Paul Murphy - Editor

Where Poppies Blow

John Lewis-Stempel

Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writingThe natural history of the Western Front during the First World War'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuries. Animals provided comfort and interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches - bird-wat... read more

Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writingThe natural history of the Western Front during the First World War'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuries. Animals provided comfort and interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches - bird-wat... read more

Brave New World

Guillem Balague

The Sunday Times BestsellerThe exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the Mauricio Pochettino revolution at Spurs, told in his own wordsSince joining the club in 2014, Mauricio Pochettino has transformed Tottenham from underachievers into genuine title contenders. In the process, he has marked himself out as one of the best managers in the world. He has done so by promoting an attacking, pressin... read more

The Sunday Times BestsellerThe exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the Mauricio Pochettino revolution at Spurs, told in his own wordsSince joining the club in 2014, Mauricio Pochettino has transformed Tottenham from underachievers into genuine title contenders. In the process, he has marked himself out as one of the best managers in the world. He has done so by promoting an attacking, pressin... read more

The AI Does Not Hate You

Tom Chivers

'A fascinating and delightfully written book about some very smart people who may not, or may, be about to transform humanity forever' JON RONSONThis is a book about AI and AI risk. But it's also more importantly about a community of people who are trying to think rationally about intelligence, and the places that these thoughts are taking them, and what insight they can and can't give us abou... read more

'A fascinating and delightfully written book about some very smart people who may not, or may, be about to transform humanity forever' JON RONSONThis is a book about AI and AI risk. But it's also more importantly about a community of people who are trying to think rationally about intelligence, and the places that these thoughts are taking them, and what insight they can and can't give us abou... read more

Sevens Heaven

Ben Ryan

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018The uplifting, feel-good autobiography of Ben Ryan, the coach of the Olympic gold-medal winning Fijian rugby team It is late summer 2013. Ben Ryan, a red-haired, 40-something, spectacle-wearing Englishman, is given 20 minutes to decide whether he wants to coach Fiji's rugby sevens team, with the aim of taking them to the nation's fir... read more

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018The uplifting, feel-good autobiography of Ben Ryan, the coach of the Olympic gold-medal winning Fijian rugby team It is late summer 2013. Ben Ryan, a red-haired, 40-something, spectacle-wearing Englishman, is given 20 minutes to decide whether he wants to coach Fiji's rugby sevens team, with the aim of taking them to the nation's fir... read more

The Making Of The British Landscape

Nicholas Crane

How much do we really know about the place we call 'home'? In this sweeping, timely book, Nicholas Crane tells the story of Britain.*****Over the course of 12,000 years of continuous human occupation, the British landscape has been transformed form a European peninsula of glacier and tundra to an island of glittering cities and exquisite countryside.In this geographical journey through time, w... read more

How much do we really know about the place we call 'home'? In this sweeping, timely book, Nicholas Crane tells the story of Britain.*****Over the course of 12,000 years of continuous human occupation, the British landscape has been transformed form a European peninsula of glacier and tundra to an island of glittering cities and exquisite countryside.In this geographical journey through time, w... read more

Watling Street

John Higgs

A journey along one of Britain's oldest roads, from Dover to Anglesey, in search of the hidden history that makes us who we are today.'A bravura piece of writing - Bill Bryson on acid' Tom HollandWinding its way from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Druid groves of Anglesey, the ancient road of Watling Street has gone by many different names. It is a road of witches and ghosts, of queens and h... read more

A journey along one of Britain's oldest roads, from Dover to Anglesey, in search of the hidden history that makes us who we are today.'A bravura piece of writing - Bill Bryson on acid' Tom HollandWinding its way from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Druid groves of Anglesey, the ancient road of Watling Street has gone by many different names. It is a road of witches and ghosts, of queens and h... read more

The Ascent of Gravity

Marcus Chown

The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017'Does Einstein proud . . . Eminently readable' Guardian'No one has covered the topic with such a light touch and joie de vivre . . . a delight' Brian CleggGravity was the first force to be recognised and described yet it is still the least understood. If we can unlock its secrets, the force that keeps our feet on the ground holds the key to underst... read more

