|summary=Now in its 27th year of publication, the Great Britain Concise Catalogue provides a comprehensive listing of all issues from the 1d black and 2d blue of May 1840 to the Children’s Comics issue of 20 March 2012. As a halfway house between the very basic ‘Collect British Stamps’ and the multi-volume specialised edition, this lists the main variations of each issue, alongside miniature sheets, special first day of issue postmarks, postage dues, booklets, and the regional issues from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, as well as the Channel Islands and Isle of Man prior to their postal independence in 1969 and 1973 respectively.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852598467</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tim Ewart
|title=The Treasures of Queen Elizabeth
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Tim Ewart is Royal Correspondent for ITV News, which must be one of the perfect starting points for writing a biography of the Queen as she celebrates her diamond jubilee. She's only the second British monarch to achieve this landmark - the other being Queen Victoria. After sixty years on the throne - and eighty six in public life - there's not much which isn't known about the Queen and few pictures which haven't previously seen the light of day, but Ewart's book is marked out by the inclusion of memorabilia which will have a freshness for many readers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780970064</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kim Stanley Robinson
|title=2312
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary='Intellectually engaged…intensely humane… exuberantly speculative' was Iain M Banks' blurb for ''2312''. So who am I to disagree with one of the current masters of the genre?
No-one. Just an ordinary reader. And actually, the more I think about the less I do – actually – as such – disagree. Banks' phrases are true and accurate. They're just not the whole story. Not for me anyway.
For a reader, as opposed to another writer, the book is much more difficult than that. ''Publishers Weekly'' called it ''challenging'' and that's much nearer the mark.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499978</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcello Fois
|title=Memory of the Abyss
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=We are on Sardinia, over a hundred years ago. It is a land of legend, where storytellers can see a different nature to the moon each night and convey that in their earthly stories. It's a world of wonder, where sheep can fall from the skies for more than one reason. It's a poor land, where lads are expected to be responsible shepherds by the time they are ten. As a result people look after each other - except, while returning from a Christening Samuele and his father are refused basic hospitality. Later when the boy runs away one night the land falls away beneath him - yet he finds a girl to ground him to this earth. Which is most relevant when he goes to war, and particularly when he comes back and finds himself a wronged man, and in need of vengeance...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694001</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Youssef Ziedan and Jonathan Wright (translator)
|title=Azazeel
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=An archaeologist in a time and place close to that of modern troubled Syria discovers thirty scrolls. These are the writings of a Coptic Christian monk born into Roman dominated Egypt in AD391. A door thus opens into an ancient world and the emerging vista stretches from the present into the distant past, as if eliciting an omnipresent dimension to reality. The fluent evocative prose flows like a meandering river or a ribbon connecting continuously the present moment with the ancient world. A panorama emerges dominated by Rome and Constantinople and extends to Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874278</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jennie Bond
|title=Elizabeth: A Diamond Jubilee Portrait
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Jennie Bond was the BBC's Royal Correspondent for fourteen years from 1989 and covered a period of particular turbulence in the Royal family. It might not have been unprecedented but it was the first time that what was happening was so widely reported throughout the world. This book covers a much wider period with the emphasis being on pictures rather than words. It's a heavy, well-produced and lavishly-presented book of the type which would make a good present or souvenir of a visit to the United Kingdom.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847329608</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kathleen Peacock
|title=Deadly Hemlock
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Mackenzie's best friend Amy was the final victim in a string of werewolf killings in the town of Hemlock. Lupine syndrome is spreading and the government has set up internment camps for all those infected. But Amy's killer was never caught. When the vigilante Trackers turn up in town, determined to hunt down the culprit, Mac is uneasy. The Trackers are extremists and often act outside the law. So Mac sets out on her own investigation of Amy's death. And what she discovers will change her life forever...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857072110</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Francis Bennett
|title=The Crabber Stories
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=John White was known to everyone as Crabber - a nickname which he once earned and which then stuck - and he grew up on the shores of Long Island in the nineteen-fifties. It was a close-knit community and a time when children had more freedom than they are likely to be allowed now. We watch as Crabber grows from being a boy still suffering from the death of his elder brother when we first met him through to a time when he's old enough to go on a hunting trip on the mainland with a local family. He tells his own stories, as truthfully as he can and with the sort of insight which children have before life injects its cynicism.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00737IKIW</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sarra Manning
|title=Adorkable
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Jeane Smith has her own quirky fashion sense, half a million Twitter followers, and a place on the Guardian's '30 People Under 30 Who Are Changing The World' list. Michael Lee has good looks, designer clothes, and parents who push him to excel at everything. They have nothing in common - so why do they end up kissing so often?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411003</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
|title=Fly, Chick, Fly
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Do you have a born worrier in your family? This picture book is for them. Two of the owlets in the tale leave the nest with excitement and confidence. The third one is too much of a thinker for her own good. When her parents say she has to fly, she replies
''If I fly, the crow might get me.''<br>
''If I fly, the rain might wet me.''<br>
''If I fly, a train might hit me.''<br>
''My sister flew and never came back.''<br>
''Why would I want to fly?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393443</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Renee Russell
