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"Haunting, immersive, and seething with dark magic."―Alexis Henderson Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022! In the 1920s, a lush, decadent gothic tale unfolds as a young woman slips into a glamorous world filled with illicit magic, tantalizing romance, and murder. On Crow Island, people whisper that real magic lurks just below the surface. But magic doesn’t interest Annie Mason. Not after it stole her future. She’s on the island only to settle her late father’s estate and, hopefully, reconnect with her long-absent best friend, Beatrice, who fled their dreary lives for a more glamorous one. Yet Crow Island is brimming with temptation, and the most mesmerizing may be her enigmatic n...
‘A spooky rollercoaster of a book. Lots of twists and turns – I loved it’ Simon McCleave ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ No one expected them to go there. The question is: will any of them leave?
A stunning psychological thriller from the author of After the Eclipse, for readers of Ruth Ware and S.K. Tremeyne. He won’t forget her... Erin and her brother Alex were the last children abducted by ‘the Father’, a serial killer who only ever took pairs of siblings. She escaped, but her brother was never seen again. Traumatised, Erin couldn’t remember anything about her ordeal, and the Father was never caught. Eighteen years later, Erin has done her best to put the past behind her. But then she meets Harriet. Harriet’s young cousins were the Father’s first victims and, haunted by their deaths, she is writing a book about the disappearances and is desperate for an interview with the only survivor. At first, Erin wants nothing to do with her. But then she starts receiving sinister gifts, her house is broken into, and she can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched. After all these years, Erin believed that the Father was gone, but now she begins to wonder if he was only waiting... A tense and emotive thriller, The Final Child is a powerful tale of a survivor being forced to confront her painful past.
A stunning, operatic, epic drama, like no other. Meet Hel, an ordinary teenager - and goddess of the Underworld. Why is life so unfair? Hel tries to make the bets of it, creating gleaming halls in her dark kingdom and welcoming the dead who she is forced to host for eternity. Until eternity itself is threatened. Francesca's first and wonderful foray into teen.
Hack and Whack - two angelic looking Viking toddler twins - are on the attack! As they go marauding around their village, upsetting the apple carts, little do they know there is a force far more powerful than they: their mum! The story ends on the terrible two being plunged into a cold bath! Gloriously funny, slapstick, fast paced action from the queen of funny.
Discover over 300 seasonal book recommendations in the ultimate reading list for book lovers everywhere. ----- 'I will be giving this book to everyone I know' - Elizabeth Day 'Francesca Beauman writes about the books she loves with irresistible passion, knowledge and warmth ... This is the best kind of reading celebration' - Rachel Joyce ----- Spanning the dreary, cold days of January to the first flushes of spring and then the blazing August heat, bibliophile Francesca Beauman offers up a wealth of book recommendations. From The Count of Monte Cristo to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet, each has been selected to chime with a particular time of year and provide a richer reading experience. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this charming guide will delight, inspire and seriously extend your 'To Be Read' list!
'Addictive' Stylist 'Sultry' Elle 'Shimmers with suspense' Daily Mail 'Sizzling' Esquire Summer in Paris. Leah, bored of tedious dead-end jobs, is intrigued to spot a job advert posted by the famous author Michael Young: 'Writer Seeks Assistant'. After an unconventional interview, Michael invites Leah to spend summer in the south of France with his family. But as she begins her work transcribing his diaries of his debauched youth in 1960s Soho, the lines of past and present, truth and deceit, begin to blur, and Leah has to question what it is that Michael really sees in her. A novel that challenges us to both question what we see, and what others see in us. 'A devastatingly compelling new voice in literary fiction' Louise O'Neill 'Devastatingly witty, compulsively readable . . . like Sally Rooney meeting Martin Amis in Paris' Francine Toon, author of Pine
If you grow up in a world where wrinkles are practically illegal, going bald is cause for a mental breakdown, and women over size zero are encouraged to shoot themselves (immediately), what the hell do you do if you’re, gasp ... DISABLED? Whatever body you’re born into, the pressure to be normal is everywhere. But have you ever met a normal person? What do they look like? Where do they live? What do they eat for breakfast? And what the **** does normal mean anyway? This is the award-winning wobbly comedian Francesca Martinez’s funny, personal, and universal story of how she learned to stick two shaky fingers up to the crazy expectations of a world obsessed with being ‘normal’.
Shortlisted for the Millia Davenport Publication Award Experimental Fashion traces the proliferation of the grotesque and carnivalesque within contemporary fashion and the close relation between fashion and performance art, from Lady Gaga's raw meat dress to Leigh Bowery's performance style. The book examines the designers and performance artists at the turn of the twenty-first century whose work challenges established codes of what represents the fashionable body. These innovative people, the book argues, make their challenges through dynamic strategies of parody, humour and inversion. It explores the experimental work of modern designers such as Georgina Godley, Bernhard Willhelm, Rei Kawakubo and fashion designer, performance artist, and club figure Leigh Bowery. It also discusses the increased centrality of experimental fashion through the pop phenomenon, Lady Gaga.
'Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and heartfelt - Mother Ship is a beautifully crafted, warts-and-all love letter to our wonderful NHS' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt After her identical twin girls are born ten weeks prematurely, Francesca Segal finds herself sitting vigil in the 'mother ship' of neonatal intensive care, all romantic expectations of new parenthood obliterated. As each day brings a fresh challenge for her and her babies, Francesca makes a temporary life among a band of mothers who are vivid, fearless, and inspiring, taking care not only of their children but of one another. Mother Ship is a hymn to the sustaining power of women's friendships, and a loving celebration of the two small girls - and their mother - who defy the odds. A comforting and encouraging read, especially for others enduring the same experience. 'A heart-wrenching insight into what must have been such a fragile, overwhelming and terrifying time - yet there's humour in there too. Beautiful' Giovanna Fletcher 'A beautiful, lyrical memoir that navigates the unpredictable landscape of NICU and the will to survive' Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness