Products
The God of the Woods, Liz Moore ( hardback July 2024)
£16.99
SELECTED FOR BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER 2024 READING LIST
Some said it was tragic, what happened to the Van Laars. Some said the family deserved it. That they never even thanked the searchers who stayed out for five nights in the freezing forest trying to help find their missing son.Some said there was a reason it took the family so long to call for help. That they knew what happened to the boy. Now, fifteen years later, the Van Laars' teenage daughter has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother.
Some say the two disappearances aren’t connected. Some say they are. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––- ‘Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced … I can't remember the last time I felt so entangled in a novelist's coils’ Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'A beguiling novel with a relentless grip.
You won't be able to put it down' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'At once an immersive family saga and utterly propulsive mystery. Beautifully written' Emilia Hart, author of Weyward ‘A masterful literary thriller’ Lucy Clarke, author of The Hike ‘Riveting from page one to the last breathless word … This book flew by at lightning speed, but will stick with me for a very long time’ Rebecca Makkai
The Golden Hare, Paddy Donnelly (paperback from Feb 2025)
£13.99
Meara and Grandad set out on a journey to find the Golden Hare, a mythical, shape-shifting creature that can jump to the moon in two-and-a-half leaps! Along the way, they discover all sorts of treasures in the trees, under the ground and in the waves. And who knows where that clever Golden Hare might be hiding ...
A gorgeous story and illustration from Northern Irish illustrator and author Paddy Donnelly, who is always generous with his time and calls in to sign his books when he's in Belfast :)
paperback 9781788495950 available from Feb 2025
The Good Drinker : How I Learned to Love Drinking Less by Adrian Chiles (paperback June 2023)
£10.99
The popular broadcaster and columnist sets out to discover the unsung pleasures of drinking in moderation. The recommended alcohol limit is 14 units a week. Adrian Chiles used to put away almost 100.Ever since he was a teenager, drinking was his idea of a good time - and not just his, but seemingly the whole nation's. Still, it wasn't very good for him: the doctor made that clear. If you lined them up, Adrian must have knocked back three miles of drinks.
How many of them had he genuinely wanted? A mile?There's an awful lot of advice out there on how to quit booze completely. If you just want to drink a bit less, the pickings are slim. Yet while the alcohol industry depends on a minority of problem drinkers, the majority really do enjoy in moderation.
What's their secret? Join the inimitable Chiles as he sets out around Britain and plumbs his only slightly fuzzy memories of a lifetime in pubs in a quest to find the good drinker within.
The Good Mother, Sue Miller ( paperback Jan 2023 - reissue)
£9.99
A reissue of the powerful and troubling debut sensation - which spent over six months at top of the New York Times bestseller list on its original publication thirty years ago.
Recently divorced, Anna Dunlap has two passionate attachments: her daughter, four-year-old Molly, and her lover, Leo, the man who makes her feel beautiful - and sexual - for the first time. Swept away by happiness and passion, Anna feels she has everything she's ever wanted. Then come the shocking charges that would threaten her new love, her new family - that force her to prove she is a good mother.
The Good The Bad - and the Little Bit Stupid. Marina Lewycka, ( pb, March )
£9.99
A LAUGH-OUT-LOUD NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN
After walking out on his wife to shack up with 'Brexit Brenda' next door, George Pantis thinks he's got it made - especially when he wins millions on a Kosovan lottery he barely remembers entering. Unfortunately, he can't access the money because he's forgotten his password. What is he meant to tell all the forceful people who keep appearing at his doorstep desperate to know his mother's maiden name?The situation is shadier than he thinks, and George is need of rescue.
But will his dysfunctional family be able to save him, and in the process, can they save each other?
The Good Turn - Sharna Jackson ( paperback May 2022)
£7.99
Josephine Williams is a future-focused, internet-loving eleven-year-old who is desperate to explore the world beyond her cul-de-sac - and her browser. When she learns about Josephine Holloway - a woman who started the first Girl Scout Troop for Black girls in America - she's certain she must start her own.Enlisting her friends Margot Anderson and Wesley Evans, the trio begin their quest for their Camping Badge. Drawn to an abandoned factory nearby, they stumble across something strange. A square, ancient television and two tatty armchairs.
Beside it, a wooden sideboard with an old photograph of a young, happy couple. What is this? Who, or what, lives here - and why? 'An intriguing mystery adventure . .
The goodbye cat, Hiro Arikawa ( paperback October 2023)
£10.99
The uplifting new Japanese cat novel from the million-copy bestselling author of The Travelling Cat Chronicles...
Against changing seasons in Japan, seven cats weave their way through their owners' lives. - A needy kitten rescued from the recycling bin teaches a new father how to parent his own human baby- An elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be together for ever- A colony of wild cats on a holiday island shows a young boy not to stand in nature's way- A family is perplexed by their cat's devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father- A woman curses how her cat constantly visits her at night.
Bursting with empathy and love, THE GOODBYE CAT explores the unstoppable cycle of life as we see how the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, every page is a joyous celebration of cats and how we cannot resist sharing our lives with them.
The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth, Adrien Duncan ( paperback Jan 2025)
£12.99
IRISH INDEPENDENT AND IRISH TIMES BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025'An original voice' Colm Tóibín'
During winter season in a secluded Alpine city, John Molloy, an Irish restorative sculptor, meets Bernadette, an enigmatic Italian sociologist. As John falls in love, a distressing moment from his youth rises into view, the disastrous fallout of which has reverberated unchecked through his life. Years later, a letter from home arrives, asking him to pray for the speedy death of an ailing friend.
Over a day-long odyssey through the ancient streets and churches of Bologna, John is forced to confront his present, his past and the bedrock of his psyche. A delicately crafted novel of two halves, a decade apart, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is a masterful excavation of human desires, inhibitions, and the patterns of habit to which we unwittingly fall prey.
'A deliberative and delicate reading experience, revelatory in the truest sense of that word' Guardian
The Grammar of Spice, by Caz Hildebrand ( hardback)
£18.00
Spices have played an intrinsic part in the human story, running through history, geography, anthropology, politics, religion, culture, art and design. From alligator pepper seeds which, in the Yoruba culture, are given to newborn babies to taste a few minutes after birth, to charoli seeds, which are used in traditional Indian sweets eaten during the festival of Holi, and caraway seeds, which were added to medieval love potions, each spice has its own significance in the lives of the people who use it. The story of spice is really the stories of human relationships, from growers and traders to cooks and explorers, all starting with a tiny seed.
The Grammar of Spice is one of the world's missing books. It will change the way we understand spices and the role they play in defining not only our food but also our place in the world. The essence of each spice is explored in a brief history peppered with interesting anecdotes and tips, and accompanied by reproductions of surface decoration from Owen Jones's original book, The Grammar of Ornament.
The book is beautiful to look at and hold, packed with well-researched material, and will change the way a generation appreciates the incredible world of flavours and tastes that spices open up to us.
* Limited stocks left * please check availability before ordering.
The Great Dream Robbery ( Smith & James) PB July 2022
£7.99
I can't recommend these guys highly enough! For fans of David Walliams and the Treehouse series, this story moves your readers on a bit and offers them lots of great new vocabulary whilst keeping the fun and zany approach.
A brand-new adventure beyond your wildest dreams, from the bestselling authors of KID NORMAL. Unlike most 12 year-olds, Maya Clayton is desperate to go to bed early. Falling asleep is the only chance she has to save her dad - the brilliant but slightly odd Professor Dexter.
The Professor invented a device that allows you to visit other people's dreams. But the devious Lilith Delamere has trapped him inside a nightmare and Maya and the mysterious Dream Bandits must find a way to rescue him before it's too late!Maya will face a dangerous journey and some difficult choices. But sometimes all you need is a dream . . . and a bit of courage.
Featuring a hospital heist, some banana-loving llamas and a talking cat called Bin Bag, this is one mind-bending adventure you won't want to wake up from.
