'Elegant and accessible.' Daniel J. Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music

But why is it so evocative? There’s no logical reason why a rousing, percussive tune should invoke swashbuckling pirates, or a slow melody on the flute remind you of a summer day from childhood. And yet, as research shows, it consistently does – and what’s more, if you hear pirates, others likely hear pirates as well.

For all that listening to music can feel like an intensely subjective experience, it holds objective, measurable power over the way our brains function. Exploring the strange and magical science of music perception, musician and psychologist Elizabeth Margulis examines the nature of ‘musical daydreams’. From the intense link between music and memory (music is more likely to prompt Proustian-style flashbacks than food, madeleines or otherwise) to why you keep returning to the music you loved at sixteen – and for that matter, the music your parents loved at sixteen – Transported reveals the compelling new science behind why music is so integral to who we are.

'Timely… there couldn’t be a better moment to explore the power of music to free our minds, inspire our imaginations, and awaken lost memories.' Renée Fleming

'Fascinating… Her book is the message in a bottle, urging us to connect more deeply with our inattention.' Wall Street Journal

'A fascinating, oblique take… Revelatory and very insightful.' William Boyd, author of The Predicament

When we think about Orwell, we imagine an angular, moustachioed sceptic crouched over a typewriter, who – between puffs on his cigarette – composes effortless streams of prose, unadorned but explosive. We see a man with ‘Important Things to Say’ about: the slow creep of authoritarianism; the consequences of all-seeing tech; the fragility of truth.

Much less often do we see him as a person caught up in the business of everyday life. And yet Orwell’s work thrums with the quotidian: the smell of boiled cabbage, the chill of an unheated flat in early spring, the rumbling of old pipes.

A Bright Cold Day reveals how the principles that govern us begin in the mundane. From waking and showering to breakfast, work, lunch, the pub, sleep and dreaming, Orwell was never dulled to the routines of living. And in the details of the day, we can understand how power, money, freedom and choice play out, not just for Orwell’s literary characters, but for us all.

***

'Summons one of the biggest questions we face nowadays, the relationship between fiction and reality.' Andrew O'Hagan, author of Caledonian Road

'A clever, offbeat history of mid-century Britain through George Orwell’s eyes.' Helen Lewis

'An astute and intimate portrait of George Orwell.' Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth

'Beautifully written… urgent and compelling.' Emma Smith, author of Portable Magic

We live in a time of unprecedented technological change and uncertainty, from AI to transhumanism. Humankind is faced with the question of what the future will be like and – more burningly – should be like. We confront increasing dangers from geopolitical instability, war and the climate crisis that threaten to render these developments either irrelevant or deadly.

The answer can’t just be to call a halt.

A. C. Grayling asks the question no one else is asking. What do we wish to keep from yesterday that will help us decide today what we want and don't want tomorrow. How we might navigate the complexities to build a fairer, more equal, sustainable future.

'A terrific read!' Jane Cholmeley, author of A Bookshop of One's Own

Travelling from Shakespeare and Company in Paris to Gay’s the Word in London to the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in New York, A.J. West has written the first history of these remarkable spaces. Tracing their evolution from under-the-counter operations to beloved out-and-proud institutions, West reveals how they stood at the vanguard of LGBTQ+ rights, offering support through the AIDS crisis and bringing the fight to Section 28.

How Queer Bookshops Changed the World celebrates cherished shops past and present, the ground-breaking books they championed when others wouldn’t, and the booksellers who demonstrated courage and community through it all.

'I have savoured every chapter, practically every sentence.' James Cahill, author of Tiepolo Blue

'Perfectly captured and inspirational.' Robin Ince, co-host of BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage

'A crucial history of love, struggle, solidarity and liberation.' Jake Arnott, author of The Long Firm

'Peter Fiennes's brisk literary travelogue is witty and packed with gossip; it moves at the speed of a TGV, with the elegance of a Citroën DS.' Sebastian Faulks

Travelling in a loop around France, from Le Havre to Paris, Peter Fiennes explores France’s sense of its own people, place and identity through some of its greatest writers and artists. Moving between the centuries, from the Arthurian forests and Neolithic fields of Brittany to the banlieues of Paris, Fiennes follows the threads of history across France. And wonders what is next for this sublime, mysterious and sometimes fractious country.

Fiennes drinks with Sartre and de Beauvoir in the bars of Rouen and Le Havre; follows Edith Wharton’s ‘Motor-Flight’ along the Loire Valley to the home of George Sand; and explores the beaches of the south with Colette and Katherine Mansfield. He lingers near Bordeaux with François Mauriac, strolls in the foothills of the Alps with John Berger and follows Colette to the trenches at Verdun, before finally heading to Paris, where he consigns Maupassant to an asylum and Sartre to his grave.

