Most Wanted - April 2020

Richard and Daniel Susskind

This book, authored by legal experts across government and industry, explains how increasingly capable technologies - from telepresence to artificial intelligence - will place the 'practical expertise' of the finest specialists at the fingertips of everyone, often at no or low cost and without face-to-face interaction. 

Deborah Gruenfeld, Social Psychologist, Stanford Business School

We often assume that power flows to those with the loudest voice or the most commanding presence in the room. But, in fact, true power is often much quieter and more deferential than we realize. Moreover, it's not just how much power we have but how we use it that determines how powerful we actually are.

Nazir Afzal, Former UK Chief Prosecutor

Nazir Afzal knows a thing or two about justice. As a Chief Prosecutor, it was his job to make sure the most complex, violent and harrowing crimes made it to court, and that their perpetrators were convicted. From the Rochdale sex ring to the earliest prosecutions for honour killing and modern slavery, Nazir was at the forefront of the British legal system for decades.

Alexandra Shulman

'Clothes... and other things that matter is a book not only about clothes but about the way we live our lives. From childhood onwards, the way we dress is a result of our personal history. In a mix of memoir, fashion history and social observation I am writing about the person our clothes allows us to be and sometimes the person they turn us into.' - Alexandra Shulman

James Naughtie

James Naughtie, the acclaimed author and BBC broadcaster, now brings his unique and inquisitive eye to the country that has fascinated him and drawn him across the Atlantic for half a century. In looking at America, from Presidents Nixon through to Trump, he’ll tell the story of a country that is grappling with a dream. What has it come to mean in the new century, and who do Americans now think they are?

Alice Gregory

Why do so many adolescents enjoy lying in at the weekends?

Why do children experiencing anxiety, behavioural problems or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder so often have co-occurring sleep problems?

Why are scientists turning to sleep disorders such as sleep paralysis to try to understand paranormal experiences? Ask Alice Gregory.

Callum Williams, Senior Economics Writer for The Economist

Opinions vary about who really counts as a classical economist: Marx thought it was everyone up to Ricardo. Keynes thought it was everyone up to Keynes. But there's a general agreement about who belongs to the heroic early phase of the discipline. Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Malthus, Mill, Marx: scarcely a day goes by without their names being publicly invoked to celebrate or criticise the state of the world or the actions of governments. 

Pragya Agarwal

Unconscious bias has become a frequently-used term in our vocabulary, but there are still so many myths around it. For the first time, behavioural scientist, activist and writer Dr Pragya Agarwal unravels the way our implicit or 'unintentional' biases affect the way we communicate and perceive the world, and how they affect our decision-making, even in life and death situations. She takes a unique inter-disciplinary approach combining case studies, personal experience, interviews and real world stories underpinned by scientific theories and research. 

David Crystal

David Crystal is known throughout the world as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster on language. He has published extensively on the history and development of English,An entertaining and accessible introduction to English conversation. This book includes a wide range of examples drawn from classic literature, TV, politics, and more and Let's Talispels some common misconceptions about how conversation works. 

Bart Ehrman

A fascinating history of the afterlife, spanning the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Old Testament, the teachings of Jesus and his early followers, and the writings of Augustine. Beginning in a time when Greeks, Jews and Christians held competing views of the afterlife, he reveals how the ideas of heaven and hell were closely connected with the social, cultural and historical worlds out of which they emerged.