Anthologies featuring bestselling authors alongside rising stars. Short story collections from some of our beloved authors with Roald Dahl, Raymond Carver and Anita Desai among the better known
Anthologies & Short Stories
Penguin Books Ltd The Blazing World and Other Writings
Book SynopsisFlamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret Cavendish was one of the seventeenth century''s most striking figures: a woman who ventured into the male spheres of politics, science, philosophy and literature. The Blazing World is a highly original work: part Utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the Blazing World where she is made Empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. This volume also includes The Contract, a romance in which love and law work harmoniously together, and Assaulted and Pursued Chastity, which explores the power and freedom a woman can achieve in the disguise of a man.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Shadows on the Grass
Book SynopsisIsak Dinesen was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. After studying art at Copenhagen, Paris and Rome, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. Together they went to Kenya to manage a coffee plantation. After their divorce in 1921, she continued to run the plantation until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Denmark in 1931.
£8.54
Scribner Book Company She Was Like That
Book SynopsisA New York Times Notable Book of 2019 selection, a New York Times Editors’ Choice book, and longlisted for the Story Prize—from the bestselling, highly acclaimed National Book Award nominee, She Was Like That is a “piercing, intimate, and exquisite” (Publishers Weekly) collection of new and selected stories that capture “the joys and anxieties of motherhood” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).In these twelve deft, acutely funny, and often heartbreaking stories, “Walbert captures with an unusual combination of restraint and rhapsody” (The New York Times) the questions women ask themselves and the definitions assigned to them as wives, mothers, and daughters. Her characters are searchers, uneasy in one way or another. They yearn for connection. In the riveting opening story “M&M World,” a woman is plunged into panic when she briefly loses one of her daughters at the vast
£13.59
Penguin Books Ltd The Cyberiad
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA giant of 20th-century science fiction * Guardian *A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age * New York Times *The linguistic inventiveness is extraordinary ... Lem has created a curious world in which robots and rockets rub shoulders with kings, dragons, witches and pirates * Independent on Sunday *
£8.54
British Library Publishing Chill Tidings
Book SynopsisWelcome to the second new collection of dark Christmas stories in the Tales of the Weird series, ushering in a fresh host of nightmarish phantoms and otherworldly intruders bent on joining or ruining the most wonderful time of the year.
£9.49
Titan Books Ltd Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology
Book SynopsisFinalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of cutting-edge science fiction from the hit podcast, Escape Pod. Escape Pod has been bringing the finest short fiction to millions of ears all over the world, at the forefront of a new fiction revolution. This anthology gathers together fifteen stories, including new and exclusive work from writers such as from Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, T. Kingfisher and more. From editors Mur Laffterty and S.B. Divya comes the science fiction collection of the year, bringing together bestselling authors in celebration of the publishing phenomenon that is, Escape Pod.Trade Review'A major new sci-fi anthology' – New Scientist.'The 15 pieces in this diverse, enjoyable anthology…showcase the wide variety of ideas the short science fiction story can accommodate…The result is sure to please” – Publishers Weekly“[Mur Lafferty is] …one of the worst-kept secrets in science fiction and fantasy publishing.” – Cory Doctorow "Podcast fans will undoubtedly enjoy this book, as they experience stories written by their favorite “escape artists.” For the uninitiated in the Escape Pod universe, consider this anthology as an invitation to the new fiction revolution." - Portland Book Review"Excellently curated and arranged, this collection really does provide a nice range of the best that SF has been offering, from a variety of voices and perspectives" – Skiffy and Fanty"If Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology is any indication to the quality of the work found in the podcast, it is certainly worth checking out."SF Book Review"As subversive as it is excellent."Amazing Stories"One of the strongest anthologies I’ve ever read... All science fiction fans should add Escape Pod to your “must read” list immediately!"Books, Bones & Buffy"Hugely satisfying and well worth your attention.”Runalong the Shelves"Not only is it a book that shows the beauty and versatility of the science fiction genre, but it’s one that will leave you wanting to read more."Trans-Scribe Review"A great anthology ... Escape Pod delivers it all."Liis Thinks Review"I can fully recommend [Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology]"ReiBwolf Review"Something for everyone!"Lisa's Books, Gems & Tarot"I would definitely recommend this anthology."The Curious Reader"There is something for everyone in this collection."Chain Interaction"A marvellous collection, and one I wholeheartedly recommend" – Sci-Fi & Fantasy Reviews
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Red Alert
Book SynopsisA deadly virus has been stolen, and the thieves plan to use the hundred million pound ransom to fund terrorist armies. When the mission looks impossible, the world calls upon UNACO.Trade Review'A magnificent storyteller' Sunday Mirror ‘The most successful British novelist of his time’ Jack Higgins ‘Alistar MacLean is one of the few people writing today who has a story to tell.’ Daily Express
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers What You Make It
Book SynopsisThe first ever collection of Michael Marshall Smith’s award-winning short stories.Trade Review‘Astonishingly distinctive short stories’Independent ‘A story telling skill that can only be described as pure genius’Venue ‘Very funny and decidedly surreal’Empire ‘No one writes better than Smith about love: how it’s won, how it’s lost. No one writes better about being wasted – by drugs, by drink, by time. Nigh-on unique’i-D
£12.34
HarperCollins Publishers In Pursuit of the English
Book SynopsisBy turns, an unsparing and joyous account of life in a postwar London rooming house by Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007.
