Could you leave behind the bustle of modern society and spend your days immersed in nature? In The Way of the Hermit, seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith recounts a life he has chosen to spend alone with the wilderness.
Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. He lives alone, with no electricity or running water. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as 'the lonely loch', where he lives off the land: he fishes for his supper, chops his own wood, and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit.
For the first time, Ken shares the story of his life. From his working-class origins in Derbyshire, to the formative years he spent travelling in the Yukon and finally how he came to be the Hermit of Loch Treig. Looking back through decades of diary entries, Ken reflects upon the reasons he turned his back on society, the vulnerability of old age and the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature. The Way of the Hermit is a humourous, transcendant and life-affirming memoir.
Could you leave behind the bustle of modern society and spend your days immersed in nature? In The Way of the Hermit, seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith recounts a life he has chosen…
London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past, leaving Nell with only broken dreams and a pair of satin slippers in her possession, she spends her days dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges – searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone.
But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. It’s not the first corpse she’s encountered, but by far the strangest. Nearly seven feet tall, the creature has matted hair covering his legs, and on his head are the suggestion of horns. Nell’s fellow mudlarks urge her to steal his boots and rifle his pockets, but as she ventures closer the figure draws breath – and Nell is forced to make a decision which will change her life forever . . .
From the critically acclaimed author of The Toymakers comes an imaginative retelling of the legend of the Minotaur, full of myth and magic and steeped in the grime of Victorian London; perfect for lovers of historical fiction with a mythical twist such as Stone Blind and Circe.
London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past,…
This uplifting anthology contains classic and modern poems to galvanize and inspire you which are brought to life with exquisite, intricate artwork.
Chosen and illustrated by Chris Riddell, Poems to Save the World With –the follow-up to Poems to Live Your Life By and Poems to Fall in Love With - will ignite your inner activist and provide comfort and inspiration. These poems speak of hope, happiness, rebellion and living in interesting times.
This wonderful book features famous poems, old and new, and a few surprises. Classic verses sit alongside the modern to create the ultimate collection. Includes poems from Neil Gaiman, Nikita Gill, Maggie Smith, Brian Bilston, Raymond Antrobus, Fiona Benson, Lewis Carroll and many more.
This uplifting anthology contains classic and modern poems to galvanize and inspire you which are brought to life with exquisite, intricate artwork.
Chosen and illustrated by…
Ten of the world’s most famous and cherished fairy stories published in a beautiful, cloth-bound gift edition together with gorgeous, classic illustrations in colour and black and white throughout.
We’ve all grown up with fairy tales, whether it be through children’s books, on screen or in modern retellings. Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a very carefully and lovingly curated book that features ten of the most popular fairy stories in the world. Each story goes back to the source from which so much has sprung, from picture books and stage shows, to animated films and their live action interpretations.
Amongst this treasure trove, you’ll find The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm and Cinderella by Charles Perrault. Each story is accompanied by beautiful drawings and paintings from the golden age of illustration.
For the child in us all, Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a book to cherish for ever.
Ten of the world’s most famous and cherished fairy stories published in a beautiful, cloth-bound gift edition together with gorgeous, classic illustrations in colour and black and…
An entertaining and wide-ranging collection of science-fiction short stories featuring space aliens, spectacular inventions, futuristic technologies and vividly imagined worlds.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Classic Science Fiction Stories is selected and introduced by academic and science-fiction writer Adam Roberts.
Classic Science Fiction Stories highlights not only famous writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells and H. P. Lovecraft, but also gives voice to lesser known but equally inventive writers such as Florence McLandburgh and Ambrose Bierce. Spanning the 1750s to the early twentieth century, these mesmerizing and expertly crafted stories are by turns intriguing, terrifying and, at times, downright comic. Together they show how science fiction took root to develop into the global phenomenon it is today.
An entertaining and wide-ranging collection of science-fiction short stories featuring space aliens, spectacular inventions, futuristic technologies and vividly imagined worlds.…
The word gothic conjures up crumbling castles, passion and unnerving supernatural events. It's a powerful genre and a mood that has influenced writers, artists and designers ever since. This is a gorgeous anthology of extracts from extravagant and dark gothic stories and verse.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning pocket-sized classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. My Gothic Heart is selected and introduced by editor and writer Charlie Castelletti.
