Books published by Vintage Publishing

DS Catrin Price has been told to stay away. But sometimes you have to break to rules to find out the truth. DS Catrin Price is on administrative duty recovering from the trauma of her last case, when she receives a series of cryptic messages from an old school friend. She tracks him down to an isolated town in the wilds of the Brecon Beacons.

Through an exploration of the dynamics of war and peace in Northern Ireland, this book sets out to uncover the true significance of the principles of democracy and imperialism, in order to chart the dangers which accompany their misapplication in political conflicts which threaten the world.

Iris Murdoch called Auto da Fe "one of the few great novels of the century." Peter Kien is a reclusive Sinologist living in Germany between the wars. Canetti creates the elements in Kien, and in his personal relationships, that will lead to his destruction."

A searing and magnificent picture of Australia at the moment of its foundation, with early settlers staking out their small patch of land and terrified by the harsh and alien continent.

Caro's remarkable four-part biography of Lyndon Johnson In Means of Ascent, the Pulitzer award-wining historian carries Johnson through his service in World War II and the foundation and the myths of his long-concealed fortune.

In 1759 - the fourth year of the Seven Years War - the British defeated the French in arduous campaigns in India and the West Indies, in Germany and Canada, and also achieved absolute mastery of the seas.

Noted historians Bercuson and Herwig have uncovered much new information on the Bismarck, including a close examination of classified British and United States diplomatic files, only recently opened, revealing secret diplomatic manoeuvrings between Churchill and Roosevelt.

Set in a seaside town on the Kent coast, 'First Aid' takes place over one summer weekend. A love affair with a man without family ties is just beginning to give her life new meaning when the man inexplicably lashes out at her and cuts her face. As the novel progresses, we gradually learn what led up to the attack.

When the women in the Sparrow family reach thirteen, they develop a unique ability. In Stella's case, it is the ability to see a person's probable future. When she foresees a gruesome murder, she tells her charming, feckless father, but it is too late. The murder has already been committed.

A collection of weird and wonderful stories of beauty and horror from the writer of "The Mermaids in the Basement". Here are fabulous images of saints and sinners, bats and nightingales, pink flesh and putrefaction, treading a delicate line between the natural and the supernatural.

Having - through his political connections - got away literally with murder, Sickles rehabilitated himself by founding the Excelsior Brigade and fighting in the Civil War.

But as Rosamond's novels (Invitation to the Waltz, the notorious The Weather in the Streets) became ever more successful, Wogan started on a series of affairs, finally disappearing to the Spanish Civil War, while Rosamond embarked on a tempestuous relationship with Goronwy Rees.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREThe choir from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls is being bussed to the national finals in the big, big city. There is no time for delays - or even for winning... But after the fifth bottle of alco-pop on the bus it's clear that all is not going to plan, for anyone.

The only autobiography by the great Roland Barthes, philosopher, literary theorist and semiotician. This is the autobiography of one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.

France, India and the revolt of the American colonies all had an impact on the business of the House during the second half of the eighteenth century, as detailed in these volumes of the History of Parliament.

Every second counts. Through long slogs across country, risky raids for supplies, moments of sheer panic, and under the intense pressure to survive, an unbreakable bond between two men is forged.

'A life-changing book' Viv GroskopMarisa Meltzer was put on her first diet aged five: it was the beginning of a fraught relationship with food. Jean Nidetch was a housewife from Queens who defiantly lost 70 pounds after she was mistaken for being pregnant.

A remarkable first collection by an important new poetIn this collection, Seán Hewitt gives us poems of a rare musicality and grace. By turns searing and meditative, these are lyrics concerned with the matter of the world, its physicality, but also attuned to the proximity of each moment, each thing, to the spiritual. Here, there is sex, grief, and loss, but also a committed dedication to life, hope and renewal. Drawing on the religious, the sacred and the profane, this is a collection in which men meet in the woods, where matter is corrupted and remade. There are prayers, hymns, vespers, incantations, and longer poems which attempt to propel themselves towards the transcendent. In this book, there is always the sense of fragility allied with strength, a violence harnessed and unleashed. The collection ends with a series of elegies for the poet’s father: in the face of despair, we are met with a fierce brightness, and a reclamation of the spiritual. ‘This is when / we make God, and speak in his voice.’Paying close attention to altered states and the consolations and strangeness of the natural world, this is the first book from a major poet.

A stunning first graphic novel by a Cape/Comica/Observer graphic short story competition winner – a tale of a skirmish in the ice-cream wars that is worthy of Alan BennettIn the small seaside town of Dobbiston, Howard sells ice creams from his van, just like his father before him. But when he notices a downturn in trade, he soon realises its cause: Tony Augustus, Howard’s half-brother, whose ice-cream empire is expanding all over the North-West…Flake, Matthew Dooley’s debut graphic novel, tells of how this epic battle turns out, and how Howard – helped by the Dobbiston Mountain Rescue team – overcomes every obstacle and triumphs in the end.

Published for the first time in the UK, one of Japan's greatest modern female writers Ibuki loves widow Yasuko who is young, charming and sparkling with intelligence as well as beauty.

Published for the first time in the UK, one of Japan's greatest modern female writers In the late nineteenth century, Tomo, the faithful wife of a government official, is sent to Tokyo, where a heartbreaking task is awaiting her.

This is the story of what life becomes when stripped of all that makes it worth living - of what humans become when they lose their humanity.The Martian's Regress is a brilliant, provocative, often darkly comic work that explores what a fragile environment eventually makes of those who persist in tampering with it.

'Wealth and beggary, virtue and vice, repletion and the direst hunger, all treading on each other and crowding together'Could any writer portray London better than Charles Dickens?

LITTLE BOOKS. A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series: Murder by Arthur Conan Doyle Power by William Shakespeare Jealousy by Marcel Proust Ghosts by M.

From glittering occasions complete with an orchestra and dancing girls to a fist-fight at the end of a toddler's birthday, this is a dazzling collection of party pieces from the master of celebration. Selected from The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night and Flappers and Philosophers VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS.

Reading novels is an escape for Yan, and he yearns to become a writer after hearing about a woman who was allowed to remain in the city of Harbin after publishing her first novel. Caught between his obligations as a son and a brother, and his longing for a new life, Yan eventually joins the army.

'Well, Watson, we seem to have fallen upon evil days'Sherlock Holmes: the quintessential British hero and the world's most popular detective.

***NOW THE SUBJECT OF A MAJOR TV SERIES ***DISCOVER THE INCREDIBLE TRUE CRIME STORY OF SERIAL KILLER, CHARLES SOBHRAJ, AND THE RACE TO BRING HIM TO JUSTICECharles Sobhraj remains one of the world's great con men, and as a serial killer, the story of his life and capture endures as legend.