Monthly Archives: October 2012

31 Oct
2012

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superworm!

Meet the wriggliest, squiggliest superhero in the world!

“Superworm is super-long. Superworm is super-strong.Watch him wiggle! Watch him squirm! Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!’

The new bestseller by Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson and master illustrator Axel Scheffler is out now.

Click here to download your very own Superworn activity sheet!

We have a THREE wonderful prize packs to give away including:

Favourite books signed by Julia Donaldson, The Highway Rat, ZOG, Stick Man, Tabby McTat, Tiddler and new Superworm.

Limited edition Superworm poster, height chart, postcards and stickers.

Never fear, Superworm’s here! He can fish Spider out of a well, and rescue Toad from a busy road. But who will come to Superworm’s rescue, when he’s captured by a wicked Wizard Lizard? Luckily, all of Superworm’s insect friends have a cunning plan…

For your chance to win one of the three prize packs answer this question in this comments section below:

What is your favourite insect and why?

Buy Superworm in store now for just £5.46!

30 Oct
2012

Win Keith Lemon’s shirt!

Robert Chase

Competitions

Following on from the success of The Rules, Keith Lemon – star of Celebrity Juice and all-round lady magnet – is back to tell us how he get here (if you don’t know how he got here).

In Being Keith, Keith Lemon will at last divulge the juiciest bits of his life, from winning Northern Businessman of the Year to selling securipoles and his first encounter with Fearne and Holly.

We had such an incredible response to our competition last year that this time Keith has actually donated the shirt from off his back. That’s right, you could be the lucky of owner of a suitably fabulous shirt from Keith’s own wardrobe, and modelled by the man himself in our photo.

To be in with a chance of winning, just tell us in the comments section below: Who has been your favourite guest on Celebrity Juice and why?

And once you’ve done that add Friday 9th November to your diary as a very important date, because Keith Lemon will be signing his new book at Tesco Extra in Watford from 11am-1.30pm!

Pre-order Being Keith online now or buy in store from 8th November for just £8.00!

29 Oct
2012

Paul O’Grady answers your questions…

Robert Chase

Competitions

Earlier this month we gave you the chance to win tickets to see Paul O’Grady in Aladdin: A Wish Come True at The O2, London! To do this you had to send us the question you would most like to ask Paul and what a response we had! The top ten most interesting questions were chosen and here’s what Paul had to say:

What one Lily Savage escapade do you wish had never happened? – Steven Green

There’s loads, I can’t think. Too many to mention, and some of them unmentionable!

You have had an amazing life full of amazing highs and lows. If they made a movie of your life who’d be capable of doing Paul and Lily justice? – Zoe Goodwin

Oh I don’t know, I always get asked this, it wouldn’t be up to me anyway. It would be up to the casting director, but Jean Claude Van Damme would do if he’s available.

Having read both of Paul’s other autobiographies I know what a good writer he is, so I’d like to know if he’d ever consider writing a novel? – Melanie Dye

No shouldn’t think so. At the moment I haven’t got any ideas that’s why. If an idea occurs to me then one day I might. To be honest, right now I can’t even bear to write my name!

If you could meet anyone and have afternoon tea with them, who would it be and why? – Lisa Drury

Alive or dead? well all the people I’d like to have tea with are dead (laughs). Bette Davis, we could sit and have a natter and tear everyone to pieces!

26 Oct
2012

Are you the winner of tickets to the Clothes Show Live or an early reader copy of The Racketeer!

Robert Chase

Competitions

To celebrate the launch of Nice to Meet you, Jessie J’s first autobiography we gave you the chance to a signed copy of the book plus tickets for you and friend to go to the Clothes Show Live at the Birmingham NEC this December! So a huge congratulations to Honora Livesey, Carrie Humphries, Jess Lethbridge, Kay Lou Smith and Clare White! We hope you have a great time at the Clothes Show Live – shop till you drop!

Next we gave you the chance to get your hands on an early reader copy John Grisham’s latest novel, The Racketeer. All you had to do to win was tell us the name of the judge murdered in The Racketeer, and so many of you got it right! Our chosen winner is Jayne Underwood. Congratulations!

Jeffrey Archer has returned to our shelves with The Sins of The Father, the second book in his new five book series, The Clifton Chronicles. To be in with a chance of winning the first place prize of a signed hardback copy of The Sins of the Father plus an Ingersoll Harry Clifton watch or one of ten runners-up prizes of a signed paperback copy of The Sins of The Father, you had to tell us which character from Jeffrey Archer’s books you would like to be and why.

So many of you got involved but of course there can only be one winner, so congratulations to Chris Barnes, we hope you enjoy the great read and your new designer watch! And congratulations to our ten runner-ups, George Lamplough, Gareth Dixon, Marie Nicklin, Isobel Gibbons, Nancy D’sa, Stuart Duscombe, Brigitte Leprince, David Munro, Sophie Kearney and Carl Bishop!

