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Salley Vickers

'A wonderful book. Salley Vickers spins a spellbinding account of a family in distress' Elizabeth Strout on 'Cousins' 
 
Spring, 1918. Nine-year-old Charlotte Tye wakes up unusually early the night before her brother's wedding, and steals out down the familiar track leading from her house to the seashore. There, she meets a local man, standing alone amid the eider ducks, who carries a mysterious message for her... 
 
Read more about three generations of the Tye family from the First World War to the present day in the first two chapters of Salley Vickers' powerful new novel, 'Cousins', included in this e-book.

The Message from Lindisfarne

Cast of Critical Role

Jess Barber

Martin Cahill

Rebecca Coffindaffer

Aabria Iyengar

Sam Maggs

Sarah Glenn Marsh

Rory Power

Nibedita Sen

Izzy Wasserstein

Kendra Wells

Liam O'Brien

In these ten stories, see the legendary adventuring party anew through the eyes of some of the most memorable characters whose lives were touched by Vox Machina. 
 
Within its pages: 
• Shaun Gilmore reflects on the life he has chosen, as told by Aabria Iyengar. 
• Raishan, racked by a pestilent curse, plots to release the Cinder King from his fiery prison, as told by Rory Power. 
• Trinket the Wonder Bear accompanies the next generation of Vox Machina on their first adventure, as told by Sarah Glenn Marsh. 
• Plus seven more hilarious, heartbreaking, and heroic tales featuring Kaylie, Doty, Kevdak, and more! 
 
The adventure began in 2015 with a group of friends sitting down in front of a camera to roll some dice, bring their characters to life, and tell a story that would become immortalized in their livestream tabletop roleplaying game: Critical Role. What started as a humble home game eventually grew into a worldwide phenomenon that has touched countless people with its poignant, larger-than-life storytelling – and in that same vein, this collection celebrates the characters whose lives were touched by Vox Machina but whose stories are yet to be told. 
 
Contributors: Foreword by Liam O’Brien • Jess Barber Martin Cahill • Rebecca Coffindaffer • Aabria Iyengar • Sam Maggs • Sarah Glenn Marsh • Rory Power • Nibedita Sen • Izzy Wasserstein • Kendra Wells

Critical Role: Vox Machina - Stories Untold

Henry James

The stories in this collection were written mostly between 1888 and 1897, a time when Henry James&rsquo;s writing was concerned with the art of fiction and the position of the artist in society. The motif and title story, &lsquo;The Figure in the Carpet&rsquo;, is an inspired joke, a masterpiece of double-entendre that demands the reader&rsquo;s undivided love and attention and continues to baffle its critics. Also included are &lsquo;The Author of Beltraffio&rsquo;, an absorbing story of family infighting, authorship and tragedy, and &lsquo;The Private Life&rsquo;, a spirited tale that considers the contrast between the artist alone and at work. While many of these stories appear to be elaborate Jamesian games, all employ irony and humour to allegorize artistic creation.

The Figure in the Carpet and Other Stories

Gabriel García Márquez

Their nostalgic memories of home, their sense of anonymity in a foreign land, the terrifying pang of vulnerability they feel as they step over the threshold into an alien world... 
 
These pilgrims - the ageing prostitute preparing for death, the panicked husband scared for the life of his injured wife, the old man who allows his mind to wander on a long-haul flight from Paris - experience what it is to be an outsider living far from home. 
 
Strange Pilgrims is re-issued on Gabriel García Márquez 's birthday to celebrate the publication of his books as ebooks for the first time.

Strange Pilgrims

Roald Dahl

In Mr Hoddy, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells a comic story of human folly. Here, a man trying to convince the father of his beloved of his good prospects unwisely brings up his new career . . .

Mr Hoddy (A Roald Dahl Short Story)

John Mortimer

Over a period of thirty years, beginning in the late 1970s, John Mortimer wrote around eighty Rumpole stories (as well as four Rumpole novels). During that period, the world changed dramatically but the old boy remained the same throughout: committed to defending the apparently indefensible, trusting of a jury, scornful of the law's pomposities. He is truly one of the immortal comic characters in English fiction, alongside Mr Pickwick and Bertie Wooster. 
 
Forever Rumpole offers the perfect introduction for anyone lucky enough to be coming to Rumpole for the first time. It contains seven stories chosen by the author himself in 1993 as his favourites to that point, together with a further seven from the later period. It also contains a fragment of a Rumpole novel the author had just started when he died. With an introduction by fellow-lawyer Ann Mallalieu, a close friend of Sir John, Forever Rumpole offers the very best of Horace Rumpole.

