Hodder&Stoughton

Stephen Fry's secret wife speaks out at last... Enjoyed a nice cuppa this morning with a HobNob and Jeremy Kyle. There was a woman on there who'd been married 16 years without realising her husband was gay. Extraordinary! Which reminds me, it's our 16th anniversary in a few weeks. What a coincidence. Stephen Fry — actor, writer, raconteur and wit. Cerebral and sophisticated, a true Renaissance man. Or is he? Finally, his secret double life — the womanizing, the window-cleaning, the kebabs, the karaoke — is exclusively revealed by Edna, his devoted wife and mother of his five, six or possibly seven children. These diaries take us through a year in the life of an unwitting celebrity wife, and are rumoured to include: — scandalous nocturnal shenanigans — advice on childcare — 101 things to do with a tin of Spam. 'A good diary should be like a good husband — a constant companion, a source of inspiration and, ideally, bound in leather.'

The latest mystery novel from Brandreth, featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle as sleuths. Oscar and Arthur must penetrate the innermost circle of the Catholic Church to solve a macabre mystery. The series is being developed for TV by Stephen Fry's Sprout Pictures. 'A cast of historical characters to die for' «Sunday Times».

Welcome to Walls of Water, North Carolina, a place where secrets run thicker than the town's famous fog. Once upon a time, Willa Jackson's family owned the beautiful house on the top of the ridge. Now it symbolises her family's ruin and a legacy Willa longs to escape from. Paxton Osgood also yearns to break free, especially from her parents' expectations, and the heartbreak of unrequited love. Desperate for a distraction, she decides to restore the empty mansion to its former glory. But the discovery of a long-buried secret, a friendship that defies time, and a touch of magic, will transform both women's lives in ways they would never have expected.

In February 1943, German forces surrendered to the Red Army at Stalingrad and the tide of war turned. By May 1945 Soviet soldiers had stormed Berlin and brought down Hitler's regime. Total War follows the fortunes of these fighters as they liberated Russia and the Ukraine from the Nazi invader and fought their way into the heart of the Reich. It reveals the horrors they experienced — the Holocaust, genocide and the mass murder of Soviet POWs — and shows the Red Army, brutalized by war, taking its terrible revenge on the German civilian population. For the first time Russian veterans are candid about the terrible atrocities their own army committed. But they also describe their struggle to raise themselves from the abyss of hatred. Their war against the Nazis — which in large part brought the Second World War in Europe to an end — is a tarnished but deeply moving story of sacrifice and redemption.

Twenty years have passed since Stefan Salvatore last saw his brother, Damon. Now, living in a remote town in England, Stefan is finally able to start over. But when news from London reaches Stefan of a brutal killer on the loose, who goes by Jack the Ripper, Stefan suspects that the murders are the work of a vampire... his brother. Full of dark shadows and surprising twists, the fourth book in the Stefan's Diaries series raises the stakes for the Salvatore brothers as they face new loves, old treacheries, and unimaginable threats.

Set in an international high school in Paris, YOU DESERVE NOTHING is told in three voices: that of Will, a charismatic young teacher who brings ideas alive in the classroom in a way that profoundly affects his students; Gilad, one of Will's students who has grown up behind compound walls in places like Dakar and Dubai, and for whom Paris and Will's senior seminar are the first heady tastes of freedom; and Marie, the beautiful, vulnerable senior with whom, unbeknowst to Gilad, Will is having an illicit affair. Utterly compelling, brilliantly written, YOU DESERVE NOTHING is a captivating tale about teachers and students, of moral uncertainties and the coming of adulthood. It heralds the arrival of a brilliant new voice in fiction.

A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests. A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love... A year unlike any other he has lived. Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.

A legendary ruin. An ancient mystery. Will unveiling the past transform the future? In San Francisco, Madeline Moretti is grieving the sudden death of her fiance. Nothing brings her joy; not her family, her beloved apartment, nor the job she once treasured, where she fights for the rights of workers betrayed by a callous employer. Maddie's grandmother, a fiery Italian who feels a fierce connection to her granddaughter, sends her to Tuscany to heal. Maddie finds herself immersed in the restoration of a medieval garden, and in the mystery of a ruined villa. It was destroyed centuries ago in a legendary storm on the Eve of St Agnes, and known ever since as the Casa al Vento — the house of the wind. The myth of the young woman who walked unscathed from the ruins, so strongly recalled by John Keats' poem, will haunt Maddie as she searches for a way to step into her future.

