Products
The Roasting Tin Around the World (hardback, April 2020)
£20.00
Cook delicious one-tin versions of your favourite recipes from around the world, including fresh vegan and vegetarian ideas, from the bestselling author of The Green Roasting Tin. The Roasting Tin Around the World covers all corners of the globe with brand new recipes. The greatest hits from each region are reworked into quick and easy one-tin meals.The dishes are perfect for weeknight dinners, lunch breaks and family favourites. Rukmini Iyer's vision for the roasting tin series is: 'minimum effort, maximum flavour'. This book really delivers with its bold, punchy and global flavours.
Just chop a few ingredients, pop them into a roasting tin and let the oven do the work. Featuring 75 easy-to-make recipes that make use of your lockdown larder ingredients, The Roasting Tin Around the World is the perfect cook book for vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.
The Robin Who Stole Christmas ( Rachel Morrisroe, Oct 2023)
£7.99
Join Rotten Robin and his gang of feathered friends as they hatch a plan to steal Christmas in this hilariously unconventional festive tale!
A little red robin - who just so happens to be the world's most wanted thief - has a rather unusual plan this festive season. He hates Christmas, and so he's going to STEAL it - baubles, mince pies, Santa, and all!But Rotten Robin hadn't realised the feathers he'd ruffle by taking away the Yuletide celebrations - and when he's forced to give back everything he's stolen, he realises that Christmas might not be that bad after all... This brand new Christmas story from picture book rising star Rachel Morrisroe and illustrator talent Richard Merritt is a unique take on a festive tale, full of humour and heart
The Romantic, William Boyd (paperback July 2023)
£9.99
Soldier. Farmer. Felon.Writer. Father. Lover.
One man, many lives. Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace.
He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days.
As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic. From one of Britain's best-loved and bestselling writers comes an intimate yet panoramic novel set across the nineteenth century.
The Safe Keep, Yael Van Der Wouden ( hardback May 2024, paperback from 12 June 2025)
£16.99
Booker Longlisted, and Women's Prize shortlisted !
It's 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel's life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline.
But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season... Eva is Isabel's antithesis: sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn't. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house-a spoon, a knife, a bowl-Isabel' suspicions spiral out of control.
In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel's paranoia gives way to desire - leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva - nor the house in which they live - are what they seem. 'Surprising, chilling, and electric' Alice Winn, bestselling author of IN MEMORIAM'The Safekeep is a dream of a novel — mesmerizing and shockingly good...
The Saint of Lost Things, Tish Delaney ( paperback April 2023)
£8.99
Lindy Morris is stuck. She lives in rural Ireland, banished to a lonely bungalow by her Granda Morris, with only her Auntie Bell and the TV for company. But one day Lindy realises that life is not quite what she thought it was: her mother's disappearance and her own lost years need to be brought out into the light.Suddenly Lindy is awake, uncovering the very secrets that will release her from her past. Told with devastating wit and poignancy, THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS is the triumphant story of an unlikely heroine as she makes her bid for freedom.
The Scarediest Bear, Frances Stickley ( paperback August 2025)
£7.99
Everyone’s frightened we all feel afraid, But the more that you face it the more it will fade. Bear isn’t scared of his snuggly lair or of his best friend, Hare, but he is scared of pretty much everything else. And when he starts to feel that he’s missing out, the two embark on a mission to discover that special something that unlocks Bear’s courage and reignites his love for life.
The Scarediest Bear is the story of how courage can be found in the most unexpected places. This reassuring, funny story by Frances Stickley, stylishly illustrated by Alice McKinley, is the perfect way to open up discussions about worries and anxiety with young children. Children won’t be able to resist adorable double-act Bear and Hare as they take on their fears, one step at a time
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudedsey, Sean Lusk ( paperback May 2023)
£9.99
A BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick and Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month, for fans of PANDORA, THE ESSEX SERPENT and THE NIGHT CIRCUS. Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023.
Zachary Cloudesley is gifted in a remarkable way. But not all gifts are a blessing...
Leadenhall Street, London, 1754. Raised amongst the cogs and springs of his father's workshop, Zachary Cloudesley has grown up surrounded by strange and enchanting clockwork automata. He is a happy child, beloved by his father Abel and the workmen who help bring his father's creations to life.
