British Book Bargains + The Author Who Lives at Toad Hall

July 02, 2025

Whether you first met him through The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Owl Service, or his more recent Booker-shortlisted Treacle Walker, Alan Garner has long been one of Britain’s most distinctive literary voices—blending folklore, landscape, and a deep sense of time into stories that are anything but ordinary.

It’s fitting, then, that he and his wife Griselda live in two extraordinary homes: Toad Hall, a 15th-century timber-framed house he discovered in his twenties, and The Old Medicine House, a crumbling Tudor apothecary they saved from demolition and rebuilt, beam by beam, beside it. Today, it’s home to the Blackden Trust, a creative foundation that hosts folklore events, school visits, and community performances in a setting that feels as storied and strange as Garner’s novels themselves.

Curious to see what they look like? You can read a couple wonderful pieces (with photos) HERE and HERE.

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British eBooks on Sale: July 2nd

As always, a short disclaimer on the sale listings - the overwhelming majority of our readers are US-based, so sale availability may vary outside of the US (it’s up to the publisher/author if they wish to coordinate sales internationally). Deals can disappear at any time, but all e-books were $2.99 or less at time of writing.

  • The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont - In 1925, Nan O’Dea enters the lives of Agatha and Archie Christie with a hidden past and a plan—driven by lost love, betrayal, and a secret that began decades earlier in Ireland, leading to a twist of passion and revenge no one saw coming.

  • The Portrait by Emilia Kelly - In 1850 London, Iris Sheffield’s life is upended when she discovers a mysterious diary and photograph—leading her to uncover secrets hidden in a portrait, and a truth someone will do anything to keep buried.

  • Her Last Walk Home by Patricia Gibney - When a young woman is found murdered after a night out and another goes missing soon after, Detective Lottie Parker uncovers a chilling connection—realizing the killer isn’t choosing victims at random, but targeting them with terrifying precision.

  • The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict - In December 1926, Agatha Christie vanished for eleven days—Marie Benedict’s novel imagines what might have happened during that mysterious disappearance, weaving fact and fiction into a compelling portrait of the woman behind the world’s most famous mysteries.

  • (FREE) The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau - In 1750s London, aspiring artist Genevieve Planché is drawn into a world of espionage and danger when she's tasked with uncovering the secret of a revolutionary blue at the Derby Porcelain Factory—only to become entangled in murder, industrial intrigue, and a forbidden romance.

  • Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane - When wedding photographer Harriet Hatley calls off her engagement and moves in with heartbroken romantic Cal Clarke, their unlikely friendship forces her to confront long-buried secrets—and decide if she's finally ready to believe in love.

  • Amendment of Life by Catherine Aird - When a body is found in the center of a Tudor-era maze and a dead rabbit appears on a bishop’s doorstep, Detective Chief Inspector Sloan must unravel a puzzling case full of unexpected twists in the quiet English countryside.

  • (FREE) An Occupied Grave by AG Barnett - When the wrong body turns up at a village funeral, Detectives Sam Brock and Guy Poole must reopen an old case and navigate buried secrets to stop a killer before they strike again.

A Few Print Book Deals…

Print books aren’t sold as cheaply as ebooks (and Amazon has recently announced plans to take larger fees on books priced under $9.99, causing publishers/authors to increase prices), so for these we look for books priced at $10-12 or less at time of writing.

  • The Soho Murder by Mike Hollow - In the aftermath of a 1940 air raid near St Paul's, Detective Inspector John Jago investigates the murder of a Soho bookseller and a missing rare volume—uncovering a trail of greed and crime in wartime London’s shadowy underworld.

  • The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood - In 1940, librarian Sophie Klein risks everything to protect the future queen at Windsor Castle; decades later, a mysterious letter leads her granddaughter Lacey on a quest to uncover a royal secret that could change everything.

  • Churchill’s Secret Messenger by Alan Hlad - In 1941 London, Rose Teasdale is recruited from Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms into the British Special Operations Executive and sent to Nazi-occupied Paris, where her covert work with the Resistance tests her courage, loyalty, and the limits of sacrifice.

  • 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall - When Sam fakes amnesia to avoid being fired by his grumpy boss, Jonathan, an unexpected bond forms—but as real feelings grow, so does the risk of losing everything to one impulsive lie in their London workplace.

  • The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - In a quiet English retirement village, four sharp-witted seniors meet weekly to solve cold cases—until a local murder turns their hobby into a high-stakes investigation in The Thursday Murder Club.

  • Murder Most Scottish by Blake Banner - On their honeymoon at a remote Scottish island castle, Bronx cold case detectives John Stone and Carmen Dehan are drawn into a locked-room mystery from forty years ago—only for history to repeat itself when another impossible murder occurs during a storm.

“Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.”

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