The story of Aelfred the Great, his war against the Vikings and the foundations of modern Britain.
In AD 865, a 'great host' of battle-hardened Norse warriors landed on England's eastern coast, overwhelmed East Anglia with terrifying swiftness and laid the North to waste. Ghosting along estuaries and inshore waters, in 871 they penetrated deep into the southern kingdom of Wessex, ruled over by a new and untested king, Ælfred son of Æðelwulf. It seemed as though the End of Days was come.

Max Adams tells the story of the heroic efforts of Ælfred, his successors and fellow-kings of Britain, to adapt and survive in the face of an apocalyptic threat; and in so doing, to lay the foundations of the nations of modern Britain in all their regional diversity.

'Not all lost cities are real, but this one was.'
The extraordinary story of Alexander the Great's lost city, and a quest to unravel one of the most captivating mysteries in ancient history.

‘Superb … impeccably researched, but with the pace and deftly woven plot complexity of a John le Carré novel ... utterly brilliant’ William Dalrymple, Guardian
‘[An] exceptional biography ... This is a jewel of a book’ Sunday Times
‘A brilliant and evocative biography, written with consummate scholarship, great style and wit’ Daily Telegraph

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For centuries the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833 it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable: Charles Masson, an ordinary working-class boy from London turned deserter, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist and highly respected scholar.

On the way into one of history’s most extraordinary stories, Masson would take tea with kings, travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises; he would see things no westerner had glimpsed before and few have glimpsed since. He would spy for the East India Company and be suspected of spying for Russia at the same time, for this was the era of the Great Game, when imperial powers confronted each other in these staggeringly beautiful lands. Masson discovered tens of thousands of pieces of Afghan history, including the 2,000-year-old Bimaran golden casket, which has upon it the earliest known face of the Buddha. He would be offered his own kingdom; he would change the world, and the world would destroy him.

This is a wild journey through nineteenth-century India and Afghanistan, with impeccably researched storytelling that shows us a world of espionage and dreamers, ne’er-do-wells and opportunists, extreme violence both personal and military, and boundless hope. At the edge of empire, amid the deserts and the mountains, it is the story of an obsession passed down the centuries.

**Chosen as a Book of the Year by the Spectator, Listener and Sydney Morning Herald**

'Thrilling, chilling, uproarious and unputdownable' THE TIMES
'A feel-good tale and joyous love letter' GUARDIAN
'It is IMPOSSIBLE for a book to be more delightful than this' CAITLIN MORAN
'Deliciously readable and deeply touching' DAILY MAIL
'Funny and fascinating' OLDIE
'A zinger' DAILY TELEGRAPH

An icon at twenty-seven and voted sexiest woman of all time forty years later, Diana Rigg was Emma Peel, the catsuited Avenger and 007's only wife. She was equally unforgettable as Medea, Mother Courage, Mrs Danvers and Game of Thrones' Queen of Thorns.

Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for her; Ted Hughes translated a play; Laurence Olivier called her 'Tits Rigg'. She fearlessly fought for equal pay and took the Daily Mail to court for their campaign against her (winning both times). Always witty and direct, when asked what it meant to become a dame, she replied, 'I think it means I'm not supposed to say "fuck" anymore.'

Offstage, she was a gloriously naughty, deeply loving, take-no-prisoners mother to her only child, Rachael Stirling. Little surprise that Rachael became an actress - here she shows that she is a writer too. All About My Mother is both a showstopping mother-daughter memoir and the vivid life of a legend all rolled into one.

Diana Rigg never wrote her autobiography but in this raw, vibrant and tender book, written by the person who knew her best, she lives again on the page.