Fig Tree

Marcus and Doro were part of a commune from the late 1960s until the early 1990s: lentils, free love, spliffs, radical politics, cheesecloth blouses, sex, housework and cooking rotas, crochet, allotments. Their children have grown up rather different from them: primary school teacher Clara craves order and clean bathrooms, son Serge is pretending to his parents that he is still doing a Maths PhD at Cambridge, while in fact working making loads of money in the City; while third child Oolie Anna, who has Downs Syndrome, is desperate to escape home and live on her own. Once the truth starts breaking through, who knows what further secrets will be revealed about any of them? Set half in Doncaster, half in London, this is a very funny riff on modern values, featuring hamsters, cockroaches, poodles, a Chicken and multiplying rabbits, told by Marina Lewycka in her unique and brilliant combination of irony, farce and wit.

Marina Lewycka explores the clash of the generations in one extremely colourful family in her comic novel Various Pets Alive and Dead. For twenty years Doro and Marcus lived in a commune, convinced lentils and free love would change the world. They didn't. What they did do was give their children a terror of radicalism, dirt, cooking rotas and poverty. Their daughter Clara wants nothing less conformist than her own, clean bathroom. Their son Serge hides the awkward fact that he's a banker earning loadsamoney. So when Doro and Marcus spring a surprise on their kids - just as the world is rocked in ways they always wished for - the family is forced to confront some thorny truths about themselves . . . 'Made me laugh at least once every chapter. Lewycka's fiction is unlike anything else around at present. The warmth of its zest, its blend of quirky, humane comedy and intellectual seriousness make this a novel to treasure' New Statesman

The Spark is Kristine Barnett's remarkable memoir about being mother to a genius. Kristine Barnett's son Jacob has an IQ higher than Einstein's, a photographic memory, and he taught himself calculus in two weeks. At nine he started working on an original theory in astrophysics that experts believe may someday put him in line for a Nobel Prize, and at age twelve he became a paid researcher in quantum physics. But the story of Kristine's journey with Jake is all the more remarkable because his extraordinary mind was almost lost to autism. At age two, when Jake was diagnosed, Kristine was told he might never be able to tie his own shoes. Dramatic, inspiring, and transformative, The Spark is about the power of love and courage in the face of overwhelming obstacles, and the dazzling possibilities that can occur when we learn how to tap the true potential that lies within every child, and in all of us. "The Spark is about the transformative power of unconditional love. If you have a child who's 'different' - and who doesn't? - you won't be able to put it down". (Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind). "The Spark describes in glowing terms the profound intensity with which a mother can love her child". (Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree). "Every parent and teacher should read this fabulous book!" (Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures and co-author of The Autistic Brain). "A story of triumph against the odds ...a timely and important message, dramatically told". (Sunday Times). "A remarkable book". (Mail on Sunday). Kristine Barnett lives in Indiana with her husband, Michael, and their children. In 1996 she founded Acorn Hill Academy, a daycare serving local families. She and Michael currently run a charitable community centre for autistic and special-needs children and their families called Jacob's Place.

Yuki Gomi's Sushi at Home is a beautifully designed cookbook that will show, for the first time, how easy it is to make sushi at home. Do you love buying sushi for lunch, enjoy eating at Japanese restaurants for dinner, but think sushi is too difficult to make at home? Well, think again! In Sushi at Home, Japanese chef and sushi teacher Yuki Gomi shows you just how easy - and inexpensive - making delicious and beautiful looking sushi can be. Learn: everything you need to know about how to buy and prepare fish, from salmon to scallops, from tuna to mackerel; the joys of cling film and the technique of rolling step-by-step and why a hairdryer is essential for making the all-important perfect sushi rice; clever alternatives to traditional sushi styles (handball sushi; vegetarian sushi; soba sushi); and, fresh twists on classic recipes (miso soup with clams; prawn salad with tahini mustard dressing). Sushi at Home is all you need to master the art of making light, delicious and healthy sushi in your own kitchen. Yuki Gomi is a Japanese chef who has taught thousands of people how to make their own sushi. After studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago, she trained under a master noodle chef, before moving to London and beginning to teach Japanese home cooking classes. Sushi at Home is her first book.

A new biography of Michelangelo by Martin Gayford, the acclaimed author of Constable in Love and The Yellow House. There was an epic sweep to Michelangelo's life. At 31 he was considered the finest artist in Italy, perhaps the world; long before he died at almost 90 he was widely believed to be the greatest sculptor or painter who had ever lived (and, by his enemies, to be an arrogant, uncouth, swindling miser). For decade after decade, he worked near the dynamic centre of events: the vortex at which European history was changing from Renaissance to Counter Reformation. Few of his works - including the huge frescoes of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the marble giant David and the Last Judgment - were small or easy to accomplish. Like a hero of classical mythology - such as Hercules, whose statue Michelangelo carved in his youth - he was subject to constant trials and labours. In Michelangelo Martin Gayford describes what it felt like to be Michelangelo Buonarroti, and how he transformed forever our notion of what an artist could be. 'One of our most distinguished writers on what makes modern artists tick . . . It is very difficult to cut through the thicket of generations of scholarship and say anything new about David, the Sistine Chapel, The Last Judgement, the Basilica of St Peter's or many of Michelangelo's other masterpieces, but Gayford manages to do so by encouraging us to think - and look - at both the obvious and the overlooked' Sunday Telegraph. 'Only the most ambitious biographer can take on the talent of Michelangelo Buonarroti' The Times. Martin Gayford has been art critic of the Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph. He is currently Chief European art critic for Bloomberg. Among his publications are: The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles, The Penguin Book of Art Writing, of which he was co-editor, Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud, and contributions to many catalogues. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

In Montmartre, Sue Roe vividly brings to life the bohemian world of art in Paris between 1900-1910. When young Pablo Picasso arrived in Paris in October 1900 he made his way up the hillside of Montmartre...The real revolution in the arts first took place not, as is commonly supposed, in the 1920s to the accompaniment of the Charleston, black jazz and mint juleps but more quietly and intimately, in the shadow of the windmills - artificial and real - and in the cafes and cabarets of Montmartre during the first decade of the century. The cross-fertilization of painting, writing, music and dance produced a panorama of activity characterized by the early works of Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Modigliani, the appearance of the Ballet Russe and the salons of Gertrude Stein. Sue Roe is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestselling collective biography The Private Lives of the Impressionists, and Gwen John: A Life. She lives in Brighton.

