Books in Order: Virago Modern Classics by Antonia Barber

A CHRISTMAS SKY ORIGINAL FILM, STARRING MARK GATISS, SIMON CALLOW AND TAMSIN GREIG AN ENTHRALLING GHOST STORY WITH A TIME-TRAVELLING TWIST 'When you come to the house, you will hear strange tales. They will tell you in the village that it is haunted, but you must not be afraid. When… Read More

INTRODUCED BY STUART EVERS: 'A genuine, fully fledged masterpiece of the twentieth century; one that remains just as terrifyingly relevant and truthful in the twenty-first' An existential, political, literary thriller first published in 1944, Transit explores the plight of the refugee with extraordinary compassion and insight. Having escaped from a… Read More

'There is so much to love and admire in these stories - their understanding of heartbreak, their attention to affection and love across many divides' KAMILA SHAMSIE 'Listen to me, child. You will be a woman soon and must behave well and with modesty. The Kazi will ask you three… Read More

Sunlight on a Broken Column, first published in 1961, is an unforgettable coming-of-age story set against the turbulent background of Partition. 'The deftness with which Attia Hosain handles the interplay of manners, class, culture and different forms of female power is gorgeously done . . . Laila is such a… Read More

With a Foreword by James Baldwin 'Beautiful, timeless and relevant' Jacqueline Woodson 'A most important novel' Paule Marshall 'A considerable achievement' James Baldwin Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it's both a place of refuge and of danger. Her beloved father becomes a number… Read More

BY THE AUTHOR OF BALLET SHOES with beautiful illustrations by Edward Ardizzone 'A joyous, sunlight book. For me, the best Noel Streatfeild of all' HILARY MCKAY '"You have a whole wing of the house to yourselves. The glorious world outside to play in. All that the earth brings forth to… Read More

The scene is Naples, against whose ancient and fantastic background the modern action takes place. Among the protagonists is Jenny, young and pretty, who has come to Naples in flight from a sombre drama, unaware that a larger drama waits her there. She has an introduction to a Neapolitan woman,… Read More

Caro, gallant and adventurous, is one of two Australian sisters who have come to post-war England to seek their fortunes. Courted long and hopelessly by young scientist, Ted Tice, she is to find that love brings passion, sorrow, betrayal and finally hope. The milder Grace seeks fulfilment in an apparently… Read More

NOW A HAUNTING BBC DRAMA, STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON AND DIANA RIGG 'Godden's wonderful book sets out a complex vision of the variety, necessity and danger of desire, rendered into a story that is completely pleasurable. I envy anyone reading it for the first time' - Amanda Coe High in the… Read More

'Who would suspect her sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and… Read More

With a new introduction by JESMYN WARD Born on the wrong side of the creek, John Buddy Pearson, the son of a slave, has come a long way since his shoeless days. With some schooling, a job and marriage to clever Lucy Potts, his fortunes are looking up. But, unable… Read More

With a new introduction by JESMYN WARD 'Zora Neale Hurston was a knockout in her life, a wonderful writer and a fabulous person. Devilishly funny and academically solid: delicious mixture' MAYA ANGELOU First published in 1942 at the height of her popularity, Dust Tracks on a Road is Zora Neale… Read More

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE STREET With a new introduction by Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie 'Petry is the writer we have been waiting for, hers are the stories we need to fully illuminate the questions of our moment . . . insightful, prescient and unputdownable . . .… Read More

With a new introduction by TAYARI JONES, author of An American Marriage 'This is a wonderful novel - the prose is clear, the plot is page-turning, the characters are utterly believable' CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE 'Ann Petry's first novel, The Street, was a literary event in 1946, praised and translated around… Read More

'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE Eva Medina Canada sits in her psychiatric ward, silent and unremorseful. She has murdered her lover and they want to know why. Her memories weave back and forth over encounters with the men… Read More

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES Harlan Jane Eagleton is a faith healer, travelling to small towns, converting sceptics, restoring minds and bodies. But before that she was a rock star's manager and race-track gambler. She's had a… Read More

This collection of wartime stories includes some of the finest writers of a generation. War had traditionally been seen as a masculine occupation, but these stories show how women were equal if different participants. Here, war is less about progress on the frontline of battle than about the daily struggle… Read More

'A writer of huge compassion and acute observation, and also of dazzling style . . . Her work is more relevant than ever' DIANA EVANS An incredible collection of writing - both essays and short stories - spanning the long career of Dorothy West. Includes a new introduction by Diana… Read More

With a new introduction by DIANA EVANS 'A writer of huge compassion and acute observation, and also of dazzling style . . . Her work is more relevant than ever' Diana Evans 'Timelessly cinematic, with painterly visual descriptions and pitch-perfect dialogue that ranges across class, region, race, age, and gender'… Read More

'Classic Noel Streatfeild at her warm-hearted best. I absolutely loved it' Hilary McKay, author of THE SKYLARKS' WAR 'Such rewarding reading' Daily Telegraph In this captivating new collection, there are stories for every reader to enjoy: unforgettable holidays and unlikely friendships, crime-solving adventures and dancers in the spotlight for the… Read More

A Surrealist novel in the vein of Angela Carter, about love and beauty and dark secrets. Played out like the command of an oracle are the events that stain one night in the improbable setting of this desert tale. Rearing its impudent architecture like insult on a landscape of quiet… Read More

'No novel about any black woman could ever be the same after this' TONI MORRISON 'Corregidora is the most brutally honest and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women' JAMES BALDWIN Upon publication in 1975, Corregidora was hailed as a… Read More

From the author of Ballet Shoes In this captivating collection of festive stories, there are auditions on stage and antics on ice, trips to the pantomime, holiday adventures, and laughter shared with family and friends. Charming, heartwarming and funny, this exciting new collection will bring joy to readers of all… Read More

A wonderful story of music and family and finding home, from the beloved author of Ballet Shoes. The Forums are a musical family, and one child, Sebastian, shines out as a prodigy. He is a brilliant violinist and when his talent is recognised, he is wanted the world over. Myra,… Read More

From Noel Streatfeild, the beloved author of Ballet Shoes, comes a moving story of unexpected friendships and new beginnings. When their father is injured in an accident, life changes for the Johnstone family. Unable to afford their home, they have to move to a small London flat. Carol can no… Read More

A rediscovered German classic novel from 1942, never before published in the UK, The Seventh Cross is both a gripping escape story and a powerful novel of resistance. 'At once a suspenseful manhunt story and a knowing portrait of the perils of ordinary life in Hitler's Germany, The Seventh Cross… Read More

With a new introduction by her biographer, Mark Bostridge. In 1914 Vera Brittain was eighteen and, as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in a way that was unimaginable in… Read More

Margaret Drabble | Beryl Bainbridge | Angela Carter | Maggie O'Farrell | Elizabeth Jane Howard | A. S. Byatt | Penelope Lively | Sarah Waters | Jonathan Coe | Diana Souhami | Jilly Cooper | Elizabeth Bowen | Mark Bostridge | Alexander McCall Smith | Sarah Dunant | Rachel Cooke… Read More

'Spellbinding . . . Probably her best fiction' - Sunday Times The soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him. His wife, Kitty, with her cold, moonlight beauty, and his devoted cousin Jenny wait in their exquisite home on the crest of the Harrow-weald. Margaret Allington,… Read More

* 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY * 'One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century' SARAH WATERS * 'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX MOVIE STARRING LILY JAMES, ARMIE HAMMER AND KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS WITH A… Read More

It is 1946 and the people of France and England are facing the aftermath of the War. Sent by her beautiful, indolent mother to England, Barbary Deniston is thrown into the care of her distinguished father and conventional stepmother. Barbary has spent her childhood years in the sunshine of Provence.… Read More

Denham Dobie has been brought up in Andorra by her father, a retired clergyman. On his death, she is snatched from this reclusive life and thrown into the social whirl of London by her sophisticated relatives. Denham, however, provides a candid response to the niceties of 'civilised' behaviour. Crewe Train… Read More

The Observing Eye is a collection of Muriel Spark's brilliant asides, sayings, and aphorisms. No other writer can hold a candle to her wry, puckish observations: 'Neurotics are awfully quick to notice other people's mentalities.' 'It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.' 'The sacrifice… Read More

This is a devastating book. It is matter-of-fact, makes no attempt to score political points, does not attempt to solicit sympathy for its protagonist and yet is among the most chilling indictments of war I have ever read. Everybody, in particular every woman ought to read it' - Arundhati Roy… Read More

Susan Ferrier sold more copies of her novels than her contemporary, Jane Austen. Sir Walter Scott declared her his equal. Why, then has she been lost to history? On the 200th anniversary of this sharply observed, comic novel, it is time to rediscover her brilliance. 'What have you to do… Read More

'Warm and funny, this tale of a pint-size pig and the family he saves will take up a giant space in your heart' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE 'What a consummate storymaker Nina Bawden is' MICHAEL MORPURGO WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S FICTION 'D'ya want a peppermint pig, Mrs Greengrass?'… Read More

One of the most loved and enduring wartime novels, Carrie's War is a modern classic. WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY MICHAEL MORPURGO AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALAN MARKS 'A touching, utterly convincing book' Jacqueline Wilson 'Poignant and realistic . . . Carrie's War captures the true reality of war for a… Read More

'Katy speaks with a charm and directness that remains as fresh as when it was written' Amanda Craig Europe beckoned more brilliantly now that they were fairly embarked on their journey. The sun shone, the lake was a beautiful, dazzling blue, and Katy said to herself, "After all, a year… Read More

This 1936 bestseller created a phenomenon - it sold over 100,000 copies in the first two months of its release. Who can resist a book with chapters such as 'A Lady and Her Liquor', 'Pleasures of a Single Bed' and 'Solitary Refinement'? Marjorie Hillis, a 1930s Vogue editor, provides a… Read More

'By turns sweet and serious, this much-loved classic is above all a celebration of kindness and hope' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE 'Edith Nesbit was endlessly surprising and inventive . . . She is also simply the funniest writer we have ever had, while being the one who could most easily and… Read More

A timeless Cinderella story, A Little Princess is one of the best-loved children's classics of all time. A heartwarming tale that champions the power of imagination. 'I'd read Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden and loved it - so I tried A Little Princess and liked it even more!' Jacqueline… Read More

'The mystery element kept me turning the pages but it was the superb characterisation that made the story stay with me. It taught me that it's never too late to remake yourself into someone better' Malorie Blackman 'She put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key, and found… Read More

When their widowed father's business fails, the Bastable children decide to restore the family fortunes themselves. No longer able to afford school, the children have all the time in the world to devise ingenious money-making schemes: from digging for treasure in their Lewisham garden to becoming highwaymen on Blackheath Common.… Read More

'The hay stirred. There was a small nibbling sound. A furry head poked out. I saw its dark, beady eyes, its sharp, pointed ears ... his eyes seemed alert and inquisitive, as if he were as interested in us as we were in him' Henry is only three inches long… Read More

The second book in the Anne Shirley series. 'Having adventures comes natural to some people,' said Anne serenely. 'You just have a gift for them or you haven't.' Five years ago, Anne arrived at Avonlea a skinny orphan without a friend in the world; now it would be impossible to… Read More

Set in turn-of-the-century New York, Edith Wharton's classic novel The Age of Innocence reveals a society governed by the dictates of taste and form, manners and morals, and intricate social ceremonies. Newland Archer, soon to marry the lovely May Welland, is a man torn between his respect for tradition and… Read More

Barsetshire in the latter years of the Second World War is a peaceful and gossipy place, but there has been one lively change. A girls' school, evacuated from London, has taken over Harefield Park. Miss Sparling seems to be the perfect headmistress: she dresses as a headmistress should and is… Read More

