Aeschylus

Aesop lived in the early sixth century BC on the island of Samos, which lies off the coast of modern Turkey. He originally came from Thrace which was a separate country in those days, though it now forms part of Greece and Bulgaria. Very little is known about his life except that he worked as a slave on Samos for a master called Iadmon, and that he became a very famous storyteller. He was so famous that almost any fable which could have been told by him became attributed to him.

Aesop

Afsaneh Knight

Afsaneh Moqadam

Afua Hirsch is a writer, filmmaker, and journalist. She is the author of Brit(ish), the Sunday Times bestseller that explores Britishness, identity and belonging, for which she was awarded the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction. She co-presented Enslaved, a 6-part series about the transatlantic slave trade with Samuel L Jackson. She is the presenter of the Audible podcast series We Need To Talk About the British Empire, and Africa Rising, an ongoing flagship series about art and culture for the BBC, through her production company Born in Me Productions. She is a longtime columnist for the Guardian and is a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.

Afua Hirsch

AGAPI STASSINOPOULOS is an author, blogger and international speaker who inspires audiences around the world. She has spoken at many corporations and conferences, such as Nike Women, Starbucks,Time Inc., Virgin, Johnson &amp; Johnson and the American Heart Foundation. She was born in Athens and trained in London at RADA before gaining a Master’s in psychology at the University of Santa Monica. She has collaborated with her sister, Arianna Huffington, to develop talks and seminars, and has worked with the Oprah Winfrey network. She is currently hosting a new podcast series in collaboration with The Huffington Post, entitled ‘Sundays with Agapi’, which includes guided meditations and interviews with prominent guests. She lives in Los Angeles.

Agapi Stassinopoulos

Agatha Christie

Aggie MacKenzie

Aghnia Mardiyah is a London-based Illustrator and Character Designer with a passion for children's books and animation. She is drawn to fun, bright and vibrant colours. When she isn't disappearing under piles of work, she loves to travel! Exploring foreign places, exciting new sights and sensations is what inspires her the most!

Aghnia Mardiyah

Agnes Callard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Her primary areas of specialization are ancient philosophy and ethics. She has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper’s, Boston Review, and penned a monthly column for the Point. From 2019 to 2020, she held a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for the research that contributes to this book.

Agnes Callard

Agnes Jekyll

Agnes Bertha Marshall (24 August 1855-29 July 1905) was an English culinary entrepreneur who became a leading cookery writer, dubbed the 'Queen of Ices'. Her 1888 cookery book included a recipe for 'cornets with cream', possibly the earliest publication of the edible ice cream cone. Marshall was born in Walthamstow. She wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs A B Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs A B Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894).

Agnes Marshall

Agnes Prus

Agri Ismaïl is a Kurdish author based in Sweden who has worked as a corporate lawyer in London, Dubai, and Iraqi Kurdistan. His work has been published in The White Review, The Rumpus, Litro, 3:AM Magazine, and Asymptote amongst other places. His piece 'Haunted Home' won the 2016 Stack award for best non-fiction for The Outpost, runner-up in the Lifted Brow &amp; RMIT non/fictionLab Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction, and he was longlisted for the 2017/2018 Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. Hyper is his first novel.

Agri Ismaïl

Aharon Appelfeld authored more than 45 acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction and received many international awards including the MLA Commonwealth Award, the Independent Foreign Fiction prize, the prix Médicis étranger, the Israel prize, and the Nelly Sachs prize. Born in Czernowitz, Bukovina (now part of Ukraine) in 1932, he survived the Holocaust and passed away in Israel in 2018.

Aharon Appelfeld

Ahmadou Kourouma

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist and human rights activist based in London. He is the co-founder and director of We Are Not Numbers and a journalist with Palestine Deep Dive. Ahmed holds a degree in English Literature from Al-Azhar university in Gaza, and an MA in International Journalism from Leeds University, where he was a Chevening Scholar. 
 
Pam Bailey is a social-justice activist and journalist based in Washington DC. She lived and worked in the Gaza Strip following the 2008/9 Israeli assault, and co-founded We Are Not Numbers. Today, in addition to her ongoing dedication to the Palestinian cause, she dedicates herself to two nonprofits that advocate for people detained in American prisons -- including one she co-founded in 2020, called More Than Our Crimes.

Ahmed Alnaouq

Ahmed Errachidi

Ahmed Rashid

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar

Ahron Bregman is the author of four books about Israel and the Arabs: The Fifty Years War (with Jihan el Tahri), Israel's Wars, A History of Israel and Elusive Peace. He teaches at the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

Ahron Bregman

Ai Qing is regarded as one of the finest modern Chinese poets, whose free verse was influential in the development of new poetry in China.

Ai Qing

Ai Weiwei

Aidan Chambers was born in County Durham in 1934. After national service in the Royal Navy he became a teacher and then, for seven years, a monk. His young adult novels have been widely acclaimed, with POSTCARDS FROM NO-MAN'S LAND winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal and the US Michael L Printz Award. With his wife Nancy he ran Signal magazine and he has served as the president of the School Library Association. His devoted services to children's literature were recognised by his receipt of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002.

Aidan Chambers

Aidan Higgins was born in 1927. Langrishe Go Down, his first novel, won the James Tait Black memorial Prize and the Irish Academy of Letters Award, and was later filmed for television with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. His second novel, Balcony of Europe, was shortlisted for the 1972 Booker Prize. The novel Lions of the Grunewald appeared in 1993 and a collection of shorter fiction, Flotsam and jetsam, in 1996. Donkey's Years and Dog Days were the first two volumes of the Higgins Bestiary which concludes with this volume.

Aidan Higgins

Aidan Mathews

Aidan Potts

Aidan Smith

Aidan Storey

Aidan Trimble is the Chief Instructor to the Federation of Shotokan Karate and a former British, European and World Karate Champion, winning the world title in Tokyo - the home of Karate. Aidan has trained with some of the world's leading teachers of 'traditional' and 'sport' karate and is now an award-winning instructor and teacher who is in demand throughout the world. He can be contacted via www.fsk-karate.com.

Aidan Trimble

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Andrea Busfield

THE ISLAND IS DIVIDED, BUT ONE MAN'S LOVE WILL NEVER BE COMPROMISED... 
 
Cyprus, 1955 - a guerrilla war is raging and four Greek brothers are growing up to the familiar sounds of exploding bombs and sniper fire. 
 
Determined to avenge the death of his elder brother and to win the heart of his beloved Praxi, young Loukis joins a cell of schoolboy terrorists operating in the mountains. But when his cohorts blow themselves up in a freak accident, he returns home in shock, yearning for the warm embrace of his family - and of his sweetheart. 
 
But his adored Praxi is now married to someone else, and playing at her feet is a young toddler...

Aphrodite's War

A dazzling anthology of short stories by some of our most popular and well-loved writers to raise money for Breast Cancer Care: 
 
Diana Appleyard, Charlotte Bingham, Elizabeth Buchan, Mavis Cheek, Tracy Chevalier, Amanda Craig, Edwina Currie, Helen Dunmore, Barbara Erskine, Nicci Gerrard, Maeve Haran, Wendy Holden, Angela Lambert, David Lodge, Val McDermid, Hilary Mantel, Edna O'Brien, Imogen Parker, Sandi Toksvig, Barbara Toner, Joanna Trollope, Lynne Truss, Salley Vickers. It also includes three stories from the winners of the Woman &amp; Home Short Story Competition and a foreword by Jerry Hall. 
 
At least a £1 from every book sold will go to Breast Cancer Care: www.breastcancercare.org.uk

Days Of Wine And Roses

William Nicholson

He has nowhere to go...so he goes there. 
 
An alienated young man can see no meaning in life. He doesn't even see the point of getting out of bed in the morning. To escape from his family he decides to set off on a hitchhiking adventure around Europe, and is picked up by a friendly lorry driver with an unusual interest in philosophy. 
 
The journey takes him through a violent and Kafkaesque nightmare to a destination that changes his life.

The Society Of Others

Susan Barker

THE ACCLAIMED NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF OLD SOUL 
A fantastical tale of love, fate and sacrifice told through five lives over a thousand years of history 
 
A New York Times Editors' Choice and Notable Book of the Year. 
Shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction 
 
'Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable' Independent 
'A kaleidoscopically imaginative novel' The New Yorker 
'Multi-layered and masterful' Guardian 
 
I dream of us across the centuries ... 
 
