'The next Bill Bryson.’ New York Times Having been dragged against his will to live in Denmark, Michael Booth discovered one of the great secrets of travel literature - Andersen's A Poet's Bazaar - a fascinating travelogue through a Europe on the cusp of revolution, by an author who invented children's literature. He discovered, too, his chance to escape Denmark. In 1840 Andersen was also desperate to flee, writing as he sailed: 'It is just as well I am leaving, my soul is unwell!' In Germany he was enraptured both by steam travel and the fiery Franz Liszt. In sultry Naples this latent bisexual wrestled with his erotic demons before travelling to Athens (little more than a village), seeing the dervishes dance in Istanbul, and sailing home up the Danube. Booth follows him every step of the way, reflecting on Andersen's life, work and pathological self-obsession, encountering his own cast of characters, from an accommodating Hamburg prostitute to a bemused Danish Ambassador to the first ever female dervish, who whisks him off to meet her guru.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Lottie Lucas is the luckiest person she knows. She has looks, money, three houses and a teenage son she adores So why is her husband Harold walking out on her? Light Years is also about zoos and the zodiac; the seasons and the stars; and how humans see the natural world. It is a novel about the possibilities of happiness, a surprising and beautiful contemporary love story. In the tradition of the best romantic comedy.' The Observer Sublimely funny and infinitely subtle, Light Years is pure delight.' Daily Telegraph Energetic and beguiling.' Sunday Telegraph 'This is so fine a novel, because so completely a planned and crafted one.' Times Literary Supplement

DIVDIVDIVIt’s going to be a brilliant summer for Dorothy—but suddenly, the sun hides behind the clouds and a secret she couldn’t have imagined appears . . ./divDIV While on a class trip to a museum, fourteen-year-old Dorothy Coughlin can’t believe her luck: She practically falls into a summer job as a nanny for a wealthy family in Pennsylvania, in the biggest house she has ever seen. It doesn’t even matter that she’s not experienced with children, or that the family is a little strange. She’ll be paid $400 for the summer—money she can use for college. /divDIV /divDIVBut her employer, Mrs. Hoade, is awkward and anxious. Is she hiding something? Sweet and harmless Mr. Hoade, on the other hand—with his movie-star looks—has a strange personality. And when Dorothy discovers the secret one of the Hoades is hiding in the guest cottage, everything changes. This summer could change the course of her life, that is, if she survives!/divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Rosemary Wells including rare images from the author’s collection./div/div/div

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers Soon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov From the number one New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel 'A wonderful book' - Tana French 'This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don't miss it' - Chris Cleave 'No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year '[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself.' - Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year 'Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism' - The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all? A BOOK OF THE DECADE, 2010-2020 (INDEPENDENT) THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 ONE OF BILL GATES'S SUMMER READS OF 2019 NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS WEEK AWARD

The official book of the BBC Shropshire blog. A thirty three year old man, obsessed with Bingo, stationary and Countdown, living with his Mother in a small village. He decides to quite his job, take his life savings and embark on a worldwide quest to convince everybody outside Shropshire that if they lived life like the people in his village do they would be much happier. It sounds naive, but he managed to get quite a following and now a big chunk of China, a little bit of Amsterdam, an all-girl Australian Beatles tribute band and a Dutch chapter of the Hells Angels all see Morris Telford as the man with the answers. Will you?

“This could be heaven or this could be hell!” The Eagles “Each one of them stood silently at the gravesite wondering what would happen next. Terri saw the woman in the cotton dress reach into her purse. She expected her to pull out her gun. The girl’s gaze narrowed as the woman, a Special Agent with the DEA, finally took a step forward and pulled out a tissue.” Requiem Roads is the story of a group of characters, each with their own ‘fatal’ flaws, suddenly carried along by events until they arrive at the Mission, a place shrouded by a devastating earthquake and by a violent and murderous past. Even as the mission is slowly and faithfully being reconstructed, such a place is filled with history, and history can easily be repeated. Yet the human heart still seeks to find its path, even while dodging firestorms, tornados, hired assassins, and the ghostly remnants of our own personal disasters.