At Write On! and Pen to Print, we want to help connect authors and readers, playwrights and audiences, so we’ve created a Spotlight page on the last Saturday of the month, showcasing some of the exciting new reads and plays available. The curated list is based on books and plays that you send us, so if you’re an author or a playwright and you’d like your book or play in the spotlight, reach out to us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk. Whether you’re an indie author, with a small press or mainstream publisher, established or brand new playwright, we’d love to hear from you and shine a light on your new work.
Write On! offers other opportunities for writers as well. If you’d like us to feature an extract from your book or a short story, please send the extract, book cover and blurb to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject: Write On! Showcase (ensuring you have your publisher’s permission, of course).
Pen to Print are also looking for short videos from people reading a passage from their favourite book, or authors reading extracts from their own books. These videos will be featured on the Pen to Print YouTube channel and across our social media. Please send in your videos or links to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject: Video Stories.
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Gilgamesh originated in Ancient Mesopotamia nearly 4,000 years ago, yet its themes of power, loyalty, love and loss resound with contemporary relevance.
The eponymous demigod tyrannically rules the kingdom of Uruk. To establish peace, the gods create his counterpart, the wild man Enkidu. The two rivals-turned-comrades embark on a series of extraordinary adventures – not least, battles with Humbaba, ferocious guardian of the Cedar Forest, and the Bull of Heaven. After tragedy strikes, Gilgamesh sets out alone on a desperate quest for immortality that leads him to the very edge of the world.
Simon Armitage’s fresh and propulsive version brings Gilgamesh alive as poetry. He harnesses the rhythm of its orchestrated language and conjures a sense of poetic wholeness while honouring its inherent fragmentation. Enhanced by illuminating commentary, this accomplished translation transports us back to the very origins of civilisation and storytelling.
Available to buy here
Connect with Simon Armitage
In a house full of secrets, the world’s most famous mystery writer is about to become a target.
Manchester, December 1926. Agatha Christie has been found.
After her sensational 11-day disappearance, the world’s most famous crime writer is whisked away to the snow-covered Abney Hall to recover. But for her private nurse, Jane Goodbetter, the retreat is anything but peaceful. As a local theatre troupe arrives to rehearse a macabre new play, the atmosphere turns sinister. Secrets are leaking to the press, and Jane’s own dark past at a wartime asylum threatens to surface.
When a body is discovered in the freezing lake and a blizzard traps everyone inside, the line between stagecraft and real-life murder blurs. In a house full of actors, doctors and a cheating husband, Jane must unmask the killer before the final curtain falls, or she’ll be the next one silenced.
Available to buy here
Connect with Susan Brownrigg
Pepper Montgomery is a mortal woman on a desperate quest to save her dying sister.
When a trail of cryptic breadcrumbs leads her to the elusive Night Market – a hidden bazaar where the supernatural thrives – she discovers a world of vampires, ancient relics and dark bargains.
But the Night Market is not just a place of wonder; it’s a battleground for power among the vampire families. As Pepper navigates this treacherous underworld, she finds herself entwined with Laik Hewer, a brooding Enforcer cursed with a monstrous secret of his own.
As tensions rise, Pepper must make a choice that could cost her everything. Will she risk it all to save her sister and the man who has become her closest ally?
Available to buy here
Connect with C.A. Byford
Every day, parents entrust their children to grandparents, friends, babysitters, respite providers, school staff, transport services, and community organizations. Most caregivers are willing, thoughtful, and doing their very best. Yet they can only act on the information they receive. The problem is rarely a lack of care; it is one of communication.
Drawing on lived experience and real-world case studies involving severe allergies, sickle cell disease, sensory overload, wandering, impulsive behaviors, outdated emergency information, and complex support needs, this book reveals the hidden gap between what parents know and what caregivers are told, and why that gap can place children at risk.
Inside you’ll discover:
✔ The HANDOVER Protocol and its eight essential components
✔ Twelve real-life case studies illustrating how information shapes outcomes
✔ A complete toolkit, including a fillable Protocol template, Emergency Envelope documents, a pocket-sized quick-reference booklet, and condition-specific guidance covering allergies, epilepsy, diabetes, sickle cell disease, autism, ADHD, and more
✔ Practical guidance for communicating medical, sensory, behavioral, and safety needs
✔ Questions caregivers should ask before accepting responsibility for a child
✔ A framework for building genuine partnership between parents and caregivers through clarity, openness, and trust
East London, 1943: Will this wartime Christmas bring love, joy and peace to the East End Girls?
Georgina St John-Smythe – George to her friends – is usually the life and soul of any party. But as the East End of London prepares wearily for another wartime Christmas amid nightly bombings, she is finding it hard to muster her festive spirit, still hurting from a recent romantic betrayal. However, everything changes when she meets handsome Captain Reverend Guy Moncrieff.