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers TENTERHOOKS
Book SynopsisThe best book yet from this witty writerTrade Review‘Dunn is a surgeon of the heart, and her observations are sparky.’Time Out ‘Compelling power… Dunn shows again her gift for making the ordinary seem extraordinary.’The Times
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Ben in the World
Book SynopsisFrom Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the sequel to one of her most celebrated novels, ‘The Fifth Child’.Trade Review‘A wonderful novel, flawless as a black pearl.’ Daily Mail ‘Outstanding…A tour de force that poses stark questions about modern-day Britain and what it is to be human.’ Sunday Times ‘“Ben, In the World” is huge in scope, humanity and pathos. Lessing created a monster; her triumph is that he not only personifies the human yearning to belong, but that we also come to love him.’ Shena Mackay, Daily Telegraph
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Sweetest Dream
Book SynopsisNobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing tackles the 1960s and their legacy head-on in one of her most involving, personal, political novels.It's the morning of the 1960s and it's suppertime at Freedom Hall, the most welcoming household in north London. Frances Lennox stands at her stove, preparing another feast before ladling it out to the youthful crew assembled around her hospitable table here are her two sons, smarting at their upbringing but beginning to absorb their mother's lessons. Around them are ranged their schoolfriends and girlfriends and ex-friends and new friends fresh off the street. The feast begins. Wine and talk flow. Everything is being changed and being challenged.But what is being tolerated? And where will it end? Over there in the corner is Frances's ex-husband, Comrade Johnny, who delivers his rousing tirades, then laps up the adolescent adulation before disappearing into the night to evade the clutches of his responsibilities. Upstairs sits Johnny's exiTrade Review‘Her portraits of sympathetic human relationships are of quite staggering beauty…It would be hard to exaggerate the splendour of this book.’ The Times ‘The haunting brilliance of her characters…the passion of her ideas and vision, remain undiminished. She’s up there in the pantheon with Honore [Balzac] and George [Eliot].’ Independent
£14.24
HarperCollins Publishers A House of Air
Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HERMIONE LEE The previously uncollected occasional prose of a great English writer – full of wit, feeling and illumination.Trade Review‘Of all the novelists in English of the last quarter-century, Penelope Fitzgerald has the most unarguable claim on greatness.’ Philip Hensher ‘This generous selection of essays, reviews, introductions and other occasional writings proves yet again that stylistically, intellectually and morally Fitzgerald couldn’t put a foot wrong if she’d tried. Hers is an impeccable and unique voice not just from another century but another world.’ Michael Dibdin, Books of the Year, Daily Telegraph ‘Remarkable. It is the range of her scholarship that impresses.’ Doris Lessing, Books of the Year, Daily Telegraph ‘An intelligent writer, superbly and unfailingly so. Wise and funny, with a dry wit allied to a great emotional sympathy.’ Sunday Times
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers The Diaries of Jane Somers
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1984, under a pseudonym, as The Diary of a Good Neighbour' and If the Old Could ', now published as The Diaries of Jane Somers', this is in many ways classic Lessing.As resonant with social and political themes as The Golden Notebook', Lessing returns to the realism of her early fiction with the wisdom and experience of maturity.The diaries introduce us to Jane, an intelligent and beautiful magazine editor concerned with success, clothes and comfort. But her real inadequacy is highlighted when first her husband, then her mother, die from cancer and Jane feels strangely removed. In an attempt to fill this void, she befriends ninety-something Maudie, whose poverty and squalor contrast so radically with the glamour and luxury of the magazine world. The two gradually come to depend on each other Maudie delighting Jane with tales of London in the 1920s and Jane trying to care for the rapidly deteriorating old woman.The Diary of Jane Somers' contrasts the helplessness of
£18.00
HarperCollins Publishers Bread and Chocolate
Book SynopsisA collection of short stories from one of our most popular novelists the perfect gift.A rich and wonderful selection of short stories. A TV chef who specialises in outrageous cakes tempts a monk who bakes bread for his brothers; a surprise visitor invites mayhem into the perfect minimalist flat in the season of good will; a woman explains her unique view of straying husbands; straying husbands encounter a variety of effective responses. Just some of the delicacies on offer in this sumptuous box of delightsTrade Review‘To those that have feasted on Joanne Harris’s delightful novel Chocolat, the title of this collection of short stories should give ample hint as to their themes…All of these modern morality tales are well observed and tastily enjoyable’ The Times ‘This stunning collection of short stories (is) about modern relationships – and modern women. Every twist and turn, nuance and delicacy of the mating game is portrayed…Throughout, Gregory’s grasp of the female psyche never errs…It is a significant accomplishment’ Daily Mail
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Bad Dirt
Book SynopsisA remarkable collection of short stories set in Wyoming from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Shipping News’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’.Trade Review‘Proulx writes in wonderful stews, everything thrown in together…the stories demand a second reading.’ Daily Telegraph ‘Her keen eye for idiosyncrasy ensures her continuing reputation as one of the shrewdest chroniclers of contemporary America.’ David Robson, Sunday Telegraph ‘Vivid and evocative…as [the stories] gather force, you find yourself being drawn in to their momentum.’ Financial Times ‘Proulx['s]…stories’ sour sometimes brutal folksiness gains a singular resonance from the fine, sinewy prose in which they are rendered.’ The Times ‘Packed with grittily persuasive detail, they feel both modern and as timeless as the Wyoming plains.’ Marie Claire ‘Performs inspired imaginative feats.’ Alex Clark, Sunday Times
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Alfred and Emily
Book SynopsisDoris Lessing's first book after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature revisits her childhood in Southern Africa and the lives, both fictional and factual, that her parents led.I think my father'''s rage at the trenches took me over, when I was very young, and has never left me. Do children feel their parents'' emotions? Yes, we do, and it is a legacy I could have done without. What is the use of it? It is as if that old war is in my own memory, my own consciousness.'In this extraordinary book, Doris Lessing explores the lives of her parents, both of them irrevocably damaged by the Great War. Her father wanted the simple life of an English farmer, but shrapnel almost killed him in the trenches, and thereafter he had to wear a wooden leg. Her mother Emily''s great love was a doctor who drowned in the Channel, and she spent the war nursing the wounded in the Royal Free Hospital.In the first half of this book, Lessing imagines the lives her parents might have made for themselves had therTrade Review'Writers approaching 90 aren't supposed to write with vigour or experiment with form. But Lessing has never done the expected thing and "Alfred and Emily" is one more exception in an exceptional career.' Blake Morrison, Guardian ‘This tale has a quality at once dreamy and wooden, like beautifully carved wooden dolls. Vividly and urgently written, [it] makes us think about the moral and emotional power of different ways of telling a story.' Financial Times 'Vivid, turbulent, raw with emotion.' Sunday Telegraph 'Quietly extraordinary…this perfectly crafted book is, as Lessing knows, the latest instalment of a remarkable payback.' Observer 'Powerful…it is fascinating to see [Lessing] focus so sharply in her new book on what must be for us all, the most intimate of personal narratives: our parents' lives, what they were, or might have been.' The Times ‘Lessing excels in the portrait of unsatisfactory lives, and together the parts form a poignant experiment.’ Daily Telegraph 'It has the freshness, clarity and emotional acuity that made her first novel "The Grass is Singing" so outstanding. A tribute to a remarkable childhood, and a poignant memoir of the mother whose greatest legacy to her daughter was an invaluable gift for storytelling.’ Literary Review
