Rosa Parks was:

An activist

A campaigner for equal rights

An inspiration

Rosa Parks, the woman known for refusing to give up her seat on the bus, triggered a great shift in the fight for civil rights. Raised in Alabama, Rosa Parks knew all about the racism of her society from an early age. Discover how she became the brilliant activist we know today, in this beautifully illustrated book with real-life stories, timelines and facts to bring her extraordinary story to life.

Explore other extraordinary lives:
The Extraordinary Life of Stephen Hawking
The Extraordinary Life of Michelle Obama
The Extraordinary Life of Katherine Johnson
The Extraordinary Life of Mahatma Gandhi
The Extraordinary Life of Alan Turing
The Extraordinary Life of Serena Williams
The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela

David Beckham is the world's most famous football icon.

In May this year he brought down the curtain on a hugely successful playing career that spanned two decades, during which he proudly wore the shirts of Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, and England. He captained his country on 58 occasions, winning 115 international caps in total, an English record for an outfield player.

His colourful and stellar career has been characterised by the emotional highs of great goals and remarkable trophy successes around the world, as well as by more than the occasional moment of set-back, disappointment and despair, but through it all Beckham has emerged as a universally adored figure, both inside and outside the game.

Here, intimately talking us through 150 of his favourite images which define his playing days, he invites us behind the scenes of an incredible 20-year footballing journey.

David Beckham is one of the most decorated footballers in the sport's history.

With Manchester United (the club he supported as a boy), he won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and - unforgettably - the Champions League when United claimed their famous Treble at the climax of the 1998-99 season.

In also winning championships in Spain with Real Madrid, in the USA with LA Galaxy, and in France with PSG, Beckham became the first Englishman to win league titles in four different countries.

His 115 international appearances are a record for an English outfield player, and he is also the first England player to score at three World Cup finals.

From Inner-City Nobody to Brilliant Neurosurgeon

When Ben Carson was in school, his classmates called him the class dummy. Manyincluding Ben himselfdoubted that he would ever amount to anything. But his mother never let him quit. She encouraged Ben to do better and reach higher for his dreams, and eventually he discovered a deep love of learning. Today this young boy from the inner-city is one of the worlds greatest pediatric neurosurgeons. Through determination and lot of hard work, Ben overcame his many obstacles and is now dedicated to saving the lives of critically ill children around the world.

PAPERBACK EDITION FULLY UPDATED WITH TWO NEW CHAPTERS

After creating 12 different billion-dollar businesses and breaking dozens of world records, wouldnt you think youd done it all?

Not Sir Richard Branson. Having brought the Virgin brand to all corners of the globe, hes now reaching out to the stars as he prepares to launch commercial space travel with Virgin Galactic.

In this non-stop memoir, Richard takes you inside his whirlwind life: from reinventing his companies in the midst of the financial crisis and devastating personal losses, to tackling the planets biggest challenges, to the joys of becoming a grand-dude at 64.Discover the irrepressible spirit, ingenious vision and relentless drive that has made Richard the ultimate entrepreneur.

The iconoclastic Virgin founder is still changing the world. Next comes outer space.

Sir Alex announced his retirement as manager of Manchester United after 27 years in the role. He has gone out in a blaze of glory, with United winning the Premier League for the 13th time, and he is widely considered to be the greatest manager in the history of British football.

Over the last quarter of a century there have been seismic changes at Manchester United. The only constant element has been the quality of the manager's league-winning squad and United's run of success, which included winning the Champions League for a second time in 2008. Sir Alex created a purposeful, but welcoming, and much envied culture at the club which has lasted the test of time.

Sir Alex saw Manchester United change from a conventional football club to what is now a major business enterprise, and he never failed to move with the times. It was directly due to his vision, energy and ability that he was able to build teams both on and off the pitch. He was a man-manager of phenomenal skill, and increasingly he had to deal with global stars. His relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, was excellent and David Beckham has described Sir Alex as a father figure.

Over the past four years, Sir Alex has been reflecting on and jotting down the highlights of his extraordinary career and in his new book he will reveal his amazing story as it unfolded, from his very early days in the tough shipyard areas of Govan.

In 1950, V. S. Naipaul travelled from Trinidad to England to take up a place at Oxford University. Over the next few years, letters passed back and forth between Naipaul and his family - particularly his beloved father Seepersad, but also his mother and siblings. The result is a fascinating chronicle of Naipaul's time at university; the love of writing that he shared with his father and their mutual nurturing of literary ambition; the triumphs and depressions of Oxford life; and the travails of his family back at home.

Letters Between a Father and Son is an engrossing collection continuing into the early years of V. S. Naipaul's literary career, touching time and again on the craft of writing, and revealing the relationships and experiences that formed and influenced one of the greatest and most enigmatic literary figures of our age.

'Rare and precious . . . if any modern writer was going to breathe a last gasp into the epistolary tradition, it was always likely to be V. S. Naipaul' New Statesman

V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession.

His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.

In 1990, V. S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He lived with his wife Nadira and cat Augustus in Wiltshire, and died in 2018.

Shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year!


Will snare you in its web of deceit ... A brilliant investigative exposé - Harlan Coben, bestselling thriller author

Reads like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller, and never lets up - New York Times book review


The Spider Network is the almost-unbelievable and darkly entertaining inside account of the Libor scandal  one of the biggest, farthest-reaching financial scams since the global financial crisis  written by the only journalist with access to Tom Hayes before he was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Full of exclusive details, and with ramifications that stretch right across the British establishment, this is a gripping, real-life story of outlandish characters and reckless greed in the City of London.

By turns a rollicking account of the scandal and also a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout, The Spider Network is a perfect read for fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short.