Our Favourites

Taking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig...Cavorting naked through the Warwickshire countryside painted green...Acting opposite a child with a pumpkin on his head...These are just a few of the things Dame Judi Dench has …

They say that being a good doctor boils down to just four things: Shut up, listen, know something, care.The same could be said for life on the road, too.When Stephen Fabes left his job as a junior doctor and set out to cycle aroun…

A national bestseller and American Book Award winner, The Best We Could Do is an intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam from debut author Thi Bui.In what Pulitzer Prize–winning no…

In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, P…

Breathing new life into Ireland's history once again, this carefully restored and colourised collection of wonderful black and white images captures the beauty of the nation's fascinating past. This sequel to the bestselling The C…

Two thirds of the world’s oceans lie beyond national borders. Owned by all nations and no nation simultaneously, the high seas are home to some of the richest and most biodiverse environments on the planet. But they are also home …

The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat—Stallone once threw a bowl of flowers at …

Why are we here? Do ghosts exist? Will we ever travel back in time? Are we being visited by extraterrestrials? Will we ever talk to animals? Are we being told the truth? Are mysterious creatures roaming the Earth? And why, when yo…

obert Langdon is back in the long-awaited new race-against-time thriller from the global bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Accompanying celebrated academic, Katherine Solomon, to a lecture she’s been i…

Meet the néaladóirí (cloud-watchers) and réadóirí (stargazers) from our past who, without the luxury of Met Éireann at their disposal, observed birds, trees, animals, as well as markers on land and sea for signs of weather change.…

A quest, a literary thriller and a love story, What We Can Know spans the past, present and future to ask profound questions about who we are and where we are going.2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For gener…

A grab bag of historic spleens, chins, and more, this is your ultimate literary dissection of body parts throughout history!From famous craniums to prominent breasts, ancient spleens and bound feet, this book will bring history to…

Cleopatra: lover, seductress, and Egypt's greatest queen. A woman more myth than history, immortalized in poetry, drama, music, art, and film. She captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, the two greatest Romans of the day, and d…

The Comfort Book is a collection of consolations learned in hard times and suggestions for making the bad days better. Drawing on maxims, memoir and the inspirational lives of others, these meditations offer new ways of seeing our…

We are living through an exciting revolution in biology. Giant strides are being made in our understanding of why we age, and why some species live longer than others. Will we soon be able to cheat disease and death and live for a…

Through eight sensational stories of discovery, Professor Michael Scott traces the evolution of modern archaeology from colonial expeditions to today's cutting-edge digs, unearthing traps, curses and buried treasure along the way.…

In the long run, we're all dead. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated and ev…

HOW DO WE END TYRANNY? Tyrants seem invincible, but they face constant threats from all sides. Whether it's by members of their inner circle, military elites, alienated masses, assassins, revolutionaries, or simply old age - they…

A provocative new vision of how our world really works - and why chance determines everything.In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas deep-dives into the phenomenon of randomness, unpicking our neat and tidy storybo…

Thomas Bayes was an eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician whose obscure life belied the profound impact of his work. Fusing biography, razor-sharp science communication and intellectual history, Everyt…

The life of William Shakespeare, Britain's greatest dramatist, was inextricably linked with the history of London. Together, the great writer and the great city came of age and confronted triumph and tragedy. Triumph came when Sha…

A sweeping history of the city of Rome, seen through the eyes of its most significant sackings, from the Gauls to the Nazis and everything in between.No city on earth has preserved its past as Rome has. Visitors can cross bridges …

In this profound and moving philosophical statement, Camus poses the fundamental question: If human existence has no meaning, is life worth living?'What I touch, what resists me - that is what I understand'As Camus argues, if ther…

Revealing the hidden connections between the Nazis and the CIA's notorious brainwashing experimentation programme, MKUltra, Tripped is a wild, secret history that shows how the quest to turn LSD into a weapon held back therapeutic…

To the outside world, Reverend Nathaniel Whitfield and his family stand as godly pillars of their small-town community in Puritan New England. One disciple, Dr Arthur Lyman, discovers in the minister's words a love so captivating …

History Hit podcast presenter Dr Anthony Delaney reveals the real people that inspired Gentleman Jack and the gay romances in Bridgerton, long written out of the nation's story and now lovingly restored. Mother Clap's Holborn coff…

Revisit the worst decisions and inventions across the ages.   History's Worst Decisions & Inventions takes in a broad sweep of human history, from the ancient to modern times. Chapters include: General Custer and Little Bigh…

One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel’s mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by t…

Are you surrounded by weeds? Is your lawn forlorn? Are your bushes diseased? Do you long to create an outdoor space you can enjoy with friends - a garden you can show off with pride?How to Garden When You're New to Gardening shows…

Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2024: History Book of the Year. Hotel Lux follows Irish radical May O'Callaghan and her friends, three revolutionary families brought together by their vision for a communist future and their…