Our Picks
Giant, Judith McQuoid ( paperback, March 2025)
£7.99
Thrilling historical fiction on the childhoodof beloved author CS Lewis. Davy, a working-class boy living in East Belfast in 1908, is sent to work at the wealthy Lewis household. When he meets Jacks – the name by which CS Lewis was known to friends and family – Davy is captivated by his friend’s world of books and stories.
Together the boys plunge into imagining and adventuring, and Davy discovers his own artistic talent. But when Davy is offered a job at the shipyard, and Jacks’s mother falls gravely ill, their wondrous days of make-believe seem numbered. Will they lose their extraordinary shared world forever?
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi ( paperback 2017)
£10.99
What makes life worth living in the face of death? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.
One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all.
When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both. 'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite.
World Without End, hardback ( Oct 2024)
£25.00
Can a graphic novel save the planet? Perhaps.” – Elizabeth Kolbert. It's surprisingly readable, funny, informative and important - everyone young and old should read this!
Is this the end of the world? Perhaps not. In this eye-opening, hopeful and hugely entertaining bestseller, a climate expert takes a leading graphic novelist on a journey to understand the profound changes that our planet is undergoing. The scientist, Jean-Marc Jancovici, walks us through just about everything: from the innermost workings of our minds to toothbrushes, office jobs, and oil; ancient history and modern geopolitics; economics and ecology; the unfolding climate crisis and its consequences for us all.
As he describes the world we live in - a world whose future is deeply uncertain - the artist, Christophe Blain, listens and draws. Coming face to face with global warming, the unlikely duo - along with Mother Nature, Pop Eye and Jiminy Cricket, among others - create a picture of what the solution to our predicament actually looks like. Yes, we have a fossil-fuel problem, but simply switching to renewable energy won’t fix it.
We can and must rethink everything: our energy supply, our economies and our whole world. They leave us with an inspiring vision of the future in which food, education, housing, transport and communities - in other words, all of us - work together and, with a few technological fixes, succeed in creating a world without end. “Masterful and unforgettable...
A testament to the power of the graphic novel" - Marjane Satrapi,
Irish Pints, A compendium ( hardback, Ali Dunworth - May 2025)
£13.00
A Compendium of Irish Pints : The Culture, Customs and Craic
In Ireland, a pint – having one, going for one, buying one – is a cultural institution. It’s about so much more than 568ml of beer in a glass. But how did a simple pint become such a phenomenon? In A Compendium of Irish Pints, Ali Dunworth delves into the culture, customs and craic surrounding pints in Ireland, from airport pints to unplanned pints, pints for celebrations and pints for commiserations, festival pints, quiet pints, crisps and pints and everything in between.
With illustrations by Stephen Heffernan, aka Hephee, that perfectly capture the culture of pints in his iconic style, you’ll find yourself working up a thirst and sending that text we all love to get: ‘Pint?’
A Beautiful Pint : One Man's Search for the Perfect Pint of Guinness by Ian Ryan
£9.99
What makes a perfect pint of Guinness? What are the criteria for a great pub? And where can you find them?Ian Ryan, founder of Sh*t London Guinness and Beautiful Pints, can answer these questions and help you find a beautiful pint, wherever you are. We’ve all got a friend who claims to know where you can get the best pint of Guinness. From the pub to the pour, it’s an experience.
And if anyone knows this best, it’s London-based Corkman Ian Ryan – founder of Sh*t London Guinness and Beautiful Pints. From the all-important different elements of a Guinness pour to what to look for (and what to run a mile from) when sourcing beautiful pints, as well as a crème de la crème list of pubs around the world to visit, Ian shares his expertise from many a pint of plain sank and enjoyed. By the end of it, you’ll be able to claim that you know where to get the ultimate pint of Guinness in town.
See you at the bar sometime.
Bogboy by Patrick Kealey ( paperback June 2025)
£10.99
Alfie O'Brien, soon to rename himself Bogboy, is born an orphan into a house of dead things, presided over by his imperious, ailing aunt. This is a place where the past won't let the present go, where ghosts confer with the living, and where discovering who you are means coming face to face with some uncomfortable truths. It is a house cursed by shadows, secrets and dynasty.
While the wind blows in from the Atlantic across these Irish peatlands, old enmities bite down, and when Bogboy is left for dead, he must learn how to trust love, discover where he belongs, and reconcile himself with his destiny. The ancestors are gathering and Bogboy is about to become a man. An audacious, rousing story of hope and beauty rising out of the dying embers of a corrupt and redundant regime, Bogboy is a story for our times, reminding us that attention to the natural world offers solace and healing, and that love - wherever we may find it - is always stronger than hatred.
Bogboy, Patrick Kealey ( paperback July 2025)
£10.99
This is a moving, entertaining and character filled story, Patrick has spent a career in theatre and his prose reflects that visual intensity - highly recommended.
Alfie O'Brien, soon to rename himself Bogboy, is born an orphan into a house of dead things, presided over by his imperious, ailing aunt. This is a place where the past won't let the present go, where ghosts confer with the living, and where discovering who you are means coming face to face with some uncomfortable truths. It is a house cursed by shadows, secrets and dynasty.While the wind blows in from the Atlantic across these Irish peatlands, old enmities bite down, and when Bogboy is left for dead, he must learn how to trust love, discover where he belongs, and reconcile himself with his destiny.
The ancestors are gathering and Bogboy is about to become a man.An audacious, rousing story of hope and beauty rising out of the dying embers of a corrupt and redundant regime, Bogboy is a story for our times, reminding us that attention to the natural world offers solace and healing, and that love - wherever we may find it - is always stronger than hatred.
