Despite his reputation for intricate and impressive restaurant cooking, Gary Rhodes believes that the best way to cook something is often the most simple. In his latest book, he strips out complicated
Each week in the television series Cutting the Mustard, a struggling restaurant receives the Gordon Ramsay treatment. His personality is forceful, to say the least. His reputation for explosive outbur
Rob Brydon - star of "Gavin and Stacey", Steve Coogan's partner in "The Trip", and one of Britain's favourite comedians. A multi-award-winning actor, writer, comedian and presenter known for his warmt
North Korean ICBM crashes into the Sea of Japan. A veteran CIA officer is murdered in Ho Chi Minh City, and a package of forged documents goes missing. The pieces are there, but assembling the puzzle
Armed only with conviction, curiosity, enthusiasm and a stout pair of trousers, the author hurtles around the world - along motorway, autoroute, freeway and autobahn - in search of answers to life's p
Two families become embroiled in each other's lives and long buried secrets are unravelled. This is a dark, compelling and controversial novel of one family's darkest secrets.
Hanging from a rope in the attic of a deserted tenement is the body of a criminal believed hiding out on the Costa del Sol these last ten years. His face has been hideously disfigured. Investigating o
"I employ this thing called The Shovel List." "A shovel...?" "No. A Shovel List. It's more of a conceptual thing. It's a list of all the people and things I hate so much that I want to hit them in the
Zoe, Jennifer and Nadia are three women with nothing in common. Except for the man who wants to kill them. He sends them terrifying letters, full of the intimate details of their lives - and promises
Alastair Cooke's Letter from America: 1946-2004 is a defining collection from his legendary BBC Radio broadcasts that guides us through nearly sixty years of changing life in the United States. Alista
Rudolf Rassendyll, having heroically saved the kingdom of Ruritania and nobly given up the hand of the beautiful Princess Flavia, has returned to his normal life in England. But when, three years late
The scar on Rhoda Gradwyn's face was to be the death of her... When the notorious investigative journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, books into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a
Her boyfriend said she was quirky but it was more than that. Some things were important in life. You had to fight for them. Helen was prepared for that - only she wasn't as strong as people thought. W
I'm the King of the Castle is Susan Hill's spellbinding novel of childhood cruelty. With an introduction by Esther Freud. Susan Hill's I'm King of the Castle was first published in 1970. Telling the s
This work includes Shakespeare's writing on power: in love, war, government and the family. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and
Don't Tell Alfred is the wickedly funny sequel to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. 'I believe it would have been normal for me to have paid a visit to the outgoing ambas
The Blessing by Nancy Mitford with an introduction by Alex Kapranos. It isn't just Nanny who finds it difficult in France when Grace and her young son Sigi are finally able to join her dashing aristoc
Annie's put fifteen years into safe, slightly obsessive Duncan, and now she's like her money back, please. It's time to move on. But she lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody ask
Pioneering art historian Jacob Burckhardt saw the Italian Renaissance as no less than the beginning of the modern world. In this hugely influential work he argues that the Renaissance's creativity, co
Munich, 1936. She doesn't know it, but eighteen-year old Daphne Linden has a seat in the front row of history. Along with her best friend, Betsy Barton-Hill, and a whole bevy of other young English up
Shortlisted for the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Elif Shafak's The Flea Palace is a moving and highly original novel about a group of individuals who live in the same building and who toget
A surreal work of psychological horror, Franz Kafka's The Castle is translated by J. A. Underwood with an introduction by Idris Parry in Penguin Modern Classics. The Castle is the story of K., the unw
In a moment of sudden inspiration Sarah Worth - S - has walked out on her husband to join the Ashram Arhat. Famous for his transcendent wisdom and divine immobility, the Arhat has transferred his ahra
Sensitive and book-loving Laura is born in the rural hamlet of Lark Rise, where life has followed an unchanging pattern for centuries and the days are governed by the rhythms of nature. This is the un
An academic and writer, during the Second World War John Stewart Collis was put to agricultural work. Clearing and thinning an Ash wood, he found a meditative peace and an earnest pleasure in the use
Since their first publication in 1821, de Maistre's dark writings have fascinated and appalled critics, with their relentless hatred of the Enlightenment and view of humans as murderous beasts who can
Martin Middlebrook's The First Day on the Somme is a compelling and intensely moving account of the blackest day in the history of the British army. On 1 July, 1916, a continuous line of British soldi
Argues that the ignorance and lethargy of the poor are the direct result of the whole economic, social and political domination. This book suggests that in some countries the oppressors use the system
Based on the life of a young Australian woman who defied the conventions of her time. She had a stubborn streak and the courage to act out her convictions, in spite of the consequences. This story des
Wily Wolf is back in a third hilarious story! Wolf is, once again, extremely hungry, and decides he has to go to school - it's full of tasty children, ripe and ready for eating. But the children quick
'A hymn to good architecture, an ode to authentic domestic interiors ... buy, beg, borrow or steal a copy to keep in the car. No other book (apart from his 1,000 Churches) will prompt so many joyous d
In the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his e
A tragedy of doomed love between an Egyptian queen and a ruler of Rome, William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is edited by Emrys Jones with an introduction by René Weis in Penguin Shakespeare. 'E
A history play alternating between the high drama of court life and the earthy comedy of the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap, William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I is a masterful drama of a prodigal s
Examines the life of Winston Churchill through his military service as both a soldier and warlord. This book explores Churchill's strategies in both world wars - the disastrous failures as well as the
William Shakespeare's comic encore for one of his best-loved characters - the fat and foolish rogue Falstaff from Henry IV and Henry V - The Merry Wives of Windsor is edited by G.R. Hibbard with an in
Leaving behind both home and beloved, a young man travels to Milan to meet his closest friend. Once there, however, he falls in love with his friend's new sweetheart and resolves to seduce her. Love-c
Performed variously as escapist fantasy, celebratory fiction, and political allegory, The Tempest is one of the plays in which William Shakespeare's genius as a poetic dramatist found its fullest expr
It is the seventh year of the Trojan War. The Greek army is camped outside Troy and Achilles - their military hero - refuses to fight. Inside the city Troilus, the Trojan King's son, falls in love wit
