Latest news with #Hodder&Stoughton
The Advertiser
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Shameful secrets surface during White Lotus-esque minibreak
New releases include Kayte Nunn's destination thriller Pelazzo and Fast Money about the multi-billion-dollar business behind Formula One racing. Caroline Reid & Christian Sylt. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. "F1 may seem like it's purely a sport but actually it's a high-octane tax-avoidance vehicle for its owners and it is all entirely legal," the authors write in the preface to this book that explores not just the Netflix-fuelled popularity of grand prix racing, but the multi-billion-dollar business behind it. F1 generates breathtaking amounts of revenue and profit, but it is also hideously expensive for teams to race, let alone win. As its subtitle promises, this book reveals "the backroom deals, corporate espionage and legendary power struggles" from the Bernie Ecclestone era to the drivers who are household names today. Lynne Olson. Scribe. $37.99. The Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck, hidden in a forest north of Berlin during World War II, has been described as the camp that history forgot. It was designed specifically to house women. Four of those women, Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Jacqueline d'Alincourt and Genevieve de Gaulle (niece of General Charles de Gaulle) - all heroes of the French Resistance and all captured by the Gestapo - formed a tight-knit group and miraculously survived. Olson's book explores not just the bond between courageous women united in a battle to survive hell, but also the long-overlooked contribution that women made to the resistance movement. Michael Pembroke. Hardie Grant. $37.99. Trade and war shape nations and empires. Silk Silver Opium examines the fraught history of China's trading relationship with the West - a relationship that moulded not only global commerce, but the distrustful attitude of modern China. For centuries the world's silver drained towards China as mercury runs towards a plughole. Traders clamoured to buy first silk, then the mysterious Chinese ceramic, porcelain, then tea - the drink that took Britain by storm. The balance shifted when the British began smuggling opium into China and silver began to travel in the opposite direction. Then came conflict and humiliation. China has never forgotten. Allan Mason. HarperCollins. $34.99. People of a certain age will remember watching with glee when media titan Kerry Packer appeared before a parliamentary inquiry in 1991 and eviscerated the political stuffed shirts. "Of course I am minimising my tax," he growled. "And if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their heads read ...". Allan Mason worked for Packer, and the mogul gets a number of mentions in this updated fifth edition, a guide to making money and keeping it. Put another way: we are all playing the money game, but only some know the rules, and fewer know the tricks. Kayte Nunn. HarperCollins. $34.99. This White Lotus-esque destination thriller puts you poolside with a prosecco as a murder mystery plays out at the luxurious Palazzo Stellina in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Newly widowed beauty entrepreneur Vivi Savidge is hosting her 40th birthday getaway at this grand old former convent. Vivi's guests include her artist sister, Alice, who's flying from Brisbane with her teen twins in tow, ex-colleague Pete and new husband Nick, who are coming from Boston, and old uni friend Caroline, who's driving from Turin. Everyone is hiding a shameful secret that will simmer under the summer sun until the jealousy and greed turn deadly. Nightshade Michael Connelly. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In his 40th book, bestselling author Michael Connelly, creator of Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller and Renée Ballard, introduces a new character: Detective Dave Stilwell. Once assigned to a homicide desk on the mainland, Stilwell has been exiled to the quiet post of Catalina Island. Routine calls and minor crimes fill his days until a body is discovered, wrapped in plastic, at the bottom of the harbour. As the investigation unfolds, Stilwell navigates murky jurisdictional waters. The case leads him to question whether Catalina's calm exterior hides something more dangerous and whether his new posting is as peaceful as it first appeared. Mark Brandi. Hachette. $32.99. Fresh out of jail, country boy Tom Blackburn has left behind his old life and name but he's not sure about his future. Sleeping on the streets is the quickest way back to a cell, so he jumps at the offer of a job that includes a place to stay. Can a bit of gardening and gravedigging in the peace and quiet of a cemetery in the dead centre of Melbourne keep him out of trouble? Or will buried secrets come back to haunt him? This lyrical crime thriller is the fifth novel by Mark Brandi, who debuted in 2017 with the acclaimed Wimmera. Rachel Gillig. Orbit. $32.99. The first book in the new series by the author of globally renowned gothic romance saga The Shepherd King follows Sybill Delling, a diviner at Aisling Cathedral, who predicts the futures of those who pay handsomely. But the omens that determine fate are not what they seem. As she nears the end of her 10-year service, Sybill's fellow diviners begin disappearing one by one. With a heretical knight who does not believe, Sybill sets out to discover what's happening. Expect sharp wit and elegant prose as two wounded souls collide in a beautifully refined fantasy set in a hauntingly gothic world. New releases include Kayte Nunn's destination thriller Pelazzo and Fast Money about the multi-billion-dollar business behind Formula One racing. Caroline Reid & Christian Sylt. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. "F1 may seem like it's purely a sport but actually it's a high-octane tax-avoidance vehicle for its owners and it is all entirely legal," the authors write in the preface to this book that explores not just the Netflix-fuelled popularity of grand prix racing, but the multi-billion-dollar business behind it. F1 generates breathtaking amounts of revenue and profit, but it is also hideously expensive for teams to race, let alone win. As its subtitle promises, this book reveals "the backroom deals, corporate espionage and legendary power struggles" from the Bernie Ecclestone era to the drivers who are household names today. Lynne Olson. Scribe. $37.99. The Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck, hidden in a forest north of Berlin during World War II, has been described as the camp that history forgot. It was designed specifically to house women. Four of those women, Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Jacqueline d'Alincourt and Genevieve de Gaulle (niece of General Charles de Gaulle) - all heroes of the French Resistance and all captured by the Gestapo - formed a tight-knit group and miraculously survived. Olson's book explores not just the bond between courageous women united in a battle to survive hell, but also the long-overlooked contribution that women made to the resistance movement. Michael Pembroke. Hardie Grant. $37.99. Trade and war shape nations and empires. Silk Silver Opium examines the fraught history of China's trading relationship