Search results for ""book guild publishing ltd""

Abandoned as a baby, Lydia is raised a Spartan princess; training alongside boys, in the Spartan tradition, she grows strong and is an expert rider and archer and talented inventor. Joining the army as a mounted archer, she competes in the Olympic Games, and forms an all-female squadron called the Myrmidons. When the most powerful warrior in the world and recently crowned king of Macedon, Alexander, shows an interest in Lydia’s elite squadron for his army, Lydia agrees to join on the condition that Sparta is safe from his empire-building ambitions. Lydia rides to war in Persia with her Myrmidons and childhood friend, Lysander, by her side. However, through the bloody combat and sieges that follow, Lydia must face up to the fact it’s not just battles she must manage. She can take on any foe; but what can Lydia do when confronted with intense and hopeless love?

Read more less

After building a successful group of restaurants, Val Reynolds meets and marries jeweller Hugo Gilard, and forms the Gilrey Corporation. On Hugo’s death, Val finds herself fighting against managers within the corporation who seek to take it over and turn into a more ruthless and profit-driven concern than she and Hugo envisaged. The battle involves Val’s four adult children and their partners, not all of whom are wholly supportive of her. The business jungle and its effect on the people within it is exposed in the ongoing battle for control of the Gilrey Corporation, and its effect on a family at a vulnerable time shows the different characters and aspirations of them all. After describing family matters historically in Howell Grange and over three days of a marriage in The Densham Do, Bruce Harris turns to the business politics and conflicts of the Gilard family in this latest work.

Read more less

Young Paul Goetz loves aeroplanes and so joins the Luftwaffe as soon as he can. Like so many, he’s taken in, swept along in the unquestioning tide of excitement, keen to be airborne as a fighter pilot. His first posting sees him sent to Leningrad in December 1941. His squadron shoot down huge numbers of enemy aeroplanes and victory seems certain, but the war drags on for a second winter, becoming increasingly difficult. Comrades are lost or reported ‘Vermisst’ – missing – and he learns of terrible German activities across the east. Then, Paul’s nightmare becomes reality, when his engine fails behind enemy lines, and he is captured… Vermisst: Missing in Russia is a rarity; an English-language novel written from a German viewpoint. Rich in historical details and packed with exciting aerial combat scenes, it is a gripping war story of extreme conditions, and survival in the harshest captivity.

Read more less

After the American Civil War, a young man from Maine takes a diplomatic position in Nagasaki, Japan, where he and his aide, Harada, explore the city and absorb its history and culture. There, they befriend the lovely geisha Cio-Cio and attend her wedding to the American naval lieutenant Pinkerton. When they discover the marriage is nothing but an empty sham, devastating consequences inexorably follow… Derived from Puccini’s grand opera, Butterfly deftly retells the tragic story of the young geisha and her seducer as a captivating story of discovery, tragedy, and enlightenment.

Read more less

‘We must always be wary of the longlegs for they are unpredictable and puzzling.’ Join Stikki on his madcap adventures as he leaves his nest and sets off to explore the world around him. Mischevious and a little reckless, Stikki manages to get himself into scrapes at almost every turn. When Stikki and his sisters, Mollie and Tia, venture out of their familiar surroundings for the first time, life changes dramatically for our little explorers. Danger and peril lay on their chosen path – and, as with every exciting adventure, there are spills and thrills and good friends to be made along the way. A whimsical, heartfelt story of friendship, bravery and love for each other.

Read more less

King Alfred is dead and the achievements that made him great are in jeopardy. Rebels challenge the succession of his son Edward to the Wessex throne, and his old ally in Mercia is sick. The Vikings in the Danelaw sense the time has come to complete their conquest of England. It falls on Alfred’s firstborn, his daughter, Æthelflæd, to unite the Anglo-Saxons. Reluctantly, she takes up the challenge. But can a woman rebuild ruined towns and lead men into battle against hardened Viking warriors? And can Æthelflæd fulfil her father’s dream of uniting England? Based on contemporary sources and archaeological evidence, King Alfred’s Daughter is rich in drama, family conflict and historical achievement.

