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FALL: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell

John Preston

A LITERARY HIGHLIGHT FOR 2021 IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER From the bestselling author of A Very English Scandal, the jaw-dropping life story of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell. In February 1991, the media mogul and former MP Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour aboard his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival, taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand and children asked for his autograph. But just ten months later, Maxwell disappeared from the same yacht off the Canary Islands, only to be found dead in the water soon afterward. Maxwell was the embodiment of Britain's post-war boom. Born an Orthodox Jew, he had escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fought in World War 2, and was decorated for his heroism with the Military Cross. He went on to become a Labour MP and an astonishingly successful businessman, owning a number of newspapers and publishing companies. But on his death, his empire fell apart, as long-hidden debts and unscrupulous dealings came to light. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and corruption. No one had ever fallen so far and so quickly. What went so wrong? How did a war hero and model of society become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck? In this gripping book, John Preston delivers the definitive account of Maxwell's extraordinary rise and scandalous fall.

'This is the best biography yet of the media magnate Robert Maxwell - by turns engrossing, amusing and appalling... it slips down as richly, easily and pleasurably as a tablespoonful of Beluga caviar' Robert Harris, Sunday Times

'Electrifying... the supreme chronicler of modern British scandals’ Mail on Sunday

'This is such a richly detailed, well-written, gripping biography I wished it could have been twice as long' Lynn Barber Daily Telegraph

'Any good biography of a mountebank depicts not only its subject but also the ambivalent society that accommodated the monster. John Preston's Fall does this with deft understatement ... Preston's A Very English Scandal used an almost novelistic eye to revive a well-worn scandal. Fall is equally satisfying' Quentin Letts, The Times

'An absorbing profile of the war hero turned rogue ... Preston comes to his subject with the advantage both of hindsight and his great skill at exposing hypocrisy and subterfuge ... he has an eye for the telling detail and an ear for the revealing quote' Observer, Book of the Week

'Vivid ... Preston (has a) gift for the kind of wry comedy that suits English decline' Guardian, Book of the Day

'Preston is a natural storyteller' The Times

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THE DIG

John Preston

A brilliantly realised account of the most famous archeological dig in British history, now a major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James. In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind: Mrs Petty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary find... John Preston's recreation of the Sutton Hoo dig - the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever in Britain - brilliantly and comically dramatizes three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivalry flourished in equal measure. 'Exquisitely original' Ian MacEwan 'An enthralling story of love and loss' Robert Harris

'A tale of rivalry, loss and thwarted love so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it's not often I miss a meal' Nigella Lawson 'A delicate evocation of a vanished era' Sunday Times

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THE MOTH AND THE MOUNTAIN: A True Story of Love, War and Everest

Ed Caesar

A SUNDAY TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR THE TIMES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 'One of the best books ever written about the early attempts to conquer Everest. A fine, fine slice of history by a truly special writer who proves time and time again that he is among the best of his generation' Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets 'A small classic of the biographer's art' Sunday Times The untold story of Britain's most mysterious mountaineering legend - Maurice Wilson - and his heroic attempt to climb Everest. Alone. In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit - all utterly alone. Wilson didn't know how to climb. He barely knew how to fly. But he had pluck, daring and a vision - he wanted to be the first man to stand on top of the world. Traumatised by his wartime experiences and leaving behind a trail of broken hearts, Wilson believed that Everest could redeem him. This is the tale of an adventurer unlike any you have ever encountered: an unforgettable story about the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Maurice Wilson is a man written out of the history books - dismissed as an eccentric and a charlatan by many, but held in the highest regard by renowned mountaineers such as Reinhold Messner. The Moth and the Mountain restores him to his rightful place in the annals of Everest and in doing so attempts to answer that perennial question - why do we climb mountains? 'A towering, tragic tale rescued from oblivion by Ed Caesar's magnificent writing' Dan Snow 'This bonkers ripping yarn of derring-don't is a hell of a ride' The Times 'It's hard to imagine a finer tribute to one of Everest's forgotten heroes' Elizabeth Day

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HOW SPIES THINK: 10 Lessons in Intelligence

