Book of the Day

English cricket’s greatest record

One wet summer over a century ago, Gilbert Jessop gave the country something to be cheerful about.

Latest in Book of the Day

The history of assassinations, as Simon Ball points out in his book Death to Order, is one of myth-making, bungled…

By Ian Thomson

His oddball stories were driven by his outsider status and strange appearance.

By Frances Wilson

Keith Houston’s history of the little emoticons charts how quickly technology has changed how we think and communicate.

By Will Dunn

His advice is not highfalutin, but at least it is straightforward.

By Michael Prodger

Does satire ever belong in a war-zone?

By George Monaghan

Kate Loveman’s history of a national treasure preserves Pepys’s charm while revealing a discomfiting historical world.

By Rowan Williams

The Chinese president’s concept of power was forged by the suffering of his revolutionary father, Xi Zhongxun.

By Katie Stallard