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Pip Granger

The only daughter of alcoholic parents, novelist Pip Granger spent much of her childhood outside looking in. 
 
No strangers to the demon booze, her parents were deeply involved in a passionate relationship that rose to exciting highs and plunged to terrible and often frightening lows. Drink explained the series of crises, the furious rows and life-threatening accidents Pip had to contend with, and it also explained why her home life was so very different from that of most other people she knew. Just after her first birthday her family was evicted from their cottage in Sussex for non-payment of rent - a pattern that was to recur throughout her childhood. Home became a place best avoided, and soon Pip was spending time with her ne'er-do-well father in cafes, snooker-halls and other low dives in London's Soho where she made a series of lasting friendships with the unlikeliest of people. 
 
Brave, funny, original and totally authentic, Alone is a heartbreaking book about alcohol abuse, parental neglect, and the courage of a little girl to find her own way through a trouble-filled world.

Alone

Andrew Swanston

The king’s coronation brings hope. Until a murderer strikes. 
 
Spring 1661: After years of civil war followed by Oliver Cromwell's joyless rule as Lord Protector, England awaits the coronation of King Charles II. The mood in London is one of relief and hope for a better future. 
 But when two respectable gentlemen are found in a foul lane with their throats cut, it becomes apparent that England’s enemies are using the newly re-established post office for their own ends. There are traitors at work and plans to overthrow the king. Another war is possible. 
 Thomas Hill, in London visiting friends, is approached by the king’s security advisor and asked to take charge of deciphering coded letters intercepted by the post office. As the body count rises and the killer starts preying on women, the action draws closer to Thomas – and his loved ones. He finds himself dragged into the hunt for the traitors and the murderer, but will he find them before it’s too late?

The King's Return

(Thomas Hill 3)

Imogen Edwards-Jones

'Something strange occurs to guests as soon as they check in. Even if in real life they are perfectly well-mannered, decent people with proper balanced relationships, as soon as they spin through the revolving hotel doors the normal rules of behaviour no longer seem to apply.' 
 
All of the following is true.Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. All the anecdotes, the stories, the characters, the situations, the highs, the lows, the scams, the drugs, the misery, the love, the death and the insanity are exactly as was told by Anonymous - someone who has spent his whole career working in hotels at the heart of London's luxury hotel industry. However, for legal reasons, the stories now take place in a fictitious hotel known as Hotel Babylon. More than a decade is compressed into a day. Everything else is as it should be. The rich spend money, the hotel makes money and the chambermaids still fight the bellboys over a two-pound coin.It's just another twenty-four hours in an expensive London hotel.

Hotel Babylon

Martin Windrow

‘Perched on the back of a sunlit chair was something about 9 inches tall and shaped rather like a plump toy penguin with a nose-job. It appeared to be wearing a one-piece knitted jumpsuit of pale grey fluff with brown stitching, complete with an attached balaclava helmet. From the face-hole of the fuzzy balaclava, two big, shiny black eyes gazed up at me trustfully. Kweep, it said quietly.’ 
 
When author Martin Windrow met the tawny owlet that he christened Mumble, it was love at first sight. Raising her from a fledgling, through adolescence and into her prime years, Windrow recorded every detail of their time living together (secretly) in a south London tower block, and later in a Sussex village. This is the touching, intriguing and eccentric story of their 15-year relationship, complete with photographs and illustrations of the beautiful Mumble. Along the way, we are given fascinating insight into the ornithology of owls – from their evolution and biology to their breeding habits and hunting tactics. The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar is a witty, quirky and utterly charming account of the companionship between one man and his owl.

The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar

Paul Stewart

1955, Kenya. A group of four acquaintances set out to drive from Nairobi to London, via the Sahara desert, in a 8 horse-power Morris Traveller. Under the leadership of Alan Cooper, a down-on-his-luck farmer, the group was made up of a worldly field biologist who recorded the whole trip on her 8mm cine camera, a genteel schoolmistress of uncertain age in search of romance, and a 17-year-old boy whose mother had insisted that the trip would make a man of him. What united them was a desire for adventure. 
 
As they set off through Equatorial Africa the omens seemed against them. The Mau Mau uprising against British rule in Kenya was at it's height and the days of colonial rule were ending. Their journey was to take them through an Africa that very soon would cease to exist. But it was the desert that turned their joyride into a nightmare. What began as an adventure ended as a desperate fight for life in the blazing sands of the Sahara. Trek brings this story to dramatic life and is a classic account of survival against the odds.

