13th June 2025
Braithwaite in Cumbria in 1960, where he became friends with Norman Nicholson, and held the Gregory Fellowship in Poetry at the University of Leeds. Preface by Ian McMillan.
Business & economics
story of Manchester’s cultural scene.
John Robb Punk Rock Ruined My Life: And Other Stories…
Manchester UP, 1st May, £20, HB, 9781526191786
The inside story of the 1970s music scene from Mancunian Robb.
Joe Shooman The Peaky Blinders Quiz Book
Zaffre, 4th September, £12.99, HB, 9781785128684
James Timpson The Happy Index: A People-First Approach to Leadership
HarperNorth, 11th September, £9.99, PB, 9780008654788
Practical leadership advice for a happier workforce inspired by Timpson’s column on business and leadership for the Sunday Times.
Film, TV & music
Ted Kessler, Hamish MacBain A Sound So Very Loud: The Inside Story of Every Song Oasis Recorded
Macmillan, 3rd July, £25, HB, 9781035078257
Music journalists Kessler and MacBain tell the story of Oasis from their first meeting with Liam and Noel Gallagher in 1994. Published in time for the reunion tour.
Penny Kiley Atypical Girl: Liverpool, Punk Rock and Trying to Be Normal
Polygon, 5th February, £9.99, PB, 9781846976919
Personal story of Liverpool’s music scene from 1976 onwards as Kiley navigates Punk, its fallout and her own undiagnosed autism.
Stuart Maconie With a Little Help From Their Friends
HarperNorth, 12th February, £10.99, PB, 9780008705893
Knowsley-born Maconie embarks on another entertaining social history, telling the story of the people who made the Beatles.
Mike Pickering, Paul Morley Manchester Must Dance: My Five Decades in Music Mike Pickering
Manchester UP, 1st April, £20, HB, 9781526190567
Music writer Morley teams up with Pickering, who began his career DJing at the Haçienda and was a founding member of M People, telling the
42 Brian Groom
Dr Natalie Cawley Just About Coping Picador, 24th July, £10.99, PB, 9781035011810
From OCD and addiction to self-deception and toxic relationships, Manchester-based Cawley relates pressing cases from her experiences training to be a psychotherapist at an NHS hospital.
Caroline Hirons Skin Rocks HQ, 9th October, £25, HB, 9780008729783
Liverpool-born Hiron’s guide to glowing, healthy skin.
History, politics & current affairs
Simon Ball Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination
Yale Uni Press, 22nd July, £25, HB, 9780300258042
Modern history of assassination from Franz Ferdinand to Osama Bin Laden from Ball, professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds.
Rachel Charlton-Dailey Ramping Up Rights C Hurst & Co, 3rd July, £14.99, PB, 9781911723950
Sunderland’s Charlton- Dailey presents a history
Made in Manchester: A People’s History of the City that Shaped the Modern World
HarperNorth, 28th August, £10.99, PB, 9780008608552
From Jeanette Winterson to Joy Division, the Peterloo massacre to the knowledge that Coronation Street was very nearly called Florizel Street, a history of Manchester, its culture and its people.
Brian Groom These Isles: A History of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
HarperNorth, 26th February, £20, HB, 9780008608569
Saddleworth-based journalist Groom presents a new look at the shared histories of Britain’s nations.
Russell Jones Tories: The End of an Error Unbound, 11th June, £25, HB, 9781789652192
Third volume of the satirical trilogy documenting 14 years of Tory (mis)rule from Cheshire’s Jones.
Meghan Kobza The Masquerade: Unmasking
Georgian London Yale Uni Press, 1st May, £25, HB, 9780300276213
From dress history to social history, a fresh
Health
Liverpool-based Shooman provides material for quizzing friends and family on Tommy Shelby’s story.
Food & drink
Kate and Kay Allinson Pinch of Nom Slow Cooker
Bluebird, 25th September, £22, HB, 9781529079500
The Wirral couple’s latest cookbook focuses on slimming-friendly recipes for your slow cooker.
of disability activism in the UK and what is needed now.
Sally Coulthard, Neil Gower (illus) A Brief History of the Seaside in 100 Objects
HarperNorth, 7th May, £16.99, HB, 9780008713102
North Yorkshire-based Coulthard follows up A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects with a history of our coasts and the people who have shaped them. Features bespoke linocut illustrations by acclaimed artist Gower.
Tessa Dunlop Lest We Forget: War and Peace in 100 British Monuments
HarperNorth, 23rd October, £10.99, PB, 9780008713171
A new history of British conflict through an examination of the memorials that cover Britain, published 80 years after VE Day.
study of glittering Georgian masquerades, capitalising on growing interest in the period seen in the success of Bridgerton and Harlots. Kobza is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Newcastle University.