The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017'Does Einstein proud . . . Eminently readable' Guardian'No one has covered the topic with such a light touch and joie de vivre . . . a delight' Brian CleggGravity was the first force to be recognised and described yet it is still the least understood. If we can unlock its secrets, the force that keeps our feet on the ground holds the key to underst... read more

The Future Is Asian

Parag Khanna

Five billion people, two-thirds of the world's mega-cities, one-third of the global economy, two-thirds of global economic growth, thirty of the Fortune 100, six of the ten largest banks, eight of the ten largest armies, five nuclear powers, massive technological innovation, the newest crop of top-ranked universities. Asia is also the world's most ethnically, linguistically and culturally dive... read more

Five billion people, two-thirds of the world's mega-cities, one-third of the global economy, two-thirds of global economic growth, thirty of the Fortune 100, six of the ten largest banks, eight of the ten largest armies, five nuclear powers, massive technological innovation, the newest crop of top-ranked universities. Asia is also the world's most ethnically, linguistically and culturally dive... read more

The Self Delusion

Tom Oliver

We like to believe that we exist as independent selves at the centre of a subjective universe; that we are discrete individuals acting autonomously in the world with an unchanging inner self that persists throughout our lifetime. This is an illusion. On a physical, psychological and cultural level, we are all much more intertwined than we know: we cannot use our bodies to define our independen... read more

We like to believe that we exist as independent selves at the centre of a subjective universe; that we are discrete individuals acting autonomously in the world with an unchanging inner self that persists throughout our lifetime. This is an illusion. On a physical, psychological and cultural level, we are all much more intertwined than we know: we cannot use our bodies to define our independen... read more

Long Shot

Azad Cudi

In September 2014, Azad Cudi became one of seventeen snipers deployed when ISIS, trying to shatter the Kurds in a decisive battle, besieged the northern city of Kobani. In LONG SHOT, he tells the inside story of how a group of activists and idealists withstood a ferocious assault and, street by street, house by house, took back their land in a victory that was to prove the turning point in the... read more

In September 2014, Azad Cudi became one of seventeen snipers deployed when ISIS, trying to shatter the Kurds in a decisive battle, besieged the northern city of Kobani. In LONG SHOT, he tells the inside story of how a group of activists and idealists withstood a ferocious assault and, street by street, house by house, took back their land in a victory that was to prove the turning point in the... read more

Scale

Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?Can scale show us how to create a more susta... read more

Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?Can scale show us how to create a more susta... read more

The Future Starts Here

John Higgs

'The future hasn't happened yet. The idea that our civilisation is doomed is not established fact. It is a story we tell ourselves.'In the 1980s, we gave up on the future. When we look ahead now, we imagine economic collapse, environmental disaster and the zombie apocalypse. But what if we are wrong? What if this bleak outlook is a generational quirk that afflicted those raised in the twentiet... read more

'The future hasn't happened yet. The idea that our civilisation is doomed is not established fact. It is a story we tell ourselves.'In the 1980s, we gave up on the future. When we look ahead now, we imagine economic collapse, environmental disaster and the zombie apocalypse. But what if we are wrong? What if this bleak outlook is a generational quirk that afflicted those raised in the twentiet... read more

Political Risk

Condoleezza Rice, Amy Zegart

Political risk - the probability that a political action could significantly affect an organisation - is changing fast, and it's more widespread than ever before.In the past, the chief concern used to be whether a foreign dictator would nationalise the country's oil industry. Today, political risk stems from a widening array of agents, from Twitter users and terrorists to hackers and insurgent... read more

Political risk - the probability that a political action could significantly affect an organisation - is changing fast, and it's more widespread than ever before.In the past, the chief concern used to be whether a foreign dictator would nationalise the country's oil industry. Today, political risk stems from a widening array of agents, from Twitter users and terrorists to hackers and insurgent... read more

