When a new empire rises, and old one must fall After 16 years of bloody war against Rome, Hannibal Barca is on the verge of defeat. On the plains of Zama, Felix and his brother Antonius stand in the formidable Roman legions, ready to deliver the decisive blow. Victory will establish Rome as the preeminent power in the ancient world. But in northern...

Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine's struggled to make ends meet. To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackt...

Set 300 years before the events in A Song of Ice and Fire, Fire and Blood is the definitive history of the Targaryens in Westeros and chronicles the conquest that united the Seven Kingdoms under Targaryen rule through to the Dance of the Dragons: the Targaryen civil war that nearly ended their dynasty. Centuries before the events of A Game of Thron...

Laura has been married to the man of her dreams for seven months. But, she now discovers, a week before the wedding Matthew made a terrible mistake ... Escaping the heartache and humiliation, Laura is whisked off to Florida's Key West by her best friend Marty. A carefree holiday full of cocktails and fun, surrounded by gorgeous, tanned men, is exa...

Dr Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, is still recovering from when Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London-and a more malign enemy hid in his shadow. Bond and the others who worked on the gruesome case are still stalked by its legacies, both psychological and tangible. Now the bodies of children are being pulled from the Thames, and Bond is about...

Anna and Austen MacDonald, an Irish couple, are preparing to enjoy their retirement to the full. But the demands of family cause problems they have never foreseen and shake their marriage to the core. Sally-Ann Connolly Cooper, a feisty Texan mother of two young teenagers, is reeling from her husband's infidelity. La Joya becomes a place of solac...

The picture house by the sea is the Palace at Polwhipple - a lovely art deco cinema, nestled in front of azure Cornish seas. But it is long past its heyday now, and its only saving grace is Ferrelli's, the family run ice-cream concession in the foyer, which is widely known as the best ice-cream for miles. So when Ferdie, the owner of Ferelli's, bre...

In the early nineteenth century, a windswept beach along the English coast brims with fossils for those with the eye... From the moment she's struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is different. Her discovery of strange fossilized creatures in the cliffs of Lyme Regis sets the world alight. Mary must face powerful prejudice from a m...

When Edgar plans to acquire his family's ancient estate from the corrupt lord keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, he is met with the complexities of the legal and political situations following the 1707 Act of Union. To complicate matters further, Edgar is falling in love with his enemy's beautiful daughter Lucy.First published in 1819, this endu...

On a road trip through Africa, two English people-Bobby, a civil servant with a guilty appetite for African boys; and Linda, a supercilious "compound wife"-are driving back to their enclave after a stay in the capital. But in between lies the landscape of an unnamed country whose squalor and ethnic bloodletting suggest Idi Amin's Uganda. And the fa...

Set in England during Richard I's reign, Sir Walter Scott's fanciful, vivid reinterpretation of medieval life is a successful blend of fact, myth, and romance. Wilfred of Ivanhoe earns his father's disapproval by falling in love with Rowena, his father's ward. Then he serves with Richard I during the Crusades, while the King's brother attempts to t...

Eimear McBride's award-winning debut is an unforgettable novel from a major new literary talent. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. It is a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerab...

The oldest long poem in Old English, written about 1000 A.D., Beowulf tells the story of a great warrior in Southern Scandinavia in both youth and maturity. The monster Grendel terrorises the Scyldings of Hrothgar's Danish Kingdom until Beowulf defeats him. As a result he has to face her enraged mother. Beowulf dies after a battle against a fierce...

When the naive David Balfour sets out on his quest for a long-lost relative, a terrifying chain of events is set in motion. He is plunged into a world of infamy and violence from which there seems no escape, until, that is, he meets the enigmatic and valiant Highlander, Alan Breck...Kidnapped is a captivating novel set around Scottish events of the...

Those who only know Charles Dickens from his novels will be fascinated to discover the private and personal Dickens in this selection of his letters. His sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth thought they expressed his individuality; his friend Forster thought them literature. They give us a portrait of a complex man with so many different facets to his p...

Quentin and Lottie Bredin can't afford to divorce, so must downsize and move their three children from London to Devon. Arrogant, adulterous Quentin can't understand Lottie's anger; while Lottie feels intolerably wounded. Why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beautiful landscape conceals a dark si...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, read by Kimberly Farr. An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss from the No. 1 New York Times bestselling and Man Booker long-listed author of My Name is Lucy Barton Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness,...

Can you define your life by a single song? Adam Sharp - former pianist in a hip Melbourne bar, now a respectable IT consultant in Norwich - can. And it's 'You're Going to Lose that Girl' . . . On the cusp of fifty and a happy introvert, Adam is content. He's the music expert at his local pub-quiz and he and his partner Claire rumble along. Life may...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Bible According to Spike Milligan, written and read by Spike Milligan. The Old Testament: but more mad, more merry, more... Milligan! "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light, but Eastern Electricity Board said He would have to wait until Thursday to be connected....

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Chasing the Dead by Tim Weaver, read by Joe Coen and Lee Ingleby. One year ago, Alex Towne's body was found. One month ago, his mother saw him on the street. One week ago, David Raker agreed to look for him. Now he wishes he hadn't. Mary Towne's son, Alex, went missing six years ago. Five years later he fin...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Close to Home by Cara Hunter, read by Emma Cunniffe and Lee Ingleby. HOW CAN A CHILD VANISH WITHOUT A TRACE? Last night, 8-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a summer party at her home. No one at the party noticed her leave. Even her parents aren't sure of the last time they saw her. DI Adam Fawley is tr...