Alex Jennings

Set in England in 1819, Thomas Shield is a master at a school near London attended by a young American boy and his friend, Charles Frant. Thomas, drawn to Frant's beautiful mother, is caught up in her family's deadly tangle of sex, money, murder and lies. At the heart of all this is the American boy, but what is the secret about him?

Harry Clifton and his wife, Emma, are rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son, Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident... but who died? Sebastian, or his best friend Bruno, the son of Don Pedro Martinez, who is is trying to bring down the esteemed Barrington family.

It is 1945 and the vote in the House of Lords as to who should inherit the Barrington family fortune has ended in a tie. The Lord Chancellor's deciding vote will cast a long shadow on the lives of Harry Clifton and Giles Barrington.

Jay Mackintosh is trapped by the memory of old familiar landscapes of his childhood, to which he longs to return. A bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-lost friend seems to provide both the key to an old mystery and a doorway into another world.

Agatha Christie has brought back her amateur detectives, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford who become entangled in murders long forgotten.

Giles Barrington must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. But is Karin truly in love with him, or is she a spy?

In this joyous and illuminating book, the million-copy bestselling author brings together an unlikely pairing to explore the story of their creative genius

What could possibly connect Prince, the great twentieth century singer songwriter, and Charles Dickens, the great writer of classics usually stuffed into the hands of adolescents too early? What could these two geniuses, one born in 1812 in England, and the other in 1950s Minneapolis, have in common?

For Nick Hornby, Dickens and Prince are two artists that compare to no others. At the young age of 24, they both had their breakthroughs, Prince with '1999' and Dickens with The Pickwick Papers. At 26, Prince released 'Purple Rain' and Dickens' Oliver Twist was published, and, by 30, both artists were huge stars.

No one else had such a relentless work ethic and produced such a staggeringly original and enormous body of work. Where did their magic come from? How did they use it? And, in the end, did it kill them?

Tracing their lives, from the early years to their relationships with women, their finances to their inability to stop working, Dickens and Prince is a brilliantly surprising and joyous uncovering of the essence of a very particular and unique type of genius.

This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that's not quite true. At its heart, it's a love story, isn't it? One spring morning, reclusive ex-movie star Lana Farrar invites a small group of her closest friends for a weekend away, on her small private island, just off the coast of Mykonos. Beneath the surface, old friendships conceal violent passions and resentments. And in forty-eight hours, one of them will be dead. But that was just the beginning... You may think you know this story. Think again.

Teddy Todd - would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot, husband, father, and grandfather, - navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.

His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the portrait of Martin Amis' extraordinary life, as a man and a writer. This novel had its birth in a death - that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his twenties, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.

What begins as a thrilling tale of romantic entanglements, family and friendship, evolves into a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die? In his search for answers, Amis surveys the great horrors of the twentieth century, and the still unfolding impact of the 9/11 attacks on the twenty-first - and shares all he has learned on how to write. The result is one of Amis' greatest achievements: a love letter to life that is at once exuberant, meditative, heartbreaking and ebullient, to be savoured and cherished for many years to come.

With an ailing father and distrustful mother Mary Lamb has a restricted life, but takes solace from her brother Charles' life. Mary falls in love with William Ireland, a bookseller, from whom Charles buys a book. They later realise that this is no ordinary book and William Ireland is no ordinary young man.

On a cold but dazzling November morning George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, prepares to visit Sarah, a prisoner and the woman he loves. As he goes about the business of the day he relives the catastrophic events of two years ago that have both bound them together and kept them apart. Making atmospheric use of its suburban setting and shot through with a plain man's unwitting poetry and rueful humour, The Light of Day is a powerful and moving tale of murder, redemption and of the discovery, for better or worse, of the hidden forces inside us.

Set in the 1980s, Nick Guest lodges with the Fedden family in London. Gerald Fedden has just entered Parliament and is hotly tipped as ministerial material. Nick witnesses the full impact of 1980s hedonism; the money, the drugs, and sex. Then the advent of AIDS and the party stops. Man Booker Prize Winner. X rated, explicit sexual content.

Lionel Asbo - a very violent but not very successful young criminal - is going about his morning duties in a London prison when he learns that he has just won a fortune on the National Lottery. This is not necessarily good news for his ward and nephew, the orphaned Des Pepperdine, who still has reason to fear his uncle's implacable vengeance.

Sir Giles Barrington is now a minister of the crown and looks set for even higher office. Then his political career is thrown off balance by none other than his old adversary, Major Alex Fisher, who is selected to stand against him at the general election. But who wins this time?

Much-quoted and greatly loved, these sonnets have given rise to a great deal of debate as to the identity of the Dark Lady and the extent to which the content may be taken as autobiographical.

Tragedy engulfs the Clifton family when one of them receives a shocking diagnosis that will throw all their lives into turmoil.

Britain in the 1970s was beset by unrest and unemployment, as inflation soared, fuel was scarce, and hooliganism was on the rise. And for Watford FC, the outlook was even gloomier. Rundown and rat-infested, Watford were an ailing side with holes in their kit and barely enough fans to fill a stand. Of the 92 clubs in the Football League, spread across four divisions, Watford were in 92nd place. Meanwhile, Elton John was the most successful rockstar in the world. With six-inch platforms, spangled jumpsuits, and peroxide hair, he was glamorous, gay, and seemingly a world away from the council house in Pinner where he had supported Watford FC as a child. Many assumed he would move to America. Instead, he bought the football club.

Watford Forever is the remarkable story of Elton John's ownership of Watford FC and its transformational journey to the top of the First Division under iconic manager Graham Taylor. Perhaps most remarkably, four of the same players who had been written off as has-beens went with them all the way from the bottom to the top. Inspiring and infectiously funny, this is a tribute to football's unlikeliest friendship as Elton John and Taylor, a straight-talking former fullback with a love of Vera Lynn, beat the odds and their personal demons to save a club and a community. Immersed in the grime and glamour of '70s Britain, Watford Forever is one of sport's great underdog stories and a love letter to the beautiful game.

Britain in the 1970s was beset by unrest and unemployment, as inflation soared, fuel was scarce, and hooliganism was on the rise. And for Watford FC, the outlook was even gloomier. Rundown and rat-infested, Watford were an ailing side with holes in their kit and barely enough fans to fill a stand. Of the 92 clubs in the Football League, spread across four divisions, Watford were in 92nd place. Meanwhile, Elton John was the most successful rockstar in the world. With six-inch platforms, spangled jumpsuits, and peroxide hair, he was glamorous, gay, and seemingly a world away from the council house in Pinner where he had supported Watford FC as a child. Many assumed he would move to America. Instead, he bought the football club.

Watford Forever is the remarkable story of Elton John's ownership of Watford FC and its transformational journey to the top of the First Division under iconic manager Graham Taylor. Perhaps most remarkably, four of the same players who had been written off as has-beens went with them all the way from the bottom to the top. Inspiring and infectiously funny, this is a tribute to football's unlikeliest friendship as Elton John and Taylor, a straight-talking former fullback with a love of Vera Lynn, beat the odds and their personal demons to save a club and a community. Immersed in the grime and glamour of '70s Britain, Watford Forever is one of sport's great underdog stories and a love letter to the beautiful game.