THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN returns to the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books & the Sempere & Sons bookshop It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957 one year after Daniel & Bea from THE SHADOW OF THE WIND have married They now have a son Julian & are living with Daniel's father at Sempere & Sons Fermin still works with them & is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year However something appears to be bothering him Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet a beautiful & unique illustrated edition of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books he wants to buy this expensive edition Then to Daniel's surprise the man inscribes the book with the words ' To Fermin Romero de Torres who came back from the dead & who holds the key to the future' This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment betrayal & the return of a deadly rival ...

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the War & is virtually lost to the modern reader This new collection is an important work of recovery introducing little-known magazine short fiction
- which was primarily written for a civilian readership
- by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors These stories offer an unparalleled insight into everyday concerns on the home front & illustrate the humour that kept up morale as well as the impact of war on families & friends at home Together they present the most well-rounded fictional portrait of the First World War available in print today

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Hello blog! It's the start of another term & there are three things that SUCK about my life 1 I am STILL sharing a bedroom with my step-brother Gav (AKA Shrek's stinkier twin) 2 My mum is 6 months pregnant & therefore cabbage-kickingly MENTAL 3 I'm about to have a high speed rail line (ie brace) installed in my gob! The only non-sucky thing is that I've got a GIRLFRIEND! A real one! Who actually wants to SNOG me!!! The problem is her dad officially HATES MY GUTS & is determined to make my life a LIVING HELL Oh & this smarmy loser called Seb is trying to steal her off me with his rubbish DJ skills There's just one thing for it
- me & my best mates Harry & Ad are going to have to enter the same DJ competition as Seb & WIN! What could POSSIBLY go wrong? The hilarious sequel to The Private Blog of Joe Cowley
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The brilliantly funny & cringe-worthy secret blog of 14-year-old Joe Cowley (wannabe comic artist & self-confessed repeller of girls) Sunday 1st January So here's the thing I've decided to start writing a blog A private one The idea is that it'll help me sort my life out because quite frankly it can't get much worse I gained the nickname Puke Skywalker after vomiting over Louise Bentley on the waltzer I am subjected to daily wedgies by my arch-enemy Gav James My so-called best mates are trying to get me killed in a bid to win GBP250 on You've Been Framed This cannot go on I have to do something or I'll end up like Mad Morris down the park who thinks he's Jesus By the end of next term I'm going to be a completely different person At least that's the theory ...

Too old for wimpy kid? Meet Joe Cowley! Blog! You have NO IDEA how happy I am right now I'm smiling so much I look like The Joker in a wind tunnel GET A LOAD OF THIS
- Harry Ad Greeny & me are living in our own flat right in the heart of the city I know amazing! We're city-slicking hard-hustling good-timing not-even-missing-our-mummies-one-little-bit city boys
- The Sound Experience are about to sign a major recording contract & as their manager I intend to shake the music industry to its core with my unconventional approach
- & I'm dating a cool older girl who is totally into my sophisticated city-boy charm Big things are happening! The Tammerstone Massive are keeping it real & living it large Fame fortune & fast cars await it definitely won't end in failure fiasco or fighting The fourth book about the unstoppable unfathomable & unbelievable Joe Cowley in a series being hailed as Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets The Inbetweeners Perfect for anyone who loves to laugh at others misfortune on You Tube or Instagram & packed with masses of illustrations & doodles by top illustrator Mike Lowery


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Skulduggery power struggles & politics The Private Lives of the Saints offers an original & fascinating re-examination of life in Anglo-Saxon England Taking them from their heavenly status to the human level Oxford art historian & BBC presenter Dr Janina Ramirez explores the real lives of over a dozen seminal saints This landmark book provides a unique & captivating lens through which to explore the rich history of the Dark Ages ...

' Borman approaches her topic with huge enthusiasm & a keen eye for entertainingthis is a very human story of a remarkable family full of vignettes that sit long in the mind' Dan Jones The Sunday Times' Tracy Borman's eye for detail is impressive; the book is packed with fascinating courtly minutiae this is a wonderful book' The Times' Borman is an authoritative & engaging writer good at prising out those humanising details that make the past alive to us' The Observer' Fascinating detailed account of the everyday reality of the royals This is a book of rich scholarship' Daily Mail' Tracy Borman's passion for the Tudor period shines forth from the pages of this fascinatingly detailed book which vividly illuminates what went on behind the scenes at the Tudor court' Alison Weir'I do not live in a corner A thousand eyes see all I do' Elizabeth IThe Tudor monarchs were constantly surrounded by an army of attendants courtiers & ministers Even in their most private moments they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task A groom of the stool would stand patiently by as Henry VIII performed his daily purges & when Elizabeth I retired for the evening one of her female servants would sleep at the end of her bed These attendants knew the truth behind the glamorous exterior They saw the tears shed by Henry VII upon the death of his son Arthur They knew the tragic secret behind ' Bloody' Mary's phantom pregnancies & they saw the 'crooked carcass' beneath Elizabeth I's carefully applied makeup gowns & accessories It is the accounts of these eyewitnesses as well as a rich array of other contemporary sources that historian Tracy Borman has examined more closely than ever before With new insights & discoveries & in the same way that she brilliantly illuminated the real Thomas Cromwell
- The Private Life of the Tudors will reveal previously unexamined details about the characters we think we know so well
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With an Introduction & Notes by David Blair University of Kent at Canterbury James Hogg's most ambitious prose work The Private Memoirs & Confessions of a Justified Sinner is now widely acclaimed as his masterpiece In the early years of the 18th century Scotland is torn by religious & political strife Hogg's sinner justified by his Calvinist conviction that his own salvation is pre-ordained is suspected of involvement in a series of bizarre & hideous crimes A century later his memoirs reveal the extraordinary macabre truth The tale is chilling for its astute psychological accuracy as it illustrates with power & economy the dire effect of self-righteous bigotry on a fanatical character In the first half of his new introduction David Blair provides a detailed explanation of the historical & religious contexts of Hogg's novel In the second half he probes the book's brilliant complex engagement with issues of identity history & narrative itself ...

James Hogg's The Private Memoirs & Confessions of a Justified Sinner is a Scottish classic a quintessentially Gothic tale of psychological horror & a relentless attack on Calvinist dogma The Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction & notes by Karl Miller Robert Wringham's family is composed of a dissolute father & brother a pious mother & a rival father in the person of a fanatical Calvinist minister He comes to believe that he is one of the elect predestined to be saved while others are damned Sure of his freedom from the dictates of morality he embarks on a series of crimes in the company of a new friend Gil-Martin a man of many likenesses who can be mistaken for Robert & who explains that they are as one in the holy work of purifying the world But who is Gil-Martin? & what does he truly desire? The Gothic double or doppelganger is nowhere more powerfully imagined than in Confessions of a Justified Sinner once called 'the greatest novel of Scotland' This new edition has an introduction by Karl Miller which discusses the presence of the novel in the life & times of James Hogg It also contains two of Hogg's most interesting stories ' Marion's Jock' & ' John Gray o' Middleholm' James Hogg (1770-1835) born in Ettrick in the Scottish Borders A shepherd for many years Hogg was writing poems by the 1790s aiding Walter Scott with material for his collection of ballads The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border In 1810 he moved to Edinburgh where he published several volumes of verse & worked on the Spy & Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Confessions of a Justified Sinner was published anonymously in 1824 & is now generally seen as his masterpiece If you enjoyed Confessions of a Justified Sinner you might like Matthew Lewis's The Monk also available in Penguin Classics'A Scottish classic a world classic' Ian Rankin'A sinister funny moving tale of demonic possession murder & religious fanaticism' Sunday Telegraph ...

' We have heard much of the rage of fanaticism in former days but nothing to this' A wretched young man 'an outcast in the world' tells the story of his upbringing by a heretical Calvinist minister who leads him to believe that he is one of the elect predestined for salvation & thus above the moral law Falling under the spell of a mysterious stranger who bears an uncanny likeness to himself he embarks on a career as a serial murderer Robert Wringhim's Memoirs are presented by an editor whose attempts to explain the story only succeed in intensifying its more baffling & bizarre aspects Is Wringhim the victim of a psychotic delusion or has he been tempted by the devil to wage war against God's enemies? Hogg's sardonic & terrifying novel too perverse for nineteenth-century taste is now recognized as one of the masterpieces of Romantic fiction The first edition text of 1824 has been freshly considered for this new edition A critical introduction explores the remarkable career of the novel's author & its historical theological & cultural contexts ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more ...