Chronological depiction of the most important topics, featuring over 150 full-colour illustrations with detailed explanations, timelines and maps, along with a subject index and index of names.

'Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary'. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers: vast, desolate, hopeless. Where children endure brutal cruelty and violence in the name of the One True Faith. Lost in the Sanctuary's huge maze of corridors is a boy: his age uncertain, his real name unknown. They call him Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming - and violent. But when he opens the wrong door at the wrong time he witnesses an act so hor... read more

The grass'd been cleared away yesterday by her mother when they visited on the sixth anniversary of her death, Beth and what remained of her family; so the nameplate was clear even if the painted indentation of name, date of birth and date of death was almost bled of its white by the sun, the elements that Polly could never stop wondering if her sister could still feel, specially the rain getting in through the lid that must now be, like, rotted in or why that slump in the earth? She always came the following day for a visit on thi... read more

IN OTHER WORLDS: SF AND THE HUMAN IMAGINATION is Margaret Atwood's account of her relationship with the literary form we have come to know as 'science fiction'. This relationship has been lifelong, stretching from her days as a child reader in the 1940s, through her time as a graduate student at Harvard, where she worked on the Victorian ancestors of the form, and continuing as a writer and reviewer. This book brings together her three Ellman Lectures on 2010 - 'Flying Rabbits', which begins with Atwood's early rabbit superhero cre... read more

1830. Neil and Lizzie MacKenzie, a newly married young couple, arrive at the remotest part of the British Isles: St Kilda. He is a minister determined to save the souls of the pagan inhabitants; his pregnant wife speaks no Gaelic and, when her husband is away, has only the waves and the cry of gulls for company. As both find themselves tested to the limit in this harsh new environment, Lizzie soon discovers that marriage is as treacherous a country as the land that surrounds her.

Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather have decided to create the best catering company in Dublin. They have the perfect premises, heaps of talent, and even a few contacts - but not everyone seems as pleased by the idea of 'Scarlet Feather' as they are. Tom's parents are disappointed that he has turned his back on the family business. Cathy's husband buries himself in work, becoming ever more distant, whilst his mother thinks Cathy should stay at home to look after him. And Tom's relationship with his beautiful, ambitious girlfriend becomes... read more

In the minds of fans and scholars alike, Jane Austen has never grown old. Now more than ever, Jane Austen is a presence in pop culture - a major accomplishment for someone who published her books anonymously all her life. Who was Jane Austen? We have only a couple of sketches and letters to tell us about her,but from this slim thread hangs a library's worth of speculation, including countless Hollywood interpretations of her life and her books.

George is captivated by Cass and who could blame her? Cass is gorgeous, fun and flirty and their relationship has evolved from mere co-workers at a bustling Auckland restaurant to partners in explicit rampages through bars and into beds all over town. A compelling story - the action zings off the page at a furious pace.

Lost among the gaudy, busy streets of Macau, Grace's life is slowly unravelling. Her marriage to Pete, her Australian husband, is fraying and her dreams of having a family seem hopeless. With the heralding of a new year she resolves to do something bold. Something her impetuous Mama might do. In this pocket of China, filled with casinos and yum cha restaurants, she opens her own small caf called Lillian's. This sanctuary of macarons and tea becomes a place where the women of Macau come together, bridging cultural divides, to share ... read more

At a remote ice station in Antarctica, a team of US scientists has made an amazing discovery. They have found something buried deep within a 100-million-year-old layer of ice. Something made of METAL. Led by the enigmatic Lieutenant Shane Schofield, a team of crack United States marines is sent to the station to secure this discovery for their country. They are a tight unit, tough and fearless. They would follow their leader into hell. They just did.

Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. Behind him loom the figures of his dead wife, his beloved young daughter and his outrageous friend, Rudi, who lives largely for his battered Chevrolet. Ahead lies the strangeness of London, which holds out the alluring possibility of friendship, sex, money and a new career and, if Lev is lucky, a new sense of belonging...

"Jane Eyre", "Wuthering Heights", "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Villette". The Bronte sisters were extraordinarily creative women whose passionate, thought-provoking and moving novels have had an enormous influence over English writing. This collection draws together their most famous works and showcases both their unique individual talents and their collective genius.



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In these three tales from the first major translation into English of The Arabian Nights in more than 100 years, the endless inventiveness of the vizier's daughter Shahrzade is revealed, as she spins stories of greed, lust, riches and wonder to delay her death at the hands of a brutal king.

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968. "The Gathering" is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars.

We don't have secrets, Sheba and I. From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George's, history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced that she has found a kindred spirit. Barbara's loyalty to her new friend is passionate and unstinting and when Sheba is discovered having an illicit affair with one of her young pupils, Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba's chief defender. But all is not as at first it seems in this dark story and, as Sheba will soon discover, a friend can be just as treacherous as any lover.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of "Penguin Modern Classics" we are publishing an incredibly desirable and collectable postcard collection of 100 "Modern Classics" authors. Following the success of "Postcards from Penguin" this is a must-have box of beautifully produced postcards with memorable, often iconic photographs of writers such as Camus, Steinbeck, Orwell, Waugh, Nabokov. Each postcard is designed to evoke the iconic look of the "Modern Classics" series.

If it hadn't been for the child then none of this might have happened. She saw me kissing her father. She saw her father kissing me. The fact that a child got mixed up in it all made us feel that it mattered, that there was no going back.

'I'm unfavorable to killin' a man as long as you can get around it; it ain't good sense, it ain't good morals. Ain't I right?' The original Great American Novel, an incomparable adventure story and a classic of anarchic humour, Twain's masterpiece sees Huckleberry Finn and Jim the slave escape their difficult lives by fleeing down the Mississippi on a raft. There, they find steamships, feuding families, an unlikely Duke and King and vital lessons about the world in which they live. With its unforgettable cast of characters, Hemingw... read more

"Peake's books are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience". (C.S. Lewis). Enter the world of Gormenghast. The vast crumbling castle to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. Titus is expected to rule this Gothic labyrinth of turrets and dungeons, cloisters and corridors as well as the eccentric and wayward subject. Things are changing in the castle and Titus must contend with a kingdom about... read more

'Death!' I shouted. 'Death is coming! Death!' In this pioneering, shocking and nightmarish tale, naive suburban Londoners investigate a strange cylinder from space, but are instantly incinerated by an all-destroying heat-ray. Soon, gigantic killing machines that chase and feed on human prey are threatening the whole of humanity. A pioneering work of alien invasion fiction, "The War of the World's" journalistic style contrasts disturbingly with its horrifying visions of the human race under siege. This is the Penguin English Library... read more