This charming collection of nine short stories, poems, and colorful pictures starring Alfie and his baby sister, Annie Rose, celebrate the drama of everyday life.

'Wonderfully dark, extremely funny' proclaimed ADAM KAY, author of the No.1 bestselling This is Going to Hurt
'A filmic romp with great characters, a jet-propelled plot, and a winning premise' said the GUARDIAN
JASON MANFORD thinks it's 'Hilarious. You'll never look at Manchester the same way again.'
The Chronicles of St Mary's series author JODI TAYLOR declared 'I loved this . . . great premise - great story - great characters . . . hugely enjoyable.'
And THE TIMES called it 'ripping entertainment from start to finish.'

There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . .

A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable.

At least that's their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door - and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own.

When tragedy strikes in her first week on the job The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined.

The Stranger Times is the first novel from C.K. McDonnell, the pen name of Caimh McDonnell. It combines his distinctive dark wit with his love of the weird and wonderful to deliver a joyous celebration of how truth really can be stranger than fiction.
Readers love The Stranger Times
***** 'A delight from start to finish - laugh out loud funny yet with plenty of thrills.'
***** 'Full of wit and humour, and knows how to keep the reader hooked.'
***** 'You'll soon fall in love . . . fans of Pratchett, Gaiman, Aaronovich will be blown away.'

What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds - and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept.

The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words), his wife Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like), and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen.

Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path.

Powered by John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone.

Kate McCann's personal account of the agonizing search for her missing daughter The decision to publish this book has been very difficult, and taken with heavy hearts. My reason for writing it is simple: to give an account of the truth. Writing this memoir has entailed recording some very personal, intimate and emotional aspects of our lives. Sharing these with strangers does not come easily to me, but if I hadn't done so I would not have felt the book gave as full a picture as it is possible for me to give. As with every action we have taken over the last four years, it ultimately boils down to whether what we are doing could help us to find Madeleine. When the answer to that question is yes, or even possibly, our family can cope with anything. What follows is an intensely personal account, and I make no apology for that. Nothing is more important to us than finding our little girl. --Kate McCann, May 2011 It is a sad fact that not a single police force anywhere is proactively looking for Madeleine (as is the case for many other missing children). I am sure this book will reenergize the search for our daughter and the public will get behind the Find Madeleine campaign once again. It is simply not acceptable that the authorities have given up on Madeleine--especially when no comprehensive review of the case has been undertaken. Our daughter, and whoever took her, are out there. We need your help to find them. --Gerry McCann, May 2011

Nero's turbulent reign draws to a close and Gaius Valerius Varens returns in his fourth brutal and bloody adventure

AD 68: the Emperor Nero's erratic and bloody reign is in its death throes when Gaius Valerius Verrens is dispatched to Rome on a mission that will bring it to a close. With Nero dead, the city holds its breath and awaits the arrival his successor, Servius Sulpicius Galba, governor of Hispania. The Empire prays for peace, but it prays in vain. Galba promises stability and prosperity, but his rule begins with a massacre and ends only months later in chaos and carnage. This will become known as the Year of the Four Emperors, a time of civil war which will tear Rome apart and test Valerius's skills and loyalties to their very limit. Fortunate to survive Galba's fall, Valerius is sent on a mission by Rome's new Emperor, Otho, to his old friend Vitellius, commander of the armies of the north. Vitellius's legions are on the march, and only Valerius can persuade him to halt them before the inevitable confrontation. In an epic adventure that will take him the length and breadth of a divided land, the one-armed Roman fights to stay alive and stave off a bloodbath as he is stalked by the most implacable enemy he has ever faced.

Although frequent business meetings keep her husband, Brad, away from home, Page Clarke feels blessed with her happy family and comfortable marriage. They have a house near San Francisco and she keeps busy looking after their seven-year-old son, Andy, and their teenage daughter, Allyson.

Allyson, at fifteen, is trying her wings and one weekend, instead of an evening with her friend Chloe, the girls lie and go out with two older high school boys. But a Saturday night that was supposed to be fun ends in tragedy when their car collides head-on with another.

At the hospital, Page finds Chloe's divorced father, Trygve, and, unable to locate Brad, she leans on his strength throughout the the long hours of tormenting questions. Will Allyson live? Will any of them? Were the teenagers drinking? Using drugs? Who was at fault? And where is her husband? Without Brad by her side Page feels her life start to come apart as she is forced to confront the fact that Allyson may not live, and if she does, she may never be the same again.

