Category: New Books

New Books published in February!

We have four more great reads to share with you, all published this month!

First up is I, Superorganism, by Jon Turney.

Every human body carries a secret cargo: a huge population of micro-organisms that lives in your mouth and nose, on your skin, in your guts. This is the human microbiome and this is the focus of Jon Turney’s cutting-edge work, the first book-length account of a new, thrilling realm of human biology.

Learn about the true make-up of the machine you call a body, question the impact of human habits on the functioning of this ecosystem and see yourself in a new (microscopic) light with I, Superorganism.

Find out more and follow Jon on Twitter @jonWturney

In It’s Not About the Shark, David Niven explores the theory that having absolute confidence in finding a solution can actually hide answers. Learn how putting problems at the centre of our thoughts serves to shut down our creative abilities, deplete stamina and feed insecurities, and discover how to transform your daily life with a simple but rock-solid principle: If you start thinking about your problems, you’ll never make it to a solution. If you start thinking about a solution, you’ll never worry about your problems again.

‘In this useful tome, Niven gives unusual, yet eminently practical, problem-solving advice . . . This fresh, enthusiastic approach to problem-solving will encourage readers to open themselves up to opportunity and make for a valuable addition to anyone’s self-help shelf.’ Publishers Weekly

‘David Niven will help you think more, panic less, dream bigger, and WIN.’ Bob Danzig, former CEO, Hearst Newspapers

Find out more… and follow David on Twitter @davidnivenphd

Also released this month is Beyond the Call, a cinematic, inspiring tale of the hitherto unknown hero, veteran 8th Air Force Bomber pilot Captain Robert Trimble. Written by the Captain’s own son with the help of British historian Jeremy Dronfield, this daring account tells of wit, courage and a determination to do good in the midst of a terrible war. Embark upon an undercover mission with Trimble as he faces up to a terrifying foe and fights to save hundreds of lives, whilst trying to find his way home to his wife and

‘Beyond the Call is the brilliantly told, fast-paced true story of a remarkable young man… Nerve-wracking, informative, yet profoundly moving, Beyond the Call is a truly inspiring book.’ Susan Ottaway, author of Sisters, Secrets, and Sacrifice

Find out more… and follow Lee and Jeremy on Twitter@BeyondCall

With expert advice, practical exercises and a real-world focus, Introducing Well-being will help you become more energised, optimise your mental and physical health and discover happiness and fulfilment Read more about the Introducing Practical Guide series and follow us on Twitter.

All books are available in all good bookshops and as an eBook. Head over to @iconbooks to see how you can win our new titles!

New Books published in January!

Happy 2015! We have our first five books of the year to share with you, all published this month!

Denmark is officially the happiest nation on Earth, so when journalist Helen Russell finds herself spending a year in rural Jutland, she decides she’ll do all she can to uncover the secrets of the Danes’ happiness. But will the long, dark winters and pickled herring take their toll?

‘A lovely mix of English sensibility and Danish pragmatism. Helen seems to have understood more about the Danish character than I have! My only worry is that it will make everyone want to have a go and my holiday home area will get overcrowded.’ Sandi Toksvig

Find out more and follow Helen on Twitter @MsHelenRussell

Discover the much-advertised antioxidants that aren’t good for you, the truth about fat and sugar, how likely it is that toast will fall butter side down, and why buses will actually come in threes. This is a reference tool for informed modern living that separates scientific truth from media myth

In Science for Life, Brian Clegg cuts through the vested interests and confusing contradictory statements that litter the media and the internet, to give a clear picture of what science is telling us right now about changing our lives for the better. ‘At last – the straight facts on everything – subject by subject – that affects our lives today, written in a clear and accessible style. Brilliant!’ Aggie MacKenzie, Presenter, Channel 4’s How Clean is Your House?

