Short Books

"Remember the words of Ivan Rogers the next time you hear some plausible posh boy in a suit telling you `no deal' wouldn't hurt at all and might even be a jolly good thing." J.K. Rowling

Douglas Rogers spent his youth and early adult life watching his parents struggle to make ends meet under the vicious dictator, Sir Robert Mugabe. He thought he would never see the day when his iron grip on the country would come unstuck.

Russia and Britain were never natural bedfellows. But the marriage, in 1894, of Queen Victoria's favourite granddaughter, Alicky, to the Tsarevich Nicholas marked the beginning of an uneasy Anglo-Russian entente that would last until the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Imperial Tea Party draws back the curtain on the three extraordinary meetings that took place between the British and Russian royal families...

Nelson was a young South African with a reputation for trouble-making. Who would have thought he would one day lead his people to freedom? Nelson grew up at a time when black South Africans suffered terrible injustice. He was determined to change this - even if it meant grave personal danger. Twenty-seven years of his life were spent in prison, and everyone seemed to be against him - even his own family...

Denmark is the country of the moment. Recently named the happiest nation in the world, it's the motherland of The Bridge, Borgen, and The Killing, and home to Noma, the world's best restaurant. But though we wear their jumpers and watch their thrillers, how much do we really know about the Danes themselves? Part reportage, part travelogue, How to be Danish is an attempt to fill in some of the gaps - an in...

"In the summer of 1940, lying in the sun, I saw a family of redstarts, unconcerned in the affairs of our skeletal multitude, going about their ways in cherry and chestnut trees..." Soon after his arrival at Warburg PoW camp, British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds, he was unaware that he, too, was being wat...

On 30th April 1945 Germany is in chaos - Russian troops have reached Berlin. All over the country, people are on the move - concentration camp survivors, Allied PoWs, escaping Nazis - and the civilian population is fast running out of food. The man who orchestrated this nightmare is in his bunker beneath the capital, saying his farewells. Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute is pure chronological narrat...

Learning birdsong is not just a way to become a better bird-spotter. It is tuning in: a way of hearing the soundtrack of the planet earth...Why do birds sing? What are they trying to say? Birdsong is not just about natural history. It is also about our history. We got melody from the birds as we got rhythm from the womb. This vital book - with a free podcast - takes you from winter into deepest spring...

WARTIME BERLIN: The Niemann family - Karl, Minna and their four children - live in a quiet, suburban enclave. Every day Karl commutes to work, a business manager travelling around inspecting his "factories". In the evenings he returns home to life as a normal family man.

Jessica Fox is living in Hollywood, a 26-year-old filmmaker with a high-stress job at NASA. Working late one night, craving another life, she is seized by a moment of inspiration and types "secondhand bookshop Scotland" into Google...

How many snowflakes are needed to make a snowman? Where is the snowiest place on Earth? When will the last snowflake fall? Snow has a lot in common with religion. It comes from heaven. It changes everything. It creates an alternative reality and brings on irrational behaviour in humans. But unlike most religions, snow has never had a bible, until now. Giles Whittell, a passionate snow enthusiast, takes the ...

Are you really aware of what you spend? Do you know how to value things beyond their price? For the answer to these questions and more, look no further than Kakebo - the budgeting journal used by millions every day in Japan to manage their household spending. The Japanese believe that tidiness in one's finances is as important as tidiness in one's house - indeed for them, the act of thinking mindfully about...

The invasion has begun. In this gripping book, Jonathan Mayo gives a blow by blow account of the events of D-Day, revealing what happened to the people swept up in this crucial moment in history. From soldiers, French villagers and journalists, to schoolchildren and nurses, thousands were placed in extraordinary situations when the Allies landed in Normandy. This is their story.

Our phones have become a constant distraction; it's time we put them down and rediscovered the simple art of taking a few minutes out. This book offers an imaginative list of games and tips aimed at curing us of our portable tech addiction. More than mere time-killers, these activities include ways to unleash your creative side and train your brain, but above all methods to set you on the road to calm.

In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream -- to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles. He has just a few months to complete his quest - no one has ever done it before within one growing season - and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck. As he battles the vagaries of the British climate, feverishly chasing each emerging...

At 12 years old David Livingstone was sent to work in a cotton mill. He knew he had to escape. And ten years later he had saved enough money to plan his first adventure. This is the incredible story of the tough man of Victorian Britain who would stop at nothing in his determination to explore Africa. He trekked hundreds of miles through dangerous territory and was attacked by cannibals, rampaging lions an...

With everything from Achilles' heel to Pythagoras' theorem, from Oedipus and his complex to Margaret Thatcher and Thucydides, this book aims to unlock the richness of the Greek world and show just how profoundly it has informed our own. Consider the way we think: about right and wrong, about the nature of beauty, goodness, and truth. What, in the end, it is to be a human being amid the immensity of the univ...

Daughter of the famous romantic poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a child prodigy. Brilliant at maths, she read numbers like most people read words.Lady Byron wanted Ada to be as unlike her father as possible. Ada grew up surrounded by an army of tutors who taught her every subject every waking moment, except for poetry.In 1843 Ada came to the attention of Charles Babbage, a scientist and inventor who had j...

We are a nation that loves its ancient woods and trees. We prize our sturdy oaks, craggy pines, bluebells and primroses, badgers and dormice. We value the history and heritage of places that have been woodland since before the Norman Conquest. But only a generation ago we were all set to wipe them out. It was said that in the space of just 30 years, nearly half of our ancient woods were destroyed. How and w...

Shortlisted for a 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award. In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream - to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles. He has just a few months to complete his quest - no one has ever done it before within one growing season- and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck. ...