All Books

As featured on desert island discs, big scottish book club and the zoe ball bookclub, a book of the year in the sunday times, the times, guardian, irish times, observer, red and the telegraph. *shortlisted for the pen ackerley prize for memoir and autobiography 2018* i am, i am, i am is a memoir with a difference – the unputdownable story of an extraordinary woman’s life in near-death experiences. insightful, inspirational, gorgeously written, it is a book to be read at a sitting, a story you finish newly conscious of life’s fragility, determined to make every heartbeat count. a childhood illness she was not expected to survive. a teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. a terrifying encounter on a remote path. a mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from costa novel-award winner and sunday timesbestselling author maggie o’farrell. it is a book to make you question yourself. what would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose?

The runaway sunday times no.1 bestseller and thriller of the year, now a major film starring emily blunt ‘really great suspense novel. kept me up most of the night. the alcoholic narrator is dead perfect’ stephen king rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. she knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. she’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘jess and jason’, she calls them. their life – as she sees it – is perfect. if only rachel could be that happy. and then she sees something shocking. it’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. now everything’s changed. now rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

Soon to be a major bbc drama starring tamara lawrance, hayley atwell and lenny henry, and shortlisted for the man booker prize, the long song is a hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking and unputdownable novel, for those who loved homegoing, the underground railroad, or the film 12 years a slave. ‘a marvel of luminous storytelling’ financial times you do not know me yet. my son thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. as your storyteller, i am to convey that this tale is set in jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed. july is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. she was there when the baptist war raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. my son says i must convey how the story tells also of july’s mama kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of caroline mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides – far too many for me to list here. but what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse. perhaps, my son suggests, i might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. all this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a novel they might care to consider. cha, i tell my son, what fuss-fuss. come, let them just read it for themselves.

Don’t miss the brand-new feel good read from your favourite storyteller cathy bramley. two strangers. one big secret. and a christmas to remember . . . merry has always wanted a family to spend christmas with, and this year her dream comes true as she says ‘i do’ to father-of-two cole. but as she juggles her rapidly-growing business, wedding planning and the two new children in her life, her dream begins to unravel. emily is desperately waiting for the new year to begin, so she can finally have a fresh start. she has always put her family first, leaving little time for happiness and love. when her beloved father ray moves into a residential home, she discovers a photograph in his belongings that has the potential to change everything. as past secrets come to light, will this be a magical christmas for emily and merry to remember?