The long-awaited diary from Whitehall's most scandalous MP, the book is an outrageous spoof of the classic political journal that pulls back the Lulu Lytle curtains to expose extraordinary goings-on at the Houses of Parliament during a tumultuous 12 months. From Brexit to Covid, parties to pig culling, the Conservative government has lurched from crisis to crisis. With a front-row seat on the, erm, backbenches, the Secret Tory MP has picked up on all the petty rivalries, bad decision-making, and scandalous affairs that Whitehall has to offer and has no qualms about sharing it all. Join the mystery MP as he drunk-texts Liz Truss after a crate of WKD, accompanies Jacob Rees-Mogg (and his kids) to picket a foodbank, takes on the French in the 'Trawler Wars' and euthanises Rishi Sunak's dog - and that's just October. Scarily realistic, 320pp, paperback.

The DVD film features original newsreel footage of the key people and events that shaped 1953, including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Stanley Matthews Cup final, England losing to Hungary at Wembley, Mo Connolly winning Wimbledon and much more this is the year which the Cold War began in earnest, Russia caught up with America in the nuclear bomb stakes, the Korean war ended in stalemate, Joseph Stalin was mourned in Russia and the French met resistance in Vietnam. 1953 was certainly a year to remember and much has been captured in these Pathé News reels. The CD contains no less than 27 tracks including That's Amore by Dean Martin, Choo Choo Train by Doris Day, I Believe by Frankie Laine, How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?, From Here To Eternity by Frank Sinatra, I Love Paris by Tony Martin, Kiss Me Again, Stranger by Doris Day and P.S. I Love You by The Hilltoppers with Orchestra among them. Box set.

The abundance of coal seams below the surface of Britain's countryside powered the industrial revolution and radically changed the country's landscape with its proliferation of satanic mills. It also brought about a complete change in people's domestic lives, particularly women's. The big switch from wood-fired kitchens to coal-burners started in the mid-16th century, affecting England and Wales more than Scotland because of the prevalence of peat for burning north of the border. By the time of the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, London was the first city to be fired almost exclusively by coal, in fact the first in the western world. A steady supply of coal for London came from shipping the product from Newcastle. In the kitchen coal would be used for cooking using a firebox and adjacent shelves, and in the early days grains would be the staple diet, with Frumenty being a popular gruel dish. Bread and roasting were successful operations, with a more French cuisine developing with the increasing versatility of the coal-fired range. Mrs Beeton's 1860 bestseller on household management mentioned the availability of "an unlimited supply of toast". Starting as a domestic revolution, in the 17th and 18th centuries coal was established on as the fuel of manufacturing, and the result was coal-generated dirt and dust on an unprecedented scale, blackening not only buildings but the housewife's washing on the line. The coal-fired range brought about not only a change in diet, but also in cleaning. The dirt generated by coal created a demand for soap and a general focus on effective cleaning and laundering. As luck would have it, a by-product of coal manufacture was soap, created by mixing charcoal with grease in a fascinating symbiotic relationship. An outstanding social history. 330pp, illustrations.

George Blake became a Russian spy when he was a prisoner of the Communist North Koreans. When North Korea crossed the border and invaded Seoul in 1950, capturing diplomats, nuns and American prisoners of war, Blake, an MI6 diplomat who had worked for the Dutch resistance in the War, made several daring bids to escape, but the starving and disease-ridden prisoners were forced to march north. Far from being shocked by the ruthless torture inflicted by the Korean commanding officer "The Tiger", Blake was more disappointed by the lack of heroism of his American fellow-prisoners. A fluent linguist who had graduated in Russian, he secretly offered his services to the Russian government. Back in England, Blake joined MI6's Section Y at 2 Carlton Gardens, marrying MI6 secretary Gillian Allen, and was posted to Berlin where the CIA, outclassed by the KGB on every front, had initiated the project of constructing a tunnel to tap the Russian lines communication. The Russians allowed it to continue in order not to compromise their source. By 1954 Kim Philby's usefulness had run its course and Blake was ideally placed to replace him. When he was finally caught and sentenced to 42 years, Blake's predilection for daring escapes served him one last time and the friends who sprung him from Wormwood Scrubs drove him to East Germany in a secret compartment of their camper van. Thrilling from start to finish. 530pp, paperback, bibliography, photos.

The Financial Times said, 'An illuminating glimpse of the chain reactions of human and physical geography.' This is a fascinating exploration of the lesser-known and more subtle borders across the earth, and the surprising ways in which they shape our lives. Our world has innumerable boundaries, ranging from the obvious like an ocean to the subtle differences in language or climate. Most of us cross invisible lines all the time, but do not stop to consider them. Here geographer Maxim Samson presents 30 such unseen boundaries, intriguing and unexpected examples of the myriad ways in which we collectively engage with and experience the world. From football fans in Buenos Aires to air quality in China, Paris' banlieues to sub-Saharan Africa's Malaria Belt, the existence or perceived existence of dividing lines has manifold implications for people, wildlife, and places. Football's no-go neighbourhoods, evolutionary splits, segregation along Detroit's infamous 8 Mile, to herds of deer that refuse to cross the former Iron Curtain, the book is a veritable treat for the armchair explorer. Fully illustrated with maps of each location in a new way of viewing our world in all its consistency and messiness too. 404pp.

