Simon Phipps

Simon Phipps, born in Leeds, is an artist based in London. He is a graduate in sculpture from the Royal College of Art and a renowned photographer of post-war modernist architecture. He is the author of the books: Brutal London, Finding Brutalism, Concrete Poetry: Post-War Modernist Public Art, Brutal North, Brutal Outer London and Brutal Wales/Cymru Friwtalaidd. Finding Brutalism was a winner of the 2018 DAM Architectural Book Award and Brutal London was a finalist for the British Book and Production Awards 2017. @new_brutalism

Sign up to hear more

‘It’s like riding abreast with a friend who happens to be one of Britain’s most astute, witty travel writers. A lively portrait of our strange little island, from a man who has perfected the art of the travelogue’ Greg Dickinson, The Telegraph

From campers, conservationists, walkers, landowners, farmers, small business owners, commoners, pony lovers, newcomers, tourists, birders and artists – everyone is seeking something different from the hills, dales and waters of the UK. Yet all share the urge for space, fresh air, beauty and the humbled humanity it brings. This is a page-turning, revealing perspective of the British and the wild-ish landscapes they love.

Pre-order now using the link in our bio.

#visitbritain #uktravel #nationalpark #britishholiday #travelwriter @simonwiparker

20 1

Open post by duck_books with ID 17971160880151604

‘It’s like riding abreast with a friend who happens to be one of Britain’s most astute, witty travel writers. A lively portrait of our strange little island, from a man who has perfected the art of the travelogue’ Greg Dickinson, The Telegraph

From campers, conservationists, walkers, landowners, farmers, small business owners, commoners, pony lovers, newcomers, tourists, birders and artists – everyone is seeking something different from the hills, dales and waters of the UK. Yet all share the urge for space, fresh air, beauty and the humbled humanity it brings. This is a page-turning, revealing perspective of the British and the wild-ish landscapes they love.

Pre-order now using the link in our bio.

#visitbritain #uktravel #nationalpark #britishholiday #travelwriter @simonwiparker

Eat, sleep, read elite female leads. Link in bio.

#bookrecs #bookstagram #feministliterature #tbr

48 2

Open post by duck_books with ID 18034845821845474

Eat, sleep, read elite female leads. Link in bio.

#bookrecs #bookstagram #feministliterature #tbr

I NEED YOU ON MY SIDE

Meet one of fiction’s most compellingly complicated narrators in A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna — out now in paperback!

The closer we get to Tara, the harder she can be to sympathise with.

Can we trust her version of events?

Do we understand her choices, even when we can’t condone them?

And does a woman have to be likeable for us to stay on her side?

#UnreliableNarrator #ComplicatedWomen #FeministFiction #LiteraryFiction #Bookstagram

12 0

Open post by duck_books with ID 18023352746915420

I NEED YOU ON MY SIDE

Meet one of fiction’s most compellingly complicated narrators in A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna — out now in paperback!

The closer we get to Tara, the harder she can be to sympathise with.

Can we trust her version of events?

Do we understand her choices, even when we can’t condone them?

And does a woman have to be likeable for us to stay on her side?

#UnreliableNarrator #ComplicatedWomen #FeministFiction #LiteraryFiction #Bookstagram

✨ PUBLICATION DAY! ✨

💥 A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna is OUT NOW in paperback 💥

Meet Tara: ambitious, obsessive, angry, complicated and, in her own words, an unrelatable character

From rural Pakistan to the city, she is determined to escape the life laid out for her and find one filled with power, possibility and freedom. But how far will she go to get it?

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition, this is sharp, disquieting and utterly gripping fiction with a heroine you’ll be desperate to discuss

#ASplintering #DurEAzizAmna #OutNow #PublicationDay

35 3

Open post by duck_books with ID 18352800112221414

✨ PUBLICATION DAY! ✨

💥 A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna is OUT NOW in paperback 💥

Meet Tara: ambitious, obsessive, angry, complicated and, in her own words, an unrelatable character

From rural Pakistan to the city, she is determined to escape the life laid out for her and find one filled with power, possibility and freedom. But how far will she go to get it?

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition, this is sharp, disquieting and utterly gripping fiction with a heroine you’ll be desperate to discuss

#ASplintering #DurEAzizAmna #OutNow #PublicationDay

Meet Tara. Ambitious, restless, angry and unapologetically complicated. She wants more from life — more freedom, more possibility, more power — and she isn’t always going to make the choices we want her to make.

