'There can be a perverse pleasure, as well as a sense of rightness and beauty, in insisting on flowering just when the world expects you to become quiet and diminish.' Sharon Blackie What is Hagitude? It means being at ease with the unique power women embody in the second half of their life. It means having a strong sense of who we are and what we have to offer the world. And a firm belief in our place in the ever-shifting web of life. For the woman who wishes to flourish without chasing eternal youth comes Hagitude. Interweaving myth, psychology, landscape and ecofeminism, acclaimed author Sharon Blackie reclaims the mid years as an alchemical moment - from which to shift into your chosen, authentic and fulfilling future - and the elder years as a path to dynamic influence. 'A fascinating book ... well researched, packed with stories and bursting with lovely descriptions of the natural world. There's plenty in it to inspire women of every age.' Christina Patterson, Sunday Times

THE FIRST NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF WORD-OF-MOUTH BESTSELLER IF WOMEN ROSE ROOTED 'You and me against the world, you used to sing. In the days before it became you and me against each other.' Cat Munro - who has never taken a day off in her working life - quits her corporate job and starts flying lessons in a small plane over the Arizona desert, confronting her fear not only of death, but of life. Her mother, Laura, moves back to the Scottish village where she spent the first years of her marriage to Cat's abusive father. Though they are apart, the past connects mother and daughter, haunts them, binds them. From the excoriating heat of the Arizona desert to the misty flow of a Highland sea-loch, Sharon Blackie's soaring first novel presents us with the transformative power of landscape, and of storytelling, in women's lives. Above all, The Long Delirious Burning Blue is a story of courage, endurance and redemption. 'It is that rarity, a first novel that smacks of not merely confidence, but authority ... The ending is powerful, filmic, and achieving the kind of symmetry that novels often aspire to, but rarely reach.' The Scotsman

After a childhood of silence and secrets, a compelling journey of discovery – from broadcaster, podcaster and rescue dog tweeter @Ruskin147. Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother, Sylvia, died and he found a file labelled 'For Rory' he had no idea of their beginnings or ending. Or why his peculiarly isolated childhood had so tested the bond between him and Sylvia, who was single-parenting two sons in a one-bedroom fl at while working full time through the Fifties and Sixties. 'For Rory,' his mother had written on the file before she died, 'in the hope that it will help him understand how it really was ...' This is a compelling account of what Rory uncovered in the papers, letters and diaries; a relationship between two colleagues (two romantics) and the restrictive forces of post-war respectability and prejudice that ended it. It is also an evocation of the centrifugal force at the centre of all their lives - the BBC itself. Both tender and troubling, the drama moves from wartime radio broadcasts, to the glamour of 1950s television studios, to the golden era of BBC drama. His father may have directed The Forsyte Saga and Rory may have watched him from afar, but he didnt actually meet him until much later, in adulthood, when the damage to his mother's life had already been done. Praise for Always On: 'Delightfully insightful and intensely readable.' - Stephen Fry

'Andy Field's book reawakens us to the neglected majesty, charm and beauty of the everyday. His book returns us to a childlike state of wonder. It's profoundly charming - and, in the best sense, lovely.' - Alain de Botton author of The School of Life and The Course of Love Encounterism is a joyous immersion into the everyday pleasure and shared humanity we stand to lose in an increasingly digital world. Andy Field explores both different kinds of and different venues for human encounters, from the hairdressers to the cinema, from nightclubs to eateries, shops staffed by people and free-form urban parks; these are the everyday yet invaluable spaces that allow for human encounters that enrich our lives.Field writes with tenderness and wit - born out of twenty years as a performance artist creating scenarios in which people are encouraged to see and interact with each other afresh. In Encounterism he not only examines how we physically encounter both strangers and friends - in all our human grace and awkwardness - but builds to a manifesto for the importance of real-world interaction. A rousing reminder that our cities, our residential and work places, must still allow for the possibility of spontaneity and shared, in-person joy.'Andy Field is the freshest, most down-to-earth, most constantly surprising (and endearing) explorer of urban life I've read in a while ... And whether he's guiding us into mass snowball fights on the streets of London or the meaning of holding hands, this unmet stranger cheerfully reminds us all of the value of touch and the virtue of trying to see the world anew.' - Pico Iyer, author of The Half Known Life and Autumn Light

'Brilliant. With such a good ending, it had me slapping the back cover closed with utmost satisfaction and respect. Hard recommend.'Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites and Devotion 'Until recently, there had been four of them. Unspeaking, the three remaining Managans lugged their bags into Ewan's waiting car. Luda and her children were not staying in the ghost house on Seannay that first night. The window broken in the storm must first be fixed. Living on the islands means being in constant conversation with the wind; negotiating where it will and will not go. The Managans do not know this yet. It is a lesson they will begin to learn a week later, watching the cliff collapse into the sea.' Luda, a photographer, and her two teenagers arrive in the Scottish Northern Isles to make a new life. Everywhere the past shimmers to the surface; the shifting landscapes and wild weather dominates; the line between reality and the uncanny seems thin here. The teenagers forge connections, making friends of neighbours, discovering both longing and dangerous compulsions. But their mother - fallible, obsessive, distracted - comes up hard against suspicion. The persecution and violence that drove the island's historic witch trials still simmers today, in isolated homes and church buildings, and where folklore and fact intertwine. A compelling and magically immersive novel about a family on the edge and a community ensnared by history, that gathers to an unforgettable ending. 'An astonishingly rich and intricate exploration of loss, love, ambition and redemption ... A thrilling read.' Marie Claire

