Sub-titled 'The Science of What Makes You You' the book gets right to the heart of what makes us tick. Popular science master Brian Clegg investigates what makes you the unique individual that you are. From the atomic level through life itself to consciousness, genetics and personality, we explore how your DNA, your memories, your flesh and bone has come to be. Full of fascinating true stories featuring royal ancestors, stellar deaths, real-life hobbits, and a self-reproducing crayfish to name a few, this wide-ranging exploration is a one-of-a-kind voyage of 'self' discovery. Chapters include Exponential Doubling, Chemical Components of You, The Cosmologist's Time Machine, The Star Dust Factories, The Life Thermodynamic, Feeding the World, Climate Change is Happening, Becoming A Mega-Brain, On Automatic Pilot, Going Batty, Words At the Speed of Light, Inhuman Computers, Polls Aren't Facts, Living in Chaos, Genes and Pathways, You Are What You Eat and more. 240pp, illus. paperback.

Sub-titled 'The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix', this first-rate analysis is an engaging memorial to a rock revolutionary. 'Arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music' says Jimi Hendrix's citation in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. James Marshall Hendrix remains unique as an African American who broke out of the traditional 'Black' genres of blues, R&B and soul to play hard rock to an overwhelmingly white audience, almost single left-handedly creating what became known as heavy rock. With unprecedented access to Jimi's younger brother Leon, the two most important women in his life, and numerous previously untapped sources, bestselling music biographer Philip Norman resurrects the real Jimi. His death in 1970 aged only 27 when his fame was at its height has long been rock music's greatest unsolved mystery, but finally we learn where the responsibility lay for his lonely, squalid end. Here he is pictured with The Who, record producer Chas Chandler, with the Jimi Hendrix Experience bass player Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell in matching afros and the fashion model girlfriend of Keith Richards, Linda Keith who discovered Jimi in New York. Fabulously detailed about his generosity, threads, contacts, musicians, antics and anecdotes of this Voodoo Chile. A thrilling and star spangled read, 392pp in paperback. Colour and b/w photos.

The bombshell book that everyone was talking about by the radio genius and maestro of Mastermind, John Humphrys has been a journalist with the BBC for a record-breaking 50 years. He has reported from all over the world and presented front line news programmes on both radio and TV, including serving as presenter of Radio 4's Today programme since 1987. He pulls no punches and now, freed from the restrictions of being a BBC journalist, he reflects on the controversies he has reported on and been involved in, including the interview that forced the resignation of his own boss, the Director General. In typically candid style he also weighs in on the role the BBC itself has played in our national life, for good and ill, and the broader health of the political system today. Now he offers his life story from the poverty of his post-war childhood in Cardiff, leaving school at 15, to the summits of broadcasting where he was the BBC's youngest Foreign Correspondent. Along the way he recalls the experiences that have marked him most - being the first reporter at the terrible disaster in Aberfan, reporting from South Africa in the dying days of apartheid, from Ireland during the Troubles, and from the White House on Richard Nixon's historic resignation and in war zones around the globe throughout his career. John was also the first journalist to present Nine O'clock News on TV. We are even offered glimpses of his human side off-mic. 400 page large paperback, colour and black and white photos.

From a 'crannog', an ancient artificial island in a Scottish loch, to the militarised artificial islands China is building in the South China Sea, from the disappearing islands that remain the home of Native Central Americans, to the ritzy new islands of Dubai, from Hong Kong and the Isles of Scilly to islands far away and near, all have urgent stories to tell. Alastair Bonnett has a deep knowledge of history and contemporary geopolitics and is a seasoned traveller with a writer's eye for telling detail. He gives us a tour of our terrifying but often beautiful new world. New islands are being built at an unprecedented rate whether for tourism or territorial ambition, while many islands are disappearing or fragmenting because of rising sea levels. It is a strange planetary spectacle, creating an ever-changing map which even Google Earth struggles to keep pace with. In his book the explorer and geographer Bonnett takes us on a compelling tour of the world's newest, most fragile and beautiful islands on an ambitious journey by wing, sail, rubber and road as he respectfully drags geography back to its roots. 249pp, many maps and colour photos and diagrams.

Written by the son of the well-known German novelist Thomas Mann, this historical fantasy takes Alexander the Great for its subject, looking at his life and career, and examining his obsession with conquest and supremacy, regardless of its effects on his friends and lovers. The novel that also explores Klaus Mann's ambiguous sexuality. It was written in 1920s Germany in the aftermath of World War I and can be viewed as a fascinating study of power with highly political connotations. Which enemy was it against this time? 'They shuddered, for an ice-cold wind blew at them. They felt themselves become rigid and they were already thinking down. Their swords, which had so often conquered, fell from their hands, which had suddenly become weak. They were still mumbling; was it a farewell greeting to their king? Then their lips, which looked white, became silent...When Alexander noticed that they were dead, he was frightened of his loneliness. For a moment it seemed to him that it would be unbearable. Behind the wall a metallic voice warned: 'For the battle with us you had to be completely alone, Alexander. Even the last ones had to leave you!' A double gate sprang open, and a brightness, which was blinding, poured towards the king...' Everything was at stake. 128 page paperback with a foreword by Jean Cocteau.