But why do we need our female characters to be relatable in the first place?

A Splintering is a gripping story of motherhood, obsession and ambition, centred on a woman who refuses to be easily liked, judged or forgotten.

Meet Tara for yourself when A Splintering comes to paperback 10 September.

#ASplintering #UnrelatableCharacters #FeministFiction #LiteraryFiction

29 3

Open post by duck_books with ID 18111309737517326

Meet Tara. Ambitious, restless, angry and unapologetically complicated. She wants more from life — more freedom, more possibility, more power — and she isn’t always going to make the choices we want her to make.

But why do we need our female characters to be relatable in the first place?

A Splintering is a gripping story of motherhood, obsession and ambition, centred on a woman who refuses to be easily liked, judged or forgotten.

Meet Tara for yourself when A Splintering comes to paperback 10 September.

#ASplintering #UnrelatableCharacters #FeministFiction #LiteraryFiction

Critics loved it. Now it’s your turn to meet Tara.

Ambitious, provocative and impossible to forget, A Splintering is a gripping story of motherhood, obsession and the hunger for another life.

Paperback out 10 September. 💥

#ASplintering #DurEAzizAmna #LiteraryFiction #FeministFiction #Bookstagram

22 0

Open post by duck_books with ID 18150981064460626

Critics loved it. Now it’s your turn to meet Tara.

Ambitious, provocative and impossible to forget, A Splintering is a gripping story of motherhood, obsession and the hunger for another life.

Paperback out 10 September. 💥

#ASplintering #DurEAzizAmna #LiteraryFiction #FeministFiction #Bookstagram

📕 Conversations with an Executioner
Kazimierz Moczarski
Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

OUT THIS THURSDAY, 27 AUGUST.

Pre-order now!

30 2

Open post by duck_books with ID 18093552644435337

📕 Conversations with an Executioner
Kazimierz Moczarski
Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

OUT THIS THURSDAY, 27 AUGUST.

Pre-order now!

More fantastic coverage for Conversations with an Executioner — this time in The Times.

The excitement around this extraordinary book just keeps building!

Following huge coverage in The Guardian and a rave review from The Telegraph, we’re delighted to see Conversations with an Executioner receiving yet more national attention just days before publication.

📕 Conversations with an Executioner
Kazimierz Moczarski
Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

OUT THIS THURSDAY 27 AUGUST.

Pre-order now!

#ConversationsWithAnExecutioner #KazimierzMoczarski #TheTimes #BookReview #HistoryBooks

25 0

Open post by duck_books with ID 18622438477028939

More fantastic coverage for Conversations with an Executioner — this time in The Times.

The excitement around this extraordinary book just keeps building!

Following huge coverage in The Guardian and a rave review from The Telegraph, we’re delighted to see Conversations with an Executioner receiving yet more national attention just days before publication.

📕 Conversations with an Executioner
Kazimierz Moczarski
Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

OUT THIS THURSDAY 27 AUGUST.

Pre-order now!

#ConversationsWithAnExecutioner #KazimierzMoczarski #TheTimes #BookReview #HistoryBooks

Why has Britain waited almost 50 years for this book?

The extraordinary journey of Conversations with an Executioner — from a Warsaw prison cell to its long-awaited UK publication.

Finally published 27 August. Pre-order now.

68 2

Open post by duck_books with ID 18101962286193453

Why has Britain waited almost 50 years for this book?

The extraordinary journey of Conversations with an Executioner — from a Warsaw prison cell to its long-awaited UK publication.

Finally published 27 August. Pre-order now.

🚴 We are thrilled that Simon Parker will be attending this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival to talk all things The Wild Road Home! 🚴

🎟Catch him on 17 October 2026 at 3.45 pm 🎟

Priority booking for Friends of the Festival opens on Wed 19 Aug

General booking opens on Tues 25 Aug

Join #ILF2026 from Fri 2 - Sun 18 October for another year of word power!

36 0

Open post by duck_books with ID 18178117339419926

🚴 We are thrilled that Simon Parker will be attending this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival to talk all things The Wild Road Home! 🚴

🎟Catch him on 17 October 2026 at 3.45 pm 🎟

Priority booking for Friends of the Festival opens on Wed 19 Aug

General booking opens on Tues 25 Aug

Join #ILF2026 from Fri 2 - Sun 18 October for another year of word power!

