Patti Smith
Patti Smith was a poet, a punk prophet, a feminist icon, a living work of art and the first woman rock-outsider to come from the New York underground and become a star.
Fourth Estate
The Illustrated Longitude
Longitude, Dava Sobel’s no.1 bestseller, is the elegant biography of the lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his times.
Morecambe and Wise
Everybody used to watch The Morecambe and Wise Show. When the masses settled down to watch Eric and Ernie, the masses were, for once, massively entertained. Morecambe and Wise is the essential biography of a much-loved comedy duo and the history of one of British television’s best-loved shows from the acclaimed author of Cary Grant: A Class Apart.
Rocket Boys
Three years in the life of Homer ‘Sonny’ Hickam, from the moment he sees the Sputnik satellite overhead in West Virginia to his successful launch of a prizewinning rocket.
Maria Callas: Sacred Monster
The definitive biography of one of the greatest performers of the century by one of her closest friends. Highly illustrated with many previously unseen photographs.
New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Ways the Network Economy is Changing Everything
The old rules are broken: this is the survival kit for the new economy. Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, offers 10 fundamental principles of the connected economy. The traditional wisdom of the industrial age is inverted, leading to surprising wisdom: Seek plentitude, not scarcity. Feed the web first. Let go at the top. Avoid efficiency.
Harvey Nichols, The Fifth Floor Cookbook
A sumptuous collection of imaginative and accessible recipes from Henry Harris, chef at the Fifth Floor restaurant in Harvey Nichols – one of London’s most stylish restaurants.
Cops and Other Robbers
Very strong and gripping hard-boiled police procedural crime novel in the Lynda la Plante vein about the hunt for a paedophile and killer of young girls whose victims are seen getting into a car driven by a policeman.
Rat Pack Confidential
First biography of The Rat Pack – Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop et al – the original Swingers. Brilliant and beautifully written story of their rise and fall, and their connections with the Kennedys and the Mafia, which will appeal to fans of Swingers!, Goodfellas and Nick Tosches’ Dino.
Paul Heathcote’s Rhubarb and Black Pudding
Not another chef’s book but a book about English food and English cooking and an English chef.
The Giant, O’Brien
From the author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light, comes the true story of the 18th Century Irish giant, Charles O’Brien, who was exhibited in London and eventually dissected by the surgeon John Hunter.
Kitty and Virgil
A love story set in Romania and England by the author of the Booker short-listed bestseller, Gabriel’s Lament. Paul Bailey’s most ambitious novel yet.
Zeros and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture
A highly contentious, very readable and totally up-to-the-minute investigation of women’s natural relationship with modern technology, an association which, Plant argues, will trigger a new sexual revolution.
The Calendar: The 5000 Year Struggle To Align The Clock and the Heavens, and What Happened To The Missing Ten Days
The 5,000-year struggle to align the heavens with the clock and what happened to the missing ten days.
Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework
A witty, erudite and very refreshing look at women’s obsession with cleaning and cleanliness and the history of housework.
Habitus
An epic novel of immense scope and achievement, entwining twentieth-century technology and science into the bizarrely linked lives of three characters and a space-dog in search of identity and meaning in a cacophanous universe.