With an Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at CanterburyThis selection of Carroll's works includes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, both containing the famous illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. No greater books for children have ever been written. The simple language, dreamlike atmosphere, and fantastical characters are as appealing to young reader...

Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury.Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman, infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic.It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descende...

A series of recent landmark cases have highlighted the issues surrounding assisted suicide and may be shifting public opinion in the direction of greater freedom.These essays cover every aspect of the topic from the legal and religious issues to the deeply personal experiences of patients and carers. They present a reasoned libertarian argument for people with terminal conditions, or poor quality of life due to illness or treatment, to be allowed to be helped to kill themselves.

Set in England in the early 1760s, this is a chilling and deliciously dark tale of manipulation, sex, and seduction.When Richard Fenwick, a young man without family or means, returns to London from the Grand Tour, his wealthy godfather, James Gilbert, has an unexpected proposition. Gilbert has led a fastidious life in Worcestershire, but now in his advancing years, he feels the urge to experience, even vicariously, the extremes of human feeling—love and passion, adultery and deceit...

First published in 1979. Most of the great nineteenth century novelists strove to render in words the people and places that they invented and most readers of fiction picture in their imagination these characters and scenes. This book investigates both types of ‘picturing’, exploring the principles and problems concerned, and sheds light on the workings of fiction — reassessing a number of famous novels in the process. By so doing, this work relates the academic study of the novel to the w...

According to the media and some concerned parents, boys are having greater trouble than ever with schooling. this book takes the refreshing counter position that boys are generally fine, and not inherently toxic creatures that need 'fixing'. What does need fixing, however, are some of the parenting and teaching practices and environments boys are placed in for schooling and social development. In the vein of Celia Lashlie's Good Man Project, which became the basis for her international bes...

According to the media and some concerned parents, boys are having greater trouble than ever with schooling. this book takes the refreshing counter position that boys are generally fine, and not inherently toxic creatures that need 'fixing'. What does need fixing, however, are some of the parenting and teaching practices and environments boys are placed in for schooling and social development. In the vein of Celia Lashlie's Good Man Project, which became the basis for her international bes...

Children and Adolescents in Trauma presents a variety of creative approaches to working with young people in residential children's homes, secure or psychiatric units, and special schools.The contributors describe a wide range of approaches, including art therapy and literature, and how creative methods are applied in cases of abuse, trauma, violence, self-harm and identity development. They discuss the impact of abuse and mistreatment upon the mental health of 'looked after' child...

Michael Irwin’s The Skull and the Nightingale is a chilling and deliciously dark, literary novel of manipulation and sex, intrigue and seduction, set in 18th-century England.When Richard Fenwick returns to London, his wealthy godfather, James Gilbert, has an unexpected proposition. Gilbert has led a sedate life in Worcestershire, but feels the urge to experience, even vicariously, the extremes of human feeling: love, passion, and something much more sinister.It bec...

• Pride and Prejudice was only half the story •If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. Bu...

**From New York Times bestselling author and veteran CIA officer Jason Matthews, the electrifying modern spy thriller Red Sparrow—also a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton!In contemporary Russia, state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova has been drafted to become a “Sparrow”—a spy trained in the art of seduction to elicit information from their marks. She’s been assigned to Nathaniel Nash, a CIA officer who handles the or...

'I raced through it, breathing fast and when I had finished had to reread parts of the wonderful early chapters. I don't like historical novels but this is the exception. I shall let a few months go by and then read it all over again with, I'm sure, undiminished pleasure' Ruth Rendall, GuardianIt is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell v...