Read more less

This sequel to 'Dreamcats' finds the four young cousins, Elsa, David, Oscar and Arthur back in their Felinestow `dream' as pets in cat families. Felinestow is now run by the benign cat, Mayor Tina, but evil ex-Mayor Claptrap still has a thirst for power.

Read more less

Two women. One devastating tsunami. And a decision that will change people’s lives forever. Eighteen-year-old Jeannie has suffered a life of abuse at the hands of her stepfather. Now Jeannie thinks she is pregnant and wonders how she will ever escape him. When she disappears after a tsunami, her stepfather senses that she is not dead, that she is running from him, and he vows to track her down. Anna’s husband, Jamie, has borderline personality disorder. Obsessed with Anna, he believes theirs is a perfect marriage; only a baby would make it better. As far as he is concerned, only death is capable of parting them. Then the tsunami hits and Anna is gone. Demented with grief, he goes to extraordinary lengths to recreate the life he and his dead wife should have had. Two strangers, connected only by trauma and disaster, whose lives collide forever, set off a chain reaction that will have devastating consequences for another, innocent, woman…

Read more less

Public services are in crisis. NHS backlogs, police forces in disarray and a housing crisis growing ever worse. Whole areas of our national infrastructure are in a mess including energy, water and rail. In this book, Sir Robin Wales and Clive Furness demonstrate how these issues are linked and what can be done to solve them. They reflect on the current frustration with public service bureaucracy and its failure to deliver as it should and demonstrate, with evidence and examples, what needs to be done to create public services which deliver on their original aspiration. They take readers on a rollercoaster journey through two successful decades in charge of one of Britain’s most deprived councils – highlighting how they changed the face of east London by overhauling political and social cultures and helping, in the process, to deliver London’s 2012 Olympic Games. Part autobiographical account of policy successes, part ode to the forgotten days of social democracy, and part critique of the Left’s current obsession with ‘woke’ culture, the authors draw on their vast experience and, with engaging humour, deliver 2023’s most important assessment of how the Labour movement can shake off its self-imposed shackles.

Read more less

Berthold Lubetkin and Ernö Goldfinger were two leading architects who designed high-rise council housing after the Second World War; a type of building that now holds a poor reputation. Lubetkin built one of the earliest post-war estates in London, Spa Green in Finsbury, while Goldfinger designed the last and most notorious council block in the city, Trellick Tower in North Kensington. Both architects were communist migrants from central Europe who shared much in common but were rivals who disliked each other. Their reputations suffered with the decline of their buildings and from their sometimes-unpleasant personalities. But they were both idealists, dedicated to building the best possible homes for ordinary people. Lubetkin and Goldfinger aims to shine a light on the overlooked work of these two visionary architects and give them credit where duly deserved.

Read more less

Cornish Villages is a unique book exploring twenty-two villages within Cornwall. Many are archetypical Cornish fishing villages, others have been built to serve the mining and quarrying industries. Each chapter includes photographs taken by the author and a section on places to see nearby, covering beaches, coastal walks, visitor attractions and towns; so each adventure can last a day or more. The villages are arranged in order of location, to enable easy holiday planning and to assist local people in choosing an area to visit. There is also a map of Cornwall, which pinpoints the location of each village explored.

Read more less

Europe’s small islands are wonderfully varied. Some are well known: the beautiful Bled Island in Slovenia attracts thousands of visitors. Others, like Snake Island, the subject of a lengthy dispute between Ukraine and Romania, are almost unheard of. The warm and welcoming Greek islands of Patmos and Spetses contrast with Solovetsky in Russia’s White Sea, the scene of Stalin’s gulag archipelago. There is the baroque bling of Italy’s Isola Bella, far removed from St Kilda, where a hardy Celtic community struggled to harvest seabirds from its vertiginous cliffs. The urban chic of Paris’s Île Saint-Louis could not be more different to ‘Europe’s last feudal state’ of Sark in the Channel Islands. Illustrated with 140 stunning photographs, The Amazing Small Islands of Europe records forty islands, all with fascinating histories. There is much to delight the armchair traveller, together with practical information should he or she wish to visit them.

