What’s Publishing This Spring at Icon Books
Posted on 2025/03/12 , tagged as News, Spring, new books
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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.
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
