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...

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...

'Dazzling ... The remarkable story of how British culture was transformed by émigré architects, filmmakers and writers' GuardianBritain. Made in Europe.In the 1930s, tens of thousands of central Europeans sought sanctuary from fascism in Britain. While the rainy, seemingly quaint island they discovered on arrival was a far cry from the dynamism of Weimar Berlin or Red Vienna, it was safe, and it became home. Yet the émigrés had not...

**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...

Combining poignant memoir and historical research, a son of Holocaust survivors grapples with the dream of Zionism and its consequences.Israel: A Personal History takes off where Göran Rosenberg’s internationally acclaimed and award-winning childhood memoir, A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz, ends. After his father’s suicide in 1960 in a small industrial town in Sweden, the remainder of the family, a single mother with two children, emigrate...

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...

'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...

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...

**FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE'Monumental and highly readable... by smartly knitting together the past with the present, Zubok brings a prescient and fresh perspective' Financial Times**A sweeping, original history of the Cold War, from an acclaimed historian of the USSRWhy did the Cold War erupt so soon after the Second World War? How did it escalate so rapidly, spanning five continents over six decades? And what led to the spectacula...

In a quest to advocate for her daughter, Pepper Stetler uncovers the dark history of the IQ test, leading her to question what exactly we are measuring when we measure intelligence.When Pepper Stetler learned that her daughter, Louisa, who has Down Syndrome, would be required to take periodic IQ tests to secure support in school, she asked a simple question: Why? The hunt for an answer set Stetler on a winding, often dark investigation into how the IQ came...

From the bestselling author of Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, a captivating account of the last surviving relic of Thomas BecketThe assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's

**"Extraordinary . . . [this] series of true stories about the authentic nature of bears reveals them as the sensitive and intelligent beings they are." ―Carl Safina, New York Times–bestselling author of Becoming Wild and Beyond WordsGrizzly bears have long been feared as unpredictable and dangerous. But one man, Charlie Russell, was key in breaking down the myths and helping save these magnificent beings from extinction. A naturalist who spent ov...