Search results for ""Little, Brown Book Group""

Revised and updated for 2023 with new material, The Gentle Parenting Book offers essential guidance to raising calmer, happier children.Parenting trends come and go. Gentle parenting is different - it isn't a label for a precise set of rules but a method of parenting that embraces the needs of parent and child, while being mindful of current science and child psychology. It means parenting with empathy, respect, understanding - and boundaries.In The Gentle Parenting Book, Sarah Ockwell-Smith provides a trustworthy combination of what-to-expect information and gentle-parenting solutions to the most common challenges faced by parents with young children. Sarah addresses a wide variety of topics, including coping with a crying baby, introducing solid foods and creating healthy eating habits, potty training, starting nursery and school, sibling rivalry, tantrums, whining and sulking, aggressive behaviour and much more.And for those parents who have previously used a more authoritarian style of parenting, there's plenty of advice - and reassurance - on making the transition to a gentler approach. For many, gentle parenting comes as a relief because it chimes with their deepest instincts about the best way to raise their children.

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The latest instalment from the beloved THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY seriesCatch up on the latest from Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and other favourites in this new instalment of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.As the temperature rises in Gaborone, Precious Ramotswe, founder of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, wonders whether the heat could be the reason that business is particularly slow. Luckily, a slower pace in life is her natural preference, unlike her colleague Mma Makutsi, who is alert to every passing observation and inclined to making snap decisions. With fewer cases to handle, Precious has time to contemplate her new neighbours, a couple who, by the sounds of it, have a rather volatile relationship . . .But then a distant cousin of Mma Ramotswe's comes to the agency with a plea for help, and the ladies decide to pursue the issue together. Armed with Mma Ramotswe's circumspection and Mma Makutsi's sharp eye, they proceed with confidence and open hearts. What, after all, could be more straightforward than a family matter?Meanwhile, their colleague Charlie is behaving oddly, borrowing Mma Ramotswe's van and returning it in an unusual condition. Digging a little deeper, the explanation is both strange and extraordinary, and takes Charlie, along with Mma Ramotswe's husband, Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, on a hair-raising night-time expedition.In the end, Precious is reminded of the need to view a picture from every angle, to accept the imperfections in people and situations, and then find a solution - preferably over a delicious slice of her friend Mma Potokwani's fruit cake.'Irresistible'The Times'Every page contains a gem of wit and insight'Scotsman

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'It's impossible not to be moved' Stephen King'Stunning...this novel will break your heart and fire up your courage' Mail on SundayThe New York Times bestseller, a deeply heart-wrenching novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child and a TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF APRIL 2023Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was nine years old. He doesn't know what happened to her-only that her books have been banned-and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him. Then one day, Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and soon he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of heroic librarians, and finally to New York City, where he will finally learn the truth about what happened to his mother, and what the future holds for them both. Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It's about the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and the power of art to create change.

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'It has the pace and dynamism of a thriller, the metaphysical curiosity of the best science fiction and some judiciously-planted charges of wry humour' The Herald 'A dazzling novel' Edmund Gordon, award-winning authorAnd how to tell what the best things were? Well, that was easy: the best things were the ones with the most people looking at them.Alastair Buchanan has a comfortable life. It's been a year since he received his very own junior - a clone designed to help him escape the daily grind. So why does Alastair spend his days alone, online, obsessing over his status? When his long-term girlfriend Caitlin can't take it anymore, Alastair does his best to hold it together. But then, a remnant from his past appears and he is forced to confront the level of control that technology has over his life. Elsewhere, an anti-tech terrorist cell dedicated to yanking humanity back to the 1990s is building momentum. And looming over everyone is Kim Larson, inventor of the juniors. But when Kim realises that humanity's future lies in the stars, who will be left to hold him to account? From award-winning author Daniel Shand, Model Citizens explores a surreal world peopled by humans struggling with their dehumanising present. Full of suspense, it asks us what we give up when we exist online, and who we can trust to take care of us. Model Citizens is a subversive and darkly comic story of class, technology, and responsibility, offering a vision of the future that may be closer than we realise.

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'A compelling, fast-moving narrative . . . delivers real emotional impact' Telegraph'A literary provocateur' GuardianSHORTLISTED for the POLARI PRIZE 2023WINNER of DIVA Magazine's 2023 'Author of the Year' AwardIsobel lives an isolated life in North London, where she works at a nearby library. She feels safe, so long as she keeps to her routines and doesn't let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher send her spiralling and bring back the trauma of what happened years ago, when she was a pupil at The Schoolhouse. The Schoolhouse was a 1970s experimental school where Isobel's days were a dark interplay of freedom and adventure, violence and fear. The only record of what happened there lies in the pages of her teenage diary. The Schoolhouse taught Isobel that some truths must never be revealed, but as police investigating the missing girl start to ask uncomfortable questions, she realises the truth is coming for her - and it will put her, and everyone she has tried to protect, at risk.From the Booker Prize-longlisted author of Love and Other Thought Experiments comes a masterful and gripping thriller about truth, silence, and the dead weight of the past.

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'A book from the psychic fault lines of 21st Century Britain, Peterdown's big ambitions never lose sight of the human and everyday. The result is something simultaneously down to earth and epic' Johny Pitts, author of AfropeanPeterdown, an industrial town with a noble past and a lacklustre present, has been chosen as the regional hub for a soon-to-be-built, ultra-high-speed railway line. The development promises to propel Peterdown headlong into a prosperous future; but in order to get there, something from the landscape of Peterdown's past will have to be demolished. On the shortlist are the Larkspur Hill housing estate, a significant modernist landmark, and the Chapel, the raucous home of the town's football team, Peterdown United. Ellie Ferguson, an architect exiled from London, is as determined to save the Larkspur as her partner, Colin, a lifelong United fan, is desperate to save the Chapel. As they each find themselves leading increasingly passionate and opposing campaigns, their essential differences become hard to ignore.Out of this spins an epic, wide-angle novel, rich with character and incident. Affairs are embarked upon. Conspiracies are uncovered. A broad-based popular insurgency ignites. Peterdown brings England's beleaguered streetscape to life and finds lurking there a playful and storied counterculture: mad monks and machine breakers, avant-gardists and non-conformists. Full of warmth, comedy, character and anarchic radicalism, Peterdown is an ambitious tale about work and play, community and place, and how, ultimately, we might live in the face of history.

