Featuring exclusive interviews with Jack Grealish, John McGinn, Ollie Watkins, Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa, along with many other key figures

In early July 2018, Aston Villa were staring into the abyss.

Locked in a cash crisis triggered by defeat in the Championship play-off final, one of English football’s most historic and successful clubs stood on the brink of financial catastrophe.

Yet less than six years later, Villa were celebrating qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in their history.

Waking The Giant takes you inside one of the most extraordinary revival acts in modern football, from the last-minute takeover by billionaire duo Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens which saved the club, through the promotion and equally remarkable Premier League survival inspired by boyhood supporter Dean Smith, right up to the present day and their return to the European elite under Unai Emery.

It is a tale of triumph plucked from the jaws of despair, several times over, with Villa frequently defying the odds to keep climbing and reclaim their place at English football’s top table.

From club record runs to great escapes from relegation and British record transfers, this is a rollercoaster ride not to be missed.

Featuring exclusive interviews with:

• Jack Grealish
• John McGinn
• Ollie Watkins
• Tyrone Mings
• Ezri Konsa
• Albert Adomah
• Damian Vidagany, Director of Football Operations
• Jesus Garcia Pitarch, former sporting director
• Dean Smith, former manager
• Keith Wyness, former CEO

And dozens of other off-the-record conversations with key figures, managers, coaches, players and staff.

The Building of England puts into context the significance of a country’s architectural history and unearths how it is inextricably linked to the cultural past – and present.

From humble Saxon huts, to soaring gothic cathedrals, through feats of Victorian engineering to the homes we live in today, Simon Thurley tells the story of England through the places and people that built it.

The Building of England challenges us to think differently about English history. Through the lens of architecture Thurley shows how a thousand years of economic, social and cultural change made England the place it is today. People built for defence, power, profit, farming, manufacture, travel, religion and entertainment. The story of England is embedded in all our buildings. This book brings the buildings, their designers, builders, owners and users vividly to life to show that they are a profound reflection of our history.

In this fully updated and expanded edtion of his 2013 classic, The Building of England brings the story completely up to date: now ending in 2020. It places English architecture full square in its historical context.

Saints or sinners? Perfect princesses or difficult duchesses? Monarchy’s saviours or its destroyers?

They rank among the world’s most famous women – and the most misunderstood. Throughout history, royal women have been sanitised and sanctified by supporters, distorted and demonised by critics, pitted against each other, and misrepresented by the media.

In this extraordinary portrait, journalist Catherine Mayer examines the lives of the central players, and the echoes and parallels that have run throughout history. The stories of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Victoria, Elizabeth II, Diana, Camilla, Kate and Meghan uncovered by Catherine Mayer are far more fascinating, poignant, surprising and enraging than any of the myths. Divide and Rule reveals these extraordinary women in all their complexity, charting their achievements, quirks, kindnesses, cruelties and profound influence.

Drawing on key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, this book also demonstrates the ways in which history repeats itself – to the detriment not only of royal women but all of us.

The coast means something different to everyone.

It’s a place of pleasure and reckless pursuits, of fishing, fearless endeavours and a crashing, rugged beauty. The coast is, and always has been, our first line of defence and our springboard to other cultures.

Through the lens of 100 carefully selected objects, this treasure chest of a book delves into the myriad ways our coastlines have shaped, and been shaped by, our history, culture, and identity. From Roman lighthouses to rosary beads, knitted jumpers to Viking slave shackles, each object serves as a portal to a unique story.

Sally Coulthard’s engaging narrative goes far beyond the traditional seaside holiday to illuminate the coast’s role as a first line of defence, a site of trade, and a catalyst for cultural exchange. Readers will discover how the coast has influenced our beliefs, economy, and even our domestic lives. And, looking out to sea, this book will show how Britain’s story is anchored to those of our European neighbours and of faraway lands.

From one of Britain’s finest historians of material culture, this book vividly captures the enduring magic and significance of our shores. Whether it’s smugglers’ underpants or sailor’s hoaxes, whale vomit or pickled puffin – it all washes up on the British coast…

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.

Maradona was football's ultimate genius – a magician on the pitch whose talent rivalled only Pelé. But off the field, the boy from the barrios of Buenos Aires became entangled in a dark web of criminal influence and personal demons. From the Cali Cartel's attempts to lure him into the drug trade, to the Camorra's grip on his life in Naples; from clashes with the Italian government to Pablo Escobar's sinister hospitality, Maradona's life was a battleground far beyond football.

Battling addiction, betrayal, and exploitation, Maradona's story is one of genius corrupted – a man caught between adulation and self-destruction, whose medical neglect and FBI scrutiny culminated in a tragic end. Marking the 40th anniversary of Argentina's legendary 1986 World Cup victory, Killing Maradona is a searing investigation into the forces that destroyed football's first 'Golden Boy.'

What is a black cat lesbian? Is ‘aromantic’ a sexuality or a preference? How are bisexual and pansexual different? What’s it like to be queer and religious? Does Gen Z do darkrooms? How do you navigate life as a OAQ (Old Age Queer)? What does trans euphoria feel like? Why is nightlife so central to the community? What is camp today?

As queer people themselves, authors Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley knew they didn’t have all the answers, because their individual experience represents a single pixel of the rainbow. Do Ask, Do Tell is an unapologetically curious journey through the dazzling spectrum of queer life that will give people – queer, straight, cis and everything in-between – the confidence to say 'I don’t know'.

With humor, warmth, and radically open minds, Stu and Lotte tackle the questions you may have avoided asking for fear of getting it wrong. Covering everything from ageing to open relationships, darkrooms to Drag Kings, camp to carabinas, as well as the intricacies of gender and sexuality.

This insightful and provocative exploration challenges assumptions, shatters taboos, and opens up the conversation. Whether you’re seeking clarity for your cis straight self or deeper insight as a member of the community, this book is your guide to better understanding and celebrating the richness of queer life.

'Bursting with empathy, understanding and humour' – Suzi Ruffell, bestselling author of Am I Having Fun Now?

Alike in so many ways – political, passionate, argumentative and deeply intelligent. It's no surprise that once Frances and Betty became sisters-in-law, they became close friends. There was just one problem. Frances was in love with Betty's husband. Their unconventional solution they found was an 'experiment in living', a ménage à quatre. Setting up homes on the same street, they shared everything: money, meals, governesses, and husbands.

When Susan Pedersen discovered their amazing cache of letters, she was spellbound.

'We tend to see elite women of this era romantically – we wonder whom they will marry and track that marriage plot – but we don't always follow them into their marriages, as they struggle to live consequential lives. Marriage isn't the end of women's lives. It can be, as it was for Frances and Betty, the catalyst to political activism.'

Her book follows their extraordinary friendship as both women seized every freedom afforded to them by the changing times, leaving their drawing rooms for the streets and the soapbox, joining the fight for the women's vote.

This is the untold story of two women – radicals, rivals, sisters – who carved a path together through an elite male world, sharing their ideals, their heartbreaks, and most of all, their secrets.