Written by an acclaimed black American author who died in 1960, master chronicler Richard Wright brilliantly expanded his literary horizons with 'Pagan Spain'. The Spain he visited in the mid 20th century was not the romantic locale of song and story, but a place of tragic beauty and dangerous contradictions. He offers a blistering, powerful yet scrupulously honest depiction of a land and people in turmoil, caught in the strangling dual grip of cruel dictatorship and an undercurrent of primitive faith. A mix of expert travel reportage, dramatic monologue and arresting sociological critique and controversial in the extreme, it was first published in 1957. 288pp in paperback, remainder mark.

The Spanish Civil War raged for three years from 1936 almost until the outbreak of World War II, when the Fascist General Franco finally defeated the democratically elected Republican government. Franco was supported by the Fascist regimes of Mussolini and Hitler in Italy and Germany, while European nations including Britain and France maintained neutrality, even in the face of such atrocities as the bombing of civilians at Guernica, immortalised in the painting by Picasso. This gripping book tells the story of the defeated Republicans, many of whom joined the French army to fight the Nazis in World War II, although when the occupation of France brought Hitler's troops closer to the Spanish border there were also those who collaborated with the German army. In the autumn of 1938 the desperate Republican troops retreated eastwards with obsolete weaponry supplied by their so-called ally Stalin, while the US continued to ban the supply of arms to either side. When Barcelona fell, many refugees crossed the Pyrenees to France as German planes strafed the columns. The refugees were herded into concentration camps, for instance Gurs near the Pyrenean border, later used as a transit centre for Auschwitz and other extermination camps. The Vichy regime seized the opportunity of using Republican refugees as cheap labour, some of them in German civil and military engineering projects. The author follows those who escaped to north Africa and retells the incredible story of the double agent Pujol, who established 22 fictitious spies in Britain supplying fake intelligence to the Germans. 114,000 people who disappeared at the hands of the Franco dictatorship are still unaccounted for, as leaders like de Gaulle and Churchill left Spain to sort out its own affairs. 304pp, glossary, photos.

Widely considered to be one of his most important works, Lenin's State and Revolution was written in August and September 1917 in Finland, while hiding from Russia's Provisional Government which had put out warrants for his arrest. The charge against him was complicity in the abortive Bolshevik July coup that aimed at seizing power in Petrograd and the rest of post-Tsarist Russia. The literary style is rambling as Lenin exhorts an invisible audience, piling quotation on quotation from Marx and Engels as if the two founders of 'scientific socialism' were the ultimate authorities on every subject. The book's impulse lies in Lenin's boundless political ambition, namely his craving to acquire absolute power in Russia in order to instigate a worldwide revolution. He found support for his position in a remark made by Marx in 1871, following the episode of the Paris commune. The theory was to create a popular civic authority that in Russia's case would be the so-called 'Soviets', councils of workers, peasants and soldiers. And of course Lenin became Russia's dictator and would completely subvert the existing political system with a one-party regime that in time would pay no heed to the wishes of the population. The state would become an obedient instrument of the party, as the party would turn into an obedient instrument of itself-appointed leaders. From the years immediately preceding his death in 1924, his writings are filled with complaints about the size and procrastinations of the Soviet bureaucratic apparatus, which he was incapable of either reducing or restraining. With a new introduction by Richard Pipes, 130pp, paperback.

