What chaps really like to do in bed is to think about shooting and fishing. the pastel shades and heady fragrances of the boudoir are a far cry from their natural habitat of coverts, moors and marshes, lochs, lakes ponds and meres and, if they are honest, all a bit unnerving. There may be stuff that they get up to in bed from time to time, recreationally or otherwise which they will undertake with zeal and gusto deriving from a natural sense of inquisitiveness and a proper understanding of...

There are many excellent books to advise the novice shooter on proper gun handling, safety and accuracy. However, no manual can hope to address every problem that might arise in the shooting field or, indeed, beyond it. Being British, there are many such issues which we would never dream of mentioning, let alone actually discussing. A pursed lip or a raised eyebrow may be as far as many chaps are prepared to go in addressing some of these important matters. But these gestures are open to m...

This is the story which sets in motion the events of Nadine Dorries's brilliant new novel Ruby Flynn.It is 1846, famine is gripping Ireland and nowhere is it crueller than in Mayo on the west coast. Owen FitzDeane of Ballyford Castle is a good landlord, but even he is powerless to save all his tenants. When he comes upon a half-dead girl beside the road, he insists on taking her back to the castle, to see if they can save her. But Eilinora is no ordinary girl and soon superstition ...

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...

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'Affectionate, evocative, illuminating. A story of survival - of a flock, a landscape and a disappearing way of life. I love this book' Nigel Slater**'Triumphant, a pastoral for the 21st century' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year'The nature publishing sensation of the year, unsentimental yet luminous' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the Year**...

'Many times I heard people say that you'll have no friends if you're a policeman. How wrong they were. If you were right with them, they were right with you.'PC Martyn Johnson is back on the beat with more hilarious and heart-warming stories from the golden age of policing.With his nose for trouble and a knack for mischief, there's no such thing as a quiet shift for the friendly Yorkshire bobby - from drunken dogs and runaway horse...

A delightful short story from Jane Gardam, revisting that Titan of the Hong Kong law courts, Edward Feathers (known to many as Old Filth) in the days after he loses his beloved wife, Betty.

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year: Peter Dickinson targets England's upper classes in this murderous and strikingly original theme-park mysteryTourists are waiting in line for entry into the world of Old England, a graceful, elegant country house run as a theme park, complete with wrought-iron gates, pet lions, and maids in white caps greeting visitors with a bob and a curtsy.But this fantasy world turns very real when one of the ...

In 1888 a series of notorious murders were perpetrated by an enigmatic killer known only as Jack the Ripper who terrified the Whitechapel district of East London. Six women were murdered in a four month period with the killings ending as suddenly as they began with an unknown motive. Whitechapel tells the story of these killings through the eyes of Robert Ford a young uniform constable working in the district during the reign of the horrific crimes. The fictional story of his involvement w...

Gweneth Wisewould had no direct descendents of her own but the Australian farming community in Central Victoria was as important to her as a family. Moving from Melbourne in the 1930s, she soon became respected and was known only as "The Doctor" for over 30 years. This book recounts her historical view of the people, their lives and illnesses, the beauty and ferocity of the local environment and great difficulties being the sole doctor practising in all weathers and harsh conditions. Her m...

CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson is back: Now-retired Scotland Yard superintendent James Pibble isn't about to go quietly into the night—not when there's a murder case or two (or three) to solveAt Flycatchers, a well-to-do nursing home watched over by no-nonsense nurse Jenny, one-time detective James Pibble shuttles between his nothing-to-live-for present and memories of the crimes he's solved—or failed to. He's roused from his listless existence when he disco...

From the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of Darkmans comes a comic epistolary novel of startling originality and wit.Reading other people’s letters is always a guilty pleasure. But for PC Roger Topping contemplating a cache of 27 undelivered missives, retrieved from a back alley in Skipton, it’s a job of work. The quaint village of Burley Cross has been plunged into turmoil by the theft of the contents of its postbox, and no-one is above suspicion.Yet Topping's investig...