In an inspiring novel that explores how many people are affected by one tragic accident and how they survive it, Danielle Steel brings us close to the characters whose lives are as familiar as our own... and who live, as we all do, in a world where everything can change in a single moment.

*Winner of the 2015 Guardian First Book Award*

Raw and urgent, these poems are hymns to the male body - to male friendship and male love - muscular, sometimes shocking, but always deeply moving.

We are witness here to an almost religious celebration of the flesh: a flesh vital with the vulnerability of love and loss, to desire and its departure. In an extraordinary blend of McMillan's own colloquial Yorkshire rhythms with a sinewy, Metaphysical music and Thom Gunn's torque and speed - 'your kiss was deep enough to stand in' - the poems in this first collection confront what it is to be a man and interrogate the very idea of masculinity. This is poetry where every instance of human connection, from the casual encounter to the intimate relationship, becomes redeemable and revelatory.

Dispensing with conventional punctuation, the poet is attentive and alert to the quality of breathing, giving the work an extraordinary sense of being vividly poised and present - drawing lines that are deft, lyrical and perfectly pitched from a world of urban dereliction. An elegant stylist and unfashionably honest poet, McMillan's eye and ear are tuned, exactly, to both the mechanics of the body and the miracles of the heart.

Winner of the 2015 Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize
Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Prize
Shortlisted for the 2015 Forward Prize for Best First Collection

For the last three decades, Brian Clough has been the most charismatic manager in soccer. Though his talent has earned him a fortune, he remains a working-class hero. Tactically brilliant, Clough had an unmatched ability to motivate players, yet he has never been far from controversy, and some of his rows--particularly with his long-standing managerial partner Peter Taylor--are the stuff of tabloid legend.

Ray Davies, legendary frontman of The Kinks, is one of the all-time greatest rock 'n' roll musicians--and also one of its most troubled and enigmatic. In the summer of 1964, Ray Davies led The Kinks to fame with their number one hit You Really Got Me. Within months, they were challenging The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the charts, swamped by fans and renowned for the rioting at their gigs. Over the next three decades, Davies wrote a string of classics, including All Day and All of the Night, Sunny Afternoon, Waterloo Sunset, and Lola, securing his status as one of the handful of people to have redefined pop culture over the last 50 years. But Ray's journey was tumultuous in the extreme, featuring breakdowns, lawsuits, punch-ups and a ban from the U.S. for almost four years. His relationship with his brother Dave, The Kinks' lead guitarist, is surely the most ferocious and abusive in music history. Based on countless interviews conducted over several decades, this richly detailed biography presents the most frank and intimate portrait yet of Ray Davies, and promises to be the definitive biography of this most fascinating and complicated life.

When a woman with brains and beauty from a wealthy background decides to take her fate into her own hands and challenge the restrictions of a male-oriented, conservative society, the consequences can be devastating.

Born into one of Pakistan's most influential families, Tehmina Durrani was raised in the privileged milieu of Lahore high society, and educated at the same school as Benazir Bhutto. Like all women of her rank, she was expected to marry a prosperous Muslim from a respectable family, bear him many children, and lead a sheltered life of air-conditioned leisure. When she married Mustafa Khar, one of Pakistan's most eminent political figures, she continued to move in the best circles, and learned to keep up the public façade as a glamorous, cultivated wife, and mother of four children.

In private, however, the story-book romance of the most talked-about couple in Pakistan rapidly turned sour. Mustafa Khar became violently possessive and pathologically jealous, and succeeded in cutting his wife off from the outside world. For the course of the fourteen-year marriage, she suffered alone, in silence.

When Tehmina decided to rebel, the price she paid was extremely high: as a Muslim woman seeking a divorce, she signed away all financial support, lost the custody of her four children, and found herself alienated from her friends and disowned by her parents.

Following the divorce, she felt she had to tell her story. When Pakistan publishers balked at the controversial nature of her manuscript, she published it herself. The book was a bombshell and shook Pakistani society to its foundations. Her at last was someone who had succeeding in reconciling her faith in Islam with her ardent belief in women's rights. Tehmina's story, adapted now for western readers, provides extraordinary insights into the vulnerable position of women caught in the complex web of Muslim society.

