Uncategorized

For this year’s Independent Bookshop Week, which kicks off on 18th June, we’ve asked our authors to recommend their top indies. From East London to South Devon via Hamburg and Mumbai, here are their picks.

---

Meg Clothier – author of Sea Fever

A local bookshop is about so more than the books. Brendon Books is tucked away on Taunton’s tiny independent shopping street (crystals! sourdough!), but I live too far out in the sticks to drop by easily. But luckily the owner also runs a fantastic literary festival, enticing writers to our county town. Just as Covid was finally waning last year, he suggested I give a talk about Sea Fever. After all those months at home I was preposterously nervous, but I can’t tell you how good it felt to be out, in town, at night, telling my tallest tales to a lovely home crowd – every bit as uplifting as a clifftop walk. Thanks Lionel!

---

Oliver Bullough – author of Butler to the World and Moneyland

My favourite local independent bookshop is Booth’s Books in Hay-on-Wye, which sells all the books I could dream of — both used and brand-new — while also having a great cafe AND a comfortable and stylish little cinema.

 

---

Kubra Gumusay, author of Speaking & Being

I remember the exact moment I walked into the bookshop Lüders in Hamburg – about to meet the owner of the bookshop, Ragna Lüders, an enthusiastic woman with sparkling eyes who had fallen in love with the book before meeting me, and I was about to fall in love with her and her bookshop. It was my first time in there. In fact, it was the first time in months, I had left my flat to cycle elsewhere, to meet a stranger in an enclosed space, to read from my book in an empty space, to a remote audience. Ragna and I kept our distance, wore masks. It felt surreal. Not the masks, nor the distance – I had gotten used to that by now – but to physically enter a bookshop. For months now, we had only been able to pick up books from the front doors of bookshops, if at all. Watching those long and beautiful shelves filled with worlds of imagination and knowledge from afar. But here I was, in the middle of the pandemic, April 2020, standing in an almost empty bookshop except for it’s owner Ragna, breathing the smell of antique and new books, my heart about to burst with joy. And then, I noticed a literary programme booklet by the city of Hamburg spread around the bookshop – filled with dozens of events that were supposed to happen that month. Obviously, none of that happened. The booklet had my face on it. „Wow, I had no idea!“, I exclaimed in delight. „It’s everywhere!“, said Ragna, “There are posters, leaflets, advertising your book premiere in Hamburg.“ A premiere that never happened. As I held this booklet in my hands it felt like little relict of a parallel universe that was accidentally left behind. In that other universe I might have never come to realise, how much I love these soulful bookshops, their smell, their people, how essential they are to bring us together. But in this universe, I certainly do.

---

Anna Aslanyan – author of Dancing on Ropes

Burley Fisher Books are the go-to guys for anything a reader might need: from books to banter and beyond.

 

 

---

Noor Mayal Khanna, author of Seva

Kitab Khana, Mumbai: I discovered this iconic Mumbai bookstore in the years when I was a Conde Nast staffer working in the heritage quarter of Mumbai. I loved the historic facade, the impossibly-tall piles of books and the charming cafe that served both fresh salads as well as home-cooked Sindhi food. I’d meet an uncle of mine here during lunch hour, grab a table, order food and then wander around smelling the unmistakable scent of freshly printed books. Sadly during the pandemic, the bookstore caught fire and every single book was burnt or drenched. However, the owners, Amrita and Samir Somaiya, have bravely overcome their losses and reopened to the public in March 2021. I highly recommend their children’s section as well as the mezzanine floor for uninterrupted browsing. In our fast paced world, taking the time to browse a bookshop and read a book seems like such a luxury and Kitab Khanna is a place that will warm the heart of any book lover.

Summer means long days and long nights with ample time for getting stuck into a book. Whatever your plans, we’ve compiled the ultimate reading list to help you fill your summer months – for seaside holiday-makers, we have the ultimate beach companion in the marine miscellany Sea Fever; for serious history fans, we have the return of the inimitable Simon Jenkins in The Celts; and for those on the look out for some comedic relief whilst the children are off school, we have Lucy Mangan’s hilariously relatable novel Are We Having Fun Yet?

What’s at the top of your reading list this summer? Join us on Twitter @profilebooks and Instagram @profile.books for daily bookish chat.

EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS

Mountain Tales by Saumya Roy (OUT NOW) 

A remarkable, previously untold story of the Deonar garbage mountains in Mumbai, Mountain Tales is an eye-opening tale of a community whose lives in this current climate are becoming more fragile than ever.

