This is an Uncle Fred novel. It was never the habit of Frederick, fifth Earl of Ickenham, to grumble when events crowded in on him, but he did sometimes feel that the life-work he had set himself of spreading sweetness and light — or, as some preferred to put it, meddling in other people's business — was almost more than any man could be expected to undertake single-handed. So many problems had presented themselves of late, coming up one after the other. First there was the faltering courtship of his godson, Johnny, and the delectable Belinda Farringdon. Then there was Albert Peasemarch's tangled love-life in which the promotion of a union between this admirable butler and the sister of his employer was calling for all that Frederick had of resolution and ingenuity. And thirdly there was the matter of the reformation of Beefy Bastable, whose attitude towards his sister Phoebe, so like that of a snapping turtle suffering from ulcers, Frederick felt it his duty to correct. It is hardly to be wondered at that Frederick confessed to being preoccupied. But, happily such moments with him were of fleeting duration. In the present instance the mood came, paused and passed, leaving Frederick with the ball at his feet, eager to lend his statesmanlike mind to all mankind in distress.

At the heart of the ruined city of Arcopolis is the Fortress. It's a brutal structure placed here by one of the sides in a devastating intergalactic war that's long ended. Fifteen years ago, the entire population of the planet was killed in an instant by the weapon housed deep in the heart of the Fortress. Now only the ghosts remain. The Doctor arrives, and determines to fight his way past the Fortress' automatic defences and put the weapon beyond use. But he soon discovers he's not the only person in Arcopolis. What is the true nature of the weapon? Is the planet really haunted? Who are the Eyeless? And what will happen if they get to the weapon before the Doctor? The Doctor has a fight on his hands. And this time he's all on his own. Featuring the Doctor as played by David Tennant in the hit series from BBC Television.

This wonderful book takes an affectionate, entertaining and perceptive look at the English people. Here are their traditions, foibles, quirks, customs, humour and achievements, triumphs and failures, peccadilloes and passions. Travel through England from coast to coast and learn how every county contributes in unique and different ways to the distinct English personality. Marvel at crooked black and white halls in Cheshire and soft golden stone cottages in Midland villages. Go cheese rolling in Gloucestershire, discover the origins of cricket in Hampshire, savour a hot pot in Lancashire and a pudding in Yorkshire. Gasp at the glories of stately homes and the families that create them, upstairs and down, enjoy a pint. Listen to the memories and tales of ordinary folk from every walk of life and find out from them what it means to be English. This irresistible book will entertain and inform for hours on end.

This is a P.G. Wodehouse novel. It takes a lot of effort for Jimmy Crocker to become Piccadilly Jim — nights on the town roistering, headlines in the gossip columns, a string of broken hearts and breaches of promise. Eventually, he becomes rather good at it and manages to go to pieces with his eyes open. But no sooner has Jimmy cut a wild swathe through fashionable London than his terrifying Aunt Nesta decides he must mend his ways. He then falls in love with the girl he has hurt most of all, and after that things get complicated. In a dizzying plot, impersonations pile on impersonations so that (for reasons that will become clear, we promise) Jimmy ends up having to pretend he's himself. Does he deserve a happy ending? Read and find out.

In this seventh installment of Armstrong's sizzling paranormal series Women of the Otherworld, celebrity necromancer Jamie Vegas finds herself haunted by children who are trapped between two worlds.

«New York Times» — bestselling author Armstrong follows «No Humans Involved» with the eighth sexy, action-packed Women of the Otherworld novel featuring a wickedly beautiful, supernaturally gifted heroine who may love danger a bit too much.»

«In his first short-story collection since «The Acid House», Irvine Welsh sets us five tricky questions. In «Rattlesnakes» how do three young Americans find themselves lost in the desert, and why does one find himself performing fellatio on another while being watched by the bare-breasted Madeline and two armed Mexicans? Who is the mysterious Korean chef who has moved upstairs to Chicago socialite Kendra Cross, in «The D.O.G.S. of Lincoln Park», and what does he have to do with the disappearance of her faithful pooch Toto? In the title story, can Mickey Baker — an expert English bar-owner ducking and diving on the Costa Brava — manage to keep all his balls in the air: maintaining his barmaid Cynthia's body weight at the sexual maximum while attending to the youthful Persephone and dodging his persistent ex-wife and a pair of Spanish gangsters? By what train of events does Raymond Wilson Butler, writing a biography of a legendary US film director in «Miss Arizona» come to end up as a piece of movie memorabilia? And how, in the novella «The Kingdom of Fife» will Jason King — diminutive ex-trainee jockey and Subbuteo star of Cowdenbeath — fare in the world of middle-class female equestrians, and will he ever enjoy the tender and long-anticipated charms of Jenni Cahill and her remarkable jodhpurs? All of these questions are posed, and answered, in these five extraordinary stories: stories that remind us that Irvine Welsh is a master of the shorter form, a brilliant storyteller, and — unarguably — one of the funniest and filthiest writers in Britain.»

«Set entirely on one day, 16 June 1904, «Ulysses» follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus as they go about their daily business in Dublin. From this starting point, James Joyce constructs a novel of extraordinary imaginative richness and depth. Unique in the history of literature, «Ulysses» is one of the most important and enjoyable works of the twentieth century. «Ulysses» was Paris in 1922. It was first published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head in 1960. In 1974 a team of scholars, led by Professor Hans Walter Gabler, began to study manuscript evidence, typescripts and proofs in an attempt to reconstruct as closely as possible the creative process by which Joyce wrote «Ulysses». This text is the revised 1993 edition of Gabler's version.»

