A "charming, informative" firsthand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals—and how our perceptions impact their future (Tim Flannery, New York Review of Books ).Think of a platypus: They lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs, and can detect electricity. Or a wombat: Their teeth never stop growing, they poop cubes, and they defend themselves with rei...

Wild: A Family Guide to the Animal Kingdom is a stunning introduction to animals, their amazing adaptations, and their unique characteristics and abilitiesExplore the rich diversity of the animal kingdom!Meet dozens of creatures with extraordinary abilities and find out how they have adapted to thrive in the wild. Discover why the chameleon developed champion eyesight, what makes a porcupine so prickly, how the whale became the hero of hearing, and...

A 'compelling, arresting' (New Scientist) behind-the-scenes tour through the world's greatest natural history museums, revealing their hidden secretsZoologist Jack Ashby spends his life working in Britain's natural history museums, and in Nature's Memory he guides us through a series of extraordinary collections, from marvellous mounted whale skeletons and impossibly tiny insect cabinets to buried treasures in vast museum storehouses.But l...

From a single beginning, countless millions of stories from the animal kingdom have – and continue to – run their course. Museum objects allow us to investigate some of those stories. Animal Kingdom journeys through both the evolutionary history of animals, and the ways that people have interpreted them in museums. Animals in museums are not only representatives of their entire species, but they also tell us something about the time in which they were collected. T...

"A gripping, forensic account of how climate extremes are no longer future threats but present-day shocks to Britain’s infrastructure and daily life." - PETER FRANKOPAN*"***While I saw the fragile beauty of our planet from space, David Shukman reveals how incredibly vulnerable we are on the ground. Brilliantly researched and compellingly told, this is a powerful book." - TIM PEAKE"This fascinating and gripping book has the power to open our eyes and shift o...

**A groundbreaking investigation of the Caribbean as both an idyll in the American imagination and a dark laboratory of Western experimentation, revealing secrets to racial and environmental progress that impact how we live today.“Goffe’s ear is tuned to songs of resistance, to what it looks like to make life amid (and after) colonial subjugation…noble and necessary.”—The New York Times Book Review“Dark Laboratory is stunning….With a vast archive an...

'Cannon has a keen descriptive eye and a striking, lyrical turn of phrase . . . a rich, warm, authoritative book' TLSThis is the definitive tale of how our island history is written in stone.The Stones of Britain is about how rocks make places, exploring the connection between geology and landscape, the stones beneath the surface and the history that has played out above it. It movingly investigates the diverse character o...

**In this charming journey into the past, a historian reveals medieval wisdom that can still guide us today."One of the most compelling medieval history books I have ever read." —Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England**A few years ago, Peter Jones was teaching medieval history at a university in Siberia when living through his third icy winter tipped him into a dark place. Luckily, he knew something few of us know: that The Middle Age...

**Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionA Book of the Year in The Times, TLS and ProspectThe definitive history of Britain’s tumultuous relationship with Europe – as it’s never been told before.‘Thought-provoking’ – The Sunday Times'Mesmerising' – LRB'A great big entertaining sweep of a book' – The Guardian'Excellent' – The Telegraph**'Rich and incisiv...

A thrilling memoir from one of the last living WW2 pilots, published to mark his 105th birthday'Colin Bell DFC is one of the most remarkable people I've ever met' JAMES HOLLAND'A terrific read, combining laugh-out-loud reminiscences with jaw-dropping accounts of aerial warfare' JOHN NICHOL'Stirring' The Times'Brimming with quiet courage and patriotism' Daily Mail...

A data-driven, scientific account of our need for speed—exploring a wide range of topics including evolution, transportation, and technologyIn a world obsessed with efficiency, perhaps nothing is valued as highly as being fast. Some of our greatest achievements include building planes that break the sound barrier and creating computers that process data at the touch of a button. With signature clarity, Smil offers accessible explanations of every major speed catego...

"A stunning book ... a thrilling read" (Peter Frankopan) that reveals how creative people can harness the profound and productive relationship between mathematics and the artsWhen Shakespeare has the Three Witches cast Macbeth’s lot, he uses something very weird to do it: not simply “eye of newt and toe of frog,” but the number seven. And when Hamlet claims, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” Shakespeare reaches for eleven. For Shakespeare, prime numbers w...