A new title in the british museum's _Object in Focus_ series that tells the remarkable story of an enamelled gold necklace pendant associated with Henry viii and his first wife Katherine of Aragon. This book tells the remarkable story of a spectacular chance find of a pendant associated with Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon, as well as Mary, their only surviving child. Known as the Tudor Heart, the object comprises a heart-shaped pendant with enamelled motifs, suspended from a chain by an enamelled clasp. Over 3 metres of gold wire have been used to make the chain, the oldest known example of its type to survive, and together the pendant, chain and clasp weigh over 0.3 kilograms and are largely 24 carat gold. The pendant and chain have been dated to the last years of the 1510s based on the motifs used and archival evidence. This book argues that the object is an important witness to Henry's ambitions in the early years of his long reign, marking his first and longest marriage to a princess of higher birth, commemorating his daughter's betrothal to the infant son of the king of France, and showing the magnificence of Henry's court before the arrival of Hans Holbein the Younger changed its expression completely. Readers will learn about a masterfully crafted work using the most luxurious of materials, as well as its place as important historical evidence for pivotal years in English history. This publication explores the sensational finding of the artefact, but its central aim is to establish the details of object's making, its broader historical context and to tell its own extraordinary story. RACHEL KING is Curator of Renaissance Europe and the Waddesdon Bequest at the British Museum. Previous publications include _Amber: From Antiquity to Eternity_ _(Reaktion, 2022)._

Based on the menu Itamar and Sarit serve at their cafe in Store Street, London, it's the kind of relaxed, informal food we all want to eat every day - chapters include effortless recipes with Eggs, fragrant Soups, tasty ideas for In or On Bread, nourishing Salads, simple, wholesome dinner ideas in Daily Nightly, quick and easy Cookies and Cakes and even some 'serve me in a glass' speedy Cocktails and Desserts. From a summery Courgette & Broad Bean Shakshuka and a Crispy Za'atar Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich to Spicy Sausage, Tomato, Pepper & Goat's Cheese Dirty Rice and Ginger & Chocolate Cookies - this is wholesome, seasonal food that will lift your spirits and improve your day. ITAMAR SRULOVICH and SARIT PACKER opened their first Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant, Honey & Co. in 2012. They have since added a deli, Honey & Spice, a grill house, Honey & Smoke, and now Honey & Co. Daily, a deli, bakery and cafe. They have an events space Honey & Co. Studio and host a podcast Honey & Co: The Food Sessions, interviewing influential guests from the food and drink industry. They have a recipe column in the _FT Weekend_ magazine. Their first cookbook _Honey & Co The Cookbook_ (2015) was named Cookbook of the Year by _The Sunday Times_, and was the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards Cookery Book of the Year, and won the The Guild of Food Writer's Award Winner for Best First Book.

_In an idyllic Sussex town, murder is fermenting..._ _Barclay Flint is the charmingly eccentric proprietor of The Bottle Bank wine shop, nestled in a picturesque Sussex town renowned for its gloriously anarchic Bonfire Night celebration._ _Barclay can taste a kaleidoscopic universe in a single glass of wine and delights in matching customers to the grapes of their dreams. But when his close friend, struggling regenerative vineyard owner Victor Crawshaw, is found dead, Barclay finds himself a prime suspect_ _To crack the case and clear his name, Barclay must deploy his wine detection skills and follow his nose through the rolling Sussex hills where a tangle of old resentments and rivalries awaits to ensnare him._ _With a killer on the loose and Bonfire Night fast approaching, the town crackles with anticipation. This year the fireworks might not be the only things to explode..._

_Julius Caesar is dead, and the lives of two teenaged boys are about to be changed forever. One is Caesar's 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir._ _The other is Octavius's closest friend, Agrippa._ _To claim Octavius's inheritance, they must fight the giant figures of the Roman Empire - and, against all odds, they win. Octavius becomes the Emperor Augustus. For twenty years, they rule the world together._ _Now Agrippa is fifty. Ailing and alone, betrayed by his wife's infidelity, he takes refuge in his house on the Bay of Naples and begins to write his memoirs. Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his earliest meetings with Julius Caesar, through the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the great naval battle of Actium and the endless wars to expand the empire, he describes how one man has dominated his life: the cunning, ruthless, unknowable Octavius._ _When it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?_ ROBERT HARRIS is the author of sixteen bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy - Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator - Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2, Act of Oblivion and Precipice. His work has been translated into forty languages and nine of his books have been adapted for cinema and television. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby.

