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Roger Chillingworth arrives in New England after two years' separation from his wife, Hester Prynne, to find her on trial for adultery. She refuses to reveal her lover and is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter 'A' sewn onto her clothes. Resolving to discover the man's identity, Roger sets out to destroy his rival, while Hester desperately tries to protect her illegitimate daughter from a society determined to condemn them both.A smash hit in its day, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the gripping tale of three New England settlers at odds with the seventeenth-century Puritan society in which they live, and remains one of literature's most evocative portraits of a love triangle.This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Scarlet Letter features an afterword by broadcaster Jonty Claypole.
With an introduction by the writer Toby Litt.The eponymous Albert is an architect by training but a supply teacher out of necessity. Feeling that he is failing at both, and haunted by a failed love affair, he begins to question what he wants to achieve. Using a number of original narrative techniques Johnson attempts to reproduce life (and its travails) as closely as possible through fiction, while at the same time revelling in the impossibility of such a task.A passionate advocate for the avant-garde, B S Johnson said of the acerbically comic and exuberant Albert Angelo that it was where he 'really discovered what he should be doing'. And on page 163 of this extraordinary book is one of the most surprising lines in English fiction. But you should start at the beginning.
Christie Malry is a simple man. As a young accounts clerk at a confectionery factory in London he learns the principles of Double-Entry Bookkeeping. Frustrated by the petty injustices that beset his life - particularly those caused by the behaviour of authority figures - he determines a unique way to settle his grievances: a system of moral double-entry bookkeeping. So, for every offence society commits against him, Christie exacts recompense. 'Every Debit must have its Credit, the First Golden Rule' of the system. All accounts are to be settled, and they are - in the most alarming way.Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry, the last novel to be published in B S Johnson's lifetime, is undoubtedly his funniest.
In Sherlock Holmes: The Dark Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes expert David Stuart Davies has selected the cases of the great detective that best reflect Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's deep interest in the supernatural. The first is the terrifying novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, followed by nine Gothic adventures: 'The Sussex Vampire', 'The Creeping Man', 'Shoscombe Old Place', 'The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax', 'The Veiled Lodger', 'The Devil's Foot', 'The Blanched Soldier' and 'The Cardboard Box'. All of the stories are accompanied by their original illustrations.With an introduction by the collection's editor, David Stuart Davies.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
Sherlock Holmes is back on the case in this collection of sparkling short stories, in which we learn about Holmes' early days as a sleuth, encounter a seemingly murderous widow, and meet the great detective's brother, Mycroft, for the first time. And, in 'The Final Problem', Holmes comes face-to-face with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, in a battle of wits that could kill them both.This Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies - a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and an authority on Sherlock Holmes.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
Three years after his supposed death at the Reichenbach Falls, Sherlock Holmes returns to 221B Baker Street, to the astonishment of Dr Watson and the delight of readers worldwide. From kidnapped heirs to murder by harpoon, Holmes and Watson have their work cut out for them in these brilliant later tales. This collection also includes His Last Bow, a series of recollections from an older Sherlock Holmes of further adventures from his life.In this Macmillan Collector's Library edition, Sherlock scholar David Stuart Davies provides both an illuminating afterword and a fascinating chronology of the Sherlock Holmes stories.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
All legends begin somewhere, and the two novels here are where one of the world's best-loved legends began. In A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson first meet and investigate a seemingly impossible mystery that begins with a corpse in a deserted house. In The Sign of the Four the detective faces an even greater challenge: solving both the disappearance of Captain Arthur Morstan and the theft of the Agra treasure in India.In this Macmillan Collector's Library edition, Sherlock scholar David Stuart Davies provides an illuminating afterword.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes contains Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's final twelve stories about his great fictional detective. Featuring crypts at midnight, strange bones in a furnace and a blood-sucking vampire, these tales explore the darker side of human nature and involve betrayal, violence and the terrible consequences of infidelity.This Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies - a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and an authority on Sherlock Holmes.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