Mathematical Intelligence by Junaid Mubeen (OUT NOW) 

From the presenter of the TEDx talk ‘You weren’t bad at maths – you just weren’t looking at it the right way’ comes this fascinating exploration of a surprising advantage that humans have over our incoming robot masters: we’re actually good at maths.

The Celts by Simon Jenkins (Publishing in June)

From the author of A Short History of England comes the history of Ancient Britain’s most enigmatic civilisations, exploring what their legacy should be in an increasingly dis-United Kingdom.

 

TRAVEL BY BOOK

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Publishing in August)

A New York Times bestseller, World of Wonders is a sparkling, illustrated collection of essays about the natural world, forming a magnificent bestiary, and an unforgettable book of sustenance, resilience and joy.

Murder by the Seaside edited by Cecily Gayford (OUT NOW)

Get your thriller fix and take a holiday of a lifetime with history’s greatest mystery writers. This classic crime anthology features stories from the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and many more.

Sea Fever by Meg Clothier and Chris Clothier (OUT NOW) 

The ultimate seaside companion, Sea Fever tells you everything you need to know about the sea and the shore, from advice on seasickness, to ancient marine lore and dramatic stories of daring-do.

 

STORIES OF LIVING

Love and the Novel by Christina Lupton (OUT NOW)

The perfect summer read for bibliophiles and romantics alike, this book is a genre-defying love story that illuminates all love stories.

Floor Sample by Julia Cameron (Publishing in August)

From her early career as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine and her marriage to Martin Scorsese, to her tortured experiences with alcohol and Hollywood, Floor Sample is a bold and big-hearted memoir by Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way.

Are We Having Fun Yet? by Lucy Mangan (Publishing in June)

Lucy Mangan’s uproariously funny debut novel charts one year in the life of one woman as she faces all the storms of modern life (babysitters, death, threadworms) on her epic quest for that holy grail: a moment to herself.

 

We’re thrilled to announce that we will publish broadcaster and columnist Adrian Chiles’ The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less on 6^th October 2022. The book grew out of Chiles’ BBC2 documentary, Drinkers Like Me, in which he explored his own – and Britain’s – drinking culture. We have bought World rights from Avalon.

There’s an awful lot of advice out there on how to quit booze completely. If you just want to drink a bit less, the pickings are slim. Yet while the alcohol industry depends on a minority of problem drinkers, the majority really do drink well below the recommended weekly alcohol limit. What’s their secret? In The Good Drinker, the inimitable Adrian Chiles sets out around Britain and plumbs his only slightly fuzzy memories of a lifetime in pubs in a quest to discover the unsung pleasures of drinking in moderation. He writes: ‘This book definitely isn’t some covert guide to knocking drinking on the head completely. Neither is it a classic self-help book; it might amount to the same thing, but it’s really just a distillation, if you’ll pardon the pun, of the many things I’ve learnt about drinking less since I made a TV documentary on the subject and started writing about it. And what I’ve learnt, you’ll be shocked to read, is that it’s complicated.’

Profile Editor Mark Ellingham says: ‘Adrian’s book is an eye-opener. It’s for all of us – about 20 percent of the population – who drink more than we should, but don’t think we have a problem. We wake up in our own beds. We don’t get into fights. But drink is all too much of a constant in our social lives. Adrian loves drinking and doesn’t want to stop. Most of us feel like that and his book will help set many of us on the path to some kind of moderation. And it’s pure Chiles: full of good sense, companionable and never remotely preachy. It is a book people will keep reading for many years.’

Adrian Chiles hosts Chiles on Friday on 5Live. He co-presented both The One Show and Daybreak, and was for five years the chief presenter for ITV Sport’s football coverage. He writes a regular column in both the Guardian and the Sun, which not many people can claim. His previous book, We Don’t Know What We’re Doing, was about obsessive West Bromwich Albion fans. He has hosted an array of documentaries for the BBC, including Drinkers Like Me (2018) and Panorama – Britain’s Drinking Problem (2020).

There’s so much talk about the threat posed by intelligent machines that it sometimes seems as though we should surrender to our robot overlords now. But Junaid Mubeen isn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet.

As far as he is concerned, we have the edge over machines because of a remarkable system of thought developed over the millennia. It’s familiar to us all, but often badly taught and misrepresented in popular discourse – maths.

Computers are brilliant at totting up sums, pattern-seeking and performing, well, computation. For all things calculation, machines reign supreme. But Junaid identifies seven areas of intelligence where humans can retain a crucial edge. And in exploring these areas, he opens up a fascinating world where we can develop our uniquely human mathematical superpowers.

Mathematical Intelligence publishes on 2nd June. Find out more here.

In this TedX talk, Junaid Mubeen is here for the mathematically anxious, showing you that you aren’t bad at maths, you’re just not looking at it in the right way…

Watch below!

