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It is the summer of 1986 and the cutting, trimming and shrinking of public funds is much in the news. Education, health, the arts - all are being deprived of money. But while the university where the obscure but critically sound writer Henry Babbacombe teaches is having to cut down on staff, a northern television company is having a last spree before the money runs out. And who should they choose for their writer but Henry Babbacombe? Wrenched from the privacy and seclusion of his garden shed into the spotlight of the media, Henry learns a thing or two about what it takes to be successful in Mrs Thatcher's Britain.

Solider Girl is a sequel to A Hopscotch Summer and is followed by All the Days of Our Lives in Annie Murray's epic saga of friendship and heartbreak.Molly Fox has grown up in the back streets of Birmingham at the mercy of her cruel grandfather and her drunken mother. Though she has grown into a tall, beautiful woman, Molly is haunted by terrible family secrets. When she is found lying drunk in a gutter, Molly reaches a turning point. She decides to escape by joining the army as an ATS girl.At first her new start seems fated to be a disaster but the army gives her the encouragement she hungers for and soon her life is flourishing. But war brings tragedy as well as triumph, and when Molly receives news from home, it becomes clear that she can't escape her past so easily . . .

In Valparaiso, a breathtaking play from Don DeLillo, a man sets out on what he imagines will be an ordinary business trip to Valparaiso, Indiana. It proves to be anything but run-of-the-mill, turning instead into a mock-heroic journey toward identity and transcendence. Valparaiso is a funny, sharp and deeply satirical look at our information age. This is the way we talk to each other today. This is the way we tell each other things, in public, before listening millions, that we don't dare say privately. Nothing is allowed to be unseen. Nothing remains unread. And everything melts repeatedly into something else, as if driven by the finger on the TV remote. This is also a play that makes obsessive poetry out of the language of routine airline announcements and the flow of endless information.

One of our most popular actresses, Denise Welch got her television break in the BBC's Spender opposite Jimmy Nail and followed it by achieving success in ITVs worldwide hit drama Soldier Soldier. She really became a household name when she took on the role of Rovers Return landlady Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street. She tarred in the award-winning drama Waterloo Road and is a regular on the hugely popular Loose Women, where her warmth and honesty have won the nation's hearts. But even as her career was taking off, Denise was hiding a secret - that she was suffering from a crippling post natal depression so severe that she was at times suicidal. As she concealed her heartbreak on the set of Coronation Street, she turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. She even had an affair that threatened her marriage. Now she reveals for the first time the full details of her battle with depression and alcoholism, how she fought back and, helped by the love of her husband Tim Healy, turned her life around. Powerful and moving, Pulling Myself Together is ultimately an uplifting book that will appeal to her many fans old and new.

The gates to Hell have been opened, releasing unnatural creatures and threatening to turn the world into a killing field. In the middle, caught between warring gods and fallen angels, humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction. Its only hope is the most unlikely of heroes . . . Former assassin Rachel Hael has rejoined the blood-magician Mina Greene and her devious little dog Basilis on one last desperate mission to save the world from the grip of Hell. Carried in the jaw of a debased angel, they rush to the final defensive stronghold of the god of clocks - pursued all the while by the twelve arconites, the great iron-and-bone automatons controlled by King Menoa, the lord of the maze. But the strange fortress of the god of clocks is unlike anything they could ever have expected. And now old enemies and new allies join in a battle whose outcome could end them all...

In the mid 6th century the Pictish kingdom in northern Britain is under threat from the Gaels and the Christian faith, which leaves the leaders of the northern realm struggling to maintain their ancient traditions. All hope rests on the shoulders of young Bridei, a little-known son of the royal line, who is seen as the perfect candidate for future kingship. At his remote forest home of Pitnochie, Broichan, a powerful druid, sets about training the boy in the ways of the ancients and in the all-important preparation to be a leader of men. But Broichan has not allowed for the Good Folk, inhabitants of the ancient forests of Fortriu and well-known workers of tricky magic. When Bridei discovers a strange baby girl abandoned on Broichan's doorstep in the chill of the winter solstice, he takes her into the house. And the druid has to realise that there is one unpredictable power at work that may be too strong for him to control and could become the death of his dreams.

