Fiction 9 PHILIPPA GREGORY


73476 THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL


by Philippa Gregory Mary Boleyn catches the eye of Henry VIII when she is a girl of just 14, but her joy is cut short when she discovers that she is a pawn in her family’s plot. When the capricious King’s interest wanes, Mary is ordered to pass on her knowledge of how to please him to her sister Anne, her friend and rival. Anne soon


becomes irresistible to Henry, and Mary must resign herself to being the other Boleyn girl, but beyond the court is a man who dares to challenge the power of her family and to offer Mary a life of freedom and passion. If only she had the courage to break away, before the Boleyn enemies turn on the Boleyn girls. As depicted by the actress Scarlett Johansson in the film. 625pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £3.50


73478 THE VIRGIN’S LOVER by Philippa Gregory


In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the news - Elizabeth is queen. One woman hears them with dread - Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, who knows that with Elizabeth on the throne he will return to the glamorous Tudor court. The triumphant peal of bells summons her husband once more to power, and to the passionate young queen. Robert is sure that he can be by his Elizabeth’s side, and as queen and courtier fall in love, Dudley begins to contemplate the impossible - setting aside his lovely wife to marry the young Elizabeth. ‘A book to lose yourself in’. 485pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73486 WIDEACRE by Philippa Gregory Wideacre Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves, but as a woman of the 18th century, she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by a world that mistreats women, she sets out to corrupt others. Sexual and wilful, she believes that the only way to achieve control over Wideacre is through a series of horrible crimes, and no-one escapes the consequences of her need to possess the land. An instinctive novel with a single-minded, tempestuous, amoral and sensual heroine. A companion to The Favoured Child, code 73473. 622pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73473 THE FAVOURED


CHILD by Philippa Gregory The Wideacre estate is bankrupt and the villagers are living in poverty while Wideacre Hall is a smoke-blackened ruin. But in the Dower House two children are being raised in protected innocence. Equal claimants to the inheritance of Wideacre, rivals for the love of the village, they are tied by a secret childhood betrothal, but forbidden to marry.


Only one can be the favoured child and only one can inherit the magical understanding between the land and the Lacey family that can make the Sussex village grow green again. Only one can be Beatrice Lacey’s true heir. Sensual, gripping and sometimes mystical, we are swept into 1790s revolutionary England and a richly dramatic family saga. A companion to Wildacre, code 73486. 630pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


72001 ROOM by Emma Donoghue Its Jack’s birthday and he is excited about turning five. He lives with his Ma in Room which has a locked door and a skylight and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits there is a world outside. Potent, entirely original here is a moving portrayal of how love can be born, nurtured and survived even in the darkest of places. 401pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2.75


72061 QUEST OF HONOUR by Sam Barone The city of Sumer, ruled by a brutal murderer and his vicious, power-hungry sister, is poised to give birth to the mightiest empire in history. No one stands a chance as it brings a bloody war to all those who get in its way, determined to crush and enslave those on its borders. The little city state of Akkad must prepare its fledgling nation to fight for its very survival. Its warriors are a courageous brotherhood, but this is not a battle of villages or of roving warrior bands - it is a battle for Empire and a fight to the death. An ancient people are brought back to roaring life. 618 thumping pages. £7.99 NOW £3.50


71982 ACROSS THE BLOOD- RED SKIES


by Robert Radcliffe Spring 1917 and the average survival time of a WWI Reconnaissance pilot is 18 hours. After weeks in the thick of it, George Duckwell, reluctant novice- hero of the Royal Flying Corps is living on borrowed time, watching in horror as a succession of comrades are shut down, burned, maimed and killed. Somehow he survives.


Struggling to make sense of the conflict, George forms an awkward friendship with William ‘Mac’ MacBride, an enigmatic Canadian ace, waging his own private war against the legendary Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. But the fragile bond that keeps the two men alive comes under perilous threat. 326pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


72064 RING FOR JEEVES by P. G. Wodehouse Captain Biggar, big-game hunter and all-round tough guy, should make short work of the two bookies who have absconded with his winnings after a freak double made him a fortune. But on this occasion Honest Patch Perkins and his clerk are not as they seem. In fact they are the impoverished Bill Belfry, Ninth Earl of Rowcester and his temporary butler, Jeeves. Bertie Wooster has gone away to a special school teaching the aristocracy to fend for itself ‘in case the social revolution sets in with even greater severity’. But Jeeves will prove just as resourceful without his young master. 240pp, paperback. £7.99 NOW £4


