Everyday life in history gifts

It’s late 2020. Rikihana Wallace, a prolific shoplifter of no fixed abode, is back in prison with little chance of bail. Nathan Morley, unemployed, is facing burglary charges and hoping his other, as yet undetected, offences don’t catch up with him. Lewis Skerrett, their overstretched legal aid lawyer, is trying to do right by them both. The culmination of over...

A children's version of the global bestseller The Anxious Generation How can we live a happy and exciting life without a smartphone? The Anxious Generation started a world-changing conversation about the effects of smartphones and social media on young people. Now bestselling authors Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price have teamed up to talk directly to those young people about how...

Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, delving into what this means for our uncertain future. This narrative spans from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. It's grounded in the latest research and a comprehensive database of more than 440...

Empire of the Summer Moon transports readers to the turbulent era of the mid-19th century American West, where the fierce and formidable Comanche tribe clashed with white settlers. At the heart of this gripping historical narrative are two intersecting sagas: the rise and eventual fall of the Comanches, known as the most powerful Indian tribe in American history, and the...

Marlon James's triumphant return to the Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings 'Darkness is a mood in Jamaica . . .' The Disappearers is Marlon James's triumphant return to the Jamaica of A Brief History of Seven Killings—a place of heat and chaos, and of danger for anyone outside the heteronormal. So when eight gay men meet for...

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell is an era-defining novel that delves into the intricate and unsettling layers of a young woman's relationship with her teacher. The narrative intricately weaves a tale of memory, trauma, and truth, inviting readers into the harrowing experiences of Vanessa Wye. At the tender age of fifteen, Vanessa finds herself entangled in what she...

Updated Edition 2025 This new edition contains a completely up-to-date timeline. Winner of four major awards.Brilliantly written by award-winning journalist Rebecca Macfie. 'Devastating account of a needless tragedy' - Otago Daily Times'Lucid, exhaustive, enraging' - New Zealand Listener'Compelling account of what went wrong' - Weekend Herald'Highly readable, sometimes shocking' - The Press'Compulsory reading for directors, managers and business students' -...

Decolonisation is a term that scares some and gives hope to others. It is an uncomfortable and bewildering concept for many New Zealanders, yet it is needed if we are going to build a country that is fair and equal for all who live there. Imagining Decolonisation sets out the case for decolonisation by illuminating—through anecdotal, real-life examples—what decolonisation might...

The real threat to liberal democracy isn't autocrats—it's the lack of effective action by progressives. In Abundance, veteran journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson reveal the structural, economic, and political forces that have led to America, and much of the liberal world, of today: where scarcity and preservation drive the agenda, and we have forgotten how to deliver on big...

The Secret Lives of Colour, penned by Kassia St Clair, offers a riveting exploration into the fascinating and unexpected stories behind the colours that shape our world. This compelling book takes readers on a vibrant journey through the history and significance of 75 unique shades, dyes, and hues, revealing how each colour has influenced various facets of human civilisation, from...

Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance is a deeply intimate and poignant memoir that delves into the life and struggles of the white working-class Americans. It follows the journey of the Vance family, starting with J.D.'s grandparents who, seeking a better life, moved from the Appalachian region of Kentucky to Ohio. They hoped to leave behind the harrowing poverty and...

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow is a monumental and revolutionary exploration of human history that challenges long-held beliefs about the origin of civilisation. This groundbreaking work embarks on a breathtaking journey through the earliest societies, revealing a complex tapestry of human interaction devoid of the simplistic interpretations of either 'primitive and childlike' or 'brutish and...

Like many 13-year-old girls, Sofia's main worries are how to get some groovy go-go boots, and how not to die of embarrassment giving a speech at school! But when her older brother Lenny starts talking about marches and protests and overstayers, and how Pacific Islanders are being bullied by the police for their passports and papers, a shadow is cast...

Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates is an urgent and groundbreaking exploration into the dark and often unseen world of misogyny that thrives on the internet and beyond. The book takes readers into undercover investigations of vast networks of incels (involuntary celibates) and other misogynist communities whose toxic ideologies have real-world impacts, leading to violence and terror against women....

