‘I pause on June 2nd at 11am to eat my breakfast in the sitting room where it is – blessedly – served by Rupert on another gorgeous morning, a flawless blue sky not a cloud to be seen.’

 

We are delighted to be publishing Alan Bennett’s Enough Said, his fourth collection of diaries and prose, in partnership with Faber.

Taking up where Keeping On Keeping On left off, Enough Said is Alan Bennett’s fourth collection of diaries and prose.

Covering the turbulent years 2016 to 2024, the diaries take us through lockdown, Brexit, the reign of Johnson, the rise of Trump and the death of the Queen. In between, Alan holidays in Paris and Venice, returns to favourite haunts in England, and visits churches, antique shops and the National Gallery. There is the premiere of Allelujah!, the revived Talking Heads, the publication of two Sunday Times bestsellers and the filming of The Choral.

2024 is the year that Alan turns ninety; he reflects on old age and the importance of luck. He looks back to childhood and recalls an idyllic wartime month as an evacuee. There is an extended piece about HMQ, and on uncovering an extraordinary albums of publisher Roger Senhouse, the last lover of Lytton Strachey, acquired for £10 in the 70s.

A book for the bedside, this is poignant, funny, contemplative Alan Bennett, as he records life both personal and political in his most distinct of voices.

Pre-order Enough Said

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Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly.

Among the unforgettable cast of staff and residents there’s Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, Phyllis the knitter, Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, the enterprising Mrs Foss and Mr Jimson the chiropodist. Covid is the cause of fatalities and the source of darkly comic confusion, but it’s also the key to liberation.

As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down. Miss Rathbone reveals a lifelong secret, and the surviving residents seize their moment, arthritis allowing, to scamper freely in the warmth of the summer sun.

A wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett and the perfect way to kill time before his brilliant new collection next year, Killing Time is out in paperback next Thursday.

Pre-order Killing Time in paperback

Alan Bennett’s works for stage and screen include Talking Heads, Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III, an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, The History Boys, The Habit of Art, People, Hymn, Cocktail Sticks, Two Besides and Allelujah!

Prose collections are Writing Home, Untold Stories (PEN/Ackerley Prize, 2006) and Keeping On Keeping On. Other work includes The Uncommon Reader, Smut: Two Unseemly Stories and recent Sunday Times bestsellers, House Arrest and Killing Time.

 

The Profile Books and Alexander Aitken Ideas Prize is pleased to announce its shortlist for the best debut trade non-fiction proposal from an academic. The Ideas Prize was first launched in 2019, and offers a £25,000 book contract with Profile Books, as well as representation with Aitken Alexander Associates, to the winning book proposal.

The shortlisted authors will be receiving guidance from an agent at Aitken Alexander on the next steps of their proposals, after which the winner will be determined via a judging panel. Many congratulations to our shortlisted authors for their wonderful projects, which are as follows:

Nicholas Radburn for Firearm Frontier
Lancaster University

Firearm Frontier explores the interconnection between the firearm and slave trades in world history. Following the British arms and ammunition trade across the globe, from warriors in the tropical forests of West Africa and Native Americans in the frozen tundra of Canada, to Maori warriors storming hill forts in precolonial New Zealand and East African marksmen stalking the savannah, Radburn will explore the devastating effects of the arrivals of these weapons. Firearm Frontier offer new perspectives on an age of slavery more violent and deadly than anything the world had ever seen, charting how gunpowder technology remade environments, cultures, politics, and societies.

Megan Gooch for Crash
University of Oxford

When a new coin type is created it is called a recoinage. We’ve had one recently with the coins of King Charles III entering circulation and replacing those of Queen Elizabeth II. Not all recoinages are a sign of an economic crisis, such as the accession of a new monarch, but historically, all financial crises created a recoinage. Crash is an adventure through numismatics – the study of coins – bringing together the disastrous histories of medieval kings, Tudor queens, civil wars, Viking invaders, and the coin that broke the French economy and led to the creation of the Franc, among many others.

Alexis Wick for Before 1498
Koç University

Drawing on years of study and research, Alexis Wick brings to life the story and legacy of Ahmad Ibn Majid, known to his peers as the ‘Lion of the Seas’, legendary master navigator of the Indian Ocean, on the eve of the arrival of the first Portuguese ships – and following them, European colonialism. In this evocative, fascinating maritime adventure, Before 1498 uncovers the untold story of Ibn Majid’s life and work, shedding precious light on long-neglected non-European traditions of learning and practices of navigation.

Congratulations to those who have been shortlisted, and many thanks to all who entered. The submissions window will open for the 2026 prize later this year when we announce the winner of the 2025 edition.

Donald Trump has repeatedly imposed, or threatened to impose, a tariff, or tax, on imports since he began his second term of office in January 2025. The book “The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump” argues that the President’s policy approach is a terrible mistake. The trade deficit is not a crisis for the US; tariffs fall mostly on domestic producers and consumers, rather than on foreign countries; tariffs will not bring back lost manufacturing jobs; and the struggles facing many people who voted for Mr Trump are nothing to do with trade.

These graphs show some of the evidence. Let us start with the impact of tariffs. Around 45% of the goods that the US imports are components or raw materials that US producers need to make finished goods. A tariff is thus a tax on US producers. (The graph comes from the San Francisco Federal Reserve.)

President Trump has argued that tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. But manufacturing employment in the western world has been declining for decades. This graph from the OECD shows the decline in the proportion of manufacturing jobs in the last three decades of the 20th century. Jobs were declining in countries with trade surpluses (like Germany and Japan) as well as in the US. And all this happened well before China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Technology, not trade, was the main factor.

Nor is the stagnation in US real wages the result of China joining the World Trade Organisation or the US taking part in a free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, which took effect in 1995. This graph, from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, shows the big decline occurred before 1995. They then perked up after 2015.