The time is the 1950s, when life was simpler, people still believed in dreams, and family was, very nearly, everything. The place is a small midwestern town with a high school and a downtown, a skating pond and a movie house. And on a tree-lined street in the heartland of America, an extraordinary set of events begins to unfold. And gradually what seems serendipitous is tinged with purpose.

A happy home is shattered by a child's senseless death. A loving marriage starts to unravel. And a stranger arrives - a young woman who will touch many lives before she moves on. She and a young man will meet and fall in love. Their love, so innocent and full of hope, helps to restore a family's dreams. And all of their lives will be changed forever by the precious gift she leaves them.

At fifty-nine, Jack Watson owns one of the most successful boutiques in Beverley Hills, has two grown-up children who are the light of his life, and his choice of Hollywood's most beautiful women. After a failed marriage in the distant past, Jack has become the perfect bachelor. And he loves it.
Amanda Robbins knew Jack only as her daughter's father-in law, an incurable playboy whom she dislikes intensely.But when she becomes a widow after twenty-six years of marriage, she finds herself on unfamiliar ground and is suprised to find herself befriended by, and attracted to, Jack Watson. Worse still, she likes him, to her own and her children's surprise.
Then, suddenly, Jack and Amanda are faced with an unexpected gift that neither thought possible. At a time in their lives when they least expect it, they not only feel young again, but are blissfully happy in spite of the obstacles and opposition around them . . .
Special Delivery is about what two people do when life gives them everything they wanted, twenty years after they expected to find it. In her bestselling novel, Danielle Steel makes us laugh and cry as she touches the heart with tenderness and accuracy.

Norway 785 AD: it began with the betrayal of a lord by a king . . . King Gorm puts Jarl Harald's family to the sword, but makes one fatal mistake--he fails to kill Harald's youngest son, Sigurd. His kin slain, his village seized and its people taken as slaves, Sigurd wonders if the gods have forsaken him. Hunted by powerful men, he is unsure who to trust and yet he has a small band of loyal followers at his side. With them--and with the help of the All-Father, Odin--he determines to make a king pay in blood for his treachery. Using cunning and war-craft, Sigurd gathers together a fellowship of warriors--including his father's right-hand man Olaf, Bram (who men call Bear), Black Floki who wields death with a blade, and the shield maiden Valgerd, who fears no man--and convinces them to follow him. For, whether Ódin is with him or not, Sigurd will have vengeance. And neither men nor gods had best stand in his way. God of Vengeance is a must-read for all who enjoy thrilling, action-packed fiction--from Bernard Cornwell to George R R Martin's Game of Thrones.

Fans of Lisa Jewell, Cara Hunter and Karin Slaughter will love this bone chilling, spellbinding thriller from Richard & Judy bestselling author Sharon Bolton. With a pacy narrative, a terrific heroine, a sinister plot and plenty of forensic detail, Sacrifice will grip readers from start to finish.

'Chilling, mesmerising' -- Tess Gerritsen
'One of the best thrillers ever' - Sophie Hannah
'Splendidly crafted, deeply disturbing...' -- The Times
'Grabs from the very beginning and holds on tight' -- Literary Review
'This gripped me from the start' -- ***** Reader review
'Engrossing' -- ***** Reader review
'Brilliantly gripping! A must read!' -- ***** Reader review

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ONLY THE MOORLAND HIDES THE MACABRE...

Consultant surgeon Tora Hamilton has moved to remote Shetland to be with her husband. She moved to have a family....

Not for this . . . In the peat soil near her new home she uncovers a perfectly preserved woman's body. Runic symbols are carved into her skin. Her heart has been cut out.

And as Tora begins to ask questions around the island, she receives her first threat . . .

Let Anne McCaffrey, storyteller extraordinare and New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author, open your mind to new worlds and new concepts. Worlds where humans are the slaves of aliens and love can flourish in the most unlikely of places... Perfect for fans of David Eddings, Brandon Sanderson and Douglas Adams.

