12 FICTION & ROMANCE


There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth. - Doris Lessing


77228 AND THE


MOUNTAINS ECHOED by Khaled Hosseini


You may recognise the name of the author as being the creator of the bewitching ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. His new novel is set in Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live in the small village of Shadbagh. To Abdullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named, is


everything. More like a parent than a brother, he will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their heads touching, their limbs tangled. One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. They have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart - sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand. Crossing generations and continents and moving from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, Hosseini writes about the bonds that define and shape our lives and the choices we make which resonate through history. A suspenseful epic. 404pp in large softback. £12.99 NOW £5


76787 IN A LAND OF


PLENTY by Tim Pears In a small town in the middle of England, the aftermath of World War Two brings change. For ambitious industrialist Charles Freeman it offers new opportunities and marriage to Mary. He buys a big house on the hill and nails his aspirations to the future. In quick succession three sons and a daughter bring life to the big house,


and with it the seeds of family joy and tragedy. Charles’ business expands in direct proportion to his girth and becomes a symbol of the town’s fortunes as Britain claws its way back from wartime austerity. Times change and so do the family’s fortunes. Their stories create a generous epic, a plangent hymn to the transformation of middle England over the past 50 years. At the heart is a diverse and persuasive cast of loveable and odious characters. Brave, warm and wise, nostalgic in tone, this is the story of our lives. 673pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3


76977 GRANTCHESTER GRIND: A Porterhouse


Chronicle by Tom Sharpe The formidable Skullion, previously Head Porter, now elevated to Master, is showing signs of physical frailty after his stroke. Meanwhile the College’s monstrous debts refuse to go away, and a sinister American media mogul seems determined to make a television documentary on the premises, destroying part of the chapel in the


process. Moreover, the widow of the previous Master is convinced that her husband was murdered. Subtle traditional Cambridge skills of blackmail and kidnap mix with reaching for the bottle. Wry humour. 490pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3.50


76978 THE MIDDEN by Tom Sharpe


By the bestselling author of ‘Porterhouse Blue’, ‘Blott on the Landscape’ and ‘Wilt’, Tom Sharpe is one of our best contemporary comic writers. We are delighted to have these splendid reprints of the 1996 bestseller. Timothy Brights doesn’t exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he cannot understand why he has


been cut off, nor why friends recruited as Lloyds’ Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it’s some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable’s wife. The Chief has just survived charges of bribery and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. Things go seriously wrong with the arrival of the upright Miss Midden. Spectacular mayhem. 344pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3.50


76868 FARO’S DAUGHTER by Georgette Heyer Renowned gamester Max Ravenscar regards all eligible females with indifference, but when he meets the woman his cousin is bent on marrying, the beautiful Deborah Grantham, mistress of her aunt’s gaming house, he finds that none of his experiences in risk and gambling has prepared him for such a worthy opponent. A stylish, romantic, sharp and witty historical


novel with wonderful characters, and elegant writing, perfect period detail and rapturously romantic. 259pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3.50


TEL 020 74 74 24 74 FREE P&P on orders Over £30 20-27th March ORDER HOTLINE: 020 74 74 24 74


76960 LORD ROBERT by Jean Plaidy


In the grim recesses of the Tower of London, two captives begin a passionate love affair that will last years, but is destined to destroy them - one is Robert Dudley, the other is the future Queen of England, Elizabeth I. Pardoned by Queen Mary, Dudley and Elizabeth are freed, but their mutual longing must be from a distance - Dudley is


married, and as the next heir to the throne, Elizabeth must tread carefully. A skilful blend of superb storytelling and meticulous attention to historical accuracy. 390pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50


76974 KATHARINE THE VIRGIN WIDOW by Jean Plaidy


Written by one of the most popular and spectacularly successful historical novelists of the 1960s, this 1961 original is here in smart new paperback edition. The young Spanish widow Katherine of Aragon has become the pawn between two powerful monarchies. After less than a year as the wife of the frail Prince Arthur, the question of


whether the marriage was ever consummated will decide both her fate and England’s. But whilst England and Spain dispute her dowry, in the wings awaits her unexpected escape from poverty - Henry, Arthur’s younger, more handsome brother, the future King of England. He alone has the power to restore her position, but at what sacrifice? Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama. 312pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50


