Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Stanislaus Kennedy

In Seasons of Hope, the follow up to her bestselling Day by Day, Sister Stan offers words of wisdom to calm the mind and refocus our energies. Through verse and inspirational quotations from many enlightened figures, she offers us a chance to step away from this frantic world – to stop, to look, to think – and be open to new possibilities. 
 
 Also included here are contributions on a range of subjects, such as the gift of life, compassion, meditation and the soul, from influential figures such as writer and playwright, Michael Harding, poets Theo Dorgan and Eavan Boland, and social campaigner, Ruairi McKiernan – each one offering a thought-provoking and unique perspective on our world.

Seasons of Hope

Robert Crampton

From rom coms to wrestling and fatherhood to fist fights, Robert Crampton's How to Be a Beta Male is a brilliantly funny and sometimes moving insight into being a modern-day bloke. 
 
Robert Crampton has been writing his Beta Male column for The Times since 2001. A much-loved weekly insight into modern masculinity – whatever that might mean – Beta Male strives to unlock the secrets of contemporary relationships in all their frequent glory, occasional frustration and on-going complexity. While by his own admission totally failing in this task, Crampton is at any rate amusing as he goes about his business, as his legions of loyal fans would attest. 
 
How to be a Beta Male is a carefully curated selection, bursting with observational nuggets on the minutiae of daily domestics and disasters in the Crampton household, and offering the very best of a sixteen-year-long account of what it is to be a beta male married to an alpha female. From his attempts at DIY to disciplining their children to trying once in a while to put his foot down to getting involved in a punch-up in the street in her defence, Robert continues to fail to impress his wife but always delights his readers. 
 
It's a very smart, extremely funny and yet surprisingly sensitive exploration of the trials, tribulations – and, ultimately, triumphs – of not being young, free and single.

How to Be a Beta Male

Dennis Smith

When disaster struck at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Dennis Smith was among the first to arrive on the scene. Report from Ground Zero is his insider's account of the heroic efforts of the firefighters, police and emergency workers who rushed to downtown New York to face the greatest challenge of their lives. 
 
In all, 343 firefighters gave their lives. Entire companies were lost. Among the dead were a father and son; the department's beloved chaplain; commanders and rookies. Smith, author of the classic bestseller Report from Engine Company 82 and once described as 'the Poet Laureate of firefighters' by the New York Post, tells their stories and those of their families, the camaraderie in their companies and the massive recovery efforts following the catastrophe. 
 
As the world tries to come to terms with the horror of what happened, the firefighters' courage and fortitude in the face of enormous personal danger and bereavement offers a beacon of hope and redemption. Report from Ground Zero is a tribute to those heroes for our troubled times.

Report From Ground Zero

John O'Farrell

A doctor in America has just invented a 'sperm sorting machine'. At least that's what he claimed when his receptionist burst into the office to find him doing something peculiar with the Hoover attachment. Apparently the system used for separating the male and female sperm is remarkably simple. A sample is placed in the petri dish with a microscopic pile of household items on a tiny staircase. All the sperm that go straight past without picking anything up are obviously boys. 
 
John O'Farrell's first collection of columns GLOBAL VILLAGE IDIOT was a huge success prompting fulsome praise from such major public figures as the Queen Mother, Roy Jenkins and Cardinal Hume. Sadly, since their deaths, their glowing endorsements cannot be officially verified. So here instead is another collection of funny, satirical essays on a hundred and one 21st century subjects. Read how the government plans to introduce 'Santa loans' that will leave school children £10,000 in debt for all the presents that used to be free from Father Christmas. Learn how the EU is being expanded to include Narnia. And did you know that American war planes now have a little sticker on the back saying 'How's my bombing?' with an 0800 number to call if they blow up any Muslim country in a discourteous of aggressive manner . . .

I Blame The Scapegoats

Diana Wynne Jones

Reflections is a witty and insightful collection of essays, talks and interviews by beloved fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones, spanning thirty years of her life and work. 
 
Drawing on her experiences studying under Tolkien and C.S Lewis at Oxford, Jones explores fantasy literature with sharp intelligence and humour. Alongside literary analysis, she shares anecdotes from her peculiar childhood during WWII and life with dyslexia to her notorious travel jinx and the memorable time her sister was reprimanded by Beatrix Potter. 
 
Highlights include: 
 
<ul><li>Practical advice on writing fantasy, including what worked for Jones – and what might work for you</li></ul> 
<ul><li>The ethical responsibility of writing for children</li></ul> 
<ul><li>Insight into the inspirations behind her own books</li></ul> 
<ul><li>Moving tributes from her sons, Colin and Richard, reflecting on her legacy and the family bonds shaped by her storytelling</li></ul> 
Full of wisdom, humour and passion, Reflections showcases the distinctive voice that helped shape modern British Fantasy and inspired writers such as Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman and Cressida Cowell. 
 
Essential reading for anyone who writes – or dreams of writing.

Reflections

Jilly Cooper

More infectious humour and witty observations from Jilly Cooper, whose latest collection of articles, originally published in The Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, includes a light-hearted and irreverent account of a visit to Australia, published for the first time in its entirety. Scenes nearer home, viewed with equal disrespect include th ediverse worlds of a vet's conference, fashionable charity balls, the London to Brighton run and Hen Night in Wandsworth. And, as always, Jilly Cooper is a devastating, hilarious and sometimes moving chronicler of the minutiae of family life, with some fascinating sidelights and side-swipes at the middle-class educational rat race along the way.

Jolly Marsupial

Emma Freud

Clement Freud, who died suddenly in April 2009, was a man of many parts. His life embraced a variety of careers, including TV chef, gambler, owner of a night club and several racehorses, radio broadcaster, adventurer and - not least - Member of Parliament. Yet, as his son Matthew declared at his funeral, it was Freud's writing that brought us closest to the man. 
 
In addition to several books - notably the children's book Grimble (1968), Freud on Food (1978), The Book of Hangovers (1981) and a volume of autobiography, Freud Ego (2001) - he wrote on a vast range of subjects for newspapers and magazines, including the Observer, Sun, Financial Times, Sporting Life, Daily Mail, Tatler, Guardian, New Yorker and Racing Post. A Feast of Freud presents a generous helping of Clement Freud's best and most humorous writing on a broad sweep of topics, including his consuming passions of food, sport, politics and the absurdity of the human condition, reflecting his extraordinarily varied life through the prism of his distinctive deadpan humour. 
 
From the pen of the man who once joked of being 'out-grandfathered' by the younger Winston Churchill comes this richly stocked volume that every Freud fan, no matter in which of his many lives they encountered him, will treasure.

A Feast of Freud

The wittiest writings of Clement Freud

Nora Ephron

‘Nora Ephron can write about anything better than anybody else can write about anything’ 
New York Times 
 
A bitingly funny, provocative and revealing look at our foibles, passions and pastimes – from the much-missed, bestselling author of I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing. 
 
From her Academy Award-nominated screenplays (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Julie &amp; Julia) to her bestselling fiction and essays, Nora Ephron was one of the most gifted, prolific and versatile writers of our time. 
 
In this classic collection of magazine articles, Ephron does what she does best: embrace culture with love, cynicism and unmatched wit. 
 
From tracking down the beginnings of the self-help movement, to dressing down the fashion world’s most powerful publication, to capturing a glimpse of a legendary movie in the making, these timeless pieces tap into our enduring obsessions with celebrity, food, romance, clothes, entertainment and sex. Whether casting her ingenious eye on public figures or herself, Ephron deftly weaves her journalistic skill with the intimate style of an essayist and the incomparable talent of a great storyteller.

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