Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) was one of the major Latin American writers of the twentieth century, as well as a classically trained pianist and musicologist. His best-known novels are The Lost Steps, Explosion in a Cathedral, and The Kingdom of This World. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and raised in Havana, Cuba, Carpentier lived for many years in France and Venezuela before returning to Cuba after the 1959 revolution. A few years later he returned to France, where he lived until his death.

Alejo Carpentier

Dr Aleks Krotoski is an award-winning international broadcaster, author and academic. She has topped the ratings for the BBC and Channel 4, winning Emmy, BAFTA, Radio Academy and Royal Society awards, and has written and presented landmark technology and social science series for both radio (with BBC Radio 4’s The Artificial Human and The Digital Human) and international television (with BBC World’s The Virtual Revolution). Krotoski has held fellowships at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and received an honorary doctorate from the Open University. She currently teaches at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Aleks Krotoski

Aleksandar Ciric

Aleksandar Sotirovski

Aleksandar Zolotic

Aleksandr Orlov

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 and grew up in Rostov-on-Don. He graduated in Physics and Mathematics from Rostov University and studied Literature by correspondence course at Moscow University. In World War II he fought as an artillery officer, attaining the rank of captain. In 1945, however, after making derogatory remarks about Stalin in a letter, he was arrested and summarily sentenced to eight years in forced labour camps, followed by internal exile. In 1957 he formally rehabilitated, and settled down to teaching and writing, in Ryazan and Moscow. The publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in Novy Mir in 1962 was followed by publication, in the West, of his novels Cancer Ward and The First Circle. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and in 1974 his citizenship was revoked and he was expelled from the Soviet Union. He settled in Vermont and worked on his great historical cycle The Red Wheel. In 1990, with the fall of Soviet Communism, his citizenship was restored and four years later he returned to settle in Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died in August 2008.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksei Bitskoff

Aleksei Evdokimo

Aleksi Hoffman

Alena Tkach is an award-winning Ukrainian freelance illustrator who studied Graphic Arts at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. She works mostly as children’s book illustrator and 2D artist. Alena loves llamas because they are cute and sweet, and when they jump it's really funny. Follow Alena on Instagram @alena.tkach.

Alena Tkach

Alessandra Peters

Alessandro Manzoni

Alex Bellos

Alex Bellos is a journalist, broadcaster and puzzle master. He read Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford University before becoming a journalist and writer. Alex was born in Oxford and grew up in Edinburgh and Southampton and lived in Brazil for five years as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian before returning to the UK He is the author of 8 books about puzzles and mathematics and currently writes weekly puzzle column for the Guardian.

Alex Berenson

Alex Boardman

Alex Brummer

Alex Bulmer

Alex Butterworth

Alex Caine

Alex Carter

Alex Chance

Alex Cliff

Alex Danchev

Alex Dekker served as a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces 'Green Berets' for nearly 20 years, first with 5th Special Forces Group and then as a special operations team member assigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command. He has deployed multiple times to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations worldwide, and has attended multiple advanced tactical and technical schools within the U.S. Special Operations community and interagency. Alex has traveled to dozens of countries for work and personal adventures and has spent years living abroad. He is an avid student of history who has participated as a volunteer in numerous archaeological digs, is an Arabic speaker, and holds a Masters in Applied Intelligence from Georgetown University. When not traveling, Alex lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Savannah, a former CIA Operations Officer, their children, and their German Shepherd Donovan.

Alex Dekker

Alex Dimitrov is the recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Prize from the American Poetry Review and a Pushcart Prize and is the author of Begging For It (2013), Together And By Yourselves (2017), and Love and Other Poems (2021). His work has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Poetry, and more. Formerly, he was the Senior Content Editor at the Academy of American Poets where he edited the popular online series Poem-a-Day and American Poets magazine. From 2009-2013, he founded and ran Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York. Currently, he teaches creative writing at NYU where he is Writer in Residence.

Alex Dimitrov

Alex Dingwall-Main

Alex Duval

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Ben Elton

Chart Throb.The ultimate pop quest. 
 
Ninety five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner. 
And that's Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show. 
 
Calvin always wins because Calvin writes the rules. But this year, as he sits smugly in judgement upon the mingers, clingers and blingers whom he has pre-selected in his carefully scripted 'search' for a star, he has no idea that the rules are changing. The 'real' is about to be put back into 'reality' television and Calvin and his fellow judges (the nation's favourite mum and the other bloke) are about to become ex-factors themselves. 
 