The first in a mystery series from the much-loved Irish actor, writer and comedian, for readers who enjoy the warmth of Graham Norton and the mystery of _Death in Paradise_, all wrapped up in one small Irish town. When beloved celebrity gardener Finn O'Leary returns to his hometown of Abbeyford in Ireland to care for his aging mother, he is naturally roped into the Tidy Towns committee. The Tidy Towns is a competition fanatically fought over by every town and village in the land. And for his best friend's sister, Aoife, it's a competition she's determined to win. With everyone's favourite gardener on board, she is sure that this year Abbeyford will take home the prize. But Finn's not been back long when an alto-baritone at his mother's choir practice drops dead during a rendition of 'What the World Needs Now'_._ With more at stake than just winning Tidy Towns, Finn soon finds himself trying to solve a murder - or two. For one of his many qualities is that people tend to confide in him... With his mother, her carer and Aoife in tow, Finn sets out to discover just who has brought murder to Abbeyford. AND SO IT BEGINS. ARDAL O'HANLON is one of Ireland's best-loved actors and stand-up comedians, as well as a writer of novels and documentaries. Ardal's acting credits include leading roles in Father Ted (C4), for which he won a British Comedy Award and Bafta nominations, Death in Paradise (BBC), My Hero (BBC), Derry Girls (C4), Big Bad World (ITV), Blessed (BBC) and the RTE sitcom Val Falvey TD. Among the shows he's presented he also did a half-hour special for Comedy Central (USA), the first overseas act to do so. Ardal has written the acclaimed bestselling novel _The Talk of the Town_ (1999), which was included in the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and _Brouhaha_ (2022).

Join us for a matinee event with national treasure and beloved broadcaster Lorraine Kelly for her stunning new novel! Evie has come home to Orkney and finally found peace. She has rediscovered her passion for painting, mended broken friendships, and for the first time in a long time, truly feels a sense of belonging. But then a surprise visitor arrives. Mysterious Amelia McLean claims to be Evie's long lost-relative. She looks strangely familiar, her stories seem plausible and she quickly slides into island life. Yet Evie soon starts to feel unsettled and suspicious - and with her hard-won happiness slipping through her fingers, she knows she must uncover Amelia's secret, before it's too late... _ESCAPE TO WILD AND BEAUTIFUL ORKNEY ONCE MORE, WHERE SECRETS NEVER STAY HIDDEN FOR LONG!_ LORRAINE KELLY CBE has worked in breakfast TV for forty years, joining TVam as Scottish correspondent in 1984 and now presents Lorraine on ITV. She is married to cameraman Steve and they have one daughter Rosie, a journalist and broadcaster. Lorraine is a Dundee United fan and gets her best ideas when out for a walk with her beloved border terrier Angus. She first visited Orkney in 1985 and goes back every year.

