Thomas Judd

September 1940. As the skies split apart and bombs rain down on London, it's all the staff at the famed Buckingham Hotel can do to keep their guests in the luxury they're accustomed to, and evoke the magic of the Grand ballroom for them each night.

Home on leave and still reeling from the tragic events at Dunkirk, the dashing Raymond de Guise struggles to define his role in this new world, and to do his duty both to his country, and his beloved wife Nancy- who needs him now more than ever.

With profiteers skulking the London streets, and devious rivals plotting the Buckingham's downfall, the hotel staff must all hold onto what matters most- and decide where their loyalties truly lie.

As the bombing intensifies and Christmas fast approaches, somehow the show must go on...

We've learned that the way to get ahead is through strong will, grit and naked ambition. The belief that self-interest makes the world go round has served us well: it has helped make our society more affluent. But does that premise still hold?

 In Beyond Self-Interest, Krzysztof Pelc argues that those who prosper increasingly do so by spurning prosperity, or by convincing others that they are pursuing passion, purpose, love of craft - anything but their own self-advancement. From the Puritans, who followed a religious calling and yet made a killing; to the fastest-growing firms of today, who claim to be 'changing to the world' through 'doing what they love', declaring passion over profit is a profitable move. A bold, incisive and original work that draws on three centuries of intellectual thought, Beyond Self-Interest is a book to upend how we relate to capitalism. What if the true driver of market society is not the appearance of self-interest, but its opposite? 

London, 1932. Thomas James Wise is the toast of the literary establishment. A prominent collector and businessman, he is renowned on both sides of the Atlantic for unearthing the most stunning first editions and bringing them to market. Pompous and fearsome, with friends in high places, he is one of the most powerful men in the field of rare books. One night, two young booksellers - one a dishevelled former communist, the other a martini-swilling fan of detective stories - stumble upon a strange discrepancy. It will lead them to suspect Wise and his books are not all they seem.

Inspired by the vogue for Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, the pair harness the latest developments in forensic analysis to crack the case, but find its extent is greater than they ever could have imagined. By the time they are done, their investigation will have rocked the book world to its core. This is the true story of unlikely friends coming together to expose the literary crime of the century, and of a maverick bibliophile who forged not only books but an entire life, erasing his past along the way.

Years have passed since Wulf and Tilda vanished from the County. Alice and Tom have given up hope of ever seeing them again - until a terrible enemy from the past forces them to take drastic action, and reach out through time in a bid for help. Now Wulf faces the greatest and most powerful demon who has ever walked the Dark: the Fiend. He will have to use all his powers - and gather some new ones - to have even a chance of survival....

When young novice monk Brother Beowulf is sent to spy on Spook Johnson, he has no idea of the trouble he's about to find himself in. Johnson boasts to Wulf of his battles against demonic creatures, and even seems to imprisons local witches, though Wulf is sceptical - not least because the church has taught him that Spooks are a force for evil, and not to be trusted.

But then the monsters Johnson claims to fight turn out to be very real indeed, and soon Wulf is forced to seek help from another young Spook, Tom Ward, who terrifies and charms him in equal measure. But the forces of the dark are many, and it's not long until Wulf and Tom realise they've bitten off far more than they can chew. A horrifying new enemy is rising - and only Wulf can stop it.

Wulf has left behind his life in the monastery and is now the Apprentice to Spook Johnson, assisting him in protecting the County from denizens of the dark - which mainly involves Wulf acting as bait. But Wulf is captured by Hrothgar, a giant with abilities to conjure subservient creatures - or tulpas - from his imagination. And he strongly suspects that Wulf has these abilities too . . . Wulf begrudgingly begins training with his new master, but meanwhile, something dangerous is afoot in the County.

Wulf's old friends, Tom and Alice, have been imprisoned by an all-powerful witch and her brain sucking minions. And together with Tilda, Tom and Alice's daughter, he needs to rescue them from Circe's enchanted lair before it's too late...

Wulf must face his greatest enemy yet - and this time, he's all alone . . .  Wulf is at war - war against the Dark. As Pan's soldier and champion, it's his responsibility to fight for what is right. An early Winter has come to the County, threatening its people with starvation - but there is an even more dangerous foe to face. A demon is trying to become the next ruler of the dark. He has many names but one of them is Loki, the Trickster God. Loki has many, terrible powers - but his most deadly weapon is the one that controls all Wulf's own power . . .

When group of commuters and tube workers witness a fiery apocalypse overtaking London, they make their escape through a service tunnel where they meet a man dressed in a wolf's cloak. He tells them other people have arrived here down the ages. None of them have returned, except one - who travels between the two worlds at will. The group begin a quest to find this one survivor who holds the key to their return.