The Great Dream Robbery : Greg James & Chris Smith (paperback July 2022)
£7.99
A brand-new adventure beyond your wildest dreams, from the bestselling authors of KID NORMAL. Unlike most 12 year-olds, Maya Clayton is desperate to go to bed early. Falling asleep is the only chance she has to save her dad - the brilliant but slightly odd Professor Dexter.The Professor invented a device that allows you to visit other people's dreams. But the devious Lilith Delamere has trapped him inside a nightmare and Maya and the mysterious Dream Bandits must find a way to rescue him before it's too late!Maya will face a dangerous journey and some difficult choices. But sometimes all you need is a dream .
. . and a bit of courage.
Featuring a hospital heist, some banana-loving llamas and a talking cat called Bin Bag, this is one mind-bending adventure you won't want to wake up from. If you feel you have just too many David Walliams books, this is a great next step ( and with lots of great vocabulary!) From the authors of the Kid Normal Series.
The Great Godden, Meg Rosoff ( paperback June 2021)
£7.99
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD 2020This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer - the summer when everything changes. In a holiday house by the sea, in a big, messy family, one teenager watches as brothers and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding. Enter the Goddens - irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo.Suddenly there's a serpent in this paradise - and the consequences will be devastating. From bestselling, award-winning author Meg Rosoff comes a lyrical and quintessential coming-of-age tale - a summer book that's as heady, timeless and irresistible as Bonjour Tristesse and I Capture the Castle but as sharp and fresh as Normal People. Featuring a bonus essay from Meg Rosoff on her experiences of summer, this is THE unmissable book of the summer.
The Green Roasting Tin: vegan and vegetarian one dish dinners
£20.00
`This book will earn a place in kitchens up and down the country' Nigella Lawson
Start the New Year afresh with seventy-five one-tin recipes: half vegan, half vegetarian, all delicious. With all seventy-five recipes in this book, you simply pop your ingredients in a tin and let the oven do the work. From flexitarians to families, this book is for anyone who wants to eat easy veg-based meals that fit around their busy lives.
A follow up to the very successful and delicious The Roasting Tin.
The Group, Mary McCarthy ( paperback 2009, first published 1963)
£9.99
When first published in 1963, The Group was on a bestseller for almost two years. This ground-breaking novel, with its frank depiction of friendship, sex, and women's lives, was a revelation, and continues to inspire today. Mary McCarthy's most celebrated novel portrays the lives and aspirations of eight Vassar graduates.'The group' meet in New York following graduation to attend the wedding of one of their members - and reconvene seven years later at her funeral. The women, fresh from college, vowed not to become stuffy and frightened like their parents, but to lead fulfilling, emancipated lives; who really achieved this - and what sacrifices and compromises had to be made?' McCarthy's characters confront many of the same issues as their modern counterparts: sex and contraception, career and marriage, love and lust, fidelity to one's husband versus loyalty to one's friends and the attempt to carve out a place for oneself unconstrained by the gender limitations of previous generations. Its continuing relevance is one of the book's most extraordinary attributes' ELIZABETH DAY
The Grumpus : And His Dastardly, Dreadful Christmas Plan by Alex T. Smith (Author)
£14.99
From Alex T. Smith, bestselling author of the Claude series and How Winston Delivered Christmas, comes a fantastically festive Christmas adventure about a gorgeous grumpy character. Inspired by The Krampus and with a hint of The Grinch, The Grumpus is a heartwarming story that celebrates the true meaning of Christmas, accompanied by irresistible colour artwork to make it the perfect story for all the family to enjoy together.Do you know about The Grumpus?And his Dastardly, Dreadful Christmas Plan? And about the Awful Thing that happened at the North Pole on Christmas Eve?Perhaps I should tell you about it . . A beautiful hardback with a festively foiled cover and beautiful artwork from the author, it is the perfect Christmas gift, destined to become a modern Christmas classic that adults and children alike return to year after year.
