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On the First day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you….

One book that’s perfect for any stocking

A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire by Charles Dickens

Who better to curl up with this Christmas than the master story-teller himself? This collection, published in its entirety for the first time since 1852, offers up tales of romance, theft, justice, ghosts and family reunions.

Paperback * Hesperus Press * £6.99

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On the Second day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you….

 Two Books You’re Unlikely To See Elsewhere

Italian Joy by Carla Coulson

A feast of all things Florentine! Carla did what many of us only dream of….giving up a well-paid job to go and find some passion and excitement in Italy. Falling in love with Florence, she settled there and this book is a celebration of the streets, bars, food and people which gave her a new joy in life.  A very funkily designed book, with lots of grainy photos of gesticulating Italians and sumptuous architectural detail.

Hardback * Penguin Lantern * £24.99

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

A book for people whose God is the book and whose places of worship are the wonderful shops (if I may say so) that sell them. Lewis Buzbee’s incredibly charming book is not unlike one of the eccentric atmospheric treasure troves he describes, with the chapters rambling through many related angles on his overriding theme—the love of those proper bookshops where browsing is encouraged, where coffee brews, where staff and customers chat about the books they love and hate and where you never know what you might find. If only Bath had a place like that….

Hardback * Graywolf Press * £10.99

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On the Third day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you….

Three Memorable Memoirs 

Nature’s Engraver—A Life of Thomas Bewick: Jenny Uglow

In this illustrated biography, we get an insight into the story of the farmer’s son from Tyneside who revolutionized wood-engraving and book illustration, producing a field-guide of British Birds for ordinary people, with astonishing beauty and accuracy.

Paperback * Faber & Faber * £9.99 

Gadfly in Russia: Alan Sillitoe

A fascinating account of Sillitoe’s journey across Russia in 1967 in a boxy blue Peugeot, with his “official escort” who became a close friend. He recounts their adventures in Russia’s vast landscape – with insights into the history, people and politics of the time. Sillitoe is the author of the hugely successful “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”.

Hardback * JR Books Ltd * £16.99 

Barefaced Lies & Boogie Woogie Boasts: Jools Holland

We’re not celebrity-biography-crazy at Mr B’s but when a genuine contemporary music genius like Jools Holland jots down some tales from his life, we’re first in the queue. Crammed full of stories from the days he was Up the Junction to Later and brimming over with his opinions on music and the industry.

Hardback * Michael Joseph Ltd * £18.99

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On the Fourth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you…. 

Four Very Different Christmassy CDs  

Medieval Christmas: The Orlando Consort

If you just can’t take any more “Slade” this Christmas, then this is just the tonic for you. Gorgeous and unusual carols and feast day music from 10th-16th century ranging from sparkly to serene. Put down the shopping bags and relax into a medieval Christmas.

Single CD * Harmonia Mund * £14

The Swingle Singers: Unwrapped

The latest offering from this zany multi-national eight-piece vocal combo who, as ever, use their voices to reach the parts that normally only instruments reach. Every note is sung making this the ultimate a cappella Christmas disc. 16 seasonal favourites from “In the Bleak Midwinter” to “Santa Baby” and just about everything in between (except, mysteriously, no Swingle Bell Rock!).

Single CD * Signum Classics * £14

17th Century Christmas Eve: with Susanne Rydén & Bell’Arte Salzburg

A new release for Christmas from Mr B’s music label favourites, Winter & Winter. Soprano Susanne Rydén and Austrian ensemble Bell’Arte Salzburg transport us to a lebenskuchen laden, clove-scented wintry wonderland with their rendition of a 17th Century Germanic Christmas eve concert.

Single CD * Winter & Winter * £15

It’s Snowing on My Piano: Bugge Wesseltoft

If there’s one thing the Germans know how to do, it’s dish out the Christmas atmosphere. So here’s a funky award-winning album of piano jazz interpretations of traditional Christmas tracks. Perfect for some different and more contemporary feeling Christmas music to accompany the present-opening. The long-awaited sequel to Bugge’s marching tune classic “It’s raining on My Parade” (Ok, I made that bit up.)

Single CD *ACT *£14

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On the Fifth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you…. 