'Anne McCaffrey, one of the queens of science fiction, knows exactly how to give her public what it wants' - THE TIMES
'My go to comfort book' -- ***** Reader review
'Anne McCaffrey at her best' -- ***** Reader review
'Unputdownable' -- ***** Reader review
'I love this series. Fantastic characters and a great story line' -- ***** Reader review
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When the Catteni ships descended on earth it was one of the most terrifying experiences humankind had ever known. Kris Bjornsen, along with thousands of others, found herself herded by forcewhips into the hold of giant spaceships to be transported to the slave compounds of an alien planet. And even then it wasn't over. For, after a partially successful escape attempt, Kris was once more shipped across space - to an apparently empty and untamed planet. The Catteni just dumped an assorted load of humans and aliens on the strange world and left them to see what would happen.

Brilliantly the refugees began to organize themselves into a pattern of survival. The planet was eerie and not as empty as it seemed. For someone - something - had built giant storage barns: the planet was being used as a huge larder - for an entity they could not comprehend.

As Kris and her patrol set out to explore the enigmatic world she had yet another problem to contend with - the presence of Zainal, the high-ranking patrician Catteni who had been abandoned with the rest of them. Zainal was strong, brilliant, and...kind, and Kris was puzzled by his presence, his personality, and above all by the tenuous tie she felt towards him...

The hilarious, heartwarming and joyful memoir from much-loved presenter Alison Hammond, host of ITV's This Morning.

'This woman's laugh is like gold dust' Huffington Post

'[A] national treasure' Metro

'I always say a day is wasted without laughter . . .'

Alison Hammond loves to laugh. And the nation laughs with her. Her sunny personality and zest for life have brought joy to millions and made her one of the UK's best-loved television presenters. Known for her hilarious and unforgettable interviews with Hollywood A-listers, Alison is also responsible for countless classic moments of broadcasting gold - from getting stuck on a caravan door to delivering Christmas cash dressed as an elf.

But who is Alison Hammond really, and how did she become the personality we know and love? Shaped by the influence of her incredible mum, Alison went from small roles on television shows as a youngster to that life-changing appearance on Big Brother, before landing her dream job on This Morning. And through it all, she found the joy in every day, the positives in any situation.

You've Got to Laugh gives a never-before-seen insight into Alison's life: her loves, her losses - with a side order of gossip. As well as being a hugely entertaining and uplifting read, Alison's story will inspire you to grab life with both hands and make the most of every single moment.

'Interviewer extraordinaire, reigning queen of the huns, and an out-and-out national treasure' Bustle

'A rich feast of his essays, reviews, forewords, squibs and conversations, in which talent and passion are married to deep knowledge.' Matt Ridley

'Enjoy the unfailing clarity of his thought and prose, as well as the grandeur of his vision of life on Earth.' - Mark Cocker, Spectator

'Richard Dawkins is a thunderously gifted science writer.' Sunday Times

Including conversations with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley and more, this is an essential guide to the most exciting ideas of our time and their proponents from our most brilliant science communicator.

Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins' forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins' own remarkable canon of work.

Plenty of other scientists write well, but no one writes like Dawkins... here is Dawkins the teacher, the scholar, the polemicist, the joker, the aesthete, the poet, the satirist, the man of compassion as well as indignation, the slayer of superstition and, above all, the scientist. - Areo Magazine

Valerie Ann Worwood's The Fragrant Pharmacy has become the classic encyclopaedia of aromatherapy and essential oils. Now, in this companion volume, The Fragrant Mind, she paves a unique new way for aromatherapy, concentrating on the emotional, psychological and mood-changing effects of nature's essential oils.

The Fragrant Mind falls into three parts. Part One presents a fascinating background to the subject, and explains how essential oils work on the brain. Part Two explains how essential oils can enhance emotional well-being and promote positive feelings, and includes a practical A-Z section which advises on a wide range of emotional problems, from stress and depression to moodiness and insomnia. Part Three introduces a whole new concept in aromatherapy - personality enhancement - and explains the particular characteristics of individual essential oils and how they can be matched to human personality types. You can find out, for example, whether you are a Floral, Herbie, Rootie, Woodie, Fruitie or Seedie type, and create your own tailor-made personality blends.

Encyclopaedic in scope, and based on the most up-to-date research, The Fragrant Mind offers a wealth of information in an easy, accessible style, and shows the way in which essential oils can influence our minds and emotions.

This discworld map reveals the house and garden that Death built. It shows the golf course that's not so much crazy as insane, as well as the dark gardens. You can also find out the reason why Death can't understand rockeries, and what happens to garden gnomes.