“IT ALL STARTED WITH MY BALLS.” So begins Colm Tóibín’s fabulously compelling essay, laced with humor, about his diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Tóibín survives, but he has entered, as he says, “the age of one ball.” The secon…

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…

Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic novel steeped in myth about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds as the fate of two kingdoms hang…

Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things echoes Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in this novel of a young woman freeing herself from the confines of the suffocating Victorian society she was created to serve. Winner of the Whitbread Award and the G…

On the day they are born, every Swift child is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name, and a definition. A definition it is assumed they will grow up to match.Meet Shenanigan Swift: Little sister. Risk-…

A down-to-earth, visual guidebook that shows how to ‘read’, understand and get the most out of art.For beginners, art history might seem a daunting subject with complex rules and impenetrable technical language. Even for more seas…

This book contains a fiendish collection of over 150 mind games to tax your powers of logic in ways you had never thought possible! All kinds of logic brainteasers are included in this Mensa-branded book that will ensure your brai…

Brush off your moustache, collect your knitting needles and put your little grey cells to good use in the case of the missing librarian. With perplexing puzzles left scattered throughout the library to solve, can you complete them…

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR In a prison in Occupied France during the Second World War, the order is given that every tenth inmate is to be executed. Louis Chavel, a rich lawyer, draws the short straw and barters everything…

A bumper collection of easy, medium and difficult Su Doku puzzles to test your mental dexterity, powers of logic and deduction. 100 easy, 100 medium and 100 hard puzzles. Solutions easily found at the back of the book. Keep your m…

Discover the history and culture of over 50 of the most fearsome mythical creatures to capture the human imagination in this startlingly illustrated compendium. Accompanied by illustrations of each beast, Freaky Folklore is your g…

Reach for your trusty pen or pencil and tackle this bumper collection of word challenges at your leisure. Arranged in themes, they will provide a mental workout and relaxation therapy at the same time. Relax and give your brain a …

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…

After a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl, The Pythons made their last performance together in 1983 in the hugely successful MONTY PYTHON'S MEANING OF LIFE. Writing and acting in films and television then took over much of Mi…

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…

To read most histories of art, you might be forgiven for supposing that great artists are superhuman, and the knowledge of different movements, periods and styles is essential to truly appreciate art. It's time to look at art in 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.…

From the author of the Shadowhunter Chronicles, Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare is start of a riveting epic fantasy series with expert worldbuilding, political intrigue and swordplay.One was raised to rule. One was trained to die…

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…

The extraordinary Scandinavian myth cycle is one of the most enduring, exciting, dramatic and compelling of the world's great stories. The Penguin Book of the Norse Myths compellingly retells these stories for the modern reader, t…

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead throug…

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…

Beware the evil in the woods... In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Win…

How far would you go to belong?Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion - it's been a decade since she graduated, and this visit is special because she will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naom…

Sherlock Holmes is dead. Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum which …