Simon appleby

Souvenir Press announces The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention – A Six Week Artist’s Way Programme from legendary author Julia Cameron, which will be published in January 2021.

From the bestselling author – whose fans include Russell Brand, Kerry Washington, Alicia Keys and Reese Witherspoon – of The Artist’s Way comes a new, transformative guide to deeper, more profound listening and creativity. Over six weeks, readers will be given the tools to become better listeners – to their environment, the people around them, and themselves.

Julia Cameron said: ‘It gives me great pleasure to launch The Listening Path. I have long believed that we do not listen – not closely enough, not carefully enough. The tools of this book change our perceptions. With their help, we become more awake, alive and aware.’

Souvenir Press will publish The Listening Path as a £20 hardback in January 2021.

About The Artist’s Way

In 2020, Souvenir Press is reissuing Julia Cameron’s classic work, The Artist’s Way with a fresh new cover look and in three different formats. The hardback was published in April, The Artist’s Way Workbook will follow on 3 September and The Artist’s Way paperback edition is out on 5 November. Originally published in 1991, The Artist’s Way offers techniques to free up blockages, opening up opportunities for growth and self-discovery. Globally, The Artist’s Way alone has sold over 5 million copies, and has been credited with launching hundreds of novels, plays, films, startups, and other creative projects.

About Julia Cameron

Hailed by the New York Times as ‘The Queen of Change’, Julia Cameron is credited with starting a movement in 1992 that has brought creativity into the mainstream conversation – in the arts, in business, and in everyday life. She is the bestselling author of more than forty books, fiction and nonfiction; a poet, songwriter, filmmaker and playwright. Commonly referred to as ‘The Godmother’ or ‘High Priestess’ of creativity, her tools are based in practice, not theory, and she considers herself ‘the floor sample of her own toolkit.’ The Artist’s Way has been translated into forty languages and sold over five million copies to date.

We are proud to be sponsoring this new writing competition for children, which builds on the international conversation around Black Lives Matter. Launched today by Angellica Bell and Michael Underwood, 500 Words competition, invites children aged 5-13, of all ethnicities and backgrounds throughout the UK, to submit pieces of creative writing expressing personal experience, empathy, learning and respect, in response to Black Lives Matter. 

500 Words celebrated its 10^th anniversary during its 2020 Final on Friday 12^th June. Hot on its heels, the new competition issues a brief intended to encourage important conversations at home, at school and across the nation, on the themes and issues emerging from the Black Lives Matter movements around the world. The initiative encourages children to tap into their own creativity and imagination, using storytelling to share their experience and understanding of how different ethnicities and cultures interact.

Angellica Bell and Michael Underwood said, “We are so excited to be a part of this new era of the 500 Words challenge, asking young people for the first time to write about a specific theme, and in this case, Black Lives Matter. For both of us, writing has always been a powerful tool to help us work through difficult subjects that are often tricky to articulate. This fantastic competition will give children from all backgrounds across the UK, the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings about the recent tragic events, the global response to it and how it has impacted us all. Empowering the next generation to share their personal views through their love of writing is brilliant!”

Angellica and Michael are joined by supporters of the competition from the entertainment industry including Aasmah Mir, Adam Kay, Amanda Abbington, Barney Harwood, Colin Jackson, Dr Ranj, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris, Konnie Huq, John Pienaar, Noel Clarke, Paula Radcliffe, Shobna Gulati and Stephen Graham.  In addition, publishing houses throughout the UK are supporting the initiative, including Atlantic, Bonnier, Canongate, Faber & Faber, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Oxford University Press, Profile, Puffin (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and Simon & Schuster.

A spokesperson for the supporting publishers said, [DRAFT YET TO BE APPROVED BY ALL PUBLISHERS] “All publishers love stories, they help us to expand our worlds and understand more about ourselves and others. When children write they can get to the heart of a subject in a way that adults often can’t and so we are really proud to support 500 Words: Black Lives Matter and we are already looking forward to hearing from the next generation of storytellers.”

Helen Freeman, Director Children’s Dictionaries & Language Data, Oxford University Press, said, “Oxford University Press is delighted to be supporting this latest 500 Words initiative, continuing our role as children’s language experts. Our analysis informs our understanding of how children use words to express their ideas in writing, which enables us to better support their learning.”

Children will be able to submit their written work from Monday 29^th June with a deadline of Friday 3^rd July. All submissions will be reviewed by a panel of professional readers, up until the semi-finals take place live on air from 13^th – 16^th July. Angellica and Michael will chair the judging panel, and will be joined by an illustrious team to judge the semi-finals, which includes former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman OBE, actor, comedian and author Charlie Higson, children’s author Francesca Simon, and screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

Winners will be invited to join Chris Evans, creator of the 500 Words initiative, on the Virgin Radio Breakfast Show on 17^th July (with further prize details to be revealed).