He is also the bearer of an extraordinary gift; at the touch of a hand, Zachary can see into the hearts and minds of the people he meets. But then a near-fatal accident will take Zachary away from the workshop and his family. His father will have to make a journey that he will never return from.
And, years later, only Zachary can find out what happened. A beautifully crafted historical mystery of love and hope, and the adventure of finding your place in the world. ------'Packed with intrigue, vividly drawn characters and heartstopping emotion, this beautifully written, ingeniously crafted debut is absolutely enthralling' - Sunday Express'
. . intricately plotted, and peopled with intriguing characters' - Daily MailWhat readers are saying:'an excellent historical, magical realist novel''beautifully written''full of love and humour''original and rich in historical detail''my best book of 2022''totally engrossing .
The Secret Diaries of Charles Igatius Sancho (paperback Oct 2023), by Paterson Joseph
£9.99
For fans of The Miniaturist and The Confessions of Frannie Langton comes this award-winning novel of illuminating historical fiction.
Meet Charles Ignatius Sancho: his extraordinary story, hidden for three hundred years, is about to be told. I had little right to live, born on a slave ship where my parents both died. But I survived, and indeed, you might say I did more...
It's 1746 and Georgian London is not a safe place for a young Black man, especially one who has escaped slavery. After the twinkling lights in the Fleet Street coffee shops are blown out and the great houses have closed their doors for the night, Sancho must dodge slave catchers and worse. The man he hoped would help - a kindly duke who taught him to write - is dying.
Sancho is desperate and utterly alone. So how does Charles Ignatius Sancho meet the King, write and play highly acclaimed music, become the first Black person to vote in Britain and lead the fight to end slavery?It's time for him to tell his story, one that begins on a tempestuous Atlantic Ocean, and ends at the very centre of London life. And through it all, he must ask: born amongst death, how much can you achieve in one short life?
An absolutely thrilling, throat-catching wonder of a historical novel. Hugely recommended.' STEPHEN FRY
The Secret Life of John Le Carre, Adam Sisman ( paperback July 2024)
£10.99
Secrecy came naturally to John le Carre, and there were some secrets that he fought fiercely to keep. Nowhere was this more so than in his private life. Apparently content in his marriage, the novelist conducted a string of love affairs over four decades.
To keep these relationships secret, he made use of tradecraft that he had learned as a spy: code names and cover stories, cut outs, safe houses and dead letter boxes. Such affairs introduced both jeopardy and excitement into what was otherwise a quiet, ordered life. Le Carre seemed to require the stimulus they provided in order to write, though this meant deceiving those closest to him.
It is no coincidence that betrayal became a recurrent theme in his work. Adam Sisman's definitive biography, published in 2015, revealed much about the elusive spy-turned-novelist; yet le Carre was adamant that some subjects should remain hidden, at least during his lifetime. The Secret Life of John le Carre is the story of what was left out, and offers reflections on the difficult relationship between biographer and subject.
Not merely the conclusive homage to a compulsively fascinating character, but an insightful study into the biographical process itself' Nicholas Shakespeare'Now that he is dead, we can know him better.
The Secret Lives of Numbers, Kitagawa and Revell ( hardback August 2023)
£20.00
The Secret Lives of Numbers : A Global History of Mathematics & its Unsung Trailblazers
by Kate Kitagawa (Author) , Timothy Revell (Author)
Mathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong. In The Secret Lives of Numbers, historian Kate Kitagawa and journalist Timothy Revell introduce readers to the mathematical boundary-smashers who have been erased by history because of their race, gender or nationality.
From the brilliant Arabic scholars of the ninth-century House of Wisdom, and the pioneering African American mathematicians of the twentieth century, to the 'lady computers' around the world who revolutionised our knowledge of the night sky, we meet these fascinating trailblazers and see how they contributed to our global knowledge today. Along the way, the mathematics itself is explained extremely clearly, for example, calculus is described using the authors' home baking, as they pose the question: how much cake is in our cake? This revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of mathematics is as entertaining as it is important.
Paperback END August 2024
The Seventh Son, Sebastian Faulks ( hardback Sept 2023)
£22.00
When a young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry another woman's child, she has no idea of the life-changing consequences. Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics as never before.Through a series of IVF treatments, which they hope to keep secret, they propose an experiment that will upend the human race as we know it. Seth, the baby, is delivered to hopeful parents Mary and Alaric, but when his differences start to mark him out from his peers, he begins to attract unwanted attention. The Seventh Son is a spectacular examination of what it is to be human.
