George Gordon Wentworth (1946-2011) lived a humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in a fairly world-renowned independent school in Kent and kept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. Most of what he recorded was dross. However, amongst all the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets and grains to catch the attention. The precious incidents worth recording all reflect the fact that Wentworth was, for the most part, an unwitting fool whose antics and...

Two New Yorkers ride the same train yet live on different planets. Rich Life Poor Life reveals why: one man sees every minute, message, and meeting as an investment; the other spends those same moments on distractions that compound into lifelong scarcity. Tony Stuart dissects the unseen “rules of the game” - turn commute time into deal time, build social capital that pays six-figure dividends, and pursue discomfort because growth lives on its far side.Inside you will learn how to t...

**WINNER OF THE AGATHA, ARTHUR ELLIS, DILYS, AND DEBUT DAGGER AWARDS“Wonderfully entertaining . . . sure to be one of the most loved mysteries of the year . . . [Flavia is] a delightful, intrepid, acid-tongued new heroine.”—Chicago Sun-Times**Coming soon as the major motion picture Flavia Girl Detective!It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for p...

A number one bestseller in Britain, Stephen Fry's astonishingly frank, funny, wise memoir is the book that his fans everywhere have been waiting for. Since his PBS television debut in the Blackadder series, the American profile of this multitalented writer, actor and comedian has grown steadily, especially in the wake of his title role in the film Wilde, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and his supporting role in A Civil Action.Fry has already ...

A brilliant – and rather transgressive – collection of short stories from the double Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light.Including a new story ‘The School of English’.Hilary Mantel is one of Britain’s most accomplished and acclaimed writers. In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all her gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged, summoning forth the horro...

The iconic memoir from the beloved Irish author of the legendary The Country Girls trilogy.'Get ready to applaud, ladies and gentlemen, because there is no one like her.' Anne Enright'One of the last great lights of the golden age of Irish literature.' Eimear McBride'Glittering energy.' Colm TóibínI thought of life's many bounties, to have known the extremities of joy and sorrow, ...

In this crackling novella, New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King reveals an unforgettable new twist in the adventure that led supersleuth Sherlock Holmes to discover his first (and finest) apprentice, Mary Russell. Sherlock Holmes is fending off a particularly dark mood as he roams the Sussex Downs, in search of wild bees. The Great War may be raging across the Channel, but on the Downs, the great detective nears terminal melancholia - only to be saved by an encounter with heads...

'Edna O'Brien writes the most beautiful, aching stories of any writer, anywhere.' Alice Munro'The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose - there's no one like Edna.' Anne Enright'Surprising and beautiful and courageous .. A beacon.' Megan Nolan'Brilliant and brave.' Ann Patchett'Glittering energy.' Colm TóibínA woman walks the streets of Manhattan and contemplates with exqu...

A secretive child by nature, Susanna makes a covert list of everything she knows about her absent father, determined that one day she will find him. Unable and unwilling to adapt to life in her mother's unsympathetic household, she distances herself as much as possible.When she finally discovers her father's whereabouts and seeks him out, in the free and unconventional atmosphere of 1970s Chelsea, she conceals her identity, beginning an illicit affair that can only end in disaster....

A nostalgic collection on rural schools, childhood and English country life from the much-loved author of VILLAGE SCHOOL.From organising the school summer fete...'Because of our inability to recognise our climatic shortcomings from the outset, arrangements for outdoor jollities get completely out of hand'....to the sometimes rather odd passions of childhood:'I collect stones with holes in them'.Miss Read captures the essence of rural...

‘Give me the boy and I will show you the man’ the saying goes. In this warm, tender, wonderfully evocative and often hilarious memoir one of the best-loved men in Britain, Alan Titchmarsh, brilliantly recalls his childhood in 1950s Yorkshire.Growing up in the beautiful landscape that surrounds Ilkley in Wharfedale inspired Alan’s early passion for nature.In a time of post-war austerity, hard work and ‘making do’ was not just the lot of the grown-ups; for the young Alan it was...

A companion piece to the captivating memoir GIVING UP THE GHOST by the Man Booker-winning author, this collection of loosely autobiographical stories locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood.This sharp, funny collection of stories drawn from life begins in the 1950s in an insular northern village 'scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues.' For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out.In 'King Billy is a Gentleman', the...