-
Fascinating Facts to Blow Your Curious Mind: An awesome collection of the wildest trivia about everything on Earth … and beyond!
Did you know that the reason you can never find the end of a rainbow is because they are actually full circles?
Or that our fingers shrivel up when they get wet because our bodies are adapting to give us a better grip in the water?
Fascinating Facts to Blow Your Curious Mind features unlikely and hilarious trivia on everything from history and animals to the ocean and space, as well as a special section on little-known knowledge which one day just might save your life.
Inside, you can also find answers to such key questions as:
Are we all related?
What is more dangerous, a koala or a crocodile?
Did the Pope cause the Black Death?
Why was ‘New York’ once known as ‘New Orange’?
Should you use spiderwebs as a bandage?
How much bamboo would it take to cover the Taj Mahal?Read more
£11.50£13.50 -
Favourite Poems of the Sea: Poems to Celebrate Britain’s Maritime Heritage (National Trust History & Heritage)
A wonderful collection of poetry celebrating the British coastline and life above and below the deep blue sea. Verses from the nation’s best-loved poets – such as WB Yeats, RL Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling – are accompanied by beautiful illustrations.
A wonderful anthology of poetry celebrating the British coastline and life above and below the deep blue sea. Verses from our best-loved authors – such as WB Yeats, RL Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling – are accompanied by beautiful illustrations of idyllic days at sea, haunted shipwrecks and tempestuous storms. Sea shanties and siren’s songs sit alongside the classic song from The Tempest and Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ in this beautiful anthology of the mystical world beneath the waves.
Read more
£12.30 -
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Actor’s Edition
‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’
One of Shakespeare’s most famous and popular comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, tells the interweaving stories of unrequited love, magic potions, a mischievous fairy, a group of amateur actors trying to rehearse, and a man with an asses head. All combining and clashing to comic effect in the Athenian forest.
The Actor’s Edition is specifically designed and written with actors in mind. The text is the same, with no edits or alterations. The additional elements included and the presentation makes this version what you need as an actor approaching the play.
- A no-nonsense approach to the text
- Background information on Shakespeare and the play
- Detailed synopsis, character information, key themes
- Acting tips and hints for working with Classical Theatre
- Acting techniques and approaches
- A layout to support actors when working on the text and in rehearsals
- Ample space to make notes and draw stage directions and diagrams.
THE ACTOR HAS TO DEVELOP THEIR BODY. THE ACTOR HAS TO WORK ON THEIR VOICE. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THE ACTOR HAS TO WORK ON IS THEIR MIND’. – STELLA ADLER
The Actor’s Editions contain all the essential elements you need as an actor, including background information on Shakespeare and, more importantly, the background to the text, key themes, complete synopsis and information on the characters. All of these are written, giving you the information you need in an easy-to-understand and follow manner.
There are also several hints, tips and suggested exercises for you to undertake to help your character development and your approach to rehearsals and developing your work, specifically looking at handling classical text and the work of Shakespeare.
Most important, though, is the set out of the play itself. Each page of text is accompanied by an opposite, faintly lined blank page, allowing you to make all important notes. For an actor, making notes is one of the most important things you need to do – whether in a rehearsal, in a read-through, undertaking table work, or developing your character independently. Having these notes alongside the text is vital to aid your memory and ensure that you apply them when rehearsing and refer to them when learning your lines and reflecting on rehearsals or planning for them.
The Actor’s Edition gives you ample space to make notes, draw diagrams, write about how you say your lines, where and how you move (as well as other characters in the scene), what your objectives, obstacles and actions are, and anything else that you think is relevant.
The ability to write and add notes makes this version a good choice for anyone who wants to do this when reading or studying the play. It would also suit students and others involved in creating performance work, including directors, stage managers, and those with technical roles such as sound and lighting.
Read more
£12.30 -
Lost in my Mind: a collection of poetry about mental health
Lost in my Mind is a collection of poems revolving around the topics of mental heath, with pieces of depression and anxiety, and the process of learning to love yourself again.Read more
£6.20 -
Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London
The intriguing history of Dickens’s London, showing how tourists have reimagined and reinvented the Dickensian metropolis for more than 150 years
Tourists have sought out the landmarks, streets, and alleys of Charles Dickens’s London ever since the death of the world-renowned author. Late Victorians and Edwardians were obsessed with tracking down the locations―dubbed “Dickensland”―that famously featured in his novels. But his fans were faced with a city that was undergoing rapid redevelopment, where literary shrines were far from sacred. Over the following century, sites connected with Dickens were demolished, relocated, and reimagined.
