This week’s new releases invite you to look again at power, at belonging, at the stories we inherit and the ones we’ve been trained to overlook.
A truly wonderful and fascinating book!' - Lady Anne Glenconner
The hidden story of the people who designed, sewed, stitched and steamed the clothes of Britain's queens, from Victoria to the present day.
As we see modern princesses sally forth in fantastically arranged ensembles, we can think again of the vanishing trades that once employed millions – and still remain integral to royal life today.
'Upward Bound is a complicated joy.' - Roddy Doyle
Woody Brown’s vibrant and profoundly moving debut novel takes us to sun-bleached California, to a daycare centre for Los Angeles’s disabled community.
With his wit, empathy and astonishing gifts as a storyteller, Woody Brown immerses us in life as we have never experienced it before.
'Hewitt is superb in his loving and acute descriptions of the natural world.' - Sarah Perry
On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire – an ache for autonomy, tenderness and sex – threatens to unravel his shy exterior.
Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. With the passing seasons, the two teenagers grow closer and the bond that emerges between them transforms their lives.
'Copi is the sassiest, most decadent, poised, unpredictable, violent, galling, and marvellous of any author in the past quarter century.' - Charlie Hebdo
When pet rat Gouri finds himself locked out of his owner’s apartment, he has no choice but to strike out alone onto the pavements of Paris. But what begins as a strange and marvellous bedtime story - Gouri and his new friend Raka selling flour-coated worms to pigeons for spare change - soon spirals into an exhilarating whirlwind of murder, sex, unionised hamsters, courtroom drama, and, finally, Armageddon.City of Rats channels Copi’s lifelong fascination with society’s outcasts - queer people, immigrants, the homeless - into a fiercely imaginative, unflinchingly provocative tale of a world hurtling into madness.
