**'Captivating, a John le Carre-esque yarn' Telegraph'A thoroughly good read' Michael Portillo, author of Portillo's Hidden History of Britain and presenter of Great British Railway Journeys'A compelling story of courage, determination and skill' Terry Waite CBE, author of Taken on Trust**The true story of a retired British army officer's private Somali-hostage rescue missionDuring the peak of the Somali ...

A Telegraph Best Book 2025'Elegant and terrifying, the story of those who gave up life in the West for Ukraine's frontlines – some to save democracy, some to save themselves. A modern-day Homage to Catalonia – and Fight Club on steroids.' – Oliver Poole, London Standard‘A great read’ – Mark Galeotti'Brilliant' – The Daily ExpressW...

The true story of a retired British army officer’s private Somali-hostage rescue mission.During the peak of the Somali piracy crisis, three ships – from Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan – were hijacked and then abandoned to their fate by their employers, who lacked the money to pay ransoms.All would still be there, were it not for Colonel John Steed, a retired British military attaché, who launched his own private mission to free them.At 65, Colonel Steed was hardly an ...

A Telegraph Best Book 2025'Elegant and terrifying, the story of those who gave up life in the West for Ukraine's frontlines – some to save democracy, some to save themselves. A modern-day Homage to Catalonia – and Fight Club on steroids.' – Oliver Poole, London Standard‘A great read’ – Mark Galeotti'Brilliant' – The Daily ExpressW...

‘Extraordinary’ SOPHIE ELMHIRST, author of Maurice and Maralyn‘Sparkles with passion, greed and mystery’ OLIVER BULLOUGH, author of Butler to the World‘Spellbinding’ LAURA MILLER, Slate‘A jewel of a thriller’ CAROL WOOLTON, author of If Jewels Could TalkWhen she was ten years old, Serena Kutchinsky’s father Paul was consumed by a wild dream. Heir to the legen...

**Brought to you by Penguin.Wreckers** sinks the old narratives of imperialism, revealing the violent, chaotic and improvised reality of empire-building from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.While figures such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan are celebrated for their maritime achievements – reaching the Americas, India, and circumnavigating the globe – focusing solely on these voyages distorts our perspective on t...

Brought to you by Penguin.The first female president of the National Farmers’ Union in its 109-year history tells the story of how she fought tooth and nail for British farms through some of the country's most tumultuous years – and what we need to do next.Born and raised on a small farm, Minette's love for farming never wavered. Even after her father warned her there was no future in farming, her heart brought her home to ...

Brought to you by Penguin.From the Sunday Times-bestselling author, comes a heart-stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2When the Germans marched in and the lamps went out in the City of Light the millions who loved Paris mourned. Liberation, four years later, triggered an explosion of joy and relief. It was the party of the century and everybo...

Brought to you by Penguin.'I'd toast the moon and look at the sky... I think it draws us to it; we wonder what lies beyond.'Maggie Aderin’s destiny was always written in the stars. From the age of three, inspired by The Clangers, her dream was to go into space. While her childhood was spent moving around the country, her fascination with the universe remained her constant and enmeshed in her a deep desire and determination to succeed as a ...

'Gripping. Someone should really turn Lucky Devils into a film' The Guardian'There's simply no one better at chronicling the shady, hackable, and wildly anarchic world of gambling' Brad Stone, New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound'The best book about gambling I've ever read' Liam Vaughan, author of Flash Crash

Brought to you by Penguin.AS SEEN ON TVProfessor Alice Roberts travels 1,300 miles by train across Italy, France and Spain in search of a greater understanding of the Roman Empire for Channel 4's popular TV series Roman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts.Visiting sites often off the beaten track with experts in each location sharing their insights and revealing up-to-date discoveries, this book delivers more depth and conte...

A gripping and revealing new biography of one of the greatest of modern poets, the queer, Greek-Egyptian Constantine Cavafy, whose admirers have ranged from E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf to Jackie Onassis, Leonard Cohen and Stephen Fry.Winner of the International Hellenic PrizeShortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award'A deeply researched and engaging biography… Jeffreys and Jusdanis bril...