Allen Lane The Experience Machine. How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality Clark Andy

The astonishing story of the Sassoons, one of the nineteenth century's preeminent commercial families and 'the Rothschilds of the East' • The Sassoons were one of the great business dynasties of the nineteenth century, as eminent as traders as the Rothschilds were bankers. This book reveals the secrets behind the family's phenomenal success: how a handful of Jewish exiles from Ottoman Baghdad forged a mercantile juggernaut from their new home in colonial Bombay, the vast network of agents, informants and politicians they built, and the way they came to bridge East and West, culturally as well as commercially. As one competitor remarked, 'silver and gold, silks, gums and spices, opium and cotton, wool and wheat - whatever moves over sea or land feels the hand or bears the mark of Sassoon & Co

Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their status at birth. For much of history this was a revolutionary thought, but by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? • Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocractic system

From the bestselling author of Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, a captivating account of the last surviving relic of Thomas Becket • The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket • In a brilliant piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel here identifies the only surviving relic from Becket's shrine: the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which he cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury, and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered • Beautifully illustrated and published to coincide with the 850th anniversary of the death of Thomas Becket, this is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative artefacts of medieval England

Central Europe is not just a space on a map but also a region of shared experience - of mutual borrowings, impositions and misapprehensions. From the Roman Empire onwards, it has been the target of invasion from the east. In the Middle Ages, Central Europeans cast their eastern foes as 'the dogmen'. They would later become the Turks, Swedes, Russians and Soviets, all of whom pulled the region apart and remade it according to their own vision • Competition among Europe's Middle Kingdoms yielded repeated cultural effervescences. This was the first home of the High Renaissance outside Italy, the cradle of the Reformation, the starting point of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the symphony and modern nationalism. It was a permanent battleground too for religious and political ideas

In the frontier town of Springfield in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails and property vanishes. People suffer fits and are plagued by strange visions and dreams. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics, and the community becomes tangled in a web of spite, distrust and denunciation. The finger of suspicion falls on a young couple struggling to make a home and feed their children: Hugh Parsons the irascible brickmaker and his troubled wife, Mary. It will be their downfall • The Ruin of All Witches tells the dark, real-life folktale of witch-hunting in a remote Massachusetts plantation. These were the turbulent beginnings of colonial America, when English settlers' dreams of love and liberty, of founding a 'city on a hill', gave way to paranoia and terror, enmity and rage

A major new celebration of the French short story • The short story has a rich tradition in French literature. This feast of an anthology celebrates its most famous practitioners, as well as newly translated writers ready for rediscovery. Here are decadent tales, 'bloody tales', fairy tales, detective stories and war stories. They are stories about the self and the other, husbands, wives and lovers, country and city, rich and poor • The first volume spans four hundred years, taking the reader from the sixteenth century to the 'golden age' of the fin de siecle. Its pages are populated by lovers, phantoms, cardinals, labourers, enchanted statues, gentleman burglars, retired bureaucrats, panthers and parrots, in a cacophony of styles and voices. From the affairs of Madame de Lafayette to the polemic realism of Victor Hugo, the supernatural mystery of Guy de Maupassant to the dark sensuality of Rachilde, this is the place to start for lovers of French literature, new and old

It's not what you know, it's who you know. Or so the adage goes. Professor Matthew Jackson, world-leading researcher into social and economic networks, shows us why this is far truer than we'd like to believe • Based on his ground-breaking research, The Human Network reveals how our relationships in school, university, work and society have extraordinary implications throughout our lives and demonstrates that by understanding and taking advantage of these networks, we can boost our happiness, success and influence • But there are also wider lessons to be learnt. Drawing on concepts from economics, mathematics, sociology, and anthropology, Jackson reveals how the science of networks gives us a bold new framework to understand human interaction writ large - from banking crashes and viral marketing to racism and the spread of disease

How can we raise children in a world that appears to have gone so wrong? • We all want our children to grow up in a world where they feel safe, and where people are kind to each other and the planet. But when we hear about climate change, a mental health crisis, war, it's hard not to worry about the future and how they will cope • Drawing on over 20 years of helping children and families, psychotherapist Louis Weinstock is here to help. Combining case studies, playful meditations and simple exercises with life-changing insights from history, science, psychology and anthropology, this is a parenting book like no other • Whether your child is struggling with mental health issues already, or you want to build their capacity to handle change and uncertainty, this book is a safe place to catch your breath and develop the skills to help your child through life's challenges

The author of "The Perfect Nanny" is not expecting flower showers and accolades. Moreover, she is ready to hear criticism and experience mudslinging. This happens often when the book touches on painful or forbidden subjects. The topic of relationships between families and their house servants has been a painful and taboo topic for years and years. On both sides, too. However, while complaints of a nanny are often given at least a compassionate hearing, good advice by an experienced stay-at-home Mom or Dad is often met with indignation and protest. Nastasia Rose stands firmly on the ground. She understands very well all the consequences of her bold step, and is ready to face them. She is confident that the foam of indignation will recede, and the book will remain, helping revive one of the noblest professions, which is now again in demand

From satellites circling the Earth, to weather stations far out in the ocean, through some of the most ingenious minds and advanced algorithms at work today - In this gripping investigation, Andrew Blum takes us on a global journey. Our destination: the simulated models weather scientists have constructed of our planet, which spin faster than time, turning chaos into prediction, offering glimpses of our future with eerie precision • This collaborative invention spans the Earth and relies on continuous co-operation between all nations – a triumph of human ingenuity and diplomacy we too often shrug off as a tool for choosing the right footwear each morning. But in this new era of extreme weather, we may come to rely on its maintenance and survival for our own

Tracy Hogg knows babies. She can calm even the most distressed or difficult infant, because she understands their language. Hence, her clients call her 'The Baby Whisperer' • In this remarkable parenting book, Tracy demystifies the magic she has performed with some five thousand babies • She teaches parents how to work out what kind of baby they have, what kind of mother or father they are, and what kind of parenting plan will work best for them • Believing that babies need to become part of the family - rather than dominate it - she has developed a practical programme that works with infants as young as a day old • Full of questionnaires, clearly explained theories and easy-to-follow, practical, expert advice - this book is guaranteed to set you on the path to calm and confident parenting

The story of the Higgs boson - the so-called 'God particle' - and the man who thought of it • In the summer of 1964, a reclusive young professor at the University of Edinburgh wrote two scientific papers which have come to change our understanding of the most fundamental building blocks of matter and the nature of the universe. Peter Higgs posited the existence an almost infinitely tiny particle - today known as the Higgs boson - which is the key to understanding why particles have mass, and but for which atoms and molecules could not exist • For nearly 50 years afterwards, some of the largest projects in experimental physics sought to demonstrate the physical existence of the boson which Higgs had proposed. Sensationally, confirmation came in July 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva