Year: 2025

Take a Journey Through Festivity in Fiesta by Daniel Stables

Fiesta: A Journey Through Festivity by Daniel Stables Sneak Peek

‘Daniel has the rare ability to seamlessly take fascinating anthropological and psychological perspectives and weave them into exciting travel narratives. A unique insight into the human condition through the lens of gatherings of all description – thought-provoking and inspiring.’

Levison Wood, author of Walking the Nile

 

In his engaging and reflective travel memoir, Daniel Stables turns his inquisitive eye on some of the world’s most eye-catching festivals to examine the human need for ritual and connection. Fiesta dives headfirst into the extraordinary lengths we go to in expressing our cultures; Daniel watched Taoists of Phuket mutilate their faces with skewers and knives, waded through pig blood at an animist funeral in the highlands of Sulawesi, and met the Dark Lord of the Underworld in a Lancashire garden shed.

Festivals themselves vary wildly, but the majority centre themselves on collective acts of ritual transcendence; the thing that they all share, which distinguishes them from other forms of ritual, is their communal nature. Discover how festivals help us forgo our individual identities for a stronger sense of kinship with something greater than ourselves: history, nation, nature, society at large, or something divine.

Shed light on these binding experiences with the extract below.

 

Everybody grieves privately in their own way, but communal mourning rituals – funerary festivals – represent their own vibrant spectrum in cultures across the world. Often, grief is dealt with through cultural customs which can seem incomprehensible to outsiders.

The Ilongot people of Luzon, Philippines, for example, were documented by the anthropologist Renato Rosaldo in 1993 as reacting to grief by embarking on a spree of decapitating rival villagers. While this may be taking venting to rather extreme lengths, Rosaldo’s work with the Ilongot highlights an important facet of grief: that it is often characterised as much by rage as by sadness.

The Igbo people of Nigeria, meanwhile, engage in highly dramatised funeral rites known as ikwa ozu – literally, ‘celebrating the dead’. Huge amounts of alcohol are consumed over several days, and a mock trial is held to determine who, if anybody, was responsible for the

death. On the death of a married man, the widow is expected to engage in a series of strange and seemingly demeaning rituals: to drink the water that was used to wash her husband’s corpse, to shave her head and sleep outdoors without a blanket for over a month, to fast for long periods, and, when she eats, only to do so with her unwashed left hand.

These are all mourning rituals – the collective cultural enactment of individual grief. The distinction between grieving and mourning is significant but subtle. Grief is a person’s internal, emotional response to loss. Mourning is the outward expression of that grief. Despite the maximalist examples I have listed above, mourning rituals are often simple gestures: they’re as likely to include a widow dressing in black or a family holding a quiet memorial service as they are to entail a whole community gathering to sacrifice hundreds of pigs and buffalo.

On first sight, the joyful aspect of the Torajan funeral-festival made me wonder if the Torajans had cracked some secret code, using festivity to overcome the sadness of grief. But it would be wrong to say that Torajans do not grieve or feel sadness when a loved one dies. The anthropologist Roxana Waterson, who has spent decades studying the Toraja, recounts in one of her papers a story of a recent widower holding his wife’s corpse, weeping all night long, and asking her permission to remarry.

‘Of course, at first when someone dies, the family may cry, because they’re not able to endure the feeling of loss,’ Paulus told me. ‘But we are very aware that we will all die, too. We believe that if the family cries too much, it makes it harder for the soul of the dead to travel to the hereafter.’

Waterson describes the Toraja as consciously recognising that the ritual aspects of their funerary ceremonies serve as a kind of replacement for their emotional sadness – a box in which to place their grief, which is dealt with once the animals are sacrificed. ‘The sacrificing of buffaloes at funerals is described as sonda pa’ di’ ki’, “taking the place of our pain (or sorrow)”,’ she writes. ‘I was once asked whether people in my country felt no grief at a death, since they neglected to kill any buffaloes?

Taking the place of sorrow. Whether through repression, replacement, distraction or delusion, funerary rituals are a way of dealing with something universally upsetting,

confusing, and, most of all, mysterious. Nobody knows what happens to us when we die, even if they think they do. The vast majority of people experience at least a small measure of doubt around this issue, whether their cultural context allows them to admit to it or not – see the atheist’s panicked deathbed conversion, and the fear of death exhibited by even the most devout believer in the afterlife. But that doesn’t mean that some cultures haven’t divined better coping methods than others. ‘It is a central paradox of any elaborate funeral that so much effort and activity on the part of the living should be expended ostensibly for the departed,’ Waterson writes. Why do we do it? Because funerals are not for the dead; they are for the living left behind.

Torajans view death not as a sudden full stop, but rather as a gradual process which is only just beginning at the moment that the heart stops and brain activity is extinguished. The purpose, ostensibly, of their extravagant funerary rites is to ensure that the spirit of the deceased makes the successful journey from ancestor spirit to mendeata, a deity-like being believed by the Torajans to bestow good harvests. This point is central to understanding Torajan mortuary rites: they are not only framed as being for the spiritual benefit of the dead themselves, but are perceived as serving a material purpose for the living world which they have departed.

 

Bookshop.org – order your copy

Waterstones

Fiesta: A Journey Through Festivity publishes 14th August 2025.

Face to Face by Nick Dawson: Sneak Peek

Face to Face: Finding Justice for My Murdered Twin Brother by Nick Dawson Sneak Peek

 

‘Face to Face is a brave endeavour to answer our culture of dehumanization with a story that ultimately rehumanizes at every level. Essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the power and impact of restorative justice.’

Marina Cantacuzino, author of Forgiveness: An Exploration and founder of The Forgiveness Project

 

When his identical twin brother Simon was kicked to death, all Nick Dawson felt for the killers was hatred.

Struggling in a world where his mirror image had vanished, he came to realise there was only one way to stop the torture – acceptance. Travelling to the absolute limits of personal darkness, Nick came face to face with one of his brother’s killers.

Now a champion of restorative justice, Nick heads behind bars, asking hardened criminals to change, to think of their victims, to make amends.

In Face to Face he takes us with him on a journey into this hidden and unpredictable world.

Better understand the devastating impact of sibling loss and the reality of restorative justice with the extract below from the prologue of Nick and Simon’s story.

