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*NOW A MAJOR FEEL-GOOD FILM STARRING RUSSELL CROWE*When he left depressing, drizzly London for a sun-soaked vineyard in Southern France, he was expecting to find a savvy business investment. Instead, he found himself.Meet Max Skinner. Max spends his days trading stocks in the City, his nights flirting with beautiful women in bars. He's successful, well-paid, good-looking for his age . . . but the reality is that he's lost. And in the grey maze of London's Square Mile, there's no clear escape route.After a disappointment at work causes him to resign, he receives a letter telling him that his uncle Henry has passed away, leaving him an estate and vineyard in Provence.Slowly, memories of the magical summers he spent on the vineyard as a boy start to return to him. And then there's the matter of beautiful, magnetic waitress Fanny Chenal. Not to mention the American backpacker who's just turned up on his doorstep, claiming that Uncle Henry was her father. The ultimate feel-good read, A Good Year is a love letter to second chances, simple pleasures, and how the wonder we thought we'd lost in our childhood was with us all along. You might just have to go on a journey to find it again.**'The only thing wrong I found with this story is that it ended' - Goodreads reviewer'Irresistible' - BookPage

The fourth novel in the international No. 1 bestselling Mercy Thompson series - the major urban fantasy hit of the decade'I love these books!' Charlaine Harris'The best new fantasy series I've read in years' Kelley ArmstrongMERCY THOMPSON: MECHANIC, SHAPESHIFTER, FIGHTERCar mechanic and sometime shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has learned, the hard way, why her race was almost exterminated. When European vampires immigrated to North America, they found Mercy's people had a hidden talent - for vampire slaying. Unfortunately for Mercy, the queen of the local vampire seethe has discovered her true identity.She's also furious when she learns Mercy has crossed her and killed one of her vampires. Mercy may be protected from direct reprisals by the werewolf pack (and her interesting relationship with its Alpha), but that just means Marsilia will come after Mercy some other way. So Mercy had better prepare to watch her back.Praise for the series:'Plenty of twists and turns . . . Kept me entertained from its deceptively innocent beginning to its can't-put-it-down end' Kim Harrison, bestselling author of Dead Witch Walking 'I enjoyed every minute of it. I love Mercy and can't wait for her to kick some more ass' Lilith Saintcrow The Mercy Thompson books:Moon CalledBlood BoundIron KissedBone CrossedSilver BorneRiver MarkedFrost BurnedNight BrokenFire TouchedSilence FallenStorm CursedShifting Shadows (Stories from the world of Mercy Thompson)

'[The Awakening] hits the ground running, leaving readers tripping, stumbling and racing to keep up.... Will exhilarate even readers new to the series.' - Kirkus, starred review'Armstrong has some fun toying with supernatural teen thriller conventions, and the taut pacing should please fans of the exploding genre.' - BooklistChloe Saunders used to be a normal teenage girl - or so she thought. Then she learned the shocking truth - she is a walking science experiment. Genetically altered at birth by a sinister group of scientists known as the Edison Group, Chloe is an aberration - a powerful necromancer who can see ghosts and even raise the dead, often with terrifying consequences. Even worse, her growing powers have made her a threat to the surviving members of the Edison Group, who have decided it's time to end their experiment - permanently . . .Now Chloe is running for her life with three other supernatural teenagers - a charming sorcerer, a troubled werewolf and a temperamental young witch. Together they have a chance for freedom - but can Chloe trust her new friends?The second book in the stunning Darkest Powers trilogy, The Awakening is a powerful and gripping story from bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.Books by Kelley Armstrong:Women of the Otherworld seriesBittenStolenDime Store MagicIndustrial MagicHauntedBrokenNo Humans InvolvedPersonal DemonLiving with the DeadFrost BittenWalking the WitchSpellboundThirteenNadia StaffordExit StrategyMade to be BrokenWild JusticeRocktonCity of the LostA Darkness AbsoluteThis Fallen PreyWatcher in the WoodsAlone in the WildDarkest PowersThe SummoningThe AwakeningThe ReckoningOtherworld TalesMen of the OtherworldTales of the OtherworldOtherworld NightsOtherworld SecretsOtherworld ChillsDarkness RisingThe GatheringThe CallingThe RisingCainsvilleOmensVisionsDeceptionsBetrayalsRituals

The third Culture novel from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a modern master of science fiction. The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.Praise for the Culture series:'Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution' Independent on Sunday'Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future' Guardian'Jam-packed with extraordinary invention' Scotsman'Compulsive reading' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsThe State of the ArtExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe Algebraist

The eighth Culture book from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a modern master of science fiction.In a world renowned within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.Praise for the Culture series:'Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution' Independent on Sunday'Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future' Guardian'Jam-packed with extraordinary invention' Scotsman'Compulsive reading' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsThe State of the ArtExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe Algebraist

'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times FEATURED IN 'THE 100 BOOKS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD' BBC ARTS The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 is the first book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Friday January 2ndI felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared._________'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' HeatNOW A MAJOR MUSICAL

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was Carson McCullers' first novel, written in 1940. Set in a small town in the American South, it is the story of a group of people who have little in common except that they are all hopelessly lonely. A young girl, a drunken socialist and a black doctor are drawn to a gentle, sympathetic deaf mute, whose presence changes their lives. This powerful exploration of alienation is both moving and perceptive.

