Al Rodin is a writer and illustrator from London. He studied children's book illustration at Cambridge School of Art and received the 2019 Sebastian Walker Prize. Al enjoys working with a wide variety of materials including acrylic, watercolour and collage. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries around Europe and Asia, and he was selected for lllustrators' Exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in 2019. Little Echo is his first book.

Al Rodin

Al Smith

Alain Gheerbrant

Alain de Botton is the bestselling author of fifteen books, including The School of Life: An Emotional Education, How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel and The Course of Love. He is the founder of The School of Life (theschooloflife.com).

Alain de Botton

Alaina Urquhart is the science-loving co-host of the chart-topping show Morbid: A True Crime Podcast. As an autopsy technician by trade, she offers a unique perspective from deep inside the morgue. Alaina hails from Boston, where she lives with her wonderful husband, John, their three amazing daughters, and a ghost Puggle named Bailey. She is about 75 percent coffee, and truly believes she and Agent Clarice Starling could be friends. 
 
Before writing her first psychological horror novel, she received degrees in criminal justice, psychology, and biology. When she isn't hosting Morbid, she hosts the Parcast original show Crime Countdown, and a horror movie podcast called Scream!. Her days are usually spent either recording or eviscerating. The way she sees it, when she hangs up her microphone for the day, it's time to let the dead speak.

Alaina Urquhart

Alaine Hood

Alan Alda

Alan Ayckbourn

Born in London in 1939, Alan Ayckbourn is one of  the world's most popular and prolific playwrights. He has written 74  full length plays and more than 20 other revues and plays for children.  He is also an acclaimed director. Alan Ayckbourn was awarded a CBE in  1987. Ten years later to the day, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II  'for services to the theatre.'

Alan Baker

Alan Barker

Alan Beattie

Alan Bennett is one of Britain's best-loved and most highly acclaimed writers. He has written widely for radio, television and theatre. His latest play, The History Boys, won several awards, including Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Best Play and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. It also won six Tony Awards, including Best Play, following an extremely successful transfer to Broadway. In 2006 Bennett was named Author of the Year at the British Book Awards for Untold Stories, his collection of memoirs and diaries.

Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett's television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage, including Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, The Madness of George III (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George) and an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. The History Boys won the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle awards for Best Play, The Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the South Bank Award.

Alan Bishop

ALAN BOOTH was born in London in 1946 and travelled to Japan in 1970 to study Noh theatre. He stayed, working as a writer and film critic, until his untimely death in 1993.

Alan Booth

Alan Brazil is a Scottish broadcasting legend and former football player, most notably for Ipswich Town, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and internationally for Scotland. He played as a forward before being forced to retire due to a recurring back injury. 
 
After retirement, Alan moved into media presentation, initially on television, before a career in radio where for many years he has presented the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show on TalkSPORT.

Alan Brazil

Alan Bullock

Alan Carr

Alan Carr is one of Britain's most successful and treasured comedians. His unique humour and effortless stage presence have earned him a catalogue of awards including Best Chat Show host at the publicly voted for 2015 National Television Awards, winner of the 2013 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and 2013 British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality. In previous years he has garnered a clutch of awards, from the 2012 National Television Award for Best Talk Show and the 2012 Loaded LAFTA Award for Best Stand-up to the 2010 TV Choice Awards for Best Entertainment Show. There were also nominations for Best New British Comedy &amp; Best Comedy Entertainment Personality at the 2009 British Comedy Awards. 
 
The success of the first series of his own chat show, 'Alan Carr: Chatty Man', in the summer of 2009, led to Channel 4 commissioning 16 further series' as well as numerous Christmas Specials and New Year Specstaculars. In September 2013, the 100th episode aired with A-list guests Justin Timberlake and Rihanna. Guests from past series include: Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, Vin Diesel, Adele, Grace Jones, Naomi Campbell, Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Robin Williams, David Walliams, Mariah Carey, Russell Brand, Samuel L Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Robbie Williams, Bette Midler, Sharon Osbourne, One Direction, Gok Wan and Miranda Hart. 
 
The DVD of Alan's 2007 debut stand-up show, 'Tooth Fairy Live' topped the HMV charts and was a Christmas 2007 top seller. 
 
His best-selling debut autobiography 'Look Who It Is' was published in September 2008 by HarperCollins. 
 
In 2011, Alan travelled the country with his second live tour. 'Spexy Beast Live' was a 33-date arena tour and culminated in the successful DVD of the same name. 
 
