Heidi Perks is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Now You See Her, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Come Back for Me, Three Perfect Liars, The Whispers and The Other Guest. The Last Resort is her sixth novel. Heidi is a voracious reader of crime and thrillers and is fascinated by the darker side of our closest relationships. Heidi lives in Bournemouth with her husband and two children.

Heidi Perks

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Sebastian Faulks

'A wise and heartfelt piece of writing' THE TIMES 
 
'Witty' INDEPENDENT 
 
'Wry and reflective . . . a soulful look at a life in words' i PAPER 
 
‘A wonderful portrait of an age, and of a writer’ RORY STEWART, author of Politics on the Edge 
 
‘Utterly fascinating’ DAVID KYNASTON, author of A Northern Wind 
 
'Shot through with the kind of depth and detail that can only come from a masterful writer finally turning his pen to his own life. Fresh, wise and finely-wrought' ALICE WINN, author of In Memoriam 
 
‘As charming and funny in schoolboy episodes as he is thought-provoking in the darker environs of mental health, Sebastian Faulks is always resonant, civilised and sane’ MARK KNOPFLER 
 
***In Fires Which Burned Brightly, Faulks, a reluctant memoirist, offers readers a series of detailed snapshots from a life in progress. They include a post-war rural childhood – ‘cold mutton and wet washing on a rack over the range’ – the booze-sodden heyday of Fleet Street and a career as one of the country’s most acclaimed novelists. 
 
There are not one, but two daring escapes from boarding school; the delirium of a jetlagged American book tour; the writing of Birdsong in his brother’s house in 1992; and memorable trips across the channel to France. Politics, psychiatry and frustrated ventures into the world of entertainment are analysed with patience and rueful humour. 
 
The book is driven by a desire ‘to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ It ends with a tribute to Faulks’s parents and a sense of how his own generation was shaped by the disruptive power of war and its aftermath.Sharply perceptive and alive with a generous wit, Fires Which Burned Brightly is a work of subtle yet profound intelligence and warmth. 
PRAISE FOR SEBASTIAN FAULKS 
 
'Faulks writes with great emotional authority' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'A prodigiously talented writer' NEW YORK TIMES 
 
'Faulks is beyond doubt a master' FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'The most impressive novelist of his generation' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Fires Which Burned Brightly

A Life in Progress

Turi Munthe

‘Fascinating, incredibly valuable and accessible – a compelling view of why we see the world and each other the way we do’ 
Bobby Duffy, author of The Perils of Perception 
 
Why do our fiercest arguments flare up with the people we love most? Are our views really forged by reason and evidence – or by forces we barely notice? And if the world feels more divided than ever, is that entirely a bad thing? 
 
In Why We Think What We Think, Turi Munthe uncovers the startling origins of our deepest beliefs. Without knowing it, almost all our opinions – whether we believe in God or in ghosts, our views on sex or animal rights or immigration, our basic sense of what’s right – are shaped by a mesmerizing web of hidden factors. We are influenced by everything from the quirks of distant history to the geology of where we grew up. 
 
Taking readers on an unforgettable journey around the world and through the DNA of our opinions, this entertaining book reveals among much else: 
<ul><li>how you can tell someone’s politics from their taste buds</li><li>why anxiety fuels conspiracy thinking</li><li>how our ancestors’ agriculture still affects our ethics</li><li>why climate influences our religious belief</li></ul> 
Packed with surprising stories and counterintuitive insights, Why We Think What We Think will transform the way you see the world and your place within it.

Why We Think What We Think

The Unexpected Origins of Our Deepest Beliefs

Louise Wallace

Thea lives under a mountain – one that's ready to blow. 
A vet at a mid-sized rural practice, she has been called back during maternity leave and is coping – just – with the juggle of meetings, mealtimes, farm visits, her boss's search for legal loopholes and the constant care of her much-loved children, Eli and Lucy. 
 
But something is shifting in Thea – something is burning. Or is it that she is becoming aware, for the first time, of the bright, hot core at her centre? 
 
An urgent rallying cry to women everywhere, ASH is a story about reckoning with one's rage and finding marvels in the midst of chaos.

Jennie Godfrey

'From the very first page I was in awe. I LOVED it.' MARIAN KEYES 
 
‘A beautiful story about secrets, lies and community.’ GRAHAM NORTON 
 
'A delicious and irresistible story. An utter treat.' RACHEL JOYCE 
 
'Gripping, suspenseful, moving, perfectly constructed.' SOPHIE HANNAH 
 
FROM THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS . . . 
It's the summer of 1985 and the residents of Delmont Close are preparing a neighbourhood barbecue to watch the biggest music event in history: Live Aid. A day like no other that will end having reached millions and changed the lives of all who attend. 
 
