With a Prime Minister who is constantly quoting the classics it comes as no surprise that our politicians can learn a thing or two from their Roman ancestors. Take the most famous backstabber of them all, Caesar's friend Brutus, who famously raised his dagger along with the other assassins on the fatal Ides of March. Boris Johnson may have been equally surprised that his trusty ally Michael Gove wielded the dagger in the 2016 leadership contest, since Gove had vowed that he himself had no interest in the top job. At the last moment he decided to stand against his chum, but support was slow in coming in. "He couldn't wipe the blood off his dagger that quickly", as one MP said to the author, a political journalist with access to a series of unattributable indiscretions. Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, is an admirer of Caesar's heir Octavian for the way he took control of the narrative in a time of crisis, and Nick Clegg in the 2010 coalition government is compared with Crassus in Octavian's triumvirate, the passenger whom no-one remembers. Jeremy Corbyn is compared with Nero, who like Corbyn had no interest in securing his country's defence. During Theresa May's premiership Jacob Rees-Mogg told the author that he was part of her "Praetorian Guard". The author lost no time in pointing out that the Praetorian Guard did not always back the emperor they were supposed to be protecting, and so it proved with Mogg, who was soon having to deny that he was leading a coup against May. This book examineS what today's politicos can learn from their Roman predecessors. How did they climb the greasy pole? How did they handle the rough and tumble? What can Boudicca teach us about Brexit? What could Emperor Hadrian teach President Trump about walls? In unpretentious prose our contemporary politicians are measured against the unscrupulous leaders of the ancient world and found morally to be even worse. A witty and erudite book from a journalist who is himself a classicist. 265pp, bibliography.

Another in the famous Teach Yourself series, the book is packed with ideas that will drive you and the confidence you might be lacking to write well about sex. That is difficult even for the most experienced authors and the book helps you craft believable, steamy and readable erotic fiction whether you have written before or are a complete beginner. Think about your favourite sexual fantasy, right now. Did an image flicker across your mind or a series of images? There's a good chance that, deep down, the very thought of that fantasy tiggered a physical reaction. Humans are sexual beings with big brains. We love stories and this is the premise behind erotic fiction. Today there is a revolution with online shopping and the eReader which has changed the game. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James was openly passed on to friends and the previously uninitiated gorged themselves and now we are all, frankly, hungry. The chapters have a practical outlook and there are several kinds of exercise - snapshot which are short and sweet carrying out fun tasks listing your sexual fantasies or likes; workshop exercises that are longer and more structured for a short story; writing exercises which are the most rewarding; editing exercises to help you review, critique and improve your work and focus points to help you hone in on the main ideas of each chapter. Get writing your Big Sexy List and enjoy the memories as you develop character, plot, setting, theme, scenes and point of view. With super quotes from published authors throughout and tips and excellent examples plus advice on self-publishing on an electronic platform, blogging, tweeting, raising your profile and generating that all-important word-of-mouth success. 240pp, paperback.

Remember the days in the old VW camper van, the deckchair out in the sunshine, the picnic laid out and your favourite book at the ready? Nowadays camping is done in style with a beautiful patchwork tablecloth to spread on the ground or table, fabric covered seating in big bold prints for a dramatic change of style, a colourful rag rug using up strips of fabric as a doormat, a yarn and felt flower wreath to welcome guests, a rolled-down blind, clay heart bunting personalised with letter stamps, a good old fashioned crochet food cover to keep those pesky insects off your tasty delights and crochet coasters to match made using a simple but effective pop-corn stitch, picnic basket lining in kitsch print fabrics and a number of pretty decorations like a crochet shelf edge, cross-stitch picture, glass jar storage topper, fabric bulletin board, upcycled vintage plates turned into funky wall art, lavender 'tea' bags, a pompom garland, a seaside crochet blanket, glass jar lantern, embroidered towel, pocket tidy, funky flowers shower cap and more. Not just for glamping but for indoors and outdoors fun, many of these 35 stunning projects would make fabulous homemade gifts. Step-by-step instructions and a comprehensive technique section to brush up on your crafting skills. 144 large pages, fully illustrated with colour photos and diagrams.