My Gothic Heart features tantalising extracts from the famous names of gothic writing such as Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, the Bronte sisters and John Keats. It then travels forward to the early twentieth century, finding gothic resonance in the writing of Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde and Wilfred Owen. Altogether, it’s a powerful mix that cannot fail to stir the emotions.
The word gothic conjures up crumbling castles, passion and unnerving supernatural events. It's a powerful genre and a mood that has influenced writers, artists and designers…
Poems of the Sea is an anthology of classic poetry that celebrates the sea; from the power of a stormy ocean to ships and sailors and beaches strewn with shells.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by author Adam Nicolson.
For generations, poets have taken inspiration from ocean mists and rugged coastlines to conjure up adventures on the high seas and joyous days at the seaside. From Emily Dickinson’s morning dog walks by the shore, to the river running through Sara Teasdale’s sunny valley, and from Walt Whitman’s fish-filled forests, to the silent ships passing in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s dark ocean, there are poems here for every reader to enjoy.
Poems of the Sea is an anthology of classic poetry that celebrates the sea; from the power of a stormy ocean to ships and sailors and beaches strewn with shells.
Part of the…
It’s the summer of 1929 and Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it clear he can’t support her past the coming winter. On the small, Scottish island of St Kilda, her options are limited. But the MacKinnons’ neighbour, Donald, has a business acquaintance on distant Harris also in need of a spouse. A plan is hatched for Donald to chaperone Mhairi and make the introduction on his final crossing of the year, before the autumn seas close them off to the outside world.
Mhairi returns as an engaged woman who has lost her heart – but not to her fiance. In love with the wrong man yet knowing he can never be hers, she awaits the spring with growing dread, for the onset of calm waters will see her sent from home to become a stranger’s wife.
When word comes that St Kilda is to be evacuated, the lovers are granted a few months’ reprieve, enjoying a summer of stolen hours together. Only, those last days on St Kilda will also bring trauma and heartache for Mhairi and her friends, Effie and Flora. And when a dead body is later found on the abandoned isle, all three have reason enough to find themselves under the shadow of suspicion . . .
It’s the summer of 1929 and Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it clear he can’t support her past the coming…
Countless writers have been inspired by the beauty of birds – their colours, their easy flight, their lightness and softness, and the grace and whimsicality of their ways. Our literature, especially our poetry, is full of them. This annotated edition of Poems About Birds selects the very best from H. J. Massingham’s original collection which was first published in 1922.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.
Spanning from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, Poems About Birds captures the enticing lives of birds through the eyes of classic poets. From John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ to Sylvia Lynd’s ‘The Return of the Goldfinches’, and from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Eagle’ to William Wordsworth’s ‘To The Skylark’, countless varieties of bird are celebrated here.
Countless writers have been inspired by the beauty of birds – their colours, their easy flight, their lightness and softness, and the grace and whimsicality of their ways. Our…
The third novel in the Matt Logan series by former MI5 officer Tom Marcus which is a sequel to Capture or Kill and Defend or Die.
It takes a certain type of person to tackle the dark realities of gangland London. Someone that operates in the shadows and doesn’t follow the rule of law. That’s where former MI5 officer Matt Logan comes in . . .
Logan is an undercover operative for Blindeye: a clandestine team of ex-intelligence operatives secretly tasked with the jobs that are beyond the legal remit of the official security services. When the group picks up on a trail of corruption which reaches to the top of the UK’s National Crime Agency, their mission begins. DCI John Tenniel is a ruthless individual unafraid to break the rules in order to elevate himself to more power and bodies have been piling up in his mission to the top.
Going after Tenniel will require Logan and the team to delve beneath the surface of society and into a murky underworld where the lines between gangsters and the police have become increasingly blurred. But Blindeye have acquired their target and now it’s time to strike . . .
The third novel in the Matt Logan series by former MI5 officer Tom Marcus which is a sequel to Capture or Kill and Defend or Die.
