Notable Memoirs and Biographies

This first comprehensive biography of Cecil Rhodes in a generation illuminates Rhodes’s vision for the expansion of imperialism in southern Africa, connecting politics and industry to internal development, and examines how this fueled a lasting white-dominated colonial society.

Rhodes was one of the most influential people in the history of the British Empire. He made a fortune by leading the world’s most important diamond mining company, De Beers, as well as gold-mining concern Consolidated Gold Fields. He was a member of the Cape Colony’s legislature and served as prime minister from 1890 to 1896, a key period for the development of racial discrimination. His British South Africa Company was given a charter to govern what is today Zambia and Zimbabwe.

A complex figure, admired and detested in his own time, Rhodes dreamt to unite Southern Africa’s colonies and republics into one state, dominated by white settlers, with labour provided by Black people who were constrained and pressured by discriminatory laws. In 1895 and 1896, he encouraged a failed plot to overthrow the independent Boer republic in the Transvaal. Rhodes’ coup helped to precipitate the South African War, which started in 1899 and ended in 1902, the year of Rhodes’ death.

This authoritative biography focuses on the relationship between Rhodes’ well-known activities in business and politics and the development of Southern Africa’s infrastructure, most famously his plan for a Cape-to-Cairo railway. Rhodes envisioned a region where racism became embedded in the mining, farming, communication, and transportation industries. He pursued this vision in the face of opposition from many quarters. Understanding the extent of Rhodes’ activities helps us to understand the challenges of modern Africa and the recent Rhodes Must Fall movement. A critical analysis of this contested figure, The Colonialist offers an original portrait of a crucial figure of his era.

REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2025. INCLUDES NOVAK’S HISTORIC OLYMPIC TITLE.

No man or woman has won more Grand Slam singles titles than Novak Djokovic, who took his 24th major at the 2023 US Open. Based on fresh interviews with people close to Djokovic – including his friends and mentors, along with his former coaches and his rivals – this is an in-depth exploration of the psyche of one of the most fascinating and controversial sporting characters ever. From a bomb shelter in Belgrade to an immigration detention centre in Melbourne, and everywhere in between, this book uncovers his relentless pursuit of perfection and the unconventional beliefs that have propelled him to greatness. Rage. Forgiveness. Shame. Pride. Love. Searching for Novak examines the psychological and emotional side of rewriting tennis history.

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6th, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world’s first atomic bomb. Built in the US by the top-secret Manhattan Project and delivered by a B-29 Superfortress, a revolutionary long-range bomber, the weapon destroyed large swaths of the city, instantly killing tens of thousands. The world would never be the same again.

The Hiroshima Men’s unique narrative recounts the decade-long journey towards this first atomic attack. It charts the race for nuclear technology before, and during the Second World War, as the allies fought the axis powers in Europe, North Africa, China, and across the vastness of the Pacific, and is seen through the experiences of several key characters: General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project alongside Robert Oppenheimer; pioneering Army Air Force bomber pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets II; the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, who would die alongside over eighty-thousand of his fellow citizens; and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Hersey, who travelled to post-war Japan to expose the devastation the bomb had inflicted upon the city, and in a historic New Yorker article, described in unflinching detail the dangers posed by its deadly after-effect, radiation poisoning.

This thrilling account takes the reader from the corridors of the White House to the laboratories and test sites of New Mexico; from the air war above Nazi Germany and the savage reconquest of the Pacific to the deadly firebombing air raids across the Japanese Home Islands. The Hiroshima Men also includes Japanese perspectives – a vital aspect often missing from Western narratives – to complete MacGregor’s nuanced, deeply human account of the bombing’s meaning and aftermath.

Further sees former professional cyclist Michael Hutchinson immerse himself in the world of ultra-distance bike racing. Speaking to some of the best athletes in the world, as well as sports scientists, psychologists and nutritionists, he discovers what some of the toughest events in sport demand – both physically and mentally.

He experiences hallucinations, emotional meltdowns and a depth of physical exhaustion he never thought possible. But he also bears witness to the profound pleasures of the long ride – the joy of crossing a continent under your own power, and the wonders of discovering what you’re truly capable of. And as he takes on one of the hardest events in the cycling calendar, he might just find out for himself the miseries and the glories of going all the way to the edge, and maybe just a little bit further…

In the years following his disappearance, George Mallory was elevated into an all-British hero – handsome, charismatic and daring, he was the ‘Galahad’ of Everest, who had died while taking on the ultimate challenge. But he was also a risk taker who could never get behind the wheel of a car without overtaking the vehicle in front; a climber who pushed himself and those around him to the limits; and a chaotic technophobe who was forever losing equipment or mishandling it, putting himself and his colleagues in danger.

Based on diaries, letters, memoirs and thousands of contemporary documents, Fallen is a forensic account of Mallory’s last expedition to Everest in 1924, as well as an attempt to get to know the real Mallory; to get under his skin, understand the forces that made him and destroyed him and separate the man from the myth.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Magical Overthinking and Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how “cultish” groups, from Jonestown and Scientologists to SoulCycle and social media gurus, use language as the ultimate form of power.

What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.  

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.

David Challen grew up in the perfect home with the model family.

He also grew up inside a house which concealed his father’s manipulation and control.

One Saturday in 2010, David’s mother struck more than twenty blows to the back of her husband’s head with a hammer after thirty years of abuse. She then washed the dirty dishes from the lunch she had just cooked and left the house. In those few minutes, David’s life was changed forever.

Over the next decade, he led the fight to overturn her conviction; and in doing so he not only freed his mother and helped change the legal system, but also became a voice for the countless victims of coercive control across the country.

This is a powerful story of a son’s love for his mother; of an insidious form of abuse that must be better understood if we are to truly tackle it; and fight that reshaped how society understands domestic abuse.

Coming Soon!

UNION FOR THE HEADLINES, A TRIAL FOR THE TIME

Celebrity romances have always captured the public’s imagination, playing out like soap operas seized upon by fans and tabloids alike. By the same token, high-profile trials can take over the mainstream media cycle, with both news pundits and the public picking over every detail to predict outcomes and cast their own judgements. Enter the union, dissolution, and hostile legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard―where these dual obsessions collided, creating a chaotic moment of true cultural fixation.

Hollywood Vampires offers an inside account of one of the most controversial and consequential celebrity scandals of the internet era. Fueled by viral clips, reaction videos, and endless online debates, the trial became more than a legal battle. It became a public spectacle, dividing audiences worldwide.

Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey were journalists on the ground for the Depp v Heard trial. Having closely followed Johnny, Amber, and their camps, they spent the years leading up to and following the trial interviewing the couple’s closest allies as well as their managers, lawyers, agents, business associates, publicists, assistants, and personal staff. The result is a page-turning Hollywood epic full of revealing details that tell a wider tale about the celebrity-industrial complex, modern fandom, inflammatory culture wars, and contemporary feminism.

Turning the lens around, Hollywood Vampires questions how the celebrity exploitation machine, strengthened by the forces of social media and legacy media alike, blurs the lines between fact and fiction, comedy and horror. It forces us to ask ourselves why we take celebrity culture so seriously in the first place―and who wins and who loses when Hollywood becomes the vehicle for our own personal and political causes.

Coming Soon!