Lee Jackson traces the fascinating history of Dickensian tourism, exploring both real Victorian London and a fictional city shaped by fandom, tourism, and heritage entrepreneurs. Beginning with the late nineteenth century, Jackson investigates key sites of literary pilgrimage and their relationship with Dickens and his work, revealing hidden, reinvented, and even faked locations. From vanishing coaching inns to submerged riverside stairs, hidden burial grounds to apocryphal shops, Dickensland charts the curious history of an imaginary world.Read more
£15.60£19.00Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London
£15.60£19.00 -
VICTORIAN VERSE A Guide for Edexcel A level English Literature (9ET0/3)
The Guide has been written primarily for students of A Level English Literature as specified by Edexcel in the post-2015 syllabus (9ET0). It addresses Component 3 (9ET0/3) – Poetry, specifically, the requirement to study a “literary period”. The Guide covers all the poems in the literary period “The Victorians” as selected from “The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse”, Editor Christopher Ricks (OUP, 2008). The Guide aims to address all the Assessment Objectives for the examination of this component. The poems are explored individually, but links and connections between them are drawn as appropriate. The format of each exploration is similar:•An overview of relevant contextual factors, such as biographical, social-economic, political and literary•An explanation of any key features of the poem that require additional explanation or illustration•A brief summary of the metric form and rhyme scheme•A “walk-through” (or explication) of the poem, ensuring that what is happening in the poem is understood, how the rhythm and rhyme contribute to meaning, an explanation of the meaning of words which may be unfamiliar, an exploration of imagery and language and a comment on main themes.Read more
£13.30 -
Late Victorian Gothic Tales (Oxford World’s Classics)
‘He was a man of fairly firm fibre, but there was something in this sudden, uncontrollable shriek of horror which chilled his blood and pringled in his skin. Coming in such a place and at such an hour, it brought a thousand fantastic possibilities into his head…’The Victorian fin de siècle: the era of Decadence, The Yellow Book, the New Woman, the scandalous Oscar Wilde, the Empire on which the sun never set. This heady brew was caught nowhere better than in the revival of the Gothic tale in the late Victorian age, where the undead walked and evil curses, foul murder, doomed inheritance and sexual menace played on the stretched nerves of the new mass readerships. This anthology collects together some of the most famous examples of the Gothic tale in the 1890s, with stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Vernon Lee, Henry James and Arthur Machen, as well as some lesser known yet superbly chilling tales from the era. The introduction explores the many reasons for the Gothic revival, and how it spoke to the anxieties of the moment.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Read more
£7.30£8.50 -
Beauty Leaves in Autumn
Beauty Leaves in Autumn is a wonderers bloom of poems by Corey Searles. Compiled with emotions and perfection of the eventual fall of beauty, knowing that life is a short path for us all.
Deep thoughts that will captivate your imagination with poetry written, it is a book of nature and life. Where beauty is just not sustainable in image. And the vibrant colours of leaves have to change. Another spring to a season’s journey where the poems grow and fall.
There is also a collection of eleven old poems selected with deep thinking and touching love, enjoy.
So now the shackles are no longer on your walking feet, feel free to come and join the lovely nostalgia and be very much pleased.
Read more
£10.40Beauty Leaves in Autumn
£10.40 -
Three Hundred Tang Poems (Everyman’s Library POCKET POETS)
These some three hundred poems from the Tang Dynasty (618-907)-an age in which poetry and the arts flourished-were gathered in the eighteenth century into what became one of the best-known books in the world, and which is still cherished in Chinese homes everywhere. Many of China’s most famous poets-Du Fu, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, and Wang Wei-are represented by timeless poems about love, war, the delights of drinking and dancing, and the beauties of nature. There are poems about travel, about grief, about the frustrations of bureaucracy, and about the pleasures and sadness of old age.
Nearly every Chinese household owns a copy of Tang Shi and poems from it are still included in textbooks and to be memorized by students.
Read more
£9.90£11.40 -
Rumi Illustrated (Chinese Bound)
JalÄl ad-DÄ«n Muhammad RÅ«mÄ« (1207–73) was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Iran. This Chinese-bound volume offers a selection of his many poems with a variety of themes, including love, marriage, life and death, passion and mysticism, as well as his religious collection, Rubaiyat, and his long poem, Masnavi, one of the most influential works of Sufism, an Islamic form of mysticism.