Forced to leave the army after a life-altering injury, Guy is struggling to settle into his new role at a bomb-damaged little church in the centre of the East End. Romance is the last thing on his mind, but when he and George are thrown together to organise a special Christmas Eve carol service that will give their incredible, irrepressible community a chance to shine, the closeness that develops between them surprises them both.
But just as George begins to dream that a future with this kind, generous man might be possible, she’s falsely accused of a terrible crime that threatens not only her happiness with Guy, but her future in the Women’s Auxiliary Airforce. Can the East End Girls rally behind one of their own to right this wrong? And as the bells ring out on Christmas Eve, can George and Guy put the past behind them and make a fresh start together? Or is it too late for a happy-ever-after?
Available to buy here
Connect with Jean Fullerton
Fathers from around the world and from all walks of life come together in this honest and moving collection of letters to their sons.
What advice do you wish you’d shared before your son’s first day at school? When he missed or scored that goal? Or the day he left home?
When was the last time you hugged him?
And what would you do if you had your time again?
Award-winning actor Stephen Graham and psychology lecturer Orly Klein have invited fathers – doctors, builders, actors, prisoners – to put into words the things they couldn’t say out loud to their sons. Letters from Dads in the world of sport and entertainment are also interspersed throughout the book. Olympian Tom Daley, Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem, football mainstays Chris Kamara and Jamie Redknapp, artist and musician Goldie and Rivals star Danny Dyer have all contributed, as well as documentary-maker Louis Theroux, comedians John Bishop and Romesh Ranganathan, and actors Ashley Walters and Riz Ahmed.
Full of hope, fear, shame and pride, Letters To Our Sons is a raw and extraordinary outpouring of the sometimes messy, often joyful, and always complex realities of modern fatherhood.
Brace yourself, for the Great Hunt has begun…
In the aftermath of the Ordeals, Sophia must hone her awakening power to fight the cold ones. With Alden by her side, they will prepare for a new task, finding a key ingredient for an antidote.
But as the true nature of the cold ones comes to light, questions arise over the gods. Perhaps the Great Hunt cannot be stopped, for the gods are hungry and have a will of their own.
As tragedy strikes and the one Sophia loves most is attacked, she must face the wrath and might of the gods to save him, her friends and her world.
The battle is about to build to God-like proportions.
Available to buy here
Connect with Rachel Greenlaw
And Then The Words Came is a heartfelt collection of inspired writing, weaving together moments of life, love, loss and the unseen support that has walked beside me throughout my journey.
Within these pages you will find personal stories, reflections and poems that have come through in the stillness — words that bring comfort, perspective and a gentle reminder that we are never truly alone.
Written from the heart, this book is an invitation to pause, reflect and reconnect with your own journey, to find meaning in the ordinary and to recognise the extraordinary in the moments in between.
Available to buy here
Connect with Tammy Griffiths Palmer
Out on the moor, in the snow, a house stands beneath a pylon.
It is a house full of memories, and full of old things. And, in the dark, when the pylon sings in the wind, it is a house full of ghosts and fading memories . . .
The house, Kirkhill, has a new occupant – just moved in, fresh from a bitter divorce and looking for a fresh start. The moor is the perfect place for it: isolated, beautiful in the changing seasons, peaceful, and with just enough of the previous owners belongings that it’s a perfectly self-contained and cosy home.
Only as nights start to draw in, and the weather takes a turn, so does the house. The cosy isolation becomes menacing, animals begin acting strangely, and it seems someone could be watching the house. Soon, the diaries of the previous owners begin to reveal a terrible tragedy which befell Kirkhill – one which its new occupant may be unable to escape . . .
Available to buy here
Connect with Joanne Harris
At 14, Paige Lewin begged for her first relaxer, believing straight hair meant beauty and acceptance.
Years of damage and disconnection followed, until she chose to embrace her natural Afro hair and redefine her relationship with her hair and herself.
In How To Love Your Afro, Paige combines natural hair care, self-acceptance and identity, helping you transform both your mindset and your hair routine.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
– Build confidence and embrace your natural hair texture
– Break free from restrictive beauty standards and hair shame
– Care for Afro hair with the right products, tools and techniques
– Support hair growth and scalp health through lifestyle and nutrition
– Navigate salons and work confidently with hair professionals
Featuring expert insights, this holistic guide brings together practical Afro hair care advice, emotional healing and self-love. Whether you’re transitioning from relaxers, starting your natural hair journey, or learning to embrace your curls, coils and identity, How To Love Your Afro will help you care for your hair – and feel more confident in the skin you’re in.
Available to buy here
Connect with Paige Lewin
This year, Christmas isn’t going to plan… and that might be the best gift of all.
