By M. A. Kuzniar Genre: Fantasy Drama Publisher: HQ (HarperCollins) (UK), Haper360 (HarperCollins) (US) A beautiful magical retelling of The Nutcrack 'It was a rainy day that the magic came, and once magic has entered your life, you stay in its glittering clutch forever' Nottingham, 1906 Marietta Stelle longs to be a ballerina but as Christmas draws nearer, her dancing days are numbered. At the wishes of her family, she will be obligated to marry and take up her place in society in the New Year. But when a mysterious new neighbour, Dr Drosselmeier, purchases a neighbouring townhouse, it heralds the arrival of magic and wonder in her life. Although Drosselmeier’s magic is darker than Marietta could have imagined… When he constructs an elaborate set for her final ballet performance, she discovers it carries a magic all of its own. As the clock chimes midnight, Marietta finds herself walking through a land of snow-topped fir trees leading to a frozen sugar palace silent with secrets. In the darkness of night, magic awaits and you will never forget what you find here…

By B P Walter Genre: Psychological Thriller The Saturday Times Paperback Fiction Bestseller: #1 The Sunday Times Paperback Fiction Bestseller: #8 Publisher: One More Chapter (HarperCollins) Four people walked into the dining room that night. One would never leave. Matthew: the perfect husband. Titus: the perfect son. Charlie: the perfect illusion. Rachel: the perfect stranger. Charlie didn’t want her at the book club. Matthew wouldn’t listen. And that’s how Charlie finds himself slumped beside his husband’s body, their son sitting silently at the dinner table, while Rachel calls 999, the bloody knife still gripped in her hand. Classic crime meets Donna Tartt in this nerve-shredding domestic noir thriller that weaves a sprawling web of secrets around an opulent West London world and the dinner that ends in death.

By Katie McMahon Genre: Drama Thriller Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre Two sisters. One mistake. A million consequences… Can one decision change everything? 'I couldn't believe that Bec would, after all these years, bring the whole thing up so . . . casually.' Bec and Kate may be sisters, but they couldn't be less alike. Bec lives the domestic dream with her surgeon husband Stuart and three perfect children. That is, until she meets Ryan - ten years her junior, wild and exciting, his arrival makes her question everything she thought she wanted. Kate's life is hardly a dream since her modelling career ended more than a decade ago. But when she meets Adam - funny, kind, tall - things start looking up. Until she finds out he's been keeping secrets from her… Bec thinks Adam is only after her sister's money, and Kate can't see why Bec would throw her life away for Ryan. As tensions mount and secrets are revealed, will they discover that some mistakes can't be fixed? A captivating novel about mistakes and choices, relationships and forgiveness, this is brilliant storytelling with sharp, sassy characters, sly humour and dark twists. 'I absolutely loved this novel: fresh, funny and heartfelt. I didn't want it to end!' Liane Moriarty

By Emma Musty Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: Legend Press, Audio: WF Howes Longlisted for the Mslexia Award and Cinnamon Press Novel Award. Theo, an aging Parisian cartographer, is desperately searching for the woman he once loved before Alzheimer’s takes his memories of her. Elise, his estranged daughter, moves in to take care of him. She still blames him for the tragic loss of her mother and is struggling with this new forced intimacy. Nebay, an Eritrean refugee, becomes Theo’s carer and friend. Unbeknownst to Elise, Nebay does not have a visa for France and is working illegally in order to support his sister. Each is living a life of secrets, questions and uncertainty in a world where Nebay’s very presence in France would be invisible on Theo’s maps. An important novel that is as compassionate as it is eye-opening, The Exile and the Mapmaker is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit.

By David Wharton Genre: Literary Crime Publisher: Sandstone Press London: 1963. The lives of a professional shoplifter and a young art student collide. Delia must atone for a terrible mistake; Tess is desperate to be a real artist. With the threat of the criminal underworld encroaching, only their friendship can save them from disaster.

