Books published by Hodder & Stoughton

Having been sacked from his university teaching job, Ed has returned to his home town to pick up the threads of his old life with his friends and ex-girlfriend, Jeannie, in the Northern Sky folk music club. His dream is to play with them again, making music like his hero Nick Drake - and maybe even a little money. But know-it-all Matt O'Malley is now running the club and has ambitious plans for them that involve contracts and record deals. Can Ed get in on the act, or does O'Malley have a hidden agenda involving the less talented but more photogenic Lane Fox? And can Ed win Jeannie back - or will his legendary temper prevent him from getting anything right? This is a funny and touching novel, written with real Northern soul by one of the country's most popular and knowledgeable commentators on music. It will appeal to anyone who loves music, anyone who's ever been young and ambitious, and anyone who's ever fallen out with someone over the one thing that unites them.

A pulse-pounding thriller featuring Detective Charlie Parker from the bestselling author of The Wrath of Angels.'The finest crime series currently in existence' - Independent on SundayHis client is dead. But Charlie Parker will not rest . . .The community of Prosperous, Maine, has always thrived when others have suffered. Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children's future secure. It shuns outsiders. It guards its own.The death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to Prosperous. Parker is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, by rage, and by the desire for vengeance. In him the town and its protectors sense a threat graver than any they have faced in their long history, and in the comfortable, sheltered inhabitants of a small Maine town, Parker will encounter his most vicious opponents yet.Charlie Parker has been marked to die so that Prosperous may survive.

Children. They want everything and they want it now. They don't care about killing your sex life or the way they add six inches to the length of your breasts, and they sure as hell don't give a sh*t that you only slept four hours last night. Any person, physical need or dream that takes you away from them for even five seconds is their natural enemy and must be crushed with loud, endless cries.This book is about how to survive babies, and what they grow into: children. It's about shortcuts and parenting with 40% effort. You'll learn how to ignore, avoid, threaten and lie in easy-to-skim-while-locked-in-the-bathroom mini-chapters, plus valuable 'How to Fake it' tips to help you through those days when there isn't enough sh*tty advice in the world.We get you. We get your little dictators. And we can help.

Theodore Knell went through hell in the SAS - but his biggest battle began when he left. A Hell for Heroes is a searingly honest autobiography about what life in the military service is really like. This is my life story and the story of my time in the SAS. I hope that any soldier who reads it will find some sort of connection with their own. I have tried to share my experiences honestly, and as such all of the incidents portrayed within this book are true, some so dark and painful that I often questioned whether I wanted to remain part of the human race.I hope it will provide you an insight into the life and mind of a soldier - what makes us the way we are, what drives us on when other men would fold, what binds us together like no other brotherhood on earth, what makes us laugh and what scares us shitless.Watching men die violently for the first time is not something I would wish on any young man. Yes, many who have not served will say 'It will make a man out of you son'. but what do they know? In reality it will destroy far more men than it makes, leaving many dead or crippled for life, some with wounds you can see, but far more with wounds which you cannot.

The third Jack Brady case - a gritty murder mystery perfect for fans of Peter James and Tania Carver.'A powerful and intelligent thriller from a must-read writer' David MarkThree brutal attacks. One near-fatal beating. And a deadly score to settle. DI Jack Brady is riding high after the successful outcome of his previous case, but his world is about to come crashing down.There's a serial rapist plaguing the streets of Whitley Bay. Three young women have been horribly abused, and his boss and the press are screaming for answers. Everything seems to point to his old friend and foe, gangster Martin Madley, though Brady still struggles to believe he's capable of such acts. With time running out before the villain strikes again, Brady must follow every scrap of evidence. But there are forces at work he knows nothing about, and his persistence is leading both him and those close to him ever further into danger...

Who'd have thought a potty-mouthed Dublin mammy with a cream cardigan and elasticated tan tights could storm British TV screens and leave a nation helpless with laughter? Brendan O'Carroll performs to tens of thousands of people a night in packed-out stadiums across the country. In the last four years his TV show has become a number 1 ratings success and he's even making a movie. But Brendan has had to battle hard for success. The youngest of eleven children, his mother was Maureen O'Carroll, a former nun who went on to become the first woman to be elected to the Irish parliament. Brendan adored his strong, widowed mother - and she later became the inspiration for his indomitable character Agnes Brown. However, the family endured poverty reminiscent of Angela's Ashes and Brendan saw no option but to leave school at 12 to work. He married young and for decades struggled to make ends meet. Eventually, bankrupt and desperate, Brendan went to see a fortune teller who told him she could see his future achieving worldwide success as a comedian and actor. At first Brendan laughed at the notion, but then he thought of how much his friends loved his gags, and decided to give it a go... This is the magical story of how a loveable Irishman with a wig and a wit as caustic as battery acid surprised everyone - most of all himself - by becoming one of the best-loved comedians in the world. It is a story of hardship, heartbreak, and talent and will remind readers afresh that sometimes the facts can be even more extraordinary than the fiction.

