**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEROne of The Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Books of 2018One of The Economist’s Best Books of 2018One of The New York Times’s Notable Books of 2018“Unarguably the best single-volume biography of Churchill . . . A brilliant feat of storytelling, monumental in scope, yet put together with tenderness for a man who had always believed that he would be Britain’s savior.” —Wall Street Journal...

The Red-Headed League is the second of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892. In it, Jabez Wilson, a flame-haired London pawnbroker, comes to consult Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Some weeks before, Wilson responded to a newspaper want-ad offering highly-paid work to only red-headed male applicants. Wilson is hired on the basis of the precise hue of his hair color and performs menial work at a decent wage. When this occupation is suddenly...

Jude Fawley is a stone mason with a passion for scholarship who longs to study at the nearby university town of Christminster. Then Arabella Donn comes into his life. His longing for her eclipses all else for a time, and they marry but unhappily. Meeting his spirited and intelligent cousin, Sue Bridehead, Jude dares to dream again. But in acknowledging their feelings for one another, Jude and Sue risk becoming social outcasts. In defying conventional morality, their lives become plagued by...

August, 1983. Denton is preparing for a wedding. DS Waters should be on top of the world with less than a week to go until he marries Kim Myles. But the Sunday before the big day, the body of a young woman is found in the churchyard, and their wedding venue becomes a crime scene. DS Jack Frost has been homeless for the past three months. He's been staying with DC Sue Clarke but with a baby to take care of and the imminent arrival of her mother, she's given him his marching orders. But as b...

Born and brought up in Suffolk, Ronald Blythe produced an instant classic with Akenfield. Only a man who had lived all his life in Suffolk could produce such a vivid and accurate portrayal of Akenfield and its inhabitants. Ronald Blythe recounts the personal recollections of, among others, the local school keeper, doctor, blacksmith, saddler, district nurse and magistrate as they discussed farming, education, welfare, class, religion and death. Originally published in 1969, 'Arkenfield' fo...

In 1137 the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for his Benedictine order. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to her final resting place in Wales, where they find the villagers passionately divided by the Benedictines' offer for the saint's relics.Canny, wise and all too worldly, Cadfael isn't surprised when this taste for bones leads to bloody murder. The leading opponent to moving the grave has been shot dead with a ...

John Dies at the End is a genre-bending, humorous account of two college drop-outs inadvertently charged with saving their small town—and the world—from a host of supernatural and paranormal invasions.Stop.You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands.No, don’t put it down. It’s too late. They’re watching you.My name is David. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change your...

When Babe, the little orphaned piglet, is won at a fair by Farmer Hogget, he is adopted by Fly, the kind-hearted sheep-dog. Babe is determined to learn everything he can from Fly. He knows he can't be a sheep-dog. But maybe, just maybe, he might be a sheep-pig.

In the summer of 1138, war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud takes brother Cadfael from the quiet world of his garden to the bloody battlefield. Not far from the safety of the Abbey walls, Shrewsbury Castle falls, leaving its ninety-four defenders loyal to the empress to hang as traitors. With a heavy heart, Brother Cadfael agrees to bury the dead, only to make a grisly discovery: ninety-five bodies lie in a row, and the extra corpse tells Cadfael that the killer is both clever and...

Gervase Bonel, with his wife and servants, is a guest of Shrewsbury Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul when he is suddenly taken ill. Luckily, the Abbey boasts the services of clever and kindly Brother Cadfael, a skilled herbalist. Cadfael hurries to the man's bedside, only to be confronted by two very different surprises. In Master Bonel's wife, the good monk recognises Richildis, whom he loved many years ago before he took his vows. And Master Bonel has been fatally poisoned by a dose o...

Long, long ago on the great plains of Asia Minor, two mighty armies faced each other in mortal combat. The armies were the Greeks and the Trojans, and the prize they were fighting for was Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. To the Greeks it seemed that the city of Troy was impregnable and only a miracle could bring them success. And then help comes to them in a most mysterious way, as a strange blue box materialises close to their camp, bringing with it the Doctor, Steven and Vic...

The sequel to THE BLACK JACKALS is set in the turmoil of the eastern Mediterranean in 1941, with the Brits struggling to hold their line in Greece against the powerful German and Italian forces.Peter Lamb and his men are halted in their retreat to England and forced to join the British forces holding the pass at Thermopylae. But their tough experiences in France have not prepared The Jackals for the savage hand to hand fighting through the mountains. Lamb’s limited knowledge of com...