Showing titles in Literature & Fiction

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages, and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century despite trying his utmost to escape them all.

At The Night Owl, a legendary TV comedy sketch show, newly divorced scriptwriter Sally Milz requests for her latest sketch mocking the social rule where average men always seem to date beautiful women to be cut. Especially as it reflects the real life of her schlubby-looking office-mate and fellow scriptwriter Danny who has just announced his engagement to Annabel, a beautiful and starry actress. When Sally goes to stay with her elderly father-in-law and his decrepit dog, she receives an email from one of the guests on their latest show, a famous and exceedingly handsome singer.

The doughnut is a thing of beauty, a circle of fried, doughy perfection - a source of comfort in trying times, perhaps. For Theo Bernstein it is far, far more. An accident at work lost Theo his job (and his work involved preventing a Very, Very Large Hadron Collider from blowing up, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wife has left him; he doesn't have any money; and news arrives that his good friend, Professor Pieter van Goyen, renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, has died.

Wodehouse weaves his wit through a wide collection of terrifying aunts, miserly uncles, love-sick friends, and unwanted fiancés. Bertie gets into a bit of trouble when one of his pals, Bingo Little, starts to fall in love with every second girl he lays his eyes on. But the soup gets really thick when Bingo decides to marry one of them and enlists Bertie's help. Luckily, he has the inimitable Jeeves to pull him out of it.

With Roger approaching a big birthday, the couple reflect on growing older and all that it entails, from the increasing need to keep active to the ultimate question—to downsize, or not to downsize? However, their progress is hindered by still feeling the same as ever...even if their friends have replaced technicolour for tweed and have never heard of Stormzy! Along the way, there's also jealousy, talk of affairs, Roger's sleep-talking and the discovery of his 'baby whisperer' abilities—but underlying it all is this couple's long-lasting love for each other.

Becky thought being married to Luke Brandon would be one big Tiffany box of happiness. But to be honest, it's not quite as dreamy as she'd hoped. The trouble started on honeymoon, when she told Luke the tiniest little fib, about the teeniest little purchase. Now she's on a strict budget, she doesn't have a job — and worst of all her beloved Suze has a new best friend. Then she receives some incredible news. She has a long-lost sister!

Regular team captains Stephen Fry and John Sessions are joined by Lenny Henry, Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Enn Reitel, Jimmy Mulville, Nonny Williams, Griff Rhys Jones, Kate Robbins, John Bird, Rory Bremner and Jon Glover as they battle their way through a succession of games and romp through a world of literary styles, TV theme tunes, and film genres. Chairman Clive Anderson desperately tries to hold the whole thing together, and the guests make it up as they go along in this riot of improvisation.

Sunshine State trivia buff Serge A. Storms loves eliminating jerks and pests. His drug-addled partner Coleman loves cartoons. Hot stripper Sharon Rhodes loves cocaine, especially when purchased with rich dead men's money. On the other hand, there's Sean and David, who love fishing and are kind to animals - and who are about to cross paths with a suitcase filled with $5 million in stolen insurance money. Serge wants the suitcase. Sharon wants the suitcase. Coleman wants more drugs... and the suitcase.

Everyone’s heard of Nostradamus. No one’s heard of Philibert Montmorency. One was a legend. The other, not so much.... A newly discovered Nostradamus prophecy has taken the internet by storm thanks to "The Oblivion Doctrine", a group of online conspiracy theorists. Apparently the end is nigh. And in case anyone’s interested, nigh is definitely a Tuesday. Doctor Ally Oldfield, professor of Medieval Languages, is summoned to Lyon for a second opinion. She’s not happy about it. But then again she’s rarely happy about anything.

The first time somebody tried to kill him was an accident. The second time was deliberate. Now Paul Mulchrone finds himself on the run with nobody to turn to except a nurse who has read one-too-many crime novels and a renegade copper with a penchant for violence. Together they must solve one of the most notorious crimes in Irish history. Or else they’ll be history.

Starship Captain George Cottonhammer (Will Forte), bored by his job, stops his ship in middle space and floats, doing nothing.

The phone hasn't rung for months. Suzy Marshall is discovering that work can be sluggish for an actress over 60 - even for the former star of a 1980s TV series. So when she's offered the plum role of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest in Zurich, it seems like a godsend. Until, that is, the play is abruptly cancelled in suspicious circumstances, and Suzy is forced to take a job on a cruise ship to get home.

Somewhere on the French Riviera, tucked between glitzy Monte Carlo and Cannes' red carpets, lies the sleepy town of Bellevue-Sur-Mer. Sheltered from the glittering melee, it is home to many an expat - although it hasn't proved as peaceful as expected. Now an enterprising band of retirees has resolved to show it's never too late to start afresh and open a restaurant.

When Ravi Kapoor, an overworked London doctor, is driven beyond endurance by his disgusting and difficult father-in-law, he asks his wife: "Can't we just send him away somewhere? Somewhere far, far away." His prayer seems to have been answered when his entrepreneurial cousin, Sonny, sets up a retirement home, recreating a lost corner of England in a converted guesthouse in Bangalore.

In a renovated Gothic church on Long Island lives Jonathan Hemlock, an art professor and a world-renowned mountain climber who finances his black-market art collection by working as a freelance assassin. Now, Hemlock is being tricked into a hazardous assignment that involves an attempt to scale one of the most treacherous mountain peaks in the Swiss Alps: the Eiger. His target is one of his three fellow climbers. The problem is that the CII can't tell him which one.

Ex-reporter Joe Winder had been working in the public relations department of a sleazy family entertainment park, The Amazing Kingdom of Thrills, when he chanced upon a news-breaking story inspired by the disappearance of two blue-tongued voles and the bizarre death of Orky, the killer whale.

Adrian Mole has entered early middle age and is now 'the same age as Jesus was when he died' (33). Father to the grammatically challenged Glenn, and William, who takes a 'Big Boy Arouser' condom to nursery school as his innocent contribution to a hot air balloon project.

Do you believe in soulmates? Aiden does. So when his colleague, Jen, is dumped unceremoniously by her dreadful boyfriend, Aiden decides to take matters - and Jen's life - into his own hands. Scouring the internet for a suitable partner for Jen, Aiden finds Tom. He'd be perfect for Jen apart from one minor detail: Tom lives in New York. Luckily for Jen and Tom, Aiden's not just an interfering colleague. In fact, Aiden isn't exactly human - he's a very complicated artificial intelligence....

Corazon, Angel and Donita have all come to Singapore to work for a living. The thing that unites them? Their labour must remain unseen. But when a friend is accused of murdering her employer, everything changes. The accused could be any of them; they all know the stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Each woman has secrets to keep, yet they must gather every ounce of bravery, fearlessness and complete audacity to clear the name of one of their own.

Three years on from her fairy-tale country wedding to the deliciously handsome Charlie Wellbeloved, Bella's life is far from the 'happily ever after' she dreamed of. Now, heading for the big three-oh at horrifying speed she has gained a couple of stone from boredom and comfort eating, her fledgling interior design business is succumbing to infant mortality, she talks to her black Labrador Dolly more than she does her own husband, and now her close friend Maddy has announced that she's expecting a baby. How can Bella be happy for them when she pines for a family of her own?