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72296 A LONG LONG WAY by Sebastian Barry In 1914, 18 year old Willie Dunne leaves behind Dublin and everyone he loves to enlist in the Allied forces on the Western Front. There he encounters violence on a scale no one could imagine and barely sustains his spirit with letters from home and the camaraderie of the boys who fight and die by his side. But when he returns home on leave to encounter the growing tensions over Irish independence, Willie soon finds himself confronting unbearable choices regarding family, patriotism and duty. 292 page paperback, remainder mark. $15 NOW £3


74133 MEMENTO MORI by Muriel Spark introduced by A. L Kennedy


Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her circle to receive anonymous calls saying ‘Remember you must die’. She does not wish to be reminded, and nor do her family and friends, though they are constantly looking out for signs of decline in others, and change their wills on a weekly basis. As the caller’s activities become


more widespread, soon a witch-hunt is in full cry, exposing past and present duplicities, self-deception and blackmail. Nobody is above suspicion and only a few, blessed with a sense of humour and a gift of faith, can guess at the caller’s identity. An hilarious farce and one of literature’s most moving portraits of old age. 226pp, paperback.


£8.99 NOW £4


74139 SYMPOSIUM by Muriel Spark introduced by our friend Ian Rankin Famed as the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, critics have often ignored the edgy, experimental side of Muriel Spark’s craft, focussing on her glittering prose and comedic lightness of touch. This is the story of a dinner party, a knot of people with pasts and connections and the prevailing mood is urbane. The wine is poured, the talk continues and all the time the ice on which the guests’ world rests is being thinned from beneath by boiling emotions and ugly motives. Spark handles the tension between formality of expression and the subversiveness of thought elegantly. 147pp in paperback.


£8.99 NOW £3.50 74130 LOITERING WITH


INTENT by Muriel Spark Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot takes a job ‘on the grubby edge of the literary world’ as secretary to the pompous, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver, Director of the Autobiographical Association, a group of eccentric egomaniacs at work on their memoirs. When Sir Quentin steals Fleur’s work-in- progress, ‘Warrender Chase’,


mayhem ensues as life begins to imitate fiction. The result is dangerous and darkly funny in this delightful moral fable. 172pp, paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


74141 THE COMFORTERS


by Muriel Spark introduced by Ali Smith Caroline Rose is plagued by the tapping of typewriter keys and the strange, detached narration of every thought and action. She has an unusual problem - she is in a novel. Her fellow characters seem deluded - Laurence her former lover, finds diamonds in a loaf of bread. Had his elderly grandmother hidden them there? And Baron Stock, her bookseller friend, believes he is on the trail of England’s leading Satanist. This brilliant first novel has matchless glittering wit, serving up a slice of malice and mayhem. 188pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3


73828 WITH ONE LOUSY FREE PACKET OF SEED by Lynne Truss


Osborne Lonsdale, a mysteriously attractive down-at- heel journalist, writes a regular celebrity interview for ‘Come Into the Garden’, an ailing horticultural weekly magazine. This week his ‘Me and My Shed’ column will be based on the charming garden outhouse owned by TV sitcom star Angela Farmer. But unbeknown to Osborne, as he drives down to Devon to interview Angela, the sleepy magazine has been taken over by new management, and his research trip is interrupted by a trainload of anxious hacks from London. 210pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3.50


74062 THE FIGHTING MAN by Gerald Seymour


Seymour exploded onto the literary scene in 1978 with his massive bestseller ‘Harry’s Game’. A former SAS soldier, sickened by the West’s treatment of the Kurds after the Gulf War, Gord Brown has found new purpose helping the Guatemalan Resistance against the brutal military dictatorship. As his ragged army marches through the jungle and across the high mountains towards Guatemala City, a hopeless dream looks to become a burning reality. But the forces pitted against them are formidable, and the Guatemalan government also have a Gulf War veteran on their side, a man who Gord has met before. 414pp. Paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.75


