Bedford Square Publishers

'A poetically-written testimony of our own deep relationship with the natural world, and of nature’s own resilience' Ben GoldsmithImagine if you could hear the trees speak. How would it change your life? Your relationship to the world around you? This is the story of what happened when the trees whispered me to quit my job, leave my life in New York and go on a journey to listen. It is the story of what I learnt from ten trees on five continents – and the lessons that the trees have for all of us on how to be in a rapidly changing world. Olivia Sprinkel was sitting in her office in New York, an experienced international sustainability strategy and communications consultant, and as a newly single woman, she decided she had to make a change in her life and undertake a journey. To Hear the Trees Speak: Adventures in Listening is the story of her travels to Europe, North and South America, Australia, and South Asia, to discover ten of our world’s essential trees and their habitats. The ten trees range from the banyan and bodhi to the olive, giant sequoia and beech. Powerfully crafted, this is important and accessible nature writing blended with insightful memoir.

In 2007, Simonetta and her husband made the quixotic decision to open a restaurant. Without any relevant experience IT engineer Avi and novelist Simonetta put aside their careers to throw themselves (and their three young children) into their dream. This is the story of Ida, a tiny resilient restaurant situated on an unlovely arterial road between Kilburn and Kensal Rise, a barren thoroughfare with few shops and zero passing trade. This is a book for anyone who has ever fantasised about painting a name over a door and creating a refuge of delight for their neighbourhood. And it’s for anyone who sees the beauty in serving the food you have prepared with love for the people you love – as well as the beauty in eating it.

Filled with sparkling anecdotes and tales of living life to the full, featuring previously unseen photographs from Lady Glenconner's personal collection. Lady Anne Glenconner, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret and Maid of Honour at the Queen’s Coronation, returns with a rich, sparkling memoir told through an A to Z of her life. From affairs of the heart and Basil’s Bar to dinners with the King and the art of entertaining each chapter reveals a vivid moment of joy, mischief or resilience. Whether offering tips on getting out of the bath with grace, or how to lose at cards with Princess Margaret, she shares wisdom and memory in equal measure. This book is a love letter to a disappearing world and a reminder that life, at any age, should be faced with laughter, a stiff upper lip, and the odd vodka tonic.

Sergeant Ali Wren and her springer spaniel, Police Dog Wilson, return in another mystery set in the charming but secretive town of Heft. When a pride of peacocks escapes from the local stately home and makes itself comfortable in a quiet cul-de-sac, Ali expects a day of feathers, fuss, and phone calls. But what she finds inside the house they’ve invaded is far from routine. The couple who live there have been receiving anonymous hate letters – vicious, threatening, and deeply personal. As Ali and Wilson begin to investigate, they uncover a tangled web of jealousies, betrayals, and long-held grudges that reach deep into the heart of the community. The deeper Ali digs, the clearer it becomes that someone in Heft is determined to keep their secrets hidden, and will stop at nothing to do so...

LOVE READING SCIFI/FANTASY BOOK OF THE MONTH A Female Gladiator's Vow. A Stolen Child. A Storm to End Empires In an oil-fuelled Roman Empire which never fell, Arrow - a gladiatrix turned governess - must rescue Livy, the child she never meant to love, a girl who could tear down the world. When Livy is abducted during a devastating Godstorm, Arrow must unleash years of the gladiator training she'd sworn to forget in order to save her. Defying her owner, a heartless Consul, Arrow turns to her ex-lover and the illegal druid underworld in a desperate attempt to rescue the girl she has tried not to think of as her own. Her search will take her across Londinium, a city of petrol-powered chariots, to the pagan Old Town, and eventually the edge of the known world: the Amazon, where destiny and destruction intertwine. Facing battle and betrayal Arrow must choose: reclaim her past as a killer-or risk everything for the child who might call her 'mother.' She is the Sword.

Love is a long game…Down-and-out after retiring from cycling to ‘get a real job’, Leesa Kubicka just wants to forget about her years on the elite team, the races she mostly lost. Just her luck, her first real assignment at the sports marketing agency where she’s building a career takes her right back to everything she wanted to leave behind: cycling, the Tour de France and Colin Gallagher, the immature joker who’d enjoyed riling her up with stupid pranks – the guy she’d nearly kissed back in September. Much to her mortification, her job is now to make content with him before and during the Tour de France. His pranks and flirting – and distractingly deep voice – don’t make her job any easier, but she’s determined to impress her boss and earn the contract extension her bank account desperately needs. Leesa has always been Colin’s Achilles heel: beautiful, funny and completely immune to his rough charm. But now she’s here to witness the moment that will make or break his young career and all he wants to do is act out with her. It’s his last chance to prove he’s not just the idiot she thinks he is before she’s gone from his life forever. It’s time for Colin Gallagher to finally grow up and prove he’s worth the support of his team and sponsors – and maybe even Leesa’s heart.