Forever Rumpole

The Best of the Rumpole Stories

Naomi Novik

A thrilling anthology of short stories from the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Scholomance Trilogy and Uprooted, spanning each of her realms and including a sneak peak into the world of her next series. 
 
From the gothic, magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy, through the realms next door to Spinning Silver and Uprooted, and the dragon-filled Temeraire series, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories. Here, among many others, we encounter:<ul><li>A mushroom witch who learns that sometimes the worst thing in the Scholomance can be your roommate.</li><li>The start of the Dragon Corps in ancient Rome, after Mark Antony hatches a dragon’s egg and bonds with the hatchling.</li><li>A young bride in the middle ages who finds herself gambling with Death, for the highest of stakes.</li><li>A delightful reimagining of Pride & Prejudice, in which Elizabeth Bennet captains a Longwing dragon.</li><li>The first glimpse at the world of Abandon, the setting of Novik’s upcoming epic fantasy series—a deserted continent populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural mysteries.</li></ul> 
Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: wrestling with destiny, and the lengths some will go to find their own and fulfill its promise.

Buried Deep and Other Stories

Kate Chopin

'At night, among the reeds on the bayou, Chicot could still hear the woman's wail, mingled now with the croaking of the frogs...' 
 
From one of the most daring writers of fin-de-siècle America, five stories of awakening that range from Louisiana's plantations and poverty-stricken bayous to its gilded cities. 
 
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. 
 
Kate Chopin (1850-1904). The Awakening and Selected Stories and At Fault are available in Penguin Classics.

A Pair of Silk Stockings

Robert Musil

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

'They no longer hold themselves up with all their might, but sink a little and at that moment appear totally human' 
 
Of the very first rank of prose stylists, Robert Musil captures a scene's every telling detail and symbolic aspect with a precise and remarkable beauty. In these nine stories and essays, he considers holidaymakers and stone monuments, tales of war and blackbirds, and the great pathos of a tiny death: a fly's impossible fight against the grip of flypaper. 
 
This book includes Flypaper, Monkey Island, Fisherman on the Baltic, Sheep, As Seen in Another Light, Sarcophagus Cover, Monuments, The Paint Spreader, It's Lovely Here and The Blackbird.

Flypaper

J. D. Salinger

An American soldier has a strange encounter with an orphaned English teenager the night before he leaves for war. A four-year-old boy runs away from home in a dinghy. A missionary's child is kidnapped by Chinese bandits. A honeymoon in Florida goes awry with tragic consequences. 
 
 Including the first stories to feature J. D. Salinger's beloved Glass family characters, this brilliantly varied collection offers a vivid introduction to the work of one of the most admired and widely read American novelists of the twentieth century. Witty, urbane and frequently affecting, For Esmé - with Love and Squalor is a gem to be passed down for many generations to come.

For Esmé - with Love and Squalor

And Other Stories

In William and Mary, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a wronged woman takes revenge on her dead husband . . .

William and Mary (A Roald Dahl Short Story)

Roald Dahl is one of the world's most popular writers, equally at home writing for both children and adults. In this, the second of two volumes chronologically collecting all his published adult short stories, we experience Dahl's dark and powerful imagination in full flight in 28 stories written between 1954 and 1988 (including tales which are not available in any other printed edition). 
 
Here, in 'Parson's Pleasure', a piece of furniture is the subject of a deceitful bargain; in 'William and Mary', a wife revenges herself on her dead husband; and in 'Royal Jelly' some new parents find an unusual and unsettling way to give their newborn its start in life. 
 
Once you've stepped into the brilliant, troubling world of Roald Dahl, you'll never be the same again.

The Complete Short Stories

Volume Two

Joshua Ferris

'He reflected in future retrospect on the evening and foretold every gesture, every word. "I can't do it," he said. "I can predict everything that will happen from the moment they arrive to the little kiss on the cheek goodbye and I just can't goddamn do it."' 
 
The Dinner Party immerses us in the comic and strange realities of modern life, as we journey through the lives of the unlovable, the unloved, and those who love too much: Jack, who nervously tries to befriend the surly removal man by buying him a latte and a croissant; Sarah, who endlessly imagines how her evening would have been better had she only chosen a different restaurant; Joe, who spends a night alone at the office and surreptitiously starts to rearrange his colleagues' belongings. 
 