Tiny and compact introduction to the rightly popular important paintings of Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velázquez, a native of Seville, 1599-1660. The earliest of his surviving works entitled Three Musicians (pages 8-9), is a genre piece, depicting a trio of musicians, a young boy to the left gazing at the viewer, a monkey on his shoulder, a guitar player and a violinist, singing happily with bread and wine on the table before them. How the light catches the furrowed forehead of an elderly bearded man shrouded in a cape carrying a case, his fingers worn, his hair long, his eyes a little troubled, this is how portraiture by Velázquez captures the spirit of the sitter, be they royalty, dwarfs, Jesus Christ on the cross, the nobility, battle scenes, beggars and tiny children or of course his most famous piece Las Meninas, the resting dog in the foreground, Velázquez himself at the back to the left painting the portrait. Biographical timeline, 140pp approximately 100 colour images. 10.5cm x 14cm.

Learning is an adventure, but education is a process of selection and the results can be destructive. The criteria used to separate pupils of differing aptitudes are riddled with cultural assumptions, as the author discovered when he flunked a unit in his engineering degree in India. Nowadays he is head of Open Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the journey that got him to one of the world's most prestigious universities also showed him the fallacies in modern educational programmes. Selectivity, starting with IQ tests which became popular in the 1930s, represents a massive squandering of resources, because IQ tests are contingent on surroundings and circumstances, and fluctuating scores within families of lower socioeconomic status indicate the disproportionate effect environment has in those groups. Over 100 years ago E L Thorndike regarded learning as a mass-replicable response to stimuli, while at the other end of the educational theory spectrum was Dewey, who approached the cognitive science of learning as a multi-layered process. Thorndike saw forgetting as a negative aspect of learning, but in the 1970s Robert and Elizabeth Bjork of UCLA posited that forgetting was an essential tool in the mind's armoury of storage and retrieval. Examining in detail the neurological processes involved in learning, the author charts the different schools of learning theory including Montessori, Piaget and Loewenstein. He follows memory phenomenon Claire Wang to Elon Musk's elite training campus Ad Astra, where the ultimate goal is to teach knowledge that will affect world outcomes. The experience reinforces his misgivings about elite education, and access rather than exclusivity continues to be Sarma's mantra. 321pp, paperback.

Stalin's daughter was a difficult, complicated and deeply sympathetic woman. In one of the most momentous events of the Cold War, Svetlana Alliluyeve, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, abandoned her life in Moscow in 1967, arriving in New York to a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side is Peter Horvath, a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle Svetlana into America. She is a contradictory celebrity, charismatic and headstrong, lonely and alienated by her adopted country's radically different society. Persuading herself that all she yearns for is a simple American life, she attempts to settle into a suburban existence, but when this dream ends in disillusionment, she reaches out to Peter. He is the one person who understands how the chains of her past still hold her prisoner. As their relationship deepens, unfolding under the eyes of her CIA minders, their private lives cease to be their own. The author's father was in fact that young lawyer who escorted Svetlana to the US, and he has drawn upon private papers and years of extensive research to recreate this story of one woman's search for a place to belong. Fictionalised into an excellent novel. 268pp, paperback.