'a classy, well-crafted literary thriller.' Adam Lebor in the Financial Times'an enjoyable resemblance to the screen adventures of male-female spy duos in the old Cold War, although its backdrop (oligarchs in London, Putin’s assassins abroad, a possibly compromised White House) is the new one' The Times'original, zeitgeisty and highly engaging' Aspects of Crime'...cultivated and intelligent' Literary Review'A brilliantly original drama of the new Russia-United States relationship - a suspenseful thriller with style and heart.' Simon Mason'An intelligent and sophisticated chase novel that doesn't pause to draw breath... imagine The 39 Steps brought bang up-to-date' James Wolff, author of Beside the Syrian SeaIn Stockholm for a G20 summit, the interpreter Thomas Weaver is summoned by the White House Chief of Staff to an off-the-record meeting with a Russian general. Expecting routine diplomacy, what Weaver gets instead is a chilling glimpse into a secret arrangement between Washington and the Kremlin. Warned never to divulge what has been said, Weaver discovers he has accidentally recorded the meeting – the only evidence that it took place. Now under threat, he escapes to the safety of a friend’s house in the English countryside, and then on to London. Yet even there he senses danger. Unsure where to turn, Weaver finds unexpected help from the enigmatic Lily Churchill, whose own loyalties are a mystery. As the two begin to grasp the significance of what Weaver has heard, he and Lily are forced to go underground to hide from their unknown pursuers, who seem determined to silence Weaver for good. The Interpreter’s Secret is a sophisticated literary thriller about corruption, conspiracy, and the lethal confusions of language.

When a priceless family heirloom goes missing during a small private dinner party, Mel must find the culprit, and the painting, before Lord Jonathan and Lady Laura return home. Despite their moment of passion, Mel and Derrin are now estranged because there is still too much anger. Still trying to find her place as a ‘Greenway’ in the new world, Mel holds a small reunion soiree for her pre-war friends at Avonby while Lady Laura and Lord Jonathan are away in London for the season. Mel invites Derrin to try and patch up their relationship. But when a priceless Turner painting disappears from Jonathan’s study, Mel learns there is a thief at Avonby. With Derrin’s reluctant assistance, Mel locks in the guests and servants. No one is getting out until the painting is returned. But where has the culprit hidden it, and why? Locked in together the real motives, nature and resentment of her guests begin to emerge. Mel learns how little the Greenways are liked by the locals. She is forced to hide her increasingly debilitating illness from them, even as they surround her like a pack of feral wolves. A short flashback hints at the cause of Mel’s war induced trauma. As the truth comes to light, and a shock reveal brings Mel face to face with the culprit, she realises there are more enemies than friends in Avonby’s close-knit community, and there are those willing to do anything to get revenge – even commit murder.

Police stations are outdated, and AI’s make more efficient detectives, or so says a UK Home Office determined to make cuts. When the sole witness in a trafficking case is discovered brutally murdered, a brass horseshoe forced between his teeth, Detective Sergeant Rex King is summoned back to London and into a labyrinth of memory, music, and political unrest. From The Clash’s ragged 1985 busking tour to the fractured legacy of the anti-nuclear movement, Rex follows threads that tug uncomfortably at his own history – echoes he can’t quite place, shadows that refuse to settle. When Rex’s boss, DCI 'Lollo' Lawrence, suddenly disappears, and long-buried papers from the Miners’ Strike surface, he must work alongside a sharp young detective, a seasoned former soul boy, and the National Crime Agency’s unsettlingly brilliant new AI. Yet the deeper he travels, the more he finds the investigation folding back on him: professional loyalties strained, personal relationships tested, and accusations from his undercover past threatening to unmake him. Two murders, one 'misper' and a force under fire – has former ‘spycop’ DS Rex King finally met his match?

Harlowe could use a break. With his academic future over, just like his relationship with Jackson, a suspiciously cheap summer rental on the Cape feels like just the escape he needs. But when he arrives at the picturesque seaside cottage, he's alarmed to find his discouraging old professor in the living room, his father making coffee in the kitchen, a mysterious young man fixing a hole in the wall, and worst of all, Jackson is in the bathroom. None of them will leave. No one else can see them. And they just won't leave him alone. But Harlowe soon realises he isn't the only one who can see the house's magic, and as the summer grows hot and thick with tourists, old wounds and fresh secrets – both in and outside its walls – begin to transform him. And that mysterious man seems almost to be everywhere he looks now... not that he’d want it another way.