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Now that the nation's favourite music magazine is no more, The 10 Commandments draws on the finest selections of Q Magazine's archives, as well as never-before-seen material, to create the ultimate, outrageous guide to life from the world's most famous rock stars. This newly expanded edition of The 10 Commandments presents sixty musicians giving their rules to live by - from Noel Gallagher to 50 Cent. 'Thou shalt not play golf' BONO 'Painting is good for the soul' IGGY POP 'I'm trying to go back to old-school England with fisticuffs at your local football pitch' BIG NARSTIE'What makes a perfect gentleman? Leave big tips, baby!' WYCLEF JEAN 'Make like a boy scout' STEVIE NICKS 'Do as Madonna says' NILE RODGERS'A woman should always carry at least $75 on her. You need emergency exit money' AZEALIA BANKS 'Always be honest to your wife' JOHN LYDON'Even if you're set up for life, always have a total left-turn dream just in case' CHARLIE XCX 'Check the caffeine content' JOHNNY MARR

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'In this delightful novel, Alameddine takes his greatest risks yet, and succeeds brilliantly, in a work that while marked by radical formal innovation, manages to be warm, sad, funny and moving' Michael ChabonNamed by her grandfather after 'the Divine' Sarah Bernhardt, Sarah Nour El-Din grows up in Beirut against the tense background of civil war. But the young Sarah finds pleasure in the everyday - her first cigarette, first kiss, seeking revenge on her tight-lipped stepmother. Then, with adulthood, comes an awareness of the fragility of life. After two failed marriages, the loss of her son, the death of one sister and the imprisonment of another, Sarah begins to tell her story. But this story is not so easy to tell.A novel written entirely in first chapters, I, THE DIVINE is an honest and touching story of one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past.

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For John Freeman - literary critic, essayist, editor, poet and 'one of the preeminent book people of our time' (Dave Eggers) - it is a rare moment when words are not enough. But in the wake of the election of 2016, words felt useless, even indulgent. Action was the only reasonable response. He took to the streets in protest and the sense of community and collective conviction felt right. But the assaults continued - on citizens' rights and long-held compacts, on the core principles of our culture and civilisation, and on our language itself. Words seemed to be losing the meanings they once had and Freeman was compelled to return to their defence. The result is his Dictionary of the Undoing.From A to Z, 'Agitate' to 'Zygote,' Freeman assembled the words that felt most essential, most potent, and began to build a case for their renewed power and authority, each word building on the last. The message that emerged was not to retreat behind books, but to emphatically engage in the public sphere, to redefine what it means to be a literary citizen.With an afterword by Valeria Luiselli, Dictionary of the Undoing is a necessary, resounding cri de coeur in defense of language, meaning, and our ability to imagine, describe, and build a better world.

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'This stylish debut novel by an Oscar-winning Argentine screenwriter (he co-wrote Birdman) is a suspenseful, darkly funny exploration of the creative process and the porous boundary between reality and fiction. Highly recommended' The Mail on Sunday, 'The Best New Fiction'From the Academy Award-winning co-writer of Birdman, a wonderfully eccentric, suspenseful debut in the tradition of Misery and Kiss of the Spiderwoman about a screenwriter kidnapped by a world-famous director who orders him to compose a masterpiece.Pablo, a failed Argentine novelist-turned-screenwriter, has been kidnapped by the greatest Latin American film director of all time and is kept in a basement where he works, day after day, on what he is told must at all costs be a great, world-changing screenplay. Every night, after finishing work on the script, Pablo writes in his notebook and every morning he crosses out what he wrote the night before. The Crossed-Out Notebook is Pablo's diary of this time: being brought food by a maid; being threatened with a gun; vociferously arguing with the director about what he's written the previous day.The clash between the two men and their different approaches leads to a movie being made, a gun going off, an unlikely escape, and a final confrontation. In the end, The Crossed-Out Notebook is a darkly funny novel full of intrigue and surprise about the essence of the creative process; a short, crazy ode to any artist whose brilliance shines through strangeness and adversity.

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'This stylish debut novel by an Oscar-winning Argentine screenwriter (he co-wrote Birdman) is a suspenseful, darkly funny exploration of the creative process and the porous boundary between reality and fiction. Highly recommended' The Mail on Sunday, 'The Best New Fiction'From the Academy Award-winning co-writer of Birdman, a wonderfully eccentric, suspenseful debut in the tradition of Misery and Kiss of the Spiderwoman about a screenwriter kidnapped by a world-famous director who orders him to compose a masterpiece.Pablo, a failed Argentine novelist-turned-screenwriter, has been kidnapped by the greatest Latin American film director of all time and is kept in a basement where he works, day after day, on what he is told must at all costs be a great, world-changing screenplay. Every night, after finishing work on the script, Pablo writes in his notebook and every morning he crosses out what he wrote the night before. The Crossed-Out Notebook is Pablo's diary of this time: being brought food by a maid; being threatened with a gun; vociferously arguing with the director about what he's written the previous day.The clash between the two men and their different approaches leads to a movie being made, a gun going off, an unlikely escape, and a final confrontation. In the end, The Crossed-Out Notebook is a darkly funny novel full of intrigue and surprise about the essence of the creative process; a short, crazy ode to any artist whose brilliance shines through strangeness and adversity.

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'Atkins's Quinn Colson series is, quite simply, the best in crime fiction today - and also so much more . . . unforgettable' Megan Abbott The Pritchards had never been worth a damn - an evil, greedy family who made their living dealing drugs and committing mayhem. Years ago, Colson's late uncle had put the clan's patriarch in prison, but now he's getting out, with revenge, power, and family business on his mind. To make matters worse, a shady trucking firm with possible ties to the Gulf Coast syndicate has moved into Tibbehah, and they have their own methods of intimidation.With his longtime deputy Lillie Virgil now working up in Memphis, Quinn Colson finds himself having to fall back on some brand-new deputies to help him out, but with Old West-style violence breaking out, and his own wedding on the horizon, this is without a doubt Colson's most trying time as sheriff. Cracks are opening up all over the county, and shadowy figures are crawling out through them - and they're all heading directly for him.

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'With the tough matriarch at its heart, this second instalment of Brett's Great Yarmouth-set series is brilliant seaside noir, the action playing out at cracking pace in the rough and seedy resort' Sunday Times Crime Club'Be prepared to immerse yourself in Great Yarmouth's murky underworld with this great thriller' Five Stars, The Sun - 'Book of the Week'Tatiana Goodwin has finally begun to piece her life back together after the events of the past year. Having taken over her late husband Rich's empire, Tatty has put together a massive deal to capitalise on his dirty dealings - and hopefully extricate herself from a life of crime she'd been unwillingly drawn into.But following a suspicious fire in the firm's new HQ, and a number of unexplained deaths in the town, it soon becomes clear that there's more than one person who's after the Goodwin family assets. With her daughter in a rocky relationship and her teenage son Zach beginning to follow in the footsteps of his gangster father, everything is getting a little too close to home for Tatty's liking . . .As the family is pulled further into the criminal underworld she sought to protect them from, Tatty has some difficult decisions to make - before her enemies make them for her. 'Things are hotting up . . . But the book offers more than just crime: the characterisation is strong and the relationships between the various family members and their associates and enemies skilfully depicted. A particular treat for anyone familiar with Yarmouth' East Anglian Daily Times'Brett's knuckleduster-hard story goes behind the tawdry neon of the day-tripper strip. A promising series . . . Fans of Martina Cole will look forward to this' Peterborough Today Praise for Time to Win: 'The Godfather in Great Yarmouth' Ian Rankin'An atmospheric and riveting tale' Guardian* * * * * The Sun'Harry Brett writes a fun plot with witty elegance' The Times'Fearsomely good' Nicci French'A 21st century Long Good Friday' Tony Parsons'Taut and atmospheric' Eva Dolan'Gripping, compelling, original crime drama' Dreda Say Mitchell'Darkly brooding and atmospheric' M.J. McGrath'Time to Win redraws the landscape of British noir' Stav Sherez'A tour de force' William Ryan'I loved Time to Win' Julia Crouch'Gritty and stark' Sunday Mirror'Time To Win is firmly in the top flight of crime writing' Crime Scene

