Examines the attempts of an increasingly bemused researcher to establish certain facts about a famous French novelist and the stuffed bird which used to sit on his desk. This book blends fact and fict
A fictional autobiography of a rumbustious adventurer and poker-player who sets off his native Chicago in the spirit of a latter-day Columbus to rediscover the world - and more especially, twentieth-c
A series with silk-ribbon markers and headbands, gold stamping on front and spine, and the original colour illustrations on the jackets. Anna Sewell's classic story of a horse was her only book, writt
Gillian Avery, novelist and historian of children's books, has compiled this collection of her favourite poems. Her choice of over 250 pieces range from ballads to Ted Hughes, from Ben Jonson to Noel
R K Narayan witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of warmth and vibrancy. This book features stories such as "Swami and Friends", "The Bachelor of Arts",
Contains two small masterpieces in one volume. In the disastrous love affairs and gambling adventures of Alexei Ivanovich, the author explores the irresistible temptation to look into the abyss of ult
Captured on the Pennsylvania frontier, little John Butler is adopted by the warrior Cuyloga. He has spent 11 years as fully Indian, when a treaty compels him to return to the family he had long forgot
Everyone knows Pinocchio, the walking, talking wooden puppet carved from a table leg. Pinocchio, an endearing scamp, is always getting himself into trouble. But it isn't the sort of trouble most kids
Baron Munchausen’s absurd adventures have entertained adults and children alike for more than two centuries. First published in England in 1785, his traveller’s tales soon became as well known as thos
Auntie Katusha has just come from the Old Country, bringing poppy seeds to make cakes for a mischievous four-year-old boy named Andrewshek. A little neighbour, Erminka, who wears red boots which are t
Evelyn was a scholar, a scientific amateur, a garden designer and architect, and a founder member of the Royal Society who published a magisterial book about trees, Sylva, and many pamphlets on assort
Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economic struggles, this work is an unsentimental, yet passionate depiction of conflict between classes, sexes and generations.
With 13 children of his own clamouring for bedtime stories it isn't surprising that author George MacDonald discovered he had a gift for composing fairy tales. But these were fairy tales with a differ
When Kay gets a splinter of the wicked troll's magic mirror in his heart it becomes hard and cold - just like a lump of ice. Kay is abducted and bewitched by the chillingly beautiful Snow Queen and hi
This charming volume brings back into print some of the finest illustrated children's books from the Arts and Crafts Movement: Kate Greenaway's much-loved alphabet book, A Apple Pie, along with a sele
Wonderful collection of nonsense verse, from Chesterton to Dahl, Lear to Carroll. With beautitul, original illustrations, both full colour and black & white.
Distinguished as both a great novelist and a great poet, Thomas Hardy's writing career spanned more than 60 years. A master of the short lyric and the vivid narrative, Hardy is the poet of remembrance
There are many anthologies of love poems but friendship has proved a more elusive theme. Yet it is no less important. This selection draws on the literature of many periods and languages to illuminate
The greatest English religious poet of the nineteenth century, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was a Jesuit priest and literary scholar whose life ended prematurely after his exhausting pastoral work
