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Jilly Cooper

In 'The Red Angora Dress', Milly just knows her boyfriend, the handsome Andrew, is losing interest in her. So when he invites her to a glamorous party, she resolves to knock him dead with a killer outfit. Having blown half her month's wages on a skintight red angora dress, Milly is dismayed to find that it sheds everywhere - and that it is rather uncomfortably hot. Then she overhears Andrew chatting up the party's hostess, and laughing at her - and her outfit - behind her back. Hurt, heartbroken and humiliated, can anything possibly salvage Milly's dreadful night? 
 
In 'The Square Peg', despite her best intentions, junior secretary Penny is a whirlwind of chaos. She's two hours late back from lunch, mixes up letters, and on one memorable occasion manages to release a rabbit into the boardroom. It's no wonder that the firm's tough new MD, Jake McInnes, has it in for her. He might be the heartthrob of the rest of the typing pool, but Penny is desperate to escape to a new job with a more easygoing boss. But the job application she sends off has some rather unexpected consequences... 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Lisa &amp; Co.

The Red Angora Dress/The Square Peg (Storycuts)

Sean Magee

‘For seventy years now Desert Island Discs has managed that rare feat – to be both enduring and relevant. By casting away the biggest names of the day in science, business, politics, showbiz, sport and the arts, it presents a cross-sectional snapshot of the times in which we live. As the decades have passed, the programme has kept pace; never frozen in time yet always, somehow, comfortingly the same.’ Kirsty Young 
 
BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs celebrates its seventieth birthday in 2012. Since the programme’s deviser Roy Plomley interviewed comedian Vic Oliver in January 1942, nearly 3,000 distinguished people from all walks of life have been stranded on the mythical island, accompanied by only eight records, one book and a luxury. 
 
Here the story of one of BBC Radio 4’s favourite programmes is chronicled through a special selection of castaways. 
 
Roy Plomley, inventor of the programme as well as its presenter for over forty years, quizzes the young Cliff Richard about ‘these rather frenzied movements’ the 1960s pop sensation makes on the stage. Robert Maxwell tells Plomley’s successor Michael Parkinson that ‘I will have left the world a slightly better place by having lived in it.’ Diana Mosley assures Sue Lawley that Adolf Hitler was ‘extraordinarily fascinating’ and had mesmeric blue eyes. And Johnny Vegas tugs Kirsty Young’s heart-strings with his account of a childhood so impoverished that family pets were fair game: ‘My dad had always claimed that rabbits were livestock, but we’d never eaten one before.’ 
 
Desert Island Discs is much more than a radio programme. It is a unique and enduringly popular take on our lives and times – and this extensively illustrated book tells in rich detail the colourful and absorbing story of an extraordinary institution.

Desert Island Discs: 70 Years of Castaways

Jeanette Orrey

As a highly experienced dinner lady, Jeanette has long been at the heart of Jamie Oliver's revolution to change the bad eating habits of our children both in and outside school. As part of her campaign to improve children's diets, she has written a unique family cookbook full of tasty, healthy, inexpensive and appealing recipes that are easy to make and can be enjoyed whatever age you are! She believes in simple, traditional dishes with a modern twist, made with the freshest local and - where possible - organic ingredients. All the recipes are big hits from Jeanette's kitchen and are accompanied by personal anecdotes and comments from the children at St Peter's, the school in which she worked for years as a dinner lady. They include Pasta with Peas and Bacon, Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, Real Chicken Nuggets, Cowboy Stew, Toffee Cream Tart, Apple Cobbler and Muffins. 
 
This beautifully illustrated book also tells the inspirational story of how Jeanette became Britain's most vocal campaigner for good food for our kids. It includes her advice (after years of experience)on cooking for children at home, ideas for getting (even the fussiest!) children interested in and excited by food. Also practical tips for busy parents to make life in the kitchen easier with notes on nutrition and advice for making meal times an enjoyable occasion. Plus a list of resources and suppliers.