On 14th April 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank. Fifteen hundred passengers and crew lost their lives. As the order to abandon ship was given, the orchestra took their instruments on deck and continued to play. They were still playing when the ship went down. The violinist, 21 year-old Jock Hume, knew that his fiancee, Mary, was expecting their first child, the author's mother. One hundred years later, Christopher Ward reveals a dramatic story of love, loss and betrayal, and the catastrophic impact of Jock's death on two very different Scottish families. He paints a vivid portrait of an age in which class determined the way you lived — and died. An outstanding piece of historical detective work, AND THE BAND PLAYED ON is also a moving account of how the author's quest to learn more about his grandfather revealed the shocking truth about a family he thought he knew, a truth that had been hidden for nearly a hundred years.

Mary Gilmour feels as though her life is going down a plug hole clogged with cornflakes and Play-Doh. Her job is part time but housework is full time, and she has no time at all for her two young sons. Mary is convinced that there is only one thing standing between her and organised contentment: his name is Joel and she's married to him. Since star charts have worked on improving the behaviour of their children, she designs an equivalent for her husband: a spreadsheet detailing every balled-up tissue, every sock on the floor, every wet towel on the bed. Although he has no idea of it, Joel has six months to prove that his credits outweigh his debits. Or else...

Some love stories never end One evening Sophie Brady kisses her husband, Ollie, and young son Freddie goodbye, closing the door on number thirty-three. At ten pm she's with her best friend Jenny, polishing off a second bottle of wine. By midnight, she's dead. Except she doesn't feel dead... How can she leave the people she loves? Ollie is a man who once watered a houseplant for a year before realising it was plastic. Freddie is so little. And Jenny? There's something she desperately needs to know...

A sweet, funny and romantic novel from the Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller It's been a while, but Lara Carson's back in Bath and lives are set to change as a result. Because Lara left her family and boyfriend Flynn eighteen years ago without a word to anyone. Why has no one heard from her since? Her childhood best friend Evie is thrilled Lara's back and able to share her happiness. Evie's about to walk down the aisle with her dream man, Joel. Or so she thinks... Then there's Flynn Erskine, even more attractive now and stunned to see Lara again. The spark between them is as strong as ever, but how's Flynn going to react when he discovers the secret she's been keeping from him? Oh yes, there's a lot of catching up to be done...

Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a fire sweeps through the thriving multicultural city, where Christians, Jews and Moslems live side by side. It is the first of many catastrophic events that will change for ever this city, as war, fear and persecution begin to divide its people. Five years later, young Katerina escapes to Greece when her home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she finds herself on a boat to an unknown destination. From that day the lives of Dimitri and Katerina become entwined, with each other and with the story of the city itself. Thessaloniki, 2007. A young Anglo-Greek hears the life story of his grandparents for the first time and realises he has a decision to make. For many decades, they have looked after the memories and treasures of people who have been forcibly driven from their beloved city. Should he become their new custodian? Should he stay or should he go? The Thread is the enthralling new novel from Victoria Hislop.

The Partners at Finley & Figg — all two of them — often refer to themselves as 'a boutique law firm'. 'Boutique', as in chic, selective and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who've been in the trenches much too long making much too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple, but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy offices in southwest Chicago. And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks out of his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our 'boutique firm'. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he's suddenly unemployed, any job — even one with Finley & Figg — looks OK to him. With their new junior partner on board, F&F are ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make them rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the no.1 cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire as several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money. A little online research confirms Wally's suspicions — a huge plaintiff's firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg have to do is find a handful of people who had a heart attack while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won't even have to enter a courtroom! It almost seems too good to be true. And it is.

For readers new to The Dark Tower, The Wind Through the Keyhole is a stand-alone novel, and a wonderful introduction to the series. It is a story within a story, which features both the younger and older gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the Dark Tower. Fans of the existing seven books in the series will also delight in discovering what happened to Roland and his ka tet between the time they leave the Emerald City and arrive at the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. The novel opens with a storm — of sudden and vicious intensity to which billy-bumblers like Oy are particularly susceptible...