David Omand

'One of the best books ever written about intelligence analysis and its long-term lessons. Brilliant, lucid and thought-provoking' Christopher Andrew, author of The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 From the former director of GCHQ, learn the methodology used by the British intelligence agencies to reach judgements, establish the right level of confidence and act decisively. Intelligence officers discern the truth. They gather information - often contradictory or incomplete - and, with it, they build the most accurate possible image of the world. With the stakes at their absolute highest, they must then decide what to do. In everyday life, you are faced with contradictory, incomplete information, too. Reading the news on social media, figuring out the next step in your career, or trying to discover if gossip about a friend is legitimate, you are building an image of the world and making decisions about it. Looking through the eyes of one of Britain's most senior ex-intelligence officers, Professor Sir David Omand, How Spies Think shows how the big decisions in your life will be easier to make when you apply the same frameworks used by British intelligence. Full of revealing examples from his storied career, including key briefings with Prime Ministers from Thatcher to Blair, and conflicts from the Falklands to Afghanistan, Professor Omand arms us with the tools to sort fact from fiction, and shows us how to use real intelligence every day.

'This is nothing less than the new manual for analytical thought. What does it take to think clearly and maintain an open mind in the face of confusion? David Omand's book on How Spies Think prepares us for the the challenges of the 21st century' Richard Aldrich, author of GCHQ 'David Omand has a unique combination of experience as both a producer and consumer of secret intelligence, a deep knowledge of intelligence history and techniques, and a gift for lucid exposition. An invaluable book for anyone who wants to think like a spy but also for those concerned about the role spies can play in a democracy' Lawrence Freedman, author of The Future of War 'Sir David Omand is undoubtedly one of the most able people to have served in British government since the Second World War', TLS 'David Omand has more experience of the intelligence agencies and how they operate than anyone else in Britain. He also has the rare ability to explain spycraft and how raw intelligence is analysed without the use of jargon which would be incomprehensible to most readers. I have been waiting for a book like this for years' Sir Malcolm Rifkind 'A rare insight into the methods and mindset of modern intelligence, written by a former top professional. A most valuable work' Lionel Barber, author of The Powerful and the Damned

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FLASH CRASH: A Trading Savant, A Global Manhunt and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History

Liam Vaughan

For fans of Bad Blood and Flash Boys, the story of a trading prodigy who amassed $70 million from his childhood bedroom-until the US government accused him of helping trigger an unprecedented market collapse.

On May 6, 2010, financial markets around the world tumbled simultaneously and without warning. In the span of five minutes, a trillion dollars of valuation was lost. The Flash Crash, as it became known, represented the fastest drop in market history. When share values rebounded less than half an hour later, experts around the globe were left perplexed. What had they just witnessed?

Navinder Singh Sarao hardly seemed like a man who would shake the world's financial markets to their core. Raised in a working-class neighbourhood in West London, Nav was a preternaturally gifted trader who played the markets like a computer game. By the age of thirty, he had left behind London's trading arcades, working instead out of his childhood home. For years the money poured in. But when lightning-fast electronic traders infiltrated markets and started eating into his profits, Nav built a system of his own to fight back. It worked-until 2015, when the FBI arrived at his door. Depending on whom you ask, Sarao was a scourge, a symbol of a financial system run horribly amok, or a folk hero-an outsider who took on the tyranny of Wall Street and the high-frequency traders.

A real-life financial thriller, Flash Crash uncovers the remarkable, behind-the-scenes narrative of a mystifying market crash, a globe-spanning investigation into international fraud, and the man at the centre of them both.

‘The U.K.'s pre-eminent chronicler of financial crime’ New Yorker

‘This is not just a readable, pacey account of an extraordinary individual … but also a troubling exposé of the fragility of our entire financial system … I loved it’ Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland

‘The definitive account of one of the most mysterious events in the recent history of financial markets …Tells the irresistible personal tale of the unlikely character―finance whiz, social misfit, brazen cheater, folk hero, fraud victim―who finds himself at the centre of a vast global scandal’ David Enrich, author of The Spider Network

‘A fascinating journey through the heart of the financial markets and the battle between man and machine’ Bradley Hope, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale

‘A cautionary tale of the fragilities baked into the financial system … An engaging history lesson on the evolution of modern trading … And it is a pacy account that swings from humour to horror of a vulnerable man who is out of his depth … Compelling’ Financial Times

