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'One of the best - and most authentic - spy thrillers in years' The Times***THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR***FIFTH NOVEL LONDON STATION AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDERFROM THE CO-HOST OF PODCAST THE REST IS CLASSIFIEDA CIA officer and his recruit arrive in Damascus to hunt for a killerCIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad's recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy.But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad's spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.PRAISE FOR DAMASCUS STATION:'Simply marvellous storytelling...a stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre' - Financial Times'The best spy novel I have ever read' - General David Petraeus, former director of the CIA‘For the most accurate fictional account of what life is like working in today’s intelligence services, forget John Le Carré and read David McCloskey’s thrilling Damascus Station’ - Sir John Sawers, ex-Head of MI6___________RAVE READER REVIEWS FOR DAMASCUS STATION'Read this book… and order Moscow X''An intense, unforgettable tour de force that must be read''WOW! What an astonishing read''David McCloskey knows his stuff… an impressive page-turner''Genuinely original''Excellent, gritty espionage novel''A refreshingly credible, engaging and exciting spy thriller'

'Brilliant wildly compelling, thrilling read that I couldn't put down. One of the best thrillers I've ever read, propulsively realistic & prophetic. His creation Artemis is becoming a classic. McCloskey is the top spy thrillerist of our lethal era' - Simon MontefioreWhat if the CIA and British intelligence began spying on each other? This is the question at the heart of David McCloskey's thrilling fifth novel. A new US Administration has taken office, installing a brash and unconventional CIA Director determined to disrupt the Agency and sceptical of its close relationship with their cousins across the Atlantic. Case officers, including newly installed London Chief of Station, Artemis Procter, must now navigate a tense environment as old friends become adversaries and no one knows who to trust. When agents run by both services begin dying, Procter and her team at London Station must decide whether loyalty to the Mission and their friends means disobeying the Agency they serve.Immersing readers in the technological revolution upending intelligence tradecraft, David McCloskey's brilliant new thriller depicts the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of how CIA and MI6 collaborate and explores what happens when politics threaten to destroy the 'Special Relationship' between America and Britain.Fans of Mick Herron will love David McCloskey.THE FIFTH NOVEL FROM FORMER CIA OFFICER, THE REST IS CLASSIFIED PODCAST CO-HOST AND THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ***THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR***DAMASCUS STATION ('One of the best spy thrillers in years' THE TIMES) AND ***SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*** MOSCOW X

In A Billion Years of Sex Differences, evolutionary psychologist Steve Stewart-Williams tackles some of science’s most controversial questions: How do men and women differ? Where do the differences come from? And how do they shape modern life?The result is the most up-to-date, balanced, and engaging account of human sex differences yet written, covering everything from dating and mating to aggression and parenting, from children’s toy preferences and workplace gender gaps to mental health and the politics of equality. Drawing on a century of research - and a billion years of evolution - Stewart-Williams explains why many sex differences appear despite socialization, not because of it; why in our mating and parenting patterns, humans are more like the average bird than the average mammal; and why sex differences are sometimes a sign of societal health rather than injustice.With more than two decades of research in evolutionary psychology and an international reputation in the field, Steve Stewart-Williams is uniquely positioned to challenge prevailing views in this fraught debate. Avoiding the extremes of either overstating or denying the differences, he argues that, rather than trying to make men and women identical, we should strive for a world where bias and barriers are eliminated, and where people are free to be themselves whether they conform to gender norms or defy them.

'Thrilling, propulsive and terrifying' Simon Sebag MontefioreTHE SECOND NOVEL FROM FORMER CIA OFFICER, THE REST IS CLASSIFIED PODCAST CO-HOST AND THE SUNDAY TIMES-BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SEVENTH FLOOR AND ***THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR*** DAMASCUS STATION ('One of the best spy thrillers in years' THE TIMES)FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2024SHORTLISTED IN THE NED KELLY AWARDS 2025FIFTH NOVEL LONDON STATION AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOWA daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin.But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?CIA operatives Sia and Max enter Russia to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London firm that conceals the wealth of the super-rich. Max’s family business in Mexico – a CIA front since the 1960s – is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple, and their targets are Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife Anna, who is both a banker and an intelligence officer herself…PRAISE FOR MOSCOW X:'The most authentic depiction of CIA deep cover operations you'll find in print' - John Sipher, Former CIA Senior Operations Officer'A terrific read, cementing McCloskey in my mind as the best spy fiction writer since le Carré' - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times'Spellbinding ... An electrifying read. I could not put it down' - Clarissa Ward, CNN Chief International CorrespondentRAVE READER REVIEWS:'Moves at a ripping pace. A terrific, unputdownable page-turner''A page-turner, the pace is frantic ... Superb fun''A barnstorming tour de force. I loved it!'