It takes a certain type of person to tackle the…
Sleepily Ever After: Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups is a gorgeous little anthology of upbeat, touching, funny and inspiring stories that will help you relax and drift off to sleep.
It's hard to relax, to keep still and to stop our brains from whirring. We live in a world where lack of sleep is a common problem for many adults. This collection of stories will help to banish anxiety and to soothe stressed minds as they welcome you into a world of happy endings, gentle humour and good choices. Each classic story from authors including Oscar Wilde, Kate Chopin, Guy de Maupassant and H G Wells, has been carefully chosen for the quality of its writing, for great storytelling and to gently help you into the land of nod.
Sleepily Ever After: Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups is a gorgeous little anthology of upbeat, touching, funny and inspiring stories that will help you relax and drift off to…
The grand master of gripping fiction is back. International No.1 bestseller Ken Follett returns to Kingsbridge with an epic tale of revolution and a cast of unforgettable characters.
Revolution is in the air
1792. A tyrannical government is determined to make England a mighty commercial empire. In France, Napoleon Bonaparte begins his rise to power, and with dissent rife, France’s neighbours are on high alert.
Kingsbridge is on the edge
Unprecedented industrial change sweeps the land, making the lives of the workers in Kingbridge’s prosperous cloth mills a misery. Rampant modernization and dangerous new machinery are rendering jobs obsolete and tearing families apart.
Tyranny is on the horizon
Now, as international conflict nears, a story of a small group of Kingsbridge people - including spinner Sal Clitheroe, weaver David Shoveller and Kit, Sal’s inventive and headstrong son - will come to define the struggle of a generation as they seek enlightenment and fight for a future free from oppression. . .
Taking the reader straight into the heart of history with the fifth novel in the ground-breaking Kingsbridge series, The Armour of Light is master storyteller Ken Follett’s most ambitious novel to date.
The grand master of gripping fiction is back. International No.1 bestseller Ken Follett returns to Kingsbridge with an epic tale of revolution and a cast of unforgettable…
After renowned London fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades ago. She arrives with nothing but the clothes she stands in, at a loss as to how to rebuild her business from a quaint country village.
Her niece, Violet, is thrilled that her famous aunt is coming to stay – the village has been interminably dull with all the men off fighting. Meanwhile, the local vicar’s daughter, Grace Carlisle, is trying in vain to repair her mother’s gown, her only chance of a white wedding. When Cressida Westcott appears at the local sewing circle meeting, Grace asks for her help – but Cressida has much more to teach the ladies than just simple sewing skills.
Before long, Cressida’s spirit and ambition galvanizes the village group into action, and they find themselves mending wedding dresses not only for local brides, but for brides across the country. And as the women dedicate themselves to helping others celebrate love, they might even manage to find it for themselves . . .
After renowned London fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades…
There is no magical land you finally arrive at where everything is figured out, fixed and sorted. Life, like us, is a sum of moving parts, and if we’re lucky, we get to keep f**king up, figuring it out and laughing in the face of it all.
Nell’s back. Her life still isn’t going to plan. And she’s still asking the big questions and getting none of the answers. Like, for example:
1. Why is falling in love so easy, but staying in love so hard?
2. What do you do when your friendships are put to the ultimate test?
3. Can we ever really live in the moment and leave the past behind?
4. When everything goes tits up, do you fall apart or jump on a plane to LA with Cricket (an eighty-something widow and your BFF)?
5. And when all else fails, will celebrity-scented candles, smashed avocados and Instagram filters save us?*
In this hilarious, un-put-downable follow-up to the bestselling Confessions of a Forty-Something F##k Up, now the basis for the major TV series, Not Dead Yet, there are laugh-out-loud lessons to be learned, truths to be told, adventures to go on and joys to discover.
But first, Nell has some more confessions . . .
*#onlyjoking #sortof #LOL
There is no magical land you finally arrive at where everything is figured out, fixed and sorted. Life, like us, is a sum of moving parts, and if we’re lucky, we get to keep…
A standalone companion to An Improbable Season, this Regency romance — perfect for fans of Bridgerton — is about following your heart, pursuing your dreams, and falling head over heels in love.
