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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Rosemary Ackland

Joss Ackland

Rosemary Ackland began writing her diary in 1945, aged just fifteen. For the next fifty-eight years, through happiness and heartache, she continued to write. Even after the tragic onset of Motor Neurone disease, which left her mute and immobile, her diary was still an outlet - in fact, then more than ever. 
 
Her simple, heartfelt jottings were never intended for an audience. But, during her last days, as he helped her hold a pen, her husband Joss read her words for the first time. Deeply moved by her lifetime's recollections he asked her consent to publish them and she agreed. 
 
My Better Half and Me weaves together Rosemary's diaries with Joss's commentary to tell of an extraordinary love story that lasted over fifty years. Their life together was remarkably full. At first they lived on a shoestring, struggling to bring up their new family on just Joss's payas a young actor. Once his career took off their lives became a dynamic whirl of tours across the country. But they remained an extremely close-knit family, with lives shaped by their seven children, by the tragic, untimely death of their eldest son, and later, by the birth of their grandchildren. 
 
Above all, this intimate and candid story, shows how lucky they were to have each other. In turbulent times they were each other's rock. Theirs was truly and old-fashioned romance.

My Better Half and Me

Harry Drinkwater

‘I saw several fellows fall, one fellow coughing up blood and all the time, bullets were hacking about me. I ran for about 70 yards carrying with me all the Lewis gun things I had brought up and dropped breathless into a shell hole headlong onto a German who had been dead for months.’ 
 
Harold Drinkwater was not supposed to go to war. He was told he was half an inch too short. But, determined to fight for king and country, he found a battalion that would take him and was soon on his way to the trenches of the Somme. As the war dragged on, Harry saw most of the men he joined up with killed around him. But, somehow, he survived. 
 
Soldiers were forbidden from keeping a diary so Harry wrote his in secret, recording the horrendous conditions and constant fear, as well as his pleasure at receiving his officer's commission, the joy of his men when they escaped the trenches for the Italian Front and the trench raid for which he was awarded the Military Cross. 
 
Harry writes with such immediacy it is easy to forget that a hundred years have passed. He is by turns wry, exhausted, annoyed, resigned and often amazed to be alive. Never before published, Harry's War is a moving testament to one man's struggle to keep his humanity in the face of unimaginable violence.

Harry’s War

Susanna Abse

'Brilliant and touching' Maggie O'Farrell 
 
'A must-read for everyone wanting to understand more about what makes us fall in - and out - of love' Philippa Perry 
 
'A charming, useful, kind book about the pains and hopes of relationships' Alain de Botton 
 
Drawing on over 30 years of therapeutic encounters with people facing hurdles in their love lives, former Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council Susanna Abse takes us deep inside one of the most fascinating realms there is: other people's relationships. 
 
Candid and captivating, each chapter is inspired by a classic, timeless story. Parents blow their straw house down; Rapunzel yearns for companionship but remains trapped in her castle. Couples strive to navigate the fall from Eden, the bitter taste of the poison apple and strangers in their beds. 
 
From dealing with infidelity to navigating our changing role within a single relationship over the course of a lifetime, Tell Me the Truth About Love sheds vivid light on the human heart, and its struggle to both embrace life's greatest gift and protect itself from pain. Inside, you will find solace, wisdom and unparalleled insight into how, and why, we love.

Tell Me the Truth About Love

13 Tales from Couple Therapy

13 Tales from Couples Therapy

Ted L Nancy

Spoof letter writing has a long history from Lazlo Toth to Henry Root but nothing can prepare you for the uniquely surreal and endearing world of Ted L Nancy. A kind of Trigger Happy correspondence, his innocent requests, queries, complaints, demands and suggestions to hotels, airlines, multi-national corporations, local government and department stores are so absurd it is amazing they fool anyone - but often the deadpan responses are even more hilarious.     Ted wants to know if he can graft his big toe onto his nose, why his wife left him while he was in a coma for another man in a coma, and if he can consummate his marriage in the administrative office of the chapel. He writes to hotels telling them he eats his mattress. He writes to casinos to ask if his band the 'Fat Beatles' can perform and if he can stay in their hotel dressed as a bladder. Utterly addictive and wet-yourself-in-a-public-place funny:    Dear Business Permits Dept: I want to apply for a business permit in your fine city... I operate the SOUP & SLEEP RESTAURANTS. You can either order soup or sleep. A hostess will greet you and you would say, "I'd like to sleep." She will lead you to a table where you can catch a few winks.    Dear Helena Ocean & Dog Licensing Dept: I will stage the play "MARK TWAIN WITH TOURETTE'S SYNDROME."... Let me know what arrangements I need to make to store my anchovy tank at your seaport. Thank you. I await large crowds.

Letters From A Nut

With An Introduction by Jerry Seinfeld

Maureen Wells

In 1941, as the Second World War raged on, 20-year-old Maureen Bolster began writing to her boyfriend Eric Wells. He was stationed in the Middle East while Maureen remained on the Home Front. Their letters would be the only communication between the young love-struck couple for four long years. 
 
Filled with warmth and humour, this charming collection of Maureen's letters describes her life working for the war effort back home. Uproarious incidents occur when she encounters lecherous GIs, immoral lodgers and irascible landladies in her work first as a billeting officer; then as a Wren courier, bravely delivering secret documents by trains, boats and planes; and finally as a Wren stoker. But all the while her thoughts are with her sweetheart Eric as he fights for his country in such far away places as Bahrian, Cairo, Mosul and Beirut. 
 
Funny, touching and romantic, Entertaining Eric tells the true story of a love that survived war and separation - against all odds.

Entertaining Eric

A Wartime Love Story

Mark Frith

When Mark Frith was told to make Heat the next big women's weekly, he dived headlong into the insanity of the celebrity world, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Posh, Kylie and Jordan. Soon Heat had over two million avid readers, and was the UK's favourite source of gossip. 
 
Charting the explosion of Big Brother, igniting the Size Zero debate and watching Britney's descent from sexpot to being sectioned, Heat was there for every major celebrity debate. 
 
Told in the irreverent style we've all come to know and love, The Celeb Diaries is Mark's incredible story of his life in the eye of the celeb storm.

The Celeb Diaries

The Sensational Inside Story of the Celebrity Decade

Caitlin Moran

‘I’ve lived through ten iOS upgrades on my Mac – and that’s just something I use to muck about on Twitter. Surely capitalism is due an upgrade or two?’ 
 
When Caitlin Moran sat down to choose her favourite pieces for her new book she realised that they all seemed to join up. Turns out, it’s the same old problems and the same old ass-hats. 
 
Then she thought of the word ‘Moranifesto’, and she knew what she had to do… 
 
This is Caitlin’s engaging and amusing rallying call for our times. Combining the best of her recent columns with lots of new writing unique to this book, Caitlin deals with topics as pressing and diverse as 1980s swearing, benefits, boarding schools, and why the internet is like a drunken toddler. 
 
And whilst never afraid to address the big issues of the day – such as Benedict Cumberbatch and duffel coats – Caitlin also makes a passionate effort to understand our 21st century society and presents us with her ‘Moranifesto’ for making the world a better place. 
 
The polite revolution starts here! Please.

Moranifesto

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