An evocative anthology for Christmas. This collection contains complete versions of old favourites such as 'The Little Match Girl', 'The Night Before Christmas', and 'Christmas Day in the Workhouse'. Other extracts include a sermon by Lancelot Andrews, an account of Christmas under the Puritans and a Mummer's Play.

The well-intentioned, wealthy physician Dr Jekyll is fascinated by the duality of human nature. He discovers a drug which can separate the good and evil sides of his character. But can he stop his dark side, the hideous Mr Hyde, from taking control?

'Five Quarters of the Orange' revolves around a recipe book, continuing the theme of culinary intrigue begun in 'Chocolat' and 'Blackberry Wine'. Framboise returns to the village where she grew up during wartime and, with the help of the recipes scribbled in her mother's album, opens up a small restaurant. Whilst immersing herself once again in the...

A new generation has arrived to divide the Forsyte clan with society scandals and conflicting passions. Set in the years following the First World War, the story moves to Soames Forsyte's daughter Fleur. She is now married to Michael Mont, but when her old love Jon returns after seven years, desire is rekindled and loyalties begin to divide.

After the death of his estranged wife, Quoyle's fortunes begin to change when his long lost Aunt Agnes convinces him to head north to his ancestral home on the coast of Newfoundland with his daughter Bunny. In the small coastal village of Killick-Claw Quoyle lands a job as a reporter for the local newspaper. He reports on the shipping news as he si...

A nervous breakdown seems like a great idea: all that lying in bed and watching daytime TV. But who's going to have it? Will it be housewife Clodagh, who spends her days microwaving pasta for her demanding toddlers and waiting for her beautiful husband Dylan to come home? Or Lisa, reeling from the shock of a demotion from her fabulous job in London...

A historical novel on the corruption of innocence, using the famous painting by Vermeer as an inspiration. Griet, the young daughter of a tilemaker in 17th century Holland, obtains her first job as a servant in Vermeer's household. Tracy Chevalier shows us, through Griet's eyes, the complicated family, the society of the small town of Delft, and li...

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old skinflint. He hates everyone, especially children. But at Christmas the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future come to visit him, scare him into mending his ways, and he finds, as he celebrates with Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and their family, that geniality brings its own reward.

When the body of Sir Charles Baskerville is found in his garden, there are no signs to explain his death. Did he die of fright? Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have a mysterious case to solve - is the Baskerville family really haunted by a phantom beast 'with blazing eyes and dripping jaws' which roams the mist-enshrouded moors around the isolated Ba...

Hat Grant is getting married. She is having a proper, big wedding. That is until something goes wrong - six weeks before the wedding, her fiance dumps her. Hat is devastated. This is her special day, she can't cancel everything - what about the flowers, her dress the photographer, the caterers, her ghastly mother? So, she doesn't - she decides to g...

Five disparate voices inhabit Ali Smith's dreamlike 'Hotel World', set in the luxurious anonymity of the Global Hotel, in an unnamed northern English city. The disembodied yet interconnected characters include Sara, a 19-year-old chambermaid who has recently died at the hotel; her bereaved sister, Clare, who visits the scene of Sara's death; Penny,...

Ria Lynch and Marilyn Vine have never met. Ria lives in a big ramshackle house in Tara Road, Dublin, which is filled with family and friends, while Marilyn lives in New England, absorbed in her career. A chance phone call brings them together and they decide to exchange homes. So a magical summer begins, full of discovery, unexpected friendships an...

These stories, all written between 1929 and 1954, all share the themes that feature so strongly in Graham Greene's novels: humour and violence, pity and hatred, betrayal and pursuit. Comic, sad, shocking and tragic, they recount the tales of Mr Maling's loud stomach, destructive gangs of children, indiscretions revealed and secrets uncovered. CONTA...

Obsessed by creating life itself, Doctor Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life using electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker...

This collection of short stories, previously published in anthologies and newspapers, consists of miniature studies of the endless absurdity of human behaviour. It includes 'Our Lives Are Only Lent To Us', discovered amongst the author's papers after her death.

As Romeo and Juliet come from opposing families, their love must be concealed until after their marriage. But having slain Juliet's cousin Tybalt, Romeo is banished and despite the well-meaning intervention of Friar Laurence, fate ensures that the marriage is never truly celebrated. Dramatisation of the New Cambridge version of the text.

A classic tale of wizards, dragons and terrifying shadows. The young wizard Sparrowhawk, tempted by pride to try spells beyond his powers, lets loose an evil shadow-beast in his land. Only he can destroy it, and this quest leads him to the farthest corner of Earthsea.

Captain Gault has decided that his family must leave their home in Lahardane. They are after all Protestants living in the big house in rural Cork in 1921, and Ireland is in turmoil. But 8-year-old Lucy can't bear to leave the seashore, the old house, the woods - so she hatches a plan. It is then that the calamity happens - an accident almost, but...

'The Silver Spoon' continues the tale of Soames' daughter Fleur. Married to Michael Mont, in line for a Barony, the story focuses on Michael's start in Parliament and Fleur's dissatisfaction with her marriage. The American, Frances Wilmont, enters the scene bringing news that Fleur's real love, Jon, forbidden to her as the son of her father's ex-wi...

Michael Mont is succeeding in his public life in Parliament, but holds grave doubts about his private life and his wife, Fleur. Fleur's original love, Jon Forsyte, her cousin and the son of her father's ex-wife, returns to England where a meeting is inevitable. Fleur's undying love for Jon is disclosed.

On a bitterly cold night in the eerie silence of an old church, forensic anthropologist Dr Brennan digs carefully. She is there to exhume the body of a nun who died in 1888 and is now proposed for sainthood. But the body has been moved. Why have the nun's remains been disturbed? And what will Dr Brennan discover when she finally manages to lift the...