Five Prize-Winning Books

The Nobel Prize for Literature

The Grass is Singing: Doris Lessing

Lessing’s first book, set in Rhodesia, had an instant global impact.  The story of Mary’s failed marriage and her destructive affair with a black farmhand, it is also a devastating parable of colonialism and the white presence in Africa.

Paperback * Harpercollins *£7.99

The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Rajiv Chandrasekaran

A shocking analysis of failings and incompetence of the US’s reconstruction effort in Iraq from the former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief.  Graham Greene’s The Quiet American writ large.

Hardback * Bloomsbury * £12.99

The Orange Prize for Fiction (by Women)

Half of a Yellow Sun: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Five characters journey through colonial disintegration and the savage Biafran civil war.  Political and moral issues intersect, confuse and intensify the mix of sex, love and betrayal.

Paperback * Harperperennial * £7.99

The Somerset Maugham Award (for best writer under 35)

The Amnesia Clinic: James Scudamore

Two teenage boys set off in search of a missing mother against the lush backdrop of Ecuador and some serious make-believe.  But the transformative power of the imagination has to be balanced by reality or bad stuff happens.

Paperback * Vintage * £7.99

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (for novelist & translator)

The Book of Chameleons: Jose Eduardo Agualusa (translated by Daniel Hahn)

A Portuguese/Angolan magical realist novel narrated by a lizard about a man who sells new pasts.  A beautiful, original novel about the unreliability of memory.

Paperback * Arcadia Books * £7.99

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On the Sixth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you….

Team B’s Six Favourite Reads This Year

Juliette’s pick

Rebecca: Daphne Du Maurier

I know, I know, I can’t believe I’d never read this before. Set in windswept Cornwall, it’s a truly gothic novel with repressed anger, jealousy, passion, incredible suspense and some beautifully evocative scenic descriptions. The perfect haunting novel to read (or re-read) this winter. (Fans should also see The Daphne Du Maurier Companion edited by Helen Taylor)

Paperback * Virago * £7.99

Harvey’s pick

The Total Library (Non-fiction 1922–1986): J.L.Borges

A collection of reflections, essays, reviews, and other typically brief miscellany from the master short story teller and most erudite of readers.  I ration myself to one a day.

Paperback * Penguin Classics * £12.99

Nic’s pick

What Was Lost: Catherine O’Flynn

A fabulous debut novel deftly combining humour and sadness. Involving a ten year-old self-professed private detective and her toy monkey, an array of characters (suspicious and otherwise) at Green Oaks shopping centre and two cleverly connecting plots that are 20 years apart.

Paperback * Tindal Street Press * £8.99

Caroline’s pick

Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with “Franz Ferdinand”: Alex Kapranos

Both insightful and anecdotal, this travelogue from Franz Ferdinand’s singer and guitarist Alex Kapranos charts just some of the weird, wonderful and sometimes slightly unsavoury culinary tastes and traditions he encounters on his travels with the band.

Paperback * Penguin * £7.99

The Book Monkey’s pick

The Raw Shark Texts: Steven Hall

And now for something completely different! A brilliantly inventive debut that propels you on a high-octane labyrinthine mystery. No monkeys in it (a missed opportunity) but features Eric Sanderson, Ian the cat and all the previous Eric Sandersons. Intrigued?? (“Ian the Cat” badges available from Mr B’s on request.)

Paperback * Canongate * £7.99

Vlashka’s pick

Scaredy Squirrel makes a friend: Melanie Watt

(Picked, we fear, more for subject-matter than literary merit) I like this because it’s all about a squirrel who is too scared to come down from his tree. I like scaring squirrels. Teehee.

Hardback * Catnip Publishing * £9.99

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On the Seventh day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you…. 

Seven Snowy Stocking-Fillers

The Wrong Kind of Snow: The Complete Daily Companion to the British Weather: Robert Penn and Antony Woodward

Facts, amusing historical anecdotes, British Rail excuses and of course Michael Fish’s embarrassing “Hurricane? What hurricane?” incident - a book to celebrate all that makes us obsessed with the weather and why we never fail to find it interesting!

Hardback * Hodder * £14.99

The Christmas Letters: Simon Hoggart (the Ultimate Collection of Round Robin Letters)

Round robins are the reality TV of the Christmas card world.  Simon Hoggart's collection of the best of the best is excruciatingly, toe-curlingly good.