Rumi’s reach transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: his poetry has influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Urdu, Bengali and Pashto languages.Read more
£21.80£28.50Rumi Illustrated (Chinese Bound)
£21.80£28.50 -
Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World
Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World presents 107 poems from writers around the world on the theme, “Black Lives Matter.” The poems reflect how, around the world, people are rallying against the killing of Black people by the police and against racism, racialised inequality, discrimination, violence and oppression. The anthology encourages the reader to imagine and work towards a world where Black Lives Matter.Read more
£9.50 -
Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel: The Ultimate Guide to Writing a YA Bestseller
An indispensable guide in the bestselling Save the Cat! story structure series that reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any young adult novel a success, from an accomplished novelist and the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.In Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel, prolific author and story coach Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story structure guide for anyone who wants to write a young adult novel by applying the famed Save the Cat! screenwriting methodology to the world of YA fiction. In this book, you will learn:
- The fifteen beats (or plot points) that are necessary for crafting a successful story with a compelling character arc –including the Opening Image, Catalyst, Fun and Games, Bad Guys Close In, Dark Night of the Soul, and Finale
- The ten universal story genres that will help you drill into what makes your type of story work, including those most commonly found in young adult novels like Rites of Passage, Superhero, Buddy Love, Institutionalized, and Golden Fleece
- Quirky, original insights and writing tips like “Save the Cat,” the “Shard of Glass,” and the “Dark Night Epiphany,” that help you craft a story that will thrill and captivate teen readers
Filled with practical advice, easy-to-follow templates, and beat sheets analyzing the structure of popular young adult novels such as Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, and Lois Lowry’s The Giver, this book is the ultimate reference for anyone who’s ever dreamed of writing their own young adult bestseller.
Read more
£15.00 -
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need
The first novel-writing guide from the best-selling Save the Cat! story-structure series, which reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any novel a success.Novelist Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story-structure guide for novelists that applies the famed Save the Cat! screenwriting methodology to the world of novel writing. Revealing the 15 “beats” (plot points) that comprise a successful story–from the opening image to the finale–this book lays out the Ten Story Genres (Monster in the House; Whydunit; Dude with a Problem) alongside quirky, original insights (Save the Cat; Shard of Glass) to help novelists craft a plot that will captivate–and a novel that will sell.
Read more
£10.60£13.20 -
The Way Forward (The Inward Trilogy)
The #1 New York Times bestselling poet returns with his most ambitious collection yet. In this third and final installment of his poetic trilogy, Yung Pueblo expands upon favourite themes while guiding readers further, toward a life lived authentically, intuitively, and in harmony with others.In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever to know ourselves well and fully, even and especially in the face of turmoil. The Way Forward encourages readers to connect more deeply to their intuition, using it to remain focused and grounded amidst a world in constant flux.
In his latest collection of poetry and short prose, Yung Pueblo offers clear strategies for managing the unknown, inhabiting your personal power, and bringing your truest, healthiest self to relationships. Progressing naturally from both Inward and Clarity & Connection, The Way Forward is exactly that—an inspired beginning.
Read more
£10.10£12.30The Way Forward (The Inward Trilogy)
£10.10£12.30 -
The Sweetest Little Blueberry: Poems about Pregnancy & Early Motherhood
“I look at you and wonder
how something so perfect,
so sweet,
so lovable and unique
and amazing came from me.You are brave and kind
and you speak your mind.
You are smart
and laugh loudly
and are you proudly.You have shown me
these qualities
I adore in you
have actually been hiding
inside of me
this entire time.Thank you
for helping me
love myself a little bit more.”Written with unflinching honesty about pregnancy and the first year of motherhood, The Sweetest Little Blueberry is a book for all mothers. Bluett pens everything we know and love – like feeling those baby kicks, perfect newborn toes, and the magic of motherhood – while also being vulnerable about the parts of motherhood that aren’t as magical – morning sickness (and afternoon and night sickness), fears of inadequacy, postpartum depression, and the struggles of figuring out this “new” you.
The journey of motherhood is the most beautiful yet also the most challenging, and The Sweetest Little Blueberrywill be a sweet, heartfelt reminder to mothers everywhere that you are far from alone and you are a total badass. You did the unthinkable, the most magical, the most amazing thing. And you deserve to be celebrated.
No matter where you are on your motherhood journey (pregnant, a new mother, or a mama of grown children), this book is a must-read during late-night pumping sessions or relaxing Sunday nights after the kids are finally asleep.
