Join us for an entertaining evening with one of the UK’s best loved comedians and host of Great British Bake-Off: Extra Slice.

Jo Brand is getting on a bit and wants to tell you all about it. This is not a ‘life begins after menopause’ pep talk. This book will not tell you how to live longer or better, nor is it a guidebook on being your ‘best self’ (sorry). This is a book about relinquishing control, embracing the bed slippers and bathrobe, about not ‘getting work done’, the aches, pains, trials and tribulations – everything these age-defying celebrities don’t show you on social media.

Decline and Falling Over is a riotous and hilarious memoir about how to do your ‘second half’ the Jo Brand way.

Long established as one of the UK’s best-loved comics, Jo Brand is the star and co-writer of Getting On, the BBC’s BAFTA award-winning series set on a hospital’s geriatric ward, which was partly inspired by her earlier career in nursing. Other television credits include hosting Great British Bake Off: Extra Slice, Taskmaster, Have I Got News for You, Would I Lie to You, Jo Brand’s Hot Potatoes (BBC One) and the award-winning Through the Cakehole. Jo has written several highly acclaimed best-selling books including Can’t Stand Up For Sitting Down, Look Back In Hunger, Born Lippy and The More You Ignore Me. She also co-wrote and starred in the sitcom Damned on Channel 4.

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Rick Stein has been cooking for the last 60 years. Now, for the first time, he shares his complete cookery course.

With 150 classic recipes and photographed step-by-step techniques, here Rick goes right back to basics and brings together a lifetime of cooking expertise into one essential volume. In this book Rick looks back on the essential recipes and techniques he returns to again and again. With chapters focusing on main ingredients – eggs & dairy, vegetables, fish & shellfish, meat & poultry, pulses & grains – this is his most extensive book yet.

Whether you’re cooking a simple weeknight dinner or hosting a lavish dinner party, Rick Stein’s Cookery Course will prepare you to make delicious meals with confidence.

Rick Stein’s passion for using good-quality local produce and his talent for creating delicious recipes in his books and restaurants have won him a host of awards, accolades and fans. As well as presenting a number of television series, he has published many bestselling cookery books, including French Odyssey, Coast to Coast, Far Eastern Odyssey, Rick Stein’s Long Weekends, Rick Stein’s India, Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers, Rick Stein’s Food Stories and most recently Rick Stein’s Christmas.

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It’s 1981 and Tehran is in violent turmoil in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets are planning to overthrow the Ayatollah’s fledgling Islamist regime. If they do so, one response from America – unknown to the public – would be to use nuclear weapons. Redwood tells the true story of the enigmatic double agent whose intelligence reached the highest levels of the British and American governments, blew open the KGB’s inner workings, exposed the Kremlin’s covert plan, and helped avert catastrophe at the height of the Cold War.

‘Redwood’ was the MI6 codename for a six-foot four Russian intelligence officer who made the decision to expose the KGB’s deepest secrets. Kuzichkin lived with a private truth that, if discovered by the Kremlin, would have destroyed him. In a desperate situation, he reached out to MI6.

Redwood is the gripping tale of one man’s courage, and its extraordinary consequences that shape our world today. It’s about a moving friendship between spies on opposite sides of the Cold War; about marriage, loyalty, betrayal and sexual dysfunction; and about how decisions made in secrets can have huge, long-term ramifications.

“Redwood was a spy unlike any I have come across before, whose impact on history was profound, lasting, and concealed for over 40 years. As Iran erupts in violence once again, his tale could not be more timely. I am so delighted to be bringing his story to readers for the first time.” Ben Macintyre.

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including The Siege, Colditz, The Spy and the Traitor, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. His most recent book, The Siege, the definitive history of the Iranian Embassy siege in London in 1980, was the best-selling history hardback of 2024.

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Your ultimate guide to the magic of Chinese flavour by the award winning and bestselling author Fuchsia Dunlop.

When people in ancient China spoke of the ‘five tastes’, they were talking not only literally about the five tastes recognized in Chinese gastronomy – sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty – but also metaphorically about all the ingredients and flavours at a cook’s disposal.

