When Sam Bailey tells people that she used to take her clothes off for money, three questions usually follow. The first is ‘Why?’ The simple answer is that she enjoyed it. She liked showing off, being desired and earning a lot of money.

The second is ‘How did you get started?’ Sam was 17, had a poorly paid job that she hated and couldn’t bear to think that was all there was for her in life. The third question is: ‘So, Sam, what was it like?’ In “Stripped”, Sam Bailey reveals all about her experiences, taking us behind the scenes and introducing us to the other strippers and the punters, aged 18 to 80. She recounts a series of episodes that shine a light on the simultaneously sexy and seedy, glamorous and gritty world of lap-dancing clubs.

“Stripped” takes you down the steps and through the double doors to reveal some of the night’s darkest secrets and expose the reality of life in the strip-club underworld.

“London Under” is an atmospheric, imaginative introduction to everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheatres to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts and modern Underground stations. This book tunnels down through the geological layers, meeting the creatures, both real and fictional, that dwell in the darkness – rats and eels, monsters and ghosts. From the Anglo-Saxon graves under St Paul’s, to the hydraulic device in Kensal Green cemetery which lowered bodies into the catacombs below, to the fossils uncovered when the Victoria Line was built and the gold bars within the Bank of England’s vaults, “London Under” takes you into a hidden world, beneath our feet.

John Julius Norwich examines the oldest continuing institution in the world, tracing the papal line down the centuries from St Peter (traditionally – but by no means historically – the first Pope) to the present. Of the 280-odd holders of the supreme office, some have unquestionably been saints; others have wallowed in unspeakable iniquity. One was said to have been a woman, her sex being revealed only when she improvidently gave birth to a baby during a papal procession.

Almost as shocking was Formosus whose murdered corpse was exhumed, clothed in pontifical vestments, propped up on a throne and subjected to trial; or John XII, of whom Gibbon wrote ‘his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the shrine of St Peter’. John Julius Norwich brings the story up to date with lively investigations into the anti-semitism of the contemptible Pius XII, the possible murder of John Paul I and the phenomenon of the Polish John Paul II. From the glories of Byzantium to the decay of Rome, from the Albigensian Heresy to controversy within the Church today, “The Popes” is superbly written, witty and revealing.

In this beautiful, collectible new volume, street artist Matt Sewell offers his own unique take on 52 of our favourite British garden birds. Since its first appearance in July 2009, Matt’s ‘Bird of the Week’ feature for the Caught by the River website has quickly become a cult hit. His pop-art watercolours are distinctive and enchanting, as are his innovative descriptions, which see great tits ‘bossing the other birds around’, the ‘playful yet shy buoyancy’ of bullfinches and the ‘improbable’ nature of the waxwing (’like a computer-generated samurai finch’).

With 52 birds, one for each week of the year, this delightful gift book will appeal to birders, children and adults, and art and design fans alike.

“In the follow-up to his bestselling Ultramarathon Man, world-renowned ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes chronicles his remarkable exploits and explorations in gripping detail. Who wouldn’t be curious about a man who has pushed his body and mind to inconceivable limits, once running 350 continuous miles? Karnazes runs for days on end without rest, across some of the most exotic and inhospitable places on earth, including Antarctica, the Australian Outback and the back alleys of New Jersey. From the downright hilarious to the truly profound, the stories in Run! offer a rare glimpse into the mindset and motivation of an extreme athlete, one who has, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, ‘Not only pushed the envelope but blasted it to bits.’ Karnazes addresses pain and perseverance, and he also charts the emotional terrain as he pushes to the edges of human achievement.

Named by TIME Magazine as one of the ‘Top 100 Most Influential People in the World’, Karnazes has had, and continues to have, an impact on ordinary people’s lives; these entertaining and endearing stories are sure to captivate and inspire readers whether they run great distances or not at all.”