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold is an extraordinary historical narrative that offers a poignant exploration of the untold lives of five women—Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane—whose fates disastrously intersected with the notorious figure known to the world as Jack the Ripper. Unlike traditional accounts focusing solely on the crimes and the elusive murderer, this book shifts the spotlight back...

A rich, sensual novel that gives voice to the invisible - Financial Times, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019. In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not...

The internationally bestselling and prize-winning history of German life in the fallout of the Third Reich, filled with eye-opening, shocking, and vitally human stories of ruin, repression, and revival. The Times Top 10 Bestseller Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize Shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize A Book of the Year...

Welcome to a world where, livestreamed to millions, prisoners fight like gladiators for the ultimate prize - their freedom. FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. FIGHT FOR LOVE. WELCOME TO THE KILLING GROUND. America's new Hunger Games - Sunday Times So good. This one is from the heart - Stephen King Brutal, thrilling, devastating and beautiful - The Times Enter a world where,...

A pioneering exploration of the differences between the brain’s right and left hemispheres and their effects on society, history, and culture—"one of the few contemporary works deserving classic status” (Nicholas Shakespeare, The Times, London). “Persuasively argues that our society is suffering from the consequences of an over-dominant left hemisphere losing touch with its natural regulative ‘master’ the right. Brilliant and...

The Notebook was named a 'Best Book of the Year 2023' by the New Statesman, Spectator, and Waterstones. "From plans for flying machines to philosophy - the remarkable joy of jotting things down" - Guardian "Surprisingly revealing" - The Sunday Times We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our...

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins is a harrowing tale of survival and resilience that explores the profound lengths a mother will go to in order to protect her child. This captivating novel opens with Lydia Perez, a contented bookstore owner in Acapulco, Mexico, who finds her life irrevocably shattered when her husband, a brave journalist, falls victim to a drug...

From the author of A Ghost in the Throat, an unforgettable book—both history and ghost story—that will leave you gasping by its final page. In the city of Cork, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had she lived in another time, she too might have...

A wild ride into the uncanny mirror world of our polarised culture, from the international bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine. What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired a double? Someone almost like you, and yet not you at all? When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different,...

Barry's family tries to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina hits their home in New Orleans. But when his little sister gets terribly sick, they're forced to stay home and wait out the storm. At first, Katrina doesn't seem to be as bad as predicted. But overnight the levees break and Barry's world is literally torn apart. He's swept off by the...

‘Siya's rise from humble beginnings to lifting that World Cup trophy is the stuff of fairytales.’ MARCUS RASHFORD ‘Siya Kolisi is a warrior on the field and an inspiration off it. This book is an extraordinary reminder of what can be achieved with inner belief and an indefatigable spirit.’ JAY SHETTY 'Siya's story is well documented, and I am so...

The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich is a hauntingly powerful oral history that delves into the seldom-heard experiences of Soviet women during the Second World War. Through meticulous storytelling and unwavering commitment to truth, Alexievich illuminates the profound and often heart-wrenching realities faced by these women, transcending the boundaries of conventional war narratives. This extraordinary book presents the...

Three francs will feed you till tomorrow, and you cannot think further than that… As a young man struggling to find his voice as a writer, George Orwell left the comfort of home to live in the impoverished working districts of Paris and London. He would document both the chaos and boredom of destitution, the eccentric cast of characters he...

We associate the Romans with majesty and greatness: we marvel at their straight roads and innovative underfloor heating, at the dominance of their army and navy, at the grandeur of their palaces and temples. But the Romans were also enslavers. They built an empire on the backs of millions of people snatched from their homes in the aftermath of war,...

A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family's flight from and return to Iran. The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran begins in 1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah's expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the...

Inspired by the incredible true story of how the people of Denmark saved their Jewish neighbours during WW2 Helsingør, Denmark, 1943 In the midst of the German occupation during World War Two, Inger Bredahl joins the underground resistance and risks her life to save members of Denmark’s Jewish community and help them escape to Sweden. Copenhagen, 2018 Inger’s granddaughter, Cecilie...

What a wonderful book this is. I loved the enchanting and beautifully written story but also the fascinating and thoughtful excursions along the way. – Nigel Slater A garden contains secrets, we all know that: buried elements that might put on strange growth or germinate in unexpected places. The garden that I chose had walls, but like every garden it...