76812 SOUTH RIDING by Winifred Holtby The community of South Riding lived in the long shadow of the First World War. Forward thinking, ambitious and determined to live life to the full, Sarah Burton is a woman of the time. Her fiancé dead, she returns to South Riding as the Head Mistress of the local school. Robert Carne stands firmly against Sarah’s modern idylls, and in Sarah’s eyes he represents everything she


detests. But he is also a man tormented by the past, and despite herself, Sarah finds she is drawn to him. The book was made into a major BBC drama and has been described by Sarah Waters as ‘a 20th century classic.’ A BBC paperback, 529pp. £7.99 NOW £3


76865 CONFUSIONS OF


YOUNG MASTER TORLESS by Robert Musil


Robert Musil’s first novel is a fresco of psychoanalysis, philosophy, eroticism, snobbery, sado- masochism and schoolboy humour, a hot house of alternatively repressed and unchained desires that prefigures the carnage of both World Wars. As the 19th century draws to an end, Young Törless is sent to a military boarding school for the sons


of the nobility on the eastern outreaches of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. Far from his comfortable free- thinking bourgeois home and left to his own devices, he experiences the pains and joys and self doubts of adolescence. Confronted with desire and love and also his own cruelty, he finds himself participating in his fellow pupils’ bullying campaigns. A first-class translation of the 1906 original. 185pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


76961 SIGNATURE OF ALL


THINGS by Elizabeth Gilbert From the moment Alma Whittaker steps into the world, everything about life intrigues her. Instilled with an unquenchable sense of wonder by her father, a botanical explorer and the richest man in the New World, Alma is raised in a house of luxury and curiosity. It is not long before she becomes a gifted botanist in her own right, but as she flourishes and her research


takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she comes to love draws her in the opposite direction - into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical. The novel soars across the globe of 19th century London and Peru to Philadelphia, Tahiti and beyond. 582pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50


76888 WRECKERS MUST BREATHE


by Hammond Innes The Gestapo, the U-Boat Base, action, surprise and adventure, here are all the quintessential Innes trademarks. The spectre of another world war haunts journalist Walter Craig and disturbs the peace of his seaside holiday. Below the Cornish cliffs the enemy is very real indeed and much closer than anyone could


suspect. Craig and his singularly resourceful fisherman friend discover the terrible truth - a potentially devastating threat to Britain’s merchant ships. Alone they must risk their lives against the might of the German Navy. First published in 1940, part one is entitled ‘The Disappearance of Walter Craig’ and part two ‘The Disappearance of Maureen Weston’. Part three is entitled ‘The Wheal Garth Closes Down’. A classic wartime adventure. 211pp in paperback, line art. £8.99 NOW £4


76875 MAKING OF HENRY by Howard Jacobson


A powerful and passionate novel by the winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize. One day, out of the blue, Henry Nagel inherits a sumptuous apartment in St. John’s Wood. Divine intervention? Or his late father’s love nest? Henry doesn’t know, but he is glad to escape the North. After nearly 60 years of angry disappointment, his life is


about to change. The ghosts of his past disappear - his old school friend and rival Osmond ‘Hovis’ Belkin, currently enjoying success in Hollywood; his tragic great- aunt Marghanita for whom Henry once entertained a dangerous passion; and his father Izzi, upholsterer turned illusionist, fire-eater and origamist, whose shade Henry interrogates relentlessly. In the present, Henry’s dyspeptic neighbour Lachlan wants his sympathy and his sloppy red setter Angus wants a walk. Moira, the waitress with the crooked smile and custard hair seems to want him. Henry realises he might finally be falling in love. Stuffed with brilliant hilarity. 340pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


