Robert Fortune was a Scottish gardener, botanist, plant hunter - and industrial spy. In 1848, the East India Company engaged him to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea. For centuries, China had been the world's sole tea manufacturer. Britain purchased this fuel for...

Hackney, that Rose-Red Empireis Iain Sinclair's foray into one of London's most fascinating boroughs 'As detailed and as complex as a historical map, taking the reader hither and thither with no care as to which might be the most direct route'Observer Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire is Iain Sinclair's personal record of his north-east London home in which he has lived...

Afghanistan has been a strategic prize for more than 200 years. Foreign invaders have continually fought across its beautiful and inhospitable terrain, in conflicts variously ruthless, misguided and bloody. A century ago, the common sneer about how British soldiers treated Afghan tribesmen was that they would 'butcher' them, then 'bolt'. Butcher and Bolt recounts this violent history, beginning with the...

In 1660 a small group of men, led by Sir Robert Moray, met in London with a secret plan to reshape the world. They were members of the 'Invisible College', better known today as the Freemasons Emerging from the horrors of the Civil War, Britain was a society torn apart by political difference, religious ferment and was still immersed in...

Wilhelm von Habsburg wore the uniform of an Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the decorations of the Order of the Golden Fleece and, every so often, a dress. He spoke the Italian of his archduke mother, the German of his archduke father, the English of his British royal friends,...

Thrust onto Egypt's throne when just nine years old, King Tut's reign was fiercely debated from the outset. After nine years in power, Tut suddenly perished and his name was purged from Egyptian history. To this day, his death remains shrouded in controversy. Now, in The Murder of King Tut, James Patterson and Martin Dugard dig through the evidence to...

Born in pre-Revolutionary China and brought up in the Midlands, Esther Cheo Ying returned to China in 1949 after a traumatic childhood, convinced that there she would find the happiness and sense of belonging she longed for. Caught up in the turmoil of civil war and sympathetic to the Communist Revolution, she joined the Red Army and then stayed on...

The Bin Ladens are shrouded in secrecy, living in one of the most closed, unaccountable countries on earth. Little has been known about the world that created Osama - until now. In this gripping account prizewinning journalist Steve Coll has interviewed those closest to the family who rose from Yemeni peasants to jetsetting millionaires in two generations. In doing so,...

The Penguin Dictionary of British Surnames is a useful and fascinating guide to the surnames that offer a unique insight into the place of origin, the occupations - and even the personality traits - of our ancestors. Detailed and informative, this dictionary covers the widest range of British surnames and is essential reading for anyone intrigued by the story of...

The Bin Ladens are shrouded in secrecy, living in one of the most closed, unaccountable countries on earth. Little has been known about the world that created Osama - until now. In this gripping account prizewinning journalist Steve Coll has interviewed those closest to the family who rose from Yemeni peasants to jetsetting millionaires in two generations. In doing so,...

Bright Young People/ Making the most of our youth/ They talk in the Press of our social success/ But quite the reverse is the truth. [Noel Coward] The Bright Young People were one of the most extraordinary youth cults in British history. A pleasure-seeking band of bohemian party-givers and blue-blooded socialites, they romped through the 1920s gossip columns. Evelyn Waugh...

The idea behind the alphabet - that language with all its wealth of meaning can be recorded with a few meaningless signs - is an extraordinary one. So extraordinary, in fact, that it has occurred only once in human history: in Egypt about 4000 years ago. Alpha Beta follows the emergence of the western alphabet as it evolved into its...

This book is a biography of Magnum, told largely in the words of its photographers. It offers a unique perspective on half a century of world history from an extraordinary group of men and women who were front line witnesses at virtually every major event in the last fifty years. Wars, famines, natural disasters, social, political and environmental crises -...

The tribal region located on the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan is the centre of terrorist activity in the world today. Since 2001, Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped here, using its mountainous terrain as a safe haven in which to train, plan major terror attacks, send insurgents to Afghanistan, and recruit ever-younger fighters. In this essential book Imtiaz...

Whatever benefits and rewards it may sometimes be possible to attain by bullshitting, by dissembling, or by sheer mendacity, societies cannot afford to tolerate anyone or anything that fosters a slovenly indifference to the distinction between true and false. In a world of spin, rhetoric, blagging and bullshitting, a basic level of scepticism and the impulse to question first impressions...