Barsetshire in the war years. Miss Bunting, governess of choice to generations of Barsetshire aristocracy, has been coaxed out of retirement by Sir Robert and Lady Fielding to tutor their daughter Anne, delicate, sixteen years old, and totally lacking in confidence. When Anne makes friends with Heather Adams, the gauche… Read More

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times Mr Marling, of Marling Hall, has begun to accept - albeit reluctantly - that he will probably never be able to pass his wonderful old estate on… Read More

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times It is 1945. When peace breaks out at last, familiar wartime routines are interrupted, and the residents of Barsetshire seem as disconcerted as they are overjoyed. As… Read More

Barsetshire in the war years. Growing Up is the story of ladies, gentlemen, and their irrepressible children keeping the war at bay in their country town. Trying to do their part as the Second World War ravages Europe, Sir Harry and Lady Waring open their estate to convalescing soldiers -… Read More

* 'Joan Aiken's invention seemed inexhaustible, her high spirits a blessing, her sheer storytelling zest a phenomenon' PHILLIP PULLMAN * 'The Gift Giving is the perfect selection of stories to introduce readers to this precious and incredible author' KIRAN MILWOOD HARGRAVE * 'The voice that tells these stories is braver… Read More

Dauntless Liza Jarrett, born at the dawn of the twentieth century, is now in her eighties, frail and facing eviction with her cantankerous parrot Nelson, when she is visited by Stephen, a young gay social worker. As she learns to trust him, she recalls her life - her embittered, exhausted… Read More

A serial killer stalks prostitutes with profound and unexpected consequences in this riveting novel from the Booker Prize-wining author of Ghost Road A city and its people are in the grip of a killer who is roaming the northern city, singling out prostitutes. The face of his latest victim stares… Read More

Vivid, bawdy and bitter. Barker's talent for gently sifting through the hidden depths of the human psyche is awesome' - The Times Pat Barker's first novel shows the women of Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh challeges of poverty and survival in a precarious world. There's Kelly, at… Read More

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA An eloquent elegy on the past of a county she loved so much - The Times 'There was a smell in the air of tar and rope and rusted chain, a smell of tidal water. Down harbour, around the point, was the open sea.… Read More

In the pursuit of magnificence, nothing is sacred,' says Angela Carter, and magnificence is indeed her own achievement. One of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation, her work as a journalist and critic was no less original. Long autobiographical pieces on her life in South Yorkshire and South London… Read More

The Artist's Widow is the story of the good, the bad and the untalented. It begins on a hot August evening in Mayfair, at a private viewing of the "Last Paintings" of John Crane. Among those present are Crane's widow, Lyris, also a painter; her friend Clovis Ingram, a middle-aged… Read More

The young Luke Ribbons, a vicar's son and lately a guest of Her Majesty, arrives into the rackety Slattery household as a lodger, and falls irrevocably in love with redoubtable and beautiful Pearl, mother of four and grandmother. Pearl, balanced between respectability and ruin and bruised by her baroque past,… Read More

Shena Mackay is one of the very best short-story writers in the world. The Atmospheric Railway contains not only thirteen brilliant new stories, but a selection of twenty-three more from her previous collections, making it a delight for her existing admirers and the perfect introduction to her work for newcomers. Read More

'This is a collection full of energy and stunning, quiet innovation ... it spills over with contempt, raucous humour, sadness and generosity. In it, life and language are synonymous, and there is no higher praise. What a wonderful book' Ali Smith Here are all Grace Paley's classic stories in one… Read More

It is 1939, the last summer before the outbreak of war. French actress Angele Maury abandons a group of friends travelling through Ireland and takes herself to picturesque Drumaninch, birthplace of her dead father. She has come to make sense of her past. Self-conscious with her pale, exotic beauty, Angele… Read More

When Anthony Considine creeps into Mellick town with a stolen horse in 1789, it sets the destiny of his family for decades to come. By the 1850s, through thrift and hard work, his son Honest John has made the Considines a leading Mellick family. With his father's money, John's son… Read More

Spain in the years before the Armada, and high passion meets high politics. Ana, Princess of Eboli is a remarkable woman. Married at thirteen and losing an eye in a duel a year later, Ana is also heiress of Spain's leading family, widow of Philip II's wisest cousellor and rumoured… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train People Who Knock on the Door, is a tale about blind faith and the slippery notion of justice that lies beneath the peculiarly American veneer of righteousness. 'A border zone of the macabre, the disturbing,… Read More

Mary Lavelle, a beautiful young Irish woman, travels to Spain to see some of the world before marrying her steadfast fiance John. But despite the enchanting surroundings and her three charming charges, life as governess to the wealthy Areavaga family is lonely and she is homesick. Then comes the arrival… Read More

Mere Marie-Helene once turned her back on life, sealing up her heart in order to devote herself to God. Now the formidable Mother Superior of an Irish convent, she has, for some time, been experiencing grave doubts about her vocation. But when she meets Anna Murphy, the youngest-ever boarder, the… Read More

Ireland, 1880 and a prosperous, provincial family observes the three great autumnal feasts of the Church. As Teresa Mulqueen lies dying, her family gather round her and beneath this drama another, no less poignant, unfolds. Unmarried daughter Agnes awaits the return of her sister Marie-Rose and brother-in-law Vincent. She adores… Read More

Jack Middleton likes to imagine himself a country squire. At weekends he retires to Laverings Estate with his wife, Catherine. He may be pompous, and they may seem ill-matched, but the couple are devoted to each other. When Jack's widowed sister, Lilian, and her two stepchildren arrive to spend the… Read More

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times It is summer 1939 and the social event of the year is about to take place: Rose Birkett, a flighty beauty with a penchant for breaking engagements… Read More