Hit Factories

Karl Whitney

After discovering a derelict record plant on the edge of a northern English city, and hearing that it was once visited by David Bowie, Karl Whitney embarks upon a journey to explore the industrial cities of British pop music.Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol: at various points in the past these cities have all had distinct... read more

After discovering a derelict record plant on the edge of a northern English city, and hearing that it was once visited by David Bowie, Karl Whitney embarks upon a journey to explore the industrial cities of British pop music.Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol: at various points in the past these cities have all had distinct... read more

Riding in the Zone Rouge

Tom Isitt

'An evocatively thoughtful wider history of the race, the war and the peace' GUARDIAN'Occasionally funny and regularly poignant, brilliantly focused in its research . . . His drive, wit and curiosity inform Zone Rouge . . . gently profound and genuinely moving' HERALDThe Circuit des Champs de Bataille (the Tour of the Battlefields) was held in 1919, less than six months after the end of the Fi... read more

'An evocatively thoughtful wider history of the race, the war and the peace' GUARDIAN'Occasionally funny and regularly poignant, brilliantly focused in its research . . . His drive, wit and curiosity inform Zone Rouge . . . gently profound and genuinely moving' HERALDThe Circuit des Champs de Bataille (the Tour of the Battlefields) was held in 1919, less than six months after the end of the Fi... read more

Inverting the Pyramid

Jonathan Wilson

'One of the most revelatory sports books of the year' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY'Masterful ... it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years' TIME OUT'Gloriously readable, eccentric and informative' METROIn INVERTING THE PYRAMID, Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the finer details of the world's game, tracing the global history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the be... read more

'One of the most revelatory sports books of the year' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY'Masterful ... it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years' TIME OUT'Gloriously readable, eccentric and informative' METROIn INVERTING THE PYRAMID, Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the finer details of the world's game, tracing the global history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the be... read more

Impossible Owls

Brian Phillips

'Hilarious, nimble and thoroughly illuminating' Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground RailwayFrom its opening journey into remote Alaska for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, a quest that culminates on the frozen sea between the United States and Russia, Brian Phillips's Impossible Owls leads us on a kaleidoscopic exploration of contemporary reality. He takes us to a sumo tourn... read more

'Hilarious, nimble and thoroughly illuminating' Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground RailwayFrom its opening journey into remote Alaska for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, a quest that culminates on the frozen sea between the United States and Russia, Brian Phillips's Impossible Owls leads us on a kaleidoscopic exploration of contemporary reality. He takes us to a sumo tourn... read more

Connectography

Parag Khanna

Which lines on the map matter most?It's time to reimagine how life is organized on Earth. In Connectography, Parag Khanna guides us through the emerging global network civilization in which mega-cities compete over connectivity and borders are increasingly irrelevant. Travelling across the world, Khanna shows how twenty-first-century conflict is a tug-of-war over pipelines and Internet cables,... read more

Which lines on the map matter most?It's time to reimagine how life is organized on Earth. In Connectography, Parag Khanna guides us through the emerging global network civilization in which mega-cities compete over connectivity and borders are increasingly irrelevant. Travelling across the world, Khanna shows how twenty-first-century conflict is a tug-of-war over pipelines and Internet cables,... read more

Kill 'Em and Leave

James McBride

'A formidable free-style book that isn't straight biography but a mix of history, street-level investigative reporting, hagiography, Deep South sociology, music criticism, memoir and some fiery preaching' Rolling Stone magazineA Guardian best music book of 2016The music of James Brown was almost a genre in its own right, and he was one of the biggest and most influential cultural figures of th... read more

'A formidable free-style book that isn't straight biography but a mix of history, street-level investigative reporting, hagiography, Deep South sociology, music criticism, memoir and some fiery preaching' Rolling Stone magazineA Guardian best music book of 2016The music of James Brown was almost a genre in its own right, and he was one of the biggest and most influential cultural figures of th... read more