Books published by publisher Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated

After 35 years in power, Henry VIII was a bloated, hideously obese, black-humoured old man, rarely seen in public. He had striven all his life to ensure the survival of his dynasty by siring legitimate sons, yet his only male heir was eight-year-old Prince Edward. It was increasingly obvious that when Henry died, real power in England would be exercised by a regent. The prospect of that prize spurred the rival court factions into deadly conflict.Robert Hutchinson spent several years in original archival research. He advances a genuinely new theory of Henry's medical history and the cause of his death; he has unearthed some fabulous eyewitness material and papers from death warrants, confessions and even love letters between Katherine Parr and the Lord High Admiral.

DID YOU KNOW that the second man to swim the Channel drank 20 drops of champagne every hour? Or that the second crew to land on the Moon danced to a pop song in zero gravity? Or that the second man to run a sub-4-minute mile once stopped to check on a fallen rival - but still managed to win the race?You probably didn't - because seconds never get the attention they deserve. This book reveals the people and things who until now have been kept in the shadow of the firsts. We'll glory in the achievements of the nearly-men and nearly-women, not to mention nearly-skyscrapers, nearly-LPs and nearly-deserts.Above all we'll see how so-called 'runners-up' can be exciting, intriguing and heroic. Step forward, seconds - your time in the spotlight has come at last.

A chance conversation with a Provençal vigneron leads to the most unlikely of quests - a hunt to find France's palest rosé. Extremely Pale Rosé is a richly entertaining and informative account of the travels of Jamie, his wife Tanya and their ebullient friend Peter, as they take up this challenge. Giving up their lives in London, they quickly discover an unfortunate truth - the French won't treat rosé or their quest seriously. Rosé is seen as a poor cousin to red and white wine, drunk as an aperitif or to wash away the taste of spicy food. In bars, boulangeries and boucheries from Bordeaux to Bandol, Jamie, Tanya and Peter are recommended diverse vineyards to visit, and as they travel they encounter the beginnings of a rosé revolution - French attitudes to pale pink wine appear to be changing, but is it too little too late to help them succeed in their quest? With wit, candour and wonderful storytelling, Jamie Ivey maintains a tradition of excellence in food and travel writing. Readers are left with dreams of France, summer days, baguettes, and . . . extremely pale rosé.

The first hilarious volume of comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter Danny Baker's memoir, and now the inspiration for the major BBC series CRADLE TO GRAVE, starring Peter Kay.'And what was our life like in this noisy, dangerous and polluted industrial pock-mark wedged into one of the capital's toughest neighbourhoods? It was, of course, utterly magnificent and I'd give anything to climb inside it again for just one day.'In the first volume of his memoirs, Danny Baker brings his early years to life as only he knows how. With his trademark humour and eye for a killer anecdote, he takes us all the way from the council house in south-east London that he shared with his mum Betty and dad 'Spud' (played by Peter Kay) to the music-biz excesses of Los Angeles, where he famously interviewed Michael Jackson for the NME. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is also an affectionate but unsentimental hymn to a bygone era.

A guide to the hardest problem in science: the nature of consciousness.Is consciousness merely an illusion, a by-product of our brain's workings, or is it, as the latest physics may suggest, the basis for all reality? Your perception of the world around you, your consciousness, should be the one thing you could talk about with absolute confidence. But nothing about consciousness is clear-cut and understanding it is perhaps the hardest problem facing modern science. But some extraordinary insights gathered by the latest research suggest that the answers are within our grasp. Building on the success of her bestselling book MAPPING THE MIND, Rita Carter gathers these insights together to throw a new light on consciousness, its nature, its origins and its purpose.

'A State Beyond the Pale' looks at the roots of anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe.The Jewish state of Israel has now acquired the status of a pariah across much of the West and especially in Europe. For many, it has become the contemporary equivalent of apartheid South Africa - a system and a state with no legitimate place in the modern world. Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and the wider Muslim world also takes place across one of the great fault lines in global politics. No-one with a serious interest in international affairs can ignore it. But why have so many people and institutions of influence in Europe chosen to place themselves on the side of that fault line which opposes Israel? Where exactly does all this hostility come from? Can this really be put down to a revival of anti-Semitism on a continent which gave the world the Holocaust? 'A State Beyond the Pale: Europe's Problem with Israel' looks at the roots of anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe and shows why there is now a risk that it may even spread to the United States. In the author's view, the Israel-Palestine conflict can be seen as a test case for the West's ability to stand up for the values it claims as its own. In Europe, important institutions and individuals are now failing that test. This book explains why.

Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Traditional histories focus on wars, politics and great upheavals, neglecting the texture of everyday life. Not this book. Structured around the routines of a single day, this entertaining romp from a consultant to the BBC children's series Horrible Histories scours Roman rubbish bins, Egyptian tombs and Victorian sewers to reveal the origin and development of the rituals we take for granted.