One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. 'A heart-breaker and heart-mender at once, this is a story that forces us to confront our vulnerabilities and secrets in order to find our strength and truth. A stunning debut!' - TAYARI JONES, New York Times bestselling author of An American MarriageRyan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so when a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents.Years later, when Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history and decide whether she can open up to love for them – or herself – while there’s still time.

THE TELEGRAPH, BLOOMBERG AND TIME 'BOOK OF THE YEAR''A taut, immersive chronicle of endurance' Time Magazine'One of the most compelling and unflinching books you will ever read' Daily TelegraphOn 7 October, 2023, Hamas terrorists stormed Kibbutz Be’eri, shattering the peaceful life Eli Sharabi had built with his British wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel. Dragged barefoot out of his front door while his family watched in horror, Sharabi was plunged deep into the suffocating darkness of Gaza’s tunnels. As war raged above him, he endured a gruelling 491 days in captivity - all the while holding onto the hope that he would one day be reunited with his loved ones.In the first memoir by a released Israeli hostage, and the fastest-selling book in Israel’s history, Sharabi offers a searing firsthand account of survival under unimaginable conditions - starvation, isolation, physical beatings, and psychological abuse at the hands of his captors.Eli Sharabi’s story is one of hunger and heartache, of physical pain, longing, loneliness and a helplessness that threatens to destroy the soul. But it is also a story of strength, of resilience, and of the human spirit’s refusal to surrender. It is about the camaraderie forged in captivity, the quiet power of faith, and one man’s unrelenting decision to choose life, time and time again.Reminiscent of Elie Wiesel’s Night, Hostage is a profound witness to history, so that it shall be neither forgotten nor erased.

The Sunday Times Bestseller'A full-spectrum triumph' GuardianA sensational new novel from the bestselling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends as a serial killer strikes across the city. His first novel in 13 years, The Shards is Bret Easton Ellis at his inimitable best.LA, 1981. Buckley College in heat. 17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends, even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equalled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with The Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence.Can he trust his friends – or his own mind – to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, Bret spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between The Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting and often darkly funny, The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret’s life at 17 – sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage.

'A superb and compelling espionage drama inside the Iran Israel shadow war by the top spy thrillerist of these wild turbulent times' Simon Sebag Montefiore'A great spy writer' Tim ShipmanWhat happens when a spy is forced to reckon with the consequences of his deception?Kamran Esfahani, a Persian Jewish dentist from Stockholm, dreams of starting afresh in California. To finance his new life, he agrees to spy for Mossad in Iran, working with a clandestine unit tasked with sowing chaos and sabotage inside the country. When he’s captured by Iranian security forces, Kamran is compelled to confess his experiences as a spy, in a testimonial dealing not only with the security of nations, but also with revenge, deceit, and the power of love and forgiveness in a world of lies.Mixing suspense with strikingly cinematic action, David McCloskey takes readers deep into the shadow war between Iran and Israel, delivering propulsive storytelling and riveting tradecraft.THE FOURTH NOVEL FROM FORMER CIA OFFICER, THE REST IS CLASSIFIED PODCAST CO-HOST AND THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ***THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR***DAMASCUS STATION (‘One of the best spy thrillers in years’ THE TIMES) AND ***SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*** MOSCOW XFIFTH NOVEL LONDON STATION AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOWREADER REVIEWS'A brilliant gripping read. This is one of his best books''An excellent read from the pen of one who has been there and done it all, especially in light of current events in the Middle East.''This is the best book I have read in years. A superb spy novel.''Couldn’t put it down, this is an amazing book...This is a must read from a great writer!'

