how can it be wrong to be happy?' These lines are taken from Will's diary, a seemingly innocuous exercise book which details his house-breaking activities. Will carefully selects houses - forty-seven so far - ensuring their owners will be in. As they cook their supper or watch television, Will (wearing surgical gloves and leaving no trace behind) enters not only their houses, but their secret lives. A secret museum, housed in his loft, is 'held together by sex'. All his trophies are carefully catalogued and he keeps a very precise diary of his activities and his thoughts.All his life Tom Kendall had lived as quietly and normally as possible ... but he gave people the creeps ... 'kids didn't like him, or the cat'. When Tom discovers Will's diary he decides to adopt the same quest for happiness. Tom has problems of his own - a difficult temper, problems with his girlfriend, Maddie, and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Perhaps Will's diary holds the key?

    To Lisa Veta, Cesar remained as much of an enigma after two years of their nomadic exile together as he had that first day in Clapham when he took up his peculiar vigial in her mother's kitchen and showed no signs of shifting out of her life, ever.

    Once this was discovered and removed, the story was quickly finished. In the event it proved to be one of the best novellas Bates ever produced, a classic piece of writing; a skilful blend of plot, characterisation and atmosphere. The story is set in the early 1940s, during World War II. Alice Charlesworth, the lonely wife of a war prisoner living on an isolated farmstead, encounters young Barton, a farm boy-turned (reluctant) conscripted soldier out of his depth in his military role. Barton decides not to return to camp and deliberately deserts; and he dresses as Alice’s sister to avoid detection while hiding at her farm. Alas, two soldiers intrude, a sergeant takes a shine to Alice’s sister, and, when Barton (such a silly young man to have done so) goes off to a dance with him, exposure and the consequent tragic finale begin to appear inevitable. A film of The Triple Echo, starring Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, premiered in Nov 1972.The novella first appeared in the Daily Telegraph magazine in December 1969, and, as well as being published as a separate book in hardback and paperback, it appeared in The Best of H. E. Bates.

    Depriving themselves of fatty foods, both husband and wife have new perspectives on each other, and the process is one of slow destruction of their marriage. Esther tells in flashback, from the depths of her basement apartment in Earls Court, the history of her marital disaster - in between her consumption of chocolate cake, tinned fruit, sweet sherry and a host of other high-calorie goodies. This novel examines the role of Womanhood. The time is the mid-sixties when sex role stereotypes are being examined and rejected, and Fay Weldon's book reflects the passions, humor, and anger of an era when women's self-analysis entailed a good deal of disruption. This novel depicts the rage and outrage of that traumatic era.

    As the grief-stricken Swabey looks back on their affair, the exact nature of his responsibility for Clara’s death is movingly revealed.

    Compiled and written by 'New Musical Express' editors Roy Carr and Tony Tyler, with over 200 illustrations, a complete diary, selected quotes and all possible recording details.

    Over 60,000 sold in small format. The Clothes They Stood Up In, has sold over 200,000 copies as a small novella and was 14 weeks in the Bestseller lists. It is the painful story of what happens to an elderly couple when their flat is stripped completely bare. The Laying on of Hands, a memorial service for a masseur to the famous that goes horribly wrong. Over 100,000 copies sold as a novella. Like everything Alan Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. And they all have a brilliant and surprising twist; are immensely funny and profoundly moral.

    When a mercurial Moscow blonde and a visiting British businessman conduct an affair through their Russian interpreter it reveals all the deceptions of love and East-West relations.

    The Indians are indifferent to Western notions of time and industry. The French, on the other hand, are sufficiently meticulous to import 2,348 pieces of cast iron to the desolate mining town of Santa Sofia, there to be assembled into a church under the supervision of a disciple of the renowned Gustave Eiffel.

    A stunning and powerful achievement in which each character's identity is in some way hidden, and the suspense of unmasking them is unmercifully sustained.

    Which is why she's dreading six weeks back in their company, helping them move house. Also struggling to conform are Paul Gooding, a newly qualified doctor with a highly embarrassing past; his flatmate, Armand, who's obsessed with foot hygiene; and his colleague, Carrie, who (inadvertently) keeps killing people.Odd One Out. When enough people are out of step, they can form an army of their own...

    This is a poem in several registers, set at night on the Severn Estuary. Its subject is moonrise, which happens five times in five different forms: new moon, half moon, full moon, no moon and moon reborn. Various characters, some living, some dead, all based on real people from the Severn catchment, talk towards the moment of moonrise and are changed by it. The poem, which was written for the 2009 festival of the Severn, aims to record what happens when the moon moves over us – its effect on water and its effect on voices.’ Alice Oswald A Sleepwalk on the Severn is a poem for several voices, set at night on the Severn Estuary. Its subject is moonrise, which happens five times in five different forms: new moon, half moon, full moon, no moon and moon reborn. Various characters, some living, some dead - all based on real people from the Severn catchment - talk towards the moment of moonrise and are changed by it. Commissioned for the 2009 festival of the Severn, Alice Oswald's breathtakingly original new work aims to record what happens when the moon moves over the sublunary world: its effect on water and its effect on language.

    Captivating yet incorrigibly stupid about men, Angelica wasn't much of a mother when she was alive, but now that she's gone, Thumbelina yearns to have her back. Quickly placed into a foster family, Thumbelina bumps straight into Myrna, a feisty redhead half her size who has a baby in her stomach. Also fourteen years old and as savvy as they come, Myrna has no trouble figuring out that her secretive new roommate is pregnant, too. With little money but lots of spirit, the unlikely pair strike out on their own, only to run into more serious trouble and heartache than they could have ever imagined.Laughs mingle with tears throughout this unforgettable story of a young girl embracing hope against all odds. Thumbelina's distinctive and instantly lovable voice will hook readers on the very first page...and it won't let go until the last.

    In acclaimed stories such as 'Rain', 'The Letter', 'The Vessel of Wrath' and 'The Alien Corn', Maugham illustrates his wry perception of human weakness and his genius for evoking compelling drama and an acute sense of time and place.

    here’s a poet talking to you instead of around himself, while doing absolutely brilliant and outrageous things with language.”—Publishers Weekly“One is simply content to be in the presence of a writer this vital, this large-spirited.”—The New York Times Book ReviewAlthough best known for his acclaimed fiction, Jim Harrison’s poetry has earned him recognition as an “untrammeled renegade genius.” Saving Daylight, his tenth collection of poetry–and first in a decade–is grounded in thickets and rivers, birds and bears, and the solace of dogs in a crazed political world. Whether contemplating the ephemerality of 90,000,000,000 galaxies or the immediate grace of a waitress, Harrison relishes the art and mysteries of being alive. “I’m enrolled in a school without visible teachers,” he writes in the title poem, “the divine mumbling just out of ear shot.”From “The Little Appearances of God”When god visits us he sleeps without a clock in empty bird nests. He likes the view. Not too high. Not too low. He winks a friendly wink at a nearby possum who sniffs the air unable to detect the scent of this not quite visible stranger...Jim Harrison is the author of two dozen books, including Legends of the Fall and Dalva. His work has been translated into 20 languages and produced as four feature-length films. Mr. Harrison divides his time between Montana and southern Arizona.