«Following the National Theatre's success with plays based on novels by well-loved children's writers like Philip Pulman («His Dark Materials»), Jamila Gavin («Coram Boy») and Michael Morpurgo («War Horse»), the National now stages Mark Ravenhill's exhilarating adaptation of Terry Pratchett's witty and challenging adventure story in a major Christmas production for 2009. Its a parallel world, 1860. Two teenagers thrown together by a tsunami that has destroyed Mau's village and left Daphne shipwrecked on his South Pacific island, thousands of miles from home. One wears next to nothing, the other a long white dress; neither speaks the other's language; somehow they must learn to survive. As starving refugees gather, Daphne delivers a baby, milks a pig, brews beer and does battle with a mutineer. Mau fights cannibal Raiders, discovers the world is round and questions the reality of his tribe's fiercely patriarchal gods. Together they come of age, overseen by a foul-mouthed parrot, as they discard old doctrine to forge a new Nation.»

Winter, 1916. In St Petersburg, snow is falling in a country on the brink of revolution. Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her role in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction. Twenty years on, Sashenka has a powerful husband and two children. Around her people are disappearing but her own family is safe. But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair which will have devastating consequences. Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heart-breaking story of passion and betrayal, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism — and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice.

Seven Troop is Andy McNab's account of the time he served in the company of a remarkable group of men — from the day, freshly-badged as a member of the SAS Regiment, he joined them in the Malayan jungle, to the day, ten years later, that he handed in his sand-coloured beret and started a new life.

Merry Gentry is not your average private investigator. Half human, half faerie, she's caught in a struggle that threatens not only her life, but the lives of those she desires and holds dear. Her very existence and her rightful place on the throne of Faerie have long depended on her ability to produce an heir — and now, after many failed attempts, the services of her royal guards have found her pregnant... It is a triumphant moment, but revelation follows revelation: for Merry carries two babies, and she knows they have more than one father... And of course, there are those of her own flesh and blood who want Merry dead, but she is a fighter and wields a wild magic. And this is her world, where the magical and the mortal intertwine, where folklore, fantasy and erotically charged adventure collide...

You can always trust a man — to do the dirty on you. When Lucy finds out her football coach hubby's been playing away from home, she's devastated. But when she discovers just who he's been scoring with, she wants to kick a few balls of her own. So now that Lucy's learnt that her perfect marriage was like most of her orgasms (faked), the big question is are all men bastards, or will she find the one exception to the rule?

WHAT WAS LOST WILL BE FOUND...Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned at the last minute to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object — gruesomely encoded with five symbols — is discovered at the epicentre of the Rotunda. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's revered mentor, Peter Solomon — philanthropist and prominent mason — is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon finds himself quickly swept behind the facade of America's most historic city into the unseen chambers, temples and tunnels which exist there. All that was familiar is transformed into a shadowy, clandestine world of an artfully concealed past in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth. A brilliantly composed tapestry of veiled histories, arcane icons and enigmatic codes, The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced thriller that offers surprises at every turn. For, as Robert Langdon will discover, there is nothing more extraordinary or shocking than the secret which hides in plain sight...

Bestselling author Pip Granger remembers her childhood in a vibrant part of London where working girls swung their keys on street corners and coffee bars throbbed to the beat of rock and roll.

Grace Rutherford is the one and only Diamond Sharp, the `It` girl of 1920s London. Caught up in the glitz and glamour of the day, Grace begins a passionate affair with charming, flirtatious American author Dexter O`Connell. Soon, though, she finds herself falling for John Cramer, the charismatic neighbour her widowed younger sister adores.

When junior manager Frank Dominio is suddenly demoted and then fired, it seems there was more than a grain of truth to his persecution fantasies. But as he prepares to even the score with those responsible for his demise, he unwittingly finds an ally in a dark and malevolent force that grants him supernatural powers. Frank takes his revenge in the most ghastly ways imaginable—but there will be a terrible price to pay once his work is done. This tale of corporate horror and demonic retribution will strike a chord with anyone who has ever been disgruntled at work.

