Books

  • The Good Ancestor

    The Good Ancestor

    15.50

    How can we be good ancestors?

    From the first seeds sown thousands of years ago, to the construction of the cities we still inhabit, to the scientific discoveries that have ensured our survival, we are the inheritors of countless gifts from the past. Today, in an age driven by the tyranny of the now, with 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button commanding our attention, we rarely stop to consider how our actions will affect future generations. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises, the call for long-term thinking grows every day – but what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it? In The Good Ancestor, leading public philosopher Roman Krznaric argues that there is still hope.

    From the pyramids to the NHS, humankind has always had the innate ability to plan for posterity and take action that will resonate for decades, centuries, even millennia to come. If we want to become good ancestors, now is the time to recover and enrich this imaginative skill. The Good Ancestor reveals six profound ways in which we can all learn to think long-term, exploring how we can reawaken oft-neglected but uniquely human talents like ‘cathedral thinking’ that expand our time horizons and sharpen our foresight.

    Drawing on radical solutions from around the world, Krznaric celebrates the innovators who are reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.

  • Madhouse at the End of the Earth

    Madhouse at the End of the Earth

    17.95

    The harrowing, survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly wrong, with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter

    August 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship’s crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness.

  • The Summer I Robbed A Bank

    The Summer I Robbed A Bank

    9.95

    *Winner of the Irish Children’s Book Award*

    ‘Funny, warm as toast and packed full of ideas that fill up your head and burst in your brain like fizzy magic!’ Noel Fielding

    ‘A totally fun, madcap adventure that ends up robbing your heart’ Stewart Foster, award-winning author of The Bubble Boy.

    There’s a feeling of relief that comes just after you’ve robbed a bank … Rex’s parents have split up and, to make matters worse, he has to spend his summer holiday on a remote and rainy Irish island – with only unruly sheep for company. The only upside: he’ll be staying with his strange and brilliant Uncle Derm.

    Then Rex discovers Uncle Derm is about to execute his most hair-brained plan yet … To rob the island’s travelling bank!

    Like the local legend of medieval Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley, Uncle Derm plans to redistribute the money to local needy causes on the island. And he needs Rex’s help … A chaotic robbery, plenty of sheep and a summer of discoveries come together in this hilarious and heart-warming novel from comedian, actor and author of Danger is Everywhere, David O’Doherty. A perfect adventure for fans of Frank Cottrell Boyce, Ross Welford and David Walliams.

  • I Want To Know That I Will Be Okay

    I Want To Know That I Will Be Okay

    13.00
    Description
    In this dark, glittering collection of short stories, Deirdre Sullivan explores the trauma and power that reside in women’s bodies. A teenage girl tries to fit in at a party held in a haunted house, with unexpected and disastrous consequences. A mother and daughter run a thriving online business selling antique dolls, while their customers get more than they bargained for.

    And after a stillbirth, a young woman discovers that there is something bizarre and wondrous growing inside of her. With empathy and invention, Sullivan effortlessly blends genres in stories that are by turns strange and exquisite. Already established as an award-winning writer for children and young adults, I Want to Know That I Will Be Okay marks her arrival as a captivating new voice in literary fiction.

  • Still Life

    Still Life

    14.95
    Description
    ‘Sheer joy’ Graham Norton’Utterly beautiful … filled with hope’ Joanna Cannon’A bear-hug of a book’ Rachel JoyceFrom the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of people brought together by love, war, art and the ghost of E.M. Forster.1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening.Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy.

    She has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the wreckage and relive memories of the time she encountered EM Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view.Evelyn’s talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses’ mind that will shape the trajectory of his life – and of those who love him – for the next four decades.Moving from the Tuscan Hills and piazzas of Florence, to the smog of London’s East End, Still Life is a sweeping, joyful novel about beauty, love, family and fate.’Four course nourishment for all Winman fans’ PATRICK GALE’Extraordinary . . .

    my book of the year’ LIZ NUGENT’The kind of story that bolsters the heart and soul’ DONAL RYANSunday Times bestseller 31/03/2018

  • 50 Things to Do by the Sea

    50 Things to Do by the Sea

    15.95
    Description
    A beautifully presented, practical gift guide for all surf seekers. Explained with fascinating, easy-to-understand commentary from surfer and scientist Easkey Britton, each guide helps you soak up maximum vitamin sea. The book is divided into six main sections – each filled with exercises, ideas and fun facts to help you reconnect with your oceanic roots and create special moments by the sea…

    Reading the Sea – watch waves, move with the tides, understand rips and currents, getting to know the sea and your limits. What the Sea Does for Us – appreciate the food, feel-good factors, and even medicines that the sea has to offer. Plus learn about its fundamental role in climate control.

    We are Ocean – explore the multi-sensory environment the sea has to offer. The Power of the Sea to Heal – from seaweed and ocean plasma to social change and ocean therapy. The Sea is Calling – try your hand at beach combing, wave play, rockpooling, bird watching, searching for jellyfish and bioluminescence and swimming in the sea.

  • Rememberings

    Rememberings

    13.50

    THE LANDMARK MEMOIR OF A GLOBAL MUSIC ICON

    Sinead O’Connor’s voice and trademark shaved head made her famous by the age of twenty-one. Her recording of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ made her a global icon. She outraged millions when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on American television.

    O’Connor was unapologetic and impossible to ignore, calling out hypocrisy wherever she saw it. She has remained that way for three decades. Now, in Rememberings, O’Connor tells her story – the heartache of growing up in a family falling apart; her early forays into the Dublin music scene; her adventures and misadventures in the world of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll; the fulfilment of being a mother; her ongoing spiritual quest – and through it all, her abiding passion for music.

