Books in the Macmillan Collector's Library series

A delightful companion for all those with a love of gardens and of the very best garden writing.

This delightful anthology of Cat Stories is the perfect gift for cat lovers everywhere.

An intoxicating collection of classic poetry all about celebrating with friends, savouring good wine and much more.

A beautiful collection of classic poetry to calm, console and uplift.

A gorgeous collection of classic poetry all about the sea and the rivers and lakes that feed them. Introduced by author Adam Nicolson.

A Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories is a delightful collection of eighteen of the best of Eva Ibbotson's short stories. They range from nineteenth-century Vienna to the north of England at the end of the last century, from pre-revolutionary Russia to the devastated Brazilian Amazon. Each setting is magically recreated and peopled with the remarkable, memorable characters that are Ibbotson's trademark.In 'A Glove Shop in Vienna', the title story, Great-Uncle Max is torn between his grand and secret passion for Susie, the enchanting glove shop assistant, and the devotion of his large, opera singer wife. Here is Miss Bennett, drama mistress at the fading Markham Street Primary School, whose search for a baby Jesus for the nativity play yields unexpected and miraculous results. Nina, the beautiful chanteuse, never fails to wear a white rose for Paul, the lover who years ago disappeared to allow her success. Kira, a dancer in Russia's Imperial Ballet school, is thrown out onto the streets of St. Petersburg, and found by Edwin, a lonely dreamer. These and many more are the characters whose experience, bittersweet and incurably romantic, is the foundation for Ibbotson's vivid and unforgettable stories.

An Amazon adventure set in the wilderness of Brazil, Journey to the River Sea is filled with mystery and memorable characters.It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at thirteen, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey. Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson's highly colourful, joyous adventure.Winner of the Smarties Gold Medal.Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award.

A beautiful gift edition of Jerome K Jerome's classic comic novel with illustrations by A. Frederics and an afterword by David Stuart Davies.

A selection of stories from your favourite classic authors that will make you smile, relax and fall gently to sleep.

A gorgeous edition of Nella Larsen's powerful classic novel on female racial identity with an introduction by Christa Holm Vogelius.

Mordant, challenging and inventive, Katherine Mansfield is one of the twentieth century's most accomplished short-story writers. Selected and introduced by Professor Meg Jensen.

A beautiful and sustaining volume of poetry which offers inspiration for funeral readings.

An enchanting collection of poetry and a wonderful gift for new parents.

The first autobiography written by a British black woman.

Taking its title from the strangely frozen picture by the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico, The Enigma of Arrival tells the story of a young Indian from the Caribbean arriving in post-imperial England and consciously, over many years, finding himself as a writer. It is the story of a journey, from one place to another, from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England, and from one state of mind to another, and is perhaps V. S. Naipaul's most autobiographical work. Yet alongside this he weaves a rich and complex web of invention and observation. Finding depth and pathos in the smallest moments - the death of a cottager, the firing of an estate's gardener - Naipaul also comprehends the bigger picture - watching as the old world is lost to the gradual but permanent changes wrought on the English landscape by the march of 'progress'. 'Written with the expected beauty of style . . . Instead of diminishing life, Naipaul ennobles it' Anthony Burgess, Observer

An angry account of working-class life in the 1930s and a call to embrace social equality. With an introduction by Amelia Gentleman.

A celebration in stories of some of the most influential and groundbreaking women writers in the English language.

A sparkling collection of Christmas stories from our most loved authors, introduced by Ned Halley and featuring illustrations by Alice Ercle Hunt.

H. G. Wells' classic science-fiction novel about a man who's turned himself invisible.

An exciting collection of short stories showcasing the very best of classic science-fiction writing.

Elizabeth von Arnim's much-loved novel about four women sharing a castle in the Italian Riviera.

