Octopus Publishing Group

'An obligatory read for anyone who wants to understand the new forces shaping the future.' Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-prize winning, New York Times bestselling author of Autocracy, Inc. and Twilight of Democracy. 'Couldn't be more timely. Mixes story-telling and analysis to illuminate the new technological arms race.' Peter Pomerantsev author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible When it comes to global dominance, military technology has always been a major geopolitical driver. For decades, the West set the rules on innovation using soft power and government funding to develop its own exclusive cutting-edge defensive capabilities. But in the digital era, the breakthroughs - be it AI systems and autonomous drones, satellite internet or advanced semiconductors - are coming from private companies, not government labs. In Bytes and Bullets, Steve Feldstein explains how technology is transforming geopolitics, upending the ways that countries compete, and how they wage war. Through captivating stories and original field research, he shows how the West's dominance is being undercut at every turn by a combination of commercialization, authoritarian convergence led by China and Russia, and the emergence of new regional powers hungry for more influence. A new tech cold war is coming into focus fast and restrictions and sanctions are no longer enough to maintain international stability. Feldstein reports from its front line in this rich and at times alarming account of this pivotal moment in history, making an urgent call for the West to act now, or risk losing its international standing forever.

A must-have book for anyone who is already retired, or those just about to retire. Packed full of fun and inventive suggestions for how to enjoy your retirement, covering everything from relationships, activities and hobbies to lifestyle advice. Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else. Retirement is not the end of your working years but rather the start of something new. With more time on your hands than ever before, filling your days may seem harder than you expected and can leave you wondering 'exactly what do I do now?' This book provides a wide range of upbeat suggestions on ways to luxuriate in your new-found time. Whether it is learning a new language, taking up a new hobby or simply spending more time with friends and family, Things To Do Now That You're Retired is packed with inspirational ideas. It aims to encourage readers to make the most of their retirement, to appreciate the extra time they have in pursuing activities they enjoy while also exploring new ones. As well as encouraging you to make the most of every opportunity, this book makes suggestions for how to come to terms with yourself, your friends and your family in this new phase of your life.

''With a prose style that holds your hand and offers inappropriate jokes when you need them, Evie King makes an excellent case for sorting your life out by sorting your death out first. A serious, funny, necessary book for those of us still this side of the daisies.'' - ALAN MOORE''And in the event that Evie is still publishing after my own death. Speaking as a dead person, can I just say, authoritatively, that Evie King was right about everything and I really wish I''d listened to her?'' - Advance quote from deceased Alan Moore''Not only practical, it''s also somehow a great meditation on death. Telling me all sorts of practical stuff in a way I can bear to read. More than bear, I loved it.'' - PHILIPPA PERRY''Exceptionally and universally useful and exactly what the world needs right now'' - LUCY EASTHOPE''I''ve never laughed so much at something so bleak and so useful'' - ALISTAIR GREENThis book gives you everything you need to prepare for your own death, from basic admin to acceptance of the concept itself. It''s a practical guide and journal that asks us to confront the questions that many of us are afraid to discuss with our loved ones: What type of funeral do I want? What do I want to happen to my possessions? How do I want to be remembered? Evie, a former stand-up comedian, also explains why death planning is so important, using her extensive expertise as a council funeral officer.The exercises at the end of each section help you prepare for every mortality eventuality. From ensuring the admin of your life can be packed down quickly and efficiently, to guaranteeing you are given the correct funeral rites, to knowing what we are doing with your Facebook page.Once completed, it is intended to be stored along with your documents and important paperwork (and/or to trigger you to prepare those important documents and gather said paperwork if you haven''t already). There is also a free text blank page after each section for your own notes. Throughout, Evie includes real-life stories to add her winning combination of light-hearted touches and serious lessons as to why this preparation is so vital.

A moving, honest and revealing memoir of living with chronic illness, and an examination of the ways a relationship with the natural world can affect us, from debut author and nature writer Nic WilsonWhen Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realises her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness.Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness - past and present - and learn to reach for steady ground?With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.

