When Tessa's best friend organises a surprise TV makeover, Tessa is horrified. It's the last thing she needs - her business is on the brink of collapse, her marriage is under strain and her daughter is more interested in beauty pageants than student politi. What's more, the 'Greenham Common angle' the TV producers have devised reopens some personal history Tessa has tried to hide away. Then Angela gets in touch, Tessa's least favourite member of the Greenham gang, and she's drawn back into...

Luminous and searching, tender and witty, The Visitations develops and deepens the themes that emerged in Kathryn Simmonds' acclaimed debut, Sunday at the Skin Launderette. Here are poems where the physical and metaphysical meet, where questions of new motherhood are set against those of faith and the larger conundrum of how to live. The tone is often simultaneously satirical and elegiac and the collection abounds with sudden moments of strange illumination: a lime tree strikes up a conver...

This rollicking picture book featuring twenty VERY silly bears spring cleaning is perfect for introducing young readers to counting!Twenty bears have been asleepLying in a snoring heap.Now it's spring and time to clean!Time to tidy, shine and sheen!Get ready for a shot of pure counting fun as twenty very busy bears attempt to spring clean their cottage after winter hibernation. Spring is here and it's...

Twenty bears unpacking cases.Look at those excited faces!Ready to enjoy the sun…Holidays are so much fun!Get ready for a shot of pure counting fun, as twenty very excited bears set off for a holiday on the beach. Summer is here and it's time to RELAX – but are these silly bears up to the task?

The funniest counting book of the year, featuring twenty VERY silly bears. Can you count them all?Twenty bears have been asleepLying in a snoring heap.Now it's spring and time to clean!Time to tidy, shine and sheen!Get ready for a shot of pure counting fun, as twenty very busy bears attempt to spring clean their cottage after winter hibernation. Spring is here and it's time to TIDY … but are these sil...

What happens when an anxious sunflower seed named Vernon faces his fears—and decides to grow and bloom anyway?The children are planting sunflowers at school, and Carla is given a seed named Vernon. All the other children’s seeds are excited to get out of the packet and start growing, but not Vernon. He knows about slugs and birds and thunderstorms. He knows that the world is scary—and though Carla waters him lovingly, to her dismay, Vernon is the only seed that doe...

This anthology showcases the very best in humorous short story writing, by outstanding contemporary women writers, including Kathy Lette, Sadia Azmat, Lucy Vine, Josie Long, Paula Lennon, and many more.It includes the winning and shortlisted stories from the Comedy Women in Print Short Story Prize.From tales of a narcoleptic biscuit lover, con artists with a twist, and the accidental death of a hamster; to consequences of accidental gluing, the imagined world of extreme sho...

Featuring:Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver.Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once the effect has been established, of course.The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a comp...

What Endures is a story of powerful love. It is a story that will break your heart. Inspired by true events, it tells of the incredible bond between a mother and daughter, and with gut-wrenching poignancy reminds us of the little things that make life worth living.“Holdstock’s writing manages to be both heartbreakingly poetic and densely detailed … sad passages, ghostlike recollections, written almost from the vantage point of the present, establish the book as a great wor...

Exploring grief, yet neither bleak nor overwrought, this powerful short story won the 2013 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. The judge, Carl Nixon, commended its 'seemingly effortless artistry' and its skilful and well-sustained handling of demanding narrative techniques: 'the author does not miss a beat', he said. Cleverly juxtaposing the past and present, the narrator draws the reader into her life. The judge concluded: 'Beautifully controlled use of simile and ...

WINNER SEAMUS HEANEY CENTRE PRIZE FOR POETRY SHORTLISTED FOR THE FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION FORWARD POETRY PRIZES 2009 Poetry Bank Choice and Poetry Book Society Recommendation. In 2006 'The Send-Off', an elegy for a lost child, was broadcast on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 and the issues it raised - ante-natal testing, grief, guilt, the family, women's lives - raged on for weeks in blogs and notice boards. But no one wondered what the poem was about. It was crystal clear....

"Rogerson is a master of fresh and sparky writing… a spirited novel by a writer of considerable gifts"THE GUARDIANDramatised on BBC Radio 4's Woman's HourShortlisted for Creative Scotland Book of the Year Award 2010Ana thinks she understands love. As a marriage counsellor she deals with the death of love every day. But when a new man unexpectedly enters her life, she finds that, for the first time ever, her heart is ruling her head and her strict rules of love a...