House-proud Lydia Gordon, whose idols are Princess Di and Delia Smith, is determined to put on a show that will impress everyone - with her posh garden and state-of-the-art television, and her sweet husband and two children, Hanna and David. 
 
But as the guests flood into number nine, so do all of the secrets that have been kept in the close. 
 
Rita, a new neighbour from Australia, is hoping for a fresh start but harbours a shocking event in her past; Steve, a young Falklands veteran, battles his own demons; and Mr Wilson is surely too good-looking to ever be trusted. 
 
But as the hours count down to the last performance of the night, it's Lydia who faces the heart-breaking truth that her immaculate home and flawless family might not be so perfect after all. 
 
And if each of their neighbours is guilty of hiding something, so are the Gordons at number nine ... 
 
'Brilliantly evocative and deliciously addictive. I couldn't stop reading until all the characters' secrets were revealed.' CLAIRE FULLER 
 
'Jennie Godfrey is such a tremendous storyteller. This book doesn't shy away from the dark, while encouraging us all to embrace the light.' DAISY BUCHANAN 
 
'Sizzles with secrets, suspense, superbly drawn characters, and so much heart.' NIKKI MAY

The Barbecue at No.9

Krystelle Bamford

LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2025 
 
'Unsettling, puckish, and brilliantly written, this novel is an absolute one-off. I loved it' CLAIRE FULLER 
 
'Magical, perplexing and funny in a wholly original way' RACHEL YODER 
 
'Ambitious, wildly original . . . marches to its own beat' THE TIMES 
 
'Bamford conjures, in vivid, amplified language, how children fluidly and unpredictably make sense of the world … [Idle Grounds] is unsettling, sharply funny at times, with carefully built-up layers of dis-ease delivered in a comic deadpan' GUARDIAN 
 
'A masterclass in misdirection' FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'A debut which marks the arrival of a singular new talent' IRISH TIMES 
 
'Superb' THE TELEGRAPH 
 
As always with these things it started with a birthday party. 
 
On a bright summer day in 1989 New England, Abi, three years old, vanishes from her aunt’s secluded home. Upstairs, her young cousins are looking out of the window. Something is unfolding in the distance at the edge of the forest – something sinister that is watching them back. 
 
The adults don’t seem to notice that the youngest of the group has disappeared. Too busy bickering over politics and reminiscing about the family’s domineering late matriarch, Beezy, they leave the children with no choice but to get Abi back themselves. As the cousins embark on a quest through their grandmother’s sprawling estate, buried family secrets come to light and long-awaited plans are set in motion. Will they lose themselves while trying to find her? 
 
Idle Grounds is a chilling, evocative and darkly comic debut about childhood, legacy, and the burdens and privileges we carry with us. 
 
'Haunting yet humorous, this is a debut to look out for' DAZED 
 
'Every sentence positively bristles with unease. One of the most atmospheric novels I have read in a long time. Beautifully written' JENNIE GODFREY 
 
'An acid trip of a novel. Weird, sinister and darkly funny' AMY TWIGG

Idle Grounds

Johanna Swanberg

‘Clever, funny and tender’ FREDRIK BACKMAN, author of ANXIOUS PEOPLE and A MAN CALLED OVE 
 
'A warm and funny tale about betrayal, loneliness and sorrow, but above all the desire to belong' LISA RIDZÉN, author of WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH 
 
There’s no health guru in Sweden better than Cassi. Couple’s therapy? Puppy yoga? Full moon rituals? She’s got everyone in the remote village of Bäcken covered. The locals don’t really know who Cassi is or how she managed to turn a derelict cottage into a successful self help retreat, but one thing is clear: they’re all willing to pay good money for her services. 
 
There’s only one problem: Cassi is a fraud. A great one at that, who has concealed her true self – a jobless, depressed alcoholic – and gotten rich in the process. But can a life based on a lie really last? And will her new friends accept her for who she really is when her secrets eventually come to the surface? 
 
My Year As A Fraud is a heartwarming, hilarious and healing translated debut novel about hitting rock bottom and finding your way back from an unmissable new voice in Swedish fiction.

My Year As A Fraud

Ito Ogawa

You always told me that writing is life itself. 
 
After many years abroad, Hatoko reluctantly returns to Kamakura to take over the stationery store left to her by her late grandmother. As the custodian of the store, she also inherits the profession of public scribe, a role Hatoko trained for as a child under the guidance of her strict grandmother. 
 
As the locals seek out Hatoko's help, she takes on all manner of requests: writing letters of greeting, condolence, farewell, love, and more on behalf of those who come to her. A local community forms around Hatoko and the store, and, when the secrets of her late grandmother begin to unravel, Hatoko learns that the role of the scribe requires much more than putting ink to paper. 
 
Set to the rhythm of the four seasons and the Japanese rituals and festivities that come with them, Tsubaki Stationery Store is a charming story about the importance of community and the reconciliatory power of the written word.

Tsubaki Stationery Store

Amy Abdelnoor

'Ambitious and complex but handled with impressive ease' ROSE TREMAIN 
It is the year 2000 when Dinah, a Jewish teenager from London, arrives in Israel with her family. Still reeling from the death of her beloved dad, the idea of having to start all over again daunts her. Dinah isn’t quite sure what to make of this seemingly pristine place: her new life seems soulless and suffocating. Another teenager, Safa, watches Dinah settle in. A fourteen-year-old Palestinian who was shot and killed decades ago in the Six Day War, Safa is caught in a limbo which she calls the ‘In-Between’. She is unable to fully pass on without knowing what happened to her younger sister, Nur, who is still alive somewhere. Thirty-three years after her death, the possibility of finding her is suddenly within reach – but she needs Dinah to help her. 
 
Alternating between past and present, and between Safa and Dinah, Ever Land is a gripping and powerful story that sheds light on the ongoing occupation of Palestine. It is a tale of belonging and identity, of devastation and displacement and – ultimately – of the enduring universality of humanity and love.

Ever Land

Andrew Hunter Murray

Alex used to break into other people’s houses. 
 
These days though, he's turned his life around. He still breaks into homes and offices – but now it's legal, to test the security for the rightful owners. He’s got a job, a regular income, a roof over his head, even a girlfriend. 
 
For once, it's all going right. 
 
And then he takes a job he shouldn’t, and steals a souvenir – a vial of white powder – from an executive's desk in an office he's just entered. 
 
It’s pretty clear what the powder is. Only it proves to be something quite different, and soon Alex’s problems begin in earnest as his own flat is trashed and his life is threatened. 
 
This little tube has opened up a whole world of trouble for Alex and his friends. 
 
Trouble that won’t go away any time soon... 
 
---------------- 
 
Praise for A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering... 
 
'Fantastic' Zoe Ball 
 
‘A joyous read from start to finish. I loved it!’ Clare Mackintosh 
 
'It’s laugh-out-loud funny, proceeding at a pace that makes it almost impossible to put down.' Sunday Times 
 
'A comic delight' Financial Times

Bad Deeds

Amber Husain

If you are what you eat, what does that make you? Virtuous, cool, immortal? Or deviant, pitiful, ill? Is it useful to make these judgements? Do they help us improve our lives? 
 
In a world where it feels as though the value of your life can be gauged by the goodness in your dinner, it is possible, even easy, to lose the will to live. This became particularly obvious to writer Amber Husain when suddenly, despite almost thirty years of practice, it seemed she had forgotten how to eat. 
 
Medical wisdom tries fix the problem non-eater by teaching them the rules of Good Diet. But what if the problem is precisely the narrowing of life to questions of personal goodness? Suspecting there might be more to her stand-off with food than matters of identity and diet, Husain embarked on an enquiry into the special role of eating in our relationship with the world. 
 
Combining a personal account of modern eating-disorder treatments, from the disturbing to the sublime, with a sprawling collective history of eating in hard times, Tell Me How You Eat unearths the astonishing effect of how we feed ourselves and others, not just on who we are, but on how we perceive our own political power. In doing so, it marks a bold and inspiring confrontation with our very understanding of food.

Tell Me How You Eat

Food, Power and the Will to Live

Kate Bryan

David Shrigley

What is art, where do I find it, and once I’m in front of it, what am I supposed to think about it? 
 
Kate Bryan is a self-confessed art addict who has worked with art for over twenty years. But before she studied art history at university, she’d been into a gallery just twice in her life and had no idea she was entering an elitist world. 
 
Now, she’s on a mission to help everybody come to art. Like playing or listening to music, or cooking and eating great food, reading or watching films, making art or looking at other people’s deserves to be an enriching part of all our lives. 
 
So here, in HOW TO ART, is a nifty way to take art on your own terms. From where it is to what it is, to tips on how to actually enjoy really famous artworks like the Mona Lisa, to how to own art and make art at home, through to vital advice for making a career as an artist and even how to make your dog more cultural, How to Art gives art to everyone, and makes it fun. 
 
Laced throughout with original artworks by the very down-to-earth artist David Shrigley.

How To Art

Bringing a Fancy Subject Down to Earth so We Can All Enjoy It

Adam Roberts

'Think Bridget Jones if she were in The Bear' SUNDAY TIMES STYLE 
'Slyly satirical and richly comedic' EVENING STANDARD 
'Sharp, witty and funny ... the perfect beach read' INDEPENDENT 
'Literally the most delicious beach read ... The Devil Wears Prada for devoted foodies' PLUM SYKES 
'Part romp, part satire and frequently mouthwatering. Do not read on an empty stomach' HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 
'A delicious debut' PEOPLE 
 
What if Andy Sachs found a job in a test kitchen ... 
 