RAE'S BACK! But now it's 1990. The Berlin wall is down and the Happy Mondays are up, really up, but the new decade's brought new mortifications for Rae Earl and she's MADDER and FATTER than ever. About to enter the most important year of her life - her actual bloody A Level year - everyone expects her to concentrate on schoolwork but how can she when Haddock's backside is still a national treasure and revision at home is just NOT HAPPENING! It's hell outside the house too, if hell was in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and punishment for sins was a fiery eternity of awkwardness. In My Madder Fatter Diary, Rae reveals her real-life teenage diary once again, transporting us to a Britain instantly recognisable to those who remember Bryan Adams at the top of the charts and anybody who's been eighteen and agonisingly embarrassed by EVERYTHING. It's wet-your-knickers hilarious. It's blub-your-eyes-out sad. It's the touching, romantic, MAD, FAT story of what happened next.

Three generations - torn apart by one bullet. Philadelphia 1965: Two street cops - one black, one white - are gunned down in a robbery gone wrong. The killer is never prosecuted. One of the fallen officers, Stanislaw Walczak, leaves behind a twelve-year-old boy, Jimmy... Philadelphia 1995: Homicide detective Jim Walczak learns that his father's alleged killer, Terrill Lee Stanton, is out of prison. Walczak will be waiting, determined to squeeze the truth out of him - any way he can. Philadelphia 2015: Jim Walczak's daughter Audrey, studying forensic science in grad school, reinvestigates her grandfather's murder for her dissertation. But the deeper Audrey digs, the more she realises: the man everyone thinks killed Walczak didn't do it...And when the truth comes out, the danger's only going to grow.

Returning from the memorial service, June Pepper, middle-aged widow of a tough tabloid editor cut down in his prime, sets about following her late husband's instructions to keep a journal of her bereavement, as therapy. But he did not say anything about writing it down. It is therefore in the form of a stream-of-consciousness monologue to the departed Sam the June records her reflections on her new status of widowhood. She is to find that this business of grieving is not the straightforward process she had imagined. For one thing, day-to-day existence with all its little preoccupations persists in carrying on almost as usual. There are comings and goings and encounters - some of them unwelcome, such as the intrusion of a problem stepdaughter, Pauline; others more promising, like the relationship she forms with someone she dubs The Suit - a man she finds herself attracted towards because he is wearing one of her husband's suits bought from Oxfam. There are shocks, too - skeletons in cupboards, unpleasant truths to come to terms with. Imagining at first that the state of bereavement gently recedes over the months like a boat slowly disappearing across the horizon, June discovers that it is more in the nature of a shipwreck. Things will not stop happening. she is forced to re-think her marriage, her own life, her attitude to death itself. As she brings her journal to a close she is not at all sure that Sam has been wise in his advice. Neither are we.

There is a Happy Land tells of the events of a few weeks in the life of a small boy on a north county council estate and the rhubarb fields, quarries and Cleark of Works' yard that are his playground.Unlike most boys portrayed in fiction he is not an ultrasensitive soul but an ordinary boy, occasionally cowardly, sometimes a liar, tough in his own eyes and often insecure in his dealings with others. In his evocation of the jingles, games, fantasies and nightmares of childhood, Waterhouse brings his tribe of street urchins so vividly to life that the book has taken on the status of a much-loved classic.

No London neighbourhood more resmbles the restless downstream tide of the Thames than the ragged square mile of Soho. Ask the people who live there, like Christine Yardley, drag queen by night and grey-suited accountant by day; or Len Gates, self-appointed Soho historian and bore; or Jenny Wise, former starlet and now resident lush in the New Kismet club; or even Ellis Hugo Bell, wannabe film producer who dreams of moving to L.A. Daily, nightly, shift by shift, their numbers are swelled by immigrants flocking to work, eat, drink and loiter, from kitchen staff to dress designers, hookers to pushers to punters. Down into this human rabbit warren on evening slips Alex Singer, a student from Leeds in pursuit of his errant girlfriend, whose search takes him from club to pub and into contact with a rich cross-section of Soho life. Twenty-four hours, three deaths, one fire and one mugging later, seduced, traduced and befriended, Alex is on his way to the Soho Ball. In this fast, funny and superbly crafted novel, Keith Waterhouse draws a vibrant portrait of London's liveliest quarter and it's eccentric inhabitants.

