An enchanting, Dickensian tale of desire, magic and the Victorian theatre, perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, The Night Circus and Water for Elephants—from the beloved and bestselling author of The Kashmir ShawlLondon, 1885—a challenging place for a young, beautiful woman of limited means. But Eliza is modern before her time. She longs for more than the stifling, if respectable, conventionality of marriage, children, domestic drudgery. Thr...

A captivating tour de force of love, magic and the theatre, perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, The Night Circus and Water for ElephantsThe dazzling sequel to The Illusionists, from the beloved and bestselling author of The Kashmir ShawlThe year is 1910: Eliza's life has been utterly transformed since she dove head-first into the bohemian world of the Palmyra Theatre, becoming first a stage player and, sinc...

For fans of The Tea-Planter’s Wife and Victoria Hislop comes a gripping story of doomed love and secrets in 1940s Kashmir.Within one exotic land lie the secrets of a lifetime…In 1938, young bride Nerys Watkins accompanies her missionary husband on a posting to India. Up in Srinagar, the British live on beautiful wooden houseboats and dance and gossip as if there is no war. But when the men are sent away to fight Nerys is caught up ...

A captivating tour de force of love, magic and the theatre, perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, The Night Circus and Water for ElephantsThe dazzling sequel to The Illusionists, from the beloved and bestselling author of The Kashmir ShawlThe year is 1910: Eliza's life has been utterly transformed since she dove head-first into the bohemian world of the Palmyra Theatre, becoming first a stage player and, sinc...

From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel of a group of friends. They were wild in the 60s; but now they face turning sixty themselves.Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting.To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink...

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BLACK NARCISSUS AND THE RIVER'A haunting tale . . . the whole book burns with the beauty and poetry' EVENING STANDARD'Powerful adult themes underlie the novel's glimmering surface' ROSIE THOMAS, GUARDIAN'One of our best and most captivating novelists' PHILIP HENSHERSophie Barrington Ward, without a husband, with two children an...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR ROSIE THOMASBy the author of Black Narcissus and The River'One of our best and most captivating novelists' Philip Hensher'[Godden has] a genius for storytelling' Evening StandardBreakfast with the Nikolides was always to be the last hour of her childhoodFor Emily Pool, India is a magical place where she ha...

Through an exploration of subjects such as Gandhi impersonators, performance artists, and ritual participants, Mimetic Desires makes an intervention toward understanding the phenomenon of impersonation and guising in South Asia and the world. This volume defines impersonation as the temporary assumption of an identity or guise in social and aesthetic performance that is perceived as not one’s own, and guising as sartorial and kinetic play more generally. Interrog...

Traces the development of Indian cinema from the 1920s to the mid-1990s, before "Bollywood" erupted onto the world stage.Bombay before Bollywood offers a fresh, alternative look at the history of Indian cinema. Avoiding the conventional focus on India's social and mythological films, Rosie Thomas examines the subaltern genres of the "magic and fighting films"-the fantasy, costume, and stunt films popular in the decades before and immediately after independ...

By the author of Black Narcissus and The River'A masterpiece of construction and utterly realistically convincing' JACQUELINE WILSON'Godden's rich understanding of human nature, her humor and her beautiful prose inevitably leave one aglow' CHICAGO TRIBUNE'Godden here tries her deft writing hand at landscaping a child's heart' TIME***Someone has been digging up the private garden in the Square. Miss A...

Rumer Godden's The Diddakoi won the 1972 Whitbread Children's Book Award.Everyone in Kizzy's town hates her because she's half-gypsy – a diddakoi. But Kizzy doesn't care. All she needs is Gran and her horse, Joe. But when Gran dies and their wagon burns down, Kizzy is all alone. No one wants to look after her and her beloved Joe might get sent to the knacker's yard. Can Kizzy survive in a hostile world – and save Joe?

FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHORLose yourself in the sun-drenched hills of the Amalfi coast with bestselling author of Songs of Love and War, Santa Montefiore...Gianluca has to admit his life is empty so, in search of serenity and a deeper purpose to his existence, he flees to Italy, to the magical Palazzo Montelimone, lovingly restored by his parents, to assess his future.But life on the sun-drenched Amalfi coast is ...