Books published by Vintage Publishing

The spectre of another world war haunts journalist Walter Craig and disturbs the peace of his seaside holiday. Craig and his singularly resourceful fisherman friend alone discover the terrible truth - a potentially devastating threat to Britain's merchant ships - and alone must risk their lives against the might of the German navy.

An abridged edition of Peter Ackroyd's magisterial biography of the city of London. Prize-winning historian, novelist and broadcaster, Peter Ackroyd takes us on a journey - historical, geographical and imaginative - through the city of London.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE'A writer who has no equal in the contemporary landscape of the Spanish novel.' Roberto BolanoSamuel Riba is about to turn 60.

On his quest he will also uncover a coach with six fingers, a secret bunker below a famous stadium, a Tamil Tiger warlord, and startling truths about Sri Lanka, cricket and himself. Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Unnatural delves beneath the surface of the cultural history of 'anthropoeia' - the artificial creation of people - to explore what it tells us about our views on life, humanity, creativity and technology, and the soul.

Kusang's husband and her younger child died, but somehow Kusang and her daughter Sonam survived. In Across Many Mountains Sonam's daughter, Yangzom, born in safety in Switzerland, has written the story of her inspirational mother and grandmother's fight for survival, and their lives in exile.

' "When you touch a Lipizzaner, you're touching history," Westerman was once told. Carrying the reader across Europe, from imperial stables and stud farms to the controversial gene labs of today, Westerman asks, if animal breeders are so good at genetic engineering, why do attempts to perfect the human strain always end in tragedy?

Lancelot Brown changed the face of eighteenth-century England, designing country estates and mansions, moving hills and making flowing lakes and serpentine rivers, a magical world of green.

and Steak & Ale Pie with a Cheesy Scone Lid. Sconoisseurs Liam and Grace of All'Scone have pushed the humble scone to heady new heights with 30 unique sweet and savoury recipes that will get mouths watering and stomachs rumbling across the land!Perfect for fans of the Great British Bake Off

* How can sprinter Usain Bolt break his world record without running any faster?* Why do high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop? Barrow shows how maths can give us surprising and enlivening insights into the world of sports - essential reading for competitors, armchair enthusiasts and maths-lovers alike.

Written as an official report for MI5 in 1945, originally published with the permission of the British Government over twenty years later, The Double-Cross System details the Allied handling of enemy agents and the British infiltration of Nazi spy-rings.

'A major achievement' Ronald Blythe, author of AkenfieldA Cotswold vicarage. A former girls' boarding school in Surrey. A Jacobean house now buried in inner London. Three Houses, Many Lives tells the stories not only of the houses themselves but of the lives of the many people who lived in them.

Strands describes a year's worth of walking on the ultimate beach: inter-tidal and constantly turning up revelations: mermaid's purses, lugworms, sea potatoes, messages in bottles, buried cars, beached whales and a perfect cup from a Cunard liner.

As her hand slips from his grip, Patrick's life is shattered, forever changed... Trapped high on a high mountain face during the worst storm in living memory, a young man is forced to fight the brutal winter for his life - moments after his beloved wife is swept away forever across the ice.

Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no-one should live without it. This title tells us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken for granted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives.

Discover the classic Gothic horror novel of haunted cellars, opera, murder and unrequited love that inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running west end hit. Christine is a beautiful young singer at the Paris Opera.

A travelling salesman falls in love a robot, Jenny, a refrigerator with personality. A man plays with his model trains too much until the women in his life decide to take matters into their own hands.

the removal of one English talisman - Beckham - and the irresistible instalment of another - Rooney. Throughout, award-winning journalist Patrick Barclay has been pitch-side and spoken to all those who know Ferguson best - fellow managers, former players, colleagues and commentators.

From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been mired in violence. Yet it has had seen more than its fair share of sporting heroes - from footballer George Best, through snooker champion Alex Higgins, to boxer Barry McGuigan. But sport - like everything else in Northern Ireland - could quickly turn nasty when politics were involved.

Malignant forces and supernatural visitors haunt this selection of superbly spooky tales selected and introduced by Ruth Rendell. Sheets, pictures, carvings, a dolls house, a lonely beach, a branch tapping on a window - ordinary things take on more than a tinge of dread in the hands of the original master of suspense.

Every morning Hakan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm.

Hans Bengler, a young entomologist, leaves Sweden for the Kalahari Desert, determined to find a previously undiscovered insect to name after himself and advance his career.

Each of them will find their lives changed forever over a story which spans decades and continents, a story that shines a spectacular light on the wounds we all bear...

Literary agent Valerie Morrell receives an email from prospective author William Mendez, containing the first chapters of a promising new novel. Mendez's book tells the story of an April night. Morrell is hooked by the scandalous tale of decadence, drugs and disasters, but as the book unfolds, a parallel story emerges.

Whether he is pursuing revenge and inspiration in Morocco, expounding on his notorious sex film on a TV chat show, or writing a hit musical based on the life and work of Shakespeare, Enderby emerges triumphant.

Monty and Ada last saw one another on the frontlines of the First World War, when Monty was a nurse and Ada an ambulance driver who drove like the devil. Now, the two friends have been reunited at crumbling Bleakly Hall, where Monty has been hired to look after the grumpy, gouty guests who have come to take the Hall's curative waters.

From the first ad in 1695 from a young gentleman who 'would willingly Match himself to some Good Young Gentlewoman, that has a Fortune of GBP3000 or thereabouts' to the GSOH, WLTM and online dating of more recent years, each ad is a snapshot of its age.

On the surface Joseph Pullman seems to have left his unhappy childhood far behind: as the town undertaker and a council member, he is now a respected citizen of Henderson, Maryland. But Joe's father is in jail for the brutal murder of a young boy and despite his wife's questions, Joe can't - or won't - talk about his past.

Elsewhere an out-of-towner meets a crab at a taco stand who seems to know more than any crab has a right to know. The 'sound mirrors of Denge' reflect more than noise for one day-tripper. And on Johnston Island a man struggles to hold onto his fading memories as his house slowly fills with pollen.

From an abandoned rowing boat in Estonia full of wild flowers to a swimming pool in the Congo full of drowned insects, Adam Thorpe's new collection takes us on a wide-ranging journey through states of gain and loss, alienation and belonging.