As a rising star in pharmaceutical sales, Lisa Pratta wanted to believe that she was helping improve the lives of people who suffered from illness. But as she climbed the corporate ladder, she uncovered a sinister world of bribery, fraud, and sexual harassment-all papered over with a thin veneer of corporate respectability.

At Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Lisa found herself at a small company with a blockbuster drug that could have been a lifeline for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis-that is, if it was prescribed properly. But instead, Questcor chose profits over patients, training its sales force to push untested treatment regimens with the sole purpose of beating its competition. Lisa recognized this as not only dangerous but highly illegal. In the midst of this controversy, Questcor arbitrarily inflated the drug’s price to a jaw-dropping $28,000 per vial. Torn between her morals and the financial stability the job provided for her special-needs son, Lisa made a decision that would change her life forever: she reported the fraudulent practices of the company to the federal government.

For nearly a decade, she led a double life-feeding insider information to the Department of Justice while enduring the relentless demands of her company to sell their drug using illegal marketing tactics. She faced constant fear of exposure, knowing that the government offered her no protection if her secrets were revealed. Nonetheless, Lisa pressed on, determined to hold Questcor accountable for the laws they were breaking and the lives they were endangering.

This incredible true story offers a sobering look at the unscrupulous sales methods used by America’s corrupt pharmaceutical industry, spotlights the levers they pull to extract ludicrous profits from the sick and dying, and is a page-turning portrait of one woman’s heroic fight against Big Pharma and a mother’s struggle to protect her family.

‘Every question you’ve ever had about periods is answered in this book. . . it’s just brilliant.’ Dr Thivi Maruthappu

Work with your cycle for better periods, more energy and a healthier you.

Do you struggle with challenging or disruptive periods? Do your emotions and energy levels fluctuate throughout the month? Or do you just want to work with your hormones to optimise your heath whatever the time of the month?

You’re not alone. In Not Just a Period, bestselling author Dr. Hazel Wallace sets out not only how you can have better periods, but also how your menstrual cycle affects your health and wellbeing generally, from immunity and cardiovascular issues to gut function and even the speed of your metabolism. In this ground-breaking, highly practical book she will help you understand:

• What’s normal and what’s not, so you can spot red flags and challenge your expectations of what you should (and shouldn’t) ‘put up with’ (FYI, periods should not be that painful).
• How to optimize your health and performance across the cycle by adjusting your nutrition, movement, and sleep – right down to your skincare.
• How to navigate changes and fluctuations in body image, libido, and mood across the menstrual cycle.
• How to speak to partners, family, and health professionals to advocate best for yourself and your needs.

Not Just a Period is a truly pioneering look at key aspects of women’s health: nutrition, movement, sleep, mood, libido, body image, and skin and hair, examined for the first time through the lens of the menstrual cycle.

It’s time to feel empowered – not held back – by the unique way your body works. With Dr Hazel’s advice you can finally live happily alongside and in tune with your cycle.

After an election where people voted for a politics that our new Prime Minister describes as ‘treading more lightly on people’s lives’, this must-read book charts a gentler course for a country that has suffered the ructions of profound change in recent decades.

Some politicians will still talk of restoring an English birthright of liberty and the swashbuckling self-confidence to rule the waves. Others yearn for the old-fashioned morality which they claim once civilised a savage world or want to look inwards to a story of an enchanted island that can stand alone and isolated against the world.

But England, by Tom Baldwin, the bestselling biographer of Keir Starmer, and Marc Stears, an influential think tank head, unravels the myths that have distorted ideas of this country and provided ammunition for culture warriors from both left and right.

Instead of vainly promising to solve everything all at once, Baldwin and Stears provide clues for how a humbler, less grandiose, set of ideas rooted in real lives can help fix some of the things that have gone so badly wrong in recent years.

They travel from muddy fields in the Home Counties to the ports of Plymouth and Hull. They visit the old industrial heartland of Wolverhampton, spend weekends in the worn-down seaside resort of Blackpool, then gaze up the gleaming towers of modernity on the edge of London and the dreaming spires of Oxford. Along the way, they speak with many different people who tell stories of England, including politicians Nigel Farage and David Lammy, campaigner Chrisann Jarrett, playwright James Graham and scientist Sarah Gilbert.

What emerges is a startlingly fresh and vivid picture of an old country that belongs to everyone, or at least, to no one in particular.

The renowned author returns with a timely book about his journeys to three sites of conflict – Dakar, South Carolina, and Palestine – exploring how the stories we tell, and the ones we don’t, shape our realities.

‘An earnest and intimate exploration of locations of extreme injustice’ Oprah Daily

***

Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, but soon found himself grappling with deeper questions about the destructive myths that shape our world.

First we join Coates on his inaugural trip to Africa – a journey to Dakar, where he finds himself in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and the ghost-haunted country of his imagination.

He then takes readers to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on the banning of his own work and the deep roots of a false and fiercely protected American mythology – visibly on display in its segregationist statues.

Finally in Palestine, Coates sees with devastating clarity the tragedy that grows in the clash between the stories we tell and reality on the ground.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global history, this work from one of our most important writers is about the urgent need to embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.

***

‘Coates exhorts readers, including students, parents, educators, and journalists, to challenge conventional narratives that can be used to justify ethnic cleansing or camouflage racist policing’ Booklist

‘Coats always writes with purpose . . . These pilgrimages for him, ground his powerful writing about race’ Associated Press

‘Utterly engrossing . . . Ambitious, accessible and important‘ James O’Brien

‘Consistently gripping – dazzling in its sweep and thrillingly brain-twisting in its arguments’ Tom Holland

A provocative new vision of how our world really works – and why chance determines everything.

In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas deep-dives into the phenomenon of randomness, unpicking our neat and tidy storybook version of events to reveal a reality far wilder and more fascinating than we have dared to consider. The bewildering truth is that but for a few incidental changes, our lives – and our societies – would be radically different.

Offering an entirely new perspective, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and random events. How much difference does our decision to hit the snooze button make? Did one couple’s vacation really change the course of the twentieth century? What are the smallest accidents that have tilted the course of history itself?

The mind-bending lessons of this phenomenon challenge our beliefs about the very workings of the world. From the evolution of human biology and natural disasters to the impact of global events on supply chain disruptions, every detail matters because of the web of connectivity that envelops us. So what if, by exploding our illusion of control, we can make better decisions and live happy, fulfilling lives?

Fascinated by madness, strange behaviour and the human mind, Jon Ronson has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. Collected from various sources, including GQ and The Guardian, Lost at Sea features the very best of his adventures.

Jon has been on patrol with America’s real-life superheroes and to a UFO convention in the Nevada desert with Robbie Williams. He has met a man who tried to split the atom in his kitchen and asked a conscious robot if she has a soul.

Frequently hilarious, sometimes disturbing, always entertaining – these fascinating stories of the chaos that lies on the fringes of our daily lives will have you wondering just what we’re capable of.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

What if a tiny, shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room? In Them Jon Ronson sets out to find this room, with the help of the extremists – Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen – that believe in it. Along the way, he is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and witnesses international CEOs and politicians participate in a bizarre pagan ritual in the forests of northern California.

A Sunday Times bestseller and the book that launched Jon Ronson’s inimitable career, Them is an eye-opening outrageously funny exploration of extremism, which makes both author and reader think twice about the looking-glass world of ‘us’ and ‘them’ . . .

Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.

‘Chilling and hilarious . . . Ronson’s trademark laid-back attitude is a delight’ – The Independent

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a mind-opening exploration of how size defines life on Earth.

Explaining the key processes shaping size in nature, society and technology, Smil busts myths around proportions – from bodies to paintings and the so-called golden ratio – tells us what Jonathan Swift got wrong in Gulliver’s Travels – the giant Brobdingnagian’s legs would buckle under their enormous weight – and dives headfirst into the most contentious issue in ergonomics: the size of aeroplane seats.

It is no exaggeration to say this fascinating and wide-ranging tour de force will change the way you look at absolutely everything.

‘Vaclav Smil is a phenomenon with an appetite for facts over prejudice and fashion. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future’ Lord Norman Foster