Shirley Williams
Climbing the Bookshelves

In Climbing the Bookshelves, the inspirational
politician and academic Shirley Williams tells her extraordinary story for the first time. Born into the world of politics and literature, the daughter of Vera Brittain and George Catlin, Shirley knew from the age of fifteen where her ambitons lay. She has been a remarkable presence on the British political scene: an MP and member of the Labour
cabinet under Wilson and Callaghan, she was one of the ‘Gang of Four’ who founded the SDP and then became leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords until 2004. Here Shirley Williams gives a fascinating insight into a life in politics.

Karen Armstrong
The Case For God

Karen Armstrong argues that atheism has rarely been a denial of the sacred itself but has nearly always rejected a particular conception of God. Tracing the history of faith from the Palaeolithic Age to the present, she shows that there was no warfare between science and religion. But science has changed the conversation. The meaning of words such as belief, faith, and mystery has been entirely altered, so that both atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that
our ancestors would have found astonishing. Has God a future in this scientific age?

Jo Brand
Look Back in Hunger

Jo Brand is one of Britain’s funniest and bestloved
comedians. With a sharp eye for the absurd and in her own unique voice she tells her story for the first time. What possessed her to become a professional comedian in the cut-throat world of stand-up comedy after ten years as a psychiatric nurse? How did she deal with late night drunken audiences? Raised in middle class comfort in a small south coast town, Jo left home in her teens to live with someone entirely inappropriate – to her
parents’ horror. Jo Brand tells it like it is with wit and candour.