Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.
The Nestlé Children's Book Prize, and Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for a time, was a set of annual awards for British children's books that ran from 1985 to 2007. It was administered by BookTrust, an independent charity that promotes books and reading in the United Kingdom, and sponsored by Nestlé, the manufacturer of Smarties candy. It was one of the most respected and prestigious prizes for children's literature.
David Edward Williams, known professionally as David Walliams, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly With Me (2010–2011). From 2012 to 2022, Walliams was a judge on the television talent show competition Britain's Got Talent on ITV. He is also a writer of children's books, having sold more than 37 million copies worldwide.
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1988 psychological horror novel by Thomas Harris. Published August 29, it is the sequel to Harris's 1981 novel Red Dragon and both novels feature the cannibalistic serial killer and brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter. This time, however, he is pitted against FBI trainee Clarice Starling as she works to solve the case of the "Buffalo Bill" serial killer.
"Phases" is episode 15 of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by series story editors Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, and first broadcast on The WB on January 27, 1998. In the episode, Oz learns that he is a werewolf, while Buffy endures the emotional trauma of dealing with Angelus.
Maggie O'Farrell, RSL, is a novelist from Northern Ireland. Her acclaimed first novel, After You'd Gone, won the Betty Trask Award, and a later one, The Hand That First Held Mine, the 2010 Costa Novel Award. She has twice been shortlisted since for the Costa Novel Award for Instructions for a Heatwave in 2014 and This Must Be The Place in 2017. She appeared in the Waterstones 25 Authors for the Future. Her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death reached the top of the Sunday Times bestseller list. Her novel Hamnet won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020, and the fiction prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards. The Marriage Portrait was shortlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction.
The Cry of the Icemark is the first book in the Icemark Chronicles by English author Stuart Hill. The plot revolves around thirteen-year-old princess Thirrin Freer Strong-in-the-Arm Lindenshield, as she must fight to save her small home, the Icemark, from the invading Polypontian Empire.
The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is therefore open only to authors who have published no more than two or three books, depending on which category they are in. The prize is awarded by British book retailer Waterstones.
Tom Becker, real name Thomas Trevelyan Beckerlegge, is a British children's writer. He studied history at Jesus College, Oxford. He won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize for his first novel, Darkside, at the age of 25.
Ways to Live Forever is a 2008 children's novel by Sally Nicholls, first published in 2008. The author's debut novel, it was written when Nicholls was 23 years old.
Jenny Valentine is an English children's novelist. For her first novel and best-known work, Finding Violet Park, she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. Valentine lives in Glasbury-on-Wye, Wales with her husband singer/songwriter Alex Valentine, with whom she runs a health food shop in nearby Hay-on-Wye.
Lifeblood is a children's novel by Tom Becker, first published in 2007. It is the sequel to Darkside, and the second in a planned series of five. Jonathan Starling has remained in Darkside with Elias Carnegie. As with the first story in the series, the pair gets drawn into a mystery that soon turns to them trying to solve a murder. They are approached to discover who an unknown victim is. The problem is that the victim was murdered the same way as another infamous member of Darkside society twelve years ago. The first known murder victim had been an heir to the Ripper throne.
Michael Broad is a children's author. His latest series is Monsterbook, and Jake Cake and The Werewolf Teacher was shortlisted for the 2007 Waterstones Children's Book Prize.
Broken Soup is a 2008 children's novel by Jenny Valentine. It was shortlisted for the 2008 Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the 2008 Costa Book Children's Book Award, and longlisted for the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize. It has also been longlisted for the 2009 Manchester Book Award and nominated for the 2009 Carnegie Medal.
Chris Simms is a British author of crime novels, he graduated from Newcastle University before travelling around the world. He then moved to Manchester in 1994 where he began writing. He is married with four children and lives in Stockport and as well as being the author of a number of works he is also a freelance copywriter.
The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Nosy Crow is an independent children's publisher, based in London. The company was founded in 2010 by Kate Wilson, formerly MD of Macmillan Children’s Books and Group MD of Scholastic UK Ltd, Adrian Soar, formerly Book Publishing CEO of Macmillan Publishers, and Camilla Reid, formerly Editorial Director of Campbell Books. In 2020, the company was named Independent Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards. As of 2021, Nosy Crow is the UK's 11th largest children's publisher, according to Nielsen BookScan data.
The Fox and the Star is an illustrated book by Coralie Bickford-Smith, a cover designer at Penguin Books. Published in 2015, it was chosen as that year's Waterstones Book of the Year, beating highly acclaimed contenders including Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
Patrice Lawrence MBE, FRSL is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize's inaugural children's and young adult category for her book Eight Pieces of Silva (2020).
Onjali Qatara Raúf is a British author and the founder of the two NGOs: Making Herstory, a woman's rights organisation tackling the abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the UK; and O's Refugee Aid Team, which raises awareness and funds to support refugee frontline aid organisations.