Trek

Deric Longden

The little cat Deric Longden saw sitting forlornly on an upturned bucket belonged to the neighbours, but somehow when it began to rain it seemed only natural to bring him inside. Once there he slipped so easily into Deric and Aileen's lives that there was an unspoken agreement that he had found his real home. Little did he know that he had entered the Longden world, in which the unexpected (almost) always happens. . . 
 
Aileen being Aileen, it was probably inevitable that sooner or later the kitten would be trapped in the refrigerator. And Deric being Deric, the obvious way to thaw him back to life was to make a little coat for him out of a shrunken thermal vest. Thus the cat who came in from the cold got his name - Thermal - and joined the wonderful cast of characters in the ongoing Longden saga.

The Cat Who Came In From The Cold

Johnny Kingdom

When a farmer on Exmoor found a frightened and badly injured red deer calf hanging by the leg from a barbed wire fence, he knew there was only one man he could call. Johnny Kingdom took Bambi home and became her surrogate mother, nursing her through the night after the dangerous operation to amputate her now infected limb. 
 
Against the odds, Bambi survived and, as she grew bigger, became a part of Johnny's family, taking over his garden and developing a taste for custard creams (and Johnny's wife's roses). But it wasn't just Johnny and his family who loved Bambi - friends, neighbours and even complete strangers would occasionally drop by with tasty treats they thought she might enjoy. But the doe in his back garden was by no means Johnny's only contact with the red deer of Exmoor. Over the years he followed the wild herds over moor and farmland as the seasons changed, filming every detail of their lives and trying to understand what Bambi was missing out on. 
 
Millions of viewers fell in love with Bambi during Johnny's BBC television series and accompanying book, but now he tells her full story. Sometimes poignant and sometimes hilarious, this is both the tale of all of Exmoor's wild deer and the story of how one very special animal came to live a very different life.

Bambi and Me

Mary Jane Staples

If you like Katie Flynn, Kristin Hannah and Fiona Valpy, you will love this enthralling, heart-wrenching page-turner of a romantic adventure from multi-million copy seller Mary Jane Staples. 
 
READERS ARE LOVING THE SUMMER DAY IS DONE! 
"I couldn't put it down" - 5 STARS 
"A good and entertaining read" - 5 STARS 
"Perfect" - 5 STARS 
 
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WILL WAR DEAL THE CRUELLEST BLOW OF ALL? 
 
Russia 1911: Young British agent John Kirby comes to Russia to work and to explore a new and exciting country - not to fall in love. But an invitation to the Tsar's ball changes all that. After an evening of dancing and romance, John and the Tsar's eldest daughter, Olga, are totally captivated by one another. 
 
Summers of tennis parties and picnics with Olga follow - life could not get any better. Until a cruel blow is dealt in 1914: John is forced to return to England and Olga and her family are caught up in the bitter and bloody war. 
 
Will John and Olga ever be reunited? Can their love survive the odds? Or will tragedy, pain and longing destroy them both? 
 
The Summer Day is Done was previously published as Woman in Berlin.

The Summer Day is Done

a magical and captivating romantic wartime saga that will keep you gripped

William Black

In the spirit of Al Dente, The Land That Thyme Forgot will describe the intrepid gastronome's search for the heart and soul of Britain through the food we eat. William Black talks to producers, restaurateurs, visits the great and the awful, and seeks out the country's disappearing specialities - tripe, Singing Hinnies, solomongundy, Hindle wakes, Sussex Pond pudding and flummery. Great names, but who on earth still eats, let alone cooks, them? 
 
Britain has a very rich culinary tradition though it is only now that we seem ready to reclaim it. Our meat can be among the best, and the worst. The quality of our cheeses has improved exponentially over the past few years. Farmer's markets are thriving. Our restaurant culture is burgeoning, and we have almost got over those ancient Puritan diktats that pleasure is somehow just not what life is all about. So, perhaps even if we have been a little forgotten in the league of culinary greats, times really are a-changing. 
 
William goes in search of lobscouse in Liverpool, finds salmon in the Severn and cheddar in, well, Cheddar. This journey through the lost traditions of British cuisine is never less than fascinating. Prepare to be amazed . . .

