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Review: My Name Is Leon

07/06/2018 / Paul / 2 Comments

My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is 1981 and Leon has just acquired a baby brother, Jake. They are living with their mother, Carol, who is struggling as the father of Jake has shown no interest at all in his son. Just how much she is struggling is made very apparent when Leon turns up at a friend of hers asking for money for sweets. Tina goes back home with him to find Carol a nervous wreck and in need of help. As she gets the medical attention that she desperately needs Leon and Jake are placed into care.

Their new ‘mum’ is Maureen, a red-haired older woman with a heart of gold, but as good as a job as she does with them both, Leon knows that it is not the same as having your mum there. Life is about to change again; Leon is half-cast and Jake is white so social services decide that Jake will be suitable for adoption. Jake is adopted fairly quickly and Leon loses his final family member and feels very alone.

Just when he is at his lowest ebb and doesn’t think it can get any worse, Maureen is taken seriously ill and admitted to hospital. Leon moves to her sister Sylvia’s house and has another bedroom and routine to get used to. He is now a little older and gets given a bike that means that he can travel and explore the local area. It is on these jaunts out that he discovers the local allotments and the men that frequent this place, Me Devlin and Tufty and the wonders that exist in their sheds. As exciting as these places are, what he really wants is to find Jake and bring them both back to his mum so they can be a family once again.

This heartwarming story deals in a beautiful way with a whole raft of issues from race to identity, belonging and the care systems in the 1980’s. It is full of happy and sad moments, as Leon comes up against a care system that didn’t want to keep families together at that time. Whilst de Waal has written this story of Leon with passion and care, it is not a sugar-coated tale either. The 1980’s references of events and objects are tempered by the visible racial tension in the prose between the police and the local residents. Would highly recommend this to anyone wanting a story from the perspective of most people’s lives back in those days.

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Wainwright Prize 2018

07/06/2018 / Paul / 2 Comments

This is the fifth year of this prize and the books that make it onto the longlist keep getting better each year, and it is a varied selection again this year. The scope of the memoirs is quite broad, there is Sir John Lister-Kaye’s memoir of his journey to the creation of the Aigas Field Centre and Alys Fowler’s very personal journey through relationships and the waterways near her home. For some people, the closest they get to nature is by living near a designated green belt area, and John Grindrod’s Outskirts is a celebration of these green lungs surrounding our cities. Tom Cox has always striven to do things differently and his book 21st-Century Yokel carries on in that vein. Not only did it set a record for the fastest funded book on Unbound at the time, but he uses it to explore the countryside in his own unique way.

It wouldn’t be a Wainwright longlist without John Lewis-Stempel appearing on it. He only has the one this year, The Wood, a celebration of a small copse on his farm that even the shortest of visits to would be sufficient to recharge his soul. This is also a theme of A Wood of One’s Own by Ruth Pavey; she bought a small wood in the West Country because she wanted to and she could and it has been a place she has grown to love. Books about animals make up a quarter of the longlist. Rosamund Young tells us about the cows on her farm that have characters of their own. Owl Sense details Miriam Darlington’s desire to see all the native owls of the UK, but it becomes a bit of an obsession, so she heads to Europe to see even more. Adam Nicolson’s book, The Seabird’s’ Cry, is as much a polemic on the crisis that is about to engulf our ocean travellers as it is a study of their lives and journeys.

Even though we are a small island, there are still places where we can experience the wild. Neil Ansell needs those moments of solitude and his book is about returning to the same part of Scotland to immerse himself in the landscape there. Patrick Barkham’s journey around our archipelago takes in eleven islands of different sizes and perspectives as he talks to the people that live on them or discovers about those that used to. Raynor Winn’s book, The Salt Path, starts off with a series of bad news; terminal illness, loss of livelihood and home, but as her husband and her walk the South West Coastal Path on a minuscule budget they are healed by the natural world. This year for the first time there is a children’s book on the longlist, The Lost Words. This beautifully illustrated book has inspired people all around the country to run crowdfunding to get copies of it into schools and get children to write their own spells to acclaim the natural world.

How the judges are going to get this down to a shortlist of six, I do not know.