A gripping tale of one man's escape from conformity to chase gold, claim freedom and redefine life on his own terms. "If anyone had ever told me how hard it is to find gold, would I have listened? I hope not. This is my story."'An uplifting book full of joyful nuggets of wisdom from a true adventurer!'- Dr Hermione Cockburn OBE, BBC TV Coast presenter and science communicator'Lyrical, magical, philosophical and inspirational' - James Ogilvie, Chair, Walking Scotland, Woodland Trust Director, Chartered Forester'This is more than a story of gold. It is a reflection of a way of life.'- Sanjay Singh , President of the World Goldpanning AssociationVincent's quest is a reminder never to give up on the most improbable dream: that is where you will find true riches.' - Annie Warburton, CEO & Clerk, The Goldsmiths' CompanyOn Friday I was middle management, employed and office-furnished. On Monday I was nobody, and it felt good. But I was not idle. I wasn't expecting to get rich, but if anyone had ever told me how hard it is to find gold, would I have listened? I hope not. I wanted to feel alive. I left the security of daily office attendance in favour of adventure, danger and chance, having decided life is too short. The reality of bills to pay reminded me I must succeed in my gold-panning mission, or my bank account would remain woefully empty, but there has not been a single minute of any day that I wished I was back at my old desk. My love affair with this enchanting and almost indestructible metal has taken me across the world, where I've rubbed shoulders with many wise and sometimes weary wanderers. From the mountains of Scotland to the rivers of Lapland, the mighty Yukon to sun-baked Australia and the sodden west coast of New Zealand, and finally, diving for treasure on the UK's richest shipwreck - I've never looked back.

On the Waterstones Best Books of 2025 List'Davies has done it again, damn him. Irritatingly good. Maddeningly funny. Annoyingly fine.' STEPHEN FRY'Emotional, entertaining and startlingly honest. I was totally engrossed.' AMY LIPTROT, author of The Outrun. 'Really honest and really funny' Lorraine KellyFollowing Just Ignore Him, the bestselling memoir of his traumatic childhood, White Male Stand-Up is what happened next to Alan Davies. It's the story of how he threw himself into the joyous and idealistic world of stand-up comedy, leading to a television career, but how echoes from the past, and the thought that everyone might prefer it if he disappeared, saw him repeatedly dismantle everything around him. With a cast of well-known comedians, actors, agents and producers, Alan awkwardly navigates his life from the camaraderie of the comedy circuit via life-changing fame as TV's Jonathan Creek, to the unwelcome realisation that most people know him from a bank advert and think he's had a perm. Often very funny and always honest, this very personal memoir is a rich tale of uplifting highs and painful lows, of success and excess, and the dangers of both. How Alan Davies survived it - and very nearly didn't - is the compelling tale of White Male Stand Up.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - THE 'MASTERPIECE' DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC BOMB'A comprehensive account... focuses not just on the voices of scientists [but] explores overlooked pieces of the Manhattan Project's history.' -Daily Mail 'This period in history has never been more relevant and frightening than it is today... A masterpiece.'-James Patterson "Comprehensive and engrossing...Excellent oral history."-Kirkus Reviews***From the international bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, a sweeping oral history of the atomic bomb's creation and deploymentApril 12, 1945. Less than three months into his vice presidency, Harry Truman is catapulted into the Oval Office following the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As he recites the oath, he learns a chilling secret known only to a select few: the United States is on the verge of deploying a weapon of unimaginable power. This weapon could end the war but also herald a new age of global fear and uncertainty. Drawing from over twenty-five oral history archives across the US, Japan, and Europe, Graff has masterfully blended the memories and perspectives from key figures like Harry Truman and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the crews of the B-29 bombers, Enola Gay and Bock's Car, the rescuers who bravely faced the destruction, and the haunting stories of those at ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the experiences of the hibakusha - the 'bomb-affected people'. Enriched by memoirs, diaries, letters, official documents, and news reports, this is an immersive and deeply human account of the Manhattan Project through the end of World War II and the dawning of the Cold War, offering a vivid, multi-dimensional view of events that reshaped the world forever.