Throughout 2015, Alan hit the road once again and performed at over 150 sold-out theatre's across the UK and Ireland with his 'Yap, Yap, Yap!' live show. His third stand up DVD 'Alan Carr - Yap Yap Yap! Live' was released by Universal Pictures (UK) in November 2016. 
 
2016 has also seen Alan go global with international performances of his Yap Yap Yap! live show throughout Scandinavia, Montreal (at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival) and can currently be seen on tour this summer in New Zealand and Australia this summer, with two shows at the iconic Sydney Opera House. 
 
Alan also hosts Channel 4's flagship fundraising show 'Stand Up To Cancer' which in 2014 went on to raise an amazing £14 million for Cancer Research. Alan returns once again to host 'Stand Up To Cancer' on Channel 4 this October. 
 
Alanatomy: The Inside Story is Alan's second memoir, and will be published by Penguin in October 2016.

Alan Clark

Alan Clements

Alan Connor is the author of Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword ("witty, charming, encyclopaedic and highly readable" - Spectator) and The Joy of Quiz ("An absolute delight" - Mail on Sunday). He has made quizzes for various TV shows and newspapers and written comedy including BBC Film's The Rack Pack, A Young Doctor's Notebook (Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe) and Have I Got News For You.

Alan Connor

Alan Connor has been the question editor for BBC2's Only Connect and Richard Osman's House of Games. He is the author of books for Pointless and The Traitors and is the puzzle consultant for the BBC1 drama Ludwig. He writes puzzles for various newspapers and has written for Charlie Brooker series and Have I Got News for You. His favourite quiz question is: What word was intentionally omitted from the screenplay of The Godfather?

Alan Cowell

Alan Curtis

Alan Cutler

Alan Davies

Alan Dean Foster

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Jill Paton Walsh

It is 1945. Somewhere in Central Europe, in the aftermath of violence and confusion, a terrified and bloodstained young woman, Eliska, emerges from the forest to take refuge in an apparently abandoned castle. Soon she is joined by others - the idealistic Jiri, the sinister Slavomir and his partisans, and Count Michael Blansky, who is the castle's ancestral owner. 
 
But the war has changed things for ever. In a storm of ideological change, the existing order and the aristocratic heritage of ten generations are brushed aside by the arrival of Communism, and Count Michael must join the flood of refugees if he is to survive. He leaves behind a legacy which will entangle those involved for the next forty years in more ways than they can possibly imagine. 
 
As divided post-war Europe unravels around them, they must make what they can of lives buffeted by circumstance. For many, individual freedom is at best problematic. For better or worse, communities are destroyed, families uprooted, and the ties of trust, friendship and duty which bind them together are broken down by the implacably irresolvable forces at work. Told through the eyes of nine characters who live through the forty years between the end of the war and the fall of Communism, A Desert in Bohemia is a complex and enthralling testament to the power and powerlessness of the individual in challenging times.

A Desert In Bohemia

Robert Edric

Autumn 1919. Elizabeth Mortlake, companion to her widowed sister-in-law, meets Jameson and Hunter, two ex-officers striving for some new measure of peace and order amid the ever-lengthening shadows of the war - one still hospitalized and awaiting the judgement of a court martial, the other seeking a more personal atonement for his unimaginable sins. Drawn increasingly into their lives here at the calm centre of the changing world, she gradually understands what a fragile peace they now inhabit, and how the ideals and bonds which once sustained and kept the two men alive, now threaten to destroy them completely.

In Desolate Heaven

A A Gill

A.A. Gill's first novel, SAP RISING, garnered a galaxy of reviews when it was published, from the enchanted 'Among the most original novels of the year' (Financial Times) to the hysterical 'Do not buy this book' (Guardian), from the delirious 'Extremely funny' (Time Out) to the outraged 'Frightful pile of garbage', to the contradictory 'He writes so brilliantly' (Daniel Farson, Evening Standard), 'Extremely badly written, hideously and unamusingly obscene' (A.N. Wilson, Evening Standard). It can reasonably be said that SAP RISING was one of the most visible books of the year. 
 
Now comes something equally striking and completely different: STARCROSSED. 
 
