Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger award, The Wench is Dead is the eighth novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series. As portrayed by John Thaw in ITV's Inspector Morse. That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse's muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks . . . Early in the morning of the 22nd of June, 1859, the body of Joanna Franks was found floating at Duke’s Cut along the Oxford Canal – an event which led to the trial and hanging of two suspected murderers. A hundred and thirty years later Chief Inspector Morse is bedbound and recovering from a perforated ulcer at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital when he is handed an old book to read, one that recounts the trial of a murder aboard the Barbara Bray canal boat: the murder of Joanna Franks. Investigating the account of the trial, Morse begins to question whether the two men hanged were truly guilty and sets out to prove his suspicions from the confines of his hospital bed . . . The Wench is Dead is followed by the ninth Inspector Morse book, The Jewel That Was Ours.

There is hope for us yet: “Stevenson’s engaging commentary has the ability to restore your faith in human ingenuity in the face of adversity.” —Geographical magazine Our systems are failing. Old models—for education, healthcare and government, food production, energy supply—are creaking under the weight of modern challenges. As the world’s population heads towards 10 billion, it’s clear we need new approaches. In We Do Things Differently, historian and futurologist Mark Stevenson sets out to find them, across four continents. From Brazilian favelas to high-tech Boston, from rural India to a shed inventor in England’s home counties, Mark Stevenson travels the world to find the advance guard reimagining our future. At each stop, he meets innovators who have already succeeded in challenging the status quo, pioneering new ways to make our world more sustainable, equitable, and humane. Populated by extraordinary characters—including Detroit citizens who created new jobs and promoted healthy eating by building greenhouses; an Austrian mayor who built a new biomass plant using the by-product of a local flooring company; and an Indian doctor who crowdsourced his research and published his findings online—We Do Things Differently paints a riveting picture of what can be done to address the world’s most pressing dilemmas, offering a much-needed dose of down-to-earth optimism. It is a window on (and a roadmap to) a different and better future. “Stevenson writes with enormous warmth and humor.” —Cory Doctorow

Lowentahal looks at the benefits and burdens of the past, how we study the past, and how we change it.

Charlotte has always thought there's something not right about living in Compton Rosehay (aka Stalemate). Perhaps it's the plastic families, the identical rows of houses, or the girls who only talk about diets.When she meets Elaine, Charlotte sees there is life outside her stifling neighbourhood. Together they spot the cracks in the town's exterior, to discover the hidden world of Stalemate.

A collection of the best weird fantasy stories by the Doctor Who series writer and World Fantasy Award–winning author. SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD Prolific author and screenwriter Robert Shearman has won numerous awards for his short stories of dark fantasy and horror. In this collection, Shearman visits worlds that are unsettling and strange. Sometimes they are just like ours―except landlocked countries may disappear overnight, marriages to camels are the norm, and the dead turn into musical instruments. Sometimes they are quite alien―where children carve their own tongues from trees, and magic shows are performed to amuse the troops in the war between demons and angels. There is horror, and dreams—fulfilled and squandered—of true love. Venture into the world of Robert Shearman’s darkly exhilarating imagination. They do the same things different there.

Looks at the development of pentecostalism in the United States that grew out of the Southern states following the Civil War, and took root amongst religious zealots.