Laura is content enough with her marriage, two children and part-time job. That is, until a lover from her past comes back into her life. Suddenly passion and excitement are rekindled, and she realises how stagnant her life has become. But how much happiness has she a right to expect? Unknown to Laura, many others in her Sussex village are living with their own unresolved inner dramas. None of them guesses at her crisis. Yet every decision they take has an impact on those around them. The hidden longings of a large cast of characters interweave in a gripping plot that reveals ordinary life at its richest : comic and tragic, poignant and cruel, surprising and moving - and brilliantly entertaining.

The second book in William Nicholson’s award-winning epic fantasy series, Wind on Fire. Five years have passed. The city of Aramanth has become kinder – weaker. When ruthless soldiers of the Mastery strike, the city is burned, and the Manth people taken into slavery. Kestrel is left, separated from her brother Bowman, and vowing revenge … Fantasy books for children don’t get more spectacular than Slaves of the Mastery. Since first publication, William Nicholson’s Wind on Fire trilogy has been translated into over 25 languages and won prizes including the Blue Peter Book Award and Smarties Prize Gold Award. One of the greatest writers of our time, William Nicholson has not only sold millions of children’s books worldwide, he also written for the screen and the stage, including the Oscar-winning film Gladiator and the BAFTA-winning play Shadowlands.

The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett is the story of everyday life in the big, happy Ruggles family who live in the small town of Otwell. Father is a dustman and Mother a washerwoman. Then there's all the children - practical Lily Rose, clever Kate, mischievous twins James and John, followed by Jo, who loves films, little Peg and finally baby William. A truly classic book awarded the Carnegie Medal as the best children's book of 1937.

Kate Grenville’s The Secret River was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, the story of William Thornhill and his journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers. Searching for the Secret River tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with Grenville’s great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. Searching for the Secret River maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives.

Marco Carrera is 'the hummingbird,' a man with the almost supernatural ability to stay still as the world around him continues to change. As he navigates the challenges of life - confronting the death of his sister and the absence of his brother; taking care of his parents; raising his granddaughter; coming to terms with his love for the enigmatic Luisa - Marco Carrera comes to represent the quiet heroism that pervades so much of our everyday existence. A surprising and deeply moving reinvention of the family saga, this is a thrilling novel about the need to look to the future with hope and live with intensity to the very end.

This is a collection of the very best of William Faulkner’s short stories. Included are classics of short-form fiction such as ‘A Bear Hunt’, ‘A Rose for Emily’, ‘Two Soldiers’ and ‘The Brooch’. Faulkner’s ability to compress his epic vision into narratives of such grace and tragic intensity defines him as one of the finest and most original writers America has ever produced.

Whether he's getting into adventures with his band of Outlaws, or driving his family crazy, there's never a dull minute with William Brown around! This bumper edition features 8 Meet Just William stories from the "voice of William" Martin Jarvis, with illustrations by Tony Ross. Includes: William's Birthday, The Christmas Truce, William Leads a Better Life, William and the Musician, William and the Hidden Treasure, William and the Snowman, Violet Elizabeth Runs Away and William Goes Shopping. Meet Just William is perfect for newly confident readers.

Since the very first publication of The Secret a decade ago, Rhonda Byrnes bestselling book has brought forth an explosion of real people sharing real stories of how their lives have miraculously changed for the better. How The Secret Changed My Life presents a selection of the most heartwarming and moving stories in one inspirational volume. Each story provides an authentic, real-life illustration of the pathway that leads to success in every area of life: money, health, relationships, love, family and career. The people in How The Secret Changed My Life show time and again that no one is excluded from living the life of their dreams.

Since the very first publication of The Secret a decade ago, Rhonda Byrnes bestselling book has brought forth an explosion of real people sharing real stories of how their lives have miraculously changed for the better. How The Secret Changed My Life presents a selection of the most heartwarming and moving stories in one inspirational volume. Each story provides an authentic, real-life illustration of the pathway that leads to success in every area of life: money, health, relationships, love, family and career. The people in How The Secret Changed My Life show time and again that no one is excluded from living the life of their dreams.

How can your name affect how well you do in life? What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common? Why do drug dealers live with their mothers? The answer: Freakonomics. It's at the heart of everything we do and the things that affect us daily: from sex to crime, parenting to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams. And we can use it to get to the heart of what's really happening under the surface of everyday life. This cult bestseller will show you how, by unravelling your life's secret codes, you can discover a totally new way of seeing the world.

A secret diary. A forbidden love. A centuries old mystery to solve. When a rare sixteenth-century manuscript lands on her desk courtesy of William, a struggling painter, shy book restorer Rose makes a startling discovery: it is a palimpsest. Beneath the text is a different document, one that's been written over. What they discover is the secret diary of William's ancestor, Giovanni Lomazzo, a Venetian painter who has just been commissioned by Venice's most powerful admiral to paint a portrait of his favourite courtesan... it is a diary of forbidden love, dangerous political plots, and secrets that could destroy everyone involved. Together, Rose and William work to solve the mystery of what happened to the secret lovers. As feelings develop between Rose and William, their own experience begins to mirror the affair that they're uncovering, and each set of lovers is forced to confront the reality of their romance. A richly detailed and sweeping page-turner, Margaux's sumptuous portrait of late Renaissance Italy will have you falling headlong into history, slipping in and out of the shadows along the canals of Venice.

Welcome to the everyday life of Miss Betts the teacher!

Contemporary photographers view the Venice carnival as a continuation and development of the theme of the theatricality of everyday life.

Jack Kerouac called Doctor Sax, the enigmatic figure who haunted his boyhood imagination, 'my ghost, personal angel, private shadow, secret lover'. In this extraordinary autobiographical account of growing up in Lowell, Massachussetts, told through his fictional alter ego Jack Duluoz, he mingles real people and events with fantastical figures to capture the accents, scents, sights and texture of his childhood: playing among the river weeds and railroad tracks, going to church, witnessing life and death on the street corners. Written when he was staying with William Burroughs in Mexico in 1952, Doctor Sax was Kerouac's favourite of all his books: a dark, vivid and magical evocation of a boy's vibrant inner life.

The third and final book in William Nicholson's award-winning epic fantasy series, Wind on Fire. "I hate school! I hate ratings! I won't reach higher! I won't strive harder! I won't make tomorrow better than today!" In the walled city state of Aramanth, rules are everything. When Kestrel Hath dares to rebel, the Chief Examiner humiliates her father and sentences the whole family to the harshest punishment. Desperate to save them, Kestrel learns the secret of the wind singer, and she and her twin brother, Bowman, set out on a terrifying journey to the true source of evil that grips Aramanth . . . Fantasy books for children don't get more spectacular than The Wind Singer. Since first publication, William Nicholson's Wind on Fire trilogy has been translated into over 25 languages and won prizes including the Blue Peter Book Award and Smarties Prize Gold Award. One of the greatest writers of our time, William Nicholson's has not only sold millions of children's books worldwide, he also written for the screen and the stage, including the Oscar-winning film Gladiator and the BAFTA-winning play Shadowlands.

From The Globally Bestselling Author Of Girl With A Pearl Earring 'Bittersweet … dazzling' Guardian 'Deeply pleasurable … the ending made me cry' The Times 'Told with a wealth of detail and narrative intensity' Penelope Lively Violet is 38. The First World War took everything from her. Her brother, her fiance - and her future. She is now considered a 'surplus woman'. But Violet is also fiercely independent and determined. Escaping her suffocating mother, she moves to Winchester to start a new life -a change that will require courage, resilience and acts of quiet rebellion. And when whispers of another world war surface, she must live with a secret that could change everything…