A well-read old dear has an unhealthy interest in murder, in this sharp, witty, and refreshingly original cozy crime novel.Retired librarian and bookshop owner May Morrigan lives in the affluent village of Blackheath with Fletcher, her best friend since they met decades ago, and May's two dogs. What could be more normal? But May is not your average little old lady . . .After an unpleasant church volunteer and an annoying local butcher meet their untimely ends...

Since the age of 21, Paul McCartney has lived one of the ultimate rock 'n' roll lives played out on the most public of stages. Now Paul's story is told by rock music's foremost biographer, with McCartney's consent and access to family members and close friends who have never spoken on the record before. Paul McCartney: The Life reveals the complex character behind the facade and sheds new light on his childhood-blighted by his mother's death but redeemed by the father who introduced him to...

From New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Chadwick comes another long-awaited novel about William Marshall, The Greatest Knight. To save his soul, young knight William Marshall takes the perilous road to Jerusalem, but the greatest danger he faces there is losing his heart. William Marshal, England's greatest knight, begins a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his brother, Ancel - a perilous journey that will have lasting impact for the rest of his life. William and Ancel become embro...

Libidinous, licentious, salacious and very, very funny, The Satyricon is one of the most remarkable documents from ancient Rome. It tells the ribald story of Encolpius, a man of active and varied appetites (powered notably by his passion for his favourite lover, the handsome Giton), who plunges without inhibition into the life of Roman pleasures: orgies of food, feasting, abundant sex and escapades.The kind of hedonism found occasionally in Roman mosaics is here brought to life. In...

Jason and the Golden Fleece is one of the finest tales of Ancient Greece, an epic journey of adventure and trial standing beside similar stories of Perseus, Theseus and the Labours of Heracles. The finest classic account comes from Apollonius of Rhodes, the Greek poet of the 3rd century BCE and librarian at Alexandria. Though less well-known than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and much shorter, it is an epic poem which is both exciting and moving, with remarkably vivid portraits of the main ch...

This tale of a man who, when tinkering with magic, becomes changed into an ass is one of the most entertaining and remarkable stories from classic Latin literature. It is funny, bawdy and completely approachable - but also shows life from the point of view of a beast of burden in the Roman Empire of the second century CE.Lucius is an active young man enjoying life - and the favours of an attentive maid, one Fotis - when the temptation to experiment with a magic potion proves too gr...

Oliver Twist is a poor orphan in a cruel society. Maltreated from birth, he escapes only to become an accidental member of a gang of pickpockets and robbers. Briefly rescued, he is then kidnapped as part of a plot to defraud him of his inheritance, and his prospects seem as bleak as his surroundings. But one member of the gang won’t let hope die whatever the cost. Charles Dickens transformed this dark fable on the Poor Laws into one of the bestloved books in English, filling it with brilli...

"The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity."Tolstoy's War and Peace, written in serial format and published between 1865 and 1869, is widely regarded as a masterwork of Russian literature and one of the world's greatest novels.This epic novel intricately weaves together the lives of several families against the backdrop of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, and follows Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritan...

It will be the cruellest war ever waged, and the Gods will gather to watch…1275 BC: Tensions between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires erupt and the two great superpowers mobilise for all-out war. Horns blare across the Hittite northlands and the dunes of Egypt rumble with the din of drums as each gathers an army of unprecedented size. Both set their eyes upon the border between their domains, and the first and most important target: a desert city whose name will toll through histor...

British history is a rollercoaster ride of power struggles and family intrigues, imperial conquest and class struggles, plagues and religious wars—and it’s all in this audiobook. That, plus the liveliest cast of characters found anywhere outside of the King James Bible. Whether you confuse your Tudors with your Stuarts, or wouldn’t know Catherine Parr from Catherine Howard, this is the perfect guide for you. From Stonehenge to Hadrian’s Wall, the Magna Carta to mad King George, the Battle ...

Part folklore, part adventure and part fantasy, Alan Garner’s Elidor is a modern children’s classic. When Roland opens a door in a derelict church, he unleashes the wonders of Elidor and the grave challenges that this troubled world presents. Drawing on Welsh, Irish and English mythology, the book chronicles the trials and hardships of a group of young teenagers as they attempt to fulfill a prophecy from another world, and fight a terrible evil.

It is December 1888. Jack the Ripper has not killed for over a month and London is beginning to relax as Christmas approaches. When Katherine Kramer cuts herself on a strange book at a dinner party, she quickly falls ill. Her husband Richard is a professor of medicine, but even his efforts are futile as the mysterious illness blazes through her. As Katherine dies, she gives birth to something nightmarish. Something which should not exist. Something which spurs Richard to embark on a terrif...