74072 FALL AND RISE OF GORDON COPPINGER by David Nobbs


Readers will remember with affection the two TV series for which the author is deservedly famous: A Bit Of A Do and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. He has also written 19 novels. This one traces the career of globally-successful financier and owner of Canary Wharf’s The Coppinger Tower - Sir Gordon Coppinger. Gordon lives an exclusive life filled with fine wines and surrounded by servants and mistresses. But, when revelations about his scandalous relationships and less than honest business practices emerge, the glamorous façade begins to crumble and those around him start to fear the worst. However, much to Gordon’s surprise, all he can feel is relief. In a brilliant and often very funny examination of modern British values. 424 pages. £14.99 NOW £4.50


72059 ODESSA FILE by Frederick Forsyth Set in 1963. A young German reporter has been assigned the suicide of a holocaust survivor. The news story seems straightforward - a tragic insight into one man’s suffering, but a long-hidden secret is discovered in the pages of the dead man’s diary. What follows is a life- and-death hunt for a notorious former concentration camp commander who yet unpunished. 422pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3


74132 THE MARLOWE PAPERS: A Novel in Verse by Ros Barber


Christopher Marlowe reveals the truth - that his ‘death’ was an elaborate ruse to avoid his prosecution for heresy, that he lived on in lonely exile, pining for his true love from across the Channel, and that he continued to write plays and poetry hiding behind the name of a colourless merchant from Stratford - one William Shakespeare. This extraordinary novel in verse brings the Elizabethan era to vibrant life. A cobbler’s son who rose so far in society that he counted nobles among his friends, a spy in the Queen’s service, a fickle lover and a declared atheist, Marlowe was always courting trouble. When it caught up with him, he was lucky to escape the hangman. But at what cost? Large softback, 446pp. £13.99 NOW £4.50


74136 NO FOND RETURN OF LOVE by Barbara Pym


Dulcie Mainwaring is always helping others but never looks out for herself, especially in the realm of love. Her friend Viola is besotted by the alluring Dr Aylwin Forbes, so surely isn’t it prying if Dulcie helps things along? Aylwin, however, is smitten by Dulcie’s pretty young niece and perhaps Dulcie herself, however ridiculous it might sound, is falling just a little for Aylwin. Once life’s little humiliations are played out, maybe love will be returned and fondly, after all. Philip Larkin says of this novelist that she has ‘a unique eye and ear for the small poignancies and comedies of everyday life.’ A comic and heart rending read, 288pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £4.50


74138 REVENGER by Rory Clements An historical thriller with a fine ear for dialogue and a grasp for the intrigues of Queen Elizabeth I’s court. We step into the world of intelligencer John Shakespeare (brother of you-know-who) and you put your very life in peril, be it by the blade, the rope or the rack. 1592, England and Spain are at war, yet even a greater threat lies closer to home. Robert Cecil, Elizabeth’s cold but deadly young statesman, summons John Shakespeare - his mission to find vital papers, now in the possession of the Earl of Essex. Essex is the brightest star in the firmament, the Queen’s favourite, but when Shakespeare infiltrates his dissolute world, he discovers not only that the Queen herself is in danger, but that he and his family are also a target. 452pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £4


74143 THE RETURN by Walter de la Mare First published in 1910, this is one of Walter de la Mare’s finest occult stories. This darkly thrilling tale tells the story of Lawford, a dull suburban man who accidentally falls asleep on a grave and wakes up possessed by the spirit - and face - of somebody else. Denounced by his family and friends as an impostor, his struggle to free himself of this possession leaves him a thoroughly changed man. How would your wife react if you came home with the face of someone else? The novel encompasses domestic trauma, unrequited love and philosophical reflection. 298pp in paperback. £9.99 NOW £4.50


23775 ISLAND OF SHEEP by John Buchan


In this, his final adventure, Buchan’s hero Richard Hannay becomes embroiled in one of the most hazardous escapades of his life. Two men are honour bound to help the tormented Valdemar Haraldsen, and a third decides to mastermind the whole affair out of sheer love of adventure and a dislike of villains. In the final event, the fate of Haraldsen and his three redoubtable defenders rests on the undaunted bravery of two children. This thriller reflects a fundamental faith in the magnanimity of human nature. 208pp. Paperback. ONLY £2