 

For a long time, I thought this story had only one end. My twin brother gone, and me left wandering a desert of sorrow, anger and despair.

Simon was my identical twin. We looked the same, sounded the same, moved the same. When we looked in a mirror, I looked at him and he looked at me. And then one day the mirror shattered. Simon was murdered. He was beaten, robbed and thrown in a pond to drown. The reflection in the mirror was gone. Instead all I saw was brutality and ugliness.

When the world turns grey, colour becomes impossible to imagine, as if it never existed. Over time, as you rebuild, a few faint pastel shades start to appear, and then something a little more vivid. The palette slowly returns. Eventually, you can paint a picture. Actually, two pictures. One of what you lost, and one of what you have now. And that is what I am doing here, honestly, accurately and with Simon at their centre. In both these paintings Simon is alive. That’s how he feels to me, and, by telling you about him here, that’s how I want him to feel to you. I refuse to portray my beautiful twin brother in charcoal shades when to everyone he met he was, and is, a rainbow.

I’ll be honest. There have been times when my view of that rainbow has been obscured. That’s what happens when you look at life through a cloud of hatred and rage. It took me a while to understand that to find something resembling inner peace I might need to open my mind to a different way of thinking. That realisation came in the most unlikely of settings. I wasn’t on a psychiatrist’s sofa, or meditating in a mountain hideaway; I was in a prison sitting opposite Craig, one of Simon’s murderers.

From the exact moment of Simon’s death, Craig and I had both been travelling our own very different paths. Initially, they had diverged wildly. I was a lone twin. He was a killer. But we did have one thing in common. We were both serving life sentences. And it was that which would eventually create a desire in us both for our paths to cross.

Restorative justice, the idea that both the perpetrator of a crime and a victim can benefit from meeting one another, was the medium that would bring us together. It was a remarkable transformation. For many years, the only reason I wanted to be near to Craig was to kill him. Now we were sitting a matter of a few feet from one another, talking. Together, we unpacked the horrific events that led to Simon’s death. I revealed the long-lasting and catastrophic effects of the murder. He talked about his own life and how, on release, he hoped, in some small way, to

try to make amends. If you think this was a moment of great personal liberation for me, celebration even, you’d be wrong. It could never have been that. The meeting was incredibly hard. There were times when I believed myself to be incredibly disloyal. I felt Simon looking down from above, wondering how I could possibly talk to his murderer. But at the same time, I knew Craig was no longer the evil monster I remembered from court sixteen years previously. A second chance wasn’t undeserved.

Since that time, as an advocate of restorative justice, I have spent many hours in UK prisons. I have met hundreds of criminals, many of them violent, despicably so. I have looked them in the eye and told them my story – Simon’s story – in the hope that they, too, will understand the impact of their crimes. Hopefully, they will go on to live a different kind of life. Perhaps even consider restorative justice themselves. More recently I have even become a prison visitor, a voluntary role ensuring that the conditions inmates live in are decent and that they receive the help they need. I totally understand how this appears to run completely counter to my experience. As someone who lost his twin to the most awful of crimes, why would I ever want to help those who so disrespect civilised society? But if we don’t step onto the other side of the tracks, how can we ever hope to understand those who dwell there? How can we help them not to make the same mistakes again and again? How can we stop other people hurting like I am? Prisoners are, like it or not, human beings like the rest of us.

There is, though, one thing I’d like to make clear. Forgiveness is a line I have yet fully to cross. Where Simon was once my companion, now I have emptiness. And I am far from alone. My family have all suffered intensely down the years, not only through the pain of loss, but through breakdown and mental illness. For all of us, demons lurk around every corner.

It doesn’t stop there. In the course of writing this book, I vowed to explore just how far the ripples of Simon’s murder extend. To hear the stories of Simon’s friends, their lives turned upside down, their guilt, their disintegration, has been as upsetting as it’s been illuminating. Those ripples will, sadly, continue for many decades, potentially on through the generations –something I have seen with my own children. More positively, meeting so many incredible people who knew and loved Simon has also filled me up, in a way that for so long seemed unimaginable. While sometimes difficult to hear, their words have allowed me to better understand the person he was when he died. Lack of information is a torture for those who lose loved ones in tragic situations. Death is a jigsaw thrown on the floor. I thank them sincerely for helping me rebuild my brother’s life. I needed to touch him, feel him, capture the memories before it’s too late.

Whatever the circumstances of someone’s passing, it’s incumbent on those left behind to ensure they’re remembered. In the weeks following Simon’s death, I found a letter I wrote to Mum and Dad. Looking at it now reminds me why I have written this book. ‘Maintaining Simon’s memory is the most important thing,’ I tell them. And it’s true.

There was something else I wanted my parents to know – ‘Simon’s heart and soul lives on in me.’ As Simon’s identical twin, I’ve always felt I speak for him. His voice was taken away in such a cruel and heartless way. This book is a way not just for me, but for Simon to tell his story. For Simon to be heard. For Simon to be at peace.

 Simon is dead. He was murdered by two attackers in the early hours of 29 August 1998. But he lives on in me. And now he lives on in this book.

Face to face again. At last.

Bookshop.org – Order your copy

Face to Face: Finding Justice For my Murdered Twin Brother by Nick Dawson is out now.

WHAT’S PUBLISHING THIS SUMMER AT ICON BOOKS

 

The long-awaited summer is here at last with that tell-tale June weather. Whether you’re a jet-setter or a home bird, make this summer the one where you lose yourself in a different world or learn about a fascinating topic with your latest gripping non-fiction read. This summer, we’re bringing the perfect companions to hectic holidays and lazy lie-ins with our new titles and upcoming paperbacks.

With everything from quirky travelogues to unknown histories, make sure you follow the links of the titles that spark your curiosity and follow us on X and Instagram @iconbooks to share what you’re reading this summer!

 

WHAT’S NEW THIS JUNE

 

The Restless Coast: A Journey around the Edge of Britain by Roger Morgan-Grenville (5th June 2025)

 

The island of Britain has over 10,000 miles of coastline, steeped in history and constantly shifting, changing, adapting and providing. The Restless Coast is a moving and beautiful account of a journey around it, during which the author sets out to discover its challenges and opportunities, and to talk to its people.