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Complete Short Stories
Book SynopsisFirst in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of Empire of the Sun', Crash' and Super-Cannes'. The new edition is introduced by Adam Thirwell.With eighteen novels over four decades from The Drowned World' in 1962 to his final novel Kingdom Come' in 2006 J.G. Ballard is known as one of Britain's most celebrated and original novelists.However, during his long career he was also a prolific writer of short stories; in fact, many people consider that he is at his best in the short-story format. These highly influential stories have appeared in magazines such as New Worlds, Amazing Stories and Interzone, and in several separate collections, including The Terminal Beach', The Venus Hunters', Vermilion Sands', Low-Flying Aircraft' and Myths of the Near Future'.Set out in the original order of publication and frequently the point of conception for ideas he further developed in his novels, these stories provide an unprecedented opportunity to see the imagination of Trade Review‘More than one thousand compelling pages from one of the most haunting, cogent and individual imaginations in contemporary literature’ William Boyd ‘A marvel … there is something a little shaming in reading Ballard: you have to face the fact that there exist writers with such fresh imaginations they can’t write five pages without stumbling on an alternate world’ Zadie Smith ‘Simply a master story writer – the maker of unforgettable artefacts in words’ Jonathan Lethem ‘Indispensable … probably the most original English writer of the last century’ China Miéville
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers The Complete Short Stories From the author of The
Book SynopsisThe second in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of Empire of the Sun', Crash' and Super-Cannes'. The new edition is introduced by Adam Thirwell.With eighteen novels over four decades from The Drowned World' in 1962 to his final novel Kingdom Come' in 2006 J.G. Ballard is known as one of Britain's most celebrated and original novelists.However, during his long career he was also a prolific writer of short stories; in fact, many people consider that he is at his best in the short-story format. These highly influential stories have appeared in magazines such as New Worlds, Amazing Stories and Interzone, and in several separate collections, including The Terminal Beach', The Venus Hunters', Vermilion Sands', Low-Flying Aircraft' and Myths of the Near Future'.Set out in the original order of publication and frequently the point of conception for ideas he further developed in his novels, these stories provide an unprecedented opportunity to see the imaginatioTrade Review‘A marvel … there is something a little shaming in reading Ballard: you have to face the fact that there exist writers with such fresh imaginations they can’t write five pages without stumbling on an alternate world’ Zadie Smith ‘Each of Ballard’s 98 short stories is like a dream more perfectly realized than any of your own … Simply a master story writer – the maker of unforgettable artefacts in words, each as absolute and perplexing as sculptures unviewable from a single perspective’ Jonathan Lethem ‘One of the most haunting, cogent and individual imaginations in contemporary literature’ William Boyd
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers WE SO SELDOM LOOK ON LOVE
Book SynopsisA wonderful collection of prize-winning short stories from one of Canada’s brightest authors. The cult film success KISSED is based on the title story.Trade Review‘Gowdy is a writer now emerging as one of Canada’s most accomplished and outrageous… We So Seldom Look on Love will only deepen her reputation for fine technique and alarming content. These are unsettling and profoundly moving short stories to be read, and reread, and then to be dreamt upon… this is a remarkable and uplifting book.’Toronto Globe and Mail ‘Barbara Gowdy’s stunning collection plants her firmly in the constellation of Canada’s bright literary lights… in this new set of stories she truly shines. Her insatiable curiousity, her candour and her cool wit emerge like chrysalids from the assembled deformity of this lively and memorable book.’Montreal Gazette
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers A HARD TIME TO BE A FATHER
Book Synopsis‘Sparkling, sharply observing, insights delivered with a light touch that puts us in a good mood, however dark the comedy’ SpectatorTrade ReviewPraise for Fay Weldon’s short stories: ‘Weldon’s stories pull no punches. There is always humour.’Independent on Sunday ‘Bang up-to-date.’Financial Times ‘Immaculately written, simple, stylish and swallowable whole. Her stories are so smart and sassy and multiply ironic.’Scotsman
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers WICKED WOMEN
Book SynopsisBrilliant stories from the hyper-real world of Weldonia.Trade Review‘Sparkling, sharply observing, insights delivered with a light touch that puts us in a good mood, however dark the comedy.’Spectator ‘Weldon’s writing is seductively readable, her magic realism is never pretentious; it is understated and convincing.’Times Literary Supplement
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers INTERESTING WOMEN
Book SynopsisFor readers of Melissa Bank or Jhumpa Lahiri: witty, seductive stories of expatriate women, their loves and losses.Trade Review‘Andrea Lee is the real thing. There is nothing more to say.’ Philip Roth ‘Andrea Lee’s stories are sly and sexy, sophisticated retellings of standoffs between traditional opposites. Her writing is beautifully controlled.’ Sunday Times ‘The heroines of Andrea Lee’s ‘Interesting Women’ live up to their billing. They cuckold their Puritan ancestry by sleeping – casually, bemusedly – with European princes twice their age. They offer hookers as birthday gifts to their Italian husbands. On vacation in Madagascar, they slap native girls who mess with their men…It’s this voice – a once-cherished concubine writing bitchy postcards from a fabulous self-exile – that makes this book a decadent holiday well worth taking.’ Elle ‘…each of these finely tuned, exquisitely written tales has the interest and substance of a novel…Lee is ironic, profound and a wonderful find.’ Daily Mail ‘…sophisticated and intelligent, fascinating and amusing. An entertaining and undemanding read.’ Time Out ‘Exceptional.’ Metro ‘A stylish, sensual, summer read.’ Sunday Express ‘Told elegantly, with an enjoyable arch tone, this is an intelligent look at the games we play with others and ourselves.’ The Times ‘Like the author’s formula for the perfect cappuccino (which should always include the “slight taste of mysery”), these shrewd stories of ephemeral liaisons and global friendships leave a bitter aftertaste in their deceptively frothy wake.’ Independent
