New books

Here is a collection of knitting charts and patterns based on decorative tiles. Decorative tiles are a source of inspiration for designers and artists due to their often intricate patterns and colours. This collection of knitting patterns and charts includes 100 designs inspired by decorative cer...

At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, adventure, assumed identities and spying. Stories that tak...

When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history? 'Abroad in Japan' charts a decade of l...

Life in the Swamplands is tough for twelve-year-old orphan Adia. Her aunt and uncle believe she is an ogbanje, a demon-possessed child thought to bring misfortune. And when Adia manifests mysterious powers, accidentally destroying her village, she starts to think they might be right. Adia flees t...

For too long, Africa's history has been neglected. Dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, its past has been fragmented, overlooked and denied its rightful place in our global story. Now, Zeinab Badawi guides us through Africa's spectacular history, from the origins of humanit...

'After a Dance' is the compiled collection of short stories from acclaimed writer Bridget O'Connor, with an exclusive preface from the author's daughter, Constance Straughan.

Britain has become a nation of renters and landlords and building more housing is not the solution. In his radical new interpretation of the housing crisis lawyer Nick Bano proposes that it is rent not house prices that is at the core of the problem. Bano's radical diagnosis shows why the solutio...

The domestic cat - your cat - has, from its evolutionary origins in Africa, been transformed in comparatively little time into one of the most successful and diverse species on the planet. Jonathan Losos explores how researchers today are unravelling the secrets of the cat, past and present, usin...

Utilising the linguistic insights of 'Wordslut' and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet. 'Magical thinking' can be broadly defined ...

'Read It Yourself' is a series of modern stories, traditional tales and first reference books, written in a simple way for children who are learning to read.

When Orlando Whitfield first meets Inigo Philbrick, they are students dreaming of dealing art for a living. Their friendship lasts for fifteen years until one day, Inigo - by then the most successful dealer of his generation - disappears, accused of a fraud so gigantic and audacious it rocks the ...

Hay fever. Peanut allergies. Eczema. Billions of people worldwide have some form of allergy; millions have one severe enough to seriously endanger their health. And over the past decade, the number of people diagnosed with allergy has been steadily increasing, an ever-growing medical burden on in...

When four unconnected serial killers simultaneously commit identical murders across four different US cities, FBI Special Agent Shannon Wallace faces an unprecedented threat - a cooperative of killers working in unison. Each homicide is witnessed by a survivor, and now these lucky ones need to de...

While working at the Royal Horticultural Society, Fiona Davison discovered a cache of letters from a young gardener who was denied a scholarship by the RHS, on the grounds that she was female. Appalled and intrigued to find out what became of Olive, Fiona began to research the wider story of earl...

Olwen was plunged prematurely into adulthood when her parents died in tragic circumstances. She and her three younger sisters - each single, each with a PhD - are now in their thirties and leading disparate, distanced lives. Until one day Olwen, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the ...

When 11-year-old Alyssa is forced to spend the summer holiday with her mum's family, who she's never met before, her latent magical powers explode into life. Her great aunt runs a secret magic school in her spell garden where local kids can hone their power. The garden grows magical spell ingredi...

Discover over 100 extraordinary facts about the beautiful game from all around the world! Find out which football teams travelled to the first ever FIFA World Cup together. Discover the world record for the lowest altitude football match. Meet the king who named one of the world's most famous foo...

From one of America's most celebrated storytellers come three dark, interlocking tales about the residents of a rural New York town, and the shocking headlines that become their local mythologies.