Simon & Schuster A Fine Madness Judd Alan

‘For 30 years I was the voice of sport at The Times – but that’s enough about me. What matters is sport.’ • This is an autobiography from which the author, award-winning writer Simon Barnes, has been surgically removed. He has reported on six World Cups, seven Olympic Games, cricket on five continents and more than 20 Wimbledons, watching Diego Maradona, Usain Bolt, Sachin Tendulkar and Roger Federer at their peak. Along the way he had soul-revealing conversations with Ayrton Senna and sat on Desert Orchid • His journalist’s experience gives him perspective, until the addictive madness of sport takes over. Epic is a stunning mosaic of some of the greatest sporting moments in recent years, which build up to provide the reader with a better idea of what sport is for, what differentiates winners from losers, and reveals how sport teaches us how better to enjoy life

Widely regarded as one of the best football books ever written, The Far Corner was a vivid portrait of the sport in the north-east and of the people who bring such passion to it. Now, a generation later, Harry Pearson returns to the region to discover how much things have changed - and how much they have remained the same • In the mid-1990s, Kevin Keegan brought sporting romance and expectation of trophies to Newcastle, Sunderland moved the the Stadium of Light backed by a wealthy consortium, Middlesbrough signed one of the best Brazilians of the era and won their first major trophy - even little Darlington had a former safe-cracker turned kitchen magnate in charge, promising the world. The region even provided England's two key players in Euro 96 in Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne - the far corner seemed destined to become the centre of England's footballing world

Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man • Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most sociable guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour • That’s until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that’s been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he’s always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread • As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex’s twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil • And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed

A powerful and fascinating insight into the 100 animals - from the blue whale to the mosquito - that have had the biggest influence on humanity through the ages • We are not alone. We are not alone on the planet. We are not alone in the countryside. We are not alone in cities. We are not alone in our homes. We are humans and we love the idea of our uniqueness. But the fact is that we humans are as much members of the animal kingdom as the cats and dogs we surround ourselves with, the cows and the fish we eat, and the bees who pollinate so many of our food-plants • In The History of the World in 100 Animals, award-winning author Simon Barnes selects the 100 animals who have had the greatest impact on humanity and on whom humanity has had the greatest effect

How the rewilding of eight acres of Norfolk marshland inspired a family and brought nature even closer to home • When writer Simon Barnes heard a Cetti's warbler sing out as he turned up to look at a house for sale, he knew immediately that he had found his new home. The fact that his garden backed onto an area of marshy land only increased the possibilities, but there was always the fear that it might end up in the wrong hands and be lost to development or intensive farming. His wife saw through the delicate negotiations for the purchase. Once they'd bought it, they began to manage it as a conservation area, working with the Wildlife Trust to ensure it became as appealing as possible to all species. For their son Eddie, who has Down's syndrome, it became a place of calm and inspiration

We're not just losing the wild world. We're forgetting it. We're no longer noticing it. We've lost the habit of looking and seeing and listening and hearing • But we can make hidden things visible, and this book features 23 spellbinding ways to bring the magic of nature much closer to home • Mammals you never knew existed will enter your world. Birds hidden in treetops will shed their cloak of anonymity. With a single movement of your hand you can make reptiles appear before you. Butterflies you never saw before will bring joy to every sunny day. Creatures of the darkness will enter your consciousness. And as you take on new techniques and a little new equipment, you will discover new creatures and, with them, new areas of yourself that had gone dormant

England: The Biography is the most comprehensive account of the England cricket team that has ever been published, taking the reader into the heart of the action and the team dynamics that have helped shape their success, or otherwise • It is now 140 years since England first played Test match cricket and, for much of that time, it has struggled to perform to the best of its capabilities. In the early years, amateurs would pick and choose which matches and tours they would play; subsequently, the demands of the county game - and the petty jealousies that created - would prevent many from achieving their best. It was only in the 1990s that central contracts were brought in, and Team England began to receive the best possible support from an ever-increasing backroom team

From the author of The History of the World in 100 Animals, a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week, comes an inspirational new book that looks at the 100 plants that have had the greatest impact on humanity, stunningly illustrated throughout • As humans, we hold the planet in the palms of ours hands. But we still consume the energy of the sun in the form of food. The sun is available for consumption because of plants. Plants make food from the sun by the process of photosynthesis; nothing else in the world can do this. We eat plants, or we do so at second hand, by eating the eaters of plants • Plants give us food. Plants take in carbon dioxide and push out oxygen: they give us the air we breathe, direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate

These are the tales of an extraordinary journey: from the small towns of Sweden to the deserts of Nevada to the bitter chill of Siberia. A journey where children make friends with abandoned robots... in a world where dinosaurs roam freely • These are the Tales from the Loop • Stories told in both words and haunting illustrations, TALES FROM THE LOOP captures a not-too-distant reality that is both haunting and imminent: addressing the many ways developing technology and nature can create havoc and wonder in our world... and the hope we might still find in that future • Perfect for fans of everything from STRANGER THINGS to JURASSIC PARK to JUMANJI, Tales from the Loop is an incredible, unmissable work of genius

When an unhappy, aging shaman invokes the Hopi god of death in an effort to bring the world to an end, those around him are sceptical. Then they discover his body, mutilated and bloody, and other similarly disfigured bodies begin to appear. Horses, sheep, cattle - no living thing is safe. But the cause of these horrifying deaths remains unclear… • Enter a young Duran, called back to the reservation to investigate. Duran immediately recognises the significance of the shaman's spell and, with the help of two scientists, he works to combat the supernatural scourge - before there's nothing left to save

Only 11 men and one woman are alive today who have made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world's most powerful and influential intelligence service. With unprecedented, deep access to nearly all these individuals, Chris Whipple tells the story of an agency that answers to the United States president, but whose activities — spying, espionage, and covert action — take place on every continent. At pivotal moments, the CIA acts as a brake on rogue presidents, starting in the mid-seventies with DCI Richard Helms’ refusal to conceal Richard Nixon’s criminality and continuing recently as the actions of a CIA whistleblower ignited impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump • Since its inception in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has been a powerful player on the world stage, operating largely in the shadows to protect American interests

In the early 1990s, Donald McRae set out to discover the truth about the intense and forbidding world of professional boxing. Travelling around the United States and Britain, he was welcomed into the inner sanctums of some of the greatest fighters of the period - men such as Mike Tyson, Chris Eubank, Oscar de la Hoya, Frank Bruno, Evander Holyfield and Naseem Hamed among them. They opened up to him, revealing unforgettable personal stories from both inside and outside the ring, and explaining why it is that some are driven to compete in this most brutal of sports, risking their health and even their lives • The result is a classic account of boxing that remains as fresh and entertaining as when it was first published 20 years ago. McRae approaches his subjects with wit, compassion and insight, and the result was a book that was a deserved winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize