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Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl

Ebook: October 3, 2019
Hardback:
Paperback: October 3, 2019

Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl

Jeannie Vanasco

Category: Memoir & Biography,

Why would a good person commit a terrible act?

Fifteen years ago, Jeannie’s relationship with a close friend ended in rape. With the rise of the #MeToo movement, recurring nightmares of the event that plagued her as a girl have returned. To process her conflicted feelings of betrayal and take back control, she resolves to face her trauma head-on by interviewing her rapist.

Through their transcribed conversations and discussions with her closest friends, Jeannie’s compelling memoir explores how the incident impacted both of their lives, while examining the culture and language surrounding sexual assault and rape. Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl is a necessary contribution to the wider conversation around sexual violence from a brave, new voice. 

Reviews

  • 'Cuts through the silence of deep betrayal, gives contour to the aching space between forgiveness and absolution, and offers a living testament to the endless wreckage of sexual assault’ Amy Jo Burns, author of Cinderland

  • 'Explodes rape culture at the level of language, shows us how we are trapped and how we might make ourselves free. This is a brilliant book, an astonishingly fierce inquiry into the places language won't go' Emily Geminder, author of Dead Girls

  •  'Vanasco has written exactly the book we need right now. I wish everyone would read it' Melissa Febos, author of Abandon Me

  • 'Brave and compelling... Vanasco muddles through the silt of her thoughts to create a language for something we don’t talk about' Paris Review, staff pick

  • 'Brave and urgent... a searching, brilliant book and Vanasco is a formidable talent. We are lucky to have her' Daniel Gumbiner, author of The Boatbuilder

  • 'Wickedly clever and powerful... a necessary book' Krystal A. Sital

The Importance of Living

Ebook: January 23, 2020
Hardback:
Paperback: January 23, 2020

The Importance of Living

Lin Yutang

Category: Psychology & Philosophy,

A tremendous bestseller when it was first published in 1937, The Importance of Living has been a classic for over sixty years. Intended as an antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world, Lin Yutang’s prescription is the classic distillation of ancient Chinese wisdom: revere inaction as much as action, invoke humour to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing – indeed eager – to be busy, to make themselves useful, and to exercise power while you bask in the simple joy of existence. 

Now, more than six decades later, with our lives accelerated to unbelievable levels, this wise and timeless book is more pertinent than ever before. In an era when we’re overwhelmed with wake-up calls, it’s an entertaining innovation to savour life’s beauty, its endless fascination and its slow, sure, simple pleasures. 

Reviews

  • 'A richly, enjoyably wise and suggestive book' New York Times

  • 'Dr Lin has performed the inestimable service of distilling the philosophy of generations of Chinese sages and presenting it against a modern background, which makes it easily readable and understandable' Saturday Review of Literature

A Mirror for Monkeys

Ebook: April 22, 2021
Hardback: April 22, 2021
Paperback:

A Mirror for Monkeys

John Spurling

Category: Historical Fiction,

Beneath the floorboards of a ruined house, an 18th-century memoir is discovered. It reveals the life story of William Congreve, the acclaimed English playwright. The lost manuscript is penned by his faithful servant, Jeremy, who tells how they lived together through fierce political division and triumphal nationalism in that era of war with France, the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution.

Upon his death a monument in Stowe is erected to honour Mr Congreve. Atop a slender pyramid sits a monkey peering into a mirror, a court wit seeing reflected the ironies of polite society folding in on itself as Whigs and Tories feud with scant ground for compromise.

Through the prisms of memory and art, award-winning author John Spurling reimagines this tumultuous period and brings to life historical figures Dryden, Vanbrugh, Swift, Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as never before. 

