!
has prompted the Governor to put in an appearance as well. The town is dizzy with anticipation until they hear that Clint wants to run for Congress. They remember the unfortunate episodes involving his rocky marriage, vodka sours and a passion for a young woman who dresses up as the Statue of Liberty. Here are the good, loving people of Lake Wobegon who drive each other crazy. 267pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3
70716 PANDORA IN THE CONGO
by Albert Sánchez Piñol It is 1914. A 19-year-old asthmatic young man called Tommy Thomson, who describes himself as a ‘half-writer’, or in other words a ghost writer who fleshes out the bare bones of a story, is asked by a friend to take over his job of finishing a plot. When the friend dies suddenly, Tommy discovers
that there is a chain of other writers leading back to the original author and, strangely, all of them have died. At the funeral of two of them, Tommy is approached by a barrister who has read some of his previous ghost-writing and who offers to pay him well to ghost the testimony of one Marcus Garvey. This last is in prison accused of having stolen two giant, priceless diamonds from his employers who had mysteriously died deep in a remote area of the jungle. 441 deviously imaginative paperback pages.
£8.99 NOW £2.25
70863 SOLDIER’S RETURN by Alan Monaghan When the wounded Stephen comes back to Ireland from the trenches during the First World War, he assumes he will return to his old life but, instead, he finds himself in a complex web of deceit and violence. The new, alien Ireland he encounters has unpredictable rules. Sinn Fein is resurgent and more than ever determined to gain independence. Stephen’s own brother is among those who are prepared to fight for their cause and, because of the shocking losses of life and limb incurred by the troops and the threat of conscription ever looming, there is growing civil unrest. Stephen must ask himself if he has chosen the right side. Despite his wounds and his increasing addiction to the morphine he needs to ease his pain, he feels compelled to return to the front, where at least he knows where his loyalties lie. 327 paperback pages.
£12.99 NOW £4
62717 THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of 20th century fiction, an inspiration for many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Set before the First World War, it tells the tale of two wealthy and sophisticated couples, one English, one American, as they travel, socialise, and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe . They are ‘playing the game’ in style. That
game has begun to unravel, however, and with compelling attention to the comic, as well as the tragic, results the American narrator reveals his growing awareness of the sexual intrigues and emotional betrayals that lie behind its façade. Wordsworth Classics paperback. 192pp. ONLY £2
68354 THE BREEZES by Joseph O’Neill 14 years ago Mary Breeze was killed by lightning. As John Breeze is about to find out, his family’s bad luck will continue. John, a failing chair maker and his father are only feebly equipped with shaky religious notions, management maxims and cynical postures as they try to come to terms with the absurd unfairness of lightning striking twice. 180pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW 40p
68861 COBRAS OF CALCUTTA by Grant Sutherland
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The first volume of the Decipherer’s chronicles, Britain emerged from the blood-soaked Napoleonic wars as the greatest power the world had ever known. But at the very centre of the Empire’s success lies a secret institution, the Decipherers. These are the code breakers and interceptors, and among them is Alistair Douglas. He arrives in Bengal as a ‘writer’ for the East India Company, just as the whole province is thrown into conflict. Douglas finds himself thrown into the midst of battles and intrigue that will decide the fate of the Company and the British nation in the East. 455pp in paperback with line art. £7.99 NOW £2.50
68885 ROSE OF SEBASTOPOL by Katherine McMahon
From the author of ‘The Alchemist’s Daughter’ comes a novel set in the Crimean War. Rosa Barr travels to the battlefields, determined to save as many of the wounded soldiers as she can. For Mariella Lingwood, Rosa’s cousin, the war is contained within the pages of her scrapbook and in the letters she receives from Henry, her fiancé, who has also volunteered to work within the shadow of the guns. But when Henry falls ill, and Rosa’s communications cease, Mariella finds herself inexorably drawn towards the war. 394pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £1.75