It asks the question: just because you can do something, does it mean you should? Sweeping between New York, London, and the Scottish Highlands, this is an extraordinary novel about unrequited love and unearned power.
The Shadow Rising ( Bk 4, Wheel of Time Series)
£10.99
The fourth novel in the Wheel of Time series - one of the most influential and popular fantasy epics ever published. The Stone of Tear, invulnerable fortress of legend, has fallen. The Children of the Dragon have risen to the call of prophecy and march to the aid of the Light.Callandor, the Sword That Is Not a Sword, is held by Rand al'Thor, the man proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn. But still the shadows lengthen and still the Forsaken grow in strength. If he is to fight them, Rand must master the male half of the True Source, a power corrupted by the Dark One, a power that drives men to madness, a power that may save or damn the world.
'Epic in every sense' Sunday Times
The Silence Factory - Bridget Collins ( Paperback April 2025)
£9.99
In the Factory, the looms clatter all day. Cobwebs found in ancient Mediterranean glades are spun into a precious fabric that silences the world. But what happens to those who fall under its spell? And who is harnessing its power? After all, a world of silence can bring peace, but it can also conceal the deeds of the wicked… The Silence Factory is an enthralling story about complicity, desire and corruption – a novel to lose yourself in.
The Sirens’ Call, by Chris Hayes ( hardback Feb 2025)
£20.00
From the New York Times bestselling author and television and podcast host, a powerful, wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society. We all feel it — the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us.
We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, ‘With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.’ Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated.
Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. The Sirens’ Call is the big book we all need to wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future.
The Skylark’s War, by Hilary McKay ( paperback, 2018)
£7.99
Winner of the Costa Book Award 2018 - Children's category.
The Skylarks' War is a beautiful story following the loves and losses of a family growing up against the harsh backdrop of World War One, from the award-winning Hilary McKay. Clarry and her older brother Peter live for their summers in Cornwall, staying with their grandparents and running free with their charismatic cousin, Rupert. But as they grow older, and the War encroaches ever more on their lives, how will Clarry cope?
I loved this book, it's warm, funny and touching - suits everyone from 8 to 80 I think!
The Slain Birds, Michael Longley ( paperback Sept 2022)
£12.99
Michael Longley's new collection takes its title from Dylan Thomas - 'for the sake of the souls of the slain birds sailing'.The Slain Birds encompasses souls, slayings and many birds, both dead and alive. The first poem laments a tawny owl killed by a car. That owl reappears later in 'Totem', which represents the book itself as 'a star-surrounded totem pole/ With carvings of all the creatures'.
'Slain birds' exemplify our impact on the creatures and the planet. But, in this book's cosmic ecological scheme, birds are predators too, and coronavirus is 'the merlin we cannot see'. Longley's soul-landscape seems increasingly haunted by death, as he revisits the Great War, the Holocaust and Homeric bloodshed, with their implied counterparts today.
Yet his microcosmic Carrigskeewaun remains a precarious 'home' for the human family. It engenders 'Otter-sightings, elvers, leverets, poetry'. Among Longley's images for poetry are crafts that conserve or recycle natural materials: carving, silversmithing, woodturning, embroidery.
This suggests the versatility with which he remakes his own art. Two granddaughters 'weave a web from coloured strings' and hang it up 'to trap a big idea'. The interlacing lyrics of The Slain Birds are such a web.
The Sleepwalkers, Scarlett Thomas ( paperback July 2025)
£16.99
Still reeling from the chaos of their wedding, Evelyn and Richard arrive on an idyllic Greek island for their honeymoon. It’s the end of the season and out at sea a storm is brewing. They check in to an exclusive hotel, the Villa Rosa, where the proprietor Isabella — a strangely intense woman of indeterminate accent — flirts outrageously with Richard while treating Evelyn with a rudeness bordering on contempt.
Isabella tells them the story of 'the sleepwalkers': a couple who stayed at the hotel the year before and drowned in a tragic and unexplained accident. It starts to feel like the entire island is obsessed with 'the sleepwalkers', but what at first seems like a fun tale to tell before bed quickly evolves into a living nightmare. Caught in a web of deception and intrigue, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem, Evelyn and Richard discover that their island paradise may in fact be hell on earth and that their only means of escape is to confront dark truths about themselves and those they love.
