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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Chris Chibnall

Paul Cornell

Russell T Davies

Neil Gaiman

Mark Gatiss

Pete McTighe

Steven Moffat

Vinay Patel

Joy Wilkinson

Darkness Never Prevails. 
 
 While staying home was a vital safety measure in 2020, the freedom of the TARDIS remained a dream that drew many - allowing them to roam the cosmos in search of distraction, reassurance and adventure. Now some of the finest TV Doctor Who writers come together with gifted illustrators in this very special short story collection in support of BBC Children in Need. 
 
 Current and former showrunners - Chris Chibnall Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat - present exciting adventures for the Doctor conceived in confinement, alongside brand new fiction from Neil Gaiman, Mark Gatiss and Vinay Patel. Also featuring work from Chris Riddell, Joy Wilkinson, Paul Cornell, Sonia Leong, Sophie Cowdrey, Mike Collins and many more, Adventures in Lockdown is a book for any Doctor Who fan in your life, stories that will send your heart spinning wildly through time and space... 
 
 £2.25 from every copy sold in the UK of Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown will benefit Children in Need (registered charity number 802052 in England &amp; Wales and SC039557 in Scotland)

Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown

Eric Morecambe

Ernie Wise

Eddie Braben

With a brand new introduction by Eddie Braben and including never-before-seen material 
 
Morecambe and Wise charmed a nation for decades and at their height commanded TV audiences that could only be matched by the moon landings and the 1966 World Cup final. Often called the third member of Morecambe and Wise, the late Eddie Braben was the quiet genius behind their best-loved jokes. Here, collected together for the first time, is a celebration of the finest repartee Braben ever penned for them - the banter between Eric and Little Ern, lines from those horrendous plays what Ernie wrote, and the unforgettable celebrity encounters with such names as Glenda Jackson, Andre Previn and, of course, Des O'Connor. The perfect Christmas stocking-filler for Eric and Ernie fans young and old. 
 
Ernie: Can you remember the first words you spoke in the theatre? 
 
Eric: I'll never forget them. How could I? 'This way, please! Programmes!...' After a couple of months came my big break. That great Shakespearian actor and dance band leader, Sir Lawrence Olivier came to the theatre. 
 
Ernie: What happened? 
 
Eric: He came up to me. My heart stopped. He said, ' Young man, have you read any of Shakespeare's plays?' 
 
Ernie: What did you say? 
 
Eric: I said, 'Only two of them.' He said, 'Which ones?' I said, 'Romeo and Juliet.' So he put me in his next play. 
 
Ernie: What was it about? 
 
Eric: It was about thirty minutes too long.

Eddie Braben’s Morecambe and Wise Book

Richard Porter

For over ten years, Top Gear has been travelling all over Britain in the course of making the world’s best programme about cars, driving, and three men in smart-casual clothes shouting at each other. So, who better to assemble a guide to Britain itself with all its glories, quirks and multiple words for bread rolls? 
 
This book is not only a guide for outsiders; it is an invaluable reference manual for Britons themselves, like a mirror held up to our very souls.* Join us then, as we travel from A-Z cataloguing and making moderately flippant remarks about every aspect of life and living in the best country in the world after New Zealand, Denmark, probably Canada and some bits of France. 
 
*Although in this case, a mirror that has been dropped and then run over by a small lorry but don’t worry, some bits of it still just about work.

The Top Gear Guide to Britain

A celebration of the fourth best country in the world

Nev Wilshire

Nev’s unorthodox management style, which involves compulsory sing-a-longs, matchmaking attempts, arm wrestling bouts and the use of very direct language delivered at high volume, often puts him at odds with HR. But, as CEO and founder of Save Britain Money, which turns over £60m a year, and which recently came second in a competition to find the best company to work for in the UK, Nev’s skills are undisputed. 
 
 And now, in Happy People Sell, Nev will, for the first time, share the secrets of his success. With chapters including SWSWSWN (Some Will, Some Won’t, So What? Next!), Dial with a Smile, Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, I Favour Those with a Glide in their Slide and The Heart of the Matter is a Matter of the Heart, Nev offers his own, no-nonsense vision of empire building and corporate administration. 
 
Case studies featuring popular call centre staff, including tea-lady Hayley who excelled in Episode 3 at organising a piss-up in a brewery, will appear throughout – though HR have added their own notes when Nev wasn't looking. 
 
As Nev would say, 'GET IN HERE, NOW!'

Happy People Sell

My Philosophies for Success

Ambitious but Rubbish reveals the off-camera secrets behind some of Top Gear’s most memorable creations. 
 
 From the challenge of turning a Reliant Robin into a rocket and the genesis of the Hammerhead-i Eagle Thrust electric car to the complexities of building a caravan airship and the inspiration for destruction-testing a Toyota Hilux, this book is packed with the previously untold stories behind dozens of classic TV moments. 
 
 Top Gear has never shied away from trying to answer questions no one has even thought to ask. Questions like ‘Can you make a convertible people carrier?’, ‘Can you cross the Channel in a pick-up?’ and ‘Can you turn a combine harvester into a snow plough?’. Ambitious but Rubbish reveals how those insane ideas came about with remarkable tales of ingenious invention and idiotic engineering. 
 
 This book is essential reading for any Top Gear fan and a terrific insight into the creation of the world’s biggest car show. It’s also a terrifying window into the minds of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. Don’t say you weren’t warned about that last one.

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