with the West - a relationship that moulded not only global commerce, but the distrustful attitude of modern China. For centuries the world's silver drained towards China as mercury runs towards a plughole. Traders clamoured to buy first silk, then the mysterious Chinese ceramic, porcelain, then tea - the drink that took Britain by storm. The balance shifted when the British began smuggling opium into China and silver began to travel in the opposite direction. Then came conflict and humiliation. China has never forgotten. Allan Mason. HarperCollins. $34.99. People of a certain age will remember watching with glee when media titan Kerry Packer appeared before a parliamentary inquiry in 1991 and eviscerated the political stuffed shirts. "Of course I am minimising my tax," he growled. "And if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their heads read ...". Allan Mason worked for Packer, and the mogul gets a number of mentions in this updated fifth edition, a guide to making money and keeping it. Put another way: we are all playing the money game, but only some know the rules, and fewer know the tricks. Kayte Nunn. HarperCollins. $34.99. This White Lotus-esque destination thriller puts you poolside with a prosecco as a murder mystery plays out at the luxurious Palazzo Stellina in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Newly widowed beauty entrepreneur Vivi Savidge is hosting her 40th birthday getaway at this grand old former convent. Vivi's guests include her artist sister, Alice, who's flying from Brisbane with her teen twins in tow, ex-colleague Pete and new husband Nick, who are coming from Boston, and old uni friend Caroline, who's driving from Turin. Everyone is hiding a shameful secret that will simmer under the summer sun until the jealousy and greed turn deadly. Nightshade Michael Connelly. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In his 40th book, bestselling author Michael Connelly, creator of Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller and Renée Ballard, introduces a new character: Detective Dave Stilwell. Once assigned to a homicide desk on the mainland, Stilwell has been exiled to the quiet post of Catalina Island. Routine calls and minor crimes fill his days until a body is discovered, wrapped in plastic, at the bottom of the harbour. As the investigation unfolds, Stilwell navigates murky jurisdictional waters. The case leads him to question whether Catalina's calm exterior hides something more dangerous and whether his new posting is as peaceful as it first appeared. Mark Brandi. Hachette. $32.99. Fresh out of jail, country boy Tom Blackburn has left behind his old life and name but he's not sure about his future. Sleeping on the streets is the quickest way back to a cell, so he jumps at the offer of a job that includes a place to stay. Can a bit of gardening and gravedigging in the peace and quiet of a cemetery in the dead centre of Melbourne keep him out of trouble? Or will buried secrets come back to haunt him? This lyrical crime thriller is the fifth novel by Mark Brandi, who debuted in 2017 with the acclaimed Wimmera. Rachel Gillig. Orbit. $32.99. The first book in the new series by the author of globally renowned gothic romance saga The Shepherd King follows Sybill Delling, a diviner at Aisling Cathedral, who predicts the futures of those who pay handsomely. But the omens that determine fate are not what they seem. As she nears the end of her 10-year service, Sybill's fellow diviners begin disappearing one by one. With a heretical knight who does not believe, Sybill sets out to discover what's happening. Expect sharp wit and elegant prose as two wounded souls collide in a beautifully refined fantasy set in a hauntingly gothic world. New releases include Kayte Nunn's destination thriller Pelazzo and Fast Money about the multi-billion-dollar business behind Formula One racing. Caroline Reid & Christian Sylt. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. "F1 may seem like it's purely a sport but actually it's a high-octane tax-avoidance vehicle for its owners and it is all entirely legal," the authors write in the preface to this book that explores not just the Netflix-fuelled popularity of grand prix racing, but the multi-billion-dollar business behind it. F1 generates breathtaking amounts of revenue and profit, but it is also hideously expensive for teams to race, let alone win. As its subtitle promises, this book reveals "the backroom deals, corporate espionage and legendary power struggles" from the Bernie Ecclestone era to the drivers who are household names today. Lynne Olson. Scribe. $37.99. The Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck, hidden in a forest north of Berlin during World War II, has been described as the camp that history forgot. It was designed specifically to house women. Four of those women, Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Jacqueline d'Alincourt and Genevieve de Gaulle (niece of General Charles de Gaulle) - all heroes of the French Resistance and all captured by the Gestapo - formed a tight-knit group and miraculously survived. Olson's book explores not just the bond between courageous women united in a battle to survive hell, but also the long-overlooked contribution that women made to the resistance movement. Michael Pembroke. Hardie Grant. $37.99. Trade and war shape nations and empires. Silk Silver Opium examines the fraught history of China's trading relationship with the West - a relationship that moulded not only global commerce, but the distrustful attitude of modern China. For centuries the world's silver drained towards China as mercury runs towards a plughole. Traders clamoured to buy first silk, then the mysterious Chinese ceramic, porcelain, then tea - the drink that took Britain by storm. The balance shifted when the British began smuggling opium into China and silver began to travel in the opposite direction. Then came conflict and humiliation. China has never forgotten. Allan Mason. HarperCollins. $34.99. People of a certain age will remember watching with glee when media titan Kerry Packer appeared before a parliamentary inquiry in 1991 and eviscerated the political stuffed shirts. "Of course I am minimising my tax," he growled. "And if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their heads read ...". Allan Mason worked for Packer, and the mogul gets a number of mentions in this updated fifth edition, a guide to making money and keeping it. Put another way: we are all playing the money game, but only some know the rules, and fewer know the tricks. Kayte Nunn. HarperCollins. $34.99. This White Lotus-esque destination thriller puts you poolside with a prosecco as a murder mystery plays out at the luxurious Palazzo Stellina in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Newly widowed beauty entrepreneur Vivi Savidge is hosting her 40th birthday getaway at this grand old former convent. Vivi's guests include her artist sister, Alice, who's flying from Brisbane with her teen twins in tow, ex-colleague Pete and new husband Nick, who are coming from Boston, and old uni friend Caroline, who's driving from Turin. Everyone is hiding a shameful secret that will simmer under the summer sun until the jealousy and greed turn deadly. Nightshade Michael Connelly. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In his 40th book, bestselling author Michael Connelly, creator of Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller and Renée Ballard, introduces a new character: Detective Dave Stilwell. Once assigned to a homicide desk on the mainland, Stilwell has been exiled to the quiet post of Catalina Island. Routine calls and minor crimes fill his days until a body is discovered, wrapped in plastic, at the bottom of the harbour. As the investigation unfolds, Stilwell navigates murky jurisdictional waters. The case leads him to question whether Catalina's calm exterior hides something more dangerous and whether his new posting is as peaceful as it first appeared. Mark Brandi. Hachette. $32.99. Fresh out of jail, country boy Tom Blackburn has left behind his old life and name but he's not sure about his future. Sleeping on the streets is the quickest way back to a cell, so he jumps at the offer of a job that includes a place to stay. Can a bit of gardening and gravedigging in the peace and quiet of a cemetery in the dead centre of Melbourne keep him out of trouble? Or will buried secrets come back to haunt him? This lyrical crime thriller is the fifth novel by Mark Brandi, who debuted in 2017 with the acclaimed Wimmera. Rachel Gillig. Orbit. $32.99. The first book in the new series by the author of globally renowned gothic romance saga The Shepherd King follows Sybill Delling, a diviner at Aisling Cathedral, who predicts the futures of those who pay handsomely. But the omens that determine fate are not what they seem. As she nears the end of her 10-year service, Sybill's fellow diviners begin disappearing one by one. With a heretical knight who does not believe, Sybill sets out to discover what's happening. Expect sharp wit and elegant prose as two wounded souls collide in a beautifully refined fantasy set in a hauntingly gothic world. New releases include Kayte Nunn's destination thriller Pelazzo and Fast Money about the multi-billion-dollar business behind Formula One racing. Caroline Reid & Christian Sylt. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. "F1 may seem like it's purely a sport but actually it's a high-octane tax-avoidance vehicle for its owners and it is all entirely legal," the authors write in the preface to this book that explores not just the Netflix-fuelled popularity of grand prix racing, but the multi-billion-dollar business behind it. F1 generates breathtaking amounts of revenue and profit, but it is also hideously expensive for teams to race, let alone win. As its subtitle promises, this book reveals "the backroom deals, corporate espionage and legendary power struggles" from the Bernie Ecclestone era to the drivers who are household names today. Lynne Olson. Scribe. $37.99. The Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck, hidden in a forest north of Berlin during World War II, has been described as the camp that history forgot. It was designed specifically to house women. Four of those women, Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Jacqueline d'Alincourt and Genevieve de Gaulle (niece of General Charles de Gaulle) - all heroes of the French Resistance and all captured by the Gestapo - formed a tight-knit group and miraculously survived. Olson's book explores not just the bond between courageous women united in a battle to survive hell, but also the long-overlooked contribution that women made to the resistance movement. Michael Pembroke. Hardie Grant. $37.99. Trade and war shape nations and empires. Silk Silver Opium examines the fraught history of China's trading relationship with the West - a relationship that moulded not only global commerce, but the distrustful attitude of modern China. For centuries the world's silver drained towards China as mercury runs towards a plughole. Traders clamoured to buy first silk, then the mysterious Chinese ceramic, porcelain, then tea - the drink that took Britain by storm. The balance shifted when the British began smuggling opium into China and silver began to travel in the opposite direction. Then came conflict and humiliation. China has never forgotten. Allan Mason. HarperCollins. $34.99. People of a certain age will remember watching with glee when media titan Kerry Packer appeared before a parliamentary inquiry in 1991 and eviscerated the political stuffed shirts. "Of course I am minimising my tax," he growled. "And if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their heads read ...". Allan Mason worked for Packer, and the mogul gets a number of mentions in this updated fifth edition, a guide to making money and keeping it. Put another way: we are all playing the money game, but only some know the rules, and fewer know the tricks. Kayte Nunn. HarperCollins. $34.99. This White Lotus-esque destination thriller puts you poolside with a prosecco as a murder mystery plays out at the luxurious Palazzo Stellina in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Newly widowed beauty entrepreneur Vivi Savidge is hosting her 40th birthday getaway at this grand old former convent. Vivi's guests include her artist sister, Alice, who's flying from Brisbane with her teen twins in tow, ex-colleague Pete and new husband Nick, who are coming from Boston, and old uni friend Caroline, who's driving from Turin. Everyone is hiding a shameful secret that will simmer under the summer sun until the jealousy and greed turn deadly. Nightshade Michael Connelly. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. In his 40th book, bestselling author Michael Connelly, creator of Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller and Renée Ballard, introduces a new character: Detective Dave Stilwell. Once assigned to a homicide desk on the mainland, Stilwell has been exiled to the quiet post of Catalina Island. Routine calls and minor crimes fill his days until a body is discovered, wrapped in plastic, at the bottom of the harbour. As the investigation unfolds, Stilwell navigates murky jurisdictional waters. The case leads him to question whether Catalina's calm exterior hides something more dangerous and whether his new posting is as peaceful as it first appeared. Mark Brandi. Hachette. $32.99. Fresh out of jail, country boy Tom Blackburn has left behind his old life and name but he's not sure about his future. Sleeping on the streets is the quickest way back to a cell, so he jumps at the offer of a job that includes a place to stay. Can a bit of gardening and gravedigging in the peace and quiet of a cemetery in the dead centre of Melbourne keep him out of trouble? Or will buried secrets come back to haunt him? This lyrical crime thriller is the fifth novel by Mark Brandi, who debuted in 2017 with the acclaimed Wimmera. Rachel Gillig. Orbit. $32.99. The first book in the new series by the author of globally renowned gothic romance saga The Shepherd King follows Sybill Delling, a diviner at Aisling Cathedral, who predicts the futures of those who pay handsomely. But the omens that determine fate are not what they seem. As she nears the end of her 10-year service, Sybill's fellow diviners begin disappearing one by one. With a heretical knight who does not believe, Sybill sets out to discover what's happening. Expect sharp wit and elegant prose as two wounded souls collide in a beautifully refined fantasy set in a hauntingly gothic world.