Beijing, 2008, the Olympics are coming, but as taxi driver Wang circles the city's congested streets, he feels barely alive. His daily grind is suddenly interrupted when he finds a letter in the sunshade of his cab. He is being warned: Someone is watching him. Someone who claims to be his soulmate and to have known him for over a thousand years. 
 
Other letters follow, and Wang will re-live astonishing five lives: 
 - to a spirit-bride in the Tang Dynasty; 
 - young slaves during the Mongol invasion; 
 - concubines plotting to kill the emperor; 
- to a kidnapping in the Opium War; 
 - and Red Guards during the Cultural revolution. 
 
As each past life unfolds, Wang feels the watcher. In the shadows. Growing closer ... 
__________________________________ 
 
PRAISE FOR SUSAN BARKER: 
 
'[A] kaleidoscopically imaginative novel...Barker stitches together an unnervingly perceptive portrait of China and of the enduring influence that its past has on the present' THE NEW YORKER 
 
'A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read all year' ADAM JOHNSON, Winner of the PULITZER Prize for Fiction 
 
'Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written one of the most remarkable novels of recent years' JOHN BOYNE 
 
'A brilliant, mind-expanding, and wildly original novel' CHRIS CLEAVE 
 
'A hallucinatory ride. Highly recommend' ANNA HOPE

The Incarnations

Stephanie Butland

'An immensely powerful, and ultimately uplifting, debut novel' Katie Fforde 
 
'Heartbreaking, insightful, gripping and beautifully crafted' Jane Wenham Jones 
________ 
 
Dear Mike, I can’t believe that it’s true. You wouldn’t do this to me. You promised. 
 
Elizabeth knows that her husband is kind and good and that he loves her unconditionally. She knows she hasn’t been herself lately but that, even so, they are happy. 
 
But Elizabeth’s world is turned upside down when Mike dies in a tragic drowning accident. Suddenly everything Elizabeth knows about her husband is thrown into doubt. Why would he sacrifice his own life, knowing he’d never see his wife again? And what exactly was he doing at the lake that night? 
 
Elizabeth knows that writing to Mike won’t bring him back, but she needs to talk to him now more than ever . . . 
How much can you ever know about the people you love? 
________ 
 
Originally published in hardback as Surrounded by Water

Letters To My Husband

Julie Cohen

‘A brilliantly original story that will resonate loud and clear with anyone who’s ever been knocked sideways by love’ HEAT 
 
When Felicity steps off the train on the way to meet her husband, she is so sure of everything. Where she is heading, what she will eat at the restaurant, the first words her husband will saywhen she arrives, their life together. 
 
Then she catches a scent of perfume in the air. Forgotten emotions rush to the surface, memoriesof another man she loved years ago. 
 
As it happens again and again, Felicity beginsto make decisions that no one can understand. What is happening to her? Is she losing a partof herself, or finding one? 
 
How can she truly know where love lies? 
 
‘Every once in a while a book stops you in your tracks . . . A stunning study of love and life’s regrets that will leave you breathless’ MIRANDA DICKINSON

Where Love Lies

Sara Crowe

'Reads like a cross between I Capture the Castle and Love, Nina, with a pinch of Adrian Mole' The Bookseller 
 
‘We defy you not to love Sue’ Good Housekeeping 
 
'Campari for Breakfast is truly, charmingly splendid' Lucy Robinson 
 
Life is full of terrible things. Ghosts of dead relatives, heartbreak . . . burnt toast. 
 
In 1987, Sue Bowl's world changes for ever. Her mother dies, leaving her feeling like she’s lost a vital part of herself. And then her father shacks up with an awful man-eater called Ivana. 
 
But Sue’s mother always told her to make the most of what she’s got – and what she’s got is a love of writing and some eccentric relatives. So Sue moves to her Aunt Coral’s crumbling ancestral home, where she fully intends to write a book and fall in love . . . and perhaps drink Campari for breakfast 
 
Campari for Breakfast is a heart-warming, eccentric novel that joins the ranks of great British coming-of-age novels such as Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle and Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.

