Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Roy

Alexander Shannon

Alexander Sinclair

Alexander Slater is an author and illustrator from London who loves stories with big ideas and bigger heart. He holds a First Class degree in Graphic Design and Illustration from the University of Hertfordshire and has earned several awards in design and cartooning. When he’s not doodling or daydreaming, he can be found cooking, walking his adorable cockapoo, Bailey, or entertaining his millions of followers on his TikTok account @AlexRabbit

Alexander Slater

Alexander Soderberg previously worked as a scriptwriter and story editor for Swedish television, where he worked on adaptations of well-known crime novels as well as drama and sitcoms.

Alexander Soderberg

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Stille

Alexander Watson is the author of the prize-winning history of the Central Powers in the First World War, Ring of Steel. He is Professor of History at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Alexander Watson

In his lifetime Alexander von Humboldt was a major international celebrity - only Napoleon, it was said, was more well-known. He was born into the Prussian nobility in 1769 and destined for a career in the civil service. In his twenties he combined his position in the Ministry of Mines with his own investigative studies in science, geology and botany. He travelled around Europe, meeting many other adventurers of his age - including Bligh, Banks and Bougainville – and spent many stimulating months with Goethe in Weimar and Jena. He inherited a fortune on the death of his mother and immediately began planning a major expedition. Napoleon's activities thwarted him at every turn, but he succeeded, rather surprisingly, to gain the permission of Carlos IV to visit the Spanish colonies in South America, and set off with the French botanist Aimé Bonpland and many boxes full of scientific instruments, dodging British warships en route. These five extraordinary years of exploration and research gave Humboldt material for a lifetime's writing. But the expenses of publication exhausted his funds and after more than twenty years living in Paris he was obliged to return to Prussia as a chamberlain at the court of Friedrich Wilhelm III. It was hardly to his taste. He did manage one more major expedition across Russia, when he was sixty years old. Tirelessly energetic, he never stopped working and writing. He was mourned worldwide when he died at the age of nearly ninety in 1859.

Alexander von Humboldt

Alexandr Sergeyevitch Pushkin

Alexandra Bell studied Law at university and signed her first book deal at nineteen. Since then, she has written multiple books for both adults and young people. She works at a legal advice charity and lives in Hampshire with her husband, sons, and Sphynx cats.

Alexandra Bell

Allie Brosh has enjoyed writing ever since her mother tricked her into writing a story to distract her from her immediate goal of wrapping the cat in duct-tape.  She started her award-winning blog in 2009.  Brosh lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband Duncan, her two dogs, and six pet rats. Visit HyperboleAndAHalf.blogspot.com.

Alexandra Brosh

Alexandra Bruce

Alexandra Chesterfield is a behavioural scientist with a master's degree in Cognitive and Decision Science. Forever curious about why we do what we do, she currently works in financial services, leading a team of behavioural scientists to help get better outcomes for employees and customers. For four years, she was an elected Councillor in Guildford for the Conservative Party. She has personally experienced the effects of affective polarisation, both in and out of the workplace.

Alexandra Chesterfield

Alexandra Christo is a British author whose characters are always funnier and far more deadly than she is. She studied Creative Writing at university and graduated with the desire to never stop letting her imagination run wild. She currently lives in Hertfordshire with a rapidly growing garden and a never-ending stack of books. Her debut novel To Kill a Kingdom is an international bestseller and her Young Adult fantasy books have been translated into over a dozen languages worldwide.

Alexandra Christo-Cheung

Alexandra Coghlan is a music journalist and critic. She has written for publications including the Spectator, New Statesman, the Independent, Gramophone and Opera magazines, and for ensembles including the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, The Academy of Ancient Music and The Sixteen. Alexandra was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, and it was during her time there that she first discovered the beauty of King's College Chapel and the unique sound of the King's College Choir.

Alexandra Coghlan

Alexandra Dudley is a food writer and cook living in London. She is the recipe columnist for Sheerluxe, writer of the bestselling Substack newsletter Come For Supper, and host of the Come For Supper podcast. She has been dubbed a serial dinner party host but believes that the best food is usually simple and cooked at home. She prefers home cooking to restaurant food and believes that the cook should always get the first glass of champagne or slice of pudding.

