Beneath Drapers' Gardens, in what was once a damp and uninviting quarter of the Roman city of Londinium lies the buried valley of the Walbrook, home to some of the more unpleasant industries of the town, as well as some remarkable and unexpected finds, including a hoard of metal objects buried in a fourth century well. However, what really sets this site apart is both the extraordinary preservation of finds due to the particular soil conditions of the Walbrook Valley, and the sheer size of the area investigated. A near complete urban street with associated buildings spanning many years of the Roman occupation was uncovered. The land was purchased by the Drapers' Company in the mid 16th century and remained open gardens for the next 400 years, contributing to the amazing preservation on site. Secrets of the Gardens is a lavishly illustrated, full colour, popular interim account of the excavations, aimed at the general reader and published in advance of a fuller account in standard monograph format. It also includes sections on the Drapers' Company history and the story of the construction of the new building.

Kissing the big-city life goodbye, Udo Nomi returns to Newfoundland from Toronto for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a hero for his people, to help free The Republic. In a comic, quasi-parody of the liberties taken by contemporary writers of historical fiction, Udo discovers the quagmires which exist in historical scholarship. The past is not so certain after all. Perhaps what really matters, Udo comes to learn, is the way we narrate the present and our own role in it.

"A bravura performance...An entertaining book" (Kirkus Reviews) about the dramatic 2016 World Chess Championship between Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Russia's Sergey Karjakin, which mirrored the world's geopolitical unrest and rekindled a global fascination with the sport. The first week of November 2016, hundreds of people descended on New York City's South Street Seaport to watch the World Chess Championship between Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Russia's Sergey Karjakin. By the time it was over would be front-page news and thought by many the greatest finish in chess history. With both Carlsen and Karjakin just twenty-five years old, it was the first time the championship had been waged among those who grew up playing chess against computers. Originally from Crimea, Karjakin had recently repatriated to Russia under the direct assistance of Putin. Carlsen, meanwhile, had expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and the first move of the tournament he played was called a Trompowsky Attack. Then there was the Russian leader of the World Chess Federation being barred from attending due to US sanctions, and chess fanatic and Trump adviser Peter Thiel being called on to make the honorary first move in sudden death. That the tournament even required sudden death was a shock. Oddsmakers had given Carlsen, the defending champion, an eighty percent chance of winning. It would take everything he had to retain his title. Author Brin-Jonathan Butler was granted unique access to the two-and-half-week tournament and watched every move. The Grandmaster "is not the usual chronicle of a world-championship chess match....Butler offers insight into what it takes to become the best chess player on the planet...A vibrant and provocative look at chess and its metaphorical battle for territory and power" (Booklist).

Tokenhouse Yard in the City of London lies in the upper reaches of the valley of the Walbrook. The Walbrook was undoubtedly a powerful and important topographical feature of the Roman city, rising to the north and coursing through the centre of the settlement cleaving it into two low hills, Cornhill and Ludgate Hill, before discharging into the Thames to the south. This area witnessed the build up of almost 4m of stratified deposits in the years between c. AD 43 and 400. The results of excavation presented in this volume tell the story of the struggle to live alongside the river, attempts to control its course and alleviate flooding. Waterlogged conditions resulted in outstanding preservation of organic remains and artefacts.