This morning, Evans officially announced the competition on air.  Chris says of this writing competition “500 Words has enabled children to stretch their creative writing skills for over 10 years, with more than a million entries submitted. We’re excited to be able to continue the initiative with a focus on encouraging children to write stories with their own voices, not filtered by the thoughts of adults.”

The competition website launched today, featuring more information about the entry process and details on how to submit stories, and can be found here: 500Words.me

For more information, contact freuds:

[email protected]

Faber and Profile Books are delighted to announce two new Alan Bennett Talking Heads monologues. These new additions to the acclaimed and much-loved series will be published together as Two Besides, first as an ebook on 8 July and then in a beautiful hardback edition on 15 October.

Each, in its way, is a devastating portrait of grief. In An Ordinary Woman, a mother suffers the inevitable consequences when she makes life intolerable for herself and her family by falling for her own flesh and blood, while The Shrine tells the story behind a makeshift roadside shrine, introducing us to Lorna, bearing witness in her high-vis jacket, the bereft partner of a dedicated biker with a surprising private life.

The book also contains a substantial preface by director and long-time collaborator Nicholas Hytner and an introduction to each monologue by the author.

Pre-order your copy from Waterstones, Amazon, or your local bookshop

The original collection of Bennett’s darkly comic monologues has won countless fans over the decades. Writer David Sedaris described them as ‘pretty much the best thing ever’, a collection he gives to friends more than any other. These two new stories will be an unexpected delight for old fans and will create a generation of new ones. They will be broadcast first on BBC One alongside ten of the original monologues, all performed by new actors. This series was filmed at Elstree Studios according to strict social distancing guidelines during lockdown.

The new Talking Heads episodes star Jodie Comer, Monica Dolan, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Sarah Lancashire, Lesley Manville, Lucian Msamati, Maxine Peake, Rochenda Sandall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Imelda Staunton and Harriet Walter. The first two episodes will air on 23 June and all will be available on iPlayer from that date. The TV series became an instant classic when first broadcast in 1988, and a second acclaimed season aired in 1998. They featured what are now considered iconic performances from Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, Patricia Routledge and Bennett himself. Hytner referred to them as ‘among the masterworks of one of the very greatest writers in TV, film and theatre history’.

Faber and Profile Books have been publishing Alan Bennett in a joint partnership since 2005. Books by Bennett published in this partnership include Untold Stories, The Uncommon Reader, The Lady in the Van, Smut and Six Poets.

Alan Bennett said: ‘Given the opportunity to revisit the characters from Talking Heads I’ve added a couple more, both of them ordinary women whom life takes by surprise. They just about end up on top and go on, but without quite knowing how.

Dinah Wood, editorial director for drama at Faber and associate producer for London Theatre Company on Talking Heads, commented: ‘What could be a more thrilling lockdown delivery than two new Talking Heads from Alan Bennett? Masterpieces, both, like the previous and unforgettable dozen, these monologues are timeless in their concerns – love, death, sex, desire, loneliness, the ultimate unknowability of other people – but have a resonance now, as our sense of isolation is amplified. Only Alan could come up with the title Two Besides; they are absolutely to the point.’

Rebecca Gray, commissioning editor at Profile, commented: ‘An early review says Alan Bennett still has the sharpest pen in England, which feels spot on for me. It’s always a joy when Alan writes something new, and just now it’s more of a treat than ever. Never has a man written women so well! We love working with Alan, and it’s great fun to team up with our friends at Faber too. Something for us as publishers to look forward to as much as his many readers. These may be called Two Besides but for us they’re Two Most Wanted.’

Pre-order your copy from Waterstones, Amazon, or your local bookshop

Eye-opening, moving, and crafted with expert research, The Pink Line is a vital journey of epic scope, across the world’s new queer frontiers.

Mark Gevisser has written two previous books and writes frequently for Guardian, The New York Times, Granta, and many other publications. He helped organise South Africa’s first Pride March in 1990, and has worked on queer themes ever since, as a journalist, film-maker and curator. He lives in Cape Town.

Pre-order your copy: Waterstones | Amazon | Hive

Marketing Director Niamh Murray interviews Mark Gevisser, author of The Pink Line.

NM: What is the Pink Line?

MG: The Pink Line is a new human rights frontier over LGBTQ rights that has come to define – and describe – the world in an entirely new way. This is a result of a new global conversation about sexual orientation and gender identity that was unimaginable a generation ago. Battles along this Pink Line have sparked new culture wars. On the one side are countries (or communities, or families) who have come to accept queer people as full members of society, and on the other are those finding new ways to shut them out. The Pink Line is constantly shifting, and not only separates countries, but runs through parliaments and courtrooms, through bedrooms and bathrooms, through bodies themselves, as the world comes to terms with new ways of understanding what it means to make a family, to be male or female, or to have human rights. 