All countries face the challenge of globalisation and trade competition with China. But the US is a lot less equal than other countries. The bars in the first chart show the extent of income inequality; the black diamonds in the second chart show the inequality in wealth. The top 10% of Americans own almost 80% of the wealth. That is the result of domestic US policies, not the fault of China or Mexico. The graph is from the OECD.

Another part of the Trump administration’s agenda is to cut taxes for the better off while cutting spending on benefits for the poor, like health (Medicaid) and food (SNAP). The administration argues that these tax cuts pay for themselves because economic growth accelerates, pushing up tax revenues. But history does not bear this out. Tax revenues fell, as a percentage of GDP, after the Bush tax cuts of the early 2000s and the Trump cuts in 2017. The decline occurred before the pandemic of 2020.

And the budget deficit grew on both occasions. Both graphs from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.

Find out more about what the trade war means for the world in The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump.

 

The judges of the Profile Books and Alexander Aitken Ideas Prize are pleased to announce the longlist for the 2025 Ideas Prize. Now in its fifth iteration, The Ideas Prize is an award for the best debut trade non-fiction proposal from an academic. Izzy Everington, Editorial Director at Profile Books, commented: ‘Thank you to everybody who sent in their submissions. It has been extremely gratifying to see so many fantastic ideas presented from a vast realm of disciplines, from cultural history to politics, numismatics to  philosophy. Many congratulations to all of our longlisted authors!’

The 11 longlisted authors and their submissions are as follows:

Marcia Allinson for The Green Network: Finding Life Among the Ruins of the Iron Curtain
University of Leeds

Megan Gooch for Crash: A Disastrous History of Britain Through its Money
University of Oxford

Alexis Wick for Before 1498: The Remarkable Forgotten Story of Ahmad Ibn Majid and the Indian Ocean
Koç University

Alexandra Cox & Stuart Sweeney for The Branded Mayflower: How Convict Transportation Shaped the Founding of America
University of Reading

Charlotte Mathieson for Sunscreen: A Sensory History.
University of Surrey

Hui-Ying Kerr for Kawaii: Cute Rebellion, Disruption and Transnational Girling
Nottingham Trent University

Nicholas Radburn for Firearm Frontier: Enslavement, Environmental Change, and the Making of the Global Arms Trade, 1650–1850
Lancaster University

Jasbeer Musthafa Mamalipurath for The Short History of Ignorance
Queen’s University Belfast

Michael Hannon for The Politics of Truth: From Plato to Post-Truth.
University of Nottingham

Sviatlana Kroitar for The Algorithmic Archipelago: How Digitalisation is Reshaping the Division of Labour
University of Leicester

Eva Miller for Origins: The Search for Where We Come From
University College London

Congratulations to those who have been longlisted, and many thanks to all who entered. The shortlist will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Ideas Prize was first launched in 2019, and offers a £25,000 book contract with Profile Books, as well as representation with Aitken Alexander Associates, to the winning book proposal.

Ordinary items take on new meanings when you cast them in different light. The origins of tea, coffee and sugar are well known, but when you discover that gym treadmills were pioneered on plantations or that denim jeans were once clothing for enslaved people, you can’t help but ask where else the legacy of slavery hides in plain sight.

Through the stories of thirty-nine everyday places and objects, Renay Richardson and Arisa Loomba unpick the threads of the history that we never learned in school, revealing the truth of how Britain’s present is bound to a darker past.

Taking us from art galleries to football stands, banks to hospitals, from grand country houses to the backs of our kitchen cupboards, Human Resources is an eye-opening inquiry that gives a voice to the enslaved people who built modern Britain.

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This book was inspired by a podcast, also called Human Resources. We wanted to create an accessible entry point into this history, and we thought the best way would be to show people the links between their own lives and the (not so) distant past. So we took modern (or familiar) people, items and companies and explored their direct – or indirect – links to the slave trade. We soon discovered that, far from being a closed historical chapter, the slave trade continues to shape our lives: from the food we eat to the clothes we wear; from the way our workplaces are structured to the financial products we use; from the statues we put up in our towns and museums to the gyms and holiday resorts of our leisure time, the transatlantic slave trade is completely enmeshed with modern life.

However, it still often seems that the subject of slavery is regarded as a Black issue. You can anticipate the familiar eye roll when Britain’s history of slavery is brought up – and those of us who are descendants of slaves are often made to feel as if it’s something we should just move on from and forget. It’s not a history we tell, or which is taught, in any detail in school; knowledge is either assumed or you must seek it out yourself. The nuances of this history are rarely explored in a way that considers the narratives of the enslaved themselves, as opposed to those who bought, sold and exploited them. It’s also a history that is completely divorced from the lives we currently live. This separation comes from the difficulty in acknowledging that many of us now benefit from systems developed within the slave trade – and that slavery still exists today.

Why is this, then? Two things we noticed during our research might provide part of the answer.

There is a lack of Black British historians in the formal academic world, especially among experts in this field, although there have been some positive developments in recent years. Systemic problems in education and academia have a lot to answer for. Black children, particularly those of Caribbean heritage, often find themselves punished and discouraged – and eventually written off – for even minor acts of misconduct such as talking in class, when their white counterparts are given opportunity after opportunity to turn around bad behaviour. An exclusive analysis by the Guardian found ‘exclusion rates for Black Caribbean students in English schools are up to six times higher than those of their white peers in some local authorities’. A report into the underachievement of Black Caribbean students in English schools found that poor leadership on equality issues, a low expectation of Black students and a lack of a diverse workforce were just some of the factors that contributed to poor outcomes for Black Caribbean students. We can’t ignore the fact that Black Caribbean children in the UK may be disconnected from their history, which is why we believe that this book is important as an entry point to the complexities of the past. Systemic biases that see Black students excluded from lessons where they might learn more about their past, and that doubtlessly contribute to fewer of them entering higher education, have certainly played a big part in preventing more of us from knowing about the legacy of slavery. Following the shocking case of ‘Child Q’, a Black child who was strip-searched by police at a Hackney secondary school in 2020, the Children’s Commissioner released a report that found ‘Black children are now four times more likely to be strip-searched compared to the national population figures’. Statistics like these recall the stereotypes used to justify slavery and racial inequality, and the fact that, in the eyes of the authorities, Black people are somehow more violent and less trustworthy than the white population.