But that’s not all from Brian Clegg this month, we’ve also published a new edition of his best loved books – Light Years – the story of light and the people who were determined to unlock the secrets of one of the greatest puzzles of the Universe. ‘A fascinating book on a fascinating subject. It brings together all aspects of light in an unusual and compelling way.’ Sir Patrick Moore Find out more… and follow Brian on Twitter @BrianClegg

Rasmus Ankerson’s The Gold Mine Effect, now in paperback, shows us how to crack the secrets of high performance. We all want to discover our hidden talents and make an impact with them. But how? Rasmus Ankersen, an ex-footballer and performance specialist, quit his job and for six intense months lived with the world’s best athletes in an attempt to answer this question. ‘[A] great read and a fascinating insight into performance.’ Sir Clive Woodward

With expert advice, practical exercises and a real-world focus,Introducing Personal Finance will help you control your spending behaviour, simplify your spending behaviour and make your money work for you. Read more about the Introducing Practical Guide series and follow us on Twitter.

All books are available in all good bookshops and as an eBook. Head over to @iconbooks to see how you can win our new titles!

Nessa Carey introduces Junk DNA

A journey through the dark matter of the human genome.

‘If you really want to understand where biology is going and what the next horizon is in our understanding of the human genome, then you absolutely have to come to grips with Junk DNA’

From the author of the acclaimed The Epigenetics Revolution (‘A book that would have had Darwin swooning’ – Guardian) comes another thrilling exploration of the cutting edge of human science.

For decades after the structure of DNA was identified, scientists focused purely on genes, the regions of the genome that contain codes for the production of proteins. Other regions – 98% of the human genome – were dismissed as ‘junk’. But in recent years researchers have discovered that variations in this ‘junk’ DNA underlie many previously intractable diseases, and they can now generate new approaches to tackling them.

Nessa Carey explores, for the first time for a general audience, the incredible story behind a controversy that has generated unusually vituperative public exchanges between scientists. She shows how junk DNA plays an important role in areas as diverse as genetic diseases, viral infections, sex determination in mammals, human biological complexity, disease treatments, even evolution itself – and reveals how we are only now truly unlocking its secrets, more than half a century after Crick and Watson won their Nobel prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1962.

Here is Nessa herself to tell you more:

Junk DNA will be available from March 2015 in hardback and as an ebook. Find out more here.

Behold the @ScikuGirls!

What happens when you mix poetry, science and a whole lot of gumption? SCIKU of course!
Now, who said girls can’t do science?

SCIKU is a brilliant new book of science-inspired haiku written by students at The Camden High School for Girls.

The book features gems of science-poetry such as:

Gravity:
An attractive force
Between all objects with mass
Just like you and me

and

Photosynthesis:
Carbon dioxide
And water combine to form
Glucose thanks to light

Here are a few of the girls themselves to tell you more:

All royalties from the book will go towards modernising the school’s science laboratory. Find out more here.

New Books published in November

Just look at all these books we published this month!

How do you poison someone without the police finding out? Which way is the earth spinning? Instead of politicians, why don’t we let the managers of IKEA run the country? And most importantly, Do You STILL Think You’re Clever? From the ever-curious mind that brought you the bestselling Do You Think You’re Clever? comes a brand-new trip into the far reaches of the intellectual universe, courtesy of even more notoriously provocative Oxbridge interview questions.

In Geoff Hurst’s 50 Greatest Footballers, we have the perfect stocking filler. Sir Geoff Hurst, from his vantage point as a true national hero and international football ambassador – and still the only man ever to score a hat-trick in a World Cup Final – risks controversy as he narrows down football’s finest to a select 50 in this brilliant new book

Allum’s Antiques Almanac 2015 is the first annual compendium of stories and facts from the world of art and antiques, by BBC Antiques Roadshow regular Marc Allum. Find out, amongst other things, what Lee Harvey Oswald’s wedding ring sold for – and what he paid for it, why someone was prepared to pay over £3 million for the miniature effigy of a dashing bodyguard. But that’s not all from Marc Allum this month: The Antiques Magpie, a compendium of absorbing history, stories and facts from the world of antiques, is now in paperback!

Ask John is no-nonsense business advice from John Timpson, Chairman of the eponymous high street chain, from his much-admired Daily Telegraph column. From why low cost will never be a real substitute for proper customer service to the etiquette of employing interns, John’s honest, common-sense business advice should be required reading for anyone running a business – whatever the size. Ask John is available in paperback for the special price of £9.99 from The Daily Telegraph.

Sciku: The Wonder of Science – in Haiku! Written by Students of the Camden School for Girls. Sciku brings together more than 400 revealing, poignant, witty haiku on scientific subjects. These poems show that science may have given us the atom bomb, the laptop and the artificial heart but that it remains elegiac, enigmatic and often mind-bogglingly beautiful. Find them on Twitter @Scikugirls.