NM: How does it affect real lives?

MG: In fact, the Pink Line is not so much a line as a territory, a borderland where queer people work to reconcile the liberation and community they might have experienced online or on TV with the constraints of life in the real world. Because politicians and patriarchs and priests weaponise queer people to fight their own battles – against the decadent secular West, for example, or against Muslim immigrants – queer people have acquired political meaning far beyond their claims ot equality and dignity. They have become embodiments of progress and worldliness to some, but stigmata of moral and social decay to others. 

NM: What stories of hope did you find?

MG: My book interleaves historical and analytical chapters with the stories of people I met on the front line, in ten different countries, from Egypt to Mexico to Uganda, from India to Russia to the United States. Many of them struggled deeply during the seven or so years I was following them, and in many cases, even they went into exile as “LGBT Refugees”, they have found new challenges in Canada, or Holland, or South Africa that continued to make their lives difficult. But all of them exercise agency: they make their own choices and live their own lives, they insist on being themselves, and this signals immense hope. 

NM: What work still needs to be done?

MG: If I can borrow the slogan that is inspiring people all over the globe right now: Queer Lives Matter. Even in societies that have acknowledged this legally, there is a long way to go in changing attitudes and behaviour. In the United States, the number of transgender women – usually of colour – who are murdered or who kill themselves is shocking. In countries like Brazil, the numbers are even higher. In my native South Africa, where discrimination on the basis of sexual orientaiton is outlawed in the constitution and same-sex marriage is legal, the number of gender-nonconforming people (particularly butch lesbians) who have been raped and murdered is horrifying. In many countries, the custodians of the law are a huge part of the problem: this is particularly true in Egypt, which imprisons more people on suspicion of homosexuality than anywhere else in the world. I could go on. The challenge is how to fight against such injustice in a way that is culturally sensitive and that does not draw accusations (and thus obfuscations) of “cultural imperialism” or “neo-colonialism”. And the answer to this challenge is to listen ot the voices, and follow the leads, of queer Africans or Asians or people of colour themselves. This is what I have tried to do in my book. 

NM: How can straight people be allies?

MG: There is a beautiful South African word that guides me: “ubuntu”, which means, roughly, “I am a human being because you are a human being”. I’m thus not a huge fan of the concept of allyship: we’re all in this together. 

NM: How has globalisation affected LGBTQ lives across the world?

MG: Two elements of globalisation have set this new global conversation buzzing. The first is, of course, the digital revolution, which means that ideas of human rights and personal autonomy can be downloaded anywhere, by anyone who has a smartphone and a little bit of privacy. The second is mass migration and urbanisation. As people travel from country to country, or to the city to work and back home again, they learn new ideas and carry them along with them. 

As global human rights categories such as “LGBT” have gained currency globally, this has created new possibilities for many people, but it has also created new conflict, and new risks, and in some cases shut down cultural and social space that accomodated homosexuality and gender nonconformity.

Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman are experts at finding inspiration in ancient stoicism. Their upcoming book The Lives of the Stoics offers a fresh approach to understanding Stoicism through the lives of the people who practiced it. To whet your appetite for publication in September, the authors look at how we can destress by taking heed of Marcus Aurelius’ approach to anxiety. 

This article is from Ryan Holiday’s newsletter – you can sign up here.

Pre-order The Lives of the Stoics at Waterstones or Amazon

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How Marcus Aurelius Conquered Stress

To say that Marcus Aurelius had a stressful life would be a preposterous understatement. He ran the largest empire in the world. He had a troublesome son. He had a nagging and painful stomach issue. There was a palace coup led by one of his closest friends. Rumors that his wife was unfaithful. The Parthians invaded the Roman client-state of Armenia, triggering a war that would last five years. The Antonine Plague struck in 165 CE and killed, by conservative estimates, more than 10 million. The River Tiber had one of the worst floods in history, destroying homes and livestock and leaving Rome in famine.

Should we be surprised that he talks openly in Meditations about his anxiety? About losing his temper? That he sometimes felt ground down and exhausted by life? Of course he did. He had all our problems and more. He was besieged by stress. And yet that’s exactly why he inspires us. Because he conquered that stress, just like we can.

“Today I escaped anxiety,” he writes. “Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.”

Journal and write

How did he escape anxiety? What can he show us about slaying that demon of stress that we all suffer from? A lot. For starters, the fact that we even know about his anxiety is because of one of those strategies. It was in the pages of his journal that Marcus worked through his problems. Instead of letting racing thoughts dominate his mind and drive him crazy, he put them down on paper.