"This book is full of real charm, personality, love and garlic. The best Indian food is cooked (and eaten) at home". (Yotam Ottolenghi). Real Indian food is fresh, simple and packed with flavour and in this book, Meera Sodha introduces Britain to the food she grew up eating here every day. Unlike the stuff you get at your local curry house, her food is fresh, vibrant and surprisingly quick and easy to make. In this collection, Meera serves up a feast of over 130 delicious recipes collected from three generations of her family: there's everything from hot chappatis to street food (chilli paneer and beetroot and feta samosas), fragrant curries (spinach and salmon or perfect cinnamon lamb curry), to colourful side dishes (pomegranate and mint raita, kachumbar salad), and mouth-watering puddings (mango, lime and passion fruit jelly and pistachio and saffron kulfi). MADE IN INDIA will change the way you cook, eat, and think about Indian food, forever.

This is a postcard box set of 100 cookbook covers curated by Penguin Art Director John Hamilton. A potted history of book jacket art over the last sixty or so years - classic, witty and inventive - and the perfect gift item for foodies and design fans.

This is an Enthusiast's Guide to the Classics: Lobster Thermidor to Rarebit, Steak Diane to Trifle, The Very Best Bouillabaisse to the World's Greatest Sandwiches. If you're a Food Adventurer, you cook for pleasure. You love trying out new dishes on family and friends, and you never miss a chance to improve your knowledge and skills. You're at your happiest when you have hours to devote to a fascinating recipe. In The DIY Cook, each chapter is led not by recipes but 'projects': nuts-and-bolts guides for the food lover with free time for fun in the kitchen. Constructing a cassoulet, boning and stuffing a pig's trotter, building a trifle. Each project inspires related but simpler recipes, skipping across time, cultures and cuisines.

There was nothing to do but tell stories. Tell this story. And then? Asked Cora. And then everything, said Finn. Newfoundland, Canada, 1992. When all the fish vanish from the waters, and the cod industry abruptly collapses, it's not long before the people begin to disappear from the town of Big Running as well. As residents are forced to leave the island in search of work, ten-year-old Finn Connor suddenly finds himself living in a ghost town. There's no school, no friends and whole rows of houses stand abandoned. And then Finn's parents announce that they too must separate if their family is to survive. But Finn still has his sister, Cora, with whom he counts the dwindling boats on the coast at night, and Mrs Callaghan, who teaches him the strange and ancient melodies of their native Ireland. That is until his sister disappears, and Finn must find a way of calling home the family and the life he has lost.

Diana touched your elbow, your arm, covered your hand with hers. It was alluring. And she was disarmingly confiding. "Can I ask you something? Nicholas, please be frank..." Over his thirty-year career at Conde Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines. With relish and astonishing candour, he offers the inside scoop on Tina Brown and Anna Wintour, David Bowie and Philip Green, Kate Moss and Beyonce; on Margaret Thatcher's clothes legacy, and a surreal weekend away with Bob Geldof and William Hague. Cara Delevingne, media tycoons, Prime Ministers, Princes, Mayors and Maharajas - all cross his path. His career in magazines straddles the glossies throughout their glorious zenith - from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to the digital iterations of the 21st century. Having cut his teeth on Tatler, and as Editor-in-Chief of Harpers & Queen, he became the Mr Big of glossy publishing for three decades. Packed with surprising and often hilarious anecdotes, The Glossy Years also provides perceptive insight into the changing and treacherous worlds of fashion, journalism, museums and a whole sweep of British society. This is a rich, honest, witty and very personal memoir of a life splendidly lived.

This is a comprehensive, compelling biography following the life and style of the inimitable Elsa Schiaparelli by renowned biographer Meryle Secrest. One of the most extraordinary fashion designers of the twentieth century, Elsa Schiaparelli was an integral figure in the artistic movement of the times. Her collaborations with artists such as Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and Alberto Giacometti elevated the field of women's clothing design into the realm of art. Her story is one of pluck, determination and talent with scandal as spice. As the daughter of minor Italian nobility whose disastrous first marriage to a Theosophist caused near penury, she transformed herself into a designer of great imagination and, along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she was one of the few female figures in the field at that time.

Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he's going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. A new relationship couldn't have come at a better time - her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone's moving to the suburbs. There's no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who's caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia. Dolly Alderton's debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now.

Since early 2020, Dolly Alderton has been sharing her wisdom, warmth and wit with the countless people who have written in to her Dear Dolly agony aunt column in The Sunday Times Style. Their questions range from the painfully - and sometimes hilariously - relatable to the occasionally bizarre. They include breakups and body issues, families, friendships, dating, divorce, the pleasures and pitfalls of social media, sex, loneliness, longing, love and everything in between. Without judgement, and with deep empathy informed by her own, much-chronicled adventures in love, friendship and dating, Dolly leads us by the hand through the various labyrinths of life, proving that a problem shared is truly a problem halved.