Read more less

How far would you go for the one you love? Qasim has everything planned out: a bright future, the love of a girl who shares his dreams, and a loving family. But all that changes in a matter of seconds. On a Thursday evening, two suicide bombers blow themselves up in the middle of a crowded religious shrine in Lahore’s famous Anarkali market. Qasim and Asma, two people from opposite ends of society, are wrenched apart in the cataclysmic upheaval caused by the explosion. Spanning years and stretching from the busy streets of Lahore to the rugged and desolate mountains of Swat, each must chart a way through the wreckage and find their way back to each other. This is a story of finding one’s identity, of holding onto love, and knowing when to let go.

Read more less

When the battered body of a woman is found in some local woods, Inspector Dick Beauregard is surprised to discover that she had just checked out of the hotel run by ex-Detective Inspector Clive Walsingham. He originally treats Clive as a suspect, but the investigation makes little headway until a second body, a man, is found. Mysteriously, a newspaper cutting dated two days after he was murdered is found in his pocket. Both victims were parents of one of five schoolgirls who disappeared in mysterious circumstances ten years ago. Under mounting pressure, Inspector Beauregard asks Clive Walsingham to help. In a complicated and occasionally shocking investigation, Clive and his wife, Clare, re-examine the circumstances surrounding the original disappearance of the schoolgirls. But, when an intriguing discovery is made, they realise they are at risk from an unlikely source. With their lives at stake, they must act quickly.

Read more less

“I, Archimedes the mathematician, son of Phidias the astronomer, prostrate myself before the goddess of wisdom. May Athena restore our people to her favour and see us through the descending storm…” So begins The Beast in the Labyrinth, a story of sly and pitiless ambition. Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, is struggling to chart a course between the warring empires of Rome and Carthage. His only close confidante is his eccentric cousin, Archimedes. But Hieron is ninety years old, and his nobles are scheming in the shadows. The two old men turn to Dion, the kingdom’s most brutal warrior. Surrounded by smiling enemies, and menaced by the rival empires, Dion’s mental stability comes under increasing pressure. Will he prove the kingdom’s salvation or its destruction?

Read more less

Two teenage girls from opposite sides of the tracks in 1960s Midlands England are forced into prostitution in this engrossing tale of loss, liberty, and love. Weep at the relationship between clever Janet and spoiled Priscilla, as their handsome, young English teacher, Mr Edwards – and his corrupting father – become embroiled in their tortuous journeys. But then a smart heroine Tara fatefully enters the fray on a secret detective mission. Dramatic and topical events include a city-slum killing, police malfeasance, newspaper-business bribery, emotional blackmail, destitute homelessness, and a mountaineering adventure. This saga combines a socio-political struggle by the under-privileged against repression, with both feminine and asexual insights into love, to produce a thought-provoking, yet stylishly old-fashioned, romantic rollercoaster.

Read more less

It is the late nineteenth century and Queen Victoria is on the throne. Upper-class girls are expected to get married and be content with entertaining, embroidery and elementary music-making. But, from an early age, Ethel has other ideas. She will need to be forceful and persistent if she is to fulfil her dream of becoming a composer and having her music performed. Meeting with the best musicians of the day in England and Europe, she shows how good she is, and begins to make her mark as an opera writer. Yet time and time again, the musical world fails to support her. Her romantic relationships with both women and men are stormy. Will she find lasting love? As the twentieth century dawns, and the campaign for Votes for Women becomes more militant, her life will take a different turn… Shining Threads is based on the life of composer Ethel Smyth. An inspiring story of hope and determination in the face of many obstacles, it shines a light on an overlooked, pioneering composer.