An unparalleled group of prominent scholars from wide-ranging disciplines detail ongoing efforts to impose ideological restrictions on science and scholarship throughout western society.From assaults on merit-based hiring to the policing of language and replacing well-established, disciplinary scholarship by ideological mantras, current science and scholarship is under threat throughout western institutions. As detailed by this group of prominent scholars – who range across many different disciplines and political leanings – the very future of free inquiry and scientific progress is at risk.Many who have spoken up against this threat have lost their positions, and a climate of fear has arisen that strikes at the heart of modern education and research. Banding together to finally speak out, this brave and unprecedented group of scholars issues a clarion call for change.Contributors: Richard Dawkins; Alan Sokal; Niall Ferguson; Gad Saad; Anna Krylov; Jay Tanzman; John Armstrong; Jerry Coyne; Luana Maroja; Sally Satel; Geoff Horsman; Alessandro Strumia; Roger Cohen; Amy Wax; Alex Byrne; Moti Gorin; Judith Suissa; Alice Sullivan; Dorian Abbot; Steven Pinker; Nicholas Christakis; Richard E. Redding.

Look past what you're being TOLDAnd see what you're being SOLD‘Anyone who cares about the girls and young women in their lives should read GIRLS®’ JONATHAN HAIDT'Freya India is one of our sharpest, smartest young writers' HELEN LEWISGIRLS®: Gen Z and the Commodification of Everything is a passionate, provocative and deeply personal journey into the pressures shaping young lives today. Freya India shows that age-old anxieties of girlhood are now being amplified by modern life and exploited like never before. While previous generations of women were relentlessly sold products and procedures, we have become the product. We display our lives on Instagram, advertise ourselves on dating apps and package ourselves into personal brands, making anxiety feel overwhelming and unmanageable. We have transformed from girls into GIRLS®, from people into products.Each chapter of GIRLS® focuses on a common anxiety in adolescent girls’ lives, from insecurities about our faces and bodies, to our reputation and social status, to our friendships and romantic relationships. Along the way, India traces how rapidly culture and technology have evolved over the past decade.This isn’t just a book for girls. For young women, it offers a nostalgic, if unsettling, reflection on the world they’ve grown up in and reassurance that they’re not alone in their struggles. For younger girls, it provides context for where these challenges began and warns where they might be headed. And, for parents, teachers and older generations, it serves as a reminder that these issues have never been so intense.GIRLS® concludes with a message of hope, reminding readers how to reclaim their privacy, defend their dignity, and, above all, return to being people instead of products.

THE UNMISSABLE BESTSELLER INSPIRED BY THE REMARKABLE TRUE STORY OF MIDWIFE MARTHA BALLARDInspired by the life of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into history.For fans of OUTLANDER and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING‘These markings of ink and paper will one day be the only proof that I have existed in this world. That I lived and breathed'Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.Brimming with courage, mystery, and heart, The Frozen River is the perfect curl-up-and-dive-in read for anyone who loves unforgettable heroines and atmospheric winter drama.'Thrilling' Irish Times'Lawhon works storytelling magic with a real-life heroine' People Magazine‘The narrator of Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River is another stalwart heroine’ The New York Times'Historical fiction at its best!' 5 Star Reader ReviewReaders love Ariel Lawhon'The HYPE IS REAL ... I was absolutely drawn into Martha’s world, the harshness of the life, the struggle of women to have a voice, the mystery created. I loved this book so much! It’s in my books of the year'‘I give this book ALL THE STARS … One of the BEST HISTORICAL FICTION THRILLER BOOKS that I’ve read’'Extremely ABSORBING and enjoyable read''RIVETING ... I would thoroughly recommend it to any historical fiction lovers, or those who enjoy stories based around strong women''This story is so POWERFUL, and it’s astonishing how relevant Martha’s FIGHT FOR JUSTICE still feels today ... If you’re looking for a rich, layered story about justice, resilience, and a woman who refused to be silenced, The Frozen River is A MUST-READ''Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction with STRONG FEMALE LEADS, intricate plotting, and a BEATING HEART OF JUSTICE. A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, quietly fierce book that will stay with you long after the final page’‘Its SECRETS kept me UTTERLY HOOKED'

