To be poor and destitute in 1920s Paris and London was to experience life at its lowest ebb. George Orwell, penniless and with nowhere to go, found himself experiencing just this as he wandered the streets of both capitals in search of a job. By day, he tramped the streets, often passing time with 'screevers' or street artists, drunks and other hobos. At night, he stood in line for a bed in a 'spike' or doss house, where a cup of sugary tea, a hunk of stale bread and a blanket were the only sustenance and comfort on offer. Down and Out in Paris and London is George Orwell's haunting account of the streets and those who have no choice but to live on them.

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters is the second exciting adventure in Rick Riordan's bestselling Percy Jackson series — now with a brand new cover look. Half Boy. Half God. All Hero. You can't tell by looking at me that my dad is Poseidon, God of the Sea. It's not easy being a half-blood these days. Even a simple game of dodgeball becomes a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants — and that was only the beginning. Now Camp Half-Blood is under attack, and unless I can get my hands on the Golden Fleece, the whole camp will be invaded by monsters. Big ones... Rick Riordan is the Mythmaster. The Greek Gods are alive and kicking. Puns, jokes and subtle wit, alongside a gripping storyline. (Telegraph). Witty and inspired. Gripping, touching and deliciously satirical... This is most likely to succeed Rowling. (Amanda Craig, The Times). Perfectly paced, with electrifying moments chasing each other like heartbeats. (New York Times). It's Buffy meets Artemis Fowl. Thumbs up. (Sunday Times). About the author: Rick Riordan is an award-winning mystery writer. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and two sons. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Rick's first novel featuring the heroic young demigod, was the overall winner of the Red House Children's Book Award in 2006. Books by Rick Riordan: The Percy Jackson series: Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief; Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters; Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse; Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth; Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian; and Percy Jackson: The Demigod Files. The Heroes of Olympus series: The Lost Hero; The Son Of Neptune; The Mark of Athena; and The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Files. The Kane Chronicles series: The Red Pyramid; The Throne of Fire; and The Serpent's Shadow.

A dark classic of Russia's silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher's descent into sadism, arson and murder. Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial school teacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. As he pursues the idea of marrying to gain promotion, he descends into paranoia, sexual perversion, arson, torture and murder. Sologub's anti-hero is one of the great comic monsters of twentieth-century fiction, subsequently lending his name to the brand of sado-masochism known as Peredonovism. The Little Demon (1907) made an immediate star of its author who, refuting suggestions that the work was autobiographical, stated 'No, my dear contemporaries... it is about you'. This grotesque mirror of a spiritually bankrupt society is arguably the finest Russian novel to have come out of the Symbolist movement. Fyodor Sologub was born in St Petersburg in 1863. His first two novels Bad Dreams (1896) and The Little Demon (1907) were drawn from his own experiences as schoolmaster in a remote provincial town. For many years Sologub could not find a publisher for The Little Demon but when in 1907 the novel was at last published — to immediate and resounding success — he was able to leave his restricting career and devote himself to literature. In 1921 his wife committed suicide and Sologub died a few years later in 1927. Ronald Wilks studied Russian language and literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, after training as a Naval interpreter, and later Russian literature at London University. He has translated many works from Russian for Penguin Classics, including books by Gorky, Gogol, Pushkin, Tolstoy and Chekhov.

Over the past 500 years, the West achieved global dominance, but do Westerners necessarily have better ideas about how to raise children, care for the elderly, or simply live well? In this epic journey into our past, Jared Diamond reveals that traditional societies around the world offer an extraordinary window into how our ancestors lived for the majority of human history — until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms. Drawing on decades of his own fieldwork, Diamond explores how tribal people approach essential human problems, from health and diet to conflict resolution and language, and discovers they have much to teach us.

