Headline Books

A wide-ranging and thought-provoking exploration of the importance of long-term thinking.

Humans are unique in our ability to understand time, able to comprehend the past and future like no other species. Yet modern-day technology and capitalism have supercharged our short-termist tendencies and trapped us in the present, at the mercy of reactive politics, quarterly business targets and 24-hour news cycles.

It wasn't always so. In medieval times, craftsmen worked on cathedrals that would be unfinished in their lifetime. Indigenous leaders fostered intergenerational reciprocity. And in the early twentieth century, writers dreamed of worlds thousands of years hence. Now, as we face long-term challenges on an unprecedented scale, how do we recapture that far-sighted vision?

Richard Fisher takes us from the boardrooms of Japan - home to some of the world's oldest businesses - to an Australian laboratory where an experiment started a century ago is still going strong. He examines the psychological biases that discourage the long view, and talks to the growing number of people from the worlds of philosophy, technology, science and the arts who are exploring smart ways to overcome them. How can we learn to widen our perception of time and honour our obligations to the lives of those not yet born?

A visceral, visual novel of rural experiment and dark secrets, set in 1930s England at the height of the Great Depression.

Worn out by poverty, Lettie Radley and her miner husband Tommy grasp at the offer of their very own smallholding - part of a Government scheme to put the unemployed back to work on the land. When she comes down to Essex to join him, it's not Tommy who greets her, but their new neighbours. Overbearing and unkempt, Jean and Adam Dell are everything that the smart, spirited, aspirational Lettie can't abide.

As Lettie settles in, she finds an unexpected joy in the rhythms of life on the smallholding. She's hopeful that her past, and the terrible secret Tommy has come to Foxash to escape, are far behind them. But the Dells have their own secrets. And as the seasons change, and a man comes knocking at the gate, the scene is set for a terrible reckoning.

Combining a gothic sensibility with a visceral, unsettling sense of place, Foxash is a deeply original novel of quiet and powerful menace, of the real hardships of rural life, and the myths and folklore that seep into ordinary lives - with surprising consequences.

When she receives a heart-wrenching text not meant for her, Lizzie embarks on a journey that leads her to the greatest love - and biggest decision - of her life. For fans of The Sight of You and In Five Years.

A message meant for another. A love meant only for her.

This year I am sending my last message to you.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself,

and I will never forget you,

but I have to find a way to let you go.

When Lizzie is woken in the night by a text message clearly not meant for her, she is intrigued and haunted by the words she sees. After losing her beloved twin brother, she knows something of grief and the struggle to rebuild a life.

Nick, a widower for three years, is haunted by the disappearance and presumed death of his wife, but when he meets Lizzie, he finally finds a kindred spirit.

When these two lonely hearts are drawn together, an unexpectedly deep and powerful emotional connection is formed. Perhaps finally this is the chance for both of them to live again - if they can overcome scars of the past which have a longer reach than either could have imagined.

If you love Holly Miller's The Sight of You, Rebecca Serle's In Five Years and Nicholas Sparks, you won't want to miss the breathtaking love story of the year that will grip your heart in every way.

A surprising and hilarious history of the language of food. Perfect for readers of Susie Dent and Mark Forsyth, and fans of QI.

All food has a story, reaching as far back into history as language itself. As languages followed and reflected the tides of civilizations, food language came to represent some of the highs and lows of how humans communicate: from the highbrow 'Chateauneuf du Pape: (the Pope's new castle)' to the 'nun's farts' of Jamaica (also known as 'beignets').

Chock full of food puns, linguistic did-you-knows and delectable trivia, Romaine Wasn't Built in A Day is your go-to gift for your trivia nerds, your history buffs, your crossword fiends, and your Scrabble diehards. This is the surprising and hilarious history of food, told through the lens of the fascinating evolution of language.

An insight into the life of a farmer turned zookeeper, following the ups and downs through the seasons with Jimmy and the animals at his wildlife park in Suffolk.

Jimmy's Farm turns 20 years old in 2022. From starting out with rare breed pigs and a farm shop, Jimmy and his wife, Michaela, have grown the business over the years and the farm is now licensed to operate as a wildlife park.

Tales from Jimmy's Farm follows a year in the life of the farm. The narrative traces the seasons as Jimmy documents what it means to live on a farm and what each day holds for him, his wife and four young daughters, the land he is farming and the animals in his care.

The farm began life with rare breed pigs, but Jimmy soon expanded this to goats, cows, sheep and Suffolk Punch horses, too, and now the wildlife park plays host to over 80 species and breeds of traditional, rare and exotic animals, from crocodiles, camels and tapirs to skunks, wallabies and raccoons. Visitors can also learn about butterflies and insects in the Butterfly House, and meet reptiles and birds in the Tropical House.

