Visionaries, idealists and ordinary citizens speak out in this remarkable, timely anthology... At a time of political uncertainty, the collection demonstrates the importance of speaking truth to power.

Hagiographers beware; Wheatcroft has skewered the cult of Churchill hero worship. This book reminds us that while Churchill was Britain's saviour in 1940, his views on race and empire, and his military debacles from the Dardanelles to Dieppe, make it unwise to revere him like a saint

A clear-eyed, incisive and superbly balanced account of Churchill, the man and the myth... Much to think about in the twenty-first century

Stimulating, erudite and above all entertaining... For any reader tired of the seemingly endless round of Churchill-worship of the last few years, Geoffrey Wheatcroft provides a lively corrective

Wheatcroft is a skilled prosecutor with a rapier pen ... [Churchill's Shadow] could be the best single-volume indictment of Churchill yet written

Provocative, clear-sighted, richly textured and wonderfully readable, this is the indispensable biography of Churchill for the post-Brexit 2020s

Wheatcroft takes the now widely held ... view of Churchill, which is that he was reckless and racist, a "stormy petrel" in Wheatcroft's neat phrase, [and] laments the way that misinformed "Churchillism" has taken hold

[A] fascinating book... Churchill's Shadow is a wonderful revisioning of the sacred monster which, curiously, leaves you more in sympathy with him, because it never tries to gloss over his enormous faults, while giving full play to his amazing qualities.

Wheatcroft declares modestly that he hasn't written a full biography... [but this] book is still the best place to start. That's not just because Wheatcroft tells you all you need to know about Churchill's life. It's because he tells you...[what] you need to know about his afterlife

An incredibly well-reported account of how fashion, far from being trivial, has shaped human history

This is a must-read book for anyone interested in textiles. In it Sofi Thanhauser tracks the ingenuity, creativity and human cost of textile production across centuries and cultures in a book which combines remarkable research with heartfelt care

Captivating and deeply researched . . . Thanhauser unearths the secret life of fabrics with skill and precision. Readers won't look at their wardrobes the same way again

A fascinating read, laying out how our increasingly careless use and discarding of clothing has come to damage our planet. Thanhauser has carried out a remarkable mass of research on clothes and the fibers they are made from. She has stitched it all together in a clear and engaging style that invites one to keep reading and to start mending our ways

Original, insightful and thought provoking . . . a delight to read such rich insights into the weaving and knitting together of industries, societies, political initiatives and economies of cloth that truly demonstrates humans activities

Sofi Thanhauser's history of cloth is not just about clothing: it is about ethics, workers' rights, women's progress, climate justice. It is the about the fabric of who we are. And as told in Worn, it also makes an absolutely gripping read!

Admirable concision and formidable scholarship . . . Now and then in the life of a book reviewer, a book comes along that makes you glad to be one . . . Worn falls plumb into this category

Thanhauser's geographical reach is impressive . . . as is the rigour of her examinations of the cultural, economic, political and environmental impacts

Glaude's book is neither straight biography nor straight history, but rather historiography, reaching back and forth in time to show what Baldwin - whose centenary will be celebrated in 2024 - has to say to us and to teach us through his many writings at a time when "the idea of America is in deep trouble"

A powerful, genre-defying work

Fascinating . . . An urgent and honest overview of Baldwin's work

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. utilises Baldwin's poetry as well as his play and novel-writing, his personal history as well as his essays and social commentary. Begin Again is an accomplished physical and spiritual revisiting (and at times a re-visioning) of Baldwin's shifting perspectives through America's civil rights era. The book manages to remain relevant to today's worldwide polemical times and speaks to a global Black Lives Matter movement. Glaude guides us through Baldwin's rage and disillusionments without betraying the fierce and concise heart that was unique to Baldwin's writing and vision. A riveting read

A powerful study of how to bear witness in a moment when America is being called to do the same

Begin Again is a groundbreaking and informative guide to Baldwin and his era

The fascinating, unexpurgated interwar diaries of the Tory MP and social alpinist Henry "Chips" Channon, who met everyone who was anyone from Hitler to kings, the Pope and the Mitfords. Bonking, snobbery and bitchy remarks abound in this big beast of a book.

I did enjoy the Chips Channon diaries, the new first volume. My most pleasurable reading experiences are diaries and letters. History unfiltered, not refracted through a historian's imagination. The Chips Channon diaries bring alive a section of society in the 20s and 30s with great vividness.

Chips Channon wrote witheringly about everyone-except Hitler. But his diaries still make for strangely addictive reading . . . [Simon Heffer] has done a superb job.

These unabridged, risqué, waspish, snobbish, social-climbing diaries have been worth the wait . . . All credit to Simon Heffer for his masterly editing and annotation.

The diaries are indeed indispensable for anyone seriously interested in the political and social history of interwar Britain.

Brilliantly and painstakingly edited by Simon Heffer. The enlarged Channon diaries have rightly attracted a great deal of attention . . . they are more detailed and more frank, and maybe more honest, about the opinions and sexual escapades of some of the leading figures in British politics and high society in the years between the world wars.

It sounds perverse to say that Channon's snobberies and prejudices make the diaries, but the unabashed exposure of these failings gives you an oddly impressive picture of a person in the setting of his time - the picture, I mean, is absorbing, whatever the subject's shortcomings. And though this colossal self-portrait describes much that's misguided, vain, and idiotic, it prompts you too to imagine those perishable qualities that history and biography so often fail to capture: the charm, generosity, personal magnetism, and brilliance of conversation that must have explained and sustained Chips's progress, the "success after success" that the diaries record and celebrate.

One of the most talked about books of this year . . . compelling and significant.

Channon's jaw-dropping account, lovingly curated by the historian and former Mail writer Simon Heffer, is compelling.

Delicious, dangerous and utterly compulsive.

Dripping with bons mots, anecdote and scandal, [these] are addictive, even if they elicit repulsion as well as delight.

A momentous publishing event. Candid, unabashed, vivid and manifold. They will be prized for their powerful evocation of social milieux . . . Heffer's footnotes are always informative, just and accurate, often amusing, and can seldom be faulted.

An unadulterated masterpiece . . . A larder of quotable treats.

Scintillating wit, memorable descriptions and compelling gossip. Heffer has done a magnificent job. Riveting.

Whatever you think of him Channon ranks among the great diarists. He is at turns brilliant, witty, trivial and spiteful, with observations about some figures whose names have stood the test of time. Simon Heffer has done an excellent job as editor and his copious footnotes are often as entertaining as the diaries.

An inspired diarist. After devouring this volume readers will be salivating for the next.