As the war continues it brings its own set of trials to the the village of Northbridge. Eight officers of the Barsetshire Regiment have been billeted at the rectory, and Mrs Villars, the Rector's wife, is finding the attentions of Lieutenant Holden (who doesn't seem to mind that she is… Read More

New Zealand, 1909. After weeks at sea the new minister, Jack Mackenzie, arrives from Scotland with his unhappy wife and children in tow. A keen naturalist, he is more enthralled by the botanical - and carnal - delights of Dunedin than in the wellbeing of his flock. In London, eighty… Read More

'Shena Mackay has brought off something quite rare . . . the author has set out a rite of passage which will leave few readers unaffected' Anita Brookner, Spectator 'What made the orchard miraculous was an abandoned railway carriage, set down as if by magic, its wheels gone, anchored by… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'Uncomfortable, frightening, compulsive and, worst of all, terribly believable. It's vintage Highsmith' Time Out On a stroll through Greenwich Village, security guard Ralph Linderman finds a wallet on the sidewalk. It belongs to Jack Sutherland,… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is' Gillian Flynn 'Ramón had done it. Obviously! He thought about Ramón, his Catholic soul trapped in his passion for Lelia. He'd… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train Completed just months before Patricia Highsmith's death in 1995, Small g explores the labyrinthine intricacies of passion, sexuality, and jealousy in a charming tale of love misdirected. 'What is most remarkable in this novel is… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense' Mark Billingham 'Dear Sir, I suppose you are pretty pleased with yourself? Superior to everyone, you think. A… Read More

Owls Do Cry is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich, poetic imagination condemns her to a life… Read More

For the first time since the war, the Christmas peal is ringing at St Paul's Cathedral. There is joy. There is new hope. It is Christmas Eve, the carol service has ended, and a woman with three small boys leaves the cathedral, the children swooping like pigeons. 'Why weren't there… Read More

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE 'She was a literary treasure, and her books will continue to delight for years to come' PHILIP PULLMAN 'Witty and endlessly inventive' CHRIS RIDDELL 'The Under People. They live in a huge Cave. They are thought to be boring upwards. Giant… Read More

This bestselling collection of stories extols the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners Here are subversive tales - by Ama Ata Aidoo, Jane Bowles, Angela Carter, Colette, Bessie Head, Jamaica Kincaid and Katherine Mansfield among others - all have one thing in common: the wish to restore… Read More

Sexuality is power' - so says the Marquis de Sade, philosopher and pornographer extraordinaire. His virtuous Justine keeps to the rules laid down by men, her reward rape and humiliation; his Juliette, Justine's triumphantly monstrous antithesis, viciously exploits her sexuality. In a world where all tenderness is false, all beds… Read More

The transition of Coral Fairweather from village beauty to village outcast begins in the short golden days of autumn with the fathering of her first child by a vagrant painter. Soon, fuelled by the suspicion and gossip of those who see, in Coral's hand-to-mouth existence and crumbling cottage, a rejection… Read More

The story begins as an ambulance pulls away from the butcher's shop, taking Mick to the hospital after he has carelessly hacked off a finger while preparing John's order. John's wife, Marguerite, and two young children are forced to live with his uncle until he can find work. Marguerite has… Read More

In A Bowl of Cherries Shena Mackay tells the story of twin brothers whose lives are inexorably intertwined: Rex, a self-absorbed and successful writer, and Stanley, a minor poet who works as a dishwasher. Rex lives on the family estate being the older of the twins by one minute with… Read More

In 'Babies in Rhinestones', the Alfred Ellis School of Fine Art and the Araidne School Elliot School of Dance and Drama stand side by side, much to their proprietors' dismay. The two trade insults daily as they exchange the mail that so often ends up in the wrong letterbox. The… Read More

Here is a wonderful collection of short stories by the writer known for 'the Mackay vision, suburban - as kitsch, as unexceptional, and yet as rich in history and wonder as a plain Victorian terrace house, its threshold radiant with tiling and stained-glass birds of paradise, encased in leaded lights'… Read More

In stories as intriguing as their titles - 'Pink Cigarettes', 'Electric Blue Damsels', 'Other People's Bathrobes' - Shena Mackay demonstrates her uncanny ability to expose the menace of everyday life with humour and haunting accuracy. Harnessing Mackay's darkly comic vision, an astonishing originality and vibrant prose, these remarkable short works… Read More

Centre stage in Angela Carter's unruly tale of the Flower Power Generation is Joseph - a decadent, disorientated rebel without a cause. A self-styled nihilist whose girlfriend has abandoned him, Joseph has decided to give up existing. But his concerned friends and neighbours have other plans. In an effort to… Read More

The scar drew her whole face sideways and even in profile, with the hideous thing turned away, her face was horribly lop-sided, skin, features and all, dragged away from the bone. She was a beautiful girl, a white and golden girl, like moonlight on daisies, a month ago.' And yet… Read More

I know nothing. I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg. I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape. Not a woman, no: both more and less than a real woman. Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous… Read More

The Laughing Academy is as witty, black and compelling as anything Shena Mackay has written. From antiques fayres to Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, geriatric wards to Crystal Palace, this collection offers a journey around the bizarre yet familiar characters and settings that Mackay has made her own. There are Roy and Muriel Rowley,… Read More

Polly Devlin grew up in County Tyrone, on the shores of Lough Neagh, in the fifties -- but it might as well have been another time and place altogether. In this memoir she describes in witty, spontaneous and idiosyncratic prose her life as one of seven siblings in a Catholic… Read More

WEST WITH THE NIGHT appeared on 13 bestseller lists on first publication in 1942. It tells the spellbinding story of Beryl Markham -- aviator, racehorse trainer, fascinating beauty -and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and 30s. Markham was taken to Kenya at the age of four. As… Read More

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE 'What a thrill to discover this gem from the witty and endlessly inventive Joan Aiken' CHRIS RIDDELL 'She is one of the writers I admire most in the world' KATHERINE RUNDELL 'She was a literary treasure, and her books will continue… Read More

