Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary

A heartbreaking fictional elegy to one of the world's most iconic lost creatures, the Steller's Sea Cow

"A sprawling, seething epic" Lucy Steeds, winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize

**"As deep and profound as the sea itself" Philip Hoare

1741. The crew of Vitus Bering's ill-starred Great Northern Expedition are shipwrecked off a remote, uncharted island.** With no hope of rescue, they give in to despair. Until they discover the flesh of a huge marine mammal that feeds in herds on the kelp in the bay.

1859. The Russian colony of Alaska is on the brink of collapse. Governor Hampus Furuhjelm takes solace in the quest for a unique artefact: a complete skeleton of what is now known as Steller's Sea Cow, rumoured to have disappeared a hundred years before.

Even extinct, the sea cow will continue to shape lives and destinies, from the woman charged with sketching its likeness from its bones, to the expert egg restorer who will refurbish those same bones a century later.

A tribute to an iconic lost creature, and an adventure through three centuries of scientific exploration, Beasts of the Sea charts the unseen consequences of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what we, in our ignorance, have destroyed.

Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston

From iconic author and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore comes a breathless search for intimacy and connection, ranging from club culture to the art world, from the AIDS crisis to COVID-19.
Terry Dactyl has lived many lives. Raised by boisterous lesbian mothers in Seattle, she comes of age as a trans girl in the 1980s in a world of dancing queens and late-night house parties just as the AIDS crisis ravages their world. After moving to New York City, Terry finds a new family among gender-bending club kids bonded by pageantry and drugs, fiercely loyal and unapologetic. She lands a job at a Soho gallery, where, after partying all night, she spends her days bringing club culture to the elite art world.
Twenty years later, in a panic during the COVID-19 lockdown, Terry returns to a Seattle stifled by gentrification and pandemic isolation until resistance erupts following the murder of George Floyd, and her search for community ignites once again.
In propulsive, intoxicating prose, Terry Dactyl traces an extraordinary journey from adolescence to adulthood, delivering a vital portrait of queer identity in all its peril and possibility.

‘Funny, sensitive, and insightful – the perfect book to turn to at the end of a long day’ Bonnie Garmus

Are you dreaming of a fresh new start?

Alex has perfected the art of dodging responsibility during her almost 40 years – until an unexpected letter turns her life upside down.

She’s inherited a crumbling sheep farm in wildest, wettest Wales. This was not her life plan. Not at all.

Now, her closest companion is a stubborn Welsh terrier, she’s speed-reading The Idiot’s Guide to Farming, and her arrival has set the village gossip mill spinning. With the farm near collapse, Alex sets out to uncover the truth behind her mysterious inheritance.

But as secrets surface, Alex finds her heart pulling her in a direction she never saw coming.

Will she pack her bags – or has she landed exactly where she’s meant to be?

Brimming with the warmth and wit that has made Clare Balding one of our best-loved TV personalities, Pastures New is a joyful celebration of new beginnings, community, and the delightful surprises of rural life.

Acclaim for Clare Balding's books:

'The reading equivalent of snuggling by the fire with a labrador' The Guardian

‘Funny and moving, James Herriot meets David Sedaris’ The Times

‘Forthright, thoughtful, funny … reads like a Jilly Cooper novel’ Sunday Times

EVERYONE IS MADE TO PAY IN THE END.

The pulse-pounding new novel from iconic queen of crime Martina Cole is out now.

'Surpassed all my expectations' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Fast, furious and full of emotion' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Uncompromising, vivid, family-based drama' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Soho 1962.

When Rory Sheehan decides he wants Maggie Riley as his own, her fate is sealed.

Luca Romano knows all too well that what Rory wants, Rory gets. And the violence that erupts between their rival gangs is just the start of it.

Thomas Johnson owes Rory big time, and he must deny his feelings for Maggie to protect her. Faced with no alternative, Maggie throws herself on Rory's mercy, unaware of the brutality that she will face.

But Maggie Riley is a survivor. And the secret she's hiding could be her best weapon . . .
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Readers love the one and only Martina Cole:

'The stuff of legend' Mirror
'The queen of crime' Woman & Home
'One of the best fiction authors around . . . spectacular' Closer

Due to health reasons, Martina Cole has chosen to continue her collaboration with writer Jacqui Rose for her latest novel.