Starting in the tenth century from an insecure foothold around Paris, the Capetians built a nation that stretched from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and from the Rhône to the Pyrenees. They founded practices and institutions that endured until the Revolution, transformed Paris from a muddy backwater to a splendid metropole, and popularized the fleur-de-lys, the lily, as the emblem of France. Time and again, their opponents woefully misjudged who they were up against, as through guile, ruthlessness, luck and marriage the Capetians disposed of them all.
This is the story of the most powerful kingdom in Christendom. It is a tale of religious upheaval, heroism, adulterous affairs, holy wars, pogroms and persecution. From Hugh Capet to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Capetians were men and women of vision and ambition, who considered themselves chosen by God to fulfil a great destiny. They did not simply rule France: they created it.
House of Lilies is a highly enjoyable account of this extraordinary sequence of events, set against one of the great eras in the history of western Europe. Justine Firnhaber-Baker brilliantly conveys not only the cultural effervescence of the French court, but also the intellectual achievements, the battles and the religious fervour, as well as the series of catastrophes that led to the dynasty's ultimate demise.
A wonderful husband, two beautiful children, a job she loves―Claire has it all. And then some.
But lately, her world has started to feel uncertain. Her mother hovers more than a helicopter, her husband seems like a stranger, and her children are like characters in a movie.
More concerning is that Claire is losing her memory.
When she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, Claire begins to fill the pages of a blank book with private memories and keepsakes.
Soon, the book becomes the story of Claire - her passions, her sorrows, her joys, and her adventures in a life that refuses to disappear.
1917. Virginia Woolf arrives at Asheham, on the Sussex Downs, immobilized by nervous exhaustion and creative block.
1930. Feeling jittery about her writing career, Sylvia Townsend Warner spots a modest workman’s cottage for sale on the Dorset coast.
1941. Rosamond Lehmann settles in a Berkshire village, seeking a lovers’ retreat, a refuge from war, and a means of becoming ‘a writer again’.
Rural Hours tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the country and was forever changed by it.
We encounter them at quiet moments – pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill; jotting down a recipe; or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly, we start to see transformations unfold. Invigorated by new landscapes, and the daily trials and small pleasures of making homes, they emerge from long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment; they embark on new experiments in form, in feeling and in living. In the country, each woman finds her path: to convalescence and recovery; to sexual and political awakening; and, above all, to personal freedom and creative flourishing.
Graceful, fluid, and enriched by previously untouched archival material, Rural Hours is both a paean to the bravery and vision of three pioneering writers, and a passionate invitation to us all: to recognize the radical potential of domestic life and rural places, and find new enchantment in the routines and rituals of each day.
Jonathan Haidt has spent his career speaking truth and wisdom in some of the most difficult spaces – communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the mental health emergency hitting teenagers today in many countries around the world.
In The Anxious Generation, Haidt shows how, between 2010 and 2015, childhood and adolescence got rewired. As teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones packed with social media apps, time online soared, including time spent comparing oneself to a vast pool of others. Time engaging face-to-face with friends and family plummeted, and so did mental health.
But this is not just a story about technology; this profound shift took place against a backdrop of declining childhood freedom and free-play, as parents over-supervised every aspect of their children’s lives offline, depriving them of the experiences they most need to become strong and self-governing adults.
In this book, Haidt makes a compelling argument that the loss of play-based childhood and its replacement with a phone-based childhood that is not suitable for human development is the source of increased mental distress among teenagers. The Anxious Generation delves into the latest psychological and biological research to show the four fundamental ways in which a phone-based childhood disrupts development – sleep deprivation, social deprivation, cognitive fragmentation and addiction. Haidt offers separate in-depth analyses of what has happened to girls, and what has happened to boys, offering practical advice for parents, schools, governments, and teens themselves. Drawing on ancient wisdom and cutting-edge research, this eye-opening book is a life raft and a powerful call-to-arms.
In THE STRATEGISTS, Professor Phillips Payson O'Brien shows how the views these five leaders forged in WW1 are crucial to understanding how they fought WW2. For example, Churchill's experiences of facing the German Army in France in 1916 made him unwilling to send masses of British soldiers back there in the 1940s, while Hitler's mistakes on the Eastern Front were influenced by his reluctance to accept that conditions had changed since his own time fighting. The implications of the power of leaders remain with us to this day: to truly understand what is happening in Ukraine, for example, requires us to know what has influenced the leaders involved.
This is a history in which leaders – and their choices – matter. For better or worse.
Having a seat at the table doesn't mean that your voice gets heard. Knowing something is wrong doesn't make it easy to speak up. But this silencing - intentional or not - has profound consequences on our work and life. It blocks talent, skews decisions and causes teams and individuals to fail. So what if there was another way?
