What are The Origins of Love?

Women and children are being exploited, their lives thrown away like so much dust. Is feisty social worker Simran Singhis the only person prepared to stand up for what is right…?

Read an extract from Kishwar Desai’s stunningly moving novel.

Listen to the hedgehog podcast!

Hugh Warwick’s The Beauty in the Beast is a delightful portrait of some of the UK’s best-loved wild animals and birds and the colourful enthusiasts who champion their causes.

In the Shadow of the Titanic

Shadow of the Titanic, by Andrew Wilson, sheds new light on this enduringly fascinating story by showing how the disaster continued to shape the lives of a cross-section of passengers who escaped the sinking ship.

Open up The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages

Swimming for his life towards traffickers on the Italian shore, Selim enters a world where Kurdish refugees disguise themselves as tomatoes, dates of birth are a matter of opinion, and a residency permit is a ticket to paradise…

An extract from Hunger Trace

The sudden death of David Bryant, the charismatic owner of a rambling Derbyshire wildlife park, leaves an indelible mark on three very different people…

A Book of Raunch!

Brimful of good-nature, wit, and surreal sexual vocabulary, House of Holes by Nicholson Baker is a modern-day Hieronymous Boschian bacchanal that is sure to surprise, amuse, and arouse. Read an extract.

The Hunger Trace Podcast

Author Ed Hogan discusses his latest paperback, The Hunger Trace, out this month via Simon & Schuster.

Wilful Blindness Podcast

Margaret Heffernan has written an engaging and anecdotal examination of how and why as individuals and as a society we choose to turn a blind eye to the uncomfortable truth…

Journey to the Dark Heart of Russia with Jermey Poolman

The Road of Bones is the story of Russia’s greatest road – the Vladimirka Road . In pursuit of the sights, sounds and voices both past and present, Jeremy Poolman travels the Vladimirka – the first person to tell its rich, varied and dark story. Read an extract.

An extract from The Bellwether Revivals

There is no great genius without some note of madness.

Read an extract from the debut novel by Benjamin Wood.

Something of the Night podcast

Who can say what the night might bring? Mummy tucking you up with Teddy and a cup of Ovaltine? Fireworks and frivolity? A party? Music? Dancing? Ian Merchant might have the answers…

An extract from Something of the Night, by Ian Marchant

Who can say what the night might bring? Mummy tucking you up with Teddy and a cup of Ovaltine? Fireworks and frivolity? A party? Music? Dancing? Or you could be reading in bed, between clean linen sheets before falling into deep and restful sleep and sweet dreams…

What secrets wash up on the tide?

Listen to the podcast for Penny Hancock’s debut novel, Tideline…

Joseph Galliano on putting Dear Me together

The original UK edition took three months to compile, an Irish edition took two months, but the American version of the book (released in the UK as Dear Me, More Letters To My Sixteen Year Old Self) was an altogether more marathon task…

An extract from Henry’s Demons

Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story.

On a cold February day two months after his 20th birthday, Henry waded into the lethally cold Newhaven estuary and almost drowned. The trees, he said, had told him to do it.

Dear Me: More Letters to my Sixteen Year Old Self

If you were to write a letter to your 16-year-old self, what would it say? In Dear Me, some of the world’s most famous and best loved celebrities, from actors to chefs, directors to musicians, have written just such a letter.

Uncover The Night Strangers, by Chris Bohjalian

It begins with a door in a dusky corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire. A door that someone has sealed shut with thirty-nine enormous carriage bolts.

Read an extract…

An extract from Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes

The latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning William Kennedy – a tale of revolutionary intrigue, heroic journalism, crooked politicians, drug-running gangsters, Albany race riots, and the improbable rise of Fidel Castro.

The Dovekeepers

Read an extract from Alice Hoffman’s The Dovekeepers – “… This novel is a testament to the human spirit and to love rising from the ashes of war. But most of all, this novel is one that will never be forgotten by a reader.” Jodi Picoult.

Win copies of The Women of the Cousins’ War, by Philippa Gregory [closed]

We have three copies of Philippa Gregory’s latest beautifully illustrated work, with rare portraits and source materials, as well as fascinating insights into the inspiration behind her writing. To enter read the extracts and watch the video…

Get to know the Women of the Cousin’s War

The Women of the Cousin’s War is a beautifully illustrated work with rare portraits and source materials, as well as fascinating insights into the inspiration behind Philippa Gregory’s writing. Watch out for a competition later this week!

The Lady of the Rivers

Read the opening chapter of the latest in Philippa Gregory’s Cousins’ War series, The Lady of the Rivers…