Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Nina Stibbe

The very start of Lizzie Vogel's story. From the much-loved author of Love, Nina, discover a wildly comic, brilliantly sharp-eyed novel about one family's fall from grace. 
 
'All hail a book that's funny!' Barbara Trapido 
 
***** 
 
Meet Lizzie Vogel, 9. 
 
Lizzie is concerned about her newly divorced mother; thirty-one years old and trapped in a hostile village in the English countryside with only three young children and a Labrador for company. It isn't that having a husband is good, but in 1970s rural Leicestershire, not having one is bad. The women in the village think Lizzie's mother is after their husbands - and no one will let the children into the Brownies! 
 
Worried about their mother's drinking, her (bad) playwriting and social workers sending them off to the infamous Crescent Home for Children, Lizzie and her sister embark on a misguided campaign to find their mother a new husband. 
 
LIZZIE'S STORY CONTINUES IN PARADISE LODGE AND REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL! 
 
***** 
 
'[A] joyous read, full of wit and charm . . . I am already longing for Nina Stibbe's next book' OBSERVER 
 
'Just the right mixture of childhood innocence and incredulity for the necessary deadpan delivery of Stibbe's particular brand of comedy. Read it and be charmed' INDEPENDENT 
 
'A beguilingly comic blend of naivety and precociousness' SUNDAY TIMES

Man at the Helm

The hilarious debut novel from one of Britain’s wittiest writers

Lizzie Vogel's story continues in Paradise Lodge, the brilliantly comic sequel to Nina Stibbe's hilarious Man at the Helm. 
 
'LOVE it! Instant classic - funny, wise, touching, entirely delightful' MARIAN KEYES 
 
***** 
 
Working in a care home is not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl but 15-year-old Lizzie Vogel went for it. It just seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk (it is the 1970s after all), plus she has some knowledge of old people. They're not suited to granary bread, and you mustn't compare them to toddlers, but she doesn't know there's a right way to get someone out of the bath - or what to do when someone dies. 
 
When a rival old people's home with better parking and daily chairobics threatens to take all their residents, Paradise Lodge's cast of staff and helpers have to come together to save the home before it's too late. 
 
From the bestselling author of Love, Nina comes a story of being very young, and very old, and the laughter and tears in between. 
 
LIZZIE'S STORY CONTINUES IN REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL! 
 
***** 
 
'The one problem with reviewing Stibbe is that I just want to quote entire pages: it's all so brilliant' THE I 
 
'Stibbe looks at another chapter of her life through the prism of her trademark deadpan, acutely observed humour' STYLIST 
 
'A dollop of nostalgia and very British humour' GLAMOUR

Paradise Lodge

Hilarity and pure escapism from a true British wit

Teenager Lizzie Vogel has a new job as a dental assistant. This is not as glamorous as it sounds. At least it means mostly getting away from her alcoholic, nymphomaniacal, novel-writing mother. But, if Lizzie thinks being independent means sex with her boyfriend (he prefers bird-watching), strict boundaries (her boss keeps using her loo) or self-respect (surely only actual athletes get fungal foot infections?) she's still got a lot more growing up to do.

Reasons to be Cheerful

Winner of the 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

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