Exhilarating, suspenseful, and subversively funny, in The Sleepwalkers Thomas takes elements on Daphne Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith and blends them with her own unique sensibility to create an unforgettable thriller of rare intelligence that cements her reputation as the most exciting and original author of her generation.
A dark, twisty, savagely humorous plunge into a cauldron of toxic relationships . . .as well as a mystery loaded with menace, this is a smart, layered, stinging look at power and its abuse.' The Times
The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe ( paperback March 2023)
£10.99
'Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it's all true.' - TimeIn this thrilling panorama of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York's Chinatown, managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people. In The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping's complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down.He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America. 'A powerful piece of reportage about the violent underworld of New York's Chinatown' - The Times
The Space We're In, Katya Balen (paperback 2020)
£7.99
Frank is ten. He likes cottage pie and football and cracking codes.
Max is five. He eats only Quavers and some colours are too bright for him and if he has to wear a new T-shirt he melts down down down. Sometimes Frank wishes Mum could still do huge paintings of stars and asteroids like she used to, but since Max was born she just doesn't have time. When tragedy hits Frank and Max's lives like a comet, can Frank piece together a universe in which he and Max aren't light years apart?
If you liked Wonder, or Marley and Me, this debut author will move and inspire you.
The Spy and The Traitor, Ben Macintyre ( paperback 2019)
£10.99
The Spy and the Traitor : The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.
'The best true spy story I have ever read' John le Carre
On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen.
The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket. The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine.
No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying.
Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever . . .
The Stolen Lives, Sharada Keats ( paperback April 2024)
£8.99
Filled with suspense and romance, ideal for fans of Noughts & Crosses, The Hunger Games and Shatter Me. Six years ago, seventeen-year-old Mora survived the terrifying Skøl invasion.They stole her land. They took her family. And now not even her life is her own.
Skøl culture revolves around one motto: Life is Golden. You must pay the government for the right to survive. If you can't, you're cast out at best - at worst, culled.
Records of every citizen are held at the hallowed, highly secured Life Registry, which tracks who lives and who dies, who pays and who fails. Colonized survivors like Mora face endless servitude, repaying the 'debt' of their years lived before the invasion. Mora is resigned to her fate, finding glimmers of joy in her tentative friendship with another repayer, the handsome, elusive Kit.
But then she finds out that twelve-year-old Zako, the closest thing she has to a brother, is to be put to death by the dangerous new Skøl Governor. Finding the courage to fight back, Mora and Kit conspire to smuggle Zako to safety. But their plan draws them into a dark mystery - and to a heart-pounding mission at the Life Registry itself.
They must ultimately ask themselves: what are we worth to each other? Gripping, moving and suspenseful storytelling with a friends-to-lovers romance that crackles with tension. A girl driven by unthinkable grief. A boy targeted for his unimaginable ability.
A compelling story exploring the power of hope, courage and connection from a stunning new voice in YA.
The Storm Keeper’s Battle, Catherine Doyle ( pb, Mar 2021)
£7.99
book 3 in the trilogy:
Fionn Boyle, Storm Keeper of Arranmore, is facing the fight of his life. The terrifying all- powerful sorceress Morrigan has been raised from the dead and has sealed off the island from all help. Fionn is the only thing that stands between her and a dark future.
He's got to find a way to defeat her. But there are some terrible choices in store for Fionn as the dark sorcerer begins to take his nearest and dearest for her own. With only two candles left to burn, will Fionn master his powers in time to stop her?
The Storm Swimmer , Clare Weze ( paperback Jan 2023)
£7.99
Summer was supposed to be Ginika's time for fun, friends and fairs. But instead she's been sent to live at the dead-end seaside boarding house her grandparents run.Even though her parents say it's just for a little while, she can't help feeling abandoned and heartbroken to be missing out on everything she loves back home. And then she meets Peri. He leaps and dives through the water like a dolphin and he talks like a burst of bubbles.
He's not exactly a mermaid, but he's definitely something Ginika's never seen before. His family is far away too, but unlike Ginika, he loves his independence. As Ginika shows Peri her world, she starts to feel free as well.
