George MacDonald Fraser is the author of the "Flashman" novels.

    Freddy and Fredericka—a brilliantly refashioned fairy tale and a magnificently funny farce—only seems like a radical departure of form, for behind the laughter, Helprin speaks of leaps of faith and second chances, courage and the primacy of love. Helprin’s latest work, an extraordinarily funny allegory about a most peculiar British royal family, is immensely mocking of contemporary monarchy and yet deeply sympathetic to the individuals caught in its lonely absurdities.

    Much to his consternation, she says yes. As Wilfred attempts to extricate himself from the situation, his betrothed’s overbearing father presents further complications. And when Wilfred meets another woman he does wish to marry, a comedy of manners ensues. Set in rural Wales during the 1920s, Wendy Jones’s charming first novel is a deceptive, subtly humorous entrance to the mores and social conventions of a world gone by.

    Buses rumble towards Ealing Broadway and I'm expected to do battle with the powers of darkness. It all seems a little unfair...'You could say it all started with the red-eyed tramp with the slimy fingers who put the wind up Neville, the part-time barman, something rotten. Or when Archroy's wife swapped his trusty Morris Minor for five magic beans while he was out at the rubber factory.On the other hand, you could say it all started a lot earlier. Like 450 years ago, when Borgias walked the earth.Pooley and Omally, stars of the Brentford Laboiur Exchange and the Flying Swan, want nothing to do with it, especially if there's a Yankee and a pint of Large in the offing. Pope Alexander VI, last of the Borgias, has other ideas...

    It's bad enough having a name like Nathan Jones - unless you're a Supremes fan, which Nathan isn't - but when his girlfriend leaves him (for a drag artist) and he gets mugged, then handcuffed to a bed and cut up in a misunderstanding with an S&M hooker, can things get any worse?

    She's an icon to her fans, a darling of the media, schmoozed by television networks and an A-list guest at festivals abroad. She's a month and three countries into her current tour, a week away from home – through what exactly 'home' means is problematic these days. On a flight between gigs, a recurring dream raises disturbing questions. Haunting flashbacks provide clues to a past long ago buried – a secret life in another time, a life of lies, pacts and forbidden alliances. Then there's her relationship with Murray and where it went wrong. Out of the spotlight and beneath the punchlines, Meg discovers that memory will find a way to break the surface . . .

    His London, however, would have been unfamiliar to many at the time, for this novel – published in 1957 and the first of what’s often described as MacInnes’s London Trilogy – focuses on an emergent black culture. It brings vividly to life the pubs and dance halls that many contemporary readers would have considered firmly out of bounds, offering an alternate mapping of this great city.

    But the bombing is only the beginning. In a voice alive with grief, compassion, and startling humor, Incendiary is a stunning debut of one ordinary life blown apart by terror.

    Beginning in 1974 and ending with the fading of Thatcher's government in 1996, 'The Northern Clemency' is Philip Hensher's epic portrait of an entire era, a novel concerned with the lives of ordinary people and history on the move.

    And he's absolutely right. He may be surrounded by his sprawling estate, but lurking in the village are more than one or two reminders of his complicated past, including three ex-wives, a mistress, and a legion of children and stepchildren, all dependent on him and all determined to do whatever it takes to get what they want.  Meet the wives Amanda: the ravishing first wife.  Unpredictable and mesmerizing, she dared Anthony to fall in love with her, and he took her up on the challenge.  Anthony was head over heels from the first night they danced on the rooftop of his family home.  Of course, the free-spirited Amanda was never cut out for country life, but young love is blind.  Sandra: the steadfast second wife.  Sturdy, dependable and domesticated, Sandra pulled Anthony back from the compelling chaos that surrounded his first wife. Sandra had plans to turn Anthony's estate into a proper family home, until a stunning secret forced her to make a life-altering decision.Dita: the snobbish third wife. A true force of nature, Dita was smart, tough, rapaciously social and high-maintenance.  She enthusiastically stormed through Anthony's life, organizing and rearranging, and rubbing plenty of people the wrong way, particularly the previous Mrs. Anscombes and their children. With the entire cast of his life roosting in the village, it's no wonder Anthony doesn't have a minute's peace!  Adding to the crazy mix is the mistress, Nora, a new age hippy and acupuncturist, whom Anthony seduced with disastrous consequences.  A Much Married Man is a wickedly funny social satire with memorable characters that will stay with readers long after the final page.  Like a modern day Edith Wharton or Anthony Trollope, Nicholas Coleridge delivers a sensational glimpse inside the salacious world of the upper classes.

    He struggles with the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the London scene. We see the road Lev travels through his eyes, and we share his dilemmas.

    Bradley hopes to retire to the country, but predatory friends and relations dash his hopes of a peaceful retirement. He is tormented by his melancholic sister, who has decided to come live with him; his ex-wife, who has infuriating hopes of redeeming the past; her delinquent brother, who wants money and emotional confrontations; and Bradley's friend and rival, Arnold Baffin, a younger, deplorably more successful author of commercial fiction. The ever-mounting action includes marital cross-purposes, seduction, suicide, abduction, romantic idylls, murder, and due process of law. Bradley tries to escape from it all but fails, leading to a violent climax, and a coda that casts shifting perspectives on all that has preceded.

    Louisa, who lives in the grounds and has harboured an infatuation -- not to mention a dark secret -- with David since her youth, only wants to be left alone with the falcons to whom she has devoted her life, despite Maggie's persistent attempts to forge a friendship. Meanwhile, Christopher, David's eccentric teenage son from an earlier marriage, is attempting to balance his own grief with a yearning for life beyond the estate, and a quest to trace his estranged mother.In the aftermath of disaster, the various allegiances of this makeshift family will be stretched to breaking point, and Maggie, Louisa and Christopher must each face the decisions which will define them…

    Here live the Starkadders - Aunt Ada Doom, Judith, Amos, Seth, Reuben, Elfine...They lead messy, untidy lives, full of dark thoughts, moody silences, and sudden noisy quarrels. That is, until their attractive young cousin arrives from London. Neat, sensible, efficient, Flora Poste cannot bear messes (they are so uncivilized). She begins to tidy up the Starkadders' lives at once ...

    Is the child really his? And does he want him?