Read more less

Think global, act local! Trades councils are the place workers and unemployed trade unionists, in local and national forums, can come together to pass resolutions and plan actions; in workplaces and on the streets; to change laws, change minds, show solidarity, lead and inspire; encourage demonstrations, occupations and industrial actions; to provide confidence and political tools to working people. Union leaders have tended to constrict these assemblies while radicals have often wanted to further empower them. Trades councils' histories have often been marginalised, hidden from the very localities from which they sprang until now.Come Together explores trades councils in Britain from 1920 to 1950 their role in the General Strike of 1926, unemployment responses in the 1930s, the impact of World War II, their interactions with British communists with lessons for today's activists.

Read more less

Between 1959 and 2005, David Wood (‘the national children’s dramatist’) corresponded with his mentor, Frank Whitbourn, teacher, writer and theatre practitioner. Frank Exchanges opens with a letter from Whitbourn, praising a young Wood following a performance in one of his plays, and documents an almost fifty-year correspondence before Whitbourn’s death in 2005. Wood sent Whitbourn the first draft of every play he wrote, and Whitbourn commented constructively and often came to see and ‘review’ the plays in production. The letters chronicle Wood’s development as a playwright, director and producer, and Whitbourn’s memories of pre-war theatre-going and meeting Sybil Thorndike, Harcourt Williams and other eminent theatre folk. It is a reflection on the provision, content and status of theatre for young audiences, and ultimately a testimony to the man who Wood considered a friend and mentor.

Read more less

This unusual collection of short stories captures the essence of life in the theatre. Behind the superficial glamour lies a world marked by ambition, jealousy and heartache. Among stories featured in All is Fortune are an actress under stress at an audition, a struggling playwright committing a deception, a biographer falling out with his subject, a female playwright suffering sexual harassment, and many others. Lighter stories tell of the mysterious disappearance of a member of an amateur dramatic society, the unrequited love of a chorus girl in a musical, and a monologue by an elderly jobbing actor. Jonathan Croall, a leading theatre historian and biographer, and the son of well-known actors, has created these imaginative stories with warmth, insight and humour, bringing vividly to life a host of well-drawn characters. 'Jonathan Croall has written extensively and illuminatingly about acting and actors. In these stories he attempts something different, a sequence of shiny, shard-like vignettes – some ironic, some poetic, some straightforwardly realistic – which reflect the life of the theatre in all its many aspects. Haunting.’ Simon Callow, actor and writer

Read more less

Gus doesn’t want to be a goose, let alone the perfect son his parents want. He wants to be a human! It goes horribly wrong right from the start when he accidentally hatches into the hands of Clara, a young human girl. Thinking she’s his real human mummy, Gus is horrified to be handed back to grow up amongst his flock of Canada geese. They do stupid goosey things like watch grass grow and roll in the mud. Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, bully Bruce Bacon and his moronic brother, Spike, are planning the jewellery heist of the century. After their farmyard burglary attempt was ruined by a Guard Goose fifteen years ago, they are fresh out of prison and keen to repair their reputation. This time, there won’t be a ghastly goose in sight! Will Gus manage to stop the bad Bacon Brothers, keep his parents happy and achieve his dream of becoming a human?

