Search Results for: true story

Banish boredom with this bumper book of perfectly pitched puzzles for the whole family to enjoy.

Fear not, The Great Big Indoor Family Puzzle Book has self-isolation, rainy days and long school holidays covered with over 200 puzzles suitable for 12 to 120-year-olds.

Jam-packed with mazes, dot-to-dot, picture puzzles, sudoku, word games and much, much more, discover hours of entertainment between these pages. The puzzles will give little and large brains a workout (and provide precious moments of household calm).

Pencils at the ready, as you work your way together towards the solution.

‘Warm, funny, and bursting with heart’ Rebecca Serle

‘Beautiful, moving, hopeful’ Emily Stone

Greta James is adrift. Literally.

Just after the sudden death of her mother – her most devoted fan – and weeks before the launch of her high-stakes second album, Greta James falls apart on stage. The footage quickly goes viral and she stops playing. Greta’s career is suddenly in jeopardy – the kind of jeopardy her father, Conrad, has always warned her about.

Months later, Greta – still heartbroken and very much adrift – reluctantly agrees to accompany Conrad on the Alaskan cruise her parents had booked to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. It could be their last chance to heal old wounds in the wake of shared loss. But the trip will also prove to be a voyage of discovery for them both, and for Ben Wilder, a charming historian who is struggling with a major upheaval in his own life.

In this unlikeliest of places – at sea and far from the packed venues where she usually plays – Greta must finally confront the heartbreak she’s suffered, the family hurts that run deep, and how to find her voice again.

‘Gorgeous, heartfelt’ Amanda Eyre Ward

‘Moving and beautiful’ 5* reader review

‘Thoughtful and tender and true’ Janelle Brown

‘Full of warmth, heart and music’ 5* reader review

‘Filled with music, passion, and love of all kinds’ Jill Santopolo

‘Wonderful, inspiring and delightful’ 5* reader review

‘A total delight!’ Christine Pride

‘A heartwarming story reminding you to really live’ 5* reader review

‘Full of hope . . . vibrant’ Linda Holmes

** The phenomenal Indian bestseller **
**Winner of the Tata Lit Live Best First Book of the Year Award **

‘Intense, lyrical, and powerful. This is a remarkable debut’ Jeet Thayil, author of Narcopolis and The Book of Chocolate Saints

‘Latitudes of Longing is a book to be savoured’ The Hindu

‘Bold and imaginative’ India Today


A prizewinning literary epic of the subcontinent, for readers of Yaa Gyasi’s HOMEGOING and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

In the feverish tropics of the Andaman Islands, a young botanist tends to a fragile rose he has imported to welcome his bride. Hoping their marriage will bloom in this strange life, hundreds of miles from the east coast of India, he is entranced by Chanda Devi’s fierce nature and unusual gifts; speaking to trees and the ghosts of former colonialists. These islands, she tells her adoring husband, rest on a faultline, cracked so deep into the earth that spirits cross the boundary freely. But it is not this fracture that takes a tragic bite out of their happiness.

With the family riven by heartbreak, their maid takes the chance to resolve her own past mistakes. Having abandoned her son many years before, she now traces him to Myanmar, only to find him in prison – the enemy of a brutal regime. The faultline she followed over the Indian Ocean now cuts north into Nepal, where the prisoner’s ally, an itinerant drug dealer, tries to rescue a young woman from the dancing bars of Kathmandu. It shadows his footsteps into the Karakoram mountains, where a scientist looks deep into the abyss between India and Pakistan. It rises all the way to the snow deserts, beyond the reach of nation or war, where an elder of the village waits for the return of his true love, bringing all their journeys full circle.

A breathtaking epic, Latitudes of Longing possesses the reader with a blazing sense of wonder. Shubhangi Swarup’s vision goes deeper than the human stories of the subcontinent to reveal the conscious history of the earth itself. Tender in every detail, touched with humour and profound humanity, this is a novel brimming with life, an original masterpiece.

‘Riveting, twisty, page-turning stuff‘ Guardian

A ‘best books of 2020’ pick for BBC Radio 4 Open Book, the Guardian, the Telegraph and Good Housekeeping

‘The page turner you’ve been looking for. Sly, witty and gripping . . . I devoured it’ Naomi Alderman
‘An utter joy . . . wonderfully skilled’ Sarah Perry
‘Beguiling, brilliantly creepy, and an utterly compelling read’ Claire Fuller
‘Tender, creepy and gripping’ Sunday Times
‘Spellbinding and spooky . . . a dazzling high wire act, superbly absorbing’ Sunday Mirror

When the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers.

