Icon Books

Icon Books is an independent British publisher of thought-provoking non-fiction. We publish science, history, politics, philosophy, psychology, humour and much else besides.

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I'm ready for a intellectual quotation about the transferred epithet #elementsofeloquence  http://bit.ly/YzgraC

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Do these words look spiky to you? Maybe it's a touch of synaesthesia - let Mark Forsyth tell you more... #elementsofeloquence http://bit.ly/YzgraC

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Enraged by extraneous, unnecessary, additional words? Urgh, pleonasm! Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence is out now in paperback.

#elementsofeloquence http://bit.ly/YzgraC

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Personification - when does an object mean more? Mark Forsyth explains http://bit.ly/YzgraC #elementsofeloquence

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You just keep me hanging on, with that periodic sentence. #elementsofeloquence http://bit.ly/YzgraC

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Who knew Tom Jones was a fan of rhetoric? Mark Forsyth, that's who, in The Elements of Eloquence, out now in paperback 

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Mark Forsyth's Elements of Eloquence is out now in paperback. Does hypotaxis sound familiar this morning? http://bit.ly/YzgraC

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How's your chiasmus this afternoon? Make an impact with this rhetorical flourish #WednesdayWords #ElementsofEloquence

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Brand new and hot off the press, in a new colour scheme, it's Harry's Last Stand in paperback. Harry's in the country at the moment - did you see him at Festival No 6? We love the new look and we can't wait for more of you to join us in taking a stand. #IStandUpFor

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A selection of our brilliant, easy-to-read Practical Guides eBooks are 30% off on txtr.com – only £3.49 each.

Download Introducing Mindfulness for jargon-free tips on how to listen to your body to reduce stress and anxiety, Introducing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to understand your behaviour and how to change negative patterns, and read about why your child develops in the way he or she does, and how you can best create the conditions for their living a healthy, successful and happy life in Introducing Child Psychology, and many more.

Follow us @introducingbook and go to introducingbooks.com to find out more about the Practical Guides.

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Project Sunshine: How science can use the sun to fuel and feed the world, by Steve McKevitt and Tony Ryan, has arrived in the office and is all packed up and ready to be sent out to press!

‘This is an important, much needed book. It shows that things can’t go on as they have done: population growth, fossil-fuel burning, greenhouse-gas pollution. But it also explains that they don’t need to. Technologies exist, or are on the threshold of existing, that can keep the lights on and keep food on the shelves. Without being Panglossian or diminishing the challenge, Project Sunshine offers rays of hope.’ Philip Ball, author of Critical Mass and H2O: A Biography of Water.

Project Sunshine is published 7th March 2013 and you can find out more about it here.

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Icon Books is extremely excited to announce The Pinnacle of Parnassus: An Entirely Successful Attempt to Write Three Perfect Sentences – the new book from Mark Forsyth, the author of The Etymologicon and The Horologicon.

The Pinnacle of Parnassus is Mark Forsyth’s wry quest to write nothing less than the three most perfect sentences that the English language has ever seen. Readers will be treated to a guided literary clamber up Mount Parnassus, home of the Greek Muses. Along the way Forsyth diligently points out the techniques of writers as diverse as Dante, Shakespeare, Hemingway and Prince, with hints from Star Wars, advertising copy, the Bible and political soundbites as he attempts to write what must be the finest piece of prose ever committed to paper.

Here is what Mark has to say: ‘Every author dreams of producing a piece of writing so perfectly beautiful that it renders all previous literature redundant. However, no author has developed a failsafe mechanism for doing so, until now. With the backing of Icon Books, I shall create a rigorously scientific method for the creation of beauty, or get drunk trying.’

Witty, delightfully obscure and erudite, The Pinnacle of Parnassus does for literary and poetic style what Forsyth’s bestselling The Etymologicon did for everyday words.

The Pinnacle of Parnassus will be published on 7th November 2013 and you can find out more about it here. Stay tuned for the cover reveal! 

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Five Introducing Practical Guides – Body Language, CBT for Work, Emotional Intelligence, Getting the Job You Want and Assertiveness – have recently been added to our popular self-help series!

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Zen Pencils Comic: 100. CARL SAGAN: Pale blue dot

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Saying “whatever” is just a much more concise of way of saying, “I haven’t listened to what you said. I don’t value your opinion and I’m incapable of taking on the facts you told me”. In that sense, it’s a very concise word, just a rude one… “Twitterverse” is a particularly silly one, because it’s completely unnecessary. “What are people saying in the Twitterverse?” is exactly the same as, “What are people saying on Twitter?” The Twitterverse is Twitter. What the hell did you need to add that silly “verse” on for?

Mark Forsyth, author of The Horologicon, Metro (via thehorologicon)