Reviews

  • 'Elegant and playful, a tonic for these trouble times' Andrew Taylor, No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London

  • ‘A heartfelt memorial to the extraordinary William Congreve and to those who loved him. Spurling provides an imaginative way into a wonderful period for readers who prefer their historical tea mixed with the milk of fiction’ Ophelia Field, Author of The Kit-Cat Club, and The Favourite

  • ‘This cleverly constructed portrait of a great playwright and good man starts with the turbulent politics of the Restoration period and ends with a timeless love. As erudite and entertaining as Congreve himself’ Carole Angier, biographer of Jean Rhys and Primo Levi

Revolution

Ebook: August 16, 2018
Hardback: June 14, 2018
Paperback: July 25, 2019

Revolution

William Manners

Category: History,

Drawing on a range of sources from cycling club journals to the writings of H.G. Wells, Revolution illuminates the major impact the bicycle had on the day-to-day lives of people across the social spectrum with millions experiencing a cheap and personalised means of transport for the first time. For women, it was known as the great emancipator from crib, kitchen and convention. Affordable to the working class, cycling dramatically increased the number of potential marriage partners and has a significant impact on widening Britain’s gene pool.

Revolution delves into the social history of cycling in 1890s Britain while exploring international parallels that existed in countries including the US, France and Australia.

Reviews

  • 'For anyone interested in the history of bicycling, this is the book' Telegraph

  • 'Superb' The Herald

  • 'Tells a wonderful tale from the Victorian invention through to modern Britain... impressive to make such a complicated history so concise and accessible to a wide readership' Mark Ian Macleod Beaumont, record-breaking long-distance British cyclist and author of the bestselling The Man who Cycled the World

  • 'Well written, researched, and balanced, Revolution carefully documents early cycling and gives us a window into a world that's influenced every one of us who cycles today' Dave Barter, author of Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder

  • 'Fascinating... an impressive, compelling social history of the bicycle... probably the definitive work available on the subject' Richard Peploe, Road.CC

  • 'Extremely well-researched... a must-read for anyone interested in the history and development of the bicycle' Anna Hughes, author of Eat, Sleep, Cycle and Pedal Power

  • 'A heart-warming, often humorous depiction of the development of the bicycle and its role in nurturing human relationships sporting, social, professional and romantic... touches the lives of cycling enthusiasts through the ages' Maria Leijerstam, first person to cycle to the South Pole and author of Cycling to the South Pole: A World First

  • 'Manners takes us on a wild ride through cycling history in this richly researched, intelligent and beautifully written book' Dr Sheila Hanlon, Cycling UK

  • 'One of the great things about Revolution is how William Manners shines a light on the fact that not only does the bicycle have the potential to change the world, it has actually been doing so since its earliest beginnings. A great read' Prof. Simon Jobson, Professor of Sport & Exercise Physiology, and co-author of Ultra-Distance Cycling: An Expert Guide to Endurance Cycling

My Father’s Glass Eye

Ebook: September 19, 2019
Hardback:
Paperback: September 19, 2019

My Father’s Glass Eye

Jeannie Vanasco

Category: Memoir & Biography,

My Father’s Glass Eye is Jeannie’s struggle to honour her father, her larger-than-life hero, but also the man who named her after his daughter from a previous marriage, a daughter who died. After his funeral, Jeannie spends the next decade in escalating mania, in and out of hospitals – increasingly obsessed with the other Jeanne.

Obsession turns to investigation as she plumbs her childhood awareness of her dead half-sibling and hunts for clues into the mysterious circumstances of her death. It becomes a puzzle she she must solve to better understand herself and her father.

Jeannie pulls us into her unravelling with such intimacy that her insanity becomes palpable, even logical. A brilliant exploration of the human psyche, My Father’s Glass Eye deepens our definitions of love, sanity, grief, and recovery.

Reviews

  • 'Hypnotic... a haunting exploration of perception, memory, and the complexities of grief. Vanasco brings to life the father she loved with an almost frightening force' New York Times Book Review

  • 'Brilliant... as the pages fly by, we’re right by Vanasco, breathlessly experiencing her grief, mania, revelations, and - ultimately - her relief' Entertainment Weekly

  • 'Wildly innovative' New York Magazine

  • 'Vanasco explores the intricacies of the human psyche with stunning poignancy' Newsweek

  • 'A powerful, haunting memoir... a journey that takes Vanasco into the dark depths of her family history, as well as her own psyche, and it shows in an incredibly intimate way the methods we use to cope with loss, disappointment, and grief, and how we can try and make our way out of the darkness and into a place of recovery' NYLON

  • 'Vanasco's candor, curiosity, and commitment to human understanding are not to be missed' Booklist, starred review

  • 'A deceptively spare life story that sneaks up and surprises you with its sudden fecundity and power' Kirkus Reviews

How Not to be a Doctor

Ebook: July 5, 2018
Hardback: June 14, 2018
Paperback: August 8, 2019

How Not to be a Doctor

John Launer, Phil Hammond

Category: Popular Science, Memoir & Biography,

The essential book on how not to be a doctor – and how to be a better one.