Ben Elton, author of Popcorn and Dead Famous returns to blistering comic satire with a savagely hilarious deconstruction of the world of modern television talent shows. 
 
Chart Throb. One winner. A whole bunch of losers.

Chart Throb

Tina Biswas

Set in England, India and Ireland, a comic tale of fish out of water. 
 
When her boorish father dies, fat, unsophisticated Mousumi is sent from India to her cosmopolitan relations in London. For the glamour of the western world, she leaves behind both her forlorn mother and an amorous shopkeeper. 
 
On arrival, she is met by the Majumdar family: Prakash - a doctor with too much heart, great cook and man-about-the-house; Tuhina - a successful investment banker and indulgent mother; and Darshini - a nonchalant eighteen-year-old, audacious coin-flipper and possessor of ethereal beauty. Such an offbeat household terrifies Mousumi - how will she fit in? Can she meet their high standards? And will she begin to question the life she has known? 
 
A witty social comedy of cultural misunderstanding and people who simply don't get on.

Dancing With The Two-Headed Tigress

Paul Hoffman

When Steven Grlscz saves a young woman from throwing herself in front of a train he finds himself consumed by a love affair which transforms her from a suicidal, angry anorexic into a happy and beautiful young woman. Then she vanishes without trace. 
 
Across the Thames on the morning George Winnicott, former head of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, is to begin his new job in charge of the City of London's most powerful anti-fraud body, he wakes from a nightmare screaming that he knows the meaning of life. Later that day, a huge bomb explodes in the centre of London. 
 
How are these events linked? What connects modern economics, a new take on the vampire concept, parachuting, pornography, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, financial fraud, terrorism, aliens, artificial intelligence, the meaning of life and the hardest crossword clue in the world? 
 
13 years in the writing, this is a novel that engages with the way the modern world works - and in admitting that contemporary life is complex, impenetrable and often terrifying, it also asserts that there are ways to see the patterns emerging from the chaos.

The Wisdom Of Crocodiles

Jo-Ann Goodwin

Eugene Burnside joined the Firm before he left school, running drugs. Clever and ambitious, he's now twenty-eight and going places: he's come to the attention of the Faron Brothers and, as everyone knows, the brothers are the Firm. Promotion couldn't come too soon for Eugene - it means he no longer has to deal with middleman Mal Shifter and his two old aunts. Or those dogs. The lot of them give him the creeps. 
But if Eugene's gangland career is going well, things are not so sweet on the domestic front. He still lives at home with his mum, Gladys, and his sister Simone, the star of SweetHearts lap-dancing club. He's devoted to them both but wished he felt the same about Simone's son, Nero. He's not a nice child - 'disturbed' isn't the half of it. 
Then a SweetHearts girl goes missing. Evil has come to haunt the alleys and archways of North London - a killer the press have dubbed 'the Meatman' begins his grisly work and Eugene's world is turned on its head...

Sweet Gum

Judy Astley

Readers of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson will love this wonderfully witty and whimsical comedy from bestselling author Judy Astley. Perfect to settle down with! 
 
'A fun romp ... funny and surprisingly thought provoking.' -- Sunday Express 
'A hugely entertaining novel' -- Cambridge Style Magazine 
'Another fluffy, fun read from Astley.' -- In The Know 
'I loved it ... a lovely summer read' -- New Books Magazine 
'A smashing novel' -- ***** Reader review 
'Great story line, a lot of fun, kept my interest and didn't disappoint' -- ***** Reader review 
'A fun book!' -- ***** Reader review 
'A thoroughly enjoyable read' -- ***** Reader review 
 
********************************************************************************************* 
WILL THE KIDS GET WHAT'S COMING TO THEM? 
 
Sorrel is about to go off on her Gap Year. She sooo wants a home to come home to. 
 
Ilex, her brother, is trying to upgrade his flat and marry his smart girlfriend Manda. He'd like some immediate equity. 
 
Clover, the elder sister, has plans that involve a bijou second home in France. And she wants it now. 
 
If only their parents would be sensible. If only they would sell their large, rather grand but somewhat dilapidated home and hand over their inheritance. 
 
But parents aren't always as sensible as their children. They are planning on blowing the lot...