The urgent story of this country’s biggest crisis, told through the lives of those it most affects

Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt and on Instagram @vicky.spratt.

Read an extract from Tenants below. Get your copy here.

---

Private renters are tenants. A tenant is someone who has temporary possession of land or property which they rent from a landlord. The word has its roots in Old French and feudalism; it is related to the verb tenir, which means ‘to hold’ and is derived from the Latin tenere, which means ‘to keep’ or ‘to grasp’. To be a tenant in Britain today is to try everything in your power to hold on to your sense of security, often clutching at straws.

The business of private renting is simple: private renters add to their landlord’s wealth while (usually) diminishing their own; but private renters like Anthony are generally poorer than owner-occupiers to begin with. Over the past twenty years, the number of people in England’s private rented sector has doubled. There are now some 11 million people living in precarious rented homes which could be taken away from them at any time. From 2011 to 2018, rents in England rose by 16 per cent, outpacing wages, which only increased by 10 per cent on average during the same period, according to the housing charity Shelter.

In the year May 2020 to May 2021, the cost of rent to household income ratio (the amount of rent you pay compared with the amount of money you earn) increased in most regions in the United Kingdom. On average, private renters spend a third of their pre-tax earnings on rent (London 34 per cent, south-west 32 per cent, south-east 31.8 per cent, east England 31.3 per cent, north-west 29.4 per cent, Wales 29.1 per cent, East Midlands 29 per cent, West Midlands 29 per cent, Northern Ireland 27.6 per cent, Yorkshire and Humber 26.8 per cent, Scotland 25.2 per cent, north-east 24 per cent). This means that most renters (63 per cent) struggle to save. Unlike homeowners, their place in the world becomes neither legally nor financially more stable over time.

Across the UK there are currently 17.5 million adults without a safe, secure or stable home (if children are included, this rises to 22 million people). That’s one in three. Maybe that’s you or someone you love. Women and people who are not White British are disproportionately impacted by this. But not only has rent skyrocketed in the past ten years, house prices are now more than 65 times that of the average home in 1970. Meanwhile, average weekly wages are only 35.8 times higher. Now there is not, according to the independent not-for-profit organisation the Women’s Budget Group, a single place in the UK where a single woman on an average income can afford to buy or rent a home on her own. A third of all young people will be renting privately from cradle to grave. The number of older people who rely on a private landlord has also grown.

Private renting is now so unaffordable and unstable, it has fuelled homelessness (particularly in London, but increasingly elsewhere, too). The number of families who became homeless because they were evicted or could not afford their rent despite being in work, went up by 73 per cent between 2013 and 2018. In the most basic – financial – terms, this has cost the state greatly. Figures from the Local Government Association (LGA) show that councils in England spent £142 million placing homeless households in bed and breakfasts (most of which are privately owned, and, as I have reported, sometimes funded by offshore investments) in 2019/20, compared with £26.7 million in 2010/11 – that’s a 430 per cent increase over the course of a decade. At the start of 2021, 253,000 people in England, 130,000 of whom were children, were homeless and living in temporary accommodation – hostels, bed and breakfasts and even converted office blocks where you might find an entire family living in one room, sharing a bathroom and kitchen with total strangers.

And so this book is about those people – like Anthony – who don’t own their homes. It’s also about those who help them. And it’s about the landlords, letting agents and investors who make money from this crisis while politicians look the other way. It unpacks a complex truth: that we aren’t facing one homogeneous housing crisis in Britain right now. Hardest hit, as ever, are those on no and low incomes, who would previously have lived in social housing. But so, too, are those on average and middle incomes who would once have been able to buy a home relatively easily. This is the story of a series of localised crises which are distinct and distinctive. Reporting from HMOs in Bradford, modern slums in Weston-super-Mare, social housing in south London and the offices of Members of Parliament in Westminster, this book assesses the human impact of bad housing policy. It looks at how we got here, and how we can make things better in both the long and the short term. It asks a vital question: in an ideal world, what would we do with housing policy? And, ultimately, as the stories in this book show, the housing crisis underpins a range of social evils, from inequality to energy inefficiency, from mental health to regional inequity, and from the cost of living to social mobility. And so, this book asks whether fixing housing could fix everything else, too. Could a more compassionate and loving social, political and economic model, one that brings more humanity to housing, be within reach?

The author of the bestselling Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals, Oliver Bullough, is going on tour. Find dates and links to buy tickets below.