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A rural, working class New England town elects as its mayor a New York hedge fund millionaire in this urgent and inspired novel for our times. Mark Firth is a home builder in Howland, Massachusetts who, after being swindled by a financial advisor, feels opportunity passing him and his family by. What future can he promise to his wife Karen and their young daughter Haley? When a wealthy money manager, Philip Hadi, moves to Howland to escape post-9/11 New York, he hires Mark to turn his his house into a secure location. The collision of these two men's very different worlds -- rural vs urban, middle class vs rich -- propels Jonathan Dee's powerful new novel. After the town's first selectman passes away suddenly, Hadi runs for office and begins subtly transforming the town in his image with unexpected results for Mark and his extended family. THE LOCALS is that rare work of fiction capable of capturing a fraught American moment in real time. It is also a novel that is timeless in its depiction of American small town life.

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Mike Wood is a teenager at a decidedly unprestigious Catholic school in Manhattan, accustomed to solving problems using brawn rather than brains. One day, his nerdy classmate Hob Callahan persuades him to read a mysterious old book of unknown authorship, The Calendar of Slights. On the face of things, the book is a guide to performing clever card tricks; but in fact, it is a test for recruiting new members to join a secret cell of radical magicians. Amazingly, Mike passes with flying colours unlocking not only his potential magic powers - but also the door to New York City's vast and hidden underground network of warlocks, sorcerers and mages. Here, with Hob as his unlikely guide, Mike's role as a steadfast soldier begins. For there is a war being waged. A war between rivaling factions of magicians that has spanned the ages. A clandestine war against the establishment: a war against The Assholes.

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In the late 80s, Katherine Carlyle is created using IVF. Stored as a frozen embryo for eight years, she is then implanted in her mother and given life. By the age of nineteen Katherine has lost her mother to cancer, and feels her father to be an increasingly distant figure. Instead of going to college, she decides to disappear, telling no one where she has gone. What begins as an attempt to punish her father for his absence gradually becomes a testing-ground of his love for her, a coming-to-terms with the death of her mother, and finally the mise-en-scene for a courageous leap from false empowerment to true empowerment.Written in the beautifully spare, lucid and cinematic prose that Thomson is known for, Katherine Carlyle uses the modern techniques of IVF and cryopreservation to throw new light on the myth of origins. It is a profound and moving novel about where we come from, what we make of ourselves, and how we are loved.

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Your brain is shrinking. Does it matter?Rethinking the Brain challenges us to think differently. Rather than just concentrating on the many wonderful things the brain can do, this entertaining insight into its complexities and contradictions asks whether in fact we can live satisfactorily without some of it.The bad news is that our brains start to shrink from our mid-thirties. But the good news is that we still seem to generally muddle along and our brain is able to adapt in extraordinary ways when things going wrong.Alexis Willett and Jennifer Barnett shed light on what the human brain can do - in both optimal and suboptimal conditions - and consider what it can manage without. Through fascinating facts and figures, case studies and hypothetical scenarios, expert interviews and scientific principles, they take us on a journey from the ancient mists of time to the far reaches of the future, via different species and lands.Is brain training the key to healthy ageing? Do women really experience 'baby brain'? Is our brain at its evolutionary peak or do we have an even more brilliant future to look forward to? We discover the answers to these questions and more.

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Discover how to make stunning pasta from scratch suitable for every occasion. Pasta-making expert Carmela Sophia Sereno shows you how to make delicious fresh pasta at home. Whether you prefer to use a pasta machine or craft your dough by hand, you'll learn how to turn even the most basic pasta dough into a variety of shapes and stunning designs using stripes, spots and delicate herbs. Beginners and expert pasta enthusiasts alike will be amazed at the range of pasta explored in this book, with dishes selected to delight not only with their exquisite taste but also by their beautiful and varied appearance. You will learn how to make:- Linguine with Anchovy and Grape- Asparagus Gnocchi- Crab and Saffron Ravioli- Green Ravioli Parcels with Burrata and Pine Nuts Sereno will teach you how to mix flours, knead, store and shape your pasta. Pasta Fresca is full of incredible, versatile recipes that take inspiration from the twenty distinct regions of Italy. Whether you want to create fresh pasta from scratch or use up the dried pasta from your store cupboard, the recipes in this book will leave you satisfied.

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From the world's foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes the untold story of what happens in our brains when we are in love.Dr Stephanie Cacioppo shares revelatory insights into how we fall in love, and why; what makes love last; and how we process love lost - all grounded in cutting-edge findings in brain chemistry and behavioural science. You will learn how to make a closer bond in your relationship, how to make sure the spark isn't lost, how to tell the difference between lust and love, and how to find a path beyond heartbreak or bereavement.Wired for Love is not just a science story, but also a love story. At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love; how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage, to sharing an office at the University of Chicago. After seven years of being inseparable at work and home, she lost her beloved husband following a devastating battle with cancer.This moving personal story is woven through the book, from astonishment, to unbreakable bond, to grief and healing. Her experience and her work enrich each other, creating a singular blend of science, lyricism and expert tips that are essential reading for anyone looking for connection.

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Sugar is everywhere. Do your children beg you to buy unhealthy sugary snacks at the supermarket, and kick up a tantrum if you refuse? Perhaps you crave sweet treats, bread, pasta and sauce-laden food yourself. Do you notice lethargy and mood swings in your children as a result of blood glucose spikes and dips? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, your family's health is at risk. Dr Val Wilson can help. Having lived with Type 1 diabetes for more than four decades, her relationship with sugar has at times been very unhealthy, but today she is well in control of her sugar intake. How to Reduce Your Child's Sugar Intake is packed with recent scientific research and nutritional information to help you understand addiction to sugar and conquer it. It provides simple, actionable advice and delicious recipes to help you break free from the mental, physical and emotional traps of old eating patterns.This book shows the way to a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. It will enable you and your family to enjoy dramatically improved health and mood, increased energy levels and weight loss.

