Arctic explorer, survival expert and naturalist Freddy Spencer Chapman was trapped behind enemy lines when the Japanese overran Malaya in 1942. His response was to begin a commando campaign of such lethal effectiveness that the Japanese deployed an entire regiment against him, hunting for him as they did for no other. He was wounded, and racked by tropical disease. His companions were killed, or captured...

Moving, and vastly informative, a real page turner of a historical novel' FAY WELDON The first instalment in Carol McGrath's captivating The Daughters of Hastingstrilogy! This novel is a marvellous mixture of historical fact and imagination... I would heartily recommend this delightful novel. I couldn't put it down' 5* Reader review This is a beautifully crafted book which has been meticulously researched'

Cicero remarked that old age is a strange business. No one wants to miss it, he said, and everyone complains about it when they get there. Not I, though. Old age comes to us all, and Enfield wittily advises on how to survive its trickier obstacles, not least the people who suggest you must ‘do something’. One of the great delights of the golden years is doing less – from giving up DIY and ambition to not inviting people...

The perfect gift for all ages, Pinocchio as you’ve never seen him before: telling his own story through the master storyteller and award-winning author of WAR HORSE. “Now – there’s no point in pretending here – I was, and still am deep down, a puppet. Everyone knows Pinocchio is a puppet. I reckon I must be just about the most famous puppet the world has ever known. But the truth is I’m not just a puppet, I’m more...

Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author John M. Barry has penned numerous works on a variety of historical subjects. Here Barry explores the development of the fundamental ideas of church and state through the story of Roger Williams. The first to link religious freedom to individual liberty, Williams helped shape the balance of religion and politics seen in America today.

When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be--until they find a love letter he wrote many years before, to a Burmese woman they never heard of.

The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shares losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway has sold a million copies round the world since 1987, and is still one of the top ten bestsellers in the category of personal development. In her new, major work, Susan Jeffers takes the approach and practical strategies that made her first book such a success and applies them to the subject that is closest to all our hearts: Love. The author explains that, although most people desire...

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie. McPherson is an exemplary crime writer' Scotsman BAD LUCK? BAD TIMING? OR GOOD OLD-FASHIONED MURDER? When a circus comes to spend the winter at the neighbouring estate to Gilverton, Dandy Gilver's two sons are cock-a-hoop and they are not alone in their excitement.

The fifth gripping novel in the highly acclaimed Dave Robicheaux series. A bullet shot through the window of Weldon Sonnier's house propels Dave Robicheaux back into the lives of a family he's not sure he wants to be reacquainted with.... Weldon Sonnier's CIA-influenced past has led to dangerous connections and commitments, including debts to local mob boss Joey 'Meatballs' Gouza. As Weldon puts himself in the line...

THE FOURTH BOOK IN A GRIPPING CRIME SERIES FROM 30 MILLION COPY SELLING AUTHOR. YOU CAN'T OUTRUN THE PAST ... Eve Renner has struggled to remember the night of her brush with death. She remembers the anxious phone call, the friend lying in a pool of blood and her lover Cole Dennis's face and then the gunshot plunged her into darkness. When she comes to New Orleans her memories start...

It was the British victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 that inspired one of Winston Churchill's most famous aphorisms: 'This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning'. And yet the significance of this episode remains unrecognised. In this thrilling historical account, Jonathan Dimbleby describes the political and strategic realities that lay behind the...

Heralded by an instantly memorable signature tune, the adventures of special agent Dick Barton and his friends, Jock and Snowey, originally ran on the BBC Light Programme between 1946 and 1951. Set in an exciting world of criminal masterminds, espionage and adventure, the series was essential listening for an entire generation. Sadly very few...

On the first day of Royal Ascot, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favorites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker – taking over the family business from his grandfather – so he knows not to expect any sympathy from the punters as they count their winnings, and him his losses. He’s seen the ups and downs before – but, as the big...

Analyzes power abuses by the American government, wealthy corporations, and high-profile celebrities, in an account that addresses topics ranging from sub-prime mortgages and the secret purchases of Dubai to corporate salaries and the 2008 election.

It is the summer of 1899 and fifteen-year-old Olympia Biddeford is spending the summer with her parents at their seasonal house at Fortune's Rocks. When the celebrated essayist John Haskell is invited to stay, Olympia is immediately captivated by his charm and mystery. Despite being a married man of forty, Haskell seduces Olympia and they embark on a whirlwind affair. But when their secret is revealed, Olympia...

