Books

Lord Hain in his office with his treasured Nelson Mandela portrait (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster) When people contact the office of Lord Peter Hain at Millbank House in Westminster, they may be surprised to find the life peer himself answering the phone. “People will ask to be put through to my …

What’s more, House of the Dragon’s source material, Fire and Blood, is also available on Audible in audiobook form right now. By getting up to date on Martin’s spin-off book, you’ll be ahead of the curve when season two of House of the Dragon hits NOW and Sky Cinema. Audible …

JK Rowling has become a polarising figure in recent years with her outspoken views on transgenderism. Most recently she challenged Scotland’s new hate crime law, describing several transgender women (biological males who identify as women) as men on social media. The Harry Potter author has continued to double down on …

45-year-old mortgage adviser Nicola Bulley who went missing. (Image: ) I live in the Scottish Highlands where, last year, I read about a lone hiker who disappeared. Literally. He went off hill walking one day and never returned. The story made a few paragraphs in a local paper, that was …

45-year-old mortgage adviser Nicola Bulley who went missing. (Image: ) I live in the Scottish Highlands where, last year, I read about a lone hiker who disappeared. Literally. He went off hill walking one day and never returned. The story made a few paragraphs in a local paper, that was …

Six in 10 adults have been inspired to take up or do something new after reading – including change career, learn a new language, and climb a mountain, research has found. A poll of 2,000 adults, who read for pleasure, found 26 percent have been compelled to make a positive …

Amazon is giving shoppers the chance to bag three months of audiobooks for just 99p and the options are seemingly endless. Audible is the shopping giant’s audiobook service and would usually set you back £7.99 a month for one credit which you can cash in for any book on the …

The Tower of London was a prison until the 1950s (Image: Rudy Sulgan/Getty) The mass escape of Allied airmen from a German prisoner of war camp remains one of history’s most famous jail-breaks. Stalag Luft III was designed to be escape-proof but PoWs, using impressive ingenuity to remain undetected, dug …

It’s World Book Day, the internationally celebrated holiday where literature is praised around the globe, and children are encouraged to pick up a book and put down their phones. Of course, there are an almost infinite amount of loveable characters from hundreds of years of publishing. And while Alice in …

Millions of holidaymakers have chosen a destination based on a book they’ve read – with “Under the Tuscan Sun”, by Frances Mayes, named as the top inspiration. A study of 2,000 adults found one in four have booked a holiday in order to visit a location referenced in a novel. …

James Timpson, right, with his father Sir John Timpson (Image: John Gladwin / Reach Plc) James Timpson is reading an email from one of his shop managers, asking for a second-hand car and a prom dress for their daughter. This might seem unusual for the CEO of a business turning …

The Harry Potter main novel series may be over, but that doesn’t mean that’s the end of official books set in JK Rowling’s Wizarding World. Following last year’s Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac comes Christmas at Hogwarts. Unveiled today by Bloomsbury and Scholastic, the festive illustrated book focuses on Harry’s first …

The Majdanek death camp (Image: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Amid the barbed wire, gas chambers and shooting pits of the horrific Majdanek concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, Countess Janina Suchodolska was a surprising yet frequent visitor in 1942. A pretty brunette with blue-green eyes, an aristocratic air and …

Fandom has always had its good and bad sides and now Game of Thrones author George RR Martin has spoken out on the toxic elements.  The 75-year-old, who is still working on the long-delayed The Winds of Winter, took to his blog this week to have a really good vent.  …

Staff at Manningtree, Essex were delighted when Great Prime Ministers by John Whittle was handed in by relatives of the borrower who took it out on June 30 1979. The UK has since had 10 Premiers – and current PM Rishi Sunak was not even born then. Essex Library Service …

Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition (Image: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images) A sun-dappled village fair. Children gaily spinning around a maypole. Cricketers on the village green. Few things evoke the splendour and tradition of an English summer so perfectly. And then come the Morris dancers, a quintessentially English …

This year James Bond fans celebrated the 70th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s original 007 novels.  Yet the author famously only wrote 12 novels and two collections of short stories about his MI6 spy. In the almost 60 years since his death, there have been over 50 post-Fleming Bond adventures aside …

As 2024 dawns so do 13 years since George RR Martin published a book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Since A Dance with Dragons hit shelves in 2011, the Game of Thrones TV show has come and gone with the showrunners being forced to rely on …

Fleming’s first Bond novel Casino Royale had a 1967 unofficial spoof movie starring David Niven before EON won back the rights in 1999, ahead of Daniel Craig’s debut in 2006. Similarly, Thunderball producer Kevin McClory unofficially remade the fourth Bond movie with Sean Connery reprising the role in Never Say …

The extent of his efforts has never been recognised (Image: Getty) Amid the deepening horror of March 1939, as Europe stood on the precipice of a Second World War, it was no wonder the arrival in Britain of 20 Jewish children by aeroplane from the Czech capital Prague should pass …