_Sunday Times_ bestselling author Mel Giedroyc will be joining us for the launch of her new novel - a funny, big-hearted story of second chances. _Sometimes life surprises you with an encore... _Twenty years ago, aspiring performer Gill Piper boarded a bus out of Leatherhead with a spring in her step and stars in her eyes. Things didn't quite pan out... Back home again, Gill finds much has changed. Young Lights, the youth theatre group which coaxed her out of her shell, is no more. The theatre itself, once the heartbeat of the community, now feels like a has-been; Gill can relate. When Gill learns the theatre is approaching its hundredth year, she decides to put on a spectacular anniversary show to give it a comeback and unite the town. She has just eight weeks, but if she can persuade some shy newcomers to step into the spotlight, it might just be possible. But Gill hasn't counted on self-appointed Artistic Director and diva extraordinaire Carla Keswick, who declares war. Can Gill and her unlikely company of amateurs defy Carla's dirty tricks, and prove it's never too late for a curtain call? MEL GIEDROYC has been entertaining the nation for over thirty years. A comedian, writer, actor and presenter, Mel is also known for her work alongside Sue Perkins, such as multi Bafta-winning _Great British Bake Off_ (BBC) and _Light Lunch_ (Channel 4). Mel has written two non-fiction books and has appeared in sitcoms and panel shows, as well as on radio and on stage, in Stephen Sondheim's Olivier Award-winning _Company_ in the West End and in _Starter for Ten_ at Bristol's Old Vic. Mel lives in London with her husband and two daughters. Her debut novel _The Best Things_ was a _Sunday Times_ hardback bestseller.

In popular accounts of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the autocratic Catholic King James II was ousted by his subjects and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary Stuart, wife of James's nephew, the Dutch William III of Orange. Devoted to her husband, Mary would not accept the crown alone, and so William and Mary were crowned together, securing a smooth dynastic succession. _The Last Invasion of England_ recounts the forgotten campaign that carried William and his army to English shores and led directly to James's fall, bringing a revolutionary age vividly to life-and rewriting the history of Britain, Europe and the transatlantic world more widely. In this bold work of revisionist history, Arthur der Weduwen tells the momentous story of the Dutch Armada, describing the immense risks and near failures of the last seaborne invasion of England-which occurred exactly one hundred years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The sixteen thousand Dutch troops who accompanied William were not on hand for moral support. They came with sword, musket and cannon. Der Weduwen argues that the political revolution in Britain could not have been achieved without the willpower, might and resources of William and the Dutch nation, and explains why the Dutch Republic, a small state that celebrated peace and commerce above all else, would dare to undertake a reckless preemptive military strike on its more powerful neighbour. Transforming our understanding of the Glorious Revolution and Britain's ascendancy as a global powerhouse, _The Last Invasion of England_ relies entirely on contemporary sources, many from leading protagonists who prepared and executed the invasion, evoking the historical realities of the women and men who lived during turbulent and uncertain times. ARTHUR DER WEDUWEN is a Lecturer at the School of History of the University of St Andrews. His books include the bestselling _The Library: A Fragile History_ and _The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age_, and his work has been translated into ten languages.

In the course of a long career at Sotheby’s and at Cambridge University, Christopher de Hamel has probably handled more medieval manuscripts than anyone alive and his delight and enthusiasm in them run through all he writes. His many books, translated into numerous languages, include _A History of Illuminated Manuscripts_, _Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts_ (winner of the Duff Cooper Prize and the Wolfson History Prize), _The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket_ and T_he Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club_. Christopher joins us for his astounding new book, _The Migrants: A Memoir in Manuscripts_. This is a coming-of-age saga with extraordinary twists, crossing many hundreds of years and tens of thousands of miles, recounted with passion, humour and a lifetime's reflection. _Christopher de Hamel is one of the world's best-known scholars and writers on illuminated manuscripts. He was mostly brought up in the south of New Zealand, where his family moved when he was four._ _This book magically evokes a childhood at vast distance from Europe, recalling his thrill and wonder in first encountering medieval manuscripts in libraries there and the realization that they too are migrants far from home._ _The Migrants explores the immense journeys of books and people. It is a tale of colonization and the migration of culture - of motives and idealism, triumphs and disasters - bringing us face-to-face with history._ _We meet the colonial governor on his paradise island, the shipwrecked accountant, the nonagenarian who cut up manuscripts, the magnate who unknowingly bought Becket's Boethius and the early settler who inscribed his Book of Hours in the Maori language in 1842._