A Burglar Caught by A Skeleton by Jeremy Clay is new in paperback. HOLIDAYMAKER FIGHTS OFF AFRICAN LION IN WELSH HOTEL ROOM and other extraordinary, bizarre and often morbidly funny stories from the depths of the Victorian press. This is the perfect stocking filler for the morbidly inclined.

And don’t forget the two boxsets: Mark Forsyth’s Ternion Set, a beautiful box set containing The Etymologicon, The Horologicon and The Elements of Eloquence in hardback. Finally, there’s A Charm of Magpies, give the gift of the Magpie with this beautiful collection of three fascinating miscellanies. Containing, The Science Magpie, The Nature Magpie and The Antiques Magpie.

All books available in all good bookshops and as an eBook. Head over to @iconbooks to see how you can win our new titles!

The Invisible Woman

The Invisible Woman – How to Navigate the Vintage Years

We’re incredibly excited to announce the publication of The Invisible Woman – How to Navigate the Vintage Years by Helen Walmsley Johnson.

From the author of the Guardian’s popular ‘The Vintage Years’ column comes a rallying call to sanity for those women who refuse to become part of the ‘slippers and cardigans brigade’ – but also resent the expectation to cling desperately to their youth and insist on being ‘young at heart’.

Sixty is the new forty, we’re constantly told. Or is it that seventy is the new fifty?

Covering topics from family, finances and work to cosmetics, fashion and sex, The Invisible Woman – which is also Helen’s Guardian column nom de plume – is a new sort of book about ageing; one that teaches us not how to avoid it, but how to enjoy it, grow with it and thrive.

Commissioning Editor Kate Hewson says: ‘The Invisible Woman is a vital, timely book about how to navigate that stage of life when women – no longer blushing brides or mothers of children – seem to somehow disappear from public life. With this book Helen takes what she has done so well as a Guardian columnist and expands it to an even wider audience – her unique skill is that she writes in a way that appeals not just to women her age, but to their partners, daughters, sons and everyone in between.’

The Invisible Woman will be published in June 2015 and will be available in hardback and as an ebook

The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi

October saw the publication of Under Fire – The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi by Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz.

Benghazi, Libya. 11th September 2012. Just over a year after the fall of Gaddafi, and on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a group of heavily armed Islamic terrorists had their sights set on the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence presence in the city.

In the prolonged attack, four Americans died, including the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. This was the first time a US ambassador has been killed on duty for over thirty years. Based on confidential eyewitness sources within the intelligence, diplomatic, and military communities, Under Fire is the terrifying account of that night, and of a desperate last stand amid the chaos of rebellion.

Under Fire was released to wide critical acclaim in the US, where Vanity Fair described it as ‘Heart-stopping, minute-by-minute detail … a tale of valour on the ground.’ The Huffington Post said that it was ‘A gripping first-hand narrative of the night of the attack… [The authors] keep the politics out of it and let the events of that night speak for themselves.’ Keep your eyes peeled because Under Fire is soon to be an HBO film from the producer of Behind The Candelabra.

Follow Fred Burton on Twitter @fred_burton.

Under Fire is available now from all good bookshops and as an eBook.

Watch Ian Plenderleith introduce Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer

The USA national team will tonight line up against Belgium in Brazil to compete for a place in the World Cup quarter finals. They are on the brink of equalling their best ever World Cup showing and the sport’s popularity has soared state-side as result. Not since Pelé was strutting his stuff for the Cosmos has ‘soccer’ been such a hot topic, so what better time to indulge in some NASL nostalgia.

Watch the video below of Ian Plenderleith, author of upcoming Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League, introduce his book. Rock ’n’ Roll Soccer reveals in all its glory the colour and chaos of the world’s first truly international league. How it sold itself in a continent unfamiliar with soccer, and how it crashed back down to earth like a rock star’s private jet, bankrupt but laughing all the way.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer by Ian Plenderleith, with a Foreword by Rodney Marsh, will be available everywhere books are sold from 4th September. Go here to read more about it.

Published this November, a book of science haiku by Camden School for Girls!

