A world on the brink of catastrophe.A two thousand year old mystery. A lost gospel. Seeking adventure, a young man flees the drudgery of shopkeeping in Tsarist Russia to make a new life among the bohemians & revolutionaries of 19th century Paris. Travelling undercover in the mountains of British India, he discovers a manuscript that transforms the world`s understanding of the historical Jesus. Decades later, in a Europe threatened by unimaginable tragedy, he makes a despairing attempt to right a historic injustice. This breathtaking novel by the award-winning author of Far North & Strange Bodies tells the extraordinary tale of Nicolas Notovitch & his secret gospel. It is the epic story of a young man on the make in a turbulent world of spies & double-cross, propaganda & revolutionary violence, lost love & nascent anti-semitism -a world which eerily foreshadows our own era of post-truth politics. Based on real events, The Secret Books is at once a page-turning adventure & an examination of the stories that humans are willing to kill & die for. ...

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 is the first book in Sue Townsend`s brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Friday January 2nd I felt rotten today. It`s my mother`s fault for singing ` My Way` at two o`clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children`s home. Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-&-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents` marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet & `misunderstood intellectual`, Adrian`s painfully honest diary is still hilarious & compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared. Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain`s favourite comic writer for over three decades. ”I not only wept, I howled & hooted & had to get up & walk around the room & wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading”. (Tom Sharpe). ”A satire of our times. Very funny indeed”. (Sunday Times). ” We laugh both at Mole & with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful”. (Heat). Sue Townsend is Britain`s favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55 ), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen & I, Queen Camilla & The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born & grew up. ...

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 is the first book in Sue Townsend`s brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Friday January 2nd I felt rotten today. It`s my mother`s fault for singing ` My Way` at two o`clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children`s home. Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-&-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents` marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet & `misunderstood intellectual`, Adrian`s painfully honest diary is still hilarious & compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared. Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain`s favourite comic writer for over three decades.`I not only wept, I howled & hooted & had to get up & walk around the room & wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading` Tom Sharpe`A satire of our times. Very funny indeed` Sunday Times ` We laugh both at Mole & with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful` Heat Sue Townsend is Britain`s favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 553/4), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen & I, Queen Camilla & The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born & grew up. ...

` Another year & I still don`t like old people. Me? I am 83 years old.` Hendrik Groen may be old, but he is far from dead & isn`t planning to be buried any time soon. Granted, his daily strolls are getting shorter because his legs are no longer willing & he had to visit his doctor more than he`d like. Technically speaking he is.. .elderly. But surely there is more to life at his age than weak tea & potted geraniums? Hendrik sets out to write an expose: a year in the life of his care home in Amsterdam, revealing all its ups & downs
- not least his new endeavour the anarchic Old-But-Not Dead Club. And when Eefje moves in
- the woman Hendrik has always longed for
- he polishes his shoes (and his teeth), grooms what`s left of his hair & attempts to make something of the life he has left, with hilarious, tender & devastating consequences. The indomitable Hendrik Groen
- Holland`s unlikeliest hero
- has become a cultural phenomenon in his native Netherlands & now he & his famously anonymous creator are conquering the globe. A major Dutch bestseller, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen will not only delight older readers with its wit & relevance, but will charm & inspire those who have years to go before their own expiry date. There are many laughs in this book but it`s so much more than just a comedy. It`s a story about how friendship, selflessness & dignity lie at the heart of the human experience.




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The hilarious international bestselling novel that has had pensioners ditching their sticks & zimmers to follow the age-defying, youth inducing antics inside The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old... ` Terrific. This geriatric Adrian Mole made me laugh` Woman & Home ` Funny & touching` BBC Radio 4 Meet Hendrik Groen. An octogenarian in a care home who has no intention of doing what he`s told, or dying quietly. To that end, he creates the Old-But-Not-Dead Club & with his fellow members sets about living his final years with careless abandon. Such anarchism infuriates the care home director but pleases Eefje, the woman who makes Hendrik`s frail heart palpitate. If it`s never too late to have fun, then can it ever be too late to meet the love of your life? ` So much more than just a comedy` John Boyne `A story with a great deal of heart` Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project ` Amusing & wickedly accurate. A handbook of resistance for our time.` Sunday Express ` Very funny` Jeremy Paxman Financial Times ...