69057 SEAGULLS DANCE: From the Irish Musical by Larry Tracey
Set in the west of Ireland in the 19th century, when her husband, Connor, is transported to Botany Bay, Kathleen fights to bring up her children Liam and Kirsty. Her love for her family gives her the strength she needs to overcome the unwelcome attentions of the local clergyman, Fitzpatrick. The return from the Napoleonic Wars of the man responsible for the false imprisonment of Connor adds to her distress. He too forces his attentions on Kathleen and her adolescent daughter. Will they ever escape these two malevolent men? Power, corruption and lies all sound so familiar. 226 pages with FREE music CD. £14.99 NOW £1.50
69234 A SHOT ROLLING SHIP by David Donachie
Pressed into King George’s Navy for the second time in a month, John Pearce and his comrades the Pelicans find themselves working aboard HMS Griffin, a slow and overcrowded ship sailing the Channel in search of numerous French privateers that prey on English merchant shipping. Her task is to stop them and if possible capture or destroy them. But Pearce has
£7.99 NOW £3.25 69457 NOTTING HELL: A
Novel by Rachel Johnson A wickedly funny and instantly recognisable comedy of manners set around Lonsdale Gardens, a W11 square of mid-Victorian houses set around a communal garden. Mimi, who has it all - the money, the skinny jeans, the part-time vanity job and the husband who prefers the trout stream to the fast lane - meets new billionaire on the block Si
at a sushi party. Her obsessive-compulsive friend Clare, deep in biological panic about her and her husband’s enduring childlessness, spends the time she would have spent with children monitoring all illicit activity in their private compound, from light adultery to heavy construction, and her sights are trained on Mimi. 340pp. $25 NOW £3
69552 CASEBOOK OF VICTOR
FRANKENSTEIN: A Novel by Peter Ackroyd Ackroyd brilliantly re-imagines a tale that has enthralled readers for nearly two centuries. He brings together the fictional Victor Frankenstein, who conducts anatomical experiments to re-animate the dead, and the author of the original novel, Mary Shelley, together with real persons of the period such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, and produces a story that is terrifying and fascinating in equal measure. 353 roughcut pages, one illus. $26.95 NOW £4
69737 ON CHESIL BEACH: A Novel by Ian McEwan It is the early 1960s. In a masterwork from the Booker Prize-winning author, covering the first 24 hours of a marriage between two young virgins fraught with anxiety about their physical compatibility, the author captures the terrifying incompetence of two well- meaning innocents. She is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with her new husband, while at the same time experiencing nauseated disgust at the idea of physical contact. He is an earnest history student with no knowledge at all of the cutting edge of life and nursing a fear of failure. 207 roughcut pages. £22 NOW £4
69816 BOYS FROM BRAZIL by Ira Levin By the author of Sliver, The Stepford Wives and other bestsellers as well as the play Death Trap, Ira Levin’s novel The Boys from Brazil was made into an acclaimed film in 1978 starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. Extremely clever, consisting of familiar themes of biological engineering, the rebirth of the Devil and human automation. Levin imagines Dr Josef Mengele’s nightmarish plot to restore the Third Reich. Alive and hiding in South America 30 years after the end of WWII, Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a sinister project - the creation of the Fourth Reich. 258 page paperback. £7.99 NOW £3
69820 CASSANDRA’S SISTER by Veronica Bennett
Pride and Prejudice was written by Jane Austen when she was only about 19 but it was published when she was in her 30s. She despairs of ever finding a Mr Darcy of her own among the closed circle of her rural acquaintance. But in the winter of 1796, the handsome Tom Lefroy enters Jane’s quiet life. At a time when money conquers love, can the happy ending Jane wrote for her characters be heard in real life? Written with all due reverence to the Austen oeuvre. 233pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2
69862 THE SUBTERRANEANS and PIC by Jack Kerouac