Read more less

London, 1891. Deliveries. Opium. Regret. The only three things twenty-one-year-old Gabriel Ashmore’s life consists of until four murder victims are found in the increasingly criminal city, all marked with the same black veins. Gabriel is connected to all four. He delivered Erebus to them, a new opium variant on the market, after being forced to provide for his family following the brutal death of his mother four years ago. Fearing his involuntary part in the murders, he becomes embroiled in an amateur investigation led by the wealthy aspiring detective Alexander Wakefield, supported by the Leader of the Opposition, Lord Benedict Granville. However, when they witness the fifth death, they realise nothing is as it seems in the city of veils and shadows. Truths become twisted, secrets are revealed and it soon becomes clear they are not dealing with a single killer, but the greatest criminal plot London has ever seen. 'A darkly enchanting and engrossing read – kept me hooked from start to finish.' James Brogden, critically acclaimed author of Bone Harvest

Read more less

Following on from Arthur’s first novel, Far, Far the Mountain Peak, this next novel follows John Denby into adolescence. As he begins to explore his sexuality, he begins to realise that he is not attracted to females. As he struggles to come to terms with his homosexuality, John is faced with decisions that affect his relationships. As he tries desperately to be accepted in school and amongst his friends, he turns to the wider community and to his religion for help and guidance. But will those that he hopes can help him understand this development in his life have his best interests at heart?

Read more less

Burgundy, 1861. Christine ‘Kiki’ Vellay, the daughter of vineyard workers, is forced to marry an older man in exchange for a piece of land. He abuses her. Seduced by a young naval cadet she plots to run away. When her husband is killed during the attempt, she finds herself wrongly accused of his murder. Kiki is on the run. On reaching Paris in disguise, Kiki discovers she is pregnant and takes on various jobs to survive. When her child is stolen from her, she begins a desperate attempt to find him. Her story takes her from imprisonment in the infamous Conciergerie, to a chateau in the Loire, back to Paris under siege – as a spy – during the Franco-Prussian war, culminating in a dramatic conclusion in the final bloody week of the Paris Commune. A story of resilience in the face of immense hardship, The Time of Cherries is a gripping account of a woman’s instinct and longing for her child.

Read more less

Raised among the Cambridge intellectual elite with a distant father and authoritarian mother, Eliza grows up feeling inadequate and alone. But her parents’ friends offer support – notably the Rothschild family and Lord Bob Boothby. In a bid to find love, she marries a charismatic young actor, but when he lands the star role in a Fellini film, his focus turns elsewhere. As feelings of rejection set in, Eliza looks inward for answers, her spiritual search begins and she escapes to the Yorkshire Dales and pours her energy into writing, photography and teaching meditation. As shadows from the past recede, horizons expand, and Eliza perceives a series of betrayals among her parents’ friends that make her question her own paternity. Determined to uncover the truth, she begins unravelling a tangled web of secrecy and scandal that not only touches upon her own family, but extends to the highest levels of government.

Read more less

June 1908: Cross-dressing Dolly Butler is starting a new career as a detective with her very own Soho agency. Her first case takes her into the brutal world of an East End plumage factory where it’s not just birds that are under threat. While Dolly is off sleuthing, her adored lover, Caroline, hides from her violent husband at Dolly’s home. However, when their embittered housemaid becomes aware of Dolly and Caroline’s ‘unnatural practices’, she becomes intent on destroying their happiness. Her scheming, and Dolly’s refusal to confront a friend’s suspicions about Caroline’s mysterious past, puts them all in grave danger. In a page-turning, darkly comic story of obsession, self-delusion and deception, can Dolly save the woman she loves, as well as face the grisly reality of her new line of business – and the truth about herself?

Read more less

Jim is a self-employed web developer living in Cardiff. Successful professionally, the future also looks rosy for his personal life, having recently proposed to his girlfriend, Ffion. However, when the couple decide to celebrate their engagement with his much-loved dad, Callum, Jim’s world is tilted on its axis. Jim is convinced he spotted his dad staring at him – just for a split second – with a look of pure hatred. Did he imagine it? However, when a series of bizarre and catastrophic events strike Jim’s life in quick succession, he starts to wonder if the look he received from his father could mean something. Eventually, Callum makes a confession that will lead to the total collapse of Jim’s life as he knows it…

Read more less

Toto’s a dog with a lot of personality but very little clue. He and his pal Monty spend their days getting up to various scrapes in their seaside hometown. One day, a bruising encounter with a biffing great Boxer dog leads to a series of ever more farcical misunderstandings for Toto, much to Monty’s guffawing delight. The day sees Toto get himself into a bother as he goes round town trying to put things right, but only ending up more and more muddled. But does he let his misfortunes get on top of him? Well, yes, he does. But not for long! With a spoonful of spring and a dollop of doggedness, he goes from never failing to get it wrong to managing, somehow, someway, to get it right. And he learns a valuable thing or two about friendship along the way.