‘An extremely well-researched and clearly written book’ Spectator

‘Extraordinary … vivid detail … The real bandits are still out there, cloaked in political cover and respectability yet rigging the markets at scale’ Wall Street Journal

‘So compelling … He brings out the moral subtleties. It isn’t a simple story of good versus evil … Tells the story beautifully’ Daily Mail, Book of the Week

‘A magnificently detailed yet pacy narrative. Think Trading Places meets Wall Street … Vaughan achieves something even more remarkable. He makes you sympathise … Meticulous reporting’ Sunday Times

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GENIUS AND INK: Virginia Woolf on How to Read

Virginia Woolf

FOREWORD BY ALI SMITH

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FRANCESCA WADE

Who better to serve as a guide to great books and their authors than Virginia Woolf?

In the early years of its existence, the Times Literary Supplement published some of the finest writers in English: T. S. Eliot, Henry James and E. M. Forster among them. But one of the paper’s defining voices was Virginia Woolf, who produced a string of superb essays between the two World Wars.

The weirdness of Elizabethan plays, the pleasure of revisiting favourite novels, the supreme examples of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Henry James, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad: all are here, in anonymously published pieces, in which may be glimpsed the thinking behind Woolf’s works of fiction and the enquiring, feminist spirit of A Room of One’s Own.

Here is Woolf the critical essayist, offering, at one moment, a playful hypothesis and, at another, a judgement laid down with the authority of a twentieth-century Dr Johnson. Here is Woolf working out precisely what’s great about Hardy, and how Elizabeth Barrett Browning made books a “substitute for living” because she was “forbidden to scamper on the grass”. Above all, here is Virginia Woolf the reader, whose enthusiasm for great literature remains palpable and inspirational today.

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THE HIDDEN WORLD OF THE FOX

Adele Brand

We’ve all seen the fox.

A flash of his brushy tail disappearing between the gap of a fence, a blaze of orange caught in the headlights as he scampers across the road. We’ve heard him too, his strange barks echoing in the city night. Perhaps we’ve even come face to face with him, eyes meeting for a few moments before he disappears once more into the darkness. But where is he going, and what is his world really like?

In The Hidden World of the Fox, ecologist Adele Brand shines a light on one of Britain’s most familiar yet enigmatic animals, showing us how the astonishing senses, intelligence and behaviour that allowed foxes to thrive in the ancient wildwood now help them survive in the concrete car parks and clattering railway lines of our cities and towns.

The result of a lifelong obsession, Brand adds a wealth of firsthand experience to this charming, lyrical love letter to the fox, whether she’s fostering their cubs, studying their interactions with humans, or catching them on hidden cameras everywhere from the Białowieża forest of Poland and the Thar desert of India to the classic English countryside of her home in the North Downs. While encounters with a host of furry acquaintances – Chatter, Old Dogfox, Sooty, the Interloper, the Vixen from Across the Road – will delight and amuse, her message about the importance of living peaceably side-by-side with nature will linger long after the last page is turned.

‘Succinct, clear, sophisticated. I couldn't stop reading it’ Jeff VanderMeer

‘A lovely little book … quietly lyrical, often funny and gently persuasive’ Sunday Times

‘A smart and accessible volume. Thanks to a mix of biology, personal history, and pop culture, Brand’s readers will be left both entertained and better informed about “this small, curious member of the dog family”’ Publisher’s Weekly

‘Provides everything you ever wanted to know about the fox’ Kirkus

‘This beautifully written work paying homage to red foxes will appeal to those interested in urban wildlife and the ever-increasing conflicts between humans and other animals’ Library Journal

‘Fascinating insight’ Countryfile

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THE SCARFOLK ANNUAL

Richard Littler

A SCARFOLK SANCTIONED BOOK

AUTHORISED EDITION, AS SEEN ON THE RADIO

The Scarfolk Annual is the facsimile of a book discovered in a charity shop in the north west of England in August 2018. The shop, and indeed town, do not wish to be identified as they are keen to “discourage the ‘occult-totalitarian tourism’ that as afflicted other areas of Britain” as people hunt for further socio-archaeological traces of the mysterious, missing town of Scarfolk – Britain’s own Brutalist Atlantis.

Apart from the archive of Scarfolk materials which was sent anonymously to the late Dr Ben Motte and formed the basis of the book Discovering Scarfolk, this children’s annual is, to date, the only complete artefact from Scarfolk ever to be unearthed ‘in the wild’.