68340 SATURDAY BIG TENT WEDDING


PARTY by Alexander McCall Smith From the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency begins with a countdown to Mma Makutsi’s wedding. While investigating unpleasant occurrences on a southern cattle- post, Mma Ramotswe, always on the side of the weak against the strong, has reason to reflect on Rule No. One of ‘The Principles of Private Detection’ - never lie to the client. Apprentice mechanic Charlie seems to be avoiding his responsibilities with regard to Prudence’s twin babies. As Mma Makutsi’s big day approaches, her nemesis Violet Sephotho, is casting her net wider. Then, sightings of the ghost of Mma Ramotswe’s beloved tiny white van are unsettling to say the least. 250pp. £16.99 NOW £6.50


71697 A CAUTIOUS APPROACH by Stanley Middleton


The setting is Beechnall, the small Midlands town where the occasional small social ripple is the only clue to the passion and violence seething away beneath its respectable veneer. On a Christmas Day walk, two lonely men meet. Andy invites George home for a festive glass, where he meets the captivating Mirabel, Andy’s former fiancée. Ill health has deprived George of both his career and his confidence, but this chance encounter - and others that follow - could change the course of his life, if his past experiences and present stoicism will allow it. 220pp. £18.99 NOW £3.50


72115 HANNIBAL: Pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham


Capturing the panoramic scope of what would become known as the Second Punic War (218-202BC), from Hannibal’s famous elephant-mounted crossing of the Alps to the savagery of battles like Trasimene and Zama, this epic novel chronicles a titanic struggle through the actions of individual characters - Hannibal, his nemesis Publius Scipio, their princes, generals and foot soldiers, friends, lovers and wives. 640pp, paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


71752 PUT OUT THE FIRES by Maureen Lee 1940 was the cruellest year of war for Britain’s civilians as the Luftwaffe mercilessly blitzed our cities. In Pearl Street near Liverpool’s vital docks, families struggle to cope as best they can. A nasty surprise for ever- cheerful dressmaker Brenda Mahon, and flighty Sean’s love for little Alice, show how life goes on even when it appears to be falling apart. Ruth Singerman returns having escaped from Austria. But even the joy of seeing her father again cannot make up for the bitter loss of her children. 459pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50


71843 A ROSE FOR VIRTUE by Norah Lofts When her mother marries Napoleon Bonaparte, Hortense Beauharnais finds herself thrust into the turbulent atmosphere of the post-Revolutionary French court, a dangerous world ruled by jealousy and malice. With Bonaparte desperate for an heir and the Empress Josephine seemingly unable to bear children, Hortense is pressed to marry the Emperor’s brother Louis. Browbeaten and mistreated by her new husband, she struggles to maintain equilibrium and dreams of the day when she might be able to marry her true love. First published in 1971, 256pp in new paperback. £7.99 NOW £2


71935 NOAH’S COMPASS by Anne Tyler Liam Pennywell has spent most of his life dodging issues and skirting adventure when suddenly, in his 61st year, something happens that jolts him out of his certainty and leaves him with a frightening gap in his memory. In trying to piece together what took place on the first night in a new apartment, Liam finds instead an unusual woman with secrets of her own, and a late-flowering love that brings its own thorny problems. An elegant contemplation of what it means to be happy. 277pp in paperback.


£5.99 NOW £2.50


72006 THE STRANGER’S CHILD by Alan Hollinghurst


In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge friend Cecil Valance, a charismatic young poet, to visit his family home. The weekend will link the families forever, but its deepest impact will be on George’s 16 year old sister Daphne. As the decades pass, Daphne and those around her endure startling changes in fortune and circumstance. Reputations rise and fall and the events of that long-ago summer are told and interpreted in different ways by successive generations. 564pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3


72149 NINA IN UTOPIA by Miranda Miller Time travel, Bedlam and a mad Victorian painter Richard Dadd all feature in this joyfully inventive novel. Traumatised by the death of her little daughter in 1854, Nina, the wife of an ambitious doctor, finds herself in London 150 years later. She befriends Jonathan, an architect, and shockingly for Nina’s sensibilities, a divorcee, who introduces her to the myriad wonders of modern life, including television, curry and clubbing. When she returns to her own time after a long weekend, her husband takes fright on hearing of her experiences and has her committed to Bedlam, where she is a contemporary of the fairy painter Richard Dadd. 237pp in paperback.