The Dinner Lady

Change The Way Your Children Eat Forever

Harry Eastwood

A mouthwatering collection of twenty seasonal salad recipes from the author of Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache 
 
Let’s eat more salad! It’s fresh, colourful and healthy fast food. A far cry from the ‘rabbit food’ image of old, salads are now rightfully top of the menu. In A Salad for All Seasons, Harry Eastwood shakes things up, introducing us to original and easy-to-make salads to see you through the year. 
 
From well-loved favourites to exotic delights inspired by Harry’s travels and love of fresh ingredients, A Salad for All Seasons is the ultimate proof that natural, fresh and nutritious food can also be a feast – the whole year round.

A Salad for All Seasons - Bite Sized Edition

Christopher Fowler

'Vicious, funny, sad, scary and provocative, Spanky is one of the great modern horror novels of our time' PETER JAMES 
 
Martyn Ross had a miserable life until he met Spanky, a tuxedoed charmer who's diabolically handsome, successful and ruthless. He's willing to share his wild world of wine, women and wealth - but at a price. And it has nothing to do with Martyn surrendering his soul. 
 
Quite the reverse...

Spanky

Peter FitzSimons

Love him or loathe him, Ned Kelly has been at the heart of Australian culture and identity since he and his Gang were tracked down in bushland by the Victorian police and came out fighting, dressed in bulletproof iron armour made from farmers’ ploughs. 
 
Historians still disagree over virtually every aspect of the eldest Kelly boy’s brushes with the law. Did he or did he not shoot Constable Fitzpatrick at their family home? Was he a lawless thug or a noble Robin Hood, a remorseless killer or a crusader against oppression and discrimination? Was he even a political revolutionary, an Australian republican channelling the spirit of Eureka? 
 
Peter FitzSimons, bestselling chronicler of many of the great defining moments and people of Australian history, is the perfect person to tell this most iconic of all Australian stories. From Kelly’s early days in Beveridge, Victoria, in the mid-1800s, to the Felons Apprehension Act, which made it possible for anyone to shoot the Kelly Gang, to Ned’s appearance in his now-famous armour, prompting the shocked and bewildered police to exclaim ‘He is the devil!’ and ‘He is the bunyip!’. FitzSimons brings the history of Ned Kelly and his Gang exuberantly to life, weighing in on all the myths, legends and controversies generated by this compelling and divisive Irish-Australian rebel.

Ned Kelly

John Macken

If you like Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell, you'll love this edgy and engrossing forensic thriller by bestselling author John Macken. 
 
"A terrific forensic thriller, which real flesh and blood characters and a plot that never lets up" - PETER ROBINSON 
"Tense and absorbing" - OBSERVER 
"A great page-turner" -- ***** Reader review 
"Fast and furious...and full of intrigue" -- *****Reader review 
"Kept me hooked right to the last page" -- *****Reader review 
 
****************************************** 
 
FOR AN EX-COP, PRISON IS A DEATH SENTENCE... 
 
Reuben Maitland has lost everything: his job, his marriage, his reputation. Fired from CID's elite forensic investigation unit, he is forced to turn to the other side of the law to find work. 
 
 Michael Brawn is currently enjoying the hospitality of Her Majesty at Pentonville maximum security prison. He is not who he claims to be and has been placed there on forged genetic evidence. Evidence that was submitted to the court on Reuben's authority. But who is he, and why is he there? 
 
 Reuben is offered one chance to clear his name. He needs to discover Brawn's real identity and, more importantly, his reason for falsely entering prison. And there is only one way of getting to him. Reuben is going to have to enter Pentonville. 
 
But as he is about to find out, prison is a very dangerous place for an ex-copper.

Trial By Blood

(Reuben Maitland: book 2)

Terry Pratchett

The Discworld is undoubtedly Sir Terry Pratchett's most famous creation. A universe teeming with dwarves, trolls, witches, and social and cultural issues that parallel those in our own world, all wrapped up in Pratchett's inimitable comic delivery. This iconic series will make you laugh, then make you think.

