Bluets

A work of investigative history that will completely change the way in which we see the Romanov story. Finally, here is the truth about the secret plans to rescue Russia's last imperial family. On 17 July 1918, the whole of the Russian Imperial Family was murdered. There were no miraculous escapes. The former Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their children - Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexey - were all tragically gunned down in a blaze of bullets. Historian Helen Rappaport sets out to uncover why the Romanovs' European royal relatives and the Allied governments failed to save them. It was not, ever, a simple case of one British King's loss of nerve. In this race against time, many other nations and individuals were facing political and personal challenges of the highest order. In this incredible detective story, Rappaport draws on an unprecedented range of unseen sources, tracking down missing documents, destroyed papers and covert plots to liberate the family by land, sea and even sky. Through countless twists and turns, this revelatory work unpicks many false claims and conspiracies, revealing the fiercest loyalty, bitter rivalries and devastating betrayals as the Romanovs, imprisoned, awaited their fate.

In Making an Elephant, Graham Swift brings together a richly varied selection of essays, portraits, poetry, and reflections on his life in writing. Full of insights into his passions and motivations, and wise about the friends, family, and other writers who have mattered to him over the years, this is a revealing and intimate collection. Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to choose a guitar, Salman Rushdie arrives for Christmas under guard, and Ted Hughes shares the secrets of a Devon river. There are private moments, too, with long-dead writers, as well as musings on history and memory that readers of Swift’s novels will recognize and love.

'When I was about sixteen I suddenly discovered the joy of mere words' Best known for his remarkable novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell's essay writings throughout the 1930s and 40s are just as compelling. From 'Why I Write' to 'Shooting an Elephant' and 'A Hanging', his observations offer contemporary readers a snapshot of Britain during some of its most turbulent decades. This collection, ranging from Orwell's experiences as a police officer in South-East Asia to opinion pieces on British political unrest and the horrors of war, is a selection of his most acclaimed essays, which continue to be revered today for their originality and insight.

The only official sequel, penned by Lewis himself, to the ever-popular ‘Screwtape Letters’ – published alongside other short essays. One of the most popular books ever to come from the pen of C.S. Lewis was written in the name of Screwtape, a senior devil, experienced in the art of luring his ‘patients’ on earth to their own damnation in service of ‘our father below’ – and training others to do the same. Screwtape’s correspondence with his nephew, an apprentice devil, came into Lewis’s hands, he said, by a route he would not disclose, and many a reader has finished the collection longing for more of the insights they gained from its wisdom. Much to Lewis’s resistance, this after-dinner speech, given by Screwtape to a graduating class of demons at a college in hell, came to light a few years after the publication of the original letters. Now 75 years later, the speech is reproduced in full once more, along with a short collection of Lewis’s other lesser-known, but perennial works. Many people will have forgotten about the only official ‘sequel’ that exists to Screwtape; the 75th anniversary of Screwtape’s publication is the perfect opportunity to bring this back.

From the bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, now a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, and the Number One international bestseller The Wager, comes a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. Together with the Osage he and his undercover team began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.