At once delightful travelogue and passionate defence, The Restless Coast shines a powerful spotlight on the thin line that surrounds us, and defines our status as islanders. Overarching the journey is the extraordinary natural history of the coastline, together with the story of how man has imprinted himself on its very geology and shape for countless centuries. Roger Morgan-Grenville addresses the modern challenges that the shoreline faces, and highlights the people who are trying to protect it.

Informative, angry and funny, The Restless Coast is a very personal love letter to our island edge.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-restless-coast-a-journey-around-the-edge-of-britain-roger-morgan-grenville/7891588?ean=9781837731442

 

Data Culture: How to Succeed with Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence by Alex Vail (5th June 2025)

 

Capturing the views of over 300 business leaders on the common causes of digital transformation failure, this book sets out an actionable framework to help organisations of all sizes build successful data-driven cultures.

After working as a senior executive in one of the country’s leading manufacturers, Alex Vail took a sabbatical to conduct several research projects, including the largest ever study into the UK’s corporate AI capabilities. In total, he surveyed 234 senior leaders and interviewed 92 executives from FTSE350 companies to identify why digital transformations succeed or fail; the data dependency of organisations; and their levels of data literacy at senior levels. What emerged from the research was a clear set of success factors, grounded in mindset and behaviour elements, which have been used to create a framework that any company can follow, regardless of their size or complexity, that will guarantee successful data transformations.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/data-culture-how-to-succeed-with-digital-transformation-and-artificial-intelligence-alex-vail/7891589?ean=9781837732319

 

Remembering Women: Lessons from the Ancient World by Christine Lehnen (19th June 2025)

 

Women do have a history of their own.
All we need to do is remember it.

In this illuminating new investigation, Christine Lehnen looks back at our collective memory to explore the myriad ways that women in the past have enjoyed a more egalitarian life.

Due to advances in bioarchaeological methods, scientists have discovered that one out of three women in Ancient Scythia was an active warrior buried with her weapons. Far from being confined to their homes, these women rode out to hunt, travelled to distance places, or used weapons to fend off their enemies. These warriors were no exceptions to the rule, with women enjoying a significantly higher degree of equality than their Greek contemporaries.

Remembering Women argues that there is a historical precedent for a fairer society. From reappraisals of well-known objects such as the earliest human bone calendars from the Stone Age to revelatory findings of innovative bioarcheological methods used on human remains from Ancient Scythia, evidence is accumulating that there were places in the past where all women were allowed to thrive.

Interweaving new findings from archaeology with the stories of her mother and grandmothers, as well as her everyday experiences as a woman living today, Lehnen explores our collective memory of women and argues that it needs to change if we are to create an egalitarian society. Remembering Women follows the traces left in the material, literary, and archaeological record by our foremothers, and their heirlooms, artwork and stories, to take a fresh look at our life in the present.

 

COMING IN PAPERBACK IN JUNE 2025

 

The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception by Taylor Downing (5th June 2025)

 

The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception tells the remarkable story of the deceptions, hoaxes and misdirections carried out by the Allies ahead of the most pivotal moment of the Second World War – the D-Day invasion.

The most audacious of these schemes aimed to convince German forces that plans to storm Normandy were a mere sideshow, and featured a fictitious army led by General Patton and furnished with hundreds of real-world dummy landing craft, tanks and aircraft. New research reveals a hidden link with Britain’s film industry, as the fascinating behind-the-scenes story of this dramatic gambit is explored in detail.

Full of fascinating characters from the US, Britain and Germany, this compelling and propulsive narrative explores one of the most remarkable secret campaigns of the Second World War.

 

Sunderland AFC: The Definitive History by Rob Mason (19th June 2025)

 

The definitive history of Sunderland AFC.

Formed by a group of teachers nearly 150 years ago in 1879, Sunderland AFC have a long and storied history in English football. The club has won six top-flight titles, only six other teams have won more, and they have lifted the FA Cup twice – in 1937 and in 1973.

The Black Cats are renowned for having one of the largest and most loyal fan bases in the country, and records have regularly been broken for attendance figures at the Stadium of Light. After hitting a nadir with back-to-back relegations from the Premier League down to the third division in 2018, the club are now back on the ascendancy and plotting a return to the top flight.

Drawing on interviews with key players, managers and staff members, esteemed club historian Rob Mason delves into Sunderland’s 150-year history, charting the glorious highs and the ignominious lows to trace how the Black Cats have come to dominate football in the North-East.

 

 

WHAT’S NEW THIS JULY

 

Face to Face: Finding Justice for My Murdered Twin Brother by Nick Dawson (3rd July 2025)

 

When his identical twin brother Simon was kicked to death, all Nick Dawson felt for the killers was hatred.

Struggling in a world where his mirror image had vanished, he came to realise there was only one way to stop the torture – acceptance. Travelling to the absolute limits of personal darkness, Nick came face to face with one of his brother’s killers.

Now a champion of restorative justice, Nick heads behind bars, asking hardened criminals to change, to think of their victims, to make amends.

In Face to Face he takes us with him on a journey into this hidden and unpredictable world.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/face-to-face-finding-justice-for-my-murdered-twin-brother-nick-dawson/7831503?ean=9781837732425

 

There Will Be Headwinds: Kayaking the Northwest Passage by Mark Agnew (3rd July 2025)

 

Mark Agnew was part of the first team ever to kayak the northwest passage – spending 103 days in the Arctic.

The infamous route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had defeated countless explorers for centuries, and Mark himself had failed on two previous expeditions to row across the Atlantic. Pushed to the brink, on the verge of turning his back on the adventures that had made him feel alive, he experienced a mental health crisis and almost abandoned the water forever.

Charting an inspirational journey from failure to world record breaker, in There Will Be Headwinds Mark reflects on his struggles and reveals the lessons from sports psychology that allowed him to conquer his demons and achieve something truly remarkable. An astonishing story of ice, suffering and camaraderie, There Will Be Headwinds is a testament to the power of teamwork, determination and ambition – and a celebration of the human spirit of adventure.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/there-will-be-headwinds-kayaking-the-northwest-passage-mark-agnew/7831502?ean=9781837732142

 

Human History on Drugs: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence by Sam Kelly (17th July 2025)

 

A lively, hilarious, and entirely truthful look at the druggie side of history’s most famous figures, including Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, and the Beatles, from debut author (and viral historical TikToker with over 100K followers) Sam Kelly.