By Jasbinder Bilan Genre: YA Fiction Publisher: Chicken House Books (UK), Scholastic (US) From the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award Tamarind never knew her Indian mum, Chinty, who died soon after she was born. So when she arrives at her ancestral home, a huge mansion in the Himalayas surrounded by luxuriant gardens, she's full of questions for her extended family. But instead of answers, she finds an ominous silence - and a trickle of intriguing clues: an abandoned hut, a friendly monkey, a glowing star ring, and a strange girl in the garden who calls herself Ishta. Slowly, Tamarind unravels a mystery at the heart of who she is ...

By Jennifer Neal Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: Catapult (Penguin Random House) (US) 'It wasn't long before my wet and sticky fascination with life beyond the walls of our home could be read all over my face like soot' Gabrielle has inherited the ability to change the colour of her skin from her mother, Tallulah. They guard their power carefully within the walls of a home that's been bleached completely white. This is the doing of Gabrielle's father, Robert. He needs everything in his house to be white – including his wife and daughter. This is a house with secrets. Robert does not know that Talullah keeps a rainbow of spices stored in baggies and sewn into the lining of her handbag. Nor does he know that when he's away, Gabrielle and Tallulah let their skin pass through a spectrum of bright, dark, rebellious colours. But when Gabrielle discovers a love for the piano, she also finds she can change her skin without her mother nearby. Gabrielle is learning of a world beyond her family's carefully-coded existence, and her mother is watching. The Colour of Her Blood is a glittering, witty tale about privilege, music, queerness and hurricanes. It's a novel where the strange and surreal meets the kitsch of Florida as it explores the dynamic of a family traumatised by racial violence in America. At its heart, it's a story about a mother, told by her daughter. This is a novel that plays with genre and doesn't fit neatly into any one category, but could sit somewhere between Avni Doshi's Burnt Sugar and Octavia E. Butler's Kindred, and for all sorts of reasons I can see it speaking to fans of Helen Oyeyemi, Kiley Reid and HBO's Lovecraft Country. Jennifer is an American and Australian writer, journalist, visual artist, and occasional standup comedian currently living in Berlin. She's had work published in multiple titles, including a piece on Black Speculative Fiction and Feminist Thought in Gay Magazine, and she was nominated in 2019 for a Pushcart Prize for her essay in The Willowherb Review entitled In Search of Better Skies. A recent post on her blog, Notes on White Guilt, went viral in June 2020, and she's a 2021 MacDowell Colony artist in residence.

By Ryan Collett Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: Sandstone Press After witnessing from her apartment window the killing of two young boys by a hit and run driver, Doreen Durand lies low, alone and friendless, refusing to answer the door or her phone to the investigating police. When she runs away she is picked up and protected by the mysterious Violet Cascade, wealthy and powerful. As Officer Solloway continues to pursue Doreen, a surreal game of cat and mouse begins. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXYF2yVXP0

By Charlotte Duckworth Genre: Suspense Thriller Publisher: Quercus (UK and US) 'Compulsively readable and with an ending you will not see coming' WOMAN & HOME 'A real thrill ride' HEAT 'The perfect read. Surprising and original' LESLEY KARA 'Masterful . . . a great twist' HARRIET TYCE THE PERFECT HUSBAND . . . After a difficult pregnancy, Esther is grateful that her husband Robin offers to put his career on hold so that she can return to the job she loves. But Esther finds leaving her daughter Riley behind more challenging than she'd thought. And soon the new imbalance in her relationship with Robin brings old tensions to the surface. OR A PERFECT LIE? Then one day Esther arrives home from work to find Robin and Riley are missing. As the police investigate their disappearance, it becomes clear that nothing about this modern-day family is what it seems... Is Robin the perfect father everyone thinks he is? Or was it all a perfect lie?

