Times are harsh, and Barbara's bank account has seen better days. Stumped for ideas, Barbara draws inspiration from fellow residents of her quaint English village, writing a revealing novel that features the townsfolk as characters. The smashing bestseller is published under the pseudonym John Smith, which is a good thing because villagers recognize the truth. But what really turns her world around is when events in real life start mimicking events in the book. Funny, charming, and insightful, this novel reveals what happens when people see themselves through someone else's eyes.

    This book begins when he meets Mr Knight, a financier as crooked as any on the front pages of our newspapers nowadays; and tracks his and his family's swift climb and fall.

    Elizabeth Jenkins's artistry, however, transforms the bare facts of this case from the annals of Victorian England's Old Bailey into an absolutely spine-chilling exploration of the depths of human depravity.

    Murderously urbane, it depicts the breakup of a marriage in the London gentry, where the errant wife suffers from terminal boredom, and becomes enamoured of a social parasite and professional luncheon-goer.

    A magical island... And Two People Bewitched By Love....The Channel Islands were divided in allegiance between France and England. Of French blood, and yet subjects of Queen Victoria, the islanders were curious hybrid creatures. But now, in 1888, England is slowly stretching out her arms to them.Colin du Frocq is eight years old, and his dreams are of the sea that surrounds his home. By day he steals away and takes to the sea in any boat that is sailing. At night he lies in bed listening to the waves beating against the shore. Then one night, in a wild storm, a ship drives onto the nearby cliffs and a strange man enters Colin's life, changing Colin's course forever.A twist of fate brought Ranulph back to a springtime place that had forgotten him. A proud and beautiful woman offered him refuge, even though she did not understand why, as she trembled before his gaze.Now Ranulph could feel the spell of the Island twisting around him, binding him to the world of love and companionship he had rejected forever.A storm-wracked sea had brought him home. It was the magnificent fury of another storm that taught him the splendor of life and the power of love.

    "Autobiography conveys Powys's contagious excitement of his discovery of books and men and his unceasing discovery of himself as well as fascination reminiscences of the remarkable journeys, both geographic and intellectual of his life.

    Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Dr Veraswami, a black enthusiast for the Empire, whose downfall can only be prevented by membership at an all-white club.

    An introduction by FRANCIS WHEEN discuses slumming in the 1930s and describes Cheapjack as an extraordinary autobiography. VANESSA TOULMIN of Sheffield University puts Cheapjack and its language in the context of the secretive society of showmen, hawkers and Gypsy travellers and calls it an important historic record. Margery Allingham's biographer, JULIA JONES, reveals the extent of detective novelist's involvement in Cheapjack and gives the wider story of this naive, eccentric and charming young man.

    

    Mrs. Tim goes to the Highlands of Scotland and is involved in a plot to rescue a naval officer from the toils of a siren; but, alas, the best laid plans 'gang aft agley'. The characters are skillfully drawn, from the fierce Mrs. London with her heart of gold to the garrulous Mrs. Falconer who always gets things wrong and whose muddled stories of her girlhood make excruciatingly funny reading. The house party amuses itself with picnics and fishing excursions and is suitably thrilled by the flourishing ancestral feud of two rival clans, which has its origin in the dim past. Mrs. Tim observes her fellow men and women with sympathy and humor and records her observations with a racy pen. The result is an attractive and witty story of an unusual character.

    This novel is a study of human conflict within a conventional family of the 1930's, tested by the invasion of ideas in the person of the family's black sheep, Captain Nicholas. A sequel to The Green Mirror, the character of Captain Nicholas is the most original of all Walpole's creation.