Did you know that Alexander the Great was a sloppy drunk, William Shakespeare was a stoner, and George Washington drank a spoonful of opium every night to staunch the pain from his fake teeth? Or how about the fact that China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, ingested liquid mercury in an (ironic) attempt to live forever, or that Alexander Shulgin, inventor of no fewer than 230 new psychedelic drugs, was an employee of the DEA?

In Human History on Drugs, historian Sam Kelly introduces us to the history we weren’t taught in school, offering up irreverent and hysterical commentary as he sheds light on some truly shocking aspects of the historical characters we only thought we knew. With chapters spanning from Ancient Greece (‘The Oracle of Delphi Was Huffing Fumes’) and the Victorian Era (‘Vincent van Gogh Ate Yellow Paint’) to Hollywood’s Golden Age (‘Judy Garland Was Drugged by Grown-Ups’) and modern times (‘Carl Sagan Got Astronomically High’), Kelly’s research spans all manner of eras, places, and, of course, drugs.

History is rife with drug use and drug users, and Human History on Drugs takes us through those highs (pun intended) and lows on a wittily entertaining ride that uncovers their seriously unexpected impact on our past.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/human-history-on-drugs-an-utterly-scandalous-but-entirely-truthful-look-at-history-under-the-influence-sam-kelly/7831505?ean=9781837733095

 

COMING IN PAPERBACK IN JULY 2025

The Drummond Affair: Murder and Mystery in Provence by Stephanie Matthews and Daniel Smith (3rd July 2025)

 

1950s France. A British establishment figure. A shocking crime. A miscarriage of justice. The search for truth.

In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer’s son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies: a husband and wife shot dead, their ten-year-old daughter savagely beaten to death. They were all British. So begins one of the most notorious murder cases in French history.

Sir Jack Drummond was a senior advisor to the British government, a household name who was respected and admired. His fame made the case a cause célèbre in France and resulted in the swift conviction of a local farmer, but questions about Drummond’s life and death remain unanswered.

In this bold new investigation, Stephanie Matthews and Daniel Smith strip away the prejudice and propaganda to reveal a grave miscarriage of justice. A light is shone on Drummond’s secret life in the shadows of the Cold War, painting a portrait of an enigmatic man who may not have been the innocent holidaymaker he appeared to be, and recasting one of the twentieth century’s most notorious murders in a fascinating and important new light.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-drummond-affair-murder-and-mystery-in-provence-stephanie-matthews/7639342?ean=9781837730599

 

Chain Reactions: A Hopeful History of Uranium by Lucy Jane Santos (31st July 2025)

 

Tracing uranium’s past, and how it intersects with our understanding of other radioactive elements, this book aims to disentangle our attitudes and to unpick the atomic mindset.


Chain Reactions looks at the fascinating, often-forgotten, stories that can be found throughout the history of the element. Ranging from glassworks to penny stocks; medicines to weapons; something to be feared to a powerful source of energy, this global history not only explores the development of our scientific understanding of uranium, but also shines a light on its cultural and social impact.

By understanding our nuclear past, we can move beyond the ideological opposition to atomic technology and encourage a more nuanced dialogue about whether it is feasible – and desirable –  to have a genuinely nuclear-powered future.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/chain-reactions-a-hopeful-history-of-uranium-lucy-jane-santos/7650570?ean=9781837731992

 

The Kremlin’s Noose: Vladimir Putin’s Bitter Feud with the Oligarch Who Made Him Ruler of Russia by Amy Knight (31st July 2025)

 

A Guardian Book of the Day

In The Kremlin’s Noose Amy Knight tells the riveting story of Vladimir Putin and the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who forged a relationship in the early years of the Yeltsin era.

Berezovsky later played a crucial role in Putin’s rise to the Russian presidency in March 2000. When Putin began dismantling Boris Yeltsin’s democratic reforms, Berezovsky came into conflict with the new Russian leader by reproaching him publicly. Their relationship quickly disintegrated into a bitter feud played out against the backdrop of billion-dollar financial deals, Kremlin in-fighting and international politics.

Dubbed the ‘Godfather of the Kremlin’ by the slain Russian-American journalist Paul Klebnikov, Berezovsky was a successful businessman and media mogul who had an outsized role in Russia after 1991. Worth a reported $3 billion by 1997, Berezovsky engineered the re-election of Yeltsin as president in 1996 and negotiated an end to the 1995-96 Chechen war. Despite his own wealth, power and influence, once he became Putin’s enemy, Berezovsky was forced into exile in Britain, where he waged a determined campaign to topple Putin. Kremlin authorities responded with bogus criminal charges and demanded Berezovsky’s extradition. Death threats soon followed. In March 2013, after losing a British court battle with another Russian oligarch, Berezovsky was found dead at his ex-wife’s mansion outside London. Whether he died from suicide or murder remains a mystery.

The Kremlin’s Noose sheds crucial new light on the Kremlin’s volatile politics under Yeltsin and Putin, helping us understand why democracy in Russia failed so badly. Knight provides a fascinating narrative of Putin’s rise to power and his authoritarian rule, told through the prism of his relationship with Russia’s once most powerful oligarch, Boris Berezovsky.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-kremlin-s-noose-vladimir-putin-s-bitter-feud-with-the-oligarch-who-made-him-ruler-of-russia-amy-knight/7831504?ean=9781837732210

 

WHAT’S NEW THIS AUGUST

Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibres Became the Backbone of Civilization by Tim Queeney (14th August 2025)

 

A unique and compelling adventure through the history of rope and its impact on civilization, in the vein of single-subject bestsellers like Salt and Cod.

Tim Queeney is a sailor who knows more about rope and its importance to humankind than most. In Rope, Queeney takes readers on a ride through the history of rope and the way it weaves itself through the story of civilization. From Magellan’s world-circling ships, to the 15th-century fleet of Admiral Zheng He, to Polynesian multihulls with crab claw sails, he shows how without rope, none of their adventurous voyages and discoveries would have been possible. Time travelling, he describes the building of the pyramids, the Roman Colosseum, Hagia Sophia, Notre-Dame, the Sultan Hasan Mosque, the Brooklyn Bridge, and countless other constructions that would not have been possible without rope.

