Transworld Publishers

When you're as big and rough as Jack Reacher — and you have a badly-set, freshly-busted nose, patched with silver duct tape — it isn't easy to hitch a ride. But Reacher has some unfinished business in Virginia, so he doesn't quit. And at last, he's picked up by three strangers — two men and a woman.

Meet Merlin. He's Lucy's bright, beautiful son — who just happens to be autistic. Since Merlin's father left them in the lurch, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her adorable yet challenging child, Lucy doesn't have room for any other man in her life.

Five children meet on their first day of school, one bright September morning. Drawn by that magical spark of connection that happens to the young, Gabby, Billy, Izzie, Andy and Sean — each bursting with their own personality, all with strikingly different looks and diverse talents — soon become an inseparable group, known to everyone else as the Big Five. As they grow up, their seemingly perfect lives are altered by families falling apart, unfortunate mistakes, and losses and victories great and small. Throughout their adolescence, the five are able to turn back to their trusted group to regain their footing and steady their course. But as they emerge from school, their futures seem neither safe nor clear. As their lives separate, the challenges and risks they face become greater, the losses sharper, and it becomes much harder to know the right path to choose. But despite life's ups and downs, together they are able to face up to challenges with the help of the important bonds forged all those years ago. And the five realise just how lucky they are to treasure valuable friendships that last a lifetime.

1916: the Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where have the mud, blood and blasted landscape of No Man's Land gone? 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive — some said mad, others dangerous — scientist when she finds a curious gadget — a box containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a ... potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way Mankind views his world for ever. And that's an understatement if ever there was one... The Long Earth is the first novel in an exciting new collaboration between the creator of Discworld Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter.

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth — but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind... A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth — and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government... Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity's thoughtless exploitation... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.

Berlin 1920 Two babies are born. Two brothers. United and indivisible, sharing everything. Twins in all but blood. As Germany marches into its Nazi Armageddon, the ties of family, friendship and love are tested to the very limits of endurance. And the brothers are faced with an unimaginable choice... Which one of them will survive? Ben Elton's most personal novel to date, Two Brothers transports the reader to the time of history's darkest hour.

Lily Thomas is an aspiring young ski champion training for the Olympics, a young woman with her heart set on winning the gold. But in one moment, Lily's future is changed forever, her hopes for the Olympics swept away in a tragic accident. Her father Bill has pinned all his hopes on his only daughter, and his dreams are now destroyed. Dr. Jessie Matthews, the neurosurgeon who operates on Lily that night, endures a tragedy of her own, and other brave survivors also fight to alter the course of destiny and refuse to be defeated. When Bill builds a remarkable rehab facility for his daughter, countless lives are forever altered, and each becomes a winner. Winners is about more than surviving — it is about courage, victory, and triumph.

After building an empire that has made her a legend in business, Olivia spends months each year planning a lavish holiday for everyone in her family to enjoy. This summer she has arranged a dream trip on a luxurious yacht in the Mediterranean, which she hopes will be the most memorable of all. More than anything, she hopes to express her love and her regret at all the important times she missed during her children's early years. But her younger daughter, Cassie, a hip London music producer, refuses the invitation altogether as she does every year. Liz, her older daughter, is preoccupied with a chance to recapture her dream of being a writer and is terrified of failure, again. And her sons John and Phillip work for her, for better or worse, with wives who wish they didn't. Immersed in the splendour of the Riviera, this should be a summer to remember, but old resentments die hard, and Olivia is still running the business full-time. As each of these individuals confront the past and the challenges of the present and future, they also learn to accept the enduring, unconditional love of their family — and a mother who is strong enough to take more than her fair share of the blame, and loving enough to accept them as they really are. The question is: can they do the same for her?

Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant cosmologists of our time, and author of the 10 million copy bestselling A Brief History of Time, one of the iconic books of its generation. Now, for the first time, he tells the story of his own life in his own words, in a book expanded from a lecture of the same name. When you are faced with an early death, writes Stephen Hawking, it makes you realize that life is worth living and that there are lots of things you want to do. From his post-war childhood in London through his undergraduate years at Oxford, Hawking was smart but (according to him) undistinguished, not even the brightest child of his brilliant, eccentric parents. A great lover of jokes and bets, he made an art of doing as little work as possible. All that changed, however, when Hawking received a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS, at the age of twenty-one, and began his transformation into the (still fun-loving) explorer and explainer of the universe that we know today. Written with wit, humility, and warmth, My Brief History gives us a candid examination of a life well-lived, including insight into his marriages and family life as well as a portrait of his intellectual evolution. The result is an unprecedented glimpse inside the mind of one of the most world-changing people of our time.

A collection of short fiction from Terry Pratchett, spanning the whole of his writing career from schooldays to Discworld and the present day. In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world's best-selling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short-form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press, and the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series. Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas, all of it shot through with Terry's inimitable brand of humour. With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.

To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork — a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear. Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work — as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital... but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse. Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi't'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs and some very angry dwarfs if he's going to stop it all going off the rails.

The crying persisted. The door of the lighthouse clanged in the distance, and Tom's tall frame appeared on the gallery as he scanned the island with the binoculars. 'Izzy'! he yelled, 'a boat'! He vanished and re-emerged at ground level. 'It's a boat all right', Tom declared. 'And — oh cripes! There's a bloke, but' — The figure was motionless, yet the cries still rang out. He hoisted out a woollen bundle: a woman's soft lavender cardigan wrapped around a tiny, screaming infant. Tom Sherbourne, released from the horrors of the First World War, is now a lighthouse keeper, cocooned on a remote island with his young wife Izzy, who is content in everything but her failure to have a child. One April morning, a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man — and a crying baby. Safe from the real world, Tom and Izzy break the rules and follow their hearts. It is a decision with devastating consequences.

