THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANIACSA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAILA WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOKPlunge into this rich and thought-provoking A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations have taken shape, from the Middle Ages to the present day, as bestselling author Kate Summerscale deftly traces the threads between the past and...

On a mild winter's evening in 1850, Isabella Robinson set out for a party. Her carriage bumped across the wide cobbled streets of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town and drew up at 8 Royal Circus, a grand sandstone terrace lit by gas lamps.The guests were gathered in the high, airy drawing rooms on the first floor, the ladies in glinting silk and satin pulled tight over boned corsets; the gentlemen in tailcoats, waistcoats and neckties. When Mrs Robinson joined the throng she was at once...

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'A wonderful book' HILARY MANTEL'Gothic, dark and scandalous' SUNDAY TIMESSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONIt is 1938. As the shadow of fascism darkens over Europe, strange things are happening in Alma Fielding's suburban home in Croydon. Crockery flies ...

Bloomsbury presents The Queen of Whale Cay by Kate Summerscale, read by Lissa Berry.'Jaw-droppingly amazing' DAILY MAILWINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARDTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBorn in 1900 to a promiscuous American oil heiress and a British army captain, Marion Barbara Carstairs realised very early on that she was not like most girls. Liberated by war work in the First World W...

'Jaw-droppingly amazing' DAILY MAILWINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARDTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBorn in 1900 to a promiscuous American oil heiress and a British army captain, Marion Barbara Carstairs realised very early on that she was not like most girls. Liberated by war work in the First World War, Marion reinvented herself as 'Joe'. She dressed in men's clothes, smoked cigars and cheroots, tat...

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER**WINNER OF THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: The Times/Sunday Times, Financial Times, Spectator, Independent, Tablet and New Statesman'I loved it' Richard Osman'Shattering' Val McDermid'Gripping' Sarah Waters**In 1953, the bodies of three young women are found by a tenant in the walls of a Notting Hill ...

Bloomsbury presents this Unabridged version of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale, read by Jessica Ball.FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITERWINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZEWINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERA RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICKGALAXY BOOK OF THE YEAR, BRITISH BOOK AWAR...

Bloomsbury presents Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, read by Stephanie Racine.FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'Extraordinary' PHILIPPA GREGORY, DAILY TELEGRAPH'Grippingly suspenseful' SUNDAY TIMESWhen the married Isabella Robinson was introduced to the dashing Edward Lane at a party in 1850, she was utterly enchanted. He was ‘fascinating’, she told her diary...

It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks.The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most ce...

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAYSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONOn 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother Nattie set out from their East London home to watch a cricket match. Over the next ten days they spend extravagantly, visiting the theatre and eating out. The boys tell neighbours thei...

Summer 1860, an elegant country house, a young boy is found dead in an outside privy. All clues point towards the murderer being a member of the grieving household.Called to the scene is the most celebrated detective of his day, Jonathan Whicher from Scotland Yard. But this case challenges him in ways he's never been challenged before.Over twenty years later, still haunted by the case, Whicher visits the murderer. As they replay the past, they start to question the nature o...

Bloomsbury presents The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale, read by Nicola Walker.FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITERWINNER OF THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: The Times/Sunday Times, Financial Times, Spectator, Independent, Tablet and New Statesman'I loved it' Richard Osman'Shattering'