They don't need anyone else when they've got each other. But then the lights and noise of the human world start to change Peri. And when things spin out of control, Ginika must be the bravest she's ever been to face her fears and make the hardest decision of her life.
Join Ginika and Peri as they dive beneath the waves and walk the lands that will take them into each other's worlds on an adventure they will never forget and a life-changing friendship.
The Story of Russia, 'an excellent short study' Orlando Figes (paperback August 2023)
£10.99
From the great storyteller of Russia, a spellbinding account of the stories that have shaped the country's past - and how they can inform its present. No other country has been so divided over its own past as Russia. None has changed its story so often.How the Russians came to tell their story, and to reinvent it as they went along, is a vital aspect of their history, their culture and beliefs. To understand what Russia's future holds - to grasp what Putin's regime means for Russia and the world - we need to unravel the ideas and meanings of that history. In The Story of Russia, Orlando Figes brings into sharp relief the vibrant characters that comprise Russia's rich history, and whose stories remain so important in making sense of the world's largest nation today - from the crowning of sixteen-year-old Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral, to Catherine the Great, riding out in a green uniform to arrest her husband at his palace, to the bitter last days of the Romanovs.
Beautifully written and based on a lifetime of scholarship, The Story of Russia is a major and definitive work from the great storyteller of Russian history: sweeping, suspenseful, masterful
The Story of the Forest, Linda Grant ( paperback June 2024)
£9.99
It's 1913 and a young, carefree and recklessly innocent girl, Mina, goes out into the forest on the edge of the Baltic sea and meets a gang of rowdy young men with revolution on their minds.
It sounds like a fairy tale but it's life. The adventure leads to flight, emigration and a new land, a new language and the pursuit of idealism or happiness - in Liverpool. But what of the stories from the old country; how do they shape and form the next generations who have heard the well-worn tales?From the flour mills of Latvia to Liverpool suburbia to post-war Soho, The Story of the Forest is about myths and memory and about how families adapt in order to survive.
It is a story full of the humour and wisdom we have come to relish from this wonderful writer. Orwell Prize for Political Fiction Award Ceremony - 22 June 2023.
Jewel-like clarity... exceptional'RICHARD COLES'
The Story Orchestra ( series)
£16.99
Discover the spellbinding magic of The Planets in this musical reimagining of one of Holst's most famous suites. Push the button on each beautiful scene to hear the vivid sound of an orchestra playing from Holst's score. This tale is about a brother and sister who adventure deep into our solar system. Our story begins one night as Helen and Tim get ready for bed in their new space rocket bunk beds...but sleep will have to wait as they magically blast up, up, up into the glittering night sky, leaving planet Earth far below them. Helen and Tim journey here, there and everywhere through our majestic solar system. They soar past the cold rocky surface of Mars as it rises into towering peaks and plunges into deep canyons and glide through a bumpy asteroid belt made of icy rocks.
They blast deeper into our solar system, exploring the dazzling stars and astounding planets along the way. But now it really is time to head home! As the rocket speeds towards Earth, Tim and Helen watch the sun rise over their planet. As you and your little one journey through the magical scenes, you will press the buttons to hear 10 excerpts from the score.
Readers should press firmly on the pages to activate the sounds, encouraging interactive learning and introducing children to this beautiful piece of music. At the back of the book, find a short biography of the composer, Gustav Holst, with details about his composition of The Planets.
This is a gorgeous series of so many of the classical greats, making them appealing and exciting to children from 5+
The Story Orchestra - musical storybooks
£16.99
The Story Orchestra series brings classical music to life for children through gorgeously illustrated retellings of classic ballet, opera and program music stories paired with 10-second sound clips of orchestras playing from their musical scores. Also available in the Story Orchestra series: Four Seasons in One Day, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Carnival of the Animals, The Magic Flute, In the Hall of the Mountain King, I Can Play (vol 1), The Planets and Peter and the Wolf.
Next to this, you can replay the musical excerpts and, for each of them, read a discussion of the instruments, rhythms and musical techniques that make them so powerful.
A glossary defines musical terms.