Theodore Boone is back in a new adventure, and the stakes are higher than ever. When his best friend, April, disappears from her bedroom in the middle of the night, no one, not even Theo Boone — who knows April better than anyone — has answers. As fear ripples through his small hometown and the police hit dead ends, it's up to Theo to use his legal knowledge and investigative skills to chase down the truth and save April. Filled with the page-turning suspense that made John Grisham a number one international bestseller and the undisputed master of the legal thriller, Theodore Boone's trials and triumphs will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Cumbria, 1783. A broken heritage; a secret history... The tomb of the first Earl of Greta should have lain undisturbed on its island of bones for three hundred years. When idle curiosity opens the stone lid, however, inside is one body too many. Gabriel Crowther's family bought the Gretas land long ago, and has suffered its own bloody history. His brother was hanged for murdering their father, the Baron of Keswick, and Crowther has chosen comfortable seclusion and anonymity over estate and title for thirty years. But the call of the mystery brings him home at last. Travelling with forthright Mrs Harriet Westerman, who is escaping her own tragedy, Crowther finds a little town caught between new horrors and old, where ancient ways challenge modern justice. And against the wild and beautiful backdrop of fells and water, Crowther discovers that his past will not stay buried.

The final volume sees gunslinger Roland on a roller-coaster mix of exhilarating triumph and aching loss in his unrelenting quest to reach the dark tower. Roland's band of pilgrims remains united, though scattered. Susannah-Mia has been carried off to New York to give birth. Terrified of what may happen, Jake, Father Callahan and Oy follow. Roland and Eddie are in Maine, looking for the site which will lead them to Susannah. As he finally closes in on the tower, Roland's every step is shadowed by a terrible and sinister creation. And finally, he realises, he may have to walk the last dark strait alone... You've come this far, Come a little farther, Come all the way, The sound you hear may be the slamming of the door behind you. Welcome to The Dark Tower.

This is the definitive biography of Freddie Mercury. Written by an award-winning rock journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones toured widely with Queen forming lasting friendships with the band. Now, having secured access to the remaining band members and those who were closest to Freddie, from childhood to death, Lesley-Ann has written the most in depth account of one of music's best loved and most complex figures. Meticulously researched, sympathetic, unsensational, the book — like the forthcoming film — will focus on the period in the 1980s when Queen began to fragment, before their Live Aid performance put them back in the frame. In her journey to understand the man behind the legend, Lesley-Ann Jones has travelled from London to Zanzibar to India. Packed with exclusive interviews and told with the invaluable perspective that the twenty years since Mercury's death presents, Freddie Mercury is the most up to date portrait of a legendary man.

Edward Warren is a prodigal son who left home after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. Now Luke lies comatose in hospital, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured Edward's younger sister Cara. Cara, 17, still holds a grudge against her brother, since his departure led to her parents' divorce. In the aftermath, she's lived with her father — an animal conservationist who became famous after living with a wild wolf pack in the Canadian wild. It is impossible for her to reconcile the still, broken man in the hospital bed with her vibrant, dynamic father. With Luke's chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father's organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?

The main lesson Luce had learned was that you couldn't count on anybody. In the lonesome beauty of the forest, across the far shore of the mountain lake from town, Luce acts as caretaker to an empty, decaying Lodge, a relic of holidaymakers a century before. Her days are long and peaceful, her nights filled with Nashville radio and yellow lights shimmering on the black water. A solitary life, and the perfect escape. Until the stranger children come. Bringing fire. And murder. And love.

Errand requiring immediate attention. Come. The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called, she always came. In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work — buying teeth from hunters and murderers — nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole. Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

Usually, this is where we'd tell you what this book is about. But with Chris Cleave, it's a bit different. Because if you've read THE OTHER HAND or INCENDIARY, you'll know that what his books are about is only part of the story — what really matters is how they make you feel. GOLD is about the limits of human endurance, both physical and emotional. It will make you cry. GOLD is about what drives us to succeed — and what we choose to sacrifice for success. It will make you feel glad to be alive. GOLD is about the struggles we all face every day; the conflict between winning on others' terms, and triumphing on your own. It will make you count your blessings. GOLD is a story told as only Chris Cleave could tell it. And once you begin, it will be a heart-pounding race to the finish.

From battlefield to sacred building, from castle to cottage, from the Bridgwater Canal to Blackpool Pier, historian John Julius Norwich tells the political, cultural, social, religious and economic story of England through one hundred key places you can still visit today. Part narrative history, part exploration of our national heritage, his wide-ranging selection of sites will stimulate, entertain, inform — and certainly provoke — a debate about the most significant moments in English history.