The Land That Thyme Forgot

Wendy Holden

Haatchi and Little B tells the inspiring and moving true story of Owen Howkins (also known as Little B, short for 'Buddy') and Haatchi, an Anatolian shepherd dog who was abandoned on a railway line as a puppy and left for dead. 
 
Thankfully, Haatchi was rescued, despite sustaining severe injuries. And so Haatchi, in turn, was able to rescue Owen, at the time an anxious and withdrawn little boy born with a rare genetic disorder, who found it hard to make friends. But Owen fell in love with his new three-legged canine housemate at first sight, and life would never be the same. 
 
The touching story of this dynamic and loveable duo is a life-affirming tale of happiness and friendship.

Haatchi and Little B

Robert Rankin

The Ministry of Serendipity at Mornington Crescent runs everything. And that is everything.When the Ministry learns of a spacecraft that crashed four thousand years ago into the Pacific Ocean it sends an élite team of paranormal investigators to recover it. A mad alien thaws out, there is hell and horror all around and thousands flee in terror. 
 
Porrig has inherited a planet, or it might be a bookshop, or it might be a gateway into another world. And Porrig is worried, because he has learned a terrible secret. But if he told people, would they listen? No. 
 
But perhaps they should, because a mad alien has thawed out, there is hell and horror all around and thousands are fleeing in terror. And there is every likelihood of there being a bloody big explosion at the end. Will Porrig manage to do anything about it at all?

Apocalypso

Pauline Collins

In 1964, in a bare room in Waterloo, a young actress gave her baby for adoption.They were to be parted for more than twenty years.The actress was Pauline Collins.The baby was her daughter Louise. 
 
Letter to Louise is a poignant, yet often funny, memoir of the months leading up to that day in Waterloo.In it, Pauline Collins recalls the idyllic time spent in rep in Killarney, playing in a different play every night, seven days a week, living in digs - and falling in love.After the season had finished, she found she was pregnant.Frightened and alone now, she decided to have the baby, hiding the fact from family, agents and friends. 
 
Going to ground, she waited for the baby to be born in a home for unmarried mothers, buoyed up by the kindness and humour of the other residents, and the nuns who cared for them.Yet she soon came to realise that she had no choice but to give her daughter away. 
 
Reluctantly she got on with life, finally achieving success and personal happiness.But she never forgot Louise and their story has the ultimate happy ending - the day they were reunited twenty-two years later.

Letter To Louise

J.M. Maloney

'A tale of survival.' Daily Mail 
 
'Survival against the odds ... [an] amazing story.' The Sun 
 
In 1939 Annie Jarman and her six young daughters were evacuated from their south London home and sent to the Sussex countryside to wait out the war. Refusing to be parted, they faced the unknown together, never imagining just how much their lives would change. 
 
 From the trials and tribulations of leaving London, the destructive horror of the Blitz and terrible family tragedy to dances, romances and the triumph of making a new life in the country, The Sisters of Battle Road is the compelling true story of six ordinary girls in extraordinary wartime circumstances. 
 
 Today, the six young girls – Mary, Joan, Sheila, Kathleen, Patricia and Ann – are six remarkable women who have lived to tell their tale of sisterhood and its unbreakable bonds in the shadow of World War Two.

The Sisters of Battle Road

The Extraordinary True Story of Six Sisters Evacuated from Wartime London

David Hall

Fred Dibnah's World celebrates the life and work of Britain's best known steeplejack and national treasure, Fred Dibnhah. Before his death in 2004, Fred presented many popular series, including Magnificent Monuments, The Age of Steam and Made in Britain, all of which attracted viewers in their millions. 
 
Fred is the companion to the 12-part BBC2 series celebrating the life of this great man, which combines highlights from some of Dibnah's classic programmes with previously unseen footage. The book can of course go much further than the series, including an extraordinarily account of Fred's childhood which evokes a lost England and our great industrial heritage. Fred's passion for the glories of the Victorian age and his fascination with the landscape he grew up in, plus his admiration for the craftsmen and labourers who made it all possible, captivate us on every page. 
 
Fred is the personification of everything that made England great in the first place. And this is a glorious tribute to a man whom millions came to love.

Fred

The Definitive Biography Of Fred Dibnah

Margaret Humphreys

THE BOOK THAT EXPOSED THE HEARTBREAKING SCANDAL OF BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN AND ABUSED CHILD MIGRANTS - now a film, Oranges and Sunshine, starring Emily Watson. 
In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker, investigated a woman's claim that, aged four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret discovered that this was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Up to 150,000 children, some as young as three years old, had been deported from children's homes in Britain and shipped off to a 'new life' in distant parts of the Empire, right up until as recently as 1970. 
 
Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents were told that their children had been adopted. In fact, for many children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse far away from everything they knew. Margaret and her team reunited thousands of families before it was too late, brought authorities to account, and worldwide attention to an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

Empty Cradles (Oranges and Sunshine)

Robert Lomas

In 1660 a small group of men, led by Sir Robert Moray, met in London with a secret plan to reshape the world. They were members of the 'Invisible College', better known today as the Freemasons 
 
Emerging from the horrors of the Civil War, Britain was a society torn apart by political difference, religious ferment and was still immersed in medieval superstition. It was a country which burnt alive at least one hundred elderly women a year on suspicion of witchcraft. Yet this group, who had recently been sworn enemies, managed to bridge their social and cultural differences to found a new organization dedicated to the scientific study of nature, the Royal Society. 
 
Robert Lomas reveals in compelling detail how the secret tenets and traditions of the Freemasons laid the groundwork for a new revolution, that gave the world modern, experimental science and founded what is still, 350 years later, the pre-eminent scientific institution in the world.

The Invisible College

Iris Gower

Let bestselling author Iris Gower sweep you away with this captivating and mesmerising saga. If you like Dilly Court, Rosie Goodwin and Kitty Neale, you will love this! 
 
READERS ARE LOVING SWEET ROSIE! 
"The storyline and the characters make this book come alive" -- ***** Reader review 
"Didn't want it to finish" -- ***** Reader review 
"Keeps one wanting more" -- ***** Reader review 
"Brilliant read" -- ***** Reader review 
 
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A YOUNG GIRL'S LOVE FOR A MAN...A MAN WHO IS DESTINED TO LOVE ANOTHER 
 
Rosie, sixteen, beautiful and vivacious, is in love with Watt Bevan, the manager of the famous Mainwaring Pottery. Content to adore him from afar, when he comes to her seventeenth birthday party she realizes that he is the only man she will ever love. 
 
But Watt, unaware of her feelings, is becoming increasingly drawn into the problems facing pottery owner Llinos Mainwaring, whose romantic marriage to Joe, the American Indian who stole her heart all those years ago, now seems in trouble. 
 
Before long, Rosie discovers that she is changed for ever from the innocent girl she once was, as she becomes involved with a man whose love she is destined never to have. 
 
Sweet Rosie is the third novel in Iris Gower's Firebird series. The saga continues in Daughters of Rebecca. Have you read Firebird and Dream Catcher, where the story began?

Sweet Rosie

(Firebird:3) A breathtaking and absorbing Welsh saga you won’t want to put down

Johanna Lindsey

Prepare to get swept away by this sensational romantic adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsey. If you like Bridgerton, Georgette Heyer and Jenny Hambly, you will love this! 
 
"First rate romance" -- NEW YORK TIMES 
 
"I have never been disappointed in her stories...A constant high level of quality" -- AFFAIRE DE COEUR 
 
"High-quality entertainment...The charm and appeal of her characters are infectious" -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 
 
"This story is a like a breath of fresh air after reading other samey historical romances [-] unexpected twists and a fulfilling end :)" -- ***** Reader review 
 
"Quite addictive" -- ***** Reader review 
 
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MISTAKEN IDENTITY. TUMULTUOUS LOVE. WILL SHE SURVIVE? 
 
Forced to flee Napoleon's rampaging army on the continent, orphaned Alana Farmer and her guardian find safety and a home in London. Years later, on the eve of her debut into Society, Alana learns the shocking secret of her birth right - is she really the lost princess of the kingdom of Lubinia? 
 
When she returns to their isolated homeland, Alana finds herself arrested on suspicion of being an imposter or a spy working for the enemies of the king. 
 
Captain of the Palace Guard, Christoph Becker, uses every means possible to draw the truth from his alluring prisoner... 
 
As a fiery passion flares between Alana and the man who has wrongly imprisoned her, the fate of a nation rests in their hands and on their hearts.

When Passion Rules

A deliciously passionate page-turner from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsey

Terry Pratchett

Stephen Briggs

Tina Hannan

Paul Kidby

A Discworld Witches series tie-in cookbook. Go beyond the novels to discover more about the fantastically funny and gloriously inventive world of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. 
 
