Non-Fiction Books

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZEThe original bestseller from the beloved author of UNDERLAND, LANDMARKS and THE LOST WORDS - Robert Macfarlane travels Britain's ancient paths and discovers the secrets of our beautiful, underappreciated landscape'The Old Ways confirms Macfarlane's reputation as...

By Peter Ross (Author)Format: Paperback / softback 432 pagesPublisher: Headline Publishing GroupImprint: Headline Book PublishingISBN: 9781472281951Published: 1 Feb 2024Weight: 384g Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned.They contain...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'A beautiful, gentle exploration of the dark season of life and the light of spring that eventually follows' RAYNOR WINN'My favourite book of the last five years' CAITLIN MORANWintering is a poignant and comforting...

At a crossroads in her life, Gr�inne Lyons set out to travel Ireland's west coast on foot. She set a simple intention: to walk in the footsteps of eleven pioneering Irish women deeply rooted in this coastal landscape and explore their lives and work...

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, January 2022A TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEARA BBC HISTORY MAG BOOK OF THE YEARA DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR'Expressive, bold and quite beautiful' The Lady'[a] delight of a book' Antonia Senior,...

**WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021****A FINANCIAL TIMES, I PAPER AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE YEAR**'In his absorbing book about the lost and the gone, Peter Ross takes us from Flanders Fields to Milltown to Kensal Green, to melancholy...

** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ****A FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, WAITROSE WEEKEND BEST SUMMER READ**`A book for anyone who finds it difficult to believe in a better future' THE TIMESFeeling anxious, powerless, or confused about the future of our planet? This book will transform how...

Now available in paperback, Winters in the World is a beautifully observed journey through the cycle of the year in Anglo-Saxon England, exploring the festivals, customs and traditions linked to the different seasons. Drawing on a wide variety of source material, including poetry, histories...

Charming - a love-letter to home, history, and nature.'LEAH BROAD, Author of Quartet'A tender and illuminating history of an overlooked world.'HORATIO CLARE'Truly a revelation on every page.'PETROC TRELAWNY'A richly textured book, replete with illuminating discoveries and observations.' COUNTRY LIFE'A wide-ranging meditation on place and...

By the bestselling author of Storyland. Sheer cliffs, salt spray, explosive sea spume, thunderous clouds, icy waves, whales with mountains on their backs, sleet, bitter winds, bleak, impenetrable marshes, howling wolves, forests, the unceasing cries of birds and the death grip of subterranean vaults...

`A poignant, practical and moving story of how to fix our broken land, this should be conservation's salvation; this should be its future; this is a new hope' - Chris PackhamWinner of the Richard Jefferies Society / White Horse Book Shop Award for Nature...

It is difficult to think of a more quintessential symbol of the British countryside than the British Hedgerow, bursting with blackberries, hazelnuts and sloes, and home to oak and ash, field mice and butterflies. But as much as we might dream about foraging for...

This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding...

Bring nature into your home with the inspiring true story of hope and the healing powers of the natural world, in one of the most talked about books of the decadeFROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR'This is what you need right now to muster hope...

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE'Revelatory' GUARDIAN'A firecracker somehow captured between two covers' LUCY WORSLEYAn instant bestseller and one of the most celebrated history books of the year, Femina reveals the power and influence of medieval women who have been...

A Telegraph Book of the Year A remarkable, unprecedented account of the role of magic in cultures both ancient and modern -- from the first known horoscope to the power of tattoos. 'Fascinating, original, excellent' Simon Sebag Montefiore______________________Three great strands of practice and belief...

Enjoy a whole year of the very finest nature writing, with one carefully selected piece to savour every day. This beautifully illustrated daily anthology brings you the very best of nature writing from around the world and through the centuries, from Pliny the Elder's...

An entertaining and engrossing collection of British customs, superstitions and legends from past and present. Did you know, in Cumbria it was believed a person lying on a pillow stuffed with pigeon's feathers could not die? Or that green is an unlucky colour for...

THE SUNDAY TIMES' BESTSELLER AND SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT CONSERVATION AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR...

4 stars. Attlee, who knows and loves Italy and the Italians, takes the reader through the country's scented gardens with her sharp descriptions, pertinent stories and quotes and intriguing recipes. I was there with her' Anna del Conte, Sunday TelegraphA delightful book about Italy's...

*** A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST SUMMER TRAVEL BOOK OF 2024 ***"Excellent.immensely well-researched and playful. Smith has written something special." -- Patrick Galbraith, The Times"Imaginative and engaging" -- Country LifeAcclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of `pilgrimage' in Britain...

An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth century Parish churches were at the heart of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this comprehensive study, Nicholas...

`Everything about Venice,' observed Lord Byron, `is, or was, extraordinary - her aspect is like a dream, and her history is like a romance.' Dream and romance have conditioned myriad encounters with Venice across the centuries, but the city's story embodies the hard reality...

When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small...