£8.99 NOW £1.50


73034 TO LOVE AND TO CHERISH by Lyn Andrews


Life in 1920s Liverpool for sisters Gloria and Betty Jenkins is secure and comfortable. As Chief Steward on the SS Amazonia, their father Harry is often away, but Sal is a capable, warm-hearted mother. When Gloria finds romance with the boy next door, her interfering Aunt offers her the opportunity of a lifetime - a trip to New York and everything she desires, including a wealthy husband. Meanwhile Betty chooses a career at sea, leading to personal danger and great opportunities, especially in matters of the heart. But with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, tragedy strikes and through the trials ahead, the sisters come to value family bonds more than ever. 469pp, paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50


73722 AN IRISH COUNTRY


GIRL by Patrick Taylor Mrs Kinky Kincaid is the unflappable housekeeper who looks after two frequently frazzled doctors. A trusted figure in the colourful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, it often seems as though Kinky has always been there. She was once Maureen O’Hanlon, a farmer’s daughter growing up in Country Cork. Maureen had a head full of dreams,


a heart open to romance, and something more - a gift of seeing into the mystic realm of fairies, spirits and even the dreaded banshee whose terrifying wail she first hears on a snowy night in 1922. As she grows into a young woman, Maureen finds herself torn between love and her fondest aspirations, for the future is a mystery even for one blessed with the sight. She at last finds herself on the road to Ballybucklebo and the strong and compassionate woman she was always destined to become. 319pp, paperback. $14.99 NOW £5


73723 A DUBLIN STUDENT DOCTOR: An Irish


Country Novel by Patríck Taylor MD Many readers will be familiar with the adventures of the pugnacious general practitioner Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, and glad of a chance to celebrate this turning back of the clock to when he was a young student. In the 1930s, fresh from a stint in the Royal Navy Reserve, and much against the wishes of his disapproving father, Fingal goes to Dublin to study medicine. Fingal still manages to find time to box, play rugby and romance a grey-eyed nurse called Kitty O’Hallorhan. Fingal is warned not to become too attached to his patients, but can he truly harden himself to the suffering he sees all around him, or find a way to care for his patients without breaking his heart? 492 pages, maps.


$24.99 NOW £6.75


Fiction 17


71225 TEACHER, TEACHER! by Jack Sheffield


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. Then there is the beautiful, bright Beth Henderson. 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’. 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. 363pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3


71228 DEAR TEACHER by Jack Sheffield It is 1979. Jack Sheffield returns to his third year as Headmaster of the village school. 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. 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. 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. Wedding bells are in the air, but the unexpected is just around the corner. 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. 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. £47.94 NOW £15


72243 ANDERBY WORLD by Winifred Holtby First published in 1923 this is Winifred Holtby’s first novel. Mary Robson is a young Yorkshirewoman, married to her solid, unromantic cousin John. Together they battle to preserve Mary’s neglected inheritance, their farm, Anderby Wold. Then she meets David Rossitur. Young, charming and eloquent, how can she help but be attracted to him? But David is from a different England - radical and committed to social change. As their confrontation and its consequences unfold, Mary’s life and that of the calm village of Anderby are changed forever. 278pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50


72267 SCARLET LION


by Elizabeth Chadwick Selected as one of the Top 10 Historical Novels of the Decade, here is an extraordinary, wonderful true story about William Marshal. His prowess and loyalty as a knight in the English royal household had been rewarded by marriage to Isabelle de Clare, heiress to great estates in England, Normandy and Ireland. But their contentment was shattered when King Richard dies


and is succeeded by his brother John who takes the Marshal’s sons hostage. Now William must face the conflict between remaining loyal or rebelling against these injustices. Fiercely intelligent and courageous, Isabelle too must come to terms with what the future holds. A blend of fact and fiction. 578pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


72638 STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG: A Novel by Kate Atkinson


A woman working as a security officer, to supplement her pension from the police force, makes a purchase she had not bargained on. This one moment of madness is all it takes for her humdrum world to be turned upside down, and for the tedium of everyday life to be replaced by fear, danger and the first sparks of love. Witnesses to her Faustian exchange are an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and a reluctant detective ‘whose own life has been stolen and who has now been hired to find someone else’s’. 371 pages. $24.99 NOW £4.50


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