Paperback * Atlantic Books * £7.99

The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy’s Last Year: Jay Parini

In his dying year, trapped between his controlling, materialistic wife and his overbearingly loyal followers, Tolstoy makes a dramatic final flight from his home but is too ill to continue beyond a tiny country station. Based on the diaries of those closest to him it’s a wonderful fictionalised account of a gentle man struggling with his conscience.

Paperback * Canongate * £8.99

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name: Vendela Vida

A perfect “toast a marshmallow, curl-up by the fire and read it in one sitting” novel. After her father dies (and she discovers he wasn’t her father after all!) Clarissa Iverton sets off on a frosty journey of discovery from New York to Helsinki and then to the Arctic Circle. Lots of chilling and sparse prose which is cleverly evocative of the fascinating landscape it’s set in.

Paperback * Atlantic Books * £7.99

Prairie Home Christmas: Garrison Keillor

A first UK audiobook compiling extracts from the long-runnning Prairie Home radio broadcasts (the subject of a major movie in 2006). The ingenuous, witty tales of Christmas goings on in Keillor’s trademark fictionalised provincial America are so full of seasonal charm that you expect Bing and Perry to march on at any moment.

Audio CD * Hodder Audio * £14.99

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas: Agatha Christie

Poirot’s most seasonal, and perhaps most remarkable, case sees him in fine form both at the dinner table and on the sleuthing trail.  This is a wonderful facsimile hardback edition with a lovely snowy cover.

Hardback * Harper Collins * £12.99

Escape from the Antarctic: Ernest Shackleton

The classic true story of the survivors of the “Endurance”, marooned on an island in the Antarctic. Gorgeous pocket-sized book in the twenty-book “Great Journeys” series by Penguin.

Paperback * Penguin * £4.99

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On the Eighth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you…. 

Eight Nature-Inspired Delights

How to be Wild: Simon Barnes

In his year long journey through the wild Barnes contemplates not only nature but our place in it and how it influences us culturally and psychologically, historically, even philosophically.

Hardback  * Short Books  * £14.99

The Wild Places: Robert Macfarlane 

We seem to have forgotten that much of Britain is still a wild and extremely beautiful place.  Macfarlane takes us to the places we have forgotten and describes them in such a way that you won't want to go on holiday abroad again.

Hardback  * Granta Books  * £18.99

A Dream of Jewelled Fishes—Reflections on Angling: John Aston

A fishing life and an exploration and description of the psychology and passion of angling - for anglers (obviously) but so beautifully written as to be accessible also to the non-fisherman. 

Hardback * Aurum Press * £12.99

The Apple Source Book: Angela King & Sue Clifford

A gorgeous, mouth-watering celebration of nearly 3,000 varieties of apple we can grow in these islands, with their distinctive flavours, uses, places of origin, stories and associated customs.

Hardback * Hodder & Stoughton * £16.99

Wildwood—A Journey Through Trees: Roger Deakin

Deakin’s love for all things wild is clearly tangible, but his prose preserves a human and accessible scale throughout. This risks changing your view of the humble tree forever.

Hardback * Hamish Hamilton * £20

A Venetian Bestiary: Jan Morris

The doyen of travel writers takes a cultural history tour of Venice through the prism of the many magical animals that have inspired and transformed it.

Hardback * Faber & Faber * £12.99

Flights of Fancy: Peter Tate

A fascinating look into birds in legends, myths and susperstitions. Beautifully illustrated, it’s a lovely gift for any bird or nature lover.

Hardback * Random House * £10

Crow Country: Mark Cocker

A paean to the life of crows and their place in our culture.  A brilliant example of how one person's passion can be transmitted and felt through the power of beautiful writing. 

Hardback  * Jonathan Cape * £16.99

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On the Ninth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you…. 

Nine Highlights from Mr B’s 2007 Countries of the Month

Canada 

The Door: Margaret Atwood

This is Atwood’s first book of poetry for over 10 years. These sparkling poems interrogate the certainties we build our lives on and range from lyric to ironic, from personal to political.

Hardback * Virago Press * £9.99 

Argentina 

Kiss of the Spider Woman: Manuel Puig

A novel of friendship and betrayal in an Argentine jail—with a wicked twist in the tail.