`Impossible to summarise and delightfully absorbing, Hadley's book is comfortably the most unexpected history book of the year'�Sunday Times A luminous journey through a thousand years of folklore and English history. Once upon a time in a Hertfordshire field, an ancient yew tree hid...

Blackwell's Non-Fiction Book of the Month'A formidable achievement' Rory Stewart'Thoughtful [and] heartfelt' Observer'Profound [and] compelling' Spectator'A noble endeavour' New StatesmanWithout a permanent home, a wife or a job, and with no clear sense of where his life was going, Anthony Seldon set out on...

THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 WINNER OF THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE Eleven years when Britain had no king. In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution. On a raw January afternoon,...

In this book is a radical idea. By walking the ancient landscape of Britain and following the wheel of the year, we can reconnect to our shared folklore, to the seasons and to nature. Let this hauntological gazetteer guide you through our enchanted places...

An ode to the ocean, and the generations of women drawn to the waves or left waiting on the shore' Guardian In Salt On Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie explores what the sea means to us, and particularly what it has meant to women through...

Simon Jenkins has travelled the length and breadth of England to select his thousand best churches. Organised by county, each church is described - often with delightful asides - and given a star-rating from one to five. All of the county sections are prefaced...

I come into the peace of wild thingswho do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a timeI rest in the grace of...

_________________'BRITAIN'S FINEST LIVING NATURE WRITER' - THE TIMESWINNER OF THE THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2015What really goes on in the long grass?Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow's life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John...

A new narrative history of the Viking Age, interwoven with exploration of the physical remains and landscapes that the Vikings fashioned and walked: their rune-stones and ship burials, settlements and battlefields. To many, the word �_~Viking�_T brings to mind red scenes of rape and...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'[A] clever, lively ... splendid new book'DAN JONES, SUNDAY TIMES'A big gold bar of delight'SPECTATORSixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea,...

If Women Rose Rooted has been described as both transformative and essential. Sharon Blackie leads the reader on a quest to find their place in the world, drawing inspiration from the wise and powerful women in native mythology, and guidance from contemporary role models...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be given your own remote islands? Thirty years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson. Aged 21, Nicolson inherited the Shiants, three lonely Hebridean islands set in a dangerous sea off the Isle of Lewis....

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. 'Francis Pryor brings the magic of the Fens to life in a deeply personal and utterly enthralling way' TONY ROBINSON. 'Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' GUARDIAN. Inland from the Wash, on England's...

The Sunday Times Bestseller - As featured on Ben Fogle's New Lives in the Wild. Join Christian Lewis as he walks the entire coastline of the UK - his dog Jet in tow - and rebuilds his life, step by step. With a foreword...

`An absolute gem' Sunday Times `A mouthwatering history' The Guardian In this delicious history of Britain's food traditions, Diane Purkiss invites readers on a unique journey through the centuries, exploring the development of recipes and rituals for mealtimes such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner,...

WINNER OF THE 2023 JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING'Unparalleled.' THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE'A true masterpiece.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'A tour de force.' GUY SHRUBSOLE'Quietly courageous.' PATRICK BARKHAM'Lyrical, wholehearted and wise.' LEE SCHOFIELD'A knockout. I loved it.' MELISSA HARRISON'Honest, raw and moving.' SOPHIE PAVELLE'An extraordinary...

Woods play an important and recurring role in horror, fantasy, the gothic and the weird. They are places in which strange things happen, where you often can't see where you are or what is around you. Supernatural creatures thrive in the thickets. Trees reach...

The best portrait of rural life in England' Roger Deakin'Exquisite' John Updike'The finest contemporary writer on the English countryside' ObserverRonald Blythe's perceptive and vivid evocation of the rural Suffolk he had known since childhood was acclaimed as an instant classic when it was published...

THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SALT PATH AND THE WILD SILENCEJoin Raynor and Moth on their remarkable 1000-mile walk from Scotland to the South West Coast Path in this powerful account of our country's land, and the people...

The Witch's Garden describes over 50 of the world's most powerful, harmful, legendary and storied plants - from the screaming mandrake to calming St John's Wort, to predicting the weather with seaweed, the creation of salves for broken hearts, sore heads, protection from evil...

Often hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor a history book, but a beautifully written immersion in Venetian life and character, set against the background of the city's past. Analysing the particular temperament of Venetians,...

The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' GuardianIntroduction by Robert Macfarlane. Afterword by Jeanette WintersonIn this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF 2021 'Astonishing and compelling' Bernard Cornwell `This superb book is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed' THE TIMES Books of the Year Follow bioarchaeologist Cat Jarman - and the cutting-edge forensic...

A wonderful evocation of Britain's natural beauty and a reminder of our need to connect with the wilderness' The Times Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? From forest to...

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR `An absolute joy to read and an early contender for every list of History Books of the Year' Sunday Telegraph `On nearly every page a random passage takes one's breath away' The Times Have you ever heard the...

[a] gem of a book' SpectatorChurches and cathedrals were originally built to be read. They are alive with images and symbols. But today few people, including regular visitors, truly understand the wealth of meaning in what they find there. How to Read a Church...