Simon Bubb

This unusual and important book is a series of reflections on death in all its forms: the science of it, the medicine, the tragedy and the comedy. Dr David Jarrett draws on family stories and case histories from his thirty years of treating the old, demented and frail to try to find his own understanding of the end.

And he writes about all the conversations that we, our parents, our children, the medical community, our government and society as a whole should be having. Profound, provocative, strangely funny and astonishingly compelling, it is an impassioned plea that we start talking frankly and openly about death. And it is a call to arms for us to make radical changes to our perspective on 'the seventh age of man'.

A man's wife dies. What next? He smothers his sorrow and gets on with the days, but his brain won't rest. As a neuropsychologist he has spent a career trying to fathom the human brain, but now, he comes to realise, his brain is struggling to make sense of him. Combining neurological case stories and memoir, and with excursions into speculative fiction and mythology, this is a deeply personal meditation on grief, time and selfhood.

1905, London. When Bessie Drummond, an old flame of Sam Wyndham's, is attacked, he is determined to get to the bottom of it. But the next day, Bessie is found dead and Wyndham soon finds himself caught up in her murder investigation. 1922, India. Wyndham heads for the hills of Assam, ready to put his opium addiction behind him. But when he arrives, he sees a ghost from his life in London - a man thought to be long dead. Wyndham knows he must call his friend and colleague Sergeant Banerjee for help. He is certain that this figure from the past can only be after one thing: revenge.

Robert Maxwell was a very British success. Born an Orthodox Jew, he escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fought in the Second World War, and was decorated for his heroism with the Military Cross. He went on to become a Labour MP and an astonishingly successful businessman, owning a number of newspapers and publishing companies. But after his dead body was discovered floating in waters around his superyacht, his empire fell apart as long-hidden debts and unscrupulous dealings came to light. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and corruption.

What went so wrong? How did a man who had once laid such store on the importance of ethics and good behaviour become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck? In this gripping book, John Preston delivers the definitive account of Maxwell's extraordinary rise and scandalous fall.

In July 2019, Ben Goldsmith lost his fifteen-year-old daughter, Iris, in an accident on their family farm in Somerset. Iris's death left her family reeling. Grasping for answers, Ben threw himself into searching for some ongoing trace of his beloved child, exploring ideas that until then had seemed too abstract to mean much to him. Missing his daughter terribly and struggling to imagine how he would face the rest of his life in the shadow of this loss, Ben found solace in nature, the object of a lifelong fascination. As Ben set about rewilding his farm, nature became a vital source of meaning and hope.

This book is the story of a year of soul-searching that followed a terrible loss. In an instant, Ben's world had turned dark. Yet, unbelievably to him, the seasons kept on turning, and as he immersed himself in the dramatic restoration of nature in the place where it happened, he found healing. In God is an Octopus, Ben tells a powerful, immersive and inspiring story of finding comfort and strength in nature after suffering loss and despair.

An unlikely spy. July 1940. As Britain braces itself for invasion, ex-Tommy and safecracker Bill O'Hagan is glad to have escaped the battlefield. But when a job goes wrong, he finds himself forced to serve his country once more. A former king. Spurned by his government and fearing for his life, the Duke of Windsor flees to Portugal with the woman for whom he abdicated the throne, Wallis Simpson. As a web of Nazi trickery threatens to ensnare him, his fate and the fate of Britain rest on one man.

The fate of a nation in their hands. Dropped on an occupied Channel Island without backup, Bill must crack an enemy safe and get its contents to safety. Failure will devastate any hope Britain has of winning the war. But with the layers of deception and intrigue drawing ever more tightly around them, Bill and the Duke both learn they aren't the only players in this game. And Berlin - which has the Duke in its own sights - is plotting its greatest move yet . . .

India, 1920. Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee are visiting the kingdom of Sambalpore, home to the beautiful Palace of the Sun. But when the Maharaja’s eldest son is assassinated, Wyndham realises that the realm is riven with conflict. As Wyndham and Banerjee endeavour to unravel the mystery, they become entangled in a dangerous world. They must find the murderer, before the murderer finds them.

Captain Sam Wyndham is seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War and he has been recruited to head up a new post in the police force in Calcutta. With rising political dissent, Wyndham and his two new colleagues - arrogant Inspector Digby and British-educated, but Indian-born Sargeant Banerjee - embark on an investigation that will take them from the luxurious parlours of wealthy British traders to the seedy opium dens of the city.

India, 1921. Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium. When Sam is summoned to investigate a grisly murder, he is stunned at the sight of the body: he’s seen this before. Last night, in a drug addled haze, he stumbled across a corpse with the same ritualistic injuries. Unfortunately for Sam, revealing his presence in the opium den could cost him his career. He must try to solve the two murders, all the while keeping his personal demons secret, before somebody else turns up dead.

Taking command of the RAF's premier Typhoon squadron represented the pinnacle of Mike Sutton's career as fighter pilot. Until the day he was told he would be leading 1 (Fighter) Squadron into battle against a bloody and brutal enemy hellbent on establishing a permanent stronghold across Syria and Iraq and spreading terror across the free world. Their mission was to help stop them in their tracks. In proving the Typhoon in combat, they would be flying in some of the world's most treacherous skies, where ground fire, anti-aircraft artillery and the latest surface-to-air missiles posed a constant danger. The threat of getting shot down behind enemy lines was a fact of life.

Kenton's career as a journalist depends on his facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics and his quick judgement. Where his judgement sometimes fails him, however, is in his personal life. When he travels to Nuremberg to investigate a story about a top-level meeting of Nazi officials, he inadvertently finds himself on a train bound for Austria after a bad night of gambling. Stranded with no money, Kenton jumps at the chance to earn a fee helping a refugee smuggle securities across the border. Yet he soon discovers that the documents he holds have far more than cash value - and that they could cost him his life...