Tommy the street musician is murdered in a London shop doorway one bitterly cold December night in 1882. One hundred and thirty years later his troubled spirit befriends a young violinist, Tamara, granddaughter of Polish refugees and encourages her to help him answer the questions "Who?" and "Why?". In doing so she confronts her own problems with the world. The story is vibrant and funny showing twenty-first century life through the eyes of a Victorian street urchin. The themes are occasio...

Tamara's in serious trouble. The young violinist is held captive in a New York hotel room and, deeply scared, she pleads for help from the only person in the world who can help her. But Tommy is the ghost of a Victorian street urchin. He knows nothing about the world outside the streets of Stepney in the East End of London and certainly nothing about the 21st century which appears so alien to him. But, by using all his ingenuity, he embarks on an extraordinary journey that involves getting...

"A quirky coming-of-age story . . . Female adolescence as imagined by one of the 20th century's best—and most peculiar—writers" ( Kirkus Reviews).Originally published in 1977, Jane Gardams Bilgewater is an affectionate and complex rendering-in-miniature of the discomforts of growing up and first love seen through the eyes of inimitable Marigold Green, an awkward, eccentric, highly intelligent girl. The Evening Standard described Bilge...

As a woman lies at death's door in hospital, her touching story, encapsulated in her diaries, springs back to life.In Miss You Forever, Josephine Cox writes a spell-binding saga of hidden lives and lost loves. Perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin and Dilly Court.One winter's night, in the coal-hole in her yard, Rosie finds that a woman sheltering there has been severely beaten by thugs. At a glance, Kathleen looks like an unkempt, age...

Her husband was killed in the Great War. His wife is dead. Why not journey to the other side of the world and start again from scratch? What does it matter if they don't know each other, they will in time, after all? Norah thinks it is the most stupid idea she has ever heard. But Andrew needs no persuading. His kids are without a mother, he lives in a Lancashire town with no prospects: he can't wait to build a new life for himself in Australia. The government will even give ex-servicemen a...

London, 1945 and as the end of the war is declared and the troops start returning home, the nurses of the East End are joining in the celebrations.For Nurse Connie Byrne the end of the war signals the beginning of a new chapter and as the revelries go on around the city, Connie's mind is on another celebration that she'll be able to arrange - the wedding to her sweetheart, Charlie, set to take place as soon as he arrives home. But when Connie meets Charlie off the train at London B...

"A picaresque novel to stop them all. Lusty, violent, wildly funny, it is a rigadoon of rascality, a bawled-out comic song of sex." (Dorothy Parker, Esquire)First published in Paris in 1955, and originally banned in the United States and Ireland, J. P. Donleavy's debut novel has since been recognized around the world as the masterful portrait of a charming and shameless American abroad.Meet Sebastian Dangerfield: husband, father, and American law s...

A willing victim complicates a case for Detective Charlie Resnick, " one of the most fully realized characters in modern crime fiction" (Sue Grafton).Maria Roy is in the tub, musing on her hatred for her movie producer husband, when Grabianski and Grice break into her house. Though she is fearful at first, something about Jerry Grabianski's confidence calms her down. Over tall glasses of Scotch, she directs them to her valuables—jewelry, bonds, her...

So you want to be a stand-up comedian? Well, here it is, folks. With the jokes you find in this little book you can be guaranteed far more rotten eggs than accolades. You might get away with it with the family, but not in public!

"Pure delight . . . One perfect story after another" from the Whitbread Award–winning author of the Old Filth trilogy ( The Sunday Telegraph).From the inimitable Jane Gardam, whose Old Filth trilogy cemented her status as one of England's greatest living novelists, comes a collection of short stories that showcase her subversive wit, gentle humor, and insight into the human condition. Gardam's versatility is on full display, while her sublime grasp of lang...

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West. Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says - just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money. But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present...

Peggy Arnold, and younger twin siblings Mike and Nora, are living with a harsh aunt and uncle after their parents are thought to have been killed in a plane crash. In this first adventure, aided by an orphan boy Jack they have befriended, they run away to an island on a nearby lake, and together they make a new home constructed with the branches of a willow tree, this much-loved "living house" being one of the highlights of the story.