Set during the outbreak of the Second World War, Night Over Water is about a perilous journey across the Atlantic to escape Britain, from the number one bestseller and master of the historical thriller, Ken Follett.The Eve of WarBritain has just declared war against Nazi Germany. In Southampton, the world's most luxurious airliner, the Pan American Clipper, takes off on its final flight to neutral New York - a haven for those fleeing the conflict.A Disparate Group FleesThe passengers aboard the plane each have their own reasons for leaving Britain. Amongst them are an English aristocrat fleeing with his family and a fortune in jewels; a German scientist running away from the Nazis; a murderer returning under FBI escort; a wife escaping her controlling husband; and a devious thief determined to keep his spoils.A Journey into DangerTrapped on the plane, with only their fellow passengers for company, their journey over the Atlantic becomes increasingly fraught. Especially when it becomes apparent a plot is unfolding that may endanger all of their lives . . .

Society in the twenty-third century runs smoothly and peacefully with the aid of Social Care operatives such as Judy 3. Meanwhile benevolent AIs, under the control of the near mythical Watcher, seem to have solved all mankind's problems, and with their aid humans have begun to explore the surrounding universe. But why does every AI that visits the planet Gateway commit suicide within just hours of arriving there? Justinian Sibelius has now himself arrived on the planet to try and find a reason. Yet how can someone with merely human intelligence solve a puzzle that has defeated minds far greater than his own - even that of the Watcher itself? And what if it should turn out that the Watcher is not so benevolent as people once believed? 'An exceptional first novel. A new British star has arrived to join the likes of Hamilton, Reynolds and Banks' Vector

The Man From St Petersburg is a dark tale of family secrets and political consequences. Ken Follett's masterful storytelling brings to life the danger of a world on the brink of war. A Secret Negotiation1914. Tensions are rising as Europe finds itself caught in a web of alliances and dangerous warmongering. To help tip the balance in their favour Britain aims to draw Russia into an alliance with them instead of Germany. Czar Nicholas's nephew, Prince Aleksei, is sent to London for secret naval talks with Lord Walden.A Play for PowerWalden has a personal connection to Aleksei; his wife Lydia, is Aleksei's aunt. But they are not the only ones interested in his arrival, including Walden's daughter Charlotte, wilful, idealistic and with an awakening social conscience, Basil Thompson, head of Special Branch, and Felix Kschessinky, a ruthless Russian anarchist.A World at WarWith the British desperately needing a signed treaty and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the destinies of these characters become inextricably linked as the final private tragedy which threatens to shatter the Waldens' complacency is acted out.

For nine hundred generations, the city of Deepgate has hung suspended by giant chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss. In the unfathomable darkness below is said to reside the dread god Ulcis, 'hoarder of souls', with his army of ghosts. Outside the city extend the barren wastes of Deadsands, inhabited by the enemy Heshette, so that safe access is guaranteed only by a fleet of airships. At the hub of the city itself rises the Temple, in one of whose many crumbling spires resides a youthful angel, Dill, the last of his line. Descendant of heroic battle-archons, yet barely able to wield the great sword he has inherited from his forebears, he lives a sheltered existence under the watchful eye of Presbyter Sypes, who rules the Temple. For despite his sense of purposelessness, Dill has a destiny about to unfold - one that will take him down into terrifying depths of the pit in a desperate quest to save the teeming but precarious city from total annihilation at the hands of a cunning and resourceful traitor.

On 9th August 2001, twenty-two days after Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury, he was transferred from HMP Belmarsh, a double-A Category high-security prison in south London, to HMP Wayland, a Category C establishment in Norfolk. He served sixty-seven days in Wayland and during that time, as this account testifies, encountered not only the daily degradations of a dangerously over-stretched prison service, but the spirit and courage of his fellow inmates . . .Prison Diary Volume II: Purgatory is an extraordinary work of non-fiction, where Jeffrey Archer reveals what life is like inside the walls of Britain's prisons.

