72 Products

In telling the life story of Elizabeth II, Andrew Marr is concerned with the influences on her and 'why she does what she does'. The result is a study of the monarchy that chronicles the Queen's pivotal role at the centre of state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and makes a strong case for the institution itself. Marr presents a vivid account not only of Elizabeth II, but also of the country she has reigned over for six decades.

Red Westwood met Bryce through an online dating agency. There was an instant mutual attraction, and it blinded Red to the danger she was courting. In this Roy Grace thriller, the Detective Superintendent tackles a case of jealousy and obsession turned murderous.

Many Americans fought in the Spanish Civil War – on both sides. This book tells the stories not only of famous names like Hemingway, but also of a 19-year-old Kentucky woman, a Pennsylvania student, and the Texas oilman who fuelled Franco’s army.

A violent robbery leaves an old woman dying and her family ready to stop at nothing to get back one priceless heirloom. DS Grace investigates, following a murderous trail through Brighton’s shady world of antiques, and back to New York waterfront gangs of the 1920s.

After stints in regional theatre in Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol, Tony Robinson played small parts on television during the 1970s, including presenting Play Away, and began to make his name as a comedian in the early 1980s with the sketch show Who Dares Wins. The Blackadder star reads his engaging autobiography in this 12-CD set.

Charles I was a loving father, but what became of his children after his execution in 1649? This engaging, sympathetic and meticulously researched history charts the fortunes of the Stuart princes and princesses in exile and after: Elizabeth, imprisoned during the Civil War; the dashing Henry, who died within months of his brother Charles's restoration to the throne; James, Charles's ill-fated successor; Mary, child bride of the Prince of Orange; and Henrietta Anne, the youngest, who married Philippe d'Orléans.

The fourth volume of Peter Ackroyd’s epic History of England begins in 1688 with a revolution and ends in 1815 with a victory. Against a vivid backdrop of coffee houses and playhouses, it charts the creation of those pillars of modern Britain, the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange, the rise of newspapers, the birth of the novel, and the technological developments that transformed England from a land of green fields to one of iron and coal.

Each picture book in this set takes a different theme – jungle animals, sleepy animals, baby animals – and features a simple rhyming storyline. Sound effects and animal noises at various points in the texts allow very young readers to participate in the narration. With large, bright, colourful illustrations throughout, each book culminates in a farewell spread, picturing all the animals in the story and the sounds they make. Age 2+

In the magical land of Honalee lives Puff, a gentle dragon who becomes the devoted playmate of young Jackie. Together they sail the seas and meet princes and pirates. This storybook version of the popular song was written by Peter (of Peter, Paul and Mary), with Lenny Lipton, and paintings by Eric Puybaret. Age 3+

When Ted falls out of bed and can’t wake his friend up (his two eyes are tight shut), three mice invite him to come and play. It’s the beginning of an exciting counting adventure – up to ten and back again – for Ted and all the other toys. Age 3+

This fifth book in the Clifton Chronicles series opens with an IRA bomb exploding during MV Buckingham’s maiden voyage – with repercussions for Emma Clifton, chairman of Barrington Shipping. Meanwhile, Harry Clifton is campaigning to free a Russian dissident author. Jeffrey Archer’s cliffhanger is read here by Alex Jennings. Unabridged.

Although Bessie-Belle promises to grant Freddie his every wish, she can’t hear very well and his wishes come out wrong – but it is Freddie’s mumbling to blame, not Bessie-Belle’s magic. Age 3+

During the day, the bath puts out wings and three toys – frog, turtle and duck – fly around the world bringing water to animals in need, such as thirsty kangaroo or the bee whose flowers need a drink. Age 3+

This sixth and penultimate book in the Clifton Chronicles series opens with the reading of a suicide note which has devastating consequences for the Cliftons, politician Giles Barrington and the almost bankrupt Lady Virginia. Read by Alex Jennings. Unabridged.