In the summer of 1977, seventeen-year-old Mona Manoliu falls in love with Mihai, a mysterious boy who lives in the romantic mountain city where she spends her summers. She can think of nothing and no one else. But life under Nicolae Ceausescu is difficult. Hunger, paranoia and fear infect everyone. One day Mona sees Mihai wearing the black leather jacket favored by the secret police... is it possible he is one of them? As food shortages worsen and more of her loved ones disappear, Mona comes to understand that she must leave Romania. She escapes in secret — narrowly avoiding the police — through Yugoslavia to Italy, and finally to Chicago. But she leaves without saying a final goodbye to Mihai. And though she struggles to bury her longing for the past she finds herself compelled to return, determined to learn the truth about her one great love. An extraordinary debut, Train to Trieste is a beautiful, powerful and intriguing love story that moves from passionate infatuation to profound understanding. Told in an astonishingly original, poetic voice Domnica Radulescu has shown herself to be a remarkable writer.

From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother's joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel's powerful, personal story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness. Sharing tender, painful memories and Nick's remarkable journals, Steel brings us a haunting duet between a singular young man and the mother who loved him-and a harrowing portrait of a masked killer called manic depression, which afflicts between two and three million Americans. At once a loving legacy and an unsparing depiction of a devastating illness, Danielle Steel's tribute to her lost son is a gift of life, hope, healing, and understanding to us all.

The Afghan is Izmat Khan, a five-year prisoner of Guantanamo Bay and a former senior commander of the Taliban. The Afghan is also Colonel Mike Martin, a 25-year veteran of war zones around the world, a dark, lean man born and raised in Iraq. In an attempt to stave off disaster, the intelligence agencies will try to do what no one has ever done before – pass off a Westerner as an Arab among Arabs – pass off Martin as the trusted Khan. It will require extraordinary preparation, and then extraordinary luck, for nothing can truly prepare Martin for the dark and shifting world he is about to enter. Or for the terrible things he will find there...

Could one calamitous evening ruin the perfect life? No challenge was too great, or so she thought...All round high-flier Olympia Crawford Rubinstein has it all, a busy legal career, a solid marriage and a perfect family. She manages her life with grace and energy and there seems to be no challenge to which she cannot rise. Until one day she opens an invitation for her twin daughters to attend an exclusive coming out ball and her good fortune is changed irrevocably. Chaos ensues as conflicting feelings emerge about the ball and Olympia finds herself at the heart of a severe family feud. Devastated, and pulled in all directions, Olympia is more determined than ever to steer her family through the event. Yet, events unravel at an alarming speed and Olympia is poised to surrender when suddenly a series of events result in several changes of heart, old wounds are healed and new traditions born. Can an evening of heartbreak and misery make way for an evening of growth, acceptance and love? In a novel that is by turns profound, poignant, moving and warmly funny, Danielle Steel tells the story of an extraordinary family — finding new ways of letting go, stepping up and coming out ...in the ways that matter most.

From Ben Elton, author of the hugely successful Past Mortem, a gut-wrenching historical drama which forces us to handle the truth. Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while he was recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, is charged with his murder. Douglas Konig is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction in the case. Forced to conduct his investigations amid the hell of the third Battle of Ypres, Konig soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him. Ben Elton's tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama that explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? As the gap between legally sanctioned and illegal murder becomes ever more blurred, Konig quickly learns that the first casualty of war is Truth.

On a warm May night in San Francisco, a glittering, celebrity-studded crowd gathers for a charity event. Just minutes before midnight, the room begins to sway. Glass shatters, the lights go out, and people start to scream.... In the earthquake's aftermath, the lives of four strangers will converge: Sarah Sloane, the beautiful wife of a financial star, watches her perfect world fall to pieces. Melanie Free, award-winning singer, comes to a turning point in her career. Everett Carson, a former war correspondent whose personal demons have demoted him to covering society parties, finds new purpose amid the carnage. Sister Maggie Kent, a nun who does her best work in jeans and trainers, searches through the rubble — and knows instantly that there is much work to be done. The city staggers back to life, and a chain reaction will touch each of the survivors as they find the amazing grace of new beginnings.