When twenty-something Isabella Pasternack is fired from her job at a digital food magazine, she accepts a thankless job for the paycheck: ghostwrite the very past-due cookbook for a once-beloved thirty-something actress, Molly Babcock. 
 
Molly, trying to repair her reputation after a serious downward spiral, meets Isabella’s earnest attempts to connect with inconsistency, indifference, and cruelty. But, for the first time in her life, Isabella is determined to dig in her heels, and figure out if there’s anything Molly actually knows how to cook (or even likes to eat). 
 
Isabella’s slice of contemporary New York is filled out by a cast including: Isabella’s acerbic roommate and best friend Owen, her widowed mother whose cooking isn’t only bad, it’s dangerous, and of course a handsome chef love interest. Hilarious and hopeful, at its core, Food Person is about commitment to self-discovery, the beauty of community, and how unapologetically forging your own future can lead to everyone getting the ending they deserve. And of course, very delicious food. 
 
'A fun summer read' DAILY MAIL 
'A boisterous page-turner' WASHINGTON POST 
'Utterly delicious and satisfying to the end' MARY ROACH 
'Hilarious, harrowing, and heartwarming ... if you are not a food person already, it may make one out of you' J. RYAN STRADAL 
'A debut that's about as perfect as they come ... Get ready for a riotous romp' GRANT GINDER 
'A savoury meal of a debut. Charming, witty ... You'll want seconds!' STEVEN ROWLEY

Food Person

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024 
 
‘Sparkling’ NEW YORK TIMES 
‘Magnetic’ IRA GLASS 
‘Fierce’ TIME 
 
'In García Márquez, people in love experienced bouts of vomiting, psychosomatic fevers and real catatonia. I wanted to make boys sick, too. This is how I wanted to be loved.' 
 
When Catalina, a witty, vulnerable and beautiful Ecuadorian student, arrives at Harvard, she feels like one of the chosen. She is a miracle child who has escaped death in Latin America to be raised by undocumented grandparents and now studies at the most prestigious university in the world. She knows she has to play the part, but she also wants to have a good time in the process. And so begins her era of opulent parties, secret societies, desirable internships, flings with rich men and plenty of vodka sodas. 
 
But in her final year, undocumented immigrants become the target of political turmoil and Catalina’s life back in New York begins to unravel. As the clock ticks on the precarious future of her family, what will she sacrifice to save the people she loves the most? 
 
Catalina is a daring, glamorous and sharply observed campus novel about coming into your own and the endless possibilities of freedom, love and power. 
 
'She is a worthy student of Gabriel García Márquez' The Atlantic 
'[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel' PEOPLE 
'Destined to be a contemporary American classic' FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy

Catalina

P.G. Wodehouse

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CATHY RENTZENBRINK 
 
'For as long as I'm immersed in a P.G. Wodehouse book, it's possible to keep the real world at bay and live in a far, far nicer, funnier one' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'Sunlit perfection' STEPHEN FRY 
 
'Wodehouse is as loved as ever, and his vivid prose style and unique comic invention are major contributions to English fiction' GUARDIAN 
 
A joyous romp through a year of Wodehouse's most treasured stories, month by month. The ultimate gift for anyone who needs cheering throughout the year. All of his treasured characters are here, Jeeves, Smith and, of course, the Empress of Blandings herself. 
 
'Paper has rarely been put to better use' CAITLIN MORAN 
 
'Ingenious. Worth reading again and again' SPECTATOR 
 
'Incomparable and timeless genius' KATE MOSSE 
 
'The funniest writer ever to put words to paper' HUGH LAURIE

Jolly Festive, Jeeves

Seasonal Stories from the World of Wodehouse

Freya Bromley

THE NERO BOOK AWARD SHORTLISTED AUTHOR 
 
'A heartfelt, nuanced debut novel which balances the tension of opposites . . . a sparkling ode to sisterhood and finding the sublime in the everyday' SHARLENE TEO 
 
What does it mean for a stranger to think you’re brave? Readers called me ‘raw’ because I wrote about crying into takeaway containers and drunk texting my dead sister’s number. People wanted to believe it was fearless of me to broadcast my breakdown, but the truth was that I’d curated that messiness until it was just the right kind of chaos. 
 
Nola McConkey has made it. Animal Oracle, the memoir she has written about her beloved late sister Darina, has become a hit. People read it, critics loved it, producers now want to make it into a movie. The dream of quitting her job and becoming a full-time writer in London doesn’t seem so far away. There’s only one problem: everyone in her family has an opinion about the book – and none of them are good. Though Nola can’t let it affect her. It’s the price she must pay for the life she wants. 
 
