What will the end of the world be like?Plague or nuclear fire? Asteroids or floods?Divine wrath or people meddling with what should have been left alone?The apocalypse may come in the future, but what apocalypses might have occurred if history had played out differently? What if nukes had flown during the Cuban Missile Crisis? What if an asteroid had been on a collision course with Earth before the first person could set foot on the Moon? What if humanity destroyed it...

Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?What if, in the summer of 1940, Nazi Germany had invaded the United Kingdom? Nearly eighty years on, images of swastikas on Whitehall still resonate and horrify in the popular imagination.But what would that invasion look like, even if it were doomed to fail? What sacrifices would occupation mean for the people of Britain, and what might be the lasting cultural effects of collaboration?In this collection of stories, the au...

The story of a communist Scotland'Reid in Braid' is a series of short stories taking a look at a world where the UK was on the losing side of the Great War and dissolved; leading to an independent Scotland almost a century before it became a serious possibility. That independent Scotland eventually fell to socialist revolution in the lead up to an alternate second world war, and remains an isolationist one-party state for the rest of the century. Each of the shorts takes place at a...

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together short stories from award winning authors and ...

Recommended for viewing on a tablet.From one of our finest historians, a magisterial account of the most terrible event in history – World War II.The horror of World War II touched the lives of millions across the globe. Few could find the words to describe it, only that the carnage they experienced resembled ‘all hell let loose’.The eminent historian Max Hastings here encapsulates life through war for the ordinary people involved –soldiers, sailors and airmen; Brit...

The Future Is OurselvesThe world is rapidly changing. We surf future-shock every day, as the progress of technology races ever on. Increasingly we are asking: how do we change to live in the world to come?Whether it’s climate change, inundated coastlines and drowned cities; the cramped confines of a tin can hurtling through space to the outer reaches of our Solar System; or the rush of being uploaded into cyberspace, our minds and bodies are going to have t...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis“One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—Time • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR

Two friends. One campervan. And plenty of whisky.This is the hilarious true story of a Scottish adventure like no other.With a foreword by Diana Gabaldon.When Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish hit the road, they are not following a script. They are chasing adventure. Armed with a campervan, a shared history and plenty of curiosity, they set out to explore the Scotland that lies beyond the clichés.What follows is a fas...

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self-evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the fi...

Shortlisted for the 2012 CWA Ellis Peters Historical DaggerFerris is a writer of real authority, immersing the reader into his nightmare world with a brand of scabrous writing reminiscent of William McIlvanney's Laidlaw... everything speaks of an original voice. - IndependentGlasgow's melting. The temperature is rising and so is the murder rate. Douglas Brodie, ex-policeman, ex-soldier and now newest repor...

Of all the days to have a problem, today was the worst. Of all the problems to have on all of the days, this was the worst.3000 years, they'd travelled the stars. 3,000 years of searching and archiving, cataloguing every single planet in the entire Universe. Their journey was now over. The day was here when they could, finally return home.But they'd found another planet.Today was a very bad day.

In 1942, Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fleming was personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence - the dynamic figure behind James Bond's fictional chief, 'M'. Here, Fleming had a brilliant idea: why not set up a unit of authorised looters, men who would go in hard with the front-line troops and steal enemy intelligence?Known as '30 Assault Unit', they took part in the major campaigns of the Second World War, landing on the Normandy beaches and helping to liberate Paris. 30AU...