As Dee looks back over her time in the Master’s Lodging – an eerie and ancient house – a picture of a high achieving but dysfunctional family emerges: Nick, the fiercely intelligent and powerful father; his beautiful Danish wife Mariah, pregnant with their child; and the lost little girl, Felicity, almost mute, seeing ghosts, grieving her dead mother.

But is Dee telling the whole story? Is her growing friendship with the eccentric house historian, Linklater, any cause for concern? And most of all, why is Felicity silent?

Roaming Oxford’s secret passages and hidden graveyards, Magpie Lane explores the true meaning of family – and what it is to be denied one.

‘Enthralling . . . creepy and compelling’ The Times
‘Deliciously dark’ Alexandra Shulman
‘A gorgeously satisfying triumph’ Lucy Mangan
‘A rare thing . . . simply stunning’ Daily Express
‘I was gripped . . . highly original’ Alex Clark
‘Creepy, suspenseful’ Independent
‘One of the most intriguing narrators since Notes on a Scandal‘ Sara Collins
‘Grown-up and cleverly written . . . a dizzying sense of uncertainty’ Literary Review
‘Keeps you guessing . . . a real sense of menace’ Good Housekeeping
‘Wholly beguiling’ Mick Herron
‘Dazzlingly good’ Diane Setterfield
‘Beautiful writing’ Polly Samson
‘Clever, tense and twisty’ Amanda Craig
‘Highly intelligent’ Sarah Vaughan
‘Simply brilliant!’ JP Delaney
‘Darkly atmospheric’ Jane Fallon
‘Clever and creepy’ Erin Kelly
‘Highly recommended’ Louise Candlish

The World’s Smallest Dog with the World’s Biggest Heart

Smoky the Brave is the extraordinary, touching and true story of a heroic dog and her adoptive masters in the jungles of the Pacific War. In February 1944, as Japanese military advances threatened to engulf Australasia, a tiny, four-pound Yorkshire terrier was discovered hiding in a Japanese shell scrape amidst the thick jungles of Papua New Guinea. The GIs who discovered her presumed she had been some kind of Japanese army mascot, but it soon turned out that she understood neither commands rendered in Japanese nor English. A mystery, she was adopted by Corporal William ‘Bill’ Wynne, an air-crewman with the US 5th Air Force’s 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron.

Living in Bill Wynne’s tent, sleeping on a piece of green felt salvaged from a card table,and sharing his rations, Smoky became the de facto mascot of the regiment. She went on to fly numerous photo-recce and air-sea rescue missions, cocooned in a soldier’s pack hanging next to the machine-guns used to repel marauding Japanese fighters. She was awarded eight battle stars, surviving dozens of Japanese combat raids on Papua New Guinea, and braving a typhoon that ravaged Okinawa. After saving Wynne’s life by warning of a falling shell, as their landing craft approached an enemy-held beach – a shell that killed the eight men that Wynne was standing beside – he nicknamed her the ‘angel from a foxhole’. In one of her most famous exploits Smoky parachuted using a special rig designed to fit one of the world’s smallest but toughest dogs.

In perhaps her most heroic exploit of all, Smoky ran a cable through a seventy-foot pipe no wider in places than four inches, to enable telephone lines to be run across the recently occupied airbase of Luzon. Her efforts saved hundreds of ground-crew from being exposed to enemy bombing, preventing injury and loss of life. Amongst her many other awards,she was given the PDSA’s Certificate for Animal Bravery or Devotion in 2011, a relatively new class of PDSA award.

A heartwarming tale of love, family and acceptance, Darling Blue is a simply gorgeous read…

In their townhouse in Richmond, Blue and her family are as happy and as close as can be – well, on the surface at least.

But with the arrival of a young, destitute woman hoping to escape her abusive husband, they must finally confront the rifts that keep them apart. When they welcome Delphine into their home – and their hearts – they think it’s for her benefit only. But what they don’t realise is that she will bring them together in ways they never thought possible…

SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT DARLING BLUE!

