A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years -- from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding -- that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarring...

The famous writer's trials are detailed with interest and compassion. A fascinating blend of fact and fiction, This Oscar Wilde double bill offers significant insight into one of the world's most significant literary figures. Oscar Wilde was ruined by a notorious libel case and two years in reading prison. The 'trials' part of the pack is recorded...

Inside the Whale is a story about the big things that hold us together and the small things that prove our undoing. It is a dazzling celebration of the bright joys, hard losses and deep contentments borne by two eccentric families as the twentieth century unfolds.

Evelyn Waugh's acidly funny and daring satire, Vile Bodies reveals the darkness and vulnerability that lurks beneath the glittering surface of the high life. In the years following the First World War a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties' Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of inn...

Joe Lampton is 25. He lost his parents during WW2 when their house was bombed and moves to Warley, where he meets the high-society set through the local ameteur dramatics society. He sets off on his quest to join them with a vengeance, hoping to achieve it through his choice of women and affected new persona.

Michael Frayn is the bestselling author of Headlong and Spies. His 1990 novel The Trick Of It is a comical look at an odd couple. Original and witty, Frayn tells a complete story through one-sided letters. Compact, light and entertaining, The Trick Of It is a clever tale. A nameless college professor writes letters to an esteemed friend living in A...

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime. The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of falsifying records and political literature, thus e...

The animals in the farmyard decide that working for humans is doing them no favours, so under the leadership of Napoleon, the only Berkshire Boar on the farm, and the other pigs, they drive out the farmer and his cohorts and set about structuring their own society. Based on a list of supposedly animal-friendly rules such as "four legs good, two leg...

A biting satire on American life which turned convention on its head. This story explores the obsessive affections of the radical Olive Chancellor for Verena Tarrant, a gifted young speaker in the feminist movement. When Olive's cousin Basil becomes equally besotted, the scene is set for a bitter tug of war.

Scout is a young girl whose father, Atticus, is a small-town lawyer defending a black man accused of raping a white girl. The book is set in Alabama in the 1930s and although one of the major themes of the book is racism, it also tackles the issue of how children view the world and how their understanding of the society they live in changes and dev...

After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan travels to Jamaica Inn on bleak Bodmin Moor to live with her Aunt Patience. The coachman warns her of the strange happenings there, and Mary suddenly finds her life to be in the hands of strangers: her uncle, Joss Merlyn, whose crude ways repel her; Aunt Patience, who seems mentally unstable and perpetuall...

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of the First World War. Youthful and enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as the war continues, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that pit young...

Adrian Mole is having a hard time, trying to deal with his parents' crumbling marriage, his spots, his school, his unrequited love for Pandora and the erratic behaviour of his dog.

Set in France before and during the First World War, this is the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married to a wealthy textile baron. Wraysford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according t...

A middle-aged divorcee inherits a house in the Welsh village where she grew up and decides to start afresh and rebuild her life. She begins to renew old friendships, make new ones and re-examine her relationships with her mother and daughter.

The life and times of 'Mr Chips', a much-loved classics master at Brookfield school since 1870. Full of the jokes and eccentricities of school life, Mr Chipping's journey starts as a diffident young master taking prep for the first time, progressing through middle-age and his encounters with Katherine, whose 'new woman' opinions create far-reaching...

Introducing the Larkins, a family with a place in popular mythology. Here they come, crashing their way through the English countryside in the wake of Pa, the quick-eyed, golden-hearted junk-dealer, and Ma, with a mouthful of crisps and a laugh like a jelly.

Generous-hearted Benny and the elfin Eve Malone have been best friends throughout their childhoods in sleepy Knockglen. When they both go to study in Dublin, they meet a circle of friends that includes handsome Jack Foley and the selfish and beautiful Nan Mahon, whose ambition will drag them all into trouble. As Knockglen is surprised into new life...

A decade and a half has passed since Grace was locked up, at the age of 16, for the cold-blooded murders of her employer and his lover. Her alleged accomplice was hanged in 1843. Sixteen years on, Grace claims to have no memory of the event. Dr Simon Jordan attempts to uncover the truth.

Paula Spencer struggles to reclaim her dignity after marriage to an abusive husband and a worsening drinking problem. She recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she had as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her feeling powerless.

In 1941 Captain Antonio Corelli is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia. It isn't long before he is involved in a heated affair with Pelagia, a local girl, despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side, but as Core...