It’s clear The Scarfolk Annual was not written to entertain children at Christmastime; its purpose was to indoctrinate young minds; in fact, one might go as far as to say destroy young minds, to an end that has been lost to us.

‘Scarfolk is a quaint town in the north west of England. At first glance it appears perfectly ordinary. Neighbours chat to each other over hedges while children play in the quiet, suburban streets. Yet this provincial place has received a lot of media attention over the past five years. Rumours have surfaced claiming that the town has not progressed since 1979’ It’s Nice That

‘A reminder of the days before political correctness. UKIP voters might not see the irony’ Sunday Times

‘Horrific and hilarious… a dystopic vision of an England that would have given Orwell the heebie-jeebies’ Independent

‘It's full of the most lovely horrors… Brilliantly creepy’ Cory Doctorow

‘Scarfolk is so amazing. You can easily lose an evening by falling down that rabbithole’ Wil Wheaton

‘Very funny, very clever and also they scare me a bit’ Warren Ellis

‘One of the funniest things there is’ Mark Gatiss

‘The most twisted English village of the 1970s’ Dangerous Minds

‘In these brain shattering days, Scarfolk is your guide and only friend’ Richard Kadrey, author of Sandman Slim

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THE HERO

Lee Child

In his first work of nonfiction, the creator of the multimillion-selling Jack Reacher series explores the endurance of heroes from Achilles to Bond, showing us how this age-old myth is a fundamental part of what makes us human. He demonstrates how hero stories continue to shape our world – arguing that we need them now more than ever.

From the Stone Age to the Greek Tragedies, from Shakespeare to Robin Hood, we have always had our heroes. The hero is at the centre of formative myths in every culture and persists to this day in world-conquering books, films and TV shows. But why do these characters continue to inspire us, and why are they so central to storytelling?

Scalpel-sharp on the roots of storytelling and enlightening on the history and science of myth, The Hero is essential reading for anyone trying to write or understand fiction. Child teaches us how these stories still shape our minds and behaviour in an increasingly confusing modern world, and with his trademark concision and wit, demonstrates that however civilised we get, we’ll always need heroes.

‘It’s Lee Child. Why would you not read it?’ Karin Slaughter

‘I don't know another author so skilled at making me turn the page’ The Times

‘It's said that a Jack Reacher novel is bought every four seconds somewhere in the world. He is to crime fiction what Clint Eastwood's 'man with no name' was to the western. Lee Child's genius has been to create a tough guy hero that men will envy and women will adore’ Daily Express

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GHOSTLAND: In Search of a Haunted Country

Edward Parnell

In his late thirties, Edward Parnell found himself trapped in the recurring nightmare of a family tragedy. For comfort, he turned to his bookshelves, back to the ghost stories that obsessed him as a boy, and to the writers through the ages who have attempted to confront what comes after death.

In Ghostland, Parnell goes in search of the ‘sequestered places’ of the British Isles, our lonely moors, our moss-covered cemeteries, our stark shores and our folkloric woodlands. He explores how these landscapes conjured and shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema, from the ghost stories and weird fiction of M. R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to the children’s fantasy novels of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper; from W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn and Graham Swift’s Waterland to the archetypal ‘folk horror’ film The Wicker Man…

Ghostland is Parnell’s moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – and what is haunting him. It is a unique and elegiac meditation on grief, memory and longing, and of the redemptive power of stories and nature.

‘Ghostland is a delicious, creepy, gothic gazetteer to a British landscape filled with folkloric, literary and filmic spirits, avian auguries, and natural history and a deeply touching personal grief that speaks to the hauntedness of childhood memory and teenage dreams. Obsessive, possessive, nostalgic, an act of vivid retrieval – this is a uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature’ Philip Hoare

‘Psychogeography at is finest, Ghostland is a personal meditation on the primal power of the British landscape to shape literature, film and television that tunes into the core collective experience of the Haunted Generation’ Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo

‘Part memoir of family to two parts brilliant excursion into folk-horror darkness and literary nooks and crannies’ Roger Clarke, author of A Natural History of Ghosts

‘A marvellous blend of travel writing, history and grief memoir, Ghostland provides not only a seance with the author’s lost family, but also a premonition of his dazzling literary future’ Paul Willetts, author of Members Only, filmed as The Look of Love

‘A skilful and intriguing weaving together, less of haunted houses as of haunted people, including MR James, Alan Garner, W G Sebald and the author himself, in places where the past has left its mark’ George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at Sixteen

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GCHQ

Richard Aldrich

FULLY UPDATED CENTENARY EDITION

‘An important book’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times

‘An intriguing history of covert surveillance … thoroughly engaging’ Daily Telegraph

GCHQ is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the UK, and has existed for 100 years – but we still know next to nothing about it.

