An ordinary town.
An extraordinary boy.
The heart-warming, life-affirming debut story of a baby found on a beach and the fisherman who adopts him.

‘Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment’ – Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

1973. In a close-knit community on Ireland’s west coast, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Named Brendan by Ambrose Bonnar, the fisherman who adopts him, the boy will become a source of fascination and hope for a town caught in the storm of a rapidly changing world.

Ambrose, a man more comfortable at sea than on land, brings Brendan into his home out of love. But it is a decision that will fracture his family and force this man – more comfortable at sea than on land – to try to understand himself and those he cares for.

Set over twenty years, Garrett Carr’s The Boy From the Sea is a novel about a restless boy trying to find his place in the world. It is an exploration of the ties that make us and bind us, as a family and community move irresistibly into the future.

‘Beautifully written – gorgeous modern folklore’ – Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
‘A novel of heart-bumping power . . . breathtaking’ – Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the Sea
‘I was gripped’ – Emma Donoghue, author of Room

Eight Weeks is a deeply moving and inspiring memoir that tells the remarkable life story of Baroness Young of Hornsey, from her childhood in foster care, to becoming one of the first Black women in the House of Lords.

Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner for social justice, and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children’s homes in North London. It would take many decades before she was able to begin the search for answers to the long-standing questions that would help her make sense of her childhood.

In Eight Weeks, through her care records, fragments of memory, and her imagination where parts of her story are missing, Lola assembles the pieces of her past into a portrait of a childhood in a system that often made her feel invisible and unwanted. Alongside glimpses into her life as a peer, activist, and campaigner it tells the powerful story of her determination to defy the odds.

Eight Weeks is a spirited, eye-opening and beautifully written account of being a child in care and a Black child in a white family and is a vital part of contemporary Black British history.

‘A remarkable account of rejection, resilience and resolve’ MICHELLE GAYLE
‘Beautiful and harrowing, deeply unsettling and profoundly life-affirming’ JOHN AKOMFRAH
‘Superb, moving’ HELENA KENNEDY LT KC
‘An inspiring story from an inspirational storyteller’ GARY YOUNGE

The government told a story about me before I was born.

Jenni Fagan was property of the state before birth. She drew her first breath in care and by the age of seven, she had lived in fourteen different homes and had her name changed multiple times.
Twenty years after her first attempt to write this powerful memoir, Jenni is finally ready to share her account. Ootlin is a journey through the broken UK care system – it is one of displacement and exclusion, but also of the power of storytelling. It is about the very human act of making meaning from adversity.

They came from Southwick, a depressed area of Sunderland, where they lived with their abusive stepfather, and from where they longed to escape. After initially meeting Clough while out begging for money, Clough later invited the brothers to stay at his house. From there a relationship formed which would see Craig living with the Cloughs for nine years, where he was a first-hand witness to the many aspects of Clough’s character – his gruffness, his humour, his big-heartedness.

This is a beautiful, inspirational story, which has never before been told, about Clough’s gentleness and capacity for generosity. Discover a very different side to this iconic man, one away from the cameras and the football, which shows him for the person he really was.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘A remarkable autobiography’
Andrew Billen, The Times

‘You’re struck by his raw honesty in tackling big issues head-on’
Tom Bryant, Daily Mirror

‘So full of heart’
Davina McCall

‘I was riveted by it in a heartbreaking way . . . you will be gripped’
Ranvir Singh, Lorraine

‘So moving . . . it’s a beautiful book’
Zoe Ball

‘Commendable honesty . . . a poignant book about the search for belonging’
Daily Express

‘Remarkable . . . contains a lesson for all of us and delivers a resounding message of hope and of love’
James O’Brien

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The brave and moving memoir by Long Lost Family presenter and Radio 5 breakfast show host Nicky Campbell reveals how the simple unconditional love of Maxwell, his Labrador, turned his life around and helped him come to terms with his difficult journey as an adopted child.

Raw, honest and courageous in One of the Family, Nicky opens up about how being adopted has made him always feel like an outsider; the guilt he has carried towards his Mum and Dad for needing to trace his birth mother, and the crushing disappointment he felt when he finally met her. And for the first time, he writes about his emotional breakdown and how he has learned to live with a late diagnosis of bipolar.