Read more
£12.30 -
Clarity & Connection (The Inward Trilogy)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom the celebrated author of Inward comes the second in series, a collection of poetry and short prose focused on understanding how past wounds impact our present relationships.
In Clarity & Connection, Yung Pueblo describes how intense emotions accumulate in our subconscious and condition us to act and react in certain ways. In his characteristically spare, poetic style, he guides readers through the excavation and release of the past that is required for growth.
To be read on its own or as a complement to Inward, Yung Pueblo’s second work is a powerful resource for those invested in the work of personal transformation, building self-awareness, and deepening their connection with others.
Read more
£9.60£11.40Clarity & Connection (The Inward Trilogy)
£9.60£11.40 -
Reflections on the Important Things: 500+ poems on important life subjects such as nature, faith, mental health, romance, in memoriam, and humor.
Reflections on the Important Things is a collection of over 500 poems on important life subjects such as nature, faith, mental health, romance, in memoriam, and humor. These beautiful poems were written by various poets from all over the world.Those whose works appear in this collection have decided to publish their poetic works under a title published by PoetrySoup and Arczis Web Technologies, Incorporated. Special permission was obtained for each copyrighted poem in this volume. The right to publish has been explicitly given to the publisher of this anthology by the respective poets. Almost 2000 poems were submitted for consideration. The editors of PoetrySoup.com chose a fraction of these for inclusion.
The poets in this anthology are members of the PoetrySoup.com website. PoetrySoup is a vast international community of about 45,000+ poets. PoetrySoup is known for its loyal, robust, welcoming, and growing community of poets (called Soupers). However, none of the poets in this anthology are personally known to the editors and selection committee. They are united by the fact that they are “Soupers” or members of the PoetrySoup community.
All Poems submitted are published as the poet’s original work and under the poet’s copyright. We wish to thank the poets (Soupers) who kindly allowed us to use their poetry in this anthology.
Read more
£15.30 -
starlit dreams
“starlit dreams” is a heartwarming book all about love, written and illustrated by Bella Karad. Within its pages, you’ll find a journey that explores the many dimensions of love. “starlit dreams” is Book 1 in the Starlit Dreams series.you’re my first.
and i don’t mean my first kiss,
or my first relationship,
or my first i love you.you’re the first person
who makes me feel like i’m enough
and the first one to show mewhat i love you actually means.
Read more
£9.50starlit dreams
£9.50 -
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
How can we look afresh at Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets? What new light might they shed on his career, personality, and sexuality? Shakespeare wrote sonnets for at least thirty years, not only for himself, for professional reasons, and for those he loved, but also in his plays, as prologues, as epilogues, and as part of their poetic texture. This ground-breaking book assembles all of Shakespeare’s sonnets in their probable order of composition. An inspiring introduction debunks long-established biographical myths about Shakespeare’s sonnets and proposes new insights about how and why he wrote them. Explanatory notes and modern English paraphrases of every poem and dramatic extract illuminate the meaning of these sometimes challenging but always deeply rewarding witnesses to Shakespeare’s inner life and professional expertise. Beautifully printed and elegantly presented, this volume will be treasured by students, scholars, and every Shakespeare enthusiast.Read more
£10.60£12.30All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
£10.60£12.30 -
The Making of Us: A gripping family drama from the bestselling author
The gripping novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs.
_____________Lydia, Robyn and Dean don’t know each other – yet.
They live very different lives but each of them, independently, has always felt that something is missing.
What they don’t know is that a letter is about to arrive that will turn their lives upside down.
It is a letter containing a secret – one that will bind them together, and show them what love and family and friendship really mean…
_____________Reader’s can’t get enough of The Making Of Us . . .
***** ‘Really gripping. Couldn’t put it down.’
***** ‘Truly a great read for just about everyone.’
***** ‘Lisa Jewell is becoming one of my favourites. This is the third book of hers that I absolutely loved.’
***** ‘I loved the characters and the way the author unravel their stories.’
***** ‘I loved this book from the beginning.’Read more
£3.80 -
Alchemy: The latest new gripping historical crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author: Book 7 (Giordano Bruno)
The new historical crime thriller in the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Hilary Mantel
Prague, 1588.
