Bloomsbury The Ghost Theatre Osman Mat

In the spring of 1853, private detective Laetitia Rodd receives a delicate request from a retired actor, whose days on the stage were ended by a theatre fire ten years before. His great friend, and the man he rescued from the fire, Thomas Transome, has decided to leave his wife, who now needs assistance in securing a worthy settlement. Though Mrs Rodd is reluctant to get involved with the scandalous world of the theatre, she cannot turn away the woman in need. She agrees to take the case • But what starts out as a simple matter of negotiation becomes complicated when a body is discovered in the burnt husk of the old theatre. Soon Mrs Rodd finds herself embroiled in family politics, rivalries that put the Capulets and Montagues to shame, and betrayals on a Shakespearean scale

The New Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan's follow-up to the 'Book of the Decade', The Silk Roads – takes a fresh look at the network of relationships being formed along the length and breadth of the Silk Roads today • The world is changing dramatically and in an age of Brexit and Trump, the themes of isolation and fragmentation permeating the western world stand in sharp contrast to events along the Silk Roads, where ties have been strengthened and mutual cooperation established • Following the Silk Roads eastwards from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, The New Silk Roads provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected. In this prescient contemporary history, Peter Frankopan assesses the global reverberations of these continual shifts in the centre of power – all too often absent from headlines in the west

The internet is a network of physical cables and connections, a web of wires enmeshing the world, linking huge data centres to one another and eventually to us. All are owned by someone, financed by someone, regulated by someone • We refer to the internet as abstract from reality. By doing so, we obscure where the real power lies • In this powerful and necessary book, James Ball sets out on a global journey into the inner workings of the system. From the computer scientists to the cable guys, the billionaire investors to the ad men, the intelligence agencies to the regulators, these are the real-life figures powering the internet and pulling the strings of our society • Ball brilliantly shows how an invention once hailed as a democratising force has concentrated power in places it already existed – that the system, in other words, remains the same as it did before

The New Silk Roads takes a fresh look at the relationships being formed along the length and breadth of the ancient trade routes today. The world is changing dramatically and in an age of Brexit and Trump, the themes of isolation and fragmentation permeating the western world stand in sharp contrast to events along the Silk Roads, where ties are being strengthened and mutual cooperation established • This prescient contemporary history provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected. Following the Silk Roads eastwards from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, Peter Frankopan assesses the global reverberations of continual shifts in the centre of power - all too often absent from headlines in the west

The Digital Republic is the definitive guide to the great political question of our time: how can freedom and democracy survive in a world of powerful digital technologies? • Not long ago, the tech industry was widely admired and the internet was regarded as a tonic for freedom and democracy. Not anymore. Every day, the headlines blaze with reports of racist algorithms, data leaks, and social media platforms festering with falsehood and hate. In The Digital Republic, acclaimed author Jamie Susskind argues that these problems are not the fault of a few bad apples at the top of the industry. They are the result of our failure to govern technology properly, a failure derived from decades of muddled ideas and wishful thinking • The Digital Republic charts a new course, with new legal standards, new public bodies and institutions, new duties on platforms, new rights and regulators, and new codes of conduct for people in the tech industry

The Sunday Times bestseller, from the bestselling author of The Bone Season and The Priory of the Orange Tree • Paige Mahoney has eluded death again. Snatched from the jaws of captivity and consigned to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris, she finds herself caught between those factions that seek Scion's downfall and those who would kill to protect the Rephaim's puppet empire • The mysterious Domino Programme has plans for Paige, but she has ambitions of her own in this new citadel. With Arcturus Mesarthim - her former enemy - at her side, she embarks on an adventure that will lead her from the catacombs of Paris to the glittering hallways of Versailles. Her risks promise high reward: the Parisian underworld could yield the means to escalate her rebellion to outright war

The Wombles live in a beautifully snug, well-ordered and cosy burrow underneath Wimbledon Common - the perfect base from which to sort and recycle all the rubbish that unthinking humans constantly drop. But the Wombles' peaceful and harmonious existence is suddenly under threat. The heavy lorries that thunder along the roads near the Common make the burrow shake and tremble so much that it is no longer safe for the Wombles to live there. With a heavy heart, Great Uncle Bulgaria decides that the Wombles will have to move from the burrow that they have lived in for many, many years. And it is up to young Bungo and Orinoco to bravely sally forth and try to locate a new home for the Wombles

The Fitness Instructor's Handbook, 4th edition, is the ultimate resource for anyone working in, or wishing to enter, the fitness industry. Packed full of illustrations, exercise photos, case studies, revision questions and sample programmes – this guide covers every aspect of the theory needed to work as a fitness instructor • Clear, concise and accessible, the content is organised with the specific needs of the fitness professional in mind and covers topics such as • – The skeletal system • – Muscles and tendons • – The energy system • – Circulation and respiration • – Components of fitness • – Safety issues • – Customer service • – Screening clients • – Planning and programme design • – Exercise evaluation • This new edition includes advice on how to avoid poor exercise technique that can increase the risk of injury

The captivating prequel to the treasured Grantchester series follows the life, loves and losses of a young Sidney Chambers in post-war London • It is 1938, and eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing the quickstep with Amanda Kendall at her brother Robert's birthday party at the Caledonian Club. No one can believe, on this golden evening, that there could ever be another war • Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross, and lost his best friend on the battlefields of Italy. The carefree youth that he and his friends were promised has been blown apart, just like the rest of the world – and Sidney, carrying a terrible, secret guilt, must decide what to do with the rest of his life. But he has heard a call: constant, though quiet, and growing ever more persistent

The perfect quirky nostalgic crime read – a tale of steam trains, giant squid, missing screenplays, missing mothers and a quest for the truth, from the inimitable Malcolm Pryce • It's the winter of 1948. The four great railway companies have just been nationalised and Jack Wenlock – the last of a fabled cadre of railway detectives – is thrown out onto the street • Penniless, with new bride Jenny to support, and hiding from a murderous organisation called Room 42, Jack's prospects look bleak • But then a letter arrives from a mysterious Cornish Countess revealing that Jack's mother – long believed to be dead – may have survived a shipwreck off the coast of Java. Seizing the opportunity to track down his only remaining family member, Jack and Jenny board a boat heading East

The story of the suffragettes with the Jiu Jitsu and roller-skating left in... this impeccably researched debut novel from Iszi Lawrence shows the fight for women's suffrage as it really was • Lettice Pegg's father is a working-class policeman and her mother is a middle-class suffragette. Stuck between them (and her terrifying grandma) as they argue, Lettice mostly cares about trying to fit in at school and convincing her parents to let her have roller skates and go to the music hall. But, when Lettice sees her mother brutally thrown to the ground by a policeman while on a protest march, her life changes forever. Not all of the women on the march are vulnerable to attack. Some of them have a secret weapon: Jiu Jitsu • As the suffragettes welcome Lettice to the fight back, things at home go from bad to worse

The magical follow-up to The Monster Who Wasn't. The second book in this brilliantly rich and strange fantasy series will make us all believe in monsters – be they good, bad or somewhere in between • Sam might be half-monster and half-fairy, but since finding a loving family with the Kavanaghs, his daily life has been all human. And now he's facing one of the greatest human challenges – starting secondary school • But Sam barely has time to worry about the strange stuff teachers say (why do they call it the Great War when it sounds like was anything but great?) before he is thrust back into the world of monsters. Sam's school friends Amira, Hazel and Wilfred reveal that they are shifters: noble twin-souled beings who live half their lives as humans and the other half as dogs