Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco. 
 
 
The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.

Ajay Chowdhury

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Richelle Mead

Emma Vieceli

This wonderfully tempting graphic novel perfectly brings to life all of the forbidden pleasures of Richelle Mead's phenomenal Vampire Academy series. Overseen by Richelle Mead, adapted by Leigh Dragoon and illustrated by acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli, this beautiful new format will be loved by fans old and new. 
 
St Vladimir's Academy isn't just any boarding school - hidden away, it's a place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. 
 
Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They've been on the run, but now they're being dragged back to St Vladimir's where the girls must survive a world of forbidden romances, a ruthless social scene and terrifying night time rituals. But most of all, they must stay alive.

Vampire Academy: A Graphic Novel

Beverley Naidoo

Ngadi Smart

When twelve-year-old Sade's mother is killed, she and her little brother Femi are forced to flee from their home in Nigeria to Britain. They're not allowed to tell anyone - not even their best friends - as their whole journey is secret, dangerous - and illegal. Their dad promises to follow when he can, but once the children arrive in London, things go from bad to worse when they're abandoned by the people they had been told would protect them. 
 
Sade faces challenge after challenge - but her dad has always taught her to stand up for what is right, and to tell the truth no matter what. And with that strength of spirit in her heart, Sade will find the courage to fight for the new, happy life she, Femi and her dad deserve.

The Other Side of Truth

Mildred Taylor

There are things you can't back down on, things you gotta take a stand on. But it's up to you to decide what them things are. 
Cassie Logan can't understand why her father is so proud of his land and farming his own crops. Her family refuses to sell their fields to a local man despite persistent pressure to do so, but for her parents the land is a symbol of sanctuary. 
 
Over the course of a year, Cassie must learn about standing up for what's right and picking your battles whilst she and her family navigate racism in its various forms; from the 'night riders' that terrorise her community, to the everyday prejudice that permeates life in 1930s Mississippi. 
 
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a powerful story of family, self-respect and strength, set against the turbulent backdrop of the Jim Crow South.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Marie Lu

The brilliant sequel in the Legend trilogy - perfect for The Hunger Games fans! 
 
Injured and on the run, it has been seven days since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead having lost his own brother to an execution squad who thought they were assassinating him. June is now the Republic's most wanted traitor. 
 
Desperate for help, they turn to the Patriots - a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic. But can they trust them or have they unwittingly become pawns in the most terrifying of political games? 
 
Dystopian fiction at its very best in this thrilling instalment in the Legend trilogy.

Prodigy

Barbara Newhall Follett

Jackie Morris

This is the irresistible and entirely unique story of one little girl's desire to escape into the wilderness. 
 
Little Eepersip doesn't want to live in a house with doors and windows and a roof, so she runs away to live in the wild - first in the Meadow, then by the Sea, and finally in the Mountain. Her heartbroken parents follow her, bringing her back home to 'safety' and locking her up in the stifling square of the house. But she slips away once more, following her heart into the richness of untrammelled nature and disappearing forever. 
 
First published in 1927 and written by a child of just twelve years old, The House Without Windows is an extraordinary paean to the transcendent beauty of the natural world, and the human capacity to connect with it.

The House Without Windows

Philip Pullman

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
Tick, tock, tick, tock! Some stories are like that. Once you've wend them up, nothing will stop them ... 
 
A tormented apprentice clock-maker, a deadly mechanical knight in armour - and the sinister Dr Kalmenius, who some say is the devil ... Wind up these characters, fit them into a story on a cold winter's evening, with the snow swirling down, and suddenly life and the story begin to merge in a peculiarly macabre - and unstoppable - way. 
 
Almost like clockwork ... 
 
© Philip Pullman 1996 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Clockwork

Michael Ende

Unicorns, dragons, sprites, will-o&rsquo;-the-wisps: the inhabitants of an enchanted world. And into this world &ndash; through the pages of an old book &ndash; ventures Bastian, a lonely boy of ten or twelve. But Fantastica is slowly decaying, its Childlike Empress dying. Only a real human being can set things right by giving the Empress a new name. Bastian takes up the challenge, and finds himself crossing the Swamps of Sadness and the Silver Mountains, meeting sorcerers and giants, bats and night-hobs, gnomes and racing snails, as he journeys bravely toward the Ivory Tower, Bastian&rsquo;s quest is filled with all the wonders of myth and fairy tale. It is a fantasy adventure that will capture your heart &ndash; and recapture the magical dreams of childhood.

The Neverending Story

Jack London

William Hootkins

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Jack London's haunting classic, White Fang, read by the actor William Hootkins, star of Star Wars, Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark. 
 
Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, White Fang - half-dog, half-wolf - is the only animal in the litter to survive. He soon learns the harsh laws of nature, yet buried deep inside him are the distant memories of affection and love. Will this fiercely independent creature of the wild learn to trust man again?

White Fang

Smucker Barbara

There's a place the slaves been whisperin' around called Canada. The law don't allow no slavery there. They say you follow the North Star, and when you step onto this land you are free . . . 
 
Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day that she spends huddled in the slaver trader's wagon travelling south or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her friend Liza may reach someday. So when workers from the Underground Railroad offer to help the two girls escape, they are ready. But the slave catchers and their dogs will soon be after them . . .

Underground to Canada

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
What Lila wants to be more than anything else in the world is . . . a Firework-Maker! 
 
But firework-making is not just about being able to make Crackle-Dragons and Golden Sneezes. There is also one special secret: every Firework-Maker must make a perilous journey to face the terrifying Fire-Fiend! 
 
Not knowing that she needs special protection to survive the Fire-Fiend's flames, Lila sets off alone. Her friends, Chulak and Hamlet - the King's white elephant - race after her. But can they possibly reach her in time? 
 
© Philip Pullman 1995 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

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