Betty Burton creates a powerful sense of place in her stories, which are often set in her own home county of Hampshire and characterized by strong female characters. The three novels in this set follow a working-class Portsmouth girl as she breaks free of her roots and plays her part in the fight against fascism in the 1930s and 1940s. The three titles included in this set are: Not Just a Soldier's War (Read more...) The Girl Now Leaving (Read more...) The Face of Eve (Read more...)

Confident, down-to-earth Rosie Strange doesn’t believe in witches. Then she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum and, with its enigmatic curator Sam Stone, finds herself investigating a series of eerie, unsettling mysteries. The two titles included in this set are: Strange Sight (Read more...) Strange Fascination (Read more...)

Ideal for newly independent readers, this sweetly spooky series features Bella Donna - an orphan who has wanted to be a witch for as long as she can remember. Author Ruth Symes has created an enchanting cast of characters, and Marion Lindsay's simple illustrations add extra magic. Age 5+ The six titles included in this set are: Bella Donna: Bella Bewitched (Read more...) Bella Donna: Witchling (Read more...) Bella Donna: Witch Camp (Read more...) Bella Donna: Coven Road (Read more...) Bella Donna: Cat Magic (Read more...) Bella Donna: Too Many Spells (Read more...)

A lovable character created by the noted French illustrator Alain Grée, Romeo is a dog who loves exploring. In this set of board books, he finds himself in three different environments and needs help to identify what will appear on the following page from the clue given. Age 2+ The three titles included in this set are: Romeo Explores the Seaside (Read more...) Romeo Explores the Garden (Read more...) Romeo Explores the Farm (Read more...)

The three titles included in this set are: Beware of the Power of the Dark Side! (Read more...) So You Want to be a Jedi? (Read more...) The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (Read more...)

Over a career spanning nearly fifty years, the Top Ten Sunday Times bestselling author Katie Flynn published more than 90 romantic sagas, many set in Liverpool in the 1930s and 1940s, under several pen names. This set of five books showcases her talent for creating compelling, likeable characters who face up to life's challenges with courage and determination. The five titles included in this set are: Time to Say Goodbye (Read more...) Sunshine and Shadows (Read more...) The Lost Days of Summer (Read more...) The Forget-Me-Not Summer (Read more...) The Cuckoo Child (Read more...)

Known for her adventurous, fast-moving plots that feature strong female protagonists, Dilly Court is a Sunday Times bestselling author. This set comprises six novels, each one rich with period details that create an evocative picture of life in London’s slums in the early 20th century. The six titles included in this set are: The Dollmaker's Daughters (Read more...) The Cockney Sparrow (Read more...) Mermaids Singing (Read more...) The Best of Sisters (Read more...) The Constant Heart (Read more...) Tilly True (Read more...)

Kurt Austin and his teams in the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) take on six more cases including secret conspiracies, criminal masterminds and even environmental catastrophes in this set of NUMA thrillers from Clive Cussler, the master of underwater action and adventure. The 6 titles included in this set are: Zero Hour (Read more...) Nighthawk (Read more...) The Rising Sea (Read more...) Ghost Ship (Read more...) The Pharaoh's Secret (Read more...) Sea of Greed (Read more...)

In Grant County, Georgia – Karin Slaughter’s home state – Heartsdale is a small town that suffers more than its fair share of horrific murders. These unflinching thrillers follow the investigations of the local medical examiner and coroner, Sara Linton and the chief of police, Sara’s ex-husband, Jeffrey Tolliver. The five titles included in this set are: Blindsighted (Read more...) Kisscut (Read more...) Indelible (Read more...) A Faint Cold Fear (Read more...) Faithless (Read more...)

Daisy Styles grew up in Lancashire, surrounded by strong women and listening to their stories – including the reminiscences of real munitions factory girls. Carefully researched and vividly told, Styles’s wartime novels celebrate a ‘monumental turning point in women’s lives’. The four titles included in this set are:The Bomb Girls (Read more...) The Bomb Girls' Secrets (Read more...) The Code Girls (Read more...) The Wartime Midwives (Read more...)

Through colouring and doodling children can explore the homes of Olobob Top’s residents in Make Your Own Olobob Home, before designing their own treehouse using some of the 250 stickers. Once finished, they can venture further in The Amazing World of Olobob Top by tracing their way through mazes set in the forest, under the sea and in the air – decorating them with even more stickers. Age 4+

The two titles included in this set are: The Big Book of Everything Underground (Read more...) The Big Book of Snow and Ice (Read more...)

