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The Best Non-Fiction Books to Look Forward to in 2021
A new year requires a brand new 'to be read' pile and, if you are a lover of non-fiction, this is where we can really help. Covering everything from climate change to vegan cookery and World War II to Francis Bacon, here is our pick of the non-fiction highlights of 2021.
Biography
£14.99
Hardback
Out of stock
Merging new poems with nurses’ medical diaries and his own reflections, this intensely powerful account of the beloved poet’s desperate struggle with Covid-19 is a resounding tribute to the NHS and the human spirit.
£16.99
Hardback
Out of stock
The indie pop icon and bestselling author of Bedsit Disco Queen and Another Planet gifts the reader with a window into her friendship with Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison in this characteristically witty and affectionate volume.
£16.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Emotionally charged yet clear-sighted and reflective, the Reverend Richard Coles's account of grief in the wake of his partner’s sudden death provides much comfort and profound insight into the nature of life, death, religion and community.
£16.99
Hardback
Out of stock
Exploring both mental and physical empowerment, Stronger is an inspiring blend of memoir and manifesto, shaking off long-held, mistaken ideas about women and strength.
£30.00
Hardback
Out of stock
Written with access to Bacon’s letters and papers and drawing from extensive new research material, this definitive new biography paints an unforgettable picture of one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary artists.
£25.00
Hardback
Out of stock
Illuminating the glitterati of the post-war world from Princess Margaret to Grace Kelly, these extracts from Vickers’s diaries from his years spent researching his former employer, the notorious photographer Cecil Beaton, are a wickedly indulgent immersion in a now vanished world.
£25.00
Hardback
Out of stock
The author of the groundbreaking Londoners transplants his distinctive brand of oral history to the Big Apple, and a series of wonderfully revealing portraits of New York during a troubled twenty-first century.
£16.99
Hardback
Out of stock
By turns shocking, inspiring and deeply moving, Coker Burks account of caring for men with HIV and AIDS in conservative 1980s America affirms the ignorance and prejudice with which the condition was treated and the courage and determination displayed by those willing to defy the strictures of authority.
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Equally riveting and heartbreaking, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames charts one woman’s journey as she traces her origins back to London’s Foundling Hospital and discovers the story of her birth mother.
£20.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Tracing the astonishing lives of the author’s mother and two aunts, How to Be a Refugee illuminates an element of the Holocaust seldom discussed – the individual’s suppression of Jewish heritage in order to evade the Nazi genocide.
£18.99
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
An incisive and deeply moving meditation on identity and belonging, Lawton’s memoir fearlessly seeks answers to questions that are both highly personal and acutely political.
£30.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
The definitive life of the profoundly influential early-Georgian satirist, Hogarth paints a vivacious portrait of a complex, larger-than-life figure and the bustling, corrupt and degenerate London that he so savagely documented.
Food & Drink
£26.00
Hardback
Out of stock
Pioneering and endlessly inventive, the award-winning Anna Jones is one of the nation’s most respected cooks and, in the sleek, gorgeously produced One, she provides a broad range of exotic global cuisine, all vegetarian and vegan, geared to minimise waste and maximise taste.
£20.00
Hardback
Out of stock
Making the most of Asia’s rich heritage of meat-free cuisine, Ching-He Huang provides a mouthwatering selection of vegan dishes from the continent, from Peking mushroom pancakes to Chinese black bean seitan tacos.
£26.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
The global love affair with the Italian delicatessen is explored with passion and authority by world-renowned chef Theo Randall, in this sumptuously produced and illustrated volume.
£17.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
The bestselling author of the Roasting Tin series turns her attention to summer cooking vegetarian-style with this accessible book of delicious plant-based recipes, perfect for the barbecue.
History
£25.00
Hardback
Out of stock
The master historian of the Second World War produces another nail-biting volume that reads with the pace and style of fiction, this time spotlighting the brutal battle of attrition that secured Malta’s survival.
£25.00
Hardback
Out of stock
With his customary swashbuckling elan, Jones embarks upon a thunderous new history of the Middle Ages that thrillingly chronicles the tensions between East and West that shaped the modern world.