Alexandra Dudley

Alexandra Fuller is the author of four memoirs, including Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – a New York Times Notable Book for 2002, the 2002 Booksense Best Non-Fiction book, a finalist for the Guardian’s First Book Award and the winner of the 2002 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize – and the New York Times-bestselling Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, two books of non-fiction, and the novel Quiet Until the Thaw. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, National Geographic, Granta, The New York Times, Guardian and Financial Times.

Alexandra Fuller

Alexandra Heminsley is an author, ghostwriter, journalist, broadcaster and speaker. Her bestselling non-fiction work includes Running Like a Girl and Leap In, and her first novel, Under the Same Stars is to be published in 2022. She lives in Hove with her son, and proudly co-parents her LGBT+ family.

Alexandra Heminsley

Alex Hollingsworth co-founded Dig Club and is an experienced and award-winning garden designer, following a successful career in Management Consultancy. Alex trained with the Garden Design Academy of Ireland and also holds an RHS Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture and has had show gardens at Ireland’s ‘Bloom’ and ‘Gardener’s World Live’ in the UK.

Alexandra Hollingsworth

Alexandra Lapierre

Alexandra Massey

Alexandra McCollum grew up in rural northeast Ohio and now lives in Nevada with their husband and dog. Among other jobs, they’ve worked in a bakery in Austria, managed a coffee shop in Ohio, and taught high school in Las Vegas. When not writing, they can be found studying languages and exploring local coffeehouses in search of the perfect americano.

Alexandra McCollum

A graduate of Yale University, Alexandra Oliva grew up in a small town deep in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School University and undertook intensive wilderness survival training while researching The Last One. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their brindled mutt, Codex. The Last One is her first novel.

Alexandra Oliva

John Peel was born the day before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. His 38-year career as a radio DJ is the stuff of legend and the bands he went on to discover too numerous to mention, though David Bowie, Roxy Music, T Rex, Genesis, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Radiohead and the White Stripes would do as a start. He lived in Suffolk with his wife Sheila and their children William, Thomas, Alexandra and Florence, plus various dogs and cats, until his death in October 2004.

Alexandra Ravenscroft

Alexandra Shulman

ALEXANDRA SOVERAL founded her award-winning eponymous skin care line in 2005, where she still hand-blends every product. Originally from Portugal, Alexandra moved to London 1987 to study Philosophy of Science, before dedicating her research to Anatomy, Physiology and Chemistry, becoming a respected skin specialist and product formulator for high quality brands.

Alexandra Soveral

Alexandra Wood

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Guy Burt

It was the end of term at Our Glorious School. Most of the pupils were preparing to return home; some were going away on a geography field trip. But for five members of the sixth form, it sounded more fun to embark upon what their friend and mentor Martyn called 'an experiment with real life' - to spend three days together in The Hole, a windowless cellar room in an unfrequented part of the school buildings. Martyn was to lock them in, and in three days he would come and let them out again. 
 
At first, it all seemed quite a laugh - eating and drinking, jokes and banter. Solid Mike and dependable Liz, Geoff with his secret supplies of booze, irritating Frankie and delicate Alex - what a story they would have to tell when Martyn came to release them! How surprised and admiring their friends would be! 
 
But three days passed, and Martyn did not return... 
 
The Hole is a dark and menacing first novel, written when the author was still at school. Compulsive and claustrophobic in quality, it has been compared to John Fowles's The Collector.

The Hole

Armistead Maupin

Maybe the Moon, Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his bestselling Tales of the City series, is the audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast and former Guinness Book of Records holder as the world's shortest woman. 
 
All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town where -- as she says -- 'you can die of encouragement'. Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now, after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star. 
 
In a series of mordantly funny journal entries, Maupin tracks his spunky heroine across the saffron-hazed wasteland of Los Angeles -- from her all-too-infrequent meetings with agents and studio moguls to her regular harrowing encounters with small children, large dogs and human ignorance. Then one day a lanky piano player saunters into Cady's life, unleashing heady new emotions, and she finds herself going for broke, shooting the moon with a scheme so harebrained and daring that it just might succeed. 
 
