Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. From the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is made to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, the author blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a tale.

The worst storm in history seen from the wheelhouse of a doomed fishing trawler; a mesmerisingly vivid account of a natural hell from a perspective that offers no escape.

THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING was the winner of The Guild of Food Writers Book of the Year and was a bestseller in the UK and US.

Chronicles the destruction of Indonesian island of Krakatoa in 1883. This book describes how one island and its inhabitants were blasted out of existence and how colonial society was turned upside-down in a cataclysm.

Hidden behind velvet curtains above a stairway in a house in London's Piccadilly is an enormous and beautiful hand-coloured map - the first geological map of anywhere in the world. Its maker was a farmer's son named William Smith. Born in 1769 his life was beset by troubles. This title tells his story.

The Meaning of Everything is the story behind the making of the first Oxford English Dictionary. In this account of the OED's creation, Winchester introduces a host of characters, from the murderer who contributed from his prison cell to the self-taught draper's son who guided the project towards fruition.