The Half Known Life, Pico Iyer ( paperback Jan 2024)
£10.99
The Half Known Life : Finding Paradise in a Divided World
STANFORDS BOOK OF THE MONTH - JANUARY 2023'Nothing less than a guided tour of the human soul' Elizabeth Gilbert
One of our most perceptive travel writers embarks on an exploration of the world's holiest places and where we might find paradise on Earth. It's so easy, I thought, to place Paradise in the past or the future - anywhere but here. After half a century of travel, from Ethiopia to Tibet, from Belfast to Jerusalem, Pico Iyer asks himself what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict.
In a spectacular journey, both inward and outward, Iyer roams from crowded mosques in Iran to a film studio in North Korea, from a holy mountain in Japan to the sometimes spooky emptiness of the Australian outback. At every stop, he makes connections with unexpected strangers - mystics and taxi drivers and fellow travellers - and draws on his own memories, of time spent in a Benedictine monastery high above the Pacific, of regular travels with the Dalai Lama, of hearing his late mother speak of sunlit moments in pre-Partition India. By the end, he has upended many of our expectations and dared to suggest that we can find paradise right in the heart of our angry, confused and divided world.
The Happiness of Dogs, Mark Rowlands ( hardback August 2024)
£16.99
If a dog could write a book of philosophy, what would it contain?If you have spent part of your life with a dog, you may find certain questions popping, unbidden, into your mind. Is my dog living a fulfilled life? Is my dog a good dog? Does my dog love me? This, however only scratches the surface of a canine philosophy.
Drawing on his life lived with dogs (two German shepherds, the amiable Hugo and his dark twin Shadow; Brenin, a wolf hybrid, and Tess his wolf dog daughter; and Nina, a German shepherd/malamute mix), on the ideas of philosophers from Socrates to Hume and Sartre, and on the cutting edge psychology of canine cognition, philosopher Mark Rowlands explores the way dogs experience the world to bring us closer to an understanding of ourselves.
While dogs feel unparalleled joy and focus in the moment, humans are burdened by the disquietude of anxiety, doubt and even anguish. Happiness for dogs can be achieved in the daily chase of a squirrel, for humans it is much more elusive. Digging deep into their morality, freedoms, consciousness, intelligence and love of life, Rowlands discovers that dogs have a unique way of existing which amounts to a different philosophical outlook altogether - if they could write such a thing - and that they may have better answers to the meaning of life than we do.
The Hare Shaped Hole, John and Thomas Docherty, paperback
£7.99
Quite simply one of the loveliest books to deal with loss, not just bereavement but perhaps also if a friend moves away, or with the loss of a pet - the metaphor is very gently expressed.
Hertle and Bertle were always a pair, though one was a turtle and one was a hare. They were utterly buddies, and best friends forever, and whenever you looked, you would find them together... until quite unexpectedly... the end came. When Hertle disappears for good, Bertle can only see a Hertle-shaped hole where his friend should be.
He pleads with it, get angry with it, but the hole still won't bring his Hertle back. It seems like hope is lost... until Gerda the kindly bear finds him.
She explains that he must fill the hole with his memories of Hertle. And slowly... Bertle begins to feel a little bit better.
Powerful and moving text from children's author and poet John Dougherty is paired perfectly with warm illustrations from the wonderfully talented Thomas Docherty in a thoughtful and sensitive approach to this difficult topic. This moving picture book will be loved and treasured by children and adults alike. With kids, it can be used to start a gentle conversation about death and grief.
The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas (paperback)
£8.99
Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2018 Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community.It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.
The Heart in Winter, Kevin Barry ( hardback June 2024)
£16.99
What if we ride out tonight?What if we ride out and never once look back?October, 1891. Butte, Montana. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains.
The city is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and balladmaker, but also a doper, a drinker and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington.
A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho. Briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunsmen are soon in hot pursuit of the lovers, and closing in fast .
AN IRISH TIMES FICTION TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024
The Heart of A Giant, Hollie Hughes (paperback July 2023)
£7.99
A journey of friendship and discovery from the author of very popular The Girl and the Dinosaur. There's a shape up in the hills, where a giant's said to sleep,beneath a grassy blanket, on a bed of moss and peat . .. Then, one day, the sleeping giant wakes - and a small boy called Tom is plunged into an unforgettable adventure. Along the way, he'll discover what it means to be a true friend - and that even an ordinary boy can have the heart of a giant.