For Arisa, being a British Indian historian of race, empire and migration is political, and stakes a claim on a subject that people like her were told was not for them. But the aim of this book is not the uncovering of contentious information. Rather, it hopes to enrich the story of Britain, bringing the whole country, including Scotland, Wales and the North of England, as well as Ireland, into the narrative of how the modern UK was made. The podcast gave us a chance to work with scholars who are women, people of colour and early career researchers from Britain and the US, but also, importantly, from Africa and the Caribbean. A focus of the project was also to speak to community workers, activists and local historians, to diversify the types of historical research typically considered reliable and valid. It has been an honour to highlight such new and innovative research and the fresh stories uncovered by all the incredible people involved.

The other thing we noticed was a squeamishness around how organisations describe their links with the trade, if they disclose them at all. An imaginary border seems to have been established, between indirect and direct involvement in slavery. A direct link would mean that a company or organisation actually owned enslaved people, whereas an indirect one would involve more general financial entanglement – trading merchandise that was produced on plantations, for example. This is frustrating, because it suggests that profiting from slavery at one remove is somehow more acceptable than, say, owning a plantation, and because it seems to gloss over one of the most important reasons why Europe grew vastly richer and more developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – its trade in human beings. In fact, slavery was so fundamental to the way British society then worked that, in many cases, it simply wasn’t possible to separate yourself from it. From factory workers in remote Scottish villages to the politicians, scientists and religious leaders of the time, everyone was involved (and often benefited) in one way or another from slavery. An analogy might be the internet today: you might not work for Apple, Meta or Google, but you wouldn’t be able to get through your day without using their services, and they make life easier, simpler and cheaper than if you were to cut them out entirely. It’s all too easy to ignore the hidden costs of modern life to the environment, to global democracy, or simply to the person who made your smartphone or mined the minerals in your laptop. We have no idea what our luxuries rely on, just as those during slavery pleaded ignorance to the realities of what happened on plantations.

Leaving aside distinctions between direct and indirect involvement, however, we can understand why many people today feel more comfortable speaking about their connections to the trade as long as they are situated firmly in the past. It’s a history that no one wants to be associated with – but it’s one that we have to reckon with. We need to find a way to deal with the discomfort, so that we can truly understand what these traumatic histories represent, and perhaps then begin to dismantle their toxic legacies in the modern day. If we do not, we continue the harm to those whose lives the slave trade destroyed, and we fail to recognise the true consequences of this history for present-day Britain. We are not here to reprimand or condemn companies for their pasts. We’re here to reveal our shared history so that we can properly understand our present and future.

We are delighted that Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal has won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for History. A magisterial history of a millennium in North America, putting indigenous Americans back at the heart of the story. Described by the judges as ‘a panoramic portrait of Native American nations and communities over a thousand years, a vivid and accessible account of their endurance, ingenuity and achievement in the face of conflict and dispossession’.

Discover the other 2025 Pulitzer winners here.

Read more about Native Nations below:

WINNER OF THE 2025 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY
WINNER OF THE 2024 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE
WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE 2025
WINNER OF THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE 2025 

For centuries, Europeans assumed that indigenous Americans lacked the sophistication to build cities and establish hierarchies. For over a millennium, prior to and after the arrival of white colonialists, however, native nations had been adapting to changing climates, founding and abandoning urban centres and forging complex, democratic societies.

In this magisterial new history of North America, Kathleen DuVal puts indigenous people back at the heart of the story. From the splendour of ancient cities like Cahokia and Moundsville to the careful diplomacy of native leaders in the face of colonial expansion, Native Nations reveals the diversity of indigenous civilisation and shows how a 1,000-year legacy still shapes America today, in struggles over sovereignty, climate and indigenous rights.

 

The days are getting longer, the weather is warming up, and spring is in the air. We’re here to make sure your Easter break and May’s many bank holidays are filled with excellent reading. From rousing manifestos like The Intersectional Environmentalist, to delicious holiday reads like Amuse Bouche, and thrilling true stories like The Illegals, at Profile we’ve got an incredibly exciting range of books to see you through the season.

What are you reading this spring? Tell us us on Bluesky @profilebooks.bsky.social, X @profilebooks and Instagram @profile.books.

All That Glitters by Orlando Whitfield

When Orlando Whitfield first meets Inigo Philbrick, they are students dreaming of dealing art for a living. Their friendship lasts for fifteen years until one day, Inigo – by then the most successful dealer of his generation – suddenly disappears, accused of a fraud so gigantic and audacious it rocks the art world to its core. A sparklingly sharp memoir of greed, ambition and madness, All That Glitters will take you to the heart of the contemporary art world, a place wilder and wealthier than you could ever imagine.

The Illegals by Shaun Walker

In 2010, two decades after the Cold War had ended, ten Russian spies were arrested in America, having hidden their true identities from their friends, neighbours and even their children. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, as well as newly discovered archival material, Shaun Walker brings this history to life in a page-turning tour de force that goes to the heart of what became the most ambitious espionage programme in history.

The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu

In The Anti-Ableist Manifesto, Tiffany Yu highlights the myriad ways in which our society discriminates against people with disabilities – and what we can do about it. Foregrounding disabled identities that have too often been rendered invisible, she demonstrates how ending discrimination begins with self-reflection.