‘Carrots – yuck!’ says fussy Duck. ‘They’re good for you,’ says Kangaroo. The animals have a feast of food and rhymes, and after Pup has done the washing up, guess what rhymes with Sheep? Age 2+

As he sets off to conduct a journey through the universe, the astrophysicist Christophe Galfard aims to ‘not leave any readers behind’ and promises to use only one equation (E=mc²). In a widely acclaimed, non-scientists’ introduction to modern physics and cosmology, Galfard uses humour, storytelling and thought experiments to make concepts such as electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, general relativity and black holes intelligible to all of us.

Gleaned from collections of wartime ‘private papers’ deposited in archives around the country, this book offers a poignant view of the war from the perspective of husbands and lovers fighting far from home and the wives and girlfriends left behind. Although written to and from British, French, ANZAC and German soldiers, the letters are an eloquent testimony to shared and deeply felt emotions. Mandy Kirkby provides brief introductions to each correspondent. Foreword by Helen Dunmore.

The letters in this collection were written during centuries when ‘the bar to success for women was set almost impossibly high’, and the greatness of these letter-writers resides in their resilience in the face of seemingly insuperable odds. Ranging chronologically from Lady Joan Pelham writing to her husband in 1399 to Katherine Mansfield’s letters to John Middleton Murray between 1915 and 1918, the 27 women featured include Nell Gwyn, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand and Rosa Luxemburg.

Drawing on a mass of documentation, diaries and reports from ghettoes and camps, Cesarani’s authoritative account of the Holocaust reappraises the accepted explanations for the anti-Jewish politics of Nazi Germany. This searching new interpretation asserts that the Holocaust was not inevitable, but erratic, improvised, and accelerated by Germany’s military failure. The book reveals the courage and ingenuity of those who fought back, and points out that many survivors languished in Displaced Persons’ Camps long after they were ‘liberated’.

Professor Crystal’s celebration of English dialects also celebrates the seminal achievement of Joseph Wright and The English Dialect Dictionary (6 volumes, 1898–1903). Crystal has taken 900 of Wright’s words and expressions whose meanings remain relevant today: from abbey-lubber (an idle person) to zwodder (a drowsy, stupid state of mind), he describes their meanings, etymology and usage and, hopefully, gives them a new lease of life. A geographical index follows the A–Z.

Presenting Richard III as a man more sinned against than sinning, Sharon Penman’s classic novel was written from the conviction that ‘history is rewritten by the victors’, and it served Henry Tudor’s purpose to have Richard portrayed as a soulless monster. Set amid the Wars of the Roses, the novel follows Richard from childhood, through battles, love and the treachery of court politics, to his death on Bosworth Field. This 30th-anniversary edition includes some revisions and a new author’s note.

First published in 1847, the incomparable story of Cathy, Heathcliff and their passionate but doomed love, played out on the windswept Yorkshire moors, has lost none of its romance and power. This reprint of the 1850 edition is prefaced by Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Biographical Note of Ellis and Acton Bell’.

Kenneth Grahame's tale of Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad was first published in 1908 and has been a children's favourite ever since. This Collector’s Library edition includes the original illustrations by Arthur Rackham, hand coloured by Barbara Frith, and the introduction by AA Milne. This pocket-sized, hardback edition is bound in dark green linen, with gilt-edged pages, a silk marker and dust jacket.

Jules Verne's tale of the underwater voyage of Captain Nemo in his ship Nautilus is one of the earliest and most influential science fiction novels, first published in French in 1869. This edition reprints the 1870 translation by FP Walter. Collector’s Library.

Set in Rugby School in the 1830s, this seminal novel of life in an English public school follows the highly entertaining trials and tribulations of young Tom Brown. Collector’s Library.

First published in 1920, Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel captures the feel of its era as it tells the story of Amory Blaine's journey from youth to maturity and explores themes such as the quest for success and the power of money.

In Stevenson’s famous tale, Dr Henry Jekyll develops an elixir that allows him to explore the hidden depths of his psyche and transfer evil traits to another personality. The result – the repulsive Edward Hyde – proves to be unstoppable. The novel is accompanied by four short and sinister stories: The Body-Snatchers, Markheim, Olalla and The Suicide Club.