Campari for Breakfast

Edney Silvestre

Olavo Bettencourt is an important man, a man of spin. With Brazil adjusting to the new idea of democracy, his PR firm holds the balance of power in its hands. Which has also made Olavo very rich, if not very popular. 
 
Loathed by his trophy wife and mired in a web of political corruption that spreads from Sao Paolo to Switzerland, Israel and New York, Olavo is an obvious target for extortion. And what better leverage can there be but the kidnapping of his only son. 
 
Except that the child on his way home from school in Olavo’s armour-plated car, deep into his colouring book as the gang closes in . . . 
 
He’s not Olavo’s son.

Happiness Is Easy

Anna McPartlin

Here is a truth that can’t be escaped: for Mia ‘Rabbit’ Hayes, life is coming to an end . . . 
 
Rabbit Hayes loves her life, ordinary as it is, and the extraordinary people in it. 
 
She loves her spirited daughter, Juliet; her colourful, unruly family; the only man in her big heart, Johnny Faye. 
 
But it turns out the world has other plans for Rabbit, and she’s OK with that. Because she has plans for the world too, and only a handful of days left to make them happen. 
 
Here is a truth that won’t be forgotten: this is a story about laughing through life’s surprises and finding the joy in every moment. 
 
Praise for Anna McPartlin: 
 
'What a beautiful book. I cried and smiled my way through' Jane Green 
 
'I loved the clear, elegant prose, the feisty characters and the sparkling dialogue' Susan Elliot Wright 
 
'A delightful roller-coaster ride of emotion' Sunday Independent 
 
'Buy a packet (or box) of tissues and settle down with this wonderful story' Heat Magazine 
 
The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes is a Richard and Judy recommended read, and a Simon Mayo Book Club pick.

The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes

The unforgettable Richard and Judy Book Club pick

Paul Sussman

‘My name is Raphael Ignatius Phoenix and I am a hundred years old – or will be in ten days’ time, in the early hours of January 1st, 2000, when I kill myself…’ 
Raphael Ignatius Phoenix has had enough. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, he is determined to take his own life as the old millennium ends and the new one begins. But before he ends it all, he wants to get his affairs in order and put the record straight. That includes making sense of his own long life – a life that spanned the century. He decides to write it all down and, eschewing the more usual method of pen and paper, begins to record his story on the walls of the isolated castle that is his final home. Beginning with a fateful first adventure with Emily, the childhood friend who would become his constant companion, Raphael remembers the multitude of experiences, the myriad encounters and, of course, the ten murders he committed along the way . . . 
And so begins one man’s wholly unorthodox account of the twentieth century – or certainly his own riotous, often outrageous, somewhat unreliable and undoubtedly singular interpretation of it.

The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix

clever, captivating, and idiosyncratic. You won’t forget this novel

Joanna Trollope

Family and business, husbands and wives, parents and children. It's always a balancing act... 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 not be disappointed. 
 
'To be relished.' -- The Times 
'Joanna Trollope's evocations of human relationships are, as ever, penetrating and engaging.' -- Daily Express 
'A joy to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'A great read, very engrossing and hard to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
'A real page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'Sublime' -- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************************************** 
 
WHEN EVERYTHING YOU'VE WORKED TO ACHIEVE SUDDENLY FEELS PRECARIOUS, YOU'LL DO WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP IT STABLE... 
 
Four strong women. All working in a family business. But what happens when they begin to want different things? And what about the men - and the children - in their lives? 
 
Susie Moran has always been the breadwinner in her family. Her husband was the one who was there for their three girls. But now he wants something of his past back - the life he had before Susie's career took off, before they had children. And those children don't see their mother's business the way she has always seen it, thereby threatening the balance she has worked so hard to achieve. 
 
And then, amidst the simmering tensions, someone significant from the past, someone almost forgotten, turns up. The problems of the past, the present, and the future all become challenges to the stability of both family and work. Which relationships - if any - will survive?

Balancing Act

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

Judy Astley

Let much-loved and ever-popular author Judy Astley gift you an unmissable, hilarious and heart-warming read this Christmas. Perfect for fans of Katie Fforde, Trisha Ashley, Jenny Colgan and Milly Johnson. 
 
