One of our Thursdays is Missing

An ambitious noble and his three serving men travel through the Irish countryside in the stifling summer of 1348, using the advantage of the plague which has collapsed society to buy up large swathes of property and land. They come upon Nobber, a tiny town, whose only living habitants seem to be an egotistical bureaucrat, his volatile wife, a naked blacksmith, and a beautiful Gaelic hostage. Meanwhile, a band of marauding Gaels are roaming around, using the confusion of the sickness to pillage and reclaim lands that once belonged to them. As these groups converge upon the town, the habitants, who up until this point have been under strict curfew, begin to stir from their dwellings, demanding answers from the intruders. A deadly stand-off emerges from which no one will escape unscathed.

'It looks like he died from injuries sustained during a fall...' Bestselling author Jasper Fforde begins an effervescent new series. It's Easter in Reading - a bad time for eggs - and no one can remember the last sunny day. Humpty Dumpty, well-known nursery favourite, large egg, ex-convict and former millionaire philanthropist is found shattered beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Following the pathologist's careful reconstruction of Humpty's shell, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergeant Mary Mary are soon grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, the illegal Bearnaise sauce market, corporate politics and the cut and thrust world of international Chiropody. As Jack and Mary stumble around the streets of Reading in Jack's Lime Green Austin Allegro, the clues pile up, but Jack has his own problems to deal with. And on top of everything else, the JellyMan is coming to town...(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

'Comic genius' (The Observer) and the second Nursery Crime detective novel by the bestselling author Jasper Fforde.The Gingerbreadman: Psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and biscuit is loose in the streets of Reading. It isn't Jack Spratt's case. He and Mary Mary have been reassigned due to falling levels of nursery crime, and The NCD is once more in jeopardy. That is, until a chance encounter during the Armitage Shanks literary awards at the oddly familiar Deja-Vu Club lead Jack and Mary on the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta 'Goldilocks' Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Toad. She had been about to break a story involving unexplained explosions in Herefordshire, Pasadena and the Nullabor Plain; The last witnesses to see her alive were The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen's wood. But all is not what it seems. How could the bear's porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Was Goldy's death in the nearby 1st World War themepark of Sommeworld a freak accident? And is it merely chance that the Gingerbreadman pops up at awkward moments? But there's more. What does a missing scientist with a terrifying discovery in subatomic physics, a secret weapon of devastating power, a reclusive industrialist known only as the Quangle Wangle and Colonel Danvers of the National Security all have in common?(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

***The perfect Christmas gift*** The Sunday Times Bestseller'My goodness, it is brilliant. Searingly honest, warm, bursting with humanity. Such brave and inspiring writing.' Kate Humble'I couldn't put it down, literally couldn't put it down... A cracking autobiography. It's so diverse, it's beautifully written. It's a real page-turner...The best autobiography of anyone under 50 I've ever read.' Chris Evans, BBC Radio 2PRAISE FOR SIMON REEVE'TV's most interesting globetrotter' Independent'The craziest (or bravest) man on TV' Mail on Sunday'Like all the best travellers, Reeve carries out his investigations with infectious relish, and in the realisation that trying to understand the country you're in is not just fascinating, but also hugely enjoyable' Daily Telegraph'Simon might just be the best tour guide in the world' The Sun* * * * * * * * *The inspiring memoir from TV traveller Simon Reeve's life of amazing adventures in over 120 countries and the most remote and extreme corners of the planet.TV adventurer Simon Reeve has journeyed across epic landscapes, dodged bullets on frontlines, walked through minefields and been detained for spying by the KGB. His travels have taken him across jungles, deserts, mountains and oceans, and to some of the most beautiful, dangerous and remote regions of the world. In this revelatory account of his life Simon gives the full story behind some of his favourite expeditions, and traces his own inspiring personal journey back to leaving school without qualifications, teetering on a bridge, and then overcoming his challenges by climbing to a 'Lost Valley' and changing his life ... step by step.

'A remarkably lucid and authoritative novelist' John IrvingAS RECOMMENDED BY ELLA WOODWARD 'Accomplished, assured . . . A richly rewarding read' The Sunday Times'A first-rate storyteller, funny and compassionate' Woman & Home******Murray Blair had some serious matters to discuss this weekend, and he wanted things to run smoothly. But harmony, that Artful Dodger in so many families, had its way of eluding his family as well. . .Though the adult Blair siblings have agreed to keep things calm and amiable on a trip to stay with their elderly father, each arrives, in true Blair style, with a secret agenda. But plans are derailed when Lizzie, the youngest, turns up late with a burnt hand, impending criminal charges, and a damp family cookbook: Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School. The now ruined cookbook is the last vestige of a more idyllic time, when there were four siblings, not three, a public family reputation to uphold, and a mother whose handwritten notes in the margins of the recipes are their last link to her after the accident years ago. But secrets will always out, especially amongst family: and this weekend, the Blair siblings will learn that there is more to their mother's story than they could have anticipated... Told in three parts, roving between then and now, Go Ask Fannie Farmer tells of the life and death of Lillian Blair, the over-bearing, bickering, but loving children who look for ways to connect with one another in her absence, and the inner lives we hide from our families.'Irresistible' Prima'Hyde's latest novel will delight readers' Booklist'Hyde creates a family we can all relate to . . . and does so with great humour' Woman