It was also in these pages that Marcus prepared himself for difficulties in advance. He reminded himself that the people he was going to meet during the day would be troublesome, he reminded himself that things were not going to go perfectly, he reminded himself that getting angry never made things better. By taking the time to journal and write, he was chipping away at his anxiety, just as we all can—in the morning, at night, on our lunch break. Whenever.

Find perspective and meditate

To calm his anxiety, Marcus was also constantly trying to get perspective. Sometimes he zoomed way out. He meditated on his insignificance. “The infinity of past and future gapes before us,” he wrote, “a chasm whose depths we cannot see. So it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress.”Other times, he zoomed way in, telling himself to take things step by step, moment by moment. No one can stop you from that, he said. Concentrate like a Roman, he said, on what’s in front of you like it’s the last thing you’re doing in your life.Don’t worry about what’s happened in the past or what might happen in the future. This idea of being present is key to overcoming our stress.

We are often anxious because of what we fear will happen next, or after what happens next. We worry about worst case scenarios. We dread potential obstacles. But Marcus, from Epictetus, knew that “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.” That’s why Marcus Aurelius spent some much time trying to be present, reminding himself to return to the present moment where nothing is “novel or hard to deal with, but familiar and easily handled.”.

Separate the essential from the inessential

Like all busy people, Marcus Aurelius had a million things going on. But he also knew that much of what people expected of him or even that he found himself focusing on was not important or necessary. So to reduce stress, he tried hard to separate the essential from the inessential. “If you seek tranquility, do less.” But then he makes a critical clarification, “Or (more accurately) do what’s essential… Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time.”

Was there stuff he had to do that he didn’t want to do? Problems he was stuck with that he’d rather not be stuck with? You bet. That’s life. Which is why he, and all of us, have to practice acceptance. That’s all we need, he said, willing acceptance at every moment. You can scream “until you turn blue” and curse the world “as if the world would notice!” Or you can “accept the obstacle and work with what you’re given.”

Be a good friend to yourself

Finally, Marcus Aurelius worked hard to be a good friend to himself. Although he was firm and strong and self-disciplined, he did not whip himself. He knew that it was inevitable that he would mess up. We all do. The key, he said, is to just focus on getting back on track. Don’t dwell. Don’t call yourself an idiot. Don’t smack your forehead in anger. No, “get back up when you fail,” he said, “celebrate behaving like a human.” “When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances,” he said, “revert at once to yourself, and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep on going back to it.”

It would be wonderful if we didn’t have to do any of this. If life was easy. If things always went right. That’s just not possible though. Stress is an inevitable part of life. It is the friction of the plates of our responsibility rubbing against each other. But if stress is inevitable, anxiety and anger and worry are not. Marcus believed that these things were a choice. That we could work past them, through them, that we could discard them, as he said, because they are within us, or at least up to us. We can slay our stress because it’s not an external enemy. It is an inner battle.

Check out Daily Stoic’s Slay Your Stress course for even more Stoic guidance on how to fight against stress and anxiety.

Taking up running over lockdown? Try Chris McDougall’s classic, Born to Run. Enjoying the view from the window? Try Richard Mabey’s Turned Out Nice Again to see the weather in a new light. Need a breath of fresh air after being inside so long? Join Emily Chappell on her incredible 4000km bike ride across Europe.

Let us know what you’re reading over on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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The running classic that has been inspiring runners – from beginner to pro – for over a decade.

With incredible energy and smart observation, McDougall tells the story of the mysterious tribe of Mexican Indians who are the best distance runners in the world, while asking what the secrets are to being an incredible runner.

Travelling to labs at Harvard, Nike, and elsewhere, he comes across an incredible cast of characters, including the woman who recently broke the world record for 100 miles and for her encore ran a 2:50 marathon in a bikini, pausing to down a beer at the 20 mile mark.

Download the ebook  | Buy your copy

In The Forager’s Calendar, John Wright shows us what species can be found when and where, how to identify them, and how to store, use and cook them. Fully illustrated throughout, with tips on kit, conservation advice and what to avoid, this is an indispensable guide.

Download the ebook  | Buy your copy

A celebration of the weather, come rain or shine

In this beautiful love letter to weather, award-winning nature writer Richard Mabey weaves together science, art and memoirs to show the weather’s impact on our culture and national psyche.

We meet Golden Summers, our denial of winter, the Impressionists’ love affair with London smog, seasonal affective disorder and the mysteries of storm migraines; moonbows, dog-suns, fog-mirages and Constable’s clouds…

Download the ebook | Buy your copy

 

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The best illustrated book for bringing the outside in

Bestselling author Simon Jenkins picks 100 of the very best from the white cliffs of Dover to Hadrian’s Wall – and explains the fascinating stories behind each, with beautiful photos accompanying them.

