Alan Titchmarsh
Knave of Spades

When Alan Titchmarsh left school at fifteen, he journeyed south to college and then to Kew Gardens where he encountered a varied assortment of eccentrics, and rare plants collected by Captain Cook. Spells as a teacher and editor followed, until fate took a hand and he landed a job on BBC's Nationwide as gardening presenter. His childhood dream of inheriting the mantle of gardening god Percy Thrower was beginning to come true ... From the first faltering steps in radio and television, to a career in broadcasting and writing, Knave of Spades is a wonderfully warm and self­deprecatingly honest memoir. Alan Titchmarsh shows us just why he has become not only our favourite gardener, but a popular writer and broadcaster too.

Bernard Cornwell
The Burning land

In the last years of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in failing health, and his heir is an untested youth. The Danes, who have failed so many times to conquer Wessex, smell opportunity! First comes Harald Bloodhair, a savage warrior leading a Viking horde, who is encouraged to cruelty by his woman, Skade. But Alfred still has the services of Uhtred, his unwilling warlord, who leads Harald into a trap and, at Farnham in Surrey, inflicts one of the greatest defeats the Vikings were ever to suffer.

The fifth in the magnificent series of England's history.

Rachel has inherited a collie along with her aunt's house and rescue kennels. But as she tries to match the abandoned dogs with new owners, she realises it might not be just the pets who need rescuing. Natalie and Johnny's marriage hasn't been easy since they started trying for a baby. But will adopting Bertie, a fridge-raiding, sofa-stealing Basset hound make up for it? Zoe's ex-husband, David, has given their children a Labrador puppy. The kids are in love, but she's nearly at the end of her tether - until Toffee introduces her to a handsome stranger....