    Rememberings is intimate, replete with candid anecdotes and full of hard-won insights. It is a unique and remarkable chronicle by a unique and remarkable artist.

  • Embracing Change

    Embracing Change

    8.00
    Description
    This year has demonstrated how quickly our lives can change completely without warning. But every day we face change – whether it’s small changes such as an unscheduled meeting or plans going awry, to bigger changes such as a change of job or coping with the loss of a loved one. Our lives are constantly moving and we, in turn, must move with them.

    In his latest book, bestselling author Dr Harry Barry shows us how to not only cope with change but learn in the process, and therefore grow and develop as a human being. Dr Barry, with the benefit of over thirty-five-years-experience as a family doctor assisting people in crisis, shares the practical tools and techniques required to manage change effectively and live your life to the fullest. Revealing how to become the ultimate pragmatist – accepting that there is no such thing as the perfect solution, just the best solution one can find at that moment in time.

    Embracing Change is a practical, compassionate companion for anyone looking to boost their resilience, adapt to life’s challenges, and by smoothly navigating through them, reach calmer waters.

  • Heartstopper Volume 4

    Heartstopper Volume 4

    15.95
    Description
    *Soon to be a live-action Netflix series!* Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love.

    The bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between: this is the fourth volume of HEARTSTOPPER, for fans of The Art of Being Normal, Holly Bourne and Love, Simon. ‘Absolutely delightful. Sweet, romantic, kind.

    Beautifully paced. I loved this book.’ RAINBOW ROWELL, author of Carry OnCharlie didn’t think Nick could ever like him back, but now they’re officially boyfriends. Charlie’s beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.

  • The Thursday Murder Club

    The Thursday Murder Club

    12.50
    Description
    ‘Such a beacon of pleasure’ KATE ATKINSON’So smart and funny. Deplorably good’ IAN RANKIN’A gripping read’ SUNDAY TIMESTHE FIRST BOOK IN THE #1 BESTSELLING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES BY TV PRESENTER RICHARD OSMANIn a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four Wordsworth Edition

    Nineteen Eighty-Four Wordsworth Edition

    5.00
    Description
    The Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, Big Brother – 1984 itself: these terms and concepts have moved from the world of fiction into our everyday lives. They are central to our thinking about freedom and its suppression; yet they were newly created by George Orwell in 1949 as he conjured his dystopian vision of a world where totalitarian power is absolute. In this novel, continuously popular since its first publication, readers can explore the dark and extraordinary world he brought so fully to life.

    The principal characters who lead us through that world are ordinary human beings like ourselves: Winston Smith and Julia, whose falling in love is also an act of rebellion against the Party. Opposing them are the massed powers of the state, which watches its citizens on all sides through technology now only too familiar to us. No-one is free from surveillance; the past is constantly altered, so that there is no truth except the most recent version; and Big Brother, both loved and feared, controls all.

  • Animal Farm

    Animal Farm

    5.00
    Description

    In 1943, there was an urgent need for Animal Farm. The Soviet Union had become Britain’s ally in the war against Nazi Germany, and criticism of Stalin’s brutal regime was either censored or discouraged. In any case, many intellectuals on the left still celebrated the Soviet Union, claiming that the terrors of its show trials, summary executions and secret police were either exaggerated or necessary.

    But, to Orwell, Stalin was always a “disgusting murderer” and he wanted to remind people of this fact in a powerful and memorable way. But how to do it? A political essay would never reach a wide enough audience; a traditional novel would take too long to write. Orwell hit on the inspired idea of combining the moralism of the traditional ‘beast fable’ with the satire of Gulliver’s Travels.

  • Peppa Goes to Ireland

    Peppa Goes to Ireland

    9.50

    Peppa and George are going to Ireland for an Irish-dancing festival! But when the band forget their instruments, will Peppa and her family be able to save the day?

    This brand-new story features a glittery cover and is the perfect introduction to Ireland for little Peppa fans.

  • The Glorious Guinness Girls

    The Glorious Guinness Girls

    11.50

    The Glorious Guinness Girls are the toast of London and Dublin society. Darlings of the press, Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh lead charmed existences that are the envy of many.

    But Fliss knows better. Sent to live with them as a child, she grows up as part of the family and only she knows of the complex lives beneath the glamorous surface.

    Then, at a party one summer’s evening, something happens which sends shockwaves through the entire household.

    In the aftermath, as the Guinness sisters move on, Fliss is forced to examine her place in their world and decide if where she finds herself is where she truly belongs.

    Set amid the turmoil of the Irish Civil War and the brittle glamour of 1920s London, The Glorious Guinness Girls is inspired by one of the most fascinating family dynasties in the world – an unforgettable novel of reckless youth, family loyalty and destiny.

    If you loved Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes’ Belgravia or Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife, you will adore The Glorious Guinness Girls.

  • The Pull of the Stars

    The Pull of the Stars

    11.50

    Dublin, 1918. In a country doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

    In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over the course of three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

  • The Motion of the body Through Space

    The Motion of the body Through Space

    10.50

    From the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin.

    All her life Serenata has run, swum, and cycled – but now that she’s hit 60, all that physical activity has destroyed her knees. And her previously sedentary husband Remington chooses this precise moment to discover exercise. As he joins the cult of fitness, her once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist.

    When he announces his intention to compete in a legendarily gruelling triathlon, Serenata is sure he’s going to end up injured or dead – but the stubbornness of an ageing man in Lycra is not to be underestimated. The story of an obsession, of a marriage, of a betrayal: The Motion Of The Body Through Space is Lionel Shriver at her hilarious, sharp-eyed, audacious best.