Black Handkerchief – White Handkerchief by Ena Lynn

Eighty four-year-old Hendon resident Ena wrote most of this novel, about the relationship between two men in the 1970s, in 1983 and it sat in a cupboard until last year, when she decided she had better finish it.

  • Available from authorhouse.co.uk

The Bridge of Perfect Wisdom by Rupa Monerawela

A novel inspired by China’s Cultural Revolution, by Colindale resident Rupa Monerawela who lived in Beijing from 1965 to 1968, when her husband worked for the Sri Lankan diplomatic service and kept a diary of the events she witnessed there.

  • Available from Amazon

Bea gives up her Dummy by Jenny Album

When Jenny Album’s three-year-old daughter Bea staunchly refused to give up her dummy, the Golders Green resident and former Hendon Times journalist searched high and low for a children’s story book to help Bea – and when she couldn’t find one decided to write one herself.

  • Available from Amazon

British Film Studios by Kiri Bloom Walden

A book about the British film industry that includes a chapter on our very own Elstree Studios, which the author, a film producer and lecturer, dubs ‘a British Hollywood’. Read about filming the likes of Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929), Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Return of the Jedi (1983), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and The King’s Speech (2010), in time for the studios’ centenary in 2014.

  • Available from shirebooks.com

The Adventures of Mr P by Roger de Kassel

The Woodside Park resident has published two children’s books about the adventures of a London pigeon to teach children about moral and environmental issues. Inspired by the litter problem in Friary Park, he has teamed up with the anti-litter campaign group Clean Up Britain to publish Mr P and the Sticky Gum, Mr P and the Silver-Red Bag, and Mr P and the Bully Birds.

  • Available from mrpbooks.com

Friern Barnet: The Library That Refused to Close by Keith Martin

This book tells the story of the Save Friern Barnet Library Group, who campaigned to galvanise the local community into supporting a people’s library on the green next to the library when it was closed by Barnet Council – the squatters entering through an open window, the local people who donated 10,000 books, the trial for eviction, the official reopening – and the vision for the future.

  • Available from Chaville Press. Details: chavillepress.co.uk

The Dance is New

An anthology of modern poetry on the themes of time, hoarding, austerity and water from Edgware publishing company Mardibooks. Contributors include Katriona Kerridge from Hampstead, Becci Fearnley from Hendon, and Alice Gibbs from Barnet.

  • Available from mardibooks.com

Conclusions of a Parapsychologist: What Paranormal Phenomena Tell Us by Michael Lewis

An encounter with a ghost outside Barnet Market in St Albans Road, a number of near-death experiences, and new evidence ‘that Diana, Princess of Wales was murdered’ – all of these feature in Barnet resident Michael Lewis’ book.

  • Available from Amazon

Toxic Distortions by Teddy Goldstein

The debut novel by the 75-year-old Whetstone resident tells the story of Dr Michael Turner, who was saved from the Nazis at the age of four and hidden in Paris during the occupation, and who is now discovering horrific secrets about his family.

  • Available from Amazon