77173 NATHANIEL


DRINKWATER OMNIBUS by Richard Woodman No one else captures the Jolly Tar atmosphere and Britannia Rules the Waves quite like Richard Woodman and many readers have followed Drinkwater’s adventures since he was a midshipman. The three stories in the collection are An Eye of the Fleet with dramatic maritime action off the coast of Spain in the


famous Moonlight Battle and the capture of the Santa Teresa, A King’s Cutter, a clandestine operation off the coast of France aboard the twelve-gun cutter Kestrel and A Brig of War. At the request of Nelson himself, Drinkwater is dispatched to the Red Sea on an urgent mission, soon on the flank of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. 627 page paperback. £9.99 NOW £5


76975 THE READING ROOM by Ruth Hamilton


Leanne Chalmers has made a career for herself presenting her own style of home decorating and design on the nation’s screens. But now Leanne has been forced to start again as Lily, leaving her name, job and marriage behind. No one in the Lancashire village of Eagleton has a clue about her save that she’s come up from the South West with her best friend and a small child. But


it’s hard to lead a solitary existence in a small place and Lily and Babs are swiftly embraced by some of the local characters - Mike, the Catholic priest whom the girls can’t help noticing is easy on the eye; Eve, a Liverpudlian who has a big mouth but a heart of gold; the hairdressers Paul and Maurice and Dave and his love, Philly, both shy yet determined not to be cowed by Dave’s mother, the domineering matriarch of the village. Lily joins Dave’s Reading Room, a shop-cum- café and library and there begins to relax. But then Eve is wounded in a burglary and suddenly Lily is afraid that her secret is out and that her husband Clive may have discovered where she is. Having left her for dead before, he is now out to kill her. 392pp in paperback. £5.99 NOW £3


77190 UNFAITHFULLY


YOURS by Nigel Williams A suburban black comedy by the bestselling author of the Wimbledon Trilogy and screenplay writer for the award-winning Elizabeth I starring Helen Mirren. When Elizabeth Price engages private detective Roland ‘Orlando’ Gibbons to find out the truth about her husband’s suspected affair, she unwittingly sets off a chain of


correspondence that reunites four formerly close-knit couples. In a series of revealing letters from love notes to condolence messages, bonds are tested and secrets unearthed against a backdrop of suburban intrigue and late-flowering lust (and love). As with all good comedy, this tale is underlain by a vein of sadness and regret, of belated self-knowledge and understanding. A cruel, clever, hilarious and stylish novel. 323pp, paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


77231 SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR: A Novel of Richard III


by Sharon Penman


First published in the USA in 1982, this blockbuster Macmillan paperback reprint runs to 1240 pages in fairly large, easy-read print. It is the magnificent, classic bestselling novel telling the story of Richard III. The last-born son of the Duke of York, Richard was


seven months short of his 19 birthday when he bloodied himself at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, earning his reputation as a battle commander and ending the Lancastrian line of succession. But Richard was far more than a warrior schooled in combat. He was also a devoted brother, an ardent suitor, a patron of the arts, an indulgent father and a generous friend. Above all he was a man of fierce loyalties and firm principles, who was ill at ease among the intrigues of Edward’s court. But he was betrayed by history, leaving no heir, his reputation was at the mercy of his successor, and Henry Tudor had too much at stake to risk mercy. Thus was born the myth of the man who would stop at nothing to gain the throne. Filled with the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and love of daily life, the rigours and dangers of Court politics and the touching concerns of very real men and women. Blockbuster paperback. £13.99 NOW £5


56203 BULLDOG DRUMMOND by Sapper Bulldog Drummond was the original daredevil adventurer and could easily have been the father of James Bond. In the first four novels of the series, ‘Bulldog Drummond’, ‘The Black Gang’, ‘The Third Round’, ‘The Final Count’, all of which are contained within this volume, Hugh Drummond finds himself pitting his wits again Carl Peterson, a criminal genius with an insatiable passion for power and world domination. His chameleon appearances are one of the joys of these thrilling tales. 768pp. Paperback. ONLY £3


