The Goalkeeper’s History of Britain
The beguiling story of one boy’s dream to play in goal, that most British of positions, culminating in the moment when he faces the mighty Zico …
Social & cultural history
Bring Home the Revolution: The Case for a British Republic
On a switchback ride through the USA, riding pillion with America’s founding fathers, Jonathan Freedland searches out the qualities that made America the land at the end of his childhood rainbow, the place his grandfather and he conspired to run off to because of its open promise and unbounded potential.
Corgi and Bess: More Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor
Following the success of ‘You Look Awfully Like the Queen’, this is a second anthology of hilarious and touching royal anecdotes, collected by Thomas Blaikie.
The Speckled People: Large type edition
A deeply moving memoir about a young boy growing up in Dublin and his family’s homesickness for a country they can call their own.
Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era
Just as ‘The Last Party’ caught Britpop in the 90s, and ‘Easy Riders’ and ‘Raging Bull’ portrayed Hollywood in the 70s, so ‘Always Magic in the Air’ brilliantly captures the sweet, baby-boom music scene of New York in the 60s.
Stuart: A Life Backwards
‘Stuart does not like the manuscript. He’s after a bestseller, “like what Tom Clancy writes”. “But you are not an assassin trying to frazzle the president with anthrax bombs,” I point out. You are an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath, I do not add.’
Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire
Talented young historian Maya Jasanoff tells an alternative history of the British Empire, one that brings us the very personal stories of those British people who found themselves on the edges of Empire. Instead of a story of ‘conquest’, she brings us startling and fascinating stories of cross-cultural exchange.
Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde
‘As good as being in the gallery. Enthralling.’ Peter Ackroyd, The Times
The original transcript of the famous Wilde vs Queensberry trial, containing previously unseen details and exchanges. With extensive footnotes and a new introduction, this definitive account is a dramatic read that will delight Wilde enthusiasts and the general reader.
The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts
In a dazzlingly original work of nonfiction, the award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead re-creates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and the heartbreak of New York, composing a love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in – or spent time in – this great city.
The Speckled People
‘This is the most gripping book I’ve read in ages … It is beautifully written, fascinating, disturbing and often very funny.’ Roddy Doyle
Ready, Steady, Go!: Swinging London and the Invention of Cool
Shawn Levy, author of ‘Rat Pack Confidential’ brings alive London in the swinging Sixties with a gripping, groovy story of those who created the scene that changed the world.
A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby
The biography of Jane Digby, an ‘enthralling tale of a nineteenth-century beauty whose heart – and hormones – ruled her head.’ Harpers and Queen
Silvertown: An East End family memoir
Melanie McGrath’s critically acclaimed East End family memoir now in paperback.
The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World
‘Every Scot should read it. Scotland now has the lively, provocative and positive history it deserves.’ Irvine Welsh, Guardian
A dramatic and intriguing history of how Scotland produced the institutions, beliefs and human character that have made the West into the most powerful culture in the world.
Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital
The story of Netley in Southampton – its hospital, its people and the secret history of the 20th Century.
The Soul of Indiscretion: Tom Driberg, poet, philanderer, legislator and outlaw – His Life and Indiscretions
Francis Wheen’s brilliantly comic portrait of one of the 20th-century’s great characters, Tom Driberg: wit, parliamentarian, serial cottager, alleged communist spy and friend to the Kray brothers.