What are the odds that the stranger sitting next to you on a plane is destined to change your life? Especially when they appear to be your opposite in every way

The number one bestseller on the hardback list for more than six months, The State We're In is the most explosive analysis of British society to have been publi

The welfare state is one of Britain's crowning achievements. Or is it? In this seminal book, now studied in universities in Britain and elsewhere, James Barthol

The GUARDIAN's economics editor examines the malaise that is affecting all aspects of contemporary British life