SINCE its first appearance in three volumes (1938–40) Kilvert’s Diary has become established as a minor classic. Its recognized place among the very best of English diaries has been gained by special qualities. It is the work of a man with a watchful eye and a clear style: Kilvert has the uncommon gift of making one see vividly what he describes. His detailed picture of life in the English countryside in mid-Victorian times is unmatched, and every sentence he writes helps to build up a sel...

First published in May 1925, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is a masterpiece of modern literature, a personal and probing account of a single day in the life of a London society woman, written by Virginia Woolf, who is recognized as one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century. Perhaps best known as the author of Mrs. Dalloway, she was also a prolific writer of essays, diaries, letters, and biographies. Both in style and subject matter, Woolf’s work captures the fast-changing world in which she...

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a 'T'. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather-forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks - not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and proved so popular that Jerome reunited ...

Collected Poems made publishing history when it first appeared, and has now sold more than two million copies, to an ever-growing readership. This newly expanded edition includes Betjeman's verse autobiography, Summoned by Bells. With a new Introduction by Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, Collected Poems is the definitive Betjeman companion.

Local squire Robert Haslewood is gripped by the prospect of war. Following his boyhood hero, he leaves his family and travels away from their Oxfordshire village to fight for the Parliamentarian cause.Wise Froniga, Robert's cousin, is caught between two worlds. Divided between her Puritan family at the manor house and her relatives in the Romany community, she works to heal those in need.Left behind with her brother, Robert's daughter Jenny grows up under the shadow of conf...

London Labour and the London Poor is an extraordinary work of investigative journalism, a work of literature, and a groundbreaking work of sociology. It originated in a series of articles for a London newspaper and grew into a massive record of the daily life of Victorian London's underclass. Mayhew conducted hundreds of interviews with the city's street traders, entertainers, thieves and beggars which revealed that the 'two nations' of rich and poor were much closer than many people thoug...

'I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould, and of a cold kind of face pressed against my own...' Considered by many to be the most terrifying writer in English, M. R. James was an eminent scholar who spent his entire adult life in the academic surroundings of Eton and Cambridge. His classic supernatural tales draw on the terrors of the everyday, in which documents and objects unleash terrible forces, often in closed rooms and night-time settings where imagination ...

The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature's finest poets, with superior formatting. This volume presents the complete poetical works of Edward Thomas, with beautiful illustrations, rare texts and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Thomas' life and works* Concise introduction to the life of Edward Thomas* Excellent formatting of the poems* Special chronological and alphabetical conte...

Three Houses by Angela Thirkell is a delightful and gently satirical novel set in the familiar world of Barsetshire, where the lives of its residents unfold through everyday encounters, social obligations, and quiet personal dramas. The story weaves together the lives connected to three households, each representing a different facet of English society. Through these settings, Thirkell explores relationships, generational contrasts, and the subtle tensions between tradition and change. Her...

Spooks and inexplicable things that go bump in the night have long exercised creative imaginations and provided source material for our greatest story-tellers.Included in this collection are tales from the heyday of supernatural fiction, when the great names of literature contributed to the genre as a matter of course - authors such as Collins, Conan Doyle, Dickens, Gaskell, Hardy, Hawthorne, O. Henry, James, Jerome, de Maupassant, Poe, Stevenson, Thackeray, and Wilde.You w...

'This is historical fiction with a human face'Peter Ackroyd, The Times'A vivid and erudite tour de force'Penelope Lively, Booker Prize-winning author of Moon Tiger'A skilled, ornate and convincing examination of a nineteenth-century scandal in Bragg's own Cumbria'Thomas Keneally, Booker Prize-winning author of Schindler's ArkSet in the Lake District in the early ninete...

WRITTEN WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MARK BOSTRIDGEIn her bestselling first volume of autobiography, Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain passionately recorded the agonising years of the First World War, lamenting the destruction of a generation which for her included those she most dearly loved - her lover, her brother and her closest friends.In Testament of Friendship Brittain tells the story of the woman who helped her survive those tragic y...