Following his bestselling _Nights Out at Home,_ Jay Rayner returns to the kitchen to offer more inspiration to roll up your sleeves and reach for your favourite knife. _Nights Out in the Kitchen_ features an irresistible combination of recipes sparked by the dishes that Jay has fallen for during more than a quarter of a century as a restaurant critic, alongside 20 of his very own recipes; family favourites refined in his kitchen at home. From meatballs with braised spaghetti, to shaved fennel and lemon zest salad, tartiflette tart and slow cooked tandoori lamb shoulder. There are accessible, home-cooked versions of Little Dumpling King's haggis dumplings with crispy chilli oil, a take on Jacuzzi's vitello tonnato croquettes, Claro's squash three ways and a whole section dedicated to the joys of good things on toast, all created with the blessing, and often the help, of the chefs who inspired them. As well as delicious recipes, _Nights Out in the Kitchen_ is seasoned with stories which walk both sides of the 'home' and 'away' line in Jay's life. From the problem with dinner parties and the route to a less painful Christmas lunch, through the lexicographical challenges facing a restaurant critic who wants to describe flavour without resorting to 'mouth-watering', 'moist' and 'sumptuous', to the burning question of whether, given the large number of wretchedly negative reviews he's written, Jay might actually be a total scumbag. Jay's love of restaurants and his passion for great home cooking spill off every page of this beautifully written, warmly inspirational cookbook. Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, musician, journalist and broadcaster. He has written on everything from crime and politics, through cinema and theatre to the visual arts, but is best known as restaurant critic, a job he did for the Observer from 1999 until 2025, and which he now continues for the Financial Times. As well as being a former Young Journalist of the Year and Restaurant Critic of the Year, in 2023 and again in 2025 he was named Critic of the Year in the UK Press Awards. Jay was also shortlisted for Cookery Writer of the Year at the 2026 Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. He has published four novels and eight works of non-fiction, the most recent of which is _Nights Out At Home_, his first cookbook marking his 25 years as a restaurant critic which was a _Sunday Times_ bestseller. He chairs BBC Radio 4's _The Kitchen Cabinet_, and is a regular on British television, where he is familiar as a judge on MasterChef. Jay regularly performs live, both in his one man shows and as the pianist in his jazz sextet.

From the Queen of Middle Eastern cookery, every recipe in _Persiana One_ makes irresistible Middle Eastern flavours easier than ever in one pot, one tray or one pan. From dips and bits that make snacking sublime to spectacular salads, and from easy everyday dinners to something a little bit more special, these are recipes designed with clever shortcuts that don't compromise on flavour, to be as simple, and as kit free as possible. With over 100 recipes, each accompanied by a photograph, this is a sumptuous gift for every cookery lover - who hates washing up! Sabrina Ghayour is an Iranian, self-taught home cook turned chef, cookery teacher and food writer. She made her name hosting the hugely popular 'Sabrina's Kitchen' supper club in London, specializing in Persian and Middle Eastern flavours, and went on to be named the _Observer's_ Rising Star in Food. Her award-winning debut, _Persiana_, is a worldwide bestseller, and her follow-ups _Sirocco_, _Feasts_, _Bazaar_, _Simply_ and _Persiana Everyday_ were _Sunday Times_ bestsellers. Her most recent book _Flavour_ is out now. www.sabrinaghayour.com instagram.com/sabrinaghayour twitter.com/sabrinaghayour

Scran is a new collection of more than 100 nostalgic and traditional Scottish recipes, seen through a modern lens. From celebrated Scottish home cook Ali Stoner (@rovinghaggis) come old favourites, classic bakery treats and creative new recipes inspired by Scotland, its landscapes and its traditions. Recipes include: - Scottish Eggs Benedict with Whisky Chive Hollandaise - Millionaire shortbread - Peppermint slice - Chicken Balmoral sausage roll - Macaroni pie - Confit sardines with gin pickled onions - Morning rolls - Tablet - Scottish martini Ali Stoner or 'Roving Haggis' as she is known on social media, is a Scottish cook, previous Masterchef Australia contestant and social media influencer. Born in Glasgow, she currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, family and two dogs. In early 2022, encouraged by her friends and family, she was finally tempted to stretch her cooking talents further and applied to be a contestant on Masterchef Australia. During her time on the show, her creativity and inventiveness were a stand out and the experience encouraged her to take her food journey further. In May 2023, Ali launched her Instagram and presence under the Roving Haggis moniker and has seen her audience grow rapidly with a large global following, particularly in North America, Canada and of course Scotland and the UK.