Steel yourselves - Nanny Ogg is passing on some of her most interesting recipes and her most refined wisdom. 
 
'Probably the best and certainly the tastiest of the Discworld spin-offs' - The Times 
 
'They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach which just goes to show they're as confused about anatomy as they gen'rally are about everything else, unless they're talking about instructions on how to stab him, in which case a better way is up and under the ribcage.' Nanny Ogg 
 
Nanny Ogg, one of Discworld's most famous witches, is passing on some of her huge collection of tasty and above all interesting recipes. But in addition to the delights of the 'Strawberry Wobbler' and 'Nobby's Mum's Distressed Pudding', Mrs Ogg imparts her thoughts on social etiquette, life, death, courtship, children and weddings, all in a refined style that should not offend the most delicate of sensibilities. Well, not much... 
 
Jam-packed with recipes favoured (or not!) by the great and good of the Discworld, full of Nanny Ogg's unique wisdom and way with words, and peppered with apoplectic notes from the editor and the publisher, this is a treasure trove of literary, culinary and comic delights. 
 
A must- purchase for any fan of the legendary Sir Terry Pratchett. 
 
*Most of the recipes have been tried out on people who are still alive. 
__________________________________________________________________ 
What fans are saying... 
'This is Nanny Ogg at her naughty best...I sniggered and snerked all the way through' - ***** Reader review 
 
'As expected, hilarious. Also beautifully illustrated. Had a kick reading the recipes, and will likely try a few!' - ***** Reader review 
 
'Love this book! It is brilliant! If you don't already have this buy it now!!' - ***** Reader review 
 
'Totally Brilliant!!!' - ***** Reader review 
 
'I laughed myself silly reading this; it is VERY funny...I am looking forward to trying the recipes' - ***** Reader review

Nanny Ogg's Cookbook

a beautifully illustrated collection of recipes and reflections on life from one of the most famous witches from Sir Terry Pratchett’s bestselling Discworld series

Deric's gentle tales of life in Huddersfield with his wife Aileen and their menagerie of playful cats have won him thousands of loyal fans. And after a few years break Deric returns with the latest, and eagerly awaited, instalment of his memoirs. 
 
Deric is getting on a bit now and so are his cats. Life chez-Longden has adjusted to a slower pace, but everyday is still full of opportunities for the sort of mischief, mishaps and adventures that come with sharing your house and life with a troop of small cats with big personalities. 
 
Paws in the Proceedings has all of Deric's trademark charm, homespun wisdom and gentle wit. His remarkable eye for the humorous detail and the keen observation are very much in evidence, and this is another comic gem that will delight Deric's loyal fans and bring him to a bigger audience than ever before.

Paws In The Proceedings

Bryan Sykes

Bryan Sykes, the world's first genetic archaeologist, takes us on a journey around the family tree of Britain and Ireland, to reveal how our tribal history still colours the country today. 
 
In 54BC Julius Caesar launched the first Roman invasion of Britain. His was the first detailed account of the Celtic tribes that inhabited the Isles. But where had they come from and how long had they been there? When the Romans eventually left five hundred years later, they were succeeded by invasions of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Did these successive invasions obliterate the genetic legacy of the Celts, or have very little effect? 
 
After two decades tracing the genetic origins of peoples from all over the world, Bryan Sykes has now turned the spotlight on his own back yard. In a major research programme, the first of its kind, he set out to test the DNA of over 10,000 volunteers from across Britain and Ireland with the specific aim of answering this very question: what is our modern genetic make-up and what does it tell us of our tribal past? Are the modern people of the Isles a delicious genetic cocktail? Or did the invaders keep mostly to themselves forming separate genetic layers within the Isles? 
 
As his findings came in, Bryan Sykes discovered that the genetic evidence revealed often very different stories to the conventional accounts coming from history and archaeology. Blood of the Isles reveals the nature of our genetic make-up as never before and what this says about our attitudes to ourselves, each other, and to our past. It is a gripping story that will fascinate and surprise with its conclusions.

Blood of the Isles

Andy McNab

Abandoned as a baby, Andy McNab's start in life was tough. Growing up in South London with foster parents, and surrounded by poverty, he attended seven schools in as many years, disillusioned and in remedial classes. It wasn’t long before his life descended into petty crime. By the age of sixteen, he was in juvenile detention. 
 
Recruited into the Army from there, it soon became apparent that he had the reading age of an eleven year old. The next six months in the Army education system changed his course of his life forever. Today Everything Changes is the inspiring story of when life changed for Andy McNab.

