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

Do you ever feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders? Or find yourself so stressed you could blow a nuclear fuse? Relax! 'Kim Jong-Un's Little Book of Kalm' is here to help. Whether you are stuck in a traffic jam or foiled in your plans for world domination, this book gives you the ultimate tips and tricks on how to keep kool. Follow Kim's pearls of wisdom and you'll find a solution to...

'Two Weeks in November' is the thrilling, surreal, unbelievable and often very funny true story of four would-be enemies - a high ranking politician, an exiled human rights lawyer, a dangerous spy and a low-key white businessman turned political fixer - who team up to help unseat one of Africa's longest serving dictators, Robert Mugabe.

How many snowflakes does it take to build 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.

Salmon, one of the most determined, single-minded creatures on earth, have for hundreds of thousands of years succeeded in returning from the sea to their birth rivers to spawn - no matter the conditions or obstacles. But in recent years increasingly fewer are returning due to steady incursions into their habitat from dams, industry, and climate change. The salmon of the Pacific Rim are set for near extinct...

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.

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...

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 ...

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.

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.

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. This is the gripping story of Hitler's final hours, as seen through t...

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...

#12. Alphabestise your book collection...#23. Play kitchen table tennis...#47. Arrange an office bake off...Political upheaval, nuclear weapons, Trump, bankers' bonuses, climate change, sugar, Trump... Sometimes you'd be forgiven for not wanting to get up off the sofa. Let's face it; we could all do with a break from worrying about what's going on out there.

The most irresistibly witty and revealing tour of Paris in years...In this enchanting memoir, acclaimed author and Paris resident John Baxter recounts his year-long experience of giving "literary walking tours" through the city. Baxter sets off on the trail of Paris's legendary artists and writers.

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...

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...

"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...