From Funkadelic to Free Bird, from Iggy to Ozzy to Joni, Bowie, Dylan, Marley, Aretha, Marvin, Elton, and Neil, Jackson wisely knocks down the barricades between rock and soul and pop, between guitars and synthesisers, between gospel choirs and Rastafarian chants and crocodile rock, taking it all in sympathetically and judiciously. Discover 1973, one of the great years in musical history. Ziggy Stardust travelled to America in David Bowie's Aladdin Sane. The Dark Side of the Moon began its 937 week run on the Billboard chart inspired by the madness of Pink Floyd's founder, while four ex-Beatles scored top ten albums, two hitting number one. FM battled AM, and Philly strove to supplant Motown on the airwaves. Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy mirrored the rise of funk and reggae. The singer-songwriter movement led by Dylan, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell flourished at the Troubadour and Max's Kansas City, where Springsteen and Marley shared the bill. Photographs include Bowie and Stevie Wonder in a fur coat, hairy mopped New York Dolls and Jagger and Keith Richards backstage with a child. Chapters include AOR, Prog and Yacht Rock, Honky Tonk Heroes, Counter Culture, Country Rock and Quadrophenia, Court and Spark and Headbangers Apotheosis as we keep on truckin' through this slice of modern musical history. With timeline, 428pp, photos.

Sir Lenny Henry rang up the Office for National Statistics to confirm something he had been thinking about for a long time. They confirmed to him that only 29.5% of the United Kingdom's population is made up of white, heterosexual, able-bodied men. So, he wonders, why do they still make up the vast majority of people we see in our media? Joining forces with the former Chair of the Royal Television Society's Diversity Committee, Marcus Ryder, he draws on decades of experience to reveal why recent efforts to diversify media have been thus far ineffective, and why they are simply not enough. With wit, humour and unflinching gravitas they analyse the flaws of current diversity initiatives, point out the structural and financial imbalances working against the cause, and provide clear solutions to get the media industry back on track. They include important and inspiring stories and delicious details like biscuits in meetings with senior UK politicians and when Nicola Sturgeon eats Tunnock's teacakes! From a pun at the BAFTAs to giving evidence at the Houses of Parliament and beyond, Lenny Henry goes on a journey to find out why so many of us feel excluded in society, and what we can do about it. 181pp, Faber paperback.

Elected as MP for Rutland and Melton in 1992, Sir Alan Duncan has been at the heart of British politics for 30 years. He spearheaded William Hague's leadership campaign and in 2002 was the first MP to come out as openly gay. Becoming a minister in David Cameron's government and serving in a succession of roles under May and Johnson, Duncan has had opportunities to observe the people and processes of recent government at very close quarters. With natural Eurosceptic instincts, Duncan is a pragmatist who finally voted Remain in 2016, feeling that the fallout from Brexit would outweigh any disadvantages of continuing membership and that the "barrage of Farage" had no place in the Conservative Party. At the Foreign Office, Duncan observed the contrasting styles of Theresa May and Boris Johnson. May made some serious errors of judgment but was a "grown-up doing her best in an impossible situation". Johnson brought a much-needed spark into politics but Duncan was angered by his nakedly ambitious manoeuvrings. A theme of Duncan's foreign policy is his friendship with the Sultan of Oman, dating from his time in the oil industry before becoming an MP, and these diaries tell the story of how the Middle East was perversely excluded from his portfolio when he was at the foreign office. When May started losing power, "Boris plots relentlessly with the scheming Gove" while "Rees-Mogg is just incessantly over the top" and Gavin Williamson as chief whip was "an inexperienced schemer, only in it for himself". On a sombre note, following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Duncan starts a list of all the Saudi "disappeared". When Johnson finally stands down and the time comes for people to declare their candidacy, "The freak show widens". "Mark Francois is at Hay-on-Wye literary festival. A bit odd when he isn't capable of reading a book." If you enjoy a bit of abrasive political commentary, this is one for you. 578pp, colour photos.

The first definitive analysis of post-2008 populism which demonstrates that with the right critical and empirical mindset it is possible to understand these movements without either deploring or embracing them. Syriza, Trump, Podemos and Brexit - these and other electoral earthquakes of recent years have been grouped under the term 'populism'. But what actually defines populism? Marco Revelli answers the question by getting to grips with the historical dynamics of so-called populist movements. In the early days of democracy, populism sought to represent classes and social layers that asserted their political roles for the first time. In today's post-democratic climate, it instead expresses the grievances of those who had until recently felt they had a voice. The new populism is the child of an age in which the Left has been hollowed out, and lost the capacity to offer a true alternative. Revelli defines today's right-wing populism as a 'senile disorder' of liberal democracy, a 'revolt of the included who have been pushed to the margin'. 220pp, paperback.