With a beautiful rhyming text and gorgeous illustrations from debut talent Anna Wilson, this beautiful book is a treat.
The Hiding Game, Naomi Wood (paperback, 4 Feb 2021)
£8.99
The Hiding Game is an intoxicating story of love and betrayal, set in the Bauhaus art school. Heady, gripping and unforgettable, Naomi Wood's third novel explores the perils of secrecy in a changing and increasingly dangerous world. In Roaring Twenties Germany, Paul, Charlotte and Walter meet at the Bauhaus art school.The trio form a close-knit group, in which passions and rivalries collide. But when Walter is betrayed, he makes a terrible mistake- a secret he will keep from Paul and Charlottefor as long as he can. As political tensions escalate and the Nazis gain power, Walter's secret - hidden in notebooks, paintings and blueprints - ultimately threatens the very lives of his friends, with devastating consequences.
Shortlisted for The Historical Writers' Association Gold Crown Award. Longlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
The Historians, Eavan Boland ( paperback, Oct 2020)
£10.99
Winner of the Costa Poetry Award 2020. A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2020. A Guardian Book of the Year 2020.A Sunday Independent Book of the Year 2020. An Irish Times Book of the Year 2020. A forceful and moving final volume from one of the most masterful poets of the twentieth century.
Throughout her nearly sixty-year career, acclaimed poet Eavan Boland came to be known for her exquisite ability to weave myth, history, and the life of an ordinary woman into mesmerizing poetry. She was an essential voice in both feminist and Irish literature, praised for her 'edgy precision, an uncanny sympathy and warmth, an unsettling sense of history' ( J.D. McClatchy).
Her final volume, The Historians, is the culmination of her signature themes, exploring the ways in which the hidden, sometimes all-but-erased stories of women's lives can powerfully revise our sense of the past. Two women burning letters in a back garden. A poet who died too young.
The Home Scar, Kathleen MacMahon ( new paperback Feb 2024)
£9.99
'The home scar - that's what they call the mark limpets make on the rock when they return.''Wait, they leave the rock?''Of course. How else would they survive?On opposite sides of the world, half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work, intent on ignoring their painful past. When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines, they're drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer, the last before their mother died.But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer - one that had tragic consequences. Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and - ready or not - to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them. The Home Scar is a luminous and precise story about the inheritance of loss and the possibility of finally making peace with it.
_________'A powerful story about legacy and loss and the possibility of reconciliation' Irish Times'Her beautifully simple style belies psychological complexity . . .
From the Irish Author of Nothing But Blue Sky
The Hong Kong Diaries ,Chris Patten (paperback Feb 2024)
£14.99
The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, published on the 25th anniversary of the handover.
In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not (as other British colonies over the decades) for independence, but for handing back in 1997 to the Chinese, from whom most of its territory had been leased 99 years previously. Over the next five years he kept this diary, which describes in detail how Hong Kong was run as a British colony and what happened as the handover approached. The book gives unprecedented insights into negotiating with the Chinese, about how the institutions of democracy in Hong Kong were (belatedly) strengthened and how Patten sought to ensure that a strong degree of self-government would continue after 1997.
Unexpectedly, his opponents included not only the Chinese themselves, but some British businessmen and civil service mandarins upset by Patten's efforts, for whom political freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong seemed less important than keeping on the right side of Beijing. The book concludes with an account of what has happened in Hong Kong since the handover, a powerful assessment of recent events and Patten's reflections on how to deal with China - then and now.
The Horse Who Came Home, Olivia Tuffin ( paperback June 2023)
£7.99
Heartbreak, betrayal, and a breathtakingly daring rescue: Olivia Tuffin's fresh and thrilling novel about a girl's fight for justice at her family's stables will have 9+ readers gripped. Hannah's dad, a former Olympic show jumper, runs a highly respected stables where they buy, train and sell ponies on for huge sums of money. The whole family helps, especially Hannah's older sister, Millie - a social media star on the rise.But when Hannah rescues Bella, a beautiful Connemara pony, and begins to piece together her tragic history, she discovers that not everything at Heartwood stables is as perfect as it seems. Love of ponies, or loyalty to family? Now that Hannah knows the truth, she faces an impossible choice.
