Monthly Archives: September 2012

28 Sep
2012

Win tickets to the X Factor as Tulisa’s guest!


Competitions

Tulisa has been a busy lady this year, a no.1 single, a new album due out shortly and her new book Honest is in stores now!

To celebrate the release of Honest, Tulisa has shared an exclusive extract from her book as well as giving you the chance to win tickets to be her guest for an evening at the X Factor!

To win 2 tickets to join Tulisa as her special guest at the X Factor semi final show on Sunday 8th December just answer this question in the comments section below:

Who is your favourite X Factor contestant this year?

Good luck everyone!

Buy Honest by Tulisa online and in-store today for just £10.00!

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27 Sep
2012

Win a signed copy of Jessie J’s new book and a pair of tickets to the Clothes Show Live!


Competitions

One of the most inspiring talents to emerge from British pop culture, Jessie J’s message is loud and clear: be strong, be determined and never shy away from who you are.

An international sensation and a multi-award-winning superstar, she took the music industry by storm, selling 11 million singles and 2.5 million albums worldwide. In this fully illustrated and highly personal book, Jessie J tells her own story in her own words, with all the strength, honesty and passion you would expect.

This is Jessie J’s real story, opening the doors on the individuality and unique voice that have made her an inspiration to young women around the world. She talks openly about her health issues and a heart condition, her thoughts on body images and how she discovered her own identity whilst breaking into one of the world’s most competitive industries.

The bold and intimate tale of this young woman will shock and enthral as she delivers her personal message with an unshakable confidence and modesty that will cement her place in pop culture as a much-loved star.

 

To celebrate publication of Nice to Meet You, out on September 27th, we’ve teamed up with the lovely people at CLOTHES SHOW LIVE (Birmingham NEC, Dec 7–11) to offer all you budding fashionistas out there a chance to win tickets to the show, plus a copy of Jessie’s fantastic illustrated autobiography, signed by the lady herself!

There are five pairs of tickets up for grabs, to enter simply tell us in the comments section below who your fashion icon is and why.

Buy Nice to Meet You by Jessie J online and in-store now for just £9.00!

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26 Sep
2012

Win a Liverpool shirt signed by Steven Gerrard!


Competitions

Steven Gerrard is a Liverpool legend: captain at the age of 23, two FA Cups, three League Cups, one UEFA Cup and that Champions League win.

His new book celebrates his fantastic career so far and he shares with us why he decided to tell his ‘Liverpool Story’.

“Every year, I am presented with countless opportunities to do books about my career. I usually turn them down flat. However, the chance to tell ‘My Liverpool Story’ through my words and the photographs which frame my life was too good a chance to overlook.

Sifting through all the pictures stirred great memories and I hope those who read this book gain the same level of enjoyment I have had in writing it. Each day I realise how lucky I am to live the dream. Hopefully, there are a few more chapters still to be written in my time at Anfield, a few more trophies to lift and a few more highs to sample.”

Here are a couple of exclusive shots from Steven Gerrard’s book cover photo shoot!

To win a signed Liverpool shirt and an exclusive limited edition copy of the book, tell us in the comments section below:

What is your favourite moment from Steven Gerrard’s football career?

Buy Steven Gerrard: My Liverpool Story now online and in-store for just £12.00!

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25 Sep
2012

Win a week’s stay in a luxurious gîte with French Connections


Competitions

To celebrate the publication of 1356, the new book from No.1 bestseller Bernard Cornwell, we’re offering fans the chance to win a week’s holiday for two in Couhé, the second sunniest spot in France. Couhé is just 30 minutes away from the bustling town of Poitiers, where Bernard’s new historical epic is set.

There’s more information on the competition below, so have a read of Bernard Cornwell’s blog piece and enter this fantastic competition for your chance to win!

I wrote 1356 because people haven’t heard of Poitiers. For some strange reason this battle is simply not celebrated in England in the way that Crécy and Agincourt are. Poitiers deserves a place among England’s most significant military achievements. It was an extraordinary battle. The prince was outnumbered, his army was thirsty, hungry, and travel-worn, yet it fought, by medieval standards, a very long battle and ended it as outright victors and with the King of France as their prisoner. King Jean II was taken back to London where he joined another royal prisoner, King David II of Scotland, who had been captured after the battle of Neville’s Cross ten years before (described in Thomas of Hookton’s adventure Vagabond).