These are stories about the infinite possibilities of a person's life, from an agonizingly funny and original writer.

The Dinner Party

In May of 1942, Buddy Glass, second son of the eccentric Glass family, comes home on leave from military service. He is back in New York City to attend the wedding of his eldest brother, Seymour. But the celebration is overcast by a sense of suspended weight, a strange and muted dread. Perhaps everyone is aware, on some level, of what is to come. And in the years after the tragedy, Buddy is haunted by memories of Seymour, turning over in his mind everything that came to pass with his unhappy older brother. 
 
In two communicating stories from his acclaimed Glass series, J. D. Salinger unfolds a subtle and poignant story of family tragedy.

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; Seymour - an Introduction

Herman Melville

'No voice, no low, no howl is heard; the chief sound of life here is a hiss.' 
 
Stories and poems by Herman Melville drawn from his years at sea 
 
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. 
 
Herman Melville (1819-1891). Melville's works available in Penguin Classics are Moby-Dick, Pierre, The Confidence-Man, Omoo, Redburn, Israel Potter and Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories.

The Maldive Shark

M. R. James

'The lower jaw was thin - what can I call it? - shallow, like a beast's; teeth showed behind the black lips...' 
 
M. R. James is the master of the English ghost story, whose tales are inhabited not by ethereal spirits, but by terrifying, palpable forces of evil. In these four stories figures appear in paintings, demonic voices are heard, books awaken ancient horrors - and ordinary objects and situations are transformed into inescapable nightmares. 
 
This book includes Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book, The Mezzotint, The Rose Garden and The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral.

Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book

In Royal Jelly, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a husband and wife, unable to get their new baby to feed, hit upon a novel and disturbing solution . . .

Royal Jelly (A Roald Dahl Short Story)

A wife pawns her lover's parting gift with unexpected consequences, an unusual painting proves to be more valuable than anyone, especially its owner, could ever have predicted, a husband and wife, unable to get their new baby to feed, hit upon a disturbing solution . . . Cruelty highlights a domestic familiarity always on the edge of something much, much darker. 
 
Collected together for the first time, stories include The Butler, The Great Automatic Grammatizator, Royal jelly, Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat,The Swan, Poison, Skin, The Princess and the Poacher, Genesis and Catastrophe and Mr Feasey.

Cruelty

Micheal O Muircheartaigh

Miche&aacute;l &Oacute; Muircheartaigh is best known as the voice of the GAA. But his interests and enthusiasms &ndash; sporting and non-sporting &ndash; go far beyond the fields of Gaelic games. In his new book, the follow-up to his bestselling memoir From D&uacute;n S&iacute;on to Croke Park, Miche&aacute;l brings us along on his travels around the world, and to the villages, townlands and sporting fields of the four provinces of Ireland. He recalls great days at the races and in sporting stadiums big and small, and great nights in the dance halls. Above all, he tells the stories of these places and the people he has encountered there &ndash; stories told as only Miche&aacute;l can tell them.

From Borroloola to Mangerton Mountain

Travels and Stories from Ireland's Most Beloved Broadcaster

H G Wells

'I will go in, out of this dust and heat, out of this dry glitter of vanity, out of these toilsome futilities. I will go and never return.' 
 
Three disturbing, mysterious and moving stories from Wells, science-fiction pioneer. 
 
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. 
 
H. G. Wells (1866-1946). Wells's works available in Penguin Classics are Ann Veronica, The Country of the Blind and Other Selected Stories, The First Men in the Moon, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Kipps, Love and Mr Lewisham, A Modern Utopia, The New Machiavelli, The Shape of Things to Come, A Short History of the World, The Sleeper Awakes, The Time Machine, Tono-Bungay, The War in the Air and The War of the Worlds.

A Slip Under the Microscope

Paul Theroux

'No one ever sees me write. One of the triumphs of fiction is that it is created in the dark. It leaves my house in a plain wrapper, with no bloodstains. Unlike me, my stories are whole and indestructible.'  Theroux's canvas stretches from London to South-East Asia, from Boston to Paris, from Africa to Eastern Europe and from Moscow to the tropics in this vibrant collection. Full of suspense and the unexpected, the stories delve into the worlds of a vast spectrum of characters and display throughout a flair that shows Theroux to be a master of the form.