Paperback * Vintage * £7.99

Portugal 

The Migrant Painter of Birds: Lidia Jorge

Contemporary novel written in a beautifully poetic style concerning the gradual break-up of a family, its property and its position in society.

Hardback * Harvill Press * £14.99

Sweden 

Pippi Longstocking : Astrid Lindgren (Illustrated by Lauren Child)

Any girl who lives with a monkey is a winner in our eyes! The original “girl-power” heroine has been given a modern face-lift by Lauren Child, whose illustrations perfectly suit spirited young Pippi.

Ages 8+

Hardback * OUP * £14.99

Egypt 

The Yacoubian Building: Alaa Al Aswany

Colourful characters in a dilapidated building bring together the contradictions of modern Cairo.

Paperback * Harperperennial * £7.99

Japan 

After Dark: Haruki Murakami

The latest from the master of the imagination. The familiar can become unfamiliar after midnight as he takes us on some strange nocturnal happenings…

Hardback * Harvill Secker * £14.99

New Zealand 

Mister Pip: Lloyd Jones

The booker winner that never was…Short-listed for the award, this had book-bloggers (and many Mr B’s customers) urging it to win but it sadly lost out. The story of Matilda, a girl in a small village on a pacific island as quietly, war encroaches from the other end. 

Hardback * John Murray * £12.99

Czech Republic  

Too Loud a Solitude : Bohumil Hrabal

A bittersweet eccentric novella. A paper-crusher under Communist rule rescues books which in turn become both his lifeline to sanity and his path to craziness. A brilliant tale by one of the most respected Czech authors and a great one for making yourself feel good about your job.

Paperback * Little Brown * £7.99

Italy

The Leopard: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

A sneak preview to our next country of the month…The incredibly elegant 1950s classic “The Leopard” tells of an aristocratic Sicilian family in decline amidst the political social upheaval of the 1860s.

Paperback * Vintage * £7.99

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On the Tenth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you….

Ten Sparkling New Novels

The Life of Pi (Special Illustrated Edition): Yann Martel

The story of a boy on a lifeboat. With a tiger. With a twist. Beautifully bound and illustrated in a special edition with 32 full page paintings and 8 vignettes.  Has “Gift” written all over it. (not literally)

Hardback * Canongate * £25

Gifted: Nikita Lalwani

A brilliant debut novel. From a Bath Spa alumnus. Maths prodigy Rumi, is a second generation Indian living in Cardiff. As she learns to cope with the pressures of her gift and her overbearing father, we get an insight too into growing up under the influence of two very different cultures.

Hardback * Viking * £16.99

Ghost: Robert Harris

A sharp modern political thriller involving an unnamed ghostwriter, a former British PM (with an uncanny resemblance to Tony Blair), a suspicious death and deadly secrets. A page-turner to delve into when Uncle Jack’s jokes get too much.

Hardback * Hutchinson * £18.99

The Quiet Girl: Peter Hoeg

A fast paced, philosophical thriller from the author of “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow”.  A Bach-loving, world-famous circus clown with gambling debts is drafted into the service of a secretive order of nuns. How’s that for a kooky storyline?

Hardback * Harvill Secker * £16.99

Girl Meets Boy: Ali Smith

Part of Canongate’s “The Myths” series, where contemporary writers give a modern twist to some of the world’s oldest myths. In this re-mix of Ovid’s “Metamorphosis”, Ali Smith gives a poetic, political, funny and fresh approach to the classic tale of girls, boys, love and transformation.

Hardback * Canongate * £12.99 

The Howling Miller: Arto Paasalinna

This brilliant Finnish novel follows the tribulations of the kind-hearted, but slightly bonkers, Gunnar Huttunen as he arrives in a Lapland village and sets about restoring the old watermill. A darkly comic tale of a misunderstood man striving to live his life against the world.

Paperback * Canongate * £7.99

The Rain Before It Falls: Jonathan Coe

Juliette’s favourite contemporary novel this year, it’s a tale of friendship, loss, love and changing times told by a lady looking back through an old box of photographs.

Hardback * Viking * £17.99

A Golden Age: Tahmima Anam

A fascinating and exciting debut novel which could not be more timely, being set against the backdrop of civil war as East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971. Anam shows a very human side to the tense onset of war by following young widow Rehana who becomes an accidental revolutionary whilst just trying to protect her family.