The images of nuclear hell he depicts will be etched in many readers' minds - the stunning flash (pika) of the bomb, followed by the colossal blast (don), nakedness or semi-nakedness from the blast stripping clothing away, eerie silence, people walking in lines with their hands outstretched and skin peeling off like scarecrows or a line of ants and corpses frozen by death while in full action of flight. A dead man on a bicycle. A burned and blinded horse. Mothers with dead children. Corpses without faces. Water everywhere clogged with dead bodies. Survivors in crowded ruined buildings, lying in vomit, urine and faeces and everywhere flies and maggots. The heart-breaking, inspiring true life story of Dr Michihiko Hachiya whose hospital was less than a mile from the epicentre of the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima. In immense shock and pain, he and his wife Yaeko dragged themselves to the devastated hospital building and what colleagues they could find. In time they begin to heal and start to treat the impossible numbers of patients - a small girl covered in burns, an elderly man with pneumonia, a young boy and his little sister looking for their parents - and they also began to investigate the strange and inexplicable symptoms afflicting his patients. The triumph of the writing lies in the doctor's ability to chronicle a nuclear horror into an affirmation of life so naturally, without preaching, usually without philosophising, just by being himself and setting down his daily thoughts and activities. Somehow in August 1945, when the rhetoric of war, hate and race hate was at fever pitch, and the most devastating weapon in history had just shattered his life, this modest and conspicuously patriotic physician managed to express himself almost entirely in the language of a common humanity. Paperback, 268pp.

The era of the Album, Long Playing Record or LP began in 1967 with 'Sgt Pepper'. The Beatles didn't just collect together a bunch of songs, they Made An Album. 15 years later, the Walkman had already taken music out of the home and into the streets. The record business had begun trying to reverse-engineer the creative process in order to make big money, and nobody would play music or listen to it in quite the same way ever again. During that time the LP became a mark of sophistication, an instrument of education, a poster saying things you dare not say yourself, a means of attracting the opposite sex and for many the single most desirable object in their lives. This fabulous creation of a book takes us from recording studios where musicians were doing things they had never done before, to the sparsely furnished apartments where their efforts would be received like visitations from a higher power. In a love letter to the LP, this is a true enthusiast's account of the golden age of Vinyl, and Hepworth has more insider knowledge and knows more rock anecdotes than any man alive. 344 page paperback, eight pages of archive photos.

' I actually do not know of any writer alive in the English language, in verse or prose, who is cleverer, more observant or who has told us more about ourselves.' - A. N. Wilson. Ysenda Maxtone Graham, author of The Real Mrs Miniver, has mined the memories of more than 200 women for their personal job stories. She excels in the quirky, comic and even poignant details that resonate with our readers who are nostalgic for a dear British past. In this way she is a sort of George Orwell, but better. Drawn from real life, interviews with women from all sections of society who ever had a job, this book is an eye-opening portrait of British women from 1950, through cardigans and pearls via miniskirts and bottom pinching, to shoulder pads and the ping of the first emails in the early 1990s, never forgetting overalls, aprons and uniforms. And all this after what was a shockingly unambitious school education - girls with or without Maths O-Level, secretarial and 'little jobs', sewing and the inspiration of Anna the Air Hostess. Here is life as a secretary, living in digs, smoking, drinking and lunch, perks, machinery, lust and love in the work place and being an extension of one's husband. Here are the jollities and drudgeries, good men and vile ones, nasty women and heroines, office crushes, parties and great piles of paper all over the place, the forging of life long friendships, the daily burden of trying to run a household and family as well - in short, a look at all facets of this rich slice of British life. Ysenda has a high sense of comedy and her book is full of great anecdotes, expertly woven together, some from quite upper middle class backgrounds like the wonderful Rosie de Courcy in the late 1970s as Editor at Sphere Books. 'Men threw things. George Weidenfeld threw an inkwell at Mary Burd when she was his secretary in the 1960s...The boss-secretary relationship was one that facilitated tyranny.' "There was the long standing secretary in loose cardigan and the young, sexy one in tight cardigan whom he could have sexual fantasies about." Nostalgia galore. 303pp, photos.

'How a Few Skinny Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked America', we have another tremendously enjoyable read full of great stories and expertly told by the great rock 'n' roll raconteur. The Beatles landing in New York in February 1964 was the opening shot in a cultural revolution which nobody had predicted. Suddenly the youth of the richest and most powerful nation on earth was trying to emulate the music, manners and modes of a rainy island that had recently fallen on hard times. The resulting fusion of American can-do and British f*** you didn't just lead to great rock 'n' roll. Out of it also came a uniquely fruitful special relationship based on three chords, long hair, a shared language and an ability to misunderstand each other. From The Beatles playing Shea Stadium to the Rolling Stones at Altamont, from the Who performing their rock opera at the Metropolitan Opera House to David Bowie touching down in the USA for the first time with a couple of gowns in his luggage, being Big in America lit a fire in the English imagination which still burns to this day. Chapters include Blue Jean Baby, LA Lady, Squeeze my Lemon Till the Juice Runs Down My Leg, Engerland Swings Like A Pendulum Do, I Love Jennifer Eccles and 'This Mellow-Thighed Chick Just Put My Spine Out of Place among them. Rock 'n' roll! 314 page well illustrated paperback.