‘A chilling classic reveals the mind of a Nazi mass murderer’

We’re thrilled to see Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner featured in The Guardian today, ahead of its UK publication next week.

Jo Glanville tells the extraordinary story behind the book: in 1949, Polish resistance hero Moczarski was placed in a Warsaw prison cell with Jürgen Stroop, the SS general responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. They would spend 255 consecutive days together. Moczarski used that unimaginable proximity to investigate a terrifying question: what turns an ordinary person into a mass murderer?

The result became a Polish classic — yet its journey into English has taken decades. As The Guardian reveals, Moczarski’s daughter Elżbieta spent nearly 40 years trying to bring a complete English translation into print. Now, almost 50 years after the book was first published, Sean Gasper Bye’s translation is finally bringing the first uncensored English edition to UK readers.

The piece also speaks to our Editorial Director Clare Bullock about discovering the book nearly a decade ago while learning Polish — and finally having the opportunity to publish it after joining Duckworth.

An extraordinary story behind an extraordinary book, and a wonderful piece to read in full in today’s Guardian.

📕 Conversations with an Executioner by Kazimierz Moczarski, translated by Sean Gasper Bye. Out 27 August.

#NewBooks #Bookstagram #NonFiction #HistoryBooks #WWIIHistory

59 0

Open post by duck_books with ID 17953437165209333

‘A chilling classic reveals the mind of a Nazi mass murderer’

We’re thrilled to see Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner featured in The Guardian today, ahead of its UK publication next week.

Jo Glanville tells the extraordinary story behind the book: in 1949, Polish resistance hero Moczarski was placed in a Warsaw prison cell with Jürgen Stroop, the SS general responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. They would spend 255 consecutive days together. Moczarski used that unimaginable proximity to investigate a terrifying question: what turns an ordinary person into a mass murderer?

The result became a Polish classic — yet its journey into English has taken decades. As The Guardian reveals, Moczarski’s daughter Elżbieta spent nearly 40 years trying to bring a complete English translation into print. Now, almost 50 years after the book was first published, Sean Gasper Bye’s translation is finally bringing the first uncensored English edition to UK readers.

The piece also speaks to our Editorial Director Clare Bullock about discovering the book nearly a decade ago while learning Polish — and finally having the opportunity to publish it after joining Duckworth.

An extraordinary story behind an extraordinary book, and a wonderful piece to read in full in today’s Guardian.

📕 Conversations with an Executioner by Kazimierz Moczarski, translated by Sean Gasper Bye. Out 27 August.

#NewBooks #Bookstagram #NonFiction #HistoryBooks #WWIIHistory

We couldn’t have asked for a more extraordinary response to Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner, which received a rave review in The Telegraph this week.

In 1949, Polish resistance fighter and journalist Kazimierz Moczarski found himself imprisoned for 255 days alongside Jürgen Stroop, the Nazi official responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. What followed were a series of chilling conversations, recorded by Moczarski with remarkable precision: an unforgettable examination of how an ordinary man becomes capable of extraordinary evil.

Never before published in the UK, Conversations with an Executioner is a work of enormous historical and literary importance — and, as The Telegraph’s review makes clear, one that remains painfully relevant today.

Out 27 August and available to pre-order now.

#ConversationsWithAnExecutioner #NewBooks #NonFiction #HistoryBooks #WWIIHistory

53 4

Open post by duck_books with ID 18163679629419611

We couldn’t have asked for a more extraordinary response to Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner, which received a rave review in The Telegraph this week.

In 1949, Polish resistance fighter and journalist Kazimierz Moczarski found himself imprisoned for 255 days alongside Jürgen Stroop, the Nazi official responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. What followed were a series of chilling conversations, recorded by Moczarski with remarkable precision: an unforgettable examination of how an ordinary man becomes capable of extraordinary evil.

Never before published in the UK, Conversations with an Executioner is a work of enormous historical and literary importance — and, as The Telegraph’s review makes clear, one that remains painfully relevant today.

Out 27 August and available to pre-order now.

#ConversationsWithAnExecutioner #NewBooks #NonFiction #HistoryBooks #WWIIHistory

DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE

Simon Phipps

Books by Simon Phipps

Brutal Scotland

Sign up to hear more