Scandi Modern is a guide to creating a home that feels calm, cosy and intentional. Grounded in the principles of good Scandinavian design, it explores how light, texture, natural materials and curated detail shape spaces that bring out the best in the way we live now. The book moves from the key foundations of Scandi Modern into clear, room-by-room guidance, offering practical advice on layout, flow, furnishings and the everyday rituals that make a home feel inviting. Thoughtful, accessible and rooted in real living, Scandi Modern offers a fresh perspective on calm, cosy living.

From certified olive oil sommelier Sarah Fulton Vachon, founder of the award-winning olive oil brand Citizens of Soil, comes a celebration of the superfood that is extra virgin olive oil. Drizzle features recipes for each season, as well as expert insight into choosing, tasting and cooking with this liquid gold. Recipes come directly from olive oil producers, and from the olive oil obsessed, across the Mediterranean and beyond, from Cretan dolmades to sweet Portuguese buns. Each dish perfectly captures why we should all be drizzling more olive oil, in every season and at every meal.

I mute the audio. I replay the video four times. It is not me. It is my fucking face. Amrita Chaturvedi goes by Amy. Amy identifies as a communist on Twitter (her profile omits a stint on Big Brother and a billionaire daddy running the show at the High Court of Delhi). Then reality hits: a deepfake porno of her forwarded around by WhatsApp aunties goes viral. On her birthday, Amy wakes to a stoning in the digital town square that could cancel the likes of Kim Kardashian. Her executioners? A cartel of unhinged virgins styling themselves after V for Vendetta - except these keyboard warriors are on a ruthless crusade to wipe out desi jezebels and Make India Hindu Again. A muscular, monumental work of internet literature in which the online turns offline turns bloody, Fieldwork as a Sex Object is not a novel you read but a novel that reads you: what are you prepared to risk for what you claim to believe?

Drugs, cartels, mafia, addiction, the FBI, and coercion - this is the untold story behind the tragic decline of football's most gifted and controversial legend. Maradona was football's ultimate genius - a magician on the pitch whose talent rivalled only Pelé. But off the field, the boy from the barrios of Buenos Aires became entangled in a dark web of criminal influence and personal demons. From the Cali Cartel's attempts to lure him into the drug trade, to the Camorra's grip on his life in Naples; from clashes with the Italian government to Pablo Escobar's sinister hospitality, Maradona's life was a battleground far beyond football. Battling addiction, betrayal, and exploitation, Maradona's story is one of genius corrupted - a man caught between adulation and self-destruction, whose medical neglect and FBI scrutiny culminated in a tragic end. Marking the 40th anniversary of Argentina's legendary 1986 World Cup victory, Killing Maradona is a searing investigation into the forces that destroyed football's first 'Golden Boy.'

BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK'A teeming chronicle of those scorching months. Superbly researched.' THE TIMES'Scorching, animated and essential reading. Superb.' THE MAIL ON SUNDAY'Grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain's cultural landscape' PAULINE BLACK'Scorching, seething and scintillating, Heatwave conjures a slow-burning collage of a country on the brink. I lived through those cruel months, and Williams recreates them with intense skill' SIMON GARFIELD'An absolute joy' PETE PAPHIDES'Engrossing...powerful...goes way beyond nostalgia' DAVID KYNASTONWith temperatures soaring to 35oC, severe water shortages and a sunburned population queuing at the standpipes, the summer of 1976 was always remembered as Britain's hottest. But the wave that hit the UK that year was also cultural and political, with upheaval on the streets, in parliament, on the cricket pitch and on the radios and TV sets of a nation at a crossroads. Before this blistering summer, Britain seemed stuck in the post-war era, a country where people were all in it together - as long as you were white, male and straight. In July, Tom Robinson writes a song called Glad to be Gay, and by August bank holiday, Black youth are making the police run for their lives in the almighty riot at the Notting Hill Carnival. But with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly quitting, the pound sinking and the economy tanking, a restless immigrant population and increasing dissatisfaction in the old world order, the weather seemed to boil up the country to the point where the lid blows off. Weaving a rich tapestry of the news stories of the year, with social commentary and dozens of first-person interviews with those that were there at the time, Williams's reappraisal of the summer of '76 is an evocative, sometimes nostalgic but always an unflinching read. Heatwave takes us back to relive the events of that summer and asks - have we really moved on as much as we would have liked?