In order to succeed in lobbying, you must first and foremost be politically aware and have knowledge of the political landscape. What is your political profile? Are you aware of who and what politicians are about? Do you know which politicians you have to persuade and who else is in the political arena, friends and allies? How do you deal with political risk and what do you do about politicians making decisions that will inevitably fall on your business? The lobbying game is not the preserve for the privileged few with deep pockets, personal contacts and an encyclopaedic knowledge of politics. All that is needed is the confidence and the wherewithal to go out and make a compelling case, at the right time, to the right people. To become an influential player in the corridors of power you must know what decisions are going to be made, who will be taking them, and how to shape the debate and the decisions. This book shows you how to get on the inside track, make your presence felt, and make politics work for you. It also can be applied to your business or personal success. The author draws on 30 years? successful lobbying in European and international arenas to life the veil on this elusive art, revealing strategies he has used and strings he has pulled, from the practicalities of planning campaigns and being the most persuasive person in the room to how to deal with political risk and crises. 278pp, paperback.

Rolling Stone magazine said: 'Teenage is the definitive history of youth in revolt, from the gaslit age to the dawn of rock. Jon Savage captures the hell and adventure of adolescence with stunning detail and the thrilling force of the first Ramones album.' With connections, observations and excellent footnotes, Savage lavishly documents the sudden empowerment of youth culture blending his wit and scholarship and appreciative eye for the subversive to any topic he approaches. Ringing with music from ragtime to swing, he roams London, New York, Paris and Berlin with hooligans and Apaches; explores free love and eternal youth; meets flappers and zoot-suiters, the Bright Young People and the Lost Generation. He fuses popular culture, politics and social history into one stunning chronical of modern life and the cultural and psychological phenomenon of adolescent rebellion which reinvented societies and predated Elvis by at least 100 years. He puts into perspective today's 'adolescent issues' and how the rest of us respond and should respond to them. His material documents the moral panic, romantic myths, literary fantasies as Savage jumps confidently across disciplines and continents and culture in Britain, America, Germany and France. He 'cunningly tracks the tortured team from Young Werther, Dorian Gray and Peter Pan to Rupert Brooke, Dada and Jitterbugs, handily proving that there were many, many rebels before James Dean. He also imparts a deep sense of horror and outrage at how over a century of complacent establishment routinely sent and sends the youth out to die.' - Mark O'Donnell. Magnificent Faber paperback, 549pp, illus.

As a young civil servant, Jeremy Heywood's insightful questioning of the status quo pushed him to the centre of political power in this country for more than 25 years. He directly served four Prime Ministers in various roles including the first and only Permanent Secretary of 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Secretary, and the Head of the Home Civil Service. He was at the centre of every crisis from the early 1990s until 2018, and most of the key meetings. Invariably when faced with a new policy initiative, a Prime Minister's first response would be: 'But what does Jeremy think?' Jeremy worked up until his death, retiring just a few days before he died from lung cancer in October 2018. This book began as a joint effort between Jeremy and his wife Suzanne, working together in the last months of his life and Suzanne completed the work after his death. She captures a remarkable sweep of recent UK political history and the central part played by her late husband - a brilliant product and architect of the UK Civil Service, and arguably the most influential Cabinet Secretary of modern times and his part in making it work better. Here is an individual with a titanic intellect for supreme policy making, draughting and negotiating skills who is only seen on a few occasions in public, usually giving evidence to select committees and Heywood was no exception. The book has been updated with a new chapter in the report of lawyer Nigel Boardman on the Greensill affair, where he shows that Heywood was crucial in admitting the discredited Greensill into the centre of government, apparently blind to the resulting conflict of interest which should have been apparent at the time. 570pp, paperback with colour photos.