In November 1983, Soviet nuclear forces went on high alert. After months nervously watching increasingly assertive NATO military posturing, Soviet intelligence agencies in Western Europe received flash telegrams reporting alarming activity on U.S. bases. In response, the Soviets began planning for a countdown to a nuclear first strike by NATO on Eastern Europe. And then Able Archer 83, a vast NATO war game exercise that modeled a Soviet attack on NATO allies, ended. What the West didn't know at the time was that the Soviets thought Operation Able Archer 83 was real and were actively preparing for a surprise missile attack from NATO. This close scrape with Armageddon was largely unknown until last October when the U.S. government released a ninety-four-page presidential analysis of Able Archer that the National Security Archive had spent over a decade trying to declassify. Able Archer 83 is based upon more than a thousand pages of declassified documents that archive staffer Nate Jones has pried loose from several U.S. government agencies and British archives, as well as from formerly classified Soviet Politburo and KGB files, vividly recreating the atmosphere that nearly unleashed nuclear war.

First published in 1913, The Lodger is a seminal work of psychological crime fiction, transforming the public terror surrounding the Jack the Ripper murders into a claustrophobic drama of suspicion. Its plot centers on the Buntings, a respectable but impoverished London couple who take in the enigmatic Mr. Sleuth, whose nocturnal habits seem increasingly sinister. Lowndes's style is restrained, insinuating, and domestic; rather than sensational revelation, she cultivates dread through silence, half-knowledge, and moral hesitation, placing the novel between Victorian sensation fiction, urban Gothic, and modern detective literature. Marie Belloc Lowndes was an Anglo-French novelist and journalist, the sister of Hilaire Belloc, and a writer deeply alert to the power of newspapers, rumor, and public fear. Her journalistic experience and fascination with true crime enabled her to explore not merely murder, but the social imagination that surrounds it: class anxiety, gendered vulnerability, and the uneasy dependence of ordinary households on strangers. This book is highly recommended to readers interested in early crime fiction, psychological suspense, and literary treatments of modern urban fear. Subtle, intelligent, and unsettling, The Lodger remains a foundational study of how evil may be suspected before it is ever seen.

A special edition of the international bestseller that is "sumptuously illustrated. . . . Perfect for reading to alert and curious children, but it's even better as a secret pleasure, read alone, with no children in sight." (Philip Kennicott, Washington Post ) E. H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World, an engaging and lively book written for readers both young and old, vividly brings the full span of human experience on Earth to life, from the stone age to the atomic age. Gombrich's text paints a colorful picture of wars and conquests; of grand works of art; of the advances and limitations of science; of remarkable people and remarkable events. But Gombrich was, first and foremost, the best-known art historian of his time; his beloved Little History suggests illustrations on every page. Featuring more than two hundred illustrations--most in color--this beautiful edition incorporates a wide range of images, showing us the earliest cave paintings, the classic sculptures of the ancient Greeks, beautiful Islamic calligraphy, oil portraits of the mighty through the ages, and much more. With a high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this enhanced edition will have an important place on family bookshelves for many years to come.

First published in 1913, The Lodger is a seminal work of psychological crime fiction, transforming the public terror surrounding the Jack the Ripper murders into a claustrophobic drama of suspicion. Its plot centers on the Buntings, a respectable but impoverished London couple who take in the enigmatic Mr. Sleuth, whose nocturnal habits seem increasingly sinister. Lowndes's style is restrained, insinuating, and domestic; rather than sensational revelation, she cultivates dread through silence, half-knowledge, and moral hesitation, placing the novel between Victorian sensation fiction, urban Gothic, and modern detective literature. Marie Belloc Lowndes was an Anglo-French novelist and journalist, the sister of Hilaire Belloc, and a writer deeply alert to the power of newspapers, rumor, and public fear. Her journalistic experience and fascination with true crime enabled her to explore not merely murder, but the social imagination that surrounds it: class anxiety, gendered vulnerability, and the uneasy dependence of ordinary households on strangers. This book is highly recommended to readers interested in early crime fiction, psychological suspense, and literary treatments of modern urban fear. Subtle, intelligent, and unsettling, The Lodger remains a foundational study of how evil may be suspected before it is ever seen.