A paean to the glories of French literature, art, landscape, food and wine, En Route is a heartfelt exploration of where the country finds itself after so many centuries at the centre of European life.

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'En Route is a tour de force.' Christopher de Bellaigue, author of The Lion House

'What bliss to travel France in the company of such great writers – including Peter Fiennes, the wittiest companion anyone could hope for.' Alex von Tunzelmann, author of Fallen Idols

'Fascinating, funny and elegiac.' Sofka Zinovieff, author of Eurydice Street

‘A beguiling blend of history and intimate narrative – and a delight to read.’ Colin Thubron, author of Shadow of the Silk Road

The Great Wall of China – stretching from the arid rises of Gansu province to the cold waters of the Bohai Sea – remains an enduring symbol of Chinese might. And yet for all its grandeur, the Wall also marks a vulnerability: an ever-present reminder of old battlelines and never-ending tension with China’s northern neighbours.

Travelling by sacred mountains and along forgotten trade routes, John Man journeys through China and Mongolia, tracing the contours of their uneasy shared histories. From the tumult of the Warring States Period to the present day, Man weaves a thrilling tale of battling warlords, imperial power plays, Soviet interference and contemporary political manoeuvring. Looking to the future of the region, Conquering the North canvasses the still fractious interplay of two rival cultures and the continuing struggle for Mongolian sovereignty as China continues to edge north.

‘What a story! And how skilfully told! A tale about treasure, as twisty and thrilling as any of the adventures of Indiana Jones.’ Lucy Worsley

June 1912. A pair of workmen deposit a heavy ball of clay in the antiques shop of George Fabian Lawrence, or ‘Stony Jack’ as he’s better known. As Lawrence picks through the mud, a speck of gold catches his eye. A pearl earring tumbles into his hand, then another. A Burmese ruby follows; then Colombian emeralds, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and turquoise from Iran; tankards; watches; topaz; amazonite.

Stony Jack has discovered the greatest single cache of Elizabethan treasure.

Diving into London’s bustling, sometimes lawless, antiques trade at the turn of the century, Victoria Shepherd provides a compelling portrait of the city at the height of empire. A thrilling ride through Edwardian London, from the marble halls of the British Museum to the East End’s maze of tenements and alleyways,  Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside oversees the transformation of the city into a modern metropolis.

A Most Anticipated Book for 2026 according to the New York Times, New Statesman, NPR,  Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Daily Express, Mirror, Scotsman, Vulture, TIME and USA Today

‘Smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones’s very best work.’  Ann Patchett, author of  Tom Lake

A yearning for their missing mothers pulls Vernice and Annie apart. It will take a devastating tragedy to bring them back together, in the spellbinding new novel from award-winning author, Tayari Jones

Vernice and Annie are ‘cradle friends’, born days apart in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, both destined never to know their mothers. The girls are inseparable, bound by a friendship far deeper than sisterhood. But this is the American south in the 1950s. Black girls like Vernice and Annie have to fight for every opportunity they can, and neither one can build the future they hope for in Honeysuckle.  

Gradually, inevitably, the girls drift apart. Vernice pursues her education; Annie is lured by the promise of a heady first love affair and a growing obsession with finding her mother. But her search pulls her even further into a world of danger that soon leaves her oldest friend battling to save her.  

Tayari Jones returns with an exuberant, richly told story about mothers, daughters, and a lifelong friendship that is as dangerous as it is unbreakable.

The forgotten history of Britain and the Asante gold.

‘A compelling, challenging and important book.’  William Boyd

1874. Kumasi, the Asante capital, burns. British soldiers prowl the palace, looting as much gold as they can find, before razing it to the ground. In Britain the soldiers are feted as heroes. In 1896 they return, looting the palace a second time and carrying off more gold to London in triumph.

Royalty, aristocracy and London’s most illustrious museums divide the spoils. ‘It is scarcely possible to do justice to the variety and beauty of these specimens,’ The Times declares. There are golden masks, swooping eagles and an exquisitely wrought ram’s head. One mpomponsou – a ceremonial sword – comes wrapped in a leopard skin sheath.

Tracing the course of Britain’s wars with the Asante alongside the course of its plundered relics, Barnaby Phillips weaves a thrilling and poignant tale of imperial ambition and African resistance. Travelling from the Gold Coast to the museum galleries, officers’ mess rooms and aristocratic homes of Britain, The African Kingdom of Gold confronts us with urgent questions about the legacy of Empire and, in particular, how our museums should respond.