Deep beneath the English Channel, a small army of vicious terrorists has seized control of the Eurostar to Paris, taken 400 hostages at gunpoint — and declared war on a government that has more than its own fair share of secrets to keep. One man stands in their way. An off-duty SAS soldier is hiding somewhere inside the train. Alone and injured, he's the only chance the passengers and crew have of getting out alive. Meet Andy McNab's explosive new creation, Sergeant Tom Buckingham, as he unleashes a whirlwind of intrigue and retribution in his attempt to stop the terrorists and save everyone on board — including Delphine, the beautiful woman he loves. Hurtling us at breakneck speed between the Regiment's crack assault teams, Whitehall's corridors of power and the heart of the Eurotunnel action, Red Notice is McNab at his devastatingly authentic, pulse pounding best. Red Notice: You have been warned...

The murder of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 was followed by an official inquiry the nature and the scale of which were unparalleled. This began what has become a 50-year quest to establish the truth. Who Killed Kennedy? is an exhaustive account of that quest, through the eyes of a historian who has been involved in it from the very beginning. It is a story of treachery, lies, deceit and murder. As the investigation has progressed over the years, the revelations have been breathtaking, the facts staggering and the real story so dramatic that fiction simply cannot equal it.

After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia. His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington D.C., the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. It was the closest thing to a home he ever had. Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind Reacher's old desk isn't a woman. Why is Susan Turner not there? What Reacher doesn't expect is what comes next. He himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn't expect to hear these words: 'You're back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.' Will he be sorry he went back? Or — will someone else?

Judith is suddenly all alone in the world. Her husband, Jack, has left her — why, she doesn't really know. Her two sons are in Australia, and both her mother and her best friend Naomi have recently died. Embarking on a journey to Exmoor to meet the famous artist Robert Haussman, with an oddly assorted group of fellow-enthusiasts, Judith finds herself a prey to all sorts of irrational fears. Chief amongst them is the increasing conviction that Jack is dead. Why did he leave her? Where has he gone? And why does Robert Haussman exert such a strange influence on her? Set in the Somerset countryside which Susan Sallis knows so well, this heartwarming novel shows how life, love and art cannot always meet happily together.

The relationship between those who wield power and those whose job it is to tell us what they are doing has always been fraught with tension. This title takes us on an absorbing journey through the hard-fought battles for the right to tell the public about the decisions taken on their behalf.

'My name is August. I won't describe to you what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse'. Ten-year-old August Pullman wants to be ordinary. He does ordinary things. He eats ice-cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary — inside. But Auggie is far from ordinary. Born with a terrible facial abnormality, he has been home-schooled by his parents his entire life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, Auggie's parents are sending him to a real school. Can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all? Narrated by Auggie and the people around him whose lives he touches, Wonder is a frank, funny, astonishingly moving debut to be read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

New York. London. Milan. Paris. Fashion week in all four cities. A month of endless interviews, parties, unflagging work and attention to detail. At the centre of the storm is Timmie O'Neill, whose renowned line, 'Timmie O', is the embodiment of casual chic, in fashion and for the home. She has created an international empire that inspires, fills, and consumes her life. In a world where humility and compassion are all too rare, Timmie's humour, kindness, integrity, and creativity are inspirational. Yet as blessed as she feels by her success, she harbours the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart — until an intriguing Frenchman comes into her life during Paris Fashion Week. There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their growing friendship and the electricity that sparks whenever they meet. Are they brave enough to face what comes next? And will they do it together — or apart?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all...

When a Cambridge student dramatically attempts to take her own life, DI Mark Joesbury realizes that the university has developed an unhealthy record of young people committing suicide in extraordinary ways. Against huge personal misgivings, Joesbury sends young policewoman DC Lacey Flint to Cambridge, with a brief to work under-cover, posing as a depression-prone, vulnerable student. Psychiatrist Evi Oliver is the only person in Cambridge who knows who Lacey really is — or so they both hope. But as the two women dig deeper into the darker side of university life, they discover a terrifying trend... And when Lacey starts experiencing the same disturbing nightmares reported by the dead girls, she knows that she is next.

Spine-tingling suspense! (Lisa Gardener). Barney has seen things. Things no child should see... and he knows the killer will strike again soon. The victim will be another boy, just like him. He will drain the body of blood, and leave it on a Thames beach. There will be no clues for detectives Dana Tulloch and Mark Joesbury to find. There will be no warning about who will be next. There will be no good reason for young policewoman Lacey Flint to become involved... And no chance that she can stay away. Like This, For Ever is published as Lost in the US.

When Vavara, a young orphaned Polish girl, is brought to serve at Empress Elizabeth's glittering, dangerous court in St Petersburg, she is schooled by the Chancellor himself in skills from lock-picking to love-making, learning above all else to stay silent — and listen. Soon, she is Elizabeth's 'tongue' — her secret eyes and ears. Then Sophie, a vulnerable young princess, arrives from Prussia as a prospective bride for Elizabeth's heir. Set to spy on her by the Empress, Vavara soon becomes her friend and confidante, and helps her navigate the illicit seductions and the treacherous shifting allegiances of the court. But Sophie's destiny is to become the notorious Catherine the Great. Are her ambitions more lofty and far-reaching than anyone suspected, and will she stop at nothing to achieve absolute power?

When Poppy loses her engagement ring and her mobile all in the same disastrous evening, it seems the obvious solution to make use of a phone she finds, by chance, abandoned in a hotel bin. But inevitably her life becomes entangled with the real owner of the phone, a high-flying businessman called Sam who becomes increasingly irritated when Poppy can't resist meddling in his affairs.