From Gold Hill, the Dorset village street so famously picturesque it was used in a Hovis advert, to the view of the City of London famously depicted by Canaletto and the wilds of the Yorkshire moors. 

Download the ebook | Buy your copy

 

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Dive into the beautiful and fascinating world of seaweed

In this short, exquisitely illustrated portrait, the Dutch poet and artist Miek Zwamborn shares her discoveries of seaweed’s history, culture and use, from the Neolithic people of the Orkney Islands to sushi artisans in modern Japan.

This is a wonderful gift for every nature lover’s home – and you will come away with a new appreciation for this beautiful botanical.

Pre-order the ebook | Pre-order your copy

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An incredible and inspiring story of cycling 4000km across Europe

If you’re enjoying getting in the saddle over lockdown, this book could be for you. It’s the gripping and jaw-dropping story of ultra-endurance cyclist Emily Chappell’s race across Europe. There’s motivation and inspiration to be found in these pages, beautiful depictions of the landscape Emily encounters, funny moments, and a moving, honest account of grief. 

 

Download the ebook | Buy your copy

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Positive, proactive thinking on climate change

The UK has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. So how do we get there? Drawing on actions, policies and technologies already emerging around the world, Chris Goodall sets out the ways to achieve this, from sustainable energy to new ways of farming.

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We’re thrilled to announce that The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff’s powerful and groundbreaking work of non-fiction, has been shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2020.

The judges said:

‘Only rarely does a book come along that reflects and shapes a profound change in thinking about modern life: this is one of them. Zuboff’s mighty study – carefully researched over years, but also aphoristic – tells the story of how we all unwittingly gave up freedoms and handed vast power to the profit-oriented tech corporations that now dominate our lives.’

Buy your copy | Download the ebook

Follow @ShoshanaZuboff on Twitter

About the book

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S TOP BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2020

Shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award 2019

‘Easily the most  important book to be published this  century. I find it hard to take any  young activist seriously who hasn’t  at least familarised themselves  with Zuboff’s central ideas.’ – Zadie Smith, The Guardian

The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called “surveillance capitalism,” and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control us.

The heady optimism of the Internet’s early days is gone. Technologies that were meant to liberate us have deepened inequality and stoked divisions. Tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, whether government or retailer. Profits now depend not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. How will this fusion of capitalism and the digital shape our values and define our future?

Shoshana Zuboff shows that we are at a crossroads. We still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in, and what we decide now will shape the rest of the century. Our choices: allow technology to enrich the few and impoverish the many, or harness it and distribute its benefits.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply-reasoned examination of the threat of unprecedented power free from democratic oversight. As it explores this new capitalism’s impact on society, politics, business, and technology, it exposes the struggles that will decide both the next chapter of capitalism and the meaning of information civilization. Most critically, it shows how we can protect ourselves and our communities and ensure we are the masters of the digital rather than its slaves.

Last week, concerns about privacy and cyber security were raised over the government’s plans to introduce a new health tracking app as part of a lockdown exit strategy. But there are already a number of apps out there behaving in a similar way, and having the effect users fear.

In this extract from Shoshana Zuboff’s Sunday Times bestselling The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, we learn about the health apps already in use, and how they are being used for surveillance capitalism.

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Follow @ShoshanaZuboff on Twitter

From the chapter Rendition: From Experience to Data

It is eloquent testimony to the health care system’s failure to serve the needs of second-modernity individuals that we now access health data and advice from our phones while these pocket computers aggressively access us. M-health has triggered an explosion of rendition and behavioral surplus capture as individuals turn in record numbers to their fitness bands and diet apps for support and guidance.[47] By 2016, there were more than 100,000 mobile health apps available on the Google Android and Apple iOS platforms, double the number in 2014.[48] These rich data can no longer be imagined as cloistered within the intimate closed loops between a patient and her doctor or between an application and its dieters or runners. That bucolic vision has its holdouts, to be sure, but for surveillance capitalists this vision is but a faded daguerreotype.

In the US, most health and fitness applications are not subject to health privacy laws, and the laws that do exist do not adequately take into account either new digital capabilities or the ferocity of surveillance capitalist operations. Companies are expected to self-regulate by following guidelines suggested by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other government agencies. For example, in 2016 the FTC issued a list of best practices for developers of mobile health applications aimed at increasing transparency, privacy, and security. Among these suggestions, developers are encouraged to “make sure your app doesn’t access consumer information it doesn’t need,” “let consumers select particular contacts, rather than having your app request access to all user contacts through the standard API,” and let users “choose privacy-protective default settings.” That year the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would also not seek to regulate health and fitness apps, citing their “low-level risk.” Instead, the agency released its own set of voluntary guidelines for software developers.[49]

Finally, the research team unearthed an even darker secret: privacy policies do not matter. Of the 211 apps in the group, 81 percent did not have privacy policies, but for those that did, “not all of the provisions actually protected privacy.” Of those apps without privacy policies, 76 percent shared sensitive information with third parties, and of those with privacy policies, 79 percent shared data while only about half admitted doing so in their published disclosures. In other words, privacy policies are more aptly referred to as surveillance policies, and that is what I suggest we call them.