The central novel from V.S. Naipaul's Booker Prize-winning narrative of displacement, published for the first time in a stand-alone edition.'In a Free State was conceived in 1969 as a sequence about displacement. There was to be a central novel, set in Africa, with shorter surrounding matter from other places. The shorter pieces from these varied places were intended to throw a universal light on the African material. But then, as the years passed and the world changed, and I felt myself less of an oddity as a writer, I grew to feel that the central novel was muffled and diminished by the surrounding material and I began to think that the novel should be published on its own. This is what, many years after its first publication, my publisher is doing in this edition.' - V. S. Naipaul. In a Free State is set in Africa, in a place like Uganda or Rwanda, and its two main characters are English. They had once found liberation in Africa. But now Africa is going sour on them. The land is no longer safe, and at a time of tribal conflict they have to make a long drive to the safety of their compound. At the end of this drive - the narrative tight, wonderfully constructed, the formal and precise language always instilled with violence and rage - we know everything about the English characters, the African country, and the Idi Amin-like future awaiting it.

The second book in Lucy Maud Montgomery's much loved Anne of Green Gables series.

Lesson number one: When taking a cow's temperature the old-fashioned way, never let go of the thermometer . . . Now firmly ensconced in the sleepy Yorkshire village of Darrowby, recently qualified vet James Herriot has acclimatized to life with his unpredictable colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon. But veterinary practice in the 1930s was never going to be easy, and there are challenges on the horizon, from persuading his clients to let him use his 'modern' equipment, to becoming an uncle (to a pig called Nugent). Throw in his first encounters with Helen, the beautiful daughter of a local farmer, and this year looks to be as eventful as the last... From the author whose books inspired the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet is the second volume of James Herriot's classic memoirs; a book for all those who find laughter and joy in animals, and who know and understand the magic and beauty of Britain's wild places.

'I grew up reading James Herriot's book and I'm delighted that thirty years on they are still every bit as charming, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny as they were then.' Kate Humble Fresh out of Veterinary College, and shoulder-deep in an uncooperative cow, James Herriot's first job is not panning out exactly as expected . . . To a Glaswegian like James, 1930s Yorkshire appears to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But even life in the sleepy village of Darrowby has its challenges. On the one hand there are his new colleagues, Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, two brothers who attract a constant stream of local girls to whom James is strangely invisible. On the other he must contend with herds of semi-feral cattle, gruff farmers with incomprehensible accents and an overweight Pekingese called Tricki Woo . . . Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, If Only They Could Talk is a book for all those who find laughter and joy in animals, and who know and understand the magic and beauty of Britain's wild places.

The most famous memoir of its kind and a key text in the anti-slavery movement, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass tells the striking and emotionally charged story of one man's journey from slavery to freedom. Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Dr Lydia Plath.Born into a life of slavery in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass spent his youth passed from master to master, from city to field, and subjected to unimaginable cruelty. Along this journey he sought knowledge, he learned to read and write, and he discovered that education was his key to salvation. Using everything he learned and fuelled by all he was forced to endure, Douglass managed to escape and then, eventually, to free himself from slavery. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a startlingly honest account of his struggle, played a fundamental role in the abolition of slavery, a movement that Douglass dedicated his life to.

Three of George Bernard Shaw's most famous plays with a preface by Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench.

Bound in gorgeous blue cloth, Wedding Readings and Poems is full of wonderful poems and prose to read at wedding ceremonies and it is a beautiful little gift for engaged couples, bridesmaids and wedding guests.

An entertaining and wide-ranging collection of stories about man's best friend.

The moving story of a little dog with a huge heart and of the unbreakable bond between an animal and his owner.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by Mary Paulson-Ellis.When Auld Jock, a shepherd, loses his job, he moves to Edinburgh in search of work. But the city isn't kind to him and he falls into a life of poverty. Lonely, old and ill, his only companion is a plucky little Skye terrier named Bobby, who belonged to the farmer that dismissed Jock. When the farmer tries to take the dog back, Bobby escapes and finds his way back to town. From that day on, he stays devoted to Auld Jock, even guarding the old man's grave in Greyfriars kirkyard for many years. Inspired by true events, Eleanor Atkinson's Greyfriars Bobby is the deeply touching story of an inseparable bond and a wonderful evocation of Edinburgh in the late nineteenth century.