|title=Skating Sensation (Dork Diaries)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=OMG!! Niki's gym class is doing ice-skating this term, and anyone who presents a display at a public charity event will get a straight A. Also, if she can perform well she will keep an endangered animal charity working for some months. It's just a shame then that Niki suits ice-skating as well as chocolate suits building barbecues. What's worse, is that the shelter has a deep meaning for her hunky friend Brandon...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085707119X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kim Thuy and Sheila Fischman (translator)
|title=Ru
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Everyone of a certain age will remember the American withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. This was the answer to years of student protests and the prayers of many US parents who saw sons like theirs drafted to war only to return in body bags. As far as the west was concerned, the suffering was over. However, for the Vietnamese people, the suffering continued as the Khmer Rouge and then the invading Cambodians killed, tortured and destroyed people who were just trying to survive. ''Ru'' is written by and about one such person.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685486</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniela Sacerdoti
|title=Dreams (Sarah Midnight Trilogy)
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Seventeen-year-old Sarah Midnight's parents are dead. Everyone else thinks it's an accident - but she knows the truth because her parents were demon hunters and her dreams helped her guide them from the safety of her bed. But they didn't train her for what would happen when they were gone - and if she doesn't master her powers, and learn who she can trust, she might be the next to die. Can she live up to the Midnight motto, Don't Let Them Roam?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845023706</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Belinda Seaward
|title=The Beautiful Truth
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=There are two parallel story lines in Belinda Seaward's ''The Beautiful Truth'': one set in the present day and one in wartime Poland. Both involve love stories and personal struggles, and there are repeating themes such as horses and the stars that effectively provide links between the two in this clearly well-researched and engrossing narrative.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719521114</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Smriti Prasadam-Halls and David Wojtowycz
|title=Elephant Pants
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''Oh, fiddle-dee fickers,''<br>
''Where, oh where, oh''<br>
''WHERE are my knickers?”''
This is the plaintive cry from Major Trump that sets the tone at the start of this wonderfully entertaining story and sends Noah and all the animals on the ark into a flap. Major Trump asks Noah to help locate the missing undies which are a fetching red pair with white hearts that match his wife's. Noah calls an ark alert and gathers all the other animals round in order to line up and display the pants that they are wearing. What then follows is a comical parade of animal pairs showing of their weird and wonderful underwear. There are hippos brandishing stars and stripes pants, flamingos with frilly knickers, tigers in super-strength drawers and horses wearing ones that are organic, recycled and handmade. I have only mentioned a few of what is quite a sensational collection of varied underwear. Unfortunately, no one is wearing the missing undies but perhaps there is another explanation for where they might be!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408313472</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Lawrence
|title=Murder and Chips (Jiggy McCue)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Poor Jiggy. It seems everything he touches is doomed. In previous books he's been squeezed almost to death by a pair of demonic underpants, attacked by the ghost of a bad-tempered goose and pursued by a spiteful genie—though all of that, frankly, is nothing compared to what happened with that toilet (don't ask). And now, to cap it all, exams are looming—you know, the ones everyone tells your whole future depends on? Jiggy and his two friends Angie and Pete are stressed, and in dire need of bit of rest and relaxation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408313960</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Mayhew
|title=Katie in London
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Katie is visiting London with her little brother and her Grandma. When Grandma gets tired they stop a while in Trafalgar Square, and whilst Grandma rests on a bench Katie and her brother find themselves going on a magical adventure with one of the Trafalgar Square lions!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408323850</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton (illustrator)
|title=Cheer Up Your Teddy Bear, Emily Brown!
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Emily Brown and her rabbit, Stanley, are having fun indoors on a very grey and rainy day. They meet a small, very wet little teddy bear who is singing sad, self-commiserating songs to herself about how sad and lonely she is. Of course, Emily and Stanley feel compelled to help, so they take the teddy with them to the Outback of Australia, but will they manage to cheer the little teddy up?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408308495</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tatyana Feeney
|title=Small Bunny's Blue Blanket
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Small Bunny has a blue blanket. He loves his blanket very much and takes it everywhere he goes. It helps him to do all the things he enjoys doing, like swinging and painting and reading. Of course, this means that Blue Blanket gets rather dirty, and so one day Mummy says that both Small Bunny and Blue Blanket need to have a wash...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019275792X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Helen Noble
|title=Tears of a Phoenix
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was almost inevitable that Jed Johnson would follow his brothers into crime. The slippery slope from care to young offenders' institute to an eventual life sentence was almost predictable despite his mother's attempts to raise him for responsibility. However, once serving the life sentence, Jed has time to think and, aided by Elisabeth, a prison service psychologist, he assesses his past and decides how he'd like his future to look. Decision doesn't guarantee fulfilment though, and Jed has a long way to go before he knows how his story will end.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846949882</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip Caveney
|title=Spy Another Day
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=That Mr Lazarus is an odd man. He works at the local cinema, which is owned by Kip's dad, and unknown to anyone but Kip he's actually set up home in the projection room. He claims to be about 120 years old, and he makes money by selling film memorabilia. But he doesn't acquire his loot by hanging round movie plots, or rummaging around on stalls at car boot sales. No, he does it by persuading (well, that's a polite way of putting it: blackmail's such an ugly word) Kip and Beth to go into films and steal it. Yup. Into actual films, while they're playing. Downside? If they don't get out by the closing credits, they're stuck there. No pressure, then.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394172</amazonuk>
}}