'Rain pelted down on the back of my neck and saltwater rushed down my throat as I tried to breathe into a wave. A foghorn started booming from a lighthouse in the distance. For a moment I thought it was a rescue siren for me. Imagine if I got rescued on day two! That would be embarrassing.' In June [...]

2014 is the 100-year-anniversary of the panama canal: one of the most extraordinary engineering feats in world history. Hell's Gorge traces a heroic dream that spanned four centuries: to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The human cost was immense: in appalling working condition[...]

The scene: a cottage on the coast on a windy evening. Inside, a room with curtains drawn. Tea has just been made. Under a pool of yellow light, two figures face each other across a kitchen table. A man and a cat. This title tells a tale of a cat with nine lives, and a relationship as ancient as time[...]

Ross Kemp's fascinating guide of the worst places in the world. Want to know where to discover the perfect sunset in Fiji? How about a tropical paradise in St Lucia, or one of the world's beautiful natural wonders in the Alps? Well this is not the book for you. But if you want to know about meeting [...]

The first volume of Dante's Divine Comedy Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante plunges to the very depths of Hell and embarks on his arduous journey towards God. Together they descend through the nine circles of the underworld and encounter the tormented souls of the damned - from heretics and pagans to[...]

On 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War, the Light Brigade of the British Cavalry Division made the most magnificent and most brutal charge in military history. Almost 700 men armed with sabre and lance, charged straight at the muzzles of Russian cannons. This vivid and extraordinarily detailed a[...]

Tucker Max drinks to excess at inappropriate times, disregards social norms, indulges every whim, takes no responsibility for his actions, rebels against any authority, mocks idiots and posers, sleeps with more women than is safe or reasonable and generally just acts like an asshole. "I Hope They Se[...]

Part three in "Death or Glory" series, "Highroad to Hell" is Michael Asher's latest Second World War adventure. With Asher's insider knowledge of the SAS he brings to life the action of the battlefield in this fast-paced and compelling novel following Captain Tom Caine. Tunisia 1943 - the Allies' ad[...]

"My Happy Days in Hell (1962)" is Gyorgy Faludy's grimly beautiful autobiography of his battle to survive tyranny and oppression. Fleeing Hungary in 1938 as the German army approaches, acclaimed poet Faludy journeys to Paris, where he finds a lover but merely a cursory asylum. When the French capitu[...]

'I truly thought I'd never make it back.' Ten of the most memorable and most terrifying cantos from Dante's Inferno. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the w[...]

The shocking inside story of life in a biker gang, from one of Britain's top true-crime writers
As a member of the international motorcycle club known as the Pagans, Daniel "Snake Dog" Boone had a ringside seat to some of the most violent biker battles ever fought. When he joined his small-town[...]

The captivating stories behind fifty of the greatest authors and their most famous literary creations
Before "Who the Hell is Pansy O?Hara" ?, there had never been a single volume that explored the backstories of so many of the greatest books in the English language. A work sure to captivate al[...]

Walt faces an icy hell in this" New York Times "bestseller from the author of "The Cold Dish "and "As the Crow Flies," the seventh novel in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for "LONGMIRE," the hit A&E original drama series Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love thi[...]