Like Byron, John Dart, poet and bookshop assistant, wakes up one morning and finds himself, if not quite famous, then the next best thing: in bed with someone famous. Lee Montana, singer, film star and the most famous woman in the world, wakes up one morning and finds she's had carnal knowledge of a shop assistant - which doesn't have quite the same exclamatory ring to it. Antigone doesn't wake up at all. She is a 2,000-year-old dead Greek girl with a truculent disposition and a bad dose of destiny. Tentatively, John and Lee embark on a sort of affair with three unequal partners: the two of them and Antigone's bitter shadow. 
 
Is fame the beauty parlour of the dead? Can the gods fall in love? Should a poet fuck with his muse? In his dazzling new novel A.A. Gill flirts with capricious destiny and hitchhikes on the boulevard of fate.

Starcrossed

William Nicholson

Does falling in love at first sight ever really happen? 
 
A chance meeting on a bridge sends commitment-phobic Bron into unknown territory as he falls desperately in love with the enigmatic Flora. He drops everything to pursue her around Europe. But all his obsessive research in to the art and literature of love brings him no closer to winning Flora's heart. 
 
In this gripping, searching novel of ideas, William Nicholson weaves an intricate tale of suspense as he tries to pin down what men and women really want.

The Trial Of True Love

1891. London is simmering in the oppressive summer heat, the air thick with sexual repression. But a wave of morality is about to rock the capital as the puritans of the London Vigilance Committee seek out perversion and aberrant behaviour in all its forms. 
 
Charles Webster, an impoverished photographer working at the Lyceum Theatre, has been sucked into a shadowy demi-monde which exists beneath the surface of civilized society. It is a world of pornographers and prostitutes, orchestrated by master manipulator Marlow, for whom Webster illicitly provides theatrical costumes for pornographic shoots. 
 
But knowledge of this enterprise has somehow reached the Lyceum's upright theatre manager, Bram Stoker, who suspects Webster's involvement. As the net tightens around Marlow and his cohorts and public outrage sweeps the city, a member of the aristocracy is accused of killing a child prostitute...

The London Satyr

Joanna Trollope

Can a mother ever hand over her son to another woman? 
 
In this emotional and thought-provoking novel, multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly weaves a study of familial relationships with a lightness of tone and real sense of compassion. Fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse will love it! 
 
'Trollope writes about family life with wit, intelligence and verve' - Guardian 
'Wonderfully observed and readable' - THE TIMES 
'Infallibly elegant...Look more closely and something as grim as Greek tragedy is played out around the cosy family dining table' - Daily Telegraph 
'I found it hard to put this book down' -- ***** Reader review 
'A brilliant book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Always an enjoyable read - Joanna Trollope is the mistress of family emotions' -- ***** Reader review 
'I read it last week and have started to re-read it immediately.' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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DAUGHTERS-IN-LAW : THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 
 
When you've dedicated your life to your children, what happens when they grow up? 
 
Rachel loves being at the centre of her large family. She has devoted herself fiercely to bringing up her three sons, but at their childhood home on the wide, bird-haunted coast of Suffolk, Rachel finds that her control begins to slip away. Other women - her daughters-in-law - are usurping her position. They have become more important to her boys than she is. 
 
A crisis brings these subtle rifts to the surface. 
 
Can there be a way forward, if they are to survive as a family?

Daughters-in-Law

An enthralling, irresistible and beautifully moving novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors

Judy Astley

This laugh-out-loud comedy from bestselling author Judy Astley is perfect for readers of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson. Showing that life - and a fulfilling love life - doesn't have to end at 40, this is a marvellously modern rom-com that will have you hooked! 
 
'Astley is a great writer, funny and sharp... her prose is a pleasure to read, her dialogue sparkles... a perfect book to race through at the beach' -- Daily Mail 
'Love, life and reality TV. Great fun' -- Woman &amp; Home 
'Romantic fiction at its best' -- ***** Reader review 
'Warm and witty' -- ***** Reader review 
'Riveting' -- ***** Reader review 
'Great story line, a lot of fun, kept my interest and didn't disappoint' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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WHEN A MAKEOVER TURNS INTO A NIGHTMARE... 
 
Bella has given up on men. 
 
 Her latest boyfriend 'forgot' to tell her about his current wife, so she's single again. 
 
 Now, her ex-husband has turned up, wanting to sell the family home in which she and their two teenage children are happily living their lives. 
 
 Then Bella sees a chance to stay in the house and earn some money. She rents it out for a reality TV makeover programme. 
 
 And it turns out that the house isn't the only thing that will benefit from a change...