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In October 2016, Udo Kischka suffered a severe stroke. A large intra-cerebral bleed, a bleed deep in the right side of his brain. He was not a typical stroke patient: Professor Kischka was a neurologist and specialist in stroke rehabilitation. Like all stroke patients, he embarked on a journey of recovery. In his case, it was a re-education in his field of expertise. When he uttered the words, 'This is a life changing event' to his wife a few hours after the stroke, he had no idea just how life changing it would be or that there would be still be a good life to be had. Written by experts on both sides of the fence - a stroke victim who is a stroke specialist, and a psychologist who helps others and now has to help herself and her family - this is a personal and brutally honest story of a family's survival. This accessible and relatable book provides insight and realistic hope about what might lie ahead following a stroke, as well as offering both practical and emotional support.

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'God, I love these women! Their breeziness, compassion, humour and resilience are a tonic'Libby Purves, Times Literary SupplementIn February 1919, London's first women police officers took to the streets of the city. They battled entrenched gender stereotypes, institutional inequality, sexual harassment and assaults disturbingly familiar to those affecting today's #MeToo generation of modern women. Female officers, facing resentment from male colleagues, were expected to do little more than 'Make the tea, luv . . .' and were charged with the sole task of looking after women and children who fell into police hands.Yet, in the course of a century, policewomen have won the equality they demanded, overcome sexism and prejudice, rejected harassment and sexual assaults and smashed through the glass ceiling to lead, rather than follow, their male colleagues. One hundred years on from those first Women Police Constables, a woman, Cressida Dick, holds the most powerful position in British policing, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Voices from the Blue tells the story of the hundred years of service of female police officers within the Metropolitan Police through the voices of the women who fought their way towards equality and won the respect of both their colleagues and the public. The authors have interviewed hundreds of former and serving policewomen and with the co-operation of the Metropolitan Police and the Women's Police Association now have access to the files and stories of thousands of former officers who served over the past hundred years. Those police archives, together with material held by the National Archives and private libraries, provide a detailed and fascinating oral history of the challenges women police officers faced down the years.

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What robot and AI systems are being built and imagined right now? What do they say about us, their creators? Will they usher in a fantastic new future, or destroy us? What do some of our greatest thinkers, from physicist Brian Greene and futurist Kevin Kelly to inventor Dean Kamen, geneticist George Church, and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, anticipate for our human-robot future? For even as robots and AI intrigue us and make us anxious about the future, our fascination with robots has always been about more than the potential of the technology - it's also about what robots tell us about being human.From present-day Facebook and Amazon bots to near-future 'intimacy' bots and 'the robot that stole my job' bots, bestselling American popular science writer David Ewing Duncan's TALKING TO ROBOTS is a wonderfully entertaining and insightful guide to possible future scenarios about robots, both real and imagined. These scenarios are informed by interviews with actual engineers, scientists, artists, philosophers, futurists and others, who share with us their ideas, hopes and fears about robots. In the future, we will all remember when the robots truly arrived. Perhaps a robot surgeon saved your child's life, or maybe your inaugural robot moment will be more banal, when you realised with relief that the machines had taken over all the tasks you used to hate - taking out the rubbish, changing nappies, paying bills . . . Perhaps your recollection will be less benign, a memory of when a robot turned against you: the robot that threatened to seize your assets over a tax dispute. You might also remember when the robots began campaigning for equal rights with humans, and for an end to robot slavery, abuse and exploitation. Or when robots became so smart that they became our benign overlords, treating us like cute and not very bright pets. Or when the robots grew tired of us and decided to destroy us, turning our own robo-powered weapons of mass destruction against us. Further into the future we will remember when robots became organic, created in a lab from living tissue to look and be just like us, only better and more resilient. Even further in the future, we will recall when we first had the option of becoming robots ourselves, by downloading our minds into organic-engineered beings that could theoretically live forever. And yet . . . will we feel that something is missing as the millennia pass? Will we grow weary of being robots, invulnerable and immortal? Mostly we love our technology as it whisks us across and over continents and oceans at 35,000 feet, or summons us rides in someone else's Prius or connects us online to long-lost friends. Yet deep down, many of us fe

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When we think of the world's great sporting events, we tend to focus on spectacles such as the World Cup, the Olympics, the Derby, the Monaco Grand Prix or the University Boat Race. Yet there is also an alternative world of competition where participants risk life, limb and often dignity for meagre rewards in truly weird sporting pursuits. Step forward the Indonesian sport of sepak bola api, a variation of football in which the barefoot players kick a ball that is on fire; Germany's Mud Olympics, at which competitors play soccer, volleyball and handball while knee-deep in mud; yak racing from Mongolia; Oregon's Pig-N-Ford Races where drivers speed around the track while carrying a live pig under one arm; and Australia's variation of the Boat Race, the Henley-on-Todd Regatta, where, instead of rowing, teams carry their boats along the dry bed of the River Todd. This book lists geographically the world's 100 weirdest sports events, giving full details of their rules and colourful history. They include the grotesque (the national sport of Afghanistan is buzkashi, in which riders on horseback aim to drag the headless carcass of a dead goat towards their opponents' goal), the dangerous (Japanese hardcore wrestlers batter each other with glass fluorescent light tubes instead of their bare hands), and the downright daft in the form of the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships, the World Flounder Tramping Championships, the World Gravy Wrestling Championships and the World Shin-Kicking Championships. Races are staged in all kinds of transportation. Canada is home to the Great Klondike Outhouse Race (for portable toilets), the Vancouver Bathtub Race, and the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta; Colorado hosts the annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races; and the pride of Yorkshire is the Great Knaresborough Bed Race, where teams push a bed (containing human occupant) along a 2.4-mile course that requires a wet crossing of the River Nidd. Animals feature heavily, too. As well as traditional races for ostriches (complete with jockeys), cockroaches (no jockey required), armadillos, sheep, and Oklahoma City's splendid Dachshund Dash, rubber-duck racing is one of the fastest growing sports of recent years with events being held in several countries. Other competitions test an animal's ability to do more than just run or float, such as elephant polo, dog surfing, camel wrestling, rabbit show jumping and pig diving. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that in the near future we may even be treated to synchronized pig diving. Although the plunging porkers might disagree, the appeal of many of these sports is enhanced by taking part. If cheese rolling or volcano boarding are too energetic for your taste, ice golf or underwater hockey too uncomfortable, and lingerie football wouldn't show off your legs to best effect, you could always enjoy more leisurely pursuits like the world championships in rock, paper, scissors or pooh sticks. If, on the other hand, you prefer a watching brief, you could try your hand at cow patty bingo, a North American contest where a field is divided into numbered squares, and contestants bet on which square the cow will take a poop. It is probably the only occasion in life when you can make money from one number two on top of another.