Each of these big, colourful books, illustrated in Alain Grée’s very distinctive style, contains over 50 tear-out activity sheets, with imaginative mazes, spot the difference and matching games, paper models to cut out and build, animal quizzes and projects such as making a flower album. Age 5+The two titles included in this set are:Fun and Games (Read more...) Activity Book (Read more...)

The two titles included in this set are: My First Animals (Read more...) My First Words (Read more...)

Aimed at young readers who have wondered what would happen if the hero of a story chose a different course of action, each book in this series gives the openings of some of the greatest tales ever told. Ruled pages follow on which to write a new continuation, with inspiring illustrations, plot suggestions, storywriting tips, quizzes and useful words. Age 7+ The four titles included in this set are: My Book of Stories: Myths (Read more...) My Book of Stories: Adventures (Read more...) My Book of Stories: Fairy Tales (Read more...) My Book of Stories: Shakespearean Tales (Read more...)

Harlan Coben’s thrillers have ingenious plots, psychological complexity and the kind of suspense that keeps you turning the pages into the early hours. Our four novels feature some of Coben’s trademarks – mysteries of the past creeping into the present, family, and final, breath-taking twists.The four titles included in this set are:Run Away (Read more...) Home (Read more...) Fool Me Once (Read more...) Don’t Let Go (Read more...)

John Grisham was a practising lawyer before he turned to writing but since his first book, The Firm, appeared in 1991, he has become the master of the modern legal thriller. Our set contains five cases, plus a story inspired by Grisham’s own childhood in rural Arkansas. The six titles included in this set are: The Broker (Read more...) The Associate (Read more...) The Testament (Read more...) A Painted House (Read more...) The Pelican Brief (Read more...) The King of Torts (Read more...)

Born in the Midlands, Will Dean now lives in Sweden, in an isolated clearing at the centre of an elk forest – a landscape of Nordic noir. His protagonist in these two much-acclaimed thrillers is Tuve Moodyson, a young, ambitious and deaf reporter on a small-town local paper, who will brave the menace of the forest to get the whole story. The two titles included in this set are: Dark Pines (Read more...) Red Snow (Read more...)

The two titles included in this set are: Betsy Goes to School (Read more...) Betsy Visits Her Grandparents (Read more...)

Detailed illustrations and cutaways are the leading feature of this series of books celebrating the most significant military hardware of the modern era. Charting technological development from the first innovations to the latest high-tech models, each volume selects 50 of the most significant vehicles, the entry for each including specification tables, photographs and descriptions outlining notable design features. The three titles included in this set are: Tanks (Read more...) Warships (Read more...) Military Jets (Read more...)

The two titles included in this set are:My Animal Book (Read more...) My Head-to-Toe Body Book (Read more...)

These colourful books, printed on thick card, contain everything you need to play ten board games, with double-sided boards and counters to punch out, a die to assemble, clear explanations of the rules and a note of how long each game takes to play. Age 8+ and not suitable for children under 3. The two titles included in this set are: The 10 Best Games of All Time (Read more...) The 10 Best Games in the World (Read more...)

Josephine Cox, who died this year, was born in 1938 into a family of ten children brought up in a poor cotton-mill house in Blackburn, Lancashire. Despite her success as a bestselling novelist, she remained true to her roots and her books mingle new stories of northern life with scenes and characters from her own working-class past. The six titles included in this set are: Tomorrow the World (Read more...) The Gilded Cage (Read more...) Rainbow Days (Read more...) Love Me or Leave Me (Read more...) Let Loose the Tigers (Read more...) Her Father's Sins (Read more...)

A former Professor of Russian History at Oxford University and the author of several important works on Soviet history, Robert Service has been described by a fellow biographer of Stalin, Simon Sebag Montefiore, as ‘the founding maestro of Stalinist history’. This trilogy comprises a single-volume life of Lenin (2000), the critically acclaimed biography of Stalin (2004) and a genuinely revelatory study of Trotsky (2009). The three titles included in this set are: Trotsky (Read more...) Lenin (Read more...) Stalin (Read more...)

Often focusing on the bonds of family and featuring strong female characters, Martina Cole's bestselling novels are mostly set in London, among the underworld gangs and organized crime families of the East End and the author's home county of Essex. The four titles included in this set are: The Faithless (Read more...) Faces (Read more...) The Life (Read more...) The Family (Read more...)