Sunday 15 May                 Aye Write Festival Glasgow – Tickets

Tuesday 17 May               Bath Literature Festival – Tickets

Thursday 19 May              5×15 at the British Library with Ed Miliband, Rana Ayyub, Gideon Rachman and Amelia Gentleman – Tickets

Monday 30 May               Hay Festival with Serhii Plokhy, Catherine Belton and Philippe Sands – Tickets

Tuesday 31 May               Hay Festival with Catherine Belton and Bill Browder – Tickets

Friday 10 June                   Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas, Ireland – Tickets

Saturday 11 June             Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas, Ireland – Tickets

Tuesday 14 June               Wimbledon Book Festival – Tickets

Thursday 23 June             Drinks with the Idler [online] – Tickets

Saturday 25 June             Buckingham Literary Festival – Tickets

Wednesday 29 June        ICIJ & Henry Jackson Society, London – Tickets

The long weekend is fast approaching, which means ample time for reading! We’ve compiled our ultimate Easter highlights: from an inspiring story of caring by the bestselling author Kate Mosse, to a beautifully illustrated history of the Church of England, to a radical book of essays accompanying the brand new Wellcome Collection exhibition.

Whatever your plans this bank holiday, we’ve got the best non-fiction to provide you with knowledge, inspiration and comfort. Join us on Twitter @profilebooks to tell us what you’re reading.

A People’s Church by Jeremy Morris

For those observing Easter and the end of Lent, try a A People’s Church. Weaving social, political, and religious history together with church music and architecture, this is a clear-eyed look at Anglican history through the ages.

An Extra Pair of Hands by Kate Mosse

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Not all of us can take time off this bank holiday – being a carer, for example, is a full-time role. This small but beautifully formed book from bestselling novelist Kate Mosse is a rallying cry for carers and the acts of love that hold families together.

The Nature Seed by Lucy Jones and Kenneth Greenway

Hoping to get outside with the kids over the long weekend? The Nature Seed is your must-have practical and philosophical guide to sharing the wonders of the natural world with your little ones.

Move by Caroline Williams

Did you know that walking can improve your cognitive skills? And that strengthening your muscular core reduces anxiety? Get up out of your office chair and get moving this bank holiday for a happier and healthier mind.

This Book is a Plant

Are you planning to see the new Wellcome Collection exhibition Rooted Beings over the long weekend? Get yourself a copy of This Book is a Plant, the exhibition’s accompanying book, and discover a radical new way of engaging with our natural world.

Recovery by Dr Gavin Francis

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Unwell this Easter? Be kind to yourself and discover the lost art of convalescence with this pocket-sized book of hope and healing from GP Gavin Francis.

Liberalism and its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama

After a thought-provoking read? Time to get the punchy but concise Liberalism and its Discontents by the renowned political philosopher Francis Fukuyama.

Butler to the World by Oliver Bullough

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Just because the banks shut for the weekend, does not mean the entire world goes on standstill. For those keen to engage with politics over Easter, take a read of the ever timely Butler to the World and discover how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters.

This is How Your Marriage Ends by Matthew Fray

If spending time with your other half over the holiday feels strained, this book is for you. A thoughtful, down-to-earth, contemporary guide, This is How Your Marriage Ends helps partners identify and address relationship-killing behaviour patterns in their own lives.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

AS SEEN ON LED BY DONKEYS

‘Brilliant’
Marina Hyde, Guardian

‘A savage analysis of Britain’s soul. As essential as Orwell at his best’
Peter Pomerantsev

‘Horribly brilliant’
James O’Brien

How did Britain become the servant of the world’s most powerful and corrupt men?
From accepting multi-million pound tips from Russian oligarchs, to enabling Gibraltar to become an offshore gambling haven, meet Butler Britain…

The Suez Crisis of 1956 was Britain’s twentieth-century nadir, the moment when the once superpower was bullied into retreat. In the immortal words of former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, ‘Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role.’ But the funny thing was, Britain had already found a role. It even had the costume. The leaders of the world just hadn’t noticed it yet.

Butler to the World reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. We pride ourselves on values of fair play and the rule of law, but few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts. We are now a nation of Jeeveses, snobbish enablers for rich halfwits of considerably less charm than Bertie Wooster. It doesn’t have to be that way.

In his video made by Led By Donkeys, Oliver goes on a tour of London with a difference. Watch to find out how Putin’s oligarchs hide and spend their money in the capital. .

Profile Books has brought its audio production in-house, promoting Louisa Dunnigan to head of audio, and appointing Nathaniel McKenzie to the new position of audio editor and rights executive. The company will also produce titles for new publisher Cheerio, starting with Bacon in Moscow, read by Richard E Grant. Sales and distribution remain with Little, Brown.