'A thoughtful and stirring look into the art and science of lifelong learning. Currently, I'm learning Gaelic, dressmaking and how to lay floors. Last year, I was knitting and coding. I'm fifty, and not supposed to be a beginner anymore - according to society's conventions - but Tom Vanderbilt turns that flawed assumption on its head...' - Rose George. Discover why learning is good for us and how to develop a Beginner's Mindset, no longer exclusive to the young, in a book that bridges the small, tricky gulf between enthusiasm and action. Fascinating and challenging, learn new skills along with Tom as he tackles skills under the tutelage of professionals in singing, juggling, chess, surfing and drawing. Be prepared to fail over and over and enjoy along the way the anecdotal records of Tom's experiences, many interesting and fun, and many with his young daughter, and among the nuggets in the book are insights from scientists and experts. We revere expertise but look down on the beginner, but why are children the only ones allowed to experience the inherent fun of facing new daily challenges? What could this do for your brain? 300 pages.

Contains The Shot, The Blizzard, The Undertaker, The Postmaster, Young Miss Peasant and A History of Goryukhino Village. First published in 1831, Belkin's Stories was the first completed work of prose fiction by the founding father of Russian literature. Pushkin offers his own variation on themes and genres popular of his day and a lively and iconic portrayal of contemporary Russian society. From the story of revenge served cold in The Shot to the havoc wreaked by a blizzard on the life of two young lovers, from the bittersweet tones of The Postmaster to the supernatural atmosphere of The Undertaker, this collection is presented here with a new translation by Roger Clarke and sparkles with humour. 200 page paperback.

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most widely read Hindu scriptures in the Western world. Taking the form of a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and the divine Krishna on the eve of battle, it is concerned with the most profound aspects of social and religious duty, and the relationship of human beings to God. In its 18 short chapters it explores the spiritual struggle of the human soul and the search for both the true self and eternal life, culminating in an unparalleled vision of God the omnipotent. This translation has stood the test of time. 160 page paperback.

American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is best known for the Age of Innocence. Opening in August 1914 as the onset of the First World War is announced to sunlit Paris, Wharton's chronicle of her experience on the front lines powerfully evokes a country and a way of life under threat. As nuanced in her observations of human behaviour as in her vivid depictions of French landscape and architecture, she fully exploits her unique position as consort to Walter Barry, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which allows her unparalleled access to life in the trenches. Sensitive without sentimentality, the book is nothing less than an inspirational testament to the strength of the human spirit at a time of the greatest adversity. Colm Toibin in his foreword says 'Wharton's novelist's eye for the perfect detail is matched in these reports with a sense of moral grandeur and warlike fervour.' Names of the towns still resonate today like Ypres which she visited after the second battle but before the slaughter of the third battle: 'Ypres has been bombarded to death, and the outer walls of its houses are still standing... Every windowpane is smashed, nearly every building unroofed, and some house-fronts are sliced clean off, with different stories exposed, as if for the stage-setting of a farce. In these exposed interiors the poor little household goods shiver and blink like owls surprised in a hollow tree.' The essays are presented in chronological order which shows the modern day reader the slow descent into the chaos of the trench warfare that so dominated this war. 120 page paperback.

Vividly brings to life the checkpoints and informers, beatings and hunger, the small terrors of living in Mussolini's Italy under a fascist regime. 'A doll on the railroad tracks; a mad woman in the wild; silkworms in the attic. Recipes for rolling tender gnocchi, using sardines to make polenta last, torturing enemies with oil or salt - they are all part of life in this winning novel about tradition, hardship and resolve.' - Publishers Weekly USA. It is 1923. Maria Vittoria is embroidering a sheet for her dowry trunk. Her father has gone to find her a husband. He's taken his mule, a photograph and a pack of food - homemade sopressa sausage, cold polenta, a little flask of wine. There are no eligible men in this valley or the next one, and her father will not let her marry just anyone. Now, despite Maria's years, she is still healthy. And the Lord knows Maria will need to be able to work. Fascism booms as crops ripen, the State craves babies just as the babies cry for food. Maria faces a stony path, but one she will surely climb to the summit. A sumptuous and elegant novel in which you can touch the mulberry leaves cut finer than organdie and feel the strain of Maria's family, faith and place. 384pp.