The House of Broken Bricks, Fiona WIlliams (paperback Jan 2025)
£9.99
A clever, heartbreaking, heartwarming depiction of family love, grief and the possibility of hope.'JO BROWNING WROE, author of A Terrible Kindness'
Ain't nothing wrong with being broken. Nothing at all. You're like these houses, not a whole brick in em and look how strong they are. As Tess traces the sunrise over the floodplains, light that paints the house a startling crimson, she yearns for the comforting chaos of life as it once was. Instead of Max and Sonny tracking dirt through the kitchen - Tess and Richard's 'rainbow twins' - Tess absorbs the quiet.
The nights draw in, the soil cools and Richard fights to get his winter crops planted rather than deal with the discussion he cannot bear to have. Secrets and vines clamber over the broken red bricks and although its inhabitants seem to be withering, in the damp, crumbling soil Sonny knows that something is stirring . .
As the seasons change, and the cracks let in more light, the family might just be able to start to heal. This is the story of a broken family, what they see and what they cannot say laid bare in their overlapping perspectives.
Fiona Williams' stunning nature-writing and poetic prose, turns a relatively simple story into a hauntingly beautiful experience. ( Paperback from January 2025)
The House of Fortune, Jessie Burton (Paperback 6 July 2023)
£9.99
The sequel to Jessie Burton's million-copy bestseller The Miniaturist
In the golden city of Amsterdam, in 1705, Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and she is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms.
At the city's theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, all is not well - her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea's birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present. Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed - perhaps this will set their fortunes straight.
And indeed, the ball does set things spinning: new figures enter their life, promising new futures. But their fates are still unclear, and when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she remembers the miniaturist who entered her life and toyed with her fortunes eighteen years ago. Perhaps, now, she has returned for her .
The Hoys, Kes Gray ( paperback June 2024 )
£7.99
Ahoy there! But what is a hoy, and why can Pirate Jake never see one?! No matter how hard he looks, Jake cannot see the mysterious hoys he keeps hearing so much about. How can he ever be a proper pirate if he can’t see a hoy? With his parrot on his shoulder, he walks gloomily across the sand dunes. Until something quite unusual catches his eye.
Another genius little book from the master of wordplay, wit and whimsy! This vibrant new picture book from bestselling author Kes Gray is perfect for pirate fans everywhere, at any time of day.
The Iliad translated by Emily Wilson ( Paperback August 2024)
£14.99
Now in Limited Edition paperback with Deckled Edge binding.
When Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017-revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that "combines intellectual authority with addictive readability" (Edith Hall, The Sunday Telegraph)-critics lauded it as "a revelation" (Susan Chira, The New York Times) and "a cultural landmark" (Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English.
Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of the first great Homeric epic: The Iliad. In Wilson's hands, this exciting and often horrifying work now gallops at a pace befitting its battle scenes, roaring with the clamour of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors and the anguished cries of dying men.
Wilson's unadorned but resonant language plumbs the poem's profound pathos and reveals its characters as palpably real, even "complicated", human beings. Capping a decade of intense engagement with Homer's poetry, Wilson's Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.
The Illustrated Good Omens, Pratchett and Gaiman ( hardback July 2023)
£35.00
There is a hint of Armageddon in the air. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact.So the Armies of Good and Evil are massing, the four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witchfinders are getting ready to Fight the Good Fight. Atlantis is rising. Frogs are falling.
Tempers are flaring, and everything appears to be going to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. They've lived amongst Humanity for millennia, and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle.
So if Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the AntiChrist (which is a shame, really, as he's a nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. This edition features a new revised text, approved by Neil Gaiman and the Pratchett Estate, which clears up many typos and errors from previous editions.
