There are tales of footballing bees and Viking mice, the beginning of the thesaurus and the end of the library of Alexandria. Spend just two minutes a day with this brilliant almanac of curious treasure and you'll end your year full of wonder and just that little bit wiser.

It was the summer of 1983. Barbara Kingsolver had a day job as a scientific writer spends her weekends cutting her teeth as a freelance journalist when she landed an assignment. Her mission: was to cover the Phelps Dodge mine strike.Over the year that followed Kingsolver stood with those miners and their families, increasingly engaged and heartbroken. She recorded stories of striking miners and their stunningly courageous wives, sisters and daughters. She saw rights she'd taken for granted de...

Colonialism/Postcolonialism is a comprehensive yet accessible guide to the historical, theoretical and political dimensions of colonial and postcolonial studies. This new edition includes a new introduction and conclusion as well as extensive updates throughout. Topics covered include globalization, new grassroots movements (including Occupy Wall Street), the environmental crisis, and the relationship between Marxism and postcolonial studies.

Loomba also discusses how ongoing struggles such a...

For nearly two centuries readers all over the world have turned to the great canon of Russian literature. Love and death, war and peace, yes, even crime and punishment; readers across the globe have found in Russian writing a substantial measure of intellectual provocation, aesthetic pleasure, emotional resonance, and personal solace. Why We (Still) Need Russian Literature uses a number of Russian authors, from the familiar names of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov to less widely known writers...

An explosive new biography of Bill Gates that delves behind the façade of his carefully crafted public image, and questions the dominance of billionaires in contemporary society.

A poignant and darkly comedic memoir from a mother who opened an ethical escort agency in small town New Zealand – and dared to make a difference. Now a major international TV series starring Rachel Griffiths and Martin Henderson.

An entertaining collection of biographical portraits of history's most influential and inspiring economists - from Aristotle to Keynes, and Karl Marx to Friedrich Hayek - and what they can teach us about the world today.

We all live in the economy, whether we know it or not. The current cost-of-living crisis is an economic problem. Brexit might be a political project, but it has already changed how much money we have to spend and which products we can buy. Climate change may seem to be an eco...

Beowulf & Other Stories was first conceived in the belief that the study of Old English - and its close cousins, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman - can be a genuine delight, covering a period as replete with wonder, creativity and magic as any other in literature.