In this ground-breaking book – the first and most definitive history of the organisation ever published – intelligence expert Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ’s development from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside into one of the world leading espionage organisations.

Packed with dramatic spy stories, GCHQ also explores the organisation’s role behind the most alarming headlines of our time, from fighting ISIS to cyberterrorism, from the surveillance state to Russian hacking. Revelatory, brilliantly written and fully updated, this is the crucial missing link in Britain’s intelligence history.

‘Richard J. Aldrich is an outstanding analyst and historian of intelligence and he tells this story well…an important book, which will make readers think uncomfortably not only about the state’s power to monitor our lives, but also the appalling vulnerability of every society in thrall to communications technology as we are.’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times

‘An intriguing history of covert surveillance … thoroughly engaging’ Daily Telegraph

‘Skilfully weaves together the personal, political, military and technological dimensions of electronic espionage’ Economist

‘Aldrich packs in vast amounts of information, while managing to remain very readable. He paints the broad picture, but also introduces fascinating detail’ Literary Review

‘This is a sober and valuable work of scholarship, which is as reliable as anything ever is in the twilight world of intelligence-gathering. Yet there is nothing dry about it. Aldrich knows how to write for a wider audience, while avoiding the speculations, inventions, sensationalism and sheer silliness of so much modern work on the subject’ Spectator

‘Aldrich has taken a decade to produce the first substantial account of the agency's history, and this superlative book packs in vast amounts of information, yet remains wonderfully readable. He has dug up a massive amount of fascinating detail’ The Week, Book of the Week

‘Richard Aldrich, an accomplished cold war intelligence historian, has taken a decade to produce the first substantial account of what is known about the agency, and what can be gleaned from the recently released official archive’ Duncan Campbell, New Statesman

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WHO OWNS ENGLAND? How We Lost Our Green & Pleasant Land & How to Take It Back

Guy Shrubsole

Who owns England?

Behind this simple question lies this country’s oldest and best-kept secret. This is the history of how England’s elite came to own our land, and an inspiring manifesto for how to open up our countryside once more.

This book has been a long time coming. Since 1086, in fact. For centuries, England’s elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to hide.

Trespassing through tightly-guarded country estates, ecologically ravaged grouse moors and empty Mayfair mansions, writer and activist Guy Shrubsole has used these 21st century tools to uncover a wealth of never-before-seen information about the people who own our land, to create the most comprehensive map of land ownership in England that has ever been made public.

From secret military islands to tunnels deep beneath London, Shrubsole unearths truths concealed since the Domesday Book about who is really in charge of this country – at a time when Brexit is meant to be returning sovereignty to the people. Melding history, politics and polemic, he vividly demonstrates how taking control of land ownership is key to tackling everything from the housing crisis to climate change – and even halting the erosion of our very democracy.

It’s time to expose the truth about who owns England – and finally take back our green and pleasant land.

‘A formidable, brave and important book’ Robert Macfarlane

‘Potentially one of the most important books of the year’ Chris Packham

‘This is going to be a great book, crucial for anyone who seeks to understand this country’ George Monbiot

‘An irrefutable and long overdue call for the enfranchisement of the landless’ Marion Shoard, author of This Land is Our Land

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THE SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING

Will Storr

Who would we be without stories?

Stories mould who we are, from our character to our cultural identity. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions, and shape our politics and beliefs. We use them to construct our relationships, to keep order in our law courts, to interpret events in our newspapers and social media. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human.

There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story – from Joseph Campbell’s well-worn theories about myth and archetype to recent attempts to crack the ‘Bestseller Code’. But few have used a scientific approach. This is curious, for if we are to truly understand storytelling in its grandest sense, we must first come to understand the ultimate storyteller – the human brain.

