William Collins Ghostland. In Search of a Haunted Country Parnell Edward

The beautiful aurorae, or northern lights, are the stuff of legends. The ancient stories of the Sami people warn that if you mock the lights they will seize you, and their mythical appeal continues to capture the hearts and imagination of people across the globe • Aurora explores the visual beauty, ancient myths and science of the northern lights and challenges the popular theory of how the lights are formed. Plasma physicist Melanie Windridge explains this extraordinary and evocative phenomenon, a scientific marvel unlike any other in which the powers of astronomy, geology, magnetism and atomic physics combine to create one of the wonders of the natural world • As Melanie travels in search of the perfect aurora, she uncovers the scientific realities of this plasmic phenomenon full of natural power

Our wild places and wildlife are disappearing at a terrifying rate. This is a story about going in search of the people who are trying to save our birds, as well as confronting the enormity of what losing them would really mean • In this beautiful and thought-provoking blend of nature and travel writing Patrick Galbraith sets off across Britain on a journey that may well be his last chance to see some of our disappearing birds. Along the way, from Orkney to West Wales, from the wildest places to post-industrial towns, he meets a fascinatingly eclectic group of people who in very different ways are on the front line of conservation, tirelessly doing everything they can to save ten species teetering dangerously close to extinction • In Search of One Last Song mixes conservation, folklore, history, and art

A social history of Labradors, and how they have become the world’s most beloved dogs, by writer, presenter and long-time dog lover Ben Fogle • Labradors are the most popular breed of dog in the world. Not only a great family companion, they also excel at hunting, tracking, retrieving, guiding and rescuing. But where did the breed originally come from? How did it develop? When did black, yellow and chocolate Labradors first appear? Did they really all come from Labrador in Canada and are they really all related to just one dog? • In this first history of the Labrador, Ben Fogle goes in search of what makes Labradors so special. Their extraordinary companionship, intelligence, work ethic and loyalty is captured by Ben as he weaves the story of the breed into his own story of his beloved Inca

After nearly three decades reporting conflict from all over the world for the BBC, Fergal Keane has gone home to Ireland to tell a story that lies at the root of his fascination with war. It is a family story of war and love, and how the ghosts of the past return to shape the present • Wounds is a powerful memoir about Irish people who found themselves caught up in the revolution that followed the 1916 Rising, and in the pitiless violence of civil war in north Kerry after the British left in 1922 • It is the story of Keane’s grandmother Hannah Purtill, her brother Mick and his friend Con Brosnan, and how they and their neighbours took up guns to fight the British Empire and create an independent Ireland. And it is the story of another Irishman, Tobias O’Sullivan, who fought against them as a policeman because he believed it was his duty to uphold the law of his country

The fabled city of Timbuktu has captured the Western imagination for centuries. The search for this 'African El Dorado' cost the lives of many explorers but Timbuktu is rich beyond its legends. Home to many thousands of ancient manuscripts on poetry, history, religion, law, pharmacology and astronomy, the city has been a centre of learning since medieval times • When jihadists invaded Mali in 2012 threatening destruction to Timbuktu's libraries, a remarkable thing happened. A team of librarians and archivists joined forces to spirit the precious manuscripts into hiding. Based on new research and first-hand reporting, Charlie English expertly tells this story set in one of the world's most fascinating places, and the myths from which it has become inseparable

An enchanting biography of the most resonant – and most necessary – chemical element on Earth • Carbon. It is the building block of every cell that makes up every living thing. It is the essential component of the food we eat, the fuel we burn, the wood we use and the air we breathe. It is worth billions as a luxury and half a trillion as a necessity, but there are still mysteries to be solved about the element that can be both diamond and coal. Where does it come from, what does it do, and why, above all, does life need it? • In Symphony in C, leading carbon scientist Robert M. Hazen takes us on a vibrant journey through the origin and evolution of life’s most widespread element. The story unfolds in four movements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water – and transports us through nearly 14 billion years of cosmic history, explaining how carbon is formed in the hearts of stars and why all life forms – earthbound or alien – use it as the basis of their biology

