A magical new novel from the acclaimed author of THE TOYMAKERS, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Erin Morgenstern.'A spellbinding tale of nocturnal life and magic in the streets of Paris tells of the courage it takes to be different and follow your dreams.' WATERSTONES'Beautifully captures the hazy dissonance of storytelling and invention.' GUARDIAN______________________________________Every city has its own magic...Every night on their long journey to Paris from their troubled homeland, Levon's grandmother has read to them from a very special book. Called The Nocturne, it is a book full of fairy stories and the heroic adventures of their people who generations before chose to live by starlight.And with every story that Levon's grandmother tells them in their new home, the desire to live as their ancestors did grows. And that is when the magic begins...But not everyone in Paris is won over by the spectacle of...

'All we're waiting for, you and I, is for something nobody's seen before to wash up on these beaches. Something so special and unique that its power cannot be denied. And there is every hope it will happen today. Perhaps it's out there, even now, begging for its chance to upend our world . . .'London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past, leaving Nell with only broken dreams and a pair of satin slippers in her possession, she spends her days dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges – searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone.But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. It's not the first corpse she's encountered, but by far the strangest. Nearly seven feet tall, the creature has matted hair covering his legs, and on his head are the suggestion of horns....

A stunning novel set in the wake of the Second World War, ORANGES & SUNSHINE meets Peter Carey, it tells the extraordinary true story of the little boys and girls who were torn from their families and shipped to Australia by the Children's Crusade. 'It's knockout - beautifully written and told with such emotional precision - I really, really loved it.' Jim Loach, director of ORANGES & SUNSHINE Jon Heather, proud to be nearly nine, knows that Christmas is a time for family. But one evening in December 1948, no longer able to cope, his mother leaves him by a door, above which the legend reads: 'Chapeltown Boys' Home of the Children's Crusade.' Several weeks later, still certain his mother will come back, Jon finds himself on a boat set for Australia. Promised paradise, Jon soon realizes the reality of the vast Australian outback is very different; its burnished desert becoming the backdrop for a strict regime of hard work and discipline. So begins an odyssey that will last a...

In the depths of winter in the land of Belarus, where ancient forests straddle modern country borders, an orphaned boy and his grandfather go to scatter his mother's ashes in the woodlands. Her last request to rest where she grew up will be fulfilled.Frightening though it is to leave the city, the boy knows he must keep his promise to mama: to stay by and protect his grandfather, whatever happens. Her last potent gifts - a little wooden horse, and hunks of her homemade gingerbread - give him vigour. And grandfather's magical stories help push the harsh world away.But the driving snow, which masks the tracks of forest life, also hides a frozen history of long-buried secrets. And as man and boy travel deeper among the trees, grandfather's tales begin to interweave with the shocking reality of his own past, until soon the boy's unbreakable promise to mama is tested in unimaginable ways.Praise for LITTLE EXILES:'A heartbreaking story, very powerfully dramatised' THE...

Do you remember when you believed in magic? *The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see ferns of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice crackling underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open! * It is 1917, and London has spent years in the shadow of the First World War. In the heart of Mayfair, though, there is a place of hope. A place where children’s dreams can come true, where the impossible becomes possible – that place is Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium. For years Papa Jack has created and sold his famous magical toys: hobby horses, patchwork dogs and bears that seem alive, toy boxes bigger on the inside than out, ‘instant trees’ that sprout from boxes, tin soldiers that can fight battles on their own. Now his sons, Kaspar and Emil, are just old enough to join the family trade. Into this family comes a young Cathy Wray – homeless and vulnerable. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own. But Cathy is about to discover that while all toy shops are places of wonder, only one is truly magical... **