‘Luke Harding is one of the best reporters in the world.’ — Robert Saviano

‘[Collusion is] a superb piece of work … essential reading for anyone who cares for his country.’ — John Le Carré

***

No terrorist group has deployed a nerve agent in a civilian area or used a radioactive mini-bomb in London. The Kremlin has done both. Shadow State is a gripping investigative account of how Russia’s spies helped elect Donald Trump, backed Brexit, murdered enemies and threatened the very basis of western democracy.

The operatives come in disguise. They pose as tourists, journalists and businessmen. Utterly ruthless, sometimes bungling and always ambitious, they roam from Salisbury to Helsinki, Ukraine to the Central African Republican, London to Washington. SHADOW STATE is a riveting and alarming investigation into those spies and the way Russia has used them to wage an increasingly bold war in the UK and beyond.

The Kremlin has attempted to reshape politics in their own mould; the future of Western democracy is at stake as a result

Imprisoned by a sadistic logician.
Challenged to raise dogs from the dead.
Trapped on a burning island.
And much more besides . . .

Everything is at stake in this compendium of more than 150 ingenious puzzles, selected to reveal the wonderful diversity of brainteasers that have confounded and intrigued solvers for the last thousand years. You’ll need to pit your wits against probability problems, wrestle with wordplay, grapple with geometry and scrabble for survival.

Along the way you will discover stories of whip-smart thinkers, eccentric novelists and a poodle with allegedly supernatural powers. You will absorb fascinating and important mathematical ideas. Some solutions will rely on ingenuity, some will challenge you to spot hidden patterns, others call for extreme rationality. All will surprise, entertain and stretch your brain.

Will you make it out with your puzzling pride intact?

‘In a few weeks’ time, it would be thirty-five years to the day since those men and women had walked 340 miles to try to save their communities and their culture, and thirty-five years since I had turned down Pete’s invitation to join them. I called work and booked some time off. Then I bought a one-way train ticket to Liverpool.’

In 1981, Mike Carter’s dad, Pete, organised the People’s March for Jobs, which saw 300 people walk from Liverpool to London to protest as the Thatcher government’s policies devastated industrial Britain and sent unemployment skyrocketing. Just before the 2016 EU referendum, Mike set off to walk the same route in a quest to better understand his dad and his country.

As he walked, Mike found many echoes of the early eighties: a working class overlooked and ignored by Westminster politicans; communities hollowed out but fiercely resistant; anger and despair co-existing with hope and determination for change. And he also found that he and Pete shared more in common than he might have thought.

All Together Now? maps the intricate, overlapping path of one man’s journey and that of an entire country. It is a book about belonging, about whether to stay or go, and about the need to write new stories for our communities and ourselves.