Duckworth Books

‘An inspiring must-read for anyone who is searching for hope in darkness of loss, grief or addiction’  Gillian AndersonSarah Hiscox’s deep self-esteem and addiction issues began in childhood when she was given powerful sleeping pills for her nightmares. Then, as a young woman, a toxic relationship with food morphed into a full-blown heroin dependency that neither a loving marriage nor a new baby could halt. After years of cycling through relapse and new starts, Sarah’s relationships were wrecked. In rehab she was confronted with herself and all that she’d lost. But it would take repeated attempts for her to understand even her worst day of abstinence was better than the days she relapsed. Just a few threads of hope remained – a desire to see her children grow, a friend called Davina, a sister and an ex-husband who, despite it all, still loved her. A compelling, wonderfully uplifting true story of the redemptive power of self-acceptance, friendship and love.

Richard Ainsworth moved to rural France to escape, so being voted mayor of the small town of Saint-Sauver comes as a terrible shock. Fortunately bureaucracy has its benefits and he is shipped off to a health spa to recuperate. The Esprit de l'Air is a world-famous venue on an island fort off the west coast of France, and was chosen specifically by his business partner and bounty hunter of international repute, Valérie d'Orçay. Richard should have been prepared then. After a dramatic first night where a bizarre and unfriendly group of guests are pitched against each other, Richard's film-historian mind wanders. Has he seen this all before? And when the first body turns up, he knows he has...

Inspector Henry Tibbett is taking a much-needed holiday from his job at Scotland Yard with his wife Emmy. Headed for a spot of skiing in the Italian Dolomites and some first-class people-watching, Tibbett’s worries blissfully melt away. That is, until a fellow guest who boards the ski lift alive at the top of the mountain is found dead when the lift touches bottom. Another dead body turns up, and then another, and it becomes clear that murder has come to the mountain. Dead Men Don't Ski reveals Patricia Moyes as one of the great mystery writers of her generation.

‘Fairy tales matter because at the heart of every one of them is transformation.’In a world in which all the old certainties seem to be crumbling, it's hard not to feel we have lost our way. In Ripening, Sharon Blackie insists that fairy tales are precisely the stories we need for such times. Long before they became bywords for people-pleasing princesses, these old stories – passed down to us through generations by our peasant ancestors – told us everything that women need to learn about the world. They might be set in difficult and dangerous times, but they require their heroines to face the unfaceable and dig deep for previously unimagined inner resources. They teach us to be savvy, inspire us to grow in confidence, show us how to be bold and claim the future we dream of. More than anything, fairy tales are soul-food. They show us how to take hold of our own personal narratives and transform them into stories that might begin with trauma, but end with empowerment.  They offer us images of startling resonance and beauty, while showing us how to recognise and make use of the possibilities that rise to the surface when broken systems are cracked open.

Chocks away! as our feline detectives investigate some sticky situations at the local chocolate factory in Catberry-on-the-Brink. Up at the Manor House, the family is at war as dark secrets are uncovered in The Tabby in Black chocolate selection box. Will Hettie and Tilly manage to reach the bottom layer before a murderer strikes? Did Horace Catberry really choke on a Mog Nob biscuit? And will the Goth Band Gums and Noses get to support The Travelling Whoopsies on their next tou? oin Hettie and Tilly  as they unwrap the mysteries swirling around the Catberry family in this bitter-sweet assortment of truth and lies.

LONGLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE BOOK AWARDS 2025'A classic adventure narrative in the vein of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Robert Louis Stevenson... life-changing' CAL FLYN, author of Islands of AbandonmentIn his mid-twenties, city-bound and restless, Louis D. Hall found himself uncertain. How to create a life he wanted to lead? Inspired by Don Quixote, he decided to fulfil a childhood dream – to make an uncharted journey on horseback. After finding his horse, Sasha, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, Louis set off and headed west. His destination: Cape Finisterre, ‘the end of the land’. For three weeks Louis and Sasha survived storms, snow, wolves and the untrodden partisan paths of the Ligurian Alps. But then a young woman arrived with her horse, Istia, and their solitary world was broken. Kiki, adrift with the death of her sibling, joined the journey, and the duo continued together. With every step and every fall, the pair are forced to unfold and trust in their horses and, eventually, each other. Using old and forgotten routes, guided by strangers and nature’s clues, the travellers unravel into a wilder way of life; united by the mysteries of the horse, enticed by the illusions of adventure.

'Stories of kindness, bravery and love shine from these pages' Nigel Slater'A brave, necessary account of resilience and skill and the power of bread and connection' Olia HerculesSHORTLISTED FOR THE JANE GRIGSON PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE FORTNUM & MASON FOOD AND DRINK AWARDSHow do you source, cook and take joy in food in the midst of war and los? ood is a weapon, a lifeline, a means of survival. Ukrainian food is also a powerful symbol of national identity and independence. This is a journey through mine-ridden, wrecked villages, repeatedly bombed cities, family kitchens and precarious small bakeries and cafes. Along the way news journalist and food writer Felicity Spector shares meals with soldiers, travels supply lines with volunteers and is fed incredible food by army cooks, fine bakers and home-cooking heroes. The extraordinary stories of just some of those people – refugees and restaurateurs – trying to rebuild lives and kitchens after years of bombing, shows a very Ukrainian determination to provide good food for a besieged people.

Experience the Tube like never before and discover the top 50 unusual things to do and see on the London Underground. Explore the rarest routes, take historic rides, visit abandoned stations, uncover secret shortcuts, discover letter-based odysseys and embark on unique Tube challenges with this lively, interactive book. You can:Find secret staircasesTake an escalator expeditionRace the Tube between stopsFind the Tube’s strangest stationBursting with facts and activities from YouTube train expert Geoff Marshall with additional sights to see from his co-creator of All the Stations, Vicki Pipe, this book will inspire children – and adults – to seize the moment and explore the hidden world of London’s Underground.

A beautiful, healing book for anyone who has ever struggled with pregnancy loss and recovery, and is looking for symbols of hope in the wider, wilder world. When Jennifer Lane finally fell pregnant, she and her partner were overjoyed. But it wasn’t an easy pregnancy, and her journey towards motherhood was, in the end, a story of loss. In the wake of her traumatic grief and physical recovery, Jennifer – a practising green witch – was left questioning everything about her beliefs. Trust your intuition, they say. But what if the worst thing that could happen doe? s she grieved, Jennifer turned to the mysteries of our animal natures, witchcraft and women’s fertility for understanding and comfort. This beautifully written account of finding solace in the natural world offers companionship through loss, and a sustaining path to joy and hope.

'L. C. Winter is a fantastic writer. If you liked The Silence Factory by the splendid Bridget Collins, I think this is for you' Natasha Pulley, author of The Hymn to Dionysus and The Watchmaker of Filigree StreetVengeance is theirs and theirs alone. But who will deal the fatal blo? oung Nancy Ratcliffe is on the run. Her father had sought refuge for his family with the Brethren, led by the charismatic but dangerous Prophet. But now her father is gravely ill, and even the sooty streets of Victorian London hold less terror for Nancy than the brutality of Brethren Hall. Meanwhile, Spider is biding her time. Wrapped in dreams and visions, she paces the dark corridors and hidden staircases of the crumbling house she grew up in. The man who murdered a part of her disappeared many years ago, but still she hopes for revenge. Jet-black and thrilling, Spider, Spider is an unforgettable tale of a woman who has lost herself in the poison of vengeance, and the knife-sharp girl who might just bring her back.