Bookshops are a comforting sight on our high streets, warm and welcoming spaces in which to browse, meet friends and occasionally buy books. They may feel timeless, yet their history is a restless and turbulent one, filled with as many entrepreneurial street hawkers and illicit trades as with beloved institutions. _The Bookshop_, from the celebrated author of _The Library_ [https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/books/arthur-der-weduwen-and-andrew-pettegree/the-library/9781788163439/] and _The Book at War_ [https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/books/andrew-pettegree/the-book-at-war/9781800814943/], explores the evolution of bookselling from the cramped collectors' shops frequented by Samuel Pepys to the radical feminist bookshops of the 70s, the rise of monolithic chains and the new world of online selling. Connecting stories and lives that span centuries, countries and continents, _The Bookshop_ brings us into beloved bookshops of today and looks forward to the possible experience of booksellers of tomorrow. Andrew Pettegree, FBA, is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of _The Book at War_, the prize-winning _The Book in the Renaissance_ and co-author of _The Library: A Fragile History._ He is a former Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and founding director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue.

A moveable city in the Arctic Circle. Tower blocks tackling loneliness in Tokyo. Helsinki's sprawling underground metropolis. And Ukraine's bomb-resistant bedrooms. These places, and many more, are among the strange and dazzling solutions responding to our uncertain world. Gabriella Bennett takes readers on a globe-trotting journey to learn how we are reimagining home to embrace the challenges of contemporary living. From political instability to wildfires, flooding and an increased pressure on materials and space, the built environment is under threat like never before. It must change - and it is. We'll travel to the frontier cities of this urban revolution and discover how people are transforming their communities in surprising ways. Celebrating human ingenuity and resilience, _How to Build a City_ is a remarkable investigation into where we'll live and why it matters. Gabriella Bennett is a journalist specialising in housing, architecture, travel and design. She writes a weekly column for The Times and her broadcasting credits include This Morning, Countryfile and Debate Night. In 2021 she was named Travel Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards and Regional Journalist of the Year at the UK Property Press Awards for her investigations into the cladding crisis. She lives in Perthshire.

The theme of this book group a simple - incontrovertibly fine books accompanied by slightly more controversial, interpretive food pairings for each selection. For our fifth book of 2026 we will read Anthony Shapland's _A Room Above a Shop_ [https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/books/anthony-shapland/a-room-above-a-shop/9781803511627/]_,_ a powerful debut novel set in Wales that has been garnering a great deal of praise from browsers and booksellers alike. You're very welcome to join us in the first Book Book and a Bite of the New Year. We will meet monthly, and there is no commitment beyond whichever meeting you decide to attend. When two quiet men form a tentative connection neither knows where it might lead. M has inherited his family’s ironmongery business and B is younger by eleven years and can see no future in the place where he has grown up, but when M offers him a job and lodgings, he accepts. As the two men work side by side in the shop, they also begin a life together in their one shared room above - the kind of life they never imagined possible and that risks everything if their public performance were to slip. Unfolding in South Wales against the backdrop of Section 28, the age of consent debate and the HIV and AIDS crisis, this is a tender and resonant love story, and a powerful debut.

Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away. Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Maggie's new novel is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and survival with resilience and love. Maggie O’Farrell is one of the most loved writers in the English language and her nine novels have explored disparate themes – from incarceration, madness and treachery to love, bereavement and loss. Maggie’s novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers and together have sold over a million copies in the UK and Ireland and have been translated in 43 languages around the world.

