Today’s computer scientists play the same role as the oracles of the ancient world and the astrologers of the Middle Ages. Modern predictions not only advise on war, crop output, and marriages, but algorithms and statisticians also now determine whether we can get a loan, a job, an apartment, or an organ transplant. And when we cede ground to these predictions, we lose control of our own lives.
In this powerful, refreshing new look at the many ways prediction shapes our everyday lives, University of Oxford professor Carissa Véliz explains how putting too much stock in others’ predictions makes us vulnerable to charlatans, con artists, dubious technology, and self-deception. Examining a wide range of subjects both personal and societal, including medicine, climate, technology, society, and others, Véliz uncovers a number of insights: predictions about humans tend to be self-fulfilling; more data doesn’t guarantee better outcomes; AI is more likely to increase risk than decrease it; and a free and robust society requires not more prediction, but better preparation.
Véliz argues in this incisive and bracingly original book that the main promise of prediction is not knowledge of the future, but rather power over others. Prophecy is an invitation to defy those orders and live life on our own terms.
There is a need to tell a better story about Britain because bad stories are being told. These are ‘bad’ in the sense both of doing the historical facts an injustice, and of causing damaging political effects. One bad story currently dominant is one that portrays Britain as a systemically racist country, whose racism is rooted in its colonial history, which was nothing but a litany of worldwide oppression and exploitation. This bad story has real-time political consequences.
A Better Story About Britain will counter these stories with a better one — more historically honest, more appreciative of the legacy of Britain’s past, and more hopeful about Britain’s future.
On 13 March 1996 a man walked into Dunblane Primary School armed with four legally owned handguns, and in less than four minutes fired 105 bullets, killing sixteen children and their Primary One teacher.
The gunman was notorious among local parents, politicians and police: for years he ran a network of popular boys’ clubs and was the subject of multiple complaints and investigations, but, despite considerable evidence of troubling behaviour, he was never charged. His crime shocked the world then changed the nation – but only after an extraordinary political battle.
Based on original archival research, unseen royal correspondence and exclusive interviews with parents, One Morning in March tells – for the first time – of the lead-up to that day but also the incredible and powerful true story of how, in their darkest hour, a band of parents used their grief as fuel in a fight with John Major’s Conservative government to forever ban handguns in Britain. It is a story of how Princess Diana, forbidden to comfort the parents in the immediate aftermath, urged their campaign on; of how Andy Murray, a pupil at the school, ultimately banished the shadow over his hometown by winning Wimbledon; and of how the grieving parents secured the tightest gun laws in the world.
‘Daniel Wiles connects us viscerally to the past we have buried the history we choose to ignore’ Hilary Mantel
1950s, Chile. Bernardo has journeyed to his childhood home, tucked deep into the Patagonian wilderness – though it seems little more than a shack to his young son, James. The place is nothing like England, where James was born. The land is harsh. Unyielding.
Then Bernardo sees it. Short and lean and striking. The puma, with its huge paws on the earth. What will a father do to ensure his family’s survival? And what might he become when survival is no longer an option?
Thrilling and powerfully atmospheric, The Puma is a novel about fathers and sons, and our desperate attempts to tame the wilderness of the past.
A thrilling historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O’Malley, the infamous Irish sea captain and folk heroine who risked everything to protect her people against the powerful Elizabethan regime
Grace O’Malley was born to be at sea. Raised alongside her brother by their father, chief of the name of clan O’Malley, Grace learns early that her dreams of the open water are not compatible with the life she’s expected to lead as the daughter of a noble family. And when her father marries her to the wrong man, a neighbouring chief named Donhal, Grace’s world shifts for the worse.
Undaunted, Grace raises a family without abandoning her passion, aiding her hot-tempered husband in his campaigns against rival tribes. Eventually ousted from her husband’s land in the wake of his death, Grace returns to her childhood home and begins her career as a pirate in earnest, claiming new territories and finding deeper love, only to see her livelihood threatened by English incursions into Ireland, and her family endangered in an attempt to check her power.
Tenderly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon’s gripping latest novel channels the natural beauty of sixteenth-century Ireland alongside the brutality of the period as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine and defender of her people, who truly earned the title ‘the Pirate Queen of Ireland.’
PRAISE FOR ARIEL LAWHON
‘One of our most interesting authors of historical fiction’ People
‘Ariel Lawhon is a masterful storyteller’ Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis
‘Her skill with characterisation is enviable’ 5 Star Reader Review
‘An extremely talented author’ 5 Star Reader Review
Mark the upcoming 100th Snooker World Championship with this gripping journey through the game’s legends, rivalries, and defining triumphs.
‘THE UNDISPUTED NUMBER ONE OF SNOOKER BOOKS’ BARRY HEARN
‘Terrific’ Phil Yates, snooker broadcaster
‘Must-read … Enthralling’ Neal Foulds, former world no.3
‘Perfection!’ Alan McManus, former Masters champion
‘A truly great read’ Hazel Irvine, sports presenter
‘Read this book for the story, which is spectacular; the analysis, which is surprisingly cogent; and for the deep knowledge and love of the game, which are hard to resist’ Spectator
A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025
Snooker is a British success story, a working-class game which became a multi-million pound professional sport, exported to the world. A sublime test of skill and nerve, it has fascinated succeeding generations of players and spectators.
In this new history of the sport, David Hendon shows how the fortunes of snooker have mirrored wider changes in British society. Beginning as an upper-class pursuit invented in the British Raj, snooker was taken up in the working men’s clubs of industrial Britain. It nearly ceased to exist as an organised sport in the late 1950s, before reviving and becoming big business in the Thatcher era: 18.5m people watched the famous 1985 World Championship final. Since then, it has become a global sport, most notably in China and the Far East.