Yron the moon god died, but now he's reborn in the false king's son. His human father wanted to kill him, but his mother sacrificed her life to save him. He'll return one day to claim his birthright. He'll change your life. He'll change everything. Smiler's Fair: the great moving carnival where any pleasure can be had, if you're willing to pay the price. They say all paths cross at Smiler's Fair. They say it'll change your life. For five people, Smiler's Fair will change everything. In a land where unimaginable horror lurks in the shadows, where the very sun and moon are at war, five people - Nethmi, the orphaned daughter of a murdered nobleman, who in desperation commits an act that will haunt her forever. Dae Hyo, the skilled warrior, who discovers that a lifetime of bravery cannot make up for a single mistake. Eric, who follows his heart only to find that love exacts a terrible price. Marvan, the master swordsman, who takes more pleasure from killing than he should. And Krish, the humble goatherd, with a destiny he hardly understands and can never accept - will discover just how much Smiler's Fair changes everything.

She is sailing. She is alone. Ahead of her is the world's curve and beyond that, everything else. The known, the imagined, the imagined known.Who else has entered Tim's life the way Maud did? This young woman who fell past him, lay seemingly dead on the ground, then stood and walked. That was where it all began.As magnetic as she is inscrutable, Maud defies expectations and evades explanation - a daughter, girlfriend and mother who, in the wake of a tragedy, embarks on a dangerous voyage across the Atlantic, not knowing where it will lead . . .By the Costa Award-winning author of Pure, this is a viscerally honest, hypnotic portrait of modern love and motherhood, the lure of the sea and the ultimate unknowability of others. This pitch-perfect novel confirms Andrew Miller's position as one of the finest writers of his generation.

"e;After forty-six years of being on the road, now is the right time to look back in a way I've never done before: now and then. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you."e; Mick Fleetwood has been part of one of the world's most successful and adored bands for over four decades. Here he tells the full and candid story of that life, and what it is to be part of the ever evolving Fleetwood Mac. His all-access autobiography spans the career of one of classic rock's greatest drummers and band leaders, the co-founder of the deeply loved super group that bears his name. In this intimate portrait of a life lived in music, Fleetwood vividly recalls his upbringing in Cornwall, Egypt and Norway tapping along to whatever song was playing on the radio; his experiences as a musician in Sixties London; the early days of the band featuring Peter Green, and his close friendship with George Harrison and seemingly all of music royalty. Play On sheds new light on Fleetwood Mac's raucous history describing the highs and lows of being part of a band that he often single-handedly kept together. His love affair with Stevie Nicks, the creation of landmark albums like Rumours and Tusk, and the many incredible and outrageous moments of recording, touring, fighting, and loving with Fleetwood Mac: all are here. He describes his life's moments with the honesty and immediacy that his fans expect, taking us to the very heart of this multi layered life. It's been a tumultuous journey with the excesses of the band's huge success at times threatening to destroy what they strived so hard to create. But through it all it's been the drive to play on that has won out. Now, then, and always, it's Fleetwood Mac.

Jacky was twenty-three when she arrived in Egypt for a holiday with her boyfriend, Dave. Little did she know that an innocent holiday would result in a horror beyond her imagination. Separated from Dave in a bustling street, Jacky fell and twisted her ankle, only to be swept up by a handsome, chivalrous Egyptian called Omar. It was love at first sight. Jacky spent those ten days living with the family - sharing a bed with Omar's sister - irresistibly attracted to Omar. Swept away by her infatuation she married him and converted to Islam before returning to England to her parents.Returning to Cairo against her parents' advice but full of hopes and plans, Jacky's dream turned into a nightmare. As a blue-eyed blonde she was never going to fit in with life in a poor suburb where the women walked at all times with their heads bowed. During the next eight years she suffered non-stop physical and emotional abuse. She had to escape with her two little girls but how? This tense story never quite ends. Even now, Jacky is living in the shadow of a death threat. A fatwa is issued legitimately under Islamic law to a Muslim woman who leaves her husband. Jacky to protect herself and her daughters minute by minute, day by day, never quite sure what may be around the corner...

