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2 weeks ago | 
waterstones.com | Taffy Brodesser-Akner |Anna Orhanen
This is a story I tell often. Like all repeated stories, I have to imagine that it’s grown some augmentations and added some eyelashes, but I stand by it, and if there are any exaggerations, they’re not material to the point.
In 2014, I was a freelance magazine writer, and a successful one. But like all 21st century writers of my generation, having witnessed the trajectories of her elders, I was convinced that success would lead to wealth, and I was broke.
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1 month ago | 
waterstones.com | Oliver Burkeman |Anna Orhanen
Posted on 1st May 2025 by Anna Orhanen In his new book Meditations for Mortals, one of our Non-Fiction Books of the Month for May, Oliver Burkeman follows up his bestselling Four Thousand Weeks with another compelling and accessible work of inspiring hands-on philosophy, this time offering a roadmap for four transformative weeks dedicated to focusing on what really matters in life. We are delighted to share an exclusive Q&A with the author. On some level, I’m always writing advice that I’ve...
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2 months ago | 
waterstones.com | Anna Orhanen |Jonn Elledge
Perhaps my biggest regret about my book A History of the World in 47 Borders is that it could contain only 47 borders. There were several chapters that ended up on the cutting-room floor for space reasons, and a vastly higher number that never got beyond two sentences, a couple of interesting web links and a note to myself to look into this one when I found the time. The book could have been longer.
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Mar 6, 2025 | 
waterstones.com | Asma Khan |Anna Orhanen
Posted on 6th March 2025 by Anna Orhanen A sublime journey through Indian's vast culinary landscape, Monsoon - the stunning new book from the beloved chef and author of Ammu, Asma Khan - features eighty vibrant, mouthwatering recipes for every season and occasion, ranging from simple quick suppers to full-scale feasts.
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Feb 28, 2025 | 
waterstones.com | Anna Orhanen |Olivia Laing
The Roots of The Garden Against TimeI’ve always wanted to restore a garden, ever since I first read The Secret Garden as a child. The books that I grew up on were thicketed with gardens: shaggy, mysterious, unkempt spaces in which lost or lonely children could discover marvels. My favourite was The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston, set in a big fenland house surrounded by a wonderful, slightly sinister garden complete with walking topiary and seventeenth-century ghosts.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
waterstones.com | Anna Orhanen |Adam S. Leslie |Colin Barrett |Sophie Elmhirst
Posted on 21st January 2025 by Anna Orhanen Recognising great writers in the UK and Ireland, the Nero Book Awards ranges across fiction, debut fiction, non-fiction and children’s fiction categories.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
waterstones.com | Anna Orhanen |Jay Rayner
Hello. Being a restaurant critic is a little bit like being an Mi6 intelligence officer, only without the pressing national security issues. While I can’t claim to be anonymous, I can at least make sure not to give restaurants prior-warning that I’m coming. And that means the knotty tradecraft of booking under a pseudonym. Over the years, for example, I have had to train myself to react positively when a number I do not recognise calls on my mobile and asks whether they are speaking to, say, Marc.
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Jan 9, 2024 | 
waterstones.com | Anna Orhanen |Sathnam Sanghera
It’s inevitable, I realise, that my new book, Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe, is going to get discussed in relation to the last significant popular survey of the impact of the British Empire, Niall Ferguson’s Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World from 2003. And I don’t mind. I disagree with many of Ferguson’s conclusions, of course, but it’s important to read books you disagree with.
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Oct 18, 2023 | 
waterstones.com | Caitlin Moran |Adrian Edmondson |Anna Orhanen |John Niven
O Brother by John NivenAlmost certainly the best memoir of 2023. Kill Your Friends author John Niven performs one of the most astonishing literary gear-changes, as he diverts from his trademark visceral thrillers to deliver a heart-punching, insanely tender account of the suicide of his little brother, Gary, “Who could start a fight in an empty room.” Incredibly, O Brother also manages to be one of the funniest books of the year, too. It’s the one everyone I know can’t stop talking about.
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Oct 17, 2023 | 
waterstones.com | Anna Orhanen |Ian Dunt |Garth Ennis |Adrian Tchaikovsky
Bitch by Lucy Cooke This is everything you could possibly want in a science book: captivating, authoritative, riotously funny and profound. Cooke describes a revolution in the world of zoology and evolutionary biology. The natural world that we typically imagine – of males competing through battle or showy flamboyance to secure passive females – is demonstrated to be utterly simplistic. Instead, she unveils a much more complicated picture.