'An indispensable resource for white people who want to challenge white supremacy but don't know where to begin' Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller WHITE FRAGILITY 'It should be mandatory reading ... Buy the book, do the work and then push more copies into the hands of everyone you know' Emma Gannon 'Confrontational and much-needed' Stylist 'She is...

Bighearted, gritty, magical and moving, Lola in the Mirror is the irresistible new novel from international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies, Trent Dalton. WINNER 2024 ABIA BOOK LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR 2023 DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2024 INDIE BOOK AWARDS, 2024 BOOKPEOPLE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR and 2024...

Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter is a harrowing chronicle of one of the most tragic periods in human history. During the years from 1958 to 1962, China's pursuit of rapid industrialisation and agricultural collectivisation under Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward resulted in an unimaginable humanitarian disaster. This ambitious policy aimed to transform China into a global superpower within a...

Based on a nightmarish true episode in a Californian high school, this powerful novel about the danger of fanaticism is part of the Originals - Penguin's very best modern classics for young adults. Laurie isn't sure what to make of The Wave. It had begun as a simple history experiment to liven up their World War II studies and had...

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon is a striking exploration into the complexities of racism and dehumanisation. Fanon, a psychiatrist and philosopher from Martinique, delves into the black psyche in a predominately white world, examining how internalised racism and colonialism have devastating effects on the identities and minds of black individuals. This seminal work emerges through a powerful narrative...

Meet Pocket, created as a good luck charm for soldiers going into battle, whose bravery and loyalty lives on long after the war. Thimble-born from tip to toe, Pocket Bear remembers every moment of his becoming: the glimmering needle, the silken thread, the tender hands as each careful stitch brought him closer to himself. Born during the throes of WWI,...

The most powerful earthquake in American history... Growing up in the Alaskan wilderness, Jackson has always prided himself on being tough. His family lives in a tiny cabin where their neighbours are grizzlies and wolves. The nearest store is a three-day walk away. Jackson loves his life... until a fire destroys the family’s cabin, and they have to move to...

The deadliest disease in the history of the world... Elsie dreams of becoming a brave warrior like her father, who is an archer fighting in England’s war against France. But life isn’t fair in 1348 Europe. Peasant girls like Elsie can’t be archers or knights or anything exciting. Then one day in the forest, Elsie and her best friend discover...

Refugee: The Graphic Novel is a timeless story that follows three children – Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud – who live in different parts of the world and in different decades. All three kids must endure harrowing journeys as their homelands are ravaged by violence and destruction. They all face unimaginable dangers. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And...

The essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde. The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep. The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women'. Uncompromising, angry and yet...

The No1 Sunday Times Bestseller A Mail on Sunday ‘Best Holiday Read 2024’ ‘A searing exposé’ Glamour ‘A timely reminder of the dangers posed by men who crave power’ – Observer From New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposé of the real Kennedy Curse—the family's generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem—and the women who have paid...

Notes of a Native Son is a seminal work of social and cultural criticism by James Baldwin, one of the most distinguished intellectuals of the twentieth century. First published in 1955, this powerful collection of essays captures Baldwin's reflections on the intricate dynamics of race and identity during the formative years of the civil rights movement. Written when Baldwin was...

A peaceful country escape comes to life as friends and families unwind among rolling hills, rustic cottages, and gentle weekend rhythms. This charming scene captures the simple joy of slowing down and enjoying the countryside. Titles for this series are: Out for the Weekend, Plum Jam, Roll Out the Barrel and Wedding Day. Manufactured in New Zealand by Holdson using...

Floriography is a full-colour guidebook to the historical uses and secret meanings behind an impressive array of flowers and herbs. The book explores the coded significances associated with various blooms, from flowers for a lover to flowers for an enemy. The language of flowers was historically used as a means of secret communication. It soared in popularity during the 19th...

Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...

To save the world, we have to start somewhere. One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been...

This collection captures the essence of a remarkable woman, one of the foremost thinkers of our century. Simone Weil was one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century—a philosopher, theologian, critic, sociologist and political activist. This anthology spans the wide range of her thought and includes an extract from her best-known work The Need for Roots, exploring the ways...

English Pastoral offers a poetic, practical, raw, and almost miraculously detailed picture of an ancient way of life struggling to survive and to be reborn - New Statesman As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient landscape—a patchwork of crops...