The battle of Poitiers was the culmination of the prince’s second great chevauchée through France. The first, in 1355, had struck south-east from Gascony and laid waste a great swathe of country, stopping just short of Montpellier, but ravaging, among many other towns and cities, the bourg of Carcassonne. A chevauchée was a destructive raid, designed to inflict severe economic damage on the enemy who, to end the losses, would need to fight a battle. If the enemy refused battle, as the French did in 1355, the chevauchée resulted in a shameful loss of face for the French and huge profit for the English. If they accepted battle, as King Jean chose in 1356, they risked defeat. Or perhaps they would achieve revenge and victory.

To win a week’s stay for two at La Maison Gabriel, the beautiful self-catering cottage in Couhé, France, we want you to tell us in the comments section below what your favourite Bernard Cornwell novel or series is and why, using no more than 200 words.

Pre-order 1356 by Bernard Cornwell online now or buy in-store from 27th September!

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24 Sep
2012

Rick Riordan returns with his new book, The Mark of Athena!


Author Guest Posts

Hey Guys,

I’m bursting with excitement to introduce to you the third instalment of the Heroes of Olympus series: The Mark of Athena, so get ready for another thrilling experience and an unforgettable adventure…

The time has come to board the legendary Argo II once again. Are you ready to join my heroes Jason, Piper and Leo on an all-new, heart-racing adventure across land and sea to Rome? Exploring the mysterious and unknown territory of Camp Half-Blood, the team are unexpectedly united with some olds friends.

Here they discover that they have been selected to embark on a terrifying new quest and in order to have any hope of succeeding, the heroic demi-gods must join forces in their life-threatening search for The Doors of Death. Will our heroes win the battle against the earth mother, Gaea and what more will the secret prophecy reveal?

I have really enjoyed returning to the world of Percy Jackson and the gods of Ancient Greece and I am positive you will be just as gripped as I was.

Happy Reading, Rick and Speedy (our adopted dog who this book is dedicated to)

Pre-order a copy of The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan today for just £5.00 online or buy in-store from 2nd October! 

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21 Sep
2012

Get your copy of Happy Days by Olly Murs signed by the man himself!


Competitions

Update: The Olly Murs signing is now closed! Congratulations to all of the winners! All 300 winners have now been notified by email and assigned a unique reference number. If you’ve not been lucky this time, then make sure you visit us here on the blog next week for another very exciting Olly Murs competition!

Are you a huge Olly Murs fan? Would you really like to meet him? Then you’re in the right place!

We have 300 tickets to Olly Murs’ first book signing for his new book, Happy Days!

To be in with the chance of meeting Olly Murs on Wednesday 10th October at the Newport Tesco Extra in Newport, Wales, all you have to do is email your name and address to: Book.Signings@uk.tesco.com

If you are lucky enough to get a ticket, please bring a printout of your confirmation email with you on the day in order to be able to purchase your book and to meet Olly.

You have until 28th September to enter and if you have secured a ticket you will be contacted by the 1st October – be sure not to miss out!

Olly’s first book signing will take place Wednesday 10th October at Newport Extra Tesco Store, Spytty Road, Newport, Newport, NP19 4TX at 4.30pm.

50 Comments

20 Sep
2012

Are you a lucky winner this time?


Competitions

It has to be said, our competitions are just getting better and better and this month was no exception!

Superstar opera singer Alfie Boe took some time out of his very busy schedule to talk to tell us about his new autobiography, Alfie: My Story. To celebrate the release, we asked you to tell us who your greatest inspiration is and why. It was no easy task choosing the ten lucky winners of a signed copy of Alfie’s autobiography and one of his bestselling CDs, but we got there in the end.

So a huge congratulations to Chris, Linda, Hayley, Katie, Tina, Sean, Lynn, Gayl, Karen and Sharon. Enjoy!

 
And next we had the famous and world-renowned novelist Jackie Collins give you the chance to win a signed copy of The Power Trip as well as having tea with Jackie herself at a top London location! All you had to do to win this wonderful prize was tell us which is your favourite character from any of Jackie’s twenty-eight novels. The two lucky winners who will be taking a friend with them to meet the one and only Jackie Collins are Andrea Miles and Diane Yule! Congratulations!

