Paris and London have long held a mutual fascination, and never more so than in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when they both vied to be the world's greatest city.
Each city has been the focus of many books, yet here Jonathan Conlin uncovers the intriguing relationship between them for the first time. It is a history of surprises: Sherlock Holmes was actually French and the can-can was English.
Tales of Two Cities examines and compares six urban spaces – the street, the cemetery, the apartment, the restaurant, the music hall and the nocturnal underworld – and describes how the citizens of Paris and London were the first to create these landmarks of the modern cityscape. By borrowing, imitating and learning from each other they invented the modern metropolis, and so defined urban living for us all.
Praise for Tales of Two Cities:
'Tales of Two Cities allows readers to reconsider what "everybody knows". For, with astonishing ease, Jonathan Conlin performs that most useful, and difficult, of tasks: he makes us see the familiar as though it were new.' - Judith Flanders, Sunday Telegraph
'In Jonathan Conlin's Tales of Two Cities the little acknowledged but hugely significant histoire croisée of two rival metropoles gets a long overdue airing... The greatest compliment one can pay Conlin's book is that it provides endless food for thought.' - The Spectator
'Jonathan Conlin's wonderful new book is a fascinating walk through two of the greatest cities in the world. With admirable skill and a painter's eye, Conlin presents the reader with a richly woven tapestry of stories and events that is mesmerizing to behold. The reader will never think of London or Paris in the same way again.' - Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
'Conlin provides some striking insights into these two capitals which are, in effect, mirror-images of one another. A thought-provoking glimpse into the history of our own London and its elegant, racy cousin, Paris.' - Catharine Arnold, author of Underworld London
'Full of unexpected facts... Conlin's case studies of possible cultural exchange are both concise and entertaining.' - Miranda Seymour, New York Times
Jonathan Conlin was born in New York but moved to the UK and studied at both Oxford and Cambridge. He has written several books, including Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the World’s Richest Man, which won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a puzzle to everyone. The nuclear physicist most responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb, he was a genius both scientifically and otherwise. His standards were impossibly high. He read widely in many languages, wrote poetry, and did superb science. Yet in Jeremy Bernstein's intensely interesting biographical memoir, Oppenheimer emerges as a man unsure of his identity and captive to an element of self-destructiveness in his makeup. Oppenheimer is the long-awaited book that many people feel Mr. Bernstein was almost born to write. As a former colleague of Oppenheimer's, he has composed a book that is both personal and historical, bringing the reader close to the life and workings of an extraordinary and controversial man. Oppenheimer once told the author that during the now-famous hearing in which he lost his security clearance?one of the most spectacular attacks of the McCarthy era?he felt it was happening to someone else. His lawyer at the hearing, after being with Oppenheimer day in and day out for several months, said he did not know him in any real sense at all. Yet everyone in the scientific community and in government agreed that without Oppenheimer's totally remarkable leadership at Los Alamos, the atomic bomb would not have happened, and the Second World War would have ended very differently. Filled with revealing insights and details that set the historical record straight, Oppenheimer is that rare quantity: a vastly entertaining study of one of the most important and enigmatic scientists of the atomic age. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

“Fans of frontier arcana will revel” in this biography of the Arkansas cowboy, outlaw, and immortal Wild West frontiersman (Publishers Weekly).

Celebrated in Charles Portis’s classic novel and three hit films, the real “Rooster” Cogburn was as bold, brash, and bigger-than-life as the American West itself. Now, in this page-turning account, Cogburn’s great-great-grandson reveals the truth behind the fiction—and the man behind the myth . . .
He was born in 1866 in Fancy Hill, Arkansas, the descendant of pioneers and moonshiners. Six foot three, dark eyed, and a dead shot with a rifle, Franklin “Rooster” Cogburn was as hard as the rocky mountain ground his family settled. The only authority the Cogburn clan recognized was God and a gun. And though he never packed a badge, Rooster meted out his own justice—taking on a posse of US deputy marshals in a blazing showdown. Now a wanted man, with a $500 reward on his head, Rooster—proud, stubborn, fearless, and ornery to the bitter end—rode into legend.
In Rooster, “[Brett Cogburn] . . . amazes and astounds us with the true-life story” of a genuine American icon, and unforgettable man of the West (Booklist).
“The author has done extensive research to bring the times and his ancestor to life. It’s an interesting read, especially for history buffs. His descriptions of the Fort Smith area, Indian Territory and southeastern Oklahoma are outstanding.” —The Oklahoman

“In this book, [Cogburn] has blended family lore and good research to produce an entertaining portrait.” —The Dallas Morning News

A new memoir from Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Cathy Glass, now with an exclusive preview of Cathy’s inspiring new title, Please Don’t Take My Baby, coming out on April 25th.
Eight-year-old Aimee was on the child protection register at birth. Her five older siblings were taken into care many years ago. So no one can understand why she was left at home to suffer for so long. It seems Aimee was forgotten.
The social services are looking for a very experienced foster carer to look after Aimee and, when she reads the referral, Cathy understands why. Despite her reservations, Cathy agrees to Aimee on – there is something about her that reminds Cathy of Jodie (the subject of ‘Damaged’ and the most disturbed child Cathy has cared for), and reading the report instantly tugs at her heart strings.
When she arrives, Aimee is angry. And she has every right to be. She has spent the first eight years of her life living with her drug-dependent mother in a flat that the social worker described as ‘not fit for human habitation’. Aimee is so grateful as she snuggles into her bed at Cathy’s house on the first night that it brings Cathy to tears.
Aimee’s aggressive mother is constantly causing trouble at contact, and makes sweeping allegations against Cathy and her family in front of her daughter as well. It is a trying time for Cathy, and it makes it difficult for Aimee to settle. But as Aimee begins to trust Cathy, she starts to open up. And the more Cathy learns about Aimee’s life before she came into care, the more horrified she becomes.
It’s clear that Aimee should have been rescued much sooner and as her journey seems to be coming to a happy end, Cathy can’t help but reflect on all the other ‘forgotten children’ that are still suffering…

Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and the aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices, detonated over Japan, changed life on Earth forever.