Hardback * John Murray * £14.99

Exit Music: Ian Rankin

Just as DI Rebus is tying up the loose ends of his police career, the death of a dissident Russian poet in an apparently random attack fuels a final investigation. A rich, complex and satisfying conclusion to the legend that is Rebus.

Hardback * Orion * £18.99

Fire in the Blood: Irene Némirovksy

Written in 1941 (by the author of posthumously acclaimed and bestselling “Suite Française”) and set in a small French village, an old man looks back on a chequered life with secret regrets, concealing a truth he will not reveal until the end.

Hardback * Chatto & Windus * £12.99

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On the Eleventh day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you…. 

Eleven Great Gift Ideas

Africa: Eye on Africa: Sebastiao Salgado

An incredible new collection of images from one of the most important documentary photographers of the 21st Century. These images were taken over 30 years and were chosen for this collection by Salgado himself.

Hardback  Taschen * £39.99

30,000 Years of Art (Phaidon Editors)

An art-lovers’ dream of a book, it takes the reader through 1,000 masterworks of art in simple chronological order juxtaposing works from different cultures to show what was being created across the world at the same time. It ain’t light but it’s fab and incredibly good value too.

(Colossal) Hardback * Phaidon Press * £29.99

The Golden Age of Couture: Paris & London 1947-57: C Wilcox (Ed)

Drift back to an age of elegance with this sumptuous book featuring the most iconic looks of the time and showing how influenced we are today by the designs of yesterday.

Hardback * V&A * £35

Penguin Celebrations: 36 collectible titles

Boy, they know how to package things at Penguin! They have picked 36 of Penguin’s best modern titles and dressed them up in original-style smart little Penguin jackets. Come in store to check out more titles.

Paperback * Penguin * £7.99

Tintin & Co: Michael Farr

Blistering Barnacles, this is a great read for any fan of the ginger quaff-headed journalist and the fabulous cast of characters who accompany him on his investigations. Illustrations, early sketches, facts behind the stories—this gives an insight into what inspired Hergé.

Hardback * Egmont * £18.99

On the Tip of My Tongue:  David Gentle

Can’t face another Christmas of Trivial Pursuit, but can’t resist a quiz? This book stands out with its high quality of questions and by adding in challenges for the reader as well as curious facts. Possibly addictive, so beware.

Hardback * Bloomsbury * £12.99

Answering Back: edited by Carol Ann Duffy

50 contemporary poets (from Muldoon to Duffy herself) respond to poems from the past (Kipling, Yeats, Auden, Donne...).  With each poem and answer set out next to each other this makes an illuminating and often very witty dialogue.

Hardback * Picador * £12.99

Moro East: Samuel & Samantha Clark

The third book in the “Moro” series. Follows a year in the life of the East End allotment used to cultivate ingredients integral to the Southern Spanish/Middle Eastern food served at “Moro”. 150 inspiring recipes, including how to use up the gluts of the produce at the end of the growing season.

Hardback * Ebury Press * £25

Atlas, Schmatlas: Craig Robinson

A stand-out hilarious book amidst the often average Christmas humour titles. In full atlas style – down to the bits on tectonics at the beginning that no-one really reads - but with specially-produced maps complete with very random captioning, this is a mix of fact, fiction and irreverent commentary on every country on earth. 

Hardback  * Harry N Abrams  * £10.95

Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Soft Friends from Cast-0ff Socks and Gloves

An absolute favourite at Mr B’s. Meet sock fish and glove elephant. Perfect for anyone with an iota of creative spirit or who is prone to giggling at animals.

Paperback * Weidenfeld & Nicolson * £9.99

At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist: Anne Fadiman

A witty collection of essays on twelve of the author’s personal obsessions—from her childhood passion for catching butterflies and her monumental crush on Charles Lamb to her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing. A perfect book for life’s passionate obsessives.

Hardback * Penguin * £12.99

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On the Twelfth day of Christmas, Mr B’s gives to you….

Twelve Treats for Kids  

Gift of the Magi: O.Henry (Illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger)

Lisbeth Zwerger is an exquisite artist who has illustrated many wonderful tales. In this retelling of the classic tale of a terribly poor couple very much in love, Della cuts off and sells her long hair to buy Jim a chain for his pocket watch, but Jim has sold his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs for her lovely long hair.