Blowing It

a brilliantly funny, mad-cap novel guaranteed to make you laugh from bestselling author Judy Astley

Catherine Ryan Hyde

The story of a love that transcends time, place and human weakness from Richard &amp; Judy bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Perfect for fans of Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold. 
 
'A work of art...enchanting' -- San Francisco Chronicle 
'A magnificent storyteller' -- Denver Post 
'What a quirky wonderful book! It moved me and made me laugh - what a wee gem!' -- ***** Reader review 
'A beautiful, moving and thoughtful book' -- ****** Reader review 
'Read it in one sitting. Really enjoyed it - had me laughing one minute and crying the next.' -- ***** Reader review 
'A beautiful story about love in its various forms.' -- ***** Reader review 
'Heartbreaking and uplifting.' -- ***** Reader review 
'I highly recommend this book, it'll move the hardest of hearts!'-- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************** 
THE MAGICAL STORY OF A YOUNG BOY'S SEARCH FOR BELONGING 
 
Mitch is a 25-year-old with commitment issues. Leonard is a five-year-old kid with asthma and vision problems, who captivates everyone he meets. Pearl is Leonard's teenage mother, who's trying to hide a violent secret from her past. Life has given Pearl every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbour, Mitch. 
 
Then one day, with a heart full of agony, Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch and never returns. 
 
How do you go on loving someone who isn't there? With Leonard's absolute conviction in 'forever love' always present, Leonard and Mitch grow up side by side and piece together the layered truths and fictions of their almost magical lives. 
 
Pearl, Leonard and Mitch each have a story to tell - as their lives unfold, profound questions arise about the nature of love and family. The answers are heartbreaking, but ultimately triumphant.

Love In The Present Tense

the heart-warming and uplifting novel from Richard & Judy bestseller Catherine Ryan Hyde

Ayelet Waldman

Is Emilia the wicked stepmother incarnate? 
 
Passionately in love with her husband, Emilia has a secret, guilty loathing for her precocious little stepson, William - a forty-year-old in a five-year-old's body, whom she picks up from nursery every Wednesday afternoon. He is lactose intolerant, she feeds him dairy products; he mustn't get cold, she pushes him - accidentally - into the pond in Central Park. How can she forgive William for living, when her own cherished child has gone? 
 
'Moving and darkly funny, romantic, shocking, painful page-turner...says something new and interesting about women, families and love' New York Times 
 
'One moment I was laughing out loud..the next I had tears pouring down...whether you're a parent or not, you can't fail to be moved' Daily Express

Love And Other Impossible Pursuits

Joanna Trollope

This heart-warming and uplifting novel from multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope is perfect for fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse. It's a story of relationships in which everybody can find something to identify with, and even learn from. Perfect to settle down with! 
 
'The queen of the domestic dilemma...observant and empathetic' - The Sunday Times 
'The ebb and flow of relationships is brilliantly handled' - The Observer 
'One of the finest chroniclers of how we live now' - Independent on Sunday 
'A highly readable, often un-put-down-able novel which I thoroughly enjoyed.' -- ***** Reader review 
'Excellent, engaging novel. Like having a warm blanket around your shoulders!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Trollope at her best again' -- ***** Reader review 
*************************************************************************************** 
SECOND HONEYMOON: THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 
 
When the children have come and gone, can a marriage pick up where it left off? 
 
Ben is, at last, leaving home. At twenty-two, he's the youngest of the family. 
His mother, Edie, an actress, is distraught. 
His father, Russell, a theatrical agent, is rather hoping to get his wife back. 
His brother, Matthew, is struggling in a relationship in which he achieves and earns less than his girlfriend. 
And his sister, Rosa, is wrestling with debt and the end of a turbulent love affair. 
 
Meet the Boyd family and the empty nest, twenty-first-century style.

Second Honeymoon

an absorbing and authentic novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors

John Harding

Thirty-somethings Nick and Laura have been married for 10 years and things aren't going well. She senses her biological clock ticking away and wants children while he doesn't. Not because he doesn't like children but because he feels a child would be just one responsibility too many. 
Nick's problem is his parents. He's devoted to them of course, but sometimes even he finds his patience wearing a little thin which in turn brings on the guilt. But they are rather a handful. They're conservative, highly eccentric and increasingly infirm. His Mum's so enormously overweight that her heart's now a bit dicky and she is certainly no longer up to looking after Dad by herself. He's got Parkinson's Disease - not the shaking kind, as Mum's always reminding people - but he's unable to do even the simplest task himself and needs constant care and attention. 
Nick knows the time has come to take the matter in hand but things need to be handled carefully. And so he and Laura take them to Malta for what they hope will be a happy final family holiday. Nick thinks his only problem is going to be avoiding Laura's amorous advances but this particular island turns out to be a sun-kissed cupboard with more than its fair share of skeletons... 
Tackling a taboo subject with sensitivity, understanding, great affection and good humour, What We Did On Our Holiday is a remarkably uplifting, moving and reassuring novel about a time in our lives when it seems roles are reversed and we find ourselves looking after the very people we'd always assumed would be there to look after us.

What We Did On Our Holiday

Jessica Adams

I'm A Believer is a funny, moving and sophisticated novel about Mark Buckle, a cynical primary school teacher in south London who doesn't believe in anything, and absolutely, positively doesn't believe in life after death. Then, five days after his girlfriend, Catherine, dies in a car accident and he's trying to come to terms with his loss, she starts communicating with him and turns his world (and belief systems) upside-down. As the novel progresses, the truth about Mark's relationship with Catherine is revealed. And we encounter his friends and colleagues who provide support during this difficult time including Felix, a flamboyantly camp Australian, Caroline the Sloane who just longs to meet a nice man and Tess, drama teacher and practising Christian who starts to become increasingly attractive to Mark. 
 
Jessica Adams's characteristic humour is combined with an exploration of more serious issues that affect us all. I'm A Believer is a wonderful novel about love, life and what lies beyond.

I'm A Believer

Saturday night is a nightmare when you're single. Saturday night is for couples and everyone knows it. 
 
Victoria 'Total Bloody Relationships Disaster' Shepworth is single and knows all about Saturday nights alone. A broken relationship with the guy she thought was 'the one' has led to a string of disastrous dates. Now she's fed-up with being on her own and is once again in search of the man of her dreams. But life begins to look decidedly more interesting when she becomes involved in an internet romance with glamorous Frenchman, Pierre Dubois. Little does she know he could be closer than she thinks...

Single White E-Mail

Sheena Joughin

When Ruth and Gray meet as children while their parents play at being adults in a rackety old Bohemian house, an electricity passes between them that neither will ever forget. Their paths soon separate as Gray moves to Paris with his girlfriend, and Ruth finds Liam, a sensible and long-suffering friend with whom she falls in love. But Ruth's eccentric upbringing lingers into adulthood. Affected by her old Aunt Jane's passion for poetry, Ruth embarks on a comprehensive book of Twentieth Century poets' lives. Soon, Ruth's thoughts become haunted by the lives of the poets and dreamers she writes about, as the self-destructive talents of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and Philip Larkin begin to influence her in unexpected ways. Until one day, she meets Gray, and their historic chemistry is fired up once again. 
 
Joughin's exquisite sense of place, her comic eye and wry, erotic prose are prime ingredients in this page-turning novel full of vivid characters, elegance and humanity.

Swimming Underwater

Eve Makis

YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS BUT YOU CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW. 
 
Electra and Adam are living proof that opposites attract. 
Electra is warm, passionate and creative. She wants to have a baby. 
Adam is calm, reasonable and very English. He doesn't. 
Enter the mother-in-law... 
Cold, critical and snobbish, she disapproves of her son's marriage. 
And then she moves in with them. 
Will their relationship survive? 
 
A darkly funny, insightful and cautionary tale that will make you question where your loyalties lie.

The Mother-in-Law

When Katie Pickard is sent by her newspaper to interview Brighton psychic Jim Gabriel about his predictions for the year ahead, she is shocked and sceptical, especially when he predicts that he's going to marry her. 
 
Then Jim's other predictions start coming true and Katie is forced to take him seriously - despite the fact that she's just fallen in love with somebody else. 
 
Will she and Jim really be married by the end of the summer? And can a famous psychic ever be wrong?

The Summer Psychic

Robert Hicks

Tennessee, 1864. On a late autumn day, near a little town called Franklin, 10,000 men will soon lie dead or dying in a battle that will change many lives for ever. None will be more changed than Carrie McGavock, who finds her home taken over by the Confederate army and turned into a field hospital. Taking charge, she finds the courage to face up to the horrors around her and, in doing so, finds a cause. 
 