Not content to just look at rope’s past, Queeney examines its present and possible future and how the re-invention of rope with synthetic fibers will likely provide the strength for cables to support elevators into space. Drawing upon personal experience, Queeney tells remarkable nautical stories of his own reliance on rope at sea. Rope is history, adventure, and the story of one of the world’s most common tools that has made it possible for humans to advance throughout the centuries.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/rope-how-a-bundle-of-twisted-fibres-became-the-backbone-of-civilization-tim-queeney/7843984?ean=9781837733316

Fiesta: A Journey Through Festivity by Daniel Stables (14th August 2025)

 

A journey through human festivity, told through colourful travel narratives set at some of the world’s most eye-catching festivals and interweaved with insights from the fields of anthropology, history, psychology, and folklore, examining why we celebrate festivals in the ways we do.


Fiesta explores the vibrant tapestry of human festivity, delving into the extraordinary lengths to which we go to express our cultures and commemorate life’s milestones. From drunken pilgrimages to sacrificial funerals, national days to neo-pagan necromancy, festivals represent human culture at its most vivid and varied, and the resulting account is both a rich collection of travel writing and an anthropological exploration of the roles that festivals play in society. Through colourful characters, vibrant sights, and varied locales, Daniel Stables takes a curious, humanistic look at festivals across the world, unravelling the universal threads that run through our diverse global celebrations.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/fiesta-a-journey-through-festivity-daniel-stables/7843983?ean=9781837732517

 

The Future of Agriculture by Sarah Bearchell (28th August 2025)

 

Record rain fall and extreme climates have become a common occurrence around the world. The television news shows farmers standing in front of their flooded fields; the ground too wet to harvest one season’s crop, or to plant the next. Our climate is changing, but agriculture is not just the victim of climate change – it is one of the major drivers too. Our food systems are responsible for around a third of all greenhouse gases.

In this book, Sarah Bearchell explores how agriculture is using targeted breeding, automation and precision inputs to produce more with less. She considers how we can reduce our impact by addressing problems in our food system, from packaging and transport to the incredible quantities of waste. As consumers, we can make small changes straight away and push for long-term change in the wider system. Agriculture can become a force for good, but it needs our help.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-of-agriculture-sarah-bearchell/7843981?ean=9781837731756

 

COMING IN PAPERBACK IN AUGUST 2025

Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World by Casey Michel (28th August 2025)

 

Foreign Policy, Most Anticipated Books of 2024

A stunning investigation and indictment of the elements in United States’ foreign lobbying industry and the threat they pose to democracy.

For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they’ve not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they’ve secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, journalist Casey Michel contends some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself.

These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry – a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the Nazis on how to sway American audiences. They include people like Paul Manafort, who invented lobbying as we know it – and who then took his talents to autocrats from Ukraine to the Philippines, and then back to the White House. And they now include an increasing number of Americans elsewhere: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities.

Many of these lobbyists have transformed into proxies for dictators and strongmen wherever they can be found. And for years, they’ve escaped scrutiny.

In Foreign Agents, Casey Michel shines a light on these foreign lobbyists, and all the damage and devastation they have caused in Washington and elsewhere. From Moscow to Beijing, from far-right nationalists to far-left communists, from anti-American autocrats to pro-Western authoritarians, these foreign lobbyists have helped any illiberal, anti-democratic government they can find. And after decades of success in installing dictator after dictator, and in tilting American policy in the process, some of these lobbyists have now begun trying to end America’s democratic experiment, once and for all.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/foreign-agents-how-american-lobbyists-and-lawmakers-threaten-democracy-around-the-world-casey-michel/7669420?ean=9781837731886

 

God’s Own Gentlewoman: The Life of Margaret Paston by Diane Watt (28th August 2025)

 

The remarkable story of Margaret Paston, whose letters form the most extensive collection of personal writings by a medieval English woman.

Drawing on the largest archive of medieval correspondence relating to a single family in the UK, God’s Own Gentlewoman explores what everyday life was like during the turbulent decades at the height of the Wars of the Roses. Covering topics including political conflicts and familial in-fighting, forbidden love affairs and clandestine marriages, bloody battles and sieges, fear of plague and sudden death, friendships and animosity, and childbirth and child mortality, Margaret’s letters provide us with unparalleled insight into all aspects of life in late medieval England.

Diane Watt, a world expert on medieval women’s writing, offers insight into Margaret’s activities, experiences, emotions and relationships, presenting the life of a medieval woman who was at times absorbed by the mundane and domestic, but who found herself caught up in the most extraordinary situations and events.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/god-s-own-gentlewoman-the-life-of-margaret-paston-diane-watt/7669421?ean=9781837731657

Remembering Women by Christine Lehnen: Sneak Peek

 Remembering Women: Lessons From the Ancient World by Christine Lehnen

Sneak Peek

 

 

Women do have a history of their own.
All we need to do is remember it.

 

‘A fascinating, thought-provoking exploration of powerful women’s lives in the past and today, showing how important it is that we remember their successes, leadership, independence and equality.’

Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials

 

Due to advances in bioarchaeological methods, scientists have discovered that one out of three women in Ancient Scythia was an active warrior buried with her weapons. Far from being confined to their homes, these women rode out to hunt, travelled to distance places, or used weapons to fend off their enemies. These warriors were no exceptions to the rule, with women enjoying a significantly higher degree of equality than their Greek contemporaries.

Remembering Women argues that there is a historical precedent for a fairer society. From reappraisals of well-known objects, such as the earliest human bone calendars from the Stone Age, to revelatory findings of innovative bioarcheological methods used on human remains from Ancient Scythia, evidence is accumulating that there were places in the past where all women were allowed to thrive.

Interweaving new findings from archaeology with the stories of her mother and grandmother, as well as her everyday experiences as a woman living today, Lehnen explores our collective memory of women and argues that it needs to change if we are to create an egalitarian society. Remembering Women follows the traces left in the material, literary, and archaeological record by our foremothers, and their heirlooms, artwork and stories, to take a fresh look at our life in the present.

