Duckworth Books

Duckworth Books Publisher of stimulating non-fiction and historical fiction (est. 1898)
Instagram: duck_books Lawrence, Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh, and Beryl Bainbridge.

The UK's oldest general trade independent, Duckworth Publishers (also known as Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd) was founded by Gerald Duckworth in 1898. Duckworth has published numerous classic authors including Virginia Woolf, D.H. Under the imprint Duckworth Overlook, our list encompasses literary, commercial and the odd foray into genre and children's fiction, in addition to a range of non-fiction with particular strengths in popular science, history and biography. Additionally, we hold the Ardis imprint, a list of classic Russian literature in translation, and are associated with The Overlook Press in New York. With a heritage stretching back more than a century, our most recent successes to sit alongside the greats of old include the worldwide phenomenon that is Max Brooks's zombie books, World War Z (now a Brad Pitt-helmed blockbuster) and The Zombie Survival Guide, JJ Connolly's cult gangster novel Layer Cake (also adapted for the big screen, starring Daniel Craig and marking Matthew Vaughn's directorial debut) and its sequel Viva La Madness (soon to be another hit film starring the inimitable Jason Statham), and Google's Director of Engineering Ray Kurzweil's futurist touchstones The Singularity is Near and How to Create a Mind, to name but a few.

2014 highlights include Elvis Has Left the Building, The Day the King Died by GQ Editor Dylan Jones, Still Reigning, Thoughts of a Queen by the Queen of Twitter, and Legends by Robert Littell, recently adapted into a TV series starring Sean Bean, The Poisoner by Stephen Bates tells the story of Dr William Palmer, Victorian England’s most notorious serial-killer, and Peter Tunstall’s The Last Escaper is the riveting tale of a WWII bomber who as a prisoner of war repeatedly attempted to escape his German captors. Follow our social media channels and website to stay up to date on new releases and more.


www.ducknet.co.uk

24/08/2026

📕 Conversations with an Executioner
Kazimierz Moczarski
Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

OUT THIS THURSDAY, 27 AUGUST.

Pre-order now!

More fantastic coverage for Conversations with an Executioner — this time in The Times.The excitement around this extrao...
24/08/2026

More fantastic coverage for Conversations with an Executioner — this time in The Times.

The excitement around this extraordinary book just keeps building!

Following huge coverage in The Guardian and a rave review from The Telegraph, we’re delighted to see Conversations with an Executioner receiving yet more national attention just days before publication.

📕 Conversations with an Executioner
Kazimierz Moczarski
Translated by Sean Gasper Bye

OUT THIS THURSDAY 27 AUGUST.

Pre-order now!

Why has Britain waited almost 50 years for this book?The extraordinary journey of Conversations with an Executioner — fr...
21/08/2026

Why has Britain waited almost 50 years for this book?

The extraordinary journey of Conversations with an Executioner — from a Warsaw prison cell to its long-awaited UK publication.

Finally published 27 August. Pre-order now.

🚴 We are thrilled that Simon Parker will be attending this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival to talk all things The Wild...
19/08/2026

🚴 We are thrilled that Simon Parker will be attending this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival to talk all things The Wild Road Home! 🚴

🎟Catch him on 17 October 2026 at 3.45 pm 🎟

Priority booking for Friends of the Festival opens on Wed 19 Aug

General booking opens on Tues 25 Aug

Join from Fri 2 - Sun 18 October for another year of word power!

‘A chilling classic reveals the mind of a N**i mass murderer’We’re thrilled to see Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations w...
17/08/2026

‘A chilling classic reveals the mind of a N**i mass murderer’

We’re thrilled to see Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner featured in The Guardian today, ahead of its UK publication next week.

Jo Glanville tells the extraordinary story behind the book: in 1949, Polish resistance hero Moczarski was placed in a Warsaw prison cell with Jürgen Stroop, the SS general responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. They would spend 255 consecutive days together. Moczarski used that unimaginable proximity to investigate a terrifying question: what turns an ordinary person into a mass murderer?