Through it all his passion for dogs and animals has been a lifeline. It is Maxwell’s magic, a lesson from a Labrador in simple unconditional friendship, that has allowed him to see all the good in his life: from the security and safety of his childhood home, the love of his wife and four daughters and above all, to better understand the decisions taken by his birth mother to give him up for adoption.

They came from Southwick, a depressed area of Sunderland, where they lived with their abusive stepfather, and from where they longed to escape. After initially meeting Clough while out begging for money, Clough later invited the brothers to stay at his house. From there a relationship formed which would see Craig living with the Cloughs for nine years, where he was a first-hand witness to the many aspects of Clough’s character – his gruffness, his humour, his big-heartedness.

This is a beautiful, inspirational story, which has never before been told, about Clough’s gentleness and capacity for generosity. Discover a very different side to this iconic man, one away from the cameras and the football, which shows him for the person he really was.

‘Wonderful – I can’t recommend it too highly’ Helen Macdonald

‘One of those rare, enchanted books’ Isabella Tree

‘Beautiful – it made me cry’ Simon Amstell

‘I was entranced’ Cathy Rentzenbrink

This is a story about birds and fathers.

About the young magpie that fell from its nest in a Bermondsey junkyard into Charlie Gilmour’s life – and swiftly changed it. Demanding worms around the clock, riffling through his wallet, sharing his baths and roosting in his hair…

About the jackdaw kept at a Cornish stately home by Heathcote Williams, anarchist, poet, magician, stealer of Christmas, and Charlie’s biological father who vanished from his life in the dead of night.

It is a story about repetition across generations and birds that run in the blood; about a terror of repeating the sins of the father and a desire to build a nest of one’s own.

It is a story about change – from wild to tame; from sanity to madness; from life to death to birth; from freedom to captivity and back again, via an insane asylum, a prison and a magpie’s nest.

And ultimately, it is the story of a love affair between a man and a magpie.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘A remarkable autobiography’
Andrew Billen, The Times

‘You’re struck by his raw honesty in tackling big issues head-on’
Tom Bryant, Daily Mirror

‘So full of heart’
Davina McCall

‘I was riveted by it in a heartbreaking way . . . you will be gripped’
Ranvir Singh, Lorraine

‘So moving . . . it’s a beautiful book’
Zoe Ball

‘Commendable honesty . . . a poignant book about the search for belonging’
Daily Express

‘Remarkable . . . contains a lesson for all of us and delivers a resounding message of hope and of love’
James O’Brien

*************

The brave and moving memoir by Long Lost Family presenter and Radio 5 breakfast show host Nicky Campbell reveals how the simple unconditional love of Maxwell, his Labrador, turned his life around and helped him come to terms with his difficult journey as an adopted child.

Raw, honest and courageous in One of the Family, Nicky opens up about how being adopted has made him always feel like an outsider; the guilt he has carried towards his Mum and Dad for needing to trace his birth mother, and the crushing disappointment he felt when he finally met her. And for the first time, he writes about his emotional breakdown and how he has learned to live with a late diagnosis of bipolar.

Through it all his passion for dogs and animals has been a lifeline. It is Maxwell’s magic, a lesson from a Labrador in simple unconditional friendship, that has allowed him to see all the good in his life: from the security and safety of his childhood home, the love of his wife and four daughters and above all, to better understand the decisions taken by his birth mother to give him up for adoption.

The bestselling magical adventure, perfect for winter nights …

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES CHILDREN’S BOOK PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

‘A classic winter’s tale.’ THE FINANCIAL TIMES

‘… an engrossing, deeply atmospheric story.’ THE TELEGRAPH

‘A highlight of this year’s fiction.’ THE TIMES

‘Fans of Eva Ibbotson will love this gripping tale.’ THE WEEK JUNIOR

Alone in the world, Sophie dreams of being someone special, but she could never have imagined this …

On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves on the wrong train.

They are rescued by the beautiful Princess Anna Volkonskaya, who takes them to her winter palace and mesmerises them with stories of lost diamonds and a tragic past.

But as night falls and wolves prowl, Sophie discovers more than dreams in the crumbling palace of secrets …