Her accomplice in the venture is her best friend, Jeff, a gay waiter who sees Cady's struggle for visibility as a natural extension of his own war against the Hollywood Closet. As clear-eyed as it is charming, Maybe the Moon is a modern parable about the mythology of the movies and the toll it exacts from it participants on both sides of the screen. It is a work that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit from a perspective rarely found in literature.

Maybe The Moon

John McCabe

Everything is related... 
 
Scientist and part-time dreamer, Dr Darren White is losing the plot. Work has descended into a distinctly unscientific mess and his research is non-existent. Taking time out from discovering the last great theory of the twentieth century, Darren begins an illicit investigation into Class A pharmaceuticals and fears he may be on the verge of murdering an irritating colleague. What's more worrying though is the sudden appearance of a Bomb in his Head, which needs defusing, and soon. 
 
Darren has tried everything to arrest his helpless slide: the catchily named Operation MWIMI (Make Work More Interesting) foundered on the rocks of his facial hair, and The Day of Rules turned into the most unruly of days. Nothing has really helped. And now he needs to get his life in order because he has met Neuro Girl, who doesn't look like the sort of woman who would stand for any bombs going off in her vicinity. 
 
The more Darren searches for order, the more elusive it becomes, until the surprise contents of a stolen computer suggest that things are rarely what they seem. And when your only hope is that life isn't logical, then you know you're in trouble...don't you?

Paper

Diana Appleyard

Class? It doesn't exist any more, so we're told. We're not supposed to be conscious of subtle class differences. We no longer look down on people because of their accents, their education or the car they drive. Or do we? 
 
Lucy Beresford knows her middle-class family thinks she's married beneath her when she gets together with the devastatingly sexy Rob. He's gorgeous, he's thoughtful, he's clever - but he's undeniably working class. Her parents cannot believe that she would choose him above Max, her so-suitable former boyfriend - who is truly one of us. Gradually the differences between Rob and Lucy - at first so unimportant - begin to loom large, as they argue over how the house should be decorated, how the children should be educated, and whether the evening meal should be called 'dinner' or 'tea'. 
 
In this funny, contentious and brilliantly observed novel, Diana Appleyard scratches the surface to reveal the petty snobberies which still exist in most of us, and which make Rob and Lucy...A Class Apart.Class? It doesn't exist any more, so we're told. We're not supposed to be conscious of subtle class differences. We no longer look down on people because of their accents, their education or the car they drive. Or do we?Lucy Beresford knows her middle-class family thinks she's married beneath her when she gets together with the devastatingly sexy Rob. He's gorgeous, he's thoughtful, he's clever - but he's undeniably working class. Her parents cannot believe that she would choose him above Max, her so-suitable former boyfriend - who is truly one of us. Gradually the differences between Rob and Lucy - at first so unimportant - begin to loom large, as they argue over how the house should be decorated, how the children should be educated, and whether the evening meal should be called 'dinner' or 'tea'.In this funny, contentious and brilliantly observed novel, Diana Appleyard scratches the surface to reveal the petty snobberies which still exist in most of us, and which make Rob and Lucy...A Class Apart.

A Class Apart

Ben Elton

Sam and Lucy seem like the perfect couple. Successful, happy and in love. But life isn't that simple. Lucy thinks thinks Sam is a sad, cold sensitivity-exclusion zone who would rather read a newspaper than have an emotion. Sam thinks Lucy is blaming him because she can't walk past Mothercare without getting all teary. The problem is that they might be infertile. And in more ways than one. 
 
Lucy wants a baby. Sam wants to write a hit movie. And given that the average IVF cycle has about a one in five chance of going into full production, Lucy's chances of getting what she wants are considerably better than Sam's. 
 
What Sam and Lucy are about to go through is absolutely inconceivable. The question is, can their love survive? Or are the odds stacked against them once again?