'Witty and warm!' - New! 
'A lively laughter-packed riot of a story' - Heat 
'Full of fun and with great characters' -- ***** Reader review 
'Judy gets the story just right for me' -- ***** Reader review 
'Gives you a cosy glow and gets you into the Christmas spirit' -- ***** Reader review 
'A really good Christmas story devoured over a festive week-end' -- ***** Reader review 
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AT CHRISTMAS, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN... 
 
Thea's parents decide to host a big family Christmas in a house by the sea... even though they are, in fact, about to split up. And while her sister and brother are both settled, Thea herself is newly single - her boyfriend has ditched her in favour of his pedigree dogs, and Thea can't decide whether or not she minds. 
 
There will be copious food and drink, holly and mistletoe, lots of bracing walks and a wintry barbecue on the beach. If it seems an odd way to celebrate the final break-up of a marriage and the Moving On to new partners, no-one is saying so. But then no-one had anticipated that the new partners might actually turn up to complicate the sleeping arrangements... 
 
As Cornwall experiences the biggest snowstorm in living memory, the festive atmosphere comes under some strain. Will Thea manage to find some happiness for herself? Will the mistletoe work its magic on them all?

It Must Have Been the Mistletoe

the perfect feel-good festive treat for this Christmas

A hilarious, heart-warming read for the Christmas holidays

Louise Douglas

'Your Beautiful Lies crackles with repressed longing and I was desperate for Annie to escape from her hum drum life. It kept me guessing until the last few pages and the explosive ending took my breath away' C.L. Taylor, author of Her Last Holiday 
 __ 
 
 What secrets are you keeping? 
 
 Annie Howarth is living a restless life in a restless town. It's 1984 and for a mining community in South Yorkshire, the strikes mean tensions are running high. Then a murdered girl is found on the moors and the anxiety levels are pushed to a dangerous breaking point. 
 
 Married to the Chief of Police, Annie should feel safe - William can be secretive, though surely whatever he's hiding is for her own good. 
 
 But Annie is keeping her own secrets. Ten years ago the man she loved was ripped from her life in a scandal that still haunts the both of them, and now his return will put her family, her marriage, even her life, at risk. 
 
 The atmospheric and suspenseful novel from the bestselling author of The Secrets Between Us and The House by the Sea, winner of The Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award. Perfect for fans of Eve Chase and Lucie Whitehouse. 
 __ 
 
 What readers are saying about Your Beautiful Lies: 
 
 ***** 'A story of love, lies and betrayal that kept me gripped all the way through' 
 ***** 'A must read for anyone who loves a mystery' 
 ***** 'I didn't want to put it down. A wonderful array of characters very well written'

Your Beautiful Lies

From the bestselling author of The Scarlet Dress

The thrilling, unputdownable novel from the Top 10 bestselling author of The Room in the Attic

Alison Mercer

Every broken heart has a history. 
 
Anna hasn't been back to Oxford since her last summer at university. She tries not to think about her time there, or the tightly knit group of friends she once thought would be hers forever. She has almost forgotten the sting of betrayal, the secret she carries around, the last night she spent with them all. 
 
Then a chance meeting on a rainy day in London brings her past tumbling back into her present. . . Can Anna finally face up to the memories of that summer and the people she left behind? 
 
An absorbing, powerful novel of love, friendship and secrets that sweeps you away from the very first page. The perfect read for fans of Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty and Jane Fallon.

After I Left You

Pamela Jooste

When Frieda first met Min, with her golden hair and ivory bones, what struck her most was that Min was wearing a pair of African sandals, the sort made out of old car tyres. She was a silent, unhappy girl, dumped on Frieda's exuberant family in Johannesburg for the summer of 1964 so that her mother could go off with her new husband. In a way, Min and Frieda were both outsiders - Min, raised in the bush by her idealistic doctor father, and Frieda, daughter of a poor Jewish saxophone player who lived almost on top of a native neighborhood. The two girls, thrown together - the 'white kaffir' and the poor Jewish girl - formed a strange but loyal friendship, a friendship that was to last even through the terrible years of oppression and betrayal during the time of South Africa under Apartheid.

Frieda And Min

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Fans of Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold will love this remarkable, moving story about family and the many forms this can take by Richard & Judy bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. 
 
