A spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, murder and enduring love, across time. From Kate Morton, the bestselling author of Homecoming. 'Enthralling' – Good Housekeeping 1961. On a sweltering summer’s day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree-house dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can’t wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything. Present day. Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds – Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy – who are brought together by chance in war-time London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined. Transporting you through the 1930s, 1960s and present day, The Secret Keeper is an enchanting, page-turning read. Praise for Kate Morton: 'Addictive reading' – Mail on Sunday ‘If you haven’t read Kate Morton before, do yourself a favour’ – Graham Norton 'Deliciously compelling' – Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies 'Ambitious, complex, compelling' – Kristin Hannah, author of The Women

This cultural, political, and social history of tea presents a “fascinating picture of tea's impact on the lives of millions of people around the world.” (Publishers Weekly) From Darjeeling to Lapsang Souchon, from India to Japan—a fresh, concise, world-encompassing exploration of the way tea has shaped politics, culture, and the environment throughout history. From the fourth century BC in China, where it was used as an aid in Buddhist meditation, to the Boston Tea Party in 1773, to its present-day role as the most consumed substance on the planet, the humble Camellia plant has had profound effects on civilization. Renowned cultural anthropologist Alan MacFarlane and Iris MacFarlane recount the history of tea from its origin in the eastern Himalayas and explains, among other things, how tea became the world's most prevalent addiction, how tea was used as an instrument of imperial control, and how the cultivation of tea drove the industrial revolution. Both an absorbing narrative and a fascinating tour of some of the world's great cultures—Japan, China, India, France, Britain, and others—The Empire of Tea brings into sharp focus one of the forces that shaped history. "A good primer on a resonant and endlessly stimulating subject.” —Boston Sunday Globe “A fascinating picture of tea's impact on the lives of millions of people around the world.” —Publishers Weekly “An absorbing read.” —Kirkus Reviews

A picture of New York state of today, with as much historical background as is essential to a painting of the picture.

“An accessible scholarly biography of a politician whom [Thomspon] rightly suggests has been largely neglected.” —The English Historical Review Earl Bathurst arguably exerted greater influence on the establishment and consolidation of the British Empire than any other single individual. In writing this highly authoritative work, Professor Thompson had access to the previously untapped Bathurst family archives. These private papers clearly established what Bathurst’s contemporaries well knew, that he was a very effective administrator of the Colonial Office and a figure of first rank in the war against Napoleon, in diplomacy and in domestic politics. This biography also throws fresh light on other leading figures of the period notably The Duke of Wellington and The Prince Regent.