Drawn from his popular medical columns over the years, John Launer shares fifty of his best-loved essays, covering topics from essentials skills they don’t teach you in medical school to his poignant account of being a patient himself as he received treatment for a life-threatening illness. Taken together, the stories make the case that being a doctor should mean drawing on every aspect of yourself, your interests and your experiences no matter how remote they seem from the medical task at hand.

How Not to Be a Doctor combines humour, candour and the human touch to inform and entertain readers on both ends of the stethoscope.

Reviews

  • ‘An all-round excellent book, which would appeal to a wide range of healthcare professionals and students… a light-hearted way of looking at serious subjects’ BMA Panel of Judges

  • 'Witty and wise. Shows how important it is that doctors are allowed to be human' Kit Wharton, author of Emergency Admissions: Memoirs of an Ambulance Driver

  • 'I raced through this book, laughing, nodding, highlighting and then read some favourite bits again. Every chapter has a gem of wisdom as well as being so very elegantly written and entertaining. I shall be recommending it to my fellow coaches as virtually all of it applies to us as much as to clinicians' Jenny Rogers, Co-Author of Coaching for Health

  • ‘This collection is warm, wise, generous, thoughtful and thought-provoking… imbued with a moving humanity which offers inspiration and reassurance in equal measure. The reflections and questions posed in these essays are infused with curiosity, rigour and compassion’ Dr. Deborah Bowman, MBE, BBC Broadcaster and Professor of Medical Ethics and Law

  • ‘Launer uses his voracious curiosity to sift wisdom from the ordinary events of a doctor’s life. Bursting with wonder and wisdom, this seductively readable book imparts courage and joy in equal measure’ Dr. Iona Heath, CBE. Former President, Royal College of General Practitioners and author of The Mystery of General Practice

  • ‘Genuine, patient-centred care in a world of evidence, guidelines, policy and directives can seem anything but straightforward: these essays show how it is possible. It should be top of the reading list for senior students and all doctors – and indeed for patients too. An essential read… It is a gem’ Dr. Fiona Moss, CBE, Dean of the Royal Society of Medicine

  • ‘Gets to the heart and soul of current medical practice. Written by a doctor, but incorporates life experience and wisdom, making it an easy, thought provoking read. A worthwhile resource for anyone currently in medical practice, or contemplating a career as a doctor’ Professor Jane Dacre, President of the Royal College of Physicians

Stanley and Elsie

Ebook: May 2, 2019
Hardback:
Paperback: May 2, 2019

Stanley and Elsie

Nicola Upson

Category: Historical Fiction,

The First World War is over, and in a quiet Hampshire village, artist Stanley Spencer is working on the commission of a lifetime, painting an entire chapel in memory of a life lost in the war to end all wars. Combining his own traumatic experiences with moments of everyday redemption, the chapel will become his masterpiece.

When Elsie Munday arrives to take up position as housemaid to the Spencer family, her life quickly becomes entwined with the charming and irascible Stanley, his artist wife Hilda and their tiny daughter Shirin.

As the years pass, Elsie does her best to keep the family together even when love, obsession and temptation seem set to tear them apart…

Reviews

  • 'An exquisite, lyrical novel' Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude and Camille: A Novel of Monet

  • 'Seriously and sensitively imagined, Stanley and Elsie is a work of painterly beauty and deep integrity. Told by housemaid Elsie Munday, the subject of Spencer's painting Country Girl, the story brings to life Spencer's creative and emotional life, illuminating the consolations of art and its costs' Wendy Wallace, author of The Painted Bridge

  • 'An intriguing story of artistic temperament, domestic turmoil, and remembrance. Nicola Upson weaves a web of creative and private passions' Katie Ward, author of Girl Reading