You do not mess with the Special Investigators! The events of 9/11 changed Jack Reacher’s drifter life in a practical way. In addition to his folding toothbrush, he now needs to carry photo ID to get around. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit manages to get a message to him, he knows it has to be deadly serious. The Special Investigators always watched each other’s backs. Now Reacher must put the old unit back together. Someone has killed one of them, and he can’t let that go.

The story of a young orphan girl who steals books, about her foster family and the Jewish boxer hidden in their basement as they struggle to survive in Nazi Germany, narrated by the voice of Death.

Imagine a flat world, sitting on the backs of four elephants, who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. The Discworld is a place (and a time) parallel to our own – but also very different. That is the setting for Terry Pratchett’s phenomenally successful Discworld series, which now celebrates its 25th anniversary. The Discworld Graphic Novels presents the very first two volumes of this much-loved series in graphic novel form. First published fifteen years ago, these fully illustrated versions are now issued for the first time in hardback. Introduced here are the bizarre misadventures of Twoflower, the Discworld’s first ever tourist, and possibly — portentously — its last, and his guide Rincewind, the spectacularly inept wizard.Not to mention the Luggage, which has a mind of its own.

Paris Armstrong never saw it coming. With two grown children and a lovely home in Connecticut, Paris was happy with her marriage, her family, her life. So when her husband of twenty-four years said they needed to talk, Paris couldn't imagine what he was about to say. 'I want a divorce', Peter tells her. Just like that, the husband she adored had dumped her for a younger woman. And just like that, Peter and his thirty-one-year-old lover had made their plans for their future, leaving Paris to pick up the pieces of a shattered life. Within days, Peter was gone. And Paris was left to figure out how she intended to get through the next day, let alone the rest of her life. The task could not have been more painful. First came the tears. Then the excruciating attempts by well-meaning friends to “fix her up” with men who paled in comparison to Peter. Worse yet, she still loved him. Finally, Paris realized she was in a fight for her very survival. Drastic measures were called for. Even her shrink agreed. It was time to move — as far away as possible, just after Peter remarried. Paris had never felt, or been, more alone. Saying goodbye to the world she knew and loved, Paris heads west, to San Francisco, and discovers being single in a world full of men who were too young, too old, too married, or too good to be true. For Paris, the list seemed endless... the charming commitment-phobe... the drunken Neanderthal... the young Frenchman — so adorably sexy she almost forgot about his age, and did, for a while. With her dating track record veering between disappointing and disastrous, and her daughter now engaged to a man Paris's age, Paris finally comes to the conclusion that romance is not in her future. That's when her small circle of offbeat, loving friends becomes more important than ever before. And a decision Paris makes only for herself changes her life once more. The secret, she discovers finally, is in finding the gifts in life's unexpected twists and turns, and turning despair into freedom and loss into joy. In a poignant, wickedly funny novel about getting dumped and getting over it, about tackling life with both courage and laughter, Danielle Steel explores what it means to start over, whether you wanted to or not, and finding something better than you had before.

Does that boy like me? Why are my sisters so mean? Does anyone think I'm pretty? Will my father be arrested? These were the everyday concerns of thirteen-year-old Moscow schoolgirl Nina Lugovskaya, who began to write a diary in 1932. Her indignant outbursts against the brutal raids and purges of Stalin's terror appear alongside the more typical adolescent worries about girlfriends, boys, parties and homework. For five years Nina scribbled down her most intimate thoughts and dreams, including her ambition one day to become a writer. Then in 1937 the NKVD, Stalin's secret police, ransacked Nina's home and discovered her diary.Nina's criticism of the regime provided sufficient evidence for the charge of treason, and she, her mother and two sisters were sentenced to five years' hard labour in the Gulag, followed by seven years' exile in Siberia. Recently Nina's diary was discovered in the KGB archives, complete with the original passages underlined by the secret police. Like Anne Frank's diary, this journal poignantly reveals life at a time of political upheaval, betrayal and repression through the eyes of an innocent.