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers Asking for the Moon
Book Synopsis‘Hill is an instinctive and complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift’ Frances Fyfield, Mail on SundayTrade Review‘Few writers in the genre today have Hill’s gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace’ Donna Leon, Sunday Times ‘The fertility of Hill’s imagination, the range of his power, the sheer quality of his literary style never cease to delight’ Val McDermid, Sunday Express ‘He is probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world’ Andrew Taylor, Independent ‘Reginald Hill’s novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories entwining’ Ian Rankin, Scotland on Sunday
£12.34
HarperCollins Publishers Memory Wall
Book SynopsisFrom the author of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, a collection of stories about memory: the source of meaning and coherence in our lives, the fragile thread that connects us to ourselves and to others.In the luminous title story, a young boy in South Africa comes to possess an old woman's secret, a piece of the past with the power to redeem a life. In The River Nemunas', a teenaged orphan moves from Kansas to Lithuania, and discovers a world in which myth becomes real. And in Afterworld,' a woman who escaped the Holocaust is haunted by visions of her childhood friends in Germany, yet finds solace in the tender ministrations of her grandson.The stories in Memory Wall show us how we figure the world, and show Anthony Doerr to be a master of the form.Trade Review‘It's fair to say that Anthony Doerr is doing things with the short story that have rarely been attempted and seldom achieved. The stories in Memory Wall have such scope and depth that they hit as hard as novels three times their length. Doerr has set a new standard, I think, for what a story can do.’ Dave Eggers ‘Ambitiously wide-ranging and inventive, Doerr’s six stories movingly investigate the ways in which we are nothing without memory.’ Sunday Times ‘Doerr is a lusciously good stylist.’ Guardian ‘If this book's wisdom can be summed up in a single line it is this one, from ‘Afterworld’: ‘Within the wet enclosure of a single mind a person can fly from one decade to the next, one country to another, past to present, memory to imagination.’ That thought informs Memory Wall many times.’ Janet Maslin, Scotsman
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers HEADING INLAND
Book SynopsisHeading Inland is a funny, broody, saucy collection of stories about the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore.Trade Review‘Strange and magical…Barker goes from strength to strength.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘A singular, soaring, stratospheric talent.’ Scotland on Sunday ‘Devastatingly funny and totally original…only Will Self can match her for black humour and bizarre fabrications…No one else in England writes like this. Don’t miss this book.’ Tatler ‘A witty, demotic and unique talent.’ The Times ‘The language is unfussy, direct, at times colloquial, and then, just when it is needed to produce the right emotional counterpoint, elegant and formal…What could have been heavy-handed in another writer’s hands is here transformed into something light, enchanting and moving. Heading Inland achieves everything it sets out to do. Highly recommended.’ Literary Review ‘Another extremely accomplished collection. The writing is sharp, intricate and stylish. Each story presents its own particular and perfectly realized world…Nothing is too weird or too ordinary for Nicola Barker. I can think of few writers who can make me think of Joe Orton one minute and Saul Bellow the next.’ Guardian
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Tales of Persuasion
Book SynopsisTen daring stories from a writer who seems capable of anything' (Guardian), the Booker Prize-shortlisted Philip HensherBackdrops vary in this collection of stories from the author of The Northern Clemency from turmoil in Sudan following the death of a politician in a plane crash, to southern India where a Soho hedonist starts to envisage the crump and soar of munitions. Each story, regardless of location, reveals a great writer at the peak of his powers.Trade Review‘As a fiction writer, Hensher has virtuosity on tap, so every page delivers something enjoyable and even eye-popping; a vibrant exchange, a spry description, a tickling bit of indirect speech’ New Statesman ‘Entertainingly varied stories … Hensher sneaks into a life like a cat burglar, pads around to survey the scene and slips out again, leaving everything quietly disturbed’ Literary Review ‘Thomas Mann-like in its homoerotic undertones and high-flown hymns to unrequited love but a good deal funnier … Hensher is deft at locating the moment of crisis when a character experiences a change of heart or a nasty surprise, and life is exposed in all its drab wonder … Entertainingly varied in tone and setting, the stories combine quaint physical observation with a caustic intelligence’ Evening Standard ‘Elegant stories that radiate with fine human feeling inspired by altogether muddled lives … Hensher’s prose can be painterly’ Financial Times 'Hensher has a pitch-perfect way with language and invented detail' Sunday Times ‘A comedy of manners with an occasional dark side’ Daily Telegraph ‘A delightful read, full of beauty and humour' The Herald ‘He is an expert writer, and an expert tone runs through this vigorous collection. Hensher observes all human life with the detachment of a scientist … He nails lust, hypocrisy, regret and hopefulness with an exquisite eye for detail. Unromantic, and dark at times, this collection is always interesting’ Daily Mail ‘A brilliantly astute book … every narrative is unified by Hensher’s incredible eye for detail and effortless talent for multi-layered storytelling’ Attitude ‘Hensher’s adaptability as a writer and love of form brings us clever, ravishing and moving storytelling’ Monocle ‘It’s Hensher writ large: poignant without sentimentalising, acutely observant of the mores of the modern world, but profoundly interested in the timeless search for the meaning of life.’ Observer
£10.78
HarperCollins Publishers Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly
Book SynopsisAs a favour to an old friend, Hercule Poirot finds himself at a summer fete in Devon, taking part not in a Treasure Hunt, but a Murder Hunt, in this never-before-published novella version of Dead Man's Folly. Now released for the first time in print in this illustrated collector's edition.Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fête, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well known crime writer, agrees to organise their murder hunt. But at the last minute Ariadne calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance. Instinctively, she senses that something sinister is about to happenIn 1954, Agatha Christie wrote this novella with the intention of donating the proceeds to a fund set up to buy stained glass windows for her local church at Churston Ferrers, and she filled the story with references to local places, including her own home of Greenway. But having completed it, she decided instead to expand the story intoTrade Review‘There are [authors] like Agatha Christie: I read those books and I’m in awe that somebody constructed those plots where they all make sense at the end. Those are like magic tricks to me.’ STEPHEN KING
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers Dangerous Women Part 1
