Mellow Fruitfulness: October Pre-orders
Oct trend: heavy-hitters w/ one word titles. Dolly Alderton (Ghosts), John Banville (Snow), William Boyd (Trio), Don DeLillo (Silence), Roddy Doyle (Love), Hilary Mantel (Pieces)… We’ve got 'em all & more for you at 10% off on pre-order.
Looking beyond the headlines, there’s an absolute trove of gorgeous children’s books; plus wintry fairy-tales for grown-ups; magical poetry; powerful non-fiction; and delicious food writing, all 10% off.
Julian at the Wedding <<preorder>>
First up, a sequel to our absolute fave picture book🧜♀️: Julian's adventures (& fashion choices) continue in this new beauty from author & illustrator Jessica Love. 10% off!
Dogger’s Christmas <<preorder>>
WILL DAVE FORGET ABOUT HIS OLD FRIEND DOGGER??? OK, even the blurb had us bawling. Forget the J**n L***s ad, Shirley Hughes delivers the true spirit of the season with an emosh sequel to her total classic. 10% off!
Dog <<preorder>>
OK, yes, this one made us sob as well. Shaun Tan is a genius of simplicity in representing the gamut of complex human emotions. Also DOG. OK, I'm losing it again… Buy the book, 10% off!
Binny’s Diwali <<preorder>>
A beautiful treat for young readers whether they're looking to share their Diwali with friends, or learn about it for themselves. Gorgeous colours, evocative art and an engaging tale told by Binny in Thrity Umrigar's new classic. 10% off!
Rain Before Rainbows <<preorder>>
Had me at "companion fox." One of those amazing books that's just as much needed by the adults reading along! Smriti Halls delivers an anthem for the moment, with gorgeous art by David Litchfield. 10% off.
Today I’m Strong <<preorder>>
As if we could get any more #TeamNadiya here… Love this empowering collaboration with illustrator Ella Bailey, and a tiger. Always collaborate with a tiger. Readers of all ages will enjoy learning this one by heart. 10% off!
On the Move: Poems about Migration <<preorder>>
The indomitable Michael Rosen teams up with equally unstoppable Quentin Blake for this exceptional sequence of poems that moves, movingly, from Rosen's family's experience of immigration to contemporary global migrations. 10% off
The Lost Spells <<preorder>>
Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris's previous collaboration The Lost Words was a publishing phenomenon & rightly so. They're back with more re-enchantment in words and images just when we need them most. 10% off.
A Fairy Tale Revolution <<preorder>>
Malorie Blackman, Kamila Shamsie, Rebecca Solnit and Jeanette Winterson: could there be any greater fairy godmothers to read you radical revisions of classic tales? Blueblood, Duckling, Cinderella Liberator & Hansel and Greta, 10% off.
Hag <<preorder>>
Grown readers can get in on the fairy tales retold action with this Virago anthology featuring BF faves Daisy Johnson, Kirsty Logan, Emma Glass, Eimear McBride, Naomi Booth, Liv Little, Imogen Hermes Gowar and Irenosen Okojie. 10% off!
Carmilla <<preorder>>
The classic novel that launched a million lesbian vampire fantasies is all you need this Hallowe'en, in Pushkin's gorgeously goth new edition. Be hypnotised by Carmilla as so many generations of readers have been… 10% off.
Hauntology <<preorder>>
Author of the definitional Psychogeography, Merlin Coverley returns to consider: what happens to futures that do not come to pass? How do they linger on in our imagination and experience? 10% off.
Girls Against God <<preorder>>
Paradise Rot was a surprise* hit (*not to anyone who'd listened to Hval's music). Girls Against God, which pits a protagonist much like Hval & her riot grrrl gang against the darkness expressed by Norwegian death metal, strikes again. 10% off.
Things We Say in the Dark <<preorder>>
Kirsty Logan's got the dark of the year covered: these Samhain to solstice tales of ghosts, remote houses and (ofc) anatomical models make uncanny moves with what seem like the usual suspects. Expect feminist chills. 10% off.