Inconceivable

Nicholas Rinaldi

It is 1942 and the island of Malta is under siege by the dominant German air force. Out of the smoke and magnesium glare of bomb blast steps Rocco Raven, native of Brooklyn, New York, apprentice radioman and expert secondhand car dealer. His only contact is an American secret serviceman, Fingerley, whose rank upgrades with their every meeting and whose purpose is known to no-one but himself. Far from finding a role for Rocco, Fingerley leaves him to face the chaos alone. On only his second day there, his billet, on the top floor of a brothel, is blown to pieces. Without contacts or belongings, Rocco is left to wander the devastated streets of Valetta in a bewildered daze until he sees an apparition, a beautiful, ethereal woman. She is Melita, the Jukebox Queen of Malta, who spends her time delivering the jukeboxes wrought by her cousin from old automobile and gramophone parts to the bars and restaurants which must accommodate the beleagured civilian and military populations. It is the beginning of an extraordinary relationship that is at once passionate and guarded, which flourishes as the island's fortunes decline. Under the threat of starvation and in a world populated by the eccentrics of war, Rocco's seems to be the lone voice of sanity, until he too is affected by the madness around him and succumbs to the voluntary thrill of danger... 
The Jukebox Queen of Malta is an extraordinary novel of passion and intrigue set in a world which seems perilously balanced between what is real and what is not. It is a magnificently evocative piece of storytelling, where the bizarre and heady atmosphere of a society under siege masks the uneasy truce between the Allied occupiers and the Maltese natives, and where the physical beauty is only tainted by the sense of mystery desecrated.

The Jukebox Queen Of Malta

Ethan Coen

From brilliantly funny and darkly surreal pastiche, to poignantly evoked small-town lives, the stories in Ethan Coen's outstanding debut collection are instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with the award-winning Coen Brothers' films. Yet at the same time they belong in the great tradition of American fiction writing.  Peopled with mobsters and hicks, and peppered with sparkling dialogue, some are delicious send-ups of  genre classics by authors such as Chandler and Hammett, while others are miniatures of private desperation drawn with a humour and tenderness which places them alongside the best work of Raymond Carver. Their great achievement, however, is that they are unmistakably the work of Ethan Coen, each one meticulously crafted, exhilaratingly imaginative, breathtakingly daring and hilariously funny. Ethan Coen's first venture into writing fiction is a triumph which will be welcomed as much by lovers of great fiction as by the Coen Brothers' legions of fans.

Gates Of Eden

It's two fifteen a.m., you're in bed alone and you're woken by the phone. 
 
Your eyes are wide and your body tense before it has completed so much as a single ring. And as you wake, in the tiny moment between sleep and consciousness, you know already that something is wrong. 
 
Only someone bad would call at such an hour. Or someone good, but with bad news, which would probably be worse. 
 
You lie there in the darkness and wait for the answer machine to kick in. Your own voice sounds strange as it tells you that nobody is there but that a message can be left. 
 
You feel your heart beat. You listen. And then you hear the one voice in the world you least expect . . . your very own Blast From the Past.

Blast From The Past

It's time to start thinking the unthinkable... 
 
Carrie Adams, successful television producer, mother and wife, is about to return to work. Baby Tom has fallen in love with the new nanny; six-year-old Rebecca isn't too keen, but hopes the nanny will at least be better organised than Mummy. Carrie meanwhile is desperate to reinvent herself from housewife to svelte career woman. 
 
Because this is what today's women do, don't they? They're smart, successful, glamorous wives and perfect part-time mothers. They can be brilliant at work and brilliant in bed. Carrie lives by the maxim that working full-time is no problem as long as she has the right childcare, and has never doubted for a moment that this is her path in life - until reality begins to hit home. She isn't happy, the children aren't happy, and husband Mike -until recently trying desperately to be a New Man - is now becoming more and more detached from family life. She begins to think the unthinkable. Perhaps, just perhaps, she doesn't have to do all this...

Homing Instinct

Pamela Jooste

'My name is Lily Daniels and I live in The Valley, in an old house at the top of a hill with a loquat tree in the garden. We are all women in our house. My grandmother, my Aunt Stella with her hopalong leg, and me. The men in our family are not worth much. They are the cross we have to bear. Some of us, like my mother, don't live here any more. People say she went on the Kimberley train to try for white and I mustn't blame her because she could get away with it even if we didn't believe she would.' 
 
