‘A jaunty account of a monumental cock-up. Makes the unbelievable readable.’ Sir Michael Palin

‘High-Speed 2’ was to be the crown jewel of British rail. The first Intercity railway built north of London in over a century, it would connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, bridging the North-South divide and propelling Britain’s infrastructure into the twenty-first century.

Dogged by mismanagement, overspending and incompetence, HS2 has collapsed. What remains is a bleeding stump between Birmingham and the outskirts of London – Euston, the central London terminus, still seemingly unreachable. All of this has cost taxpayers tens of billions.

Sally Gimson meets with the politicians, engineers and ordinary people affected by the failure of HS2. Travelling from demolished council estates in Camden to ghost towns along the now cancelled Northern branch, Off the Rails provides a forensic examination of how a vital social project imploded.

‘Essential and authoritative. Sheds serious light on the dark money, dark ideas & dark souls propelling Trump’s cruelty and betrayal of the USA’ – James O’Brien

In the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election, news spread about Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page document published by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. The debates-and anxiety-surrounding this initiative have only increased as authors of the Project assume positions of power in the second Trump administration.

So, what is Project 2025, exactly? Who wrote it, what does it actually say, and what does it mean for everyday people around the world, across the political spectrum, in the years to come?
In The Project, award-winning journalist David A. Graham offers much-needed context and distills the essential elements of this sprawling document. Breaking down the Project’s strategy for transforming-and radically empowering-the executive branch, Graham then explains what the architects behind Project 2025 would do with that power: restoring traditional gender norms and the supremacy of the nuclear family, decimating the civil service, performing mass deportations, reducing corporate regulation and worker protections, and more.

Project 2025 is the intellectual blueprint for the new administration, Graham argues, and its tenets should not be legible only to policy wonks. Authoritative yet highly accessible, The Project demystifies it for those whose lives it will impact most.

An essential blueprint for a better future, from the leading economist and Labour rising star

‘Stellar: brilliant, incredibly pragmatic’ Rory Stewart
‘Refreshingly optimistic’ The Times
‘No one has done more to re-inject sanity into our national policy’ Emily Maitlis

There are few who are better placed to investigate Britain’s plight than Torsten Bell, Labour MP for Swansea West and former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation.

In Great Britain? he offers both a clear-eyed diagnosis of the problems facing our country – a uniquely toxic combination of huge inequality and stagnant economic growth – and a bold vision for the alternative.

In this treasure trove of enlightening and original analysis, Torsten Bell argues that our era of chaos and cynicism needs neither utopianism nor nostalgia, but a practical patriotism to raise living standards and create a more equal country. This is a book bursting with ideas and infectious hope: Bell passionately points us towards a Britain that we can actually build – a future worth fighting for.

‘A roadmap to the new normal’ Observer
‘Pretty cool’ Alastair Campbell
‘A dose of Torstenomics is the only thing that can give us hope’ Amol Rajan
‘Spiced with wit, masterful, fact-packed’ Polly Toynbee

*Updated with a new Preface*

An entertaining and revealing history of modern British politics – and the pivotal moments that got us where we are now. From Steve Richards, broadcaster, journalist, and author of The Prime Ministers We Never Had.

‘Through wonderful vignettes, Richards offers a masterful, clear-eyed and, above all, entertaining history of British politics’ – Will Hutton

Every few weeks in British politics, a columnist will reach for the word ‘unprecedented’ as a cabinet minister resigns or yet another inquiry is called. In this magisterial history, respected broadcaster and journalist Steve Richards puts the chaos into context.

Blending anecdote and analysis, Richards takes a step back to explore ten critical moments that have shaped modern Britain – from the Suez Crisis of 1956 to the Covid-19 pandemic, from 1945 to Thatcher.

Richards argues that it is only with distance that we can perceive the tectonic plates shifting – and events that may seem earth-shattering in the moment might be a passing tremor with the perspective of history.

A must-read for anyone seeking to understand our nation, this landmark work is enlightening and entertaining in equal measure.

‘Steve Richards is one of the shrewdest political commentators we have’ – Andrew Marr, author of The Making of Modern Britain

‘An essential read – as entertaining as it is insightful – for anyone who cares about the way we treat young people’ Observer

What is school for? Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher, hundreds of interviews and his experience on the UK Government’s Social Mobility Commission, head teacher Sammy Wright exposes the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focusing on the grades pupils get in neatly siloed, academic subjects, we end up ranking them and our schools into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university – the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.