"e;Funny, page-turning and addictive... just like Malory Towers for grown-ups"e; - Sophie Kinsella For the first time, the girls caught sight of the turreted, castle-like building that would be home for the next nine months, the four towers of the main houses nestled in the hills, with the cliffs behind, leading down to the still turquoise sea. Maggie loves teaching English at beautiful Downey House but she is less keen on planning her wedding to dependable Stan. Instead, she's working on ignoring her crush on David McDonald, who teaches English at the local boys' school. Just as Simone and Fliss have become friends, Zelda arrives to upset everything. Zelda is loudly, glamorously American, and she's full of ways to improve life at boring school. Soon, quiet, mousy Simone is undergoing a makeover. And Fliss is about to jeopardise everything to impress a boy. In a new year at school, the girls of Downey House will be breaking all the rules - and not all of them will escape unscathed. "e;A brilliant boarding school book, stuffed full of unforgettable characters, thrilling adventures and angst..."e; - Lisa Jewell

'Funny, page-turning and addictive . . . just like Malory Towers for grown-ups'Sophie KinsellaClass is the first novel in Jenny Colgan's beloved Maggie Adair series.**************Maggie went to the window and opened it wide, inhaling the lovely, ozoney air off the sea. Why had she never lived by the sea before? Why had she always looked out on housing estates and not the little white hulls of trawlers bobbing off in the distance?It's gloriously sunny in Cornwall as the school year starts at the little boarding school by the sea. Maggie, the newest teacher at Downey House, is determined to make her mark - but will it be at the expense of her relationship with safe, dependable Stan? Simone has won a scholarship and wants to make her parents proud. Forced to share a room with the glossy, pretty, clever girls of Downey House, she needs to find a friend, fast. Fliss is furious at being sent away from her home. As Simone tries desperately to fit in, Fliss tries desperately to get out. Over the course of one year, friendships will bloom and lives will be changed forever. "e;A brilliant boarding school book, stuffed full of unforgettable characters, thrilling adventures and angst..."e; - Lisa Jewell

Don't miss the powerful and page-turning new novel from Clare Mackintosh - AFTER THE END is out now________________Lose yourself in the sensational debut from Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go - the Sunday Times bestseller, number one ebook phenomenon and Richard & Judy book club pick.A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn't have prevented it. Could she?In a split second, Jenna Gray's world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating . . .Praise for I Let You Go'Compelling . . . with a killer twist' Paula Hawkins'A masterclass in plotting . . . I could not put it down' Jojo Moyes'Astonishingly good' Lee Child'Chilling . . . I was hooked' Rachel Abbott'Extraordinarily atmospheric' Alex Marwood

The second novel in Jenny Colgan's heartwarming Little Beach Street Bakery trilogy.Voted Best Feel Good Read by Women & Home Readers!Summer has arrived in the Cornish town of Mount Polbearne and Polly Waterford couldn't be happier. Because Polly is in love: she's in love with the beautiful seaside town she calls home, she's in love with running the bakery on Beach Street, and she's in love with her boyfriend, Huckle. And yet there's something unsettling about the gentle summer breeze that's floating through town. Selina, recently widowed, hopes that moving to Mount Polbearne will ease her grief, but Polly has a secret that could destroy her friend's fragile recovery. Responsibilities that Huckle thought he'd left behind are back and Polly finds it hard to cope with his increasingly long periods of absence. Polly sifts flour, kneads dough and bakes bread, but nothing can calm the storm she knows is coming: is Polly about to lose everything she loves?