The Collected Stories

World's End; Sinning with Annie; Jungle Bells; the Consul's File; the London Embassy;

Penelope Lively

One of Britain's most acclaimed writers, Penelope lively has won some of our most prestigious literary awards, including the Booker Prize. In Pack of Cards her gifts of acute perception and wry humour are distilled into a unique collection of mesmerizing stories.

Pack of Cards

Stories 1978-1986

In They Shall Not Grow Old, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells of a pilot who goes missing for two days and the strange tale he eventually reveals on his return . . .

They Shall Not Grow Old (A Roald Dahl Short Story)

In Genesis and Catastrophe, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a baby is born and his worried parents, who have lost children before, are concerned for his future . . .

Genesis and Catastrophe (A Roald Dahl Short Story)

Otto Penzler

In this collection of mysteries, the greatest detectives of the Golden Age investigate the most puzzling crimes of the era. 
 
The investigators in these stories are from all walks of life - retired magicians to schoolteachers, Broadway producers to nuns. Whether professional or amateur, these keen-eyed detectives must get to the bottom of the most baffling cases of their careers. 
 
Edgar Award-winning Otto Penzler has hand-picked some of the most illustrious writers of the classic detective story from the Golden Age of mystery fiction. With authors including Ellery Queen, Cornell Woolrich and Erle Stanley Gardner, this gripping collection is sure to delight and entertain mystery fans. 
 
‘In addition to well-known contributors, such as Ellery Queen and Erle Stanley Gardner, Penzler presents memorable tales from the lesser-known’ Publishers Weekly 
 
‘Belongs on the shelf of any true mystery fan, and in the collection of every library’s mystery section.’ Booklist 
 
‘Exemplary.’ Kirkus

Golden Age Detective Stories

Jojo Moyes

From provincial Sophie being swept off of her feet in the glamour of belle époque Paris to Beth's unexpected confrontation with an old lover in a marquee in Britain, this first collection of short stories from internationally bestselling author Jojo Moyes contains eleven tales of love, loss, liberation and laughter. Paris for One and Other Stories is ideal for fans of Me Before You and After You.

Paris for One and Other Stories

Discover the author of Me Before You, the love story that captured a million hearts

Curtis Sittenfeld

YOUR NEXT READ FROM THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of ROMANTIC COMEDY, PREP and AMERICAN WIFE 
_____________ 
A New York Times Editor's choice 
 
'Messy and delicious' New York Times 
'Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' Guardian 
'One of my favourite authors' KATE ATKINSON, author of Death at the Sign of the Rook 
'Anything Sittenfeld writes, we'll read' People 
'She understands women so well; like having someone look straight into your soul' Reader review***** 
______ 
Razor-sharp, glittering tales exploring marriage, fame and female friendship, from the Sunday Times bestselling author. 
 
In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends. 
 
In ‘The Patron Saints of Middle Age,’ a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In ‘A for Alone,’ a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in ‘Lost but Not Forgotten,’ Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion. 
 
Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice. 
 
READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CURTIS SITTENFELD: 
 
'Small windows into modern life and as such highly entertaining. Curtis, you're a star!' ***** 
'Sittenfeld understands women so well, it’s like having someone look straight into your soul'***** 
'Devoured! You'll recognise yourself and others in these pages' ***** 
'No-one else writes with such precision and amusement' Red Magazine

Show Don't Tell

Margaret Drabble

'Her feelings for the child redeemed her from bitterness, and shed some light on the dark industrial terraces and the waste lands of the city's rubble.' 
 
One of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation, Margaret Drabble is an unmatched observer of postwar English lives, portraying social change, sexual liberation, landscape, class and the messy complications of human relationships with intricacy and honesty. In these two stories of lives colliding, a mother buying a birthday gift has her dreams destroyed, and a honeymoon leads to an unexpected epiphany. 
 
This book contains The Gifts of War and Hassan's Tower.

The Gifts of War

Enter a brilliant, sinister and wholly unpredictable world. Here you will find the suggestion of other-worldly goings on in a dark story about a swan and a boy; the surprising tale of a wealthy young wastrel who suddenly develops a remarkable new ability; and meet the hitchhiker whose light-fingers save the day. 
 
Stories include: The Boy Who Talked with Animals, The Hitch-hiker, The Mildenhall Treasure, The Swan, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Lucky Break, A Piece of Cake.

Showing results for: ‘Nigella Lawson’

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