Supernatural hounds, a family curse, a mysterious cipher and the return of a deadly enemy . . . Sherlock Holmes will have to utilize every skill he has to solve the two classic mysteries collected here. The Hound of the Baskervilles sees Holmes and Dr Watson travel to the misty wilds of Dartmoor to confront a devilish apparition, while in The Valley of Fear the pair investigate a gruesome murder that may be the work of the dastardly Professor Moriarty himself.In this Macmillan Collector's Library edition, Sherlock scholar David Stuart Davies provides both an illuminating afterword and a fascinating chronology of the Sherlock Holmes stories.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
Faithfully supported by his chronicler, Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes pits his wits against 'Napoleon of Crime' Professor Moriarty, assists European royalty threatened by disgrace, helps to solve the mysterious death of a young woman due to be married, and investigates intrigues that have defeated the detectives of Scotland Yard. Packed with excitement and mystery, this collection showcases the legendary sleuth at his very best.This Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies, and accompanying each tale are Sidney Paget's fantastic original illustrations from The Strand magazine.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the greatest collection of detective stories ever written. From his residence at 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes solves a series of baffling and bizarre cases, including those of a man terrified by the arrival of an envelope containing orange pips, and a woman whose fiance disappeared on his way to their wedding. Each story showcases the great detective's inimitable and extraordinary deductive powers, recounted to us by his faithful friend and colleague, Dr Watson. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies - a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and an authority on Sherlock Holmes.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
As well as being one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century and the recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is the greatest lyric poet that Ireland has produced.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 illuminating introduction by author and academic Dr Robert Mighall.Yeats' early work includes the beguiling 'When You are Old', 'The Cloths of Heaven' and 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' but, unusually for a poet, Yeats's later works, including 'Parnell's Funeral', surpass even those of his youth. All are present in this volume, which reproduces the 1933 edition of W. B. Yeats's Collected Poems.
In The Spiritual Child, psychologist Lisa Miller presents the next big idea in psychology: the science and the power of spirituality. She explains the clear, scientific link between spirituality and health and shows that children who have a positive, active relationship to spirituality: * are 40% less likely to use and abuse substances * are 60% less likely to be depressed as teenagers * are 80% less likely to have dangerous or unprotected sex * have significantly more positive markers for thriving including an increased sense of meaning and purpose, and high levels of academic success. Combining cutting-edge research with broad anecdotal evidence from her work as a clinical psychologist to illustrate just how invaluable spirituality is to a child's mental and physical health, Miller translates these findings into practical advice for parents, giving them concrete ways to develop and encourage their children's--as well as their own--well-being. In this provocative, conversation-starting book, Dr. Miller presents us with a pioneering new way to think about parenting our modern youth.
The Appetite Solution is weight loss expert Dr Joseph J. Colella's aggressive six-week, three-phase plan to help you jam 'false' hunger signals, diminish cravings and achieve your goal weight - breaking free of the carbohydrate addiction that packed on those difficult-to-shed pounds.Dr Colella examines the reasons why we feel so hungry and dismisses the diet myths that have recently been endorsed. He reveals how the 'sugar free' juice and alkaline diets that supposedly promote weight loss are actually loaded with hidden simple sugars that create cravings and lead to over eating. Instead, Colella proves to readers that the key to permanent weight loss is eating complex sugars and the right amount of protein. He introduces a simple and practical three-stage plan that increases satiety and curbs your carbohydrate intake, resulting in sustained weight loss:Phase One: Up the protein Phase Two: Lower simple sugars and begin moderate resistance exercise Phase Three: Shed the fat The Appetite Solution will launch you on a journey that is forever free from an excessive appetite, creating a healthy metabolism and bringing your weight under control permanently.
Frank Derrick is eighty-two. And apparently that makes him old. But he just doesn't feel old. Sure, his limbs ache, he can't sleep more than a few hours a night and it takes him a while to get going in the morning. But he's still Frank. A dad, a granddad, a friend to Bill the cat.So when he receives a phone call from Los Angeles with news that his grown-up daughter's life is falling apart, his natural instinct is to drop everything to be with her. Unfortunately for Frank, that means using his life savings and putting himself in danger of losing his home. But then, Frank's never been one for long-term plans. He can sort out where he and Bill the cat will live when he's back. And so Frank gets on a plane for the first time in his life. He was never much good at helping his daughter through crises when she was growing up. He left all that to his wife Sheila, who died nearly ten years ago. Now it's time to step up to his role of father to Beth. Joining forces with his determined granddaughter Laura, they begin The Reunion Project in an attempt to bring some happiness back into Beth's life and to bring the family back together again for one happy family holiday. Filled with moments of great sadness, joy and humour Frank Derrick's Holiday of A Lifetime reminds us all to make the most of every day and to appreciate those closest to us.