In this scalpel-sharp, thought-provoking book, Will Storr demonstrates how master storytellers manipulate and compel us, leading us on a journey from the Hebrew scriptures to Mr Men, from Booker Prize-winning literature to box set TV. Applying dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to the foundations of our myths and archetypes, he shows how we can use these tools to tell better stories – and make sense of our chaotic modern world.

‘Rarely has a book engrossed me more, and forced me to question everything I’ve ever read, seen or written. It’s a masterpiece. I am in awe’ Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

‘The best book on the craft of storytelling I’ve ever read’ Matt Haig

‘Reading this book feels like cheating. It gives you an unfair advantage over other writers. A fascinating new way of looking at writing and how to exploit the fact that storytelling is hardwired into our brains’ Charlie Higson

‘A brilliant, accessible and very human book not just for writers but for anyone interested in how the mind works – not least their own. Will manages to be both detached and compassionate on every page, sometimes within the same sentence. That such a complicated book is so easy to read is testament to his clarity of thought and skill as writer. A stupendous achievement’ Robert Webb

‘A hugely compelling reading experience. Storr’s superb exploration of the enduring appeal of the novel offers a smart, fascinating exploration of the science and psychology behind our most sophisticated art form that also works as an effective how-to guide’ Alex Preston, Observer

‘If you want to write a novel or a script, read this book. It is clear, compelling and tightly shaped around one fascinating and productive idea … Storr wants to free writers from programmatic, plot-based writing guides, and his approach feels liberating’ Sunday Times

‘There’s nothing else quite like Will’s approach, with its illuminating, scientific take on storytelling. All writers, no matter what their level of experience, are likely to go away with a new understanding that will deepen and nourish their work’ Craig Pearce, screenwriter of Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby

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JOG ON: How Running Saved My Life

Bella Mackie

Divorced and struggling with deep-rooted mental health problems, Bella Mackie ended her twenties in tears. She could barely find the strength to get off the sofa, let alone piece her life back together. Until one day she did something she had never done of her own free will – she pulled on a pair of trainers and went for a run.

That first attempt didn’t last very long. But to her surprise, she was back out there the next day. And the day after that. She began to set herself achievable goals – to run 5k in under 30 minutes, to walk to work every day for a week, to attempt 10 push-ups in a row. Before she knew it, her mood was lifting for the first time in years.

In Jog On, Bella explains with hilarious and unfiltered honesty how she used running to battle crippling anxiety and depression, without having to sacrifice her main loves: booze, cigarettes and ice cream. With the help of a supporting cast of doctors, psychologists, sportspeople and friends, she shares a wealth of inspirational stories, research and tips that show how exercise often can be the best medicine. This funny, moving and motivational book will encourage you to say ‘jog on’ to your problems and get your life back on track – no matter how small those first steps may be.

‘Bella’s brilliant love letter to running turns into an extraordinarily brave and frank account of her battle with anxiety. This is a compassionate and important book which presents running as a simple but effective antidote to an anxious world’ Joe Lycett

‘An insightful take on what it's like to experience, and confront one's mental health while joyfully celebrating the fact that just being an everyday runner can be enough to change your life. Warm, accessible and perfect for resetting a glum January mindset’ Alexandra Heminsley, author of Running Like a Girl

‘A heartfelt and joyous ode to the strange, wonderful pull of a pair of ugly trainers, tight fitting Polyester, the rainy, windy open road and the peace and clarity it brings. Anyone that runs will love this book’ Dermot O’Leary

‘I don’t know that I will ever become a runner but this book is an inspiring start to the year’ Nigella Lawson

‘My kind of role model’ Ben Fogle

‘A very relatable book’ Philippa Perry

‘Sport and exercise are important for both body and mind. Jog On is one person’s brutally honest and insightful account of how running had a positive impact on their mental health’ Jimmy Anderson

‘A brilliant, compassionate insight into both mental illness and exercise, Bella Mackie’s Jog On will act as a comfort – and a spur – to so many. It is kind, it is honest and it will make you finally pull on those trainers and get moving. It will also – and this is so important – help you to understand what those experiencing anxiety endure’ Lynn Enright

‘Hilarious, poignant and inspiring, Jog On is part homage to running, part self-help guide to conquering your fears. Using her own story, and others', Bella shows how we can change our lives one step at a time’ NetGalley

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BORN TO BE POSTHUMOUS: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey

Mark Dery

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense.

