive officialdom, the charismatic inventor benefited from a creative collaboration with the state and British industry.

Pioneers including Planck, Rutherford and Feynman have explored the mysteries of the atom for over a century. What they found, and what this absorbing history of the atom demonstrates, is that many of its secrets still refuse to be unlocked.

‘Britain is in the grip of an alien invasion’ was how the national press responded to Japanese Knotweed, while some people eat it like spinach and researchers describe Knotweed hysteria as ‘absurd’. Here, the award-winning environmental journalist Fred Pearce offers compelling evidence to dispel exaggerated fears surrounding ‘footloose species’ of flora and fauna, explores the new scientific thinking about foreign versus native species, and considers how the aliens might be ‘exactly the shot in the arm that real nature needs’.

Patricia Fara follows the evangelists of the new science of electricity, including Benjamin Franklin and Luigi Galvani, and the ideas their demonstrations sparked in the popular culture of the 18th century.

Why do the creation stories in Genesis contradict each other? Did the Exodus really happen? In a discussion which ‘neither requires, nor rejects, belief’, Loveday brings a literary critic’s eye to the Biblical authors. Presenting insights from modern scholarship, he shows how to read their texts ‘with our brains in gear’, by viewing the Bible as a structure of the imagination rather than through modern concepts of ‘history’ and ‘truth’.

Actress Charlotte Rampling’s early life included schooling and holidays in France and much time spent with her sister, Sarah, who committed suicide in 1967. The truth about the tragedy was initially kept from Charlotte and she then shared the secret with her father until her mother’s death. This short memoir is written in elegiac, fragmentary and sometimes poetic style and includes photographs from the family archive.

The 'Warburg Wire Job' was an audacious escape plan by 40 British, Australian, New Zealand and South African POWs from Oflag VI-B in Warburg, Germany. With the camp lights fused, the prisoners laid scaling ladders constructed from bed boards over the high perimeter fence and 28 made it across. Mark Felton's history tells the story of the planning and execution of the breakout and the stories of the escapees' attempts to evade recapture and return home.

The 'Warburg Wire Job' was an audacious escape plan by 40 British, Australian, New Zealand and South African POWs from Oflag VI-B in Warburg, Germany. With the camp lights fused, the prisoners laid scaling ladders constructed from bed boards over the high perimeter fence and 28 made it across. Mark Felton's history tells the story of the planning and execution of the breakout and the stories of the escapees' attempts to evade recapture and return home.

The 'Warburg Wire Job' was an audacious escape plan by 40 British, Australian, New Zealand and South African POWs from Oflag VI-B in Warburg, Germany. With the camp lights fused, the prisoners laid scaling ladders constructed from bed boards over the high perimeter fence and 28 made it across. Mark Felton's history tells the story of the planning and execution of the breakout and the stories of the escapees' attempts to evade recapture and return home.

The two great theories of modern physics – the general theory of relativity and quantum theory – were developed independently, yet they agree precisely. But how might these theories of the very large and very small be unified in a 'Theory of Everything'? John Gribbin describes the quest for the Holy Grail of physics, from the 'prehistory' of cosmology and astrophysics in the 19th century to the latest estimate of the age of the universe (13.8 billion years), released in 2015.

Nicholas Whittaker's much-loved classic recollects the long, sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in duffel bag, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel. In this updated edition, Whittaker casts a sceptical eye over recent developments and considers the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatization have wrought upon his beloved pastime.

It is arguable that Georgy Zhukov was the greatest of the Allied generals of the Second World War, surpassing Eisenhower, Montgomery or Patton in military effectiveness. Unlike his rival Red Army generals he was prepared to stand up to Stalin when necessary and although charming in his private life, was a brutal and decisive commander. This is the first major biography of the Soviet hero, drawing on newly available sources in the Russian archives and previously unpublished excerpts from Zhukov's own memoirs. Slightly off-mint.

The midget submarines that were famously used to attack the battleship Tirpitz in 1943 were developed further and the improved 'XE-class' craft were used in a daring attack on Singapore harbour in 1945. This history recounts how 18 British, Australian and New Zealand submariners, two of whom were awarded the Victoria Cross and several others decorated, piloted two XE craft through the Japanese defences to successfully incapacitate the heavy cruiser Takao.

Part of the Postmodern encounters series. An overview of the work of psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan (1901- 1981) who was a key figure in contesting the idea that biological origins. 6”x4”

Some dates, such as the Ides of March, are especially well remembered as the occasion of world-changing events, but this book demonstrates that every day of the year is the anniversary of at least one notable incident - from the birth of Mata Hari (March 13th) and the death of Leonardo da Vinci (May 2nd) to the abdication of the last Roman emperor (September 4th) and the opening of the Suez Canal (November 17th). Off-mint.

How would you reduce crime through architecture? Why is there salt in the sea? Is feminism dead? Probably the stuff of nightmare if you are an Oxbridge candidate, but compulsive reading when your career doesn't depend on coming up with an answer, these are the questions asked at interviews for Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Ranging across disciplines from literature to physics, Farndon discusses 60 conundrums designed to separate the merely bright from the truly clever.

Travelling across London by canal boat, from Walthamstow Marsh to the suburbs of Uxbridge, Helen Babbs witnessed abundant wildlife, and the impact of seasonal changes and developers on the city’s landscapes. In this blend of nature writing, social observation and memoir she recalls the practical challenges of her year-long journey, as well as the unusual perspective it offered her, to create a unique portrait of the capital’s history, politics and people.