In her new book Five Taste: The Magic of Flavour in a Chinese Kitchen, Fuchsia shows us that with a few core seasonings, flavour combinations and techniques, you can conjure up delicious dishes from whatever ingredients you have to hand, whether seasonal treats from a farmers’ market, specialist produce or basic vegetables from a supermarket. These recipes – which celebrate the Chinese philosophy that good health and pleasure are inseparable when it comes to food – will show you how to celebrate the irresistible flavours of China in your own kitchen. You don’t need to be a Chinese cook to find inspiration in the Chinese arts of flavour.

Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, and has been travelling around China, researching and cooking Chinese food, for some 30 years. Her award-winning and bestselling books include The Food of Sichuan, Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Every Grain of Rice and Land of Fish and Rice, several of which are now published in translation in China. Shas been travelling around China, researching and cooking Chinese food, for some 30 years. Based in London, she speaks, reads and writes Chinese.

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Artemis Procter returns in London Station, the latest spy thriller the former CIA analyst, David McCloskey.

David will be interviewed by Gordon Corera, co-host of The Rest is Classified podcast and former Security Correspondent for the BBC.

What if the CIA and British intelligence began spying on each other? This is the question at the heart of David McCloskey’s thrilling fifth novel. A new US Administration has taken office, installing a brash and unconventional CIA Director determined to disrupt the Agency and sceptical of its close relationship with their cousins across the Atlantic. Case officers, including newly installed London Chief of Station, Artemis Procter, must now navigate a tense environment as old friends become adversaries and no one knows who to trust.

When agents run by both services begin dying, Procter and her team at London Station must decide whether loyalty to the Mission and their friends means disobeying the Agency they serve…

David McCloskey’s brilliant new thriller depicts the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of how CIA and MI6 collaborate and explores what happens when politics threaten to destroy the ʻSpecial Relationship’ between America and Britain.

“The top spy thrillerist of these wild turbulent times’ Simon Sebag Montefiore

David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst who worked in field stations across the Middle East and briefed senior White House officials and Arab royalty. His first novel, Damascus Station, was called ʻone of the best spy thrillers in years’ by The Times; his second, Moscow X, was a Sunday Times Thriller of the Year. His third, The Seventh Floor, was a Sunday Times bestseller.

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Join us for an evening with award-winning actor and star of the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors Celia Imrie as she shares her adventures from around the world with fellow actor Fidelis Morgan.

From tours across Australia with Glenda Jackson, Arctic quests in search of the Northern lights and chaotic cross-country journeys through Europe; to rolling through America’s sweeping plains on Amtrak, glamorous voyages on the Queen Mary 2, and unforgettable trips on India’s legendary trains, Celia narrates her expeditions with wit and humor. The journeys may be long, but they are never dull – especially when her travel companion Fidelis Morgan is in tow. Drama seems to follow the two actors wherever they go.

Richly observed and full of charm, this is a love letter to adventure, friendship and the enduring joy that rewards curiosity.

Celia Imrie is an Olivier Award-winning and Screen Actors Guild-nominated actress and Sunday Times bestselling novelist. Recently, she starred in Netflix/Amblin’s The Thursday Murder Club. Her television work includes The Diplomat, and Better Things. She will next be seen in War for HBO and Sky, Amazon’s Tomb Raider, and the fifth season of Apple TV+’s Trying. She will also appear in the upcoming British comedy Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint.

Celia is widely recognised for roles in The Best and Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Calendar Girls, Nanny McPhee, The Bridget Jones series and Absolutely Fabulous, and was recently a fan favourite on BBC One’s Celebrity Traitors.

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Join us for an evening with Michael and Clare Morpurgo who will be discussing their memoir Down Burrow Lane: Life and Love on the Farm.

Fifty years ago, Michael and Clare put their young family in the car and moved to Nethercott Farm, deep in rural Devon. This magical farm was where the young schoolteacher Michael became a writer, and it would become the backdrop and inspiration for many of his books, including War Horse and Private Peaceful.

Michael and Clare raised their family here, and grew up themselves. They also invited some 100,000 children from towns and cities to come to the countryside and experience life on a working farm as part of their charity Farms for City Children.

This is the story of the ups and downs of Michael and Clare’s remarkable life on the farm over the last five decades. A journey through the seasons and years that have shaped the land around them, and the remarkable children who have been forever changed by their experiences.

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