Read the notes

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Many of us are finding it hard to get stuck into reading at the moment – which is where a short, powerful non-fiction read can help. Here, we’ve picked a list of short books, manifestos and essay collections to expand your mind and keep your attention.

Lots of the ebooks can be bought for the price of a takeaway coffee – a good swap, we’d say.

Let us know what you’re reading over on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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Women & Power

Mary Beard

Giving a double dose of contemporary feminism and ancient history, Mary Beard’s #1 Sunday Times bestselling manifesto packs a huge punch in its 144 pages. 

With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton.

Download the ebook  | Buy your copy

The Lies That Bind

Kwame Anthony Appiah

In this fascinating, slim book, best-selling author Kwame Anthony Appiah presents a new exploration of race and identity politics. 

Showing that our current collective identities are riddled with contradictions, he argues that social identities aren’t something we can simply do away with. They can usher in moral progress and bring significance to our lives by connecting the small scale of our daily existence with larger movements, causes, and concerns.

Download the ebook | Buy your copy

Turned Out Nice Again

Richard Mabey

In this beautiful love letter to weather, award-winning nature writer Richard Mabey weaves together science, art and memoirs to show the weather’s impact on our culture and national psyche.

We meet Golden Summers, our denial of winter, the Impressionists’ love affair with London smog, seasonal affective disorder and the mysteries of storm migraines; herrings falling like hail in Norfolk and Saharan dust reddening south-coast cars; moonbows, dog-suns, fog-mirages and Constable’s clouds; the fact that English has more words for rain than Inuit has for snow; the curious eccentricity of country clothing and the mathematical behaviour of umbrella sales.

And all in 112 pages.

Download the ebook | Buy your copy

The Making of You

Katharina Vestre

Join Katharina Vestre on an adventure to relive your very first moments. From your first cell to your first breath, this is your story

 as you have never heard it before.

Did you know that it took three attempts to make your kidneys? Or that tiny twirling hairs on your back showed your other organs where to go? Or that hiccups are probably a legacy from our ancient, underwater ancestors?

It’s a miniature drama of cosmic significance.

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Trials of the State

Jonathan Sumption

In this Sunday Times bestseller, expanding on his 2019 Reith Lectures, in just 128 pages Jonathan Sumption argues that the time has come to return some problems to the politicians.

In the past few decades, legislatures throughout the world have suffered from gridlock. In democracies, laws and policies are just as soon unpicked as made. It seems that Congress and Parliaments cannot forge progress or consensus. Moreover, courts often overturn decisions made by elected representatives.

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The Little Book of Yes

Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin and Robert Cialdini

This pocket-sized book from the masters of influence will help bring persuasive science into all areas of your life, both personal and professional. Something lots of us could find useful right now…

“A refreshing and enlightening new perspective on what it means to be powerful.” – SUSAN CAIN, bestselling author of Quiet

An eye-opening exploration of power and how we can harness it using performance techniques borrowed from actors.

Stanford business professor Deborah Gruenfeld combines 25 years of social psychology research with personal experience to reveal the truth about power: that we all have more than we realise and what counts is what we do with it.

Acting with Power shows anyone seeking greater professional and academic success what power is actually for, how to identify it within ourselves, and how to use it constructively using acting techniques.

Some of us crave a bigger role, and many of us feel like imposters in our current ones. Acting with Power shows us how to be the best version of ourselves in any role, on any stage.

Buy your copy from Waterstones or Amazon  

Download the ebook

Download the audiobook

From the introduction

Learning to Play the Professor

Becoming a professor was a fairly dramatic transition. I was a graduate student for five long years, so that role had become quite comfortable. I got my PhD and accepted a job at Northwestern University, and on my very first day, just like that, became “the professor.” I still felt like the same person, doing the same work—running experiments, publishing journal articles, and learning to teach—but to everyone else I was different. I was supposed to know things, to be the expert, to hold other people accountable and tell my students what to do.

It was the most uncomfortable of ironies. As a psychologist, I was a bona fide power expert. But I still felt powerless myself. I felt like an imposter, undeserving of the respect and attention that come with the role. And the more I advanced in my career, and the more my stature grew, the more I struggled to own who I was to other people. I could see how others looked in positions of power; I just couldn’t see myself as one of them.

