get a free book from sceptre and

We would like to introduce you to some of the best contemporary fiction - completely free.

Sceptre are our partners in this exciting literary offer and have arranged for Independent readers to receive a free copy of one of their titles, which normally sell for £5.99.

Sceptre publishes many of the most imaginative, thought-provoking and entertaining authors who are writing today, including Emma Tennant, DM Thomas, Melvyn Bragg, Rose Tremain, Thomas Keneally, Ariel Dorfman and William Riviere.

To obtain your free novel, just collect five differently numbered tokens that will be published this week in The Independent. You can exchange them for one of the ten titles in the Sceptre Independent selection.

Due to financial difficulties Dillons are experiencing, you can no longer claim your free book from any Dillons store. Instead you can now write off to the following address to apply for you free Sceptre title: The Independent/Sceptre Book Offer, PCS Computing Ltd, Freepost (SL 1296), Slough SL1 6BS. You must apply before March 20, (when the offer closes) and please could you state your first and second choice of title.

To introduce new readers to some of its exciting new authors Sceptre has produced a free volume containing extracts from 12 of its titles. The anthology, which is available at good bookshops, also contains vouchers worth £12 redeemable against any Sceptre hardback or paperback title.

When you have collected your five tokens from The Independent the titles they can be exchanged for are:

The Life Game by Nigel Watts

A Time To Dance by Melvyn Bragg

Pemberley by Emma Tennant

Pictures At An Exhibition by DM Thomas

Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

The Big Man by William McIlvanney

Before And After by Rosellen Brown

The Men Who Loved Evelyn Cotton by Frank Ronan

Caesar by Allan Massie

The Blindfold by Siri Hustvedt

Token 4 was published yesterday and Token 5 is published today. You need a total of 5 tokens to qualify for the Sceptre offer. We will be printing another one tomorrow in case you may have missed any. Today you will also find a coupon for you to attach your tokens to, in case you missed the one in last Monday's paper, please read the full terms and conditions on the coupon carefully. If you are using last Monday's coupon, please make sure you include your name, address and your first and second choice of title when writing off to the address provided. For previously published tokens send an SAE to The Independent/Sceptre Token Request, PO Box 250, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 1TU. State the number(s) of the token(s) required.

Siri Hustvedt's The Blindfold is the story of Iris Vegan, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York whose vivid encounters with a series of strange and sometimes nameless characters. The Independent on Sunday said of the book : "Hustvedt's subject matter is entirely her own, revealing a profound insight into the forces which shape and distort female identity...a dark, mesmerising debut."

Allan Massie's Caesar is about how the perception of greatness can overreach itself. Through the eyes of one of his comrades, Decimus Brutus, we observe Caesar in all his guises, as the enchanter, the showman, the general whose soldiers will follow him anywhere, while their wives supply his bed. Caesar is the man of authority whose charm can be devastating but whose emotional engagement with people close to him is virtually nil. This is Allan Massie's third Roman novel after Tiberius and Augustus.