We are incredibly excited to announce that this November we will be publishing Sciku: The Wonder of Science – in Haiku!, written entirely by students at Camden School for Girls.

The 400 haiku will cover science themes from gravity to photosynthesis, from Einstein’s E=mc² to Marie Curie’s discovery of radium, just like this example:

Gravity
An attractive force
Between all objects with mass
Just like you and me

Elizabeth Kitcatt, Headteacher of Camden School for Girls, says ‘This is such an exciting opportunity for the girls to work on an incredibly creative cross-curricular project. I know they’ll have fun rising to the challenge and it’s a fantastic way for them to contribute towards building the school’s next generation science labs’.

Simon Flynn, author of The Science Magpie and chemistry teacher at the school, says: ‘It’s wonderful to see the girls embracing the joy and wonder of science so enthusiastically and in such an inspirational way. Too many people still believe that girls don’t enjoy science and that science and literature don’t mix. It’s particularly pleasing to see the girls cheerfully engaged in actively disproving these two widely held misconceptions’.

All royalties from sales of the book will go towards modernising the school’s science laboratories.

Sciku will be published on 6th November and will be the perfect science gift this Christmas. It will be available everywhere books are sold and as an eBook.

View the announcement over on Book Brunch and read more about the book here. Follow Simon Flynn on Twitter @science_magpie.

From bestselling popular science author Brian Clegg, comes The Quantum Age

Brian Clegg’s new popular science masterpiece, The Quantum Age: How the Physics of the Very Small has Transformed Our Lives, available now, shows us all how quantum physics underpins everyday life.

The stone age, the iron age, the steam and electrical ages all saw the reach of humankind transformed by new technology. Now we are living in the quantum age, a revolution in everyday life led by our understanding of the very, very small.

Today, technologies based on quantum physics account for 30 per cent of US GDP, and yet quantum particles such as atoms, electrons and photons remain enigmatic, acting totally unlike the objects we experience directly. Weird quantum behaviour is also essential to nature. From the mechanism of the Sun to quantum biology in our eyesight, photosynthesis in plants and the ability of birds to navigate, quantum effects are key.

Quantum physics lies at the heart of every electronic device, every smartphone and laser, and now quantum superconductors have moved out of the lab to make levitating trains and MRI scanners possible, while soon superfast, ultra-secure quantum computers may be a reality.

Acclaimed popular science author Brian Clegg brings his trademark clarity and enthusiasm to a book that will give the world around you a new sense of wonder.

Check out the video below of Brian Clegg teaching quantum physics to Robert Peston and read a free extract from the book here!

The Quantum Age is available now from all good bookshops and as an eBook. Follow Brian Clegg on Twitter @brianclegg.

New Books Published In June: Harry’s Last Stand, The Quantum Age, Tales from the Turf & Introducing Lévi-Strauss: A Graphic Guide

Check out the new books we published this month!

Harry’s Last Stand is 91-year-old Yorkshireman and RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith’s unique perspective on NHS cutbacks, benefits policy, political corruption, food poverty, the cost of education – and much more. Read an extract from Harry’s Last Stand on the NHS over at the Guardian.

In The Quantum Age, Brian Clegg, acclaimed popular science writer and author of Inflight Science, The Universe Inside You and Dice World, demonstrates how quantum physics underpins everyday life.

In Tales from the Turf, new in paperback, Robin Oakley shares 40 years’ worth of stories and anecdotes from his life as one of Britain’s best-known turf enthusiasts. Join him as he shares evocative personal stories of being there at racing legends’ key moments.

Add a new compact Graphic Guide to your collection this month – Introducing Lévi-Strauss, a guide to the work of the great French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009), tracing the development and influence of Lévi-Strauss’ thought, from his early work on the function of the incest taboo to initiate an exchange of women between groups, to his identification of a timeless “wild” or “primitive” mode of thinking – a pensée sauvage – behind the processes of human culture.

And don’t forget The Unknown Unknown, his specially commissioned for Independent Booksellers Week, about the most valuable thing about a really good bookshop. Available exclusively from independent bookshops from 28th June.

All books available in all good bookshops and as an eBook. Head over to @iconbooks to see how you can win our new titles!

Read an extract from Harry’s Last Stand in the Guardian

Harry’s Last Stand: How the world my generation built is falling down, and what we can do to save it by Harry Leslie Smith, published today, has been extracted in the Guardian.