‘There were so many things that captivated me – her always wonderful writing, the gorgeous 1920s world of Richmond she evoked so beautifully and the characters who jumped right off the page and were such a complete pleasure to spend time with’
Jenny Ashcroft

‘I loved the evocative atmosphere of the 20s, the lovely characters and gorgeous descriptions of nature/turning of the seasons’
Lucinda Riley

‘Tracy’s meticulous research and lavish prose provide the reader with the complete experience. From the intriguing premise, I was caught up in the lives of these three women and invested in their stories. Tracy’s depiction of life in Richmond in the twenties was spot on and added depth to this glorious novel‘
Kathryn Hughes

‘I’ve so loved Darling Blue by Tracy Rees. Her writing is so fresh and exuberant and the characters so warm and lovely. It’s a book full of sunshine, a real treat’
Rachel Hore

‘I love Tracy’s writing; it’s full of colour and atmosphere, with sparkly dialogue and just the right pace to keep you turning the pages’
Gill Paul, author of Another Woman’s Husband

‘Darling Blue is a clever book that’s a joy to read … the drama rises by subtle, tiny increments until, at its climax, you have to remind yourself to breathe. These three women will stay with you for a long, long time’
Claire Dyer

‘Completely delightful, I loved it and the 1920s setting is sublime. Tracy writes with a warmth and authenticity that draws her readers into the delicious world she has created’
Rosanna Ley

‘I thoroughly enjoyed escaping into the delicious effervescent world of Richmond in the 1920s. Tracy has such a lovely turn of phrase. Full of vitality and warmth, Darling Blue is delightful’
Tor Udall

‘It’s a simply glorious read, one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. Tracy’s writing is so deep and wise and true. It captured me from the first word … a truly stunning novel‘
Nicola Cornick

‘The Split has everything I love in a novel. It’s hilariously funny, it’s so uplifting, and its characters are irresistibly loveable’ – BETH O’LEARY

‘Full of humour, kindness, cake and a cat, this is the novel to turn to in difficult times’ – KATIE FFORDE

Following a brutal break up, Ally flees to her dad’s house in Sheffield with her ex’s cat (who always preferred her anyway). When she realises Emily isn’t coming to win back either her or the cat, Ally takes to the sofa to mourn the future she’d planned.

After a few days’ grace, her dad calls in reinforcements – Ally’s old friend and first beard, Jeremy. Reunited, the two find solace in each other’s heartbreak and an endless supply of baked goods. But jacked up on sugar and mutual delusion, they concoct a plan to run the half marathon and win back their exes…

This seems like the perfect example of their ability to commit and better themselves. But will their exes be waiting at the finish line, or is there a whole new future on the horizon?

A brilliant, heart-warming and intensely funny story of love, heartache, friendship and family. Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes and Beth O’Leary.

~*~ PRAISE FOR THE SPLIT ~*~
‘A warm, funny, comforting read with such loveable characters!’ – RUTH JONES

‘Uplifting, warm and heartfelt, with a cast of engaging characters who quickly became my friends. A feel-good depiction of love, friendship and family, which is very funny, but with moments of true poignancy too. An absolute must-read‘ – HOLLY MILLER

‘It’s like meeting Marian Keyes and Dawn O’Porter in a cosy gay pub in Sheffield!’ MATT CAIN

‘Wise, wonderful and so much fun. I loved it!‘ – HEIDI SWAIN

‘It was pure fun. Heart-warming and adorable‘ – JULIE COHEN

‘It’s rare that a book so important to the literary canon is, at the same time, entertaining, heart-warming, and funny‘ – ANSTEY HARRIS

‘I adored The Split – a hilarious but oh-so-relatable tale of how not to handle a break-up. It made me laugh and sigh and head out for a run’ – HOLLY HEPBURN

‘An absolute JOY from start to finish. If you’re after a smart, funny romcom with characters to root for, this is one for you’ – RICHARD ROPER

‘Fun, sassy and a joy to read. I loved it!’ – EMMA COOPER

‘Such a lovely and heart-warming book. And it’s hilarious! … You’d be hard pushed to find a better group of characters to spend time with’ – SUZANNE EWART

Love The Split? Then read Laura Kay’s new heartwarming romcom, Making It, available to pre-order now!