I had my first French meal and never got over it: a collection of Child's amiable witticisms and observations. "In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by... read more
A hardback reissue of the dystopian novel that inspired Orwell, Huxley and many others. It also includes Ursula Le Guin's essay 'Stalin in the Soul' on the influence of Zamyatin's masterpiec... read more
The eponymous box is a secret spying agency, whose antics in 1989 following the Lockerbie bombing are discovered by MI5 in 2020. Some nasty Iranians are involved and Lachlan, the man in the ... read more
The long-awaited new novel from the author of 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' (2004) is a mysterious, labyrinthine story of a man making notes about the house in which he lives: scratchings,... read more
Cars, guns, computers etc have stopped working. Safe in rural Maine, the protagonists are visited by an old acquaintance in a retro-fitted tunnel-digger powered by a nuclear reactor. It can'... read more
There are those who swear he was a spy, others who insist he was too scatty or essentially lazy to be one. Whatever the truth, he was an exceptional linguist (Iranian, Afghan Persian, Arabic... read more
"If you want to pretend you're shrinking, that's all right," said Treehorn's mother, "as long as you don't do it at the table."' The 50th anniversary edition of this surreal and off-beat sto... read more
The winner of this year's Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing is a meticulous, spirited diary observing the changing seasons from the perspective of an autistic teenager.
Natural selection and the table, served as a meal of several courses... beginning with oysters. Who knew of the role of mussels in the exodus of our ancestors from Africa? A fascinating and ... read more
Few seasoned visitors to Sandoe's will have escaped without copies of 'The Transit of Venus', 'The Bay of Noon' or 'The Great Fire'. Hazzard is one of our favourites here, and publication of... read more
On a Greek island in 1977, Calista finds herself working for Billy Wilder on a film. His career is on the wane, and she's a young woman with a lot to learn...
JN explores ancient and modern breathing techniques to show how breathing correctly - yes, most of us do it wrong - can transform one's physical and mental health.
Despite its title, this is not a self-help book but rather a beautiful exploration of a condition that is at the heart of human life - solitude. The book is a memoir of time spent in social ... read more
An outstanding, wordless graphic novel with superb black and white illustrations: a small paper boat set sail across the seas and encounters a fantastic ocean world, dreadful monsters and my... read more
Thirteen essays by the Northcliffe Professor of English at UCL. An entertaining guide that looks at Dickens's choice of names, use of outrageous coincidence, and why he works best when read ... read more