The year is 2012. The global conflict that first manifested itself in the attack on the twin towers and broadened and deepened with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq has continued through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, bringing with it ever increasing hatred and misery. A broken backed Britain battered by global economic collapse and seemingly endless terrorist outrages, has succumbed to fascism and barbarism.Charlie Gilbert, a south London schoolteacher, is not a particularly brave man yet he will need all his resources of bravery and ingenuity as events close in on him. Charlie has a secret. He has a young mixed race daughter, Natalie, hidden away in the country with his elderly mother. If caught by the authorities, Natalie and anyone helping her would meet a brutal end. Charlie decides that their only hope lies in escape to Ireland, which remains a democracy. He sets out to collect Natalie with only the haziest idea of how to effect their escape. Charlie, Natalie, his elderly mother and a disagreeable family cat called Catesby set out west, heading for Wales and thence to Ireland and safety. En route, they experience capture, incarceration in a slave labour camp, escape and recapture, collecting on the way Billy, an elderly Jamaican. Their story is both a fast moving adventure story and a warning as to the future of a troubled world.

A young Vietnamese-Australian named Nam, in his final year at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, is trying to find his voice on the page. When his father, a man with a painful past, comes to visit, Nam's writing and sense of self are both deeply changed. Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice is a deeply moving story of identity, family and the wellsprings of creativity, from Nam Le's multi-award-winning collection The Boat. 'A tight and densely emotional journey that sucked me in and contained as much power as the lengthy title.' Killings, the Kill Your Darlings blog

The men of our world who experience glory do not generally attain it easily. There have been several martyrs who, before knowing honour, have had to follow a very thorny path... Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match Girl". His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and "Frozen", which is loosely based on "The Snow Queen", in 2013. Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.