If you haven’t been chosen as a lucky winner this week around then try your luck with some of the other great competitions we have going on at the moment! Here a couple to get you started… Win the ultimate Christmas gift with bestselling author Jenny Colgan! OR Win some great kitchenware with Jamie Oliver!

And if none of those tickle your fancy, join us on Twitter for some #FreeReadsFriday action!

25 Oct
2012

Get Baking at Half Term with Learn To Bake and the Great British Bake Off!

Liz James

Competitions, Food & Drink

What will you be doing with your kids this half term? Why not get creative in the kitchen with this fantastic recipe for Giant Cookies from Learn To Bake, a brand new baking book for all the family, from the Great British Bake Off!

To get you and your kids baking this half term, we’re giving away a Kenwood kMix Stand Mixer worth £399.99, plus 4 copies of The Great British Bake Off: Learn to Bake, the perfect baking book to kick-start your baking. It aims to bring baking to the heart of the family – doing something fun and creative whilst learning a new skill.

You can learn how to make scones together, step-by-step, and then each choose your own way to customise them. You can see who can make the most tempting scones – will the rest of the family choose the cheese or chorizo version that mum made, or the sweet cocoa and dried cherry scone that your brother chose? And if it’s pouring with rain outside, you can easily spend a few happy hours making Giant Cookies and then decorating them as you see fit. The important thing is to just get stuck in.

Click here for the Giant Cookie recipe!

To win a Kenwood kMix Stand Mixer and a copy of the book, all you need to do post a comment below this blog, telling us your top tip for baking with kids – from mixing and icing techniques for little hands, to preparing your worktops for some messy fun! What is your top tip for baking at home with children?

The person with the best baking tip will win the grand prize. There will also be three runners up, each winning a copy of the book, Learn to Bake!

Buy Learn to Bake by Linda Collister in stores now!

24 Oct
2012

Cheryl Cole tells all…

Cheryl Cole

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

Hello Tesco book blog readers,

It was a real ‘wow!’ moment when I was given the very first copy of my book, and I can’t describe how amazing it is to see my autobiography finally out there for anyone to read. I’ve been looking forward to it being published for months. ‘Just read my book,’ I imagined myself saying to people. ‘Forget about all the rubbish and nonsense that’s been printed before. This is my own honest account of my colourful life, in black and white.’ Now I can actually say those words and it’s so exciting, and so liberating!

I decided to do the book at the start of this year, when one particularly stupid story completely overstepped the mark in terms of invading my privacy and upsetting me, which is something I explain more about in the final chapter. I had offers from publishers on the table, and that story was the catalyst that made me say: ‘That’s it. I’m going to do my book! Bring it on!’ Once I started work on the manuscript I never looked back. It felt completely the right time for me to tell my story. My marriage was over, I’d survived malaria and the American X Factor drama, and I was back doing what I love the most: making music and performing.

23 Oct
2012

Win a weekend in the stunning city of Carcassone!

Liz James

Crime, Thriller & Adventure

Kate Mosse’s new novel Citadel returns us to southern France and to the final story in the best selling Languedoc trilogy that began with Labyrinth and continued in Sepulchre. Citadel brings the story into the twentieth century and explores the secret history of this fascinating area during the dark days of the Nazi occupation in the Second World War. To celebrate publication of Citadel we are giving you the chance to win a weekend in Carcassonne so you can experience the magic of this extraordinary place yourself!

‘Finishing the final story in the trilogy has been very emotional for me; in some ways the trilogy is my love letter to the Languedoc region of France. I love the mountains, lakes and towns of this magical place, and I really feel in touch with the landscape and the stories that it holds safe. I hope I have given readers a real insight into the beauty and mystery of this area of France, and having set the stories in real places, my readers can walk in the footsteps of my characters and feel the magic for themselves.

I was particularly inspired to write Citadel by a plaque in a village outside the city of Carcassonne commemorating the ‘Martyrs of Baudrigues’, the seven men and two women who were executed by fleeing Nazi forces on 19th August 1944, just days before the Languedoc was liberated by its own people. This was the starting point for the story which focuses on the various resistance groups fighting against the Nazi occupation. As before, there is a time-slip element to the novel, and this takes us to the end of the fourth century, and the birth of Christianity in Europe. In both these periods of history, the Languedoc area experienced occupation and resistance and it was very satisfying writing about how history repeats itself. The human heart doesn’t change so very much over the centuries. Do you give in to an occupying power or do you fight for what you believe in?

22 Oct
2012

Win the ultimate Christmas gift with bestselling author Jenny Colgan!

Jenny Colgan

Competitions, Female Fiction

Hello everyone,

I wanted to give one of you a really great Christmas present to celebrate the publication of my brand-new Christmas novel, Christmas at the Cupcake Café!

It is – ta dah! – a bracelet from Tiffanys! I know, amazing, eh? I shall be entering secretly under a made-up name (my editor, sternly: ‘No you won’t, Jen’).

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to post a comment below letting us know the worst Christmas gift you ever got! (At least it will make me feel better…)

Okay, so what is the worst gift I’ve ever received? Mine was one of those ones bought with love and consideration, which I actually think is a bit worse – okay, a bunch of flowers from a petrol station might be thoughtless, but it’s not as bad as someone sitting down and thinking, ‘You know what, THIS is what they’d really, really like.’

