Books

Between 1997 and 2007, JK Rowling published her seven Harry Potter novels, which became the best-selling book series of all time.The fantasy series about a wizard school boy has sold over 600 million copies worldwide and is available in 85 languages.In fact, the last four books set records as the fastest-selling books in history with the final instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, selling around 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US within the first 24 hours of publication.Now if you haven’t read them, where you have been?Whether taking on the challenge for the first time or if you fancy revisiting the magic, there’s now a way you can read the Harry Potter books for free, but you’ll have to be disciplined and quick.All seven Harry Potter books are available ...

Writer Jo Callaghan, winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 (Image: Lorne Campbell / Guzelian for Daily Express)Picking up her prize – £3,000 and a hand-crafted beer barrel from one of the UK’s last remaining traditional coopers – courtesy of North Yorkshire family brewer and festival title sponsor T&R Theakston, she told the audience: “Steve is the one person I’d like to be able to share this with. I know he’d say, ‘I told you that you could do it’.” Jo, from Birmingham, continues: “He was my soulmate, a very kind, gentle person, and, when we had children, he gave up work to look after them. He was really supportive, while I was the one with the big job.“He looked after the kids so I could do that and he encouraged me to write as well. He bought me a lapt...

Currently No 1 this week in the Amazon charts is Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid.Described as “an absolutely addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist”, this first book in The Housemaid trilogy has gone to become No 1 on the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists.Published in 2022, the international hit is set to be adapted into a movie by Lionsgate with Rebecca Sonnenshine writing the screenplay.Available on Kindle Unlimited, just what is The Housemaid about?According to the publisher, if you’re a fan of The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train you won’t be able to put this novel down.The first person official synopsis teases: “Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school....

Amazon has introduced an incredible offer of three months free of their audiobook subscription, Audible, in line with Amazon Prime Day. While the shopping giant often gives away a free trial for Audible, it is typically just a month.Now it's for an impressive three months meaning you won't have to pay a penny until October. Audible gives you a monthly credit that can be exchanged for any book on their site, it can be rolled over for as long as you're a member. This includes exclusives that you won't find anywhere else in the world. Not only do you get one book every month but you get access to The Plus Catalogue. This makes Audible shine as it includes an incredible selection of books both new and old, you can listen to as much as you'd like.You can take out a new book from the Plus Cat...

George RR Martin has been working on the penultimate Game of Thrones book The Winds of Winter for the last 13 years.Over the past week, the 75-year-old has been more active than usual on his blog, mentioning the upcoming novel in passing.His most recent post focuses on the dragons as portrayed in A Song of Ice and Fire.During the essay, the author shared what plot details he plans to reveal in The Winds of Winter and final book, A Dream of Spring.Martin wrote on his blog: “My dragons do not talk. They are relatively intelligent, but they are still beasts. They bond with men… some men… and the why and how of that, and how it came to be, will eventually be revealed in more detail in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING and some in BLOOD & FIRE. (Septon Barth got much of it right)...

This week marks 13 years since the publication of A Dance with Dragons, the latest book in A Song of Ice and Fire.Since then the Game of Thrones TV show has come and gone, while George RR Martin still has two novels in the series to go.The Winds of Winter is up next and now the 75-year-old author has addressed rumours surrounding its release in his latest blog post.The writer shared how he’s about to travel to the UK for the “longest trip we’ve taken in a while”.Aside from visiting the Northern Irish set of Game of Thrones spin-off The Hedge Knight, he’ll be visiting his publishers in London.Martin wrote: “We have a few more stops planned after Belfast, including one in London, where I will be getting together with my British publishers from Harper Collins Voyager. Let me say a few word...

It’s been 13 years since George RR Martin last published a book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series.The Game of Thrones TV series has come and gone in that time, with showrunners having to rely on the author’s plot outlines for the final two novels The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.Five years on since the end of the hit show and the 75-year-old still hasn’t completed the next book.In his latest blog post, he addressed fan anger over the delay when writing about a chocolate model of him spotted at the Chocolate Museum in Barcelona.Martin blogged: “I find myself at a loss for words, but full of questions. Am I made of dark chocolate or milk chocolate? No idea. Am I solid chocolate, or do I have a filling? Nougat? Peanut butter? Nuts? Does the museum have a display of chocolate wr...

Harry Potter fans found themselves in stitches, discovering what they have dubbed the "greatest-ever" translation of the beloved series, of which many were completely unaware.Highland influencer Trinix D Morrison left fans of the wizarding world bewildered with his reveal of a version of the first instalment in the best-selling series rendered in Scottish dialect.J.K. Rowling's original Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had morphed into Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane in this translation by Matthew Fitt.A viral video showcasing the novel, which attracted over 461,000 likes, saw him proclaim: "I may have found the greatest book ever written the other day. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?"He quickly corrects himself: "No, no. The Scots edition was translated into ...

Summer is officially here and for many of us that's a time to get out into the sunshine. It can be a great time to get some reading done but is quite tricky when you've popped on your gardening gloves or are taking a minute to sunbathe in the garden to actually do it.However, there's a solution that allows you to reach your reading goals without having to even touch a book - letting you read all summer without lifting a finger. Audible, Amazon's audiobook service, has recently launched an offer that lets Prime members enjoy not just their first month for free, but their first three months. After this period, the service costs £7.99 per month on a rolling contract until you decide to cancel.Each month, subscribers receive one credit, which can be used to purchase any book on the site. If...

Geezer on stage in 1973 (Image: Getty)Nobody expected an explosion, let alone a mortar bomb. It was 1980, the year after Black Sabbath had sacked Ozzy Osbourne, and the band were about to headline the Aloha Stadium in Hawaii. Their drummer Bill Ward had walked off the tour days before without a word.“We were nervous,” bassist Terence “Geezer” Butler tells me. “We’d never played Honolulu before and never played with our new drummer Vinnie Appice. Then a mortar bomb exploded between the dressing room and the stage…it left a great big hole. It was lucky nobody died. The stadium was near a US Army base. We were told it was troops ‘letting off steam’.”Craziness stalked the band right from their early days back in the late 1960s. Geezer still remembers his brother Jimmy’s words: “There’s some...