Read more less

When is enough, enough? High-powered Sophie Taylor thinks baby-making can happen on the fly. Managed alongside work, marriage, an MBA and travel, she decides to launch Project Bébé. Successful at everything, Sophie expects and always scores one hundred per cent. That is until the shocking failure of one fertility treatment after the next. As the heart-breaking reality of infertility sinks in, Sophie owns up to another almost unspeakable loss and faces difficult decisions when she’s targeted as the love interest of a high-powered financier. Through a colleague, a mother of four, she learns that motherhood is not all it’s cracked up to be. Just as Sophie feels satisfied with the advantages of a childfree lifestyle, a fateful meeting changes everything… Triumphant, joyous and full of hope, Mine is a captivating story about a less understood route to motherhood: the fertility option Sophie almost forgot.

Read more less

This is not the Garden of Eden, but it is my patch of heaven. Steal my apples. Come and get them. When an asylum seeker is discovered sleeping rough at an allotment site, the plot-holders are alarmed and hostile. However, in secret, Walter begins to leave out food for Osama. Thus, a friendship begins on a garden bench, between a grieving widower and an asylum seeker on the run from the authorities. Walter is rooted in his home city; Osama belongs nowhere. Walter has a safe and routine life; Osama’s life is uncertain, risky and vulnerable. Walter feels powerless to help him, while at the same time he struggles to understand his own daughters and their lives. Then, one day, Walter discovers Osama is not who he says he is…

Read more less

General Haig, Noël Coward, Butch Cassidy, Margaret Thatcher’s bloomers and a racehorse strongly resembling Shergar feature in So Last Century, the new collection of astute and witty stories from award-winning journalist and author Charles Nevin. So Last Century begins with Edward VII on a tricky country house visit and ends with one of the first national lottery winners struggling with fame, fortune and romance. On the way you’ll meet music hall entertainers in the First World War and two remarkable double agents in the Second, get raided in a 1920s London night club, take part in some lively coronation celebrations, and discover what really might have happened when the World Cup was stolen in 1966. Be warned: after this, you will never view the twentieth century in quite the same way again…

Read more less

The Welsh Marches have for centuries been witness to a mighty struggle between elves and goblins. Now, the elfish kingdom is facing defeat, or worse, extinction. Their only hope lies in the heir to the ancient elfish kingdom of Gwydden. Only he can turn the tide against the goblin hordes and lead them back to victory and prosperity. However, the elves have one major problem to overcome. The heir to the crown is living in the human world, in the quiet border town of Ludlow, oblivious to his importance. The elves have a clever plan to find their king, but the goblins are on his trail too, and will do anything to prevent his safe return to Gwydden… Atmospheric, captivating and entirely unique, The Tree Elves of Ludlow is a fantasy novel that tips in and out of reality and is perfect for fantasy enthusiasts of all ages.

Read more less

When Zeta’s father is killed, she and her brother, Finn, together with Zeta’s pet wolf, Kuba, are forced to flee across the country to seek sanctuary with their mother’s birth tribe. On this perilous journey they have to learn to outwit their pursuers and put into practice all their hunting skills and knowledge of the land. Will they survive the journey and be accepted by their mother’s tribe? And can they save their friend Arden from certain death? Set in 7000BCE around the middle of the Mesolithic period of hunter gatherers and based on careful research, Stone Arrows is an original novel combining an exciting adventure with historical detail. It paints a wonderful picture of how life was lived in these far-off times – the terrain, the wild animals, the clothing, the sights and smells – while telling an engaging and fast-moving story.