Out on the battlefield, a tired young Southern soldier drops his guns and charges forward into Yankee territory, holding only the flag of his company's colours. He survives and is brought to the hospital. Carrie recognizes something in him - a willingness to die - and decides on that day, in her house, she will not let him. 
 
In the pain-filled days and weeks that follow, both find a form of mutual healing that neither thinks possible. 
 
In this extraordinary debut novel based on a true story, Robert Hicks has written an epic novel of love and heroism set against the madness of the American Civil War.

The Widow of the South

When Richard, a divorced but desirable vet from Tasmania, proposes to Sarah, an English Rose, she decides to accept and start a whole new life with him down under. The only problem is, though, that days before the wedding Sarah falls in love with Richard's best man, Tom, who's living with a much older woman. Meanwhile, Bronte, Richard's first wife, a Features Editor on a woman's magazine in Sydney is trying to cope with the news that her ex is marrying again. And Harry, Richard's younger brother, who has never got over his obsession with Blondie, is spending all his time chasing after the wrong women. 
 
Tom, Dick and Debbie Harry is a witty and, at times, hilarious contemporary novel about weddings, relationships, finding the right partner, shenanigans amongst friends and Australian eccentricity.

Tom Dick And Debbie Harry

Gigi Levangie

There are starter jobs. Starter cars. Starter houses. And then there are starter wives... 
When her husband dumps her (by cell phone) just months before their ten-year wedding anniversary, Gracie Pollock is left reeling. Though her role as the wife of a semifamous studio executive often left her cold, Gracie had grown accustomed to the unique privileges extended to Tinseltown's elite. Gracie really believed that she and Kenny were different from other Hollywood couples. She never thought she'd be a starter wife. But now that her marriage is over, she's a social pariah and things go from bad to worse when she learns - via her florist - that her husband has upgraded: Kenny is dating a famous blonde pop starlet. 
 
Gracie seeks refuge at her best friend's Malibu mansion for some much-needed divorce therapy but soon she's associating with all the wrong people including the security guard, Kenny's boss - one of Hollywood's better known Lotharios - and a mysterious hunk who saves her from drowning. But who is he?

The Starter Wife

Naguib Mahfouz

THE ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR. 
 
'A masterpiece' - The Times 
'Shamelessly entertaining' - Guardian 
 
The sensual and provocative second book in the classic Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities. 
 
Having given up his vices after his son's death, ageing patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad pursues a bewitching lute-player - only for her to marry his eldest son. His rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination as they test the loosening reins of societal and parental control. And Ahmad's youngest son, in an unforgettable portrayal of unrequited love, falls for the sophisticated daughter of a rich Europeanised family. 
 
A vivid portrait of a family and a country in a time of upheaval, the Cairo Trilogy is the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important Arab novelist.

Palace Of Desire

From the Nobel Prizewinning author

THE ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER BY THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR. 
 
'A masterpiece' - The Times 
'The Arab Tolstoy' - Simon Sebag Montefiore 
'Shamelessly entertaining' - Guardian 
'Luminous' - New York Times 
 
A sweeping and evocative portrait of both a family and a country struggling to move toward independence in a society that has resisted change for centuries. Set against the backdrop of Britain's occupation of Egypt immediately after World War I, Palace Walk introduces us to the Al Jawad family. 
 
Ahmad, a middle-class shopkeeper runs his household strictly according to the Qur'an while at night he explores the pleasures of Cairo. A tyrant at home, Ahmad forces his gentle, oppressed wife and two daughters to live cloistered lives behind the house's latticed windows, while his three very different sons live in fear of his harsh will. 
 
The first book of the classic Cairo Trilogy, the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important Arab novelist.

Palace Walk

THE ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER BY THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR. 
 
'A masterpiece' - The Times 
'The Arab Tolstoy' - Simon Sebag Montefiore 
 
Sugar Street, the climactic final book in the classic Cairo Trilogy, is the captivating story of a family struggling to change with the rise of modern Egypt. As Cairo shrugs off the final vestiges of colonialism, Ahmad Al Jawad has lost his power and surveys the world from a latticed balcony. Unable to control his family's destiny, he watches helplessly as his dynasty and the traditions he holds dear disintegrate before his eyes. 
 
But through Ahamd's three grandsons we see modern how Egypt takes shape. One grandson is a communist activist, another a Muslim fundamentalist, both working for what they believe will be a better world. And Ridwan, the inheritor of his father's charms, launches a political career aided by a homosexual affair with prominent politician. 
 