The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas

Offering an indispensable primer for anyone wanting to make a difference and featuring empowering insight from activists around the globe, Leah Thomas’ The Intersectional Environmentalist is a call to action on the issue that will define a generation.

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

The threat to liberal democracy isn’t just autocrats – it’s a lack of effective action by so-called progressives. In Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thomas unpick the barriers to progress and show how we can, and must, shift the political agenda to one that not only protects and preserves, but also builds. From healthcare to housing, infrastructure to innovation, they lay out a path to a future defined not by fear, but by abundance.

Ask This Book a Question by Vicki Tan

A magic-8 ball in a book, Vicki Tan’s new guide to decision-making draws from the science of cognitive bias and the wisdom of storytelling to help you navigate uncertainty and approach decisions  – both big and small – with confidence and clarity.

Amuse Bouche by Carolyn Boyd

Leading expert on French food and culture Carolyn Boyd shares the stories behind the country’s most fascinating foods and ingredients. Spanning every region of France and divided into 200 separate vignettes, each entry blends history and travel, personal anecdote and recipes, to form a suitcase essential for your next trip across the Channel.

Murder at the Beach

Join ten of the best crime writers in history for the trip of a lifetime, as they puzzle, astound and delight you with these classic mysteries. Whether on the English coast or the blistering terraces of the Mediterranean, it’s time to spread out the beach towel, put your feet up… but never forget to watch your back.

Holy Places by Kathryn Hurlock

This year, as they have for millennia, many people around the world will set out on pilgrimages. In Holy Places, join Kathryn Hurlock as she follows the trail of pilgrimage through nineteen sacred sites – from the temples of Jerusalem to the banks of the Ganges, by way of Iona, Lourdes, Amritsar and Buenos Aires – revealing the many ways in which this ancient practice has shaped our religions and our world.

 

We are proud to announce that Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough has been longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. Judge Emma Gannon described Embers of the Hands as, ‘an accessible gateway’ into Viking history, going on to praise its ‘great storytelling’ and lauding Eleanor as ‘an exciting new talent’. This is such important prize for amplifying the voices of women and we want to congratulate all 16 authors on their longlisting. The shortlist will be announced on 26th March.

Read more about Embers of the Hands below:

A Times best History Book of the Year 2024

‘Every page glittering with insight… [a] wonderful book’ Dominic Sandbrook
‘Brilliantly written… evokes the wonder of an entire civilisation.’ Tom Holland
‘Takes us beyond the familiar into a real, visceral, far more satisfying Viking world.’ Dan Snow

It’s time to meet the real Vikings. A comb, preserved in a bog, engraved with the earliest traces of a new writing system. A pagan shrine deep beneath a lava field. A note from an angry wife to a husband too long at the tavern. Doodles on birch-bark, made by an imaginative child.

From these tiny embers, Eleanor Barraclough blows back to life the vast, rich and complex world of the Vikings. These are not just the stories of kings, raiders and saga heroes. Here are the lives of ordinary people: the merchants, children, artisans, enslaved people, seers, travellers and storytellers who shaped the medieval Nordic world.

Immerse yourself in the day-to-day lives of an extraordinary culture that spanned centuries and spread from its Scandinavian heartlands to the remote fjords of Greenland, the Arctic wastelands, the waterways and steppes of Eurasia, all the way to the Byzantine Empire and Islamic Caliphate.

The festive season is just around the corner, and everyone is busy dusting off the decorations, stockpiling wrapping paper and making the Christmas cake. Whilst we can’t help with all the Yuletide preparations, we can provide you with some helpful gifting inspiration in the form of the season’s best non-fiction books!

From a delicious accompaniment to your festive cheeseboard in A Cheesemonger’s Tour de France, to an eye-opening new history of the Vikings in Embers of the Hands, to stocking filler paperbacks like Your Right to Protest and The Curious Columns of Adrian Chiles, we’ve got books for everyone this Christmas.

What’s on your Christmas list? Tell us us on X @profilebooks and Instagram @profile.books.

The Hobbyist

Whether they’re a budding trainspotter or a dedicated dog walker, a connoisseur of fine cheese or a lover of traditional craft, we’ve got an exciting range of books for the hobbyist in your life.

On the Roof by Tom Allan

Author Tom Allan quit his office job to become a thatching apprentice in Devon. Now a master of the trade, in On the Roof he goes in search of its history and future, meeting fellow thatchers from around the world, from the Hebrides to Denmark to Japan.

A Cheesemonger’s Tour de France by Ned Palmer

Bon appétit, cheese lovers! Cheesemonger and bestselling author Ned Palmer returns with this brie-lliant guide to the fromages of France. From Camembert to Comté, Roquefort to Brie, Ned Palmer explores the French cheeseboard, complete with tasting notes, serving suggestions, and the fascinating stories of artisan cheesemongers from across the country.

Bradley’s Railway Guide by Simon Bradley

‘The most attractive, comprehensive and easily digestible history of the oldest railway system in the world’ – Michael Palin

An original and absorbing chronicle of Britain’s railways from the master of the art: Bradley’s Railway Guide is essential reading for any traveller, railway enthusiast or anglophile.

Collared by Chris Pearson

Historian and dog lover Chris Pearson reveals how the shifting fortunes of dogs hold a mirror to our changing society, from the evolution of breeding standards to the fight for animal rights. By turns charming, thought-provoking and surprising, Collared reveals the fascinating tale of how we made the modern dog – the perfect read for animal lovers.

The History Fan

We all have that history buff in our lives and with our selection of fascinating history books, you’re sure to make their day this Christmas! Wander around medieval churches and stroll down our high street through the ages; uncover the hidden lives of everyday Vikings and explore the history of slavery through a family keepsake: there is much to learn through our collection of eye-opening histories.

