A Town of Ghosts is a collection of 19 original illustrated ghost stories set in the Buckinghamshire town of Stony Stratford in Milton Keynes. The stories are loosely inspired by the history, characters and landscape of the town; most have an element of dark humour, though several nod towards the cryptic, brooding tales of the great ghost story writer MR James. You will meet a host of bizarre and macabre characters such as the resentful decomposing corpse of Thomas Farrar residing at the b...

Malky and Raymie are friends, of sorts - but when Malky gets lucky, Raymie gets jealous. A powerful short story with a pitch-black sense of humour from the author of Coffin Dodgers.

**THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**A serial killer is on the loose in Roman-occupied Britain, and Gaius Petreius Ruso is out to catch him... if he isn't killed first.The Gods are not smiling on army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso in his new posting in Britannia. He has vast debts, long shifts, and an overbearing hospital administrator to deal with . . . not to mention a serial killer stalking the local streets.Barmaids' bodies ar...

She's not your average crime fighter!Ivy Malone has a curiosity that sometimes gets her into trouble, and it's only aggravated by her discovery that she can easily escape the public eye. So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, she takes advantage of her newfound anonymity and its unforeseen advantages as she launches her own unofficial investigation.Despite her oddball humor and unconventional snooping, Ivy soon becomes discouraged by her failure to turn up any sol...

New York Times BestsellerNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and Library JournalWinner of the Audie AwardThe New York Times bestseller from the author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta finally appears in a one-volume paperback.Begging comparisons to Tolstoy and Joyce, this “magnificent, sprawling cosmic epic” (Guard...

What is visible to the naked eye has been exhaustively raked over; in UNDERGROUND LONDON, acclaimed travel writer Stephen Smith provides an alternative guide and history of the capital. It's a journey through the passages and tunnels of the city, the bunkers and tunnels, crypts and shadows. As well as being a contemporary tour of underground London, it's also an exploration through time: Queen Boudicca lies beneath Platform 10 at King's Cross (legend has it); Dick Turpin fled the Bow Stree...

NATIONAL BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTIONA captivating memoir that immerses readers in the life of a Scottish carpenter as he perfects his craft, builds a business, and reflects on what inheritance and shared responsibility really mean.The eldest son of a master woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing the lessons of c...

A groundbreaking collection of stories, including four never-before-published tales, from the award-winning author of Perdido Street StationWhat William Gibson did for science fiction, China Miéville has done for fantasy, shattering old paradigms with fiercely imaginative works of startling, often shocking, intensity. Among the fourteen superb fictions in Looking for Jake, including one set in Miéville’s signature fantasy world of New Crobuzon, ar...

Villages are full of tales: some are forgotten while others become a part of local folklore. But the fortunes of one West Country village are watched over and irreversibly etched into history as an omniscient, somewhat crabby, presence keeps track of village life.In the late sixties a Californian musician blows through Underhill and writes a set of haunting folk songs that will earn him a cult following. Two decades later, some teenagers disturb a body on the local golf course. In ...

An astounding reaction to a life-changing momentUrsula Martin never thought she would walk 3700 miles around Wales, but following a cancer diagnosis it seemed like the only reasonable thing to do. In 17 months, she traversed beaches and mountains, farms and urban sprawl. She received unimaginable support – people offered beds, food, cups of tea, donated to her chosen charities. Walking Wales rooted her in the country and in herself; her account of the physical and ...

That strangest of traveller, the lone female, is at it again. This time cycling through the heart of England from Bath to London to her home in Lancashire. For such a small country England was proving to be a land of contrasts and surprises; from the leafy lanes of Berkshire to the bleak moorlands of the north, spectacular scenery and post-industrial mill towns, dead divas and murderous mad men.Throughout the six hundred mile cycle ride there was much that was quintessentially Engli...

UNDERGROUND ENGLAND takes an extraordinary and original look at our island nation - from below.Stephen Smith quite literally delves into the unknown country underneath ploughed fields, clifftops and market towns. UNDERGROUND ENGLAND will explore rudimentary earth dwellings and hidden Cold War cities; sulphurous natural springs and manmade underground waterways; priest holes and subterranean nooks created with more sinister purposes in mind. The author visits the endless military tu...