W. F. Howes Ltd

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years is reviewed in The Tablet

12:10pm 25/08/2010

"It is 2007. Twenty-five years have passed since Adrian Mole wrote his first secret diary entries, aged 13 and three quarters... Adrian remains his endearing self: sometimes caustic, often obtuse, forever intellectually aspiring and deeply kind. His admiration for his childhood sweetheart, Pandora... is also a constant. Brilliantly narrated by Mark Hadfield in a slightly sardonic Midlands accent, this recording has rightly been shortlisted for the award of Audiobook of the Year." - Julian Margaret Gibbs, The Tablet

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years is available now on cassette, CD and Playaway.

The Children's Book wins Oldest Literary Award!

11:10am 23/08/2010

A S Byatt has won the James Tait Black Memorial Award for The Children's Book, which charts the fortunes of a group of interconnected families from 1895 to 1919; some of its characters recall real figures such as E Nesbit and Eric Gill. This prestigious prize acknowledges the best work of fiction published during the previous 12 months and is the only major British book awards judged by scholars and students.

The Children's Book by A S Byatt is avaiable now on CD, Cassette and Playaway.

The Independent reviews Tigerlily's Orchids by Ruth Rendell

11:05am 23/08/2010

"If you expect it to begin with a murder, ultimately solved by clever detectives, think again. Ruth Rendell, grande dame of the thriller, knows how to spring surprises. Nickolas Grace's deadpan narration is perfect; no single character engages sympathy but, as their secrets emerge, they become inextricably involved with each other, and with the listener. Rendell inexorably accelerates the pace... with wisdom, compassion and satisfactorily sardonic wit." - Sue Gaisford, The Independent

Tigerlily’s Orchids by Ruth Rendell is available now.

The Guardian reviews Timebomb by Gerald Seymour

11:00am 23/08/2010

"In 1993 a disaffected KGB major working at a secret Soviet nuclear missile decommissioning plant steals a warhead in lieu of a pension, wraps it in bin liners and buries it in his vegetable patch. Fifteen years later he finds a buyer... A long, distinguished career as an ITV war reporter gives Seymour's books absolute authenticity. He knows how the nuts and bolts of undercover surveillance and terrorism work. He hasn't lost his touch." - Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Timebomb by Gerald Seymour is available now.

Clipper titles featured in The Independent on Sunday's Summer Audiobook Roundup

9:50am 29/07/2010

Sue Gaisford has reviewed two Clipper titles in The Independent on Sunday in her Summer Audiobook Roundup:

"Sue Townsend's finest creation is in his forties. In Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, his abode is 'The Piggeries' in the village of Mangold Parva; next door, his mother, penning a misery memoir, longs to appear on The Jeremy Kyle Show. Working in a doomed bookshop, he develops a cancer that everyone mispronounces, to his impotent fury, 'prostrate'. Yet, brilliantly, this is very funny, and even more perceptive than its predecessors: one day, Adrian will be lauded as the supreme commentator on our age. In a truly great reading, Mark Hadfield masters more than 20 voices, from Punjabi to posh to paralytic.

Patrick Gale's subtle and elegiac The Whole Day Through turns on the reignition of an old flame, 20 years on, and is movingly read by Sandra Duncan and Ed Stoppard." - Sue Gaisford, The Independent on Sunday

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend and The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale are available to order today.

A Simple Act of Violence wins Crime Novel of the Year

9:20am 26/07/2010

A Simple Act of Violence by R J Ellory has won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. This prestigious award recognises excellence in the field of crimewriting. Vast in scope, A Simple Act of Violence is an expose of the brutality of covert operations, the power of greed and the insidious nature of corruption. It is also a story of love and trust that somehow managed to survive the very worst that the world could throw at it.

A Simple Act of Violence by R J Ellory is available to order now on Cassette, CD, Playaway and Large Print.

The Glass Room, by Simon Mawer, reviewed in The Guardian

10:45am 19/07/2010

"Manderley, Brideshead, Cold Comfort Farm - houses that feature as the central character in novels have their own distinctive place in literature. The Landauer House, built in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, has a vast, glass-walled living area suspended above the garden from a steel frame that represents space, freedom, purity of line, the thrill of emptiness, the future. Its Viennese architect, Rainer von Abt, envisaged the steel being as translucent as water, the light as solid as walls and the walls as transparent as air - a house that would be both of nature and aside from nature.