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Praise for Small's earlier work on Nightingale: 'Hugh Small, in a masterly piece of historical detective work, convincingly demonstrates what all previous historians and biographers have missed . . . This is a compelling psychological portrait of a very eminent (and complex) Victorian.' James Le Fanu, Daily TelegraphFlorence Nightingale (1820-1910) is best known as a reformer of hospital nursing during and after the Crimean War, but many feel that her nursing reputation has been overstated. A Brief History of Florence Nightingale tells the story of the sanitary disaster in her wartime hospital and why the government covered it up against her wishes. After the war she worked to put the lessons of the tragedy to good use to reduce the very high mortality from epidemic disease in the civilian population at home. She did this by persuading Parliament in 1872 to pass laws which required landlords to improve sanitation in working-class homes, and to give local authorities rather than central government the power to enforce the laws. Life expectancy increased dramatically as a result, and it was this peacetime civilian public health reform rather than her wartime hospital nursing record that established Nightingale's reputation in her lifetime. After her death the wartime image became popular again as a means of recruiting hospital nurses and her other achievements were almost forgotten. Today, with nursing's new emphasis on 'primary' care and prevention outside hospitals, Nightingale's focus on public health achievements makes her an increasingly relevant figure.

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From the Private First Class who knows his place (above a Private but below a Lance Corporal), to the classification of the natural world (Species, Genus, Family, Order ...), we introduce hierarchies, pecking orders and ranks to every aspect of our lives, from society and religion to leisure and the law, establishing priorities and bringing order to our world. This miscellany of the various hierarchies that govern our existence ranges from the prosaically earthbound, in the form of roads and freeways, to the esoterically celestial, in the form of angels, seraphim, cherubims, archangels and so on. Who is more senior in a Chinese triad, a White Paper Fan or a Red Pole? What trumps a Straight Flush in poker? How many ranks are there between a Detective and a Colonel in the American police? What's the next step up from the Court of Appeal? What is a Royal Peculiar and where does it stand in the hierarchy of the British church? Which sea states lie between Calm and Phenomenal? In a Roman legion, how many men made up a Cohort and how many Cohorts a Legion? What is the hierarchy in the US government? Knowing where something - or someone - stands in the order of things helps us quite literally to put it into context.

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After a miraculous escape from the German military juggernaut in the small Belgian town of Mons in 1914, the first major battle that the British Expeditionary Force would face in the First World War, the British really believed that they were on the side of the angels. Indeed, after 1916, the number of spiritualist societies in the United Kingdom almost doubled, from 158 to 309. As Arthur Conan Doyle explained, 'The deaths occurring in almost every family in the land brought a sudden and concentrated interest in the life after death. People not only asked the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" but they eagerly sought to know if communication was possible with the dear ones they had lost.' From the Angel of Mons to the popular boom in spiritualism as the horrors of industrialised warfare reaped their terrible harvest, the paranormal - and its use in propaganda - was one of the key aspects of the First World War.Angels in the Trenches takes us from defining moments, such as the Angel of Mons on the Front Line, to spirit communication on the Home Front, often involving the great and the good of the period, such as aristocrat Dame Edith Lyttelton, founder of the War Refugees Committee, and the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of Birmingham University. We see here people at every level of society struggling to come to terms with the ferocity and terror of the war, and their own losses: soldiers looking for miracles on the battlefield; parents searching for lost sons in the seance room. It is a human story of people forced to look beyond the apparent certainties of the everyday - and this book follows them on that journey.

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'A positive step-by-step guide to... help readers resolve their sexual difficulties. It empowers couples to set goals to meet their needs.' Nursing StandardAre you worried about impotence or loss of sexual desire, premature ejaculation or lack of orgasm? Experienced psychosexual therapist and couples counsellor Vicki Ford provides an invaluable guide to understanding the sexual problems that many people face from time to time. Her simple and effective self-help techniques, based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), include practical exercise programs to help develop responsiveness and an understanding of your body. Suitable for both singles and couples, this expert guide will enable you to overcome negative thinking and restore your confidence and your sex life. Specifically, you will learn about:The importance of relaxation and stress reduction techniquesThe impact of ageing, disability, religion, infidelity, abuse, infertility, childbirth, bereavement and medication on sexual performanceTechniques for particular problemsOvercoming self-help guides use clinically proven techniques to treat long-standing and disabling conditions, both psychological and physical. Many guides in the Overcoming series are recommended under the Reading Well Books on Prescription scheme.Series Editor: Professor Peter Cooper

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Rescuing a dog can change not only the dog's life but yours too. This book explains how. It also tells you everything you need to know about finding the right dog at a shelter near to you, and getting him or her used to you and their home. There is also appropriate advice on training and caring for your new friend. This book contains moving poems, true stories and appealing portraits of actual rescue dogs, who found new owners and loving homes.

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Stocking a garden with plants can be an expensive business, so there are few things more frustrating than when the prized specimen for which you have paid a king's ransom either online or at a garden centre shrivels up and dies within a year or so of purchase. If you can prove that the plant was half-dead when it arrived, you may able to obtain a refund from some online retailers, but for the most part you have to put it down to experience and make a firm mental note not to buy fussy plants in future.The problem is that many websites and catalogues claim that everything they stock is easy to grow. Herbaceous perennials are a particular minefield. Too often you are told that a certain plant 'will come back year after year' without fail when in reality it is either so tender that the only chance of it surviving an average British winter is in a greenhouse or it is a short-lived perennial that is unlikely to flourish beyond two years anyway - and even then only if the local slugs and snails are on a diet. This book cuts through the horticultural sales pitches by listing 100 plants which, for little care beyond the essential watering at planting time, can reliably be expected to thrive in just about any garden. These plants are all but indestructible - pests give them a wide berth, they will prosper in any reasonable garden soil and will withstand anything that the UK climate throws at them. Divided into sections for shrubs, conifers, climbers, perennials, grasses, annuals, alpines and bulbs and with each entry having a Value For Money (VFM) rating out of 10, this easy-to-use guide will prove invaluable not only for the new gardener but also for old hands who are fed up with wasting time and money on plants that all too rapidly lose the will to live. With these suggestions, you can be assured of year-round colour and interest in your garden for the minimum of effort.

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With the growth of online reservation platforms such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Wimdu, Booking.com and Onefinestay, people are able to offer accommodation to a huge audience of tourists as B&B hosts or as short break holiday accommodation providers - without using an agent. So earning money from your own home - whether it be letting a few bedrooms in your house, an investment property or a holiday home - has never been easier. However, to meet the demand and market your accommodation effectively as a host you will need basic knowledge and some professionalism. Good hosts get good reviews, which in turn attract more guests and increase your chances of success and financial reward. In easy-to-read sections you'll discover: How to get your property ready for a successful listingThe requirements of responsible hosting How Stayz, Homeaway, mrbnb and other reservation platforms workHow to set your room rate and monitor your bookings How to market your property internationally and at very little cost.This book will explain the issues as they apply to responsible hosting. It will give you the knowledge and confidence to become a successful accommodation provider..

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It's 1890. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson return to Baker Street after a night pursuing a vicious criminal. Inspector Lestrade is waiting for Holmes with a proposition of national importance. Lestrade tells Holmes that a school of detection has been formed to train a new breed of modern investigators that will serve in Great Britain and the Empire. Most students will become police officers. Some, however, will become bodyguards and spies. Holmes begins instructing his decidedly curious assortment of students from home and abroad. He does so with his customary gusto and inventiveness.Scotland Yard, in the main, allocates crimes to solve and Holmes mentors his students. Occasionally, he shadows them in disguise in order to assess or even directly test their abilities with creative scenarios he devises. Certain crimes investigated by the students might appear trivial, such as the re-positioning of an ornament atop a garden wall, yet it will transpire an assassin has moved the ornament to create good sightlines in order to commit murder with a sniper's rifle. Other mysteries are considered outside the domain of the police. For example, the inexplicable disappearance of a stone gargoyle, which is linked to an ancient family curse. Or a man suffering from amnesia who discovers that not only has he acquired a secret life but also gained an implacable enemy, too. Holmes, with the ever- trustworthy Doctor Watson in his wake, is kept busy with his students' cases, ranging from minor to serious, sometimes rectifying their mistakes and saving them from a variety of disasters.These eleven wonderful new adventures and intrigues include tales such as 'The Gargoyles of Killfellen House', 'Sherlock Holmes and the Four Kings of Sweden' and 'The Case of the Cannibal Club'.

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'Rosie can write and Prudence Bulstrode is here to stay' Miriam Margolyes'Witty, warm and so enjoyable' Jo BrandThe next irresistible cosy crime novel from celebrity TV chef Rosemary Shrager! Preparing a midwinter's feast for all hundred residents of the little Yorkshire village of Scrafton Busk is exactly the kind of challenge Prudence Bulstrode adores. A chance to show off her muffin-topped winter stew, lamb shank hotpot and Scarborough woof - and, of course, her famous figgy pudding - is just the thing to shake off the winter blues. But on the night of the feast, local vagabond Terry Chandler is found dead - his body entombed in the pristine snowman standing pride of place on the village green. Who could have wanted Chandler dead? Why would they stow his body in such strange circumstances? And what is the meaning of his last enigmatic message, directing his brother to Mystery Hills, a place of which no one has ever heard? Crime and cookery continue to collide as Prudence and her granddaughter Suki get drawn into another mystifying murder . . . Praise for The Proof in the Pudding'Warm and witty' Yours'Fans of Christie. . . to Beaton, should tuck in' Peterborough Telegraph'A killer combo of crime and cooking' Woman's OwnPraise for Rosemary Shrager'A great yarn - Shrager knows her food and she's cooked up a storm. Murder is the main course but the side dishes fascinate. A fascinating conclusion - Rosie can write and Prudence Bulstrode is here to stay. I look forward to more in this series.' Miriam Margolyes'I've long admired Rosemary as a woman of many talents. I just hadn't realized that writing is one of them. The Last Supper has pace and style and a very interesting cast of characters' Richard Vines'Rosemary Shrager has created a welcome addition to the ranks of female amateur sleuths. The Last Supper is a witty, light-hearted mystery, in which the author has served up a tasty treat' Simon Brett'The Last Supper is a charming, hugely entertaining book. Retired chef Prudence Bulstrode is cranky, stubborn and insightful; an utterly brilliant creation. I can't wait to see what she gets up to next' M W Craven'Discover how a Michelin-starred Miss Marple displays the skills of a bloodhound as she sniffs out the scent of a killer in this thriller that rises to a conclusion like a perfect souffle.' Nick Ferrari'A light-hearted, fun mystery, combining cookery and crime - what's not to love?' Woman's Weekly'Shrager, herself a kitchen whizz on TV, has a natural talent and deft touch for exactly this kind of gentle fun' The Sun<

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London 1968:The Unstable Boys are the name on every music insider's lips and tipped to follow in the footsteps of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This is their chance to hit the bigtime. They don't know they're about to be obliterated by a series of tragedies and a chaotic breakup that puts paid to the band's starry-eyed dreams of stratospheric success. One day you're the dog's bollocks; the next day you're a nobody - fame is a fickle friend.London 2016:Bestselling crime writer Michael Martindale has reached breaking point. Estranged from his wife and children following the very public fallout of his disastrous affair, he is alone, with only his self-pity to keep him warm at night. Until he makes the mistake of publicly declaring his admiration for his teenage musical obsession, the Unstable Boys. When the band's twisted and feral frontman, the Boy, turns up on his doorstep, Martindale quickly learns that sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.Razor-sharp and laced with a caustic wit, The Unstable Boys is a dark comic caper with an unmistakeable musicality from legendary music journalist Nick Kent.

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'We will overcome it [and] I hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any' Her Majesty The QueenThe Coronavirus pandemic forced the great British people to dig to the very depths of their resolve. It was during this crisis, the gravest crisis the country has faced since the Second World War, that members of the Greatest Generation - Tom Moore, Dame Vera Lynn, the Queen - proved vital reminders of the self-effacing stoicism required in times of emergency; to summon our 'Blitz spirit' and to 'Keep Calm and Carry On'.Taking twelve qualities of the wartime generation, including fellowship, courage and integrity, and drawing on personal interviews with over two hundred Second World War veterans - from SAS officers to London firewomen to Dame Vera herself - Guidance from the Greatest shows us how we can improve our individual character and our collective approach to life.Guidance from the Greatest reminds us of all that is great about Britain and shows how we can build upon that greatness for the future.

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'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann CleevesEastwold, 1670, and local legend tells how on a still night, if you stand on the beach there, you can still hear the bells of the drowned church of St James tolling mournfully beneath the waves...Eastwold, once one of the greatest ports in England, has been fighting a losing battle with the sea ever since it was granted its charter by King John. Bit by bit the waves have eaten the soft cliffs on which it stands, until only a handful of houses remain. But still it sends two MPs to Parliament and rich men from London are prepared to pay well for the votes of the dozen or so remaining burgesses of the town.The voters are looking forward to a profitable by-election, only for the Admiralty's candidate, the unpopular Admiral Digges, to end up in a fishing net, every bit as drowned as his prospective constituency. Is it an accident, as the coroner has ruled, or has Digges been murdered, as the Admiralty fears? John Grey, Justice of the Peace and former spy, receives a request from the authorities to uncover the truth. Hot on the heels of Grey is Samuel Pepys, sent by his master the Duke of York to stand for the watery seat in place of Digges. He also brings Grey clarification of what kinds of truth the Duke is happy for him to uncover and what he should ignore. With spring edging cautiously towards the windswept east coast, Grey starts to question the remaining residents and other well-paid officials of the non-existent town. He meets with suspicion from the voters and polite obstruction from Pepys. Will Grey uncover the murderer before the last of the town vanishes beneath the waves? As one of inhabitants warns him: 'This is a troubled place, Sir John. It is a dead town. Can you not feel that? Have you not seen the bones that litter the beach? It is a dead town that cries to be buried and forgotten.'Praise for L.C. Tyler'Len Tyler writes with great charm and wit . . . made me laugh out loud' Susanna Gregory'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann Cleeves'Tyler juggles his characters, story, wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' The Times'A dizzying whirl of plot and counterplot' Guardian'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore'A cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?' The Bookbag

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'The perfect antidote to 2020' Huffington Post'A must-read if you like funny things' Greg James'I had no idea Pat Sharp's life story would be so hilarious and I strongly suspect neither did he' Nish KumarPat Sharp is a man out of time.For those of a certain generation, he is an iconic figure synonymous with good fun, great hair and excess gunge. For others, he's just that bloke with a mullet.Fame is a fickle beast and, since the cancellation of Fun House in 1999 ('Just ten years into its run, when it was finally finding its feet'), Pat has become a reclusive figure, only emerging from his splendid isolation to pop up on things like I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Come Dine with Me.Until now.With time on his hands and now reliant on a faulty memory, Pat has expertly blended fact and . . . fiction: revealing all about his adventures with David Hassselhoff at the Berlin Wall in 1989; how he broke up a fight between Damon Albarn and Liam Gallagher at a house party; the time he suggested Geri's dress be a Union Jack; and much more.A definitive work (based on very little fact) that anatomises the cultural trends of the '80s and '90s, Re-run the Fun is just the kind of sorta-biography we need in these turbulent times. Finally, the Great British public can learn what life is like just about in sight of the top - the highs, the lows and the hair tips.'It's easy to forget, as I had, that Pat Sharp is so much more than an iconic haircut and a helter-skelter - and this well overdue book goes into hilarious, largely-fabricated detail about Pat's critical role in shaping our world today' Rick Edwards'No previous knowledge of Pat Sharp is required' Paul Sinha

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'Some of the very best crime fiction being written today' Lee Child'A tense and beautifully-written crime novel that takes the reader into lives that aren't seen often enough' Ann Cleeves _________A young man is found in a riverside park, his head bashed in with a rock. The only clue to his identity is an admission stamp for the local gay club.DS Lucy Black is called in to investigate. As Lucy delves into the community, tensions begin to rise as the man's death draws the attention of the local gay rights group to a hate-speech Pastor who, days earlier, had advocated the stoning of gay people and who refuses to retract his statement.Things become more complicated with the emergence of a far right group targeting immigrants in a local working-class estate. As their attacks escalate, Lucy and her boss, Tom Fleming, must also deal with the building power struggle between an old paramilitary commander and his deputy that threatens to further enflame an already volatile situation.____________Hatred and complicity abound in the days leading up to the Brexit vote in McGilloway's new Lucy Black thriller. Compelling and current, Bad Blood is an expertly crafted and acutely observed page-turner.Praise for Brian McGilloway:'Dazzling' The Guardian on Borderlands'A clever web of intrigue that deepens and darkens as it twists' Peter James on Gallows Lane

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'Dazzling' The Guardian on Borderlands'A clever web of intrigue that deepens and darkens as it twists' Peter James on Gallows Lane'Some of the very best crime fiction being written today' Lee Child on Bad Blood____________When Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin is summoned to a burning barn, he finds inside the charred remains of a man who is quickly identified as a local drug dealer, Martin Kielty. It soon becomes clear that Kielty's death was no accident, and suspicion falls on a local vigilante group. Former paramilitaries, the men call themselves The Rising.Meanwhile, a former colleague's teenage son has gone missing during a seaside camping trip. Devlin is relieved when the boy's mother, Caroline Williams, receives a text message from her son's phone, and so when a body is reported, washed up on a nearby beach, the inspector is baffled.When another drug dealer is killed, Devlin realises that the spate of deaths is more complex than mere vigilantism. But just as it seems he is close to understanding the case, a personal crisis will strike at the heart of Ben's own family, and he will be forced to confront the compromises his career has forced upon him.______________With his fourth novel, McGilloway announces himself as one of the most exciting crime novelists around: gripping, heartbreaking and always surprising, The Rising is a tour de force - McGilloway's most personal novel so far.Praise for The Rising:'This book should carry a health warning for insomniacs - once taken up it is impossible to put down.' Irish Independent

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A new edition of Orwell's savage satire of the Soviet Revolution, introduced and annotated by his biographer, D.J. TaylorFirst published in 1945, just as the allied forces had begun to parcel up the post-war world, Orwell's satire of the Soviet Revolution was instantly acclaimed as a Cold War classic. Set in the English countryside in the early years of the twentieth century, this is the story of a rebellion that fails, carried out by revolutionaries who all too swiftly turn into the thing they were trying to destroy.This new edition includes an introduction and extensive end-notes, and an appendix containing original responses to the novel as well as letters and documents from the period in which Animal Farm was written.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'. . . a compelling memoir. Breezy and unpretentious, The Sanest Guy in the Room is a delightful collection of memories, insider information and after-dinner anecdotes' The Times'Brilliant stories and wonderful behind-the-scenes glimpses of a life and career in show-business . . . It's bloody brilliant . . . Read it!' Michael BallDon Black is the songwriter's songwriter, a composer's dream collaborator, and the man behind some of the twentieth century's greatest musical numbers.Black made his first foray into the glittering world of showbiz as a stand-up, before realising his error and focusing on his lifelong passion instead - music. Shirley Bassey, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini and Barbra Streisand are just some of the artists Black has worked with over the years - not to mention his frequent collaborator, West End legend Andrew Lloyd Webber - in what can only be described as a remarkable musical career. Yet, never one to court fame, Black has always remained what Mark Steyn coined as 'the sanest guy in the room'.Interwoven with the stories behind songs such as 'Diamonds are Forever' and 'Born Free' are vignettes of Black's life with his beloved wife Shirley, who died in March 2018, after almost sixty years of marriage. Black writes movingly about how the enormity of his grief changed his life, and how the dark days are slowly turning into dark moments.The Sanest Guy in the Room is a rich and delightful paean to a life lived through song. It reveals the essence of Black's craft, looks at those who have inspired him and allows us to understand what made those icons tick. It is also a poignant tribute to Shirley, his biggest inspiration. Told with wit, warmth and great humour, this is Don Black's astonishing musical journey and an insight into a life behind the lyrics.