The Look of Love

a wonderfully uplifting, heart-warming and hilarious rom-com from bestselling author Judy Astley

Renate Dorrestein

For ten-year-old Christine, home is a hostile, troubling place. Her mother reserves her affection for her younger, live-in-lover, and for Waldo, Christine's teenage brother. Christine viciously takes out her angry feelings on her Barbies and on a weaker girl in her class. Then on a family holiday in Scotland, a tragic accident occurs for which Christine blames herself, and panic-stricken, she runs away with her four-year-old brother, and hides in the back of a stranger's car. 
 
Agnes Stam is an elderly Dutch spinster, making her annual summer pilgrimage to her family's holiday cottage on Mull. When she discover the little stowaways in her car, she fails to report the missing children and allows them to stay. And so a little girl with a big, guilty secret becomes a lonely old woman's salvation - and also her nemesis.

A Crying Shame

Sophie Kinsella

Liz and Jonathan are in trouble. They can't sell their old house.Here they are, stuck with two mortgages, mounting debts and a miserable adolescent daughter who hadn't wanted to move anyway. Then it seems Marcus Witherstone will solve all their problems. He knows the perfect tenants from London who will rent their old house - glamorous PR girl Ginny and almost-famous Piers. Everything is going to be OK. 
 
Or is it? As Marcus starts to become involved with Liz, while her teenage daughter develops a passion for the lodgers, it seems that some deceptions are too close to home... 
 
Everybody loves Sophie Kinsella: 
"I almost cried with laughter" Daily Mail 
"Hilarious . . . you'll laugh and gasp on every page" Jenny Colgan 
"Properly mood-altering . . . funny, fast and farcical. I loved it" Jojo Moyes 
"A superb tale. Five stars!" Heat

A Desirable Residence

John Boyne

July 1910: The grisly remains of Cora Crippen, music hall singer and wife of Dr Hawley Crippen, are discovered in the cellar of 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden. But the Doctor and his mistress, Ethel Le Neve, have vanished, much to the frustration of Scotland Yard and the outrage of a horrified London. 
 
Across the Channel in Antwerp, the SS Montrose sets sail on its two week voyage to Canada. Amongst its passengers are the overbearing Antonia Drake and her daughter Victoria, who is hell-bent on romance, the enigmatic Mathieu Zela and the modest Martha Hayes. Also on board are the unassuming Mr John Robinson and his seventeen-year-old son Edmund. But all is not as it seems...

Crippen

A Novel of Murder

Catherine Ryan Hyde

A beautiful, uplifting and enthralling novel about a community brought together by a young girl from international bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Susan Lewis, Mitch Alborn and Alice Sebold. 
 
'Original and wonderful' -- Sun 
'With a host of loveable characters, fans of Jodi Picoult will enjoy the turbulent but ultimately uplifting story' -- Big Issue 
'I was hooked... there are some laugh-out-loud antics... an excellent read' -- New Books 
'Could not put it down' -- ***** Reader review 
'Pure emotion' -- ***** Reader review 
'This book held me spellbound to the end' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely loved this book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely fantastic' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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WHAT IF THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE YOUR MOTHER...IS TO LEAVE HER? 
 
GRACE 
Ten-year-old Grace knows that her mum loves her, but her mum loves drugs too. And there's only so long Grace can fend off the 'woman from the county' who is threatening to put her into care. Her only hope is... 
 
BILLY 
Grown-man Billy Shine hasn't been out of his apartment for years. People scare him, and the outside world scares him even more. Day in, day out, he lives a perfectly orchestrated silent life within his four walls. Until now. . . 
 
THE PLAN 
Grace bursts into Billy's life with a loud voice and a brave plan to get her mum clean. And it won't be easy, because they will have to confiscate the one thing her mum holds most dear . . . they will have to kidnap Grace.

Don't Let Me Go

a compelling, emotionally charged and heart-warming novel from bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club author Catherine Ryan Hyde

Joanne Harris

Tantalising and seductive short stories from the bestselling author of Chocolat and The Strawberry Thief... Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson and Kate Mosse as well as readers of Eve Chase and Stacey Halls. 
 
'Evocative, mystical and funny - perfect for curling up on the sofa with' - COMPANY 
'Leaves us wanting more' -- SUNDAY TIMES 
'The best thing I've read in years' -- ***** Reader review 
'I found myself gripped by the stories and not wanting them to end' -- ***** Reader review 
'A marvellous magic carpet ride!' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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TAKE YOUR PARTNERS PLEASE! 
 