The first collection of Booker Prize-winning writer Anne Enright's non-fiction writing about culture, literature and her own life 'Anne Enright might just be Ireland's greatest living writer' THE TIMES 'A joy to read' MAGGIE O'FARRELL For thirty years Anne Enright has been paying attention: casting her lucid and distinctive gaze across the world, literature and her own life, and gifting us with her precise insights. These essays, collated from across Enright's career, take us from Dublin to Galway, Canada to Honduras. They delve into Enright's own family history, and explore the free voices and controlled bodies of women in society and fiction. She offers new perspectives on writers including Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Helen Garner and Angela Carter. In Enright's fiction, speech can transform, rupture, enliven and liberate. In these essays, she speaks to us directly. Electrifying, probing and exuberant, this is a defining collection from one of our most distinguished literary voices. 'One of the best essayists alive' MEGAN NOLAN, OBSERVER 'Confirms the intelligence, compassion and humour of the mind behind the novels' INDEPENDENT 'A glorious antidote to the mad, sad world' EIMEAR MCBRIDE 'So alert, so attuned, so alive' LUCY CALDWELL

The first collection of Booker Prize-winning writer Anne Enright's non-fiction writing about culture, literature and her own life 'Anne Enright might just be Ireland's greatest living writer' THE TIMES 'A joy to read' MAGGIE O'FARRELL For thirty years Anne Enright has been paying attention: casting her lucid and distinctive gaze across the world, literature and her own life, and gifting us with her precise insights. These essays, collated from across Enright's career, take us from Dublin to Galway, Canada to Honduras. They delve into Enright's own family history, and explore the free voices and controlled bodies of women in society and fiction. She offers new perspectives on writers including Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Helen Garner and Angela Carter. In Enright's fiction, speech can transform, rupture, enliven and liberate. In these essays, she speaks to us directly. Electrifying, probing and exuberant, this is a defining collection from one of our most distinguished literary voices. 'One of the best essayists alive' MEGAN NOLAN, OBSERVER 'Confirms the intelligence, compassion and humour of the mind behind the novels' INDEPENDENT 'A glorious antidote to the mad, sad world' EIMEAR MCBRIDE 'So alert, so attuned, so alive' LUCY CALDWELL

First published anonymously in 1827, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century imagines an England of 2126, where steam-driven conveniences, advanced communications, and altered social customs frame a comic-political romance. Its resurrected Egyptian king, Cheops, becomes less a monster than a catalytic observer, exposing vanity, ambition, and institutional folly. Blending Gothic revival, futuristic speculation, satire, and silver-fork social comedy, the novel occupies a crucial early place in the genealogy of science fiction. Mrs. Loudon, born Jane Webb and later known as Jane C. Loudon, wrote the novel while still a young woman facing financial insecurity after her father's death. Her interest in contemporary science, mechanics, archaeology, and speculative reform clearly informs the book's imaginative machinery and social projections. Later celebrated for her influential horticultural writings, Loudon here reveals a capacious intellect alert to technological change, gendered education, and the instability of political authority. Readers interested in Mary Shelley, early Victorian futurism, or the prehistory of science fiction will find The Mummy! both entertaining and intellectually rewarding. Its exuberant improbabilities conceal sharp cultural analysis, making it an essential work for anyone tracing how nineteenth-century fiction began to imagine modernity's future.

The Egoist (1879) is George Meredith's brilliant comic anatomy of vanity, courtship, and social constraint, centred on Sir Willoughby Patterne, a handsome, cultivated aristocrat whose self-love masquerades as refinement. Through the drama of Clara Middleton's resistance to an emotionally imprisoning engagement, Meredith transforms the marriage plot into a psychological and ethical investigation. Dense with aphorism, irony, and intricate dialogue, the novel belongs to the high Victorian tradition while anticipating modern studies of narcissism and gendered power. Meredith, novelist, poet, and early reader for Chapman and Hall, wrote from within the literary culture of Victorian England yet often against its sentimental conventions. His own unhappy first marriage and sustained interest in women's intellectual and moral freedom inform the novel's scepticism toward possessive love. A friend and contemporary of major realists, he fused social comedy with philosophical wit, producing fiction that rewards attentive, intellectually alert reading. This book is recommended to readers drawn to Austen's social precision, Eliot's moral seriousness, and James's psychological nuance. The Egoist is demanding but exhilarating: a comedy of manners sharpened into a critique of egotism, patriarchy, and the subtle coercions hidden beneath civilized polish.