«The Vatican Diaries is an inside look at one of the world's most powerful and mysterious institutions, by John Thavis. «A humane and realistic and (yes) humorous picture of a mortal institution. To an old Prot like me, it's a tour of alien terrain and a bridge to old and dear friends». (Garrison Keillor). For thirty years John Thavis worked for the Catholic News Service in Rome and reported on the inner workings of the Vatican. The Vatican Diaries is his insightful and often very funny account of exactly what goes on in this unique and secretive institution. It's a place where cardinals fight private wars, scandals are constantly threatening to undermine papal authority, and reverence for the past comes up painfully against the considerations of modern life. He describes the politics surrounding the election of a new pope and the beatification of an old one, the angst of dealing with the international issue of sexual abuse, the intricacies of arranging a Papal visit to India, the conflicts involved in trying to build a car park over an ancient Roman burial site — and above all the unfathomable personality of the conservative Pope Benedict XVI, the first pope to resign for 600 years. At this extraordinary moment of crisis in the Church, Thavis' account of its inner workings is invaluable. 'One closes John Thavis' perceptive study reflecting on the Vatican's challenge: to persist in a secularizing world sometimes fascinated by the pomp and pageantry of St. Peter's-but often hostile or increasingly indifferent to the Church's determined mission to harmonize warring factions and bickering enemies, even if both are on the same Catholic side' New York Journal of Books John Thavis recently retired as the prizewinning chief of the Rome bureau of Catholic News Service, where he had covered the Vatican since 1983. He is the past president of the International Association of Journalists Accredited to the Vatican, and in 2007 the Catholic Press Association awarded him the Saint Francis de Sales Award, the highest honour given by the Catholic press. He divides his time between Minnesota and Rome.»

Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brene Brown offers a powerful new vision in Daring Greatly that encourages us to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly and courageously. Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable, or to dare greatly. Whether the arena is a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation, we must find the courage to walk into vulnerability and engage with our whole hearts. In Daring Greatly, Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability. Based on twelve years of research, she argues that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful connection. Daring Greatly will spark a new spirit of truth and trust in our organizations, families, schools, and communities. A wonderful book: urgent, essential and fun to read. I couldn't put it down, and it continues to resonate with me. (Seth Godin, author of Linchpin). It is only by embracing our vulnerability, daring to expose that whole heart, that we can properly connect. It's thought-provoking stuff. (Stella Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph). Brene Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a New York Times bestselling author and a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She is a nationally renowned speaker and has won numerous teaching awards, including the College's Outstanding Faculty Award. Her groundbreaking work was the subject of a PBS special called The Gifts of Imperfection and has been featured on NPR and CNN. Her 2010 TEDx talk on the topic of vulnerability went viral and has been translated into 38 languages, and she will be a featured National TED speaker in 2012. Brene is also the author of The Gifts of Imperfection and I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't).

The Herbalist is the electrifying first novel from Niamh Boyce, winner of the 2012 Hennesssy XO Award for New Irish Writing. A devastating and emotional story of yearning and obsession in 1930s rural Ireland, in its freshness and immediacy, The Herbalist will appeal to fans of Edna O'Brien and Patrick McCabe. Out of nowhere the herbalist appears and sets out his stall in the market square. In this dull midlands town the exotic stranger brings glamour and excitement. The townspeople call him The Don and with his potions and lotions he seems to have a cure for all that ails them. Teenager Emily is enchanted. In the herbalist she sees a Clark Gable to her Jean Harlow, a Fred to her Ginger — a man to make her forget her lowly status in this place where respectability is everything. But Emily has competition for the herbalist's attentions. The women of the town — the women from the big houses and their maids, the shopkeepers and their serving girls, those of easy virtue and their pious sisters — all seem mesmerised by this visitor who, they say, can perform miracles. When Emily discovers the dark side of the man who has infatuated her all summer, once again her world turns upside down. She may be naive and full of foolish dreams, but she has a fierce sense of right and wrong. And with the herbalist's fate lying in her hands she must make the biggest decision of her young life. To make him pay for his sins against the women of the town? Or let him escape to cast his spell on another town? The Herbalist is a riveting story about the shadow side of Irish life — the snobbery, the fear of sex, the tragedy of women destroyed by social convention and the bravery of those who defied it. It is an unforgettable story from a rare new talent. In addition to winning the 2012 Hennessy New Writing Award, Niamh Boyce has been shortlisted for the 2011 Francis McManus Short Story competition, the 2010 Hennessy Literary Awards, the 2010 Molly Keane Award and the 2010 WOW Award.