Drawing on her experience as a lecturer at Harvard Law School and as a Managing Partner at one of the world's leading leadership development companies, Elaine Lin Hering delves into the roots of silence, examining the patterns that keep us trapped, and showcases the impact that rewiring unconscious behaviours can have on innovation, creativity and collaboration.
From the boardroom to the classroom, from personal relationships to wider communities, Hering shows us how we can have more authentic conversations, foster inclusive spaces and amplify all voices. Because only by unlearning silence can we fully unleash talent, speak our minds, and be more complete versions of ourselves... and help other people do the same.
No matter who you’re talking to, The Next Conversation gives you immediately actionable strategies and phrases that will forever change how you communicate. Trial lawyer and communications expert Jefferson Fisher has gained millions of followers online through short, simple, practical videos teaching people how to argue less and talk more. And now he offers a tried-and-true framework that will show you how to transform your life and your relationships by improving your next conversation.
Whether it’s handling a heated conversation, dealing with a difficult personality, or standing your ground with confidence, his down-to-earth teachings have helped countless people navigate life’s toughest situations.
Everything you want to say, and how you want to say it, can be found in The Next Conversation.
Why are humans everywhere prone to believe in ghosts?
How might our tendency to imitate one another be contributing to the climate catastrophe?
And does our deep evolutionary past impel us to vote for strongmen?
In 1987, Harvey Whitehouse went to live with an indigenous community deep in the Papua New Guinea rainforest. His experiences there convinced him that, far from being wildly different, humans are fundamentally alike: their beliefs and behaviours rooted in a set of evolutionary urges that can be found in any society, anywhere.
Here, Whitehouse roves across twelve millennia and five continents to uncover how these evolved urges have both shaped and been reshaped by human history. Along the way, he shows that this ancient inheritance does not just hold the key to explaining the modern world – but perhaps also to changing it.
Until a decade ago, we misunderstood a fundamental aspect of human health. Although the brain and the body have always been viewed as separate entities – treated in separate hospitals – science now shows that they are intimately linked. Startlingly, we now know that our immune system is in constant communication with our brain and can directly alter our mental health. This has opened up a new frontier in medicine. Could inflammation cause depression, and arthritis drugs cure it? Can gut microbes shape your behaviour through the vagus nerve? Can something as simple as brushing your teeth properly reduce your risk of dementia? Could childhood infections lie behind neurological and psychiatric disorders such as tics and OCD?
In The Immune Mind, Dr Monty Lyman explores the fascinating connection between the mind, immune system and microbiome. A specialist in the cutting-edge field of immunopsychiatry, Lyman argues that we need to change the way we treat disease and the way we see ourselves. For the first time, we have a new approach to medicine that treats the whole human being.
Daphne always loved the way Peter told their story. That is until it became the prologue to his actual love story with his childhood bestie, Petra.
Which is how Daphne ends up rooming with her total opposite and the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra's ex, Miles.
As expected, it’s not a match made in heaven – that is until one night, while tossing back tequilas, they form a plan.
And if it involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course.
Because there’s no way Daphne would start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex . . . right?
The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics tells the thrilling story of one of the greatest intellectual leaps of all time
Over two millennia ago, a Greek philosopher had a number of wondrous insights that paved the way to cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. Anaximander's legacy includes the revolutionary idea that the earth floats in a void, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, that animals evolved, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. He introduced a new mode of rational thinking with an openness to uncertainty and to the progress of knowledge.
In this elegant work, acclaimed physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander's overlooked legacy to modern science. He examines Anaximander as a scientist interested in shedding light on the deep nature of scientific thinking, which Rovelli locates in his rebellious ability to reimagine the world again and again. Anaximander celebrates the radical lack of certainty that defines the scientific quest for knowledge.
‘Pornography is the orchestrated destruction of women’s bodies and souls … it is war on women’
Pornography, Andrea Dworkin argued in this landmark work, is about power: the power of owning, of money, of sex. It is not merely violence against women, but the essential DNA of male dominance. As images of women’s bodies continue to be manipulated and consumed, her searing, fearless critique of pornographic media is more urgent and discomfiting than ever.
‘A major text for our time’ Adrienne Rich
‘Dworkin writes with power, anger, daring – and from a great care and love of womankind’ Alice Walker
‘The woman who showed us the dark core of pornography, the punishing hatred of women that pervades it’ Guardian
It's the perfect getaway. But the past will always find you . . .
When ex-cop Bill Robinson takes over The Inn by the Sea, all he wants is a quiet escape from the city.
But when a crime boss moves into town and begins terrorising Bill's friends, he can't just sit back and watch.
