Sub-titled 'What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity', the book is an impressively brisk intellectual tour through our glory days of early 20th century evolutionary biology. He cuts to the heart of vital questions such as the notion that genomes are set up to explore in the hope of leaping across the adaptive landscape to new peaks. In Darwin's survival of the fittest, each step must be uphill as life progresses towards an evolutionary peak and there is no turning back. So, what happens when life needs to cross a valley? The world-renowned biologist Andreas Wagner draws on pioneering research to explore life's creative process, and how it bears a striking resemblance to how we humans work. A beguiling symmetry links Picasso struggling through 40 versions of Guernica and the way evolution transformed a dinosaur's claw into a condor's wing. This new understanding is already revolutionising our approach to problem-solving across the sciences. In the near future, applied in spheres as diverse as the economy and education, it will enable us to do so much more. Our ability to play, experiment and make mistakes holds an important message for the way we educate our children and run our institutions and societies. Wagner argues that human inventiveness is a reflection not just of human nature but of nature itself. 320pp.

'You start the forty days of Lent, in your ice-cold convent, receiving neither visitors nor letters, and whilst you settle into the comfortable intimacy of a god made to your own measure, I stay in the wilderness.' So begins this beautiful and moving story of unfulfilled love. 40 petitions follow in which the narrator uncompromisingly explores her feelings of intense longing and intense hatred for her beloved. The strands of a life have been devastated by the war in Spain and by a mother's betrayal. Only one response will come. Written with extraordinary grace and intensity of feeling, once read, this novel cannot be forgotten. It was first published in France under the title Un Corps en Trop and was the first book by the author who had become a classics teacher. She committed suicide aged 42 just prior to its publication. English translation, facsimile reprint of the 1994 edition, 134pp in small, neat hardback.

The topic is how collaboration and curiosity has shaped mankind. As we recover from the pandemic of 2020, the world needs more open minds, open hearts, open communications, open markets, and Norberg's superb book demonstrates how openness has been key to the success of our species over 10,000 years. From Stone Age hunter-gatherers to contemporary Chinese-American relations, Open explores how across time and cultures we have struggled with a constant tension between our yearning for cooperation and our profound need for belonging. Providing a bold new framework for understanding human history, Norberg examines why we are often uncomfortable with openness, but also why it is essential for progress. As the world is ravaged by Coronavirus, climate change and financial uncertainty, our future feels in doubt. However, when we look at the world objectively, humanity is doing better than ever. The freedom to explore and exchange whether goods, ideas or people, has led to stunning achievements in science, health, technology and living standards. So why are we so intent on ruining it? Norberg makes a compelling case for why an open world with an open economy is worth fighting for more than ever. The World Bank has calculated that the greatest economic damage from epidemics like swine flu, SARS or the new coronavirus do not come from mortality, morbidity, treatment and associated loss of production, but from increased fear of associating with others which shuts down places of production, transportation, harbours and airports. 440 intriguing pages, large softback.