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
The audiobook of Eric is read by Colin Morgan (Merlin; Testament of Youth; Belfast). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. Featuring a new theme tune composed by James Hannigan. 
 
Eric is the Discworld's only demonology hacker. Pity he's not very good at it. 
 
All he wants is his three wishes granted. Nothing fancy - to be immortal, rule the world, have the most beautiful woman in the world fall madly in love with him, the usual stuff. 
 
But instead of a tractable demon, he calls up Rincewind, probably the most incompetent wizard in the universe, and the extremely intractable and hostile form of travel accessory known as the Luggage. 
 
With them on his side, Eric's in for a ride through space and time that is bound to make him wish (quite fervently) again - this time that he'd never been born. 
 
Eric is the fourth book in the Wizards series, but you can listen to the Discworld novels in any order. 
 
The first book in the Discworld series - The Colour of Magic - was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this. 
 
© Terry and Lyn Pratchett 1990 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Eric

(Discworld Novel 9)

Mary Selby

When Robert Peabody, the new vicar, moved into the village of Bumpstaple, the villagers were naturally agog. And when they discovered that, not only was he handsome enough to send the spinsters of the parish all a-flutter, he was also divorced, and a single parent, it was agreed that he could not be allowed to remain single for long. Mavis Entwhistle, whose pastry had caused successive vicars to consider fasting as a desirable alternative lifestyle, had decided that her surprisingly lovely daughter Sally (for Mavis was no more endowed with a beautiful face than with a light hand at the pastryboard) would make the perfect vicar's wife. Sally, having beaten off her mother's attempts to marry her off to the washing machine repair man, the milkman and the baker's assistant, refused to meet this latest candidate for her hand, until a chance encounter in the mobile library led to some surprising and decidedly un-vicarish behaviour. 
 
Robert's son, meanwhile, was trying to cope with adolescent confusion in the form of Claire, whom he met on the school bus. Claire had quite enough to cope with, what with her spots and the dreadful embarrassment of her mother Tessa's advancing pregnancy - and at her age, too! And as though this were not enough, she was having to put up with the child from her hell, her cousin Hugh, who had come to stay while his parents were abroad. When Robert planned to hold a new-style Carol Service and Hugh decided to introduce a little realism into the Christmas story in the shape of Tessa's pet pig, the villagers began to wonder just what was in store for them.

That Awkward Age

In 'And May the Best Girl Win', plain little Kathleen Burgess has brown hair, an average figure, and a neat face. So it's probably for the best that she's decided to stay out of the ferocious rivalry between the gorgeous blonde Fiona and elegantly dark Susan, over their new boss Charles Townsend. Kathleen plans to keep her head down and get on with her work, but then it appears that Charles is trying to get rid of her. What on earth is going on? 
 
In 'Johnnie Casanova', at a friend's party, Richard falls desperately in love with the gorgeously naïve Gemma. He is determined to treat her honourably. It's a pity the same can't be said for Richard's flatmate, the rakeishly sexy Johnnie, who also has his eye on Gemma. Gemma is dazzled by the attention, and quickly becomes besotted with Johnnie. So, Richard loves Gemma, Gemma loves Johnnie - and no one can quite work out exactly what Johnnie's intentions are. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, these tow short stories were previously published in the collection Lisa &amp; Co.

And May The Best Girl Win/Johnnie Casanova (Storycuts)

Joanne Harris

In 'Faith and Hope Go Shopping', Faith has spent twenty years in a wheelchair. Together with her blind friend Hope, she lives in a nursing home. Their favourite carer calls them Butch and Sundance, and like their namesakes, they make a final dash for freedom - in pursuit of a copy of Lolita and a pair of slick red high heels. 
 