The theory of evolution by natural selection did not spring fully formed and unprecedented from the brain of Charles Darwin. Rather it has been examined and debated by philosophers the world over for thousands of years • This lively history traces the evolution of the idea of evolution, showing how it has changed and been changed by different societies over time. It will put 'Darwin’s Dangerous Idea' into its proper context, showing how it built on what went before and how it was developed in the twentieth century, through an understanding of genetics and the biochemical basis evolution. None of this diminishes the achievement of Darwin himself in perceiving the way evolution works at the level of individuals and species, but his contribution was one link in a chain that extends back into antiquity, and is still being forged today

Travelling the circumference of the truly gigantic Pacific, Simon Winchester tells the story of the world’s largest body of water, and – in matters economic, political and military – the ocean of the future • The Pacific is a world of tsunamis and Magellan, of the Bounty mutiny and the Boeing Company. It is the stuff of the towering Captain Cook and his wide-ranging network of exploring voyages, Robert Louis Stevenson and Admiral Halsey. It is the place of Paul Gauguin and the explosion of the largest-ever American atomic bomb, on Bikini atoll, in 1951. It has an astonishing recent past, an uncertain present and a hugely important future • The ocean and its peoples are the new lifeblood, fizz and thrill of America – which draws so many of its minds and so much of its manners from the sea – while the inexorable rise of the ancient center of the world, China, is a fixating fascination

Where do our thoughts come from? • How can we manipulate our dreams? • What is the role of the unconscious? • How do we make decisions and trust the judgement of both others and ourselves? • In this mind-bending international bestseller by Mariano Sigman, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists reveals his life’s work exploring the intricacies of the human brain. Building on his awe-inspiring TED talk and drawing on examples in science and the arts, The Secret Life of the Mind offers an accessible guide to how the human brain works and its impact on our everyday life. This informative, lucid book is essential reading for anyone curious about how we perceive, reason and communicate

Writing on everything from a defence of suburban life and moderate politics to big ideas and pop culture, Daniel Finkelstein is one of the UK’s most entertaining and widely read columnists • This collection brings together Finkelstein’s greatest writings from The Times, ranging from the personal – with his articles on growing up Jewish in Hendon Central and on the deaths of both of his parents – to the political, with columns on how to predict elections, the way political science showed us Ed Miliband was on his way to defeat, and why the base rate of coups meant Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t be ousted before an election • Wry, informed and often brilliantly funny, these pieces zip between Walt Disney, Hilary Clinton, David Bowie, Margaret Thatcher, Clement Attlee and Muhammed Ali

From the bestselling author of Who Owns England?, a mesmerising chronicle of our forgotten rainforests – and an inspiring intervention to help restore them to the places they once were • In 2020, writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole moved from London to Devon. As he explored the wooded valleys, rivers and tors of Dartmoor, Guy discovered a spectacular habitat that he had never encountered before: temperate rainforest. Entranced, he would spend the coming months investigating the history, ecology and distribution of rainforests across England, Wales and Scotland • Britain, Guy discovered, was once a rainforest nation • This is the story of a unique habitat that has been so ravaged, most people today don’t realise it exists. Temperate rainforest may once have covered up to one-fifth of Britain and played host to a dazzling variety of luminous life-forms, inspiring Celtic druids, Welsh wizards, Romantic poets, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s most loved creations

Более тысячелетия полинезийцы занимали самые отдаленные острова в Тихом океане, огромный треугольник, простирающийся от Гавайев до Новой Зеландии и острова Пасхи. До прибытия европейских исследователей они были единственными людьми, которые когда-либо жили там. Будучи как наиболее близкородственным, так и наиболее широко расселенным народом в мире до эпохи массовой миграции, полинезийцы могут проследить свои корни до группы легендарных путешественников, которые отважились отправиться в неизвестность в одном из величайших приключений в истории человечества • Как первые полинезийцы нашли и колонизировали эти отдаленные острова? Как люди, не имевшие письменности и металлических орудий труда, покорили самый большой океан в мире? Эта головоломка, получившая известность как проблема происхождения полинезийцев, возникла в XVIII веке как одна из величайших географических загадок человечества