Short Books

Founded by former journalists Rebecca Nicolson and Aurea Carpenter in 2001, Short Books has established itself as a publisher of first-class, popular non-fiction with a focus on health, food, nature, psychology, politics and social sciences.

Over the past 20 years, we have striven to discover the most exciting new voices and make them accessible to as broad an audience as possible. Our goal, with each book, is to inform and entertain, to make people laugh and think and hopefully see the world through a new lens. The combined titles by Dr Michael Mosley and his wife Clare Bailey – from The Fast Diet to The Fast 800 Recipe Book – have transformed the genre of diet and health, and become a global brand. Other bestsellers include 101 Things to Do Instead of Playing on Your Phone, The Inflamed Mind, Your Simple Guide to Reversing Type 2 Diabetes, How to be a Bad Birdwatcher and The Social Animal. We have also published highly successful campaigning books: Change the World for a Fiver was a groundbreaking eco title, which has now sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide; 9 Lessons in Brexit, by the former ambassador to the EU Sir Ivan Rogers, ignited interest from Westminster to Brussels; while The Power of Women is a tour de force by Nobel Peace Prize winning doctor Denis Mukwege, who has dedicated his life to caring and advocating for the victims of sexual violence around the world.

Short Books became part of Octopus Books, a division of Hachette UK, in 2019.