Take the first steps towards changing our cultural memory for the better with the extract below!

 

 

Helen of Troy leaves her husband in the dead of night.

 

I imagine her hastily packing her things, casting about her room, wondering what she can part with and what she cannot live without. Will she bring her precious bronze mirror? The warrior Amazon puppet her mother gave her when she was a child? Her brush? (Of course she will bring her brush, and hair pins or bands, anything to hold it in place. It is windy out there on the Aegean Sea.) It must have been daunting to pack her things, to even entertain the idea of running off with Paris, Prince of Troy. This palace in Sparta is all she has ever known. Famously, her husband came to live with her after he won her hand, not the other way around, as would have been more common. She has grown up in this palace, she has barely ever left this city. This is where her family is, where she gave birth to her daughter, where she has made a life for herself. It must have been a hard thing to leave that night. Anyone who is an immigrant, who has had to leave the place they know to go to a strange place, will know how difficult it is. Anyone who has had to leave a lifelong partner, no matter how abusive, will testify to the courage it requires. 

Helen is a legendary figure, but women like her existed, and they have existed throughout time: women who left their houses, the men they were with and who owned them, the families they had raised, to go and discover an unknown future, no matter the risks. There is the woman in Ancient Assyria who left her male ‘owner’ and sought refuge with another woman, a female lover or friend. We do not retain her name, but let us imagine we do. Let us say her name was Atalia, this woman who left her husband knowing it would almost certainly end in her death. Think how courageous she must have been still to leave in the middle of the night, to choose hope over despair, to make a life for herself, no matter how brief. Then there is Neaera, the Corinthian woman sold into prostitution, who left her owners and ran from the pimp Phrynion to live a free life in Athens. She raised her daughter Phanos in the same spirit, a girl who would refuse to become a demure wife once wedded, resulting in legal challenges to the family. More recently, there is my friend R, who had to get a job as a cleaner, hide her wages away from her partner, save up, learn how to drive, pack her suitcases and hide them at the back of the wardrobe, all so that she would be able to up and go one night, vanish within seconds. Atalia, Neaera, R: women who have had the courage to say no to the lives they were living, and yes to the uncertain futures ahead of them.  

[…] 

Women today still feel that consequence, every day. Six women are murdered every hour of every day worldwide. In the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days. In six out of seven cases, the killer is a man she knows, and seventy-four per cent of women are killed in their own homes. As women, we are aware how dangerous our homes may be, whether the knowledge is conscious or not. My friend R left in secret, stole away in the dead of night because she too feared violent retribution. This was sensible, as data from the Femicide Census shows that ‘separation is a risk factor for intimate-partner femicides’, as violent men may choose to kill women rather than lose control over them. The fate of another friend of mine bears testimony to this fact. My dear friend S, one of the most intelligent, capable, and confident people I know, had to leave the country she was born and raised in to escape an abusive and violent male partner. As Margaret Atwood once wrote, men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men are going to kill them. 

Atalia was indeed killed by the Assyrian state, as far as we know. We cannot be sure of the fate of Neaera and Phanos, but Phanos’s husband brought charges against them with the aim of stripping them of their Athenian citizenship, forcing them once more into sexual slavery. No record of the end of the court case survives, but historian Eric Berkowitz does not see much hope for them in the misogynist, xenophobic slave society of Classical Athens. We all know how Helen’s mythical story ends, and it is not a happy ending: Menelaus uses her escape as a pretext to raise an army and destroy the beautiful city of Troy, murder and enslave the entire population, and bring her back to Sparta, where she secretly prepares and feeds him a narcotic potion in the evening so that she may escape his dominance for a few hours. 

It may seem difficult at times to find hope in Greek myth, but it can be found in Scythia, in the Stone Age, even in the earliest periods of human history. In the graves of our foremothers and forefathers, the women who were warriors with and without children, the men who wore jewellery, made warm cloaks, and cared for their children. Think of all the children who grew up with their fathers. In fact, I will raise you one: think of all the children who grew up with happy mothers and happy fathers, who had the chance to grow into happy people themselves, because they did not have to choose between hunting and motherhood, or masculinity and a pair of earrings. 

Waterstones

Amazon

Remembering Women: Lessons From the Ancient World by Christine Lehnen publishes on the 19th of June 2025

Celebrate the UK’s Unsung Cities – Sh*tty Breaks by Ben Aitken Bookshop Tour

Not everything that glitters is gold, which is why Ben Aitken gave London the cold shoulder and went to Preston instead.

Hailing from Portsmouth, Ben knows from experience that unfashionable places can be quietly brilliant. So, over the course of a year, the bestselling author of A Chip Shop in Poznan and The Gran Tour visited twelve of the least popular spots in the UK and Ireland for a city break.

To celebrate, Ben will be visiting some of the featured cities with other exciting stops along the way!

The motivation wasn’t to take the mickey or stick the boot in, but to seek out the good stuff, to uncover the gems, to have a nice time. By doing so, he hoped to demonstrate that anywhere – like anyone – can be interesting and nourishing and enjoyable if approached in the right fashion.

Ben went skiing in Sunderland, to the football in Wrexham, and fell in love with Dunfermline. He kissed an alpaca in Bradford, suffered jellied eels in Chelmsford, and had more craic in Limerick than was wise. The upshot is a celebration of the underdog; a love letter to the wrong direction; and evidence that there’s no such thing as a shitty break. What’s more, by spreading its affection beyond the usual suspects (which are often overdone and overpriced), Shitty Breaks promotes a less expensive and more sustainable brand of travel.

By ghosting Bath and giving Lisbon the boot, the book champions the unsung in an algorithmic, over-signposted world dominated by celebs and hotspots. Cheeky weekend in Milton Keynes anyone?

Head to the individual bookshop websites to get your tickets and further information. Don’t miss out on the chance to hear the charming testaments to the most underrated places.

Preorder your copy here – Bookshop.org

Breaking Waves by Emma Simpson: Sneak Peek

26th March 2025

Breaking Waves by Emma Simpson: Sneak Peek

 

 

A warm, reflective and uplifting memoir about healing wounds, reclaiming a voice and discovering freedom through the open water.