Weaving the big picture with the personal stories of snooker’s big characters, from Alex Higgins and Jimmy White to Ronnie O’Sullivan, anyone who has ever wielded a cue or breathlessly watched a marathon safety exchange will love this book.
‘A superb and compelling espionage drama inside the Iran Israel shadow war by the top spy thrillerist of these wild turbulent times’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘A great spy writer’ Tim Shipman
What happens when a spy is forced to reckon with the consequences of his deception?
Kamran Esfahani, a Persian Jewish dentist from Stockholm, dreams of starting afresh in California. To finance his new life, he agrees to spy for Mossad in Iran, working with a clandestine unit tasked with sowing chaos and sabotage inside the country. When he’s captured by Iranian security forces, Kamran is compelled to confess his experiences as a spy, in a testimonial dealing not only with the security of nations, but also with revenge, deceit, and the power of love and forgiveness in a world of lies.
Mixing suspense with strikingly cinematic action, David McCloskey takes readers deep into the shadow war between Iran and Israel, delivering propulsive storytelling and riveting tradecraft.
THE FOURTH NOVEL FROM FORMER CIA OFFICER, THE REST IS CLASSIFIED PODCAST CO-HOST AND THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ***THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR***DAMASCUS STATION (‘One of the best spy thrillers in years’ THE TIMES) AND ***SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*** MOSCOW X
READER REVIEWS
‘A brilliant gripping read. This is one of his best books’
‘An excellent read from the pen of one who has been there and done it all, especially in light of current events in the Middle East.’
‘This is the best book I have read in years. A superb spy novel.’
‘Couldn’t put it down, this is an amazing book…This is a must read from a great writer!’
‘Brilliant, bold and beautifully articulated’ Karl J. Friston, Professor of Neuroscience, University College London
Neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin reveals the miracle by which consciousness evolved out of the natural world, from the birth of the cell to the majesty of our modern minds.
Science says that you are nothing but a chemical reaction – a collection of atoms and molecules – like rocks, paperclips and everything else in the physical universe. But if that’s so, where is the place in this world for your consciousness? In a word, why does it feel so special to be you?
Like the Zen Buddhist riddle pondering the imponderable – the sound of a single hand clapping – this book asks the seemingly unanswerable question of how the human mind came to exist within the material world. In search of an answer, neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin takes readers on a billion-year journey through time from the roots of our existence to the advent of Homo sapiens, reimagining the story of our evolution. The result is an exhilarating book that embeds our consciousness within a single, unified story of life on Earth.
A work of ambitious intellectual scope, One Hand Clapping is distinguished as much by its originality as by the breadth of its imaginative reach – drawing from neuroscience, evolution, philosophy and a rich tapestry of cultural references, all brought to life by the author’s own illustrations. Told with the drama and daring of a mythical epic, it reaches deep into our oceanic past to show for the first time how the entire course of Earth’s history, from the earliest non-living particles, ultimately led to the formation of our own minds.
‘Astounding … A haunting tale of guilt’ The Telegraph, Five Star Review
‘An unforgettable portrait of a singular woman and her frenzied efforts to launder her unsavoury past’ Literary Review
‘A harrowing but elegantly constructed rot-riddled family romance’ Financial Times
‘Devastatingly effective’ The Times
‘In her debut novel, a historian of Vichy France tackles her family’s real-life collaboration during the Second World War’ New Yorker Best Books of the Year
‘Full of so many secrets that it’s a wonder she managed to write it all’ New York Times
‘Shows why historical fiction matters, how stories breathe life into forgotten moments … Haunting’ Cara Black, author of Three Hours in Paris
In a grand Paris apartment, a young girl attends gatherings regularly organised by her mother. They talk about clothes and exchange the day’s gossip, but the mood grows dark when they start to talk about her past, and the great love she is said to have known during the Second World War.
When the girl grows up, she looks into the enigmatic figures in and around her family. Who was the man her mother fell in love with before the war? Why did they zealously collaborate with the Nazi occupiers of France? And why did they remain for decades afterwards obsessive devotees of that lost cause?
In The Propagandist, a historian of Vichy France investigates the secrets, lies and omissions in her own family in the way she has investigated those of France itself. It is a masterpiece of psychological insight, revealing how people can spend a lifetime deceiving themselves, rather than confront their own past.
READER REVIEWS
‘A brilliant piece of fiction that unequivocally deserves five stars’
‘Beautifully written’
‘Nearly impossible to set down’
‘Fascinating and complex’
‘A superb, sexy sequel to Presumed Innocent’ Sunday Times
‘A legend of suspense fiction’ Steve Cavanagh
‘The master of the courtroom drama’ Daniel Silva
‘A writer with few peers in any genre’ David Baldacci
Daily Mail Books to Watch 2025
The Times Best Thrillers of 2025 So Far
In a sequel to Presumed Innocent, the book that redefined the legal thriller, judge and lawyer Rusty Sabich returns to the courtroom to defend his step-son against a racially-charged murder indictment as the boy’s life – and perhaps Rusty’s last chance at happiness – hang in the balance.
Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.
Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight and a long hitchhike home. Days later, when she still hasn’t returned, suspicion falls on Aaron, and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested and set for trial on charges of first degree murder.
Faced with few choices and even fewer hopes, Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent – it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.
5* READER REVIEWS
‘Absolutely brilliant’
‘Scott Turow at his very best’
‘A great legal thriller … Kept me riveted’
‘Fantastic. It will draw you in from the first page’
‘Scott Turow is the master of the legal, court room drama’
‘A masterpiece – one of the best legal thrillers I have read’
‘This is what you call a proper legal thriller’