A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay When sheltered American good girl Allyson LuLu Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there's an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines. Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem's story — Just One Year — is coming soon!

A chilling psychological thriller about a marriage, a way of life, and how far one woman will go to keep what is rightfully hers Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can't be made, and promises that won't be kept. Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Things Hidden, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and does not let go.

A beautiful new clothbound edition of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge. Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of the Chateau d'If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.

«In The Night Manager, John le Carre's first post-Cold War novel, an ex-soldier helps British Intelligence penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers. «Le Carre is the equal of any novelist now writing in English.» (Guardian). «A marvellously observed relentless tale.» (Observer). At the start of it all, Jonathan Pine is merely the night manager at a luxury hotel. But when a single attempt to pass on information to the British authorities — about an international businessman at the hotel with suspicious dealings — backfires terribly, and people close to Pine begin to die, he commits himself to a battle against powerful forces he cannot begin to imagine. In a chilling tale of corrupt intelligence agencies, billion-dollar price tags and the truth of the brutal arms trade, John le Carre creates a claustrophobic world in which no one can be trusted. «Complex and intense... page-turning tension.» (San Francisco Chronicle). «When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carre... they were a journey into the wider world... These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind.» (Aung San Suu Kyi). «One of those writers who will be read a century from now.» (Robert Harris). «He can communicate emotion, from sweating fear to despairing love, with terse and compassionate conviction.» (Sunday Times (on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold)). «Return of the master... Having plumbed the devious depths of the Cold War, le Carre has done it again for our nasty new age.» (The Times (on Our Kind of Traitor)).»

«John Green — The Collection includes five novels from the critically acclaimed, best-selling master of modern storytelling, brought together for the first time. Includes The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (co-written with David Levithan). «You laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more». (Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief). «Funny, rude and original». (New York Times). «Fun, challengingly complex and entirely entertaining». (Kirkus Reviews). John Green is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author whose many accolades include the Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and the Edgar Award.»

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths — until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets. Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel is sure to move readers as much as it thrills.

At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union unexpectedly found itself in control of a huge swathe of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to a completely new political and moral system: communism. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. Applebaum describes in devastating detail how political parties, the church, the media, young people's organizations — the institutions of civil society on every level — were quickly eviscerated. She explains how the secret police services were organized, how the media came to be dominated by communists, and how all forms of opposition were undermined and destroyed. Ranging widely across new archival material and many sources unknown in English, she follows the communists' tactics as they bullied, threatened and murdered their way to power. She also chronicles individual lives to show the choices people had to make — to fight, to flee, or to collaborate. Within a remarkably short period after the end of the war, Eastern Europe had been ruthlessly Stalinized. Iron Curtain is a brilliant history of a brutal period and a haunting reminder of how fragile free societies can be. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Anne Applebaum captures in the pages of this exceptional work of historical and moral reckoning.

This is the very best of James Thurber's hilarious short stories and essays, to tie-in with the major new film starring Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig. Walter Mitty is an ordinary man living an ordinary life. But he has dreams — vivid, extraordinary day dreams — in which the life he leads is one of excitement and even adventure, in which he — a weary, put upon middle-aged man — is the hero of his own story. A man can dream, can't he? The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is just one of the brilliant humorous and witty stories written by James Thurber and collected here. James Thurber was born in 1894 at Columbus, Ohio, where, as he once said, so many awful things happened to him. After university (Ohio State) he worked at the American Embassy in Paris from 1918 to 1920, and then turned to journalism. From 1927 onwards he was on the staff of the New Yorker, and first published much of his work in it. He died in New York in 1961, and is today recognised as one of America's greatest twentieth-century humourists.