If you’re a winner and you haven’t yet been contacted, don’t worry, you will be soon. And if you didn’t win this time, not to worry, we have plenty more competitions on the blog at the moment. Tell us who you’d take with you on the trip of a lifetime and you could be on your way to New York to meet J.K. Rowling! To win a signed and dedicated Man United shirt tell us you favourite Wayne Rooney goal. And to win an overnight trip to Dublin and £100 to spend at Brown Thomas tell us what your ‘accidental love story’ is!

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20 Sep
2012

Street magician Dynamo tells his story…


Competitions

Magician Impossible is the incredible true story of the boy born Steven Frayne in Bradford in 1982 who grew up to be Dynamo.

From his introduction to magic by his beloved grandpa to becoming the hottest street magician in the UK, this is the true story of one of the world’s best illusionists. This book proves that truly, Nothing is Impossible.

 

To celebrate the launch of Nothing is Impossible, the mind blowing autobiography from Dynamo, we’ve got a Dynamo sweatshirt and signed playing cards to giveaway!

To be in with a chance of winning this exclusive prize simply answer this question in the comments section below:

Who is you favourite magician of all time? 

Buy Nothing is Impossible by Dynamo for just £9.00 online and in-store now!

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20 Sep
2012

Win a beautiful Ingersoll watch, courtesy of Jeffrey Archer!


Competitions

Jeffrey Archer returned to our shelves in late 2011 with Only Time Will Tell, the first book in his new five book series, The Clifton Chronicles. Now the master storyteller continues the Clifton saga with this, the second book in the series and No.1 hardback bestseller, The Sins of the Father, which is out now in paperback!

We’re so excited about the release of The Sins of the Father that we’re giving you the chance to win some incredible prizes; an Ingersoll watch, a signed copy of The Sins of the Father in hardback and copies of The Sins of the Father in paperback for five lucky runners up! Be sure to read on to find out how you can win…

The book opens in New York, 1939. Tom Bradshaw is arrested for first degree murder. He stands accused of killing his brother. When Sefton Jelks, a top Manhattan lawyer, offers his services for nothing, penniless Tom has little choice but to accept his assurance of a lighter sentence. After Tom is tried, found guilty and sentenced, Jelks disappears, and the only way for him to prove his innocence would be to reveal his true identity – something that he has sworn never to do in order to protect the woman he loves.

Meanwhile, the young woman in question travels to New York, leaving their son behind in England, having decided she’ll do whatever it takes to find the man she was to marry – unwilling to believe that he died at sea. The only proof she has is a letter. A letter that has remained unopened on a mantelpiece in Bristol for over a year.

In this epic novel, family loyalties are stretched to their limits as secrets unravel, and the story moves from the backstreet’s of Bristol to the boardrooms of Manhattan.

To celebrate the release of The Sins of the Father in paperback we’re giving you the chance to win an Ingersoll watch and a signed copy of The Sins of the Father in hardback. As well as this we’ll also be giving 5 runners-up a copy of The Sins of the Father in paperback!

The Ingersoll Harry Clifton watch – which you can see to the left – is worth £175 and takes it’s name from one of the protagonists of Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton Chronicles series. If you would love to win this beautiful item., all you have to do is answer this question in the comments section below!

If you could be any character in one of Jeffrey Archer’s books, who would you be and why?

Buy The Sins of the Father online and in-store now for £2.99!

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19 Sep
2012

Claudia Carroll asks, ‘What’s your accidental love story?’


Competitions, Female Fiction

Irish actress and writer Claudia Carroll is back with her new book, A Very Accidental Love Story! 

To celebrate the arrival of A Very Accidental Love Story we’re giving you the chance to win one of two incredible prizes.

The first-place prize is an amazing overnight trip for two to Dublin, staying at The Morgan Hotel, along with £100 to spend at Brown Thomas! And five lucky runners-up will go for afternoon tea with Claudia Carroll at The Covent Garden hotel in London and receive a signed copy of her new book!

To be in with a chance of winning one of these fantastic prizes all you to do is answer this question in the comments section below!

What is your accidental love story?

A Very Accidental Love Story by Claudia Carroll will be in stores from 27th September!

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