The Sun Is Open, Gail McConnell (paperback 2021)
£9.99
The Sun is Open sifts through a boxed archive of public and private materials related to the life and death of the author's father, who was murdered by the IRA outside their Belfast home in 1984. Moving between child and adult voices, past and present, this startlingly innovative debut attempts to decode the fragments left behind and, with them, piece together a history and a life. 'Each page of The Sun Is Open is rich with exquisite and surprising language, pain, and wisdom.' - Maggie Nelson'The Sun is Open employs a grammar in which everything is significant, from Wendy Houses, to the very hairs of your head, to the poetry of First Aid instructions, to slaters.This is meticulous and painstaking - sometimes pain-making work - making the words fit the columns, be they inches of newsprint or entries in an Account Book, negotiating or nudging the meanings into alternative senses.
The Supreme Lie, Geraldine McCaughrean ( 12 +, Paperback April 2021)
£8.99
Twice Carnegie medal winning Geraldine McCaughrean's enthralling new novel is set in a world paralysed by natural disaster and dangerous lies. Fifteen-year-old Gloria is maid to Afalia's tyrannical Head of State, Madame Suprema. When the country is hit by unprecedented flooding, Madame Suprema runs away, fearing she will be blamed for the crisis.To cover up this cowardly act, Gloria is made to step into Madame Suprema's shoes and is thrust into a world of corrupt and desperate politicians. As Gloria becomes aware of the forces toying with her every move, she must take decisions that could save, or end, thousands of lives - including her own... A brilliant and darkly funny commentary on our present times by one of our greatest writers.
The Swallows' Flight, Hilary McKay ( paperback April 2022)
£7.99
From the Costa Award-winning author Hilary McKay, comes a moving World War II story of family and friendship on opposite sides of a devastating conflict. The Swallows' Flight is the stunning companion novel to The Skylarks' War. 'It's not necessary to have read The Skylarks' War (though many beloved characters make reappearances) to be instantly and joyfully lost in this evocative, moving novel, showing McKay at the very top of her game.' - Imogen Russell-Williams, The Guardian' Funny, poignant, wise and emotional.Full of achingly real characters (and also an excellent dog) . . . I absolutely love Hilary McKay's writing.
The Swallows’ Flight, Hilary McKay (paperback March 2022)
£7.99
From the Costa Award-winning author Hilary McKay, comes a moving WWII story of family and friendship on opposite sides of a devastating conflict. The Swallows' Flight is the stunning companion novel to The Skylarks' War. Erik and Hans are German boys.
Ruby and Kate are English girls. They grow up in worlds that would never meet, until war tumbles their lives together. Then one September afternoon there are choices to be made.
How is courage lost, and found? Who is really the enemy?And what does friendship truly mean, in the middle of a war? Meanwhile Rupert and Clarry work secretly for peace - and a brighter future for them all . . .
These are wonderfully written, with wit and warmth - if you enjoy family dramas these are brilliant books - Linda
The Swallow’s Flight, Hilary McKay ( hardback May 2021)
£12.99
Separately and together, The Skylarks' War and The Swallows' Flight are pinnacles of children's literature.' Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times Book of the Week'
Funny, poignant, wise and emotional. Full of achingly real characters (and also an excellent dog).....I eked out the final pages, not wanting it to end.' Fiona Noble, The BooksellerFrom the Costa Award-winning author Hilary McKay, comes a moving WWII story of family and friendship on opposite sides of a devastating conflict. The Swallows' Flight is the stunning companion novel to The Skylarks' War. Erik and Hans are German boys.
Ruby and Kate are English girls. They grow up in worlds that would never meet, until war tumbles their lives together. Then one September afternoon there are choices to be made.
How is courage lost, and found? Who is really the enemy? And what does friendship truly mean, in the middle of a war? Meanwhile Rupert and Clarry work secretly for peace - and a brighter future for them all . . .
The Swifts, Beth LIncoln ( paperback Feb 2024)
£7.99
Discover the hilarious New York Times bestselling mystery adventure perfect for fans of Robin Stevens. On the day they are born, each Swift is brought before the Family Dictionary. They are given a name and a definition, and it is assumed they will grow up to match.Unfortunately, Shenanigan Swift has other ideas. So what if her relatives all think she's destined to turn out as a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can be whatever she wants - pirate, explorer or even detective. Which is lucky, really, because when one of the Family tries to murder Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, someone has to work out whodunit.
With the help of her sisters and cousin, Shenanigan grudgingly takes on the case, but more murders, a hidden treasure and an awful lot of suspects make thing seriously complicated. Can Shenanigan catch the killer before the whole household is picked off? And in a Family where definitions are so important, can she learn to define herself?