Leo Percepied, aspiring writer and self-styled freewheeling bum, gravitates to the subterraneans, impoverished intellectuals who haunt the bars of San Francisco. One of them is Mardou Fox, beautiful and a little crazy, with dark eyes, full of suffering and sweetness, who finds recognition in Leo. But afraid of his growing involvement, Leo sets out to destroy their love. Also included is the novel Pic, the story of a young black boy who makes his own journey on the road. 164pp, paperback. £9.99 NOW £2.25
69828 DEVIL’S LARDER by Jim Crace Bursting with delightfully subversive ingredients and mischievous behaviour, the novel is a sensuous portrait, in 64 parts of a community. It is a book about our loves and hates, appetites and desires which is poetic, erotic and darkly funny. Crace is more imaginative with food than the most inventive posh chef! ‘One night when there were guests and all the wine has gone, they put the can into the candlelight amongst the debris of their meal and play the guessing game. An aphrodisiac, perhaps; let’s try...’ 198pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2.50
69856 SIGNALS OF DISTRESS by Jim Crace November 1836 and Aymer Smith is making the voyage from his London home to coastal Wherrytown to deliver bad news. Once there he becomes embroiled with the American crew of the Belle, torn from their ship by a fierce storm and left stranded to wreak havoc in the village. A Dickensian cast of characters and Crace’s characteristically poetic prose make for an extraordinary novel - an historical yet timeless exploration of clashing cultures, communication and technology, imbued with the tang and power of the sea. 296pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2
69857 SIX by Jim Crace
Felix Dern is a celebrated actor, revered for his talent and his looks. Unbeknownst to those he seduces, he is exceptional in other ways too. ‘Every woman he dares to sleep with bears his child…’ Gifted or cursed, Lix now has six living reminders of what he did, with whom, and all in the pursuit of the elusive dream of love. Set in the beguiling City of Kisses, this seamless novel charts the history of a loving, baffled man in a mischievous meditation of the eternal sexual conundrums of love, power, parenthood and desire. An erotic comedy set in a fictitious European city, ingenious and beautifully written. 282pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2
69901 JIM CRACE: Set of Three by Jim Crace Buy all three paperbacks and make a further saving. £23.97 NOW £5.50
= LIMITED STOCKS, HURRY YOUR ORDER
greater things on his mind. He must rescue his ailing father from the dangers of Revolutionary Paris, and to do that he must somehow leave the ship. 381pp in paperback.
69872 THE UNDERTOW by Christopher Wakling
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When Wilson Taylor hears that his beloved 19 year old daughter Anna has been gravely injured while swimming in Australia, he flies across the world, ready to fix the situation. In spite of the police’s assurances that such accidents are common, Wilson’s own investigation throws up more questions. Who was Anna’s travelling companion and why did he abandon her? Who is the blackmailer threatening Wilson, how did he get those photographs and what do they mean? 306pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3
69979 EINSTEIN GIRL by Philip Sington Two months before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, a beautiful young woman is found naked and near death in the woods outside Berlin. When she emerges from a coma, she can remember nothing, not even her own name. The only clue to her identity is a handbill found nearby, advertising a public lecture by Albert Einstein. Psychiatrist Martin Kirsch little knows that this will be his last case. Searching for the truth about his celebrated patient, his finds professional fascination turning to love. His investigations lead him to a remote corner of Serbia via a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. 391pp, softback. £12.99 NOW £4
70175 COBBLESTONE HEROES by Ken McCoy
When Susan, Jimmy and Billy Bairstow are found alive in their bombed home, they are nicknamed ‘the miracle children’. But losing their parents and having to live with their aunt Dorothy doesn’t feel very lucky especially when, unable to cope with all three children, Dorothy sends Billy to an orphanage. Susan and Jimmy are shocked and lonely, and when they hear that Billy has died, they decide to run away. It is on this same adventure that they meet Freddie. Susan feels the first stirrings of love for the young serviceman, but chances are they will never meet again - Freddie is off to war. Susan and Jimmy reluctantly return to their aunt’s house, but there are silver linings in the clouds ahead, including their aunt’s revelation that Billy is alive. 289pp in paperback.