Through the sharp yet loving eyes of eleven-year-old Lily we see the whole exotic, vivid, vigorous culture of the Cape Coloured community at the time when apartheid threatened its destruction. As Lily's beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to fight for justice for her family, so the story of Lily's past - and future - erupts. Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter is a powerful and moving tribute to a richly individual people.

Dance With A Poor Man's Daughter

Jerzy Kosinski

The hero of this astonishing novel is called Chance - he may be the man of tomorrow. Flung into the real world when his rich benefactor dies, Chance is helped on his life journey by Elizabeth Eve, the young, beautiful, resourceful wife of a dying Wall Street mogul. Accidentally launched into a world of sex, money, power - and national television - he becomes a media superstar, a household name, the man of the hour - and, who knows, perhaps the next President of the United States of America.

Being There

Judy Astley

Let bestselling author Judy Astley sweep you away with this uplifting, laugh-out-loud comedy which shows EXACTLY what little boys are made of. Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Milly Johnson and Trisha Ashley. 
 
'A funny, incisive gem of a novel' - Sunday Post 
'This deliciously funny novel had me laughing out loud' - Woman and Home 
'A funny, warm and moving novel' - Sunday Mirror 
"Judy Astley's books are always a joy to read." -- ***** Reader review 
"Judy Astley is a brilliant writer, you get lost in her books. They are all brilliant in my opinion." -- ***** Reader review 
'Great escapism' -- ***** Reader review 
************************************************************************** 
PEACE AT LAST? NOT LIKELY! 
 
After twenty years of marriage, Nina had offloaded serial philanderer Joe and was happy enough, thank you, coping alone with their two demanding daughters and her own hectic life. It felt like freedom, not having to wonder constantly where Joe was, who with and up to what. 
 
But into Nina's new, carefree life some disturbing elements began to appear. A flasher had been accosting young girls on the nearby common, leaving every man in the area under suspicion. Home, to Nina, no longer felt so safe. And Joe, during one of his oh-so-civilised monthly lunches with Nina, revealed that the new love in his life, pin-thin, power-dressed Catherine, had decided that she now required a baby. 
 
But babies, Joe told Nina, were what he did with her: a remark that Nina found oddly unsettling...

Every Good Girl

the perfect, light-hearted, feel-good romance to settle down with…

Samuel Shem

As in all hospitals, the medical hierarchy of The House of God was a pyramid - a lot at the bottom and one at the top.Put another way it was like an ice-cream cone...you had to lick your way up! 
 
Roy Basch, the 'red-hot' Rhodes Scholar, thought differently - but then he hadn't met Hyper Hooper, out to win the most post-mortems of the year award, nor Molly, the nurse with the crash helmet.He hadn't even met any of the Gomers ('Get Out of My Emergency Room!'), the no-hopers who wanted to die but who were worth more alive!

House Of God

Chitra Divakaruni

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 
 
'A dazzling tale... woven with poetry and storyteller magic' AMY TAN 
 
Tilo, an immigrant from India, runs a spice shop in Oakland, California. While she supplies the ingredients for curries and kormas, she also dispenses wisdom and the appropriate spice: for Tilo is a Mistress of Spices, a priestess of the secret magical powers of spices. 
 
To those who visit her shop, Tilo prescribes coriander for the restoration of sight, chilli for the cleansing of evil, fenugreek for the pain of rejection. But when a lonely American ventures into the store, a troubled Tilo cannot find the correct spice, for he arouses in her a forbidden desire - which if she follows will destroy her magical powers. 
 
Compelling and lyrical, full of heady scents and with more than a touch of humour, this novel explores the clash between East and West even as it unveils the universal mysteries of the human heart. 
 
