Second chances must be recognised for what they are, embraced enthusiastically and worked through with diligence and determination.This is the true story of how a bunch of unemployed social misfits and scallywags from a tough, working-class urban slum find redemption and rehabilitation at the hands of a remarkable individual.Former teacher, Paddy McLaughlin, who has battled some major demons of his own in the past, realises at once that underlying all the other problems of ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES-BESTSELLING BOOK BY ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST-LOVED COMIC WRITERS**Pre-order now: David Mitchell's new book Dishonesty is the Second-best Policy**There are many aspects of modern life that trouble award-winning comedian David Mitchell, such as:Why is every film or TV programme a sequel or a remake?Why are people so f***ing hung up about swearing?Why do ...

Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous and remarkable scientists of our age and author of the scientific bestseller "A Brief History of Time", which sold over 25 million copies across the world and will be adapted as a children's book in the Autumn of next year. In this compelling memoir his first wife, Jane Hawking, relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of motor neurone disease...

A heart-warming and hilarious family memoir of growing up as one of eleven siblings raised by a single dad in Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles.Séamas O’Reilly’s mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten (!) brothers and sisters, and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble, but Séamas was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars, and the actual location of...

From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement—”a sharply intelligent novel of ideas” (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding.Set in an uncanny alternative 1982 London—where Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence—Machines Like ...

Reissued for the twentieth anniversary of Diana’s death, this sensational and controversial bestseller is an explosive account of her life, from the man who was by her side throughout its most turbulent period.In 1981 Lady Diana Spencer was seen by many as a lifeline for the outdated Windsor line. But Diana didn’t follow the script. Instead she brought a revolution.Patrick Jephson was Diana’s closest aide and adviser during her years of greatest public fame and deepest pers...

From the Sunday Times bestselling authorWhich fifty people made Britain the wreck she is? From ludicrous propagandist Alastair Campbell to the Luftwaffe's allies, the modernist architects, it's time to name the guilty.Quentin Letts sharpens his nib and stabs them where they deserve it, from TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh, the dumbed-down buffoon who put the 'h' in Aspidistra, to the perpetrators of the 'Credit Crunch'.Margaret Thatcher rupture...

What do you give your daughter for her eighteenth birthday? After considering dresses, pets and parties, this father gave his daughter what would almost certainly have been close to the bottom of her wish list. He wrote a book for her. In many ways Meg is an ordinary girl, but in one way she is different from most others: at the age of nine she was diagnosed with cancer. This took the form of a tumour that, by the time of her diagnosis, already filled most of her chest cavity. Later, despi...

'My name is Mike and I am a map addict. There, it's said…'Mike Parker, presenter of Radio 4’s On the Map, celebrates the richness of all things maps in this fantastic, critically-acclaimed read, completely updated in 2023.On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing: they are a cipher for every area of human existence. At a stroke, they convey precise information about topography, layout, histo...

The (Not So) Subtle art of Churchmanship

Over the last few years, often when David Mitchell has been on holiday, the comedian Stewart Lee has been attempting to understand modern Britain in a weekly newspaper column. Why are there so few right-wing stand-ups? Who was Grant Shapps? What does your Spotify playlist data say about you? Are Jeremy Corbyn and Stewart Lee really the new Christs? And so on.Introduced, annotated and, where necessary, explained by the author, Content Provider is funny, grumpy and provocati...

In these witty, outrageous ten laws, the well-beloved gadfly, sage and wordsmith Bob Ellis investigates dislocation and security, competence and charisma, youth and old age. He explains why bicycles encourage premarital sex, moving house too many times drives humans mad, 'the rising price of a roof ' is the root of all economic evil, and, most ominously, 'power flows to the most boring man in the room'. He alleges, pretty persuasively, that all CEOs – except, perhaps, George Lucas – should...