Spot is on the move in this fantastic finger puppet book. Wiggle your finger to help Spot drive a car, a train, a boat, a tractor, a bus and even a plane — what a busy puppy! This is the perfect book for your little Spot fan. There are lots of fun and educational Spot books available including: Spot's Dressing-Up Fun, Spot's Snowy Day, Spot Says Please and many more.

Syvlia Day's Passion for the Game is a tale of deception, lust and deadly desire in Georgian England. Maria, Lady Winter, is coerced into using her searing beauty and siren body to find out why dangerous pirate Christopher St. John has been let out of jail. But pirate St. John's only chance of avoiding the hangman is to use his renowned seduction skills to melt Lady Winter's icy heart and to discover her secrets. Entangled in a twisted game of deception and desire, Maria and Christopher are each determined to be the one to win this lusty battle of wits... Praise for Sylvia Day, bestselling author of the sensational Bared to You and Reflected in You, first two books in the Crossfire trilogy: Move over Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins, this is the dawn of a new Day. (Amuse). Several shades darker and a hundred degrees hotter than anything you've read before. (Reveal).

Nobel-prize winner Francois Mauriac's masterpiece is Therese Desqueyroux, the story of a complex woman trapped by provincial life. First published in 1927, this astonishing and daring novel has echoes of Madame Bovary and has recently been made into a ravishing film starring Amelie actress Audrey Tautou. Therese Desqueyroux walks free from court, acquitted of trying to poison her husband. Everyone knew she'd tried to do it, but family honour was more important than the truth. As she travels home to the gloomy forests of Argelouse, Therese looks back over the marriage that brought her nothing but stifling darkness, and wonders, has she really escaped punishment or is it only just about to begin? Francois Mauriac was born in Bordeaux in 1885. He left his university studies to devote himself to writing, and published a collection of poems, Les Mains jointes (Clasped Hands), in 1909. He married in 1913 and the following year was mobilized to serve in the First World War with the Auxilliary Medical Squad in Thessalonica. Mauriac's major literary breakthrough came in 1922 with a novel called Le Baiser au lepreux (A Kiss for the Leper). His most famous work, Therese Desqueroux, appeared in 1927 and has been made into a film twice: first in 1962, with Emmanuelle Riva in the lead role, and more recently in 2012, in a version starring Audrey Tautou. In 1933 Mauriac was elected a Member of the French Academy and in 1952 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in Paris in 1970. A great novel... the brilliance of its structure and the elegance of its prose never fail to take my breath away. (Beryl Bainbridge).

For fans of Hilary Mantel, Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, Elizabeth Fremantle's first novel, Queen's Gambit, is a riveting account of Katherine Parr, the Tudor queen who married four men and outlived three of them — including Henry VIII. Widowed for the second time aged thirty-one, Katherine is obliged to return to court but, suspicious of the aging Henry and those who surround him, she does so with reluctance. Nevertheless when she finds herself caught up in a passionate affair with the dashing and seductive Thomas Seymour, she believes she might finally be able to marry for love. But her presence at court has attracted the attentions of another... Captivated by her honesty and intelligence, Henry Tudor has his own plans for Katherine and no one is in the position to refuse a proposal from the king. With her charismatic lover dispatched to the continent, Katherine becomes Henry's sixth wife. Passionate about religious reform, and ever aware of the fates of his previous queens, she must draw upon all her instincts and intellect to navigate the treachery of the court. With the Catholic faction once more in the ascendency, reformers burned for heresy and those around the dying king vying for position in the new regime, her survival seems unlikely — and yet she has still not quite given up on love... Rich in atmosphere and period detail, and told through the eyes of Katherine and her young maid Dot, Queen's Gambit is the story of two very different women during a terrifying and turbulent time. If you loved Wolf Hall, The Other Boleyn Girl or the BBC drama series The Tudors, then Elizabeth Fremantle's Queen's Gambit is the book for you. Elizabeth Fremantle holds a first in English and an MA in creative Writing from Birkbeck. As a Fashion Editor she has contributed to various publications including Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair and the Erotic Review and has had her fiction published in the Mechanic's Institute Review. Queen's Gambit is her first novel.