In 'Hello, Goodbye', Angela K. is a society columnist for Goodbye! Magazine, and gets to attend all of the season's most sensational Dernières: the most exclusive celebrity funerals. She prides herself on finally having joined the ranks of the Immortals - until a sad, badly-dressed old couple arrives to disrupt her world. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, these stories were previously published in the collection Jigs &amp; Reels.

Faith and Hope Go Shopping/Hello, Goodbye (Storycuts)

Simon Kernick

Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Kernick - the UK's answer to Harlan Coben - has done it again. Siege is not for the faint-hearted - a relentlessly fast-paced, high-octane, race-against-the-clock thriller, it's perfect for fans of David Baldacci, Stuart MacBride and Peter James. 
 
'Pacy, violent and gripping' -- The Sun 
'A murder-a-minute gallop which successfully relies on sheer pace' -- Daily Telegraph 
'Nail-bitingly tense, Siege is genuinely unputdownable' -- Irish Independent 
'A first class read' -- ***** Reader review 
'I love reading Simon Kernick books - they keep you gripped from page one and this one is no different' -- ***** Reader review 
'Good, old-fashioned thriller action...marvellous!' -- ***** Reader review 
'A book that you cannot put down' -- ***** Reader review 
************************************************************* 
WHO WILL SURVIVE? 
 
LONDON. THE STANHOPE HOTEL, PARK LANE. 16.00. A normal afternoon. 
 
THE MANAGER 
Newly engaged Elena Serenko has just made the life-changing decision to quit her job and start a new life in Australia. 
 
THE GUESTS 
Upstairs, a young woman waits for her lover; a visiting family prepare for an evening out; and a sick man contemplates his own mortality. 
 
THE ASSASSIN 
High up amongst the penthouse suites, a skilled and dangerous killer is hunting a quarry who's eluded him for far too long. 
 
THE SIEGE 
What none of them know is that a group of ruthless gunmen are about to burst into the Stanhope, shooting indiscriminately, and seizing hostages. 
 
As darkness falls and the gunmen become increasingly violent, only one thing matters. Who will survive?

Siege

(Scope 1)

Su Tong

Tan Feng was my one and only friend in Sichuan. He was the same age as me: about eight or nine. Tan Feng's family lived next door to us, and their other kids were all girls, so you can imagine how they spoiled their only boy. They really adored him, but they didn't know what he got up to. Tan Feng stole things. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.

Thieves (Storycuts)

Ben Elton

Gridlock 
 
Too many cars and not enough space equals gridlock. 
 
Gridlock is when a city dies. 
 
Killed in the name of freedom. Killed in the name of oil and steel. Choked on carbon monoxide and strangled with a pair of fluffy dice. 
 
How did it come to this? How did the ultimate freedom machine end up paralysing us all? How did we end up driving to our own funeral, in somebody else's gravy train? 
 
Deborah and Geoffrey know, but they have transport problems of their own, and anyway, whoever it was that murdered the city can just as easily murder them. 
 
 
Chart Throb 
 
Chart Throb The ultimate pop quest. 
 
Ninety five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner. 
And that's Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show. 
 
Calvin always wins because Calvin writes the rules. But this year, as he sits smugly in judgement upon the mingers, clingers and blingers whom he has pre-selected in his carefully scripted 'search' for a star, he has no idea that the rules are changing. The 'real' is about to be put back into 'reality' television and Calvin and his fellow judges (the nation's favourite mum and the other bloke) are about to become ex - factors themselves. 
 
Chart Throb. One winner. A whole bunch of losers 
 
 
Blind Faith 
 
Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where 'sharing' is valued above all, and privacy is considered a dangerous perversion. 
 
Trafford wouldn't call himself a rebel, but he's daring to be different, to stand out from the crowd. In his own small ways, he wants to push against the system. But in this world, uniformity is everything. And even tiny defiances won't go unnoticed. 
 
