Glow

'Clever and compelling. I loved this!' Nina Stibbe, bestselling author of Love, NinaThere are many reasons to bake: to feed; to create; to impress; to nourish; to define ourselves; and, sometimes, it has to be said, to perfect. But often we bake to fill a hunger that would be better filled by a simple gesture from a dear one. We bake to love and be loved.In 1966, Kathleen Eaden, cookery writer and wife of a supermarket magnate, published The Art of Baking, her guide to nurturing a family by creating the most exquisite pastries, biscuits and cakes.Now, five amateur bakers are competing to become the New Mrs Eaden. There's Jenny, facing an empty nest now her family has flown; Claire, who has sacrificed her dreams for her daughter; Mike, trying to parent his two kids after his wife's death; Vicki, who has dropped everything to be at home with her baby boy; and Karen, perfect Karen, who knows what it's like to have nothing and is determined her façade shouldn't slip.As unlikely alliances are forged and secrets rise to the surface, making the choicest choux bun seems the least of the contestants' problems. For they will learn - as Mrs Eaden did before them - that while perfection is possible in the kitchen, it's very much harder in life.

Merewyn has grown up in savage tenth-century Cornwall - a lonely girl sustained by stubborn courage and by pride in her descent from the great King Arthur. Rumon a young French prince has always dreamt of finding the idyllic island of hearsay and legend Avalon. He gladly leaves his home in Provence but his hopes are dashed when his ship is wrecked off the Cornish coast. Rumon and Merewyn meet and from that hour their lives are intertwined. They make their way to the court of King Edgar and his beautiful young queen. At first they are dazzled but there is evil lurking in the corridors of power . . .Stretching from France to the eastern shores of America to the plains of Greenland the journeys of Rumon and Merewyn make for an unforgettable saga.

NED BEAUMAN HAS BEEN NAMED AS ONE OF GRANTA MAGAZINE'S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2013LONGLISTED FOR THE 2012 MAN BOOKER PRIZEAN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEARA DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEARAN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEARThe fantastically inventive, ingenious and hilarious second novel from Ned Beauman, author of the acclaimed and prizewinning BOXER, BEETLE.HISTORY HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE HUNGOVERWhen you haven't had sex in a long time, it feels like the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone.If you're living in Germany in the 1930s, it probably isn't.But that's no consolation to Egon Loeser, whose carnal misfortunes will push him from the experimental theatres of Berlin to the absinthe bars of Paris to the physics laboratories of Los Angeles, trying all the while to solve two mysteries: whether it was really a deal with Satan that claimed the life of his hero, the great Renaissance stage designer Adriano Lavicini; and why a handsome, clever, charming, modest guy like him can't, just once in a while, get himself laid.From the author of the acclaimed BOXER, BEETLE comes a historical novel that doesn't know what year it is; a noir novel that turns all the lights on; a romance novel that arrives drunk to dinner; a science fiction novel that can't remember what 'isotope' means; a stunningly inventive, exceptionally funny, dangerously unsteady and (largely) coherent novel about sex, violence, space, time, and how the best way to deal with history is to ignore it.LET'S HOPE THE PARTY WAS WORTH IT

Getting into the mind of a killer isn't for the faint of heart... Psychologist Alice Quentin is about to learn that first hand, in this thrilling novel for fans of Nicci French and Ruth Rendell. Ray and Marie Benson killed 13 women before they were caught, tried and imprisoned. Five of their victims were never found. Six years later, psychologist Alice Quentin discovers a woman's body on the waste ground at Crossbones Yard. The wounds are horrifyingly similar to the Bensons' signature style. But who would want to copy their crimes? When Alice is called in to consult, her first instinct is to say no. She wants to focus on treating her patients, not analysing the mind of a murderer. But the body at Crossbones Yard is just the start, and the killer may already be closer than Alice knows.