Books published by publisher Michael Joseph

Yorkshire, Christmas, 1953. They'd had a cold and hungry winter but Gloria's mother had scrimped and saved to ensure the fire was lit and her five children each had a plate full of food. There was even a place at the table ready for an unexpected visitor; every year there seemed to be someone in need.Despite the busy household, Gloria often ended up playing by herself. That is, until a knock on the door that brought a scruffy pup into her life and her heart. Over the years, Gloria adopted many more dogs, even the odd cat, who helped her through the good times and the bad; through illness, love and loss. They even helped her to carry on her mother's legacy, bringing warmth, food and happiness to those alone at Christmas.

Mike Woodhouse had everything: an engineering business, a wine bar, a home, a Range Rover, and a boat. Then he caught a group of travelers stealing from his warehouse. A car chase, petrol bombing, and court case later, and everything had changed.A marked man, Mike was forced to leave everything behind and move to the Peak District for a fresh start. But his old life was never far behind and when he fell for Charmane, a Romany Gypsy, kin to the very people he was hiding from, he knew he wouldn't be safe for much longer . . .The Gypsy Code is a story of secret identity, revenge, and forbidden love that's perfect for fans of Running with the Firm, Undercover, and Soldier Spy.

From Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected book of his darkest stories. 'There is a pleasure sure in being mad, which none but madmen know' Our greatest fear is of losing control - of our lives, but, most of all, of ourselves. In these ten unsettling tales of unexpected madness master storyteller Roald Dahl explores what happens when we let go our sanity. Among other stories, you'll meet the husband with a jealous fixation on the family cat, the landlady who wants her guests to stay forever, the man whose taste for pork leads him astray and the wife with a pathological fear of being late. Dahl understood our deepest secrets, desires and fears and Madness is one of four books - the rest being Lust, Cruelty and Deception - that explore our hidden selves.

Lovingly cultivated by horticultural expert and Guardian columnist Alys Fowler, this charming miscellany celebrates everything there is to know about herbs and their significance in our gardens, kitchens, medicine cupboards and daily lives. With her unparalleled horticultural experience, Alys explores the abundance of uses of these incredible plants and writes beautifully about how herbs have become entwined in our lives past and present. Designed to inform, entertain and delight, this book offers a fusion of botanical, practical, cultural and historical information, accompanied by beautiful line illustrations, and will be a welcome and well-thumbed addition to many a potting shed, kitchen shelf and bedside table.

It's thirty seconds to air. The interviewee has walked off in a huff. The next guest hasn't arrived. There's a wall of riot police behind me. The cameraman only speaks Hungarian and has cut my head out of the shot, but I don't know his word for "wide angle." Then comes the quiet. Utter silence in my head. We've just lost comms with the whole team back in London. I can choose to scream. Or to surrender to the moment. Then, a hand is waved at me as a visual cue. And I start talking.The things that are said on camera are only part of the story. Behind every interview there's more. How the story came about. How it ended. The compromises that were made. The regrets, the rows, the deeply inappropriate comedy. Making news is an essential but imperfect art. It rarely goes according to plan. Emily Maitlis never expected to find herself wandering around the Maharani of Jaipur's bedroom with Bill Clinton or get invited to the Miss USA beauty pageant by its owner, Donald Trump. She never expected to be thrown into a provincial Cuban jail, to drink red wine at Steve Bannon's kitchen table, or spend three hours in a lift with Alan Partridge. She certainly didn't expect the Dalai Lama to tell her the story of his most memorable poo. The beauty of television is its ability to simplify, but that's also its weakness: it can distill everything down to one snapshot, one soundbite. Then the news cycle moves on. Airhead is Maitlis' step back from the white noise. Before and after the camera started rolling, this is what really happened.

Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, The Desert War is an accessible. insightful and authoritative introduction to the standoff between the Axis and Allies in the harsh deserts of North Africa. Historian, author and broadcaster James Holland draws on the latest research and interviews with participants to bring colour, detail and a fresh perspective to the story of how the British blunted Mussolini's ambitions in Africa, making Italy a liability rather than an asset to Germany. Inside, you'll discover how tactics, organisation and new technologies were brought to bear, about the different challenges faced by both the Axis and the Allies, and, above all, the skill, bravery and endurance of those engaged in a contest that was of critical importance to the outcome of the war. Written by the leading lights and most outstanding communicators in their fields, the Ladybird Expert books provide clear, accessible and authoritative introductions to subjects drawn from science, history and culture. For an adult readership, the Ladybird Expert series is produced in the same iconic small hardback format pioneered by the original Ladybirds. Each beautifully illustrated book features the first new illustrations produced in the original Ladybird style for nearly forty years.