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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic representation of the impoverished and politically powerless underclass of British society in Edwardian England, ruthlessly exploited by the institutionalized corruption of their employers and the civic and religious authorities.
Once again Mr Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents.’ Evil masterminds beware! Sherlock Holmes is back! Ten years after his supposed death in the swirling torrent of the Reichenbach Falls locked in the arms of his arch enemy Professor Moriarty, Arthur Conan Doyle agreed to pen further adventures featuring his brilliant detective. In the first story, ‘The Empty House’, Holmes returns to Baker Street and his good friend Watson, explaining how he escaped from his watery grave. In creating this collection of tales, Doyle had lost none of his cunning or panache, providing Holmes with a sparkling set of mysteries to solve and a challenging set of adversaries to defeat.
The potent mixture includes murder, abduction, baffling cryptograms and robbery. We are also introduced to the one of the cruellest villains in the Holmes canon, the despicable Charles Augustus Milverton. As before, Watson is the superb narrator and the magic remains unchanged and undimmed.
This is The Sunday Times Bestseller. Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it.
Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived. What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens? In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we’re going.
Sapiens is a thrilling account of humankind’s extraordinary history – from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age – and our journey from insignificant apes to rulers of the world. “It tackles the biggest questions of history and of the modern world, and it is written in unforgettably vivid language. You will love it!” (Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel).
This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th-century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges. However, it is not so much her harsh sentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book’s poignant climax.
Set against the dramatic landscape of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic coast Joe Mc Gowan’s stories in The Hidden People examine and illuminate the complexities and passions of family life, communities and the human heart. Ranging from the intricacies of village life in Cold War in Killawaddy to the thrilling climax of the story of an Irish emigrant in Vietnam, these tales reveal a sometimes whimsical, sometimes tragic, and always unequalled, insight into village life and the Irish character.
Joe McGowan is already renowned for his brilliantly researched books on folk history in the West of Ireland. In this collection he brings another dimension to his historical writing with a powerful and engaging perspective on life in rural Ireland.
The last book of poems written by the late Dermot Healy is a fitting tribute to his work.
Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, this work explores with humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties.
Thackeray’s upper-class Regency world is a noisy and jostling commercial fairground, predominantly driven by acquisitive greed and soulless materialism, in which the narrator himself plays a brilliantly versatile role as a serio-comic observer. Although subtitled A Novel without a Hero, Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives: through the retiring Amelia Sedley and the brilliant Becky Sharp, Thackeray examines the position of women in an intensely exploitative male world.
Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery, and The Woman in White is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero, Walter Hartright, on a moonlit night in north London, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast, from the peevish invalid Mr Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco and the enigmatic woman herself.
The electrifying story of a Munster, Ireland and Lions icon who changed the game – and the face of Irish sport. From the streets of Cork to the grand stages of Thomond Park, the Stade Yves-du-Manoir and beyond, Simon Zebo’s journey is one of flair, fire and fearless individuality. In this candid and captivating memoir, Zebo opens up about his life, from his record-breaking feats with Munster and Ireland to his trailblazing role as the first black man to wear the green jersey.
With trademark wit and warmth, Zebo reflects on the highs and lows of a career that spanned continents, including his unforgettable stint with Racing 92, his Lions tour memories, the moments that made him a fan favourite, and his insightful, exuberant punditry. Co-written with acclaimed rugby journalist Gerry Thornley, Zeebs is more than a sports memoir: it’s a celebration of self-expression, resilience and the joy of playing the game your way.
The number one bestselling author of global sensation LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY returns. ‘Charming, uplifting, soulful, and original’ Kristin Hannah, bestselling author of The Women’Laugh-out-loud funny. It is impossible not to be beguiled’ Guardian Peck & Peck is the irresistible story of a young man whose life is turned upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck .
. . It’s 1982, New York City.
Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, recent college graduate with a skill that no one wants – an ‘ear’ for poetry – is worried about his future. While all his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No.
Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant. He hears from Sallie all the time. But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane.
Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the famous Peck brothers – twins and enemies – as well as being privy to the private affairs of their thirty-nine editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest.
And by ‘burn’, they mean incinerate. Because at Peck & Peck, ‘good’ isn’t good enough, ‘interesting’ doesn’t cut it, plagiarists aren’t tolerated, and parolees run the mailroom. Still want to submit your poem? Go with God.
Welcome to a dazzling and unforgettable novel from Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry. Original, brilliantly funny and peopled with unforgettable characters, Peck & Peck is both a passionate ode to the written word and a heartwarming exploration of all that makes us human.
What if growing older wasn’t about fading away, but finally stepping into your full power?Here, one of Ireland’s most beloved voices invites us to rethink what it is to age – personally, socially and spiritually. With warmth, openness and insight, Mary shares her own experience of growing older, alongside the reflections of wise and remarkable elders who have lived, strived and thrived through life’s seasons. While Mary doesn’t shy away from the realities of ageing – loneliness, forgetfulness, slowing down – she also celebrates the gifts of later life: greater freedom, self-understanding, and the quiet joy of prioritising your own needs.
She shows how age can be a time of healing, of returning to the past not to dwell on it but to liberate ourselves in the present. A beautiful celebration of the richness of age, and a reminder that the later chapters may be the most powerful of all.
FROM THE BOOKER AND WOMEN’S-PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY AND THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES
During a time of great turmoil, Gustave Flaubert created literature’s most scandalous heroine: Madame Bovary. He then poisoned her with arsenic. But what if, 175 years later, Emma and the women history overlooked could seize the quill from his hands and tell a different story?
In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a luminous reinvention of an iconic male writer, told through the eyes of the women real and fictional who shaped him: a devoted nursemaid, an Egyptian dancer and a passionate, jealous lover who refuses to be forgotten.
Through their voices, visionary author Elif Shafak creates both an intimate portrait of a great artist and an epic meditation on storytelling itself: who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how can literature endure through political upheaval, war and injustice? When the world feels broken, how do we find the hope to carry on?
Shafak takes readers on an extraordinary journey through time and space, from Flaubert’s unusual childhood in a house that was part home, part hospital, part morgue, to nineteenth-century Paris during the Revolution, and onwards to Istanbul, Cairo, Palestine and Beirut. In this exhilarating tale, the questions at the heart of her work take on a thrilling new urgency: who gets to speak, and what would the silenced have said?
Boldly inventive, transporting and illuminating, spanning decades and continents, In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a dazzling love letter to literature, untold stories, neglected communities and the enduring spirit of humanity.
November 11th, 1918. As the guns of the Great War fall silent, two babies draw their first breath. Eve is the daughter of an Earl.
Adam, a shepherd’s son. Yet from their first meeting they form an extraordinary bond that neither privilege nor prejudice can break. Then on a single September night in 1940, as Hitler prepares to invade the British Isles, their actions will change his mind.
Determining not just their own futures but the fate of a nation. They will show extraordinary courage. They will make unimaginable sacrifices.
And the story of what they did will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. From the broads of Norfolk to the beaches of Dunkirk, Adam & Eve is a breathtaking epic of courage, sacrifice, and love forged in Britain’s darkest hour.