Matthew’s American cousin comes to live with them: Sam’s small, blond and wild – with a giant attitude problem. He immediately starts to wreak havoc on Matthew’s social life – getting into fights with his friends and causing a scene whenever they go out.School is about to start and Matthew and his friends don’t want these problems to continue, so they come up with a plan for Sam to prove his loyalty to their gang and to trick the mean girls at school. They dare Sam to go to school f...

Though born into privilege and inheriting a fortune, Willie Donaldson ended up dying alone in a seedy rented flat, his computer still logged on to a lesbian porn site. To some, he had been one of the great, under-rated comic writers of our time, and to others, a dangerous force of corruption and decadence.His achievements were significant - he published Sylvia Plath while still at Cambridge, as a producer in the Sixties he staged Beyond the Fringe, and he was later to writ...

Jay Barton has spent her life on the outside, being overlooked and mocked for her tomboy ways. All she wants to do is ride her favourite pony, which belongs to her much wealthier cousin. But then Jay shows a talent for winning the illegal pony races her uncle takes her to, and he starts to push her to take more and more risks. At 15, Jay decides to run away, to live the life of a stable hand.Her fortunes are changed when she meets Manhattan: a pedigree grey racehorse who has used up...

The Queen is the most iconic figure in modern Britain. For more than sixty years she has been on every stamp, every coin, and starred in every one of our Christmas days. But how well do we really know our beloved monarch?Her Majesty has written a letter to her most trusted private secretary, Sir Jeremy, every week for several years. For the first time, she has allowed these letters to be published. Honest, charming, and hilarious, they show what she has really been thinking: about ...

What WATERSHIP DOWN did for rabbits, THE TWYNING will do for the kingdom of rats.A story of love, war and rats...This is the story of Efren, a young ratling born into the Court of Tasting, in the kingdom of rats below the city streets. The kingdom is in turmoil after the death of the old king, assassinated by a human scientist, Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon. Obsessed by an ambition to exterminate all rats, the doctor is assisted by Dogboy, an abandoned thirteen-year-old with a gift ...

Calming, thought-provoking, poetic and honest**, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm** is a collection of writing and musing by documentary-maker, environmentalist and author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin.'Gentle, straight, honest, inquisitive, funny, melancholic' Spectator'A lovely book that is a poignant epitaph to a remarkable individual' Amazon Review________________For the...

Supernatural agents, Djinn, rats: here are three great new fantasy novels at a great price.THE ROOK: 'The body you are wearing used to be mine.' So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. An astonishing fantasy debut about the secret organization keeping Britain safe from supernatural threat.THE DESERT OF SOULS: Amid the trackless sands of ancient Arabia, two companions – a swordsman and a s...

Roger Deakin set out in 1996 to swim through the British Isles. The result a uniquely personal view of an island race and a people with a deep affinity for water. From the sea, from rock pools, from rivers and streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools and spas, from fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries, even canals, Deakin gains a fascinating perspective on modern Britain. Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted in the Fowey estuary by ...

A much-loved classic of nature writing from environmentalist and the author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin, Wildwood is an exploration of the element wood in nature, our culture and our lives.'Breathtaking, vividly written . . . reading Wildwood is an elegiac experience' Sunday Times'He writes nature as a blackbird sings, or a bird of prey rides therma...

In this historical fantasy, a new recruit to the most powerful supernatural intelligence agency on Earth is accused of going rogue—and must go on the run to clear her name.September, 1940. Three women of the Checquy, the secret organization tasked with protecting Britain from supernatural threats, stand in the sky above London and see German aircraft approach. Forbidden by law to interfere, all they can do is watch as their city is bombed. Until Pa...

A delightful and hilarious supernatural adventure featuring a lady-in-waiting who must keep the court safe from murder, from the author of The Rook.Alexandra Dennis-Palmer-Hudson-Gilmore-Garnsey (call me “Alix”), the twelfth Lady Mondegreen, has never had any control of her life. Her ability to shatter bones with a touch made her the automatic property of the Checquy, the secret British government agency that deals with the supernatural. Her aristocratic a...

Be careful what you wish for...Paul Cornell's The Lights Go Out in Lychford continues the award-nominated Witches of Lychford series, described by Seanan McGuire as "Beautifully written, perfectly cruel and ultimately kind."The borders of Lychford are crumbling. Other realities threaten to seep into the otherwise quiet village, and the resident wise woman is struggling to remain wise. The local magic shop owner and the local priest a...