Audio publishing at Profile has grown by 82% in the past year. Bestsellers have included Only the Disciplined Are Free by Ryan Holiday and The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. The first title on the 2022 list is Janice Hallett’s The Twyford Code, already selling strongly. Among further titles are We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (signed from Jenny Hewson at Lutyens & Rubinstein), The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack (audio rights acquired from Sarah Wooldridge at IMG), Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents, and Oliver Bullough’s Butler to the World. 

“It has been a privilege to work with Little, Brown to publish our audiobooks in the past, and I am very proud to now be building Profile Audio’s publishing even further with colleagues across departments and the brilliant Nathaniel McKenzie. Profile and its imprints publish a range of important, compelling and enjoyable books – it is hugely exciting to be able to bring these to life in another format, ensuring that audio is integrated into our publishing strategies and that our books are accessible to an even wider range of readers,” said Louisa Dunnigan.

Profile MD Andrew Franklin said: “We can all see that audio is an increasingly important part of publishing and making authors’ books available to readers in every possible format everywhere, so this is a great development for us. It has started like a rocket.”

Learn more about these significant steps forward here and here.

Start your year with new voices, big ideas and stories that challenge the status quo. In the list below we select some highlights for spring: from the urgent story of Britain’s renting crisis to a popular history of the BBC, and from an essential guide to self-acceptance to the latest book from renowned political philosopher Francis Fukuyama. 

This is non-fiction you won’t be able to put down, from the best writers out there. Join us on Twitter @profilebooks to tell us what you’re reading.  

The BBC by David Hendy (27th January)

In this monumental work of popular history, professor and historian David Hendy traces the BBC from its maverick beginnings through war, the creation of television, changing public taste, austerity and massive cultural change.

How to Be You by Jeffrey Marsh (3rd February)

With workbook pages and colouring charts to help you on your journey, How to Be You speaks to everyone who feels like they don’t belong. Jeffrey shows you how to deepen your relationship with yourself and find the courage to be the amazing person you already are.

Hybrid Humans by Harry Parker (17th February)

Harry Parker’s life changed overnight, when he lost his legs to an IED in Afghanistan. Grappling with his own new identity and disability, he discovers the latest robotics, tech and implants that might lead us to powerful, liberating possibilities for what a body can be.

Liberalism and its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama (17th March)

Since its inception, liberalism has come under attack from conservatives and progressives alike. In this brilliant and concise exposition, Francis Fukuyama sets out the cases for and against its classical premises: observing the rule of law, independence of judges, means over ends, and most of all, tolerance.

Nine Quarters of Jerusalem by Matthew Teller (17th March)

Ranging from the ancient past to the political present, this highly original ‘biography’ lets the communities of Jerusalem speak for themselves and, in turn, evokes the city’s depth and cultural diversity.

Butler to the World by Oliver Bullough (17th March)
Sunday Times bestselling author Oliver Bullough reveals the scandalous reality of Britain’s new position in the world: at the elbow of the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters.

How Words Get Good by Rebecca Lee (17th March)

Once upon a time, a writer had an idea. They wrote it down. But what happened next? Join Rebecca Lee, professional word-improver, as she embarks on the fascinating journey to find out how a book gets from author’s brain to finished copy.

How to Live With Each Other by Farhan Samanani (24th March)

Combining case studies from across the world with his own research, anthropologist Farhan Samanani provides insights into the capacity of humankind to connect across divides. He explores the roots of our present tensions and casts fresh light on how we can cultivate common ground, build healthy communities and not just live but flourish together.

Chums by Simon Kuper (28th April)

Eleven of the fifteen postwar British prime ministers went to Oxford. This narrowest of talent pools has shaped the modern country. In Chums, Simon Kuper traces how the rarefied and privileged atmosphere of Oxford University – and the friendships and worldviews it created – helped give us today’s Britain, including Brexit.

Tenants by Vicky Spratt (12th May)

In this fierce and moving account, journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad policy decisions to show how and why the British dream of homeownership has withered and the safety net of social housing has broken. Through the lives of those in the renting trap, she illuminates the ways this crisis is devastating our health, communities and political landscape.

Geography is Destiny by Ian Morris (12th May)

Geography is Destiny tells the history of Britain and its changing relationships with Europe and the wider world, from its physical separation at the end of the Ice Age to the first flickers of a United Kingdom, struggles for the Atlantic, and rise of the Pacific Rim.

Mathematical Intelligence by Junaid Mubeen (2th June)

A fascinating exploration of a surprising advantage that humans have over our incoming robot masters: we’re actually good at maths. In exploring these areas of intelligence where humans can retain a crucial edge over machines, Junaid opens up a fascinating world where we can develop our uniquely human mathematical superpowers.