If no one comments within two weeks on how great you're looking - you must be cheating.' Joshi'The health guru favoured by A-listers.' The TimesJoshi's unique, craving-free alkaline diet has been the secret of celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes to Sadie Frost. Now he reveals his alkaline dieting plan and explains how any one of us can shake off the strain of a high-pressure life and get the body and energy levels we've always dreamed of. Just 21 days with Joshi will change the way you eat for ever and leave you looking and feeling fantastic. 'Not until I met Joshi did I feel full of life and balanced in every way.' Kelly Hoppen'Glossy hair, glowing skin - this regime really works.' Daily Mail

My breath caught and I dropped the letter, scuttling back on the bed. Heart racing, I closed my eyes, but I could still see the words...Samantha Franco has the perfect life. Until, that is, she and her best friend Cassie disappear and only Samantha resurfaces... with no knowledge of what happened.And Cassie stays missing. Gradually, Samantha begins to piece together her memories of that night. If she can do that, she may yet be able to save her friend. And, little by little, something begins to emerge...Then she gets the note.Don't look back. You won't like what you find.

Two million dollars secured Noah Crawford the most enticing woman he has ever known. Initiating Lanie Talbot into a sensuous world of pleasure took them both to the brink - again and again. But when Noah discovers why the beautiful innocent sold her body to the highest bidder, he's faced with the hardest thing he ever had to do: set her free. Lanie can't believe Noah would let her go. Doesn't he know they share a bond deeper than sex - a connection too powerful to sever? Not even a treacherous enemy out to destroy Noah or the dark secret haunting the multimillionaire can keep them apart. But first Lanie has to show him that he belongs to her, even if it means risking everything for a love that can never be bought or sold.

Samuel Johnson is not in a happy place. He is dating the wrong girl, demons are occupying his spare room, and the town in which he lives appears to be cursed.But there is some good news on the horizon. After years of neglect, the grand old building that once housed Wreckit & Sons is about to reopen as the greatest toyshop that Biddlecombe has ever seen, and Samuel and his faithful dachshund Boswell are to be guests of honour at the big event. A splendid time will be had by all, as long as they can ignore the sinister statue that keeps moving around the town, the Shadows that are slowly blocking out the stars, the murderous Christmas elves, and the fact that somewhere in Biddlecombe a rotten black heart is beating a rhythm of revenge.A trap has been set. The Earth is doomed. The last hope for humanity lies with one young boy and the girl who's secretly in love with him. Oh, and a dog, two demons, four dwarfs and a very polite monster.

The Number One bestseller, now out in paperback.Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.All in the name of the being they serve.All in the name of the Dead King.'One of the writer's finest achievements . . . new readers - start here' Independent'A consistently excellent series . . .a dizzying ride to hell and back' Sunday Herald'Magical, horrific, poetic, gothic. Unique and rewarding' Maxim Jakubowski

Grievously wounded private detective Charlie Parker investigates a case that has its origins in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War.Broken, but undeterred, private detective Charlie Parker faces the darkest of dark forces in a case with its roots in the second world war, and a concentration camp unlike any other . . .Recovering from a near-fatal shooting and tormented by memories of a world beyond this one, Parker has retreated to the small Maine town of Boreas to recover. There he befriends a widow named Ruth Winter and her young daughter, Amanda. But Ruth has her secrets. She is hiding from the past, and the forces that threaten her have their origins in the Second World War, in a town called Lubko and a concentration camp unlike any other. Old atrocities are about to be unearthed, and old sinners will kill to hide their sins. Now Parker is about to risk his life to defend a woman he barely knows, one who fears him almost as much as she fears those who are coming for her.His enemies believe him to be vulnerable. Fearful. Solitary.But they are wrong. Parker is far from afraid, and far from alone.For something is emerging from the shadows . . .

In this wonderfully positive book, Jennifer Rees Larcombe shows us that with God's help, nothing is beyond hope. When life is shattered by tragedy or disappointment, hope seems lost forever. Is new life possible? Jennifer's astonishing true-life account of her own crippling illness and the miraculous restoration of her health by God shows that there can be a turning point for everyone. This much-loved bestseller will continue to reach out to anyone seeking an affirmative, uplifting story.

Set in 1878, this is the story of Biddy and Innes, two young girls from a large crofting and fishing family on the Isle of Mull, whose world is thrown into confusion by the arrival of a handsome young shepherd. Tragedy follows when they both fall in love with the same man.

About fifteen years after the events in the last book Fay Ludlow, battered daugher-in-law of Innes, seeks refuge with her unknown mother-in- law on Mull with the abusive Tarrant men expected to follow her.