By Claire McFall Genre: YA Fiction Publisher: Hot Key Books (UK), Beijing White Horse (Simplified Chinese) Liam Hayley, she just doesn’t get it. Doesn’t get that doors which are open for her, are closed for me. Doesn’t get that I’m following in my dad’s footsteps, Aiden’s footsteps, even if the shoes don’t fit. She tells me we can be together, that we can make it work. And I wish, I really wish, that we could. But wishing doesn’t change anything. Hayley When I was eleven, green was my favourite colour. That was before I realised my nose was blue. It was also the year I met Liam. Right from the off, we were best friends. Then more. Then... nothing. Because Tim and Hun, they’re oil and water: they don’t mix. Ask my dad. Ask Aiden. But blue, green, they’re just colours. And I like green. Callum and Hayley are twins, and today is their 21st birthday. They should have been at their party, celebrating with family and friends. Instead, Hayley’s at the hospital, covered in blood and facing the police, and Callum – he’s in the morgue. Making Turquoise takes the reader on the journey of their adolescence, starting at 11-years-old when Liam comes into their life. He’s Catholic to their Protestant, green to their blue. Callum doesn’t like him, knows he’ll be trouble, but Hayley’s found her new best friend; the boy who’ll become the love of her life, her soul mate. And she isn’t letting go. Growing up in Larkhall, a small town in Central Scotland, isn’t easy for the three of them. Hayley and Callum’s dad hates Liam and everything he stands for, and Liam’s brother Aidan just hates everything. And everyone. The two of them are determined to keep Hayley and Liam apart, which leaves Callum playing piggy-in-the-middle. He has the impossible job of trying to keep his family together and keeping his twin happy – two things which seem to be mutually exclusive. As they get older the stakes get higher, until the night of Hayley and Callum’s 21st when a fight turns deadly and Hayley is left wondering whether Liam – the boy she loves – might have been the one to kill Callum, her brother. Her twin.

By Frankie Miren Genre: Contemporary Literary Drama Publisher: Influx Press Lori works illegally in a rented flat in central London, living in fear of police raids which could mean losing her small daughter and her dream of a new life. Freya is a student who finds she can make far more money as an escort than she could in an office; life, after all, is already a tangle of madness and dissociation. And Paula is a journalist whose long-term campaign against prostitution has brought her some strange bedfellows. After a shock change to the law, with brothels being raided by the authorities, lives across the country are fractured. As a threat from Lori’s past begins to catch up with her, the three women are increasingly, inevitably drawn into each other’s orbit The Service is a powerful and challenging novel about women’s bodies, sex and relationships, mental health, entitlement, authenticity, privilege and power – as shocking as any dystopia, but touching and deeply humane.

By Roderick O'Grady Genre: Grounded Mythical Family Drama Publisher: Firefly Press Publication Date: 2021 Minnie is alone, high up in her favourite tree, looking out at the vast grey smoke cloud from the forest fire behind the mountain. Across the bay, lightning strikes trees on the crest of the long, hilly island. Kaayii is sitting at the top of his favourite tree watching the billowing smoke of the raging fire that has forced his clan to move to this side of the mountain. Though only a couple of years older than Minnie, he is more than a foot taller and twice as wide. He is completely covered in long dense dark brown hair. Minnie’s mother died recently, and she and her stepfather Dan are stuck with each other, living in a small cabin at the foot of a mountain. On a hike in the forest with her best friend Billy, Minnie discovers four giant footprints. Dan is sceptical and puts it down to hoaxers - anything other than a hitherto unidentified giant bi-pedal hominid called Bigfoot. Minnie knows better. The Bigfoots or Sasquatches are guardians of the forest, but the balance has been disturbed. There are now too many predators on this side of the mountain. Kaayii’s father has decided that they must follow the ‘ancient trail’ to a new forest home. Kayyii and Minnie’s paths become entwined as they help each other and their families to heal.