Chopsy is a memoir like no other – a gut-wrenchingly powerful, yet frequently funny account of a life spent defying  the prejudice and inequality faced by working-class women. Maya Jordan’s ambition and resilience was born in the library and nourished by the Open University – through poverty, early motherhood, precarious housing, caring responsibilities and chronic disability – to a point where she finally seized her right to write. 'Funny as hell and full of fight. Maya’s voice is the real deal' Daisy May Cooper'A curse on being ordinary! Wrong is not her name. Her name is Maya Jordan. She is a noisy woman and we should fear her' Michael Sheen

‘I was so thirsty for the prize of academia, so thrilled to defy the fates, that I suffocated my own history and culture, my Burmese heritage and my mother’s language. By doing this, I also possessed my ancestors and made them dance to the tune of Imperialism. How could I be so wrong?’After two decades of academic research and undergraduate teaching Davina Quinlivan, and the world of university education, were approaching crisis; teaching online, ticking boxes for other people's diversity criteria, stuck, like so many others, in a cycle of fixed term contracts. Yet as a child of Anglo-Burmese parents, growing up in West London, academia had promised a way out. Something better. This is her powerful, compelling story of fragmenting and rebuilding from the inside out, one that is filled with the voices of both Burma and Southall. Haunted by the ghosts of colonialism, Davina Quinlivan beautifully lays bare our blind spots as we grapple with decolonisation and the hypocrisies within our institutions of education.

**The classic story of how Apple became the most valuable company in the world, reissued for Apple's 50th anniversary**Every empire has an origin story. This is Apple’s. Before Apple became the most valuable company in the world, it was just an idea sparked in a garage. Return to the Little Kingdom is Michael Moritz’s vivid, behind-the-scenes account of Apple’s explosive early years – a raw, fast-paced journey through invention, obsession and the birth of a movement. More than a story about Steve Jobs or a scrappy start-up, Return to the Little Kingdom is a rare blueprint of how enduring companies are built from nothing but vision and nerve. Updated with Moritz's reflections on Apple’s extraordinary resurgence, this classic work is essential reading for founders, dreamers, and anyone determined to build the future. If you want to understand how empires are born, start here.

Echoing the journey of a plant itself, this is a personal exploration of rewilding and recovery.In a series of short, beautifully written, viscerally alive chapters, eco-psychotherapist and herbalist Brigit Anna McNeill tells her own story and explores the lives of the plants in her wooded Devon landscape. She explains how the natural cycle of dispersal, growth and bloom can inspire our recovery from trauma, stress and illness. By focusing on totemic plants and wildlife, Brigit delivers a botanical journey to healing.She changes our attitudes to ourselves, to the potential wildness within us and shifts our interaction with even the most ordinary wildernesses - from backyards to window boxes to parkland.With beautiful illustrations, this gloriously uplifting book will both inform and transform reader''s daily lives.

When Birdy Benton turns up dead under the Camden-sur-Mer Christmas tree, members of the posh California retirement community are shocked by this unexpected holiday event. Despite their sadness, resident sleuths Angela and Caledonia see it as a golden opportunity to help their old friend Lieutenant Martinez investigate. How could poor Birdy have been murdered in plain view of the lobby receptionist? Did someone really steal her jewellery? Is the dead woman’s pompous nephew as well-off as he appears? Fortified with Camden’s superb cuisine and many sips of sherry, the doughty ladies forge fearlessly ahead, throwing themselves into dire peril to learn the strange truth of Birdy’s sad demise. And an even stranger final twist makes it quite a Christmas…

Sugar was once the most powerful commodity on earth. It shaped world affairs, influenced the economic policies of nations, drove international trade and left a legacy of suffering that still resonates today. But how did a substance that began as an expensive luxury of the wealthy become a staple in the modern worl? n Sugar this dark history is unveiled, from the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade to the environmental devastation caused by sugar cultivation. Richly detailed and thoroughly compelling, Elizabeth Abbott traces sugar from its very origins to the twenty-first century, examining the true cost of satisfying the world's sweet tooth.