'I felt excited and empowered by the way she used words' NAOMI ALDERMAN, author of THE POWER 
 
'Unusual, clever, and often exquisite' LA Times

The Mistress Of Spices

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize

Jill Paton Walsh

It is, perhaps, the fifteenth century and the ordered tranquillity of a Mediterranean island is about to be shattered by the appearance of two outsiders: one, a castaway, plucked from the sea by fishermen, whose beliefs represent a challenge to the established order; the other, a child abandoned by her mother and suckled by wolves, who knows nothing of the precarious relationship between Church and State but whose innocence will become the subject of a dangerous experiment. 
 
But the arrival of the Inquisition on the island creates a darker, more threatening force which will transform what has been a philosophical game of chess into a matter of life and death...

Knowledge Of Angels

Man Booker prize shortlist

When Marion's mother is silenced, first by a stroke, and then by death, she is left confronting the chaotic detritus of a life obsessively devoted to art. she has left it too late to ask the crucial questions about scenes confusedly remembered from her childhood, and above all about the identity of her own father, 'lost in the war'. Out of the hundreds of paintings in her mother's studio, one, a portrait of a young man, is inscribed 'For Marion'. Is this her father? And who was he? 
 
Marion's search takes her to the Cornish town of St Ives. In the remote and closeknit town where communities of fisherfolk and artists have coexisted for many years, she learns of a tragedy which is intrinsically tied up with her father's life. Over fifty years before, the St Ives lifeboat went down with all hands bar one. Marion must delve deep into the past to discover the identity of a man she never knew,a nd in so doing confront the demons which have tortured her own adult life. 
 
The Serpentine Cave is an imagined story containing a true one - a powerful novel about memory and loss, birth and rebirth, and past regrets which still have the power to plague the present.

The Serpentine Cave

Mary Doria Russell

'The Sparrow is one of my favourite science fiction novels and it destroyed me in the best way when I read it. It is so beautifully written and the construction of the narrative is masterful' 
Emma Newman, author of Planetfall 
 
THE ACCLAIMED GENRE-DEFINING WINNER OF THE 1998 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 
 
Set in the 21st century - a number of decades from now - The Sparrow is the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and talented linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who - in response to a remarkable radio signal from the depths of space - leads a scientific mission to make first contact with an extra-terrestrial culture. 
 
In the true tradition of Jesuit adventurers before him, Sandoz and his companions are prepared to endure isolation, suffering - even death - but nothing can prepare them for the civilisation they encounter. Or for the tragic misunderstanding that brings the mission to a devastating end. Once considered a living saint, Sandoz returns alone to Earth horrifically maimed, both physically and spiritually, the mission's sole survivor - only to be blamed for the mission's failure and accused of heinous crimes. 
 
Written in clean, effortless prose and peopled with memorable characters who never lose their humanity or humour, The Sparrow is a powerful, haunting fiction - a tragic but ultimately triumphant novel about the nature of faith, of love and what it means to be 'human' and widely considered to be a classic of the genre.

The Sparrow

A A Gill

Buchan Gardens is a sedate square in West London. Charles Goodwin, the garden committee president, would like the garden to stay just the way it is. Lord Vernon of Barnstable, the appalling life peer, has plans for the garden. Bryony Mullins, the gusset-mouthed harridan, doesn't give a flying knicker elastic what happens to the garden as long as it's not what Vernon wants. Angel Tenby, the sexually organic gardener, wants the garden to run free. Mrs Kotzen, the neighbour, wants the garden to be chic. The vicar wants the garden to be accessible and relevant. Lily Ng, the teenage daily, would probably think the garden silly if she thought about it at all; she wants to offer sex in lieu of ironing. Mona Corinth, the Hollywood legend, is dead and may be about to become part of the garden. Iona Wallace is the obligatory love interest. She would like to be a garden: laid, forked, plucked, seeded, mulched, vigorously pollarded, bedded and admired for her natural beauty. The garden wants absolutely nothing at all. 
 
Sap Rising may well be a story about dark dank nature both human and vegetable and our uneasy relationship with the mystic natural forces that move the earth. It may be a parable on the fragile consensus that maintains and tends green England. On the other hand, it might just be a farcical love story set in a garden about nothing of any consequence performed by comic grotesques with a lot of swearing and unnatural sex.