66180 COMPLETE RICHARD HANNAY STORIES by John Buchan


Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer. In Greenmantle, he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast, set in the decisive months of 1917-18, is the novel in which Hannay finally falls in love. In The Three Hostages, he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wife’s help. In the last adventure, The Island of Sheep, he is called upon to honour an old oath. 992 paperback pages. Great value. ONLY £2


72138 CAPTIVE QUEEN by Alison Weir Subtitled ‘A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine’, this Tudor thriller is set in the year 1152. A beautiful woman of 30 is riding like the wind southwards through what is now France, leaving behind her crown, her two young daughters and a shattered marriage to King Louis. This woman is Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, and her sole purpose is to return to her vast duchy and marry the man she loves, Henry Plantagenet, a man destined for greatness as King of England. Theirs is a union founded on lust, which will create a great empire stretching from the wilds of Scotland to the Pyrenees. It will also lead to unparalleled conflicts. Softback, 487pp. £12.99 NOW £4


74579 LADY OF THE RIVERS by Philippa Gregory


!


The story of Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, a woman who navigated a treacherous path through the battle lines in the Wars of the Roses. When she is left a wealthy young widow, Jacquetta returns to England and achieves a place at the very heart of the Lancaster court, though she can sense the danger of their royal York rivals. As she fights for her king and queen, Jacquetta can see an extraordinary and unexpected future for her daughter Elizabeth - a change of fortune, the throne of England, and the White Rose of York. 443pp, paperback. $16 NOW £4


74583 AN IRISH COUNTRY WEDDING by Patrick Taylor


Love is in the air in the colourful Ulster village of Ballybucklebo where Dr Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly has finally proposed to the darling of his youth, Kitty O’Hallorhan. There’s a wedding to be planned, but before O’Reilly can make it to the altar, he and his young colleague Barry Laverty, MB, must deal with the usual round of eccentric patients. It can also mean clearing the name of a cat accused of preying on a neighbour’s prize racing pigeons, and encouraging a bright young working class girl who dreams of some day becoming a doctor herself. 428pp. $24.99 NOW £3.50


74584 PRAY FOR US SINNERS by Patrick Taylor


In Belfast in 1973 the Troubles are raging. Two Ulstermen, two sides - on one, British Army bomb- disposal officer Marcus Richardson. On the other, Davy MacCutcheon, Provisional IRA armourer who has been constructing bombs since his teens. When Marcus is nearly killed by an exploding car bomb, he welcomes the offer of a transfer to the élite SAS, provided that first he accepts an undercover mission to infiltrate the Falls Road ghetto, join the Provisional IRA, identify their upper echelon, and expose their bomb maker. When Davy’s devices are used by the Provos who have switched from military targets to civilian disruption, the bomb maker begins to question what he is doing. One horrific death haunts his nightmares. He must go on one last mission - a critical attack on a high-ranking British politician. Both men are left in an abandoned farmhouse. 332pp. $24.99 NOW £3


74596 DOMINION by C. J. Sansom London 1952 and the Great Smog is choking the city. 12 years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. The British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule. Churchill’s Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government’s side, and in a Birmingham mental hospital, an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever. Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, must rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the Great Smog. Hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannführer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men. 717pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


74688 BEETHOVEN CONFIDENTIAL and


BRAHMS GETS LAID by Ken Russell These new novel-biographies are based on the known facts of the great musicians Beethoven (1770-1827) and Brahms (1833-1937). The gestation for the first novel Beethoven Confidential included a film script in which Anthony Hopkins was to play the deaf composer. Now the mystery of the identity of Beethoven’s secret love, the ‘Immortal Beloved’ is at long last revealed. Brahms was renowned for beer, beard and belly. The doughty bachelor enjoyed a quiet beer and walks in the Black Forest but was no shrinking violet. He was full of white-hot passion and sensuality and had a complex emotional relationship with Clara, wife of Robert Schumann. Hold on to your hats for the sex romp! 190pp in paperback. £12.95 NOW £3.50


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