Non-fiction

Population is the vast hidden force shaping our future. It is breaking existing institutions and building their replacements, disrupting and destroying an old-world order, and bringing into existence…

A Woman’s Game

Suzanne Wrack

Over its 100-year history, women’s football has been the embodiment of women’s fight for equality – from its rise in the ashes of World War One in Britain, to its near-worldwide banning, to its curren…

The Sinolarity

Jonathan Hillman

The Sinolarity tells the story of China’s rise from copycat to global competitor – and the new world that’s emerging as it builds a vast digital empire, challenging the Western preconception that with…

On the Frontlines of Peace

Severine Autesserre

It’s always the same story told in a different setting. Violence breaks out, foreign nations are scandalized, interveners and million-dollar donors come rushing in, peace is declared, and within a mon…

A Briefcase Full of Cash

Estelle Shirbon

In April 2012 a Nigerian ex-governor, James Ibori, was sentenced to 13 years for fraud at Southwark Crown Court. He had stolen so much money from the state he governed that he could afford a private j…

Sentience

Nicholas Humphrey

Humphrey directly challenges the popular assumption that sentience is linked to intelligence (it’s not, which means that machines can be intelligent without being sentient), or that it exists across t…

Survive. Drive. Win.

Nick Fry

On a cold November day in 2008, Nick Fry, the head of the Honda Formula One racing team, was told by his Japanese bosses that Honda was pulling out of F1 in 30 days. This bolt from the blue was a disa…

The Emperor’s New Road

JONATHAN HILLMAN

On its present trajectory, China’s vast Belt and Road initiative (BRI) stands to become the project that defines the twenty-first century. China is committed to spending $1 trillion on new roads, rail…

Playing For Freedom

Zarifa Adiba

According to the UN, Afghanistan is the worst place on the planet to be born a woman. The effects of Taliban rule can be felt everywhere: women lack access to basic education, men make all the major d…