'A smashing read and left me feeling so positive about human nature' -- ***** Reader review 
'An absolute joy to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'Beautifully written' -- ***** Reader review 
'Fantastic' -- ***** Reader review 
'Catherine, you've done it again. Another awesome read that will stay with me' -- ***** Reader review 
'A page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
********************************************************************************************************* 
WHAT IF THE FAMILY YOU NEED ISN'T YOUR OWN? 
 
Fourteen-year-old Angie and her mum are on the brink of homelessness... again. The problem is her little sister, Sophie. Sophie has a form of autism, and a tendency to shriek. Home never seems to last long. 
 
Until they move in with Aunt Vi, across the fence from a huge Great Dane. Sophie falls in love, and begins to imitate the dog's calm nature. The shrieking stops. Everyone relaxes. Until Paul, the dog's grumpy, socially isolated owner, moves away. 
 
Much to Angie's humiliation, her mum thinks they can follow Paul and his dog. Once reunited, despite a huge age gap, Angie and Paul form the closest friendship either has known. But Angie risks everything to help Paul's dream come true, even their friendship and her one chance at a real home - the only thing she's dreamed of since her father was killed. 
 
A place she won't be thrown out of. A place she can feel she belongs.

Where We Belong

a compassionate, poignant and heart-searingly honest novel from bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde

Adam Johnson

* By the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013 and the EFG/Sunday Times Best Short Story Award 2014 
 
* 'An idiosyncratic and compelling voice' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 
 
An ATF raid, a moonshot gone wrong, a busload of female cancer victims determined to live life to the fullest - these are some of the compelling themes explored in this funny, sad, brilliantly bizarre debut collection. A lovesick teenage Cajun girl, a gay astrophysicist, a teenage sniper on Los Angeles police payroll, a post apocalyptic bulletproof-vest salesman - each seeks connection and meaning in landscapes made uncertain by the voids parents and lovers should fill.

Emporium

Stories

If I close my eyes now, I can still feel her blood on my fingers. If only I had closed my eyes then, or kept my mouth shut, not told anyone about our discovery by the swimming hole, we could have gone back to dreaming about spaceships. 
 
A horrifying discovery by two young boys while playing in a mango plantation marks the end of their childhood. As they finally open their eyes to the adult world, they see a place where storybook heroes don't exist but villains and lies do ...

If I Close My Eyes Now

*The debut novel by the author of THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON: winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013 
 
After trashing his cherry '72 Corvette, illegally breaking into an ancient burial site, and snacking on 12,000-year-old popcorn, Hank Hannah finds that he's inadvertently unleashed the apocalypse. Hank, a professor of anthropology back in the days when there were still co-eds to ogle and now one of only twelve humans still alive on earth, decides to record the last days of human civilization for whomever - or whatever - might replace us.

Parasites Like Us

Let much-loved and ever-popular author Judy Astley sweep you away to magical Cornwall in this lively, laughter-packed and heart-warming read - a return to the setting of her fantastically successful first novel, Just for the Summer. Perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley, Jenny Colgan and Milly Johnson. 
 
'A light-hearted, romantic and escapist read' - Good Housekeeping 
'Heart-tripping surprises lie ahead in this mix of fun and frolics' - Peterborough Telegraph 
'If you love Cornwall you have to read this and if you are a Judy Astley fan this is a must!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Lovely, amazing and relatable' -- ***** Reader review 
'A delightful read' -- ***** Reader review 
'I cannot recommend this book highly enough' -- ***** Reader review 
*********************************************************************************** 
A RETURN TO AN IDYLLIC CORNISH HOLIDAY HOME - WILL EVERYTHING HAVE CHANGED? 
 
20 years ago, Miranda, then sixteen, holidayed in Cornwall and her life changed forever. 
 
Now she's back again - with her mother Clare and the ashes of her stepfather Jack, whose wish it was to be scattered on the sea overlooked by their one-time holiday home. 
 
 The picturesque cove seems just the same as ever, but the people are different - more smart incomers, fewer locals, more luxury yachts in the harbour... 
 
Will Miranda and Clare be able find some familiar faces, and what emotions will this trip down memory lane back bring to the surface?

In the Summertime

a gloriously funny novel that will sweep you away.  The perfect dose of escapism

Tamar Cohen

Mr &amp; Mrs Max Irving request the company of: 
 
Mrs Fran Friedman, mourning her empty nest, the galloping years and a disastrous haircut. 
Mr Saul Friedman, runner of marathons, and increasingly distant husband. 
The two Misses Friedman, Pip and Katy, one pining over the man she can’t have, the other trying to shake off the man she no longer wants. 
 
At the marriage of their son James, forbidden object of troubling desire. For thirty-six hours of secrets and lies, painted-on-smiles and potential ruin. And drinks, plenty of drinks. 
 
There’s nothing like a wedding for stirring up the past. As Fran negotiates her way from Saturday morning to Sunday evening she is forced to confront things she’s long thought buried, and to make decisions about the future that will have far-reaching consequences for them all.

Someone Else's Wedding

After years of watching her best friends Ben and Claire try for a baby, Romily offered to give them the one thing they most wanted. 
 
But Romily wasn't prepared for the overwhelming feelings that have taken hold of her and which threaten to ruin her friendship with Ben and Claire – and even destroy their marriage. 
 
Now there are three friends, two mothers and only one baby, and an impossible decision to make . . .

Dear Thing

Do you ever wonder where your life is going? 
You are not alone. 
 
Story (that’s his name) can feel a middle-youth crisis coming on. He’s got a great job, a great flat and great mates: 
Mac, who is obsessed with biscuits; 
JP, who never says anything if it’s nice; 
Cannie, whose only admirer is the bird that lives outside her window; 
and 
Vincent, who has finally proposed to his girlfriend after nineteen years. 
 
But alongside the drinks and the kicks, what has any of them actually done? And why is time passing like sand in a sieve? 
 
Is it possible to turn life around? Life is just life, right? And change is a gasping and slippery fish. . .

The Sunshine Years

John Boyne

1867. On a dark and chilling night Eliza Caine arrives in Norfolk to take up her position as governess at Gaudlin Hall. As she makes her way across the station platform, a pair of invisible hands push her from behind into the path of an approaching train. She is only saved by the vigilance of a passing doctor. 
 
It is the start of a journey into a world of abandoned children, unexplained occurrences and terrifying experiences which Eliza will have to overcome if she is to survive the secrets that lie within Gaudlin’s walls…

This House is Haunted

Edward Stourton

The mountain paths are as treacherous as they are steep – the more so in the dark and in winter. Even for the fit the journey is a formidable challenge. Hundreds of those who climbed through the Pyrenees during the Second World War were malnourished and exhausted after weeks on the run hiding in barns and attics. Many never even reached the Spanish border. 
 
Today their bravery and endurance is commemorated each July by a trek along the Chemin de la Liberté – the toughest and most dangerous of wartime routes. From his fellow pilgrims Edward Stourton uncovers stories of midnight scrambles across rooftops and drops from speeding trains; burning Lancasters, doomed love affairs, horrific murder and astonishing heroism. 
 
The lives of the men, women and children who were drawn by the war to the Pyrenees often read as breathtakingly exciting adventure, but they were led against a background of intense fear, mounting persecution and appalling risk. Drawing on interviews with the few remaining survivors and the families of those who were there, Edward Stourton’s vivid history of this little-known aspect of the Second World War is shocking, dramatic and intensely moving.

Cruel Crossing

Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees

Rachel Joyce

'Tense and engrossing... readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will not be disappointed.' - Sunday Times 
 
'An instant classic.' - Daily Express 
 
'You will end up grinning dippily and recommending this wild, searching book to everyone you know.' - The Times 
 
'Brilliantly realized... a powerful study of grief, loss, guilt, depression, mental illness - and ultimately the power of love - which grips the reader on every page.' - Daily Mail 
 
Summer, 1972: Two seconds have been added to the Atomic clock so as to counteract the irregularities in the Earth's rate of rotation. Eleven-year-old Byron has been told this but still struggles to understand. What might it mean? In the claustrophobic heat, he and his friend begin ‘Operation Perfect’, a hapless mission to rescue Byron’s mother from impending crisis. 
 
Winter, present day: As frost creeps across the moor, Jim cleans tables in the local café, a solitary figure struggling with OCD. His job is a relief from the rituals that govern his nights. 
 