'One of the most important American novels of the twentieth century' The Times'It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves'Ralph Ellison's blistering and impassioned first novel tells the extraordinary story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. Published in 1952 when American society was in the cusp of immense change, the powerfully depicted adventures of Ellison's invisible man - from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual to give voice to the experience of an entire generation of black Americans.This edition includes Ralph Ellison's introduction to the thirtieth anniversary edition of Invisible Man, a fascinating account of the novel's seven-year gestation.With an Introduction by John F. Callahan'Brilliant' Saul Bellow

'A heart-breaker . . . it has the kind of indefinably powerful impact of The Great Gatsby' Observer'The surprise bestseller ... read, loved and wept over by men and women of all ages' Guardian'A tale of young love and disenchantment, of missed opportunities and passion's elusive, flickering flame' Financial TimesHer dark eyes were lost in thought, absently staring into the distance, drawing on a last wisp of hope as she searched for something that she was almost certain she would never find.'The magical novel about a Turkish man who falls in love with an artist in 1920s Berlin ... recreates a vanished era and dramatises a doomed relationship with verve, depth and poignancy. The result is a miniature masterpiece' The National'Moving and memorable, full of yearning and melancholy' The Times'A tale of young love and disenchantment, of missed opportunities and passion's elusive, flickering flame' Financial Times'A gorgeously melancholic romance' Irish Times

A historical romance, Sontag's book is based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his wife, Emma, and Lord Nelson in the final decades of the eighteenth century. Passionately examining the shape of Western civilization since the Age of Enlightenment, Sontag's novel is an exquisitely detailed picture of revolution, the fate of nature, art and love.

Both heartwarming and meditative, The Cat Inside explores not only the personal relationship between Burroughs and cats, but the deeper relationship of cats with mankind, which Burroughs traces back to the Egyptians. This book of moving and witty discourse is for both Burroughs fans and cat lovers alike.

'We have all been more or less to blame ... every one of us, excepting Fanny'Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

'It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'Sherlock Holmes, scourge of criminals everywhere, whether they be lurking in London's foggy backstreets or plotting behind the walls of an idyllic country mansion, and his faithful colleague Dr Watson solve twelve breathtaking and perplexing mysteries.In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the first collection of the great consulting detective's cases, we encounter some of his most famous and devilishly difficult problems, including A Scandal in Bohemia, The Speckled Band, The Red-Headed League, The Blue Carbuncle, The Five Orange Pips and The Man with the Twisted Lip.

The story of the man-cub Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, guided by his mentors Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and the ancient python Kaa, and who confronts his arch-enemy Shere Khan the tiger, is one of the greatest literary myths ever created. Mowgli's adventures are juxtaposed with other animal stories set in the British Empire, ranging from the heroic battle of 'Rikki-tikki-tavi' and the Himalayan pastoral 'Purun Bhagat' to the drama of survival in 'The White Seal'. With The Jungle Books Rudyard Kipling drew on ancient beast fables, Buddhist philosophy and memories of his Anglo-Indian upbringing to create a rich, symbolic portrait of man and nature, and an eternal classic of childhood that has had a lasting impact on our imaginations.Part of a series of new editions of Kipling's works in Penguin Classics, this volume contains a General Preface by Jan Montefiore and an introduction by Kaori Nagai discussing the many imperial, Indian and literary contexts of The Jungle Books.

Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.A new translation by Lydia Davis

This new volume of eight short stories offers students of German at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature in the original, with the aid of parallel translations.The majority of these stories have been written in the past decade, and reflect a rich diversity of styles and themes. Complete with notes, the stories make excellent reading in either language.

On a cruiseship bound for Buenos Aires, a wealthy passenger challenges the world chess champion to a match. He accepts with a sneer. He will beat anyone, he says. But only if the stakes are high. Soon, the chess board is surrounded. At first, the challenger crumbles before the mind of the master. But then, a soft-spoken voice from the crowd begins to whisper nervous suggestions. Perfect moves, brilliant predictions. The speaker has not played a game for more than twenty years, he says. He is wholly unknown. But somehow, he is also entirely formidable...

The landmark work on race in America from James Baldwin, whose life and words are immortalized in the Oscar-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro'We, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation'James Baldwin's impassioned plea to 'end the racial nightmare' in America was a bestseller when it appeared in 1963, galvanising a nation and giving voice to the emerging civil rights movement. Told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', The Fire Next Time is at once a powerful evocation of Baldwin's early life in Harlem and an excoriating condemnation of the terrible legacy of racial injustice. 'Sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle ... all presented in searing, brilliant prose' The New York Times Book Review'Baldwin writes with great passion ... it reeks of truth, as the ghettoes of New York and London, Chicago and Manchester reek of our hypocrisy' Sunday Times'The great poet-prophet of the civil rights movement ... his seminal work' Guardian