Hindustan Times
07-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Venki Ramakrishnan: 'The source of funding might distort research priorities'
What made you write Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality? Why did the subject of longevity interest you? Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan (Kerala Literature Festival) I felt that the field itself was at a critical juncture, where a lot of advances have been made, but there is now a huge amount of money going into it. And it could go in directions that were not necessarily beneficial in many ways. The other thing that annoyed me about the field was that it was so full of hype. I thought that maybe somebody who doesn't have very much skin in the game could take a hard look at it. Of course, we are all growing old, so we all have some skin in the game in some sense. But I don't have financial skin in the game. Your mention of financial skin in the game is very interesting because a lot of scientific research is funded either by governments or by corporates. How does the source of funding affect the manner in which the scientific findings are used? Well, it depends. If the research is funded by governments or non-profit charities, then it usually has an objective for the broad social good. For example, a lot of government research is about how to age healthily because populations are growing older and you want to keep people healthy when they are old. That is actually a very creditable aim. On the other hand, if it is a corporate funder, then maybe they are trying to sell you stuff. And that is okay. I mean, corporations also produce antibiotics and statins and we all benefit from that. But the source of funding might distort priorities. Things that are maybe more profitable might be emphasized over things which are less profitable. So, there's always this slight problem. 320pp, ₹699; Hodder & Stoughton In the book, you mention that advances in medical science often have the potential to increase inequalities in society. If we look at longevity research in particular, what kind of problems do you see in terms of increasing inequality? Already, the rich in the United Kingdom — which has a national health service — live about 10 years longer than the poor. In the US, this disparity goes up to 15 years. And if you look at healthy lifespan, the difference is almost twice that. The poor are not only living shorter lives, but they are living less healthy lives. If you have new scientific advances, which are very expensive, they are going to favour rich people even more. So, we might get into a situation where, if you are well off, you are going to live a longer and healthier life. In India, many people think in terms of multiple lifetimes rather than a single lifetime. In the West, however, there is this widely accepted idea of a person having only one life. How do cultural differences affect the way people think of aging and death? Culture may affect the way people think of aging and death in their daily lives. But I don't think that culture will affect the way you do research on aging and death. Because scientific research then comes down to evidence and logic. Modern science came out of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. The way of doing science and thinking about science is converging all over the world. It is fairly common throughout, and is not going to change. For instance, I do not think that a Chinese person working on neuroscience or artificial intelligence or physics is really thinking about it differently from, say, an American or a European. If I go to science institutes in India, I don't see that they are involved in an Indian way of doing science. I do believe that science is much more universal than many things, including music or art, which have a really strong cultural aspect to them. However, culture may impact the choice of problems that scientists wish to study. India may be more interested in infectious diseases than some countries in the West. Other countries may be more interested in Alzheimer's disease since they have a growing population of very old people. With right-wing governments coming to power in many countries across the world, there has been a clampdown on science education with religion and mythology being pushed instead. As a Nobel Laureate, what kind of public-facing work do you feel called on to do? Well, I think that scientists have to really step up their game and push back when outrageous claims are made. If people mix up mythology and pseudoscience with actual science, then it is up to scientists to point out why it is not true. We must, in a very calm and objective way, point out the difference between what is actually science and what is not science. Some things belong in the realm of faith and personal beliefs, and other things belong in the realm of science. And they are not necessarily overlapping. There are some things which will never be science, but you might believe them anyway. Please don't pretend that they are scientific. I also feel that no country that doesn't support fundamental literacy in science, and sustains a core of high-level scientific expertise, can prosper in the 21st century. We are at the Kerala Literature Festival. What is it like for you to be at a literature festival, which must be quite different from the experience of working in a lab or being at a science conference? I have been to literature festivals before, but the Kerala Literature Festival is quite an occasion. I have never seen so many different sessions going on in parallel. I was very impressed by the fact that a lot of the sessions were in Malayalam. For scientific literacy, you have to have good textbooks and good teachers in local languages. People in Poland, Germany, France and Italy don't learn science in English. They study all the way through school and even university in Polish, German, French and Italian. Only when they become professional scientists do they start using English because it is an international language of science. You don't want to disadvantage children by making them learn science in a language that they are not familiar with. It is very important to have good quality science textbooks as well as books on popular science that children can read just for fun in their local languages. Your wife, Vera Rosenberry, writes and illustrates for children. What advice have you received from her about writing for a general, non-scholarly readership? Oh, actually none at all because I don't show her any of my drafts. Often, I don't even discuss the book with her while I am working on it. I just like to keep that side of me separate. Writing is a very personal thing to me. I show it to very few people. The people I show it to are experts in the field because I want to make sure that I have got things right, and no errors have seeped in. But otherwise, I don't show it to my friends or my family. What are you working on at the moment? Is it related to longevity? Well, currently, I am working on how ribosomes are regulated in response to stress, how ribosomes initiate on the genetic instructions to start making proteins, and how that process of initiation is regulated. These, I believe, are the next-level questions. And yes, the enquiry into stress and control of proteins during stress is, in a way, related to longevity. Though you are now based in the UK, and have lived in Australia and the US, you grew up in Chidambaram and Baroda. What are your fondest memories of those places? I hardly remember Chidambaram because I left when I was three years old. But when I grew up in Baroda, it was a beautiful town. It wasn't the hugely crowded, overgrown city it is today. And it was largely a university town, although it had one or two factories. It was very well planned by Sayajirao Gaekwad, one of the leading maharajas of the Gaikwad dynasty. For example, he built a huge reservoir, which was many times what Baroda needed for water supply. And it lasted for 50 years. It was enough for Baroda, despite the growing population. Now, of course, the city needs much more water. He built beautiful parks, and a very nice museum for the public. The university itself had a very beautiful campus. And you could travel on your bicycle anywhere in the city. My memories of Baroda are totally different from what a child growing up in Baroda today would have. Chintan Girish Modi is a journalist, educator and literary critic. He is @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.