'All my sense of the ancient world - its values, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault. Her Theseus novels are perhaps the most exciting of her Greek fictions, and The Last of the Wine the most moving. I turned to writing historical… Read More

'Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent, infused at every turn with her life-long passion for the Classics. Her characters live vividly both in their own time, and in ours' MADELINE MILLER Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers.… Read More

'Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us… Read More

On their first publication, Isabel Bolton's novellas won high praise from such reviewers as Edmund Wilson and Diana Trilling (who in 1946 called her 'the most important new novelist in the English language to appear in years'). Highly poetic, evocative stories of city life, the characters in these novellas are… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'My suspicion is that when the dust has settled and when the chronicle of 20th-century American literature comes to be written, history will place Highsmith at the top of the pyramid, as we should place… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train INTRODUCED BY DENISE MINA 'Highsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illuminates every page of her novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a… Read More

Written by the author of Benefits and Closing, this novel spans 120 years and three continents and chronicles the lives of five generations of women set against a background of Victorian repression, prostitution, the fight for the vote, the devastation of the war and the women's movement. Read More

'It's always a treat to read Elizabeth Taylor. Mossy Trotter is a real gem. A delightfully mischievous boy living in those long-ago halcyon days when children played out all day, roaming commons, scavenging on rubbish tips and stamping in newly-laid tar' JACQUELINE WILSON 'We - that is, Herbert and I… Read More

It is 1936. Pompey Casmilus (the heroine of Smith's debut, Novel on Yellow Paper) lives in London with her beloved Aunt, bothered by the menace of German militarism, bothered too by the humbug which confronts it, bothered most of all by her hopeless love affair with Freddy. Its ending plunges… Read More

Celia works at the Ministry in the post-war England of 1949 and lives in a London suburb. Witty, fragile, quixotic, Celia is preoccupied with love - for her friends, her colleagues, her relations, and especially for her adored cousin Casmilus, with whom she goes on holiday to visit Uncle Heber,… Read More

INTRODUCED BY RACHEL COOKE 'Virginia Woolf's roving consciousness lies behind the prose in Novel on Yellow Paper, but the tone owes more to Dorothy Parker . . . When first published in 1936, it overnight turned Smith into a celebrity . . . the subversiveness of this novel has never… Read More

Written by the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Gregory Award, this family drama features a trinity of women bound by compulsion and secrecy. Joanna, an abomination to her mother, discovers the inheritance that has shadowed her family for generations. Read More

'James and I stayed on at home and everything was quiet and sunny and we got to thinking the war would never come after all . . . Just when we were so sure nothing would happen, the German plane came over. It came over one night at one o'clock… Read More

'Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us… Read More

'Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent, infused at every turn with her life-long passion for the Classics. Her characters live vividly both in their own time, and in ours' Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe 'Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical… Read More

'The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them with such loving attention and intelligence, Helena Whitbread has earned the gratitude of a whole generation' EMMA DONOGHUE 'Engaging, revealing, at times simply astonishing: Anne Lister's diaries are an indispensable… Read More

'A deeply rewarding and beautiful novel' HILARY MANTEL 'The idea of a new novel by Janet Frame is in itself a delight and Towards Another Summer is a joy to read, with all the poise, inventiveness and clarity of her other work' MAGGIE O'FARRELL Life in England seems transitory for… Read More

I'm a short story addict, both reading and writing them, and I always keep hoping for the perfect story.' (Janet Frame to Tim Curnow, January 1984) THE DAYLIGHT AND THE DUST is the most comprehensive selection of Janet Frame's stories ever published, taken from the four different collections released during… Read More

All I had experienced, all the stories I had read or dreamed came to me the moment I, a stranger, turned the key in the lock of the unknown house.' In a sweltering basement in downtown Baltimore, Mavis Halleton, writer, ventriloquist and gossip, is struggling to write her novel when… Read More

By the author of Black Narcissus. 'One of our best and most captivating novelists' Philip Hensher When their mother leaves the country to be with her lover, Hugh and Caddie Clavering's seemingly perfect life falls apart. Devestated, and desperate for her to come back, the children travel alone to the… Read More

By the author of Black Narcissus. 'Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty' New York Times In a crumbling Calcutta mansion, with faded frescos and a jasmine-covered garden, the Lemarchant family live, clinging to the fringes… Read More

'Janet Frame's luminous words are the more precious because they were snatched from the jaws of the disaster of her early life . . . and yet to read her is no more difficult than breathing' Hilary Mantel When Janet Frame's doctor suggested that she write about her traumatic experiences… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'These little tales are tremendous fun, glorious hand grenades lobbed at the reader by a gleeful, cackling Patricia Highsmith' Dan Rhodes Little Tales of Misogyny is Highsmith's legendary, cultish short-story collection. With an eerie simplicity… Read More

In 1914, when Nicandra is eight, all is well in the grand Irish estate, Deer Forest. Maman is beautiful and adored. Dada, silent and small, mooches contendedly around the stables. Aunt Tossie, of the giant heart and bosom, is widowed but looks splendid in weeds. The butler, the groom, the… Read More

A.L. Barker dissects the unnerving emotions of everyday life with the sly humour and exquisite feel for language that prompted Auberon Waugh to declare that she 'writes like an angel and I love her'. In this, her tenth collection of stories, she unfolds tales of cunning, fancy, and shifting alliances.… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'The setting is Venice, the characterisation brilliant, the style spare and superb' Daily Mail The honeymoon is over; the bride dead by her own hand. Ray Garrett, the grieving husband, convinces the police in Rome… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'The Glass Cell has lost little of its disturbing power . . . Highsmith was a genuine one-off, and her books will haunt you' Daily Telegraph Philip Carter has spent six years in prison for… Read More