Walker Illustrated Classics is a new series which brings together some of the best-loved stories ever told, illustrated by some of today's finest artists. These exquisitely designed books, with their magnificent words & glorious pictures, are a pleasure to read
- & re-read. The classics have never looked so good! When orphan Mary Lennox arrives from India to live with her uncle, everyone at Misselthwaite Manor thinks her a most disagreeable child. Then one day she discovers a secret garden, locked & hidden for ten years. With the help of Dickon & her spoilt, invalid cousin, Colin, Mary brings the garden back to life; & as she does, the mystery behind it is revealed. An instant classic, The Secret Garden has been cherished by generations of readers since its publication in 1911. Beautifully illustrated by Inga Moore.
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When spoiled rich girl, Mary Lennox, is orphaned, she is shipped from India to live in her uncle`s enormous manor in faraway Engl&, where all is not quite as it seems. Before long, the lonely Mary finds a key to a secret garden that has been left untouched for ten years, & a whole new world of enchantment opens up to her. For the first time she learns to make friends
- with the talented animalcharmer, Dickon, & her sickly cousin, Colin
- & between them, the three children truly flourish as the garden reveals its haunting secrets -

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” The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a magical novel for adults & children alike `I`ve stolen a garden, ` she said very fast. ” People never like me & I never like people, ” Mary thought.` After losing her parents, young Mary Lennox is sent from India to live in her uncle`s gloomy mansion Misselthwaite Manor, on the wild English moors. Everybody says she is the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It is true, too. Mary is pale, spoilt & quite contrary. But she is also horribly lonely & has no one to play with. Then one day she hears about a secret garden in the grounds of the Manor that no one is allowed to enter; it has been kept locked & hidden for years. Then Mary uncovers an old key in a flowerbed
- & a gust of magic leads her to the hidden door. & when a friendly robin helps Mary find the key, she discovers the most magical place anyone could imagine... Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Manchester. She had a very poor upbringing & used to escape from the horror of her surroundings by writing stories. In 1865 her family emigrated to the USA where she married & became the successful author of many children`s books including ” Little Lord Fauntleroy” & ”A Little Princess”.
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” The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a magical novel for adults & children alike `I`ve stolen a garden, ` she said very fast. ` It isn`t mine. It isn`t anybody`s. Nobody wants it, nobody cares for it, nobody ever goes into it. Perhaps everything is dead in it already; I don`t know.` After losing her parents, young Mary Lennox is sent from India to live in her uncle`s gloomy mansion on the wild English moors. She is lonely & has no one to play with, but one day she learns of a secret garden somewhere in the grounds that no one is allowed to enter. Then Mary uncovers an old key in a flowerbed
- & a gust of magic leads her to the hidden door. Slowly she turns the key & enters a world she could never have imagined. With a heartwarming introduction by Sophie Dahl. A behind-the-scenes jounrey, including an author profile, a guide to who`s who, activities & more.. .a much-loved classic. Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Manchester. She had a very poor upbringing & used to escape from the horror of her surroundings by writing stories. In 1865 her family emigrated to the USA where she married & became the successful author of many children`s books including ” Little Lord Fauntleroy” & ”A Little Princess”.
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On the grounds of Misselthwaite, her Uncle Archibald`s estate near the Yorkshire moors, nine-year-old Mary Lennox finds a walled-in garden that has been locked securely for years. With the help of Dickon Sowerby, a young local boy who can charm animals, Mary cultivates the garden, an experiences that both improves her health & raises her spirits. Ultimately, the secret garden proves beneficial not only to Mary, but to her sickly cousin Colin. Nurtured with love & tenderness, the secret garden proves it has the power to heal the heart. First published in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett`s The Secret Garden is a much-loved classic of children`s literature. This illustrated edition, with full-colour plates by Charles Robinson, features an elegant bonded-leather binding, a satin-ribbon bookmark, distinctive gilded edging, & decorative endpapers. Decorative, durable, & collectible, it`s a book that will be cherished by readers of all ages. ...