It's not long before local criminals are turning up dead and The Inn comes under attack.
With the help of The Inn's fearless residents, Bill must do everything he can to defend his town, his chosen family, and his home.
Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's friend and former partner is brutally murdered in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
SFPD homicide detective Lindsay Boxer knows her way around a crime scene.
But nothing can prepare her for the shock of recognition: the victim is Warren Jacobi, Lindsay's former partner who rose to chief of police.
A top detective until the end, Jacobi managed to leave Lindsay a clue.
Following a trail of evidence along the west coast, the Women's Murder Club pledges to avenge Jacobi's death before the killer can take another one of their own.
The Saxons are now the lords of Britain. And yet the bards still sing of Arthur - 'In our darkest time, when we need him most, shall he come again.'
Ageing mercenary Beran has no love of bards' songs. Nor of people. Unless they are paying him to steal or kill. Now he has been ordered to murder a boy. But this is no ordinary child. The son of King Constantine and the grandson of High King Ambrosius, this boy could be the saviour of Britain . . . if he lives.
Betraying his companions and returning to a world he believed he'd forsaken, Beran vows to take the boy to the one place that still holds out against the invader: Camelot.
Hunted by Saxons, Queen Morgana and those he deceived, he will seek the help of Guivret, called the Little King, and the Saracen, Palamedes who once rode beneath Arthur's banner. They will meet the doomed lovers, Tristan and Isolde. And they will fight for their lives and for each other.
For if there's to be any hope for Britain, Beran must deliver the boy to Camelot. And to do that, he must come to terms with his past . . .
Arthur is the breathtaking new novel from the author of the bestselling Lancelot, hailed 'a masterpiece' by Conn Iggulden.
Set at the heart of a Roman dynasty drenched in danger, intrigue and Machiavellian power struggles, the first book in Conn's brand-new series follows empress Agrippina's battle to secure her son Nero's succession
Ancient Rome, AD 37
The fate of a dynasty hangs in the balance. Into this fevered forum, Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, gives birth to a son: Nero. Imperial blood courses through their veins but will offer no protection. If they are to survive amongst tyrants, they must learn to walk a razor's edge.
Agrippina knows all too well that darkness and power plays of Machiavellian proportions lie at the empire's shadowy heart. She faces soldiers, senators, rivals, silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position.
But even in her darkest moments, Agrippina sees the glint of opportunity. She will shape this boy into Rome itself - the one all must kneel before.
But first, mother and son must survive . . .
'How delicious to have Jackson Brodie back, this time in a story that starts off in Agatha Christie's world but soon becomes a landscape that could only have been crafted from the pen of the incomparable Kate Atkinson' Ian Rankin
'Christie would be proud . . . I defy you not to snort with laughter as the novel progresses to its farcical denouement. Atkinson is brilliant' Observer
Welcome to Rook Hall.
The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting.
But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family.
Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.
Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.
Can women 'have it all'?
What does it mean to be a woman and a mother in the modern age?
In this passionate, funny and fierce polemic, Paloma Faith delves deep into the issues that face women today, from puberty and sexual awakenings, to battling through the expectations of patriarchy and the Supermum myth.
Infused with Paloma's characteristic humour, and raw honesty about the challenges of IVF and the early years of motherhood, this book is a beautiful celebration of women's work and the invisible load women carry. Moving from questions around identity and how motherhood impacts on that, to what it even means to be a 'good mother', how we need to embrace messiness, imperfection and the bittersweet pleasures of being 'selfish', and putting ourselves first.
Paloma invites us into her own coming of age and relationship with her mum, to explore how our bonds with our children evolve into adulthood. We see a glimpse of the complexities and joys of Paloma's experience of juggling
romantic love, heartbreak and dating with the demands of motherhood.
A sizzling fantasy romance from the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller & TikTok sensation Danielle Jensen, perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas & A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Trapped in an unwanted marriage, Freya dreams of becoming a warrior – and of putting an axe in her controlling husband’s back.But those dreams become a nightmare when he makes a deal with their fanatical ruler, and she’s forced into a fight to the death. To survive, she must reveal her deepest secret: she possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood and magic that will unite their nation beneath the one who controls her fate.Believing he’s destined to be king, the ruler binds Freya with a blood oath and orders his fierce but charming son to train her to fight, to control her magic . . . and to make sure no one lays a hand on her.But the greatest test of all may be resisting her forbidden attraction to the son of her enemy.
The stories in Paul Theroux’s fascinating new collection are both exotic and domestic, their settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Each focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With the insight, subtlety, and empathy that has long characterized his work, Theroux has written deeply moving stories about memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status, once again, as a master of the form.
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