Christmas is just around the corner, and we have you covered with some fantastic festive gifting suggestions! Whether you’re shopping for presents for foodies, history buffs or art and design lovers, or simply trying to find the perfect stocking filler, there’s something for everyone in our Christmas gifting guide.

For all our latest news and new non-fiction reads, join our newsletter.

Happy reading!

FOR HISTORY BUFFS

The Wordhord by Hana Videen is the perfect gift for the wordsmith in your life – an illuminating collection of weird, wonderful and downright baffling words from the origins of English. In The Library – the first major history of its kind – Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Published in time for the 700th anniversary of his death, Dante by Alessandro Barbero and translated by Allan Cameron brings the legendary author’s Italy to life, describing the political intrigue, battles, city and society that shaped his life and work.

FOR ART & DESIGN LOVERS

Fabric by Victoria Finlay is a visually stunning work that spins us around the globe, unwinding our history through cloth. The first major biography for our time, Magritte by celebrated biographer of Cézanne Alex Danchev is a deep examination of the Belgian surrealist. In Art of the Extreme, Sotherby’s director Philip Hook explores the ten most revolutionary years in art: 1905–1914. The Colour Code by Paul Simpson is a kaleidoscopic compendium of stories about our spectrum, with full-colour illustrations throughout. An ode to the software we love to hate, Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint by Russell Davies is a witty and design-led book, perfect for office secret Santa!

FOR FOODIES

From the bestselling author of A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles comes A Cheesemonger’s Compendium of British and Irish Cheese – a delicious guide to artisanal and farmhouse cheeses by Ned Palmer. In At Christmas We Feast, Annie Gray celebrates festive food through the ages, from plum pudding and mince pies to boar’s head and brawn.

FOR NATURE NUTS

The perfect gift for adventurous parents and children alike, The Nature Seed by Lucy Jones and Kenneth Greenway is a practical guide to sharing the wonders of the natural world with your children. A Spotter’s Guide to Countryside Mysteries from bestselling author John Wright is a beautifully illustrated guide to the great outdoors, that shines a light on the details we might otherwise miss. In Being a Human, Charles Foster sets out to understand what a human is, inhabiting the sensory worlds of humans at three pivotal moments in our history. World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a celebration of the natural world through stunningly illustrated and poetic essays. Vivid and charming, Birding Without Borders is a story of one man’s quest to see half the world’s 10,000 species of bird in one year.

FOR THE INTELLECTUALLY CURIOUS

From junior barrister Christian Weaver, The Law in 60 Seconds is an indispensable and accessible legal handbook to give you the confidence and clarity to take control in any situation. The latest book from the master of self-development, The Daily Laws by Robert Greene distils wisdom about power, seduction, strategy, psychology and human nature into daily entries. Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday is the first in a new series examining the four key virtues of Stoicism, starting with an inspiring anthem to the power, promise and challenges of courage.

AND FINALLY… THE PERFECT STOCKING FILLERS

The Handshake by paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi is a funny and fascinating voyage of discovery revealing the secrets of one of our most ancient social gestures. Ideal gifting for fans of the multiverse, All of the Marvels by Douglas Wolk is a celebration of the past 60 years of Marvel, from the man who has read all 27,000 comics. Beautifully redesigned with new illustrations by Lydia Coventry, Warning is a charming gift book of the uplifting poem by Jenny Joseph about growing older, twice voted poem of the year. Truly Peculiar by Tom Standage is another collection of astonishing facts from The Economist covering questions such as ‘Where can you wed your mobile phone?’ and ‘Why do septuagenarians have a better chance of summiting Mount Everest than ever?’. Featuring stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Billingham, Murder on a Winter’s Night is a chilling Yuletide collection of ten classic crime stories.

In the beginning was the Word. Now there’s PowerPoint.

Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint by Russell Davies is the perfect present for the tricky-to-buy-for colleague, the partner who loves tech or the friend who is all about design. This is an ode to the software we love to hate, beautifully designed and full of visual puns. Find out how PowerPoint was invented, how it can help you think, create and persuade, and how to end your presentations with a BANG.

Take a look at some of Russell’s best tips and wittiest puns, taken straight from the book, below.

Don’t aim for excellence; excellence will screw you up and get in your head.

Lower the bar. Just avoid mistakes.

Just do these seven things:

Divide your presentation into three sections.
Make your words short, big and clear.
Don’t have many colours.
Don’t have many fonts.
Practise a lot.
Be yourself.

This will get you an excellent presentation. You don’t have to be Steve Jobs.

Honestly, those ☝️ will do.