Little would seem to connect them except that two seconds can change everything. 
If your world can be shattered in an instant, might time also put things right? 
 
RACHEL JOYCE'S MOST RECENT NOVEL - THE HOMEMADE GOD - IS OUT NOW FROM DOUBLEDAY

Perfect

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The compelling and emotional Sunday Times bestseller

Robert Edric

April 1945. While the Allied Forces administer the killing blow to Nazi Germany, at home London’s teeming underworld of black marketeers, pimps, prostitutes, conmen and thieves prepare for the coming peace. But the man the newspapers call the English Monster, the self-procaimed Antichrist, Aleister Crowley, is making preparations for the future too: for his immortality. 
 
For Crowley’s plan to work, he has to depend upon one of London’s Most Wanted, ambitious gangland boss Tommy Fowler, who, presiding over a crumbling empire, can still get you anything you want - for a price. 
 
And what Crowley wants is a young man, Peter Tait, in Pentonville Prison under sentence of death for murder. Convinced of his innocence but unable to prove it, his only chance of survival lies in the hands of one detective struggling against the odds to win a desperate appeal that has little chance of success. 
 
The Monster’s Lament is an extraordinary journey through a ruined landscape towards an ending more terrible and all-consuming than any of its participants can have imagined. When you’re used to fighting monsters abroad, it is easy to overlook the monsters closer to home…

The Monster's Lament

Nigel Farndale

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
From the Costa Prize shortlisted author of The Blasphemer, a novel of survival, redemption and forbidden love from World War II to today's Afghanistan. 
 
1939: In a hotel room overlooking Piccadilly Circus, two young men are arrested. Charles is court-martialled for ‘conduct unbecoming’; Anselm is deported home to Germany for ‘re-education’ in a brutal labour camp. Separated by the outbreak of war, and a social order that rejects their love, they must each make a difficult choice, and then live with the consequences. 
 
 2012: Edward, a diplomat held hostage for eleven years in an Afghan cave, returns to London to find his wife is dead, and in her place is an unnerving double – his daughter, now grown up. Numb with grief, he attempts to re-build his life and answer the questions that are troubling him. Was his wife’s death an accident? Who paid his ransom? And how was his release linked to Charles, his father? 
 
 As dark and nuanced as it is powerful and moving, The Road Between Us is a novel about survival, redemption and forbidden love. Its moral complexities will haunt the reader for days after the final page has been turned.

The Road Between Us

Joanne Harris

An enthralling and enchanting collection of 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. 
 
'A vibrant tombola of stories...' -- Time Out 
'Strongly plotted and written in registers that are variously comical, sad and surreal...' - Independent 
 'A jewel of a book' -- ***** Reader review 
 'Sublime and touching' -- ***** Reader review 
'Unputdownable' -- ***** Reader review 
'Compelling - you can lose yourself one story at a time' -- ***** Reader review 
************************************************************************** 
Stories are like Russian dolls; open them up, and in each one you'll find another story. 
 
Come to the house where it is Christmas all year round; meet the ghost who lives on a Twitter timeline; be spooked by a newborn baby created with sugar, spice and lashings of cake. 
 
Conjured from a wickedly imaginative pen, here is a new collection of short stories that showcases Joanne Harris's exceptional talent as a teller of tales, a spinner of yarns. 
 
Sensuous, mischievous, uproarious and wry, here are tales that combine the everyday with the unexpected; wild fantasy with bittersweet reality.

A Cat, a Hat, and a Piece of String

a spellbinding collection of unforgettable short stories from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat

Curtis Sittenfeld

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF RODHAM and AMERICAN WIFE 
'A work of psychological genius' OBSERVER 
_______________________________- 
 
Identical twins, Kate and Violet are about as unlike as two peas from the same pod can be. Except in one respect - they share a hidden gift. But after Kate inadvertently reveals their secret when they are thirteen years old, their lives are set on diverging paths. 
 
Twenty years later Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. Violet is single, and lives a much more flamboyant and eccentric life. Then one day Violet ignites a media storm by predicting a major earthquake in the St Louis area where they live. 
 
As the day Violet has announced for the earthquake draws nearer, Kate must attempt to repair her fraught relationship with her sister, and to face truths about herself she has long tried to deny.

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