FICTION

Rush of Blood – Mark Billingham

The new standalone novel from bestselling Barnet crime writer Mark Billingham, Rush of Blood tells the story of three couples who meet on holiday in Florida and become friends. On their last night the holiday takes a tragic turn – the teenager daughter of a fellow holidaymaker goes missing and her body is later found floating in the mangroves.

The couples remain in contact when they return to the UK and, over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties, come to know each other better – cue dark secrets, hidden kinks and ugly vices. Then another young girl goes missing – could it be that one of them has a secret far darker than anyone can imagine?

Mark Billingham is the author of the award-winning DI Tom Thorne series on Sky One, starring David Morrissey. Each of his previous ten novels has been a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.

Final Whistle - Dan Freedman

Mill Hill children’s author Dan Freedman released Final Whistle , the last in his Jamie Johnson series of football stories for seven to 14-year-olds, earlier this month. Dan used to work for the Football Association and the hugely popular books have been endorsed by a number of leading footballers including Steven Gerrard, Joe Hart and Ryan Giggs.

Writing the kind of books he would love to have read as a youngster, Dan’s stories follow the fortunes of football-mad Jamie from the ages of 13 to 19 as he tries to make it as a footballer while dealing with all the everyday traumas of being a teenage boy.

Nellie – Andrea Bowman

Nellie is the debut novel from Whetstone author Andrea Bowman, who runs a small local gardening service. Nellie is the astonishing tale of one woman’s perseverance against all odds.

When a love affair turns sour, Nellie’s husband leaves her, taking the kids with him. Desperate, alone and filled with shame, she heads to London with hopes of turning her life around. Instead she finds herself sleeping rough – but managing to find love of a different kind, and friendship she never expected.

The Collared Slave – Georga McCrae

With all the current hoo-ha about Fifty Shades of Grey , Georga McCrae, an English teacher from Arkley in Barnet, has decided to produce a bit of home-grown erotica of her own – the result is The Collared Slave , her first novel.

Strictly for adults only, this erotic thriller follows Greg, an armed police officer who’s into BDSM as he tries to track down his lover, Sam, who has been kidnapped. The hunt for Sam is told through the eyes of Greg, Greg’s girlfriend Emma, the police, the kidnappers – and Sam’s husband.

NON-FICTION

Courting the Future – Mark Ballabon

Courting the Future is a series of 26 essays that offer an extraordinary insight in to the future by Mark Ballabon, a writer and natural philosopher from Potters Bar.

Designed for all those who instinctively feel that the future that is coming is different to that suggested by our current world of economic, social and moral freefall, Courting the Future is a philosophical yet practical guide that aims to help you start thinking in completely new ways of thinking about the future.

Moving through such subjects as ‘why worry?’, ‘why nothing satisfies’, ‘transforming conflict’ and ‘humility’, the book captures people’s inherent search for meaning and purpose in their lives and explains that it is our current mindsets that are causing the frustration we feel.

Courting the Future is launched at The Centre, Bath Place, Barnet on Sunday, August 12 at 1pm.

Sharing Eden – Natan Levy, Harfiyah Haleem and David Shreeve

Jews, Christians and Muslims unite to protect the environment with the launch of Sharing Eden , a handbook to sustainable living. Leading environmentalists from the three Abrahamic faiths have compiled the teachings of their respective religions to encourage a greener lifestyle for all.

Natan Levy is rabbi of Shenley United Jewish Community, while Harfiyah Haleem, trustee of the Islmamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, is from East Barnet.

The introductory handbook combines beautiful and enlightening religious texts to address some of the most pressing environmental issues facing us today, such as waste, climate change and biodiversity. Each author brings a contemporary focus to the eternal challenge of caring for the earth, in the hope of encouraging further collaborative efforts and stimulating public awareness.

Little Book of London – Emma Mansfield

Did you know every year 14 million visitors arrive in London? Or that the London Olympic stadium will seat 80,000 people, making it the third largest stadium in Britain? Or that around 8,000 of London’s iconic red buses operate 700 different routes across Greater London? Or that the River Thames is estimated to be about 58 million years old?

From Big Ben to Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden to Kew, The Little Book of London is everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the world’s most vibrant city in its most momentous year.

Celebrating the history, politics, art, architecture, food, sport, events and traditions of the UK’s biggest city, The Little Book of London packs almost 350 pages of statistics, facts and figures about the capital in an easy-to-read, hard-to-put-down book that is sure to become a keepsake for Londoners and visitors alike.