Ages 8+

Hardback * Simon & Schuster Children’s * £9.99

The Princess and the White Bear King: Tanya Batt (Illustr Nicoletta Ceccoli)

'One night, the youngest Princess dreamt of a golden crown, and the gold of the crown was brighter than the sun itself”. In this lovely fairytale, with Scandinavian roots, a young Princess is swept away on an adventure to a magical land. A gorgeous tale to be told on a cold winter’s night. The CD is narrated by the brilliant Miranda Richardson.

Ages 6+

Paperback &CD * Barefoot Books * £6.99 (Also in Hardback)

The Night Before Christmas: Robert Sabuda

The age-old poem by Clement C. Moore “The Night Before Christmas” is given the ultimate pop-up treatment in a new book by the brilliant paper artist Robert Sabuda, who has also brought out a new pop-up “Twelve Days of Christmas”.

Ages 5+.

Hardback * Simon & Schuster * £19.99

Olivia Helps with Christmas: Ian Falconer

The sweet, strong-willed and very articulate porker is back in this latest Christmas book. She tries her best to help with the tree and the decorations but gets rather impatient, putting her snout up the chimney and getting tangled in the fairy-lights.

Age 3+

Hardback * Simon & Schuster * £12.99

The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers

We have a soft spot for anything by Oliver Jeffers. Simple, sweet stories about friendship with lovely touches of humour and very modern, off-beat illustrations. This time he’s moved to outer-space where a little boy crashes into the moon and is helped home by an irresistible little alien.

Ages 3+

Hardback * Harpercollins * £11.99

Iggy Peck Architect: Andrea Beaty (Illustr David Roberts)

“ When Iggy was three, his parents could see his unusual passion would stay. He built churches and chapels from peaches and apples and temples from modelling clay.”

A quirky new book where Iggy’s passion for building gets him into trouble at school. Lots of building of cool, fun stuff with great illustrations and funny rhyming text.

Ages 4+

Hardback  * Harry Abrams Inc  * £7.95

Lucky Star: Cathy Cassidy

We fell in love with Cathy and her VW camper van at Bath’s Kids’ Lit Fest and she’s not just for girls! Mouse, the hero of Lucky star is a rather naughty boy who wants ever so much to be good. But a chance meeting with Cat, a girl from the opposite side of the tracks in north London, leads him into trouble and yet more trouble.

Ages 9+

Hardback  * Puffin  * £8.99

What I Was: Meg Rosoff

Meg Rosoff is an exceptional writer and we love her latest offering for teens. A moving story of self-discovery, acceptance and love with a very big twist. Hilary, a difficult and unhappy boy, meets Finn, a boy who lives on his own near Hilary’s school in a windswept fisherman’s cottage. 

Teen/Adult

Hardback  * Puffin  * £10.99

Nicholas & the Gang: Goscinny and Sempé

No gimmicks, fantasy adventures or magic worlds – just the hilarious day-to-day world of the playground and the antics of the well-intentioned but hapless Nicholas and his school buddies. Children giggle at the inevitable chaotic mess and adults chuckle wryly at the brilliant underlying social commentary. The latest collection of sixteen stories to be published in lovely textured hardback.

Ages 7+

Hardback  * Phaidon Press  * £12.95

Mr Gum and the Goblins: Andy Stanton

Shabba me whiskers—another hilarious, mad and extremely funny story from that old roo-de-lally Mr Gum and the hideous Billy William the Third. We are forever selling-out of this series, as kids clammer for more!

Ages 6+

Paperback * Egmont * £4.99

Gatty’s Tale: Kevin Crossley-Holland

Gatty, a village girl in Crossley-Holland’s Arthururian trilogy, is picked by Lady Gwyneth de Ewloe to join a band of pilgrims to Jerusalem—a journey fraught with danger and uncertainty.  A brilliant historical novel, exciting and moving—from a class story-teller.

Ages 10/11+

Paperback * Orion * £6.99 (also available in Hardback)

My Dad’s a Birdman: David Almond (Illustrated by Polly Dunbar)

Lizzie and her dad live in a rainy town in the north of England where nothing much exciting happens….until the Great Human Bird Competition! Another fun story from a brilliant author.

Ages 8+

Hardback * Walker Books * £8.99