Church Going by Andrew Ziminski

Andrew Ziminski has spent decades as a stonemason and church conservator. Church Going is his handbook to the medieval churches of the British Isles, in which he reveals their fascinating histories, features and furnishings. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, it is a charming celebration of British architectural history.

Embers of the Hands by Eleanor Barraclough

‘Brilliantly written … evokes the wonder of an entire civilisation’ – Tom Holland

Discover a new and original history of the Viking Age, told through the objects that defined the lives of its people – from powerful leaders to naughty teenagers.

The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker by Annie Gray

Historian Annie Gray takes us down the high street and through the ages, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts of the twentieth century. Bustling with rich detail, historical vignettes and surprising wares, this is the story of Britain’s best-loved but ever-changing public spaces.

All That She Carried by Tiya Miles

Shortlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Tiya Miles’ powerful history All That She Carried traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women and crafts a deeply layered and insightful testament to people who are left out of the archives.

The Paperback Purist

Paperbacks are the perfect stocking fillers, especially for readers who favour the lighter format! These paperbacks, however, are not short on helpful advice, fascinating facts and hilarious witticisms, covering everything from protest rights, to Classical history, and the brilliant musings of Britain’s best-loved columnist.

Your Right to Protest by Christian Weaver

In this handbook, campaigning lawyer Christian Weaver brings together everything you need to know when taking a stand. Whether you are marching on the streets or making your voice heard from your own front room, organising in your workplace or writing a letter to your MP, this essential guide equips you with your fundamental rights and the laws that protect you – as well as the ones you might inadvertently break.

The Curious Columns of Adrian Chiles by Adrian Chiles

Adrian Chiles’s weekly Guardian column has gained a cult following for his unique insights into everything from the present tense in history podcasts to his legendary at-home urinal. This bumper collection takes us on a brilliant, bemused tour of British life, delivering offbeat, comforting blasts of truth, humour and warmth.

Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard

The instant Sunday Times bestseller, the Queen of Classics Mary Beard returns with a sweeping and highly entertaining account of the social and political world of the Roman emperors.

The Armchair Detective

Following its success as 2023’s Waterstones’ Gift of the Year, the bestselling Murdle family has grown! Discover even more dastardly murder mystery puzzles this Christmas, including our first ever Murdle for children.

Murdle

Discover this fiendishly compulsive and absolutely killer collection of 100 original murder mystery logic puzzles – perfect for amateur sleuths everywhere!

Murdle: More Killer Puzzles

Sherlock: Baffled. Poirot: Befuddled. This must be a MURDLE! Deductive Logico is back on the scene to investigate murders most foul in the second volume of the bestselling Murdle series.

Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles

Our tireless detective is ready to unwind on a long-awaited vacation … until a series of fiendish murders require his particular expertise in this third instalment of Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles.

Murdle: The School of Mystery

Freshman Logico arrives at the prestigious Deduction College with a keen interest in logic and a mission to graduate at the top of his class … when a series of mysterious killings occur in this fourth instalment of Murdle: The School of Mystery.

Murdle Junior

From the internationally-bestselling Murdle series comes a new book of immersive puzzle- and mystery-solving fun for young detectives! With over forty mysteries featuring key suspects, locations, clues and more to enter into your trusty deduction grid, Murdle Junior: Curious Crimes for Curious Minds is an introduction to a nefarious world kids will love to dive into, using logic and the power of deduction to figure out each whodunnit.

‘Essential reading’ John Bradshaw, author of In Defence of Dogs

‘Fascinating’ Telegraph

‘Funny, irreverent and enthusiastic, [Pearson] parades his love for all things canine’ The Times

‘Thought-provoking and often surprising’ Country Life

In Collared, historian and dog lover Chris Pearson reveals how the shifting fortunes of dogs hold a mirror to our changing society, from the evolution of breeding standards to the fight for animal rights. Wherever humans have gone, dogs have followed, changing size, appearance and even jobs along the way – from the forests of medieval Europe, where greyhounds chased down game for royalty, to the frontlines of twentieth-century conflicts, where dogs carried messages and hauled gun carriages.

Despite vast social change, however, the power of the human-canine bond has never diminished. By turns charming, thought-provoking and surprising, this is the fascinating tale of how we made the modern dog.

Read an extract below, taken from Chapter 5: Constant Companions.

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In 1944, the New York Times reported how the American army granted Private Gregory Osterman a week’s furlough so that he could return home to the Bronx to comfort Snowflake, his Spitz dog who pined terribly for him. Osterman’s father had implored his son to come home: ‘He misses you and eats hardly enough to keep him alive . . . come home and save your pal’s life.’ Snowflake’s emotional needs trumped the American war effort, and once Osterman returned home the lonely pooch soon ‘perked up’ and ‘again showed signs of enjoying life. He rarely let his master out of his sight.’ However, disaster beckoned when the reinvigorated Snowflake escaped the family apartment, unmuzzled, while his master was having his morning shave. An ASPCA agent named William Comiskey seized Snowflake, who was in breach of New York’s dog-control laws. Half-dressed, Osterman ran out in pursuit of his beloved pooch. He asked Comiskey to return Snowflake, but the agent refused. Seeing red, Osterman punched Comiskey in the face and was subsequently arrested, while Snowflake was transported to the Bronx ASPCA shelter. Following appeals from Bronx residents, Snowflake was released and, after Osterman apologised profusely in court, the judge dismissed the charges against him. Osterman and Snowflake were happily reunited. This fraught but ultimately heartwarming episode is illustrative of the new model of petkeeping that emerged in the West. Dogs, as deeply emotional creatures, have always formed bonds of incredible strength with their humans, and this form of companionship required maintenance and respect. Owners, meanwhile, now had greater obligations towards their pets and wider society.