It also features twelve full colour illustrations from Paul Kidby - Terry Pratchett's artist of choice - and further pencil drawings.
The Impossible Thing, Belinda Bauer ( hardback Feb 2025)
£16.99
From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner, Sunday Times bestselling and Booker-longlisted author Belinda Bauer, a sweeping tale about a hungry young girl, an impossible discovery, and a crime that remained unsolved for one hundred years. .. until now. It was the greatest mystery never told .
. . 1926.
On the towering cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. But when small and hungry Celie Sheppard finds an 'impossible' red egg, it will forever alter the course of her life - and the lives of others.
One hundred years later in a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort discovers his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history.
Until now. A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skulduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.
The Instant, Amy Liptrot ( paperback Feb 2023)
£10.99
Wishing to leave behind the quiet isolation of her Orkney island life, Amy Liptrot books a one-way flight to Berlin. Searching for new experiences, inspiration and love, she rents a loftbed in a shared flat and looks for work. She explores the streets, nightclubs and parks and seeks out the city's wildlife - goshawks, raccoons and hooded crows.She looks for love through the screen of her laptop. Over the course of a year Amy makes space hoping for the unexpected. And it comes with an erotic jolt, in the form of a love affair that obsesses her.
The Instant is an unapologetic look at the addictive power of love and lust. It is also an exploration of the cycles of the moon, the flight paths of migratory birds, the mesmerising power of Neolithic stonework and the trails followed by a generation who exist online.
The Invisible Doctrine, George Monbiot ( paperback April 2025)
£12.99
The Invisible Doctrine : The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How It Came to Control Your Life)
The #1 Sunday Times bestseller*
'This book is dynamite – shining a spotlight on the evils of neoliberalism, shattering the myth that ‘there is no alternative’, and laying the foundations for a new politics' - Caroline Lucas
How can you fight something if you don’t know it exists? We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our relationships and our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law.
But trace it back to its roots, and we discover that it is neither inevitable nor immutable. It was conceived, propagated, and then concealed by the powerful few. Our task is to bring it into the light—and to build a new system that is worth fighting for. Neoliberalism. Do you know what it is?
The Irish Difference : A Tumultuous History of Ireland's Breakup With Britain by Fergal Tobin ( paperback Jan 2023))
£10.99
For hundreds of years, the islands and their constituent tribes that make up the British Isles have lived next door to each other in a manner that, over time, suggested some movement towards political union. It was an uneven, stop-start business and it worked better in some places than in others.Still, England, Wales and Scotland have hung together through thick and thin, despite internal divisions of language, religion, law, culture and disposition that might have broken up a less resilient polity. And, for a long time, it seemed that something similar might have been said about the smaller island to the west: Ireland. Ireland was always a more awkward fit in the London-centric mini-imperium but no one imagined that it might detach itself altogether, until the moment came for rupture, quite suddenly and dramatically, in the fall-out from World War I.
So, what was it - is it - about Ireland that is so different? Different enough to sever historical ties of centuries with such sudden violence and unapologetic efficiency. Wherein lies the Irish difference, a difference sufficient to have caused a rupture of that nature?In a wide-ranging and witty narrative, historian Fergal Tobin looks into Ireland's past, taking in everything from religion and politics to sports and literature, and traces the roots of her journey towards independence.
The Island of Longing, Anne Griffin ( paperback Feb 2024)
£9.99
One unremarkable afternoon, Rosie watched her daughter Saoirse cycle into town, expecting to hear the slam of the door when she returned a few hours later. But the slam never came. Eight years on, after an extensive investigation into her disappearance, Rosie is the only person who stubbornly believes that her child might still be alive.When Rosie receives a call from her father, asking her to return home for the summer, she is forced out of her limbo. Life on the island of Roaring Bay revives old rivalries, but it also brings new friendships and unexpected solace. Yet, when a sudden glimmer of hope appears, Rosie is forced to face an impossible question: is she right to think that Saoirse is still alive? Or will her belief that her daughter will one day return to her come at the cost of everything she has left?