But now, someone has made an anonymous complaint to her publisher about Animal Oracle. Suddenly, her hard-won reputation as a literary darling is at stake. Nola is sure that only someone in her secretive, chaotic family could be to blame. As her parents and three remaining siblings prepare to spend the fifth anniversary of Darina’s death together on the isolated island of Lundy, Nola knows this is the perfect opportunity to convince her accuser to pull the complaint before it causes irreparable damage – but first, she must discover who made it. 
 
A Real Piece of Work is a sparkling and spiky story of complicated families and even more complicated sisters, exploring who owns grief and who gets to tell the story of those who are gone and those left behind with tenderness, nuance and wit. 
 
 
***PRAISE FOR FREYA BROMLEY*** 
'Immersive and compelling' CATHY RENTZENBRINK 
'Beautiful, brilliantly written' EMMA GANNON 
'Astonishing . . . raw, poignant, bracing' GUARDIAN

A Real Piece of Work

Jenni Fagan

'Fagan's writing is poetic, high-octane, arresting' Sunday Times 
'She writes unlike any other author of her generation' The Scotsman 
'One of our most exceptional writers' Adelle Stripe 
 
Edi is facing a disciplinary since her 'incident' at work. Forty-seven years in Admin processing the newly dead is not how she foresaw eternity. 
 
In Arrivals, the newly dead must take the stages in order: first, extract delusion; second, answer HR's questionnaire truthfully. Yet who among them can truly face who they are? Who may never pass at all? As leaderboard numbers begin to rise at unprecedented rates, rumours begin to fly. Humans are about to become a banned race. The earth is going to be repossessed. 
 
As chaos descends, Edi hopes this might finally be the moment she has waited for, so she might see her son again who she was forced to leave on Earth when she died. Edi wants to be the one waiting for him, even if HR protocols forbid it. Looking out at the millions of newly dead arriving, Edi has one question - what might any of us truly be willing to do for those we love at the doors of eternity? 
 
Against a spectacular backdrop of stars, constellations and comets, a mass extinction event begins to unfurl watched by the entire universe as Processing, the largest soul terminus in existence, decides it is now time to take matters wholly back into its own hands. With reflections on love, defiance and light, The Delusions is a story of profound human connection, on an unprecedented scale.

The Delusions

Andrea Long Chu

This highly anticipated book by the Pulitzer Prize winning critic Andrea Long Chu asks one of the most urgent questions of our time: what is authority when everyone has an opinion on everything? 
 
'A rigorous thinker armed with a killer turn of phrase' 
Observer 
 
'Her writing is razor-sharp, personal, and vociferous in its proclamations, but it’s also fun – it’s got bite' 
New Statesman 
 
'Fun reading' 
Guardian 
 
'A galaxy-brain-level thinker' Torrey Peters 
 
'One of the most charismatic and original thinkers at work today' Brandon Taylor 
 
'Thrilling... Authority reminds us we haven't yet felt all there is to feel' Kaveh Akbar 
'A pure joy to read' Claire Dederer 
Since her canonical 2017 essay ‘On Liking Women’, the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Andrea Long Chu has established herself as one of the most provocative, funny, brilliant and stylish critics at work today. With devastating wit and polemical clarity, she defies the imperative to leave politics out of art, instead modeling how the left might brave the culture wars without throwing in with the cynics and doomsayers.Authority brings together Chu’s critical work across a wide range of media—novels, television, theater, video games—as well as an acclaimed tetralogy of literary essays first published in n+1. As a critic, Chu places The Phantom of the Opera within a centuries-old conflict between music and drama; questions the enduring habit of reading Octavia Butler’s science fiction as a parable of slavery; teases out the ideology behind Hillary Clinton’s (fictional) sex life; and charges fellow critics like Maggie Nelson and Zadie Smith with a complacent humanism. 
 
The unifying theme of the book is authority and taste in literature, art, culture and politics: how do we decide what's good, and how do we convince others that our judgement is correct?

Authority

Essays on Being Right

Philippa Perry

***THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR*** 
 
**OVER THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE** 
 
Her 3 o’clock just became a murder case... 
 
When a body washes up near Beachy Head, the Police chalk it up to suicide — a tragic but not uncommon end in these parts. 
 
But local psychotherapist Patricia Philipps isn’t convinced. 
 
The victim? Her three o’clock patient, Henry Clayton. 
The cause? Supposedly self-inflicted. 
The truth? Pat suspects murder and she’s trained to spot what others miss. 
 
After all, she spends her days listening to secrets, resentments, fantasies and motives. And she’s certain someone wanted Henry Clayton dead. 
 
With her chaotic best friend Pritchard in tow (part-time brewer, full-time meddler), Pat swaps the therapy room for the crime scene. It’s time to unpick the lies, untangle the egos and catch a killer hiding in plain sight. 
 