East Yorkshire: Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement, she invites him in to her home. Surrey: Twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night, she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one.

Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Invisible opens in New York City in the spring of 1967 when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot.

Sell the cemetery? Over their dead bodies... Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And he's got bad news for them: the council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learnt a thing or two from Johnny. They're not going to take it lying down . . .especially since it's Halloween tomorrow. Besides, they're beginning to find that life is a lot more...

Scheming social climber Alexa may be humbly born. But only a title, mansion and family tiara will do. Befriending feckless aristo Florrie (three surnames plus black hole where her brain should be) means the grandest doors swing open and the prince of her dreams is in sight. But has Florrie’s mother, the formidable Lady Annabel, rumbled what Alexa is up to? Beautiful but penniless student Polly, meanwhile, is in love.

Set in contemporary, recession gripped Britain, a left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers...

Held captive by a killer, will a young girl escape his clutches? Scream for Me is the terrifying second instalment in the Philadelphia/Atlanta series, by bestselling author Karen Rose. You are trapped. Now...scream for me. Special Agent Daniel Vartanian has made a horrific discovery - photographs, taken years ago by his brother Simon, sh

It is snowing, she's barefoot, but Galya runs. Tricked into coming to Belfast with the offer of a good job, all she wants now is to go home. Her only hope is a man who gave her a cross on a fine chain and a phone number, telling her to call if she escapes. Now she puts herself at his mercy, knowing she has nowhere else to turn.

A young woman walks into the frozen fjords of Iceland, never to be seen again. But Matthildur leaves in her wake rumours of lies, betrayal and revenge. Decades later, somewhere in the same wilderness, Detective Erlendur is on the hunt. He is looking for Matthildur but also for a long-lost brother, whose disappearance in a snow-storm when they were children has coloured his entire life. He is looking for answers.

Swedish crime sensation and No. 1 international bestseller, Camilla Lackberg’s new psychological thriller - for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo Christian Thydell’s dream has come true: his debut novel, The Mermaid, is published to rave reviews. So why is he as distant and unhappy as ever? When crime writer Erica Falck discovers that Christian has been receiving anonymous threats, she investigates not just...

After severing all ties, can she ever reunite with those she left behind? The Flower Girls is a heart-breaking saga of destructive ambition and the power of family ties, from much-loved author Dee Williams. Perfect for fans of Lindsey Hutchinson and Cathy Sharp. Identical twins Lily and Rose Flowers aren't from a rich family, but they lead a comfortable life in 1920s Rotherhithe with their mum and dad. The twins are the...

In a world uncomfortably like our own, a young woman called Alamantis is arrested for asking a question. Her question is this: Who is the Prisoner? When Alamantis disappears, her lover Karnak goes looking for her. He searches desperately at first, then with a growing realization. To find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question. Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of lies...

To avoid disappointment, please note this book is now published under the title THE STRANGER. Swedish crime sensation and No. 1 international bestseller, Camilla Lackberg’s fourth psychological thriller - for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo A woman is found dead, apparently the victim of a tragic car crash. It’s the first in a spate of seemingly inexplicable accidents in Tanumshede and marks the end of a quiet winter...

The quatercentenary of John Milton (1608-1674) is celebrated next year. This selection of his finest poetry includes sections from Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, the masque Comus, as well as sonnets and other poems.

Internationally renowned, award-winning theoretical physicist, New York Times bestselling author of A Universe from Nothing, and passionate advocate for reason, Lawrence Krauss tells the dramatic story of the discovery of the hidden world of reality—a grand poetic vision of nature—and how we find our place within it. In the beginning there was light. But more than this, there was gravity. After that, all hell broke loose…

Perhaps the greatest poem of the Western world, The Iliad tells the story of fifty critical days towards the end of the Trojan war. Achilles has quarrelled with Agamemnon and sulks in his tent, while Hector brings his Trojans to the brink of victory; but fate will have the last word.

A flawless collection of short stories that Christie herself referred to as ‘light-hearted thrillers’. Twelve ingenious, witty mysteries showing the author at her best, including: the curious disappearance of Lord Listerdale, the strange meeting on a train of a feckless man and a beautiful girl ...

Machiavellian adj. elaborately cunning; scheming, unscrupulous. Machiavellianism n. (N. dei Machiavello, Florentine statesman and political writer d. 1527, who advocated resort to morally questionable methods in the interests of the State). How remarkable that an Italian living in the 15th and 16th centuries should lend his name to a word still in common usage in the English language today. The Prince has remained...

