Merry Christmas! If, like us, you’ve had your dinner and would like to take yourself to a quiet corner with something good to read and a cup of tea (or a second Christmas dinner- why not?) , rather than get into yet another discussion about politics or similar tricky topics with your aunt’s husband, then we have a treat for you.
Kindle have discounted a whopping 12 of our bestselling titles. Just click on the tiny price next to each title below and you’ll be able to read Wolf Hall, Americanah, All the Light We Cannot See, Pretty Honest and many more in an instant. With enough titles to take you through to 2016, you’ll have a very happy new year too. Read more…
As the 4th Estate website rounds off its ‘Family Reunion’ theme, we turn to much-loved Guardian columnist Tim Dowling’s wonderful How to Be a Husband, and consider the benefits of matrimony. Tim is a husband of some twenty years, and his marriage is resounding proof that even the most impossible partnership can work out for the best. Some of the time.
So while his book is called How to Be a Husband, it’s not really a how-to guide at all. Nor is it a compendium of petty remarks and brinkmanship – although it contains plenty of both. You may pick up a few DIY hints. You might learn that while marriage is founded on love, it endures through bloody hard work. Most likely it will make you whimper with the laughter of painful recognition. Read more…
You may have seen these stylish and playful Benoît Jacques illustrations accompanying Tim Dowling’s Guardian Weekend column, so it was only right that they be used in Tim Dowling’s debut novel How To be a Husband. These cartoons have evoked our playful side, so we’ve got a competition for you. Match the chapter title to the ten respective picture from the Flickr gallery (for example: a7, b3, c5). Three entrants to pair all ten correctly will be chosen at random, and will win a copy of How To be a Husband. Guess away!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that many novels are preoccupied with matching single man with wife, but not so many let you enter the marital home to get up close and personal with that no-longer so-single man. How better to celebrate the publication of Tim Dowling’s How To be a Husband than to dedicate a 4×4 to some of our favourite literary male spouses? Read more…