Suburban witches, defiant old ladies, ageing monsters, suicidal Lottery winners, wolf men, dolphin women and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear: in Joanne Harris's first collection of short stories the miraculous goes hand-in-hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive and the disturbing are never more than one step away. 
 
This is an eclectic selection of tales for our times that shows a side to Joanne Harris you have never seen before. 
 
So go on, be tempted. After all, it's only dancing.

Jigs & Reels

a collection of captivating and surprising short stories from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat

Readers of Kate Atkinson, Kate Mosse, Stacey Halls and Eve Chase will love this powerful, atmospheric and blackly gothic depiction of Victorian artistic life from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris. Death, love, obsession, sex, murder and magic combine to make a compelling and haunting read... 
 
'A hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel' -- Time Out 
'A very compulsive read' -- ***** Reader review 
'Tremendous' -- ***** Reader review 
'Real gothic page turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'A truly dark, ghostly and powerful read' -- ***** Reader review 
'The tension is gripping and kept going to the very end. I read it in one sitting!' -- ***** Reader review 
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Henry Chester, a domineering and puritanical Victorian artist, is in search of the perfect model. In nine-year-old Effie he finds her. 
 
Ten years later, lovely, childlike and sedated, Effie seems the ideal wife. But something inside her is about to awaken. 
 
Drawn into a dangerous underworld of prostitution, murder and blackmail, she must finally plan her revenge...

Sleep, Pale Sister

a consuming Gothic tale set in 19th century London from the bestselling author of Chocolat

The haunting first novel by international multi-million copy bestseller Joanne Harris - a captivating and compelling study of human desires and compulsions. Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson, Kate Mosse, Eve Chase and Stacey Halls. 
 
'A dark, gothic romance filled with mystery, jealousy, and violence . . . an interesting and thrilling read' - Style Magazine 
 
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It's never easy to face the fact that a man you once loved passionately has found the girl of his dreams, as Alice discovers when Joe introduces her to his new girlfriend. 
 
Then Alice finds an old diary and reads about two men and the mysterious woman who bewitched them both, buried in Grantchester churchyard half a century ago. 
 
As the stories seem to intertwine, Alice comes to realize that her instinctive hatred of Joe's new girlfriend may not just be due to jealousy, as she is plunged into a nightmare world of obsession, revenge, seduction - and blood. 
 
Caution - May contain vampires... 
 
What readers are saying: 
***** 'Totally captivating' 
***** 'Had me hooked from the first page, dark, twisting and exciting - a must read' 
***** 'A page-turner' 
***** 'Cracking stuff - I was hooked'

The Evil Seed

an absorbing, dark and chilling novel from bestselling author Joanne Harris

The perfect summer read from the international bestselling author of the Shopaholic novels. 
 
On a shimmeringly hot Sunday in May, Louise is at a neighbour's pool with her daughters - and glaring at her resentfully is her estranged husband Barnaby. While the children splash and shriek in the cool blue waters, she lies blissfully back in the sun and dreams of Cassian, the charismatic new lawyer in her life. The day seems perfect. 
 
But suddenly the bliss is shattered. The consequences of a terrible accident develop into a drama of recriminations, jealousy and legal power-play. Friendships crumble, the village is split, and the needs of a child become secondary to the dangerous contest in which the grown-ups are engaged.

Swimming Pool Sunday

Elle Newmark

It is 1947, and Evie and Martin Mitchell have just arrived in the Indian village of Masoorla with their five-year-old son. But cracks soon appear in their marriage as Evie struggles to adapt to her new life, and Martin fails to bury unbearable wartime memories. 
 
When Evie finds a collection of letters, concealed deep in the brickwork of their rented bungalow, so begins an investigation that consumes her, allowing her to escape to another world, a hundred years earlier, and to the extraordinary friendship of two very different young women. 
 
And as Evie's fascination with her Victorian discoveries deepens, she unearths powerful secrets. But at what cost to her present, already fragile existence?