Then I had a breakthrough. It came from an unexpected place. I was asked to take part in a new program being offered to business school faculty in an effort to increase teaching quality across the board. The program was offered by a consultant whose background was in the theater. It seemed a little woo-woo, even for California, but I agreed to participate because, true to form, I thought I had to.

I spent two full days in a claustrophobic lecture hall with eight other faculty members and a diminutive, supercharged woman named Barbara Lanebrown. She asked each of us to prepare three minutes of a typical lecture and deliver it to our colleagues. After the first presentation, she asked the speaker—a gray-haired expert in international business with a British accent—an unexpected question:

“Which characters,” she asked, “did you bring with you onto the stage?” He blinked at her, genuinely puzzled, until finally, one colleague, sensing his discomfort, asked Lanebrown to clarify. A classroom, she explained gently, “is like a theater, where we play the role of teacher.” Then she paused to let that sink in. “When we give a lecture,” she continued, “we are giving a performance. Like an actor, we make choices about how to play that role by enlisting characters that live within us who help us bring it to life.”

Some of us shifted and smiled weakly, and I thought I heard someone snort. I remember looking around to see if anyone was buying it. Then someone voiced what I was feeling: “I don’t act in the classroom. I’m just being myself.”

Lanebrown considered this comment. Then she asked us about the teaching presentation we’d just seen. Was this person, whom you know as a colleague but have never seen teach, different at all in the role of teacher? Did you see a side of him you hadn’t seen before, or learn anything about him that you weren’t aware of?

The answer, of course, was yes. “Onstage” he wasn’t exactly the same as the person we knew outside the classroom. As each person delivered their three-minute spiel, this proved to be true again and again. One guy, generally your typical buttoned-up academic, became more of “a stand-up comic.” Another normally easygoing and unusually friendly colleague became more stern, even a bit scary; he described himself, aptly, as “the sheriff.” A third, who was somewhat impulsive and feisty in faculty meetings, took on the quiet gravitas of “the village elder.” Every single one of us revealed a hidden side of ourselves when teaching. We each drew, however unconsciously, on characters we knew, who lived in us already, to give our best, or at least most comfortable, performance.

It was completely eye-opening. I learned that I brought an army of characters with me to deliver my lecture: the energetic one, the passionate one, the nervous one, the playful one, the vulnerable one, the intellectual one, the knowledgeable one, the serious one, the articulate one, and the powerful one. Needless to say, not all were actually invited, but they made their appearances anyway, and apparently the stage wasn’t big enough for the ten of us. I didn’t really trust any of them, it turned out: I feared that the strong ones would be off-putting and the weak ones would be pitiful. The result was that they were all wrestling behind the curtain, and the audience could see it.

Each of us left the room that day with an assignment: to prepare another few minutes of lecture, but this time to try to commit to showing up in character more. We arrived on Day Two ready for a challenge. Some took bigger risks than others. The village elder came in slightly more rumpled, with a folksier way of speaking. The sheriff wore cowboy boots and, on occasion, used his fingers as guns, to great effect. I can’t recall what I tried to do, which is telling.

But what I do remember is that, unlike some of my colleagues, I couldn’t stop self-censoring. And at the same time, I could see that when my colleagues were able to let go of being themselves and fully embrace the roles they were playing, their performances actually became more compelling, more engaging, more “true.” Somehow, acting didn’t make them seem less “authentic”; it actually made them appear more real.

I now know that power is not personal, at least not in the way I once thought. In life, as in the theater, power comes with the roles we play. Actors, if they are successful, don’t let their insecurities stop them from being who they need to be in order to do their jobs. To do any job well, to be the person you aspire to be, and to use power effectively (whether you feel powerful or not), you have to step away from your own drama and learn how to play your part in someone else’s story.

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‘Fascinating, moving, and essential reading’ Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal

‘The most important book you’ll read this year’ Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive

‘This book is a gift for us all’ Susan Cain, author of Quiet

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States from 2014 to 2017. During that time, he travelled the country highlighting public health issues from the opioid crisis to e-cigarettes. But none struck as close to home as his discovery of the loneliness epidemic. Like many of his patients, he had experienced periods of loneliness throughout his life, when studying at Harvard and Yale, and even during the period after Obama had nominated him for the country’s most visible medical position. 

Published early in ebook and audio to help address the issue of loneliness in relation to the current reality of social isolation caused by COVID-19, this is a book for our times. Especially now, the world seems more connected than ever, and yet we are increasingly lonely. Loneliness is a contributing factor in addiction, violence, depression and anxiety. But what lies behind this crisis, and is it possible to reverse?

In a time of uncertainty and solitude, books are more important to us now than ever. They help us to feel connected to others, to inform ourselves, escape our realities, and find a little joy. Audiobooks, in particular, offer us the opportunity to block out the noise, travel from our homes and to immerse ourselves in a different setting. For all of us staying home, we made a list of our audiobooks to keep you company as you seek calm, understanding, or distraction.