72113 CASEBOOK OF VICTOR


FRANKENSTEIN by Peter Ackroyd A creepy revival of Mary Shelley’s classic turned into a fast-paced thriller. Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the secluded village of Headington near Oxford. The coroner’s office provides the corpses he needs, but they have often died by violent means and are damaged and putrefying. So he moved his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery manufactory in Limehouse. From Limehouse he makes contact with the Doomesday Men, the resurrectionists. 408pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2.75


72134 DOGS AND THE WOLVES by Irene Nemirovsky


Ada grows up motherless in the Jewish pogroms of a Ukrainian city in the early years of the 20th century. In the same city, Harry Sinner, the cosseted son of a city financier, belongs to a very different world. Eventually in search of a brighter future, Ada moves to Paris and makes a living painting scenes from the world she has left behind. Harry also comes to Paris to mingle in exclusive circles, until one day he buys two paintings which remind him of his past and the course of Ada’s life changes once more. 216pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £2.75


72680 WELL OF LOST PLOTS by Jasper Fforde


Fiction’s strong-arm woman Thursday Next takes a vacation in the Well of Lost Plots, assuming a minor role in Caversham Heights, a dreary crime thriller set in Reading. Once down the well, Thursday finds herself apprenticed to Miss Havisham, who is conducting a rage counselling session with the characters of Wuthering Heights. The arrival of Heathcliff throws the group into disarray as he sneeringly parades his 77 triumphs in the Most Troubled Romantic Hero Awards. 375pp. $24.95 NOW £2.50


72948 A WARTIME NURSE by Maggie Hope Against the odds, miner’s daughter Theda Wearmouth succeeds in gaining a nursing place at Newcastle Hospital. By the time war breaks out she is newly qualified and working in a children’s ward, a role she adores. She also finds herself being courted by a young soldier. Only her dreams of becoming Mrs Alan Price are shattered when he is killed in action before he can make good on his promise to marry her. Broken-hearted, Theda finds herself re-assigned to a special unit of the hospital dealing with German prisoners of war. 404pp, paperback. £5.99 NOW £3


72955 WINDS OF FORTUNE by E. V. Thompson


Thomasina Varcoe is not a typical Cornish girl. Her fair hair sets her apart and neither is she ‘pretty’ in the conventional sense. Yet most people who glance at her usually look again. Her job as a servant girl would be a good one for 1812 were it not for the unwanted interests of the obnoxious Sir Charles Hearle. Falsely accused of theft, Thomasina flees to her sweetheart, highwayman Jeffrey, and in partnership they steal for real, terrorising the highways of the south-west. But when Jeffrey is caught and sentenced to death, Thomasina decides to follow the life of her seafaring father and joins the ship Melanie Jane as ‘Tom’, a secret she shares only with the captain. It leads her into renewed conflict with the lecherous Sir Charles. 568pp, paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


72983 FIESTA: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway


Paris in the 1920s - Pernod, parties and ex-patriot Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, but with an abandoned, sensuous nature that she cannot change. When the couple drifts to Spain to the dazzle of the fiesta and the heady atmosphere of the bull fight, their affair is strained by new passions, new jealousies and Jake must finally learn that he will never possess the woman he loves. Visually magnificent, this is a disquieting read, 216pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £4


73011 NOTES OF A DIRTY OLD MAN by Charles Bukowski


By the cult author of The Post Office (1971) and Women (1978), the filthy dirty Bukowski either wrote as himself or his alter-ego Henry Chinaski. This collection of his columns for an underground LA newspaper optimises his style of gritty realism. He delves into America’s lowlife to eulogise life’s losers and anti-heroes. Packed with women, violence, gambling and booze, his semi- autobiographical stories veer between hilarity and despair as he extols the inherent beauty and futility of life. 200 page paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.75


73031 TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS by Charles Bukowski


Here again the bestselling author of The Post Office from 1971 regales us with his filthy tales which will make your teeth rattle. They are tales of ordinary madness in which Bukowski ingeniously mixes high and low culture, from prostitutes and the philosophy of Kant to despair and classical music to create his modern dystopia. Inspired by D. H. Lawrence, John Fante and Hemingway, these are angry yet tender, humorous and haunting portrayals of life in the underbelly of America. Being a down-and-out has never been so well recorded. 231pp in paperback. Adults only. £8.99 NOW £4


