1913, the Arctic Circle. Charismatic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson is obsessed with a frozen speck of land in the Siberian Arctic: Wrangel Island. Believing that whoever possesses it will control the future – air routes, resources, even the balance of power in the northern hemisphere, he takes an impossible gamble. Dispatching a small, ill-equipped venture to stake a frozen colony in Britain's name, it is a triumph of brilliance, ego and breathtaking hubris.

What follows is a catastrophe of starvation, madness and geopolitical jeopardy. As winter seals the island in ice, relief ships fail to arrive and tensions among the colonists spiral toward despair. While diplomats spar and warships steam north, the settlers are left to endure scurvy, polar bears, and the terror of abandonment. At the centre of it all stands one unlikely survivor – a young Inuit seamstress who miraculously outlasts them all . . .

Sweeping, chilling and stranger than fiction, Empire at the Edge of the World is a true story of greed and justice at the edge of the world.

From the emptiness of the Argentine Pampa, to the vast Atacama Desert and the mighty Amazon River, the road reveals the story of Guevara himself, and of indigenous Mapuche communities shut inside reserves, lumber wars, copper mines, coca plantations and oil pipelines.

Bringing the Diaries into a new century, Sayarer explores what has changed and what has stayed the same, taking in the history of the Cold War and the colonial conquest that came before it. His journey shows also that global politics can never truly be left behind, introducing him to socialist pensioners who have retired outside of the US and the reach of the FBI, and refugees of war trying to treat their trauma with ayahuasca. Meanwhile, meetings with Palestinian diplomats and a distant diaspora offer a reminder of events that are impossible to escape even half a world away.

The altitude of the Andes and Altiplano, and roaring headwinds of Patagonia, make for a seldom easy ten thousand kilometre trip, but Sayarer is propelled by a desire to understand a century and a continent shaped by war and empire, and finds in the pedal strokes of adventure a small act of resistance: the simple freedom of life on two wheels.

“We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example” HORATIO CLARE

'Crucial reading on why our global order has come apart at the seams' – WILLIAM HAGUE

'Thoughtful, thought-provoking and clear-eyed' – PETER FRANKOPAN

'An expert voice for troubled times' – JOHN KERRY

Every day, a new headline. War in the Middle East between Trump's America and Iran. Israel and Palestine in a never-ending conflict. Putin's Russia and Ukraine in a battle that threatens the autonomy of Europe. China on a mission to extend its global reach. The world is closer than it ever has been to midnight on the Doomsday Clock.

Tobias Ellwood is an expert in geopolitics and military strategy. As former Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee and an officer in the British Army's Royal Green Jackets, he is uniquely placed to offer solutions to the crises affecting our global order. In ten steps, he shows us exactly what is at stake, how we got here, and how we can build an exit plan to prevent regional conflict escalating into global war.

'Engaging and insightful, this book … offers practical steps that world leaders and everyday citizens alike can take to navigate them with purpose' – GENERAL JIM MATTIS, USMC RTD

‘Compelling and important’ – Rana Mitter, The Observer
‘Few books qualify as essential reading, but Ghost Nation is one of them’ – Clive Hamilton, bestselling co-author of Hidden Hand
‘A thoughtful, illuminating exploration of Taiwan’s past and present as well as its possible future’ – Booklist

Taiwan is the geopolitical tinderbox of the twenty-first century, a nation whose fate directly impacts every major economy, every global political alliance and even the future of AI. Sitting at the heart of the great power struggle between China and the US, the country is the linchpin of the modern world – yet it remains profoundly misunderstood.

From colonial outpost to a thriving democracy and global technological superpower, Taiwan’s journey is one of incredible resilience against 400 years of foreign rule. In Ghost Nation, veteran journalist Chris Horton draws on over a decade of first-hand reporting to provide a panoramic and compelling history. He exposes the fundamental weakness of China’s sovereignty claims and illuminates the strength of a nation forged by struggle.

Ghost Nation is the essential account of a people fighting for their self-determination and democracy and the definitive guide to understanding the current threat to global order. The world’s stability rests on Taiwan’s survival.

‘Indispensable and timely’ – Melissa Chan, Emmy-nominated international affairs correspondent
‘An unmissable account . . . Accessible, entertaining and immaculately researched’ – Dr Jonathan Sullivan, co-author of Taiwan: A Contested Democracy Under Threat and former director of the China Policy Institute

The book we need to understand China today: a riveting, first-hand account of its seismic progress from an indispensable expert voice

For close to a decade, Dan Wang has been observing China’s tumultuous and astounding growth. The state has constructed towering bridges, gleaming railways and sprawling factories to improve economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout society.

China has grown so quickly in part by beating America at its own game: capitalism and harnessing the restless energy of a vast population. Here Wang blends political and economic analysis with reportage into a provocative new framework for understanding China – one that helps us see America more clearly, too. Whereas China is an engineering state, relentlessly building big, the United States has transformed into a lawyerly society, stalling every attempt to make change, both good and bad.

As relations between the US and China are tense and uncertain and the potential for dreadful conflict looms, Wang offers an inventive new way of thinking about the two superpowers. Breakneck reveals that each country points towards a better path for the other. How much better the world would be, he argues, if Americans could live in a society not only governed by lawyers, and Chinese citizens could live with a state that values their individual liberties.

‘An illuminating account of China’s dizzying rise and its deepening pathologies’ Chris Miller

'One of the best books published on China this year' The Times

This is the story of the Global Positioning System, the network of U.S. government satellites that encircle the earth: a vast web that, in a matter of decades, has transformed the way we understand space and time, making us critically dependent on vulnerable technology we often forget is even there.

It is a system that was conceived of as a military product designed for war, but which has since evolved into a vital everyday tool that tells us where we are and when at any given point. But its use doesn’t stop there: GPS has transformed our navigation systems and our global trade, our farms and our supermarkets, our stop lights, banking networks, and our energy systems. It overturned online dating, exercise regimens, travel planning and takeaways. It reshaped our daily lives, and then it transformed us. When GPS took away our familiarity with getting lost, it also stripped us of our ability to hide – turning our place in the world into a mappable, knowable entity, and put us, a blinking blue dot on a screen, at its centre.

In this thrilling, page-turning work of narrative non-fiction that touches on tech, geopolitics, international relations and economics – Katherine Dunn explores the acute vulnerability of an essential global system that touches all our lives. With echoes of Kleptopia, The Fifth Risk and Prisoners of Geography, as well as echoes of Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flynn and Entangled Life by Merlion Sheldrake in the way it exposes a hidden, esoteric system that we all rely on – this is a book that lifts the lid on the invisible connections of the globe, from the space race to the phone in our pockets.

In early 2022, Charlie Walker set out to hike 600 miles along the frozen rivers of Siberia. He hoped to cut through the myth of the gulag and the permafrost to understand who its people are and how they reckon with their haunted past, as well as what the future might hold for this remote corner of our world. But on 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine, with devastating consequences. What had begun as an adventure swiftly descended into a paranoid nightmare, as Walker began to suspect he was being monitored by the Russian authorities. Shortly afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned.

On Thin Ice juxtaposes the harsh beauty of a Siberian winter with a thriller-like series of events that exposes the dark heart of Putin's propaganda machine. It is both the extraordinary record of one man’s walk through the most inhospitable place on earth and a powerful insight into a deeply troubled – and troubling – nation.