By Paul Braddon UNDER OPTION with BBC Studios Genre: Speculative Thriller, Grounded Sci-fi Publisher: Sandstone Press Publication Date: 2020 Fear makes her human - humans make her fear! Evie, a bio-engineered human replica, lives in a Thames-side penthouse with her ‘husband’ Matthew and his servant, Daniels. A hugely valuable commodity, she has been kept secret from the world and spends her days pacing their rooftop garden, her life dull but safe. When knowledge of her whereabouts is leaked, she is forced to leave the security of the apartment and everything she knows, and take her chances on the dangerous streets below. With the threat of capture ever present, she learns to be decisive and ruthless. Along the way she rescues charismatic David, the only other humanoid like her, and Sola a ten-year-old pickpocket with whom she forms an instant bond. What greets her at her journey’s end is wholly unexpected. What is ‘the actuality’ and how can Evie make sense of her existence now? The Actuality is a powerful, atmospheric speculative thriller set in a squalid, broken-down England a hundred years in the future in which technology has lurched forward then all but seized up. Evie is a brilliantly depicted character: AI but soulful, aware of her limitations but expanding her ‘consciousness’, experiencing the loneliness of being one of a kind and ultimately forcing us to question the essence of what it is to be human.

By Jasbinder Bilan Genre: YA Fiction Publisher: Chicken House Books (UK), Scholastic (US) Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2019 Winner of the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2017 Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2020 Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2019 Chosen as one of the Guardian's Best Books of 2019 Asha lives in the foothills of the Himalayas. Money is tight and she misses her papa who works in the city. When he suddenly stops sending his wages, a ruthless moneylender ransacks their home and her mother talks of leaving. From her den in the mango tree, Asha makes a pact with her best friend, Jeevan, to find her father and make things right. But the journey is dangerous: they must cross the world's highest mountains and face hunger, tiredness - even snow leopards. And yet, Asha has the unshakeable sense that the spirit bird of her grandmother - her nanijee - is watching over her ...

By James Gould-Bourn UNDER OPTION with Lime Pictures Genre: Up-lit, Comedy Publisher: Trapeze (Orion) (UK), Scribner (Simon & Schuster) (US) Publication Date: June 2020 Foreign Rights Sales: Germany, Italy, Chinese (Simplified), France, Serbia, Japan, Bulgaria Danny has lost his wife, his job on a building site, and he is about to lose his home. Worst of all though, he’s losing his son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since his mum died 14 months earlier in a car crash. Danny doesn’t know how to reach him. After seeing street performers in his local park apparently raking it in, he spends his last fiver on a vomit-ridden animal suit and becomes a dancing panda… until something unexpected happens that makes the humiliation of his terrible rhythm all worth it. When Danny sees Will being bullied, he runs over in the panda outfit to save his son, who in turn then opens up to him like he hasn’t for over a year. But Will doesn’t know it’s his dad in the suit, and Danny is too afraid to tell him the truth in case he spoils everything. Keeping Mum is a sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes sad, always poignant and ultimately uplifting story of a father and son overcoming their grief in the most unlikely of circumstances.

By Katie Marsh Genre: Romantic Comedy-Drama Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Seven-year-old Jake has spent his whole life rushing in and out of hospital after being born with a devastating heart condition. Jake is determined over the course of a year to find his single father, Simon, someone to love. But what neither of them are expecting is for Beth, a nurse, to move into the cottage next door and change both their lives forever. 'Unbreak Your Heart was born in a hospital corridor eight years ago when I carried my baby daughter towards her first operation. It is a love story of hope and courage, about the light that shines through the darkness and the love that can transform a broken heart and let it take flight.' (Katie Marsh),

By Hayley Barker Genre: YA Dystopian Publisher: Scholastic A dazzling, high-octane read filled with death-defying acrobatics, circus crowds with an appetite for disaster, and two forbidden teenage lovers trying to escape the shackles of their very different lives. Set in a near-future England where the poorest people in the land must watch their children be taken by a travelling circus – to perform at the mercy of hungry lions, sabotaged high wires and a demonic ringmaster. The ruling class visit the circus as an escape from their structured, high-achieving lives – pure entertainment with a bloodthirsty edge. Ben, the teenage son of a draconian government minister, visits the circus for the first time and falls instantly in love with Hoshiko, a young performer. They come from harshly different worlds – but must join together to escape the circus and put an end to its brutal sport.