£7.99 NOW £3
70180 EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follett His weapon is the stiletto, his codename The Needle. He is Hitler’s prize undercover agent, a cold and professional killer. In the week before D-day, the Allies are disguising their invasion plan with a phoney armada of ships and planes. The plan would be ruined if an enemy agent found out - and then The Needle does just that. Hunted by MI5, he leaves a murderous trail across Britain to awaiting U-Boat. But he hasn’t planned on encountering a remarkable young woman on a storm- battered island. A heart-racingly exciting tale about the fate of war resting in the hands of a spymaster, his opponent and a brave woman. 464pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.75
70181 FORM LINE OF BATTLE by Alexander Kent
Gibraltar; the gathering might of revolutionary France prepares to engulf Europe in another bloody war. As in the past, Britain will stand or fall by the fighting power of her fleet. For Richard Bolitho, the renewal of hostilities means a fresh command and the chance of action after long months of inactivity. However, his mission to support Lord Hood in the monarchist-inspired occupation of Toulon has gone awry. Bolitho and the crew of the Hyperion are trapped by the French near a dry Mediterranean island. The great ship of the line’s battered hull begins to groan as her sails snap in the hot wind. Set in June 1793. 358pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £3
70188 LACEYS OF LIVERPOOL by Maureen Lee
Alice Lacey couldn’t be more different from her sister-in- law, the bitter, ambitious Cora. And when both women give birth to sons on one chaotic night in Liverpool in 1940, Cora’s jealousy and resentment prompt her into an action with the most far-reaching consequences. Alice’s own happiness is soured when her husband, disfigured in an accident, turns against his family. As her marriage slowly begins to disintegrate, Alice looks for a life outside her home and decides to buy the tiny hairdresser’s where she works. But to do this, she must first borrow money from Cora. 389pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50
70194 NEST OF SORROWS by Ruth Hamilton
Kate Murray’s father had never forgiven her for being born a girl. Her elder sister Judith he had accepted - after all she was a pretty child and the next one would be a boy. But when Kate arrived, scrawny, red-haired, underweight, he was told there would be no more children, no son and heir, and from that moment his hatred of his younger child was born. Kate, growing up in a world of constant rejection, seeing the way her Lancashire ‘respectable poor’ family tried to hide the cracks of a bad and violent marriage, determined to find a life and a world where she was loved, was successful and where people were proud of her. 380pp in paperback.
£6.99 NOW £2.50
70202 SPITFIRE GIRLS by Carol Gould Top-class pilots were crucial to the survival of Great Britain during the dark days of the Blitz, and playing a vital role in fending off the German attack was the women’s section of the Air Transport Auxiliary, a close and dedicated circle of female pilots. T5hese women risk their lives to ferry aircraft day and night from factory to the arena of war, and lasting friendships were born. Together Edith Allan and her fellow pilots faced Nazi terror, class prejudices, and the forbidden romances of war time. The novel evokes all the drama of this extraordinary period and these brave women, without whom the Battle of Britain might never have been won. 612pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50
70206 TARA ROAD by Maeve Binchy
Ria and Marilyn have never met. They live thousands of miles apart, one in a big warm Victorian house in Tara Road Dublin, the other in a modern open-plan house in New England. Two more unlikely friends would be hard to find - Ria’s life revolves around her family and friends, while Marilyn’s reserve is born of grief. But when each needs a place to escape to, a house exchange seems an ideal solution. Along with the borrowed houses come neighbours and friends, gossip and speculation as the women swap lives for the summer. 639pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50
JACK SHEFFIELD
The bestselling Teacher series first time discounted.