In the 1940s, P. L. Travers wrote three stories, which she gave as Christmas gifts to friends. One was 'Aunt Sass', based on Travers's great aunt - the real-life inspiration for Mary Poppins. Now, for the first time, they are available to a wider readership. Printed on board, with beautiful… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing . . . bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night' New Yorker Sydney Bartleby has killed his wife. At least, he has thought about it,… Read More

Kit Anderson is married to Janet, a beautiful but narcissistic woman who seems more shallow to him as time goes by. Their relationship has become strained and cold. Immersing himself in his work as a doctor, Anderson takes consolation in his career. Then, one night he is called out to… Read More

On holiday in the North Devon countryside, Neil Langton looks back on the wreckage of his past. He has come to believe that all happiness is behind him; the wounds from his former marriage - in which his wife cheated on him and his young daughter died - are still… Read More

Elsie, sheltered and naive, is seventeen and unhappy. Stifled by life with her bickering parents in a bleak Cornish village, she falls in love with the first presentable young man she meets - Peter, an ambitious London doctor. On his advice she runs away from home and goes to live… Read More

'The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat - Sarah Waters Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece to India. Fire From Heaven tells the story of the years… Read More

'Renault's masterpiece. One of the greatest historical novels ever written' SARAH WATERS In the second novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend. The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life… Read More

'The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat' SARAH WATERS In the final novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend. Alexander… Read More

Jane and her mother live in a gloomy old mansion, where their lives are ruled by her ovebearing grandmother. For most of her life Jane has believed that her father is dead. Then, one dull April morning, a letter comes. Not only is her father alive and well, but he… Read More

Vivian, a student nurse, chose her profession as a challenge, both to her spirit and to her permanently exhausted body; Mic immerses himself in his work at the hospital to ward off the emotional wounds of an unhappy childhood. Through Jan, Viv's beloved older brother, they meet, and their friendship… Read More

Losing out on a promotion to her ex lover, Hilary Mansell, a talented doctor, moves to a rural hospital. She is bored and unchallenged, but the routine and long hours dull her disappointment. When Julian Fleming is admitted with a serious head injury, Hilary's skill and quick thinking save his… Read More

Lavinia Brandon is quite the loveliest widow in Barsetshire, blessed with beauty and grace, as well as two handsome grown-up children, Delia and Francis. So thinks their cousin Hilary Grant when he comes to stay and - like many before him - promptly falls for his fragrant hostess. Meanwhile, the… Read More

To his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School. Little does Colin imagine that he will count among his pupils… Read More

Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself - Alexander McCall It's August in the Barsetshire village of Worsted, and Richard Tebben, just down from Oxford, is contemplating the gloomy prospect of a long summer in the parental home. But the numerous and impossibly… Read More

By the author of Black Narcissus With a foreword by JACQUELINE WILSON 'A masterpiece of construction and utterly realistically convincing...Rumer Godden's writing is admired for many qualities . . . but I think her greatest strength is her accurate, unsentimental portrayal of children. Lovejoy, Tip and Sparkey were so real… Read More

By the author of Black Narcissus. 'One of our best and most captivating novelists' Philip Hensher All horses can walk - some badly, some well, but to a few is given a gift of movement feline in its grace, a slouching, flowing continuous movement that is a joy to watch.… Read More

As the First World War looms, Anna-Rose and Anna-Felicitas, seventeen-year-old orphan twins, are thrust upon relatives. But Uncle Arthur, a blustering patriot, is a reluctant guardian: the twins are half-German and, who knows, they could be spying from the nursery window... Packed off to America, they meet Mr Twist, a… Read More

Beauty; beauty. What was the good of beauty, once it was over? It left nothing behind it but acid regrets, and no heart at all to start fresh.' Approaching the watershed of her fiftieth birthday, Fanny, having long ago divorced Mr Skeffington and dismissed him from her thoughts for many… Read More

A gentle romance begins innocently enough in the stalls of a London theatre where Catherine is enjoying her ninth and Christopher his thirty-sixth visit to the same play. He is a magnificent young man with flame-coloured hair. She is the sweetest little thing in a hat. There is just one… Read More

First published in 1936, this is the story of Elizabeth von Arnim's extraordinary life - and her equally extraordinary dogs. From her Pomeranian idyll (celebrated in her famous first book, ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN), to less happy days in London following the death of her first husband; from the… Read More

Ingeborg Bullivant, the put-upon daughter of the Bishop of Redchester, suddenly becomes possessed by the demon Rebellion and takes a week's tour to Lucerne. Constantly in the company of a ponderous German pastor, she is put into a quandary when he proposes marriage. Faced with her father's wrath on her… Read More

This enchanting novel tells the story of the love affair between Rose-Marie Schmidt and Roger Anstruther. A determined young woman of twenty-five, Rose-Marie is considered a spinster by the inhabitants of the small German town of Jena where she lives with her father, the Professor. To their homes comes Roger,… Read More

Lucy Entwhistle's beloved father has just died, and aged twenty-two, she finds herself alone in the world. Leaning against her garden gate, dazed and unhappy, she is disturbed by the sudden appearance of the perspiring Mr Wemyss. This middle-aged man is also in mourning - for his wife, Vera, who… Read More

Robert wants nothing more than to become a serious art historian. But his hopes for an academic life are put on hold when he's driven from London to Venice to escape one lover and seek out another: the enigmatic Bulgarian refugee Lina Pancev. In Venice, Robert encounters a grand carnival… Read More

Annabel Christopher is every inch the star: a glamorous actress with a devoted, handsome husband. To keep the paparazzi and her adoring public under her spell, her perfect image must be carefully cultivated, whatever the cost. Beneath the facade, though, her husband cannot bear her or their vapid existence. Envious… Read More