By Hayley Barker Genre: YA Dystopian Publisher: Scholastic The deadliest show on earth is ready for an encore... Hoshiko and Ben have been on the run since they burned Silvio Sabatini's circus down to the ground at the explosive finale of SHOW STOPPER. But Ben's mother will stop at nothing to track him down and get her revenge: backing him into a corner where he is forced to sacrifice himself to save Hoshiko. The deadliest show on earth has been resurrected and if Ben thought he'd seen into its dark corners as an outsider, the true extent of the horrors that lurk beneath the Big Top are about to be revealed as he becomes the circus' new star attraction...

By Tim Collins Genre: YA Comedy Publisher: Michael O'Mara (UK), Simon & Schuster (US) Foreign Rights Sales: Portuguese (SA and Portugal), Hebrew, Polish, Chinese (simplified & traditional) Turkish, Hungarian, Korean, French, Vietnamese, Thai, Greek, Czech, Russian, Indonesian, Spanish, German, Italian, Slovakian and Dutch. Nigel Mullet was transformed into a vampire when he was still a teenager, and will remain this age forever. Unfortunately, Nigel became a vampire at the awkward age of fifteen, and must spend eternity coping with acne, a breaking voice, and an ineptitude with girls . . . In this, his excruciatingly funny diary, Nigel chronicles his increasingly desperate attempts to be noticed by the love of his life, Chloe Sparrow, the constant mortification caused by his vampire parents (not to mention the worry that they might accidentally eat one of his friends), and the frustration one feels when you've got the whole of boring eternity stretching out in front of you and you can't even have a lie-in (vampires don't sleep). Forced to hang out with the Goths and emo kids due to his pale skin and social awkwardness, and constantly battling his embarrassingly overwhelming desire to sink his fangs into Chloe's neck, will Nigel ever get his girl? Fantastically witty and hugely entertaining, this fun and accessible diary will appeal to anyone, teenage or otherwise . . .

by Michael Jecks Genre: Historical Mystery, thriller Publisher: Canelo and Headline The first book in an epic 32 book series. Paris, 1307. A Knight Templar weeps as he watches his friends, broken by torture, go to their deaths at the stake. Pope Clement has destroyed the Order, persuaded of corruption within it. All that remains is the desire for vengeance against those who defiled the Order’s name. Devon 1316. Simon Puttock is the newly appointed bailiff of Lydford Castle, but has little experience of violence. A charred body is found in a burned-out cottage, and only the new lord, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, deduces that the victim was dead before the fire began. Together, Simon and Baldwin begin to piece together the events of the man’s last days. Then word comes of another murder, and this time the victim was burned alive…

By Amanda Mason Genre: Domestic Horror/Psychological Thriller Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre The girls heard it first, the knocking inside the walls . . . THEN 1976. Loo and her sister Bee live in a run-down cottage in the middle of nowhere, with their artistic parents and wild siblings. Their mother, Cathy, had hoped to escape to a simpler life; instead the family find themselves isolated and shunned by their neighbours. At the height of the stifling summer, unexplained noises and occurences in the house begin to disturb the family, until they intrude on every waking moment . . . NOW Loo, now Lucy, is called back to her childhood home. A group of strangers are looking to discover the truth about the house and the people who lived there. But is Lucy ready to confront what really happened all those years ago?

By Katie Coyle UNDER OPTION Genre: YA Dystopian Fiction Publisher: Hot Key Books (Bonnier Zaffre) (UK), Houghton Mifflin (US) Putting the cult back in cult fiction, this is a darkly witty and sharply questioning debut A chilling vision of a contemporary USA where the sinister Church of America is destroying lives. Our cynical protagonist, sixteen-year-old Vivian Apple, is awaiting the fated 'Rapture' - or rather the lack of it. Her evangelical parents have been in the Church's thrall for too long, and she's looking forward to getting them back. Except that when Vivian arrives home the day after the supposed 'Rapture', her parents are gone. All that is left are two holes in the ceiling... Viv is determined to carry on as normal, but when she starts to suspect that her parents might still be alive, she realises she must uncover the truth. Joined by Peter, a boy claiming to know the real whereabouts of the Church, and Edie, a heavily pregnant Believer who has been 'left behind', they embark on a road trip across America. Encountering freak weather, roving 'Believer' gangs and a strange teenage group calling themselves the 'New Orphans', Viv soon begins to realise that the Rapture was just the beginning.