The Professor of Truth is James Robertson's acclaimed novel about grief, truth and justice. Twenty-one years after his wife and daughter were murdered in the bombing of a plane over Scotland, Alan Tealing, a university lecturer, still doubts the official version of events surrounding that terrible night. Obsessed by the details of what he has come to call The Case, he is sure that the man convicted of the atrocity was...

Kit doesn't know who his mother is. What he does know, however, is that his father, Guy, is dying of cancer. Feeling his death is imminent, Guy gathers around him his oldest friends - or at least the friends with the most to lose by his death. Paul - the rising star in the Labour party who dreads the day a tape they all made at university might come to light; Alison and Robbie, corporate bunnies whose relationship is daily...

A great many writers use their own lives as the raw material for their work but few have done it with the wit and courage of Simon Gray. Like his previous best-seller, The Smoking Diaries, The Year of the Jouncer has the rare ability to make you laugh aloud one moment and ponder the sad mysteries of mortality the next, and sometimes to do both at the same time.

Anita Harris, Kenneth Connor, Frank Thornton, Bernie Winters and Michael Robbins star in this traditional pantomime, recorded in front of a live audience and first broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Christmas Day 1982. Featuring rousing songs and terrible jokes, it's perfect seasonal entertainment for all the family. Oh, yes it is.

Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.

When a woman's body is found in a North London flat clutching a bloodstained sliver of X-ray, DI Thorne discovers that the victim's mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by the infamous serial killer Raymond Garvey. When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered, a horrifying picture emerges: a killer is targeting the children of Garvey's victims...

Luke Mullen, son of a former police officer, has disappeared, and DI Tom Thorne is brought in to assist the search. A list quickly emerges of anyone who may have a grudge against Luke's father, but Thorne discovers that ex-DCI Tony Mullen has omitted the name of a man who is now the main suspect in an unsolved murder. Is this a simple oversight, or something more telling?

An entrancing coming of age tale, Cherry Ice captures the end of an era characterised by its elegance and style.

It's the story of Ella, a young girl who travels across the Atlantic in the Queen Mary, the largest, most beautiful ship in the world, during the summer of 1964. Ella is on her way to New York to see the father she barely remembers. She's left behind her beloved mother in London. All three experience a sea change in the four days of Ella's crossing - whether it be love, discovery or plain old sea-sickness ...

The second novel in the new, gripping supernatural thriller series from international best-selling author Jodi Taylor. From the frying pan into the fire.... Betrayed, terrified and alone, Elizabeth Cage has fled her home. With no plan and no friends, she arrives at the picturesque village of Greyston and finds herself involved in an ages-old ceremony that will end in death. And that might be the least of her problems...

The first message sent to Tom Thorne's phone was just a picture - the blurred image of a man's face, but Thorne had seen enough dead bodies to know that the man was no longer alive. But who was he? Who sent the photograph? And why? While the technical experts attempt to trace the sender, Thorne searches the bulletins for a reported death that matches the photograph. Then another picture arrives.

It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a delegation of Russian businessmen is in town - and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically.

Someone - a woman, or somebody pretending to be a woman - is writing to convicted rapists in prison, befriending them and then brutally killing them when they are released. DI Tom Thorne must discover the link between these killings and a murder/suicide that took place twenty-five years before; a tragedy to which the only witnesses were two small children, now adults and nowhere to be found...

It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station, followed her home and strangled her. At the same time, killed in the same way, a second body is discovered at King's Cross station. It is a coincidence that eerily echoes the murder of two other women, stabbed to death on the same day months earlier... Could DI Tom Thorne be up against two serial killers working together?

The body of a woman has been discovered in Castle Farthing Woods, and it appears that although she had been dead for years, nobody had ever reported her missing. DI Harry Falconer of the Market Darley police is perplexed - and not only in his working life. He has recently resumed his relationship with psychologist Dr Honey Dubois - but while visiting a local village in the course of his investigations, unsettling memories...

Jessica Clarke had been set alight 20 years ago. Her attacker, quickly tracked down and eager to confess, is still in jail, his career as a hitman for North London gangs now well behind him. So who is harassing Carol Chamberlain, the arresting officer, and claiming that he is one who burned the girl? Now retired, Carol turns to DI Tom Thorne for help. Thorne is up to his neck investigating a series of killings which appear to...

I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back. So begins Robyn Davidson's perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company. Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and...

It's the night before Hogswatch. There's snow, there are robins, there are trees covered with decorations, but there's a notable lack of the fat man who delivers toys... He's gone.