Check out his powerful and moving article on the NHS below.

Post by The Guardian.

Harry Leslie Smith will be in conversation with Selina Todd at Blackwell’s Oxford on Monday 9th June at 7pm. Tickets £3 and can be purchased in store or by calling 01865 333 623. Go here to see more details.

Harry Leslie Smith stands up for the NHS. Tell the world what you stand up for over at harrylaststand.com and share it using #istandupfor.

New for Autumn – Geoff Hurst’s Fifty Greatest Footballers of All Time

Sir Geoff Hurst (right) with Icon’s MD Philip Cotterell (left)

We’re delighted to announce that this autumn we will be publishing Geoff Hurst’s Fifty Greatest Footballers of All Time, by legendary 1966 England World Cup hero and hat-trick scorer Sir Geoff Hurst, in association with Timpson, the leading nationwide service retailer.

Sir Geoff’s choice of his Fifty Greatest players includes outstanding players from his own era alongside stars from the 1980s onwards. Fans of all ages will be keen to know if Franz Beckenbauer tops England’s heroic Bobby Moore? Or whether Messi managed to edge ahead of his countryman Maradona? Will Bale or Suarez have done enough to make the cut?

Far from being impartial, the list is a personal one for Sir Geoff, reflecting his own tastes. As he says in his introduction, ‘The majority are forwards. Ten of them are English. Five are team mates from the 1966 World Cup Final squad. But that leaves thirty five other players in all other positions and somehow, in some undefinable way, I have ranked them all … And these are all players for whom I would happily pay the price of a match ticket to go and watch. And it is a funny thing about “greatness” – which is what I think all these 50 have to varying degrees – and that is it is something which, when displayed in whatever walk of life, we can somehow all recognise.’

Geoff Hurst’s Fifty Greatest Footballers of All Time will be published on 6th November and will be available from all good bookshops as a £10 hardback and an eBook.

New Books Published in May: Lucky Planet, The Kitchen Magpie, Hess, Hitler & Churchill, Best Served Cold and New Practical Guides!

Check out our new books published this month!

Kicking off first we have David Waltham’s Lucky Planet. Science tells us that life elsewhere in the Universe is increasingly likely to be discovered. But in fact the Earth may be a very unusual planet – perhaps the only one like it in the entire visible Universe. David Waltham asks why, and comes up with some surprising and unconventional answers – watch him talk about the book.

The Kitchen Magpie is the latest addition in the Magpie miscellany series. Delving into forgotten corners of gastronomic history, James Steen reveals what Parmesan has to do with broken bones and why John Wayne kept a cow in a hotel. With much-loved cooks including Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood sharing passion and know-how, this mouth-watering miscellany will sate the appetite of every kitchen dweller, from the masterful expert to the earnest apprentice. Read a free extract.

New in paperback we have Peter Padfield’s Hess, Hitler & Churchill, A startling, revelatory history of Rudolf Hess’s 1941 flight to Scotland, containing new evidence of his aims, and of official British suppression of them, described as ‘grippingly readable’ by Sunday Telegraph. Best Served Cold is the dramatic story of the ups and downs of a born entrepreneur – Malcolm Walker, who was born in Yorkshire in 1946 and opened the first Iceland frozen food shop in 1970.

We have also added two brilliant books to our Practical Guide series of pocket-sized books on life-changing practices: Introducing Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Introducing Confident Speaking.

All books available in all good bookshops and as an eBook. Head over to @iconbooks to see how you can win our new titles!

Earth Day with David Waltham’s Lucky Planet

Today is Earth Day, a worldwide campaign for environmental protection. We thought we’d celebrate by sharing this video by David Waltham, about his upcoming book Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional – and What that Means for Life in the Universe, published next month. In this pop-science masterpiece Waltham argues that life on Earth is, amazingly, a cosmic fluke. So shouldn’t we do all we can to protect it?

Science tells us that life elsewhere in the Universe is increasingly likely to be discovered. But in fact the Earth may be a very unusual planet – perhaps the only one like it in the entire visible Universe. In Lucky Planet David Waltham asks why, and comes up with some surprising and unconventional answers.

Recent geological, biological, and astronomical discoveries are bringing us closer to understanding whether we might be alone in the Universe, and this book uses these to question the conventional wisdom and suggest, instead, that the Earth may have had ‘four billion years of good weather’ purely by chance.

If Earth-like worlds don’t have natural stabilising mechanisms, then intelligent observers such as ourselves will only ever look out onto those rare planets where, like the Earth, all the bad things that could have happened to the climate have fortunately cancelled each other out. So before you prepare to meet the aliens, consider that we are probably alone…

Lucky Planet will be available from all good bookshops and as an eBook from 1st May. Follow @David_Waltham on Twitter and find out more about Earth Day here.

A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford – The Launch Party!

We have a brilliant guest post today from Victoria Pavlova (@vickyvvp), who did some work experience with us recently, and during her time here, helped out at the launch party for Tim Bradford’s A London Country Diary earlier this month.

Reading Tim Bradford’s A London Country Diary is a very unfamiliar – though thoroughly enjoyable – experience for a non-Londoner. A chorus of confused seagulls is a universal experience, but things like the Blackstock Road music shop, or the particular brand of street foliage that grows in Stoke Newington – less so. That might be why the book’s launch at the Stoke Newington Bookshop worked so well. It’s the kind of high street indie where everyone is welcome – even a jittery little immigrant intern. But I digress.

As a first-time book launch attendee, I’d call the night a resounding success*. The night kicked off with a short introduction by Tim Bradford himself. Like all authors, Tim has his influences, which range from his old school sketchbook, to a gardening manual (hint: some have been more influential than others). After reading a couple of passages from A London Country Diary, he introduced us to the local wildlife and explained all the ways in which North London is like Narnia – all fascinating stuff. His relationship with North London might sound like a love-hate affair, but the love part always shines through.

Tim then passed the floor to Stewart Lee to read his introduction. Let’s just say that everyone loves a bit of fun at the author’s expense. “Where Sinclair sees the city pavements scarred by the claws of global capitalism, corporate greed and the ongoing annihilation of the individual, Bradford sees only weeds, slugs and foxes tugging at an abandoned pizza…,” Stewart read, sparking a wave of laughter.

The family affair feel of the evening was aided by the fact that afterwards, Tim called on those who spent years listening to him going on about the book – his brother, friends and fellow North London enthusiasts (Tim’s entourage if you will) – to read a few more choice passages. It was a good time. Afterwards, it was back to the routine for the crowd at the Stoke Newington Bookshop. For Tim and the lovely ladies at the bookshop however, the work was just starting – so many books to sell and sign… so little time.

*This post contains no paid advertising. Honest.

Find out more about A London Country Diary here and at londoncountrydiary.com, where you can also discover how to become an urban country diarist. Follow Tim Bradford @Urban_Country and view more photos from the launch on Facebook. A London Country Diary is available now from all good bookshops. Stoke Newington Bookshop is currently selling Tim Bradford’s wonderful map of North London for £2.99 or £1 with the book.

The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted, by Mark Forsyth, exclusively for Independent Booksellers Week

We are excited to reveal that Mark Forsyth, author of the Sunday Times Number One bestseller and its successful follow-ups The Etymologicon, The Horologicon and The Elements of Eloquence, is the author of this year’s specially commissioned essay for IBW Bookseller Collectibles: The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted.

IBW Booksellers Collectibles is a range of books provided exclusively for indies to sell during Independent Booksellers Week, which takes place 28th June–5th July. Mark Forsyth explores in this essay why Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy would never have met online, the pleasure of leafing through a dictionary, and why only a bookshop can give you what you never knew you were looking for.

Mark Forsyth, who will also be on tour throughout IBW, visiting a new bookshop each evening, said, ‘To be asked to write the pamphlet for Independent Booksellers Week is both a pleasure and an honour (two things that rarely coincide). I’ve spent so long snuffling around in bookshops, that it’s wonderful to be able to look back at my life and call it research. I firmly believe that the bookshop is alive and well with a long life ahead of it, and I intend to explain my reasoning’.

And if that wasn’t enough, we’ll also be publishing the paperback of The Elements of Eloquence early for IBW, exclusively for indies!

