GOOD SENSE will help us through most of the day, but there are moments when we need to purge our soul with bona fide idiocy. In such emergencies we turn to nonsense literature. This book is a celebration of nonsense from all over the world, written both for children and adults. It is a reader’s guide with a simple premise: if you like the works of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, you may also like these hundred or so other books. This guide may read like a parody of a literary textbook, but o...

An intimate exploration of the life, craft, and legacy of one of the most revered and influential writers, an artist who continues to inspire fans and creatives to cultivate practices of deep attention, rigourous interrogation and beautiful style.

'Just read it.' Elon Musk

The dramatic inside story of the first four historic flights that launched SpaceX—and Elon Musk—from a shaky startup into the world's leading edge rocket company.

SpaceX has enjoyed a miraculous decade. Less than 20 years after its founding, it boasts the largest constellation of commercial satellites in orbit, has pioneered reusable rockets, and in 2020 became the first private company to launch human beings into orbit. Half a cen...

A new approach to the challenges surrounding artificial intelligence that argues for assessing AI actions as if they came from a human being

A detailed and fascinating journey to the roots of The Lord of the Rings, by award-winning Tolkien expert Professor Tom Shippey. The Road to Middle-Earth is a fascinating and accessible exploration of J.R.R.Tolkien’s creativity and the sources of his inspiration. Tom Shippey shows in detail how Tolkien’s professional background led him to write The Hobbit and how he created a work of timeless charm for millions of readers.

He discusses the contribution of The Silmarillion and Unfinished T...

Published to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of Armistice, this collection is intended to be an introduction to the great wealth of First World War Poetry. The sequence of poems is random - making it ideal for dipping into - and drawn from a number of sources, mixing both well-known and less familiar poetry.

Presents the history of Shakespeare, following him through a single year that changed not only his fortunes, but the course of literature. In this one year, we follow what he reads and writes, what he saw, and who he worked with as he creates four of his most famous plays - "Henry V", "Julius Caesar", "As You Like It", and "Hamlet".

The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state

In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic ...

How do we know if racism really exists? And, if it does, how big a problem is it for the outcomes of people of colour? Only science has the answers to some of society's most pressing questions.