A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . . Borkmann's Point by Hakan Nesser is the second gripping novel in the thrilling Van Veeteren series.'Borkmann's rule was hardly a rule; in fact, it was more of a comment, a landmark for tricky cases . . . In every investigation, he maintained, there comes a point beyond which we don't really need any more information. When we reach that point, we already know enough to solve the case by means of nothing more than some decent thinking.' Two men are brutally murdered with an axe in the quiet coastal town of Kaalbringen and Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, bored on holiday nearby, is summoned to assist the local authorities. The local police chief, just days away from retirement, is determined to wrap things up before he goes. But there is no clear link between the victims. Then one of Van Veeteren's colleagues, a brilliant young female detective, goes missing - perhaps she has reached Borkmann's Point before anyone else . . .Borkmann's Point is followed by the third title in the series, The Return.

True Blue is a gripping ride, full of pace, action and tension from David Baldacci, one of the world's favourite storytellers.Mace Perry was a maverick cop on the DC police force who lost everything when she was framed for a crime she didn't commit. She spent two years in prison and now she's trying to rebuild her life. But first she's determined to hunt down the people who set her up. Even with her police chief sister by her side, she needs to work in the shadows. There are those with power out there just looking for a reason to put her back behind bars and she needs to find the reason why.A female partner at a city law firm is found murdered and it seems her fate is entangled with Mace's story. As the investigation deepens, Mace finds herself drawn into both the public and private world of the nation's capital as dark secrets begin to emerge. If she's to prove her innocence, she will need all her skills to reveal the truth, confront her enemies and regain her life.

In equal parts hilarious, poignant, suspenseful and thrilling, The Christmas Train by David Baldacci is a delightful journey filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief . . .Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to LA in time for Christmas. Forced to take the train across the country because of a slight 'misunderstanding' at airport security, he begins a journey of self-discovery and rude awakenings, mysterious goings-on and thrilling adventures, screwball escapades and holiday magic.He has no idea that the locomotives pulling him across America will actually take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart, where he will rediscover people's essential goodness and someone very special he believed he had lost.The Christmas Train Hallmark Hall of Fame movie starred Dermot Mulroney, Danny Glover, Joan Cusack and Kimberly Williams-Paisley.

M is for Malice is the thirteenth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.'M' is for Malek Construction, the $40 million company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California. 'M' is for Malek family: four sons now nearing middle age who stand to inherit a fortune - four men with very different temperaments and needs, linked only by blood and money. Eighteen years ago, one of them - angry, troubled and in trouble - went missing. 'M' is for Millhone, now hired to trace that missing black sheep brother. And, in brutal consequence, 'M' is for murder . . .

P is for Peril is the sixteenth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.It is now nine weeks since Dr Dowan Purcell vanished without trace. The sixty-nine-year-old doctor had said goodnight to his colleagues at the Pacific Meadows nursing home, had climbed into his car and driven away - never to be seen again. His embittered first wife Fiona is convinced he is still alive. His second wife, Crystal - a former stripper forty years his junior - is just as sure he is dead. Enter private investigator Kinsey Malone, hired by Fiona to find out just what has happened to the man they loved. Enter also Tommy Hevener, an attractive flame-haired twenty-something who has set his romantic sights on Kinsey. And Tommy is a man with a very interesting past . . .

K is for Killer is the eleventh in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.Lorna Kepler was beautiful and wilful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. She has also been found dead in mysterious circumstances and her death pulls Kinsey Millhone into a netherworld of deception, betrayal and unavenged murder . . .

L is for Lawless is the twelfth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.It was the week before Thanksgiving when Kinsey Millhone first heard the sad story of the late Johnny Lee, the World War II fighter pilot of whom, rather mysteriously, the military authorities have no record. His family are concerned - perhaps Kinsey could make a few calls, straighten things out? Then Johnny's apartment is ransacked. In the debris a hidden safe is uncovered - and in that safe is a mysterious key marked LAWLESS. That night Kinsey's on a plane to Dallas, at the start of a thrilling rollercoaster ride through Texas and Kentucky on the trail of long-buried treasure. Unfortunately there's a fire-raising psychopath on her tail . . . And she's going to be late for a very important wedding . . .

