A remarkable collection of interpretations by outstanding writers on the literature and history of modern Britain: Prince Albert, John Spurling on one man's Raj, editing the English Historical Review, Andrew Roberts on Michael Roberts and the BBC, Jeremy Lewis on David Astor and the Observer, Ferdinand Mount on John Keats, Anthony Trollope, readers, writers and reputations, Robert Graves's war poems, Paul Levy on Bloomsbury Reassessed, Edmund Gosse and R. J. Ackerley, Ivy Compton-Burnett, the world of Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Harry Potter, the Black Hole of Calcutta, the breakup of Britain, A. J. P. Taylor and Hugh Trevor-Roper, Margaret Thatcher's impact on historical writing, Tony Benn, and Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Lady Thatcher and Max Hastings on Elizabeth II, the book concludes with British studies at the University of Texas 1975-2013. We are taken on an excursion through British life and intellectual biography covering personalities, politics and culture in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but also the interaction of British and other societies throughout the world. 400 pages, illus.

Sub-titled 'The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain', much has been written about Britain's trailblazing post-1975 Privatisation Programme, but the biggest privatisation of them all has until now escaped scrutiny - the privatisation of land. Since Margaret Thatcher took power in 1979, and hidden from the public eye, about 10% of the entire British land mass including some of its most valuable real estate has passed from public to private hands. Forest land, defence land, health service land and above all else local authority land for farming and school sports, for recreation and housing has been sold off en masse. Why? How? And with what social, economic and political consequences? This book is the first ever study of this profoundly significant phenomenon, setting it as a centrepiece of neoliberalism in Britain as a successor programme to the original 18th century enclosures. With more public land still slated for disposal, the book identifies the stakes and asks what if anything can and should be done. 'Necessary reading for anyone who wants to know where ruling-class power comes from, and how to take it back.' - Owen Hatherley. The economic geographer looks at the whole of Britain's 80,823 square miles. 362pp, paperback.

How can our unquenchable thirst for status explain cults, moral panics, conspiracy theories, the rise of social media and the 'culture wars' of today?' Bursting with insights into the hierarchy-crazed hellscape of a world shaped by social media, this book confirms Will Storr's own status as a master storyteller.' - Helen Lewis. What drives our political and moral beliefs? What makes us like some things and dislike others? What shapes how we behave and misbehave in groups? What makes you, you? For centuries, philosophers and scholars have described human behaviour in terms of sex, power and money. Will Storr radically turns this thinking on its head by arguing that it is our irrepressible craving for 'status' that ultimately defines who we are. When we exist as workers in the globalised economy, and citizens of online worlds, the need for status has always been wired into us. This dramatically affects not only our happiness and wellbeing but also our physical health. Without sufficient status we become more ill and live shorter lives. It's an unconscious obsession that drives the best and worst of us - our innovation, arts and civilisation as well as our murders, wars and genocides. Storr takes us on a breathtaking journey through time and culture and he is one of the finest science writers being published today. 405pp.

Officially entitled 'Manifesto of a Communist Party', an 1848 political manifesto by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, this originally laid out the programme of the Communist League. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of Communism's potential future forms. It contains their theories about the nature of society and politics, and briefly features ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then finally Communism. A bestselling classic that belongs in everyone's library, this beautifully designed illustrated edition includes an Introduction describing the pamphlet's enduring relevance to the tumultuous landscape of modern politics. English translation, with hundreds of colourful images. 160pp, 10.5 x 17.15cm.

What are governments for? To protect their citizens from harm and to guarantee them a framework in which to live their lives safely and fairly? But not everyone sees it that way. From deep states, governments are merely the vehicles by which they advance their interests - citizens by contrast are merely pedestrians to be knocked over if they get in the way. The book begins with Ancient Greece and Rome and ends around the time of the election of Donald Trump as President of the USA then the UK's Brexit referendum of 2016. Aristocratic vested interests are the oldest examples we have, arising in the classical world as a reaction to the then-novel experiments in government we call today democracy and republicanism. Military deep states came next and have never really gone away, with a lineage running from the Praetorian Guard of the Roman world to the generals controlling Egypt, Pakistan, Thailand, Myanmar and elsewhere. From there, the bad actors come thick and fast. But who runs our lives and what secrets are governments hiding from us? Are we really being manipulated by a 'deep state'? When democratic governments are elected, do you ever wonder why they don't seem able to change very much? Over time, special interest groups, unfettered by legal norms or public opinion, have formed 'states within a state' to advance their own private agendas. Unaccountable and immensely powerful, they have changed the course of history. Ian Fitzgerald takes us on an incredible journey as we encounter drug traffickers in Columbia and Mexico, the power-brokers of Western democracies, and the military-industrial complexes of Egypt, Pakistan and North Korea. A revealing and informative introduction to the sinister, secret powers that rule the world. 256pp in well illustrated large softback.