71225 TEACHER,
TEACHER! by Jack Sheffield Miss Barrington-Huntley took off her steel-framed spectacles and polished them deliberately. ‘Mr Sheffield’, she said, ‘After careful consideration we have decided to offer you the very challenging post of Headmaster of Ragley School.’ It is 1977 and Jack Sheffield arrives at a small village primary school in North Yorkshire. Little does he imagine what the
first year will hold in store as he has to grapple with Ruby, the 20 stone caretaker with an acute spelling problem, Vera, the school secretary who worships Margaret Thatcher, Ping, the little Vietnamese refugee who becomes the school’s best reader and poet, and Deke Ramsbottom, a singing cowboy, father of Wayne, Shane and Clint, and many others including a groundsman who grows giant carrots, a barmaid parent who requests sex lessons and a five year old boy whose language is colourful in the extreme. Then there is the beautiful, bright Beth Henderson, a deputy head who is irresistibly attractive to the young headmaster. 333pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3
71224 MISTER TEACHER by Jack Sheffield It is 1978, and Jack Sheffield is beginning his second year as the head master of a small village school in North Yorkshire. There are three letters on his desk - one makes him smile, one makes him sad and one is destined to change his life forever. This is from nine year old Sebastian, suffering from leukaemia in the local hospital who writes a heartbreaking letter addressed to ‘Mister Teacher’. So begins a journey through the seasons of Yorkshire life. Vera the school secretary worships Margaret Thatcher; Ruby, the 20- stone caretaker sings like Julie Andrews; Dorothy, the coffee shop assistant is desperate to be Wonder Woman. Most of all there is the lovely Beth Henderson, a teacher from a nearby school who with her sister Laura presents Jack with an unexpected dilemma. One of the popular Teacher series. 363pp in paperback.
£7.99 NOW £3 71228 DEAR TEACHER
by Jack Sheffield It is 1979. Dallas is enthralling the nation on TV, Mrs Thatcher has become Prime Minister, Abba is Top of the Pops, and in the small Yorkshire village of Ragley-on-the- Forest, Jack Sheffield returns to his third year as Headmaster of the village school. He and his staff struggle to keep a semblance of normality throughout the turbulence of the school terms, as
once again the official School Log fails to record what is really going on beneath the seemingly quiet routines. Ruby the caretaker discovers her Prince Charming; Vera the school secretary gets to meet her hero Nicholas Parsons, and Jack, to his astonishment, finds himself having to stand in as a curiously skinny Father Christmas. He is also having to choose between the vivacious sisters Beth and Laura Henderson. One of the charming Teacher series, 363pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3
71223 VILLAGE TEACHER by Jack Sheffield
It is 1980 - recession and unemployment has hit Britain, a royal wedding is on the way, and the whole country is wondering Who Shot JR? As Jack returns to his fourth year at Ragley-on-the-Forest School, there is a definite chill in the air. Village schools are being closed down all over the place, and will his be one of them? As school life continues, Vera the new secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled electric typewriter, Ruby celebrates ten years as the school cleaner, and the village panto throws up some unusual problems. From the bestselling Teacher series. 347pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3
71227 PLEASE SIR! by Jack Sheffield
It is 1981 and the time of Adam and the Ants, Rubik’s Cube, the Sony Walkman and the Falklands War. As head teacher, Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley-on-the- Forest School for another rollercoaster year. Vera, the ever-efficient school secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled computer, and enjoys a royal occasion, while Ruby the
caretaker rediscovers romance with a Butlin’s Redcoat. And for Jack, wedding bells are in the air, but the unexpected is just around the corner. The fifth instalment in the popular Teacher series. 336pp in paperback.
£7.99 NOW £3
71226 EDUCATING JACK by Jack Sheffield
As September 1982 arrives, Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley Village School for his sixth year as head teacher. It’s the time of ET and Greenham Common, Prince Williams’s birth, Fame legwarmers and the puzzling introduction of the new 20 pence piece. Nora Pratt celebrates 25 years in her coffee shop, Ronnie Smith finally tries to get a job, and little Krystal Entwistle causes concern in the school’s Nativity play. Meanwhile for Jack the biggest surprise of his life is in store. From the charming Teacher series. 336pp in paperback.
£7.99 NOW £3
71542 TEACHER SERIES: Set of Six by Jack Sheffield
Set of six paperbacks in the popular Teacher Series. Buy all six and save more.
£47.94 NOW £15
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