The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak (paperback April 2022)
£9.99
It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic, chilli peppers and wild herbs.This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours, the world outside and its immoderate sorrows. In the centre of the tavern, growing through a cavity in the roof, is a fig tree.
This tree will witness their hushed, happy meetings, their silent, surreptitious departures; and the tree will be there when the war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to rubble, when the teenagers vanish and break apart. Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada Kazantzakis has never visited the island where her parents were born. Desperate for answers, she seeks to untangle years of secrets, separation and silence.
The only connection she has to the land of her ancestors is a Ficus Carica growing in the back garden of their home. In The Island of Missing Trees, prizewinning author Elif Shafak brings us a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, memory and amnesia, human-induced destruction of nature, and, finally, renewal. 'A brilliant novel -- one that rings with Shafak's characteristic compassion for the overlooked and the under-loved, for those whom history has exiled, excluded or separated.
The Italian Deli Cookbook ( March 2021, hardback)
£28.00
"Some of the happiest years of my life were spent cooking next to Theo. He's an extraordinary cook and his food is consistently delicious. What a wonderful cookbook broken down into simple, delicious chapters - I love it." - Jamie Oliver
From biscotti to limoncello, the world's love affair with Italian delis goes back many years.
The Italians have taken the very best of Italian produce all over the world. From Hong Kong to London, Sydney to Brooklyn, people everywhere have access to a treasure trove of ingredients through Italian delicatessens. Theo Randall's The Italian Deli Cookbook showcases delicious family recipes using favourite ingredients.
Easily accessible in supermarkets now too, and worth paying a little extra for the very best, these are transformative ingredients that can make for easy lunches and suppers, or dinner party centrepieces. With 100 recipes using cured meats, smoked fish, jarred vegetables, vinegars, olives, pasta, pulses, cheeses and wine, stunning photography throughout, and original, simple recipes, as well as a directory of classic delicatessens worldwide, elevate your cooking the easy way with the expert guidance of world-renowned chef Theo Randall.
The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman ( pb 2019)
£9.99
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD***
'Wickedly funny, deeply touching . . .
1955 - The artists are gathering together for a photograph. In one of Rome's historic villas, a party glitters with socialites and patrons. Bear Bavinsky, creator of vast, masculine, meaty canvases, is their god.
He is at the centre of the picture. His wife, Natalie, edges out of the shot. From the side of the room watches little Pinch - their son.
At five years old he loves Bear almost as much as he fears him. After Bear abandons their family, Pinch will still worship him, while Natalie faces her own wars with the art world. Trying to live up to his father's name - one of the twentieth century's fiercest and most controversial painters - Pinch never quite succeeds.
Yet by the end of a career of twists and compromises, he enacts an unexpected rebellion that will leave forever his mark upon the Bear Bavinsky legacy. What makes an artist? In The Italian Teacher, Tom Rachman displays a nuanced understanding of art and its demons. Moreover, in Pinch he achieves a portrait of vulnerability and frustrated talent that - with his signature humour and humanity -- challenges the very idea of greatness.
The Joy of Wild Swimming ( Lonely Planet) Sept 2023
£19.99
Dive into 60 of the world's most joyous wild swimming spots and discover a further 120 ideas for uplifting bathing experiences. Packed with inspirational expert insights, immersive photography, and essential trip planning tips, this remarkable book explores the open-water swims guaranteed to exhilarate, rejuvenate, restore and above all, spark joy. Wade into Hawaii's crystal clear sea where tropical fish weave through the coral reefs of the Kona coast; or experience the magnificence of Slovenia's Lake Bled, where swimmers tread through the other-worldly Alpine blue waters to reach the iconic island at its heart.With 60 mesmerising wild-swimming wonders to tour, readers will soon be immersed in the culture, landscape and characteristics of each life-affirming swim. Inside The Joy of Wild Swimming:- 60 in-depth profiles of wild swimming spots, organised by region and accompanied by beautiful photography, plus first-hand accounts from writers who have experienced the joy of each swim- 120 extra must-visit natural water destinations-