Frank Derrick is eighty-one. And he's just been run over by a milk float. It was tough enough to fill the hours of the day when he was active. But now he's broken his arm and fractured his foot, it looks set to be a very long few weeks ahead. Frank lives with his cat Bill (which made more sense before Ben died) in the typically British town of Fullwind-on-Sea. He watches DVDs, spends his money frivolously at the local charity shop and desperately tries to avoid cold callers continually knocking on his door. Then a breath of fresh air comes into his life in the form of Kelly Christmas, home help. With her little blue car and appalling parking, her cheerful resilience and ability to laugh at his jokes, Kelly changes Frank's extra ordinary life. She reminds him that there is a world beyond the four walls of his flat and that adventures, however small, come to people of all ages. Frank and Kelly's story is sad and funny, moving, familiar, uplifting. It is a small and perfect look at a life neither remarkable nor disastrous, but completely extraordinary nonetheless. For fans of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick, Age 81 by J. B. Morrison is a quirky, life-affirming story that has enormous appeal. And it's guaranteed to make you laugh.
My Days is the only memoir from R.K. Narayan, one of the twentieth century's most important writers in the English language. This edition includes a foreword by John Updike.In the wryly funny style that has made him famous, R.K. Narayan shares his life story, beginning in his grandmother's garden in Madras with a ferocious pet peacock. As a young boy with no interest in school he trains grasshoppers and scouts and then, against the advice of all, especially his commanding headmaster father, the dreaming Narayan begins to write fiction. When one of his pieces is accepted by Punch magazine, what he describes as his 'first prestige publication', his life becomes gradually filled with bumbling British diplomats, strange movie moguls, evasive Indian officials and 'the blind urge' to fall in love. Like his fiction R.K. Narayan's memoirs are acutely perceptive of the human condition, often brilliantly funny and always forgiving.
There was in Sir Francis Chichester a restless spirit never satisfied with his achievements. Throughout his adventurous life this quiet Englishman has sought to challenge odds that other, younger, stronger men declared insuperable. As a pilot, as a yachtsman, as a navigator, even as a man who broke the grip of cancer, Sir Francis was always a pioneer. Where he led, others followed: but when he triumphed, he at once sought a new and greater challenge.This is a book about such a challenge. With the feasibility of long-distance voyages proven beyond doubt - not least by his own remarkable circumnavigation in 1966 - Sir Francis turned at once to the next great barrier facing the single-hander, the 'speed barrier', setting himself the staggering target of sailing 4,000 miles between two fixed points on the earth's surface in 20 days - an average of 200 miles a day whatever the wind, whatever the weather.The Romantic Challenge tells of the planning, the calculations and the sheer hard work that in January 1971 led him and Gipsy Moth V to their 'starting line' for a race which is the single-hander's '4-Minute Mile' and Marathon, combined in one gruelling, non-stop, murderous ocean race.
From time immemorial, few narrative genres have had the power to so stir the emotions or captivate the imagination as the true account of a lone adventurer's triumph over the titanic forces of nature. Among the handful of such tales to emerge in the twentieth century, one of the most enduring surely must be Sir Francis Chichester's account of his solitary, nine-month journey around the world in his 53-foot ketch Gipsy Moth IV. The story of how the sixty-five-year-old navigator singlehandedly circumnavigated the globe, the whole way battling hostile seas as well as his boat's numerous design flaws, is a tale of superhuman tenacity and endurance to be read and reread by sailors and armchair adventurers alike. First published in 1967, just months after the completion of Chichester's historic journey, Gipsy Moth Circles the World was an instant international best-seller. It inspired the first solo around-the-world race and remains a timeless testament to the spirit of adventure. Francis Chichester's 1967 singlehanded circumnavigation set a blazing record for speed. He completed the voyage with just one stop and 226 days at sea. It was an amazing performance; that he was sixty-five years old made it the more so. Chichester then sat down to write one of the great narratives of modern voyaging.
In June 1962 Francis Chichester set out from Plymouth once again to cross the Atlantic single-handed in his 13-ton yacht, Gipsy Moth III, in an attempt to beat the 40-day record he set up himself in 1960. He succeeded, and knocked nearly a week off his previous time. Chichester also made history on his voyage by keeping in daily contact with Britain by means of a small battery-operated radio-telephone which enabled The Guardian, the sponsors of the voyage, to publish daily extracts from his log. Edited by The Guardian's Yachting Editor, J. R. L. Anderson, this book, Chichester's own day-by-day narrative of that adventurous journey, threatened by gales, icebergs and fog, is the drama of one man fighting his way alone across the North Atlantic. It is one of the great stories of the sea. 'a magnificent achievement' Guardian 'hard to put down' Times Literary Supplement 'good-natured, informal and totally unpretentious book' Observer
A brave man in a small boat alone on a big sea . . .Sir Francis Chichester was a courageous explorer and gifted navigator. Six years before his epic solo voyage around the world in Gipsy Moth IV, so vividly captured in Gipsy Moth Circles the World, and at the age of 59, Chichester took part in the 1960 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in Gipsy Moth III. During the forty days the voyage took, Chichester kept a diary in which he shared his fears and moments of exhilaration. The result is both a practical tale about Gipsy Moth III's sailing victory and a day-by-day sharing of adventure by her skipper.
Orde Charles Wingate. Winston Churchill thought him a military genius; others considered him greatly over-rated; a few even thought him mad. His overriding passion was for Zionism, a cause which he embraced when posted to British-ruled Palestine in 1936. There he raised the Special Night Squads, an irregular force which decimated Arab rebel bands and taught a future generation of Israeli generals (including Moshe Dayan and Yitzhak Rabin) how to fight. In 1941, Wingate led another guerrilla-style force into Italian-occupied Ethiopia and was instrumental in restoring Emperor Haile Selassie to his throne. But his most famous campaign was conducted behind enemy lines in Burma, where his Chindits shattered the myth of Japanese invincibility in jungle fighting. A brilliant maverick, Wingate was a difficult if not impossible subordinate. He was also - as this riveting new study reveals - an inspiring leader.
A rookie female agent named Katherine Bronsky is called in by the FBI as hostage negotiator for a hijacked inter-city flight. The demand is for a child murderer to be brought to justice within eight hours. Bronsky herself becomes a hostage and has to solve the murder-mystery in time.
HE WAS THE KEEPER - Arno Holmstrand is about to die, his life cut short by an organization intent on laying claim to the secrets he has spent a lifetime guarding: the location of the lost Library of Alexandria, and the vast knowledge it has hidden for centuries. SHE WILL INHERIT HIS LEGACY - Emily Wess is about to have her life change beyond all recognition. One minute she is a professor of history, the next she is on a journey to the far corners of the world, deciphering strange clues left by her mentor, Arno Holmstrand. She is being tested, but for what? THEY WILL KILL FOR CONTROL - They are the Council and crave power and position. Their corruption spreads from the highest levels of government to the assassins they employ to commit their crimes. They will kill for the ancient knowledge contained in the Library. And Emily Wess has exactly what they want.