‘If you enjoyed Freya Bromley’s The Tidal Year, you’ll love this. Perfect for those of us who need cold water to heal.’

Emma Gannon, author of Olive

After a period of immense pain and lost in grief, Emma felt the instinctive pull of the water. This expanse of mystery represents the unknown to so many, but it’s also a space to heal and soothe the soul for those that brave the wild waters.

This unexpected source of strength also offered a glorious sisterhood of women with their own remarkable stories to share. Interweaving these inspirational tales with her own experiences of birth, chronic illness, body confidence and so much more, Breaking Waves is a love letter to womanhood and the open water.

Take the first daunting dip of your toe into this community with the below extract!

 

‘I signed up to do a 500-metre swim. Not the kilometre, mind, that would have been silly. This was terrifying enough.

 

On the day of the event I was nervous yet excited. I knew this would challenge me both mentally and physically, and it brought back inklings of my previous sense of fun and adventure. They were feelings that had deserted me while I was unwell, although I hadn’t realised their absence until just at that moment. Having donned my tummy-control Marks & Spencer swimming costume and sparkly flip-flops, I affected my best Dickensian jaunt and made my way to the departure point on the rocks, before realising that, clearly, I must have turned up to the wrong event, because everyone else was dressed head to toe in rubber and they were all wearing swim hats. What. The. Actual. Fuck. Swim hats?? I hadn’t possessed one of those instruments of torture since the excruciating hair towelling days of school PE. I can’t say it really occurred to me that I might be the one inappropriately dressed until I began to absorb the looks from the other participants, ranging from pity, ‘oh bless her, she’ll get so cold’, to indignation, ‘oh my God, the integrity of this event has just gone through the floor’, to almost famous, ‘they’ll interview me and I’ll say I saw her just before she drowned, I’ll pretend I spoke to her!’ Awkward doesn’t even come close. 

One thing that grief does do, however, is stop you giving a damn what other people think, because it really doesn’t matter, so I pretended that I had turned up like that intentionally because I was so hardcore. In reality, without a wetsuit I only had my blubber to protect me, but I figured that would suffice, so I shed my flip-flops and joined the shuffling penguins towards the entry point.

Within seconds, I experienced an exquisite pain in my feet – why were we entering the sea here? Walking through the jagged, craggy rocks, slime-covered stones and deceptively evil shingle? Why weren’t we going in at a sandy point? Why was no one else swearing?! Aah – because they all had bootees on. Of course they did. With their smugsuits and swim hats there was a whole wardrobe no one had told me about (and dryrobes weren’t even a lucrative twinkle in their inventor’s eye at this point). There was nothing to do but get on with it, so enter the sea I did, carried by my excitement and terror, the Jaws soundtrack looping in my ears as I hit the water. Once in I allowed myself to surrender – to the feeling, to the sensation, to the experience. In the deep water, unprepared, untrained, with seaweed bouncing in and around my legs and breaststroke my only way to stay afloat, I felt exhilarated. I took in my surroundings and marvelled at my own courage. I felt alive and connected to something for the first time in such a long time. The grey blanket of numbness that had encased me since Brian’s death threatened to shift, ever so slightly. I looked around and just grinned – until that let a bit too much water into my mouth – at which point I got a bit more serious and swam to the exit point.

At the exit steps I was aided by some volunteers, handed my beach towel by my sister who shared the emotion of that moment, and my two daughters ran up to me just so proud and excited by my adventure. My endeavour had lit something up in them too. Their faces filled with awe and admiration are something I will never forget. I looked back at the water and felt so happy that I had conquered my fear, and while feeling slightly faint and a bit punch-drunk, I also started to feel the first steps of a spiritual healing. Something awoke for me that day. It wasn’t a big distance that I had crossed – just 500 metres – but it began to span an emotional gulf.’

Bookshop.org

Amazon

Breaking Waves: Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water by Emma Simpson publishes 27th March 2025.

What’s Publishing This Spring at Icon Books

What’s Publishing This Spring at Icon Books

As the weather starts to brighten and the evenings get longer, there’s no better time than now to delve into a new topic or pick up the latest book from one of your favourite authors.

This spring we are bringing you some brilliant non-fiction, from long-buried histories to heartfelt memoirs, and hilarious travelogues. Plus, some of our greatest hits from last year are making an appearance in paperback!

Follow the links below to find out more about ordering the reads that catch your eye, and make sure to follow us on X and Instagram @iconbooks to share what’s on your to be read list this spring!

What’s New This March

The Next One is For You A True Story of Guns, Country and the IRA’s Secret American Army by Ali Watkins (13th March 2025)

A gripping true story of crime, rebellion and the hazy line that separates the two. From New York Times reporter and Pulitzer finalist Ali Watkins, this is the long-buried story of how a group of Philadelphia gunrunners armed the IRA at the height of the Troubles. A ragtag band of carpenters, family men and fugitives, the Philadelphia Five, banded together, bolstering the fight for a united Ireland but fuelling the conflict at an untold cost.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-next-one-is-for-you-a-true-story-of-guns-country-and-the-ira-s-secret-american-army-ali-marie-watkins/7761028?ean=9781837732135

Everyday Jews: Why The Jewish People Are Not Who You Think They Are by Keith Kahn-Harris (13th March 2025)

With Israel and antisemitism constantly in the news, it seems as though the Jewish people have become synonymous with controversy, drama and anxiety. With passion and wry humour, Keith Kahn-Harris argues that his people’s extraordinary public visibility today is harming their ability to live everyday Jewish lives and celebrates the mundanity and mediocrity of a people before it vanishes completely.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/everyday-jews-why-the-jewish-people-are-not-who-you-think-they-are-keith-kahn-harris/7761027?ean=9781837732111

Breaking Waves Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water by Emma Simpson (27th March 2025)

A warm, reflective and uplifting memoir about healing wounds, reclaiming a voice and discovering freedom through the open water. Emma Simpson discovered wild swimming after a period of immense pain. Lost in grief, disillusioned with life, and feeling increasingly untethered from the world, she instinctively felt the pull of the water. There she found an unexpected source of hope and strength, a profound sense of connection, and a glorious sisterhood of women – each with their own remarkable stories to tell.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/breaking-waves-discovery-healing-and-inspiration-in-the-open-water-emma-simpson/7746753?ean=9781837731794