The 48 Laws of PowerPoint

1. Don’t just read the screen
2. Lists
3. Use lists
4. Lots of lists
5. But 48 items is way too many – who thought this was a good idea?
6. Start with a story
7. End with an ask
8. Fill up the rest with ideas and images
9. Repeat the important things
10. Remove the word ‘key’
11. Make it shorter
12. Repeat the important things
13. Don’t just read the screen
14. Arrive early
15. Respect the AV people
16. Be a bit bigger
17. Make it clear, concise and catchy
18. Or freewheeling, unpredictable and magical
19. Just be sure which one you’re doing
20. Repeat the important things
21. Arrive early
22. Double-check the tech
23. What will you do if your slides don’t work?
24. Press B
25. Make something very big
26. Make something very small
27. Make something rhyme
28. Finish on time
29. Actually, finish early
30. Never outshine the master
31. Sorry, wrong list
32. One hour of prep per one minute of talk
33. Repeat the important things
34. Demand change
35. Make it readable
36. Make it accessible
37. Make it memorable
38. Make it bigger
39. Remove the word ‘holistic’
40. No 3D
41. No pies
42. Slow down
43. Speed up
44. Repeat the important things
45. Start with a story
46. End with a bang
47. Don’t just read the screen
48. BANG

Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint is out now!

We’re delighted to have launched a new competition to give away £100 OLPRO vouchers and a copy of John Wright’s brand new book, A Spotter’s Guide to Countryside Mysteries.

A Spotter’s Guide to Countryside Mysteries is bestselling author and expert River Cottage forager John Wright’s gorgeous new illustrated guide to help you find wonder on your walk. From hollow-ways to ha-has, smut fungi to strip lynchets, this book will fire up the imagination of anyone, whether they’re rambling or reading from the sofa.

OLPRO creates high-quality camping equipment, awnings, tents, windbreaks, melamine and more for adventurous customers around the world.

There are 2 simple ways to be in with a chance of winning this amazing prize. On Instagram, all you have to do is ‘follow’ OLPRO’s Instagram page and share the competition post to your stories. On Twitter, simply ‘follow’ OLPRO’s Twitter account and retweet OLPRO’s competition post with the hashtag #OLPROBlackFriday

The winners of both competitions will be picked at random and announced on OLPRO’s social media on Black Friday, Friday 26th November.

For more information on OLPRO, visit OlproShop.com

‘A joy to immerse oneself in’ Andi Oliver

‘In the field of food history, Annie Gray leads the pack’ Jay Rayner

For many people Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a turkey and trimmings, pudding and brandy butter. But where do our traditions come from – and when modern writers ‘reinvent’ the Christmas meal, are they really doing anything so very different? Annie Gray presents a delectable trip through time, from the earliest mentions of gluttonous meals at Christmas to the trappings and traditions of the present day. Tracing the birth of the twelve-day celebration under Edward I to the restoration of holiday splendour under Victoria, At Christmas We Feast is organised by festive dish, and features classic recipes alongside vibrant cultural and historical context. From the familiarity of plum pudding and mince pies to the extravagance of boar’s head and brawn, At Christmas We Feast is stuffed full of recipes, doused with history and tradition, and sprinkled with the joy of the feasts of Christmas past.

Annie Gray is a historian, cook, broadcaster and writer specialising in the history of food and dining in Britain from around 1600 to the present day, conducting her research both in libraries and in kitchens. She has worked at Audley End amongst other historical kitchens, and gives lectures all over the country. She has presented TV history documentaries including Victorian Bakers and The Sweetmakers, and appears on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet. She lives in East Anglia.

Click here to grab your copy.

Read an extract below.

Follow @DrAnnieGray on Twitter and @dranniegray on Instagram.

---

Banana Plum Pudding

*Elizabeth Craig, 1962, Banana Dishes

There are almost as many plum pudding recipes as there are recipe books: it is such a British staple that nearly every author has had a crack at one. For an excellent, conventional pudding, Eliza Acton’s Author’s Christmas pudding is hard to beat, but for the purposes of this book I tried a lot of them (avoid at all costs the wartime ones).

However, while lots were excellent, for something slightly different this banana-y riff on the theme is very good fun. It is also pure 1960s – earlier banana books (Many Ways with Bananas, for example, from 1900) tended towards Charlottes and fools, fritters and preserves, whereas Craig’s suggestions are gloriously bonkers from a modern perspective. Note that even as late as 1962, cooks are still advised to stone their own raisins. The instructions are exact on the ingredients, but assume the cook knows exactly what to do with a pudding cloth.

