March Book Competition 2016

The Big Book of Love – by Laurence & Catherine Anholt

This joyful celebration of all that is good in the world is happiness in a book, from the acclaimed writers of numerous classics, including Babies, Babies, Babies. All you need is love – whether you are big or small. Your small one will delight in the pitch-perfect rhymes and detailed pictures with so much to spot and talk about; the friendly and familar depictions of everyday life will engage young children time and time again.

Colours, transport, animals, cities, seasides and people of every kind dance through this charming book creating a romping, rhyming celebration of life for all to share.

Perfect for every day and every family. Laurence and Catherine Anholt live and work in a house and studios on top of a hill above the sea in Devon. They started making picture books when their first daughter was born. Since then they have made over 200 classic picture books, published worldwide in more than 30 languages.

Author Website: www.anholt.co.uk

The Weekends of You & Me – by Fiona Walker

Can your final fling become your happily ever after? When Jo Coulson finds herself single again in her late thirties, she finally resigns her membership to Last of the Hopeless Romantics, fully intending to tackle midlife and motherhood alone.

First, she plans one legendary last fling. In walks Harry Inchbold, and the connection is electric. Passionate, unpredictable and messily divorced, Harry is the perfect antidote to cosy coupledom. Known as The Sinner, drama follows him around with a clapper board.

Harry’s favourite holiday hideaway in the wilds of South Shropshire puts the mud and fun into the perfect dirty weekend. But at the cottage Harry reveals a very different side, melting Jo’s resolve.

What better combination to face an uncertain future than two cynics who have learned from their mistakes? Together they make a pact; ‘same time next year’; they can promise no more than that.

Through life’s most stressful decade, Harry and Jo return to the Shropshire hills for one weekend each year to rediscover passion and make peace. As career, family and home crises all threaten to bring them unstuck, the cottage is their glue. Here, different rules apply: the day-to-day world is not allowed to intrude.

With Harry and Jo, however, it’s only a matter of time before rules get broken. As real life gets increasingly complicated, can they keep renewing their promise? Fiona Walker lives in Warwickshire with her partner and two children plus an assortment of horses and dogs.

Author Website: www.fionawalker.com

The Butcher’s Hook – by Janet Ellis

The debut novel by Janet Ellis, The Butcher’s Hook is the dark and twisted tale of a young girl in 18th-century London determined to take her life in her own hands. No matter the cost. Georgian London, in the summer of 1763.

At nineteen, Anne Jaccob is awakened to the possibility of joy when she meets Fub, the butcher’s apprentice, and begins to imagine a life of passion with him. The only daughter of well-to-do parents, Anne lives a sheltered life. Her home is a miserable place. Though her family want for nothing, her father is uncaring, her mother is ailing, and the baby brother who taught her to love is dead. Unfortunately her parents have already chosen a more suitable husband for her than Fub. But Anne is a determined young woman, with an idiosyncratic moral compass.

In the matter of pursuing her own happiness, she shows no fear or hesitation. Even if it means getting a little blood on her hands. A vivid and surprising tale, The Butcher’s Hook brims with the colour and atmosphere of Georgian London, as seen through the eyes of a strange and memorable young woman.

Janet Ellis trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She is best known for presenting Blue Peter and contributes to numerous radio and TV programmes. She recently graduated from the Curtis Brown creative writing school. The Butcher’s Hook is her first novel.

First Response – by Stephen Leather

The next utterly addictive all-action thriller from Stephen Leather, bestselling author of the Spider Shepherd and Jack Nightingale thrillers. London is under siege. Nine men in suicide vests, primed to explode, hold hostages in nine different locations and are ready to die for their cause. Their mission – to force the Government to release jihadist prisoners from Belmarsh Prison. The deadline – 6pm. Today.

But the bombers are cleanskins, terrorists with no obvious link to any group, and who do not appear on any anti-terror watch list. What has brought them together on this one day to act in this way?

Mo Kamran is the Superintendent in charge of the Special Crime and Operations branch of the Met. As the disaster unfolds and the SAS, armed police, and other emergency services rush to the scenes, he is tasked with preventing the biggest terrorist outrage the capital has ever known. But nothing is what it seems. And only Kamran has the big picture. Will anyone believe him? A chillingly plausible and pulse-pounding depiction of how London might be held to ransom in a concerted terrorist attack: this is thriller writing at its very best.

Stephen Leather is a Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages and he has also written for television.

Author Website: www.stephenleather.com

Competition now closed.