Nick Lowles How to Defeat the Far Right: Lessons From Hope Not Hate
HarperNorth, 28th August, £20, HB, 9780008772970
A call to resist the forces of extremism and intolerance on the march in Western societies, and how to go about it.
Steven Moore The Stuff of History: A Curated Compendium of Curious Objects and Forgotten People
Zaffre, 9th October, £18.99, HB, 9781785126505
A miscellany of forgotten histories from Antiques Roadshow presenter Moore, who grew up in Wallsend.
Owen Rees The Far Edges of the Known World: A New History of the Ancient Past
Bloomsbury, 12th February, £12.99, PB, 9781526653727
Manchester-based historian Rees, founder and lead editor of history network Bad Ancient, tells a new history of the societies on the borders of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.
Graham Robb The Discovery of Britain Picador, 2nd October, £22, HB, 9781035026111
Cumbria-based cycling historian Robb builds on the localism of The Debatable Land (2018) and the panoramic ambition of France: An Adventure History (2022) to tell a sweeping history of Britain from Stonehenge to multiculturalism, ancient settlements to political settlements.
Edmond Smith Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power
Yale Uni Press, 28th October, £25, HB, 9780300278514
How the world’s first industrial nation was founded on the exploitation of technology, people and the planet. Smith is professor of economic cultures at the University of Manchester.
Laura Tisdall We Have Come to Be Destroyed: Growing Up in Cold War Britain
Yale Uni Press, 1st April, £25, HB, 9780300279528
A history of modern Britain told through the experiences of its adolescents, revealing their thoughts, fantasies and anxieties. Tisdall lectures in modern British history at Newcastle University.
Whitby-based Challenger investigates how interactions between different life forms cannot be easily predicted.
Anna Chilvers, Clare Shaw (ed) The Book of Bogs
Little Toller, 1st September, £20, HB, 9781915068514
Jamie Woodward A Little History of the Earth
Yale Uni Press, 23rd September, £16.99, HB, 9780300246148
History of the planet from its origins to the present day. Woodward is a geography professor at the University of Manchester.
Humour, gift & reference
The Royal Mint The Royal Mint Puzzle Book
HarperNorth, 25th September, £16.99, PB, 9780008723477
A puzzle book exploring more than 1,000 years of British coins.
Mind, body & spirit
Paul Mort Upgrade: The
No-Bullsh*t Guide to Levelling Up Your Life HarperNorth, 15th January, £10.99, PB, 9780008718053
How to break out of your rut and build a happier, healthier life.
Lindsay Squire, Nicole Weiss, Rachel Patterson The Witch’s Altar Book
Leaping Hare Press, 2nd October, £20, HB, 9781836003885
Yorkshire-based Squire co-authors this guide to the powers of herbs, crystals and symbols, formulating incantations and divining the future.
Natural history
Polly Atkin The Company of Owls Elliott & Thompson, 16th October, £10.99, PB, 9781783969074
Weaving observations from Grasmere’s owl- inhabited woods with reports from popular culture, everyday village life and historical understanding, Atkin explores what it is like to spend time in the company of owls.
Melanie Challenger Life as an Act of Rebellion Canongate, 4th June, £20, HB, 9781805300052
Adrian Potter Interrupted Journeys: Badgers and Other Roadside Distractions
John Murray, 28th August, £14.99, HB, 9781399822404
When retired teacher Potter joins a local badger group, taking over the “badger phone” leads to a new calling, travelling West Yorkshire with two other enthusiasts in tow advising on badgers and soon taking on fox and deer incidents too.
Dani Robertson Creatures of Darkness: A Brief Introduction to 100 of the Planet’s Nocturnal Animals
HarperNorth, 23rd October, £10.99, HB, 9780008728830
The hidden world of 100 nocturnal species, adapted to survive and thrive in the dark.
Carola Luther, Kim Moore, Naomi Booth, Amy Liptrot, Patti Smith and Horatio Clare are among the 40 writers who respond here to the often overlooked and threatened landscapes of bogs, in poetry, stories and essays.
Jon Gower
Birdland: A Journey Around Britain on the Wing HarperNorth, 23rd April, £10.99, PB, 9780008688219
Journalist and lifelong birder Gower explores our connection with the bird life around us.
Amy Liptrot The Tangles Canongate, 7th May, £16.99, HB, 9781837262496
Hebden Bridge-based Liptrot becomes fascinated by coastal seaweed and the world of marine algae off the Orcadian island of Papay. She begins researching its miraculous properties, discovering from scientists, scuba divers, cooks, foragers, farmers and small business owners seaweed’s huge potential for combating erosion, pollution and climate change.
Books
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