At the heart of all human experience lies our obsession with death. This title raises questions about the 'truths' science can offer, the technology we are still exploiting for immortality - and exactly what it means to be human.

This invaluable reference book was originally written as an aid for those disadvantaged by the deteriorating standing of Latin in our education system and by its use as legal terminology. Professional and comprehensive, yet lighthearted, it is immensely readable and has assumed a readership far beyond the lawyers for whom it was primarily designed to assist.

In the midst of the current financial crisis, John Gray revisits his polemic against the forces of global capitalism and deregulation. In a substantial new chapter he considers how the economic landscape has shifted in the last decade and asks the question: where do we go from here?

By the author of the best-selling Straw Dogs, this book is a characteristically trenchant and unflinchingly clear-sighted collection of reflections on our contemporary lot. Whether writing about the future of our species on this planet, the folly of our faith in technological progress, or the self-deceptions of the liberal establishment, John Gray dares to be heretical like few other thinkers today.

John Gray draws on an extraordinary array of memoirs, poems, fiction and philosophy to make us re-imagine our place in the world. 'The Silence of Animals' is filled with unforgettable images and a delight in the conundrum of our existence - an existence which we decorate with countless myths and ideas, where we twist and turn to avoid acknowledging that we too are animals, separated from the others perhaps only by our self-conceit.

We flatter ourselves about the nature of free will and yet the most enormous forces - biological, physical, metaphysical - constrain our every action. This title draws together the religious, philosophic and fantastical traditions that question the very idea of human freedom.

What is the boy crisis?

It's a crisis of education.
For the first time in American history, our sons will have less education than their dads.

It's a crisis of mental health.
As boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.

It's a crisis of sexuality.
Sex is a minefield for our sons. They?re bombarded with mixed messages, afraid of being either too sensitive or not sensitive enough.

It's a crisis of fathering.
Boys with...

A highly readable, fascinating book that jerks the debate on religion versus atheism right out of its crusted rut into the light of serious intellectual scrutiny Observer

A meditation on the importance of atheism in the modern world - and its inadequacies and contradictions - by one of Britains leading philosophers

When you explore older atheisms, you will find some of your firmest convictions - secular or religious - are highly questionable. If this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from thought.

For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a...