Book Salad meets at the end of the month at 6:30pm, usually on a Tuesday, and you're very welcome to join us. To make a salad you put together different things you'd like to eat, and we do the same with reading. We try all kinds of books, by all kinds of people. We limit numbers to fifteen attendees and it's very friendly and informal. For our sixth book of 2026, we will read '_Spies_' by Michael Frayn, chosen because my colleague Robin said intriguing things about it, and I like stories about children in a grown-ups world. Also, spies are fun! Here's the blurb: _"_In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live, the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bombsite. But the two boys start to suspect all is not as it seems when one day Keith announces a disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have dreamed up emerges from the shadows, they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they had bargained for._"_ WHAT WE MIGHT READ NEXT I am sometimes asked for a provisional reading list for the rest of our year, so here it is. I'll try to stick to it but there may be changes if something exciting comes along: June: '_Spies'_ by Michael Frayn July: '_The Man Who Was Thursday'_ by G.K. Chesterton August: '_Captains of the Sands'_ by Jorge Amado September: '_The Impostor and Other Stories'_ by Silvina Ocampo October: '_The Sundial'_ by Shirley Jackson November: '_The Blizzard'_ by Vladimir Sorokin December: '_A Chess Story_' by Stefan Zweig (We don't meet in December but this is the short book I've decided I'll be reading) January: '_The Topeka School'_ by Ben Lerner February: 'The _Silver Bone'_ by Andrey Kurkov March: ??? (Thanks to the top of Mikey's head, for posing for the photo. )

As Sophia Smith Galer's Nonna lay dying, she realised it wasn't just a beloved grandmother she was losing - it was the language she spoke, too. From Northern Italy, she spoke a dialect that Sophia, like so many children and grandchildren of migrants, can understand but can't speak. With the death of the language, Sophia would lose a culture, a history, an inheritance - a whole world. This tragedy reaches far beyond her family. Globally we are witnessing an unprecedented mass extinction event. By the end of this century half of the world's 7000 languages will be gone, killed by war, climate breakdown, migration, nationalism or neglect, along with the vital knowledge that they have sustained for centuries. Award-winning journalist Smith Galer has journeyed across continents and generations to report from this disappearing world. From Ghana to Greece, Ecuador to Oman, California to the UK, she meets people experiencing this loss at first hand - but also campaigners and linguists who prove that a multilingual future is still possible. Her travels ultimately lead her back to where she began: to Italy, and the tiny mountainside village where the church bells still ring out for her Nonna. _How to Kill a Language_ is an impassioned investigation into a hidden global crisis, and a call to speak, read and write the languages of our world, before it's too late. SOPHIA SMITH GALER is an award-winning journalist, author and content creator based in London. She won the British Journalism Award for Innovation of the Year for her work, as well as recognition on lists such as _Forbes_ Under 30 and British _Vogue_'s 25 Most Influential Women in the UK. She has reported across four continents for the BBC and VICE News; her videos have been seen more than 160 million times on TikTok and Instagram where she explores etymology, language rights and linguistics. She studied Spanish and Arabic at Durham University and her family speak Italian and a variety of Emilian.

When the Maclean brothers rowed non-stop and unsupported across the entire Pacific they made history and raised over a million pounds for charity. But there's miles more to the story than that. Just a few years earlier, they were complete novices. What followed would test their resolve, their relationships and their belief in one another. Nail-biting, uplifting and inspiring, this is the true story of three ordinary people achieving something extraordinary. The Maclean brothers - Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan - first made global headlines in 2019 when they became the fastest trio to row across the Atlantic Ocean, covering 3,000 miles in 35 days and breaking the previous speed record by nearly a week. Determined to keep working together for causes they believed in, they founded The Maclean Foundation, with a mission to raise funds for clean water projects. In 2025 they set the Fastest Known Time for rowing the full Pacific Ocean, raising over GBP1 million for communities in Madagascar.

