I’ve been a Pratchett fan since I first read The Colour of Magic in 1986. I was nine and suddenly obsessed. When he died, I cried; when I found out he left me – us – one last gift, I cried again. The best satire doesn’t just make you laugh through the tears and cry with laughter; it makes you think. Over the decades, Pratchett perfected this art. Nobody can replace him, although many authors, including myself, try to follow. Searching for them between the rock and the trying-too-hard place, sometimes I find diamonds. May they shine as brightly in your eyes as they do in mine.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone with a name like Miss Mildred Percy, a noted spinster living under her overwhelmingly generous and loving sister’s roof, does not inherit dragons’ eggs. Or bump into helpful and – one can’t help but notice – broad-shouldered, hat-wearing, single vicars. She’d swoon herself into dehydration if she knew what was still to come: raising a baby dragon (named Fitz); a proper Bad Boy villain with little money and relentless motivation (named Belinda); and, perhaps the most difficult, finding her own agency. Agnes Nitt would never. Perdita X Dream, however, might…
Miss Percyis the best book I’ve read in 2021 – it felt as if I inherited a manuscript signed by three of my favourite authors. Couldn’t recommend it more.
Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster. She does not dance, she has long stopped dreaming, and she certainly does not have adventures. That is, until her great uncle has the audacity to leave her an inheritance, one that includes a dragon’s egg.
The egg - as eggs are wont to do - decides to hatch, and Miss Mildred Percy is suddenly thrust out of the role of “spinster and general wallflower” and into the unprecedented position of “spinster and keeper of dragons.”
People are so desperate to buy cheap Byronic verses they’ll risk being duped over missing out. Baconians walk from door to door, pamphlets in hand, inquiring whether you’ve ever wondered who really wrote the “Shakespeare” plays. The vile Acheron Hades uses time travel to ruin the ending ofJane Eyrefor everyone and threatens to steal Jane from the book entirely! Can SpecOps’ a-bit-too-infamous detective, Thursday Next, stop this madness? More importantly, has anybody ever seen this “Jasper Fforde” and Sir Terry’s books in a trenchcoat in the same room? I didn’t think so.
There should be more books about books, and there are, because Thursday Next is a series. I’m proud to say I found out about it when a reader compared my bookto Jasper Fforde’s work!
Meet Thursday Next, literary detective without equal, fear or boyfriend
Jasper Fforde's beloved New York Times bestselling novel introduces literary detective Thursday Next and her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England-from the author of The Constant Rabbit
Fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse will love visiting Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, when time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: it's a bibliophile's dream. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic…
When Gadriel, an ex-guardian-currently-fallen angel bets against Barachiel, definitely-not-the-angel-of-gamblers, the latter wins – to nobody’s (including Gadriel’s) surprise. To pay the debt Gabriel must tempt the terminally sin-free Holly Harker to be a bit less of an Agnes (or an early Mildred) and more of a Perdita (or a late Mildred). Unfortunately, Holly has no experience at being nice to herself, even in perfectly wholesome ways. Neither Lady Gadriel, Sir Gadriel, Adorkable Fluffy Kitten Gadriel, nor chocolate will tempt her! The villains include an evil secondary school history teacher, a teen band leader whose mother is definitely not called Karen, and grief.
Small Miracles is hilarious, wonderfully queer, sweet, thoughtful, and occasionally heartbreaking. I never thought a cosy YA urban fantasy would become my favourite book of 2022.
A “charming tale of little temptations” (Jacquelyn Benson), this feel-good comedy by fantasy author Olivia Atwater mixes angels, demons, romance, and chocolate into a perfectly petty and wickedly entertaining novel.
A little bit of sin is good for the soul.
Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, has a bit of a gambling debt. Fortunately, her angelic bookie is happy to let her pay off her debts by doing what she does best: All Gadriel has to do is tempt miserably sinless mortal Holly Harker to do a few nice things for herself.
Only a real genius of a bard could give justice to the heroes who saved the village city of Skendrick from Dragonia the Dragon. Due to a sudden shortage of geniuses Heloise the Bard, who’s never met a run-on sentence she didn’t like, tells you (mostly) all about herself the battles, the riddles, Heloise, the magic, pooping in swamps, Heloise, the flatulent minotaur… oh yes, the dragon! Almost forgot. And if there’s one thing she knows, it’s that facts will ruin the truth every. Single. Time.
Black’s ‘Friday’ is a song so infinitely horrible it creates a space-inverting portal that makes it an eternal classic. So is this book. Read it with your eyes closed. In hiding. With mushroom powder at hand.
The #1 humorous fantasy bestseller! Sure, you think you know the story of the fearsome red dragon, Dragonia. How it terrorized the village of Skendrick until a brave band of heroes answered the noble villagers' call for aid. How nothing could stop those courageous souls from facing down the dragon. How they emerged victorious and laden with treasure.
But, even in a world filled with epic adventures and tales of derring-do, where dragons, goblins, and unlicensed prestidigitators run amok, legendary heroes don't always know what they're doing. Sometimes they're clueless. Sometimes beleaguered townsfolk are more hapless than helpless. And orcs?…
Mona is 14, a bread wizard, and just found a corpse in her aunt’s bakery. The perpetrator is almost definitely not Bob the Overeager Sourdough Starter, but before Mona has a chance to get to the bottom of all this (except Bob, obviously) she finds herself both accused of murder and targeted by a magic-hating assassin. Assuming she remains both free and alive, her animated bread golems and gingerbread men (and Bob) will have to save a city from an actual army – and its incompetent rulers.
Kingfisher puts “adult” in “young adult” and “spectacular” in “middle grade.” Her publisher didn’t know how to market the book, because it’s really unlike anything else, including Pratchett. Mona isn’t a romantic, epic heroine; she’s just disappointed. I was delighted. (Also, Bob.)
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of…
Poor Odin only just started existing and already has a Universe to decorate, a smug Tree to ignore, and two competitive brothers who think they’d make better All-Fathers. His wife, who knows the future, won’t tell him a word because of his cheating, which he hasn’t even invented yet. Horrible things such as celery, mosquitoes, Loki’s dubious sense of humour, and people keep happening at him. The esteemed egg whisk and highly regarded feather duster? Not so much. There are only two sensible things the All-Father can do: 1) hang from the judgy Tree for nine days with a spear through his side and 2) drink from the Well of Wisdom, whose guardian, Sir Daddy Mímir, likes one-of-a-kind gifts. In his head, Odin’s idea seems wise…
I have been writing for many years, and my main preference is political thrillers with criminal overtones. I first became interested in politics when I worked at several political conferences in the 60’s and 70’s. I have been involved in several criminal cases, including my own, and within my family, I have a nephew in the police force. For many years I have had the opportunity to mix with the upper tiers of society as well as the criminal classes and this has given me great insight into creating my characters and plots.
Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.
Pete meets a Czechian agent who wants asylum. She has a murdered EU Commissioner’s diary containing clues to the civil unrest planned by the club, encrypted in algebraic chess notations. West seeks answers and links up with retired MI6 officer Tosh. While escaping would-be captors, they decode enough chess moves to reveal the anarchy of the…
Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.
Pete meets a Czechian agent who wants asylum. She has a murdered EU Commissioner’s diary containing clues to the civil unrest planned by the club, encrypted in algebraic chess notations. West seeks answers and links up with retired MI6 officer Tosh. While escaping would-be captors, they decode enough chess moves to reveal the anarchy of the…
