First published in 1688, Oroonoko is a politically charged novella by the Restoration playwright and spy Aphra Behn, and is arguably one of the founding texts of the novel form. Purporting to chart the life of an African prince, Oroonoko, who is tricked into slavery, the narrative follows the Prince through his trials of love, loss and rebellion.

In Playing with Reality, BBC journalist and presenter Alex Humphreys, a passionate gamer herself, investigates the extraordinary boom in the gaming industry. Playing with Reality explores exactly what it was that made gaming a lifeline for so many, and whether the pandemic has sparked a new Golden Age of Gaming.

In Politics and the English Language, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, 'is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind'. This essay is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play in political language.

Politics vs. Literature is, at heart, a review of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Using the book as an example of enjoying a book whose author one cannot stand, Orwell goes on to say that he considers Gulliver's Travels a work of art, leaving the reader to reconsider the books on their own shelves.

In The Prevention of Literature, Orwell discusses the effect of the ownership of the press on the accuracy of reports of events, and takes aim at political language, which 'consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together.' It is a stirring cry for freedom from censorship, which Orwell says must start with the writer themselves.

Hannah Snell's story begins in 1744, with tragedy. That year, she married James Summs, a Dutch seaman. Soon after their marriage, she fell pregnant - and Summs abandoned her. The baby died just a year after she was born. At this juncture, Snell donned a suit, assumed her brother-in-law's identity and set off in search of her husband.

When Stephen Duck's The Thresher's Labour was published in 1730, it was a sensation - but Mary Collier was astounded to read Duck's dismissal of women, and she penned a stinging riposte, which reframed Duck's relation of harvest-time toil from a woman's perspective. This edition includes Duck's The Thresher's Labour and other pieces by Collier.

In this haunting illustration of the treatment of mental health and chilling Gothic tale, a woman is confined to a room and forbidden to do anything interesting, and loses her mind. In 1887, following a nervous breakdown, Gilman had been sent to a leading neurologist, she explains in 'Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper', also included in this volume.