Letters written as editor of the school magazine, love letters, begging letters, letters to literary editors, fellow poets and friends: the collected letters of Dylan Thomas trace his life from the age of 16 to shortly before his death in New York in 1953, at the age of 39. Outspoken, and often indiscreet, they form the poet’s own narrative, telling of his love of Caitlin, his opinions on poets and poetry, and a life famously marred by drink and debt. Second edition. The two titles included in this set are: Dylan Thomas The Collected Letters Volume I: 1931–1939 (Read more...)Dylan Thomas The Collected Letters Volumes II: 1939–1953 (Read more...)

Describing himself as ‘a crusty but urbane Scot, in his prime’, Quintin Jardine gave up a career as a political spin-doctor for a job ‘more in touch with reality’: writing crime fiction. His Bob Skinner books are set mainly in Edinburgh, where Skinner – ‘Britain’s toughest cop’ – leads the CID. The five titles included in this set are:Skinner's Trail (Read more...) Skinner's Rules (Read more...) Skinner's Round (Read more...) Skinner's Ordeal (Read more...) Skinner's Festival (Read more...)

The two titles included in this set are: Mr Wolf and the Three Bears (Read more...) Mr Wolf and the Enormous Turnip (Read more...)

In these two books, Murray Naylor acts as our guide to a selection of cathedrals and churches, all of which are within easy reach of a railway station. He offers an introduction and personal appreciation of the ecclesiastical builders and their contribution to Christian culture, and observations on the railway, past and present, and its engineers. Both books include details and maps of rail routes and around 200 photographs. The two titles included in this set are: England's Cathedrals by Train (Read more...) England's Historic Churches by Train (Read more...)

Continuing the tradition begun by Ian Allan in the 1940s, the ABC Rail Guides are the long-trusted source of information on all the locomotives, multiple units and rolling stock used on the railways of Britain and Ireland. Listed in operator order, entries include route maps and photographs, and stock numbers are also separately listed and cross referenced. The two titles included in this set are: Main Line Systems (Read more...) Light Rail and Heritage Railways (Read more...)

The protagonist of this humorous ‘cosy’ mystery series is the eccentric retired art teacher (and crime magnet) Miss Seeton, who possesses an uncanny ability to sketch vital clues into her drawings – a skill that quickly becomes invaluable to Scotland Yard. The three titles included in this set are: Picture Miss Seeton (Read more...) Miss Seeton Draws the Line (Read more...) Witch Miss Seeton (Read more...)

This set comprises ten novels by Sunday Times bestselling author Dilly Court. Each story paints an evocative picture of London life in the early 20th century, and features a strong female protagonist, well-researched period detail and adventurous, fast-moving plots. The ten titles included in this set are: A Mother's Trust (Read more...) The Beggar Maid (Read more...) Cinderella Sister (Read more...) A Loving Family (Read more...) The Workhouse Girl (Read more...) The Ragged Heiress (Read more...) The Best of Daughters (Read more...) A Place Called Home (Read more...) The Orphan's Dream (Read more...) The Lady's Maid (Read more...)

In these lively accounts of journeys with her more reluctant husband, agnostic Jill Dudley seeks ‘answers to impossibly difficult questions’ through encounters with the sites, people, festivals and beliefs associated with different religious traditions, both ancient and modern. The four titles included in this set are: Lap of the Gods (Read more...) Holy Smoke! (Read more...) Gods in Britain (Read more...) Ye Gods! (Read more...)

Science fiction and fantasy have given programmes such as Star Trek and Doctor Who the freedom to explore controversial social issues and, on a personal level, questions of emotion, identity, memory and the perception of reality. In these books, each comprising 19 or 20 essays, the contributors analyse psychological problems raised by the adventures of the space and time explorers. The three titles included in this set are: Star Wars Psychology (Read more...) Doctor Who Psychology (Read more...) Star Trek Psychology (Read more...)

The two titles included in this set are: First Term at Malory Towers (Read more...) The Twins at St Clare's (Read more...)

The three titles included in this set are: Terry Frost (Read more...) Francis Bacon (Read more...) British and Irish Art 1945–1951 (Read more...)

The two titles included in this set are: How to Sew (Read more...) How to Embroider (Read more...)

Zorro, the masked alter ego of Don Diego de la Vega, first rode out on his black stallion to avenge the oppressed of Spanish California in The Curse of Capistrano (1919). Zorro was so popular, his creator, Johnston McCulley (1883–1958), wrote three more books of adventures. The novellas are read here by Bill Homewood. Unabridged. The items included in this set are:Sign of Zorro (Read more...) Further Adventures of Zorro (Read more...) Zorro Rides Again (Read more...)