Playing James

Clemmie Colshannon's life appears to be on a fast track to nowhere - having lost her job and her boyfriend on the same day, she's retreated to the bosom of her family in Cornwall to recover.Fortunately, life chez Colshannon is never dull. Her mother has taken over the amateur dramatics society and is busy roping the locals into a production of Calamity Jane; brother Barney is going to extreme lengths to impress a girl; and sister Holly, who is a reporter on the Bristol Gazette, needs help with a story. Fellow journalist Emma McKellan, who writes the social diary, has gone missing days before she was due to be married. As Holly and Clemmie search for clues as to her whereabouts in an attempt to reunite her with her fiance, it's not long before the drama turns into a crisis and the whole family is forced to flee to the south of France with an ex-convict hot on their heels ...Wonderful characters, sparkling dialogue and a fabulously funny story make Sarah Mason's third novel unmissable.

In August 1955 two men fought on the corner of Frith Street and Old Compton Street, Soho. From the dreadful injuries they inflicted on each other it easily could have been a hanging matter, but ironically it became known as 'The Fight that Never Was'. It was, however, to have enormous repercussions in the battle for control of Soho and its clubs and for the bookmakers' pitches on the racecourses. It also led to the inexorable rise of the Kray twins. One of the men fighting was Jack Spot, the self-proclaimed defender of the Jewish community against Fascism. The other was the half Italian Albert Dimes, the right hand man of Spot's one-time friend and later nemesis Billy Hill, rightly described as the nearest Britain has ever had to a mastermind.Meticulously researched, including interviews with the survivors of the era, this is the story of the rise and fall of Spot from an East End background and Hill from a criminal family in Holborn, as well as that of their spiritual mentor Darby Sabini, the King of the Racecourses in the 1920s and 1930s and his successors Alf and Harry White.

SacrificeWhen her mother passed away, Meg Parker was forced to sacrifice her chance at love for the sake of her family. She hopes she will be able to live a full life once again after her father remarries - until tragedy strikes a second time. Suddenly, Meg is facing a darker future altogether.StrugglesLady Alice Langton is travelling the Yorkshire Dales, spreading the suffragette message. Florence Brookes, the daughter of a prosperous grocer, accompanies her, impassioned by the cause but seeking distraction from her own troubles. Appalled by their lack of domestic skills, Meg decides to flee her old life and joins the two women as their maidservant as they make their way to London.StrengthWhen Meg is reunited with her old flame, she is hesitant about her feelings for him - not least because of the rift this causes between her and Lady Alice. It's not until Florence's actions land them in jeopardy that Meg realises she must find the courage to make a heartbreaking choice.

In 1980 seven-year-old Sabine Kuegler and her family went to live in a remote jungle area of West Papua among the recently discovered Fayu - a tribe untouched by modern civilisation. Her childhood was spent hunting, shooting poisonous spiders with arrows and chewing on pieces of bat-wing in place of gum. She also learns how brutal nature can be - and sees the effect of war and hatred on tribal peoples. After the death of her Fayu-brother, Ohri, Sabine decides to leave the jungle and, aged seventeen, she goes to a boarding school in Switzerland - a traumatic change for a girl who acts and feels like one of the Fayu. 'Fear is something I learnt here' she says. 'In the Lost Valley, with a lost tribe, I was happy. In the rest of the world it was I who was lost.'Here is Sabine Kuegler's remarkable true story of a childhood lived out in the Indonesian jungle, and the struggle to conform to European society that followed.

What would inspire a man to give up his job? Lie to his friends? Avoid his parents? Con his girlfriend? And shell out tens of thousands of his own cash? Only to spend months in a darkened room in South London, looking for the money shot and hanging out with people named after puns?'Anonymous' never thought he would become a porn director. His dad's a vicar and his mother bakes cakes for the WI. But when his career as a session musician stalls, he decides it's time for plan B. So begins his first year as a rookie director. Trying to film a secret orgy in a five-star hotel can be tricky, especially when a plane load of flight attendants try and join in. Then there's your temperamental cameraman and the porn star who can't get it up. And when exactly is the right time to tell your gorgeous but sensitive girlfriend what you really do for a living? Full of hilarious and downright eye-popping stories, TOUCH WOOD is the first book to expose the secret world of the UK porn industry. Shocking and deliciously naughty, it is very, very funny and sure to keep you up all night . . .

One of the most fabulous treasures of the Renaissance, the Borgia Chalice, carries with it a dark aura - for legend has it that the notorious Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, could use this cup to poison his enemies, yet drink from it himself without harm.Security expert Tim Lacy has no superstitious fear of the chalice's supposed powers, and nor do the six people who drink from it after Lacy buys it for a client. But within the hour, four of those people are dead, all of them art critics who had mercilessly attacked the chalice's late owner, Gregor Santori, as a fraud. Yet Santori's son and daughter, who also drank from the cup, are unaffected.Is it possible that this is revenge from beyond the grave? Lacy sets out to unearth the truth in Rome, where revelations of sordid Vatican politics have remarkable contemporary echoes. Before long Lacy finds himself racing between the art establishments of two continents in pursuit of a criminal more ruthless than he could ever have known...

Taras clutched her hand and planted kisses all over it. 'Katya, I'll do anything. Anything at all, if you'll just give me another chance.' But can the hapless Taras win Katya's stubborn Russian heart as their love story plays out against the best and worst London can offer? And exactly what is going on between Mami, Taras's wildly eccentric Balkan mother, and the dapper Mr Banerjee? Meanwhile, over at the offices of the atrociously named IBS, the Yanks are threatening to take over; and soon Taras discovers he might just be the only one who actually gives a damn. All in all, it's a lot to ask of a lovable accident-prone klutz, who'd really much prefer to daydream about the gorgeous but resistant Katya . . .

Sabin FitzSimon, disgraced son of an earl, has the opportunity to rebuild his career and salvage his reputation when the knight Edmund Strongfist leaves for the Holy Land to offer his sword and services to the King of Jerusalem. He asks Sabin to join him.Sabin is warned to keep away from Strongfist's daughter Annais, which he does but with a feeling of regret, for he is attracted to Annais's spirit, her courage and wonderful harp playing.The Holy Land brings its own share of trials for Sabin. The land is in a turmoil of constant warfare and following the capture of the King, Sabin is forced to take command of the fortress of Montabard and marry its recently widowed chateleine.