Wright’s entertaining and hugely important book shows that schools are – and should be – so much more than this. With wisdom and humour, balancing idealism and pragmatism, he sets out what a better way would look like and how we might get there.

‘Brilliantly illuminates the realities and blindspots of the system’ Jeffrey Boakye ‘Deeply absorbing…Wright deserves the highest marks’ Financial Times
‘Such a compelling read, no matter your outlook’ Telegraph
‘Extraordinary and brilliant . . . the book education has been waiting for’ Laura McInerney, co-founder of Teacher Tapp

‘A book that will force Left and Right alike to reconsider old assumptions . . . an important book’ The Telegraph

‘A careful, balanced, and convincing take . . . challenges much of what we think is obvious about migration’ Ian Morris, author of Why The West Rules – For Now

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Authoritative and myth-busting, this is the one book you need to read to understand why we’ve been wrong about migration – perfect for fans of Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography

Global migration is not at an all-time high.

Climate change will not lead to mass migration.

Immigration mainly benefits the wealthy, not workers.

Border restrictions have paradoxically produced more migration.

These statements might sound counter-intuitive or just outright wrong – but the facts behind the headlines reveal a completely different story to the ones we’re told about migration. In this ground-breaking and revelatory book, based on more than three decades of research, leading expert Professor Hein de Haas explodes myths from left to right that politicians, interest groups and media regularly spread about migration.

Above all, How Migration Really Works offers a new vision of global migration based on facts rather than fears, and a paradigm-altering understanding of this perennially important subject.

*Thrilling and essential pre-election reading from one of our most influential economists*

‘No one has done more to re-inject sanity into our national policy’ Emily Maitlis
‘Refreshingly optimistic’ The Times
‘Stellar: brilliant, incredibly pragmatic’ Rory Stewart

There are few who are better placed to investigate Britain’s plight than Torsten Bell, former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation and current Labour candidate for Swansea West.

In Great Britain? he offers both a clear-eyed diagnosis of the problems facing our country – a uniquely toxic combination of huge inequality and stagnant economic growth – and a bold vision for the alternative. This is a book bursting with ideas and well-reasoned, infectious hope.

In his treasure trove of enlightening and original analysis, Torsten Bell argues that our era of chaos and cynicism needs neither utopianism nor nostalgia, but a practical patriotism to raise living standards and create a more equal country. He passionately points us towards a Britain that we can actually build – a future worth fighting for.

‘An incisive, upbeat vision of how a Labour government could turn things around’ Observer
‘A dose of Torstenomics is the only thing that can give us hope’ Amol Rajan
‘Spiced with wit, this is a masterful, fact-packed … prescription for a great social and economic restoration’ Polly Toynbee

An engaging, inclusive history of the NHS, exploring its surprising survival-and the people who have kept it running

In recent decades, a wave of appreciation for the NHS has swept across the UK. Britons have clapped for frontline workers and championed the service as a distinctive national achievement. All this has happened in the face of ideological opposition, marketization, and workforce crises. But how did the NHS become what it is today?

In this wide-ranging history, Andrew Seaton examines the full story of the NHS. He traces how the service has changed and adapted, bringing together the experiences of patients, staff from Britain and abroad, and the service’s wider supporters and opponents. He explains not only why it survived the neoliberalism of the late twentieth century but also how it became a key marker of national identity. Seaton emphasizes the resilience of the NHS-perpetually “in crisis” and yet perennially enduring-as well as the political values it embodies and the work of those who have tirelessly kept it afloat.

‘The NHS is an institution. But it’s also a political football, kicked back and forth between politicians for the past 75 years. It’s a burden to some and a potent vote-winner for others. It’s a construct, framed in the media. It’s a set of ideas and a logo. It’s a workplace for many and the birthplace of almost all of us. It’s become a valued part of our society, it is extraordinarily special – and it’s being destroyed.’

The NHS is at crisis point. In the 75 years since it was founded on the dream of making healthcare accessible to everyone, its principles have been chipped away at and disregarded by successive political leaders. The result: an underfunded, understaffed, exhausted workforce, a decimation of patient services and the infiltration of privatisation within our public healthcare system. We are now in danger of losing what we have come to depend upon: the NHS is collapsing and a two-tier healthcare system is emerging in its place. We can stop this, but only if we do it together.

In her first book, Dr Julia Grace Patterson, founder of EveryDoctor and fierce advocate for the future of the NHS, lays bare the truth about the current state of our healthcare system and sets forth transformational ideas on how we could save it. A book built on a love of the NHS at its heart, Critical is a must-read for anyone who wants it to survive for another 75 years.