Ever wondered why using a hosepipe on your own garden is a criminal offence carrying a £1,000 fine, while the company that banned it loses a fifth of its water before it reaches anybody's tap — and puts your bill up again?That's Big Toll.Ever wondered why you pay to park at an English hospital, when the same car park is free in the other three nations of these islands?That's Big Toll.Ever wondered why you were urged to buy an electric car, and then charged f...

Somewhere in Britain this morning, a journalist opened an email and stopped being a journalist for a while.It was nine pages, exquisitely polite, from a firm whose reception smells of orchids. It threatened nothing. Her story wasn't killed — it was paused for legal review. That was some time ago. It is still paused.Nobody burns books here. We find that vulgar. The letter does the work instead, and so does the police visit over a lawful post,...

They probably told you to live with it. But almost never how.Tinnitus reaches one adult in seven — and almost none of them are told what genuinely helps, or why the ringing is not where they think it is. This book is what they left out: it refuses the two answers sufferers are usually handed — the doctor's shrug and the internet's miracle cures — and sets out, plainly and with every claim sourced, what tinnitus really is and what can honestly be done about it.It begins with...

They took something out of your food. Then they slipped something else in.Nobody was asked. Nobody voted. And almost nothing on the packet will tell you it happened.This is not a diet book, and it is not a book about willpower or shame. It is an audit — a shopper's audit — of the modern food supply, conducted aisle by aisle with the label in one hand and the evidence in the other.More than half of every calo...

This is not a forecast. Most of it has already happened. Britain's fertility rate fell below replacement in 1973 and has never been back — fifty-three years, and not one prime minister has mentioned it.In 2025 there were 585,396 births in England and Wales, the fewest since 1977. Around ninety London schools have already closed or merged for want of children. Adult social care lost 85,000 posts filled by British workers in two years — not by 2040, in the last two years. And in Marc...

“If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, and remarkable (and short) work.” —Claudia Goldin, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics and Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard UniversityA sweeping, engrossing history of how economic forces have shaped the world—all in under 200 pagesOne of The Economist's Best Books of the YearIn How Economics Explains the World, Harvard-trained economist Andr...

The world is a better place than it used to be. People are wealthier and healthier, and live longer lives. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many have left gaping inequalities between people and between nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton--one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty--tells the remarkable story of how, starting 250 years ago, some parts of the world began to experience sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for ...

'If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, remarkable - and short - work' Claudia Goldin, Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics The Shortest History of Economics unearths the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation, tracing how capitalism and the market system emerged. From the emergence of agriculture to the war in Ukraine, Andrew Leigh weaves a fascinating narrative punctuated by expert insights into major m...

The latest work from Niall Ferguson, bestselling author of Empire, The Great Degneration is based on his 2012 BBC Reith Lectures 'The Rule of Law and Its Enemies'The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied. Symptoms of decline are all around us today, it seems: slowing growth, crushing debts, aging populations, anti-social behaviour. But what exactly is amiss with Western civilization? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, is t...

'Splendid and necessary' - Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm, New StatesmanThere are dramatic differences in health between countries and within countries. But this is not a simple matter of rich and poor. A poor man in Glasgow is rich compared to the average Indian, but the Glaswegian's life expectancy is 8 years shorter. The Indian is dying of infectious disease linked to his poverty; the Glaswegian of violent death, suicide, heart disease linke...

We find risks everywhere--from genetically modified crops, medical malpractice, and stem-cell therapy to intimacy, online predators, identity theft, inflation, and robbery. They arise from our own acts and they are imposed on us. In this Very Short Introduction, Baruch Fischhoff and John Kadvany draw on the sciences and humanities to explore and explain the many kinds of risk. Using simple conceptual frameworks from decision theory and behavioural research, they examine thescience and prac...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2019'A near miracle' Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About CapitalismAccording to the economy, we have never been wealthier or happier. So why doesn't it feel that way? The Growth Delusion explores how we prioritise growth maximisation without stopping to think about the costs. So much of what is important to our well-being, from safe streets to ...