’A genius book about a bookish genius’ Daniel Handler, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events

From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the Grandfather of Goth.

But who was this man, who lived with over twenty thousand books and six cats, who roomed with Frank O'Hara at Harvard, and was known – in the late 1940s, no less – to traipse around in full-length fur coats, clanking bracelets, and an Edwardian beard? An eccentric, a gregarious recluse, an enigmatic auteur of whimsically morbid masterpieces, yes – but who was the real Edward Gorey behind the Oscar Wildean pose?

He published over a hundred books and illustrated works by Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Edward Lear, John Updike, Charles Dickens, Hilaire Belloc, Muriel Spark, Bram Stoker, Gilbert & Sullivan, and others. At the same time, he was a deeply complicated and conflicted individual, a man whose art reflected his obsessions with the disquieting and the darkly hilarious.

Based on newly uncovered correspondence and interviews with personalities as diverse as John Ashbery, Donald Hall, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, and Anna Sui, Born to be Posthumous draws back the curtain on the eccentric genius and mysterious life of Edward Gorey.

‘Edward Gorey has been granted the most remarkable biography, one I believe he could have lived with. What was the likelihood that this singular genius could be restored, with such compassion and grace, within his whole context: Balanchine, surrealism, Frank O'Hara, Lady Murasaki, et al? This is a Dery Gorey book’ Jonathan Lethem

‘Edward Gorey's ardent admirers have long known there is something about his work one can't quite pin down. Past all reason, Mark Dery has pinned it down. A genius book about a bookish genius’ Daniel Handler, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events

‘As a perfervid Goreyphile, I was a bit leery of a biography undertaking to spell out the details of his life. Did I really want to have the mystery solved? But Mark Dery drags the pond to revelatory result, contextualising and analysing Gorey, plunging into his obsessions, dissecting his sexuality, and even examining the philosophical import of nonsense while somehow managing to leave the central enigma radiantly intact. This is an absolutely riveting book about an utterly sui generis subject’ Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

‘Knowing Gorey’s full story, done sparkling justice by Mark Dery, will only make you adore him more’ Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

‘The reclusive author and designer of such ghoulish gems as The Doubtful Guest and the animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery! comes fully alive, fur-coated and bejeweled, as an unlikely icon of the counterculture’ Kirkus

[tom-killingbeck]

THE BULLET JOURNAL METHOD: Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Plan Your Future

Ryder Carroll

Transform your life using the Bullet Journal Method, the revolutionary organisational system and worldwide phenomenon.

In his long-awaited first book, Ryder Carroll, the creator of the enormously popular Bullet Journal organisational system, explains how to use his method to:

• TRACK YOUR PAST: using nothing more than a pen and paper, create a clear, comprehensive, and organised record of your thoughts and goals.

• ORDER YOUR PRESENT: find daily calm by prioritising and minimising your workload and tackling your to-do list in a more mindful and productive way.

• DESIGN YOUR FUTURE: establish and appraise your short-term and long-term goals, plan more complex projects simply and effectively, and live your life with meaning and purpose.

Like many of us, Ryder Carroll tried everything to get organised – countless apps, systems, planners, you name it. Nothing really worked. Then he invented his own simple system that required only pen and paper, which he found both effective and calming. He shared his method with a few friends, and before long he had a worldwide viral movement. Hundreds of thousands of Bullet Journal fans now spread the word and read Ryder's blog and newsletter.

The system combines elements of a wishlist, a to-do list, and a diary. It makes it easy to get thoughts out of your head (an unreliable witness) and onto paper, to see them clearly and decide what to do about them. It helps you identify what matters, and set goals accordingly. By breaking long-term goals into small actionable steps, users map out an approachable path towards continual improvement, allowing them to stay focused despite the crush of incoming demands.

But this is much more than a time management book. It's also a manifesto for what Ryder calls "intentional living": making sure that your beliefs and actions align. Even if you already use a Bullet Journal®, this book gives you new exercises to become more calm and focused, new insights on how to prioritise well, and a new awareness of the power of analogue tools in a digital world.