Ben Elton's dark, savagely comic novel imagines a post-apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a sex-obsessed, utterly egocentric culture. In this world, nakedness is modesty, independent thought subversive, and ignorance is wisdom. 
 
A chilling vision of what's to come?Or something rather closer to home?

Ben Elton Collection

Gridlock, Chart Throb and Blind Faith

Dog Personalities

We all know that dogs have personalities as colourful and unique as any human. They can be confident and dominant - born leaders - or shy and timid. They can be obedient, laid back, cheeky or stubborn. They can be prima donnas, stroppy so-and-sos or lazy sods - just like us. 
 
With so many characters you'll recognise, and based on the Instagram account with hundreds of thousands of followers, Dog Personalities reveals ours canine counterparts, all with imaginative backstories and photographs guaranteed to make you smile.

Guy Burt

Matthew and Sophie enjoyed what seemed to be an idyllic childhood existence.Free from parental restrictions, they played together in the old barn and in the woods and fields around, as well as in the disused quarry where they hunted for fossils and where Sophie kept all her secrets.There were just the two of them, for their mother carried on her own, mysterious, life and their baby brother did not live long enough to intrude. 
 
Mattie hero-worshipped his all-knowing elder sister, and believed that their childhood would go on for ever.But Sophie was growing up, and the secret elements in her life would affect Mattie in shocking and unforeseen ways as his childish terrors became an all-too dreadful reality.For Mattie, too, had his secrets...

Sophie

Marita Conlon-McKenna

Hats! Hats! Hats!Upbrims, sidesweeps, silks, ribbons and trims all become part of Ellie's life when she inherits the little hat shop on Dublin's South Anne Street.But the city is changing and Ellie must decide if she wants to follow the hat-making tradition of her mother or accept a generous offer to sell the shop. 
 
Encouraged by her friends, Ellie takes on the hat shop and her quirky designs and tempting millinery confections soon attract a rich assortment of customers all in search of the perfect hat. 
 
Creating hats for weddings, shows, fashion and fun, and falling for the charms of Rory Doyle along the way, Ellie is happier than she has ever been before. But as her fingers work their magic she discovers a lot can happen in the heart of a city like Dublin...

The Hat Shop On The Corner

In 'Auto-da-fé', a man's car defines him. Until the Rep of the Year, in his smart blue BMW, goes head-to- head in a showdown with V-man in his smug black Volvo saloon. But who is the real loser in this game? 
 
In 'Free Spirit', a wanderer, a party animal, goes wherever the wind blows, going home to bed with one person after another, old or young, healthy or corrupt, male or female. And then moves on, without regrets, without ever looking back... 
 
In 'Fule's Gold', Mr Fisher has taught at St Swithin's for over forty years, but is resigned to the total lack of imagination of the boys in his creative writing class. Until the day he opens one exercise book and discovers the Holy Grail of literature: an essay of total freshness and originality. But is it just too good to have been written by a mere schoolboy? 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, these three stories were previously published in the collection Jigs &amp; Reels.

Auto-da-fé/Free Spirit/Fule’s Gold (Storycuts)

It's not always fun playing the monster: after all, all you are is sword-fodder. But for the desperate, the misfit, the loner and the freak, dressing up in costume for the regular Saturday fantasy role-playing game in the woods is more satisfying than any reality. It's only make-believe, isn't it? It's not about life or death...or is it? 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Jigs &amp; Reels.

Waiting for Gandalf (Storycuts)

Sean Longley

When Simon Legris, a physician from Paris, returns from an expedition to Africa, he brings home a monkey that understands human speech and names him Jacques LeSinge. Utterly devoted to him, Jacques becomes his servant. While in the service of an ailing marquis, Legris receives some shattering hews -Jacques has been accused of molesting the aristocrat's wife and has been dismissed in disgrace. 
 
After an audacious French Revolutionary plot goes wrong, Jacques stands in the dock in Hartlepool accused of espionage. Warrens, a lowly 'one-guinea brief' barrister, stands to defend him. In the greatest challenge of his career, he mounts a defence that asks: what makes a man? 
 
