Need a break from election-mania politics? For your summer reading, perhaps explore a journalist’s quest to uncover his origins; literature’s transformative power through an academic’s journey; an SS officer challenging the Nazi regime; and a circus performer’s secret life as a Cold War spy. Also, dive into a Brexit-era thriller and immerse yourself in the rivalries of the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts.
Autobiography
Finding Margaret: Solving the mystery of my birth mother by Andrew Pierce
In this Sunday Times bestseller, follow journalist Andrew Pierce’s heart-wrenching quest to uncover the secrets of his birth story, navigating a web of deception and unexpected revelations.
We Are What We Read: A Life Within and Without Books by Vybarr Cregan-Reid
From the brink of failure to the pinnacle of academia, one professor’s tumultuous journey illustrates the raw, transformative power of literature to not only save lives but to ignite a revolution in a world that’s increasingly hostile to the humanities.
History & Espionage
Hitler’s Crime Fighter: The Extraordinary Life of Konrad Morgen by David Lee
In the darkest heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely SS officer dares to challenge the regime’s most brutal murderers, using the Third Reich’s own laws to bring justice and uncover staggering atrocities.
The Spy Who Came in from the Circus: The Secret Life of Cyril Bertram Mills by Christopher Andrew
Beneath the dazzling lights of the circus, a master of espionage orchestrates a daring double life, unveiling an untold legacy of deception, aerial espionage and Cold War intrigue that defies imagination.
Fiction
Sovereign Territory by Andy Bell
Amidst the dramatic upheaval of Brexit, four political lives collide in a high-stakes drama where political machinations, personal ambitions and hidden dangers converge, threatening to tear them apart.
The Winding Stair by Jesse Norman
Now in paperback, this award-winning novel takes you right to the heart of Queen Elizabeth I’s and King James I’s courts. Watch the two titans of the age, Francis Bacon and Edward Coke, battle it out for the monarch’s favour. Who will come out on top?
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