If you use a mobile phone, connect to a WiFi network, withdraw cash from an ATM, or watch a film on Netflix, you are using cryptography. Cryptography secures 7 billion bank cards, 55 billion daily WhatsApp messages and three quarters of the connections made on the world wide web. This go-to book on the subject explains the technology and its implications in a way that the averagely intelligent person can understand. Cryptography is essentially an application of mathematics and has indirectly given rise to popular movies such as Enigma and Skyfall. You can get by without being aware of it, but in a series of imaginary day to day scenarios the author explains that knowing a bit about how it works can help make you more secure. Around 30% of fraud in the business world concerns cybercrime, and the cybersecurity firm Norton estimates that in 2017 there were 978 million global victims. The downside of cryptography is that on the one hand it protects the ordinary user in cyberspace, but it can also be used to protect organised crime, terror cells and child pornographers. In 2017 in the UK forty hospitals found their computer systems had been disabled by attackers who wanted a ransom to return the systems to normal, raising moral questions about the way we handle crime. Cryptography is political and there are no simple answers between freedom and control. The author explains keys and algorithms, bits and bytes. An encryption algorithm takes two core ingredients - plain text and key - and mixed them up to produce a cyphertext. If the text does not fit the bytes, padding is used. Then the bytes, columns and rows are all scrambled more than once. But who exactly is threatening us out there? The author considers an imaginary child, twelve year old Chloe, who uses social media, and the potential dangers. The book concludes by looking at possible future scenarios. 308pp.

Magritte's mature work is instantly recognisable with its smooth surrealistic surfaces, geometric precision and conceptual challenges to the whole idea of representation. Using interviews with people who knew Magritte including his widow Georgette and drawing on the insights of structuralist theorists such as Foucault and Jakobson, the author investigates the different periods and influences of Magritte's painting. In the process he offers a reading of Magritte's aesthetics based on structuralist theories of language and the concept of aphasia, a disconnect between the brain and the means of communication. Magritte's own monograph on "L'Art pur", published in 1922, advocates an anti-decorative aesthetic and basic pictorial forms inspired by modern machinery. His work at the time is comparable with the lyrical abstract expressionism of Kandinsky, with whom he shared a similar palette, though Magritte himself said he was more enthused by Mondrian. The style we associate with Magritte's mature work is exemplified in "Les droits de l'homme" (the rights of man) of 1948, in which a cloaked figure like a chess piece is painted in accordance with the laws of perspective, light and shade, with the entire space of the picture consistent and realised with geometric accuracy. In between these two career points Magritte embraced a number of different styles, becoming a Cubist after a brief flirtation with Dada, but when he came under the influence of Giorgio de Chirico Magritte said "He was my spark". De Chirico presented a world of deserted townscapes in which human habitation is only hinted at by the use of shadows. From now on Magritte's objects would have a sense of dislocation, existing side by side but not in relation to each other, dissolving the illusion of space and the modelling of form. The author uses the concept of aphasia as a model for mapping the theories of Roman Jakobson in Magritte's later work. Windows and frames are recurring motifs, with dislocated machine-like body parts dominating in the late 1920s. The concept of pictorial negation ("this is not a pipe") belongs to the post-war period. The book concludes with five interviews, some in English, some in French, with people closely connected with Magritte's work. 8.5 x 11.25". 280pp, high quality colour reproductions.
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'Memoirs of a Disobedient Civil Servant' caught our eye from this trailblazer you have probably never heard of. It has been a hit memoir about a remarkable life in the corridors of power. Warm, funny and illuminating, it is one woman's journey down the corridors of Whitehall and through a slowly changing society. From the tragic massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games to signing the Treaty of Rome when Britain entered the Common Market, Barbara Hosking was there. This is the story of a Cornish scholarship girl with no contacts who ended up serving two British Prime Ministers. It is also the very personal story of her struggle with her sexuality as a young woman in the 1950s, a time when being gay could mean social ostracism. Between working on a copper mine in the African bush, serving as a Press Officer to Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, and pioneering British breakfast television, Barbara's is a tale of breadth and bravery. At the age of 92 here in her memoir she reflects on her life and gives a compelling account of the innermost workings of politics and the media amid the turbulence of 20th century Britain. She has a keen eye for character, mood and episode, such as living a simple pastoral life amongst a local tribe in a remote corner of Africa with Mary, party conferences, lunches, drinks, press, government departments, Barbara Castle and all the big names in journalism and politics and ITV television and more. 306pp, paperback.