N is for Noose is the fourteenth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.Sometimes I think about how odd it would be to catch a glimpse of the future, a quick view of events lying in store for us. Some moments we saw would make no sense at all and some, I suspect, would frighten us beyond our endurance . . . Early spring in the Sierra Nevada, bringing the usual driving sleet and snow. Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is on her way west when she detours into Nota Lake (pop. 2356) to check out a new client. And encounters a chill she can scarcely believe. Only six weeks have passed since sheriff's detective Tom Newquist died of a heart attack. His widow is sure he was keeping secrets from her just before he died - and she hires Kinsey to find out exactly what. But all Kinsey can uncover is that Newquist led an exemplary life, so what could he possibly have to conceal? And why has the town, to the last threatening redneck, closed ranks on her? Kinsey's on the point of giving up. Until she discovers a chilling new clue: a childish drawing of a thick length of rope - fashioned into a hangman's noose . . .

Q is for Quarry is the seventeenth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton and is based on a true crime.She was a 'Jane Doe', an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on, and after months of investigation, the murder remained unsolved. That was eighteen years ago. Now the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case . . . and they turn to Kinsey Millhone to help them find closure. But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer. Based on an unsolved homicide that occurred in 1969, Q is for Quarry and Grafton's interest in the case have renewed police efforts. The body has been exhumed, and a facial reconstruction made that appears in the last pages of the novel. It is hoped that the photograph will trigger memories that may lead to a positive identification.

Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Novel, C is for Corpse is the third in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.My name is Kinsey Millhone. I'm a licensed private investigator . . . thirty-two, twice divorced. I like being alone and I suspect that my independence suits me better than it should . . . Kinsey met Bobby Callahan in the gym on Monday morning. His story was hard to credit: a murderous assault by a tailgating car on a lonely rural road, a roadside smash into a canyon 400 feet below, his Porsche a ruin, his best friend dead, and his memory severely impaired. He was convinced someone was trying to kill him. By Thursday, he was dead. But Kinsey wasn't going back on a deal. She had been hired to prevent a murder. Now she was looking for the murderer . . .

Once upon a time the great Faeran high king, Angavar, became trapped in mortal Erith along with his twin brother - and nemesis - Morragan 'the Raven Prince', when the gate to the Faeran Realm was closed on them. . . Now, many centuries later, the fugitive who calls herself Tahquil has at last discovered the truth. She is being hunted down by the Raven Prince because she alone can reopen the gate to the Fair Realm, so Morragan plans to use her for his escape from exile. However, Tahquil's mind is still clouded by a potent spell called the Bitterbynde, and she is also dying from a mystical wasting disease. The cure, and the final answers to the mystery of her past, can only be found in Evernight - at the fortress of the Raven Prince himself. Though Tahquil has already survived deadly trials of goblins, spriggans, pixies and haunts, nothing can prepare her for the horror that is Evernight. Here magic rules, the sun is banished -- and the Raven Prince's whims shape the very nature of existence. As Morragan's wights and Angavar's knights become locked in a battle that could engulf all of Erith, Tahquil's quest for the truth finally hinges on a desperate choice. If she opens the Gate, will she thereby save two worlds -- or instead destroy everything she holds dear?

Out of the Ordinary is Jon Ronson at his inimitable best: hilarious, thought-provoking and with an unerring eye for human frailty - not least his own.Jon Ronson's subjects have included people who believe that goats can be killed by the power of a really hard stare, and people who believe that the world is ruled by twelve-foot lizard-men. In Out of the Ordinary, a collection of his journalism from the Guardian, he turns his attention to irrational beliefs much closer to home, investigating the ways in which we sometimes manage to convince ourselves that all manner of lunacy makes perfect sense - mainstream, domestic, ordinary insanity. Whether he finds himself promising his son that he will be at his side for ever, dressed in a Santa costume, or trying to understand why hundreds of apparently normal people would suddenly start speaking in tongues in a Scout hut in Kidderminster, he demonstrates repeatedly how we all succumb to deeply irrational beliefs that grow to inform our everyday existence.

Day 115. Saturday 10th November 2001. 6.38am. It's all an act. I am hopelessly unhappy, dejected and broken. I smile when I am at my lowest, I laugh when I see no humour, I help others when I need help myself. I am alone. If I were to show any sign, even for a moment, of what I'm going through, I would have to read the details in some tabloid the following day. Everything I do is only a phone call away from a friendly journalist with an open cheque book. I don't know where I have found the strength to maintain this facade and never break down in anyone's presence. The final volume of Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries, A Prison Diary Volume III: Heaven, covers the period of his transfer from Wayland to his eventual release on parole in July 2003. It includes a shocking account of the traumatic time he spent in the notorious Lincoln jail and the events that led to his incarceration there - it also throws light on a system that is close to breaking point. Told with humour, compassion and honesty, it closes with a thought-provoking manifesto that should be applauded by the Establishment and prison population alike.