Shrink Solves Murder is a warm, witty and wise crime caper from the nation's favourite therapist.

Shrink Solves Murder

Lauren Groff

"Groff reminds us of the myriad human galaxies around us, spinning off brightly into the dark." MELISSA HARRISON, author of All Among the Barley 
 
One of our best writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida. 
 
Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region - from New England to Florida to California - these nine stories reflect and expand upon a single shared theme: the ceaseless battle between the dark and light in all of us. 
 
Among those caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling; a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult; a mother blinded by the loss of her family; and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by human fallibility, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. 
 
Precise, surprising and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated fracture points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and survival. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today. 
 
Praise for Lauren Groff 
"Her writing has a timeless quality" The Times on The Vaster Wilds 
"Groff's writing is muscular and precise, her themes wildly resonant" Sunday Times on Matrix 
"An audacious piece of storytelling, full of passion, wisdom and magic" Sarah Waters on Matrix 
"It's as brightly lit as an illuminated manuscript" Naomi Alderman on Matrix 
"One of its stories is a bracing read; together they form a masterpiece" Stylist on Florida 
"She's a writer whose turn of phrase can stop you in your tracks" Financial Times on Florida 
"Easily the year's best story collection" Vogue on Florida

Brawler

Michael Palin

In February 2025, Michael Palin travelled to Venezuela to get a sense of what life is like in one of South America's most culturally rich, vibrant but also troubled nations. In the journal he kept during his trip he gives a vivid account of the towns and cities he visited, the landscapes he travelled through, and the people he met. 
 
Illustrated throughout with colour photographs taken on the trip, and permeated with his warmth and humour, this is a vivid and varied portrait of a complex country.

Michael Palin in Venezuela

Eleanor Doughty

There are fewer than 5000 people who can genuinely claim to be members of the British aristocracy, and yet they loom large in the popular consciousness. We're fascinated by their houses and estates, their lives and loves, their foibles and eccentricities. And we entertain the strong suspicion that, while they may be fellow citizens, they are very far from being People Like Us. 
 
In Heirs and Graces Eleanor Doughty draws on her unparalleled access to a bewildering range of dukes, duchesses, earls and others to create a vivid picture of who they are and how they tick. En route she traces their progress from a post-war era when they and their like were described by one future Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer as 'selfish, depraved, dissolute and decadent' to their diverse current roles as guardians of vast ancestral mansions, farmers, financiers and much else beside. She looks at key rites of passage, from cradle, via boarding school to grave. And she tells stories of their ups and downs, and of the doings of the heroes and villains who fill their ranks. 
 
The result is a wonderfully rich, often amusing, always revealing account of the fortunes of the aristocracy over the past century and a series of fascinating glimpses into what it is like to be an aristocrat in Britain today.

Heirs and Graces

A History of the Modern British Aristocracy

Robin Givhan

From Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Robin Givhan comes a groundbreaking chronicle of the legacy of Virgil Abloh, whose iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry transformed our ideas about the connection between who we are and what we wear 
 
In 2018, shockwaves were sent around the fashion industry when Virgil Abloh was appointed the head of menswear for Louis Vuitton. Despite no formal training in pattern-making or tailoring, Abloh had become the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand’s 164-year history. 
 
Make It Ours tells the story of how that moment came to be and how Abloh came to symbolise and embody the industry’s way forward. Using Abloh’s surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gate, and how a simple t-shirt came to hold as much cultural power as a haute couture gown. 
 
With unparalleled access to Abloh’s family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from groundbreaking Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh’s mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man’s rise amidst a cultural moment that would upend a century’s worth of ideas about luxury and taste. This is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury.

Make It Ours

Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh

Hannah Murray

He sat me down in a chair and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that magic was real. 
 
This is the true story of a spiritual awakening that turned into a mental breakdown. At the age of twenty-seven, an actress joins a wellness organisation and falls in love with its leader. She is sectioned for a psychotic break and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 
The Make-Believe is a deeply personal account of these events. It is a wild ride, a searching attempt for understanding and a call for radical empathy. Lyrical and playful, exploring light and dark, it takes readers on a journey to the edges of reality, to a seductive and dangerous world where magic seems possible.

The Make-Believe

A memoir of magic and madness

Caroline Elton

Meet Lionel, Caroline’s older brother. Born in the late 1940s, when little was known about autism, Lionel was considered a peculiarity. From the beginning, he was a silent child, oblivious to the people around him and intent only on playing with his toy trucks. By the time he turned four, doctors declared him ineducable and advised that he be institutionalised – a shockingly standard practise at the time. 
 
No one could have predicted that Lionel would go onto music college and find his place in the world. With the help of his mother – who refused to send him away – Lionel lived a life that was certainly unusual but never dull. He had perfect pitch, could multiply three-figure numbers in his head, or work out which day of the week you were born on, the instant you told him your birthday. 
 
