Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too. Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend...

Hull, 1874. Clara had always wondered about the beautiful, mysterious Jewel Newmarch, who was adopted as a baby and turns heads wherever she goes - her exotic looks point to her origins far away from the streets of Hull. Even at her twin sister Elizabeth's wedding, Clara knows that Jewel is the belle of the ball. And as Jewel looks on at the happy,...

Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world traveler, and spy, the creator of the Cold War's archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complex and interesting than his iconic fictional character, Agent 007. Fleming's wide ranging and exciting life inevitably provided the plausible backdrop for his Bond novels. Highly regarded in British naval in...

When medical examiner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver take a trip away from the small town of Heartsdale - an escape from all the pressures which complicate their relationship - it should be a straightforward weekend at the beach. But they decide to take a detour via Jeffrey's hometown and things go violently wrong when Jeffrey's best...

Joey Pigza can't sit still. He can't pay attention, he can't follow the rules, and he can't help it-especially when his meds aren't working. Joey's had problems ever since he was born, problems just like his dad and grandma have. And whether he's wreaking havoc on a class trip or swallowing his house key, Joey's problems are getting worse. In fact,...

In her fifty-eighth bestselling novel, Danielle Steel tells the breathtaking story of a mother's love and a son's gift, of the tragedy that nearly destroyed a family...and the miracle that saved them.

Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts - until he realises that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the...

Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember. But when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton - the town's paediatrician and medical examiner - finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. What seemed at first to be a terrible bu...

In 11 Birthdays, Amanda and her best friend, Leo, stopped speaking to each other for a year. What happened when they started talking again led to the adventure of a lifetime. Now they haven't spoken for another year-and the result is even more bizarre. This time it's not just about them. Their friend's little sister, Grace, has fallen into a strang...

As a diarist I have chronicled the time through which I have lived in meticulous detail: but all that is history. What matters now is the future for those who will live through it. The past is the past but there may be lessons to be learned which could help the next generation to avoid mistakes their parents and grandparents made. Certainly at my a...

Stephen Fry's breathtakingly outrageous debut novel, by turns eccentric, shocking, brilliantly comic and achingly romantic. Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax devi...

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was the surprise bestseller of 2011-an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike. This third novel in the series picks up where the action of Hollow City left off. Time is running out for the Peculiar Children. With a dangerous madman on the loose an...

In the tradition of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot, New York Times bestseller Cirque du Freak is the first title in the popular Saga of Darren Shan series. Darren Shan and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the Cirque du Freak, a wonderfully gothic freak show featuring weird, frightening half huma...

Lynda Bellingham is much-loved as the warm, open and quick-witted panellist on Loose Women as well as for her appearances in Strictly Come Dancing and Calendar Girls. Her rich acting career spans 40 years, with highlights including her roles as Helen Herriot in All Things Great and Small and Faith Grayshott in Second Thoughts and Faith in the Futur...

With an unplanned baby on the way, a newly-wed daughter whose marriage is already in trouble, a teenager who won't eat and doesn't think there's anything wrong with her, and, hiding secrets from each other, Barry and Aimee are on a rocky road. When love flies in the window ex-wives can cause a lot of trouble. And Marianna is going to cause as much...

When John Chester returned to England after suddenly inheriting a Dukedom he knew his life had changed forever. But he didn't know just how much. Gina Wilton was like a breath of fresh air. But she was also everything John disapproved of in a young women, independent, assertive, always ready to contradict him. Yet she had ideas about restoring his...

Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear-part of an autism-like condition that no doctor has been able to identify. But his father has never fully believed in the music or Marcelo's differences, and he challenges Marcelo to work in the mailroom of his law firm for the summer. . . to join "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine,...

A lot has happened to Danny Wallace in the past year. He has had a baby and has been hobnobbing with the powers that be in Hollywood. But that hasn't made him any less awkward. Being more of a grown up brings its own baffling etiquette and expected social graces, and no-one has told Danny. Join Danny once again on his very funny stumble through mor...

Dr Temperance Brennan spends her life working amongst the decomposed, the mutilated and the skeletal. So the two-days-dead body she is called to examine holds little to surprise her. Until she discovers that the man is John Lowery, an ex-soldier who was apparently killed in Vietnam in 1968. So who is buried in Lowery's grave. The case takes Tempe t...

Pam Ayres was the sixth child in a hard-up family who lived in a council house, her parents' generation were harrowed by the war. Yet they lived by the green in the village of Stanford in the Vale, where everything you needed was within walking distance and the sound of motorcars was rarely heard. Then reaching her teens, Pam realised how few oppor...

As soon as the orphaned Pollyanna arrives in Beldingsville to live with her strict and dutiful maiden aunt, she begins to brighten up everybody's life. The sick, the lonely, and the just plain miserable all fall under her spell and are transformed-until one day something so terrible happens that even Pollyanna doesn't know how to feel glad any more...