The Advertiser
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Handbook tells how to go all-in on solar (and how to pay for it)
New books sampled this week include Saul Griffith's how-to guide for "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" and the memoir of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Sophy Burnham. MacMillan Australia. $36.99. The genesis of this book was a question Sophy Burnham's younger cousin, Eleanor, asked her over an espresso in a cafe on a street in Paris. As if standing on the edge of an unavoidable precipice, the cousin, aged 59, asked Burnham, 85, what it was like to be old. The answer? "It's one of the most interesting periods of my whole life." Burnham digs deeper into the meaning of age in a series of unsent letters to Eleanor, written over the course of a year and reflecting on the lessons she has learnt from a full life truly lived. Jacinda Ardern. Penguin. $55.00. Jacinda Ardern grew up in a small-town Mormon family, the daughter of a police officer. What, then, was the path of a young woman plagued by self-doubt to the highest political office in New Zealand? Ardern became prime minister in 2017 aged only 37. Her signature style was kindness and empathy, an approach that stood her in good stead as she navigated a terrorist attack, the pandemic, a volcano disaster and motherhood. Then, in 2023, Ardern announced she was stepping down as PM. Her memoir traces her journey to the pinnacle of politics and her surprising decision to walk away. Adam Hart. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. In August 1943 Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths took off from England on a secret night mission codenamed Operation Pimento to deliver much-needed arms to the French resistance. When his Halifax bomber took enemy fire near Annecy, Griffiths wrestled the plane into a crash landing at the village of Meythet, near the Alps. Griffiths was the only survivor. Injured and alone, he embarked on a 1900km, 108-day journey home via the attic of a brothel, a Frenchwoman's chimney and a Spanish prison cell. Nearly 80 years later, Adam Hart, Griffiths' great-grandson, retraced the journey of the wartime hero he never met. Saul Griffith with Laura Fraser. Black Inc. $27.99. Saul Griffith's book stands apart from the print-acres of self-help and mumbo jumbo advice manuals on the market by actually being useful. Griffith tackles the challenges of "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" by focusing on what he calls the big five: electrifying your home, driving, water heating, space heating and cooking. You may already have solar panels, but what are the pros and cons of a home battery? How do you switch from expensive and polluting gas hot water to a heat pump? How do you pay for it? Griffiths demystifies concepts that would otherwise make your head hurt. Kimberley Freeman. Hachette. $32.99. The 1967 disappearance of Harold Holt, Australia's 17th prime minister, while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria, sparked wild theories: that he faked his death or was assassinated by the CIA or was plucked out of the ocean by a Chinese spy submarine. Kimberley Freeman threads her own fictional theory into the facts with this reimagining of the inner life of Holt's wife, Dame Zara, tracing her journey from the night she met Harry at a university dance in Melbourne in 1927 to his fateful swim 40 years later, including her success as a fashion designer and running her own business. Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Allen & Unwin. $26.99. Lady Isobelle of Avington Castle is dreading the Tournament of Dragonslayers - because she's supposed to be the grand prize for the winner of the joust. Meanwhile, gutsy Gwen, hiding her desire for damsels while working as a blacksmith, yearns for valor and glory as a knight. They hatch a scheme to pursue their forbidden desires - freedom and each other. Longtime friends Meagan Spooner, who is based in North Carolina, and Amie Kaufman, who's in Melbourne, say they originally conceived their fun, feisty feminist and queer reimagining of medieval romance while sharing the cheesy joys of 2001 Heath Ledger movie A Knight's Tale long-distance during the pandemic. Dandy Smith. Echo Publishing. $22.99. Sixteen years after the ordeal of her older sister's apparent abduction as they slept at home alone while their parents went out to dinner, schoolteacher Caitin is stunned when Olivia returns home. Is this woman really who she says she is? Or is she an imposter? As Caitlin's suspicions grow, the unhappy life she's been living to fill the Olivia-shaped hole in her family begins to crumble. Even her fiance questions Caitlin's sanity. If this Olivia is a fraud, what's her motive? Is everything Caitlin said she saw that night the truth? What price will the family pay if they believe the wrong daughter? Marija Pericic. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Sisters Eva and Elizabeta Novak, Croatian immigrants, haven't spoken for a decade, not since the car crash that killed Eva's young daughter. When Elizabeta, who was driving that fateful day, mails her estranged sibling a plane ticket with a note saying "I need to see you. Please come", Eva arrives in rural Victoria from Germany to find her sister dead in her home. Appointed executor of Elizabeta's estate, Eva sorts through her sister's belongings. But will her anger permit grief? And what secrets will she uncover about the shared traumas of their past - a place so distant it feels like a foreign country? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. New books sampled this week include Saul Griffith's how-to guide for "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" and the memoir of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Sophy Burnham. MacMillan Australia. $36.99. The genesis of this book was a question Sophy Burnham's younger cousin, Eleanor, asked her over an espresso in a cafe on a street in Paris. As if standing on the edge of an unavoidable precipice, the cousin, aged 59, asked Burnham, 85, what it was like to be old. The answer? "It's one of the most interesting periods of my whole life." Burnham digs deeper into the meaning of age in a series of unsent letters to Eleanor, written over the course of a year and reflecting on the lessons she has learnt from a full life truly lived. Jacinda Ardern. Penguin. $55.00. Jacinda Ardern grew up in a small-town Mormon family, the daughter of a police officer. What, then, was the path of a young woman plagued by self-doubt to the highest political office in New Zealand? Ardern became prime minister in 2017 aged only 37. Her signature style was kindness and empathy, an approach that stood her in good stead as she navigated a terrorist attack, the pandemic, a volcano disaster and motherhood. Then, in 2023, Ardern announced she was stepping down as PM. Her memoir traces her journey to the pinnacle of politics and her surprising decision to walk away. Adam Hart. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. In August 1943 Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths took off from England on a secret night mission codenamed Operation Pimento to deliver much-needed arms to the French resistance. When his Halifax bomber took enemy fire near Annecy, Griffiths wrestled the plane into a crash landing at the village of Meythet, near the Alps. Griffiths was the only survivor. Injured and alone, he embarked on a 1900km, 108-day journey home via the attic of a brothel, a Frenchwoman's chimney and a Spanish prison cell. Nearly 80 years later, Adam Hart, Griffiths' great-grandson, retraced the journey of the wartime hero he never met. Saul Griffith with Laura Fraser. Black Inc. $27.99. Saul Griffith's book stands apart from the print-acres of self-help and mumbo jumbo advice manuals on the market by actually being useful. Griffith tackles the challenges of "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" by focusing on what he calls the big five: electrifying your home, driving, water heating, space heating and cooking. You may already have solar panels, but what are the pros and cons of a home battery? How do you switch from expensive and polluting gas hot water to a heat pump? How do you pay for it? Griffiths demystifies concepts that would otherwise make your head hurt. Kimberley Freeman. Hachette. $32.99. The 1967 disappearance of Harold Holt, Australia's 17th prime minister, while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria, sparked wild theories: that he faked his death or was assassinated by the CIA or was plucked out of the ocean by a Chinese spy submarine. Kimberley Freeman threads her own fictional theory into the facts with this reimagining of the inner life of Holt's wife, Dame Zara, tracing her journey from the night she met Harry at a university dance in Melbourne in 1927 to his fateful swim 40 years later, including her success as a fashion designer and running her own business. Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Allen & Unwin. $26.99. Lady Isobelle of Avington Castle is dreading the Tournament of Dragonslayers - because she's supposed to be the grand prize for the winner of the joust. Meanwhile, gutsy Gwen, hiding her desire for damsels while working as a blacksmith, yearns for valor and glory as a knight. They hatch a scheme to pursue their forbidden desires - freedom and each other. Longtime friends Meagan Spooner, who is based in North Carolina, and Amie Kaufman, who's in Melbourne, say they originally conceived their fun, feisty feminist and queer reimagining of medieval romance while sharing the cheesy joys of 2001 Heath Ledger movie A Knight's Tale long-distance during the pandemic. Dandy Smith. Echo Publishing. $22.99. Sixteen years after the ordeal of her older sister's apparent abduction as they slept at home alone while their parents went out to dinner, schoolteacher Caitin is stunned when Olivia returns home. Is this woman really who she says she is? Or is she an imposter? As Caitlin's suspicions grow, the unhappy life she's been living to fill the Olivia-shaped hole in her family begins to crumble. Even her fiance questions Caitlin's sanity. If this Olivia is a fraud, what's her motive? Is everything Caitlin said she saw that night the truth? What price will the family pay if they believe the wrong daughter? Marija Pericic. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Sisters Eva and Elizabeta Novak, Croatian immigrants, haven't spoken for a decade, not since the car crash that killed Eva's young daughter. When Elizabeta, who was driving that fateful day, mails her estranged sibling a plane ticket with a note saying "I need to see you. Please come", Eva arrives in rural Victoria from Germany to find her sister dead in her home. Appointed executor of Elizabeta's estate, Eva sorts through her sister's belongings. But will her anger permit grief? And what secrets will she uncover about the shared traumas of their past - a place so distant it feels like a foreign country? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. New books sampled this week include Saul Griffith's how-to guide for "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" and the memoir of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Sophy Burnham. MacMillan Australia. $36.99. The genesis of this book was a question Sophy Burnham's younger cousin, Eleanor, asked her over an espresso in a cafe on a street in Paris. As if standing on the edge of an unavoidable precipice, the cousin, aged 59, asked Burnham, 85, what it was like to be old. The answer? "It's one of the most interesting periods of my whole life." Burnham digs deeper into the meaning of age in a series of unsent letters to Eleanor, written over the course of a year and reflecting on the lessons she has learnt from a full life truly lived. Jacinda Ardern. Penguin. $55.00. Jacinda Ardern grew up in a small-town Mormon family, the daughter of a police officer. What, then, was the path of a young woman plagued by self-doubt to the highest political office in New Zealand? Ardern became prime minister in 2017 aged only 37. Her signature style was kindness and empathy, an approach that stood her in good stead as she navigated a terrorist attack, the pandemic, a volcano disaster and motherhood. Then, in 2023, Ardern announced she was stepping down as PM. Her memoir traces her journey to the pinnacle of politics and her surprising decision to walk away. Adam Hart. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. In August 1943 Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths took off from England on a secret night mission codenamed Operation Pimento to deliver much-needed arms to the French resistance. When his Halifax bomber took enemy fire near Annecy, Griffiths wrestled the plane into a crash landing at the village of Meythet, near the Alps. Griffiths was the only survivor. Injured and alone, he embarked on a 1900km, 108-day journey home via the attic of a brothel, a Frenchwoman's chimney and a Spanish prison cell. Nearly 80 years later, Adam Hart, Griffiths' great-grandson, retraced the journey of the wartime hero he never met. Saul Griffith with Laura Fraser. Black Inc. $27.99. Saul Griffith's book stands apart from the print-acres of self-help and mumbo jumbo advice manuals on the market by actually being useful. Griffith tackles the challenges of "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" by focusing on what he calls the big five: electrifying your home, driving, water heating, space heating and cooking. You may already have solar panels, but what are the pros and cons of a home battery? How do you switch from expensive and polluting gas hot water to a heat pump? How do you pay for it? Griffiths demystifies concepts that would otherwise make your head hurt. Kimberley Freeman. Hachette. $32.99. The 1967 disappearance of Harold Holt, Australia's 17th prime minister, while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria, sparked wild theories: that he faked his death or was assassinated by the CIA or was plucked out of the ocean by a Chinese spy submarine. Kimberley Freeman threads her own fictional theory into the facts with this reimagining of the inner life of Holt's wife, Dame Zara, tracing her journey from the night she met Harry at a university dance in Melbourne in 1927 to his fateful swim 40 years later, including her success as a fashion designer and running her own business. Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Allen & Unwin. $26.99. Lady Isobelle of Avington Castle is dreading the Tournament of Dragonslayers - because she's supposed to be the grand prize for the winner of the joust. Meanwhile, gutsy Gwen, hiding her desire for damsels while working as a blacksmith, yearns for valor and glory as a knight. They hatch a scheme to pursue their forbidden desires - freedom and each other. Longtime friends Meagan Spooner, who is based in North Carolina, and Amie Kaufman, who's in Melbourne, say they originally conceived their fun, feisty feminist and queer reimagining of medieval romance while sharing the cheesy joys of 2001 Heath Ledger movie A Knight's Tale long-distance during the pandemic. Dandy Smith. Echo Publishing. $22.99. Sixteen years after the ordeal of her older sister's apparent abduction as they slept at home alone while their parents went out to dinner, schoolteacher Caitin is stunned when Olivia returns home. Is this woman really who she says she is? Or is she an imposter? As Caitlin's suspicions grow, the unhappy life she's been living to fill the Olivia-shaped hole in her family begins to crumble. Even her fiance questions Caitlin's sanity. If this Olivia is a fraud, what's her motive? Is everything Caitlin said she saw that night the truth? What price will the family pay if they believe the wrong daughter? Marija Pericic. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Sisters Eva and Elizabeta Novak, Croatian immigrants, haven't spoken for a decade, not since the car crash that killed Eva's young daughter. When Elizabeta, who was driving that fateful day, mails her estranged sibling a plane ticket with a note saying "I need to see you. Please come", Eva arrives in rural Victoria from Germany to find her sister dead in her home. Appointed executor of Elizabeta's estate, Eva sorts through her sister's belongings. But will her anger permit grief? And what secrets will she uncover about the shared traumas of their past - a place so distant it feels like a foreign country? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. New books sampled this week include Saul Griffith's how-to guide for "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" and the memoir of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Sophy Burnham. MacMillan Australia. $36.99. The genesis of this book was a question Sophy Burnham's younger cousin, Eleanor, asked her over an espresso in a cafe on a street in Paris. As if standing on the edge of an unavoidable precipice, the cousin, aged 59, asked Burnham, 85, what it was like to be old. The answer? "It's one of the most interesting periods of my whole life." Burnham digs deeper into the meaning of age in a series of unsent letters to Eleanor, written over the course of a year and reflecting on the lessons she has learnt from a full life truly lived. Jacinda Ardern. Penguin. $55.00. Jacinda Ardern grew up in a small-town Mormon family, the daughter of a police officer. What, then, was the path of a young woman plagued by self-doubt to the highest political office in New Zealand? Ardern became prime minister in 2017 aged only 37. Her signature style was kindness and empathy, an approach that stood her in good stead as she navigated a terrorist attack, the pandemic, a volcano disaster and motherhood. Then, in 2023, Ardern announced she was stepping down as PM. Her memoir traces her journey to the pinnacle of politics and her surprising decision to walk away. Adam Hart. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. In August 1943 Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths took off from England on a secret night mission codenamed Operation Pimento to deliver much-needed arms to the French resistance. When his Halifax bomber took enemy fire near Annecy, Griffiths wrestled the plane into a crash landing at the village of Meythet, near the Alps. Griffiths was the only survivor. Injured and alone, he embarked on a 1900km, 108-day journey home via the attic of a brothel, a Frenchwoman's chimney and a Spanish prison cell. Nearly 80 years later, Adam Hart, Griffiths' great-grandson, retraced the journey of the wartime hero he never met. Saul Griffith with Laura Fraser. Black Inc. $27.99. Saul Griffith's book stands apart from the print-acres of self-help and mumbo jumbo advice manuals on the market by actually being useful. Griffith tackles the challenges of "unsubscribing from fossil fuels for good" by focusing on what he calls the big five: electrifying your home, driving, water heating, space heating and cooking. You may already have solar panels, but what are the pros and cons of a home battery? How do you switch from expensive and polluting gas hot water to a heat pump? How do you pay for it? Griffiths demystifies concepts that would otherwise make your head hurt. Kimberley Freeman. Hachette. $32.99. The 1967 disappearance of Harold Holt, Australia's 17th prime minister, while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria, sparked wild theories: that he faked his death or was assassinated by the CIA or was plucked out of the ocean by a Chinese spy submarine. Kimberley Freeman threads her own fictional theory into the facts with this reimagining of the inner life of Holt's wife, Dame Zara, tracing her journey from the night she met Harry at a university dance in Melbourne in 1927 to his fateful swim 40 years later, including her success as a fashion designer and running her own business. Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Allen & Unwin. $26.99. Lady Isobelle of Avington Castle is dreading the Tournament of Dragonslayers - because she's supposed to be the grand prize for the winner of the joust. Meanwhile, gutsy Gwen, hiding her desire for damsels while working as a blacksmith, yearns for valor and glory as a knight. They hatch a scheme to pursue their forbidden desires - freedom and each other. Longtime friends Meagan Spooner, who is based in North Carolina, and Amie Kaufman, who's in Melbourne, say they originally conceived their fun, feisty feminist and queer reimagining of medieval romance while sharing the cheesy joys of 2001 Heath Ledger movie A Knight's Tale long-distance during the pandemic. Dandy Smith. Echo Publishing. $22.99. Sixteen years after the ordeal of her older sister's apparent abduction as they slept at home alone while their parents went out to dinner, schoolteacher Caitin is stunned when Olivia returns home. Is this woman really who she says she is? Or is she an imposter? As Caitlin's suspicions grow, the unhappy life she's been living to fill the Olivia-shaped hole in her family begins to crumble. Even her fiance questions Caitlin's sanity. If this Olivia is a fraud, what's her motive? Is everything Caitlin said she saw that night the truth? What price will the family pay if they believe the wrong daughter? Marija Pericic. Ultimo Press. $34.99. Sisters Eva and Elizabeta Novak, Croatian immigrants, haven't spoken for a decade, not since the car crash that killed Eva's young daughter. When Elizabeta, who was driving that fateful day, mails her estranged sibling a plane ticket with a note saying "I need to see you. Please come", Eva arrives in rural Victoria from Germany to find her sister dead in her home. Appointed executor of Elizabeta's estate, Eva sorts through her sister's belongings. But will her anger permit grief? And what secrets will she uncover about the shared traumas of their past - a place so distant it feels like a foreign country? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
Daily Mirror
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Largest-ever cast for an audiobook brought together for exciting new project
Writer Wendy Erskine's The Benefactors is one of the most hotly anticipated books of the year for 2025. Audiobook fans are in for a treat, as a cast of more than 30 narrators record this debut novel Irish writer Wendy Erskine 's debut novel has been hotly anticipated since it was snapped up by Sceptre in 24-hour pre-empt in September 2024. Centring around a sexual assault, the novel explores pushing family connections to their breaking point, the implications of wealth and class in contemporary Belfast. All of life is here in the pages of Erskine's The Benefactors, and so, it is no surprise that a polyphonic array of voices from the city appear in the audiobook, too. The main narrative is spread over five points of view, three of which are mothers whose sons have sexually assaulted a schoolfriend, Misty. Misty and her own step-father, Boogie's narratives bring the reader close to the horrors of seeking justice. But while this is a novel about a traumatic event, Erskine's style is to fuse humour and heart throughout. Publisher of The Benefactors Hodder & Stoughton commissioned its largest-ever cast for the audiobook. More than 30 narrators contributed to the audiobook, making it the largest cast to date for the publishers' audiobook production. Open casting submission sought to find voice-talent, which was then chosen by Erskine for inclusion in the audio-recording. As in the audio editions of her two short story collections, Erskine herself narrates the majority of the book. But interspersed between this through-line story of sexual assault in modern Belfast are more than 30 narrators. One of which is David Torrens, the owner of Belfast-based independent bookshop No Alibis, a stalwart in supporting the Irish writing community. The Benefactors is refreshing for its expansive narrative net it casts around the city. No city is defined by one event, and so too is Erskine's Belfast not solely focused on a sexual assault case. These narratives range from a woman seeking her long-lost son, and it going horribly wrong, to life amongst the dead in funeral parlours. Erskine told The Bookseller: 'The experience of this book moving from the page to audio was – and this is no exaggeration – wonderful. Right from the beginning, the approach was innovative and predicated on giving listeners the most authentic experience of the book. 'I was there for the recording of many of the monologues, most of which were done by people with no previous experience of that kind of thing and wow, what they brought to my words was beyond what I could possibly have anticipated.' Erskine burst onto the literary scene with her short story collection Sweet Home, published by the Stinging Fly and Picador in 2018. Her follow-up collection Dance Move was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. She has been listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and the Edge Hill Prize. She was awarded the Butler Prize for Literature and the Edge Hill Readers' Prize. Taken as a whole, Erskine's works form a census of modern Belfast, taking in everything from conversations in hairdressers' salons to the aftermath of sexual assault.
Pembrokeshire Herald
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Pembrokeshire author retraces daring WW2 escape in new book
Operation Pimento tells the story of a local man's heroic great-grandfather—and the civilians who risked everything to save him A YOUNG author from Pembrokeshire is set to publish his first book this week, telling the incredible true story of his great-grandfather's escape from Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War. Adam Hart, 25, who grew up just outside Narberth and attended Tavernspite Primary School, will release Operation Pimento: My Great-Grandfather's Great Escape on Thursday (June 5). The book is being published by Hodder & Stoughton in hardback, eBook and audio formats. The story follows Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths, a Special Duties pilot from north Wales, who was shot down in August 1943 while on a secret mission to drop supplies to the French Resistance. Frank's plane crashed near the village of Annecy, killing six crew members and five civilians. Frank was the only survivor. What followed was a breathtaking 1,400-mile escape over 108 days, as Frank—helped by French villagers, children, brothel workers and resistance fighters—made his way to safety via Spain and Gibraltar. His journey included hiding in an attic above a brothel, crawling through a chimney, and enduring a prison cell in Franco's Spain before finally reaching Allied forces. In 2022, Adam retraced his great-grandfather's entire escape route, meeting descendants of those who had risked their lives to save Frank. The book combines their two stories across time, paying tribute to wartime bravery and the lasting impact of shared history. 'Growing up, I always thought of my great-grandfather as a hero,' said Adam. 'But during my journey I realised the true heroes were the ordinary French civilians who risked imprisonment, torture and even death to help him.' The book has already received high praise from bestselling authors and historians. Andy McNab called it 'truly inspiring,' while Anthony Horowitz said it was 'an affectionate and often audacious tale of an unsung WW2 hero.' Adam has previously written for The Times and The Telegraph, and has appeared on Antiques Roadshow, ITV Evening News, and Radio 4. Operation Pimento is available from Thursday (June 5), priced at £22. Adam Hart, 25, will release Operation Pimento: My Great-Grandfather's Great Escape on Thursday (June 5).