A vivid portrait of a family and a country in a time of upheaval, the Cairo Trilogy is the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important Arab novelist.

Sugar Street

Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy's inspired masterpiece relates the dark and violent chronicle of an astounding family: the Wingos of Colleton, South Carolina. No reader will forget them. And no reader can remain untouched by their story. 
 
All Wingos share one heritage ... shrimp fishing, poverty and the searing memory of a single terrifying event - the source of Tom Wingo's self-hatred and of his sister Savannah's suicidal despair. 
 
To save himself and Savannah, Tom confronts the past with the help of New York psychologist Susan Lowenstein. 
 
As Tom and Susan unravel the bitter history of his troubled childhood, in episodes of grotesque humour, poignant lyricism and shattering violence, the door opens vividly onto a world peopled by a cast of colourful, eccentric and unforgettable characters.

The Prince Of Tides

On a remote South Pacific island paradise, an elderly tribesman is translating Hamlet into local Pidgin English. Much to his annoyance, his struggles with the Bard are interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. William Hardt is a young American lawyer, he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and he has come to help. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. For what (and who) he finds there will challenge both his and our values and our ideas about love, life and even death. 
Bursting with good things, from the islanders themselves - with their curious logic, strange notions about sex and addictive rendering of English - to moments of aching sadness as much as life-affirming farce, this exuberantly original novel confirms John Harding as one of contemporary fiction's most entertaining and observant chroniclers of the human condition.

One Big Damn Puzzler

Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet, is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder. 
 
Douglas Kingsley is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction. Forced to conduct his investigations amidst the hell of The Third Battle of Ypres, Kingsley soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him. 
 
Ben Elton's tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? 
 
As the gap between legally-sanctioned and illegal murder becomes evermore blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth.

The First Casualty

Stephen Clarke

A year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is still struggling with some fundamental questions: 
_________________ 
 
What is the best way to scare a gendarme? 
 
Why are there no health warnings on French nudist beaches? 
 
And is it really polite to sleep with your boss's mistress? 
 
In his second comedy of errors, Paul West opens an English tearoom, and mutates (temporarily) into a Parisian waiter. 
 
Meanwhile, he continues his search for the perfect French mademoiselle. But will Paul find l'amour éternel, or will it all end in merde? 
 
Author's apology: 'I'd just like to say sorry to all the suppository fans out there, because in this book there are no suppositories. There are, however, lots of courgettes, and I see this as progress. Suppositories to courgettes - I think it proves that I'm developing as a writer.' Stephen Clarke

Merde Actually

How NOT to open an English tearoom in Paris

John O'Farrell

Alice never imagined that she would end up like this. Is she the only mother who feels so permanently panic-stricken at the terrors of the modern world - or is it normal to sit up in bed all night popping bubble wrap? She worries that too much gluten and dairy may be hindering her children's mental arithmetic. She frets that there are too many cars on the road to let them out of the 4x4. Finally she resolves to take control and tackle her biggest worry of all: her daughter is definitely not going to fail that crucial secondary school entrance exam. Because Alice has decided to take the test in her place... 
 
With his trademark comic eye for detail, John O'Farrell has produced a funny and provocative book that will make you laugh, cry and vow never to become that sort of parent. And then you can pass it on to your seven-year-old, because she really ought to be reading grown-up novels by now...

May Contain Nuts

Vikas Swarup

The bestselling book behind the Oscar-winning film SLUMDOG MILLLIONAIRE directed by Danny Boyle 
 
'An absorbing and richly entertaining read' Times 
 
Former tiffinboy Ram Mohammad Thomas has just got twelve questions correct on a TV quiz-show to win a cool one billion rupees. But he is brutally slung in prison on suspicion of cheating. Because how can a kid from the slums know who Shakespeare was, unless he is cheating? 
 
In the order of the questions on the show, Ram tells us which incredible adventures in his life on the streets gave him the answers. From orphanages to brothels, gangsters to beggar-masters, and into the homes of Bollywood's rich and famous, Ram's story is brimming with the chaotic comedy, heart-stopping tragedy and joyousness of modern India. 
 
