Showing results by publisher "Wildfire" in Politics & Social Sciences

In his 26 years in the field, Richard Taylor has worked on well over a hundred murder cases, with victims and perpetrators from all walks of life. In this fascinating memoir, Taylor draws on some of the most tragic, horrific and illuminating of these cases - as well as dark secrets from his own family's past - to explore some of the questions he grapples with every day: why do people kill? Does committing a monstrous act make someone a monster? Could any of us, in the wrong circumstances, become a killer?

'Fascinating' TOM HOLLAND 'A delight from start to finish' MIRANDA SAWYER 'A novel and fascinating perspective on world history' BILL BRYSON 'By turns surprising, funny, bleak, ridiculous, or all four of those at once' GIDEON DEFOE 'I love this book; I love Jonn Elledge; I love the way he looks...

'This book is brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant' Jeremy Clarkson 'F*cking brilliant' Sarah Knight READ FOR YOU BY CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED COMIC AND HUMAN NISH KUMAR, THIS IS AN EXHILARATING JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOST CREATIVE AND CATASTROPHIC F*CK-UPS OF HUMAN HISTORY. In the seventy thousand...

A timely and unprecedented examination of how the modern Middle East unravelled, and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979 'What happened to us?' For decades, the question has haunted the Arab and Muslim world, heard across Iran and Syria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and in the author's...

Humans have an uncanny ability to leave their indelible mark. Homes can sometimes reflect the characteristics of their occupants, and even cities become more and more like living beings after a century or two. So, it's logical to assume that darker deeds, horrible tragedies and the worst of human nature all might leave a nefarious taint on some of these places. This third book in The World of Lore series explores dark and dreadful places on land and at sea, places haunted by tragedy and filled with echoes of evil.

How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.

'Incredibly well sourced . . . One of the most plugged-in voices in modern warfare' - TELEGRAPH 'Truly excellent ... a gripping tour de force. Every politician and military expert needs to read this book' - Iain Dale 'Reads like a real-life geopolitical thriller . . . The fact it doesn't feel...

'HUGELY IMPRESSIVE' - THE INDEPENDENT 'AN ASTONISHINGLY FINE HISTORY' - COUNTRY LIFE 'FASCINATING' - DAILY MAIL The history of the world's most successful military alliance, from the wrecked Europe of 1945 to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. As they signed NATO into being after World War II...

'Superb ... entertaining ... Phillips traverses this sprawling terrain with energy and charm' Telegraph 'Exceptionally funny from cover to cover, it is not only an entertaining read but also deeply researched and thoughtful' Irish Independent 'Fans of Phillips's earlier books Humans and Truth...

Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, Nemonte Nenquimo was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. Age 14, she left the forest for the first time to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. Eventually, her ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture. She listened. Two decades later, Nemonte has emerged as one of the most forceful voices in climate-change activism.

'An extraordinary mastery of geopolitics, combining years on the ground in the most challenging places, a raw instinct for politics and a deep ethical concern for the world in the face of climate catastrophe. A masterpiece.' - RORY STEWART 'A powerful, passionate and utterly convincing book.' -...

'A stunning history of now' GREG GRANDIN 'Phenomenal . . . it would be criminally negligent not to read it if you'd like to change the world' ROB DELANEY From 2010 to 2020, more people took part in protests than at any other point in history. But what type of change did they deliver? From the...

'A thrilling biography, filled with the imperial ambitions and merciless intrigues' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE Cleopatra: lover, seductress, and Egypt's greatest queen. A woman more myth than history, immortalized in poetry, drama, music, art, and film. She captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony...

Neurologist and neuroscientist Dr Paul Goldsmith reveals compassionate, practical insights on the evolutionary origins of our brain and how we can best use it to thrive in our daily lives. 'A fascinating exploration of how our ancient brains are mismatched for our modern ecosystem, and what we...

Here are the incredible true stories of some of the mortals who achieved notoriety in history and folklore through horrible means. Monsters of this sort - serial killers, desperate criminals and socially mobile people with much darker double lives - are, in fact, quite real...including H. H. Holmes, the infamous Chicago serial killer; William Brodie, the Edinburgh criminal mastermind who inspired The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and Bela Kiss, a Hungarian tinsmith with a most disturbing hobby: collecting women in gasoline drums.

A fascinating guide to the monsters that are part of our collective psyche, from the host of the hit podcast Lore. They live in shadows - deep in the forest, late in the night, in the dark recesses of our minds. They're spoken of in stories and superstitions, relics of an unenlightened age, old wives' tales, passed down through generations. And yet no matter how wary and jaded we have become, as individuals or as a society, a part of us remains vulnerable to them.

'Soaring with compassion, intelligence and hard-won wisdom. Ireland's most important contemporary voice.' LOUISE KENNEDY, author of Trespasses 'Amazing. I couldn't put it down.' ELAINE FEENEY, author of As You Were 'Every woman needs to read this book. Every man needs to read this book.' EDEL...

A hundred and fifty bite-sized insights into philosophy's greatest minds. Mini Philosophy is a fascinating journey into what some of the greatest minds of the last 2,500 years have to say about the big questions in life and why they are relevant to us today. Covering everything from Sun Tzu's strategy for winning at board games to Freud's insights into our 'death drive'; why De Beauvoir believed the mothering instinct is a myth to why Schopenhauer probably wasn't much fun at parties, these mini meditations will expand your mind (and bend it too).

'TOM PHILLIPS IS A VERY CLEVER, VERY FUNNY MAN' Greg Jenner This is a book about TRUTH - and all the ingenious ways, throughout history, that we've managed to avoid it. We live in a 'post-truth' age, we're told. The US has a president who openly lies on a daily basis (or who doesn't even know...

Tom Phillips (Humans; Truth) and Jonn Elledge (The Compendium of Not Quite Everything) team up to debunk the greatest conspiracy theories humans have ever espoused - to teach us how not to fall for them. From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, it's always been human nature to believe...