Feeling stressed? Need some help to regain balance in your life? This book reveals the secrets for finding calm and serenity in your everyday life. It is full of wise advice to follow and thoughts to
Frances Hinton is shy and clever. By day she works in a medical library and every evening she goes back to the solitude of her London flat to write fiction. When she is adopted by Nick and his wife, s
Beginning with a wedding photograph, this story charts the loves and lives of a family and their friends, following each of them through their own struggles, triumphs and sorrows.
'I'd always lived a fairly blameless life. Up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood...'Unlike the rest of her family, Maggie Walsh has always done everything right. At thirty-three
William Verrall, the redoubtable eighteenth-century landlord of the White Hart Inn in Lewes, Sussex, trained under a continental chef and was determined to introduce the 'modern and best French cooker
In 1615 the poet and writer Gervase Markham published an extraordinary handbook for housewives, containing advice on everything from planting herbs to brewing beer, feeding animals to distilling perfu
Describing bizarrely popular Victorian street slang, the madness of crowds, stock market mania (from the South Sea Bubble to Tulip fever), popular fashions, fads, crazes, schemes and scams, this brill
The Penguin English Library Edition of Washington Square by James Hardy "Why, you must take me or leave me ... You can't please your father and me both; you must choose between us" When timid and plai
With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin - the new guest at The Coach and Horses - Is at first assumed to be a shy accident-v
The countryside is filled with beauty and wonder in these imaginative, idiosyncratic writings, but also cruelty and hardship. They describe the texture of an owl's feather, the colours of autumn and t
Francis Kilvert's diary shows a compassionate and thoughtful delight in the people and beautiful surroundings of the English countryside. With good cheer he records his loves (among them poetry and th
In these evocative and elegiac writings L. T. C. Rolt meditates on landscape, history, poetry, steam railways, vintage cars and the endless summer days of his childhood. He also recalls his many happy
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, o
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, o
Describing the silliness and 'feminine fatuity' of many popular books by lady novelists, George Eliot perfectly skewers the formulaic yet bestselling works that dominated her time, with their loveably
365 puzzles - a daily fix of Sudoku ranging from novice-level to teeth-grindingly hard.The globally successful Penguin Sudoku series has sold over 250,000 copies in the past four years.Pen ready, brai
There is the guard who delivers blows with no visible traces. The fraudster stitched up by the police for murder. The man who refuses to lie for a packet of cigarettes. The abandoned teenager, the dow
Whether extolling the merits of a cheerful breakfast tray, conjuring up a winter picnic of figs and mulled wine, sharing delicious Tuscan recipes, or suggesting a last-minute pre-theatre dinner, the s
Travelling physician, salesman, author and self-made man, Dr Chase dispensed remedies all over America during the late nineteenth century, collecting recipes and domestic tips from the people he met a
A rapturous appreciation of pork crackling, a touching description of hungry London chimney sweeps, a discussion of the strange pleasure of eating pineapple and a meditation on the delights of Christm
Colonel Wyvern, stationed with the army in Madras during the height of British imperial rule, opened a cookery school upon his return to England and was a passionate enthusiast for both European and I
Throughout the history of civilization, food has been more than simple necessity. In countless cultures, it has been livelihood, status symbol, entertainment - and passion. This title brings you the f
As well as being the most celebrated diarist of all time, Samuel Pepys was also a hearty drinker, eater and connoisseur of epicurean delights, who indulged in every pleasure seventeenth-century London
Explores the simplest of dishes in the most delicious of ways, with fresh, sustainable ingredients a must, encouraging cooks to plant their own garden. From orange and olive salad to lemon curd and gi
As well as being the author of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas was also an enthusiastic gourmand and expert cook. His Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, published in 1873, is an encyclopaedic collec
Hidden in the South American jungle, is a research facility known as MEROS. Here, scientists have developed a weapon. Meanwhile, a helicopter lands a highly trained squad of special forces soldiers de
One of the world's holiest sites hides a secret worth killing for Thomas Lourds, the world's foremost scholar of ancient languages, is contacted by an old friend, Dr Lev Strauss. A long lost ancient
Mary Mackey has endured so much loss in her twenty-nine years that people call her 'Mary of the Sorrows'. Mary has settled for a humdrum existence, a life lived apart from the crowd. That way she hope
May 1991 in the seaside town of Castlerock in Northern Ireland and the bodies of two people - police officer Trevor Buchanan and nurse Lesley Howell - are found in a car filled with carbon monoxide. T
Since childhood, Ruth Weiss has been escaping from life into books, from the hothouse attentions of her parents into the warmth of lovers and friends. Now Dr Weiss, at 40, knows that her life has been
Sherlock Holmes’ fame has also brought him notoriety and there are those in the criminal underworld who must move against him or find their schemes in ruins … While Holmes and Dr Watson solve what wil
From the annals of Dr Watson comes this dark tale of Sherlock Holmes’ early encounter with Professor Moriarty. When Holmes and Watson receive a cipher from one of Moriarty’s henchmen warning of dark d
Angered by the racism he witnessed on Martinique during the Second World War, Fanon here examines the roles of class, culture and violence, and expresses his profound alienation from the idea of colon
From an intimate and moving letter to his grieving wife on the death of their daughter, to elegant writings on morality, happiness and the avoidance of anger, Plutarch’s powerful words of consolation
Features essays that form part of a panoramic celebration of human behaviour from the time of the ancients to the Renaissance. God, devils, old age, diet, drunkenness, love and beauty are each given e
When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby g
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
Charles Darwin transformed our understanding of the world with the idea of natural selection, challenging the notion that species are fixed and unchanging. These writings from On the Origin of Species
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