My reviews for all thirteen books are all here:

21st-Century Yokel by Tom Cox

Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler

Outskirts by John Grindrod

Islander by Patrick Barkham

The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young

Owl Sense by Miriam Darlington

The Dun Cow Rib by John Lister-Kaye

The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

The Seabird’s’ Cry by Adam Nicolson

The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel

A Wood of One’s Own by Ruth Pavey

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

This article first appeared yesterday on Nudge

Review: Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books

06/06/2018 / Paul / 4 Comments

Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books by Sally Bayley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

When Sally Bayley was around the age of four, her baby brother, who had been put in the garden in his pram near the roses, suddenly vanishes. This single incident was pivotal in changing Sally’s life; her mother went to bed ‘for a very long time’. This was just one of a series of events that Sally had; to say she had an unconventional upbringing would be an understatement. The house close to the sea where she lived with her mother and other siblings was dilapidated and filthy, they shared it with Aunt Di, a hippy with plenty of charisma and influence, her grandmother and what seemed to be a never-ending stream of people. No men were allowed to live in the house, though on rare occasions, one might be permitted to visit, including her father once, though that was marred with peculiarities.

To cope with this Sally lost herself in a world of books. On discovering Agatha Christie she turns detective to try and discover what had happened to her brother. Reading Jane Eyre is the beginning of a journey into the rich landscape of Victorian literature. These characters that she discovers in the covers of the books offer comfort and friendship, something that is lacking in her chaotic home life. She takes a look at herself in the mirror one day and all of a sudden she realises that the pale apparition staring back is her. This sliver of a girl takes herself to the doctor; something that never happened as visiting the doctor was forbidden in her family. Realising that things are really not right, she seeks further help and hands herself into care.

The first two parts of the book have a vague narrative as she weaves between fictional characters and the reality of her life as a child in that messed up house. It is not particularly easy to follow, it was almost like reading the story through a fogged up mirror at times. I fully understand why she has written it this way, it reflects just what she was experiencing when living in that household. The final part of the book is the most visceral though, as Sally realises that this is not normal and the act of involving outside parties to help provokes the ire of the matriarchs of the household. It did make me wonder just how these children were under the radar of the authorities for so long. There are elements that Bayley does not revisit in the final part and that left me wondering what had happened. These blurry memories are her recollection of a childhood that many others would have preferred to have forgotten.

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Review: Swansong

02/06/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

Swansong by Kerry Andrew
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Polly Vaughan has ended up in Scotland with her mother after a disturbing incident in London. Whilst she is there she is intending to try to wrestle with her coursework to try to get her grades back into shape. Almost immediately though she begins to question what this place is, after seeing a man sitting on a stump plucking and dismembering a bird. But she has other things on her mind and sets about seeking sex, drink and drugs, something that the barman in the pub is happy to assist with.

Living miles from anywhere is unnerving for her having been using to the business of London but she finds he feet and life zips by once again in a boozy and smoke filled haze. However, she begins to see visions and hear strange sounds in the woods and waters of the Loch and can even sense that there is something else out there even when she is stone cold sober. She has a moment when she meets a grandmother of one of her crowd who takes one look at her and says she has been here before, something she brushes off.

Polly comes across the man she saw dismembering the birds once again; she has heard that he has a sinister secret, a fact that terrifies her, but something compels her to find out more about him. As they grow closer together, her visons grow stronger and more tangible until something appears one night that stirs memories that were long suppressed.

It is difficult to categorise this novel; its very heart is a mystery but its setting in the wilds of Scotland add almost timeless elements. It has depth and history in the narrative and the language makes it feel modern and contemporary. In this mix are the supernatural visions and other things that keep happening to Polly which make it very very eerie. The characters in here are not going to be ones that you grow to love, they are sometimes spiky and all have their own deeply flawed elements, however, this adds to the story that is rooted deeply in the folklore of the landscape. Great debut and one to watch out for in the future.

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Monthly Muse – May

02/06/2018 / Paul / 6 Comments

That was a month that I am not going to want to remember for a while. I had been with my company for 13 years and this month along with two others I was made redundant with my boss and the other engineer. There is another positive lead that I am following up on, but still a bit numb and shell-shocked. Somehow managed to read 18 books though and there were these below:

This is Malachy Tallacks debut novel, set in a valley in the bleak but beautiful landscape of Shetland. It is not a dynamic plot, just a natural tension between the characters and their interaction.

It has been a long while since I climbed a tree, but in my childhood, I spent a fair amount of time climbing and occasionally falling out of trees. But in this book, Aldred takes climbing trees literally to another level. An enjoyable account of a part of the wildlife filming side that you don’t get to hear about very often.

Sleep is one of those things that we do as humans that until recently no one has really understood why we do it. But according to this well-written science book, it is a key element of our health and well being. One for any science buffs TBR.

Having lost everything bar a small amount of money, and with the diagnosis for her husband of a terminal illness, Raynor Winn and her husband decide that they might as well buy a tent and camp, and if they are camping then they may as well walk the 630 miles of the South Coast Path. It is a great life-affirming book.

Mary Monroe lost her father when she was 18; until that point, she only knew him as dad; but she heard from an aunt that he was one of the greats of World War II. She had to find out more, and this is her tribute and story of his life.

There is only so much crap people can take before they have had enough, and Solnit in this picks up on the stories of five decades of activism against the state. It is a little dated, but she is such a good author that it is still worth reading

One of the defining characteristics of humanity is our curiosity. In a world where you have almost unlimited knowledge at your fingertips then it is so easy to take everything for granted. Henderson thinks that this is something that we still need to retain, and this book sets about opening your eyes to the wonders that still exist. Beautifully produced too.

At the age of 12, Lev Parikian was an avid birdwatcher. He had a huge list of birds from the common or garden to the exotic neatly ticked off. Except he hadn’t seen some of them, in fact, he had probably only seen half of them. When he decided to revive it, he realised that he needed a target to aim for, and after consulting with a friend, plumped for 200. This is his story of that challenge. Really enjoyed this and laughed all the way through.

If someone was to ask where to see eagles, you’d almost certainly suggest Scotland. But a while ago there were eagles on the west coast of Ireland too, and their ghosts can still be seen in the names of places in the landscape. Lysaght decides to spend time seeking their eyries by walking the wind and storm-swept landscape. His prose is beautiful and this is another cracking book from little Toller

Snow? In the summer? It sounds like climate change gone mad and given the weather recently it could be quite feasible. However, this is more than that, Nicholson is seeking the pockets of snow in the highlands of Scotland that last deep into the summer and sometimes surviving until the next winter. Lovely book with some haunting beautiful photos of the snow cathedrals he finds.

The benefits of getting outside in the natural world are only just starting to be understood, and Nick Baker in this book suggests some things to do to engage your all senses. Not a bad book.

For most people science is a big scary thing that they last did at school, but as Cooper explains in the book, anyone can be involved from observing birds in your garden on a weekend to searching the skies for new stars and galaxies. Lots of ideas on how to get involved.

As style icons go there are not as many that are as cool as the VW Campervan and this little book gives a brief overview of the evolution of them so far. Nice photos, but no depth

The newest nation on Earth is on the Antarctica Peninsula, a place that has now been made habitable by global warming, rising sea levels and the advent of ecopoets. These genetically modified humans had special adaptions to cope with the extreme cold and climate at the far south of the planet. This alternative future by Paul McAuley has a thriller and family story dropped onto it. I liked it, but the thriller elements were too predictable as ever.

Dixe Wills latest book in the ‘Tiny’ themed series is all about the small-sized attractions around our island. From the museums in telephone boxes to the tiny public squares in the very centre of London, the smallest theatres and smallest pubs then this is the book for you.

Life on the open ocean is harsh relentless and unforgiving. To survive there takes resilience and millennia of evolution. Seabirds are masters of this environment, relishing the storms that drive the vast ships to save havens. In this book, Nicolson writes about at ten of the greatest seabirds and how they are coping with climate change and the devastation we as humanity are wreaking on the oceans. Fascinating stuff.

This is a bang up to date contemporary story set in a sleepy Scotish village, but there is more to it than that, there is a mystery, secret and it is very eerie at times too. Excellent debut

Rambling has now reached the grand total of 36 series and on there Clare Balding has walked with all sorts of people in locations around the country. There are stories of her time at the Olympics and other sporting events. Very funny at times it is just good fun read.