In 1901 the 'real' Elizabeth holidayed on the Baltic island of Rügen with just her maid, a coachman, a carriage piled with luggage, and a woman friend. From such unpromising beginnings Elizabeth weaves a captivating farrago around her encounters. There's the snobbish bishop's wife and her personable, handsome son, a… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'Master storyteller Highsmith offers an eerily up-to-date collection of modern horror tales' Publishers Weekly Patricia Highsmith, an American who lived most of her life in Europe, was the author of such bestselling crime novels as… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'A border zone of the macabre, the disturbing, the not-quite accidental' New York Times Book Review The Black House eerily evokes the warm familiarities of suburban life: the manicured lawns, the white picket fences, and… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'One of the exhilarating effects of reading Highsmith's stories . . . is their surehandednes, their amazing breadth and abundance . . . they compel attention and they add significantly to her already formidable presence'… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'Highsmith neatly dismantles the American suburban idyll, subverting the cliches of domestic bliss - nice neighbours, a child's comforting glass of milk, and the dream of growing radishes - with macabre cruelty' Andrew Wilson, author… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'Highsmith writes the verbal equivalent of a drug - easy to consume, darkly euphoric, totally addictive . . . (She) belongs in the moody company of Dostoevsky or Angela Carter' Time Out Nowhere is Patricia… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'These tales should not be glanced at by those with even the slightest history of poor mental health . . . Highsmith's dark humour oozes through this new collection like a particularly delicious poison' Andrew… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train Robert Forester, depressed after a painful divorce, begins to spy on Jenny, his pretty young neighbour. Watching her, bright and seemingly carefree, alleviates his loneliness and helps him escape the discontent of his life. Caught… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train Too much love can be a bad thing. 'Highsmith was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes, and didn't seem to mind if everyone knew it' J. G. Ballard, Daily Telegraph David… Read More

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train 'What is striking about these stories is their integrity: they are all of a piece . . . a brilliant collection' - Sunday Times Unsuspecting victims are devoured by their own obsessions in this perfectly… Read More

Some books change lives. This is one of them . . . It has the drive of a thriller but the imagery of a romance . . . This is a book that is hard to set aside; it demands to be read late into the night with eyes burning… Read More

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY INTRODUCED BY DENISE MINA 'Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense' MARK BILLINGHAM A gripping novel that explores the shifting sands of moral values - is murder still murder when committed… Read More

Ripley Under Water is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the last in her series of five books known as the 'Ripliad'. 'The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer' The Times Tom Ripley is quietly living in luxury at his chateau at Villeperce. He has a past, however, that would not bear… Read More

INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS 'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny' Nina Stibbe 'One Pair of Feet is not just a spirited and entertaining account of the training of a hospital nurse in wartime but a fascinating glimpse… Read More

Originally published in the 1930s and 1940s and never before collected, these stories by the incomparable Angela Thirkell relate merry scenes of a trip to the pantomime, escapades on ice, a Christmas Day gone awry, and an electrifying afternoon for Laura Morland and friends at Low Rising, not to mention… Read More

Pomfret Towers, Barsetshire seat of the earls of Pomfret, was constructed, with great pomp and want of concern for creature comforts, in the once-fashionable style of Sir Gilbert Scott's St Pancras station. It makes a grand setting for a house party at which gamine Alice Barton and her brother Guy… Read More

Named by the Guardian as one of 'the 100 best novels,' and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont is a humorous and compassionate look at friendship between an old woman and a young man from a 'magnificent...writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike'… Read More

'The Charioteer remains compelling both as a snapshot of a particular - and particularly fascinating - cultural moment, and as a deeply romantic story of love fulfilled against the odds. It has all those qualities that make Mary Renault so memorable as a novelist: craft, subtlety, intelligence, and a terrific… Read More

Two sisters: Madeleine and Dinah. One husband: Rickie Masters. For many years now, Dinah, exotic and sensual, has conducted a clandestine affair with Rickie. Madeleine, calm and resolute, has accepted that her marriage has been of limited success. Rickie's sudden death makes widows of both sisters in this highly imaginative… Read More

Mamma was fast asleep at home, her spirit lapped in unconsciousness. Her dreams would not divine that her daughter had stolen out to meet a lover. And next door also they slept unawares, while one of them broke from the circle and came alone to clasp a stranger . .… Read More

Joy - also called Blossom, Sunshine and Blondie by the men in her life - walks down Fulham Broadway carrying her week-old baby, Jonny. She is twenty-one, with bleached hair, high suede shoes, and a head full of dreams. Her husband Tom is a thief and on the proceeds of… Read More

The girls - Rube, Lily and Sylvie - work at McCrindle's sweet factory during the week and on Saturday they go up the Junction in their clattering stilettos, think about new frocks on H.P., drink tea in the cafe, and talk about their boyfriends. In these uninhibited, spirited vignettes of… Read More

INTRODUCED BY JANE GARDAM 'A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities - its darkness, its strangeness, its humour, its sadness, its startling images and twists of phrase' Sarah Waters Growing up in Edwardian… Read More

'I defy anyone to read the opening pages and not to be drawn in, as I was . . . Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else' Maggie O'Farrell Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist's model with… Read More

On the banks of the River Avon, five sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree, and always there is the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the house: ivy grows unchecked… Read More

One glorious gothic mansion - Garonlea - and two rather different ladies who would be Queen . . . Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish - and engaged to her son Desmond. When… Read More

Durraghglass is a beautiful mansion in Southern Ireland, now crumbling in neglect. The time is the present - a present that churns with the bizarre passions of its owners' past. The Swifts - three sisters of marked eccentricity, defiantly christened April, May and Baby June, and their only brother, one-eyed… Read More

'The greatest Scottish novelist of modern times.' Ian Rankin In this first novel by Muriel Spark - author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - the only things that aren't ambiguous are Spark's matchless originality and glittering wit. With an introduction by Ali Smith. Caroline Rose is plagued by… Read More

Remember you must die. Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her circle to receive insinuating anonymous phone calls. Neither she, nor her friends, wish to be reminded of their mortality, and their geriatric feathers are thoroughly ruffled. As the caller's activities become more widespread, old secrets are dusted off,… Read More

