Society and culture

Gridlock is when a city dies. Killed in the name of freedom.

In this beautiful book of classic fairy tales, award-winning author Philip Pullman has chosen his fifty favourite stories from the Brothers Grimm and presents them in a'clear as water' retelling, in his unique and brilliant voice. From the quests and

'Life for De Quincey was either angels ascending on vaults of cloud or vagrants shivering on the city streets.'

Haiku - seventeen-syllable poems that evoke worlds despite their brevity - have captivated Japanese readers since the seventeenth century.

'How refreshing, to read a book about music written for a music lover and not a musicologist. In clear, lucid, entertaining prose, Jane Glover makes those of us who lack musical literacy better understand and appreciate Handel's divinity.' - Donna Le

Artist, soldier, politician, madman? We know the headlines, we know about the atrocities, but what do we really know of the man at the heart of it all?

'There is evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it - from snowflakes to maple trees to falling stars and spinning electrons - are only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality literally beyond both space and time.' This is t

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2017 LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN EVENING STANDARD