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTHE TIMES BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025‘A rare combination of experience and talent’ Mick Herron'His best yet ... Superb, addictively suspenseful, its politics and tradecraft coolly accurate, scary, intricate and complex ... The new maestro of espionage thrillers' Simon Sebag Montefiore‘The Seventh Floor is a truly creative, riveting page turner that will cement McCloskey’s reputation as the best contemporary spy novelist' General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA'This enthralling read cements McCloskey's place in the first division of spy writers' Financial TimesTHE THIRD NOVEL FROM FORMER CIA OFFICER, THE REST IS CLASSIFIED PODCAST CO-HOST AND THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ***THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR***DAMASCUS STATION ('One of the best spy thrillers in years' THE TIMES) AND ***SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*** MOSCOW XFIFTH NOVEL LONDON STATION AVAILABLE NOW TO PRE-ORDERALL YOUR LIFE YOU'RE CIA. THEN YOU'RE NOT.A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat and run out of the service. Traded back in a spy swap, Sam appears at Procter’s central Florida doorstep months later with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole hidden deep within the upper reaches of CIA.As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter’s closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt soon requires Procter to dredge up her own checkered past in service of CIA, placing her and Sam into the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow’s mole in Langley at all costs, even if it means wreaking bloody havoc across the United States.Bouncing between the corridors of Langley and the Kremlin, the thrilling new novel by David McCloskey explores the nature of friendship in a faithless business, and what it means to love a place that does not love you back.

If you want to 'change lives, change organisations, change the world,' the Stanford business school’s motto, you need power.Is power the last dirty secret or the secret to success? Both. While power carries some negative connotations, power is a tool that can be used for good or evil. Don’t blame the tool for how some people used it.Rooted firmly in social science research, Pfeffer’s 7 rules provide a manual for increasing your ability to get things done, including increasing the positive effects of your job performance.With 7 Rules of Power, you’ll learn, through both numerous examples as well as research evidence, how to accomplish change in your organisation, your life, the lives of others, and the world.

THE TELEGRAPH, BLOOMBERG AND TIME 'BOOK OF THE YEAR''A taut, immersive chronicle of endurance' Time Magazine'One of the most compelling and unflinching books you will ever read' Daily TelegraphOn 7 October, 2023, Hamas terrorists stormed Kibbutz Be’eri, shattering the peaceful life Eli Sharabi had built with his British wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel. Dragged barefoot out of his front door while his family watched in horror, Sharabi was plunged deep into the suffocating darkness of Gaza’s tunnels. As war raged above him, he endured a gruelling 491 days in captivity - all the while holding onto the hope that he would one day be reunited with his loved ones.In the first memoir by a released Israeli hostage, and the fastest-selling book in Israel’s history, Sharabi offers a searing firsthand account of survival under unimaginable conditions - starvation, isolation, physical beatings, and psychological abuse at the hands of his captors.Eli Sharabi’s story is one of hunger and heartache, of physical pain, longing, loneliness and a helplessness that threatens to destroy the soul. But it is also a story of strength, of resilience, and of the human spirit’s refusal to surrender. It is about the camaraderie forged in captivity, the quiet power of faith, and one man’s unrelenting decision to choose life, time and time again.Reminiscent of Elie Wiesel’s Night, Hostage is a profound witness to history, so that it shall be neither forgotten nor erased.

The Sunday Times Bestseller'A full-spectrum triumph' GuardianA TV tie-in edition to accompany the upcoming series produced by Ryan MurphyLA, 1981. Buckley College in heat. 17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends, even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equalled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with The Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence.Can he trust his friends – or his own mind – to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, Bret spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between The Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting and often darkly funny, The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret’s life at 17 – sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage.

‘A superb, sexy sequel to Presumed Innocent’ Sunday Times‘A legend of suspense fiction’ Steve Cavanagh‘The master of the courtroom drama’ Daniel Silva‘A writer with few peers in any genre’ David BaldacciDaily Mail Books to Watch 2025The Times Best Thrillers of 2025 So FarIn a sequel to Presumed Innocent, the book that redefined the legal thriller, judge and lawyer Rusty Sabich returns to the courtroom to defend his step-son against a racially-charged murder indictment as the boy’s life – and perhaps Rusty’s last chance at happiness – hang in the balance.Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight and a long hitchhike home. Days later, when she still hasn’t returned, suspicion falls on Aaron, and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested and set for trial on charges of first degree murder.Faced with few choices and even fewer hopes, Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent – it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.5* READER REVIEWS'Absolutely brilliant''Scott Turow at his very best''A great legal thriller ... Kept me riveted''Fantastic. It will draw you in from the first page''Scott Turow is the master of the legal, court room drama''A masterpiece - one of the best legal thrillers I have read''This is what you call a proper legal thriller'

'Woody Allen’s wonderful novel reads like one of his films' The Telegraph'As a portrait of Woody Allen by Woody Allen, it’s a classic' The Standard'Good gags abound in this tale of a bespectacled Jewish writer caught up in a #MeToo takedown' GuardianAsher Baum is quietly losing his mind. Can you blame him?'Maybe what I really want is to make sense of all people’s lives. Of everything, the whole shebang'Baum’s prestigious New York publisher has dropped him, his third marriage is on the rocks and he suspects his handsome and successful younger brother may have seduced his wife. He is uneasy with her close relationship with her son, a more successful author than he, and suspicious of her closeness with their neighbour. And in a moment of irrationality, he has impulsively tried to kiss a pretty young journalist during an interview.What’s with Baum? is Woody Allen’s first novel and it is everything you would expect of him – and more. A portrait of an intellectual crippled by neuroses; an evocative love letter to New York; and above all, a slyly entertaining, tightly plotted, highly accomplished work of fiction from one of our foremost cinematic and literary talents.

'Every parent needs to read this' Helen JoyceUntil just a few years ago, gender dysphoria – severe discomfort in one’s biological sex – was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively.But today whole groups of female friends in colleges and schools across the world are coming out as 'transgender'. These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans 'influencers'.Unsuspecting parents now find their daughters in thrall to YouTube stars and 'gender-affirming' educators and therapists, who push life-changing interventions on young girls – including medically unnecessary double mastectomies, and hormone treatments that can cause permanent infertility.Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has talked to the girls, their agonised parents, and the therapists and doctors who enable gender transitions, as well as to 'detransitioners' – young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves. Coming out as transgender immediately boosts these girls’ social status, Shrier finds, but once they take the first steps of transition, it is not easy to walk back.

One of humanity’s greatest modern threats involves an area of life we thought we had mastered: energy. For the last century our energy system has delivered rising prosperity, increased lifespans and largely eliminated famine. Now it is being dismantled – with confidence, with public money and with almost no scrutiny.In this short, sharp book, Richard Lyon – electrical engineer, petroleum engineer and energy economist – strips the energy debate back to the physics. What he finds is alarming: fossil fuels are running out, the proposed replacements can't do the job and the people in charge don't understand the science well enough to realise, much less pursue, solutions.The consequences could be severe, but they are not yet inevitable. In a series of lucid chapters, The Energy Trap sets out the problem and proposes a way forward – provided we are willing to stop wasting our remaining resources on energy systems that can't work and get on with building one that can.

Ireland, 1535.The sea is no place for a girl.Least of all Grace O’Malley, the only daughter of a powerful chieftain and the family’s best hope of securing a strong alliance through childbirth. But something wild and unexpected stirs within Grace, a yearning that neither her father nor her mother – nor even the brutal warrior she is eventually forced to marry – can suppress for long.1586. Over the past half-century, the determined young girl has defied all expectations. Now heir to clan O’Malley’s mighty fleet and a formidable mother, Grace is prepared to kill to protect what is hers. So when Queen Elizabeth’s incursions into Ireland grow bolder she must fight to defend her land, her ships and the people she loves most.Keenly observed and fiercely written, The Pirate Queen is a sweeping historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O’Malley, the legendary Irish folk heroine who risked everything to save her people.PRAISE FOR ARIEL LAWHON'One of our most interesting authors of historical fiction' People'Ariel Lawhon is a masterful storyteller' Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis'Her skill with characterisation is enviable' 5 Star Reader Review'An extremely talented author' 5 Star Reader Review

A bold, provocative exploration of the tension between our evolutionary history and our modern woes – and what we can do about itWe are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet we are listless, divided and miserable. Wealth and comfort are unparalleled, but our political landscape is unmoored, and rates of suicide, loneliness and chronic illness continue to skyrocket. How do we explain the gap between these truths? And how should we respond?For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of our woes is clear: the modern world is out of sync with our ancient brains and bodies. We evolved to live in clans, but today many people don't even know their neighbours' names. Survival in our earliest societies depended on living in harmony with nature, but today the food we eat, the work we do – even the light we absorb – is radically different from what our minds and bodies evolved to expect.In this book, Heying and Weinstein draw on decades of their work teaching in college classrooms and exploring earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems to confront today’s pressing social ills – from widespread sleep deprivation and dangerous diets to damaging parenting styles and backward education practices. A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century outlines a science-based worldview that will empower you to live a better, wiser life.

