John Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps while he was seriously ill at the beginning of the First World War. In it he introduces his most famous hero Richard Hannay who despite claiming to be an 'ordinary fellow' is caught up in the dramatic race against a plot to devastate the British war effort. Hannay is hunted across the Scottish moors by police & spy-ring alike & must outwit his intelligent & pitiless enemy in the corridors of Whitehall & finally at the site of the mysterious thirty-nine steps. The best-known of Buchan's thrillers The Thirty-Nine Steps has been continuously in print since first publication & has been filmed three times most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. In this the only critical edition Christopher Harvie's introduction interweaves the writing of the tale with the equally fascinating story of how John Buchan publisher & lawyer came in from the cold & via The Thirty-Nine Steps ended the war as spy-master & propaganda chief. 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. ...

Ever wondered what happened to your first love? Imagine bumping into them twelve years later & realizing you still fancy them rotten. Thats exactly what happens to Dig Ryan when he sees Delilah again. Now imagine youre Nadine. You & Dig have been best friends for fifteen years. & youve finally realized that youre in love with him. So when Delilah who always was your nemesis returns youre mad with jealousy & cant help behaving childishly. Like phoning your first love Phil just to get your own back Thirty-Nothing is a story of ex-boyfriends ex-girlfriends & friends dabbling with yesterday when they really should be thinking about today. ...

For fourteen years he has kept the demons at bay. The former SAS sergeant from Ulster has renounced the gun. With help from the bottle & a village girl he devotes his life to others in war-torn Mozambique. But as the terror spreads he must fight again. Plunged into the savage cauldron of Africas killing fields he confronts two very different but equally implacable enemies. ...

It could happen to any family... What if it happened to yours? When the Bergamots move to the city they're unsure how well they'll adapt. Soon though Richard is consumed by his new job & Liz who has given up her career is hectically playing mother to six-year-old Coco & fifteen-year-old Jake. But the day Jake unthinkingly forwards a sexually explicit email attachment sent to him by a thirteen-year-old girl is the last day of the Bergamots' comfortable middle-class existence. Within hours the video clip is not only all over Jake's school but all over the city
- & all over the internet. Faced with impossible choices what Richard & Liz do next risks destroying not only their marriage their daughter & their place in the community but also Jake
- the child they have set out to protect.

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DI Thomas Lynley is still on compassionate leave after the murder of his wife. The discovery of a body in a Stoke Newington cemetery offers Isabelle Ardery his temporary replacement at the Met the chance to make her mark with a high profile murder investigation. Persuading Lynley back to work seems the best way to guarantee a result: Lynley's team is fiercely loyal to him & Isabelle needs them
- & especially Barbara Havers
- on side. The Met is twitchy: a series of PR disasters has undermined its confidence. Isabelle knows that she'll be operating under the unforgiving scrutiny of the media so is quick
- perhaps too quick
- to pin the murder on a convenient suspect. The murder trail leads Lynley & Havers to the New Forest & the eventual resolution of the case. Its roots are in a long-ago act of violence that has poisoned subsequent generations & its outcome is both tragic & shocking.



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Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not in respect of the poverty which was shared with many of those living in the slums of post-war Britain but in its transition from two-parent family to single mother & then to no parents at all... This is essentially the story of two incredible women: Alan's mother Lily who battled against poor health poverty domestic violence & loneliness to try to ensure a better life for her children; & his sister Linda who had to assume an enormous amount of responsibility at a very young age & who fought to keep the family together & out of care when she herself was still only a child. Played out against the background of a vanishing community living in condemned housing the story moves from post-war austerity in pre-gentrified Notting Hill through the race riots school on the Kings Road Chelsea in the Swinging 60s to the rock-&-roll years making a record in Denmark Street & becoming a husband & father whilst still in his teens. This Boy is one man's story but it is also a story of England & the West London slums which are so hard to imagine in the capital today. No matter how harsh the details Alan Johnson writes with a spirit of generous acceptance of humour & openness which makes his book anything but a grim catalogue of miseries. ...

The first life of the man who was Lord Peter Wimsey Bertie Wooster & starred in Im Alright Jack! With the death of Ian Carmichael in 2010 one of the last links was lost with the golden age of British cinema. Carmichael starred alongside Terry-Thomas & Peter Sellers in the Boulting brothers classic satirical comedies Im Alright Jack! Privates Progress & School for Scoundrels. He summed up on screen & in life the kind of Englishman who was beginning to emerge after the war
- educated not necessarily upper class upwardly mobile & a study in good manners & a sense of fair play
- & thus played the straight-man foil to the distracted ravings of his wilder co-stars. Subsequently he became Bertie Wooster in a highly successful television series based on P.G. Wodehouses Jeeves stories. He also made the part of Lord Peter Wimsey his own in another long-running adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers famous detective novels & was still acting on television well into his eighties alongside Susan Hampshire in ITVs drama series The Royal.

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Sophie & Mandy Anna & Laura
- two daughters & two mothers & a story about the bond of motherly love. Sophie is a happy 18-year-old
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Sinead Moriarty's breathtaking eighth novel This Child of Mine" is the story of two daughters two mothers & the extraordinary bond of motherly love. It's a unique blend of the storytelling genius of Jodi Picoult & the compassion & humour of Marian Keyes in a complex & deeply involving story that will have readers arguing about the nature of motherhood & the rights & wrongs of the characters' actions. Sophie is a happy 18-year-old living in London with Anna her Irish mother. Anna has devoted her life to Sophie. It may be just the two of them but Anna has more than enough love to give. Sophie has everything she could ever need. Laura is a not-so-happy artist. She too has a daughter Mandy. But Laura is haunted by the loss of her first child Jody. Happy-go-lucky as she is Mandy lives in Jody's shadow & wonders why her mother can never let go. Both mothers carry secrets & cannot forget the day their paths crossed. But a chance discovery is about to bring everything into the open & mothers & daughters love & lies past & future will spectacularly collide. Sinead Moriarty's novels have sold over half a million copies in Ireland & the UK & she is a four times nominee for the popular fiction Irish Book Award. She has won over readers & critics telling stories that are funny humane moving & relevant to modern women. " This Child of Mine" is Sinead at her very best. Sinead Moriarty lives with her family in Dublin. Her previous titles are: " The Baby Trail"; "A Perfect Match"; " From Here to Maternity"; " In My Sister's Shoes"; " Keeping It In the Family" (also titled " Whose Life is it Anyway?"); " Pieces of My Heart" & " Me & My Sisters"." ...

Max & Vicky Hardcastle recent newcomers to the beautiful village of Ramsthwaite are now quite settled into their tumble-down old farm. But their rural life doesnt always run smoothly for whether Max is plotting to get the better of rival antiques dealers battling Elspeth the obstinate goat or restoring the burnished nether-regions of a Greek statue every day seems to bring new excitement & intrigue. Meanwhile fellow villager Canary Mary finds romance Long John gets a scorching surprise & local poacher Rabbit Joe devises a wily scheme to make a few bob on the races. & somehow Max ends up right in the middle of every incident! ...