£18.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
An urgent, incisive account of how the depredations of its imperial past dog Britain’s view of itself today, Empireland is provocative, meticulously researched writing of the highest order.
£14.99
Hardback
Out of stock
The bestselling author of The Hare with Amber Eyes paints a fascinating portrait of the eminent French art collector Count Moise de Camondo and sheds light on the hitherto hidden layers of his family history.
£20.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Through the prism of the famous Innsbruck Café Schindler, this immersive slice of family history unspools a compelling panorama of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century and the oft neglected fate of Austria-Hungary’s Jewish population.
£35.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
From the author of The Medici comes a rigorously researched and absorbingly chronicled study of the all-powerful dynastic rulers and patrons of the arts in Renaissance Italy.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Subtly devastating in it’s clear-headed and measured approach, Smith’s moving travelogue visits seven iconic US buildings constructed by enslaved Black labour and forces the current generation to acknowledge the hidden legacy of slavery.
Politics
£16.99
Hardback
Out of stock
Ten hotspots for the future of geopolitics explored with clarity and wit in this cogently argued volume from the foreign affairs journalist and author of Prisoners of Geography and Worth Dying For.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Former CIA analyst and North Korea expert Jung H. Pak lifts the lid on one of the most enigmatic and tyrannical leaders of our time in this piercing study of power, personality and propaganda.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Provocative but informed, Eyal’s penetrating dissection of the iniquities of globalisation draws in lessons from both past and present to deliver a compelling argument against hollow institutions and the arrogance of political elites.
£20.00
Hardback
Out of stock
As gripping as a thriller, We Are Bellingcat tells the incredible true story of the innovative practitioners of open-source intelligence and how they’ve helped to uncover some of the biggest stories of our day.
£16.99
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
A bold and provocative look at white male power from the New York Times number one bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race.
£14.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Fenton’s meticulous and astounding reportage unravels the full story of Baltimore’s infamous Gun Trace Task Force and the shocking depths of systemic corruption within which it operated.
Popular Science
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
An antidote to the gloomier forecasts of impending climate disaster, Bill Gates's sprightly and infectiously proactive book offers practicable, sustainable solutions to reversing global climate change.
£25.00
Hardback
Out of stock
Collating Dawkins’s pieces on great science writers and the theories that they espouse, Books Do Furnish a Life is a masterful compendium of lightly-worn learning and confirmation of the author’s remarkable insight.
£16.99
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Tracing the vexed history of attitudes to women’s health from witch trials and Hysteria to the present day, Cleghorn’s volume demystifies a wealth of misdiagnoses from male physicians and psychiatrists.
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Fortey’s immense knowledge and sparkling prose bring to life the history of four billion years of evolution, as well as offering a fascinating glimpse into the formative years of a great scientist.
£16.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
Approaching the creation of the universe from a fresh and fascinating angle, CERN physicist Tonelli traces seven cosmological epochs and the development of competing historical theories about how everything first began.
Nature
£16.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
A brilliantly accomplished mix of powerful memoir and revelatory nature writing, Sethi’s account of finding solace in the Northern countryside following a traumatic racial attack is a defiant act of reclamation and an astonishing piece of testimony.
£19.99
Hardback
Out of stock
The author of The Hidden Life of Trees expounds on humanity’s profound bonds with the natural world in this informed yet highly accessible guide to the flora and fauna all around us.
£14.99
Hardback
Out of stock
A breathtaking blend of history, nature writing and memoir, Thin Places is a moving account of growing up in Derry during the Troubles, and a meditation on the healing beauty of nature.
£14.99
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
From the author of the acclaimed Extraordinary Insects comes a fascinating investigation into humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the myriad ways that flora and fauna help to sustain human life.
Sport
£20.00
Hardback
Out of stock
One of the most unconventional footballers of the pre-Premier League age, Pat Nevin delivers a characteristically thoughtful and eloquent memoir of a future ordained by ability rather than intention.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 48 hours
The Jamaican commentator and former cricketer expands on the game-changing distillation of the Black Lives Matter movement that he delivered live on air, in this powerful, eloquent work which combines Holding’s own testimony about racial abuse with thoughtful interviews from across the world of sport.
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