Read more less

Maka, a young Bosnian soldier, has survived three years under siege. When the enemy forces launch their final attack on his hometown, he must escape to the hills. But traversing the vast woods is a task against all odds: to stay alive, and to find his infant son and his wife, he is soon forced to make a desperate move. Set against the harrowing background of raging guerrilla warfare and the genocide in Srebrenica, Father of One is, at heart, a story of deep humanity, compassion and love. It is the account of one man’s desire to reunite his family, separated by war, and of bonds unbroken by trauma, sustained by loyalty and tenacity. Writing in a voice that rings with clarity and authenticity, the author lays open a dark moment in Europe’s recent history.

Read more less

The story of the dangerous race to obtain the ultimate deterrent, with hidden roots in Nazi Germany. An investigation into a series of unexplained deaths of former Israeli intelligence agents uncovers startling revelations from the past, which expose a current threat, not only to Israel, but the world. Investigators discover Hitler’s astonishing plans, in the closing stages of the Second World War, to use an atomic weapon. A post-war strategy is revealed, adopted by the fledgling state of Israel, to obtain ‘the bomb’, employing deadly espionage tactics, even involving former Nazis. Astounding evidence throws new light on one of the most tragic and shocking assassinations of the twentieth century. Agents desperately seek answers in a race against time, as they strive to prevent a global catastrophe. Power, emotion and politics all compete in an epic story driven by the supreme human instinct – survival. Based on meticulous research, the book delves into real events from the Second World War to the present day, raising many historical questions in a highly credible and powerful international drama. “A terrific read… Could this be true? Kerr demonstrates brilliant descriptive writing. This should fly off the shelves…” Independent Review

Read more less

Claustrophobia. Resentment. Paranoia. Murder. H11 is an archive of state secrets so deadly it’s kept four floors below ground in MI5’s London HQ, completely isolated from the outside world and with no internet connection. It’s staffed by the oddballs and rejects from the spy service. When Lydia Twomey, a bright, young MI5 officer – no fan of the public school and Oxbridge-educated male elite who run the agency – is sent down to H11 to investigate the suspicious death of one of the staff, she finds a claustrophobic world ruled over by the charismatic but controlling Gerard Bell. She’s quickly convinced that the ‘accident’ was murder and that one or more of the seven H11 staff were involved. After a second murder, Lydia becomes a target herself… As the body count rises, it becomes clear that the stakes are much higher, and Lydia finds herself at the centre of a plot that could topple democracy in Britain.

Read more less

Thirteen doors, thirteen hauntings. News reporter Joe Baxter has a plan. His idea is simple – to use his newsroom contacts across England to find thirteen haunted places to stay, and then record his experiences in a book. From an abandoned cinema to a dank pub cellar, from a World War Two airfield to a lonely, landlocked cruise liner, Joe is prepared to spend long nights in the cold and dark, but has no idea what he is about to unleash. For, as he endures increasingly dangerous vigils, meeting a succession of gruesome, tragic and terrifying spectres, a terrible truth begins to emerge. Something – or someone – is reaching out to Joe, awakening long-buried memories of his father’s death, a dark family secret and his teenage brush with madness. And then there is Wilko, the imaginary friend who haunted his childhood. After decades of silence, Wilko has found his voice again… A spine-tingling supernatural mystery entwined with chilling ghost stories, 13 Doors places the reader at the dark heart of the moment, from gut-wrenching action to eerie vigils.

