Julian Stockwin
Kydd: The Admiral's Daughter

Tensions are escalating again between England and Napoleon's France. While the Royal Navy launches rescue and reconnaissance missions on the Continent, French privateer ships lurk in English waters poised to strike at British trade. Smugglers, perilous storms and a treacherous coastline all threaten to overcome HMS Teazer as her men fight to gain control of the seas around Cornwall and Devon. Thomas Kydd's attention however is being drawn by another quarter. The beautiful and determined admiral's daughter could be the key to realising all of the young captain's hopes and ambitions. But high society, he realises, can be as treacherous as his first mistress - the sea.

Barbara Trapido
Noah's Ark

Ali Bobrow is an other-worldly single parent with a fraught nine-year­old daughter, a malevolent 'ex' with a grabby new wife, and an underused artistic talent. A pushover when it comes to needy neighbours and uninvited children, she allows her house to be the local drop-in centre, until she collides with Noah Glazer, who falls for her pale red hair. A solid man of science, Noah walks into her over­populated life bringing good sense, order and security. But ten years on, Ali is drawn back into the complexities of her past: an old lover, two ex-spouses, a colleague from clown school and a small smuggled cat all help to rock the boat.

At the end of the third century BC, as republican Rome's long war with Carthage in Africa draws to a close, a new danger is arising in the east­the ruthless and ambitious King of Macedon, Philip the Fifth, is moving against the independent city-states of Greece and threatening Rome itself. Against this background, Marcus, a young Roman, embarks in a sea crossing form Italy to Corfu with his father. Pirates ambush the ship and Marcus's father sacrifices his life in order to save his son. Marcus vows to avenge his father's death, travelling among the cities of Greece and Italy during a time of culture upheval. It is a journey that brings him to an unexpected fate. A remarkable, beautifully written novel of love, loss and redemption.