Dominic Pattison's life is one of level contentment: his marriage has proved happy and durable; his business, too, is successful.And then Sam Williams, a builder and ex-squaddie, enters his life. Sam claims to be his son.Yet is Sam who he says he is? After almost thirty years, Dominic can remember little of the affair with Sam's mother. His instinct is to recoil from this aggressive and volatile stranger, who could, with just a few words, take his life apart. But Sam refuses to be ...

The small Tuscan town of Castelluccio is preparing for its annual festival, a spectacular pageant in which a leading role will be taken by the self-exiled English painter Gideon Westfall. A man proudly out of step with modernity, Westfall is regarded by some as a maestro, but in Castelluccio - as in the wider art world - he has his enemies, and his niece - just arrived from England - is no great admirer either. At the same time a local girl is missing, a disappearance that seems to implica...

Emaciated and barely recognizable, Ivo has died in hospital. Neither his mother nor his oldest friend, Nicholas, can fathom the malnourished state he was admitted in. In the house Ivo shared with a shifting group of men and women in need – people to whom he offered unconditional refuge – there are expressions of gratitude and professions of love, but no adequate explanation. His self-denial, they insist, was deliberate.In the aftermath of Ivo's death, Nicholas carefully reconstruct...

A woman named Naomi arrives at her sister's house, intending, it seems, to say goodbye. She is abandoning her city life for a remote Scottish retreat, which she will share with a man called Bernát, whom she considers some kind of visionary. In a sequence of stories filtered through multiple re-tellings, she illuminates the character of this elusive individual. One story seems of special significance: about Afonso, an Amazon boatman, who could be the last speaker of his mother tongue, a lan...

In the small hours of January 1st, a man begins to write, having watched Le Grand Concert de la Nuit, a film in which a former lover - Imogen - plays a major role. For the next year, he writes something every day.His journal is a ritual of commemoration and an investigation of the character of Imogen and her relationships - with himself; with her family and friends; with other lovers.Imogen is an elusive subject, and The Great Concert of the Night is an in...

Originally the small plots where rural British workers grew the vegetables, herbs and flowers they needed, cottage gardens were romanticised and reimagined by nostalgic Victorian gardeners into a bucolic idyll.The style has endured ever since: drifts of colourful perennials mingle with fragrant roses, boisterous self-seeders teeter on the brink of chaos, fruit and vegetables scramble through rustic supports. Small in scale, wildlife friendly, natural and organic, 'old-fashioned' co...

'Sarah's celebration of healthy eating is all about pleasure and enjoyment. Her love of good food is informed by her background as a doctor and now rooted in an on-going passion for growing and cooking with fruit and vegetables' Yotam OttolenghiSarah Raven is not only an inspirational cook, but she was also once a doctor. Here she brings together her unique talents to offer a magnificent canon of recipes, sharing her medical knowledge to explain exactly ho...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Stunning pictures and packed full of really good advice and inspiration' – Monty Don'Such a feast for the eyes and GREAT inspiration!' – Jo Whiley---------------Pots are everywhere in Sarah Raven's garden at Perch Hill. Every corner comes to life with their colour and vibrancy.A Year Full of Pots overbrims with year-round inspiration, plan...

Welcome to Europe as you've never known it before, seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects. Combining linguistics and cultural history, Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing tour of the continent, from Proto-Indo-European (the common ancestor of most European languages) to the rise and rise of English, via the complexities of Welsh plurals and Czech pronunciation. Along the way we learn why Esperanto will never catch on, how the language of William the Conqueror live...

Over the last 20 years, Examination Notes in Psychiatry has become one of the leading texts for trainee psychiatrists. The 4th edition maintains the core of valuable information that is required by any would-be psychiatrist, but has been completely revised and updated. Assessment and diagnosis form the foundation to each section, but are now enhanc

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025.On losing her father, Teresa returns to a small town on the Greek coast – the same place she visited when grieving her mother nine years ago. She immerses herself again in the life of the town, observing the inhabitants going about their business, a quiet backdrop for her reckoning with herself. An episode from her first visit resurfaces vividly – her encounter with John, a man struggling to come to terms with ...

Daniel Brennan, approaching the premature end of his life, retreats to a room in his brother's suburban house. To divert himself and to entertain Ellen, his carer, he writes the journal that is Telescope, blurring truth, gossip and fiction in vignettes of his own life and the lives of those close to him. Above all he focuses on his siblings: mercurial Celia, whose life as a teacher in Italy seems to have run aground, and kindly Charlie, the entrepreneur of the family.Enric...