By Eliska Tanzer UNDER OPTION with Same Name Productions Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir Publisher: Mirror Books This is the true story of Eliska Tanzer. Born into a Romani life, her family already outcasts, she has no future and no way out. Very early on, Eliska realises that the only way she will ever be happy is to leave the place and make her way in the world through an education. So she sets in motion a chain of events that will bring her to England and take her within inches of her dreams. But the dusty road she must tread is fraught with challenges, and soon young Eliska has to face up to the brutalities of the world and her own struggle to stay alive. This is her story. A story of remarkable will, determination and desire to become a better person. A story of a girl on the brink.

By Maria Kuzniar Genre: YA Action & Adventure Publisher: Penguin Aleja whiles away her days in her family's dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic that she's only ever read about in books. After all, she's always being told that girls can't be explorers. But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel called the Ship of Shadows. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of a legend. And it wants Aleja. Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realize that the sea holds more secrets than she ever could have imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja's strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates - and discover what they are risking everything to find.

By Jeremy Craddock UNDER OPTION with TOD Productions Genre: True Crime, Non-Fiction Publisher: The History Press 10 Rillington Place meets Silent Witness, set in the Agatha Christie era and written with the verse and suspense of a crime thriller In September 1935, Dr Buck Ruxton strangled his wife Isabella, whom he suspected of having an affair, in their Lancashire home while their three children slept in their beds close by. When the nanny, Mary Rogerson, disturbed him in the act, he killer her too. To hide his crimes, he dismembered and chopped up the bodies, removing any distinguishing features, before he disposed of them in a number of bags in a ravine on the Scottish borders. When first discovered, it was unclear how many bodies the police were even dealing with. The world’s media went into a frenzy over the so-called ‘Jigsaw Murders’. It took the genius of Professors Sydney Smith and John Glaister and their ground-breaking forensic techniques to piece together the identities of the bodies. And when the finger of suspicion finally pointed at Buck Ruxton, he acquired the services of the most famous lawyer in the land, Norman Birkett QC who, against all the odds, had successfully defended the accused of the Brighton Trunk Murder case the previous year. Would he succeed this time? In The Jigsaw Murders, author and journalist Jeremy Craddock tells the whole story of these gruesome killings for the first time. He brings to life the main characters, from the enigmatic and charismatic Ruxton himself, to Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson - until now only seen as anonymous victims of a cruel crime - to the police officers, lawyers and scientists involved in the investigation and trial in this landmark case which led to the birth of modern forensics.

By Paul MacAlindin Genre: Non-Fiction Publisher: Sandstone Press The story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is here told by its musical director from its inception to its eventual end. The NYOI came through the most difficult and dangerous of times to produce fine music not only in Iraq but also in Britain, Germany and France. A beacon of hope and achievement the young musicians and their tutors made bridges across their own ethnic divisions, made great music in the most trying and tragic of circumstances, and became their country's best ambassadors in 5000 years. Paul MacAlindin discovered from an early age that he loved being an artist leading artists. As a musician, dancer and all-round performer, he found his voice through conducting, a passionate journey that has led him to work with orchestras and ensembles all over the world, from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to the Armenian Philharmonic to the Düsseldorf Symphoniker. ‘The great adventure of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq [...]serve[s] as an example of how the essential can survive catastrophe.' Sir Peter Maxwell Davies ‘Be prepared to laugh, cry and - above all – to discover music’s power to overcome seemingly irreconcilable differences and create harmony out of chaos.’ Julian Lloyd Webber ‘An amazing and deeply inspiring story.’ Book of the Month (August 2016), The Bookseller ‘Upbeat is an eloquently-written, moving and sometimes funny book.’ The National (UAE) ‘Fragile, precarious, quixotic and almost insanely heroic.’ BBC Music Magazine ‘...one of the most unlikely, and genuinely heroic, stories you’re ever likely to read.’ The Spectator ‘An inspiring and insightful guide towards understanding a land too long dominated by war and violence.’ The Express

