G. Valentine

Ancient Mysteries, Deadly Secrets: Can Nicholas Foxe Crack the Code in Time?Nicholas Foxe is a brilliant yet restless cryptographer. He begins to question whether his thirst for adventure will ever be satisfied. Just when he resigns himself to a routine life, he’s drawn into an astonishing discovery deep within a hidden cavern. It is a futuristic artifact buried for millennia, its purpose shrouded in mystery. What secrets does it hold, and who else will stop at nothing to claim it? As Nicholas is thrust into a globe-spanning quest to decode the artifact. He discovers its implications ...

Fueled by a passion for running dogs, Gary Paulsen entered the Iditarod - the 1,180-mile sled-dog race through the Alaskan wilderness - in dangerous ignorance and with a fierce determination. For 17 days, he and his team of dogs endured blinding wind, snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, hallucinations - and the relentless push to go on.

Dale Maharidge’s father, like many World War II veterans, never talked about “the good war”. There was just one clue to his dad’s experience as a US Marine - a portrait with a close friend that hung permanently in their home. In The Dead Drink First, Dale, now a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, recounts his 18-year quest to find and repatriate the missing remains of his dad’s buddy, Herman Walter Mulligan, 73 years after he was killed in action.

What’s in a label? Are we the product of our upbringing or do we have a natural propensity towards good or evil? The eternal question of nature vs nurture is at the centre of Dr Diane Buckley’s world. A talented freelance forensic psychologist who has never quite found the key to engaging with people on a casual level, she is drafted in to examine a grisly murder – a body found in a children’s playground.

You’ve heard of an Essex Girl or even a Chelsea Girl, but what about a Hounslow Girl? Definition of a Hounslow Girl: a young Muslim woman who wears hooped earrings with her headscarf and grapples with traditional values while hustling her way through urban London. The Diary of a Hounslow Girl is a bold and provocative one-person play, written and performed by Ambreen Razia. From the joys of traditional Pakistani weddings to fights on the night bus, this is a comic story of dreams, aspirations and coming of age, told through the eyes of a 16-year-old British Muslim girl.