Morse had solved so many mysteries in his life. Was he now, he wondered, beginning to glimpse the solution to the greatest mystery of them all . . . ? How can the discovery of a short story by a beautiful Oxford graduate lead Chief Inspector Morse to her murderer? What awaits Morse and Lewis in Room 231 of the Randolph Hotel? Why does a theft at Christmas lead the detective to look upon the festive season with uncharacteristic goodwill? And what happens when Morse himself falls victim to a brilliantly executed crime? Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories is a dazzling collection of short stories from Inspector Morse's creator, Colin Dexter. It includes six ingenious cases for the world's most popular fictional detective - plus five other tantalizingly original tales to delight all lovers of classic crime fiction.

Jeremy Poldark is the third novel in Winston Graham's hugely popular Poldark series, which has become a television phenomenon starring Aidan Turner.Cornwall 1790. Ross Poldark faces the darkest hour of his life. Accused of wrecking two ships, he is to stand trial at the Bodmin Assizes. Despite their stormy married life, Demelza has tried to rally support for her husband. But there are enemies in plenty who would be happy to see Ross convicted, not least George Warleggan, the powerful banker, whose personal rivalry with Ross grows ever more intense.Jeremy Poldark is followed by the fourth book in this evocative series, Warleggan.

Book I in the 'Bitterbynde' trilogy, and a landmark debut in the realm of Fantasy writing.In a world where creatures of legend haunt countryside and forest, to be caught outside after dark means almost certain death, so the inhabitants of Isse Tower are amazed when a mute, starving foundling is discovered outside their gates. With no recollection of either its name or past, the child comes to realize that the only hope of happiness lies with a wise woman residing in distant Caermelor. But to get there, the newly named Imrhien must survive a wilderness of endless danger. Lost and pursued by unhuman wights, Imrhien is eventually saved by Thorn, a mysterious and handsome ranger, but unknown to them both a dark force has summoned the Unseelie, and malignant hordes amass in the night...

Second volume in The Bitterbynde Trilogy, a marvellously colourful and imaginative fantasy debut.Though her memory remains clouded by sorcery, Imrhien (heroine of THE ILL-MADE MUTE) must take vital news to the King-Emperor of Caermelor, hoping also to find there the fearless ranger who has won her heart. She assumes the identity of 'Rohain', a noblewoman visiting from the distant Sorrow Isles, but finds the King and his rangers heading off to battle the Unseelie hordes. Meanwhile, awaiting their return, the newcomer must survive in a court where treachery and deceit are as deadly as any eldritch peril.Worse still, attacks by nightmare monsters of the Wild Hunt grow ever more frequent and brutal, and when evil forces lay siege to the royal sanctuary on a hidden mystic island, she realises with horror that she herself is the real target of these onslaughts -- but has no idea why.

O is for Outlaw is the fifteenth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.First there was a phone call from a stranger, then a letter showed up fourteen years after it was sent. That's how I learned I'd made a serious error in judgement and ended up risking my life . . .' The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auction. Last weekend he bought a stack. They had stuff in them - Kinsey stuff. For thirty bucks, he'll sell her the lot. Kinsey's never been one for personal possessions, but curiosity wins out and she hands over a twenty (she may be curious but she loves a bargain). What she finds amid childhood memorabilia is an old undelivered letter. It will force her to re-examine her beliefs about the break-up of her first marriage, about the honour of her first husband, about an old unsolved murder. And it will put her life in the gravest peril.

Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy has proved one of the bestselling science fiction series of the last decade, and has placed British SF firmly back on the map. The Confederation Handbook by Peter F. Hamilton is an essential companion volume to The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God for all the countless readers past, present and future for whom this massive trilogy has evolved into a defining SF classic. It comprises general background information relating to all three volumes, with comprehensive notes and glossaries on the major characters, planets, space stations, political hierarchies, weaponry, spacecraft, invasions, and the many alien races with their diverse social economies, industries and technologies.