Hattie's down on her luck. She's collected enough enemies in high places that the only work she can find is a one-night-only vanity project being mounted by an extremely unlikely impresario, and beyond that things are looking bleak. However her career concerns must be put aside when an old friend appears, in serious trouble and asking for a big favour. Hattie tries to help, but things swiftly go awry and she finds herself thrown into a cat-and-mouse game with some very shady types who pursue her across London all the way to (where else?) backstage in the theatre on opening night.

'Ancient Rome provides rich plunder for fantasy writers...Godstorm is a grand addition to the genre' Daily Mail'This startling alternative history takes us to a newly-imagined world... The result is a vivid, ferocious adventure' Kim Stanley-Robinson'A highly original, vividly-imagined fantasy Roman Empire where oil is power' Ruth DownieLOVE READING SCIFI/FANTASY BOOK OF THE MONTHA Female Gladiator’s Vow. A Stolen Child. A Storm to End EmpiresIn an oil-fuelled Roman Empire which never fell, Arrow – a gladiatrix turned governess – must rescue Livy, the child she never meant to love, a girl who could tear down the world. When Livy is abducted during a devastating Godstorm, Arrow must unleash years of the gladiator training she'd sworn to forget in order to save her. Defying her owner, a heartless Consul, Arrow turns to her ex-lover and the illegal druid underworld in a desperate attempt to rescue the girl she has tried not to think of as her own. Her search will take her across Londinium, a city of petrol-powered chariots, to the pagan Old Town, and eventually the edge of the known world: the Amazon, where destiny and destruction intertwine. Facing battle and betrayal Arrow must choose: reclaim her past as a killer—or risk everything for the child who might call her 'mother.'She is the Sword.

‘I completely lost myself in After Ever After and devoured it in two sittings. It is a gorgeous novel of love, loss and hope' Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious ThingsThree years since the sudden death of her beloved husband Etienne Grenaud, and the end of her life in the beautiful French village of Monpazier, 30-year-old Ava is at a loose end. Now back in London, she spends most of her time with her semi-regular hookup Archie and working on the unfinished draft of her book: The Grief Diary. But when her editor tells her to head back to Monpazier to focus on finishing the book, Ava finds herself learning how to navigate life back in the small town without Etienne. Ava struggles to come to terms with her feelings towards the town, especially after the arrival of Etienne's estranged brother, Florian, which digs up resentment from the past. But with the support of new friends, including her octogenarian landlady, Ava rediscovers the person she was before her husband, and finds out what her life could look like, After Ever After.

A man on the edge. A woman hell-bent on revenge. A cheating husband. A desperate wife. A property empire on the brink of collapse. A family at loggerheads. A predator hiding in plain sight. Who will sink and who will swi? ll is not as it seems aboard a billionaire’s superyacht in this addictive, twist-filled thriller

'This is a marvel' Publishers Weekly'Compelling and dramatic' Booklist'...the allure of an opera legend is rendered with humanizing grit' Foreward ReviewsMaria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognised as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn's Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality. Callas was one of the first divas to come from an impoverished background. As an outsider, she was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists – until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment. In Charyn's inimitable style, Maria La Divina humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.

'Xu is a writer to watch' Isabel Banta, author of Honey'Smart, engaging, and thought-provoking' Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftover WomanA Love Reading DEBUT OF THE MONTH and STAR PICKElizabeth Zhang knows her place in the world. She knows she’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. With a hard-working ethic instilled in her by immigrant parents, armed with impeccable grades, Elizabeth thinks she is set for Harvard Law School. Until she is rejected for being too ordinary, which she translates to mean she's just another boring Asian female. But when her classmate Laura Kim gets in, everything falls apart. Why was Laura accepted? What makes her so interestin? t first, she follows her because she’s just curious. What Laura eats for lunch. Where Laura shops. The answer for Elizabeth’s failure must lie somewhere in Laura’s life. But still, Elizabeth just can’t see it. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot at Harvard. A spot she knows she deserves. A spot that she’ll simply have to take back. Layered, subversive, and satirical, this novel brings to light how, in the face of societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures, a person can unlock the darkest parts of themselves and show how far they’re willing to go to achieve their vision of success.