The compelling second novel in the Stalker Trilogy, which began with The Spoiled Earth and continues with The Dark Pasture, set in the Lanarkshire mining village of Blacklaw in the bleak 1870s. In Edinburgh, Drew Stalker studies law, determined never to return to the grinding poverty of his childhood.Mirrin, the most restless and vital of them all, takes to the road and begins her journey, from tinker's camp to hiring fair, to a glittering future on the music-hall stage. And the Stalkers who remain in Blacklaw join a violent and bloody riot when the mine-owner Houston Lamont pushes them, at last, too far. The Stalker Trilogy: 'Family ties, family strengths and weaknesses, ambition, greed loyalty and love . . . the story is compelling.' Daily Telegraph 'I would strongly recommend it to anyone with a taste for family sagas.' Scotsman

Set in wartime London, the second novel in The Hooper Family series continues the story that began with A Corner of the Heart: the saga of an East End clan that knows both the Shadwell docklands and the world of books and broadcasting.The war everyone dreaded has begun at last, but for Susan Cahill it is more an adventure than a tragedy. Helped by a white lie about her marriage to Danny she has a new job as a producer's assistant at the BBC and glamorous new friends, including one American war reporter who has made London his base and Susan his target. Danny is also working for the BBC, sharing a room in a freezing farmhouse in Evesham, working long hours monitoring German radio broadcasts - and worrying about Susan. Stuck in London when the blitz begins, Susan's sister-in-law, Breda Hooper, faces up to the worst with a small son at home and a husband in the fire service. Then her Italian father, hiding out from both the authorities and his former partners in crime, prepares to leave Breda a legacy as explosive as any German bomb.

For millions of years, humankind has used a brilliantly successful survival strategy. If we like something, we chase after more of it: more status, more food, more info, more stuff. Then we chase again. Its how we survived famine, disease and disaster to colonise the world. But now, thanks to technology, weve suddenly got more of everything than we can ever use, enjoy or afford. That doesnt stop us from striving though and its making us sick, tired, overweight, angry and in debt. It burns up our personal ecologies and the planets ecology too. We urgently need to develop a sense of enough. Our culture keeps telling us that we dont yet have all we need to be happy, but in fact we need to nurture a new skill the ability to bask in the bounties all around us. ENOUGH explores how our Neolithic brain-wiring spurs us to build a world of overabundance that keeps us hooked on more. John explains how, through adopting the art of enoughness, we can break from this wrecking cycle. With ten chapters on topics such as Enough food, Enough stuff, Enough hurry and Enough information, he explores how we created the problem and gives us practical ways to make our lives better.

Could you survive a week-long holiday with your entire family?Newly single magazine journalist Chelsea Benson can't think of anything worse...Your grubby small nephew torpedoing any chance of romance with the dishy guy you met on the plane . . .Your eighty-five-year-old granddad chatting up ladies at the hotel bar . . .Getting nothing but sarcastic comments from your older sister, who's always been the family favourite . . .And all this is before your parents drop their bombshell.Is a week enough time for the Bensons to put their differences aside and have some fun? Or is this their last ever proper family holiday?Heartwarming and funny, this is the perfect summer read for fans of SOPHIE KINSELLA and LINDSEY KELK. And provides a great excuse for ignoring your annoying family members . . .Praise for Chris Manby'A gloriously delicious read!...Packed with warm characters and hilarious situations' - handwrittengirl.com'Smart and entertaining' - Closer'Manby's novels are made for holidays' Glamour

A killer is murdering Goths with relish - skinning and butchering them. The cops aren't getting anywhere so Jack Nightingale's nemesis, Superintendent Chalmers, asks him for help.Nightingale discovers that the murdered Goths had one thing in common: a tattoo connected to the secretive Satanic child-sacrificing cult called the Order of Nine Angles.As Nightingale closes in on the killers, the tables are turned and he finds himself in the firing line, along with his friends and family. The Order will stop at nothing to protect their secrets and Nightingale realises that there is nothing he can do to protect himself. Nor can he run, for the Order has connections across the world. It leaves him with only one way to stop the carnage - and that's to take his own life . . .

A fifteen-year-old boy firebombs a building as he listens to Vivaldi's Winter Concerto splicing behind a red hot R 'n' B track. A veteran musician is found dead in an alley with the pulse of an old time reggae classic playing in his pocket. Rap sensation Lord Tribulation discovers his new found stardom threatened when he finds himself in the middle of both incidents. His music is accused of inciting the firebombing, and the dead musician is his father. With the beat of the media and government blasting down his neck, LT's search for the truth about his father's death takes him back to an old flame, and on a retro trail to 1976. A time when music was politics and politics was music. A time when the heat-drenched streets of Notting Hill burst into open rebellion. A time that, as LT gets closer to the truth, could lead straight to his own murder . . .