Book SynopsisCommissioned by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, these tales of dangerous women by the most stellar names in fiction are available for the first time in three-volume paperback.George R.R. Martin is the bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO's hit series Game of Thrones.This first volume features an original 35,000 word novella by George R.R. Martin. The Princess and the Queen'' reveals the origins of the civil war in Westeros (before the events in A Game of Thrones), which is known as the Dance of the Dragons, pitting Targaryen against Targaryen and dragon against dragon.Other authors in this volume of warriors, bad girls and dragonriders include worldwide bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson, Lawrence Block and Nancy Kress.DANGEROUS WOMEN 1Gardner Dozois's introductionGeorge R. R. Martin, The Princess and the Queen'Carrie Vaughn, Raisa Stepanova'Nancy Kress,'Second Arabesque, Very Slowly'Lawrence Block, I Know How to Pick Em'Megan Abbott, My HeartTrade Review‘This meaty collection delivers something for nearly every reader’s taste as it explores the heights that brave women can reach and the depths that depraved ones can plumb’Publisher’s Weekly ‘Reads like Martin’s outline for a Game of Thrones prequel that never wasEntertainment Weekly
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Dangerous Women Part 2
Book SynopsisCommissioned by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, these tales of dangerous women by the most stellar names in fiction are available for the first time in three-volume paperback.George R.R. Martin is the bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO's hit series GAME OF THRONES.This second volume features an original short story by Megan Lindholm (who also writes as Robin Hobb). In the bittersweet Neighbors' Sarah, a rather strange widow, lives isolated and alone, surrounded by young families. But is the old lady afflicted by dementia or by something far more odd?Other contributors to this volume of stories of formidable women include worldwide bestselling authors Diana Gabaldon, with an Outlander story, Sharon Kay Penman and Lev Grossman.DANGEROUS WOMEN 2Gardner Dozois's introductionMegan Lindholm, Neighbors'Lev Grossman, The Girl in the Mirror'Sharon Kay Penman, A Queen in Exile'S. M. Stirling, Pronouncing Doom'Caroline Spector, Lies My Mother Told Me'SamTrade Review‘This meaty collection delivers something for nearly every reader’s taste as it explores the heights that brave women can reach and the depths that depraved ones can plumb’Publisher’s Weekly ‘Reads like Martin’s outline for a Game of Thrones prequel that never wasEntertainment Weekly
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers Dangerous Women Part 3
Book SynopsisCommissioned by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, these tales of dangerous women by the most stellar names in fiction are available for the first time in three-volume paperback.George R.R. Martin is the bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO's hit series GAME OF THRONES.This third volume features an original short story by Joe Abercrombie. ''Some Desperado'' centres on Shy South, the protagonist of Abercrombie's novel RED COUNTRY. Having robbed a bank, Shy is carrying 2,000 silver pieces, and she''s on the run when her horse catches an arrow. Marooned in a dusty ghost town, she faces up to a trio of murderous, flea-bitten criminalsThis volume of stories about hard-living bad girls, killers and superheroes also includes contributions from worldwide bestselling authors Jim Butcher, Melinda Snodgrass and Pat Cadigan.DANGEROUS WOMEN 3Gardner Dozois's introductionJoe Abercrombie, Some Desperado'Diana Rowland, City Lazarus'Sherlynn Kenyon, Hell Hath No FurTrade Review‘This meaty collection delivers something for nearly every reader’s taste as it explores the heights that brave women can reach and the depths that depraved ones can plumb’Publisher’s Weekly ‘Reads like Martin’s outline for a Game of Thrones prequel that never wasEntertainment Weekly
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER
Book SynopsisA 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 horrors so often concealed behind everyday façades. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in Comma'; nurses clash in Harley Street' over something more than professional differences; and in the title story, staying in for the plumber turns into an ambiguous and potentially deadly waiting game.Whether set in a claustrophobic Saudi Arabian flat or on a precarious mountain road in Greece, these stories share an insight into the darkest recesses of the spirit. Displaying all of Mantel's unmistakable style and wit, they reveal a great writer at the peak of her Trade Review‘An exhilarating, if dark, collection … ‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher’ is a small triumph: a lesson in artfully controlled savagery’ Sunday Times ‘Remarkably good: taut, engaging and shocking … acutely observed’ Evening Standard ‘I would recommend the brilliantly chilling …The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher over most other long or short works this year.’ Telegraph, Books of the Year ‘What a fabulously nasty concoction Hilary Mantel has served up … It’s a fugu fish of a book; parts of which will leave you dizzily elated, while other parts may make you very ill indeed … The venom is distilled, bottled and dripped like slowly staining bitters into the cocktail of the entertainment … That title story, wickedly good, is alone worth the price of admission to the book’ Simon Schama, Financial Times ‘The best stories in the collection … combine sharp observation and sly wit with a subtle burrowing into the recesses of her protagonists’ heads. The darker stories recall both the metaphysical speculations of Jorge Luis Borges and the trickery of Roald Dahl’ Mail on Sunday ‘Infused with Mantel’s almost lush evocations of isolation and distress … All in all, these are alluring portraits of interior disquiet’ Observer ‘No one else quite sounds like Mantel in this vein, although a top-level summit of Muriel Spark and Alan Bennett might conceivably come close. Mantel takes absolutely nothing on trust. Bodies can, and will, malfunction; ditto minds, and marriages. Malice, power or simple chance may always undermine the ground beneath your feet’ Independent ‘These are the sticky slices of suburban noir that Mantel served up so well in her pre-Wolf Hall output and they never fail to deliver’ The Times ‘Much of Mantel’s glorious power comes from her unsentimental, forensic gaze and willingness to describe the uncomfortable … Mantel’s brutally dissecting eye is much in evidence here … Her prose is sublime … the glittering details exquisite’ Independent on Sunday
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Kiss Before Christmas A Christmas Romance Novella Harperimpulse Contemporary Romance
Book SynopsisAn English Girl in New YorkTrade Review‘Heart-warming, hilarious and simply irresistible, The Kiss Before Christmas continues to affirm Sophie Pembroke’s standing as one of romantic fiction’s fastest rising stars!’ – Bookish Jottings
£6.61
HarperCollins Publishers Selected Short Stories Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he remains one of the most important voices of Bengali culture to this day. These short stories, written mostly in the 1890s, vividly portray Bengali life and culture. Tagore's treatment of caste culture, bureaucracy and poverty paint a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century India, and all are interwoven with Tagore's perceptive eye for detail, strong sense of humanity and deep affinity for the natural world. Tagore's stories continue to rise above geographic and cultural boundaries to capture the imaginations of readers around the world.
