The Second World War is now recognized as a watershed for British poetry. The changes that arose were masked for some time by the enormous power and shock of the conflict itself, and by the restrictions on poetry publishing consequent on paper rationing and the general business of wartime. This anthology seeks to showcase not only the harrowingly beautiful poetry born from the conflict, but also the radical changes to style and form that came from the epoch and altered the face of British ...

The First World War produced an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent, poets whose words commemorate the conflict more personally and as enduringly as monuments in stone. Lines such as 'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?' and 'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old' have come to express the feelings of a nation about the horrors and aftermath of war. This new anthology provides a definitive record of the achievements of the Great War poets. As well as offerin...

From central Glasgow to rural Wiltshire, a husband-and-wife team track down Britain’s rarest and most enigmatic animals.'Weasely my favourite book of the year.' Dave Goulson, author of Silent EarthA COUNTRYFILE AND WATERSTONES BEST NATURE BOOK OF 2023Britain is teeming with wildlife, often in the most unexpected places. There are quarries where rare bats hang out with pot-smoking teens. In...

The remarkable literary collaboration between a Nobel Prizewinning novelist and his editor of more than forty years.Three people have been of major importance and influence in my life and you are one of them. There is a way in which I am as a writer at least partly your creation.-- William Golding to Charles MonteithIn 1953, William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies was rescued fr...

From seals' frisky behaviour to red squirrels making their last stand in the battle against the greys, here are the mammals of Britain as you’ve never seen them before.Join Fiona Mathews and Tim Kendall on an overnight stakeout in search of the elusive pine marten. Follow them down mines inhabited by greater horseshoe bats, cavers, ravers and teenagers smoking unusual substances. Meet water voles thriving in the East End of Glasgow – despite the lack of water – and observe the bril...

Brought to you by Penguin.As a child, Chris Thorogood dreamed of seeing Rafflesia - the plant with the world's largest flowers. He crafted life-size replicas in an abandoned cemetery, carefully bringing them to life with paper and paint. Today he is a botanist at the University of Oxford's Botanic Garden and has dedicated his life to studying the biology of such extraordinary plants, working alongside botanists and foresters in Southeast Asia to document t...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS McKITTERICK PRIZE 2025A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST NEW DEBUT‘This is a party I’m glad I was invited to’ EILEEN MYLES‘Fizzing with ideas’ OBSERVER*Isn’t every family home a monument? The provocative debut novel from the award-winning author.Olga...

Brought to you by Penguin.Can we really restore the earth’s atmosphere within our lifetime?Whether through sustainable technologies such as fossil-free steel production, hydrogen-powered ships and electric motorbikes, or natural solutions like rewilding peatlands, people all over the world are finding new ways to travel, feed themselves and drive industry while safeguarding a liveable planet for future generations.Drawing on decades of research and ...

Brought to you by Penguin.Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors on the excess, intrigue and absurdities of life in the late Victorian and Edwardian country houseIn the decades before the First World War, the owners of the nation’s stately homes revelled in a golden age of glory and glamour. Nothing lay beyond their reach in a world where privilege and hedonism went hand-in-hand with duty and honour.This was a time when the ancestral sea...

**Brought to you by Penguin.Motherhood is a political state. Helen Charman makes a radical case for what liberated mothering could be, and tells the story of what motherhood has been, from the 1970s to the 2010s.**When we talk about motherhood and politics together, we usually talk about isolated moments - the policing of breastfeeding, or the cost of childcare. But this is not enough: we need to understand motherhood itself as an inherently political state, one that has th...

Brought to you by Penguin.A lost princess and a vanished world: a remarkable true story that moves from the Punjab of the Raj to 1930s Paris and the Second World WarIn a Mumbai museum in 2007, Livia Manera Sambuy encounters a photograph that will change her life forever.The caption claims that the Punjabi princess Amrit Kaur sold her jewels in occupied Paris to save Jewish lives, only to be arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a conce...

Brought to you by Penguin.Discover one family's fascinating story in this beautiful, sweeping, multigenerational memoir, spanning 19th century south China to modern day SingaporeI would learn that when families tell stories, what they leave out re-defines what they keep in. With my family, these were not secrets intentionally withheld. Just truths too painful to confront.In the last years of her life, Teres...