The Unknown Unknown will be available from 28th June at £1.99 from independent bookshops (UK and Ireland) and available everywhere else from September. Find out more about Independent Booksellers Week by visiting the website and following the hashtag #IBW2014 on Twitter and follow Mark Forsyth @inkyfool and inkyfool.com.

New Books Published in April: A London Country Diary, Sensation, Neymar, and Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo

We published four very different yesterday and we’re excited to share them with you!

Warm temperatures make us temporarily friendlier. The colour red causes us to perform poorly on tests. Heavy clipboards make the CVs clipped to them seem more impressive. Clean smells promote moral behaviour. In Sensation, leading psychologist Thalma Lobel takes us on a trip around the senses, revealing the amazing extent to which our external environment profoundly shapes our thoughts, emotions and decisions about everything from the people we like to the way we work.

For fifteen years, Tim Bradford has meandered round the quiet streets of his North London home, seeking out the ordinary and the extraordinary, the sublime and the ridiculous. A London Country Diary documents his wanderings – he attempts to rescue a deer in Clissold Park, talks to a magical old man in Holloway, breaks up a fight in Stoke Newington and has issues with foxes in Highbury. And that’s just the beginning. Head over to londoncountrydiary.com to find out more about the book and how to become an urban country diarist!

In Neymar: The Making of the World’s Greatest New Number 10, Luca Caioli, author of bestselling biographies of Messi and Ronaldo, reconstructs Neymar’s life and career through exclusive private access to his friends, his family, his coaches, his teammates, his advisors, his fans. And in Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo he asks: ‘Who is the greatest of them all?’. Comparing contrasting styles, stories, records and awards, he gives you everything you need to decide who comes out on top.

Browse our July – December 2014 catalogue!

We’re still only at the beginning of 2014, but it’s the time of year where we start to let everyone know about new and exciting books that we’re publishing from July (with one exception!) until the end of the year.

We are looking forward to publishing Harry’s Last Stand in June – 91-year-old Harry Leslie Smith’s unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, political corruption, food poverty, the lack of dignity in old age, and much more. His Guardian article – ‘This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time’ – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate.

We are also publishing Do You Still Think You’re Clever?, the highly-anticipated sequel to John Farndon’s bestselling book of Oxbridge questions. Luca Caioli, author of bestselling Messi and Ronaldo, tackles Suarez in his latest biography and US-based British football writer Ian Plenderleith looks at the North American Soccer League at its peak in the 1970s in Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer. We also have some exciting paperbacks for you this autumn, including The Elements of Eloquence, The Antiques Magpie and You Are the Music as well as a new addition to the Magpie miscellany series – The Classics Magpie. Browse our catalogue below to read about these books and more!

If you would like a hard copy, just get in touch and we’ll be happy to send one out to you.

New Books Published in March: You Are the Music, Cracked, Introducing Walter Benjamin & 30-Second Brain

It’s publication day for Icon Books and this month we have four smart-thinking books to share with you!

Do babies remember music from the womb? Can classical music increase your child’s IQ? Is music good for productivity? You Are the Music is a brilliant new work from music psychologist Victoria Williamson that will delight music lovers of every persuasion. Enter to win one of 15 signed copies over at Caboodle, listen to Victoria speak on BBC Radio 4 about the role of music in human development, and read a free extract.

Why is psychiatry such big business? Why are so many psychiatric drugs prescribed – 47 million antidepressant prescriptions in the UK alone last year – and why, without solid scientific justification, has the number of mental disorders risen from 106 in 1952 to 374 today? Cracked, by psychological therapist James Davies,– available in paperback for the first time – reveals the true human cost of an industry that, in the name of helping others, has actually been helping itself.

Walter Benjamin is often considered the key modern philosopher and critic of modern art. Tracing his influence on modern aesthetics and cultural history, Introducing Walter Benjamin: A Graphic Guide highlights his commitment to political transformation of the arts as a means to bring about social change. Head over to introducingbooks.com to find out more about the series.

Are we all at the mercy of our brain chemistry? Do you think that the amygdala and the hippocampus are fantastical sea monsters? What can an MRI scan tell us? 30-Second Brain, edited by Anil Seth, is here to fill your mind with the science of exactly what’s happening inside your head. Using no more than two pages, 300 words and an illustration, this is the quickest way to understand the wiring and function of the most complex and intricate mechanism in the human body.

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