Review: Walking Home: My Family and Other Rambles

01/06/2018 / Paul / 1 Comment

Walking Home: My Family and Other Rambles by Clare Balding
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having been brought up with horses and ended up working with them Clare Balding spent a lot of her time on the back of one or heading to the next racecourse to watch more. But in 1999 she took a call from a radio producer asking if she ever walked anywhere. ‘Well, I walk the dog…’ was her reply. From that call, the Radio 4 series Ramblings came about.

It is still going strong all these years later and has clocked up a huge 36 series so far. She has managed to walk 1500 miles along footpaths that are well-known paths like the Pennine Way to ones that are local and special to the people that accompany her on the perambulations. There have been blisters, soakings, minor injuries and one moment when walking with a ranger who walked at twice her pace though she was going to die!

Whilst her walks have taken her all over the country, in all weathers, the thing that makes this series work so well is the people that she meets on the walks. There have been choirs, novelists, poets, couples, small groups who are using the medical elements of walking to cope with all sorts of issues from bereavement to those recovering from mental health issues. She has collected litter with David Sedaris and walked backwards and barefoot, but never naked. Clare is accompanied by Lucy and her furry microphone

Woven into the tales of other places, are stories of family life and her partnership with Alice and her time spent presenting the Olympics and other sporting events. Clare and her brother’s intention to finally tackle the Wayfarer’s Walk that is close to the place she grew up. This is not a taxing read, rather an entertaining and in parts a very very funny stroll through some beautiful countryside and a passing glimpse into people’s lives and how and why they walk.

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Review: The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers

31/05/2018 / Paul / 1 Comment

The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers by Adam Nicolson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Life on the open ocean is harsh relentless and unforgiving. To survive there takes resilience and millennia of evolution. Seabirds are masters of this environment, relishing the storms that drive the vast ships to save havens, navigating ten of thousands of miles, and when they do touch land inspiring those that see the fight as a species to survive to the next generation.

Nicolson has been fascinated by these utterly wild birds since visiting and then inheriting The Shiants, the Hebridean islands just of the coast of Lewis and seeing the kittiwakes and gannets and other seabirds that use the speck of land for nesting, he came to love all these birds that inhabited the islands and places that he loved. Beginning with the fulmar, a bird which he would watch for hours swirling around off the cliffs of the Shiants, he considers the lives and fortunes of ten of the seabirds, including the guillemot, gulls, shearwaters, the colourful puffins and the master of the southern ocean, the albatross. Weaving together the history of these birds along with cultural aspects, folklore, poetry and the latest that science has revealed about their habits and habitat.

Using the latest miniature technology to track the epic journeys they make, and some of these are vast, far out into the Atlantic using the trade winds to travel vast distances with little or no effort. Whilst this book is a celebration of their dogged existence and mastery against the elements; it is also a warning. As climate change bites harder these birds are beginning to suffer as the food they need to raise their young becomes scarce or it takes much longer to reach. They are also suffering because of the amount of plastic that is clogging up our oceans too, with a rise in young being found with bellies full of waste that they just cannot get rid off. Each chapter is illustrated by the beautiful drawings of Kate Boxer the simple imagery capturing the essence of the bird. There is lots of detail packed in this timely book, but Nicolson is such a quality writer that it doesn’t feel like a chore reading it. For me, I think that Sea Room just has the edge on this one, but like that book, his deep love for the birds that inhabit the wild windswept places is evident in the book; how much longer we will have them is not yet know.

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Review: Tiny Britain

31/05/2018 / Paul / 1 Comment

Tiny Britain by Dixe Wills
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

For a small country we have an awful lot of places to visit, but how do you sort the good from the bad, the quirky and interesting from the dull and tedious. This book is a good place to start. Following on from his other books concentrating on the ‘Tiny’ parts of Britain this one is all about the attractions that fit the criteria of places to go when you only have half an hour.