72939 A VILLAGE FEUD by Rebecca Shaw


With the Rector Peter Harris and his family back from Africa, the villagers of Turnham Malpas heave huge sighs of relief and everything seems to be back to normal. But Peter has other ideas and returns to Africa to fulfil a promise. The family he leaves behind is a very troubled one - the twins Beth and Alex are still disturbed by their traumatic experiences in Africa, and


Caroline is finding it hard to deal with the fact that they will not share their feelings with her. Will Peter’s return restore harmony before things get out of hand? 289pp in paperback.


£6.99 NOW £3.50


72940 LOVE IN THE COUNTRY by Rebecca Shaw


When Seb moves to Barleybridge, the last thing on his mind is romance. Keen to settle into his new job he embraces the working life of a country vet and is soon dealing with an assortment of cases. Meanwhile, Australian vet Scott has a new baby to care for. Practice owners Mungo and Miriam organise a posh dinner party where a surprise announcement delights everyone, and there is controversy and divided opinion about a potential new client. Seb’s expertise with animals and their owners means he is welcomed into the village and relationships bloom, especially with upper class Jilly. 274pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £3.50


72941 TALK OF THE


VILLAGE by Rebecca Shaw The village of Turnham Malpas is bedevilled by talk. In the Royal Oak, the usual banter has turned to bitter wrangling as Caroline causes controversy over an ancient country tradition. And what about Peter, her husband and the rector? Are rumours about him and pushy newcomer Venetia true? Even the older inhabitants are not exempt


from gossip, as the Baxter sisters’ eccentric lifestyle is the subject of cruel speculation. Peter must put aside his own problems and unite the village before there is more superstition, madness and tragedy. 263pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £3.50


73170 REBECCA SHAW: Set of Three by Rebecca Shaw


Buy all three paperbacks and make further savings. £20.97 NOW £9.50


73192 THIEF OF TIME by John Boyne Matthieu Zela has lived his life well. In fact, he’s lived several lives well because Zela’s life is characterised by one amazing fact - his body stopped ageing before the end of the 18th century. Starting in 1758, a young Matthieu flees Paris after witnessing his mother’s brutal murder. His only companions are his younger brother Tomas and one true love, Dominique Sauvet. The story of his life takes us from the French Revolution to 1920s Hollywood, from the Great Exhibition to the Wall Street Crash and by the end of the 20th century, Matthieu has been an engineer, a rogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a financier, a lover to many, a cable TV executive and much more besides. 523pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73014 ONE DAY by David Nicholls


This is a charming story which stays in your heart forever as it captures college days perfectly. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation on 15th July 1988. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways, so where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? A really clever


literary device, their lives move on as do their emotions and responses to each other as the reader slips back to their own 20s and early days of discovery, sex, opinions of oneself, and your lovers and friends. Covers twenty years and the same two people. 437pp, paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73048 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Goldstein


This novel tells of psychologist Cass Seltzer, whose book “The Variety of Religious Illusion” becomes a surprise runaway bestseller. An uncompromising atheist, sudden celebrity has turned his life upside down and brought out the ghosts of his past in their droves. The book explores the variety of human religious experience in a tale of obsession, consuming love and divine genius. It is like taking a crash-course in post-theological debate. An appendix lists all 36 Arguments, together with their associated logic and the flaws therein! 400pp paperback. £7.99 NOW £4


73128 DEVIL’S CHARGE by Michael Arnold Michael Arnold’s Stryker Chronicles series, set in the English Civil War, is snowballing in popularity, fast becoming the “Sharpe of the Civil War”. Devil’s Charge is the second in the series, first published in 2011 the follow-up to the immensely popular 2010 Traitor’s Blood, but it reads perfectly well as a stand-alone. It is 1643: England stands divided, King against Parliament, town against country, brother against brother. Captain Stryker, scarred hero of a dozen battles, is long past caring about the rights and wrongs of both causes. From the storming of Cirencester via the siege of Lichfield to the blood-soaked fields of Hopton Heath, Arnold brings to life the drama and passion of the Civil War and the doomed glamour of the Royalist cause, each page reeking of gunpowder and resounding with cannon fire as the resolute Stryker doggedly sticks to his task. 467pp paperback. £13.99 NOW £4


73151 TIME KEEPER: A


Novel by Mitch Albom In Mitch Albom’s striking novel Dor, the inventor of the first clock and the first man to count the hours, is punished for measuring time. Made immortal, “Father Time” is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the pleas of those who come begging for a few more years of life. Finally, his soul all but broken, he is released, but on one condition: he


must teach two mortals the true meaning of time. He commences a journey overseeing the lives of Sarah, an overweight, lovelorn teenage girl who wants to die, and Victor, a wealthy, critically ill old man who wants to live forever. To redeem himself he must save them both. 226pp, first UK edition of 2012. £12.99 NOW £4.50


73155 VALENTINE GREY by Sandi Toksvig


The eponymous heroine of the novel was born in Assam in north- east India and enjoyed a carefree childhood. This is abruptly curtailed by the death of her father, and in 1897 she arrives in damp, cold London. She finds the skirts, petticoats, stays and corsets of Victorian society unbearable, but one thing makes life enjoyable -


her unconventional and homosexual cousin Reggie. Reggie and his lover Frank enjoy an adventurous if clandestine life, one in which they are happy to include Valentine, and she learns all sorts of things a young lady should not. But then comes the Boer War, and Reggie’s father volunteers him - but it will not be Reggie on the boat to Cape Town. Valentine seizes her chance. She bandages her chest, puts on her cousin’s volunteer regiment uniform and heads off for the adventure of war, leaving Reggie to indulge himself freely in London. A sweeping novel of love, liberty, empire and freedom. 341pp.


£16.99 NOW £6


73207 THE VIKING SAGAS: Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland


Halfdan is a Viking mercenary who longs to rejoin his friend Harald Hardrada in Miklagard - or Constantinople - where Harald is leader of the Empress’s guard. He has sworn to take his daughter, Solveig, but breaks his promise. So, she decides to follow him and sets off in a tiny boat, right into many adventures along the Baltic and through the river routes of Russia to the Black Sea. She joins forces with Swedish traders and, en route, encounters a ghost-ship, an English slave, a laughter- maker, a charming thief and a Russian king. She shoots rapids and is caught in an arrow-storm, narrowly misses being sold as a slave herself, and witnesses a living sacrifice. But, through it all, her belief in her father is unwavering. 260 pages with colophons and map. £12.99 NOW £4.50


73102 RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN by Alexander McCall Smith


Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues. As a philosopher, she spends a great deal of her time considering the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure, her niece Cat, who is embarking on a dubious new relationship and then there is Jamie, Cat’s ex-boyfriend, a handsome young musician with whom Isabel is falling helplessly in love. 277pp. $21.95 NOW £4.50


FOOD AND DRINK


73516 BIG BOOK OF CHOCOLATE: 365 Decadent


and Irresistible Treats by Jennifer Donovan Imagine a time when there was no chocolate for birthdays, Christmas or just to cheer you up on a rainy day at the bus stop. The cocoa bean was brought to Europe in the 16th century and we have never looked back. The title of this book sends out a clear message: no day should pass without a little


indulgence, and it is even possible to create a different chocolate treat for every day of the year. Starting with six basic recipes that will be used in many dishes (Chocolate Pastry Cream, Chocolate Crumb Crust) the book goes on to the Chocolate Heaven of mousses and cheesecakes, including Coffee, Chocolate and Praline Mousse, White Chocolate, Blueberry and Citrus Pots, Mocha Soufflés and a variety of delectable variations on a Tiramisu. Baked chocolate dishes come next, from Chocolate Cup Cakes to Chocolate Cream Roll with Strawberries via Single and even Double Chocolate Lamingtons. Chocolate desserts include Chocolate Crepes with Chestnut Cream, Pear Clafoutis and Chocolate Rice Pudding. The book concludes with a variety of chocolate ices and drinks. The collection is spiral bound for ease of use in the kitchen, and comes with clear instructions for each recipe. 216pp, softback, numerous colour photos. £12.99 NOW £4


73313 MMA RAMOTSWE’S COOKBOOK: Nourishment for


the Traditionally Built by Stuart Brown with a foreword by Alexander McCall Smith


The author has made a detailed study of Alexander McCall Smith’s books, set in Botswana, all about the detective Mma Ramotswe of


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