When Jeremy Thorpe hired thugs to kill his ex-lover, they botched it. What if they had succeeded?'A breathtaking, heartbreaking thriller' - Jake ArnottLONGLISTED: Polari PrizeIt is February 1976, and the naked corpse of a shockingly underage rent boy is fished out of a pond on Hampstead Heath. Since the police don't seem to care, twenty-year-old Tommy Wildeblood - himself a former 'Dilly boy' prostitute - finds himself investigating.Dodging ...

In the age of AIDS and Section 28: a secret that could change political historyIt is 1987, and Tommy Wildeblood has put his days as a Piccadilly Circus rent-boy long behind him. Slightly to his own surprise, he is now a rookie teacher at a South London comprehensive.But when Margaret Thatcher's government launches a chilling attack on the 'promotion' of homosexuality in a new law known as Section 28, Tommy can't stay silent – especially when he realises he ...

The prime minister, the terror plot of the decade and an ex-rent boy who knows too much'Accomplished and gripping' – The ObserverIt's 1984. Tommy Wildeblood, hero of Beneath the Streets, has put his days as a Piccadilly rent boy and scandal-hunting sleuth behind him, to study at the radical Polytechnic of North London.During a pitched battle against National Front infiltrators at the Poly, he meets handsome young Irishman Liam and e...

William Hesketh Lever - soap-boiler, social reformer, MP, tribal chieftain, multi-millionaire and Lord of the Western Isles - was one of the most extraordinary men ever to leave his mark on Britain.Beliefs far ahead of their times - the welfare state, votes for women, workers' rights - jostled in his mind with ideas that were fantastically bonkers - the world's problems could be solved by moving populations from country to country, ballroom dancing could save the soul and the only ...

Trust in our politicians is at an all-time low. We're in a "post-truth" era, where feelings trump facts, and where brazen rhetoric beats honesty. But do politicians lie more than they used to? And do we even want them to tell the truth?In a history full of wit and political acumen, Private Eye journalist Adam Macqueen dissects the gripping stories of the biggest political lies of the last half century, from the Profumo affair to Blair's WMDs to Boris Johns...

'A brilliantly eclectic mix of dark, unsettling tales' Joanne Burn, author of The Bone Hunters'Guaranteed to give you goosebumps' Best Magazine'Atmospheric collection of spooky stories' Observer'A lovely present' The Spectator'Inspired by all the great ghost story writers' BBC Open Book Editor's Pick'Tis the seas...

Stored in Whitehall's archives are everything from blood-chilling warnings of imminent nuclear attack to comical details of daily life in the corridors of power. Concerned notes from ministers on the subject of the Heir to the Throne's potential brainwashing by Welsh terrorists are shelved alongside worries about housemaids 'on the wobble' at Chequers.Detailed and surprising plans for royal funerals sit beside reports on suspected spies in the showbiz world and bawdy poetry about t...

S ome truths should stay guardedHobbe's Folly is a deeply unsettling tale of ghostly estates and other dimensions from the author of Haunted Tales, Adam Macqueen.1904: Naive bookseller's assistant Henry Canning arrives at Hareswood Lodge to catalogue the library of its late owner. But he's unprepared for the horrors that lurk within Matthew Hobbe's collection – and something even more terrible that still lingers in the roo...