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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Julia O'Donnell

'I was six when my father died so my mother has been everything to me. Wherever I go I tell the world about my wonderful mother. I'm a singer today because of her encouragement. She has been the biggest influence in my life' - Daniel O'Donnell 
 
Irish singing star Daniel O'Donnell's mother, Julia, grew up on a remote island off the 
northwest coast of Ireland, going barefoot and doing hard labour as a child during the poverty-stricken 1920s. 
 
The hard work continued through her teenage years as she picked potatoes in the fields and travelled to Scotland to gut fish in the ports. After she married and settled in Kincasslagh, Julia's beloved husband, Francie, was forced to leave his family for months on end to work on farms, again in Scotland. The work was physically demanding and eventually took its toll. Sadly, Julia found herself widowed and penniless with five children while still in her forties. 
 
In this classic and inspiring story of triumph over adversity, Julia tells how she battled through this dark period by knitting sweaters into the early hours of every night to support her family. They were sold in America by relatives and the money was sent back to Ireland by post. Then, in an amazing twist of fate, this hard-working woman and dedicated mother watched from the wings as her offspring flourished in life. Her daughter Margo and son Daniel went on to achieve fame as chart-topping singers. 
 
In The Mother's Story, Julia takes us on a journey from her humble beginnings growing up in a thatched cottage on Owey Island, to a glitzy lifestyle mingling with celebrities and royalty. Poignant, warm and laced with great humour, Julia's story gives us a fascinating insight into this remarkable Irish family's life.

The Mother's Story

A Tale of Hardship and Maternal Love

Mary Contini

Philip Contini

Valvona &amp; Crolla has been described as 'the Sistine chapel of continental delis'. Founded in 1934 by the Continis' ancestors, the Italian shop and restaurant is legendary in food circles for its excellent food and drink. Now, co-owners Mary (author of the bestselling Dear Francesca and co-author of the Easy Peasy cooking series) presents 200 delicious and authentic recipes. Organised season by season, the book offers a year of sumptuous delights from around the country of her heritage, together with recommendations for wines to match them. 
 
Starting with the festive flavours of winter, such as a creamy chestnut soup with smoked pancetta, moving on to the best of spring's vegetables with a broad bean and spinach frittata, fresh seafood dishes in the summer, and finishing with the truffles, olive pressings and slow-cooked casseroles of the autumn, this beautifully written and evocatively photographed book adds up to a food diary of personal stories, history, anecdotes and recipes, all imbued with the warmth and local knowledge that only a true Italian family, passionate about food, can deliver.

Valvona & Crolla

A Year at an Italian Table

Nevile Gwynne

Do you know your Kings and Queens of England by heart? Can you tell your Ethelred from your Ethelbert? Your Marcia from your Matilda? 
 
Well, passionate educator Mr Gwynne is back – and this time he is taking on the entirety of British history – so you will never be in the dark again. Within the pages of this little gem – bursting with our small island’s rich past – he teaches us the history of England through her remarkable monarchs. 
 
It is Mr Gwynne’s belief that a certain amount of what you might read in other history books may well be wrong. It is his aim to show you why. 
 
Concise, thorough and utterly fascinating, this is the perfect book to be enjoyed by young and old, to be read at a time when, for many, harking back to our rich past seems much more preferable than living in the dreary present. 
 
And when it comes to the benefits of education, Mr Gwynne is never wrong!

Gwynne's Kings and Queens

The Indispensable History of England and Her Monarchs

Frank Shaw

Joan Shaw

‘I was talking and laughing with a school friend in the street when suddenly there was the eerie wailing notes of the air raid siren filling the air. I can remember that our laughter stopped straight away, and I recall feeling chilled and scared. Doors were opened and people came out of their houses looking up to the sky … It was a Sunday morning on a beautiful summer’s day with blue skies and really warm sunshine. But within minutes our lives had changed, and the child in me had gone, never to return.’ Mrs Mary Earle, Kent 
After the surrender of France to Germany Churchill announced that ‘the Battle of Britain is about to begin’ and on 10 July 1940 the Luftwaffe began bombing ships in the English Channel in readiness for a full air assault on the south of England. In August, German aircraft were attacking coastal airfields, moving inland to attack radar bases, further RAF airfields and aircraft factories, until finally turning their attention to London and other major cities. But Hitler had underestimated the determination of the RAF and by mid-September the Luftwaffe sustained such great losses that Britain had won the battle for our skies and the German invasion was called off. 
This third instalment in the ‘We Remember’ series is filled with stories from servicemen from the air and on the ground, and the men, women and children who witnessed the extraordinary fights between British and German planes.

We Remember the Battle of Britain

Ethel M. Bilbrough

Part scrapbook, part memoir, this wonderfully colourful and eloquent diary brims with vivid observations, providing a rare snapshot of what life was like on the Home Front during the First World War. 
 
Amateur artist, animal lover and keen writer of letters to the papers, Mrs Bilbrough witnessed the men leaving for war (her husband, Kenneth, a banker in the City, was fortunately too old to be called up); the horses at Waterloo waiting to be transported to France; bombings and airraids; the introduction of the Daylight Saving Bill and food price increases (her consternation as the price of a tin of tongue rose from 2/- to 4/6 is clear!). She also writes at her outrage at the shooting of British nurse Edith Cavell; her sadness when Lord Kitchener is drowned at sea; her alarm as Zeppelins flew over Kent and her anger at the wide-ranging German atrocities. Her relief as war ended is palpable ('PEACE! The armistice is signed, "the day" has come at last! And it is ours!'). 
 
Interspersed with her daily jottings are cuttings and cartoons, her own watercolours and drawings and the colourful flags that were sold to raise money for the troops. Charming yet moving, this diary gives us a taste of what it was really like to live through the Great War, seen from the perspective of an acute social observer.

My War Diary 1914-1918

Damien Lewis and Paul Grahame

The Lives Less Ordinary series brings you the most exciting, adventurous and entertaining true-life writing that is out there, for men who are time-poor but want the best. Lives Less Ordinary drops you into extreme first-hand accounts of human experience, whether that's the adrenaline-pumping heights of professional sport, the brutality of the modern battlefield, the casual violence of the criminal world, the mind-blowing frontiers of science, or the excesses of rock 'n' roll, high finance and Hollywood. Lives Less Ordinary also brings you some of the finest comic voices around, on every subject from toilet etiquette to Paul Gascoigne. 
 
'The CO had given me the word: whatever it took, I had to get our injured lads out. I'd ordered the F15s on an attack run right over our heads. If I'd got it wrong we were dead...'Paul 'Bommer' Grahame is one of the British Army's most deadlyJTACs - the man who, with high-tech precision, calls in the airborne attacks from on the ground in the heart of the battle. This is his brutal, explosive account of walking into a close combat Taliban attack in Helmand and his attempts to get his fellow squaddies out alive. 
 
This digital bite has been extracted from Paul Grahame and Damien Lewis's adrenaline-fuelled book Fire Strike 7/9.

How to Escape a Taliban Ambush

Lives Less Ordinary

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