Coming in Paperback in March 2025

Across a Waking Land: A 1,000-Mile Walk Through a British Spring by Roger Morgan-Grenville (13th March 2025)

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RICHARD JEFFERIES AWARD 2023

A veteran nature writer walks the length of Britain in pursuit of spring, and of hope. Fed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, Roger Morgan-Grenville sets out on a 1,000-mile walk through a British spring to see whether there are reasons to be hopeful about the natural world.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/across-a-waking-land-a-1-000-mile-walk-through-a-british-spring-roger-morgan-grenville/7412275?ean=9781837731039

Well Beings: How the Seventies Lost Its Mind and Taught Us to Find Ourselves by James Riley (27th March 2025)

Concepts such as wellness and self-care may feel like distinctly twenty-first century ideas, but they first gained traction as part of the New Age health movements that began to flourish in the wake of the 1960s. James Riley dives into this strange and hypnotic world of panoramic coastal retreats and darkened floatation tanks,

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/well-beings-how-the-seventies-lost-its-mind-and-taught-us-to-find-ourselves-james-riley/7606744?ean=9781785787898

What’s New This April

The Elephant in the Room: How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick by Liz Kalaugher (10th April 2025)

Taking the reader on a globe-trotting journey through time, Liz Kalaugher presents a series of fascinating case histories of human-related wildlife diseases. Examining these tales and drawing on first-hand accounts from experts around the world, The Elephant in the Room is both a tragic history and an inspirational call to arms. It doesn’t have to be this way. By learning from the past, it’s possible to create a better, healthier environment for ourselves, our wildlife and our planet.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-elephant-in-the-room-how-to-stop-making-ourselves-and-other-animals-sick-liz-kalaugher/7748917?ean=9781837731381

Processed: How the Processed Meat Industry is Killing Us with the Food we Love by Lucie Morris-Marr (10th April 2025)

The chilling exposé the food industry doesn’t want YOU to see. We love crispy bacon with our eggs for breakfast, and ham sandwiches for lunch. Lucie Morris-Marr’s family was no different, ordering pepperoni pizzas on Friday nights and putting salami on their summer picnic platters. But when the Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer, she learned the chilling truth about our love affair with processed meats.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/processed-how-the-processed-meat-industry-is-killing-us-with-the-food-we-love-allen-unwin-pty-limited/7815442?ean=9781837733071

Delusions of Paradise: Escaping the Life of a Taliban Fighter by Maiwand Banayee (24th April 2025)

When Maiwand Banayee was 16, he wanted to become a suicide bomber for the Taliban. Growing up in Kabul amid the Afghan wars, he witnessed atrocities that no child should ever see.  He escaped to a refugee camp in Pakistan, where religious militants began the gradual grooming of Maiwand and other Afghan boys. But Maiwand escaped this life. Fleeing Afghanistan, he had a life-altering crisis of faith, confidence and meaning, finding new purpose and rebuilding himself.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/delusions-of-paradise-escaping-the-life-of-a-taliban-fighter-maiwand-banayee/7783215?ean=9781837731909

Coming in Paperback in April 2025

The Beacon Bike: Around England and Wales in 327 Lighthouses by Ed Peppitt (10th April 2025)

The incredible story of a 3,500-mile cycle ride to explore the onshore and offshore lighthouses around the coastline of England and Wales, proving that a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis doesn’t mean giving up on a lifelong dream.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-beacon-bike-around-england-and-wales-in-327-lighthouses-edward-peppitt/7616615?ean=9781837732005

Ten Men: A Year of Casual Sex by Kitty Ruskin (24th April 2025)

A Stylist pick of the best non-fiction for 2024

A Cosmopolitan and Glamour best new book for April 2024

At the beginning of 2019, Kitty Ruskin decided it was time to embrace her sexuality, by having fun, easy, no-strings sex with whomever she desired. What followed was sometimes sexy, frequently funny, occasionally shocking and, sadly, all too often fraught with pain and danger. It was not the carefree adventure she had envisaged; it was something altogether darker.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ten-men-a-year-of-casual-sex-kitty-ruskin/7616617?ean=9781837730698

What’s New This May

Sh*tty Breaks: A Celebration of Unsung Cities by Ben Aitken (8th May 2025)

Not everything that glitters is gold – which is why Ben Aitken gave London the cold shoulder and went to Preston instead. Hailing from Portsmouth, Ben knew from experience that unfashionable places could be quietly brilliant. So, over the course of a year he visited twelve of the least popular spots in the UK and Ireland for a city break. The upshot is a celebration of the underdog; a hymn to the wrong direction; and evidence that there’s no such thing as a shitty break.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shitty-breaks-a-celebration-of-unsung-cities-ben-aitken/7811929?ean=9781837730469

Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James  (22nd May 2025)

A brilliant and bloody examination of the axe’s foundational role in human history, from prehistoric violence, to war and executions, to newspaper headlines and popular culture. Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history.

More information Coming Soon

Thinking Small and Large: How Microbes Made and Can Save Our World by Peter Forbes (22nd May 2025)

Thinking Small and Large reveals the ingenuity of microbes at key stages in life’s 4-billion-year history and highlights their developing role in resolving our deepest problem: climate change that is flooding and burning our world more menacingly every year. In this fascinating and illuminating book, Peter Forbes shines a light on this crucial technology and offers a tantalising glimpse of what is possible. To solve the big problems, you have to think small.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/thinking-small-and-large-how-microbes-made-and-can-save-our-world-peter-forbes/7811931?ean=9781837731701

Coming in Paperback in May 2025

Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women by Caroline Magennis (9th May 2025)

In this timely and thoughtful book, Caroline Magennis looks beyond the often-divisive conversation around women who choose to be childfree and offers an alternative message of hope and celebration.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/harpy-a-manifesto-for-childfree-women-caroline-magennis/7811930?ean=9781837730667

The History Lessons by Shalina Patel (22nd May 2025)

Taking the reader on a tour through history, from the Romans to the Second World War via Tudor courts, medieval castles and more, this hugely entertaining debut from an award-winning history teacher explores a variety of historical topics in a thoughtful and engaging way.

More information: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-history-lessons-shalina-patel/7627891?ean=9781837731626