With apposite quotations from the Holmes stories or information about Arthur Conan Doyle on every page, along with Sidney Paget’s original illustrations from The Strand magazine, this perpetual diary would be excellent for recording birthdays and anniversaries – Ma and Pa’s wedding forever remembered on the day of Ryder’s desperate plea in 'The Blue Carbuncle'. The diary is bound in red linen with gilt-edged pages and a silk marker.

First published in book form in New York in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett's story of Mary Lennox, Dickon and Colin and the locked garden at Misselthwaite Manor is now one of the great classics of children's literature.

With a preface by Sir Winston Churchill and a new introduction by the military historian John Terraine, this volume presents AP Herbert’s classic novel, first published in 1919 and based on the author’s experiences in Gallipoli and the trenches of the Western Front.

First published in 1929, Woolf’s extended essay was based on lectures given at Girton and Newnham Colleges in Cambridge and employs a fictitious narrator and fiction to make the argument for greater liberty for women within the patriarchal literary establishment.

Based on the ordeal of castaway Alexander Selkirk, Defoe's novel – presented as a true story – is told by Crusoe himself as he survives a shipwreck and 28 years on a desert island before being rescued. First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has a claim to be the first English novel and it remains one of the most convincing adventure stories ever written.

During Machiavelli’s lifetime, his fame rested on The Art of War rather than The Prince; although written with the situation in Florence in mind, his practical military treatise was influential throughout Europe. It promotes the concept of war as an extension of politics, and the necessity of a state army, trained, disciplined and deployed on the classical Roman model. The Art of War accompanies The Prince in this Collector’s Library edition.

The unconventional and charismatic schoolmistress Miss Jean Brodie presents herself as a role model and has her following, the ‘Brodie set’; but is her power and influence over these impressionable young girls altogether innocent? First published in 1961.

Edited and with a substantial introduction by Marcus Clapham, this anthology is arranged alphabetically by poet and includes both obscure soldier-poets and the great writers of the war years such as Edward Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen. A final section provides brief biographical notes on the poets.

Oscar Wilde's only novel, published in 1890, is a chilling story of a man who retains his youth and good looks, but at a terrible, hidden price. Collector’s Library.

Jim Wormold, an impecunious vacuum-cleaner salesman in Havana, is recruited into the Secret Service and earns his money not by gathering intelligence, but by inventing it. Published in 1958, Greene’s satire on the Cold War predates the real Cuban missile crisis.

Elizabeth Gaskell's great Condition of England novel explores the myth and the reality of the north-south divide and, in Margaret Hale, introduces one of Victorian literature's most original heroines. Collector’s Library.

In wartime London, Arthur Rowe visits a fête in a Bloomsbury garden, guesses the weight of a cake and wins it. With this seemingly innocent piece of fun, he stumbles into a Nazi spy-ring, and must be silenced.

While drunk at a fair, hay-trusser Michael Henchard sold his wife and child to a sailor for five guineas. The next morning he vowed to mend his ways; and eventually, by hard work and good judgement, he became mayor of Casterbridge. Then, 18 years after being sold, his wife returns and Henchard finds he cannot escape his past. Collector’s Library.

Published in 1857, Flaubert's seminal novel tells the story of Emma Bovary, a bored and miserable provincial wife, and her doomed attempt to find happiness. This edition reprints the first English translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, the daughter of Karl Marx.

Set in the wild West Highlands soon after the Jacobite Risings, this famous adventure follows orphaned David Balfour as he is kidnapped, shipwrecked and on the run from the Redcoats. Kidnapped is presented here in a pocket-sized, hardback edition is from the Collectors Library, a series that presents classic works of literature, complete and unabridged, with either a short introduction or an afterword by a literary scholar. Bound in maroon linen, with gilt-edged pages, a silk marker and dust jacket.

After translating an ancient manuscript that tells of a passageway to the very centre of the earth, Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew set off through the crater of a volcano and find themselves in a prehistoric land of fearsome beasts. This trail-blazing work of science fiction was first published in 1864. Collector’s Library.

One of the world’s best-loved children’s books, Heidi tells the story of a little orphaned girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. When she is sent to live with a family in Frankfurt, Heidi is homesick for the mountains and her grandfather. First published in 1880. Collector’s Library.