The Sandalwood Tree

Mogue Doyle

In Springmount, County Wexford, Will hides away to watch Kate Kelly through her cottage window - a moth at the glass. As the strains of the St Anne's Reel fill the air, Kate and her brother Philly begin to dance on the newly laid floor of their living room, while old Mrs Kelly looks on from beside the fire. Desperate to understand how the terrible tragedy in his past can haunt his present, Will thinks back to the 1920s: a halcyon time. 
Romantic expectation dominates this period of change and tension when traditional order gives way to the new political awareness, and the ties of family and friends no longer hold so much sway. Mountain lads roam country lanes, loaded pistols in their pockets, and innocence and romance are corrupted by a physical passion that runs all too deep.

A Moth At The Glass

Connie May Fowler

In 1965 Bird, christened Avocet, aged six, is living with her family in a Florida citrus grove.  Daddy and Mama, who run a general store, fight frequently and drink too much; Bird and her older sister Phoebe are beaten equally frequently.  Daddy is eventually found dead in his car; Mama and the girls leave the grove and move into a trailer in the grounds of a motel outside Tampa.  Bird, against Mama's wishes, makes friends with Miss Zora, a black woman in a neighbouring trailer.  Miss Zora is a kindly white witch, whose wisdom and herbal remedies provide a mainstay in Bird's difficult life.  Bird runs away to the city to escape her mother's cruelty, and meets a gentle biker who brings her home.  Mama finally agrees to get help for her alcoholism, and Miss Zora takes Bird and Phoebe to live with her at her home in South Florida.

Before Women Had Wings

Marjorie Riddell

Mother always knows best... 
 
Safely ensconced in the village of Wether Bilbury, Mother reconciles herself as best she can to her daughter's move to London. She keeps in constant touch by letter and phone, offering sage advice about good hot lunches (milk pudding is most nourishing and rich in vitamins), warm underclothes (combinations are splendid), and the perils of galloping about London in six-inch heels from one bed-sitting-room to another and pints of black coffee. 
 
Reported conversations with disapproving aunts, inquisitive neighbours, and triumphant friends whose daughters have married well or have steady jobs with pensions, underline the hopelessness of Mother's cause. But she battles on bravely, sustained by the knowledge that 'When you're eighty and your wasted life is a mirror of empty cosmetic jars and bed-sitting-rooms with no roots ... at least you won't be able to turn round and blame me.' 
 
First published in 1954, this enchantingly funny book is essential reading for everyone who's ever had, or been, a mother.

M For Mother

Domnica Radulescu

1980s Romania: 
 
As the sun sets on the magical shore of the Black Sea and casts its last rays across the water, all Nora Teodoru can think about is pursuing her dream of becoming an accomplished artist - and of her love for Gigi, her childhood boyfriend from the Turkish part of town. 
 
But storm clouds are gathering as life under Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu becomes increasingly unbearable. His secret police are circling, never far from the young couple's doors. 
 
Nora and Gigi make plans to escape to Turkey. But nothing can prepare them for the events that follow...

Black Sea Twilight

It is the not too distant future. The Gulf Stream has ceased and the climate is plunged into turmoil. England has changed. 
 
Civil Servant Quinn is dispatched to conduct an audit on a remote plot of land up North, designated for a brand new model town. But he swiftly realises how inflammatory his presence is when confronted by those on the sharp end of the new reality: Owen, a suicidal farmer whose livestock has been destroyed after a slew of viruses; Winston, a disillusioned journalist with a gallery of photos that show the truth about the site; and Pollard, the local man of God whose faith is up for sale. 
 
But it is Anna, Quinn's sometime girlfriend, in charge of filling the dead cattle pits, who faces the deepest abyss of all. As the heavens open once again, the mountains of toxic soil that surround the site slowly begin to shift, and Quinn will face the ultimate test of his integrity.

Salvage

Priya Basil

An epic Romeo and Juliet for the 21st century 
 
In a bustling London café, Anil, now a famous architect, sits waiting for Lina. It is years since he last laid eyes on her, the love of his life. 
 
Lina is running for the train - punctuality has never been her strength. After all this time she cannot be late to meet Anil. 
 
Together, they think back to tragedies both personal and political, betrayals large and small. A past played out across three continents that house their rival worlds: Sikh and Muslim, wealthy and modest, liberal and orthodox, corrupt and moral.... 
 
Lina has one more revelation that must be shared with Anil. Might it unite them once and for all, or has it come too late?

The Obscure Logic of the Heart

It was Patrick's idea that they should have the tennis party. After all, he has the perfect setting - the White House, bought out of his bonuses as an investment banker. He hasn't actually told Caroline, his brash and beautiful wife, what the real reason for the party is. She is glad to welcome Stephen and Annie, their impoverished former neighbours, less glad to see newly wealthy Charles and his aristocratic wife Cressida, and barely able to tolerate the deadly competitive Don and Valerie. 
 
