No one could have invented John Beames, whose vibrant and original memoirs were discovered by chance in an attic almost a century after they were penned. He arrived in Indian in 1858, and worked there as a civil servant for the next forty-five years, defending powerless peasants against rapacious planters, improvising fifteen-gun salutes for visiting dignitaries and presiding over the blissful coast of Orissa. His acquaintances spanned from lofty Rajas to dissolute Englishmen. Vivid, candi...

Martin is a talented high school history teacher in his early forties. While enduring a loveless marriage and dealing with his mother's decline into dementia, he is involved in a bizarre motorway incident which threatens to completely turn his life upside down. The reader is transported a few years into the future on a perilous journey through a flawed criminal justice system. The protagonist faces professional, reputational and financial ruin. An idealistic defence lawyer prepared to take...

This little book contains over 50 limericks along the lines suggested by the title. The all-important word, is 'pseudo' as there is no real intention to offend people's religious sensibilities. I suggest that anyone with fundamentalist religious leanings or lacking an earthy sense of humour should read no further. Each limerick is accompanied on the opposite page by a commentary. In some cases, this is largely a linguistic analysis of the poetic techniques attempted. In others, an effort i...

In a dystopian near future, the Greenways are a close-knit but impoverished middle-class family living in a northern town. The story is of their struggle with the economic and environmental effects of climate breakdown and their response to an increasingly intrusive authoritarian government.Every year, they are legally obliged to find new ways of reducing their carbon footprint. In order to make ends meet, they take advantage of a government scheme to open up their rear garden as a...

15 to 20 years into the future, taxes are kept to a bare minimum by political consensus. Thirty-something Mathew is recruited via an online algorithmic ad by a government agency. Its goal: to encourage well-to-do altruistic citizens to donate surplus income or wealth to the public purse. The agency selects potential donors using sophisticated algorithms. Mathew's curiosity and suspicions are soon awakened around the agency's true nature and purpose. With Emily's help, another new recruit, ...

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, WITH OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLDShortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller and the Specsavers National Book Awards Crime & Thriller of the YearYvonne Carmichael has a high-flying career, a beautiful home and a good marriage.But when she meets a stranger she is drawn into a passionate affair.Keeping the two halves of her life separate seems easy at first.But she can't control what ha...

C.S. Lewis’s famous inspirational work on the nature of love.‘The Four Loves’ divides love into four categories: Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity. The first three are loves which come naturally to the human race. Charity, however, the Gift-love of God, is divine in its source and expression, and without the sweetening grace of this supernatural love, the natural loves become distorted and even dangerous.

'I need a wife'It’s a common joke among women juggling work and family. But it’s not actually a joke. Having a spouse who takes care of things at home is a Godsend on the domestic front. It’s a potent economic asset on the work front. And it’s an advantage enjoyed – even in our modern society – by vastly more men than women.Working women are in an advanced, sustained, and chronically under-reported state of wife drought, and there is no sign of rain.

Don't miss THE TAILOR, the brand new mystery in the million-copy-bestselling George Cross series - OUT NOW.'One of the most iconic British fictional detectives of the 21st century.' DAILY MAIL'These are must-read detective novels.' MARK BILLINGHAM'One of my favourite detectives.' ELLY GRIFFITHSSOMEONE'S ABOUT TO TURN THEIR LAST PAGE...

One of the most popular and beloved introductions to the concept of faith ever written, Mere Christianity has sold millions of copies worldwide.The book brings together C.S. Lewis’s legendary radio broadcasts during the war years, in which he set out simply to ‘explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times’. A brilliant collection, the book remains strikingly fresh for the modern reader and at the same time confir...

A best fiction book of 2021 for The Times‘Hilarious… Fiery phrases spit and crackle. Disgust expands and bursts into belly laughs… a very funny book’ Sunday Times‘Thought-provoking, timely, and extremely funny’ Metro‘Shriver said that her favourite novels are those that pack both an intellectual and emotional punch. With Should We Stay or Should We Go, she’s added triumphantly to their number’

Don't miss THE TAILOR, the brand new mystery in the million-copy-bestselling George Cross series - OUT NOW.A burglary gone wrong – or a staged murder?George Cross loves puzzles, and the crime scene at the home of Bristol's former mayor is a complicated one. To most, it looks like a burglary gone wrong, but George can see this was murder.There's no shortage of potential killers: the online trolls the victim ...