From the arrival of his first ancestor in Dublin in 1560, Simon Loftus traces the fascinating story of his family's heritage in Ireland - piecing together fragments of legend and biography that span over 350 years of Irish history.The background is the colonial conquest of Ireland and the clash of religious and national identity, but the focus is close at hand, familial. The passions and eccentricities, the daily concerns and relationships, the rich dramas and anecdotes of individua...

'Not just one of the best books on wine, it's one of the best books on France.' Michael Palin The sleepy village of Puligny-Montrachet produces the greatest white wines in Burgundy, famous throughout the world, but the place itself is unknown to outsiders. The lives of its inhabitants are shaped by the rhythms of the agricultural year, punctuated by the intense activity of the harvest, when the noise of tractors echoes down the narrow streets as the grapes are carried to the cellars. This ...

I have invented nothing, but memory weaves its own histories. These are travel stories, ranging in place and time. Some are memories of a re-imagined past, others more personal. From the first recorded performance of Hamlet (off the coast of Africa, in 1607) via the strange foundations on which probability theory was built and the forthright epitaphs of Suffolk gravestones, these explorations expand to include the pursuit of wine, a glittering dusk on the beach of Essaouira, the simit vend...

Did an Irish monk discover America? Which rebel died of having a feckin' tooth pulled? And who in the name of Jaysus was responsible for the Pledge? If you've ever wondered how much of our rabble-rousing history is true, and how much a load of wojus oul' bull, then look no further. From the great to the gormless, this book is a hilarious parade of the life stories of Ireland's favourite heroes and gougers. Gathered in a collection of the best anecdotes from our chequered past, it will tell...

Suzanne Harrington did all the things that adults do, long before she'd grown up: met Leo, married, had babies. She also partied, was homeless for a while, and drank - and drank. She headed towards disintegration, with Leo at her side, locked deep in himself. Then, waking to the wreckage of yet another lost weekend, she stopped drinking - and Leo, her companion and enabler, became a stranger. They separated. Newly sober, and freed from her demons, Suzanne embraced life. Leo chose escape. E...

'As a child I would sit on the stone wall as if hypnotised, imagining that the world ended where the moutains and the sky met and wishing I could stand at the top and touch the heavens.' This enchanting story tells of a young girl's magical childhood on a farm in the west of Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s. It looks at the mountain-village community, one that was poor, though never short of the necessities of life.

A spellbinding story of a young French prince and a Cornish girl caught up in the intrigue of the 10th Century English Court. '[Anya Seton] brought history so vividly to life' (Philippa Gregory)Merewyn has grown up in savage 10th Century Cornwall; a lonely girl, sustained by stubborn courage and pride in her descent from the great King Arthur.Rumon, a young French prince, has always dreamed of finding the i...

The SUNDAY TIMES top 20 bestseller!Shortlisted for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger AwardNew York, 1939: A city of hope. A city of opportunity. A city hiding dark secrets …A brutal murder in an affluent suburb of Dublin and the unexplained death of an Irish diplomat in Manhattan…Garda Sergeant Stefan Gillespie is sent to America to bring a killer to justice, but his mission soon becomes part of an increasingly personal struggle. A chance encounter with an...

10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION - NOW WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION BY THE AUTHORThe No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller | A Sunday Times Book of the Decade**'**Many books have been written which claim to be “A New History of the World”. This one fully deserves the title' The TimesFirst published in 2015 to unparalleled global acclaim, Peter Frankopan's Th...

'A taut thriller so involving that I missed my bus stop!' Woman & Home'I read it in two sittings, pausing only to sleep and dream about it. Gripping, perfectly paced and beautifully written' ERIN KELLYA pandemic called 'The Sweats' is sweeping the globe. London is a city in crisis. Hospitals begin to fill with the dead and dying, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend Dr Simon Sharkey was not from natu...

Welcome to Cressida McLaughlin’s heartwarming The Canal Board Cafe – step aboard!Summer Freeman returns to the waterside village of Willowbeck to help with the Canal Boat Café, which used to belong to her mother. Valerie, a fortune teller, has been running things, but the business is in a pickle. The coffee machine is jammed, the cake offerings are paltry, and not all of the locals want to see the café succeed. And then there’s the handsome wildlife photographer, Mason, from the bo...

Top ten Sunday Times Bestseller‘Engaging, ambitious and creative’ GuardianWhere are we? Are we alone? Who are we? Why are we here? What is our future?Human Universe tackles some of the greatest questions that humans have asked to try and understand the very nature of ourselves and the Universe in which we live.Through the endless leaps of human minds, it explores the extraordinary ...