But as the first ball is served over the net it signals the start of two days of tempers, shocks, revelations, the arrival of an uninvited guest, and the realization that the weekend is about anything but tennis.

The Tennis Party

Marius Brill

He was out of her league. She was out of her depth. 
 
When Miranda, the Miss Lonely Hearts of Shepherd's Bush, suddenly finds herself romanced by a tall, dark and deadly spy, she finds her life turned upside down. Could it have anything to do with the book she innocently took from the library, a book with a conspiracy theory about 'love' so devastating that every other copy has been destroyed by MI5 and the writer 'disappeared'? 
 
Spliced through Miranda's romantic adventure are pages from the 'lost' book itself. But the loudest voice in this piece of postmodern madness belongs to the lovelorn book itself, a sentient mass of paper and ink that cannot help falling in love with its reader. 
 
Marius Brill's send-up of po-faced conspiracy stories, spy thrillers and pulp romance is as sharp as Tom Sharpe - imagine Umberto Ecco with a sense of humour. Ludicrously logical and finely spun, this is hare-brained literary fantasy, an erudite romp, and above all, a novel to fall in love with ...

Making Love: A Conspiracy Of The Heart

Rhys Thomas

Society is on the brink of collapse. The Old World is vanishing, the New World is taking over. There are no rules. Not now that a deadly disease is spreading that causes its victims to turn violent. Previously loving people become murderous. No-one can tell who will turn and who will not. 
 
 
A work of force and dark brilliance - the perfect expression of the terrors of the 21st Century

On The Third Day

At the start of his school holidays, Danny Delaney is looking forward to a trouble-free summer. But when his mother returns home one afternoon, flanked by two policemen, he knows that something terrible has happened. 
 
Mrs Delaney has accidentally hit a small boy with her car. The boy is in a coma at the local hospital and nobody knows if he will ever wake up. 
 
Consumed by guilt, Danny's mother closes herself off, while Danny and his father are left to pick up the pieces of their fractured family. 
 
Told in John Boyne's unique style from the point of view of a twelve-year-old boy, The Dare is a brilliantly compelling story about how one moment can change a family forever.

The Dare

Matthieu Zela has lived his life well. In fact, he's lived several lives well. Because Matthew Zela's life is characterised by one amazing fact: his body stopped ageing before the end of the eighteenth century. 
 
Starting in 1758, a young Matthieu flees Paris after witnessing his mother's brutal murder. His only companions are his younger brother Tomas and one true love, Dominique Sauvet. The story of his life takes us from the French Revolution to 1920s Hollywood, from the Great Exhibition to the Wall Street Crash, and by the end of the twentieth century, Matthieu has been an engineer, a rogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a financier, a lover to many, a cable TV executive and much more besides. 
 
Brilliantly weaving history and personal experience, this is a dazzling story of love, murder, missed chances, treachery - and redemption.

The Thief of Time

This captivating and charming novel from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris takes us back to the French village we first discovered in Chocolat. Seamlessly interweaving the past and the present, magic and memory, it is a sensual rollercoaster that will appeal to fans of Victoria Hislop, Fiona Valpy, Maggie O'Farrell and Rachel Joyce. 
 
 
'Thickly sensuous, wildly indulgent, magical escapism: Chocolat lovers will drink deeply' --GUARDIAN 
'Joanne Harris has the gift of conveying her delight in the sensuous pleasures of food, wine, scent and plants... Blackberry Wine has all the appeal of a velvety scented glass of vintage wine' -- DAILY MAIL 
'A wonderful story' -- ***** Reader review 
'A beautiful story... beautifully written and very atmospheric' ***** Reader review 
'I could NOT put this book down' ***** Reader review 
'A very good book, lots of warmth and light' ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************* 
Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscape of his childhood, to which he longs to return. 
 
A bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-vanished friend seems to provide the key to an old mystery. As the unusual properties of the strange brew take effect, Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in the French village of Lansquenet. 
 
There, a ghost from the past waits to confront him, and the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters. 
 
Between them, a mysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic?