‘The Bullet Journal Method completely changed the way I work and my productivity levels immediately shot up. It’s a system I feel like I’ll use forever as it adapts with me and lends itself to my busy lifestyle’ Lily Pebbles

‘Bullet journaling is one of the most elegant and effective productivity systems I've ever encountered. It will not only help you get more organised but will also help you become a better person. I highly recommend this book (and the method it details) for anyone looking to get more out of life’ Cal Newport, author of Deep Work

‘Whether you are an avid journaler or have always wanted to explore the benefits of journaling, The Bullet Journal Method simplifies the power of putting pen to paper and will undoubtedly transform your life, in more ways than you can imagine’ Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning

‘A month in, and I am surprised by how well this system has kept me on task. I have retired my other organising apps. The physicality of my notebook stops me from getting distracted when I am planning my day. It is nice to have a single log of where and how I spend my time. And, crucially, I am much more productive. My email inbox no longer dictates my priorities for the day’ Lilah Raptopoulos, Financial Times

‘As well as the journal’s ability to organise and prioritise tasks, the popularity of pages dedicated to tracking aspects such as mood and gratitude has led experts to believe that bullet journals could be effective in combatting anxiety – as they make tasks easier to approach and deal with’ Independent

‘I've been using my bullet journal daily since the beginning of January, and I'm low-key obsessed!’ Buzzfeed

[tom-killingbeck]

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘History that reads like biography that reads like a novel – a fluid narrative that defies expectations and plays against type’ New York Times

‘Brilliant and savage’ Philip Hensher

An unprecedented history of the personality test conceived a century ago by a mother and her daughter – fiction writers with no formal training in psychology – and how it insinuated itself into our boardrooms, classrooms, and beyond.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most popular personality test in the world. It has been harnessed by Fortune 100 companies, universities, hospitals, churches, and the military. Its language – of extraversion vs. introversion, thinking vs. feeling – has inspired online dating platforms and Buzzfeed quizzes alike. And yet despite the test's widespread adoption, experts in the field of psychometric testing, a $500 million industry, struggle to account for its success – no less validate its results. How did the Myers-Briggs insinuate itself into our jobs, our relationships, our internet, our lives?

First conceived in the 1920s by the mother-daughter team of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, a pair of aspiring novelists and devoted homemakers, the Myers-Briggs was designed to bring the gospel of Carl Jung to the masses. But it would take on a life of its own, reaching from the smoke-filled boardrooms of mid-century New York to Berkeley, California, where it was honed against some of the 20th century's greatest creative minds. It would travel across the world to London, Zurich, Cape Town, Melbourne, and Tokyo; to elementary schools, nunneries, wellness retreats, and the closed-door corporate training sessions of today.

Drawing from original reporting and never-before-published documents, What’s Your Type?examines nothing less than the definition of the self – our attempts to grasp, categorise and quantify our personalities. Surprising and absorbing, the book, like the test at its heart, considers the timeless question: What makes you you?

‘A tremendous piece of storytelling and an acute analysis of the craving of the contemporary, secular imagination for certainties’ Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

‘Emre is a masterful and nuanced storyteller. What’s Your Type is an impressive work of scholarship, not just a biography of two fascinating women but also a tightly argued and sweeping history of how the conception of personality changed throughout the upheavals of the 20th century’ New Statesman

‘The story behind the Myers-Briggs test proves an interesting one, and is told with considerable relish, vim and some savage comedy by Emre … This is a very funny book, and properly angry about the stupidity of the entire exercise’ Philip Hensher, Spectator

‘Emre’s careful investigations of the tool’s bizarre origins and alarming impact weave a compelling narrative that recounts the rise of twentieth-century managerial and personnel-theory science with the gritty wistfulness of a John Steinbeck novel’ Nature

‘Emre’s book begins like a true-crime thriller, with the tantalizing suggestion that a number of unsettling revelations are in store. Inventive and beguiling… the revelations she uncovers are affecting and occasionally (and delightfully) bizarre. This is history that reads like biography that reads like a novel – a fluid narrative that defies expectations and plays against type’ New York Times

‘This is a sparkling biography – not of a person, but of a popular personality tool. Merve Emre deftly exposes the hidden origins of the MBTI and the seductive appeal and fatal flaws of personality types’ Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg

‘Emre’s thought-provoking book is full of interest and she brings vigour to her investigation of Myers-Briggs.’ The Times

‘A brilliant cultural history of the personality-assessment industry’ Economist