A world of speakeasies and dancing girls where a gambler or bootlegger is perfectly normal and respectable in every way. Those familiar with "Guys and Dolls" know what to expect!

    Based on the last years of the writer Violet Hunt, a once-glamorous woman living in Kensington during the Blitz who is now losing her memory, the novel's three 'acts' describe with insight, humour and compassion what happens to 'Claire Temple' in her last months. 'A quite extraordinary book,' was the verdict of Cressida Connolly in the Spectator, 'unflinchingly, blackly funny, brilliantly observed and terrifying.' And because Claire Temple is an unrepentant snob, 'the novel gives a sly account of the end of an entire way of life.'

    The author speaks of the men and women living there, complex in emotion and thought, and elusive and thrifty with words.

    The unlikely friends, representing the extremes of age and youth, are out on an undercover poaching trip when they become swept up in the currents of a salmon pool. When they awaken they have been transported from the Highlands of our world to an alternative Highland universe: a beautiful, fertile land called the Green Isle. Despite the abundance of the land, and the trees dripping with fruit, the population are subdued and miserable, ruled over by a strict upper class and forbidden to touch the fruit. Young Art, however, is not so easily controlled and his actions begin a chain of events which will change the Green Isle forever. Gunn draws many parallels in this tale, from the biblical references to Eden and the Tree of Knowledge, to contemporary commentary on the Nazi situation in 1940s Europe.

    This piece of classic literature relates the tale ofa young doctor setting up a practice in the canal town.

    Includes such stories as: 'The Sexes', 'The Lovely Leave', 'The Little Hours', 'Glory in the Daytime' and 'Lolita'.

    The Flying Officer X stories were written by H.E. Bates in his unprecedented role as an official war writer with the R.A.F. during WWII, where he animates the realities faced by pilots tasked with protecting the skies from enemy aircraft. The resulting stories that appeared under the pseudonym Flying Officer X are portraits of individual pilots narrated by an observer who, like Bates, is on the inside of the air force without being a pilot. These portraits recount the personal history of the pilots, and convey the individual qualities and forces that motivate them. They blend the action and suspense of aerial battles, friendships cut off too soon, and life enduring against all odds. In true Bates style, the New York Times noted "These are tales told in impressive quiet, tales that are innocent of even the suggestion of flagrant heroism that colors so many stories about combat pilots."Bloomsbury Reader is delighted to collect these stories into one volume for the first time, along with five additional stories from the same period, never before included in a collection: 'Fishers' sees a bond between two soldiers from very different walks of life; 'Happy Christmas Nastashya' sees an English officer encounter a young woman in service to her country in Russia; 'The Bell' follows a young flying officer as he travels back to a familiar pub to reminisce about a lost friend; 'From this Time forward' exposes the raw emotion of losing a loved one; and 'Three Thousand and One Hours of Sergeant Kostek' shows us a man of extraordinary character and flying ability.The collection also includes a new introduction by Patrick Bishop, bestselling author of