A comprehensive look at inequalities and why they matter There is a widespread sense throughout the developed world that progress towards a better society has stalled. Many countries, including the UK, have experienced persistent economic stagnation accompanied by declining trust in institutions. Governments are struggling to respond not only to traditional economic problems but also to newer challenges posed by climate change, migration and technological change. _Challenging Inequalities_ connects these conditions to inequality-inequality not just of income and wealth but of health, political participation and opportunity. It not only offers a detailed analysis of the different forms of inequalities but also an in-depth consideration of why inequalities matter, how they have changed and what can, or should, be done about them. The book explains the enduring effects of early life experiences and education and examines the trends in employment and earnings over recent decades. It argues that economic stagnation since the financial crises of 2008-2009 has exposed inequalities originating in the 1980s. Not only have incomes stagnated, but so has progress towards reducing health inequalities and dealing with inequalities across gender, ethnicity, geography, age and educational level. The combination of earnings inequality and economic stagnation has led to the growing importance of wealth, the increasing concentration of economic power in an older generation and a decline in social mobility. Economic inequalities have also resulted directly in dangerous differences between regions and in political power across groups. PAUL JOHNSON is provost of the Queen's College, University of Oxford, and former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). He is the author of the _Sunday_ _Times_ bestseller _Follow the Money._

It's 7:30 pm: clear your mind of the cares of the day. relax and fix yourself a drink. It's _The Cocktail Hour_. The moment Tim Hayward started mixing himself an 'attitude adjuster' at the end of the day, his life changed. He realised he was falling in love - with the taste, the image, the ritual and legend, of _the cocktail._ _The Cocktail Hour_ celebrates not just the recipes but the stories, feelings and nostalgia that a drink can evoke. You will learn how to make 50 classic and modern drinks carefully, with good ingredients and the right equipment. But more importantly, from Gimlet to Gibson, Manhattan to Margarita, you will be equipped to immerse yourself fully and appreciatively in the ritual. Achieve inner peace and equilibrium, take pleasure in the glorious moment of that first sip, and join the innumerable artists, writers, statesmen, actors and intellectual titans who, across the centuries, have discovered the profound joy of _The Cocktail Hour_. TIM HAYWARD writes for the _Financial Times_ and is a panellist on BBC Radio 4's _The Kitchen Cabinet_. He won the Guild of Food Writers 'Food Journalist of the Year' award in 2014, 2015 and 2022, and was the Fortnum and Mason Food Writer of the Year for 2014 and 2022. He is the author of _Food DIY_, _The DIY Cook_, _Knife_, _The Modern Kitchen_, _Loaf Story_, _Charcuterie from Scratch_, and _Steak_.

The story of trade is the story of humanity. From the copper in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon atoms within the chip inside your smartphone, intricate global trading networks have evolved over millennia to fulfil the distinctly human desire to buy and sell. Today, the volume of trade bestriding the planet is unprecedented. Yet, as fractures in the global order emerge – from an era of globalisation and untrammelled flows of goods and money to a new world of restrictions, intervention and, possibly, war – understanding this fundamental shift to the dominant economic consensus is more important than ever. Ed Conway is a writer and broadcaster. He is the Economics and Data Editor of Sky News and a regular columnist for The Times and Sunday Times. He has won numerous awards for his journalism and his book _Material World_ was a Sunday Times bestseller.

A troop of Red Army soldiers has disappeared without a trace while visiting the Halytska bathhouse, their abandoned boots and uniforms the only proof that they ever existed. Faced with such a fantastical conundrum, Samson must resort to a fantastical investigation method, but he discovers far more than he bargained for, and matters are further complicated by the human remains found in the stoves and the presence of a sinister religious cult in the city. In the third of his Kyiv Mysteries, Andrey Kurkov, vividly depicts a city filled with political turbulence and eccentric characters - and draws ominous parallels with the present day. Andrey Kurkov was a journalist, prison warder, cameraman and screenplay-writer before he became well known as a novelist. He received "hundreds of rejections" and was a pioneer of self-publishing, selling more than 75,000 copies of his books in a single year. His novel _Death and the Penguin_ became an international bestseller, translated into more than thirty languages. As well as writing fiction for adults and children, he has become known as a commentator and journalist on Ukraine for the international media. His work of reportage, _Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev_ was followed by the novels _The Bickford Fuse_, _Grey Bees_, and_ Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv_ (longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023), as well as his non-fiction work _Diary of an Invasion_ (2022).