  • 'A sympathetic and balanced biographical novel... affords a sensitive and valuable insight into the dynamics of the artist's life' Carolyn Leder, Adviser to the Stanley Spencer Gallery and former Trustee

The Butcher’s Daughter

Ebook: May 17, 2018
Hardback: May 17, 2018
Paperback: June 13, 2019

The Butcher’s Daughter

Victoria Glendinning

Category: Historical Fiction,

‘Historical fiction at its finest’ @MargaretAtwood (Twitter)

It is 1535 and Agnes Peppin, daughter of a West-country butcher, has been banished, leaving her family home in disgrace to live out the rest of her life cloistered behind the walls of Shaftesbury Abbey. 

While Agnes grapples with the complex rules and hierarchies of the sisterhood, King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Head of the Church of England. Religious houses are being formally subjugated, monasteries dissolved, and the great Abbey is no exception to the purge. 

Cast out with her sisters, Agnes is at last free to be the master of her own fate. But freedom comes at a price as she descends into a world she knows little about, using her wits and testing her moral convictions against her need to survive – by any means necessary…

Reviews

  • ‘Glendinning writes with a vivid immediacy about a fascinating, dark moment in our island story... a refreshing and original tale [about] the underside of Henry’s religious Reformation’ The Times

  • 'Marvellous... heart-breaking and unforgettable... a by times humorous, by times tragic but always compelling picaresque tale' Irish Times

  • ‘A brave girl, a powerful tale, a world on the brink of change – and how the past leaps into life!’ Fay Weldon

  • ‘An absolute pleasure... assured, quietly gripping, surprising and educative, with a terrific central character, it pins down the precarious nature of life in 16th-century England’ Daily Mail

  • ‘A touching, vivid and sometimes deeply shocking depiction of the lives of ordinary people whose world was shattered by Henry VIII’s policy to dissolve England’s monasteries. A must for anyone interested in the Tudor period' Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Queen’s Gambit (The Tudor Trilogy)

  • ‘A powerful and very immediate picture of another age. It is full of violence and loss, and yet it is also a testament to survival, courage, pity, and the eternal beauty to be found in small things’ Anne Perry

  • ‘An immersive, engrossing, and epic journey of a woman’s soul, finely researched and beautifully written’ Margaret George, author of The Autobiography of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

  • ‘I loved this book from the very first page, for the poised lyricism of the writing and for the fascination of the story. Agnes Peppin, the butcher’s daughter, is an enchanting witness to turbulent times, and the cataclysmic events that shape her life become newly urgent and thrilling as seen through her eyes. This is a wonderful novel – sometimes tragic, sometimes redemptive, always thoughtful and wise’ Margaret Leroy, author of The English Girl

  • ‘Chronicles the human cost of Henry’s edict. Well written with wonderfully rendered descriptions of place and period and an evocative mix of fiction and fact... at once immediate and intimate… In a world ruled by men cowed before a fickle tyrant, Agnes’s decisions are not only pragmatic but authentic to her time and place’ New York Journal of Books

  • 'As the butcher’s daughter reflects on all she sees, Glendinning makes this tale exhilarating, lending Agnes a candid, eccentrically lyrical voice' Jean Zimmerman, New York Times

  • ‘A beguiling, affecting tale of dissolution and redemption set in a changing – and beautifully wrought – Tudor landscape. Gloriously authentic and refreshingly unromantic, this one got under my skin’ Jessie Child, historian and award-winning author of Henry VIII’s Last Victim and God’s Traitors

The Secret Life of Bones

Ebook: August 8, 2019
Hardback:
Paperback: August 8, 2019

The Secret Life of Bones

Brian Switek

Category: Popular Science,

Bone is a marvel, an adaptable and resilient building material developed over 500 million years of evolutionary history. It has manifested itself in wings, sails, horns, armour, and an even greater array of appendages since the time of its origin. In dinosaur fossils, skeletons are biological time capsules that tell us of lives we’ll never see in the flesh. Inherited from a common fishy ancestor, it is the stuff that binds all of us vertebrates together into one great family. Swim, slither, stomp, fly, dig, run – all are expressions of what bones make possible. But that’s hardly all.

