'Read this book' Alastair Campbell'A really wonderful book' Nigella Lawson via TwitterIn 1975 Richard Beard was sent away to boarding school. So were Boris Johnson and David Cameron.He didn't enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was not to let that show.A public school education has long been accepted in Britain as a preparation for leadership, but being separated from your pare...

*WINNER OF THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE 2018*My younger brother’s name is Nicholas Beard. He was nine years old, and I was with him in the water when he drowned.Life changes in an instant.On a family holiday in Cornwall in 1978, Richard and Nicholas are in the sea, jumping the waves. Suddenly and inexplicably Nicholas is out of his depth and then, shockingly, so is Richard. Only one of the brothers returns to the...

What would you do, given the second chance of a lifetime?Like most men in their thirties, Lazarus has plans that don't involve dying. He's busy. Life is good.But he can't cheat destiny.Lazarus dies. Jesus weeps. Lazarus returns to life. This part we all know.But as Lazarus is about to find out, returning from the dead isn't easy. He thinks he wants a second chance at life, but what will he do when he gets it?

'Feeling the way I do now, it's not a feeling I ever want to have again.' Andrew Flintoff speaks for a nation.The Ashes, 2006/07: Australia 5 England 0. The nightmare returns.For twenty years, Australia has produced competitors so gritty they order sandwiches with sand in, and not just at cricket. Fourth in the medals table at the Athens Olympics, Tour de France contenders, Davis Cup champions, and the Socceroos 3--1 winners over England. For Richard Beard, the football was...

‘A brave and intelligent book’ Daily TelegraphAn unforgettable memoir about gender, journeys and enduring friendshipFor years Richard Beard would take spontaneous holidays with his motor-cycling friend Drew. They would spend a few days walking, camping, cycling, canoeing - outdoor, manly fun - before returning to everyday life: wives, children, jobs. Richard was writing novels. Drew was working in the engine-room of cross-channel p...

There is Rugby Union: the fast, compelling, TV-friendly combat sport in which sponsored gladiators are sold on their ability to crash into each other at top speed, and sometimes even to avoid each other and score. And then there's rugger.Rugger was once the serious version of rugby, more than a mere game, a fierce contact-sport developed in Victorian public schools to forge manly and unshakeable character. For a hundred years boys played rugger and made themselves into men. They al...

Jay Mason is experiencing a crisis of faith.Disillusioned with his calling as a Deacon in the Anglican Church of Geneva, and estranged from his pregnant girlfriend, he's about to fall into the murky world of celebrity grave-robbing. His church has been bought by the shadowy antiquities dealer Joseph Moholy, who arrives to claim its most interesting asset: the toe bone of Thomas Becket. Moholy has a large collection of dubiously acquired relics and is keen to add to his collection. ...

Brought to you by Penguin.The number #1 bestseller about the world that shaped Boris Johnson.In 1975, as a child, Richard Beard was sent away from his home to sleep in a dormitory. So were David Cameron and Boris Johnson.In those days a private boys' boarding school education was largely the same experience as it had been for generations: a training for the challenges of Empire. He didn't enjoy it. But the first and...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZEA charismatic cult leader is dead. One by one his followers are being assassinated. Enter Gallio.Gallio does counter-insurgency. But the theft of a body he’s supposed to be guarding ruins his career. Years later, the file is reopened when a second body appears. Gallio is called back by headquarters and ordered to track down everyone involved the first time round. The only problem is they keep dying, in ever more grotesque...

A love story, in which all the events, people and places are taken from the contents of the "The Times" of 1st November, 1993.'It's the last day of the holidays and Spencer Kelly (12) wants to hold Hazel Burns (12) by the hand. This is the meaning of life. He wants to sit beside her on a sand dune and hold her hand and then kiss her. Just kissing, in a nice way, on her cheek perhaps and then a little bit at the top of her arms- If he can kiss her this once then he'll always have ki...

'Beard is as good on the sensuality of smoking as on the philosophy. This is an unusually intelligent, funny and readable first book' Sunday TimesShe offered me the cigarette like an apple. It was love and desire. It was knowledge and everything.'Gregory Simpson is, after years of being paid to smoke a packet a day for research purposes, trying to give up. He decides to write to keep his hands busy and the resulting journal - combining memories of seduction, little-known fa...

Jasper Milling, a writer living in small-town North Carolina, is awakened from a horrifying dream to find that it wasn't a dream at all. When Jasper's daughter is killed by a drunk driver late one night, Jasper channels into the mind of the killer as he drives away from the scene - seeing and feeling everything that the driver feels. When a phone call wakes Jasper and he learns of his daughter's passing, he realizes the dream was actually a strange connection. Soon he finds out his new abi...