Blackberry Wine

from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat, comes a tantalising, sensuous and magical novel which takes us back to the charming French village of Lansquenet

From the pen of international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris, Coastliners is a powerful novel of a hardy island community fighting the encroaching seas. Written with her characteristic vivid descriptions, expert characterisation and sensuous language, this is a real treat for fans of Victoria Hislop, Fiona Valpy, Maggie O'Farrell and Rachel Joyce. 
 
'A winning blend of fairy-tale morality and gritty realism' -- INDEPENDENT 
'Sensuous, evocative...you can almost feel the sand between your toes and taste the salty air' -- HEAT 
'I was hooked by page 2. Brilliantly written' -- ***** Reader review 
'This book kept me gripped from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review 
'Page turner to the last page' -- ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************************************************* 
On the tiny Breton island of Le Devin, life has remained almost unchanged for over a hundred years. For generations, two rival communities have fought for control of the island's only beach. 
 
When Mado returns home to her village after a ten-year absence, she finds it threatened, both by the tides and by a local entrepreneur. Worse, the community is suffering from an incurable loss of hope. Taking up the fight to transform the dying village, Mado must confront past tragedies, including the terrible secret that still haunts her father.

Coastliners

from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat, comes a heartfelt, lyrical and life-affirming novel of courage and conviction

A gripping page-turner set in occupied France from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris. With the sensuous writing we come to expect from her, this book has a darker core. Perfect for fans of Victoria Hislop, Fiona Valpy, Maggie O'Farrell and Rachel Joyce, this fascinating and vivid journey through human cruelty and kindness is a gripping and compelling read. 
 
'Her strongest writing yet: as tangy and sometimes bitter as Chocolat was smooth' -- Independent 
'Harris indulges her love of rich and mouthwatering descriptive passages, appealing to the senses... Thoroughly enjoyable' -- Observer 
'Outstanding...beautifully written' -- Daily Mail 
'Very thought provoking. I read the book in two days and am still thinking about it a few days down the line' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely gripping from the very first page' -- ***** Reader review 
'Joanne Harris at her very best!'-- ***** Reader review 
'Superb' -- ***** Reader review 
'I just couldn't put this one down'-- ***** Reader review 2 
 
********************************************************* 
 
THE PAST WILL ALWAYS CATCH UP WITH YOU... 
 
Beyond the main street of Les Laveuses runs the Loire: smooth and brown as a sunning snake - but hiding a deadly undertow beneath its moving surface. This is where Framboise, a secretive widow, plies her culinary trade at the crêperie - and lets her memory play strange games. 
 
As her nephew attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes Framboise has inherited from her mother - a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers - memories of a disturbed childhood during the German Occupation flood back, and expose a past full of betrayal, blackmail and lies...

Five Quarters Of The Orange

from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat, a powerful drama about the dark repercussions of Nazi occupation in a rural French village

Dread Pirate Fleur

Dream Master

Drenai Novels

DropZone

Duggee's Little Library

Dungeon Crawler Carl Series

Duty Calls

A gripping three-part series based on real historical events. Three Roman legions massacred. Three Imperial Eagles lost. One man vies for revenge.

Eagles of Rome

For thirty years, the O’Donnels have ruled the East End, but there’s a price to pay for this power, and it’s usually in blood.

Eastend Trilogy

Easterleigh Hall

Eat Around Italy

Eat Around Spain

Eat Right For Blood Type

Ebb and Flo

Ed Reardon's Week

Elemental Emergence

Elfies Spellbook

Eliot Biographies

Emma Trilogy

Emma and James

Empire of Salt

In the Swedish town of Engelsfors, a mysterious forcedraws seven teenagers together. They are the Chosen Ones, and they have been chosen to drive back the demons that threaten to overwhelm the world

Engelsfors Trilogy

England's Medieval Queens

English Heritage

Erica Martin Thriller

Eternal Ones

Eve of Man Trilogy

Everyman's Library Barbreck

Everyman's Children's Classics has more than 50 titles in print. It offers the finest editions currently available of the world's greatest children's books in handsome, full cloth hardcover bindings. 
 
The library brings back into print major illustrators such as Ivan Bilibin, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Nicolas Bentley, Walter Crane, Aubrey Beardsley, Edward Ardizzone, W.Heath Robinson and Mervyn Peake.

Everyman's Library CHILDREN'S CLASSICS

The finest editions available of the world's greatest classics from Homer to Achebe, Tolstoy to Ishiguro, Proust to Pullman, printed on a fine acid-free, cream-wove paper that will not discolour with age, with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers, and at remarkably low prices. All books include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

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