To overcome a crisis of melancholy after the death of his father, Montaigne withdrew to his country estates and began to write, and in the highly original essays that resulted he discussed themes such as fathers and children, conscience and cowardice, coaches and cannibals, and, above all, himself. On Some Lines of Virgil opens out into a frank discussion of sexuality and makes a revolutionary case for the equality of the sexes. In On Experience he superbly propounds his thoughts on the right way to live, while other essays touch on issues of an age struggling with religious and intellectual strife, with France torn apart by civil war. These diverse subjects are united by Montaigne's distinctive voice - that of a tolerant man, sceptical, humane, often humorous and utterly honest in his pursuit of the truth.

In the heart of Elizabethan England young actor, Richard Shakespeare, is struggling to make his way in a company dominated by his estranged older brother, William. As the growth of theatre blooms, their rivalry – and Richard’s onetime gratitude, sours and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty.

London in the 1980s. Liz and Neville Hodgkinson lived with their sons, Tom and Will. Then Neville had a revelation. Hordes of white-clad Yogis began meditating in the living room. While Tom took it all in his stride, the arrival of the Brahma Kumaris threw Will into crisis. And if the end of the world weren’t enough, he was also hopelessly in love with his best friend’s sister.

Before Isabelle I knew nothing of sex. Before Isabelle I knew nothing of freedom. Before Isabelle I knew nothing of life. Paris in the early Seventies. Sam, an American student, meets a woman in a bookshop. Isabelle is enigmatic, beautiful, older and, unlike Sam, experienced in love's many contradictions. Sam is instantly smitten - but wary of the wedding ring on her finger. What begins as a regular arrangement in Isabelle's tiny Parisian apartment transforms into a true affair of the heart, and one which lasts for decades to come. Isabelle in the Afternoon is a novel that questions what we seek, what we find, what we settle for - and shows how love, when not lived day in, day out, can become the passion of a lifetime.

For nineteen-year-old Billy and his little brother, Oscar, their mother's death in a bungled street robbery is the most random, tragic and stupid thing that could possibly have happened to them. Now Billy must be both mother and father to Oscar, and despite what people think, he knows he is more than up to the job, thank you very much. X rated, explicit sexual content.

For Thaniel Steepleton, an unexpected posting to Tokyo can't come at a better moment. The London fog has made him ill and doctor's orders are to get out. His brief is strange: the staff at the British Legation have been seeing ghosts, and his first task is to find out what's going on. But staying with his closest friend Keita Mori in Yokohama, Thaniel starts to experience ghostly happenings himself. For reasons he won't say, Mori is frightened. Then he vanishes.

Meanwhile, something strange is happening in a frozen labour camp in northern Japan. Takiko Pepperharrow, an old friend of Mori's, must investigate. As ghosts appear across Tokyo and the weather turns bizarrely electrical, Thaniel grows convinced that it all has something to do with Mori's disappearance - and that Mori might be in far more trouble than any of them first thought.

Written by Naoki Higishida when he was only 13, this remarkable book explains the often baffling behaviour of autistic children and shows the way they think and feel - such as about the people around them, time and beauty, noise, and themselves.

Karin Müller of the German Democratic Republic's People's Police is called to a factory in the east of the country. A man has been murdered - bound and trapped as a fire burned nearby. As more victims surface, it becomes clear that there is a cold-blooded killer taking their revenge. Soon Müller begins to realise that in order to solve these terrible crimes, she will need to delve into the region's dark past.

Following a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, stonemason Andrew Ziminski has worked on many of Britain's greatest monuments, from the Roman ruins of Bath to Salisbury Cathedral's spire to St Paul's, and his three decades of work give a unique perspective on the warp and weft of English history, nature and geology.

From the first stone megaliths put up by Neolithic farmers, through the Roman baths and temples, the Anglo-Saxon and Norman churches, to the engine houses, mills and aqueducts of the Industrial revolution, in The Stonemason Andrew journeys around by way of river, road and sea to explore the routes that ideas, migrants and building materials took to create some of Britain's most iconic historic buildings and ancient monuments.

Flora Mackie was twelve when she first crossed the Arctic Circle on her father's whaling ship. Now she is returning to the frozen seas as head of her own expedition. Geologist Jakob de Beyn joins a rival expedition, and when Jakob and Flora's paths cross, it is a fateful meeting in a place where violent extremes exist side by side.

Miles from anywhere, the isolated mansion Darracott Place is presided over by the irascible Lord Darracott. The recent drowning of his eldest son has done nothing to improve his temper. For now he must send for the unknown offspring of the uncle whom the family are never permitted to mention. Yet none of that beleaguered family are prepared for the arrival of the weaver's brat and heir apparent ...

In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. When the watch saves Thaniel's life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori - a kind, lonely Japanese immigrant.

Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library, desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry. As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control until Thaniel is torn between loyalties, futures and opposing geniuses.