Nigel Flaxton enjoyed a satisfying career in education covering the second half of the 20th century, This is an account of some of his experiences from old-fashioned monastic seclusion in training college just after the Second World War to three headships of new schools, the last being an upper school of over 900 students. Written with gentle humour, often at his own expense, he also comments on the very considerable changes in education in a broad sense during that period. He includes nea...

A professor and two students stumble across a highly unusual phenomenon. At first they attempt to keep it secret whilst investigating further, but leaks occur despite the intervention of MI5. The phenomenon involves a newly discovered element, synthesized by the professor and others together with a material deposited on earth by visitors from another planet who use the earth for observation. Their society is more advanced than that of earth, though they had no anticipation of the highly un...

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING DAME MAGGIE SMITH'The first book that ever made me laugh out loud' Adam Kay'Utter genius' Daily MailIn 1974, the homeless Miss Shepherd moved her broken down van into Alan Bennett's garden. Deeply eccentric and stubborn to her bones, Miss Shepherd was not an easy tenant. And Bennett, despite inviting her in the first place, was a reluctant landlord. And yet she lived there for fifte...

**‘A giant among fictional detectives’ – The TimesThe Way Through the Woods is the tenth novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series.**Quietly, rather movingly, Strange was making his plea: 'Christ knows why, Lewis, but Morse will always put himself out for you.' As he put the phone down, Lewis knew that Strange had been right . . . in the case of the Swedish Maiden, the pair of them were in business again . . .They called her the ...

The Secret of Annexe 3 is the seventh novel in the Oxford-set detective series from Colin Dexter. As portrayed by John Thaw in ITV's Inspector Morse.Morse sought to hide his disappointment. So many people in the Haworth Hotel that fateful evening had been wearing some sort of disguise – a change of dress, a change of make-up, a change of partner, a change of attitude, a change of life almost; and the man who had died had been the most...

He thought he knew himself, his strength, weaknesses and limitations.A frightening encounter with two muggers, however, changed everything.He had knowledge which he had no conscious memory of learning.He had faculties which he had never known he possessed.He had memories beyond those of normal life. A life in which he had a different name.He could not remember everything but he knew some dreadful alien creatures were hunting him. With his wakening me...

The death of a young artist leaves Gently desperately piecing together the portrait of a murderer.When artist Shirley Johnson is murdered and her body dumped outside a provincial police headquarters, Gently is despatched from London to Northshire to take over the investigation. The prime suspect appears to be the woman's husband, a former bomber pilot with a guilty secret, but the other members of the woman's art group also have strong views about her and her controversial final pa...

Grey Area, like all of Will Self's fiction, is funny, bizarre and disturbing. From a London where every waiter is an aspiring writer to a supply teacher killed by the colossal philistinism of his pupils, this is a truly inimitable showcase of short stories.

Thrust into the seedy underworld of hack reporters and Soho drinking dens, young Richard Hermes is skidding down a cocaine slope of self-destruction in pursuit of the impossibly beautiful socialite-cum-columnist Ursula Bentley. But between Richard and his object of desire stands his omnipresent nemesis, the lubricious Bell, doyen of late night radio shows, provider of drugs and gossip, and ringmaster of the Sealink Club.Erudite and witty as ever, this hilarious novella is vintage S...

The remarkable true story, as seen in the brilliant TV adaptation now showing on Netflix!Murder on the Home Front follows Molly Lefebure as she navigates working for the Home Office's chief forensic pathologist while living in a bomb-stricken London during the second world war.One ordinary day in 1941, forensic pathologist Dr Keith Simpson asks a keen young journalist to be his secretary. Although the 'horrors of secretarial work' ...

This is the gripping story of the collision between two vastly different human civilisations. One is Earth in the early 21st century, rushing toward self-inflicted nuclear doom. The other is the distant world of Mollan, whose inhabitants have achieved great longevity and the power to transport themselves instantly from star to star.Bob Shaw's novel unfolds a tale which spans thousands of years and the reaches of interstellar space. On Earth's side, there is Denny Hargate, whose ind...

A Chronicles of St Mary's short story that is sure to entertain. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor.Ever wondered how it all began?It's two years since the final victory at the Battersea Barricades. The fighting might be finished, but for Dr Bairstow, just now setting up St Mary's, the struggle is only beginning.How will he assemble his team?From wh...