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Victim or assassin - the lines are blurred...A badly beaten woman walks into A&E and is promptly arrested by the Home Office on suspicion of being an illegal alien. However, she is neither illegal, nor a victim. After she escapes detention, the bodies of her attackers start to pile up.Commander Carlyle faces a race against time to find out who she really is - and to stop her from killing again. Praise for James Craig'A cracking read' BBC Radio 4'Fast paced and very easy to get quickly lost in' Lovereading.com

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'Gripping' Mail on Sunday on Fear of Falling'Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary' Ann Cleeves on Fear of Falling A dead baby. A missing mother. A cradle of secrets.From the author of the Scott and Bailey series, Quiet Acts of Violence is a novel about family and betrayal, injustice and poverty, the ties that bind and those that break us.__________Has the woman killed her child? Is she at risk to herself? Someone in the neighbourhood of old terraced streets has the answers. But detectives Donna Bell and Jade Bradshaw find lies and obstruction at every turn, in a community living on the edge, ground down by austerity and no hope. A place of broken dreams. Of desperation. And murder.When a stranger crashes into Jade's life, her past comes hurtling back, threatening to destroy her and the world she has carved out for herself. Donna struggles to juggle everything: work, marriage, kids. It's a precarious balancing act, and the rug is about to be pulled from under her.___________Praise for Cath Staincliffe:''This powerful, often harrowing story will move you to tears' My Weekly'Harrowing and humane. A real knockout' Ian Rankin'It's always exciting to see a writer get better and better and Cath Staincliffe is doing just that' Val McDermid'Powerful, complex and utterly gripping' Sunday Mirror'An intelligent and emotionally engaging moral workout' Daily Telegraph'Complex and satisfying' Sunday Times

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'Tender [and] nostalgic' The TimesWhat's married life like from the man's point of view?What does a wedding actually mean to a man?Do men really not know how to do laundry? Now, with masculinity in crisis (again), it's more important than ever to understand the secret lives of husbands. Couldn't our relationships be better navigated if we listened, impartially, to how the world looks from inside a man's head? Do they feel sad at the thought of never falling in love again? Would they ever admit that their partner's cooking is worse than their mother's?Melissa Katsoulis's mission is not to find the perfect husband, or the worst. It's about talking to married men and understanding their world. We are inundated with statistical research about gender and domestic politics but it doesn't tell us how things really feel to real men. Through interviews with ordinary men, experts and imaginary Greek gods, Melissa will uncover everything you need to know about the man in your life. From a whistle-stop tour of husbands through history to husbands in the nursery, husbands on holiday, husbands in the kitchen and husbands of a certain age, The Secret Life of Husbands is a warm and witty journey of discovery about the modern-day husband.

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CRUEL TO BE KIND is the definitive account of Nick Lowe's uncompromising life as a songwriter and entertainer, from his days at Stiff Records, to becoming the driving force behind Rockpile, to the 1979 smash hit 'Cruel To Be Kind'.Nick's original compositions have been recorded by the best in the business, from enfant terrible of the New-Wave, Elvis Costello, to 'The Godfather of Rhythm and Soul', Solomon Burke; from household names, including Engelbert Humperdink, Diana Ross, and Johnny Cash, to legendary vocalists such as Curtis Stigers, Tom Petty, and Rod Stewart.His reputation as one of the most influential musicians to emerge from that most formative period for pop and rock music is cast in stone. He will forever be the man they call the 'Jesus of Cool'.'Nick's poise as a singer, his maturity, and his use of tone is beautiful. I can't believe it's this guy I've been watching since I was a teenager' Elvis Costello, 2013'The master of subversive pop' Nick Kent, NME, 1977'Nick Lowe is such a f*cking good songwriter! Am I allowed to say that?' Curtis Stigers, 2016

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A heart-warming and passionate tale from the author of Tommy Glover's Sketch of HeavenAt the age of five I ran into a wood, and nearly two years later I walked out of it and into the nearest house.In 1927, Gracie returns to her house to find a young girl curled up on her armchair: a feral, rather grubby gift of fate. With no knowledge of the child's origins and no children of her own, Gracie adopts her and names her 'Joy'. Despite the endless speculation about Joy's unusual ways, Gracie is happy to remain ignorant about her past in case anyone should come forward to reclaim her as their own. Time passes and Joy grows into a young woman at the advent of World War II. But when she becomes romantically involved with a fighter pilot the mystery of her past slowly unravels . . .Praise for Jane Bailey'A vivid and involving novel that reaches a truly page-turning climax' Barbara Trepido'Absorbing, compelling and intensely moving' Lesley Glaister, author of As Far as You Can Go'A gentle, poignant, achingly funny tale of displaced children, first love and the tragic secrets hidden behind so many respectable facades' Serena Mackesy, author of The Temp

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'I love McPherson's books - the clear and effortless prose, the entirely credible characters, and the wonderfully twisty plots - and Strangers at the Gate is one of her best' Ann Cleeves Who do you turn to, when everyone's a stranger and you stop believing what your own eyes see?Finnie Doyle and Paddy Lamb are leaving city life in Edinburgh behind them and moving to the little town of Simmerton. Paddy has landed a partnership in a local solicitors and Finnie's snagged a job as a church deacon. Their rented cottage is quaint; their new colleagues are charming, and they can't believe their luck.But witnessing the bloody aftermath of a brutal murder changes everything. They've each been keeping secrets about their pasts. And they both know their precious new start won't survive a scandal. Together, for the best of reasons, they make the worst decision of their lives.And that's only the beginning. The deep, deep valley where Simmerton sits is unlike anywhere Finn and Paddy have been before. They are not the only ones hiding in its shadow and very soon they've lost control of the game they decided to play...Praise for Catriona McPherson:'An unnerving and suspenseful novel' Karin Slaughter'Just the right mixture of spookiness and mystery' James Oswald'A gripping thriller' Ian Rankin'A Gothic feast of a novel, this is a country house book with a difference: contemporary, punchy and disturbing, but using the tricks and twists of the best of Christie' Ann Cleeves'Go To My Grave is both a classic 'country house mystery' and a thriller. Atmospheric, with mind-bending twists, a narrator who may or may not be reliable, and an ending that will take your breath away and leave you astonished' Louise Penny' . . . drew me in from the very first page, and I stayed up late reading it because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. That's the definition of a good book' Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author'A tale that shivers with suspense' The New York Times

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This is the story of three days last September when eight old friends gathered in a beautiful house by the sea. There was food, wine and laughter, and then the friends went their separate ways. That's the truth and nothing but the truth.Or is it? Donna Weaver has put everything into The Breakers. Now it waits - freshly painted, richly furnished, filled with flowers - for the first guests to arrive.But as they roll up, each one discovers they've been here before. Twenty-five years ago. When a party that started with peach schnapps and Postman's Knock ended with a girl walking into the sea and the rest of them making a vow of silence: lock it in a box, stitch my lips and go to my grave. But one of them has broken the pact.And before the weekend is over, someone will have gone to their grave.Praise for Catriona McPherson'An unnerving and suspenseful novel' Karin Slaughter'Just the right mixture of spookiness and mystery' James Oswald'A gripping thriller' Ian Rankin'A Gothic feast of a novel, this is a country house book with a difference: contemporary, punchy and disturbing, but using the tricks and twists of the best of Christie' Ann Cleeves'Go To My Grave is both a classic 'country house mystery' and a thriller. Atmospheric, with mind-bending twists, a narrator who may or may not be reliable, and an ending that will take your breath away and leave you astonished' Louise Penny'Agatha Award-winning McPherson's deliciously gothic country house mystery with a contemporary twist is devious and suspenseful and keeps readers guessing to the shocking end. Highly recommended.' Library Journal

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