The Egoist (1879) is George Meredith's brilliant comic anatomy of vanity, courtship, and social constraint, centred on Sir Willoughby Patterne, a handsome, cultivated aristocrat whose self-love masquerades as refinement. Through the drama of Clara Middleton's resistance to an emotionally imprisoning engagement, Meredith transforms the marriage plot into a psychological and ethical investigation. Dense with aphorism, irony, and intricate dialogue, the novel belongs to the high Victorian tradition while anticipating modern studies of narcissism and gendered power. Meredith, novelist, poet, and early reader for Chapman and Hall, wrote from within the literary culture of Victorian England yet often against its sentimental conventions. His own unhappy first marriage and sustained interest in women's intellectual and moral freedom inform the novel's scepticism toward possessive love. A friend and contemporary of major realists, he fused social comedy with philosophical wit, producing fiction that rewards attentive, intellectually alert reading. This book is recommended to readers drawn to Austen's social precision, Eliot's moral seriousness, and James's psychological nuance. The Egoist is demanding but exhilarating: a comedy of manners sharpened into a critique of egotism, patriarchy, and the subtle coercions hidden beneath civilized polish.

First published anonymously in 1827, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century imagines an England of 2126, where steam-driven conveniences, advanced communications, and altered social customs frame a comic-political romance. Its resurrected Egyptian king, Cheops, becomes less a monster than a catalytic observer, exposing vanity, ambition, and institutional folly. Blending Gothic revival, futuristic speculation, satire, and silver-fork social comedy, the novel occupies a crucial early place in the genealogy of science fiction. Mrs. Loudon, born Jane Webb and later known as Jane C. Loudon, wrote the novel while still a young woman facing financial insecurity after her father's death. Her interest in contemporary science, mechanics, archaeology, and speculative reform clearly informs the book's imaginative machinery and social projections. Later celebrated for her influential horticultural writings, Loudon here reveals a capacious intellect alert to technological change, gendered education, and the instability of political authority. Readers interested in Mary Shelley, early Victorian futurism, or the prehistory of science fiction will find The Mummy! both entertaining and intellectually rewarding. Its exuberant improbabilities conceal sharp cultural analysis, making it an essential work for anyone tracing how nineteenth-century fiction began to imagine modernity's future.

'Should be at the top of everyone's wish list. Fennell has created one of the most compelling characters in UK crime fiction' - M.W. CRAVEN FOR THIS KILLER IT'S DEATH AT FIRST SIGHT . . . ______________________ Two men are found dead in London's Battersea Park. One of the bodies has been laid out like a crucifix - with his eyes removed and placed on his open palms. Detective Inspector Grace Archer and her caustic DS, Harry Quinn, lead the investigation. But when more bodies turn up in a similar fashion, they find themselves in a race against time to find the sadistic killer. The hunt leads them to Ladywell Playtower in Southeast London, the home to a religious commune lead by the enigmatic Aaron Cronin. Archer and Quinn suspect Cronin's involvement but his alibis are watertight, and the truth seemingly buried. If Archer is to find the killer, she must first battle her way through religious fanatics, London gangsters - and her own demons . . . ______________________ What your favourite crime authors are saying about David Fennell: 'A truly extraordinary crime novel' - LYNDA LA PLANTE 'A stunning start to a fantastic new series' - M.W. CRAVEN 'Involved me in a way that few thrillers do, kept me alert and on-edge right up through the deeply satisfying finale' - AJ FINN 'I flew through it . . . Tense, gripping and brilliantly inventive' - SIMON LELIC 'Unsettling, fast-paced, suspenseful and gripping . . . Excellent' - WILL DEAN 'A serial killer thriller with the darkest of hearts' - FIONA CUMMINS 'A tense-as-hell high-body count page turner, but a rarer thing too - one that's also full of genuine warmth and humanity' - WILLIAM SHAW 'Chilling, unsettling and wonderfully atmospheric' - BRIAN McGILLOWAY

FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022 THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2021 'A complex story, which Tooze tells with clarity and verve... The world is unlikely to be treated to a better account of the economics of the pandemic' The Times From the author of Crashed comes a gripping short history of how Covid-19 ravaged the global economy, and where it leaves us now When the news first began to trickle out of China about a new virus in December 2019, risk-averse financial markets were alert to its potential for disruption. Yet they could never have predicted the total economic collapse that would follow in COVID-19's wake, as stock markets fell faster and harder than at any time since 1929, currencies across the world plunged, investors panicked, and even gold was sold. In a matter of weeks, the world's economy was brought to an abrupt halt by governments trying to contain a spiralling public health catastrophe. Flights were grounded; supply chains broken; industries from tourism to oil to hospitality collapsed overnight, leaving hundreds of millions of people unemployed. Central banks responded with unprecedented interventions, just to keep their economies on life-support. For the first time since the second world war, the entire global economic system contracted. This book tells the story of that shutdown. We do not yet know how this story ends, or what new world we will find on the other side. In this fast-paced, compelling and at times shocking analysis, Adam Tooze surveys the wreckage, and looks at where we might be headed next. 'A seriously impressive book, both endlessly quotable and rigorously analytical' Oliver Bullough, The Guardian

FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022 THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2021 'A complex story, which Tooze tells with clarity and verve... The world is unlikely to be treated to a better account of the economics of the pandemic' The Times From the author of Crashed comes a gripping short history of how Covid-19 ravaged the global economy, and where it leaves us now When the news first began to trickle out of China about a new virus in December 2019, risk-averse financial markets were alert to its potential for disruption. Yet they could never have predicted the total economic collapse that would follow in COVID-19's wake, as stock markets fell faster and harder than at any time since 1929, currencies across the world plunged, investors panicked, and even gold was sold. In a matter of weeks, the world's economy was brought to an abrupt halt by governments trying to contain a spiralling public health catastrophe. Flights were grounded; supply chains broken; industries from tourism to oil to hospitality collapsed overnight, leaving hundreds of millions of people unemployed. Central banks responded with unprecedented interventions, just to keep their economies on life-support. For the first time since the second world war, the entire global economic system contracted. This book tells the story of that shutdown. We do not yet know how this story ends, or what new world we will find on the other side. In this fast-paced, compelling and at times shocking analysis, Adam Tooze surveys the wreckage, and looks at where we might be headed next. 'A seriously impressive book, both endlessly quotable and rigorously analytical' Oliver Bullough, The Guardian

**Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction** The definitive history of Britain's tumultuous relationship with Europe - as it's never been told before. 'Powerful, precise, morally engaged, wonderfully alert to character, context and the greater purpose of political life' -- Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge 'Will stand for many years as the authoritative political history' -- David Kynaston, author of Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 'A cut above other Brexit accounts . . . even the most passionate Remainer - or Leaver - should enjoy it enormously' -- Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times In this lively history, acclaimed writer Tom McTague chronicles the battle of ideas, events and personalities that first took the country into the Common Market in 1973, only to take it out of the European Union in an explosive referendum a little over forty years later. A riveting story of the clashing ideals that have pulled at Britain's public imagination for more than seven decades, Between the Waves illuminates the conflicts between leading twentieth century politicians and the lesser-known actors in this great post-war drama: the Eurosceptic student radicals, Cold Warriors, eccentric billionaires and political strategists who turned the tide of history. Ultimately, this book raises that most elemental of questions: who are we? 'A sweeping, impressive and ambitious history of modern Europe' Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women

'Farage is Britain's new prime minister. Nirvana or nightmare? Whatever our reaction, we all need to take this scenario very seriously, as Peter Chappell's invigorating book does' Anthony Seldon 'a dazzling imagined account of Nigel Farage's first year in Number Ten: hilarious, terrifying and totally believable... Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well.' Ferdinand Mount A compulsive, chilling nonfiction thriller that imagines what might happen if Reform win a majority at the next general election. At 10pm on 28th June 2029, exit polls predict that Nigel Farage will be the 60th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This is the story of what could happen next. What If Reform Wins is a chilling and deeply researched scenario that takes us day-by-day, minute-by-minute through a world in which Reform has the opportunity to put their policies into practice, from deporting 600,000 people to leaving the ECHR, abandoning net zero and ending the BBC's license fee. How will people fight back against mass deportations and fracking? And will this self-described 'ill-disciplined pirate ship' survive the rigors of government? Drawing on dozens of new interviews, Peter Chappell, a reporter at The Times, explores a nation on a new and dystopian path.

"The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines."-Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy The first major bioterror event in the United States-the anthrax attacks in October 2001-was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense. Peter Jahrling, the top scientist at Usamriid, a wry virologist who cut his teeth on Ebola, one of the world's most lethal emerging viruses, has ORCON security clearance that gives him access to top secret information on bioweapons. His most urgent priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox-and win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers-at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all vaccines. Usamriid went into a state of Delta Alert on September 11 and activated its emergency response teams when the first anthrax letters were opened in New York and Washington, D.C. Preston reports, in unprecedented detail, on the government' s response to the attacks and takes us into the ongoing FBI investigation. His story is based on interviews with top-level FBI agents and with Dr. Steven Hatfill. Jahrling is leading a team of scientists doing controversial experiments with live smallpox virus at CDC. Preston takes us into the lab where Jahrling is reawakening smallpox and explains, with cool and devastating precision, what may be at stake if his last bold experiment fails.

