A Calamity Of Mannerings

‘IT IS A CURSE TO BE BORN A GIRL . . .’ Take a peek into the diary of Panth (never enquire as to her given name), a young woman knocking on the gilded door of adult life and high society. But kicking up one’s heels at the Café de Paris does not come easily to a girl navigating: 1. Poverty (even the genteel kind), thanks to her papa’s sad demise 2. A lack of any experience whatsoever with the opposite sex, of course not counting Freddie Spencer (and he wasn’t that sort of experience, anyhow) 3. Multiple sisters with ideas, a grandmother with opinions and one recalcitrant sheep Panth knows there is more for her out in the world – it’s 1924, for goodness’ sake – and that could include swoonsome American with excellent teeth, Buck Buchanan. The question is – how in the name of Tatler is she to claim it? A hilarious coming-of-age story for fans of I Capture the Castle and Bridgerton from Carnegie-nominated, bestselling author Joanna Nadin.

'Deliciously silly, with hilarious catchphrases... a great cheer-up book' The Guardian 'HILARIOUS! Proper laughs!' Pamela Butchart ______________________________ A laugh-out-loud young fiction series from bestselling author Joanna Nadin, perfect for fans of Horrid Henry. According to head teacher Mrs Bottomley-Blunt, 4B is the WORST CLASS IN THE WORLD. She says school is not about footling or fiddle-faddling or FUN. It is about LEARNING and it is high time 4B tried harder to EXCEL at it. But Stanley and Manjit didn't LITERALLY mean to flood the toilets when they should have been monitoring the playground. And they definitely didn't LITERALLY mean to bring a penguin home from the zoo on their school trip. These things just happened even though they had a FOOLPROOF plan to get away with them.

Joanna Nadin's first novel for adults, The Queen of Bloody Everything, is about mothers, daughters and how we can make many choices in life but can't choose where we come from. As Edie Jones lies in a bed on the fourteenth floor of a Cambridge hospital, her adult daughter Dido tells their story, starting with the day that changed everything. That was the day Dido – aged exactly six years and twenty-seven days old – met the next door neighbours and fell in love. Because the Trevelyans were exactly the kind of family Dido dreamed of. Normal.

For fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Absolutely Fine and Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel, comes a story about mothers, daughters and second chances... It's 1981. Eleven-year-old Sadie adores her beautiful and vibrant mother, Connie, whose dreams of making it big as a singer fill their tiny house in Leeds. It's always been just the two of them. Until the unthinkable happens. Jean hasn't seen her good-for-nothing daughter Connie since she ran away from the family home in Harlow – or Pram Town as its inhabitants affectionately call it – aged seventeen and pregnant. But in the wake of the Royal Wedding, Jean gets a life-changing call: could she please come and collect the granddaughter she's never met? We all know how Charles and Diana turned out, and Jean and Sadie are hardly a match made in heaven – but is there hope of a happy ending for them? Written in Joanna Nadin’s trademark dazzling prose, The Talk of Pram Town tells the story of three generations of Earnshaws and asks whether it always has to be like mother, like daughter . . .

Now a major CBBC TV series. Joe All Alone won the Children's BAFTA award for Best Drama. It was also nominated for an Emmy and two other Children's BAFTA awards: Director and Young Performer. Home Alone meets Jacqueline Wilson - a heartwarming, humorous, issue novel for 10+ readers about a young boy left home alone. When thirteen-year-old Joe is left behind in Peckham while his mum flies to Spain on holiday, he decides to treat it as an adventure, and a welcome break from Dean, her latest boyfriend. Joe begins to explore his neighbourhood, making a tentative friendship with Asha, a fellow fugitive hiding out at her grandfather's flat. But when the food and money run out, his mum doesn't come home, and the local thugs catch up with him, Joe realises time is running out too, and makes a decision that will change his life forever. Deeply poignant, deceptively simple, this book will cut the reader to the bone almost without their realising it. Imogen Russell-Williams, Teens On Moon Lane

Mark Hodkinson grew up among the terrace houses of Rochdale in a house with just one book. Today, Mark is an author, journalist and publisher. He still lives in Rochdale but is now surrounded by 3,500 titles, at the last count. No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It’s about the schools, the music, the people – but pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors that led the way and shaped his life. It’s about a family who didn’t see the point of reading, and a troubled grandad who taught Mark the power of stories. It’s also a story of how writing and reading has changed over the last five decades.

Rachel Riley is back! And this time she is desperately seeking the ONE. Well, actually, she may already have found him . . . now all she has to do is make him see that she is his ONE! Join Rachel in her latest laugh-out-loud escapade! Not suitable for younger readers.

MORE HOPE. MORE HEART . . . MORE FOOL YOU. Matt and Sophia live in the same city, but they come from opposite sides of the track. By rights they should never have met. They definitely should never have fallen in love at first sight, of all cliches. But, to their great surprise, they do. That's the easy part. It's what to do next that they struggle with. Friends, family and circumstance are mostly against them. They betray themselves; then they betray each other. And in the end they learn, the hard way, what it takes for love to survive. It's true what they say. Everybody hurts sometimes. But sometimes, too, the pain is worth it.