It is estimated that more than half of the world’s population communicates in more than one language and over a third of the population in the United Kingdom is multilingual. And yet life in multiple languages is rarely discussed publicly, myths and misconceptions prevail and the pressure to keep heritage languages alive has become a private conflict for millions. Linguistic diversity is more prevalent than ever, but so is linguistic inequality.

Linguist Malwina Gudowska, herself trilingual, sheds light on the ways in which we navigate language, its power to shape and reshape lives, and the ripple effects felt far beyond any one home or any one language. It takes one generation for a family language to be lost. One generation – like mother to child. Mother Tongue Tied explores the emotional weight of raising multilingual children while grappling with your own identity and notions of home. At what cost does a mother save a language? Or does she let it slip away and, with it, a part of herself her children may never know.

Featuring an updated introduction from the author.

Wars, pandemics, Brexit, Elon Musk, the impending doom of our species, the enduring popularity of Ted Lasso – we live in confusing and uncertain times. Won’t someone make it all make sense?

In The Stories of Your Life, bestselling author Ben Ambridge explains that the often-bizarre behaviour of individuals, organizations and even whole countries makes perfect sense, once we understand them in terms of stories.

Through generations of storytelling, we have together condensed the human experience into just eight distinct stories. And whether we’re pitching a product, bidding to become president, or simply trying to find love and happiness, we do so by telling ourselves, and each other, one of these stories.

Using real-life examples, psychological research and our favourite stories, The Stories of Your Life will teach you:

• The ‘recipes’ behind these powerful narratives
• How the plots of stories like The Lord of the Rings, Ted Lasso and Macbeth follow these recipes
• How these same plots play out in real life, from addiction to sporting rivalries and dramatic rescues
• The psychological science that explains why these stories are so compelling

Every aspect of human behaviour is part of a story – by understanding the stories, you can understand life itself.

A guide to help you understand the world around you, The Stories of Your Life shares fascinating lessons about the nature of humanity, the power of psychology and the way we see ourselves.

‘Ambridge expertly decodes and deciphers [the stories of our lives] so we can all benefit and grow’ – Matt Abrahams, author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter

‘Ben Schott ? cannot write an inelegant sentence’
The Times

—————

SCHOTT IS BACK – and better than ever. From the mind that created the million-copy bestseller Schott’s Original Miscellany comes an indispensable field guide to the hidden lore and language of our modern age.

When do London cabbies take oranges and lemons?
How do marmalade droppers sell newspapers?
Who eats the forbidden brownie at Starbucks?

Secret languages surround us. From graffiti writers, gondoliers, and gym rats to spies, sneakerheads, and Swifties – every group creates a private lingo of jargon and gesture that eludes the rest of the world.

Not anymore.

In Schott’s Significa, Ben Schott – bestselling author and master curator of the ungoogleable – unlocks 53 of the most intriguing linguistic subcultures, including: casinos and crypto, doctors and dog walkers, bartenders and typographers, stunt performers and church ushers, paparazzi snappers and competitive eaters.

Painstakingly researched, lavishly illustrated and exquisitely designed, Schott’s Significa is not just a miscellany of secret languages but a celebration of the power of communication, the joy of connection and the delight of discovery.

“Life – and the quite appalling behaviour of everyone I know – finally makes sense. Read this remarkable book” – Andrew Gold, author of The Psychology of Secrets and host of Heretics

————————–

We understand the world through stories. All of our experiences, all of our insights – psychologically, we interpret them through specific lenses that have been curated, perfected and passed down throughout human history. Internationally bestselling author Professor Ben Ambridge has quantified those lenses into eight distinct masterplots that can apply to any experience.

The mother who wakes up an hour early every day to prep her child’s breakfast? She’s playing out the Sacrifice plot. The amateur sports team who go on to win the big trophy against all the odds? They’re part of the Underdog narrative.

Ambridge uses examples from fiction, real life, and popular psychology research to demonstrate how we not only naturally gravitate towards the masterplot narratives, but how we actually use those narratives to manipulate the world around us – like the addict who uses the Monster plot to paint their illness as something to overcome, or the boxer who relies on the Revenge narrative to motivate themselves to fight their way back after an embarrassing defeat.

These masterplots do more for us than to help us understand the world; they’re vehicles through which humans have survived. The Stories of Your Life shares fascinating lessons about the nature of humanity, the power of psychology and – most importantly – the way we see ourselves.

————————–

“Stories are essential for human beings – they allow us to learn, to connect, to empathize. The best stories follow structures that catalyze and amplify their power. Ambridge expertly decodes and deciphers these masterplots so we can all benefit and grow” – Matt Abrahams, author of Think Faster Talk Smarter and host of Think Fast, Talk Smart

‘A wonder of a collection’ Caleb Azumah Nelson
‘Thrilling … once-in-a-generation’ Jackie Kay
‘Genius … tells a thousand stories in stunningly crafted verse’ Nikita Gill
‘Remarkable, textured … Yomi Sode is a beautiful storyteller’ Candice Carty-Williams
‘Heartbreaking … This debut is the living heart and soul of contemporary poetry’ Pascale Petit
‘Vivid, beautiful and deeply moving’ Rt Hon Diane Abbott MP
‘Yomi Sode writes with clarity, anger and love’ Andrew Graham-Dixon
‘Searing, shimmering, brilliant’ Yrsa Daley-Ward
‘A must for all lovers of poetry and its power’ Roger Robinson
‘Manorism is a classic’ Caleb Femi

Impassioned, insightful, electric, Manorism is a poetic examination of the lives of Black British men and boys: propped up and hemmed in by contemporary masculinity, deepened by family, misrepresented in the media, and complicated by the riches, and the costs, of belonging and inheritance. It is also an exploration of the differences of impunity afforded to white and Black people, and to white and Black artists.

Caravaggio – originally, unexpectedly – looms large: as a man who moved between spheres of exalted patronage and petty criminality; as a painter who, amid the elegant conventions of late Mannerism, forged his own style of visceral dark and light; and as an individual whose recognized genius was allowed to legitimate and excuse his violence.

In this profound and moving debut, Yomi Sode asks: what does it mean to find oneself between worlds – to ‘code-switch’, adapting one’s speech and manners to widely differing cultural contexts? Who is, and who isn’t, allowed to be more than their origins? And what do we owe each other? What do we owe ourselves?

In You’re All Talk, linguist Rob Drummond explores the enormous diversity in our spoken language to reveal extraordinary insights into how humans operate: how we perceive (and judge) other people and how we would like ourselves to be perceived. He investigates how and why we automatically associate different accents with particular social characteristics – degrees of friendliness, authority, social class, level of education, race, and so on – and how we, consciously or subconsciously, change the way we speak in order to create different versions of ourselves to fit different environments.

Ultimately, You’re All Talk demonstrates the beauty of linguistic diversity and how embracing it can give us a better understanding of other people – and ourselves.

By a two-time debating world champion, a dazzling look at how arguing better can transform your life – and the world – for the better

**Previously published as The Art of Disagreeing Well**

Everyone debates, in some form, most days. Sometimes we do it to persuade; other times to learn, discover a truth, or simply to express something about ourselves. We argue to defend ourselves, our work, and our loved ones from external threat. We do it to get our way, or just to get ahead.

As a two-time debating world champion, Bo has made a career out of arguing. Over the past few years, however, he’s noticed how we’re not only arguing more and more, but getting worse at it – a fact proven by our polarised politics. By tracing his own journey from immigrant kid to world champion, as well as those of illustrious participants in the sport such as Malcolm X, Edmund Burke and Sally Rooney, Seo shows how the skills of debating – information gathering, truth finding, lucidity, organization, and persuasion – are often the cornerstone of successful careers and happy lives. Along the way, he provides the reader with an unforgettable toolkit to use debate as a means to improve their own.

This book is an everyperson’s guide to disagreeing well, so that the outcome of having had an argument is better than not having it at all. Taking readers on a thrilling intellectual adventure into the eccentric and brilliant subculture of competitive debate, Good Arguments proves that good-faith debate can enrich and improve our lives, friendships, democracies and in the process, our world.

‘A wonder of a collection’ Caleb Azumah Nelson
‘Thrilling … once-in-a-generation’ Jackie Kay
‘Genius … tells a thousand stories in stunningly crafted verse’ Nikita Gill
‘Remarkable, textured … Yomi Sode is a beautiful storyteller’ Candice Carty-Williams
‘Heartbreaking … This debut is the living heart and soul of contemporary poetry’ Pascale Petit
‘Vivid, beautiful and deeply moving’ Rt Hon Diane Abbott MP
‘Yomi Sode writes with clarity, anger and love’ Andrew Graham-Dixon
‘Searing, shimmering, brilliant’ Yrsa Daley-Ward
‘A must for all lovers of poetry and its power’ Roger Robinson
‘Manorism is a classic’ Caleb Femi

Impassioned, insightful, electric, Manorism is a poetic examination of the lives of Black British men and boys: propped up and hemmed in by contemporary masculinity, deepened by family, misrepresented in the media, and complicated by the riches, and the costs, of belonging and inheritance. It is also an exploration of the differences of impunity afforded to white and Black people, and to white and Black artists.

Caravaggio – originally, unexpectedly – looms large: as a man who moved between spheres of exalted patronage and petty criminality; as a painter who, amid the elegant conventions of late Mannerism, forged his own style of visceral dark and light; and as an individual whose recognized genius was allowed to legitimate and excuse his violence.

In this profound and moving debut, Yomi Sode asks: what does it mean to find oneself between worlds – to ‘code-switch’, adapting one’s speech and manners to widely differing cultural contexts? Who is, and who isn’t, allowed to be more than their origins? And what do we owe each other? What do we owe ourselves?

‘Completely brilliant and utterly original … a book for our epoch’ Jon Snow, former presenter Channel 4 News

‘Astounding in scope and insight … provides the keys to the betterment of our species’ Nouriel Roubini, author of Crisis Economics

‘Its breadth and ambition are reminiscent of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel … and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens‘ Financial Times
____

What are the keys to human progress?
Why are living standards so unequal around the world?
How might all humans thrive and survive?

In The Journey of Humanity, Oded Galor offers a revelatory explanation of how humanity became, only very recently, the unique species to have escaped a life of subsistence poverty, enjoying previously unthinkable wealth and longevity. He reveals why this process has been so unequal around the world, resulting in the great disparities between nations that exist today. He shows why so many of our efforts to improve lives have failed and how they might succeed.
____

‘A wildly ambitious attempt to do for economics what Newton, Darwin or Einstein did for their fields: develop a theory that explains almost everything … An inspiring, readable, jargon-free and almost impossibly erudite masterwork‘ Simon Kuper, New Statesman

‘A masterful sweep through the human odyssey … if you liked Sapiens, you’ll love this’ Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins

‘An engaging and optimistic answer to anyone who thinks that poverty and inequality will always be with us’ Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules – For Now

‘Breathtakingly ambitious’ Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in Economics

‘Magisterial’ Glenn C. Loury, author of The Anatomy of Racial Inequality