The result became a Polish classic — yet its journey into English has taken decades. As The Guardian reveals, Moczarski’s daughter Elżbieta spent nearly 40 years trying to bring a complete English translation into print. Now, almost 50 years after the book was first published, Sean Gasper Bye’s translation is finally bringing the first uncensored English edition to UK readers.

The piece also speaks to our Editorial Director Clare Bullock about discovering the book nearly a decade ago while learning Polish — and finally having the opportunity to publish it after joining Duckworth.

An extraordinary story behind an extraordinary book, and a wonderful piece to read in full in today’s Guardian.

📕 Conversations with an Executioner by Kazimierz Moczarski, translated by Sean Gasper Bye. Out 27 August.

We couldn’t have asked for a more extraordinary response to Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner, whi...
12/08/2026

We couldn’t have asked for a more extraordinary response to Kazimierz Moczarski’s Conversations with an Executioner, which received a rave review in The Telegraph this week.

In 1949, Polish resistance fighter and journalist Kazimierz Moczarski found himself imprisoned for 255 days alongside Jürgen Stroop, the N**i official responsible for the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. What followed were a series of chilling conversations, recorded by Moczarski with remarkable precision: an unforgettable examination of how an ordinary man becomes capable of extraordinary evil.

Never before published in the UK, Conversations with an Executioner is a work of enormous historical and literary importance — and, as The Telegraph’s review makes clear, one that remains painfully relevant today.

Out 27 August and available to pre-order now.

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition, A Splintering follows Tara, a woman desperate to escape th...
10/08/2026

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition, A Splintering follows Tara, a woman desperate to escape the life laid out for her.

Marriage takes her from a rural Pakistani village to the city, but respectability proves to be just another kind of cage. And even as Tara acquires wealth, her hunger grows for something more: power, possibility and freedom.

How far will she go for the life she wants?

Disquieting and utterly gripping, Dur e Aziz Amna’s critically acclaimed novel introduces a complicated, compelling heroine who refuses to be easily judged — and is impossible to forget.

A Splintering is out in paperback 10 September.

10/08/2026

Meet Tara. You’re going to have an opinion about her.

Ambitious. Angry. Unreliable. Unrelatable. A mother who wants more. A woman determined to escape the life she was born into — whatever it costs.

Critically acclaimed and award-winning, Dur e Aziz Amna’s A Splintering is a fiercely feminist, compulsively readable novel about class, desire, motherhood and female rage.

The literary credentials are established. Now it’s time for more readers to discover Tara.

How far would you go for another life?

A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna.
Out in paperback 10 September.

 

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Coming this Monday (6th July) On Thin Ice written and read by Charlie Walker Explore will be the BBC Radio 4 Book of th...
01/07/2026

Coming this Monday (6th July) On Thin Ice written and read by Charlie Walker Explore will be the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week!

15 minute episodes, five days in a row. Don't miss out!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ykml

We are over the moon with the news that The Escape from Kabul by Karen Bartlett  has been awarded the 2026 Orwell Prize ...
26/06/2026

We are over the moon with the news that The Escape from Kabul by Karen Bartlett  has been awarded the 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Writing 

The Escape from Kabul is a gripping story of rescue, survival and female solidarity.

In the twenty years since 2001, Afghan women obtained legal degrees, became judges and set out to transform their country – tackling corruption, and reducing horrifying levels of violence against women and children. These educated and powerful women led the mission to build a modern democracy.

However, when Western forces withdrew in August 2021, the women judges of Afghanistan and their families faced mortal danger.

The Escape from Kabul is the never-before-told story of the escape of nearly 200 women and their families, thanks to a network of professional friends, female judges and lawyers from around the world, who refused to abandon them to the Taliban.

Here’s what the prize judges had to say:

‘It’s taut and crisp, and shines a light on a story that deserves attention. The plight of Afghanistan’s immensely brave female judges in the face of Islamic fundamentalism is a gripping tale - and Karen Bartlett tells it with deep reserves of empathy and compassion. The book is truly Orwellian in the most positive sense, and a richly merited winner.’

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