A demonically witty digest of all things eighteenth-century, this is an eccentric and hugely entertaining début.

The Hartlepool Monkey

Charlotte Bingham

Fans of Louise Douglas, Dinah Jeffries and Kristin Hannah will love this unputdownable romantic read from bestselling author Charlotte Bingham. Portraying the highs and lows of love and marriage, it's an unforgettable read and the perfect dose of escapism. 
 
'The author perfectly evokes the atmosphere of a bygone era... ' -- Woman's Own 
'This is great summer escapism from an award-winning romantic novelist' - CHOICE 
'Compulsive reading!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Truly impossible to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
 
****************************************************************************************** 
AN ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY...OR AN ESCAPE FROM HIM? 
 
When Trilby meets Lewis, the all-powerful proprietor of a newspaper group, she suspects that her life might be about to change, but not, as it transpires, forever. For not only does Lewis wish to acquire her cartoon strip, but Trilby herself. 
 
She is inevitably drawn to this handsome, older, and far more sophisticated personality, just as Lewis is, from the first, determined to marry the insouciant Trilby, despite the opposition of her friends and family. But having won her, 
Lewis reveals himself to be irrationally possessive. 
 
Becoming a virtual prisoner in her own home is not something that Trilby had ever dreamt could happen to her, a young woman in 1950s London, but it is not long before she realises that Lewis is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to keep her to himself. Quite by chance, she discovers the real reason for her husband's unforgivable behaviour. 
 
Trilby must come to terms with the truth about Lewis, and more importantly, herself, before she can experience the kind of carefree happiness she once knew before her marriage.

Summertime

an intriguing romantic page-turner set in post-war London from bestselling novelist Charlotte Bingham

John Irving

This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields - a feminist leader ahead of her times. It is also the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes - even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with 'lunacy and sorrow'; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. It provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."

The World According To Garp

Jay Nussbaum

In the tradition of The Celestine Prophecy and Jonathan Livingston Seagull, THE BLUE ROAD TO ATLANTIS is an inspirational retelling of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. This is a gently humorous and ultimately touching story told from the perspective of a remora who is travelling with his mentor, a wise and beautiful marlin, to Atlantis in order to save the lives of all the fish in the ocean. En route to Atlantis, the marlin is hooked by a fisherman, who turns out to be Hemingway's character from The Old Man and the Sea. As the marlin struggles for survival, he ponders the meaning of life, the importance of love, friendship and forgiveness, the power of fear and the importance of following one's dreams at all costs. His thoughts encourage readers to 'go with the current' by accepting the ebb and flow of life and not fighting against our instinct and our intuition, but rather following the current of our heart and soul to happiness and contentment.

The Blue Road To Atlantis

Priya Basil

It's a hot, crowded train. Helen Summers is on her way to see her sister Jill to tell her an awful secret. Another passenger, Kerm, is on his way back from his grandfather's funeral. 
 
They are strangers, jammed against each other in a crowded carriage. Noisy school kids fill the train - and three of them are about to cause a whole heap of trouble. In the chaos, Helen and Kerm are thrown together in a way they never expected. 
 
Catching a train? Read Strangers on the 16:02 and you'll never feel the same way about your fellow passengers again.

Strangers on the 16:02

Miss Golighty is no young Holly, and the supermarket café where she regularly has breakfast is no Tiffany's. When she befriends Cheryl, the tarty young waitress and teaches her to love old films, she finds a way to help her young friend find the courage to seek a better new life. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Jigs &amp; Reels.

