Non-fiction

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything In Freakonomics Steven Levitt asks a series of provocative and profound questions about contemporary living and helps us to see the familiar world through a completely original lens. He examines everything from education to traffic jams, from food to guns, from sports to getting elected, from betting to parenting, pushing back the boundaries of economics along the way. Levitt turns conventional economics on its head, stripping away the jargon and calculations of the ‘experts’ to explore the riddles of everyday life. He reaches some astonishing conclusions, showing us that Freakonomics is all about how people get what they want.

Having risen to the challenge of seas, poles, dhows and deserts, the highest mountains in the world were a natural target for Michael Palin. In a journey rarely, if ever, attempted before, in 6 months of hard travelling Palin takes on the full length of the Himalaya including the Khyber Pass, the hidden valleys of the Hindu Kush, ancient cities like Peshawar and Lahore, the mighty peaks of K2, Annapurna and Everest, the gorges of the Yangtze, the tribal lands of the Indo-Burmese border and the vast Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. Facing altitudes as high as 17,500 feet as well as some of the world's deepest gorges, Palin also passed through political flashpoints like Pakistan's remote north-west frontier, terrorist-torn Kashmir and the mountains of Nagaland, only recently open to visi

In SCAR TISSUE Anthony Kiedis, charismatic and highly articulate frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recounts his remarkable life story, and the history of the band itself. Raised in the Midwest, he moved to LA aged eleven to live with his father Blackie, purveyor of pills, pot, and cocaine to the Hollywood elite. After a brief child-acting career, Kiedis dropped out of U.C.L.A. and plunged headfirst into the demimonde of the L.A. underground music scene. He formed the band with three schoolfriends - and found his life's purpose. Crisscrossing the country, the Chili Peppers were musical innovators and influenced a whole generation of musicians. But there's a price to pay for both success and excess and in SCAR TISSUE, Kiedis writes candidly of the overdose death of his soul mate and

Over forty years ago, a group of five Englishmen - and one wayward American - rewrote the rules of comedy. Monty Python's Flying Circus, an unheralded, previously unseen half-hour show of sketches, hilarities, inanities and animations, first appeared on the BBC late one night in 1969. Its impact has been felt on the world ever since. From its humble beginnings, it blossomed into the most influential movement in modern comedy. THE PYTHONS' AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE PYTHONS is a unique look at arguably the most important comic team of the modern age, with 64 pages of photographs, many culled from the team's own personal collections, many more seen for the first time. This is the definitive word on all things Pythonesque.

Dust off your thinking cap, because it's about to get quizzical!
* Over 4000 questions
* 200 quizzes sorted into easy, medium and difficult
* All topics covered, from pop stars to Death Stars
* Easy-to-find answers, so anyone can be the quizmaster

Quiz me quick!

Q: What's inside this book?
A: More than 200 brand new quizzes covering everything from pop stars to death stars. The rounds are a mixture of themed and potluck and the questions go from friendly teasers to ones that will scramble even an egghead's brains.

Q: Who is it for?
A: You, your mum, your dad, your family and friends, the man down the road and two halves of the crowd at your local. Each quiz provides good clean fun for all. The answers are quick and easy to find so

Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, ‘I come from Des Moines.Somebody had to.’ In this deeply funny new book, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, in the curious world of 1950s America.It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout.This is a book about one boy’s growing up.But in Bryson’s hands, it becomes everyone’s story, one that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Diego Armando Maradona needs little introduction - a poor boy from a Buenos Aires shanty-town, his genius with a ball took him to the heights of European and World football, and his struggle with the pressures of life inside and outside the game pulled him right back down again. Never before has Maradona given us his extraordinary story in his own words, until now.