Each of the ten pictures presented chronologically have been chosen for the light that they cast on a period of profound change which starts as English painting takes leave of the Rococo and ends in the beginning of modern art. They are William Hogarth's Portrait of Bishop Benjamin Hoadly with whom he shared a distinctly positive, rather pugnacious temperament; Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy with its vigorous brushwork that builds the firmly modelled figure and the cool blue of the costume given vitality by being placed against the stormy sky. Third is Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mrs Siddons as The Tragic Muse, the figure in costume with two shadowy attendants, she sitting on a thronelike chair in deep contemplation with a great pendent cluster of pearls adorning the front of her dress and heavy, sweeping draperies. Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie studied in detail again with close ups as per the other subjects. The fifth choice is Thomas Rowlandson's Mrs Siddons Rehearsing, a pen and watercolour created within a year or two of Reynolds' great portrait. She is shown being coached by her father Roger Kemble, while another actor declaims in front of a mirror in the background. The drawing is an amusing antidote. William Blake's Satan, Sin and Death comes from Paradise Lost as Satan, on his way to undertake the temptation of Adam and Eve, is stopped by Death at the gate of Hell and engaged in combat. Richard Wilson's River Scene with Bathers captures a warm summer evening. Gainsborough's The Cottage Door has the theme of a peasant family standing by the door of a country cottage, a scene the artist returned to again and again. John Constable's View on the Stour near Dedham represents a stretch of country for which the artist had deep affection. The final and tenth example is J. M. W. Turner's Grand Canal, Venice, in which the buildings appear relatively much higher and the Rialto much smaller in the background on the canal. Other examples are given throughout the text of the changing nature of each artist's work. 136pp in softback 18 x 25.5cm.
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On a daily basis Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon Jay Jayamohan makes life-and-death decisions on the most vulnerable and fragile members of society - babies and children. Daily, parents and carers put their faith in him and his team. Developments in the field of neurosurgery have been massive over recent years, and many of the everyday procedures Jayamohan undertakes would have been undreamt of only a few years ago. Despite this he is on the cutting edge of his work in this area and faces new and puzzling challenges every day. Many of his patients are faced with a lifetime of surgery, with each step along the treatment path often leading to unknown or unexpected repercussions. Though he is proud of his successes he learns from every procedure that goes wrong. Compassionate, frank and revelatory, his book portrays a man faced with potentially devastating decisions who's driven to help as many children as possible. 'There are two ways to open a child's head. The pretty way and the quick way. Usually I shave the hair, use a scalpel to nick the skin then apply an electro-cautery device to burn down to bone level. It's a slow, precise method and leaves almost no scarring. But it takes time. Time, the interminable single note of the heart monitor reminds me, I don't have.' Jayamohan is an Asian who struggled in 1970s Britain as an Asian growing up and he has been featured in two highly acclaimed BBC fly-on-the-wall series following the work of neurosurgeons and their highs and lows. He is truly an inspirational man. 256pp.

Chinese alchemy was nourished by Taoism with its two distinct branches: the classical Tao Chia, grounded in mysticism, and the popular Tao Chiao, with its magical, alchemical bias, arising traditionally in the time of the Yellow Emperor and his Three Immortal Ladies. Non-theistic and working in accord with nature, Chinese Alchemy operated through the complementary principles of yin and yang. Many Taoist texts have yet to be translated, but the Alchemical movement must predate 144 BC when an edict ordered execution for anyone making counterfeit gold. The later Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) was a time of interest in science and astronomy, and at this time the first alchemical book was written by Wei Po-yang, while the earliest complete treatise was the work of Ko Hung in the 4th century, dealing with gods, genii, prescriptions and medicines, maintenance of life, extension of years, and banishing misfortune. Ko Hung argued that alchemical change was one aspect of the universal transformation in nature, and that the creation of gold and silver was a logical step from this general principle, with immortality a further possible gain from good living. According to some experts, Chinese Alchemy derives from the northern influence of shamanism, and the author investigates links to shamanism and also to the western tradition of alchemy, with its common principle that death precedes a harmonious renewal. 156pp, paperback, line drawings.

Bart Simpson's solution to the risk of an asteroid impact was to "party hard and wreck the place", and many people would echo that fatalistic judgment. The author concludes this no-nonsense guide by detailing the ways in which cosmic impact could be avoided, arguing that rather than seeking to explode the space invader with possible disastrous consequences to its destination as well, deflection is the modern scientific alternative. Earth has only one easily recognisable impact crater, the Meteor Crater in Arizona which is less that fifty thousand years old. For those who know what to look for, however, Earth has many more craters, for instance the 200 km-wide Chikxulub Crater on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula from 66 million years ago, which landed in an explosion five billion times worse than Hiroshima and extinguished the dinosaurs. Famous comets have often been considered to be bad omens, for instance Halley's Comet which appeared before the Battle of Hastings, though as the author points out, it must have been seen by both sides. Halley's is predictable, but in our own time Hale-Bopp of 1997 emerged as a surprise out of its elongated orbit. Pseudo-scientists have had a field day misinterpreting comets, for instance Immanuel Velikovsky in the 1950s, who based his theories on the belief that Jupiter had created a comet by colliding with Saturn. There is now a worldwide effort to protect our planet by monitoring the risk of comet impact. 168pp, paperback, black and white photos and diagrams.