A funny and clever novel about art and reality and the way they imitate each other, from the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. With an introduction by Mark Lawson. Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members… Read More

'The greatest Scottish novelist of modern times . . . She was peerless, sparkling, inventive and intelligent - the crème de la crème.' Ian Rankin One October evening five London couples gather for a dinner party, enjoying 'the pheasant (flambe in cognac as it is)' and waiting for the imminent… Read More

Those who suffered because of her might think of Mary that she hurt others, herself she could not hurt; but Jer, knowing her better...knew she hurt herself perhaps most deeply. Since the death of her parents, Roguey, Maeve and Jer have cared for one another and for Sorristown, their elegant… Read More

Angel, formidable hostess, social charmer and mother par excellence, confidently awaits the return of her little boy from the trials of war. She could not anticipate that the teenager who went away will return a grown man - bronzed and world-weary - a sophisticated American widow on his arm. Nor… Read More

Prudence, at nineteen, is reckless, laughing, wild; the despair of her elderly guardians. With her best friend, the subversive but very female Peter, she rackets round the Irish countryside among her beloved horses and dogs. But she feels betrayed by Peter's growing interest in the new Master of Hounds, 'Saxon'… Read More

Angel, formidable hostess, social charmer and mother par excellence, confidently awaits the return of her little boy from the trials of war. She could not anticipate that the teenager who went away will return a grown man - bronzed and world-weary - a sophisticated American widow on his arm. Nor… Read More

In the early 1900s Easter lives with her Aunt Brenda, her cousins Evelyn and Basil, and their Great-Aunt Dicksie in an imposing country house, Puppetstown, which casts a spell over their childhood. Here they spend carefree days taunting the peacocks in Aunt Dicksie's garden, shooting snipe and woodcock, hunting, and… Read More

Grania and Sylvia Fox live in the Georgian house of Aragon, with their mother, their Aunt Pidgie and Nan O'Neill, the family nurse. Grania is conducting a secret affair with Nan's son, Foley, a wily horse-breeder, whilst Sylvia who is 'pretty in the right and accepted way' falls for the… Read More

Silverue -- an enchanting Irish mansion -- is owned by one of the most frightening mothers in fiction -- the indomitable, oppressively girlish Lady Bird. Blessed with wealth and beautiful children she has little to worry about except the passing of the years and the return of her son John's… Read More

When Oliver visits Pullinstown, he is introduced to wild days of hunting and shooting, and to characters like his cousins, with their passion for horses and trickery, and Sir Richard, elderly, but a match for his headstrong offspring. The author has also written under the pseudonym, M.J. Farrell. Read More

To Ballinrath House, where purple bog gives way to slate-coloured mountains, comes Allan to visit his Irish cousins. No sooner has he arrived than he falls in love with Cousin Ann, though it seems that she only has eyes for Captain Dennys St Lawrence. Read More

Jessica and Jane have been living together for six months and are devoted friends - or are they? Jessica loves her friend with the cruelty of total possessiveness; Jane is rich, silly, and drinks rather too many brandy-and-sodas. Watching from the sidelines, their friend Sylvester regrets that Jane should be… Read More

In the summer of 1959 Nora Silk moves into a quiet suburb on Long Island with her two, young sons, a collection of Elvis records and a marked absence of husband. Her glamour and cheerfully chaotic ways immediately arouse the suspicions of the neighbourhood where life runs according to two… Read More

'Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty' New York Times Doone Penny is a child with a gift - he was born to dance. But though others recognise his talent, there is little encouragement from his… Read More

By the author of Black Narcissus. 'Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty' New York Times 'Never forget, Charlotte, you were born to be a dancer . . . Never forget. Promise.' Before her ballet teacher… Read More

When Barbara Vaughan's fiancé joins an archaeological excursion to the Dead Sea Scrolls, she takes the opportunity to explore the Holy Land. It is 1961, and the nation of Israel is still in its infancy. For Barbara, a half-Jewish Catholic convert, this is a journey of faith, and she ignores… Read More

'Brighter and better than Thomas Hardy . . . a marvellous writer' Eloise Millar, Guardian Prudence Sarn was born with a cleft palate, her 'precious bane', for which she is persecuted as a witch by her superstitious neighbours. Hiding from daily ridicule, she takes refuge in the wild Shropshire countryside,… Read More

'People came in and out, chairs were moved, dishes gathered up on trays, but it was happening at a great distance; she concentrated entirely on his pink face crowned with foppish curls.' Genteel, passive Ann works for the BBC in London and is engaged to a successful academic, fulfilling her… Read More

'A small masterpiece' Colm Toibin, Daily Telegraph 'I don't know how many times I have reread the book, including several times in Catalan, with such effort that speaks volumes to my devotion to the novel' Gabriel Garcia Marquez 'The fierce beauty of Rodoreda's writing makes it one of the masterpieces… Read More

In 1933 we meet Rebecca, heroine of THE BALLAD AND THE SOURCE - but in a different world, on many levels. Betrayed by her married lover, Rebecca arrives alone at a small Caribbean island. Here, along with the splendidly eccentric members of the British expatriate colony, she meets the former… Read More

Rosamond Lehmann, one of the most distinguished British writers of this century, published eight acclaimed works of fiction. Her only autobiographical work, The Swan in the Evening, recreated first the child she was and the experiences that made her the woman she became, moving on to tell the story of… Read More

Grace Fairfax lives with her dull, conventional husband Tom in a grey manufacturing town in the north of England. At thirty-four she finds that her external life of dreary routine fails to match up to her lush, wistful and dreamy internal life. Norah, her energetic and chaotic friend, is equally… Read More

The tale of the unlikely friendship between and an old woman and a young girl, this is one of Rosamond Lehmann's finest novels Ten year old Rebecca is living in the country with her family when Sibyl Jardine, an enigmatic and powerful old woman, returns to her property in the… Read More