The listener will be transported into the landscape, learn of the practical day-to-day jobs, and fall in love with the animals through stories of where they came from, how they arrived and settled in, and funny anecdotes as Jimmy and his team got to know them. Along with a whole host of other characters, Jimmy will introduce you to:

Teddy and Tip Tap, a pair of tapirs

Alice and Arthur, the Mongolian Bactrian camels

Basil, the giant anteater

Dolph, Mistletoe and Rowan, the resident reindeers

Powerful, moving and redemptive, River Sing Me Home tells of a mother's desperate search to find her stolen children and her freedom.

We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to us, those names on our lips.

Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy.

These are the names of her children. The five who survived, only to be sold to other plantations. The faces Rachel cannot forget.

It's 1834, and the law says her people are now free. But for Rachel freedom means finding her children, even if the truth is more than she can bear.

With fear snapping at her heels, Rachel keeps moving. From sunrise to sunset, through the cane fields of Barbados to the forests of British Guiana and on to Trinidad, to the dangerous river and the open sea.

Only once she knows their stories can she rest.

Only then can she finally find home.

One minute Lou is happily employed, with a perfect flat. The next, her home and job have gone. Suddenly she has to start over.

The last thing Lou wants is to move to a tiny Cotswolds village. She certainly doesn't intend to work for curmudgeonly eighty-year-old Edgar Allsopp. But Edgar is about to make her the kind of promise nobody could ignore. In return, she secretly vows to help him fall in love with life again.

Foxwell is also home to Remy, whose charm and charisma are proving hard to ignore. But Lou hasn't recovered from the last time she fell for a charmer. She needs a distraction - and luckily one's about to turn up.

Secrets never stay hidden for long in Foxwell, nor are promises always kept. And no one could guess what lies ahead...

From the author of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It and Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead, the third book in a hilarious murder mystery series with a completely lovable heroine - perfect for fans of Abbi Waxman and Maria Semple.

New year, new Finlay Donovan.

She's got a list of resolutions and she's ready to bite the bullet.

No junk food.

No men.

No bodies in her minivan.

But first, she owes the Russian mob one last favour - tracking down a rogue hitman with her nanny Vero, before the cops do. The small complication? This killer might be cop himself.

Enter distractingly hot Detective Nicholas Anthony, whose new citizens' police academy provides the perfect cover-up for Finlay to sleuth out the target - and some fresh ideas for her crime novel.

Between firearms and forensics training, family dramas and hands-on research with Detective Nick, can Finlay get to her edits and the hitman before time runs out?

She'll give it her best shot.

With more dating, diapers and dodging bullets, the third book in the hilarious irresistibly lovable Finlay Donovan series is perfect for fans of Dial A for Aunties, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, and Netflix's Dead to Me.

A touching and laugh-out-loud-funny pregnancy and motherhood memoir from the nation's best-loved reality TV star.

Charlotte Crosby is one of the UK's most beloved reality TV stars, an accomplished presenter, an award-winning entrepreneurial businesswoman and now a first-time expectant mum. Here in Me, Myself and Mini Me, Charlotte will talk us through the next stage of her journey, from her single days and meeting her partner Jake, to the moment she found out she was expecting, the emotional and physical rollercoasters of pregnancy, and the magic of their first family Christmas.

An old map. A lost pilgrimage route. A journey in search of our walking heritage.

When Henry VIII banned pilgrimage in 1538, he ended not only a centuries-old tradition of walking as an act of faith, but a valuable chance to discover the joy of walking as an escape from the burdens of everyday life.

Much was lost when these journeys faded from our collective memory, but clues to our past remain. On an antique map in Oxford's Bodleian Library, a faint red line threading through towns and villages between Southampton and Canterbury suggests a significant, though long-forgotten, road. Renamed the Old Way, medieval pilgrims are thought to have travelled this route to reach the celebrated shrine of Thomas Becket.

Described as England's Camino, this long-distance footpath carves through one of the nation's most iconic landscapes—one that links prehistoric earthworks, abandoned monasteries, Saxon churches, ruined castles and historic seaports.

Over four seasons, travel writer Gail Simmons walks the Old Way to rediscover what a long journey on foot offers us today. In the age of the car, what does it mean to embrace 'slow travel'? Why does being a woman walking alone still feel like a radical act? In an age when walking connects the nation, can we now reclaim pilgrimage as a secular act?

Winding 250 miles between the chalk hills and shifting seascapes of the south coast, Gail ventures deep into our past, exploring this lost path and telling a story of kings and knights, peasants and pilgrims, of ancient folklore and modern politics. Blending history, anthropology, etymology and geology, Gail's walk along the Old Way reveals the rich natural and cultural heritage found on our own doorstep.