By the time of Snowflake’s brush with the law, the contours of modern Western dog ownership had crystallised. Petkeeping, a once marginal corner of human-canine relations, had now become the dominant mode of human-canine companionship. The collar, alongside the leash, connected pet dog to human. It enabled the latter to direct the former through the city, and was designed to make sure that the pet did not run off to frolic or fornicate. It was a physical and visual way for owners to demonstrate that they cared for their dog and for their fellow citizens. In practice, however, dogs still roamed.

But, on the whole, if pet dogs were now part of the family, they too would need to follow the sensibilities of a proper middle-class life. With animal protectionists and overzealous authorities set on reducing the number of street dogs in the city, proper petkeeping sidelined the informal human–canine camaraderie of plucky street dogs and friendly scavengers. Sceptics might have mocked the new army of petkeepers and their pampered pooches, but they could not dislodge their new place at the centre of modern Western dogdom. Pets were here to stay.

Despite the fear of rabies, plenty of working people invited animals into their home in the Victorian age. Dogs were, of course, familiar companions, whether or not they worked as guard dogs, cart-dogs or as fighters, but middle-class commentators were dubious about working-class people owning dogs in any case. They accused poorer people of wasting food and money on supposedly useless animals, of allowing them to breed indiscriminately, and of letting them wander the streets spreading disease and disorder. In 1813, French army officer Alexandre Roger grumbled about the dogs who roamed Paris. He blamed the city’s poorest residents, who he branded the canaille (a term meaning ‘rabble’ or  ‘riff-raff’ that has its roots in the Italian word for a pack of dogs, canaglia) for the problem. He demanded, unsuccessfully, that police approval be a condition of dog ownership. Wealthy Londoners also berated the dogs of the poor during the rabies scare of 1830. Physician Anthony Todd Thompson called for their number to be reduced, while Union Hall Magistrate Lancelot Baugh Allen lamented the ‘great number of loose dogs, who follow persons, particularly idle and disorderly persons’. Although such experts were keen to present their views as neutral and objective, they in fact dripped with condemnation of the dogs owned by the working classes, who they felt were to blame for the large street-dog population.

However, flying in the face of such criticisms, a vibrant working-class dog-keeping culture emerged. The British working classes made dogs household family members, appreciating their affection, loyalty and companionship. They fed them food scraps and horsemeat purchased from cats’ meat sellers, as well as improvising leashes from pieces of string or rope. Men tended to control tight family budgets and spent their leisure money on their dogs, sometimes paying to be photographed with their beloved canine companions. However, most of the day-to-day work usually fell to women. A dog in the home meant that they had one more mouth to feed, an extra body to clean, and another bed to find (unless the dog slept outside in a kennel). But men did sometimes take charge of washing and grooming dogs. These acts of care became times for fathers to bond with their children, who would lend a hand, and offered dads a chance to show their softer sides. A Durham tea dealer, for instance, chewed up food for his elderly terrier during the mealtimes they shared. Working-class women also showed great affection for dogs. Sidney Day, who was born in London, remembered how his mother took in a stray Whippet called Nel, who she invited into her bed to keep her feet warm at night. For all the added work they made, dogs were a beloved part of working-class homes, and caring for them brought families together. Some things haven’t changed.

Occasionally, a working-class dog found fame. Take Greyfriars Bobby. His owner, John Grey, died of TB in 1858, and was buried in Old Greyfriars churchyard in Edinburgh. The story went that Bobby returned each day to his deceased master’s grave. Although dogs were banned from the graveyard, its custodian, James Brown, took pity on the starving and bedraggled terrier and allowed him to stay. Bobby kept a constant vigil at the unmarked grave for fourteen years, even in the Scottish rain: ‘Nothing can induce him to forsake the hallowed spot.’ Local restaurateur John Trail made sure that Bobby’s tummy was full. When questions arose about who owned Bobby (and therefore who had to pay the annual dog tax), Edinburgh’s Lord Provost stepped in to foot the bill. The locals’ devotion overlooked Bobby’s lowly origins, and wealthy philanthropist Baroness Burdett-Coutts erected a statue in his honour, which remains a much-loved feature on the Edinburgh tourist trail. The veracity of the story has been questioned, but Bobby’s tale has reached far beyond Edinburgh as a legend of canine love and devotion.

 

A transformational guide to stepping up and standing out

Good leadership requires authenticity, assertiveness and adaptability. It takes courage. Yet many of us are stuck playing it safe and striving to fit in.

Dispelling the myth that caring is a weakness, Alina Addison shows how the things we care about most can fuel our most courageous acts. Combining deep research with her own expertise – as a pioneering corporate leader, Emotional Intelligence coach, and mother to a son on the autism spectrum – Addison presents the eight life-changing principles behind audacious leadership.

These practical, proven methods will help you identify the things that set you apart, inspire others and dare to create the life and career you truly want.

Read an extract of The Audacity Spectrum below.

 

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 Acknowledge

Uncertainty.

Dare

Authentically.

Care

Intensely.

Trust

Your yes.

 

Audacity Unpacked

When people ask me what I do, I often reply: ‘I give people courage.’ Much of my work with clients focuses on helping them reframe the aspects of themselves they feel they have to tone down or smooth out.

Too often, leaders think of themselves in terms of ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’. We are told we are not patient enough, or not nice enough, or not polite enough. We are too emotional, too intense, too demanding, too bold, too direct. When you hear this from a young age, you spend your entire life trying to be less than your most authentic self because you make others uncomfortable. And when this is the case, you are likely to approach self-development as self-improvement, making the assumption that there is an ideal leadership norm – a perfectly balanced, generalist ideal to aspire to.

We are flooded with messages that too much of anything is bad, even when it starts as something good. Too much resilience makes you stubborn and inflexible. Too much persistence and you don’t know when quitting is right. Too much excitement makes you susceptible to anger. Too much perseverance turns into obsession. Too much compassion leads to burnout. Too much bravery can lead to recklessness.

But what if we thought about it in a different way? When you feel ‘too much’ in one way or another, you often experience the world deeply: when something affects you, it moves you to your core. If you’re a high performer then you’ve likely had lots of extraordinary highs, as well as some epic lows. You can be extremely perceptive. You know when someone is in a bad mood or masking their emotions: your bullshit radar is hypersensitive. You won’t put up with hypocrisy or inauthenticity. Yet, being told you’re too much often makes you feel not enough. You need to remember that ‘too much’ is someone else’s perception and has nothing to do with you.

In my work, I find that these ‘extra’ abilities aren’t ‘too much’ at all. When they are channelled in the right way, ‘too much’ traits can be found in many of the best leaders; leaders who are able to use their gifts to better the world.

 

An Unconventional Definition of Audacity

What do you think of when you hear the word audacious? Do you see it as a positive or a negative? Your relationship with this one word can change your life.

The noun ‘audacity’ comes from the Latin word audacitas, meaning boldness and daring. Someone who shows audacity makes bold moves and isn’t afraid of the consequences. Over the years, some negative overtones have crept into our use of the term. The Cambridge Dictionary defines audacity as ‘courage or confidence of a kind that other people find shocking or rude’. Dictionary.com defines it as ‘boldness or daring, with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety’. Often people use audacity in a way that suggests a mixture of awe and judgement. Think of expressions such as: ‘They had the audacity to. . . [say/do such and such]’, which combine admiration for someone’s courage and disapproval of their breaking of ‘rules’. Inherent in the idea of audacity is a tension between opposite, yet coexisting, impulses.

Increasingly though, audacity is shaking off its negative connotations. It is being embraced as a sign of bold risk-taking, a necessary ingredient to success. The Audacity Spectrum aims to reframe and shift the way we view audacious behaviour and embrace it as a superpower.

Audacity can be associated with both admiration and arrogance. It exists on a broad spectrum, on which leaders are engaged in a constant dance between daring and caring. To better represent this, I have developed my own definition:

Audacity: daring and caring when it matters, and not at all when it doesn’t. Caring enough to dare to take risks where necessary, without caring about other people’s judgements.

Someone who represents this for me is my friend Angela Tennison. I met her through 4PC – the 4 Percent Club, a community of toptier performance coaches and leaders founded by Rich Litvin in 2014 – and she has since become one of my key role models for audacity. In 2007, Tennison was inspired by a man with a vision so big that it sounded crazy. Despite this, Tennison believed in his vision and did what most people thought was an equally crazy thing: she followed her heart, left behind a secure job, and took a year out of her life. She didn’t care about what those around her thought; she cared about supporting this man with his mission. That man was Senator Barack Obama, and his mission was to become president of the United States. The story had a happy ending. He won the presidency and Tennison continued to support him in the White House for almost seven years.

However, like all happy endings, there is a lot of hard work in the middle that gets forgotten; the invisible graft that’s inherent in any success. Central to this graft is often an unshakeable belief: the desire to stand up for something bigger than yourself and to make a positive difference – the audacious moment when you say: ‘I care about this, and I don’t care what other people think.’

When Tennison declared to me that she wanted to care less, I knew she meant the opposite of becoming ‘careless’. She wanted to make an impact in the world by standing up for what she cared about and caring less that other people believed it was impossible.

And so, we come back to my definition of audacity. Tennison dared and cared when it mattered, and not at all when it didn’t. She cared so strongly about something that she took the risk of quitting her job and moving across the country, without a care for other people’s judgements. Her willingness to take the leap and then keep going in the face of uncertainty and difficulty characterises the sort of life-changing audacity that many of us aspire to, and which we can all find within ourselves to inform our approach to our everyday life and work, if we choose to.

Of course, there is also an ego-driven version of audacity. I am not advocating the type of audacity that shows up as unrestrained, reckless or defiant (think Elon Musk and his controversial behaviour at Twitter, now X). Neither am I advocating for the version that shows up as not caring for yourself or others or for the consequences of your actions. I’m advocating for an emotionally intelligent version of audacity.

The type of audacity that I subscribe to is:

• Kind confidence that can be creatively bold and inspiring.
• The audacity to say yes to the right opportunities.
• The audacity to ask for what you want and graciously accept a no when you don’t get it.
• The audacity to care deeply enough to ask again.

Here are some of my clients’ ideas of audacity:

• ‘To speak your truth and have no fear in doing so.’
• ‘To see the positive side of life every single day. It’s easier to see faults and shortcomings in everyday life. It’s audacious to acknowledge those and yet choose to see the positive side of everything.’
• ‘Daring to be defiant. Because people want to put you in a box. The world puts labels on you. There are certain things that are expected of you. And so being audacious is defying that gravity.’
• ‘Being scared and doing it anyway.’ These definitions show a range of ways you can make audacity your own: not just in big life shifts, but in daily ways of showing up for your work, family and life.

I hope this book gives you the courage to show up fully in your work and life. To live audaciously.

We may be past the longest day, but there are still plenty more summer evenings left for relaxing with a good book. From perfect reads for holidays abroad, to pocket-sized political manifestos, and our stalwart offering of authoritative history, Profile Books has all the best non-fiction recommendations this season. Check out our favourites below!

What are you reading this summer? Tell us us on X @profilebooks and Instagram @profile.books.

Amuse Bouche by Carolyn Boyd

Travelling to France this summer? Carolyn Boyd’s charming guide to French cuisine is a must-read. Spanning every region of France and divided into 200 separate vignettes, each entry blends history and travel, personal anecdote and recipes.