There are all sorts of different attractions in here to tempt you to move away from the mainstream, caves, piers, cinemas including one in a caravan, museums in telephone boxes, the cliff side hut of an opium-smoking vicar and the smallest county. There are railways, short ferry crossings and a bus service that if you miss you will have a very long wait for the next one. Some of the best views in the UK can be seen from a small slate bridge in the Lake District and he visits another bridge where a bear of very little brain gave us a game that amuses children and adults alike. Should all this travelling about be too much and you need a break, there are recommendations for some of the smallest pubs in Britain too.

This is another classic quirky and informative travel book by Dixe Wills. It is full of photos of the places that he is recommending to visit with clear instructions on how to find them. There is something in here for everyone, and if you have read and liked any of his other books on Tiny places then this book would be right up your very small street.

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#BookPost

28/05/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

Look what the lovely people at Eland sent me:

Publisher Profile – Slightly Foxed

27/05/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

For me, independent publishers are the people in the industry who are prepared to take risks on new authors and books where the larger players either don’t wish to venture, or where they can’t see there being a return on. Each month in 2018 I am aiming to highlight some of my favourite independent publishers, along with some of their books that I have loved and also to have someone from the publisher answer a few questions. This month is the turn of Slightly Foxed

Each year the Uk publishes a staggering amount of books. A number of these end up on the bestseller lists, but in amongst those headline books are lots that never have the same level of hype and publicity. Sometimes this is because the budget isn’t there to promote them properly or they are languishing on a backlist. This is where Slightly Foxed comes in, it has an independent editorial team and a raft of people who contribute who are passionate about reading and books and who pick books that you almost certainly haven’t heard of.

Not content with helping people discover books that most wouldn’t have heard of and feature them in their magazine, they took the steps to start to republish some of what they considered the best that had dropped out of print. They now have a selection of beautifully made books that are there for a new generation of readers. If the books and magazine aren’t tempting enough, then there are some carefully chosen literary gifts that will have you reaching for your wallet fairly quickly.

So thank you Steph and the Hattie, Olivia, Anna and Jennie at Slightly Foxed for taking time out to answer my questions.

Can you tell me a little about the history of Slightly Foxed?

Slightly Foxed started life in 2004 after the sale of the independent publisher John Murray to a large conglomerate. Gail Pirkis, former managing editor at Murrays and Hazel Wood, a Murray editor and journalist wanted to set up a bookish company with the emphasis on independence. After much thought, Slightly Foxed, the quarterly literary review was the result. It started around Gail’s kitchen table with a handful of staff, including Steph Allen from Murrays and Kathleen Smith from Waterstones. Kathleen moved on to the bookshop Topping & Co in Bath, but the original team are all still there – aided by Jen Harrison Bunning who arrived in 2006 and a strong team in the office (more of whom below). It is a testament to Slightly Foxedthat staff have a tendency to stay.

After 4 years of publishing the quarterly we moved into books, specifically reprinting memoirs and autobiographies no longer in print. The Slightly Foxed limited editions, beautifully produced pocket hardbacks in an enticing array of coloured cloth have become collectors’ items. Following on from their popularity we launched the Slightly Foxed paperback series and the Foxed Cubs – a children’s series of historical novels from Ronald Welch. Plain Foxed Editions followed on.

For a short while we had a second-hand and new bookshop on the Gloucester Road, which was wonderful while it lasted, but we have now established an online bookshop offering presents for bookish friends or relatives and a carefully chosen range of book-related merchandise, including bookplates featuring wood engravings by some of our favourite engravers.

We have an active marketing team who combine traditional marketing (advertising, inserts etc) with a stylish social media presence, a growing partnership scheme with other like-minded magazines and organisations and regular events. We aim to launch each quarterly at an independent bookshop, or other venue that has a connection with our latest issue or edition and we have a one-day literary festival held every November in the Art Workers’ Guild in Bloomsbury

How is the company organised today and how many people work for you?