"An inspiring tale, brimming with can-do and positivity." - Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator"A tender, human adventure that reveals what can unfold when you honour a promise and keep paddling forwards." - Alastair Humphreys, author of MicroadventuresFrom the bestselling author of Moderate Becoming Good Later comes the hopeful, honest and humorous story of one woman's attempt to finish the challenge left to her by her brother: to sea kayak in every area of the Shipping Forecast Katie had never been in a sea kayak, but when her brother Toby died in the middle of his challenge to paddle in every area of the Shipping Forecast, she decided to honour his memory by completing his adventure. On a journey that takes her from the monotonies of motherhood in urban Barcelona to the far reaches of the Shipping Forecast through the wilds of the British Isles, Katie is forced to face her past and question her present, exploring the loss of her family members as well as her own identity. After two years of inelegant paddling and potentially worse parenting, can she complete the challenge? Thundery at Times is not a story of battling high seas or completing daring tasks, but one of making your own rules and living life to the full. It is about finding joy and hope in nature, motherhood and middle age, in nurturing your own adventures and embracing connection and peace. It is a story of female resilience in the face of adversity; of staring down grief and asking, what's possible from here? As seen on the BBC Travel Show.

"Easy-going, discursive and digressive, even those to whom trains are a closed timetable will find this a charming travelogue." - Stuart MaconieJoin travel writer and self-confessed "train nut" Tom Chesshyre as he celebrates 200 years of passenger railways on a zigzagging tour around the UK - where trains (proudly) beganIn a small market town in the northeast of England in 1825, something momentous happened: ticket-bearing human beings started moving along wrought-iron tracks on a contraption with engine-powered wheels. The contraption was called a "train". What happened in Darlington, along a 26-mile line to Stockton, would kickstart the worldwide railway revolution. Today, 1.3 million miles of tracks crisscross the planet. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of this groundbreaking event, Tom Chesshyre embarks on a journey around the country that invented trains, taking in many heritage lines maintained by armies of enthusiasts. On a long, circular series of rides beginning and ending in Darlington, Chesshyre enjoys the scenery, seeks out the history, dodges delays (as best he can), reports on the current (often shambolic) state of British railways, and lets the rhythm of the clattering tracks reveal what it is about trains - especially wonderful old trains - that we love so much.

Harness the magickal energies that surround us with these 52 beautiful cards that will teach you life-enriching spells Whether you would like to attract long-lasting love or feel more confident when faced with difficult challenges, magick can be the perfect ingredient to help you pursue your dreams and manifest your goals. This deck will help you connect with your inner power and invoke the influence of the natural world to make magick that is meaningful and pure. Inside you will discover:- A booklet covering a brief history of witchcraft and tips on using the cards- 42 double-sided spell cards that include magick for everyday situations, from first date success to protection from negativity- 10 double-sided information cards to help you learn the basics of witchcraft - including what items you need and how to look after them - and become a more conscientious witch, as you learn how to set intentions and understand the influence of the moon and the days of the weekProviding you with all the tools you need, this little card deck is here to elevate your magickal powers and help you live a more wholesome existence.

Grab your fluffiest blanket, light those candles and get your girl gang together to create unforgettable memories with this book filled with fun ideas for the ultimate girls' nightA feel-good guide, packed with at-home date night ideas to enjoy with your best girls in your living room, kitchen, garden, or even bathroom, making your home the ultimate hangout spot for all your friends. Be it a cosy spa night filled with skincare and DIY face masks, a paint and sip party, a candle-lit book club session or even a murder documentary binge-watch, this book has you covered. With ideas to suit all kinds of interests, this book will make every girls' hangout fun and exciting. Inside you will find:- Themed chapters, each with a unique vibe and collection of activities- A checklist to help you remember the items you'll need- Powerful quotes about female friendshipAnd much more! Girls' Night is all about connection, comfort and creating a little bit of sparkle and joy in your everyday life. Because who says staying in can't be fun?