At Home by Bill Bryson is an ingenious exploration of the mundane, yet fascinating world of domestic life. What begins as an innocent walk through the rooms of his Victorian rectory in Norfolk, England, turns into an extraordinary journey through history. Using his renowned wit, insatiable curiosity, and masterful storytelling, Bryson delves into how our homes evolved into the modern...

An important reckoning with Australia’s unspoken history of slavery. As a nation, we are becoming more accustomed to reckoning with the horrors and trauma of our colonial past, but one area has remained in the shadows: the Australian slave trade of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as ‘blackbirding’, this dark corner of our history has been evaded...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2023 A WATERSTONES BOOK OF YEAR FOR POLITICS 2023 ‘I learned something new on every page of this totally essential book’ Sathnam Sanghera ‘By thinking about gendered inequality as rooted in something unalterable within us, we fail to see it for what it is: something more fragile that has had to be...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. If there is one man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a coalminer. In the mid-1930s, George Orwell was given an assignment from his publisher – to write a book about unemployment and social conditions in the economically depressed north of England. Revolutionary for its...

The Sunday Times Bestseller ‘A lasting work of social history’ — The Times ‘A genuinely new history of our nation’ — Dan Jones ‘This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history’ — Spectator From the multi-million bestselling historical novelist comes the culmination of her life’s work. Did you know that there are more penises than women in the...

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky is a fascinating deep dive into the history of a fish that has had an outsized impact on world events. This seemingly simple fish has been at the heart of wars, driven economic booms, and shaped the very diets of nations. Kurlansky’s narrative spans over a thousand...

Throughout her childhood, Tess Redgrave knew she had a 'mad' grandmother who made repeated visits to a mental asylum. But it wasn't until her thirties, years after her Nanie had died and in the depths of her own crippling depression, that Tess was prompted to find out more. What she unearthed was an explosive family story of madness and secrecy...

Globally famous and yet universally misunderstood – these are the complex and utterly engrossing stories of Britain's royal women behind the public façade. Saints or sinners? Perfect princesses or difficult duchesses? Monarchy’s saviours or its destroyers? They rank among the world’s most famous women – and the most misunderstood. Throughout history, royal women have been sanitised and sanctified by supporters,...

Goliath’s Curse offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, challenging us to consider what it means for our uncertain future. Why do civilisations collapse? Is human progress truly possible? Are we approaching our endgame? For the first 200,000 years of human history, Homo sapiens lived as hunter-gatherers in fluid, egalitarian societies that prevented any individual...

It is a dangerous thing to be a teenage girl.I never kept a diary, except for one year of my life. The year I turned fourteen. The year my parents divorced. The year I had sex for the first time. The year I learned to use the microfiche. In this unique follow-up to her memoir You Probably Think This Song...

An electrifying, thought-provoking exploration of how the digital era is reshaping our world, by bestselling, Women's Prize-winning writer Naomi Alderman. What's the most useful thing you could know about your own life? In this era-defining book, developed from her groundbreaking Radio 4 essay series, Naomi Alderman turns her boundless curiosity and incisive thinking to a question that affects us all—how...

'An oppressive, forensic, psychological thriller: J.K. Rowling meets Antony Beevor, Stephen King and Marina Warner ... Schiff's writing is to die for' THE TIMES It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's niece started to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before panic had infected the entire colony, nineteen...

A beautifully illustrated history of Indigenous tattooing practices around the world Tattooing within Indigenous communities is a time-honoured practice that binds the tattoo recipient to a deeply felt collective history. More than mere decoration, tattoos embody cultural values, ancestral ties, and spiritual beliefs. Indigenous Tattoo Traditions captures ancient tribal tattooing practices and their contemporary resurgence, highlighting a beautiful aspect of...

Violet's Scarf is an incredible true story about a small girl, World War 1, and a hand-knitted scarf. Violet Cloughley lived in Riverton at the bottom of the South Island, New Zealand. When WWI started in 1914, Violet, aged eight, wanted to help the soldiers fighting overseas. So she knitted a scarf. This story is about the scarf Violet knitted...