Impossible City by Simon Kuper

Simon Kuper’s guide to Paris is an unmissable accompaniment to this year’s Olympic Games. The bestselling author of Chums returns with an explorer’s tale of a naïf getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city. Now, with the Olympics in town, France is busy executing the ‘Grand Paris’ project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs.

On the Roof by Tom Allan

Join thatcher Tom Allan on a journey of discovery and a reflection on what it means for a person or a building to belong in a place. On the Roof tells Tom’s personal story, leaving an office job in the city to find fulfilment among the Devon roofs, as well as the stories of six other people who share his trade. Travel around the thatched roofs of the Hebrides, Denmark, Japan and beyond in this beautifully illustrated book.

Tracks on the Ocean by Sara Caputo

In Tracks on the Ocean, prize-winning historian Sara Caputo charts a hidden history of the modern world through the tracks left on maps and the sea. Taking us from ancient Greek itineraries to twenty-first-century digital mapping, via the voyages of Drake and Cook, the decks of Napoleonic warships and the boiler rooms of ocean liners, Caputo reveals how marks on maps have changed the course of modernity.

The Green Ages by Annette Kehnel

Fishing quotas on Lake Constance. Common lands in the UK. The medieval answer to Depop in the middle of Frankfurt. Annette Kehnel’s astounding new book uncovers the sustainability initiatives of the Middle Ages and, in doing so, shows us how the past has the power to change our future.

Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard

An instant Sunday Times bestseller, Mary Beard returns in paperback with a sweeping account of the social and political world of the Roman emperors. Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.

Democracy by Margaret Atwood, Mary Beard, Erica Benner, Kaja Kallas, Aditi Mittal, Vjosa Osmani, Adela Raz, Elif Shafak, Lola Shoneyin, Yuan Yang, Lea Ypi

Women are at the forefront of the fight for democratic rights, as well as being the most vulnerable when those rights disappear. Here, eleven extraordinary women – leaders, philosophers, historians, writers and activists – explore democracy’s power to uplift our societies. Between its ancient origins and its modern challenges, they share a vision for a better future – one we can build together.

What Does Israel Fear from Palestine? by Raja Shehadeh

When the state of Israel was formed in 1948, it precipitated the Nakba or ‘disaster’: the displacement of the Palestine nation, creating fracture-lines which continue to erupt in violent and tragic ways today. In his latest book, human rights lawyer and Palestine’s greatest living writer Raja Shehadeh reflects on the failures of Israel to treat Palestine and Palestinians as partners on the road to peace instead of genocide.

Your Right to Protest by Christian Weaver

In this handbook, campaigning lawyer Christian Weaver brings together everything you need to know when taking a stand. Whether you are marching on the streets or making your voice heard from your own front room, organising in your workplace or writing a letter to your MP, this essential guide equips you with your fundamental rights and the laws that protect you – as well as the ones you might plan to break.

With the general election rapidly approaching, making sense of the political landscape has become harder and harder. We encourage reading through the chaos with our expert authors. Whether that is grasping big concepts such as justice and democracy or understanding the intricacies of incredible research into corruption and housing.

Here’s a wide-ranging reading list to provide some much-needed clarity going into a tumultuous month of political performance.

Democracy: Eleven writers and leaders on what it is and why it matters 

Including the U.K, in 2024 nearly half the world will take part in a national election, with billions heading to the polls. Here, eleven extraordinary women explore democracy’s power to uplift our societies, from its ancient origins to modern challenges.

Good Chaps: How Corrupt Politicians Broke Our Law and Institutions – And What We Can do About It by Simon Kuper

Simon Kuper, author of the Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller Chums, exposes how corruption took control of public life, and asks: how can we get politicians to behave like good chaps again?

Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK by Simon Kuper

A damning look at the university clique-turned-Commons majority that will blow the doors of Westminster wide open and change the way you look at our democracy forever.

 A Home of One’s Own: Why the Housing Crisis Matters & What Needs to Change by Hashi Mohamed

Drawing on his own history of housing insecurity and his professional career as a planning barrister, Hashi Mohamed examines the myriad aspects of housing – from Right-to-Buy to Grenfell, slums and evictions to the Bank of Mum and Dad.

Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency by Vicky Spratt

Award-winning journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad decisions to show how the British dream of secure housing for all has withered. This fierce and moving account tells the stories of those on the frontline, illuminating the ways this national emergency cuts across the country.

In the Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea by Jonathan White

In this eye-opening history of ideas, Jonathan White investigates how politics has long been directed by shifting visions of the future, from the birth of ideologies in the nineteenth century to Cold War secrecy and the excesses of the neoliberal age.

The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs by David Runciman

‘The Singularity’ is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.

Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals by Oliver Bullough

In his Sunday Times-bestselling expose, Oliver Bullough reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. Though the UK prides itself on values of fair play and the rule of law, few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts.

 

After rocketing up the charts in December to secure the Christmas number one spot, Murdle by G. T. Karber won the Non-Fiction: Lifestyle and Illustrated category at the British Book Awards last night, going on to be named Book of the Year. Murdle was Profile’s third Christmas number one since Nielsen began records.

Souvenir Press’ mystery puzzle book invites readers to join Deductive Logico to decipher an addictive collection of 100 original murder mystery logic puzzles. G. T. Karber was in attendance at the ceremony to accept the awards with the Souvenir Press and Profile team, presented to him by Adrian Chiles and Lorraine Kelly. Congratulations to the inimitable G. T. Karber!

As well as a fantastic night for Murdle, Profile was also named Independent Publisher of the Year. The judges commended Profile for its ‘canny commissioning and resourceful marketing’ as well as its ‘excellent’ author care and ability to ‘squeeze every drop of potential out of every book’.

We are delighted with our wins from the Nibbies and proud of the entire Profile team for this incredible achievement.