Welcome millers old and new, to another of our great book giveaways. We have a list as diverse as our readers, so we’re giving you the chance to win - count ‘em - SIX sparkling new books to be sure that at least one will be on your Great Reads of 2010 list. You could win:

And if that wasn’t enough, we’re giving you the chance to win a book that hasn’t even been published yet: the amazing Jasper Jones. This new novel absolutely blew us away when it came in, and we have some much covetted, very limited edition book proofs, just for you.

To win all of this, simply follow us on Twitter and when we get to 1,000 followers check back here and enter. Good luck!

The Windmill Team

Tim Pears’ new novel Landed is out now, and to mark the release we’re offering you the chance to win one of three copies of this already critically acclaimed book. We’ll even chuck in one of our lovely Windmill Books notepads and a set of bookish postcards. All you have to do is read the extract and answer the question below.

Q: What animal does Owen’s grandfather use the Tia Maria on?

a) Sheep

b) Pheasant

c) Fox

Send your answers by email to windmill@randomhouse.co.uk. Winners will be picked on Friday 5th March - good luck!

‘Reading Landed was a huge pleasure, since this novel really sang to me. I can think of nobody who writes with quite such searing beauty, honesty, authenticity and commitment about the British countryside and its small farmers. We are back to the Tim Pears who gave us the memorable In a Time of Fallen Leaves, only this time round we have a book more artfully sculpted, more layered, more powerfully elegiac. This is a really beautiful novel’ - Barbara Trapido

‘Landed is a bleak and brave novel … Like moments of sunshine on a Welsh hillside, shafts of brightness irradiate the gloom, passages of descriptive writing of such clarity that the scents and sounds of lost childhood assail the reader with deep, moving pungency. Pears is a remarkable prose stylist … Landed offers rich pickings’ - The Times

‘The story is powerful: it shows the grief that overwhelms a parent at the death of a child and … the darkness that lies beneath the surface of a superficially happy family; it is also a rhapsodic account of the pull of the land … There is no denying Pears’ achievement in the character of Owen, a raw, desperate man even before he is filled with grief, and his deeply poetic descriptions of an old-fashioned life on the land‘ - Daily Telegraph

‘Beautifully and evocatively written … the utterly different passages fit together … because the author has from the start a unity of vision, which he successfully conveys to the reader … Emotionally, the book rings true. Owen’s deepening isolation, and inability to understand why this should have happened to him, why a wretched accident (though it may have been his fault) should lead to the disintegration of what had been a happy marriage, and the loss of his children - these states of mind are rendered sympathetically and cogently … There is - can be - no happy ending to his story; yet Pears’s skill is to make us wish that there might be’ - Scotsman

Ever wondered how to make your friends fail at simple arithmetic? Or how to passify a violent criminal in a high security prison? Kevin Dutton, author of Flipnosis, shows you this and much more in his radio show ‘Extreme Persuasion’. Listen to it on the BBC iplayer here

Flipnosis is published in May.

Mike Thomas, author of Pocket Notebook, talks about the experience of doing a Masters in Creative Writing in the University of Glamorgan’s magazine Glamlife.

Mike is the latest success in a course that has taught writers as diverse as Dan Rhodes and Maria McCann, and is headed up by Philip Gross, this year’s winner of the T S Elliot prize for poetry.

Read the full article here

Welcome one and all to this week’s Friday Feeling, easing you into the weekend with cultural tid-bits and bookish distractions that have been entertaining us this week.

We’ve had bookish CD cases, now here’s how the internet would look as vintage covers.

One of the challenges of being a freelance writer (or freelancer of any kind for that matter) is finding a quiet place to work. The good people of the Londonist have made a handy map of the best bars, cafes, libraries and even hotels you can sit undisturbed with a coffee and your laptop. I particularly like the reviews, “…Well-intentioned but ineffective table service means you can linger here for hours…undisturbed”.

And finally, if you missed the BBC 4 drama on Heather Brooke’s breaking of the expenses scandal, you can still catch it here. Heather’s book The Silent State is out in April.

The story of Heather Brooke, the journalist who broke the expenses scandal, has been dramatised for a BBC 4 drama, ‘On Expenses’. Watch it on BBC iPlayer.