The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln ( paperback April 2025)
£8.99
When the famous criminal gang Ouvolpo target Swift House and swap a valuable painting for an exploding inflatable bird, Shenanigan sets off in pursuit, determined to make them pay.
The trail leads to Paris, home of her eccentric French cousins, the Martinets. The two sides of the Family have been squabbling for centuries, but when a body is discovered at the scene of Ouvolpo's latest robbery, the quarrelsome cousins must join forces to solve the mystery. Did Ouvolpo kill hotel caretaker Bernard? Why is Uncle Maelstrom wearing an earring again? And what does it all have to do with a disappearing clown. Can Shenanigan uncover the answers and set right a century-old injustice?
Book 2 in the gleeful gothic mystery The Swifts.
The System, Ryan Gattis ( paperback,August 2021)
£9.99
Longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2021
'Excellent, lucid, intelligent and gripping' - Scotsman
December 1993. A drug dealer called Scrappy is shot and left for dead on her mother's lawn in South Central Los Angeles. Two local gang members, Wizard and Dreamer, are arrested.
The problem is: one is guilty, the other wasn't even there. It had to be a frame-up. And the cops had to be responsible, didn't they? Narrated by the characters involved - the suspects, the victim, the families who love them, and those simply doing their jobs - The System tells the story of one crime, from the moments before shots are fired to the verdict and its violent aftershocks.
It's a breakneck journey through the American criminal justice system. A system that can save you, or break you.
The Tall Man, Mary Cathleen Brown ( paperback, August 2024)
£8.99
The village is alive with rumours about the Tall Man and Tom lives in his house. Tom hears a boy in the cellar offering a 'special' acorn to a rat, Captain Rat, whom he begs to find the key to his leg-iron. The cellar is empty but Tom knows that the boy is real and he's convinced that he is trapped in a brutal past and the Tall's Man's prisoner.
Each time Tom tries to help the boy, the Tall Man's ghostly presence intensifies. Who is the boy in the cellar and can they escape Tall Man?
The Teenage Guide to Digital Wellbeing, Tanya Goodin ( paperback May 2024)
£12.99
A useful guide to digital wellbeing and living your best life – offline and on! Digital wellbeing is all about finding the balance between the digital world and the real world – and making sure we use smartphones and other digital devices in a healthy way, while living fulfilling lives beyond the screen. This guide helps tweens and teens do exactly that, inspiring them to set their devices aside (sometimes anyway!) and start living in the here and now. Written by digital wellbeing expert Tanya Goodin, it’s packed with positive prompts, thought-provoking science, and hands-on activities to encourage healthy habits around screen use – including nostalgic crafts, retro tech scavenger hunts, and phone-free nature excursions, plus practical tips on how to deal with digital challenges like comparison culture, cyberbullying, trolling, and much more.
This book is not about teenagers giving up their devices forever; it’s about being more mindful of how they use them, so they can live their best lives – on and off the screen. Teenagers will discover how to: Develop healthy habits, identify priorities, and set achievable goalsKnow their own screen limits and deal with digital distractionsStay safe and savvy on the internetFocus on the positive and productive uses of smartphones (no more doom-scrolling!)Combat comparison culture on social media and quieten their inner criticsNurture friendships and family relationships offline and onBuild resilience and self-confidence to live healthily and happily with their digital devices.
The Tennis Champion who Escaped The Nazis ( paperback July 2023)
£9.99
The Tennis Champion Who Escaped the Nazis : Liesl Herbst's Journey, from Vienna to Wimbledon.
A fabulous story guaranteed to capture people's imagination' - Mail on SundayIn 1930, at the age of twenty-seven, Liesl Herbst was the Austrian National Tennis Champion, a celebrity in Vienna. Liesl, her husband David and their daughter Dorli came to Britain after escaping the Nazis.
In London, though initially stripped of their Austrian passports and rendered stateless aliens, both Liesl and her daughter Dorli competed at Wimbledon. They remain the only mother and daughter ever to have played doubles together at Wimbledon. This moving story of escape and survival is told by Liesl's grand-daughter.
It is as much a search for the author's own identity as for her own children and grandchildren to ensure that their remarkable family history is never lost again. Illustrated throughout with family photographs and original documents, this is a story of survival against terrible odds, an inspiring tale of resilience and hope.