By Tim Tate Genre: Non-Fiction Publisher: John Blake Publishing (Bonnier Books) In their day they were bigger than Beckham the working class factory girls who played in front of vast crowds throughout Britain and became celebrities across the world. But they threatened the entire male-dominated bastion of 20th-century football. So the FA plotted to shut them down... Women s football began to flourish among factory workers during the First World War, and by 1920 had become a major spectator sport. Yet in the success of ladies teams and the celebrity of their leading players lay the seeds of their destruction. A year later, the men of the Football Association, alarmed by the huge popularity of the women s game, met behind closed doors and, after a brief debate, banned women s football from all professional grounds. Women s Football: The Secret History tells the extraordinary story of the time when women ruled the football world. With recollections from the last surviving member of the leading factory team during its glory years, backed by remarkable contemporary photographs, here is the missing chapter in football s history its last great secret. It is a tale of self-interested men with power, wealth, and a fiefdom to protect. But above all, it is the story of girls with balls.

by Claire McFall UNDER OPTION with Legendary Entertainment Genre: YA Fantasy, romance Publisher: Templar Fiction With more than two million copies sold worldwide, Ferryman is a cult sensation in China, staying in the top 10 bestseller chart for three years before securing a Hollywood movie deal in early 2018. Language rights to the Ferryman trilogy have been sold in 14 territories. Three Book Series Dylan has escaped a horrific train crash unscathed. Except she hasn't. The bleak landscape around her isn't Scotland. It's a wasteland haunted by wraiths searching for human souls. And the stranger waiting for her isn't an ordinary boy. Tristan is a Ferryman, tasked with transporting her soul safely to the afterlife, a journey he's made a thousand times before. Except this time, something's different. Torn between love and destiny, Dylan realises she can't let Tristan go, nor can she stay with him. Eventually, inevitably, the wraiths would capture her soul and she would be lost forever. Can true love overcome the boundaries of death?

by Claire McFall UNDER OPTION with Legendary Entertainment Genre: YA Fantasy, romance Publisher: Templar Fiction With more than two million copies sold worldwide, Ferryman is a cult sensation in China, staying in the top 10 bestseller chart for three years before securing a Hollywood movie deal in early 2018. Language rights to the Ferryman trilogy have been sold in 14 territories. Three Book Series Tristan and Dylan have escaped the afterlife. But fate never meant for them to live. Dylan should have been killed in a horrific train crash. Tristan should still be a Ferryman, an immortal. Now, living in bodies they have no right to inhabit, they discover they're connected by something stronger than love. Their souls are bound together. Alone, they'll die. When they broke through the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead they defied the laws of the supernatural world, and showed the way for others to escape. Now they must face the consequences. Can true love transcend destiny?

by Claire McFall UNDER OPTION with Legendary Entertainment Genre: YA Fantasy, romance Publisher: Templar Fiction With more than two million copies sold worldwide, Ferryman is a cult sensation in China, staying in the top 10 bestseller chart for three years before securing a Hollywood movie deal in early 2018. Language rights to the Ferryman trilogy have been sold in 14 territories. Three Book Series Tristan and Dylan have escaped death and conquered destiny. Finally, there is nothing to stop them from being together. But every action has a consequence, and their escape to the real world has caused an imbalance in the afterlife. It's owed two souls -- and it wants them back. When the world of the dead claims Dylan's parents to restore the balance, Dylan and Tristan are offered a terrible bargain: stay together and condemn innocent souls to death, or return to the wasteland to take their place and face separation. Forever. With no place left for them in the world of the living or the dead, will Dylan and Tristan make a heartrending sacrifice? The stunning final instalment of Dylan and Tristan's epic love story, Outcasts is the much-anticipated follow-up to the award-winning Ferryman, and heart-pounding sequel Trespassers.