The Silent State is published in April. Preorder it here.

‘Anyone with a vote worth stealing should read this. You won’t know whether to laugh or rise up and overthrow absolutely everything’ - Charlie Brooker

‘She’s a total ninja’ - Ben Goldacre

‘Heather Brooke puts every other British journalist to shame. She has changed British public culture and earned an essential place in our national history. She is an extraordinary figure who must be celebrated’ - Peter Oborne

‘Secrecy is one of the great British diseases. It’s so secret that we don’t even admit we suffer from it. Heather Brooke is part of the cure - challenging the routine concealment and distortion of important information. There should be more journalists doing the same’ - Nick Davies

Pocket Notebook is published today, and to mark the release I have five copies of the book for YOU to win.

Pocket Notebook is the debut novel from serving police officer Mike Thomas. An angry black comedy, it follows PC Jacob Smith, tactical firearms officer, steroid abuser and gun obsessive, and his very public breakdown and subsequent fall from grace, all of which he meticulously records in his police notebook.

To win a copy of the book plus a very limited edition Pocket Notebook er…notebook, you have to head on over to watch the trailer, then answer me the following question:

What kind of police officer is Jacob Smith?

Answers in the comments below please, and I’ll draw five winner out at random at 5pm. NB Only comment once - if your comment looks like it’s disappeared it hasn’t, I need to approve it on our system before it is included. Rest assured, you’ll be entered! Good luck!

The trailer for Pocket Notebook by Mike Thomas is here!

Pocket Notebook is out now. To order a copy go to rbooks, Amazon, Waterstones.com, Play, or find it at your local bookstore.

Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy

‘…it is a triumph; a dark, thrilling saga roaming from the ghettoes of LA to the boondocks of Haiti as assassins and FBI agents try to make peace with the havoc they’ve created.  Vivid as a nightmare.’ John Williams, Mail on Sunday

A World by Itself by Jonathan Clark

‘…a compelling history of the British Isles to date, tracing political, religious and material cultures from the Romans to the present day, and focusing on the most dramatic moments of the last two millennia and the enduring questions of what it means to be British.’ Scotsman Magazine

Pocket Notebook by Mike Thomas

‘Pocket Notebook is most certainly not run of the mill…Amusing, in a very black way…entertaining…There’s no doubt Mike Thomas can write very well indeed…he’s come up with a cracker of a read…Needless to say, Smith is heading for an especially bloody end. It’s who he’ll take down with him that provides the suspense, and the horror.’ Henry Sutton, Mirror

‘Arresting tale doesn’t miss a beat…Pocket Notebook might become cult reading in police circles, [but] it certainly isn’t about to become a recruit training manual.  This is an enjoyable black comedy that builds to an exciting climax.’ Tim Relf, Independent

Dona Nicanora's Hat Shop by Kristan Hawkins

‘Plenty of charm in this effervescently sweet novel - perfect for reading in the bath.’ Metro

Bad Vibes by Luke Haines

‘It’s pretty much the best-written book I’ve ever read by a musician.  He has a superb deadpan style.  You will call people and read bits over the phone’ William Leith, Evening Standard

Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed

‘Incredibly vivid’ Press Association syndicated review

 Liaquat also wrote his ‘book of a lifetime’ piece in the Independent

The Finest Type of English Womanhood by Rachel Heath

‘Brilliantly melds a factual post-war murder into a dark fictional tale’ Telegraph

Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi

‘…a balanced, lucid narrative; a rich, complex account of this crucial part of Iranian history.’ Observer

‘A powerful memoir of Nafisi’s Iranian childhood, her mother and a homeland shattered by political revolution.’ The Times

Welcome all followers new and old to Windmill - a shiny new site for a shiny new publisher. We want you to get to know what we’re all about, which is why we’re giving away five Windmill Books hampers*, each containing:

Plus:

A Windmill Books notebook, AND a set of fancy book postcards.

To win, all you have to do is tell me in the comments section below is: what pop duet featured in Mrs Ballard’s parrot vignettes? I’ll pick five winner at random in ten minutes - go go go!