Global Identities in Transit: The Ethics and Politics of Representation in World Literatures and Cultures explores the myriad aspects of identity formation and identity representation in an increasingly globalized world. Covering a variety of cultural and historical experiences in addition to several texts of world literatures, the contributors discuss the configurations of transnationality and transculturality in our postcolonial and globalized world. Acknowledging that nationality, ethni...

Joining the emergent interdisciplinary investment in bridging the social sciences and the humanities, Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds explores linkages between children’s agency and fantasy. Fantasy as an integral aspect of childhood and as a genre allows for children’s spectacular dreams and hopeful realities. Friendship, family, identity, loyalty, belongingness, citizenry, and emotionality are central concepts explored in chapters that are anchored by hum...

Christmas falls on 25 December with faithful inevitability. Indeed, our entire Western system of time is based upon it. It may seem as though it has always been this way, but like many facts of the holiday’s history, the date of Christ’s birth contains a complex story wrapped in controversy. Despite the deep traditions that bind a culture to its version of Christmas – the pageantry, food and folklore – its longevity has always depended on its ability to evolve.Christmas: The Sa...

Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century aims to bring together detailed analyses of the cultural myths, or fictions, of consumption that have shaped discourses on consumer practices from the eighteenth century onwards. Individual essays provide an excitingly diverse range of perspectives, including musicology, philosophy, history, and art history, cultural and postcolonial studies as well as the study of literature in English, French, and German. The broad scope of this c...

BLUE-EYED GIRL is a powerful, compelling family drama telling the story of a family torn apart by secrets.Anya Keating loves her job as PA to Macdara Fitzgerald, owner of the stunning Lismore estate and its string of racehorses. Macdara is an indulgent and generous employer and Anya has grown very fond of him. But when he rashly proposes marriage, their friendship - and her position - is threatened, and Anya is torn between her loyalty to Macdara and her feelings f...

RSVP is a sumptuous family saga, packed with sex, love and betrayal.The Granville Midsummer Ball is always an affair to remember. The who's who of Irish society gather at Carrickcross House - the rural family estate - for a night of revelry. But this year's soiree is extra-special: matriarch Honoria is announcing her grandson Rossa's engagement to Ashling Morrison.Ashling has been swept off her feet. Tall, dark and handsome, Rossa's the perfect catch, but i...

Perfect to curl up with this Christmas, The Proposal by Tasmina Perry is a spellbinding tale of second chances that looks back to the year of the last debutantes. With a haunting love story at its heart, the novel sweeps you away to Fifties London and modern Manhattan. If you love Kate Morton, Rachel Hore and Santa Montefiore, you will adore this multi-layered, moving read. 'A story of long-buried secrets...Perry expertly weaves a delicate web of love and betrayal' Dai...

Welcome to Tilly Bagshawe’s Swell Valley, where the scandal is in a class of its own.Tatiana Flint-Hamilton’s gilded cage is torn away when her estranged father dies. As the beloved family estate slips through Tati’s fingers, the portraits of her ancestors look down disapprovingly.The new Lord of the Manor is just as ruthless as Tati. The old-world status of Furlings is everything the wealthy, self-made Brett Cranley has ever wanted. Luckily his wife Angela is the perfect h...

Most of us know a bit about what passes for good manners - holding doors open, sending thank-you notes, no elbows on the table. We certainly know bad manners when we see them. But where has this patchwork of beliefs and behaviours come from? How did manners develop? How do they change? And why do they matter so much to us?In examining our manners, Henry Hitchings delves into the English character and investigates our notions of Englishness. Sorry! presents an amusing, illu...

The perfect novel for curling up with during the long winter nights – from the No.1 bestselling author of The Christmas InvitationSophy Winter is not your typical Lady of the Manor. When she unexpectedly inherits Winter's End – a crumbling mansion in the beautiful Lancashire countryside – it seems like all Sophy's prayers have been answered.But the house is decrepit and its eccentric inhabitants are a nightmare. And once it is discovered that Winter's End played ho...

In the Victorian period, the British novel reached a wide readership and played a major role in the shaping of national and individual identity. As we come to understand the ways the novel contributed to public opinion on religion, gender, sexuality and race, we continue to be entertained and enlightened by the works of Dickens, George Eliot, Thackeray, Trollope and many others. This second edition of the Companion to the Victorian Novel has been updated fully, taking account of new resear...

'A sheer delight from start to finish' Sophie Kinsella___________________________________On a tiny island of the coast of Scotland, a nugget of opportunity awaits . . .***WINNER OF THE RNA ROMANTIC COMEDY NOVEL AWARD 2018*****'**An evocative, sweet treat' Jojo Moyes'Gorgeous, glorious, uplifting' Marian Keyes'Irresistible' Jill Mansell'Ju...