A COURT IN TURMOIL
The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, wants to expand the boundaries of human knowledge, and his court is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. His abiding passion is the feverish search for the philosopher’s stone and thus immortality. The Catholic Church fears he has pushed too far, into the forbidden realm of heresy – and the greatest powers in Christendom are concerned about the imperial line of succession.A MURDERED ALCHEMIST
Giordano Bruno is sent to his court by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster. His task: to contact the famous English alchemist and mystic John Dee, another of Walsingham’s spies. But Bruno’s arrival in Prague coincides with the brutal murder of a rival alchemist – and John Dee himself has disappeared.AN UNFORGIVING ENEMY
Ordered by the emperor to find the killer, Bruno’s investigations bring him face to face with an old enemy from the Inquisition. But could the real danger lie elsewhere? Amidst the jostling factions at court and the religious tensions brewing in the city, Bruno has to track down a murderer as elusive as the elixir of life itself.‘The clever twists and turns of Alchemy are assuredly plotted and Prague, a city in religious and political turmoil, makes for a powerful setting’ The Times
‘Over the past dozen years, S. J. Parris’s novels… have been among the most enjoyable of all historical thrillers’ Sunday Times
‘Breathless pace and acutely observed detail make for a story that confounds and surprises’ Observer
S. J. Parris’s book Alchemy was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 03-07-2023
S. J. Parris’ book ‘Alchemy’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 24-07-2023.
Read more
£9.19£9.99 -
Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: (With More Ways)
The difficulty (and necessity) of translation is concisely described in Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, a close reading of different translations of a single poem from the Tang Dynasty―from a transliteration to Kenneth Rexroth’s loose interpretation. As Octavio Paz writes in the afterword, “Eliot Weinberger’s commentary on the successive translations of Wang Wei’s little poem illustrates, with succinct clarity, not only the evolution of the art of translation in the modern period but at the same time the changes in poetic sensibility.”Read more
£7.60 -
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Penguin Classics)
The Strange Tales of Pu Songling (1640-1715) are exquisite and amusing miniatures that are regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wordplay and subtle charm, the 104 stories in this selection reveal a world in which nothing is as it seems. Here a Taoist monk conjures up a magical pear tree, a scholar recounts his previous incarnations, a woman out-foxes the fox-spirit that possesses her, a child bride gives birth to a thimble-sized baby, a ghostly city appears out of nowhere and a heartless daughter-in-law is turned into a pig. In his tales of humans coupling with shape-shifting spirits, bizarre phenomena, haunted buildings and enchanted objects, Pu Songling pushes back the boundaries of human experience and enlightens as he entertains.Read more
£8.60£12.30 -
The Histories (Penguin Classics)
‘The first example of non-fiction, the text that underlies the entire discipline of history … it is above all a treasure trove’ Tom Holland
One of the masterpieces of classical literature, The Histories describes how a small and quarrelsome band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. But while this epic struggle forms the core of his work, Herodotus’ natural curiosity frequently gives rise to colourful digressions – a description of the natural wonders of Egypt; tales of lake-dwellers, dog-headed men and gold-digging ants. With its kaleidoscopic blend of fact and legend, The Histories offers a compelling Greek view of the world in the fifth century BC, in Aubrey de Sélincourt’s elegant and celebrated translation.
Translated by AUBREY DE SÉLINCOURT
Revised with an Introduction and notes by JOHN MARINCOLARead more
£10.40£12.30The Histories (Penguin Classics)
£10.40£12.30 -
The Conjuror’s Apprentice: (The Tudor Rose Murders Book 1)
‘Right up there with C J Sansom… A brilliant historical thriller’ Philip Gwynne Jones
‘Thoroughly engaging… beautifully written’ Zoe Sharp
‘Engaging and compelling’ Mark Ellis
‘A rollicking tale with just the right pinches of sex and humour’ Shots MagazineFinding the battered body of a young boy was not unusual in Bloody Mary’s cruel England. However, the stabbed tongue, a false seal and strange letter implicate Princess Elizabeth, threatening to bring down the Tudor Dynasty.
Doctor John Dee and his secret apprentice, Margaretta, using his brilliant mind and her strange abilities, embark on a perilous journey to solve this brutal murder. Before their work can really begin, another body is found.
As Dee and Margaretta delve deeper into their investigation, they uncover a web of deceit, political intrigue and treachery that threatens to engulf them both. When more bodies are discovered and arrests are made, time is running out. With rumours of witchcraft and treason swirling around them, can they untangle the mystery before it’s too late?