£5.68
HarperCollins Publishers A Wild Swan
Book SynopsisHere are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed, reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hours, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. Rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true.The Beast stands ahead of you in line at the convenience store, buying smokes and a Slim Jim, his devouring smile aimed at the cashier. A malformed little man with a knack for minor acts of wizardry goes to disastrous lengths to procure a child. A loutish and lazy Jack prefers living in his mother''s basement to getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a handful of magic beans.In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation.Trade Review‘While there was darkness in the original tales – blood, butchery and much else – Cunningham’s collection brings emotional light and shade where there was none … The comedy in these stories works brilliantly, but it does not uncut the tragedy of its lonely and quietly tormented outsiders … This collection reminds us of the uncanny ability of the fairy tale to allow its story and characters to bend and stretch to the time in which it is being reconceived, to be both archaic and topical … Short, contemporary, disturbing, and alluring,: a transporting and enthralling read’ FIVE STARS, Independent ‘With a light touch and bags of sardonic elegance, Cunningham impishly expands on these timeless narratives’ Hephzibah Anderson, Observer Praise for THE SNOW QUEEN: 'Clean and sharp as an ice crystal; a brief but profound and poetic meditation on love, death and compassion from a master craftsman of language' Observer ‘Michael Cunningham’s resonant new novel . . . is arguably [his] most original and emotionally piercing book to date’ New York Times ‘The pursuit of transcendence in all kinds of forms — music, drugs, a McQueen minidress, and those things less tangible but no less powerfully felt — drives Michael Cunningham's best novel in more than a decade’ Vogue Praise for THE HOURS: ‘“The Hours” is a book which heightens the perception of the reader. Cunningham’s craftsmanship is overwhelming.’ Robert Farren, Independent on Sunday ‘An extremely moving, original and memorable novel.’ Hermione Lee, TLS ‘Engrossing, imaginative and humane.’ Richard Francis, Observer
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers The Complete Short Stories The 1960s Part 3 The Brian Aldiss Collection
Book SynopsisFollowing on from the 1950s collection, this is the second collection of Brian Aldiss’ short stories, taken from the 1960s. A must-have for collectors. Part three of four.Trade Review‘Aldiss is a magician’ Sunday Times‘The titan of science fiction.’ Telegraph ‘Brian Aldiss is one of the most influential – and one of the best – SF writers Britain has ever produced.’ Iain M Banks ‘The best contemporary writer of science fiction.’ Guardian ‘One of the truly prophetic figures of the space age… the colossus of science fiction’New Yorker ‘Once again he demonstrates the power of his imagination.’ Daily Mail
£12.34
HarperCollins Publishers Beasts Royal Twelve Tales of Adventure
Book SynopsisBeasts Royal is the second book written by Patrick O’Brian – made available, at last, for the first time since the 1930s and beautifully repackaged.Trade Review‘Both books are full of the fantasy that has made O’Brian’s seafaring yarns such a success. Like them, they are full of engaging adventures, curious lore, fond descriptions of food and scenes of battle… Caesar makes delightful, often hilarious reading… Hussein is more sophisticated. Here fully thirty years before Master and Commander was published is the unmistakable texture of O’Brian’s historical fiction. Hussein has it all: the immersion in another world, full of local colour, the delight in a specialised vocabulary, the relish of male camaraderie, travel, treasure and fighting.’David Sexton, Evening Standard ‘O’Brian admirers can now appreciate another dimension to his writing’ Alex O’Connell, The Times
£9.00
HarperCollins Publishers The Sing of the Shore
Book SynopsisAn uncanny, startlingly beautiful story collection steeped in the Cornish landscape, from the award-winning author of Diving Belles and Other Stories and Weathering.At the very edge of England, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the land and visitors flock in with the summer like seagulls, there is a Cornwall that is not shown on postcards.It is a place where communication cables buzz deep beneath the sand; where satellite dishes turn like flowers on clifftops, and where people drift like flotsam, caught in eddying tides. Restless children haunt empty holiday homes, a surfer struggles with the undertow of family life, a girl watches her childhood spin away from her in the whirl of a night-time fairground and, in a web of sea caves, a brother and sister search the dark for something lost.These astonishing, beguiling stories of ghosts and shifting sands, of static caravans and shipwrecked cargo, explore notions of landscape and belonging, permanence and impermanence, and the way places can tTrade Review‘Heart-thumping miniature thrillers. There’s an uncanny, delicate quality to much of Wood’s prose that belies how difficult this kind of writing is to pull off’ Guardian ‘She constructs a vivid, uneasy fictional geography of modern Cornwall’ Jonathan McAloon, Spectator ‘The Sing of the Shore shows Lucy Wood at the top of her considerable game. Best enjoyed with the woodburner stoked up and hail lashing the windows, these discreetly linked stories conjure a wholly original Cornish Gothic: now sad, now funny, now so profoundly creepy you’ll check that dark corner of the room before continuing’ Patrick Gale, author of Notes from an Exhibition ‘Rain-drenched, windswept and haunted – this is how I felt as I read The Sing of the Shore. Wood’s is a Cornwall filled with uneasy spirits, both living and dead, but that also welcomed me in with wry gossip and knowing looks. Absorbing, beautiful, and deeply uncanny, this collection soaked me through and will linger in my bones’ Zoe Gilbert, author of Folk ‘The sounds of the sea and the weather ripple through these eerie, exceptional stories set in a Cornwall that is, by turns, moody and melancholy, winder-filled and woebegone’ Eithne Farry, Daily Mail ‘The stories of The Sing of the Shore continue to resonate long after you have closed its covers, and form a remarkably fine collection, beautiful and unsettling’ Shiny New Books ‘These haunting, elegiac stories capture bleak moments of unfulfilled lives’ S Magazine, Sunday Express ‘Mesmerising short-story collection…the writing is so good it is hard to resist’ Leaf Arbuthnot, Sunday Times ‘Elegant new collection of stories … Every figure is wonderfully observed, their lives made poignant and moving in a few brief pages’ Lamorna Ash, TLS
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Ghosts in the House Tales of Terror by A. C.
Book SynopsisA collection of rare ghosts and horror stories by the brothers of one of the finest writers of the genre, E. F. Benson.The Benson brothers Arthur Christopher, Edward Frederic and Robert Hugh were one of the most extraordinary and prolific literary families, between them writing more than 150 books. Arthur alone left four million words of diary, although his most lasting legacy is the words to Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory, while Fred is acknowledged as one of the finest writers of Edwardian supernatural fiction: the name E. F. Benson is mentioned in the same breath as other greats such as M. R. James and H. R. Wakefield.In fact, all three brothers wrote ghost stories, although the work of Arthur and Hugh in this field has long been overshadowed by their brother's success. Now the best supernatural tales of A. C. and R. H. Benson have been gathered into one volume by anthologist Hugh Lamb, whose introduction examines the lives and writings of these two complex and fascinating men. OrTrade Review‘If you have read the ghost stories of M.R. James, you will already be familiar with the basic formula used to construct these stories … the language of these shows the influence of the fantasies of William Morris and George Macdonald.’ Amazon reviews
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers I Am Heathcliff Stories Inspired by Wuthering