Read more less

‘I can never make any sense of what happened to you, Ethel. There were people had it in for you and I don’t know why. I think you were a soft target for cruel men.’ Timid Ethel Slater grows up in a squalid terraced house in a railway community in 1950s York. Perpetually at the mercy of the men she encounters, she falls pregnant out of wedlock, retreats into obscurity and gives birth alone at home. When her newborn is found dead in her bedroom a few days later and fatal head injuries are discovered at the post-mortem, Ethel breaks and confesses to the killing. On trial for murder, Ethel is plunged into a legal world she does not understand. The voices of well-meaning neighbours who give evidence are twisted and distorted by their own secrets and fears. Ethel faces the death sentence for a brutal crime she may not have committed. The right questions are asked, but in this secretive and insular community, nobody can ever be sure of the right answers.

Read more less

London, September 1888. Jack the Ripper roams the streets. A scream rings out from beneath the stage of the Lyceum Theatre… A young ‘actress’ has been attacked, suffering peculiar bite wounds to her neck; an event that announces a series of strange, vampiric happenings, and thrusts an unwitting Bram Stoker – acting manager of the Lyceum and aspiring author – into the limelight, and the action. Increasingly perplexed by the unsettling behaviour of his 'Guv’nor’, the brilliant but mercurial actor, Henry Irving, and Irving’s acclaimed leading lady, Ellen Terry, Stoker soon starts suspecting the worst. And then, another attack reveals a vicious Prussian baron, returned to London as a vampire seeking revenge… Alive with Gothic intrigue, reversal and surprise, Mr Stoker will keep the reader enthralled and confounded until its final, shocking scene – indeed, until its very last word.

Read more less

After thirty years abroad, Jonathan Cox, a Cornishman and former journalist, returns to Cornwall to study at Falmouth University, accompanied by his Swiss wife, Marlis. The Cornwall Sabbatical is a humorous chronicle of their experience as they explore picture-perfect fishing villages and coastal coves and crisscross a granite landscape of rugby posts, old mine stacks and the barely discernible ruins of an ancient Celtic nation. The gritty Cornwall of his childhood has gentrified into one of the most desirable locations in the UK and become a magnet for Michelin restaurants even as sharp inequalities remain. A touching story about a lost way of life, The Cornwall Sabbatical reveals how Cornwall’s unique geology, climate, natural history and position as the end of the known world for much of antiquity has created a pioneering libertarian spirit and distinctive culture that is timeless.

Read more less

Leicestershire-based Dominic Mallory has made sufficient money in the City to retire at forty-eight, and is looking for interesting things to do as he builds a post-commercial portfolio career. Having served briefly as an Army officer in the 1980s, he contacts his former Regiment, Prince Rupert’s Horse, and asks whether it has a project he can assist with. It transpires that the Regimental history is weak in the latter stages of the Second World War, and Dom agrees to rewrite it. However, as he begins to gather material, he finds himself caught up in a scandal from sixty years ago which eventually spills over into present-day murder… Reviews for Clean Kill 'Intriguing but credible characters and well thought through plot. A page turner!' Goodreads reviewer 'The author is a skilled practitioner and yet this is his debut novel. I was thrilled to find such an accomplished new writer.' Goodreads reviewer 'I read this in a day, it was that gripping. Good honest fun (plus murder)!' Amazon reviewer

Read more less

His daughter's dead, his wife's gone missing and there's a serial killer on the run. Daniel Kendrick must face the truth – and there's no place to hide... Struggling to come to terms with his daughter’s murder and on the verge of losing both his career and his marriage, surgeon Daniel Kendrick faces further personal turmoil when his wife, a forensic psychiatrist, goes missing following death threats and blood spatters at her clinic. When he is wrongly suspected of her disappearance, and with a serial killer on the run near their hometown, he is forced to begin his own investigation and is drawn into the world of her patients – criminals, murderers and psychopaths. But when he discovers a dark secret, he is forced to confront his inner demons and finds himself in a desperate race against time to find his wife before a dangerous killer closes in on her. An intense, emotional glimpse into the dark side of the mind… 'No Place to Hide has an excellent plot that kept me hooked and unsure of who did what right to the very end…I think it's one of the best books I have read in a long time.' LoveReading Ambassador

Read more less