A groundbreaking work on the root cause of our ills, which is changing the way politicians think. Why do we mistrust people more in the UK than in Japan? Why do Americans have higher rates of teenage pregnancy than the French? What makes the Swedish thinner than the Greeks? The answer is inequality. This groundbreaking book, based on years of...

Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing clothing created from spun fibres. In Women's Work, archaeologist-linguist Elizabeth Wayland Barber "weaves the strands of mythology and literature, ethnology and documented history into a rich tapestry" (John Noble Wilford, New York Times Book Review), illuminating the vital role women held in preindustrial societies. With a distinctive and innovative approach to...

The ground-breaking history of civil rights and inequality by legendary political activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class, offers a comprehensive examination of the pivotal role of African American women in the evolution of civil rights and feminist movements. Davis meticulously maps out the collective struggles and intersectionalities of race, gender, and class, framing these interwoven threads...

The Years by Annie Ernaux is an extraordinary autobiographical narrative that transcends the traditional boundaries of memoir. Available in English for the first time, this remarkable book has established itself as a literature classic, lauded globally for its unique approach to storytelling and profound introspection. Spanning from 1941 to 2006, Ernaux's work doesn't merely recount her own life, but instead...

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is a riveting memoir that plunges the reader into the stark realities of poverty in the two renowned cities during the 1920s. The narrative follows Orwell's own experiences as he grapples with destitution, taking on various menial jobs and immersing himself in the lives of the downtrodden. The story begins...

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK For the mothers of the disappeared in 1970s Argentina, protest was difficult. Every Thursday they marched in front of government buildings wearing headscarves embroidered with the names of their lost children. Through sewing, they found a way to campaign. In Tudor England, Mary, Queen of Scots was under house arrest and...

Penguin Classics relaunch Mary Barton, the daughter of disillusioned trade unionist, rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner's son, and making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself painfully torn between the...

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe is a genre-defining ride through the 1960s, published in Vintage Classics for the first time to mark its fiftieth anniversary. The book features an introduction by Jarvis Cocker. In the summer of 1964, author Ken Kesey and his Merry Band of Pranksters set out on an awesome social experiment like no other....

Spending his weekends exploring historic churches across the idyllic English countryside—and sharing their beauty and unsung history across social media—Luke Sherlock is bringing English history and the heritage of our rural countryside to a new audience. England is full of incredible churches, from small stone chapels and quiet Romanesque masterpieces, to thousand-year-old Saxon stalwarts, dramatic Gothic monuments and high Victorian...

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport and, as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees 'a fortune beyond counting' in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in...

Discover all the foul facts about fifty gruesome great houses with history’s most horrible headlines: Gruesome Great Houses edition. Jump into horrible houses with Terry Deary, the master of making history fun. From Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace in London, this book covers the history of Britain and Ireland from the time of the savage Stone Age right up...

We Will Not Cease is the harrowing, true memoir of Archibald Baxter, a stalwart New Zealander who stood firm in his convictions during the brutal times of World War I. Arrested in 1915 at the age of 33 for his steadfast refusal to bear arms, Baxter's journey is one of relentless suffering, resilience, and unyielding spirit. Transported under confinement from...

While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first...

Opens a fascinating new window onto medieval and early modern life - a world where it's possible to meet the devil on the road, control the future through stars, and employ a fairy to help find gold. In Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic, historian Tabitha Stanmore will transport readers to a time when magic was used...

The History of Sexuality: Volume 2 by Michel Foucault delves deeper into the complex interplay of desire, sex, and power in historical contexts. Originally released as The Use of Pleasure, this volume shifts focus from the repression hypothesis explored in the first volume, moving instead towards an examination of how sexual behaviours and desires have been shaped and perceived throughout...

I Will Greet the Sun Again is a poignant and evocative debut novel by Khashayar J. Khabushani that delves deep into the complex and delicate fibres of an Iranian-American family's dynamic. In the dead of night, three young brothers are abruptly taken from their Los Angeles home by their father, journeying to the unfamiliar and ancestral terrain of Iran. This...

Where kids ran wild and resilience developed…Behind The Hill is a social history, recording people’s lives from interviews, from one end of Golden Bay to the other. Each and every portrayal has something to say about the values and norms of the time.The book follows the revolutionary changes that affected one of New Zealand’s most isolated areas over succeeding decades...