Today Everything Changes

Quick Read

John Twelve Hawks

In a world that exists in the shadow of our own, the conflict between the Brethren and the Travellers reaches its devastating climax... 
 
Struggling to protect the legacy of his Traveller father, Gabriel faces troubling questions and relentless threats from enemies old and new. 
 
His brother Michael, now firmly allied with the sinister Brethren, pursues his ambition to wrest power from their leader, whatever it takes. 
 
And Maya, the Harlequin warrior pledged to protect Gabriel at all costs, is forced to make a choice that will change her life forever...

The Golden City

the cult sci-fi trilogy that has come true

Bridget Harrison

You're about to turn thirty, all your friends are getting engaged and pregnant - and your body-clock is ticking. Then you get an offer to move to New York. So you take a chance and break up with your boyfriend - only to land yourself in the singles capital of the world. 
 
When Bridget Harrison arrived in Manhattan to work for America's most famous tabloid, the New York Post, she was in at the deep end from day one. Dispatched by day to cover murders and muggings in the roughest corners of New York, by night she began to write a column about her search for love in a dating shark tank. So far so Sex and the City - until she realised the one man she was falling for also happened to be her boss (and unfortunately this wasn't fiction). 
 
 
THE HIGHS: 
Being sent out to cover your first breaking news story 
Having the chance to go on a new blind date every week 
Realizing you love your editor 
 
THE LOWS: 
Finding no-one you interview can understand your accent 
Going on a new blind date every week 
Realizing you love your editor

Tabloid Love

The play script adaptation of the classic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the second book in the City Watch series, part of the Discworld novels. 
 
'Funny, wise and mock heroic . . . the best-crafted book I have read all year' Sunday Express 
 
‘Pratchett at his best’ 5-star reader review 
 
'People ought to think for themselves ... The problem is, people only think for themselves if you tell them to.' 
 
Times are a-changing in Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch. 
 
New recruits have been hired to reflect the city's diversity, including Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), and Lance-constable Angua (a woman ... full moons aside). 
 
What's more, Captain Sam Vimes is getting married and retiring from the Watch. For good. Which is a shame, because no one knows the streets of Ankh-Morpork or its criminal underworld better than him. 
 
And someone armed and dangerous has been getting ideas about power and destiny and lost kings, committing a string of seemingly random murders across the city. 
 
The new recruits will need to learn fast ... 
 
Men At Arms is the second book in the City Watch series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order. 
 
Praise for the Discworld series: 
 
'[Pratchett’s] spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction' Mail on Sunday 
 
‘Pratchett is a master storyteller’ Guardian 
 
'One of our greatest fantasists, and beyond a doubt the funniest' George R.R. Martin 
 
'One of those rare writers who appeals to everyone’ Daily Express 
 
‘One of the most consistently funny writers around’ Ben Aaronovitch 
 
‘Masterful and brilliant’ Fantasy & Science Fiction 
 
‘Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own… he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable' The Times 
 
‘The best humorous English author since P.G. Wodehouse' The Sunday Telegraph 
 
‘Nothing short of magical’ Chicago Tribune 
 
'Consistently funny, consistently clever and consistently surprising in its twists and turns' SFX 
 
‘[Discworld is] compulsively readable, fantastically inventive, surprisingly serious exploration in story form of just about any aspect of our world…There's never been anything quite like it’ Evening Standard

Men At Arms - Playtext

Maggie Groff

'Over time, I nursed victims of war, the posh, the poor, the famous and the infamous... Oh, the stories I can tell!' 
 
 To a young girl the life of a nurse sounds exciting, but with long hours and short shrift it’s never easy. So when Maggie Groff embarks on her training at London’s King’s College Hospital she must quickly get to grips with a demanding career. It’s sink or swim. 
 
From the watchful gaze of stern sisters and the trials of nursing on a poor south-east London housing estate, to the explosive dramas of staff health checks at sophisticated Selfridges, Maggie shares warm and witty stories of mistakes and mayhem, tea and sympathy, and the life-affirming moments that make it all worthwhile. 
 
 Played out against the march of feminism and fashion, IRA bombings and the iconic music and movies of almost half a century ago, Not Your Average Nurse is a delightful romp through time.