Original recipe

4oz cleaned currants, 4oz cleaned sultanas, 6oz raisins, 7oz shredded suet, 4oz flour, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 4oz chopped candied peel, 1oz blanched almonds, 1 tablespoon ground almonds, 4oz caster sugar, 4 peeled bananas, 2 beaten eggs, ¼ pt milk. Mix currants and sultanas. Stone and chop raisins and add. Mix suet, flour and ginger. Add peel. Chop and add almonds. Stir into flour. Add prepared fruit, ground almonds and sugar.

Peel and slice bananas thinly. Stir into mixture. Stir eggs into milk. Make hollow in centre of fruit mixture. Pour in liquid and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pack into a well-greased pudding basin to within an inch of top. Cover with greased paper, then with floured pudding cloth. Tie securely. Place in saucepan. Add boiling water to half-way up the sides. Steam for about 6 hours. Unmould onto heated platter. Decorate with a sprig of holly. Sprinkle with heated brandy, rum or whisky and set a match to it. Serve with banana sauce.

Makes 1 pudding (best in a 900ml/1½ pint mould, but will just fit in a 600ml/1 pint one)

• 55g/2oz each currants, sultanas, candied peel, caster sugar and flour
• 85g/3oz raisins  – chopped in half if very large
• 100g/3½oz suet
• 14g/½oz chopped almonds
• 1 heaped tsp ground almonds
• 1 level tsp ground ginger
• 2 bananas
• 75ml/2½floz full-fat milk
• 1 lightly beaten egg

Mix all the dry ingredients. Chop or slice the bananas and add them, followed by the milk and egg. Mix well. Grease a basin or mould (it’s the 1960s, so a fluted ceramic number would be entirely appropriate), and pour in the mixture. Lay a disc of greased baking parchment on top, and tie over a cloth or foil.

If using a cloth, wet it, squeeze it out and flour lightly. Either way, put a fold in the cloth or foil to allow for expansion. Tie firmly in place (you can just scrunch if foil), and place on a saucer or small trivet in a saucepan of boiling water. The water should be just over halfway up the bowl. Put a lid on the pan and boil for 6 hours, checking regularly in case it boils dry.

The recipe is intended to be boiled and served straight away, but it can also be made a couple of weeks in advance and reheated, in which case store it in a clean cloth somewhere cool and dry. Craig suggests a sauce of maple syrup and mashed banana, but this may be a step too far.

‘An indispensable guide to the law and your rights, giving you a lawyer in your pocket for a multitude of legal questions and problems that crop up in everyday life. … Exceptional’ – The Secret Barrister

---

The Digital World

Alexa wakes me up, Alexa reminds me to take my cooking out of the oven, and on a daily basis – with remarkable accuracy I might add – Alexa confirms that it will be raining today in Manchester.

Clearly, the digital world is no longer something separate from our ‘real world’, but is deeply embedded in it. Research shows people on average now spend the equivalent of a full day (24 hours) per week online. Whether it’s through our smart devices, our computers or our phones, it’s getting harder to see the distinction between online and IRL.

In the same way that knowing your rights in the ‘real world’ is crucial, knowing your rights in the digital world is too.

We’ll be looking at our rights when it comes to our devices, accounts, and what we say and do online. So, although on some occasions we may feel it insignificant when we impulsively post to our social media accounts (for example, Instagramming last night’s meal at a restaurant), there are occasions where what we post can have serious legal consequences.

This chapter won’t just consider the things being broadcast from your smartphone or laptop, but also what is contained within them. Our smartphones house some of the most private information about us. While you might see it as a nobrainer that your mates can’t have the PIN to your phone, you ought to know the laws that exist when an authority, such as the police, requests such information. There are times when you can refuse, and times it might require a bit more thought.

Laws all social media users should know

‘Think before you tweet,’ a wise person once told me. If you’ve got a social media account, you should become acquainted with the laws covered in this section. Not only can a misjudged tweet (or Facebook post, Instagram caption or TikTok video) cause reputational damage, it can also land you in trouble with the law.

Defamation

‘Defamation’ is a word we have all come across – but one we often associate with the rich and famous. Nonetheless, it can have wider applicability too.

Defamation refers to the publication of a statement that tends to lower the claimant (i.e. the ‘victim’) in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally. A statement will not be deemed as defamatory unless its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the claimant’s reputation.

Defamation can be one of two things: libel, or slander. So what’s the difference? Libel generally relates to publications that have an element of permanence in nature – so, for example, things written in a book or newspaper, or even things said on the radio or TV. Even though ‘permanence’ may sound more like something chiselled into rock, a tweet that took you five seconds to compose could amount to libel. So could a retweet.

Slander generally relates to publications that are more fleeting in their nature. They don’t tend to have the same ‘permanence’ as libel. Spoken words between two individuals may amount to slander; even physical gestures might.