Let us know what audiobook is keeping you company on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Audiobooks that inspire connection:

Together by Dr Vivek H. Murthy

Former US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy explores the root causes and devastating effects of loneliness on our physical and mental wellbeing. And most importantly, he offers a range of solutions inspired by the creative ways in which different individuals and communities around the world are making people feel more connected. Dr Murthy’s analysis and message are becoming increasingly relevant as self-distancing and isolation measures are imposed all around the world to contain the spread of COVID-19, putting many people (and especially the elderly and the most vulnerable in society) at increased risk of loneliness. Now more than ever we need to think of and implement ways to prevent loneliness for ourselves and others, and Together offers readers ideas and inspiration to do exactly that. 

Pre-order your copy (out 7th April 2020): 

Audible

Audiobooks that help you relax:

Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday

Throughout history, there’s been one indelible quality that great leaders, makers, artists and fighters have shared. The Zen Buddhists described it as inner peace, the Stoics called it ataraxia and Ryan Holiday calls it stillness: the ability to be steady, focused and calm in a constantly busy world. This quality is urgently necessary today. And, Holiday shows, it is entirely attainable. We can all benefit from stillness to feed into our greater ambitions – whether winning a battle, building a business, or simply finding happiness, peace and self-direction. Filled with wisdom and examples from historical and contemporary figures, this book shows how to cultivate this quality in your own life. Because stillness is not merely inactivity, but the doorway to the self-mastery, discipline and focus necessary to succeed in this competitive, noisy world.

Download your copy: 

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Apple

Everything Isn’t Terrible by Kathleen Smith

Licensed therapist and respected mental health writer Dr Kathleen Smith offers a smart, practical antidote to our anxiety-ridden times. Everything Isn’t Terrible is an informative, and fun guide – featuring a healthy dose of humour – for people who want to become beacons of calmness in our anxious world. It will inspire readers to confront their anxious selves, take charge of their anxiety, and increase their own capacity to choose how they respond to it. Comprised of short chapters containing anecdotal examples from Smith’s personal experience as well as those of her clients, in addition to engaging, actionable exercises for readers, Everything Isn’t Terrible will give anyone suffering from anxiety all the tools they need to finally be calm.

Download your copy: 

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Audiobooks that keep you informed:

The Rules of Contagion by Adam Kucharski

Our lives are shaped by outbreaks – of disease, of misinformation, even of violence – that appear, spread and fade away with bewildering speed. To understand them, we need to learn the hidden laws that govern them. From ‘superspreaders’ who might spark a pandemic or bring down a financial system to the social dynamics that make loneliness catch on, The Rules of Contagion offers compelling insights into human behaviour and explains how we can get better at predicting what happens next. Along the way, Adam Kucharski explores how innovations spread through friendship networks, what links computer viruses with folk stories – and why the most useful predictions aren’t necessarily the ones that come true.

Download your copy: Audible

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

In Being Mortal, Gawande examines his experiences as a surgeon, as he confronts the realities of aging and dying in his patients and in his family, as well as the limits of what he can do. And he emerges with a story that crosses the globe and history, exploring questions that range from the curious to the profound: What happens to people’s teeth as they get old? Did human beings really commit senecide, the sacrifice of the elderly? Why do the aged so dread nursing homes and hospitals? How should someone give another person the dreadful news that they will die? This is a story told only as Atul Gawande can – penetrating people’s lives and also the systems that have evolved to govern our mortality. 

Download your copy: 

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Something Doesn’t Add Up by Paul Goodwin

Wry, witty and humane, Goodwin explains mathematical subtleties so painlessly that you hardly need to think about numbers at all. He demonstrates how statistics that are meant to make life simpler often make it simpler than it actually is, but also reveals some of the ways we really can use maths to make better decisions. Enter the world of fitness tracking, the history of IQ testing, China’s social credit system, Effective Altruism, and learn how someone should have noticed that Harold Shipman was killing his patients years before they actually did. In the right hands, maths is a useful tool. It’s just a pity there are so many of the wrong hands about. 

Download your copy: 

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Audiobooks that entertain and distract you:

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookworms. Unfortunately, Shaun also has to contend with bizarre requests from people who don’t understand what a shop is, home invasions during the Wigtown Book Festival and Granny, his neurotic Italian assistant who likes digging for river mud to make poultices. Sardonic and sympathetic in equal measure, Confessions of a Bookseller will reunite readers with the characters they’ve come to know and love.

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The Professor and the Parson by Adam Sisman

One day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor-Roper received a curious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalen College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor-Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert Parkin Peters: plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest and imposter extraordinaire. Based on Trevor-Roper’s own detailed ‘file on Peters’, The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming account of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction.

Download your copy:

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