‘The beginning of a wonderfully different Tudor crime fiction series’ Alis Hawkins
‘A wonderful debut’ Jules Swain
‘Absolutely spellbinding… alive with atmosphere and realism’ Chris LloydRead more
£8.70£9.50 -
Poems Of The Sea (Everyman’s Library POCKET POETS)
Throughout history, poets have felt the ancient pull of the sea, exploring the full range of mankind’s nautical fears, dreams, and longings. The colorful legends of the sea-pirates and mermaids, phantom ships and the sunken city of Atlantis-have inspired as many imaginations as have the realities of lighthouses and shipwrecks, of icebergs and frothing foam and seaweed.
This marvelous collection includes classics old and new, from Homer and Milton to Plath and Merwin. Here are Tennyson’s seductive sea-fairies next to Poe’s beloved Annabel Lee. Here is Coleridge’s darkly brooding “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” alongside the grandeur of Shakespeare’s “Full Fathom Five.” And here is Masefield’s “I must go down to the seas again” alongside Cavafy’s “Ithaka” and Stevens’s “The Idea of Order at Key West.” In the wide variety of lyrics collected here-sonnets and sea chanteys, ballads and hymns and prayers-we feel the encompassing power of our planet’s restlessRead more
£9.90£11.40 -
Horror: A Literary History
Horror: A Literary History is the book horror readers and students need. It will hold you in its grip, leaving you replete with invaluable information about the range, longevity and mutations of the horror genre as it consistently forces you to engage with serious cultural and personal issues.Horror is unlike any other literary genre. It seeks to provoke uniquely strong reactions, such as fear, shock, dread or disgust, and yet remains very popular. It also crosses media, manifesting in narrative forms such as graphic novels and video games. Its characters and trends routinely escape the confines of given texts and become part of the zeitgeist. Of course, horror is most readily associated with the film industry, but horrific short stories and novels have been wildly loved by readers for well over two centuries. Despite its persistent popularity, there is no up-to-date history of horror fiction for the general reader.
This ground-breaking book, now in paperback, is the first comprehensive history of horror fiction to take readers from the first Gothic novel in 1764 to the ‘new weird’, and beyond, in the early 21st century. It offers a chronological overview of the genre in fiction and explores its development and mutations over the past 250 years.
Read more
£13.20£16.10Horror: A Literary History
£13.20£16.10 -
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin Classics)
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings is a collection that displays the full force of Edgar Allen Poe’s mastery of both Gothic horror and the short story form. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by David Galloway.
This selection of Poe’s critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues, and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is a slow-burning Gothic horror, describing the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, a murderer’s insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’, ‘The Raven’ and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate.
In his introduction David Galloway re-examines the myths surrounding Poe’s life and reputation. This edition includes a new chronology and suggestions for further reading.
Although dissipated in his youth and plagued by mental instability towards the end of his life, Boston-born Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) had a variety of occupations, including service in the US army and magazine editor, as well as his remarkable literary output.
If you enjoyed The Fall of the House of Usher, you might like Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, also available in Penguin Classics.
‘The most original genius that America has produced’
Alfred, Lord Tennyson‘Poe has entered our popular consciousness as no other American writer’
The New York Times Book ReviewRead more
£5.70 -
Dracula: Stoker Bram (Penguin Classics)
‘The very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years’ Arthur Conan Doyle
A masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also probes identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. It begins when Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, and makes horrifying discoveries in his client’s castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England – an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman’s neck; a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his ‘Master’ – and a determined group of adversaries prepare to battle the Count.
Edited with an Introduction and notes by MAURICE HINDLE
With a Preface by CHRISTOPHER FRAYLINGRead more
£6.90£7.60Dracula: Stoker Bram (Penguin Classics)
£6.90£7.60 -
The Sonnets and a Lover’s Complaint: The Sonnets and a Lover’s Complaint (Clothbound Classics) (Penguin Clothbound Classics)
Part of Penguin’s beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.
When this volume of Shakespeare’s poems first appeared in 1609, he had already written most of the great plays that made him famous. The 154 sonnets – all but two of which are addressed to a beautiful young man or a treacherous ‘dark lady’ – contain some of the most exquisite and haunting poetry ever written, and deal with eternal subjects such as love and infidelity, memory and mortality, and the destruction wreaked by Time. Also included is A Lover’s Complaint, originally published with the sonnets, in which a young woman is overheard lamenting her betrayal by a heartless seducer.
Read more
£13.50£16.10 -
Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics)
Her grand attempt to tell what she felt was the story of Jane Eyre’s ‘madwoman in the attic’, Bertha Rochester, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith in Penguin Classics.
Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel’s heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys’s brief, beautiful masterpiece.
Jean Rhys (1894-1979) was born in Dominica. Coming to England aged 16, she drifted into various jobs before moving to Paris, where she began writing and was ‘discovered’ by Ford Madox Ford. Her novels, often portraying women as underdogs out to exploit their sexualities, were ahead of their time and only modestly successful. From 1939 (when Good Morning, Midnight was written) onwards she lived reclusively, and was largely forgotten when she made a sensational comeback with her account of Jane Eyre’s Bertha Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea, in 1966.
If you enjoyed Wide Sargasso Sea, you might like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, also available in Penguin Classics.
‘She took one of the works of genius of the nineteenth century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the twentieth century’
Michele Roberts, The Times
NOTE: The book is a 2000 reissue of a 1997 edition.
Read more
£6.70£7.60Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics)
£6.70£7.60 -
Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown: ‘this novel makes Henry VIII’s story feel like it has never been told before’ (Tracy Borman)
The Sunday Times top 10 bestseller
‘Alison Weir makes Henry VIII’s story feel like it has never been told before… This novel will open your eyes and, at times, break your heart. By the end of it, I felt like I had met Henry for the first time’ Tracy Borman
Six wives. One King. You know their stories. Now it’s time to hear his.
Prince Harry is born the second son, his brother destined to rule. But Arthur’s untimely death sees Harry crowned King Henry of England.
As Henry’s power and influence extends, so commences a lifelong battle between head and heart, love and duty. The fate of the Tudor dynasty depends on an heir, but his prayers for a son go unanswered.
And the crown weighs heavy on a king with all but his one true desire…
HENRY VIII. HIS STORY.
Alison Weir’s most ambitious Tudor novel yet reveals the captivating story of a man who was by turns brilliant, romantic, and ruthless: the king who changed England forever.
—
PRAISE FOR ALISON WEIR’S TUDOR FICTION
‘This is where the story of the Tudors begins and is historical fiction at its absolute best’ Tracy Borman
‘History has the best stories and they should all be told like this’ Conn Iggulden
‘A serious achievement’ The Times
‘Weir is excellent on the little details that bring a world to life’ Guardian
Read more
£7.10£9.50 -
The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem
** Chosen as a New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer and Sunday Times Book of the Year **
A riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem The Waste Land on its centenary.
‘A rattling good story’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A work of art’ Times Literary SupplementThe Waste Land has been called the ‘World’s Greatest Poem’. It has been labelled the most truthful poem of its time; it has been branded a masterful fake. More than a century after its publication in 1922, T. S. Eliot’s enigmatic masterpiece remains one of the most influential works ever written.
In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew Hollis reconstructs the creation of the poem and brings the material reality of its charged times vividly to life. He reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists – Ezra Pound, who edited it; Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and T. S. Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work. The result is an unforgettable story of lives passing in opposing directions and the astounding literary legacy they would leave behind.
Read more
£10.70£12.30The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem
£10.70£12.30 -
The House of Doors: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERIt is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay.
Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more Lesley’s friendship with Willie grows, the more clearly she see him as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self.
As Willie prepares to leave and face his demons, Lesley confides secrets of her own, revealing her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction.
From Man Booker Prize-shortlisted Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors is a masterful novel of public morality and private truth a century ago. Based on real events it is a drama of love and betrayal under the shadow of Empire.
Read more
£9.99 -
Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (The Middle Ages Series)
The popular image of the Viking as a horn-helmeted berserker plying the ocean in a dragon-headed long boat is firmly fixed in history. Imagining Viking “conquerors” as much more numerous, technologically superior, and somehow inherently more warlike than their neighbors has overshadowed the cooperation and cultural exchange which characterized much of the Viking Age. In actuality, the Norse explorers and traders were players in a complex exchange of technology, customs, and religious beliefs between the ancient pre-Christian societies of northern Europe and the Christian-dominated nations surrounding the Mediterranean.
DuBois examines Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Mediterranean traditions to locate significant Nordic parallels in conceptions of supernatural beings, cults of the dead, beliefs in ghosts, and magical practices. These beliefs were actively held alongside Christianity for many years, and were finally incorporated into the vernacular religious practice. The Icelandic sagas reflect this complex process in their inclusion of both Christian and pagan details.
This work differs from previous examinations in its inclusion of the Christian thirteenth century as part of the evolution of Nordic religions from localized pagan cults to adherents of a larger Roman faith.