Udo Kischka was an otherwise healthy 62-year old who ran harder than usual to catch a train home, went to bed feeling normal and was discovered unconscious by his wife the next morning, paralysed and blind on the left side and unable to call for help. But Udo was no ordinary stroke patient: he was a specialist in stroke medicine, while his wife Helena Kennerley is a clinical psychologist. Their joint account of how Udo managed his condition is fascinating for the psychological insight Helena brings, the understanding of the science contributed by Udo, and the inspiration deriving from their struggle together as a couple and as a family. When Udo was transferred to the Oxford Centre of Enablement he was there for nine months, longer than the average, and family events like Christmas were very upsetting. Their teenage children found it difficult to cope with their dad's twisted face and slow speech, and there was a feeling that the children should not be given any burden of care unless they requested it. But on day 68 Udo moved his fingers, and as a specialist he knew what a step forward this was. Fatigue was a real foe, and clarity alternated with distraction in his speech, together with a tendency to repetition. To Helena's puzzlement Udo prioritised mobility over cognitive abilities, because standing and walking gave him more of a sense of who he was. As a couple Helena and Udo were advised to make a completely new game plan, and in conclusion Helena describes their experiences with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. 180pp, paperback, resources, bibliography, black and white photos.

There are three storytellers in this readable and heartbreaking novel: Magda, a retired chemist who struggles to maintain independence; her carer Susheela, a university student for whom Magda is one of several demanding clients, but who still manages to see them all as human beings; and in an earlier era, the experiences of Magda's mother Evelyn Roberts, who went out to India to become Mrs Benedict Worsal Compton and came back after partition. In flashbacks to India, the memories of Evelyn and Magda conjure up shattered relationships. When Magda is born, Benedict engages Mrs Greenson to look after the baby against Evelyn's wishes, and she hardly sees her daughter. Meanwhile she is longing for the woman friend she left back at home, Helen. When the Bengali woman Aashi becomes pregnant, Evelyn is sympathetic, but when the inquisitive Magda reports that Aashi's husband has called her a whore, Evelyn begins to question who the child's father is. In Kharagpur there is unrest and Evelyn finds her husband's small cruelties beginning to hurt. In the present, Susheela discovers she is pregnant but her boyfriend Ewan is initially reluctant to be involved, and she gradually realises he has mental health issues which they face together. Meanwhile she tries to help Magda with the threat of residential care. A gripping read. 366pp.

A pioneering study that looks at the 1914-18 War from the perspective of South Asia. 1.5 million Indians fought with the British in the First World War from Flanders to the African bush and the deserts of the Islamic world. They saved the Allies from defeat in 1914 and were vital to global victory in 1918. Beautifully written, the book uses previously unpublished veteran interviews to tell their story as never before and is of vital importance to understanding the war and our world today. Fluent and colourful, these interview transcripts were recorded in the 1970s and Morton-Jack has produced a multi-layered and rigorously researched and empathetic history told with an easy, flowing grace. The Indian Army was a war-winning machine, and his book exposes the cruel nature and sheer brutality of the British colonial regime and the Indian soldiers who served, and lays bare the endemic racism that they shamefully suffered. We meet an excellent cast of characters including the deserter brothers Mir Dast VC and Mir Mast, the tragic figure of General Willcocks, and many others in this highly original and dedicated history of the Indian experience. 595pp, paperback, maps and photos.

Bernice Rubens was the first woman to win the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1970 with this, her fifth novel. The Zweck family are a disturbing bunch, and none more so than Norman, whose brilliant career as a barrister has been curtailed by a depressive illness and an addiction to tranquillisers. His father Rabbi Zweck is at a loss to help him, and his unmarried sister Bella tries hard to help him when she's not working behind the till in the grocery shop below their flat. Norman is the clever one of this close-knit Jewish family in the East End of London. Infant prodigy, brilliant barrister, the apple of his parents' eyes, until at 41 he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia. For Norman his committal to a mental hospital represents the ultimate act of betrayal. For his rabbi father, his son's deterioration is a bitter reminder of his own guilt and failure. Only Bella, the unmarried sister, still in her childhood white ankle socks, can reach across the abyss of pain to bring father and son the elusive peace which they both desperately crave. The novel has the Yiddish-based rhythms of the Zwecks's way of speaking. 218pp, paperback facsimile reprint of the 1969 original.