Toto Among the Murderers <<preorder>>
Sally J. Morgan takes on one of the most haunting stories in recent British history, the West murderers, through the perspective of a wild, creative, passionate young woman known to her friends as Toto, whose path comes close to theirs. 10% off.
The First Woman <<preorder>>
Kirabo is a heroine you won't forget, taking on her village, Uganda under Idi Amin, & the world. Inspired equally by traditional tales and modern feminisms, Jennifer Makumbi's vivid debut will speak to everyone who grew up wanting more. 10% off.
The Girl and the Goddess <<preorder>>
Nikita Gill's bold novel in verse (which she also illustrates beautifully) is here to change your life. Travel with Paro from her family's memories of Partition to a new life in the city, always attuned to the Trimurti's energy. Like nothing you've read before. 10% off
Cannibal <<preorder>>
Debuting with a powerful, decolonial take on (and takedown of) Shakespeare, Safiya Sinclair blows poetry wide open with Cannibal. Oceanic language works through & reworks gendered and racialised archetypes to electrifying effect. 10% off
Staying Human <<preorder>>
Whether you have the Staying Alive trilogy on your shelves already or not, you'll want Staying Human, a compendium of urgent and engaging 21st century poems that will, among other things, lead you to buy lots more books. 10% off.
Homecoming <<preorder>>
Colin Grant's magisterial oral history, written with the Windrush Generation has only got more urgent since its original publication. Now in paperback, one to carry with you & share widely. Listen in. 10% off.
Passengers <<preorder>>
Ta-Nehisi Coates introduces this abridged edition of William Still's incredible first-hand oral history, The Underground Railroad Records. Hear those who travelled the freedom highway speak in their own words. Essential. 10% off.
Time’s Monster <<preorder>>
Not just a history, but necessarily a history of writing history. Priya Satia eviscerates the victors' accounts of empires and brings forth forgotten decolonial voices from the age of empire to the present. 10% off.
Labour of Love <<preorder>>
When Madeleine Bunting started writing about care work for the Guardian, it was facing crisis because of austerity politics: the pandemic exposed & deepened what she has already described so thoroughly. Read and weep. 10% off.
A Life on our Planet <<preorder>>
Read and weep over this one as well: David Attenborough finally speaks his mind on climate crisis (and his own complicity). Extraordinary writing for extraordinary times from someone who has literally seen it all unfold before his eyes. 10% off.
Gigantic Cinema: A Weather Anthology <<preorder>>
Plunge in among the world's weathers with Alice Oswald and Paul Keegan. A unique anthology of observation and sensation, to dip into again and again. 10% off.
Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman <<preorder>>
From bold, brand-new Makina Books comes this compelling collection of essays by poet Rebecca Tamás, whose WITCH is a store favourite. Eye-opening, unboundaried writing at the boundaries. 10% off.
For Now <<preorder>>
Eileen Myles' entry in Yale's Why I Write series is everything we need. They knock it out of the park with a meditation on writing time in every sense & how it's shaped by paying rent, encounters in new places, and coming to presence.
How to Write It <<preorder>>
& more outstanding prose from a brilliant poet: BF fave Anthony Anaxagorou not only shows you how it's done, but shows you how to do it in this essential, accessible, engaging writing guide. More brilliance from #merky. 10% off.
Christmas With Kim-Joy <<preorder>>
How to Bake It. Kim-Joy's unbelievably cute bakes give us life: now they've been collected in a delicious book, just in time for cake season. Treat yourself (w/ the excuse you'll bake treats for others… sure…). 10% off.
Hungry <<preorder>>
And/or open some Jaffa Cakes. Grace Dent's memoir follows in the footsteps of Jack Monroe's advocacy for the filling, accessible foods we love, and Nigel Slater's evocation of childhood eating. With the glorious Dent sardonic twist. 10% off.
In the Kitchen: Essays on Food and Life <<preorder>>
Just look at this feast of contributors: Juliet Annan, Yemisí Aríbisálà, Laura Freeman, Joel Golby, Daisy Johnson, Rebecca May Johnson, Rebecca Liu, Nina Mingya Powles, Ella Risbridger, Rachel Roddy, Mayukh Sen, Ruby Tandoh, Julia Turshen. 10% off