At twenty-nine, fun-loving, good-natured Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to her first baby, James visits her in the recovery room to inform her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a beautiful newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a body that she can hardly bear to look at in the mirror. So, in the absence of any better offers, Claire decides to go home to her family in Dublin. To her gorgeous man-eating sister Helen, her soap-watching mother, her bewildered father. And there, sheltered by the love of an (albeit quirky) family, she gets better. A lot better. In fact, so much better that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise.

Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabitte, brilliantly coached by Joel 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from paris hall to immortality on vinyl. But can The Commitments live up to their name?

Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other 'midnight's children' all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem's story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

Published two weeks after his seventieth birthday, Ada, or Ardor is one of Nabokov's greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest. But more: it is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. Ada, or Ardor is no less than the supreme work of an imagination at white heat. This is the first American edition to include the extensive and ingeniously sardonic appendix by the author, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom.

Offers a guide to this extraordinary river and the towns and villages which line it. Exploring its history since prehistoric times, this book shows the fishes that swam in the river and the boats that plied its surface; about floods and tides; hauntings and suicides; miasmas and malaria; locks, weirs and embankments; bridges, docks and palaces.

«Pnin is a professor of Russian at an American college who takes the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he cannot master. Pnin is a tireless lover who writes to his treacherous Liza: «A genius needs to keep so much in store, and thus cannot offer you the whole of himself as I do.» Pnin is the focal point of subtle academic conspiracies he cannot begin to comprehend, yet he stages a faculty party to end all faculty parties forever.»

In Pale Fire Nabokov offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures: a 999-line poem by the recluse genius John Shade: an adoring foreward and commentary by Shade's self-styled Boswell, Dr. Charles Kinbote: a darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and one-upmanship, and political intrigue.

Extensively revised by Nabokov in 1965 — 30 years after its original publication — Despair is the wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann, a man who undertakes the perfect crime: his own murder.

The first novel Nabokov wrote while living in America and the most overtly political novel he ever wrote, Bend Sinister is a modern classic. While it is filled with veiled puns and characteristically delightful wordplay, it is, first and foremost, a haunting and compelling narrative about a civilized man caught in the tyranny of a police state. It is first and foremost a compelling narrative about a civilized man and his child caught up in the tyranny of a police state. Professor Adam Krug, the country's foremost philosopher, offers the only hope of resistance to Paduk, dictator and leader of the Party of the Average Man. In a folly of bureaucratic bungling and ineptitude, the government attempts to co-opt Krug's support in order to validate the new regime.

In his highly acclaimed debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch took us on an adrenaline-fueled adventure with a band of daring thieves led by con artist extraordinaire Locke Lamora. Now Lynch brings back his outrageous hero for a caper so death-defying, nothing short of a miracle will pull it off. After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can't rest for long — and are soon back to what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves. This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele — and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior... and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire. Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors... straight to Requin's teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb — until they are closer to the spoils than ever. But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that maynot be enough...

«Mikael Blomkvist recherchiert in einem besonders brisanten. Fall von Mädchenhandel, die Hintermänner bekleiden höchste Regierungsämter. Als sein Informant tot aufgefunden wird, fällt der Verdacht auf Blomkvists Partnerin Lisbeth Salander. Eine mörderische Hetzjagd beginnt. Der neue große Roman des preisgekrönten Bestsellerautors Stieg Larsson.Ein ehrgeiziger junger Journalist bietet Mikael Blomkvist für sein Magazin «Millennium» eine Story an, die skandalöser nicht sein könnte. Amts — und Würdenträger der schwedischen Gesellschaft vergehen sich an jungen russischen Frauen, die gewaltsam ins Land geschafft und zur Prostitution gezwungen werden. Als sich Lisbeth Salander in die Recherchen einschaltet, stößt sie auf ein besonders pikantes Detail: Nils Bjurman, ihr ehemaliger Betreuer, scheint in den Mädchenhandel involviert zu sein. Wenig später werden der Journalist und Nils Bjurman tot aufgefunden. Die Tatwaffe trägt Lisbeths Fingerabdrücke. Sie wird an den Pranger gestellt und flüchtet. Nur Mikael Blomkvist glaubt an ihre Unschuld und beginnt, auf eigene Faust zu ermitteln. Seine Nachforschungen führen in Lisbeths Vergangenheit. Eine Vergangenheit, die ihn bald das Fürchten lehrt.»Blomkvist und Salander — ein Ermittler-Dreamteam.»WDR»Stieg Larssons Romane sind so mitreißend, dass sie eine Gefahr für das öffentliche Leben darstellen. Lesende Menschen werden Fußgängerzonen und Parks besetzen, die Arbeitswelt wird lahmgelegt — alles wegen Larssons Romanen, die man nicht aus der Hand legen kann.»Bild am Sonntag»Selten hat es in skandinavischer Krimiliteratur eine so originelle, widersprüchliche und packende Hauptfigur gegeben wie die gegen den Strich lebende Lisbeth Salander. «Hamburger Abendblatt.»

Uncle Fred is one of the hottest earls that ever donned a coronet. Or as he crisply said, 'There are no limits, literally none, to what I can achieve in the springtime.' Even so, his gifts are stretched to the limit when he is urged by Lord Emsworth to save his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings, from the enforced slimming cure of the haughty Duke of Dunstable. Pongo Twistleton knows his debonair but wild uncle shouldn't really be allowed at large — especially when disguised as a brain surgeon. He fears the worst. And his fears are amply justified.