Shortlisted for the National Book AwardA story of forbidden love and fugitive faith in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle'Transports readers deep into an unfamiliar world, yet with familiar conflicts and desires. I was absorbed and changed. Absolutely beautiful' Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl EarringIn 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse tries in vain to convert the native Sámi reindeer herders to his faith. But when one of the most respected herders has a dramatic awakening and dedicates his life to the church, his impetuous son, Ivvár, is left to guard their diminishing herd alone. By chance, he meets Mad Lasse’s daughter Willa, and their blossoming infatuation grows into something that ultimately crosses borders―of cultures, of beliefs, and of political divides―as Willa follows the herders on their arduous annual migration north to the sea.Gorgeously written and sweeping in scope, Hanna Pylväinen’s The End of Drum-Time immerses readers in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time.

A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025'Compelling and timely' Tirthankar Roy'Essential reading' David EltisMany now claim that Western countries should pay reparations to former colonies for the lasting damage they caused, especially through slavery. Why is this claim being made now? How far does it make sense? And, more generally, how can historic wrongs be righted?Reparations removes the sloganeering from a newly-fashionable cause, sets the issue in its proper historical context, and mounts an ethical counter-argument. The natural sequel to Nigel Biggar's bestselling and widely acclaimed Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, it makes a powerful contribution to an increasingly prominent public debate.

Do you want to write a poem? This book will show you ‘how to grow your own poem’…Kate Clanchy has been teaching people to write poetry for more than twenty years. Some were old, some were young; some were fluent English speakers, some were not. None of them were confident to start with, but a surprising number went to win prizes and every one finished up with a poem they were proud of, a poem that only they could have written – their own poem.Kate’s big secret is a simple one: to share other poems. She believes poetry is like singing or dancing and the best way to learn is to follow someone else. In this book, Kate shares the poems she has found provoke the richest responses, the exercises that help to shape those responses into new poems, and the advice that most often helps new writers build their own writing practice.If you have never written a poem before, this book will get you started. If you have written poems before, this book will help you to write more fluently and confidently, more as yourself. This book not like other creative writing books. It doesn’t ask you to set out on your own, but to join in. Your invitation is inside.

'An exhilarating read' New StatesmanIn Feminism Against Progress, Mary Harrington argues that the industrial-era faith in progress is turning against all but a tiny elite of women. Women’s liberation was less the result of human moral progress than an effect of the material consequences of the Industrial Revolution. We’ve now left the industrial era for the age of AI, biotech and all-pervasive computing. As a result, technology is liberating us from natural limits and embodied sex differences. Although this shift benefits a small class of successful professional women, it also makes it easier to commodify women’s bodies, human intimacy and female reproductive abilities.This is a stark warning against a dystopian future whereby poor women become little more than convenient sources of body parts to be harvested and wombs to be rented by the rich. Progress has now stopped benefiting the majority of women, and only a feminism that is sceptical of it can truly defend female interests in the 21st century.

An unparalleled group of prominent scholars from wide-ranging disciplines detail ongoing efforts to impose ideological restrictions on science and scholarship throughout western society.From assaults on merit-based hiring to the policing of language and replacing well-established, disciplinary scholarship by ideological mantras, current science and scholarship is under threat throughout western institutions. As detailed by this group of prominent scholars – who range across many different disciplines and political leanings – the very future of free inquiry and scientific progress is at risk.Many who have spoken up against this threat have lost their positions, and a climate of fear has arisen that strikes at the heart of modern education and research. Banding together to finally speak out, this brave and unprecedented group of scholars issues a clarion call for change.Contributors: Richard Dawkins; Alan Sokal; Niall Ferguson; Gad Saad; Anna Krylov; Jay Tanzman; John Armstrong; Jerry Coyne; Luana Maroja; Sally Satel; Geoff Horsman; Alessandro Strumia; Roger Cohen; Amy Wax; Alex Byrne; Moti Gorin; Judith Suissa; Alice Sullivan; Dorian Abbot; Steven Pinker; Nicholas Christakis; Richard E. Redding.

'A powerful, important, unforgettable book' Cheryl Strayed, author of WildIn this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena – a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man – Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.