Breakfast at Tesco’s (Storycuts)

Lissa Evans

'Evans is very funny . . . the Tom Sharpe for the next generation' Sunday Express 
 
Some are born odd, some achieve oddness and some are just in the wrong place at the wrong time… 
 
Netta Lee had always felt like the odd one out growing up. But when, as an adult, she returns to the Midlands to help her family move house, it becomes apparent that perhaps she isn’t the unusual one after all. A brother with a penchant for rubbish collection, a mother who seems to think she’s running the Bolshoi Ballet rather than the local junior dance school and a hoard of questionably competent friends challenge Netta’s ordered world. 
 
Perhaps the life – and the people – she tried so hard to leave behind are not as distant as she thought.

Odd One Out

Kathy Lette

Meet Merlin. He's Lucy's bright, beautiful son - who just happens to be autistic. 
 
Since Merlin's father left them in the lurch, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her adorable yet challenging child (if only Merlin came with operating instructions), Lucy doesn't have room for any other man in her life. 
 
By the time Merlin turns ten, Lucy is seriously worried that the Pope might start ringing her up for tips on celibacy, so resolves to dip a toe back into the world of dating. Thanks to Merlin's candour and quirkiness, things don't go quite to plan... Then, just when Lucy's resigned to singledom once more, Archie - the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son - lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Merlin's father, begging for a second chance. Does Lucy need a real father for Merlin - or a real partner for herself?

The Boy Who Fell To Earth

Patricia Burns

They were the talented ones - young, fresh, arrogant, with a bright golden world swinging ahead of them. Then came that terrible, traumatic summer, their last summer together, the summer that had savagely thrust them into the adult world. 
 
Jill - the leader, brilliant, ambitious. She made it to the top but never recovered from that nightmare summer. 
 
Carol - lovely, languid, destined to be a great artist until her own sexuality destroyed her dreams. 
 
Penny - determined to drag herself from a council estate and a scrounging father to the glittering world of the stage. 
 
Andrea - loyal, obedient, self-effacing - and dazzled to be part of the clever set. She never realized her life was a lie. 
 
They never really knew the truth about that summer - just that it had changed their lives.

With A Little Help From My Friends

In 'Goddess Peak', Miaoyue and Li Yong were almost the last two passengers aboard the steamboat to Goddess Peak - them and Li Yong's friend Mr Cui. Miaoyue found Mr Cui taller and better built than she'd imagined, and also a little younger and more handsome. For some reason, this irritated her. 
 
In 'The Q of Hearts', when the boy found the Queen of Hearts missing from his deck of cards, he immediately assumed that someone had stolen it. It was 1969, and those cards were his only toy. He searched everywhere for a new one - but only found things to frighten him. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.

Goddess Peak/The Q of Hearts (Storycuts)

In 'Any Girl Can Be A Candykiss Girl!', the fashion house Candykiss listens to its consumer, the little girls, not their parents. Their pleasure is creating clothing for them to express themselves, never mind how contemptuous the adult generation - sexually and emotionally threatened - is of them. 
 
In 'Tea with the Birds', the worst crime of all is to be an outsider - wrong face, wrong clothes, wrong voice. And if you never raise your eyes from the ground, you will be labelled a snob by your neighbours. Yet when an isolated, lonely outcast meets a new tenant in the building of bedsits where she lives, she learns to spread her wings. 
 
In 'The G-SUS Gene', Oz 'Mad Dog' O'Shea is the Chosen One. Twenty years ago, mankind experienced near-total wipeout. Now only he is left to lead the quest for enlightenment. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, these three short stories were previously published in the collection Jigs &amp; Reels.

Any Girl Can Be a CandyKiss Girl!/Tea with the Birds/The G-SUS Gene (Storycuts)

Peter Rabbit Tales

Explore with Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit Animation

Peter Rabbit Slide-and-Seek

Peter Rabbit Lift-the-Flap Tales

Peter Rabbit’s Peekaboo

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Peter Rabbit: the design evolution of a blue-jacketed icon

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Make your own Peter Rabbit bunny ears

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Where to start with Beatrix Potter and her characters

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Download these Peter Rabbit: Head Over Tail activity sheets

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How to play the best game of hide and seek ever

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