Northbank non-fiction recent round-up

It’s been a fantastic start to the year for Northbank’s non-fiction authors, with several major publications that have made headlines and set the national conversation on important topics. Here are some recent highlights.

Johnson at 10 is a gripping work of contemporary history on Boris Johnson’s time in office based on over 200 interviews with key aides, allies and insiders, and the seventh book in the critically acclaimed Prime Ministers at 10 series.

Authors Sir Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell leverage their unparalleled access to deliver a fast-paced narrative full of penetrating insights into the decisive moments that shaped Johnson as Prime Minister.

‘Excellent… first-class… a very good insight into what was going on behind the door of No. 10… fair and damning… a convincing account and a full description of a man almost impossible to pin down’ – The Times

Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me? – a question famously asked by master TV inquisitor Jeremy Paxman – is a history of thirty years in British politics viewed through the prism of political television, from Thatcher’s fall to the crash and burn of Liz Truss via the Iraq War, austerity, Brexit and Partygate.

Rob Burley’s deliciously irreverent insider’s account of a career spent trying to get straight answers from politicians offers a unique insight into the British political class and their complicated relationship with the truth.

‘Incisive, brutally honest and very funny’ – Steve Coogan

At the heart of our galaxy lies a monster so deadly, not even light can escape its grasp. Its secrets lie waiting to be discovered. It’s time to explore our universe’s most mysterious inhabitants.

In this ground-breaking book, Professor Brian Cox and Professor Jeff Forshaw take you to the edge of our understanding of black holes; a scientific journey to the research frontier spanning a century of physics, from Einstein to Hawking and beyond, that ends with the startling conclusion that our world may operate like a giant quantum computer.

‘Cox and Forshaw stand together at the cutting edge of their discipline … Despite their elevated status, both men remain tiggerishly excitable about their subject’ – Financial Times

Now in paperback, How to Stage a Coup is a gripping and timely exploration of state covert action.

From poisonings to electoral interference, subversion to cyber sabotage, states increasingly operate in the shadows, while social media has created new avenues for disinformation on a mass scale. In an enthralling and urgent narrative packed with real-world examples, Rory Cormac reveals how such activity is shaping the world and argues that understanding why and how states wield these dark arts has never been more important.

‘Rich in anecdote and detail’ – The Times

Food Therapy is the much-needed book that presents a new approach to our relationship with food. Diets don’t just fail to make us healthy. They take up unnecessary space in our minds and prevent us from living life to the fullest.

In Food Therapy, registered nutritionist and science communicator Pixie Turner presents a fresh new approach to rehabilitating our relationship with food. Instead of focusing on rules, reduction and restriction, this practical book helps uncover the roots and psychology of our relationship with food – how our experiences and feelings affect what we eat – and introduces the reader to a lifelong practice that will free them from a destructive relationship with food and dieting.

Overreach is an important and unparalleled piece of investigative journalism that was be the first to offer readers a panoramic view of how the most serious geopolitical crisis since World War II began – and how its endgame is likely to unfold.

Testimonies of captured Russian conscripts, Ukrainian civilians who escaped from occupation, and of the last journalists in besieged Mariupol tell the story of the war as it unfolded on the ground. Matthews’ interviews with men who launched Putin’s career, and others who have worked with him for years, help the reader to understand Putin’s motivations and to get inside the head of the world’s most secretive and dangerous leader.

Revised and expanded for its 2023 paperback publication, Overreach is a Telegraph Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards and Pushkin House Book Prize.

‘Matthews writes with extraordinary vividness… a master craftsman.’ – Spectator