I was thirty so, you know, not feeling like quite such a young thing any more and my parents bought me – wait for it – a towelling dressing gown, which zipped up round the feet like a sleeping bag. They were thrilled with it.

I just stared at it in utter horror – truly, it was hideous, kind of a dirty off-white, like something someone in a care home would wear as long as they had someone else to bring them cups of tea and they didn’t move much.

‘So!’ my mum announced. ‘It’s like a dressing gown, but it keeps your feet warm like slippers!’

I should say at this point that I have never worn a dressing gown, ever, in my adult life. I think they’re hideously unflattering and make you look like an invalid. I like nice soft pyjamas and socks. And I see my parents all the time. So I suppose they thought, ‘Oh, poor Jennifer doesn’t even have a dressing gown. Let’s get this one with feet.’ (I should add that they are lovely parents and normally buy me very nice things.)

Anyway, the end of the whole sorry tale is that my mum has worn it ever since, relentlessly, so she can comment on how cosy it is whenever I’m there. It’s getting really old-looking now. I daren’t tell her it makes her look like an invalid.

My new book, Christmas at the Cupcake Café, is about Issy, who runs the Cupcake Café, and it’s her first Christmas with her new boyfriend. It’s a sequel to Meet Me at the Cupcake Café, but you don’t have to have read that to enjoy this book, and I hope you’ll find it funny and romantic; it’s certainly full of lovely seasonal recipes and delicious goodies and I really hope you’ll like it. To get your started here are the recipes for a Mulled wine pear upside-down cake and Nutmeg sugar cookies – good luck with the competition!!

Jenny. xxxx

Buy Christmas at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan online and in store from the 25th October for just £7.00!

19 Oct
2012

Win a copy of Camp David by David Walliams!

Liz James

Biography, Competitions

Wildly famous comedian, anarchic judge on Britain’s Got Talent, and record-breaking long distance swimmer, David Walliams is a man of many talents.

He was launched to fame with the monumentally successful Little Britain, the characters from which have become embedded in our shared popular culture. ‘I’m a lady’, ‘Computer Says No!’ and ‘Bitty!’ are some of the most famous catchphrases in British comedy.

Yet Walliams is a mystery. Often described as a bundle of contradictions, he is an enigma, playing up his campness one minute and then swimming 130 miles in a filthy river the next.

To read Camp David is to be truly shocked, as well as tickled pink – Walliams bares his soul as never before and reveals a fascinating and complex mind. Containing extracts from his deeply private diaries, this extraordinary memoir unlocks many closely guarded secrets that until now have remained hidden in his past.

Watch an exclusive chat with David below and enter our competition for the chance to win a signed, framed photo of the man himself plus a copy of the book!

To enter the competition, all you need to do is answer the following question in the comments section below:

What was your favourite funny or inspiring moment from David Walliams’ career?

Buy Camp David by David Walliams online and in store now for £9.00!

18 Oct
2012

Calling all Lemony Snicket fans, what a prize we have for you!

Lemony Snicket

Author Guest Posts, Children's, Competitions

Dear Tesco Books Blog Readers,

I am writing to inform you about something you might not know about, and I’d like to keep it that way. My new book, Who Could That Be At This Hour?, will be published shortly, and it is the first troubling volume in a new series of books entitled All The Wrong Questions.

To determine if this book is appropriate for you to read, please answer the following questions yourself.

1. Are you a person? Yes/No

2. Are you a member of a secret organization? Yes/No

3. When you said “no,” were you lying? Yes/No

4. Are you skillful at decoding secret messages? Yes/No

5. D.Y.W.T.R.W.C.T.B.A.T.H.? Yes/No

6. Would you be willing to investigate the theft of a mysterious item? Yes/No

7. What if the item hadn’t actually been stolen? Yes/No

8. Are you willing to confront a sinister villain? Yes/No

9. Are you sure? Yes/No

10. If you learned critical information about the villain’s fiendish plot, would that frighten you? Yes/No

11. Really? Well, it certainly would frighten me. Yes/No

12. That wasn’t a yes or no question. Why did you answer it as if it were? Yes/No

13. Egad! You did it again! What’s wrong with you? Yes/No

Give yourself one point for each question you answered correctly, and one point for each question you answered incorrectly. If you have thirteen points, please meet me you-know-where. If you don’t, please check your arithmetic.

In the meantime have a read of the first chapter of my new book, Who Could That Be At This Hour? and check out the great competition below!

To win a signed copy of All The Wrong Questions, Who Could That Be At This Hour?, an attaché case and limited edition leather bound The Bad Beginning simply answer this question in the comments section below:

If you could be any character in A Series of Unfortunate Events, who would you be and why?

Pre-order All The Wrong Questions, Who Could That Be At This Hour? online now or buy it in store from 23rd October for just £4.86!

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Monthly Archives: October 2012

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