Not your Average Nurse

The Entertaining True Story of a Student Nurse in 1970s London

Alan Johnson

'Warmth, wit and honesty make this such a satisfying read' Daily Mail 
 
Supermarket worker, postman, union official, father of three. 
Dansettes, dancehalls, smoky pubs, rock-n-roll West London. 
There are two sides to Alan Johnson. 
___________________ 
 
From the moment a young Alan Johnson first twanged the strings of his plastic ‘Tommy Steele’ guitar, he was determined to become a rock star. 
 
 Alan’s life has always been lived to a musical soundtrack. His earliest memories of the bleak, post-war, pre-rock ’n’ roll west London landscape into which he was born are suffused with the melodies that wafted from the rented Bakelite wireless in the slum where he lived with his frail mother and dauntless sister. His love affair with pop music blossomed alongside the music itself, which exploded into being in the mid-1950s and came to embody the iconoclastic spirit of a new era. 
 
 In this memoir, Alan looks back at his pursuit of rock stardom through the music that accompanied it – on vinyl, cassette tape or blasting from the stages of the Marquee club in Soho or the Wimbledon Palais; the sounds of Chuck Berry and Lonnie Donegan, of the Yardbirds and Dylan, of Bowie, Elvis Costello and Springsteen . . . not forgetting the Beatles, the band he has worshipped since 1963. 
 
 In My Life recalls with affection a vanished world of Flower Power and platform shoes. Honest, poignant and very funny, it is more than just a nostalgic celebration of music: it offers a new perspective on the singular life of Alan Johnson the man. 
___________________ 
 
PRAISE FOR IN MY LIFE: 
'Radiates the author's easygoing charm' Spectator 
'Loving slice of social history' Daily Express 
'Very readable' New Statesman 
'Charming memoir' Mail on Sunday

In My Life

A Music Memoir

Martyn Downer

Sir Howard Elphinstone, dashing hero of the Crimean War, was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1858 aged just twenty-nine. Handpicked by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to be governor to their third son, Prince Arthur, Elphinstone made an uncertain start at court, uncomfortabe within its cliques and clashing frequently with the impassioned Queen. But after Albert's death in 1861, Elphinstone became not only a surrogate father to Arthur, but also Victoria's most trusted confidant. 
 
Elphinstone's diaries and his prolific correspondence with the Queen shed remarkable new light on her complex personality and life at court. His story portrays in vivid detail the bitter rivalries and tragedies which rocked the palace during the Queen's long seclusion following Albert's death. It reveals the shocking effects of Prince Leopold's bleeding attacks, the security alarm caused by Irish republicans, and the truth behind Victoria's most notorious servant, John Brown. 
 
Artist and soldier, bodyguard and diplomat, confidant and spy: Elphinstone is the forgotten hero of the Victorian court. The Queen's Knight restores him to his rightful place at the heart of the most remarkable royal family in British history.

The Queen's Knight

Val Wood

Rosa grew up an orphan in a remote, watery island fastness on the wild East coast of Yorkshire. Taken in as a small child by the motherly Mrs Drew, she realised as she grew up that this large and seemingly close farming family contained many troubled souls. Mr Drew, whose religious fervour held a dark secret; Jim, the eldest son, who was terrified of something from his past; Delia, longing to escape from the island; and tall, handsome, confident Matthew, who wanted only one thing - Rosa herself. 
 
But Rosa's background was one of mystery. Her mother, before she drowned in the dyke near their home, had always promised that one day Rosa's father would return to her - a handsome Spaniard, with jewels and silks in treasure chests, sailing in on a ship with golden sails. Mr Drew knew the secret of Rosa's past - and so did the two mysterious Irishmen, who came back to the island after many years and who threatened everything which Rosa held most dear. 
 
Other novels by Valerie Wood include: The Hungry Tide, winner of the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction, Annie, Children of the Tide, The Romany Girl, Emily, and Going Home.

Rosa's Island

Mireille Guiliano

Mireille shares the secrets and strategies of aging with attitude and joy, offering personal anecdotes while divulging French women's most guarded secrets about looking and feeling great. With her signature blend of wit, no-nonsense advice and storytelling flair she addresses everything from lotions and potions to diet, style, friendship and romance. 
 
 For anyone who has ever spent the equivalent of a mortgage payment on anti-aging lotions or procedures, dressed inappropriately for their age, gained a little too much in the middle or accidentally forgotten how to flirt, here is a proactive way to stay looking and feeling great, without declaring bankruptcy or resorting to surgery.

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