Eleanor did not come to London to be proper and boring. After the death of her husband and a year of mourning, the seventeen year old wants nothing more than her independence and to have a little fun. She’s hardly looking to remarry, despite pressures from her late husband’s nephew, who is keen on obtaining her inheritance. Eleanor quickly devises a plan that includes a fake engagement. What’s not a part of the plan? Falling for a dashing, quiet man outside of her social circle – a man who is not her betrothed. Can she survive the Season with her heart and her fortune intact?
Thalia is determined to begin afresh after a disastrous first Season in London. No romantic distractions, but only her work as a poet and newfound companion to Eleanor. Determined to get her poems published, she struggles to be taken seriously as a female writer. As the spring progresses, Thalia does not expect to take interest in a man from her past (a man who is engaged to her employer, no less!), but some feelings demand to be felt even if the timing isn’t quite right.
Rosalyn Eves's An Unlikely Proposition is a transportive Regency drama that captures the sparkle of London, thrill of friendship, and swoon of new love.
A standalone companion to An Improbable Season, this Regency romance — perfect for fans of Bridgerton — is about following your heart, pursuing your dreams, and falling head over…
The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them.
But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby . . .
Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate 'tamagotchi' - a virtual baby.
The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford…
After decades of adventuring, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a
new dream – for she plans to open the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. Even though no one there knows what coffee
actually is.
После десятилетий приключений орк-варвар Вив наконец-то навсегда повесила свой меч. Теперь она нацелилась на новую мечту –
планирует открыть первую кофейню в городе Тьюн. Хотя никто там не знает, что такое кофе на самом деле.
After decades of adventuring, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a
new dream – for she plans to open the first coffee shop…
Alone with you in the ether (Olivie Blake)
From the internationally bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake is a glimpse
into the nature of love, what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're
not broken.
В эфире на едине с тобой (Оливия Блейк)
Книга Оливии Блейка "Наедине с тобой в эфире" от автора мирового бестселлера "Шестерка Атласа" — это взгляд на природу
любви, на то, что значит быть нездоровым, и на то, как противостоять переломам себя и продолжать любить так, как будто ты
они не сломаны.
Alone with you in the ether (Olivie Blake)
From the internationally bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake is a glimpse
into the nature…
Going Zero is a high-concept thriller from Oscar-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten. Perfect for fans of I Am Pilgrim and The Circle. Shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Book Prize.
TWO HOURS TO VANISH
Ten people are selected to Beta test a ground-breaking piece of spyware. Pioneered by tech-wunderkind Cy Baxter, FUSION can track anyone on earth.
ONE CHANCE TO WIN
Given two hours to 'Go Zero' – disappear off-grid – each Zero has thirty days to elude the sophisticated Capture Teams sent to find them. Anyone that beats FUSION will receive $3 million. If Cy's system proves itself, he wins a $90 billion contract with the CIA to revolutionize surveillance forever.
ZERO ALTERNATIVES TO LOSING
For Zero 10, Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are higher than money, and far more personal than Cy could have imagined. Kaitlyn needs to win to get what she wants, and Cy will stop at nothing to realize his ambitions. When the game’s timer hits zero, there will only be one winner. . .
Going Zero is a high-concept thriller from Oscar-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten. Perfect for fans of I Am Pilgrim and The Circle. Shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith…
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
“This book has everything you could possibly want this fall...a cursed town, a haunted house, a vivid & eerie setting?plus, characters willing to risk everything.” ?Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club October ’23 Pick)
Starling House is a gorgeous, modern gothic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
I dream sometimes about a house I’ve never seen….
Opal is a lot of things?orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier?but above all, she's determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.
All she left behind were dark rumors?and her home. Everyone agrees that it’s best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur. Almost everyone, anyway.
I should be scared, but in the dream I don’t hesitate.
Opal has been obsessed with The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the chance to step inside Starling House?and make some extra cash for her brother's escape fund?she can't resist.
But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthur’s own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she might finally have found a reason to stick around.
In my dream, I’m home.
And now she’ll have to fight.
Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
“This book has everything you could possibly want this fall...a cursed town, a haunted house, a vivid & eerie setting?plus,…