In The Secret Life of Bones, Brian Switek frames the history of our species through the importance of bone from instruments and jewellery, to objects of worship and conquest from the origins of religion through the genesis of science and up through this very day. While bone itself can reveal our individual stories, the truth very much depends on who’s telling it. Our skeletons are as embedded in our culture as they are in our bodies. Switek, an enthusiastic osteological raconteur, cuts through biology, history, and culture to understand the meaning of what’s inside us and what our bones tell us about who we are, where we came from and the legacies we leave behind.

Reviews

  • 'Smart, lively, and hugely informative... the ideal guide to the bones around us and in us' Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

  • ‘A witty, conversational romp through the world of bones, by one of our finest natural history writers. Dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, human origins, and culture are all woven together into a breezy, beautifully told story that will make you appreciate the wonder of the skeleton hidden inside of us all’ Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh palaeontologist and Sunday Times-bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

  • ‘A thoughtful, engaging meditation on the origins of the human skeleton, how it functions (or malfunctions) and how we come to terms with our essential but unsettling osseous framework’ Nature

  • ‘Compellingly evokes the sheer wonder and complexity of the supporting framework inside you - and the murky human responses it arouses’ Science

  • ‘I sit here now crossing my extraordinary kneecaps... I can see them better thanks to Switek’ Rose George, New York Times Book Review

  • 'A lyrical love letter to the 206 or so bones in the human skeleton and thecolourful figures who have studied them over the centuries’ Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Calculus Diaries

  • 'Switek writes with remarkable grace about the natural world… Every chapterhas some surprise, told in elegant tales, that you will repeat to your friends' Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh

Ike and Kay

Ebook: March 8, 2018
Hardback: March 8, 2018
Paperback: June 13, 2019

Ike and Kay

James MacManus

Category: Historical Fiction,

From the fogbound streets of London reeling from the Blitz, Ike and Kay is a thrilling tale of wartime romance, brimming with love, duty, sacrifice and heartbreak, set against the backdrop of the most tumultuous period of the twentieth century.

It is 1942, and war-battered London plays host to the imposing figure of General ‘Ike’ Eisenhower on a vital mission for the US army. Kay Summersby, an ambulance driver who survived the horrors of the Blitz, is chosen to be his aide, a role that will change her life forever.

Charmed by Ike’s affable and disarming nature – so different from the stiffness of British military convention – she accompanies him during the North African campaign against Rommel and the war in Europe against Nazi Germany. Amid the carnage a secret affair unfolds between the General and Kay but rumours of Ike’s infidelity reach across the ocean to Washington – and worse yet, to his wife.

In a time where scandal and war threaten to break them apart, can Ike and Kay hold on to their love?

Reviews

  • ‘MacManus has shown his ability to take the facts of a famous life and mould them into highly readable fiction…. [his] recreation of an affair conducted in the shadow of world-changing events successfully combines intimacy with an awareness of the wider picture’ Sunday Times

  • ‘The fascinating dramatisation of the true story of a secret love affair that contributed to the Allied victory during World War II... a deeply emotional read’ Daily Mail

  • ‘Offers a convincing picture of three crucial years of the Second World War and a devastating account of the culture in which male entitlement to sexual and emotional comfort was a given’ TLS

  • 'A cracking wartime romance; sensitively and engagingly told' Roger Moorhouse, author of Berlin at War

  • 'An epic piece of historical fiction... the danger of war and the uncertainty of survival is conveyed through MacManus's in-depth research... a relatable, and compelling story' The Lady

  • 'In Ike and Kay, James MacManus has captured the powerful and little-known relationship between General Eisenhower and his Irish driver Kay Summersby during and just after the Second World War. With keen eye for historical detail and strong narrative voice, MacManus has expertly and artfully painted an intimate, authentic portrait of love, duty and sacrifice against the backdrop of the greatest events of the 20th century. Masterful!' Pam Jenoff author of The Orphan's Tale

  • ‘Thoroughly researched’ Irish Independent

  • ‘Ike and Kay sets the backdrop for an important time in history... [and] brings to life controversial romances and characters that shaped world history during the twentieth century’ Buzzfeed

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