But Viktor Landauer, its mega-rich owner, is a Jew, and by 1938 he knows that, for his family at least, the house has no future. The Landauers are lucky - they can afford to escape to America. Most cannot. Under Nazi occupation the Landauer House becomes a laboratory for ethnic and genetic research. Under Soviet rule, its shimmering glass long since destroyed by Red Army bombers, it is converted into an exercise centre for children with polio. Only in Dubcek's all-too-brief Prague spring is the architectural importance of the Landauer House recognised and plans hatched to restore it as a national treasure.

Moving in and out of its all-purpose space, Mawer's characters, as meticulously drawn as von Abt's plans, are totally convincing. You feel their terror, fury, shame, despair as their lives crumble around them. You understand why they behave as they do. The Glass Room is much, much more than a historical novel - it's a brilliantly plotted, beautifully told story about love, cruelty, betrayal, survival and, above all, the complexity and power of sex. Mays's cool, understated reading is perfectly pitched." - Sue Arnold, The Guardian

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer is available now.

Rift by Beverley Birch is reviewed by Karen Meek of EuroCrime

2:50pm 16/07/2010

"Rift is set in an unnamed African country and four children and an adult have gone missing near Chomlaya Rocks. All are British except for one local boy and all are connected to a student camp at the base of the rocks. Two days after the disappearance from the camp, one of the boys, Joe, is found but he has no memory of recent events.

Methodically, the story of the disappearances is pieced together, through new interviews and old interview transcripts, through old emails from Charly to Ella, from student journals and finally flash-backs from Joe as his memory slowly returns. The ending is stunning and not at all what my criminal mind was expecting.

I loved, loved, loved this one. I wanted to just listen to all six cds at once but I made myself eke out the pleasure over several days. The complete disappearance of the four people is a mystery that completely holds the attention. Ella is a likeable and strong character who holds up well under the circumstances. I would love to see Inspector Murothi return in another novel, teenage or adult. I loved his character: a gentle, wise policeman with great empathy for Ella and Joe.

Rift explores the group dynamics that occur when a mixed group is taken away from their normal environment and the leader does not behave as one would like them to. By the end of the story, changes have occurred and at least one 'rift' has begun to heal.

Clare Corbett narrates Rift exquisitely. Her children sound like children and her men sound as if a man has taken over the narration. She separates the many students by giving them regional accents and provides completely believable French and African accents, where appropriate, for the non-British adults. It's all done brilliantly well and I can't recommend this audiobook highly enough." - Karen Meek, Eurocrime

Rift by Beverley Birch is available on CD, Cassette and Playaway.

Twilight series continues with The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

2:00pm 02/07/2010

The phenomenal success of the Twilight series continues with the Clipper Unabridged Audio edition of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

From the number one bestselling author of the Twilight Series comes the riveting story of Bree Tanner, a member of the newborn vampire army created to destroy Bella Swan and the Cullen family.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is available to order now.

Whoops! by John Lanchester is reviewed in The Guardian

11:40am 14/06/2010

"Well-meaning friends with financial savvy have tried explaining what leveraged buy-outs are, and securitisation, or why AIG was basically screwed by CDSs on CDOs and had to be bailed out by the Bush administration for $160bn, but it's no good. I can't get my head round those sorts of numbers. What immediately endeared me to Lanchester's hugely informative and entertaining book about the causes of the global financial meltdown that everyone but Goldman Sachs employees is going through at the moment is his demystification of all that monetary bafflegab. OK, he says, try this. First, how long do you think a million seconds is - just a quick guess, don't work it out - and then a billion seconds. The answer (no, you won't have got it) is just under 12 days and almost 32 years. Now apply that to pounds, dollars and euros, and you start to understand the seriousness of the credit crunch.

Whoops! is a wonderful mix of history, facts, anecdotes and opinion. If you want a short, sharp rundown of the current economic crisis, this is it: genuinely funny money." - Sue Arnold, The Guardian

Whoops! by John Lanchester is available now.