Listed as one of the Guardian's 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time. In September 1945 the fate of Adolf Hitler was a complete mystery. He had simply disappeared, and had been missing for four months. Hugh Trevor-Roper, an intelligence officer, was given the task of solving the mystery. His brilliant piece of detective work not only proved finally that Hitler had killed himself in Berlin, but also produced one of the most fascinating history books ever written. The Last Days of Hitler tells the extraordinary story of those last days of the Thousand Year Reich in the Berlin Bunker. Besieged in the shattered capital, but still dominating the remains of his court, Hitler reiterated the original alternative of Nazism: either total victory or annihilation. This book is the record of that carefully prepared, ceremonious finale to a terrible chapter of history.'Brilliantly written and researched, The Last Days of Hitler remains the most vivid account of the final Wagnerian chapter of Hitler's tyranny' - Max Hastings 'This is an incomparable book, by far the best written on any aspect of the second German war: a book sound in scholarship, brilliant in its presentation . . . No words of praise are too strong.' - A. J. P. Taylor, New Statesman
The Flight is the fourth thrilling installment in Matthew Hall's gripping, CWA Gold Dagger shortlisted Coroner Jenny Cooper series, from the creator of BBC One's Keeping Faith.A tragic accident or a terrible crime? When Flight 189 plunges into the Severn Estuary, Coroner Jenny Cooper finds herself handling the case of a lone sailor whose boat appears to have been sunk by the stricken plane, and drawn into the mysterious fate of a ten year-old girl, Amy Patterson, a passenger on 189, whose largely unmarked body is washed up alongside his. While a massive and highly secretive operation is launched to recover clues from the wreckage, Jenny begins to ask questions the official investigation doesn't want answered. How could such a high tech plane - virtually impregnable against human error - fail? What linked the high powered passengers who found themselves on this ill-fated flight? And how did Amy Patterson survive the crash, only to perish hours later? Under pressure from Amy's grieving mother, and opposed by those at the very highest levels of government, Jenny must race against time to seek the truth behind this terrible disaster, before it can happen again . . .The Flight is followed by the fifth book in the Coroner Jenny Cooper series, The Chosen Dead.The Jenny Cooper novels have been adapted into a hit TV series, Coroner, made for CBC and NBC Universal starring Serinda Swan and Roger Cross.
The Redeemed is the third thrilling installment in Matthew Hall's gripping, CWA Gold Dagger shortlisted Coroner Jenny Cooper series, from the creator of Keeping Faith. A mystery from the past. A deadly secret in the present. The body of a dead man is discovered in an overgrown cemetery in Bristol, the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh. At first it seems to coroner Jenny Cooper that all the evidence points to a horrific, if routine, suicide. Then an enigmatic young priest, Father Lucas Starr, arrives on Jenny's doorstep, entreating her to hold an inquest into the death of Eva Donaldson, a high profile political campaigner whose past life continued to haunt her. A young man, Paul Craven, has recently been sentenced for Eva's brutal murder. But despite Craven's conviction and the evidence against him, Father Lucas is convinced of the man's innocence. Jenny's lone quest for justice will take her to the dark heart of an establishment who wish to silence her, and on an inner journey to confront ghosts that have haunted her for a lifetime. For Jenny Cooper answers to no one but the dead . . .The Redeemed is followed by the fourth book in the Coroner Jenny Cooper series, The Flight.The Jenny Cooper novels have been adapted into a hit TV series, Coroner, made for CBC and NBC Universal starring Serinda Swan and Roger Cross.
The Disappeared is the second thrilling instalment in Matthew Hall's gripping, CWA Gold Dagger shortlisted Coroner Jenny Cooper series, from the creator of BBC One's Keeping Faith.Two missing students. One sinister cover-up. Two young British students, Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan vanish without a trace. The police tell their parents that the boys had been under surveillance, that it was likely they left the country to pursue their dangerous new ideals. Seven years later, Nazim's grief-stricken mother is still unconvinced. Jenny Cooper is her last hope. Jenny is finally beginning to settle into her role as Coroner for the Severn Valley; the ghosts of her past that threatened to topple her, banished to the sidelines once more. But as the inquest into Nazim's disappearance gets underway, the stink of corruption and conspiracy becomes clear . . . As the pressure from above increases, a code of silence is imposed on the inquest and events begin to spiral out of all control, pushing Jenny to breaking point. For how could she have known that by unravelling the mysteries of the disappeared, she would begin to unearth her own buried secrets?The Disappeared is followed by the third book in the Coroner Jenny Cooper series, The Redeemed.The Jenny Cooper novels have been adapted into a hit TV series, Coroner, made for CBC and NBC Universal starring Serinda Swan and Roger Cross.
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