Two Hoots The Misadventures of Frederick Manley Ben

Masha's life has stopped. Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, her life has been forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds solace in the silent company of the souls of her local Victorian cemetery and at the town's lido, where she seeks refuge underwater - safe from the noise and the pain • But a chance encounter with two extraordinary women - the fabulous and wise Kitty Muriel, a convent girl-turned-magician's wife-turned-seventy-something-roller-disco-fanatic, and the mysterious Sally Red Shoes, a bag lady with a prodigious voice - opens up a new world of possibilities, and the chance to start living again. But just as Masha dares to imagine the future, the past comes roaring back

Cyprus in the run up to the civil war of the 1970s... the threat of it hangs in the atmosphere like a fine mist. A terrible thing, war. Against this backdrop of war and violence, the island's inhabitants make the best they can of their lives, building friendships, falling in love, having children, watching people die, making mistakes • Maria Petrakis, however, flees a brutal marriage on the island where she has always lived for London and a new start. She opens a bakery on Green Lanes in Harringay - the centre of the small Greek Cypriot community whose residents have settled there to escape the war and start again. Here she comes into her own as she heals and atones through the kneading of bread and the selling of shamali cakes and cinnamon pastries to her customers

Elizabeth Pringle lived all her long life on the Scottish island of Arran. But did anyone really know her? In her will she leaves her beloved house, Holmlea, to a stranger - a young mother she'd seen pushing a pram down the road over thirty years ago. It now falls to Martha, once the baby in that pram, to answer the question: why? Martha is coping with her mother's dementia and the possibility of a new life on Arran could be a new start • A captivating story for fans of Rosamund Pilcher, Maeve Binchy and Rachel Joyce of the richness behind the so-called ordinary lives of women and the secrets and threads that hold them together • And Kirsty Wark's second novel, The House by the Loch, a story of unlikely love and long-hidden family secrets set in the beautiful Scottish countryside, is out now

Meet the 'Keeper of Lost Things' • Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before • Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners • But the final wishes of the 'Keeper of Lost Things' have unforeseen repercussions which trigger a most serendipitous series of encounters

A funny, colourful story about learning empathy for others and helping those who may need it from the multi-award-winning creator of One Fox • The littlest elephant is always in a rush, until a tiny mouse shows her how to slow down and notice the other creatures in the jungle, from butterflies and chameleons, to monkeys and a tiger • The bright and richly illustrated pages will entrance any child as they follow the littlest elephant on her way to the pool for a swim

A classic story of trying circumstances and enduring hope, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is an eloquentaccount of the young man's life under slavery and his eventual escape. Written as an attempt to enhance his abolitionist credentials, it became the best-selling fugitive slave narrative of the era. This autobiography is a powerful reminder of the brutality of slavery and the terrors African-Americans were forced to endure

A new edition of the classic African American autobiography, now with with the inclusion of Douglass's other works • The pre-eminent American slave narrative published in 1845, the Narrative powerfully details the life of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass from his birth into slavery in 1818 to his escape to the North in 1838: how he endured the daily physical and spiritual brutalities of his owners and drivers, how he learned to read and write, and how he grew into a man who could only live free or die • Also included in this edition are Douglass's famous oration The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro and his only known work of fiction, the novella The Heroic Slave • Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in 1818 in Tuckahoe, Maryland

Sicily is both a frugal peasant land with a simple robust cuisine, and also full of ornate glamour and extravagance. A most beautiful and complex contradiction in terms, Ben Tish unlocks the secrets of Sicily's culture and food within these pages, diving into its diverse tapestry of cultural influences • Sitting at the heart of the Mediterranean, between east and west, Europe and North Africa, the food of Sicily is full of citrus, almonds and a plethora of spices, mixing harmoniously with the simple indigenous olives, vines and wheat. You'll find the most delicious, fresh seafood on the coast and mouth-watering meat in land; but the two rarely mix • Packed full of vibrant flavours, this beautiful collection brings the food of Sicily to your table, with recipes ranging from delicious morsels and fritters to big couscous, rice and pasta dishes and an abundance of granitas, ice creams and desserts, all stunningly photographed

Blackpool, 1938. Miss Margaret Finch – a rather demure young woman – has just begun work in a position that relies on her discretion and powers of observation. Then, her path is crossed by the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson), who is the subject of a national scandal • Margaret is determined to discover the truth behind the headlines: is Davidson a maligned hero or an exploiter of the vulnerable? But her own troubles are never far away, and Margaret’s fear that history is about to repeat itself means she needs to uncover that truth urgently • This deeply evocative novel ripples with the tension of a country not yet able to countenance the devastation of another war. Margaret walks us along the promenade, peeks into the baths and even dares a trip on the love boat in this, her first seaside summer season, on a path more dangerous than she could ever have imagined

Welcome to Sotheran's, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabelled keys, poisoned books and some things that aren't even books, presided over by one deeply eccentric apprentice • Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd on Sackville Street (est. 1761) to interview for their bookselling apprenticeship, a decision which has bedevilled him ever since • He'd intended to stay for a year before launching into some less dusty, better remunerated career. Unfortunately for him, the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. Soon he was balancing teetering stacks of first editions, fending off nonagenarian widows with a ten-foot pole and trying not to upset the store's resident ghost (the late Mr Sotheran had unfinished business when he was hit by that tram)

The Drones club's in peril. Gussie's in love. Spode's on the warpath. And His Majesty's Government needs a favour. Thank goodness Bertie Wooster is back! • From the mean streets of Mayfair to the scheming spires of Cambridge, prepare to meet a joyous cast of characters: chiselling painters and criminal bookies, eccentric philosophers and dodgy clairvoyants, appalling poets and pocket dictators, vexatious aunts and their vicious hounds • Have we ever needed Jeeves and Wooster more?

Storm clouds loom over Europe. Treason is afoot in the highest social circles. The very security of the nation is in peril. Jeeves, it transpires, has long been an agent of British Intelligence, but now His Majesty's Government must turn to the one man who can help... Bertie Wooster. In this magnificent new homage to P.G. Wodehouse, Ben Schott leads Jeeves and Wooster on an uproarious adventure of espionage through the secret corridors of Whitehall, the sunlit lawns of Brinkley Court, and the private clubs of St James's. We encounter an unforgettable cast of characters old and new including outraged chefs and exasperated aunts, disreputable politicians and gambling bankers, slushy debs and Cockney cabbies, sphinx-like tailors, and sylph-like spies