Sap Rising

Karen Hayes

To an artist's eye, the receding sea leaves the boats in the harbour looking like abandoned water toys after the bath has been drained. Living in the harbour community of St Ives, painter Esme Cochran has watched both her sons fall in love with that sea - Hugo with the surfing and Crispin with the fishing. But here, in the country of the tides, the mists and the extraordinary local light, other love affairs are also begun. 
 
Affairs that divide husband from wife, and artist from canvas, take place alongside budding youthful romances, whilst once old sailor, Percy Prynne, is haunted by the tragic echoes of the past and watches over Esme's own growing turmoil with uncanny foreknowledge.

Still Life On Sand

Pat Conroy

With the spectacular worldwide success of his unforgettable novel The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy established himself as a major international writer. He is known for his anguished and painfully honest insights into families and the human heart. He now returns with Beach Music, a story which tells of a family haunted by dark memories that reach back into the unutterable terrors of the Holocaust. 
 
Jack McCall, an American living in Rome with his young daughter, is trying to find peace after the recent trauma of his wife's suicide. But his solitude is disturbed by the appearance of his sister-in-law, who begs him to return home, and of two school friends, who want his help in tracking down another classmate who went underground as a Vietman protester and never resurfaced. These requests launch Jack on a journey that encompasses the past and the present in both Europe and the American South: a quest that leads him to shocking and ultimately liberating truths.

Beach Music

This powerful novel is the story of four cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Together they will encounter the hell of vicious bullying and the rabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphere of an arrogant and proud military institute. They will experience the violence. The passion. The rage. The friendship. The loyalty. The betrayal. 
 
Together they will brace themselves for the brutal transition to manhood... and one of them will not survive. 
 
Based on Conroy's own experiences at The Citadel Military school in Charleston, The Lords of Discipline is a remarkable novel.

Lords Of Discipline

Winston Groom

Take my word for it - don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story...' 
Forrest Gump is back! The lovable man for all ages captured America's heart in the No.1 bestselling novel Forrest Gump and in the blockbuster film, winner of six Academy Awards® including Best Picture and Best Actor. Now he returns in the long-awaited sequel to the book hailed by Larry King as 'the funniest novel I have ever read'. A little older, and wiser in his own unique way, he is still running through the kaleidoscopic events of our times - and straight into the age of greed and instant gratification known as the 1980s. 
 
Whenever I really get stumped, I go visit Jenny's grave. She tells me she's always rooting for me. The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. has gone bust and Forrest is flat broke, sweeping floors in a New Orleans strip joint when Gump &amp; Co. begins. As always in Forrest's easy-come-easy-go life, a change in the weather is never far off...and when the opportunity to play championship football comes his way once more, Forrest is back in the limelight and in the money. But fate is a fickle lady, and he's soon out on the road selling phony encyclopedias and trying to raise his son, little Forrest, who needs his father more than ever. Forrest's remarkable, touching, and utterly comic odyssey has just begun: in store for him is an explosive attempt at hog farming; his own dubious recipe for adding life to New Coke; an encounter with Ollie North; and a chance yet again to unwittingly twist the nose of history. 
 
One of the most phenomenally successful books of our time, Forrest Gump was praised as 'a wacky and funny nuthouse of a book' (George Plimpton) and 'superbly controlled satire' (Florence King, Washington Post Book World); Forrest himself 'should enter the annals of fiction as a great American hero' (Rima Firrone, Ocala Star-Banner). Winston Groom continues to delight us with Gump's hilarious and heartwarming adventures. 'At least,' Forrest would agree, 'I ain't led no humdrum life'.

Gump & Co.

Bestselling author Judy Astley hits the funnybone of contemporary life yet again in this delicious comedy, perfect for fans of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson 
 
'Fast and fun' -- Woman &amp; Home 
'It sparkles with Astley's wry wit' -- Peterborough Evening Telegraph 
'Loved reading this book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Enjoyed this from beginning to end' -- ***** Reader review 
'This is my happy book and I loved it so much I've read it twice' -- ***** Reader review 
'Very funny' -- ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************************************************** 
EVERYONE HAS THEIR GUILTY PLEASURES... 
 