Phizzwhizzing new cover look and branding for the World's NUMBER ONE Storyteller!Billy's biggest wish is to turn a weird old wooden house into a wonderful sweet-shop. But then he finds a giraffe, a pelly and a monkey living inside - they're the Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company! Who needs ladders when you've got a giraffe? They become best friends and when they meet the richest man in all of England, there's a chance that Billy's scrumptious-galumptious dream just might come true . . . Now you can listen to THE GIRAFFE AND THE PELLY AND ME (with ESIO TROT) and other Roald Dahl audiobooks read by some very famous voices, including Kate Winslet, David Walliams and Steven Fry - plus there are added squelchy soundeffects from Pinewood Studios! And look out for new Roald Dahl apps in the App store and Google Play- including the disgusting TWIT OR MISS! and HOUSE OF TWITS inspired by the revolting Twits."e;A true genius . . . Roald Dahl is my hero"e; David Walliams

They killed Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya.John Smith is not your average teenager. He regularly moves from small town to small town. He changes his name and identity. He does not put down roots. He cannot tell anyone who or what he really is. If he stops moving those who hunt him will find and kill him.But you can't run forever. So when he stops in Paradise, Ohio, John decides to try and settle down. To fit in. And for the first time he makes some real friends. People he cares about - and who care about him. Never in John's short life has there been space for friendship, or even love.But it's just a matter of time before John's secret is revealed.He was once one of nine. Three of them have been killed. John is Number Four. He knows that he is next . . .Praise for Pittacus Lore:'Tense, exciting, full of energy' Observer'Relentlessly readable' The Times'Set to eclipse Harry Potter and moody vampires. Pittacus Lore is about to become one of the hottest names on the planet' Big Issue'Tense, keeps you wondering' Sunday TimesPerfect for fans of The Hunger Games - I Am Number Four is the first book in Pittacus Lore's Lorien Legacies series and is now a major Disney film.

Bringing together a series of ingeniously linked myths and legends, Ovid's deliciously witty and poignant Metamorphoses describes a magical world in which men and women are transformed - often by love - into flowers, trees, animals, stones and stars. First published in 1567, this landmark translation by Arthur Golding was the first major English edition of the epic, which includes such tales as the legend of Narcissus; the parable of Icarus; and the passion held by the witch-queen Circe for the great Aeneas. A compelling adaptation that used imagery familiar to English sixteenth-century society, it powerfully influenced Spenser, Shakespeare and the character of Elizabethan literature.

Hotel du Lac is the classic Booker Prize winning novel by Anita Brookner. Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed . . . 'A classic . . . a book which will be read with pleasure a hundred years from now'Spectator'A smashing love story. It is very romantic. It is also humorous, witty, touching and formidably clever' The Times'Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart' Observer'Her technique as a novelist is so sure and so quietly commanding' Hilary Mantel, Guardian'She is one of the great writers of contemporary fiction' Literary ReviewAnita Brookner was born in south London in 1928, the daughter of a Polish immigrant family. She trained as an art historian, and worked at the Courtauld Institute of Art until her retirement in 1988. She published her first novel, A Start in Life, in 1981 and her twenty-fourth, Strangers, in 2009. Hotel du Lac won the 1984 Booker Prize. As well as fiction, Anita Brookner has published a number of volumes of art criticism.

In Iceland, the age of the Vikings is also known as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world s great literary treasures as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds of the Norse men and women who first settled in Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured farther west to Greenland and, ultimately, North America. Sailing as far from the archetypal heroic adventure as the long ships did from home, the Sagas are written with psychological intensity, peopled by characters with depth, and explore perennial human issues like love, hate, fate and freedom.

From Bernard Cornwell, the creator of the No. 1 bestselling Sharpe novels. Arthur has brought a fragile peace to Britain - but it cannot last . . .Uniting the restive British kingdoms behind him, Arthur believes he can now hold back the Saxons threatening the country. Meanwhile, Merlin sets out on a quest to uncover the sacred Treasures of Britain, hoping they will prove decisive in the coming battle. But in a country where the cult of the Christians is spreading, Merlin's quest is divisive. And the ambitions of the rival warlord Lancelot threaten the delicate peace. Could even those closest to Arthur be moved to betray him?In the second book of the Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell brilliantly retells the Arthurian legend, combining myth, history and thrilling battlefield action.'Wonderful and haunting' People Magazine'Of all the books I have written these are my favourites' Bernard Cornwell

The first complete new translation for 25 years of the acknowledged masterpiece of Japanese literature. Lady Murasaki's great 11th century novel is a beautifully crafted story of love, betrayal and death at the Imperial Court. At the core of this epic is Prince Genji, the son of an emperor, whose passionate character, love affairs and shifting political fortunes, offer an equisite glimpse of the golden age of Japan. Royal Tyler's superb new translation is scrupulously true to the Japanese original but appeals immeadiately to the modern reader. This edition also includes notes, glossaries, character lists and a chronology to enable the reader to appreciate the richness of this classic of world literature.