But when Lionel’s mother dies, and shortly after he is diagnosed with cancer, his two sisters struggle to fill the void – to become Lionel’s caretaker and support him as they had promised their mother. Looking After is both a portrait of one autistic man's remarkable life, and a heart-rending story of how one family learnt to care for each other, to deal with loss and to be by each other’s side at the very end.

Looking After

A Portrait of My Autistic Brother

Peter Grainger

When Caroline Thorpe succeeded in casting doubt on the verdict of the inquest into her brother’s death, she could not have anticipated what would follow. 
 
Freddie was Earl Thorpe of Burnham, and as the Kings Lake detectives, headed by DCI Cara Freeman, soon begin to realise, influential people have gone to considerable lengths to cover up a potential scandal surrounding the young man’s death. 
 
Their investigation will take them from Norfolk into the capital, and from idealistic young campaigners to people at the heart of government. The stakes have never been higher for the detectives from Kings Lake Central.

Some Sort of Justice

Jessica Stanley

Discover the joyful, funny love story of the summer - the perfect holiday read for fans of BRIDGET JONES, ONE DAY, and NORMAL PEOPLE. 
 
A NATALIE PORTMAN'S BOOK CLUB PICK 
'THIS SUMMER'S MUST-READ . . . LIKE ONE DAY AND NORMAL PEOPLE' THE TIMES 
'FUNNY, SMART AND MEMORABLE . . . A DELIGHTFUL NOVEL' NEW YORK TIMES 
'AS WARM AS A DAVID NICHOLLS NOVEL' STYLIST 
'A BRILLIANT BOOK THAT HITS ALL THE RIGHT NOTES' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, BOOK OF THE MONTH 
'THIS BOOK IS PERFECTION' SUNDAY TIMES STYLE 
'A DELIGHTFULLY GROUNDED ROMANCE AND A TREASURE . . . VERY HUMAN' GUARDIAN 
'CHARMING . . . WITH QUIET INGENUITY AND COMPASSION' OBSERVER 
'A DEEPLY ENJOYABLE MIX OF ROMANCE, SOCIAL COMEDY AND POLITICAL SATIRE' SUNDAY TIMES 
'I DIDN'T WANT IT TO END' LIANE MORIARTY, internationally bestselling author of BIG LITTLE LIES 
'CLEVER, JOYFUL AND SO FUNNY' NINA STIBBE, author of LOVE, NINA 
'DEEPLY APPEALING AND WINNING' MEG WOLITZER, New York Times bestselling author of THE INTERESTINGS 
 
 
What happens when you find love, but life keeps getting in the way? 
 
When she first meets Adam, Coralie is new to London and feeling adrift. But Adam is clever, witty, and – he insists – half an inch taller than the average British male. His charming four-year-old daughter, Zora, only adds to his appeal. 
 
And yet ten years on, something important is missing from the life Coralie and Adam (though let’s face it, mostly Coralie) have built. Or maybe, having gained everything she dreamed of, Coralie has lost something she once had: herself. 
 
Set against an eventful decade that included the soap opera of five Prime Ministers plus Brexit and Covid, Consider Yourself Kissed puts the subjects of love and family on a grand stage, bringing to life how the intimate drama in our homes inescapably competes for energy and attention with the shared drama of our times. 
 
Consider Yourself Kissed is a captivating portrait of a woman in love which effortlessly balances sweetness with bite, the public with the personal, and humour with heart. 
*** 
 
 
'Sweet and tender' PANDORA SYKES 
'Ringingly original and just absurdly good' CATHERINE NEWMAN, New York Times bestselling author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS 
'I'm annoyed I didn't write this book myself' MADELEINE GRAY, author of GREEN DOT 
‘So astonishingly clever, but with a core of love. I adored it’ DAISY BUCHANAN, author of INSATIABLE 
‘Oh, how I loved and empathised with Coralie!’ JENNIE GODFREY, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS 
'So well-drawn it was like peering through someone’s kitchen window' CLAIRE DAVERLEY, author of TALKING AT NIGHT 
 
READERS LOVE CONSIDER YOURSELF KISSED . . . 
 
