Resources
Judas - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. Discover the six brilliant novels that have been chosen for the 2017 shortlist. You can download a Readers’ Guide for longlisted title Judas by Amos Oz (Israel), translated by Nicholas de Lange by clicking below.
The Unseen - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. Discover the six brilliant novels that have been chosen for the 2017 shortlist. You can download a Readers’ Guide for shortlisted title The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen (Norway), translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw by clicking below.
Compass - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. Discover the six brilliant novels that have been chosen for the 2017 shortlist. You can download a Readers’ Guide for shortlisted title Compass by Mathias Enard (France), translated by Charlotte Mandell by clicking below.
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. Discover the six brilliant novels that have been chosen for the 2017 shortlist. You can download a Readers’ Guide for shortlisted title Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors (Denmark), translated by Misha Hoekstra by clicking below.
Fever Dream - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. Discover the six brilliant novels that have been chosen for the 2017 shortlist. You can download a Readers’ Guide for shortlisted title Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (Argentina), translated by Megan McDowell by clicking below.
War and Turpentine - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans (Belgium), translated by David McKay by clicking below.
The Traitor's Niche - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title The Traitor’s Niche by Ismail Kadare (Albania), translated by John Hodgson by clicking below.
The Explosion Chronicles - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke (China), translated by Carlos Rojas by clicking below.
Swallowing Mercury - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg (Poland), translated by Eliza Marciniak by clicking below.
Fish Have No Feet - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title Fish Have No Feet by Jon Kalman Stefansson (Iceland), translated by Phil Roughton by clicking below.
Bricks and Mortar - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer (Germany), translated by Katy Derbyshire by clicking below.
Black Moses - Readers' Guide
The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest fiction in translation. This year, 13 brilliant novels have been chosen for the Man Booker Dozen longlist. You can download a Reader’s Guide for longlisted title Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (France), translated by Helen Stevenson by clicking below.
The Kingdom of Women by Choo Waihong - an extract
Choo Waihong was a corporate lawyer with top law firms in Singapore and California before she took early retirement in 2006 to travel and write. She lived for six years with the Mosuo tribe and now spends half the year with them in Yunnan, China. Our library reading panel enjoyed learning about The Mosuo tribe from the The Kingdom of Women – here are some of their comments: “This was a fantastic book. Well-written, engaging and thoroughly interesting.” “The subject of this book is the...
Lots teachers' notes
Download these teachers’ notes for Lots by Nicola Davies and Emily Sutton
Greenpeace Captain by Peter Willcox - an extract
Peter Willcox has been a Captain with Greenpeace for over 30 years, making him the most experienced captain in the organization. An activist for nearly his entire life, beginning by marching in Selma behind Martin Luther King Jr. with his family at age twelve. Captain Willcox estimates he’s sailed over 300,000 miles in virtually every corner of the globe. Our library reading panel really enjoyed Greenpeace Captain – here are some of their comments: “This was written in an easy style and I...
The Dry by Jane Harper - an extract
Jane Harper has worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK. She lives in Melbourne and currently writes for the Herald Sun. Jane is originally from the UK and moved to Australia in 2008. The Dry is her first novel. Our Radio 2 panel loved The Dry – here are some of their comments: “This was an immensely enjoyable read which follows two separate mysteries: Did Luke Hadler really murder his family and take his own life? Who killed Ellie Deacon twenty years...
Gilded Cage by Dr. Vic James - discussion questions
Vic James is a current affairs TV director who loves stories in all their forms, and Gilded Cage is her debut novel. She as twice judged the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, has made films for BBC1, BBC2, and Channel 4 News, and is a huge Wattpadd.com success story. Under its previous title, Slavedays, her book was read online over a third of a million times in first draft. And it went on to win Wattpad’s ‘Talk of the Town’ award in 2015 – on a site showcasing 200 million stories. Vic James...
Gilded Cage by Dr. Vic James - a prologue
A thrilling Orwellian vision of Britain, with a rebellious Hunger Games heart. Gilded Cage is the astonishing debut novel from Vic James, and the first title in her electrifying The Dark Gifts Trilogy. Britain’s magically-skilled aristocracy compels all commoners to serve them for ten years – and now it’s the Hadley’s turn. Abi Hadley is assigned to England’s most ruthless noble family. The secrets she uncovers could win her freedom – or break her heart. Her brother Luke is enslaved in a...
The Novel of the Century by David Bellos - an introduction
The Novel of the Century brings to life the extraordinary story of how Victor Hugo managed to write his novel of the downtrodden despite a revolution, a coup d’état and political exile; how he pulled off the deal of the century to get it published, and set it on course to become the novel that epitomizes the grand sweep of history in the nineteenth century. Placing a century of scholarship into narrative form and packed full of information about the background and design of Les Misérables,...
Fathers and Sons by Howard Cunnell - an extract
As a boy growing up on the south coast of England, Howard Cunnell’s sense of self was dominated by his father’s absence. Now, years later, he is a father, and his daughter is becoming his son. Starting with his own childhood in the Sussex beachlands, Howard tells the story of the years of self-destruction that defined his young adulthood and the escape he found in reading and the natural world. Still he felt compelled to destroy the relationships that mattered to him. Saved by love and...
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai - discussion questions
Elan Mastai was born in Vancouver and lives in Toronto with his wife and children. He writes movies and his credits include the award-winning script for What If, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver. He is currently developing the screenplay for All Our Wrong Todays which has been optioned by Paramount with producer Amy Pascal on board. All Our Wrong Todays is Elan’s debut novel. Our reading panel loved All Our Wrong Todays – here are some of their comments: “This is one of...
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai - an extract
You know the future that people in the ‘50s imagined? Flying cars, teleportation, jetpacks and moon bases? Well, it happened. And it was just as great as we hoped it would be. It’s 2016 and in Tom’s world, technology has solved all of humanity’s problems – there’s no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocados. Unfortunately, Tom isn’t happy. He’s lost the girl of his dreams. And what do you do when you’re heartbroken and have access to a time machine? Something very stupid indeed. Finding...
CWA 2017 Longlist - Brian McGilloway
Brian McGilloway is the bestselling author of eight crime novels, five featuring Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin and three in the DS Lucy Black series. In addition to being shortlisted for a CWA Dagger and the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, he is a past recipient of the Ulster University McCrea Literary Award and, in 2014, won the BBC Tony Doyle Award for his screenplay, Little Emperors. Brian’s ninth novel, Bad Blood, again featuring DS Lucy Black, will be released in May...
CWA 2017 Longlist - Chris Ewan
Born in Taunton in 1976, Chris Ewan now lives in Somerset with his wife, Jo, and their daughter. Safe House, his first stand-alone thriller, was a number one bestseller in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award. Dead Line, his second thriller, was published in 2013 and is optioned for film. Dark Tides was shortlisted for CrimeFest’s eDunnit award for the best crime fiction eBook, and Long Time Lost, described in the Independent as ‘a masterful...
CWA 2017 Longlist - Nicola Upson
Nicola Upson was born in Suffolk and read English at Downing College, Cambridge. Her debut novel, An Expert in Murder, was the first in a series of crime novels whose main character is Josephine Tey – one of the leading authors of Britain’s Golden Age of crime writing. She lives with her partner in Cambridge and spends much of her time in Cornwall. Nicola has been longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library 2017. Download the resource to find out more about Nicola, and the book she would...
CWA 2017 Longlist - Alison Bruce
Alison Bruce is a crime novelist and creator of the Cambridge-based Gary Goodhew series. Her seventh novel is Cambridge Black. She has also written two factual crime books and a number of short stories. Alison is an RLF Fellow at ARU in Cambridge. She is keen to promote creative writing and frequently speaks at libraries, schools and writers’ groups. Since 2008 she has sponsored Fordham Primary School’s storyteller-of-the-year award and she is the patron of Lakenheath Library in...
Thin Air by Michelle Paver - discussion questions
It is 1935, and young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain and one of mountaineering’s biggest killers. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time – the 1906 Lyell Expedition. Five men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and...
Holding by Graham Norton - discussion questions
Duneen is a quiet place, far enough from the big towns to have kept its own rhythms. Its residents include cast down policeman PJ who lives a lonely, uneventful life punctuated only by the next meal – until now; the beautiful and mysterious family of three spinster sisters each with their own secrets and sorrows; and of course, the town’s gossip who think she knows the answers. When a grim discovery is made on a building site up by the old school, it becomes the catalyst for half lived...
We Chose to Speak of War and Strife by John Simpson - an extract
In corners of the globe where fault-lines see the into bloodshed and civil war, foreign correspondents have, for hundreds of years, been engaged in uncovering the latest news and – despite obstacles bureaucratic, political, violent – reporting it by whatever means available. It’s a working life that is difficult, exciting and undeniably glamorous. We Chose to Speak of War and Strife brings us pivotal moments in our history – from the Crimean War to Vietnam; the siege of Sarajevo to the fall...
Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germay by Norman Ohler - an extract
The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler’s gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops’ resilience – even partly explaining German victory in 1940. The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler...