'Popular fiction at its best and brightest' Guardian 
'Colourful' Sunday Telegraph 
'Poignant, funny, rich' MEG ROSOFF, bestselling author of HOW I LIVE NOW 
'Not to be missed' Observer

Q & A

The International Bestseller Filmed as Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire

Carole Cadwalladr

'A rare treat, delivered with aplomb' Sunday Telegraph 
 
On the day of Charles and Diana's wedding, Rebecca Monroe's mother locked herself in the bathroom and never came out. Was it because her squidgy chocolate log collapsed or because Rebecca's grandmother married her first cousin? Can we never know why we do what we do? 
 
'This clever and moving debut examines three generations of the Monroe family and explores nature versus nurture...thoughtful and immensely entertaining' Observer

The Family Tree

Stark is a secret consortium with more money than God, and the social conscience of a dog on a croquet lawn. What's more, it knows the Earth is dying. 
 
Deep in Western Australia where the Aboriginals used to milk the trees, a planet-sized plot is taking shape. Some green freaks pick up the scent: a pommie poseur; a brain-fried Vietnam vet; Aboriginals who have lost their land...not much against a conspiracy that controls society. But EcoAction isn't in society: it just lives in the same place, along with the cockroaches. 
 
 
If you're facing the richest and most disgusting scheme in history, you have to do more than stick up two fingers and say 'peace'.

Stark

Satirical Thriller

Diana Appleyard

Three couples, friends and neighbours... Tom, lazy and charming, looks after the children and thinks about writing a novel while his ambitious wife Sarah pursues her career as a journalist.Nat is married to the unstylish Cassie, who spends her life in jodhpurs, but although an ill-matched couple they have a strong and enduring marriage. Laure, the beautiful half-French wife of Gerard, is being shut out of his life because of financial worries. 
 
One winter's evening, Laure and Tom dance together at a local ball, and suddenly a world of possibilities opens up between them. Can they can forget the troubles of their own home lives and find a new excitement, a new solace? It's only a game, after all, not for real...But playing with fire can hurt, as they both find out.

Playing With Fire

Robert Edric

When the luxury yacht Helen Brooks was last seen on is found abandoned amid the treacherous marshlands of the Humber Estuary, foul play is suspected. However, in the absence of a body, nothing can be proven. The owner of the yacht, ambitious businessman Simon Fowler, seems unprepared even to offer any sort of explanation as to what Helen was doing on board. 
 
A year later, Hull private investigator Leo Rivers is approached by Alison Brooks, Helen's mother, to investigate both the background to this disappearance and Fowler. Rivers is drawn through a long, hot summer into a world of human trafficking and governmental corruption at every turn. In the stifling heat there are many questions and few people prepared to offer adequate answers. Each unravelled piece of the mystery moves Rivers further from the vanished girl and deeper into a web of exploitation, greed, temptation, revenge and violence, from which even he is unable to extricate himself without unforeseen and tragic consequences...

Siren Song

Intellectually brilliant, cultured and sophisticated, with refined tastes in art, music and cuisine. And a pure sociopath. This is the series that launched the world’s number one villain – Hannibal Lecter.

Hannibal Lecter

Happy Families

Harlem Renaissance Series

Harold Fry

Harry Hole

Harry and the Dinosaurs

Hatchimals

Hattie B, Magical Vet

Hawk series

Hawthorne

Heart Hassle

Heartland Trilogy

Heaven Official's Blessing

Heavenly Bodies

Henry Pratt is the epitomy of the great British underdog. Nothing is ever simple in his world, just when it seems things are going right, life throws him another unwanted curve-ball. Join Pratt as he traverses the highs and lows of everyday life in this comic masterpiece.

Henry Pratt

Her Hidden Fire

To some a brilliant warrior, to others a devil in human form; Hereward is as adept in the art of slaughter as the enemies that gather to claim England's throne. With King Edward heirless and ailing, Hereward has been declared an outlaw. What is he willing to risk in order to save the land he loves? 
 
Hereward's tales are of heroism, treachery, rebellion and bloody battles, with William the Bastard never too far away.

Hereward

Heroes of Olympus

Heroes of Olympus Graphic Novels

Hetty Feather was left at a foundling hospital when she was a tiny baby. Having grown up in a loving foster family until she was five, and then finding herself returned to the hospital, she begins to question who her actual family are, and is determined to stop at nothing to find out where she came from. Jacqueline Wilson’s acclaimed series follows Hetty and her friend Diamond as they work their way up from their lowly backgrounds to become stars, overcoming loss, unkind bosses and flirtatious boys.

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