Mabel has no intention of celebrating Christmas. Living alone in her beautiful old house in the woods, she’s happier keeping the world at a distance.
Brooke has planned every detail of a magical family Christmas at her parents’ house. But when a fierce snowstorm forces her, her husband and their two daughters to take shelter in Mabel’s home, all her careful plans are turned upside down.
Also stranded are Izzy and Jason, two colleagues with unfinished business and undeniable chemistry. Izzy is hiding a lonely heart behind a bright smile. And Jason may be the one man capable of breaking through her walls.
Suddenly, Mabel finds herself hosting the last thing she wanted: a full house for Christmas. Then the chaos, laughter and warmth begin to work their quiet magic. As the snow falls and the fire crackles, this snowbound group discover that family can be found in the most surprising places.
Because sometimes the Christmas you never planned is the one that changes everything.
Available to buy here
Connect with Sarah Morgan
The Letter Game is preoccupied with memory, place and the bizarre social codes that define us.
The material world is constructed as a series of fragments; the poems are inflected by a series of connections and disruptions that would ultimately lead to autism diagnosis.
Along the way they ask questions by the sea, in woods and in coffee shops. How do we talk to God? How can we touch our memories without undue damage? And why are other people so odd?
Money has no flag.
The largely rural borderland between England and Scotland was ravaged by marching armies in more than three centuries of conflict between the great nations. During this period from the Wars of Scottish Independence to the Union of the Crowns, many myths and folk heroes were born, with later romantic writers glossing over the criminal brutality of the local population, who suffered as the conflicts raged.
While crops, homes and livelihoods were destroyed, it also led to the development of a system of family-based organised crime gangs among the hills and valleys. Livestock theft became a way of life with burglaries, protection rackets, kidnapping for ransom, highway robbery, intimidation, mutilation and murder an everyday occurrence.
With corruption and nepotism rife among officials, people being bought off, and witness intimidation prevalent, the Borderers were also used as mob enforcers for powerful local landowners and nobles and could find themselves in demand as mercenary soldiers and horsemen.
On the occasions that the law did catch up with them and the reivers found themselves incarcerated, they sprang many daring escapes, enhancing their lawless status and criminal standing among the community as feared members of the Border Mafia.
By day, Sable Knight publishes crime books. By night, they’re brought to life…
Sable Knight, owner and Commissioning Editor at the London publishing house Day & Knight, knows a thing or two about crime fiction. But behind the glossy covers and gripping blurbs lies a darker enterprise. Her ‘special editorial services’ are far more lucrative than the average publishing deal. Some clients – let’s call them authors – need a little help plotting their entirely fictional killings. For the right price, Sable secretly commissions struggling writers to devise purely hypothetical murder plots; blueprints for the perfect crime.
But when one secretive client’s plan to murder her wealthy husband goes off script, Sable discovers that the line between editor and accomplice is thinner than she thought.
Available to buy here
Connect to L.C. Tyler
Set in the early 1990s, as the Channel Tunnel nears completion, the world stands on the threshold between analogue and digital.
Recovering from a breakdown in a house on France’s Côte d’Opale, 20-year-old Little Zinny must confront the trauma of a failed search for her father and the fragile sense of self she has lost. Guided by photographer, Pete, and the diaries of her namesake, Zinny, she begins the journey of healing.
Three voices from different generations are on a quest for change. Will they be able to recover from past traumas, shred their innermost secrets and acknowledge their true feelings as they strive for a different world?
Available to buy here
Connect with D H Yeats
Twenty-one stories for the twenty-first century, celebrating women’s lives in contemporary society.
This is a collection of inheritances – the stories women share with each other, which illuminate and acknowledge everyday triumphs and tragedies. Here are the things we love, the dreams we have, the fears we face, the values we hold, the treasures we cherish.
From fairytale to memoir, these are stories of moral complications, beautiful engagements and personal achievements.
Remember, if you’re an author and you’d like to see your book in our Saturday Spotlight, email: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk and send us the details of your new novel.
For details of Penguin RandomHouse new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Hachette new releases, visit their website here.
For details of HarperCollins new releases, visit their website here.
For details of PanMacmillan new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Simon & Schuster new releases, visit their website here.
Disclaimer: Amazon links are given for ease but please remember there are a number of other online retailers operating, including hive (which helps to support independent book shops), Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Nook as well as online stores for bookstores such as Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and WHSmiths.
Issue 27 of Write On! is out now and you can read it online here. Find it in libraries and other outlets. You can find previous editions of our magazines here.
You can hear great new ideas, creative work and writing tips on Write On! Audio. Find us on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Google Podcasts and Spotify. Type Pen to Print into your browser and look for our logo, or find us on Podcasters.Spotify.com.