Journalist Walter Shapiro always assumed that the stories about his great uncle Freeman Bernstein, particularly the one where he conned Hitler's war effort out of a valuable shipload of scrap metal, were just urban myths, particularly as other family members were law-abiding types with a healthy respect for the long arm of the law. This is the story of a professional swindler with a phenomenal gift of the gab, told in racy style to match the subject's extraordinary career. The story starts in Hollywood in 1937, where Freeman went up to see Mae West with a consignment of jewels from which the streetwise star easily extracted the best pieces, leaving Freeman with the junk, though she rewarded him with several pages in her autobiography. Freeman knew he was wanted by several police departments and submitted to arrest quietly as he left Mae's apartment block. In fact the charge was defrauding Hitler, to which he responded with the immortal line, "Hitler ain't got a thing on me". The son of Polish immigrants, Freeman got on the rung of showbusiness with a vaudeville arcade, inching his way towards Hollywood by fleeing from serial bankruptcies and dud cheques. His fortunes turned when he signed on the popular artiste May Ward, whom he married to cement the contract, and in World War I they had considerable success entertaining the troops. But Freeman could never go straight, and soon he and May had perfected the Anniversary Gag in which cruise ship passengers were conned into believing they were celebrating an anniversary and were then cheated at cards. The crowning con of Freeman's career was exporting scrap-metal claiming it was valuable nickel, swindling his Nazi clients with the time-honoured method of providing a few inspection bags of the real thing. 430pp, photos. Remainder mark.

In 1405 Christine de Pisan took up the pen to defend her maligned sex. Her book, The City of Ladies, was built around preserving women's reputations from the slights and misunderstandings of history. In it the author is visited by three spirits - Justice, Rectitude and Reason - who guide her in sifting through countless lives, in search of worthy citizens. Lisa Hilton picks up the book and promptly falls asleep, only to be visited by three great women from history: Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great. The 15th century writer Christine de Pisan, celebrated as the first feminist, wrote her book claiming to defend the reputations of women to whom history has been unkind. In this beguiling slim volume Lisa Hilton revisits Christine's work, imagining a dreamlike procession of famous women all heading towards Christine's city. When Lucrezia Borgia offers tea, Lisa is a little too quick to refuse, while Lucrezia explains that the famed Borgia poisonings are in fact the stuff of legend. Meanwhile, Cleopatra comes clean, admitting that she poisoned her brother Ptolemy on her ruthless career towards the throne of Egypt. "Whirlwind romance. Single mother. Again", sniffs Cleo, recalling her affair with Antony. Lucrezia, the "greatest whore of Rome", was briefly in charge of the Vatican while Pope Alexander was away from Rome, but Catherine de Medici, on the other hand, asks nothing better than a nice game of billiards in the evening. Although her marriage was notoriously unsuccessful she tactfully but disappointingly omitted most of her lovers from her memoirs. Here is a reassessment of the past, in which deeds and reputations, rumours and reality are held up to the light, and history is wrested back from the distortions of misogyny. 92pp.

Meet Captain Underpants! George and Harold have created the greatest superhero in the history of their school, and now they're about to bring him to life. His true identity is so secret even HE doesn't know who he is! The only novel with Wedgie Power featuring Flip-o-rama, the world-famous cheesy animation technique that lets you animate the action, here's laugh-out-loud funny with sharp humour combining empowerment and empathy and age appropriate humour for 7-11 year olds. Cartoon illus, 124pp, paperback.