"Heartfelt and smart, Love Sick is just what the doctor ordered."-Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka, authors of The Breakup Tour Their bedside manner needs a little work… Love may be the best medicine, but first-year resident Grace Rose isn't prescribing it anytime soon. Not since her ex broke her heart in med school, and especially not since hearing the rumor that she slept her way into the OB-GYN program. (Spoiler alert: So not true.) With her social anxiety already in full spiral, Grace is determined to set the record straight. But after a tense first encounter with fellow resident Julian Santini-with his annoying good looks and witty charm-she realizes that her reputation may never fully recover. Julian didn't mean to offend Grace. After all, he's just as fed up with the toxic "BrOB-GYN" culture as she is. He's got his own drama to triage anyway-like proving that he earned his spot in this residency, not simply lucked into it. Still, something about Grace gets under his skin…and not always in a bad way. Forced to work together through grueling shifts and sleepless nights, Grace and Julian try to cut back on the bickering for the sake of their training. Before long, however, a different kind of tension exposes the cracks in their truce. With their hearts in critical condition, will they accept that love is the best remedy of all? Grey's Anatomy meets The Hating Game in this delicious, laugh out loud rom-com set in the world of a tight-knit group of OB-GYN residents-written by a practicing physician. For fans of: Workplace Enemies to Lovers Close Proximity Medical drama from a real doctor Pulse (on Netflix) meets The Love Hypothesis with a hint of Scrubs

'Farage is Britain's new prime minister. Nirvana or nightmare? Whatever our reaction, we all need to take this scenario very seriously, as Peter Chappell's invigorating book does' Anthony Seldon 'a dazzling imagined account of Nigel Farage's first year in Number Ten: hilarious, terrifying and totally believable... Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well.' Ferdinand Mount A compulsive, chilling nonfiction thriller that imagines what might happen if Reform win a majority at the next general election. At 10pm on 28th June 2029, exit polls predict that Nigel Farage will be the 60th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This is the story of what could happen next. What If Reform Wins is a chilling and deeply researched scenario that takes us day-by-day, minute-by-minute through a world in which Reform has the opportunity to put their policies into practice, from deporting 600,000 people to leaving the ECHR, abandoning net zero and ending the BBC's license fee. How will people fight back against mass deportations and fracking? And will this self-described 'ill-disciplined pirate ship' survive the rigors of government? Drawing on dozens of new interviews, Peter Chappell, a reporter at The Times, explores a nation on a new and dystopian path.

**Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction** The definitive history of Britain's tumultuous relationship with Europe - as it's never been told before. 'Powerful, precise, morally engaged, wonderfully alert to character, context and the greater purpose of political life' -- Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge 'Will stand for many years as the authoritative political history' -- David Kynaston, author of Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 'A cut above other Brexit accounts . . . even the most passionate Remainer - or Leaver - should enjoy it enormously' -- Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times In this lively history, acclaimed writer Tom McTague chronicles the battle of ideas, events and personalities that first took the country into the Common Market in 1973, only to take it out of the European Union in an explosive referendum a little over forty years later. A riveting story of the clashing ideals that have pulled at Britain's public imagination for more than seven decades, Between the Waves illuminates the conflicts between leading twentieth century politicians and the lesser-known actors in this great post-war drama: the Eurosceptic student radicals, Cold Warriors, eccentric billionaires and political strategists who turned the tide of history. Ultimately, this book raises that most elemental of questions: who are we? 'A sweeping, impressive and ambitious history of modern Europe' Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women

Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady's professional and personal lives collide when her college-age daughter is involved in a missing persons case in this evocative and atmospheric mystery in J. A. Jance's New York Times bestselling suspense series, set in the beautiful desert country of the American Southwest. When Jennifer Brady returns to Northern Arizona University for her sophomore year, she quickly becomes a big sister to her new roommate, Beth Rankin, a brilliant yet sheltered sixteen-year-old freshman. For a homeschooled Beth, college is her first taste of both freedom and unfettered access to the internet, and Jenny is concerned that she's too naïve and rebellious for her own good. Her worries are well-founded because one day Beth vanishes, prompting Jenny to alert campus authorities, local police, and her mom, Sheriff Joanna Brady—who calls in a favor. Beth is found, but Jenny's concern has unwittingly put her in the crosshairs of a criminal bent on revenge. With Christmas vacation approaching, and Beth at war with her parents, Jenny invites Beth to the shelter of the Brady home. While Joanna is sympathetic, she's caught up in a sensitive case—an officer-involved shooting that has placed the lives of two young children in jeopardy—leaving her stretched thin to help a fragile young woman recently gone missing and endangered.