‘I predict this will be the book of the summer’ &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘So much more than a romance. Delightful, refreshing and thoughtful’ &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘Funny, insightful and thoroughly enjoyable’ &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘Exceeded my expectations and lifted me out of a real reading rut’ &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘The kind of book you want to share with everyone’ &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; 
‘An engaging and thought-provoking book about the messiness of love, the complications of family life, and the quiet losses that often go unnoticed until it’s too late’ &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088;

Consider Yourself Kissed

Katy Hessel

The year ahead is a gift that has been given to you. What might you do with it?Dive into the year with the wisdom of artists. Gathered from interviews, personal conversations, books and talks, How to Live an Artful Life moves through the months of the year offering you thoughts, reflections and encouragements from artists such as Marina Abramovic, Nan Goldin, Lubaina Himid, Louise Bourgeois and many more. With a thought for every day of the year, whether looking for beginnings in January, freedom in summer, or transformation as the nights draw in, this is a book of words to cherish. The year is full of the promise of work that has yet to be written, paintings that are yet to be painted, people who have yet to meet, talk, or fall in love. With this book in hand, pay attention, and see the world anew. Go out and find it, taste it, seize it, and live it – artfully.

How To Live An Artful Life

366 Inspirations from Artists on how to Bring Creativity to Your Everyday

Alex Kadis

A FIZZINGLY ORIGINAL COMING-OF-AGE STORY: 
HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY MEETS DERRY GIRLS 
 
'Riotously funny, nostalgic and immensely touching.' PANDORA SYKES 
 
'Broke my heart one minute and had me really laughing the next.' XOCHITL GONZALEZ, author of OLGA DIES DREAMING 
 
'Hands down the funniest, most original novel I’ve read in ages.' GRANT GINDER, author of THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING 
 
'Audacious and hilarious.' RUMAAN ALAM, author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND 
 
For Constance ‘Connie’ Costa, life is just beginning. She dreams of leaving behind her dull, dreary life in ‘70s East London, shaking off her deeply embarrassing Greek-Cypriot community of interfering Aunties and pretend ‘cousins’, and running away with her best mate Vas (fellow misfit; NHS specs; soul of a poet). She is determined to take her rightful place alongside her hero, David Bowie, onstage at Wembley Stadium. 
 
Only one thing stands in her way: her father, The Fat Murderer. No longer content with being an absolute imbecile and general abomination of nature, he has dialled up his campaign to ruin Connie’s life ever since the untimely death of her mother. 
 
If she ever wants to claim the destiny that is rightfully hers, Connie has only one option left: to kill him. 
 
Fizzingly original, disarmingly tender and laugh-out-loud funny, BIG NOBODY is a coming-of-age story about first love, first grief, and the long, painful journey to feeling like a somebody. 
 
READERS LOVE CONNIE COSTA . . . 
 
'Poignant, authentic and darkly funny' ***** 
 
'Fabulous - I was rooting for Connie the whole way' ***** 
 
'Smart, funny, quirky' *****

Big Nobody

Amin Ahmad

'Absolutely terrific. It kept me gripped . . . SUCCESSION meets THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS' AJAY CHOWDHURY, author of THE WAITER 
 
'Gripping, propulsive and deliciously twisty' ANGIE KIM, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of HAPPINESS FALLS 
 
'Sleek, propulsive, and packed with twisted family dynamics' KARIN TANABE, author of A WOMAN OF INTELLIGENCE 
 
Good-natured but naïve, Mumbai party boy Ali Azeem is drifting through life. Then he meets the Khan sisters: pretty, marriage-material Maryam and sexy, unpredictable, off-the-rails Farhan. They are the daughters of Abbas Khan, the formidable immigrant patriarch of a glittering property empire, who has succeeded in making New York City his playground. 
 
Ali finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the Khan family’s seductive world of private jets and towering skyscrapers. He begins to uncover rumours of affairs, accusations of corruption – and a troubling connection to the serial killer who once stalked the streets of Manhattan. As he closes in on the truth and learns the cost of the Khans' unattainable wealth and power, Ali must decide: is it a price worth paying? 
 
 
A caper, social satire, and propulsive thriller rolled into one, A Killer in the Family is a wild ride through the streets of Mumbai and New York City. Told in an electric, unforgettable voice, it probes the dark underbelly of the American Dream – leading its reader through a dizzying maze of lies, corruption and murder.

A Killer in the Family

Rachel Khong

From the author of the New York Times bestselling REAL AMERICANS comes a playful, richly inquisitive collection exploring the connections and disruptions which define us. 
 
Throughout MY DEAR YOU, normal people go through extraordinary transformations. A government injects its people with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. A factory worker develops an unlikely friendship with the artificially intelligent sex doll she is tasked with training. God decides that humanity is a lost cause and gives each person 24 hours to decide in which animal form they will spend the rest of their days. 
 
Along the way, characters are confronted with supernatural and otherworldly interventions, as well as the earthly, human concerns that shape our daily lives: capitalism and race, intimacy, memory, and mortality. 
 
Playful and tender, dark and witty, each of these stories is infused with a profound sense of compassion. They express a powerful curiosity about the human experience, and the inescapable choices that meet us all: to have or not have children; to pursue connections with others in spite of life’s impermanence; how to live – and live well.

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