Thomas DuBois unravels for the first time the history of the Nordic religions in the Viking Age and shows how these ancient beliefs and their oral traditions incorporated both a myriad of local beliefs and aspects of foreign religions, most notably Christianity.Read more
£21.70£24.70 -
What We Lost in the Swamp: Poems
How do you untangle the real you from the curated you? In this introspective yet whimsical collection, poet Grant Chemidlin takes readers into the thicket of self-discovery.
What We Lost in the Swamp is a lush and vibrant collection of poems that examines the many manifestations of green: nature, inexperience, jealousy, burgeoning love, and exploring sexuality. It is a slow unfurling. It is a love letter to growth, to rediscovery, to finally learning how to speak the truth. These astonishing poems ask the reader: Who do you want to be in this world? How do you want to build a life?
This is not a coming out. This is a coming in to one’s truest self.Read more
£14.20£15.20What We Lost in the Swamp: Poems
£14.20£15.20 -
love poems i wrote while you were asleep
From TikTok sensation Rowan Everly comes a heartfelt collection of poems dedicated entirely to exploring the many facets of love.
this book is a journey of love. it’s a collection of poems i wrote on various occasions, all while watching my girlfriend sleep. each poem comes from the heart, capturing feelings of love, longing, and togetherness.
“i confess,
commitment used to scare me.
since i’ve met you,
i’m willing to give you every inch of my heart;
because,
i confess,
i love you.
and,
i plan on loving you forever.
through trials,pains, and misunderstandings;
through all of it,
because,
i want to be committed to you.”i hope you find something in these poems that speaks to you, something that echoes your own feelings. maybe you’ll find comfort, or perhaps you’ll discover joy.
so, come with me. let’s explore this journey together. enjoy “love poems i wrote while you were asleep.”
Read more
£9.50 -
Sea Glass Secrets
Sea Glass Secrets is an excavation of the past that explores themes of Childhood Trauma, Grief, and Healing, in three parts known as Shatter, Sorrow, and Shift. It follows the metaphorical journey of shattered glass through the sea of Childhood Trauma and Grief. It taps into themes of generational trauma, mental health, growing up with addiction, being a parent to your siblings at a young age, absent parents, experiencing grief and loss, and ultimately finding your way to the shore known as Healing.
Read more
£10.70Sea Glass Secrets
£10.70 -
Kindertransport (NHB Modern Plays)
A modern classic about one woman’s struggle to come to terms with her past.Brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of nine, Eva is brought to England with the promise of a new life…
Between 1939 until the outbreak of World War II, nearly 10,000 Jewish children were taken from their families in Nazi-occupied Germany and sent to live with foster families in Britain. Diane Samuels’ seminal play, Kindertransport, imagines the fate of one such child.Kindertransport has been read and studied the world over.
Kindertransport won the 1992 Verity Bargate Award and was subsequently staged by the Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 1993. It also won the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 1993.
Since its premiere the play has been revived several times.
This edition includes several personal memoirs by German-born children whose lives were saved, and transformed, by the Kindertransport.
Set Text: Kindertransport is a set text for GCSE English Literature (AQA) and AS/A-Level English Literature (WJEC).
Also available: Diane Samuels’ Kindertransport: The author’s guide to the play, invaluable for anyone studying, teaching or performing the play.
Read more
£8.90£10.40Kindertransport (NHB Modern Plays)
£8.90£10.40 -
Home: poems to heal your heartbreak
From Tiktok phenomenon Whitney Hanson, a revised edition of her bestselling Home, now with a new introduction and more than a dozen new poems
“the bees aren’t going to go away
but they are going to change with you
sometimes they will be chaotic
sometimes they will rest
sometimes they will give you sweet honey
and sometimes they will remind you
of how much love can sting
but if you can find a home within yourself
and make peace with your bees
you will be alright”
–from HomeResonant, raw, and vibrant, Home is a lyrical map to navigating heartbreak. Tracing the stages of healing – from the despair that comes with the end of a relationship to the eventual light and liberation that comes with time – the poems in Home provide comfort and solace, while revitalizing your soul – and helping you make peace with your bees.
‘I would buy it again!’ 5* reader review
‘This book is everything I needed and more’ 5* reader review
‘Best poet out there’ 5* reader review
‘This book did wonders for my mental health and heartbreak’ 5* reader review
‘Can’t wait for what Whitney writes next’ 5* reader review
Read more
£13.10£14.20Home: poems to heal your heartbreak
£13.10£14.20