Book Synopsis16 modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy.Short stories to stir the heart and awaken vital conversation about love.Sixteen stories inspired by Wuthering Heights.In Terminus' a young woman hides in an empty Brighton hotel; in Thicker Than Blood' a man sits in a hot tub stalking his newly-married love on social media; and in A bird half-eaten' an amateur boxer prepares for a match.A woman recalls the Heathcliffs I Have Known' and the physical danger she has borne at their hands; in Anima' a child and a fox are unified in one startling moment of violence; and in One Letter Different' two teenagers walk the moors and face up to their respective buried secrets.Curated by Kate Mosse and commissioned for Emily Brontë's bicentenary year in 2018, these fresh, modern stories pulse with the raw beauty and pain of love and are as timely as they are illuminating.The full list of contributors is:Leila Aboulela, HanTrade Review‘Inspired by Wuthering Heights, these tales of toxic relationships, an entirely disturbing episode of stalking and necrophilia, blighted lives and bleak landscapes reveal that contemporary responses to Emily Bronte’s endlessly controversial classic can be equally stark, cruel and shocking’ Daily Mail ‘Visceral writing that lays bare the savagery of Heathcliff’ Financial Times ‘Tales of toxic relationships, a hungry, howling, anorexic ghost, drug addled lovers and blighted lives and landscapes … But there are surprises in store, too. Crime writer Sophie Hannah delivers a high school musical murder mystery while Louisa Young’s Heathcliffs I Have Known is a furious, funny, riotous rant on the role of this supposedly romantic hero’ Sunday Express S Magazine ‘In the wonderful, wistful One Letter Different by Joanna Cannon, two teenagers head to the moors in silent, secretive communion’ Daily Mail ‘Louisa Young’s furious, funny, righteous rant redresses the ‘romantic’ hero myth as she recites the violent misdemeanours of bad boyfriends in Heathcliffs I Have Known’ Daily Mail
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers Property A Collection
Book SynopsisThe first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel ShriverGenius' StylistPhenomenal' ObserverBrilliant' The TimesIn her first ever story collection, Lionel Shriver illuminates one of the modern age's most enduring obsessions: property.A woman creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend; a thirty-something son refuses to leave home; a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security.This landmark publication explores the idea of property in both senses of the word: real estate, and stuff. Immensely readable, it showcases the biting insight that has made Lionel Shriver one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.Trade Review‘Shriver’s intellect and talent, her political convictions and her impressive confidence are all on display … assertive, frequently funny and altogether satisfying … her confident grasp of the material and her natural gifts as a storyteller will keep you in her spell and leave you, at the end, slightly altered … persuasive and richly entertaining’ NEW YORK TIMES ‘Phenomenal… Shriver has the gift for making one instantly curious, entertained, involved and ready to move in – no matter what the property’ OBSERVER ‘Genius’ STYLIST ‘At her best, she takers the familiar and mundane and turns it into something surprising and strange’ SUNDAY EXPRESS S MAGAZINE ‘All Shriver’s stories are satisfying. I exhaled a little triumphant “Ha!” at the end of each one … Shriver is brilliant’ THE TIMES ‘Shriver remains a formidably sharp writer, one of the best we have’ EVENING STANDARD ‘Shriver is at her best here, an acerbic comedian, Dickensian in style, whose vibrant characters are best seen in dramatic action and dialogue’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Whip-smart … Crisp, conversational and convincingly true to life, Shriver’s stories are a treat’ DAILY MAIL ‘A pugnacious, brilliantly articulate, hilarious collection’ i NEWS ‘Shriver is the master of the neat twist’ DAILY EXPRESS
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers What Were Teaching Our Sons
Book Synopsis Wise and funny, touching and true, What We’re Teaching Our Sons is for anyone who has ever wondered how to be a grown up. Trade Review‘If you like the structure – setup, joke, setup, joke, setup, joke – then you’ll love What We’re Teaching Our Sons. If you don’t, well, there’s still plenty to occupy your attention, because the book is not just funny: there are tiny stories embedded throughout the endlessly repeated pattern, as if a Bridget Riley painting were populated between the lines with lots of Bruegel micro-portraits. The pattern is just the entry point, and all the little details and the insistent use of the first person plural entice the reader into a surprisingly rich fictional world’ Ian Sansom, Guardian ‘Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Matt Haig’s How to be Human and Reasons to Stay Alive are contemporary counterpoints, but What We’re Teaching Our Sons feels highly original in scope … You start with a smile on your face and end with tears in your eyes. This is the way of this wonderful work’ Irish Times ‘Booth pulls the rug out from under the novel form – not to mention a card-house of masculine archetypes – with tender, satirical, melancholy ease’ Joanna Walsh, author of Break.up ‘I can't remember the last time I read a book that so frequently reduced me to tears of laughter and painful recognition … one of the pleasures, beyond the wit and exuberance of the prose, is the joy of seeing a writer finding the absolutely perfect form for their work’ Luke Kennard, author of The Transition ‘Formally bold, funny, sweetly sad and fiendishly clever, Booth finds, on the journey men take with their boys, a small, fertile, hitherto undiscovered island somewhere in the vast ocean between Donald Barthelme and Nick Hornby’ Will Ashon, author of Strange Labyrinth 'What We're Teaching our Sons is remarkable. Booth has shone a light on the beautiful, flawed and complicated relationship between fathers and sons. I imagine there will be several bought, lent and lost copies of this book in my future' Laura Pearson, The Motherload
£7.59
HarperCollins Publishers The Book of Dragons A thrilling collection of
Book SynopsisHERE BE DRAGONSA unique collection of stories by the greatest fantasy writers working today.Sparking myths and legends from Asia to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons are the most universal and awe-inspiring of magical creatures.Whether they are fearsome, rampaging monsters or benevolent sages with much to teach humanity, dragons bring creation, destruction, and adventure in stories told all around the globe.In this landmark collection, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan combines nearly thirty never-before-seen short stories and poems, written by modern masters of science fiction and fantasy, and illustrations by acclaimed artist Rovina Cai.Featuring stories from Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Garth Nix, Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, and many more, THE BOOK OF DRAGONS breathes fresh life and fire into the greatest magical beasts of all.Trade ReviewWINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST ANTHOLOGY OF THE YEAR ‘A heaping hoard of literary gems that fans of dragon-powered stories will surely treasure’KIRKUS ‘THE BOOK OF DRAGONS seems almost certain to be the most significant fantasy anthology of 2020’LOCUS ‘There is not a single false note among these 29 stories and poems of dragons collected by Strahan … With myriad approaches to its subject, this wide-ranging anthology is a treasure trove of wonder’PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ‘A colourful assortment of dragons reimagined … Something for everyone and a reader will likely come away hungry for more’STRAITS TIMES
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Fabulous
Book SynopsisNot since Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber have old stories been made to feel so electrically new.Not since Wim Winders' Wings of Desire have the numinous and the everyday been so magically combined.It''s in the nature of myth to be infinitely adaptable.Each of these startlingly original stories is set in modern Britain. Their characters include a people-trafficking gang-master and a prostitute, a migrant worker and a cocksure estate agent, an elderly musician doubly befuddled by dementia and the death of his wife, a pest-controller suspected of paedophilia and a librarian so well-behaved that her parents wonder anxiously whether she'll ever find love.They're ordinary people, preoccupied, as we all are now, by the deficiencies of the health service, by criminal gangs and homelessness, by the pitfalls of dating in the age of #metoo. All of their stories, though, are inspired by ones drawn from Graeco-Roman myth, from the Bible or from folk-lore.The ancients invented myths to express wTrade Review Praise for Fabulous: 'Once you have entered the world of Fabulous, you are unlikely to leave until you're done … there is a magnetic quality to the writing … Hughes-Hallett uses myth to get at the shimmering violence underneath the dowdy trappings of little England' TLS ‘A surprisingly exhilarating collection of ancient stories … retold and refigured for modern times … Lucy Hughes Hallett’s acute eye for appearances and her ear for modern speech make the surface drama compelling. Her greatest achievement is to bring out the underlying tragedies of the workings of fate’ The Tablet ‘Brilliant fantasies that blend the power of the ancient myths with the immediacy of real life’ John Carey, author of William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies 'Familiar yet strange, its modern characters wittily observed, the narrative charged with emotion. These eight incantatory tales, like the fables they’re based on, enthral’ Tatler ‘Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a wonderfully versatile writer and her enthralling modern reworkings of ancient myths shows her at the absolute top of her game. Hughes-Hallett’s new book is playful and moving, sharply observed and hauntingly mysterious. Fabulous indeed’ Fiona McCarthy, author of Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus ‘Fabulous is enchanting. The sort of book you can't stop reading, even though you never want it to end’ Sue Prideaux, author of I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche ‘The writing in Fabulous is fabulous. So is the imagination, the wit and the storytelling. This is such a marvellous book, and with each chapter I became more astonished that ANYONE could know so much about the detritus and edges of our modern life’ Carmen Calil, author of Bad Faith: A History of Family and Fatherland
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers The Last Séance
Book SynopsisFrom the Queen of Crime, the first time all of her spookiest and most macabre stories have been collected in one volume.Trade Review“It’s tempting to say that Agatha Christie is a genius and let it go at that, but the world’s had plenty of geniuses. Agatha Christie is something special.”— Lawrence Block “Agatha Christie’s books are both wonderful crime novels and studies in contrast and duality, and I adore them still. Underestimate them at your peril.”— Louise Penny “Agatha Christie taught me many important lessons about the inner workings of the mystery novel before it ever occurred to me that I might one day be writing mysteries myself.”— Sue Grafton “Any mystery writer who wants to learn how to plot should spend a few days reading Agatha Christie. She’ll show you everything you want to know.”— Donna Leon “Agatha Christie’s indelibly etched characters have entertained millions across the years and a love of her work has brought together generations of readers—a singular achievement for any author and an inspiration to writers across the literary landscape.”— Jacqueline Winspear
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Bodies from the Library 3 Lost Tales of Mystery
Book SynopsisThis anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 18 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including uncollected stories by Ngaio Marsh and John Dickson Carr. The Golden Age of detective fiction had begun inauspiciously with the publication of E.C. Bentley's schismatic Trent's Last Case in 1913, but it hit its stride in 1920 when both Agatha Christie and Freeman Wills Crofts latterly crowned queen and king of the genre had crime novels published for the first time. They ushered in two decades of exemplary mystery writing, the era of the whodunit, the impossible crime and the locked-room mystery, with stories that have thrilled and baffled generations of readers.This new volume in the Bodies from the Library series features the work of 18 prolific authors who, like Christie and Crofts, saw their popularity soar during the Golden Age. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction stories, serials and plays and although moTrade Review‘Tony Medawar triumphs again with this treasure trove of lost Golden Age gems.’—John Curran, author of The Hooded Gunman 'For the third year running it has been an annual treat – almost like the summer version of a Christie for Christmas.' Kate Jackson, author of The Pocket Detective
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Bodies from the Library 4 Lost Tales of Mystery
Book SynopsisThis annual anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a short novel by Christianna Brand.Mystery stories have been around for centuriesthere are whodunits, whydunits and howdunits, including locked-room puzzles, detective stories without detectives, and crimes with a limited choice of suspects.Countless volumes of such stories have been published, but some are still impossible to find: stories that appeared in a newspaper, magazine or an anthology that has long been out of print; ephemeral works such as plays not aired, staged or screened for decades; and unpublished stories that were absorbed into an author's archive when they died . . .Here for the first time are three never-before-published mysteries by Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh and Leo Bruce, and two pieces written for radio by Gladys Mitchell and H. C. Baileythe latter featuring Reggie Fortune.Together with a newly uneTrade Review‘In this trip down memory lane, familiar names from the golden age, such as Ngaio Marsh, Gladys Mitchell and Edmund Crispin, share the honours with lesser lights claiming their overdue recognition as gifted contributors to classic crime. The centrepiece is a novella by Christianna Brand who, after years of neglect, is now enjoying a revival. Other snappier tales of criminal intent, gathered for the first time in book form, testify to Tony Medawar’s skill as an excavator of lost treasures of crime fiction. This, the fourth in the series of Bodies From The Library, is the best yet.’—Daily Mail 'An annual treat – almost like the summer version of a Christie for Christmas.'—Kate Jackson, author of The Pocket Detective and Cross Examining Crime ‘One of the best mixed anthologies I’ve come across … If you’re already a vintage crime fan, then this is one to grab; and if you’re new to the genre, then you’ll find this a very enjoyable way to introduce yourself to some of the greats. Highly recommended!’—FictionFanBlog
£13.49
HarperCollins Publishers Dalziel and Pascoe Hunt the Christmas Killer
Book Synopsis''Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo's trademark humour' Daily MirrorThese stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionados' Guardian'Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo's trademark humour' Daily MirrorThese stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionados' GuardianA vicar nailed to a tree in Yorkshire.The theft of a priceless artefact during a fire.A detective forced to tell the truth for 24 hours. A body hidden in a basement.From the restless streets of London to the wilds of the Lake District, displaying all his trademark humour, playfulness and clever plotting, this landmark collection brings together the very best of Reginald Hill's short stories for the first time, complete with a foreword from Val McDermid.PRAISE FOR REGINALD HILLOne of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists'The TimesA real treat. The characters are deftly drawn, the plot constantly delivers, surprises and the assured narrative demonstrates again what a terrific writer he is''Observer''Reginald Hill''s novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories intertwining''Ian Rankin''The finest male English contemporary crime writer''Val McDermidTrade Review“Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo’s trademark humour” Daily Mirror ‘As well as being a highly skilled crime novelist, the late Reginald Hill (1936-2012) was an accomplished short story writer. This collection… showcases both Hill’s virtuosity and his continual experimentation with the genre … All are explored in Hill’s trademark playful but sharply observed style as he conjures up multifaceted characters with economical ease … these stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionados’ Guardian PRAISE FOR REGINALD HILL Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo’s trademark humour The Times 'Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories intertwining'Ian Rankin 'The finest male English contemporary crime writer'Val McDermid 'So far out in front that he need not bother looking over his shoulder'Sunday Telegraph 'Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace'Donna Leon, Sunday Times 'One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists'The Times ‘Altogether an enjoyable performance, one of Mr Hill’s best’Financial Times 'These novels last, like a grand malt whisky – rounded, rich, intoxicating… Here is an author at his formidable best'Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday 'He is probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world'Andrew Taylor, Independent 'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction'Observer
£9.49