Everyone has heard, the story of Mozart's life and death: unappreciated, victimised by his rival Salieri, ending up in a pauper's grave. Except that the truth is rather different. This big, detailed biography gives us another Mozart: successful, full of joie de vivre, excited by the new commissions that were coming in and comfortably off with the revenue from his popular operas. When he fell ill in 1791 Wolfgang was enjoying the success of The Magic Flute: "one can feel how this opera is rising and rising". His letters from the same period are full of irrepressible high spirits, describing a practical joke he played on his character Papageno by coming in with a musical accompaniment at the wrong time. This exuberant lark does not seem like someone grappling with his own mortality, but at some point in those last few weeks he did sense that his time had come. In later years his wife Constanze recollected that while composing the Requiem Mozart had claimed that someone was poisoning him. The author of this book is a composer himself and his detailed appreciation of Mozart's musical genius avoids too much technical jargon while taking the reader into the act of creation. Mozart's move to Vienna from Salzburg in 1781 was the turning point in his career under the patronage of Emperor Joseph II. The author argues that the revolutionary undertones sometimes identified in earlier operas such as The Marriage of Figaro are the result of the fact that Mozart was using someone else's libretto and do not imply any revolutionary tendencies of his own. An interesting sidelight on his genius is that the manuscript of the famous aria "Se vuol ballare", which seems to flow so naturally, was changed by Mozart several times even on the final autograph copy. Mozart composed in layers, creating a skeletal score and then adding in the detail. The Flute was a true act of collaboration with his librettist Schikaneder and for that reason Swafford judges the opera to be his greatest work. Mozart's childhood as a prodigy with his sister Nannerl, his private life, marriage to Constanze and the loss of his children are sympathetically integrated into the story. 810pp, colour reproductions. Remainder mark.

The first definitive analysis of post-2008 populism which demonstrates that with the right critical and empirical mindset it is possible to understand these movements without either deploring or embracing them. Syriza, Trump, Podemos and Brexit - these and other electoral earthquakes of recent years have been grouped under the term 'populism'. But what actually defines populism? Marco Revelli answers the question by getting to grips with the historical dynamics of so-called populist movements. In the early days of democracy, populism sought to represent classes and social layers that asserted their political roles for the first time. In today's post-democratic climate, it instead expresses the grievances of those who had until recently felt they had a voice. The new populism is the child of an age in which the Left has been hollowed out, and lost the capacity to offer a true alternative. Revelli defines today's right-wing populism as a 'senile disorder' of liberal democracy, a 'revolt of the included who have been pushed to the margin'. 220pp, paperback.

A wordprocessed list of nine names, nothing else, is mailed to nine different people across the US. They do not know each other. Some are uneasy, others shrug it off, and all continue with their daily routines. Then Frank goes to the seashore to escape his demons, and finds he has to confront them in terror as he is dragged to his death by drowning. Matthew has a difficult marriage and problem children but one evening he kisses his neighbour Michelle and suddenly life seems better. A few minutes later he is shot accurately between the shoulder blades. Arthur is mourning the recent death of his husband Richard and succumbs easily to a canister of carbon monoxide. Meanwhile the last person on the alphabetical list is Jessica Winslow, an FBI agent, who is on the alert when she hears of the first death and starts investigating, tracking down those on the list and ringing up to warn them. Talking to her father, Jessica realises there may be a connection between the apparently random victims through the older generation. But then her colleague and former lover Aaron persuades her to go into hiding. Meanwhile Jack is getting to know his neighbour Margaret, Jay is stalking a new young blonde woman he spotted in the street, and Alison is stunned by the news that the wife of her much-older lover has left him and he is now free. Detective Sam Hamilton is on the case and as the net tightens it becomes clear that the murderer will take out the whole list. But who, and why? 320pp.