The residents of the Close were much concerned with crime - preventing it, that is. With all those out-of-work teenagers on the nearby council estate hanging around, stealing, joy-riding and goodness knows what else, it was just as well that Paul Mathieson was setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme. 
 
Not that the inhabitants of the Close did not have their own little activities, of course, but these were hardly the same thing... 
 
If Jenny and Alan's daughter was caught travelling on the underground without a ticket, and their son was doing a little experimenting with certain substances, and Laura didn't see the need to declare her earnings from hiring out her house to a film crew, and Jenny drove home only just over the legal limit - well, these were quite different matters, not to be compared with what went on in the Estate. 
 
And then there was Jenny's discovery, when she advertised flute lessons, that she could work up quite a nice little earner in a rather unexpected way... 
 
As the leafy London street resounded to the efforts of its citizens to keep crime at bay, Jenny realised that it was her marriage, rather than her property, that needed watching.

Pleasant Vices

the perfect, light-hearted, laugh-out-loud read from bestselling author Judy Astley

'Rollicking, bawdy' People 
'Superbly controlled satire' Washington Post 
'Joyously madcap' Publishers Weekly 
 
Discover the bestselling novel that inspired the classic Oscar-winning film. 
_______________________________ 
 
It's Forrest Gump as you've never seen him before, but just as lovable as ever. 
 
At 6'6", 240 pounds, Forrest Gump is a difficult man to ignore, so follow Forrest from the football dynasties of Bear Bryant to the Vietnam War, from encounters with Presidents Johnson and Nixon to powwows with Chairman Mao. Go with Forrest to Harvard University, to a Hollywood movie set, on a professional wrestling tour, and into space on the oddest NASA mission ever. 
 
The wonderfully warm, savagely barbed, and hilariously funny novel that inspired iconic film starring Tom Hanks. 
______________________________ 
 
What readers are saying: 
 
'A brilliant read' 
'Loved the book just as much as I loved the film' 
'Very well written and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish'

Forrest Gump

John Irving

In a spirited opening piece, John Irving explains how he became a writer. There follow six scintillating stories written over the past twenty years, inlcuding The Pension Grillparzer, previously only to be found inside The World According to Garp, and now given its first independent airing.

Trying To Save Piggy Sneed

King of

King's Maker

Kingdom of Lies

A gripping historical fiction series set amid England's War of the Roses in which the Houses of Lancaster and York faced each other on the field of battle - and the Tudors won.

Kingmaker

Kings of the Realm

Knights Templar

Knights of the Borrowed Dark

Kurt Wallander

Four of James Ellroy's most popular crime novels featuring the infamous Dudley Smith, which include: 'The Black Dahlia', 'The Big Nowhere', 'L.A. Confidential' and 'White Jazz'.

L.A. Quartet

Lacey Flint has never worked a murder case - until a savage murder, 120 years to the day since Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim, crosses her desk. 
This case sets the precedent that Lacey Flint is never far from danger, or the River Thames, but she will stop at nothing to find the answers.

Lacey Flint

Ladybird Audio Adventures

Ladybird Classics

Ladybird Eco Books

Ladybird Grammar

Ladybird Lane

Introduce your little one to first concepts and themes with Ladybird Learners. From ABC to 123, animals to colours, we've got you covered for fun early learning experiences. The engaging illustrations and clear text offer lots of opportunities to extend young learners' vocabulary and get them talking. 
 
A colourful board book series packed with big learning ideas for curious little minds. 
 
Look out for all the titles in the series: 
 
My First Animals: Ladybird Learners 
My First ABC: Ladybird Learners 
My First Numbers: Ladybird Learners 
My First Colours: Ladybird Learners

Ladybird Learners

Ladybird Readers

Ladybird Sing-along Stories

Ladybird Tales

Ladybird Tales of... Treasuries

These delightful books are the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. 
 
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. The subject of the books will greatly appeal to grown-ups. 
 
The eight books in the series feature original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. The other books in the series are: 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Mindfulness 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Sheds 
 
- The Ladybird Book of The Hipster 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Hangover 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Dating 
 
- How it Works: The Husband 
 
- How it Works: The Wife

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