Outrageous Pippi Longstocking of Villa Villekulla has no parents around and no rules to follow, so she lives according to her own daredevilish ways. She has been treating her friends Tommy and Annika to wild adventures, too — like buying, and eating, seventy-two pounds of candy on a shopping trip, or sailing off to an island in the middle of a lake to show them what it's like to be shipwrecked. But then Pippi's long lost father returns, and she might have to leave Villa Villekulla!

Here are the most robust characters in American legend. Told by a poet with a poet's ear for the impact of words, these American mavericks walk and talk accross the pages in a free, wide way, as they walked and talked accross the free, wide America of pioneer days.

For Spenser, that most unorthodox of private detectives, no case is ever straightforward and the theft of a 14th-century illuminated manuscript proves no exception. His investigation soon leads him into organized crime, dope-pushing, theft, radical politics, adultery and murder.

This is Ayne Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosphical doctrince of our time and the atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philsophy — an ethic of rational self-interest — that stands in sharp opposition of the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice. The fundamentals of this morality — a philosophy for living on earth — are here vibrantly set forth by the spokesman for a new class, For the New Intellectual.

Editors Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig concentrate on the work of twenty major American poets.

Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell’s narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions — a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.

‘Everything is finished. I have nothing but you now. Remember that’ Anna Karenina seems to have everything – beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life – and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself. This new translation has been acclaimed as the definitive version of Tolstoy’s masterpiece. It also contains an introduction by Richard Pevear and a preface by John Bayley.

Zoe, Jennifer, and Nadia are three women with nothing in common. Except for the man who wants to kill them. He sends them terrifying letters, full of the intimate details of their lives — the clothes they wear, their little habits, how they act when they think they're alone — and promises that he will bring those lives to a violent, horrible end. But not before he has enjoyed himself. Invisible and apparently unstoppable, he delights in watching the women suffer, thrilled by his power to destroy their lives and their faith in those closest to them; to leave them utterly helpless, alone in their terror and confusion. But they're not all as helpless as he thinks ...

Kathleen Flynn-Hui — hairdresser to the stars — takes readers behind the frosted glass panels of the top salons and into the glamorous and bitchy world of women (and men) who'd kill for a handful of honeyed highlights. Beyond the Blonde follows the fortunes of Georgia, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions as she makes her ascent to the position of colourist at one of the most exclusive salons in New York. But if Georgia is to achieve the heady heights of urban salon success first she must battle bullies, find romance, endure heartbreak and betrayal. Can she make the cut? Or will it all unravel like a perm in a rainstorm? Anyone who loved The Nanny Diaries for its peek into an unknown world of slavery and hardship will adore Beyond the Blonde for similar reasons. And as for those who couldn't miss an episode of Cutting It, here is the ideal book to plug the gap between series. In this superb roman-a-clef, Kathleen Flynn-Hui tells it like it is and gives readers more than one opportunity to spot the stars behind the stories ...

‘He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in … the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms’ Fairy tales, ghost stories, detective fiction and comedies of manners – the stories collected in this volume made Oscar Wilde’s name as a writer of fiction, showing breathtaking dexterity in a wide range of literary styles. Victorian moral justice is comically inverted in ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’ and ‘The Canterville Ghost’, and society’s materialism comes under sharp, humorous criticism in ‘The Model Millionaire’, while ‘The Happy Prince’ and ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ are hauntingly melancholic in their magical evocations of selfless love. These small masterpieces convey the brilliance of Wilde’s vision, exploring complex moral issues through an elegant juxtaposition of wit and sentiment. This edition includes the complete texts of Wilde’s three volumes of short fiction, together with ‘The Portrait of Mr W. H.’. Ian Small’s introduction discusses Wilde’s life, the cultural and literary background to his fiction, and the complex ways in which it can be read.

The famous tale of adventure, courage and loyalty in the South Seas. Fifteen-year-old Ralph, mischievous young Peterkin and clever, brave Jack are shipwrecked on a coral reef with only a telescope and a broken penknife between them. At first the island seems a paradise, with its plentiful foods and wealth of natural wonders. But then a party of cannibals arrives, and after that a pirate ship . . .

Husbands: you're really only allowed one at a time ... Bella secretly married Stevie, over a decade ago; they were at university, two big kids playing at being grownups. When it all unravelled and reality hit, Bella simply got up and left. Years later, Bella meets Philip and, despite her vow never to marry again, she can't resist him. He is a catch. Funny, charming, interesting and kind. Only hitch is, she's still (technically, anyway) married to Stevie. And the moment to tell Philip never quite seems to arrive. So Bella plans never to reveal her secret — after all, it's just a silly piece of paper, lodged at a registrar's office in Aberdeen, isn't it? She hasn't seen Stevie for years — probably never will again. Except when Bella's best friend Laura introduces her new man to the gang it is none other than Stevie. Could things get any more complicated? Only if Bella and Stevie fall in love with each other again...

Eccentric Jarvis lives in a crumbling schoolhouse overlooking the tube line, compiling his obsessive history of the Underground. A group of misfits are also drawn towards his strange house: Alice, who has run away from her husband and baby; Tom, the busker who rescues her; truant Jasper who finds his terrifying thrills on the tube; and enigmatic Axel, whose deadly secret casts a shadow over all their lives. Damaged, dispossesed, outcasts, they are brought together in violent and un-foreseen ways by London's dark and dangerous underground system.

Charlie Ashanti is on the run from an amazing floating circus with six homesick beautiful Lions and an extraordinary sabre-toothed creature. Charlie has promised to help the Lions find their way home to Morocco but he has his own problems: his Mum and Dad have been kidnapped and he is determined to find them. His new friends, King Boris of Bulgaria and his security chief, Edward, have promised to help. But can Charlie and the Lions trust them? One thing is for sure, the chase is on …

«As with our city map series, Rough Guide Country and Regional Maps are printed on waterproof and «rip-proof» polyart paper, They offer an unbeatable combination of practicality, clarity of design and amazing value.»

Rachel Johnson's hilarious take on life as a yummy mummy in West London and on Exmoor has been making her newspaper readers chortle for the last couple of years: now they are seamlessly turned into a diary of her year, from the dog's birthday party in January (games of Paws-the-Parcel) to the June sports days (where the mummies turn up at the school sports day in sports bras and running shorts with little back packs containing high energy drinks — and that's just for them) to summer on Exmoor hosting demanding visiting ponies.

This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard manual labour and freezing cold — and participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature and the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.

The Roald Dahl Treasury is a wonderful collection by and about Roald Dahl, the great storytelling genius. Four themed sections — Animals; Magic; Family, Friends and Foes; and Matters of Importance — introduce some of Dahl's best-loved characters, from Willy Wonka to the BFG, from the Witches to the Twits, from James to Matilda. In each you will find complete stories, poems, memoirs and letters, as well as some unpublished poetry and letters. The Roald Dahl Treasury is beautifully illustrated in full colour by Quentin Blake, as well as by leading artists such as Raymond Briggs, Babette Cole, Posy Simmonds and Ralph Steadman. 'Those who don't believe in magic will never find it,' Roald Dahl told his readers. you will find a touch of magic on every page of this sumptuous book. It is the perfect gift for all lovers of Roald Dahl, and for all those who have yet to discover his magic.