This biography of the last years of Edward Thomas's life places him among contemporaries including Lascelles Abercrombie, Eleanor Farjeon, Gordon Bottomley, Wilfrid Gibson and John Drinkwater. They all critiqued each other's work, competing for the attention of influential publishers such as Harold Monro, and the book also situates these poets in the context of emerging Modernism. Pound and T.S. Eliot were at the time viewed with incomprehension, and Monro dismissed Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" with the comment that it was "absolutely insane". Hollis's biography focuses on Thomas's friendship, interrupted by the War, with the American poet Robert Frost. Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken" is usually interpreted as a general lament for missed opportunities, but Frost himself regarded the poem as an intellectual tease: how can you evaluate a road not taken, and how can it make more difference than the road you did take? As a reflection on the pointlessness of regret it was a playful rebuke to the melancholy Thomas, who took the tease badly when it was explained to him. As Thomas developed as a poet his relationships became more turbulent, and his marriage to Helen came under repeated strain. One of his most moving poems is "No-one so much as you/Loves this my clay" from 1916, apparently addressed to Helen but possibly to Thomas's mother or even another woman. Thomas became close to Edna Clarke Hall when he was away on army training, and after Thomas's death Helen told Edna that she had envied her beauty. Above all, Thomas brought poetry to his experience of war, and just before his death in 1917 he wrote to Helen "the artillery is like a stormy tide - I simply watched the shells changing the landscape". 388pp, photos.

A lovely young Australian couple Cameron and Sam Bloom were holidaying with their three little boys in Thailand when Sam leant against a safety fence, riddled with dry rot. The barrier collapsed beneath her and Sam stood poised on the edge for a seemingly infinite slither of time - 'Leaning back over the void at an impossible angle, her slim arms waving wildly, fingers extended as if to find purchase in the air and take flight. And then she was gone. She didn't scream. I never heard her hit the ground.' With frightful head injuries causing constant migraine, her spine was shattered at T6 and T7 and in Cameron's absence, a callous doctor brusquely told Sam that it was obvious she would never walk again. 'My brave wife was devastated.' In the darkest days of her struggle towards some sort of recovery, the pain and depression was constant. Suddenly a new and unexpected member of the family came into their lives - an injured magpie chick abandoned after she fell from her nest in a car park near Grandma's house. She became their little girl, and known as Penguin Bloom. In many ways the penguin saved them and as the little chick grew into a strong and beautiful bird, Sam found she could talk to her and they became inseparable, one always looking after the other. The three little boys fed and petted her and the bird was free to come and go from the house. The story is told with the photographer-author's own beautiful images about a crazy little bird who helped make the family whole again. The number one international bestseller. B/w photos. Paperback, 272pp.

A witty and perceptive take on modern life with a focus on technology and the supernatural, the title story is a nice take on reality TV like Love Island. Another story is a parody of complacent academia and the dissent of the English language. There is a Kafka-esque 'Which of these would you like' story, 'Signal' is a clever look at the mobile phone, and Cold Call a realistic treatment of adult social care with a great twist, and Charity a great take on the curse of taking selfies with your camera. Brilliant observations of contemporary life, these are quick, old-fashioned scary stories updated with new technology, Tales of the Unexpected for the digital age, and vinegar-sharp satires that horrify and amuse in equal measure. 215pp, Faber paperback.

Iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser delves into the black-market art scene to investigate a decades-long unsolved crime of dangerous proportions. The heist was legendary, still talked about 20 years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever, buried deep, sold off overseas or worse, destroyed as incriminating evidence. But when paint chips from the valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black, by a Spanish master arrive at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope, and enlists Spenser's help. Soon the cold art case thrusts him into the shady world of black-market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses, and old vendettas. A five million dollar reward by the museum's top benefactor, and an unlikable Boston socialite set Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions, murder, and double crosses. Atkins's gift for mimicking the late Robert B. Parker delights devotees. 255pp, paperback.