We have a busy office with four full time staff. Jen Harrison Bunning looks after our website design, oversees our social media presence and future projects. Anna Kirk deals with bookshops and our partnership scheme, alongside editorial assistance. Olivia Wilson runs our renewal programme and will be our new podcast manager and along with Hattie Summers keeps our readers happy, dealing with their subscriptions and book orders. Our editors work mainly from home, in Devon and London and we have three part-time staff who help with packing, marketing, accounts and events. At busy times everyone does a bit of everything! We also have two contributing editors. Once a month the editorial team and the marketing team meet up and we aim to get the full staff together at regular intervals – for a little gin and a catch-up. Altogether there are 11 staff and between us there are also 6 office dogs and 3 cats!

What is the company philosophy when it comes to selecting contributors for your journal?

Our contributors come from all different walks of life – some well-known in the literary world, some not – but what they all have in common is the ability to write personally and entertainingly about books they love and return to. The end result is not so much a review magazine as a collection of literary enthusiasms and book recommendations.

How do you go about choosing the titles to be included in your portfolio?

Our memoir list is primarily selected by Gail and Hazel (our editors), from a mixture of favourite past reads, titles suggested by other staff members and some suggested by readers.

Tell me about your process after selecting a book for publication

After obtaining the rights from the agent, the book enters the editorial and design phase (see below). We announce each title to our subscribers, a number of whom have a repeat order of the same limited edition number.

How much effort goes into the design of the book, for example the cover design, font selection and so on?

The look of the issue and our editions is extremely important to Slightly Foxed. The issues are A5 in size, 96 pages and are printed on high-quality, cream-coloured vellum to stand the test of time (many of our readers collect back issues and we have slipcases for them to house an annual subscription). Each issue has a specially commissioned cover and we have a number of artists who return to us time after time. Cover artists include Posy Simmonds, Quentin Blake, Angie Lewin and Sue Macartney Snape among others.

Our cloth-bound limited edition series was inspired by the pocket hardbacks of the 1920s-40s and much work goes into the choice of cloth colour, endpapers and ribbon.

Key to the Slightly Foxedlook and ethos are our printers, Smith Settle in Yorkshire who have been with us from the first issue. They are a traditional craft printer with a reputation for high-quality printing and bookbinding.

Are there any up and coming books that you are publishing soon that we need to look out for?

We are bringing out Brendon Chase from BB, our third reissue of a BB title and greatly anticipated. We are also looking forward to bringing Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels for children in the Foxed Cub series.

In our limited edition series we have memoirs from Ernest Shepard, Jennie Erdal, Jan Morris and Eric Newby coming out in the next eighteen months.

What debut authors are you publishing this year?

Something new for us – Philip Rhys Evan’s A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, due out in September.

How did you come across them?

He is one of our readers and sent his manuscript in!

What title of yours has been an unexpected success?

Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding-Schools 1939-1979by Ysenda Maxtone Graham. We had wonderful review coverage for this title and reprinted 6 times!

What would you say were the undiscovered gems in your catalogue?

There are almost too many to mention, but books that our readers have discovered for the first time and loved include Diana Holman-Hunt’s My Grandmothers and I, John Hackett’s I Was A Stranger, Gavin Maxwell’s The House of Elrig, Michael Holroyd’s Basil Street Blues and Adrian Bell’s trilogy of farming memoirs.

How do you use social media for promoting books and authors?

Social media has become increasingly important to us for publicity and marketing purposes. We use twitter and facebook to promote events, share news from other publishers and spread the literary word and we have a stylish, carefully curated instagram site which is worth taking a look at if you haven’t done already @foxedquarterly

Is working with book bloggers becoming a larger part of that process now?

Yes, Jen Harrison Bunning who plans and photographs our Instagram posts is connecting with an increasing number of book bloggers. We always share any bloggers posts about Slightly Foxed and enjoy reading them in the office.

What does the future hold for Slightly Foxed?

Podcasts! We are excited to be joining forces with a podcast company to produce our own carefully selected content and round the table discussions from the Slightly Foxed team.

We will also be celebrating the publication of our 60^thissue in December with an event at the London Library.

A big thank you to Steph and the team at Slightly Foxed for taking time out of their hectic schedules to answer those questions for me. I really appreciate it. I have contemplated getting a subscription for a while now, and after reading this have taken the plunge. If you do want their books, get them direct from the website or I would urge you to buy them from an independent bookshop as you can as this support them, the publisher and of course the author with one purchase.

Previous Publisher Profiles: