Meteorologists Simon King and Clare Nasir reveal the captivating ways the weather works, from exploring incredible weather phenomenon (how are rainbows formed?), expertly breaking down our knowledge of the elements (could we harness the power of lightning?) to explaining the significance of weather in history (has the weather ever started a war?) and discussing the future of weather (could climate modification save the planet?).

In What Does Rain Smell Like? Simon and Clare uncover the thrilling science behind a subject that affects us all. They unearth and analyse all aspects of the weather and how it changes our lives through answering our most curious questions about the world around us.

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
A 2023 BOOK OF THE YEAR IN  THE  GUARDIAN  AND THE  NEW YORKER

‘Captivating’  Literary Review
‘Powerful’  New Scientist
‘Impressive’  Spectator
‘Important’  Financial Times

Waste is everywhere. It’s clogging our rivers and littering our streets. The Pacific Ocean contains a great garbage patch three times the size of France. Our junk is even orbiting the earth. No wonder there are microplastics in our bloodstreams.

Waste, a problem we’ve ignored for too long, is now a global crisis – and it’s getting worse.

From the landfills of New Delhi, to the second-hand clothing markets of Ghana and the overflowing sewers of Britain, join Oliver Franklin-Wallis as he reveals the dirty truth about the global waste industry.

In this eye-opening and ultimately hopeful book, he meets some of the heroic people trying to make a difference and explains precisely how we can create a better, less wasteful world.

‘Superb’ Telegraph

‘Brilliant’ Sunday Times

‘Eye-opening . . . impressive‘ Guardian

‘Like a detective dusting for fingerprints, Jay Owens masterfully reveals the hidden traces of modernity by following some of its smallest fragments.’ James Vincent, author of Beyond Measure
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Dust may seem inconsequential, so tiny and mundane as to slip below the threshold of thought. Yet within the next one hundred years, life on Earth will be profoundly changed by heat and drought – and that means dust.

In this ground-breaking book, Jay Owens argues that dust is a legacy of twentieth-century progress and a toxic threat to life in the twenty-first.

Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles tells the gripping story of how the relentless drive for profit and power has turned the world to powder. Combining history and science, travel and nature writing, Owens shows how the modern world was made through environmental devastation – and then brushed the consequences under the carpet. From particle air pollution and nuclear fallout to desertification, dried-up seas and melting glaciers, we’ve profoundly altered the planet we live on. The cost to human health – and to the natural world – proves immense.

From the California desert and the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma to the desiccated remains of the Aral Sea and the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, we are shown that some of the planet’s most remote and forgotten places are central to the modern world. With clarity and insight, Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles helps us understand our legacy and discovers the big ideas found within the smallest particles.
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Combining history and science, a sweeping look at the smallest substance and the biggest challenges facing people and the planet

‘From Mark Kurlansky’s Salt and Laura Martin’s Tea to Jared Diamond’s Guns and Germs and Steel, can we now add geographer Jay Owens’s Dust?’ Telegraph

‘An incredible journey into the world of rubbish, full of fascinating characters and mind-bending facts’ Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland
 
‘Urgent, probing and endlessly interesting’ Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment

‘A  fascinating, deeply researched and hugely important exposé of what happens to the stuff  we no longer want, and the social and environmental cost of dealing with it’ Gaia Vince  

‘Compelling, smart, fair, often funny, always interesting, and just very important’ Mary Roach, author of Stiff

‘There are stories in all our discarded things: who made them, what they meant to a person before they were thrown away. In the end, it all ends up in the same place – the endless ingenuity of humanity in one filthy, fascinating mass.’
 
When we throw things ‘away’, what does that actually mean? Where does it go, and who deals with it when it gets there? In Wasteland, award-winning journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on an eye-opening journey through the global waste industry. From the mountainous landfills of New Delhi to Britain’s overflowing sewers, from hollowed-out mining towns in the USA to Ghana’s flooded second-hand markets, we meet the people on the frontline of our waste crisis – both those being exploited, and those determined to make a difference. On the way, we discover the corporate greenwashing that started the recycling movement; the dark truth behind our second-hand donations; and come face to face with the 10,000-year legacy of our nuclear waste.
 
Both shocking and hopeful, Wasteland is the timely and ultimately human story at the heart of an urgent global issue.
 

‘Thought-provoking’  Daily Mail

‘An extraordinary book’ Nicholas Evans, author of  The Horse Whisperer

The history of humanity’s relationship with other species is baffling.

Without animals there would be no us. We are all fellow travellers on the same evolutionary journey. By charting the love-hate story of people and animals, from their first acquaintance in deep prehistory to the present and beyond, Richard Girling reveals how and where our attitudes towards animals began – and how they have persisted, been warped and become magnified ever since.

In dazzling prose, The Longest Story tells of the cumulative influence of theologians, writers, artists, warriors, philosophers, farmers, activists and scientists across the centuries, now locking us into debates on farming, extinction, animal rights, pets, experiments and religion.

‘Essential reading’ Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming and author of  Farmageddon

Told through the words of the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes – one of the only men to understand his experience first-hand . . .

‘For anyone with a passion for polar exploration, this is a must read’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘THE definitive book on Shackleton and no one could have done it better . . . an authentic account by one of the few men who truly knows what it’s like to challenge Antarctica’ LORRAINE KELLY
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In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s attempt to be the first to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice.

He and his crew should have died.

Instead, through a long, dark winter, Shackleton fought back: enduring sub-zero temperatures, a perilous lifeboat journey across icy seas, and a murderous march over glaciers to seek help.

Shackleton’s epic trek is one of history’s most enthralling adventures. But who was he? How did previous Antarctic expeditions and his rivalry with Captain Scott forge him? And what happened afterwards to the man many believed was invincible?

In this astonishing account, Fiennes brings the story vividly to life in a book that is part celebration, part vindication and all adventure.
_________

‘Fiennes makes a fine guide on voyage into Shackleton’s world . . . What makes this book so engaging is the author’s own storytelling skills’ Irish Independent

‘Fiennes relates these tales of exploration and survival, adding insight to Shackleton’s journeys unlike any other biographer’ Radio Times

Praise for Sir Ranulph Fiennes:

‘The World’s Greatest Living Explorer’ Guinness Book of Records

‘Full of awe-inspiring details of hardship, resolve and weather that defies belief, told by someone of unique authority. No one is more tailor-made to tell [this] story than Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ Newsday

‘Fiennes’ own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with empathy of the hell that the men went through’ Sunday Times

‘Fiennes brings the promised perspective of one who has been there, illuminating Shackleton’s actions by comparing them with his own. Beginners to the Heroic Age will enjoy this volume, as will serious polar adventurers seeking advice. For all readers, it’s a tremendous story’ Sara Wheeler, The Wall Street Journal

‘Thought-provoking’  Daily Mail

‘An extraordinary book’ Nicholas Evans, author of  The Horse Whisperer

The history of humanity’s relationship with other species is baffling.

Without animals there would be no us. We are all fellow travellers on the same evolutionary journey. By charting the love-hate story of people and animals, from their first acquaintance in deep prehistory to the present and beyond, Richard Girling reveals how and where our attitudes towards animals began – and how they have persisted, been warped and become magnified ever since.

In dazzling prose, The Longest Story tells of the cumulative influence of theologians, writers, artists, warriors, philosophers, farmers, activists and scientists across the centuries, now locking us into debates on farming, extinction, animal rights, pets, experiments and religion.

‘Essential reading’ Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming and author of  Farmageddon