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR One woman, one bike and one richly entertaining, perception-altering journey of discovery. In 2015, as the Syrian War raged and the refugee crisis reached its peak, Rebecca Lowe set off on her bicycle across the Middle East. Driven by a desire to learn more about this troubled region and its relationship with the West, Lowe's 11,000-kilometre journey took her through Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, the Gulf and finally to Iran. It was an odyssey through landscapes and history that captured her heart, but also a deeply challenging cycle across mountains, deserts and repressive police states that nearly defeated her. Plagued by punctures and battling temperatures ranging from -6 to 48C, Lowe was rescued frequently by farmers and refugees, villagers and urbanites alike, and relied almost entirely on the kindness and hospitality of locals to complete this living portrait of the modern Middle East. This is her evocative, deeply researched and often very funny account of her travels - and the people, politics and culture she encountered. 'Terrifically compelling ... bursting with humour, adventure and insight into the rich landscapes and history of the Middle East. Lowe recounts the beauty, kindnesses and complexities of the lands she travels through with an illuminating insight. A wonderful new travel writer.' Sir Ranulph Fiennes

'Of all the places where I feel the translucency of things, places that are thin for me, bluebell woods are first among them.' Some travellers are driven by the need to scale a natural wonder, or to see a city's sights or a place of history. Others, like Alice Maddicott, travel in search of a particular scene, feeling or atmosphere, often inspired by music, literature and art. Taking us deep into our emotional and creative responses to place, this extraordinary book explores the author's relentless travelling, from the heat of Sicily to the mountains of Japan. With her uniquely lyrical approach to psycho-geography, Maddicott explores the relationship with landscape that is the very essence of human creativity. From seventeenth-century salons of Paris to the underground culture and crumbling balconies of modern Tbilisi, through writers as diverse as Italo Calvino and L. M. Montgomery and artists like Ana Mendieta and eighteenth-century girls embroidering their lives, Tender Maps is a beautifully evocative book of travel, culture and imagination that transports readers in time and place. 'A rich and beguiling work of literary travel memoir that nimbly tracks the wider contours of the world in terms of feeling, memory, introspection and the imagination.' - Travis Elborough, author of Atlas of Vanishing Places

A time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on the page. One day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books on music, railways and pubs, decided, as all men of a certain age must, to have a dig around his family history. Surprisingly quickly, a web search informed him that his seven-times-great great-grandfather, Thomas Marchant had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. So far, so jolly ... Life-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating detail we learn about Thom's family farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wife's nights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children. But as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diary's bucolic portrait he discovers a subtext - a family descended from immigrants, with anti-establishment politics, who are struggling with illness, political instability and cash crises - just as their country does three centuries on. 'When I was reflecting late one January evening on the differences between Thom and me, I realised the unbridgeable thing that comes between us is industrialisation. He lived right at its beginning, while I am living somewhere towards its end. Old Thom Marchant was one of the last people before industrialisation to understand how his world worked - and how to be largely self-sufficient in it. He knew where his food came from, his fuel, his water, his clothes. He knew how the welfare system worked, and was part of its administration; he knew who looked after the roads, too. He collected taxes. He was not separate from the system, but part of it.' Rich with immersive detail, One Fine Day draws a living portrait of Marchant family life in the 1720s and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent, illness-ridden) became the England of the 2020s. 'Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.' - Richard Beard 'Ian Marchant is one of England's most original writers. One Fine Day is a masterwork.' - Monique Roffey

'The most riveting and unflinching he said/she said novel to date ... absolutely staggering, insanely gripping and wholly unputdownable.' May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives Jess, Priyanka and Stephanie are all happily married to men they think they know inside out. Then each woman receives a letter accusing her husband of involvement in a sexual assault that took place 20 years ago. Who do they believe, what should they do and can they come together as their lives are upended? A compelling, beautifully crafted thriller about consent, friendship and prejudice which asks - would you sacrifice your family life in support of another woman? 'In an emotional and powerfully evocative story, three women grapple with a discovery that could shatter their lives. Ray has expertly crafted a thoughtful and important read that ends with a stunning surprise.' Liv Constantine, author of The Last Mrs Parrish

The international bestseller - an uplifting story of cross-generational living and friendship. Twenty-one-year-old nursing student Teun Toebes (both broke and curious) decided to move into a nursing home and experience the daily life of elderly residents, not as a nurse or a carer - but as a housemate. The experience was to change his life, as well as the lives of his new friends. He initiated Friday drinks, trips out and camping evenings, and reintroduced pleasure in the small things in life: a laugh, a dance, a cup of good coffee, a chance to sit in the sun. As he became embedded in the community, however, Teun became more and more distressingly aware of how society and the care system diminishes the elderly and particularly people living with dementia - and he resolved to do something about it. A number 1 bestseller in the Netherlands, The Housemates is Teun Toebes' story of his years of being a housemate, the friends who changed him and a heartfelt cry for change in how we care for the elderly.