She could imagine the headlines all too well. . . DEATH ON POSSETT ISLAND: Well-known Playwright Found Dead on Christmas Tree.
Dimpson McCabe - Dimpsie - has invited his closest friends of the theatre world to join him for Christmas at his castle on a private island some hours' drive from Edinburgh. The festivities have barely begun when Dimpsie is found draped atop the Christmas tree, electrocuted by the lights. It's labelled Accidental Death, but in the swirling snow suspicion is dancing among the flakes. Through Dimpsie's cadre of directors, producers, actors and agents runs a hot streak of hidden grievances and theatrical scheming, and upon return to London the dogged Inspector Smith begins to circle, seeking to find the leading man or prima donna responsible.
First published in 1948 and lost for over 75 years, this Christmas novel returns to bedazzle a fresh audience of mystery-lovers.
In a tranquil Kentish village, Dr Sandys and his wife are preparing for Christmas with their guest, Liane 'Lee' Crauford. Festivities start badly when their party is spoiled by an enigmatic widow new to the village, and the atmosphere hits rock bottom when the pompous local nobleman and ceramic-collector Sir Henry Metcalfe unexpectedly dies. Sensing potential villains among Metcalfe's circle, Lee teams up with Detective-Inspector Hugh Gordon to discover the killer playing merry hell with her holiday in this lost vintage mystery, republished for the first time since 1952.
For Nigel Derry, Easter celebrations at the country house of his charming though unpredictable aunt Gwenny Marrable were a highlight of the calendar. This year, the knife fight between the guests somewhat tarnished the experience. Disgruntled following the fracas, Gwenny departs for France, telegramming her nephew from Le Touquet asking him to join her in the South at the beautiful Villa Paradou. When he arrives at the Côte d'Azur, it is too late - Gwenny Marrable has been found murdered.
To complicate matters for Inspector Blampignon of the Sûreté Nationale, it seems that the victim may have been killed in the north of France, 800 miles away from where she was discovered. The eccentric Blampignon embarks on a thrilling race to discover the truth in one of John Bude's rarest and most spirited mystery novels.
Following the success of Malice Aforethought, novelist Anthony Berkeley Cox returned to his Francis Iles pen-name for another experiment in the inverted mystery. Where Malice Aforethought is a study of murder from the perpetrator's perspective, Before the Fact is a masterful tale of the suspicions of a possible victim and her impressions of disquieting husband Johnnie.
Unsettling and gripping for its incisive portrayal of human emotion and fears, this experimental classic of crime fiction was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's film Suspicion, but remains an arresting literary read today.
Join a host of female writers in celebrating the sunshine months of the year. As a sister volume to Stories for Winter, this collection of 15 short stories takes its inspiration from the holiday season. Grab a copy as you head off to the beach or to lie by the pool and spend time with female protagonists as they navigate life during the hot summer days and long balmy evenings. In keeping with the spirit of the Women Writers series, the stories are penned by authors whose writing originally appeared in book
Impossible crime stories have delighted readers since the invention of detective fiction as puzzle-lovers sought more cerebral entertainment. Following on from Miraculous Mysteries, CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards brings together a whole new casebook of mystifying locked room mysteries and impossible crimes. Featuring more great stories by John Dickson Carr, Julian Symons and Margery Allingham alongside newly rediscovered writers, this selection of stories will bring you more insight into one of the most celebrated and dazzling sub-genres of detective fiction.
The pursuit of fashion is a matter of life and death in the debut novel from Christianna Brand, one of the Queens of Golden Age crime fiction. Life in the West End dress shop Christophe et Cie is hard enough with all the pressures of delivering Frank Bevan's business vision and then comes murder, delivered by oxalic acid, transforming the boutique into a crime scene. Featuring a colourful cast of designers, models, shop floor assistants and the fresh-faced Inspector Charlesworth, this 1941 mystery brims with Brand's signature wit and ruthless twists.
The desire to cultivate indoor plants is shared by all of us. Houseplants are more than mere decoration: they improve our moods, can be used to treat ailments, and reflect our ever-evolving relationship with nature. Sarah Gerrard-Jones masterfully explores the psychology behind our attraction to houseplants, and the benefits of keeping plants in our homes, from the healing qualities of biophilic design to the philosophy of care.
Practical sections provide fundamental advice on looking after plants and nurturing them back to life, and she also advises on buying plants and the perils of mass production, so that we can all acquire and grow houseplants sustainably.
An honest policeman, Sergeant Wigan, escorts a drunk man home one night to keep him out of trouble and, seeing his fine book collection, slowly falls in to the gentle art of book collecting. Just as the friendship is blossoming, the policeman's book-collecting friend is murdered.
To solve the mystery of why the victim was killed, and which of his rare books was taken, Wigan dives into the world of 'runners' and book collectors, where avid agents will gladly cut you for a first edition and then offer you a lift home afterwards. This adventurous mystery, which combines exuberant characters with a wonderfully realised depiction of the second-hand book market, is sure to delight bibliophiles and classic crime enthusiasts alike.
A companion volume to The Philosophy of . . . Beards and Coffee, this witty history of wine - its cultivation and enjoyment - sheds light on the rich traditions of wine from around the world. An apt gift for oenophiles everywhere, it includes chapters on the development of wine production, from the use of casks to bottles to the switch from feet to presses, as well as tracing the global shift of wine production from traditional wine-producing regions to emerging wine exporters. With a selective focus on unexpected facts and lesser-known characters connected with wine, from the Greek gods of wine to the monks who created Champagne and the ingenious ways French winemakers protected priceless vintages during wartime, this gift edition explores the historical influences that have shaped our drinking taste.
H. P. Lovecraft is best known for his tales of cosmic horror, in which unnameable nightmares torment the limits of human consciousness. This mastery of weird and unspeakable terror is underpinned by the writer's sizeable contribution to Gothic fiction. This new collection of Lovecraft's stories is the first to concentrate on his Gothic writing and includes tales from the beginning to the very end of the author's career. The writer's weird vision mixes brilliantly with the trappings of earlier Gothic horror to form innovative mosaics of frightful fiction that will long haunt the reader's subconscious.
Ten award-winning designers bring their unique vision to a series of garden types, both public and private, to inspire, motivate and provoke. Given a brief that extends to a maximum of 50 years into the future, their original designs mitigate the effects of a changing climate, encourage biodiversity, address issues of legacy and access to land and changing societal needs and individual wellbeing. They provide hope in a time of uncertainty and emphasise the power of gardening to nurture nature and adapt to change. Interspersed between these original designs are features linking the garden types to themes and items in the British Library exhibition, Unearthed: The Power of Gardening, which draws on the Library's rich botanical and horticultural collections.
How do you create an active reader? Why is reading good for creativity? Why is it vital for teaching the next generation resilience and positive mental health?
In the digital age of never-ending screen time you could argue that the power of books has diminished. But while screens have changed the act of reading, Alex Johnson believes reading is even more important, and that people value books more than ever. This is visible in the sales of printed special editions, the revival in reading aloud, the increased interest in poetry anthologies and the rescuing of 'lost words' from obscurity.
But the problem is: with so many competing distractions, which are the best books for children to read and how can we access them? How do we get children to start reading? And how can we encourage them to be curious? How can we encourage their reading and maintain their interest? In this book of practical advice, Alex Johnson brings his tremendous enthusiasm and informed passion to answer these questions, and many more, to ensure a new generation of bookworms are whisked away to new worlds and essential discoveries.
'"The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks. It is an atmosphere of death. It is soundless and motionless... Do you see?"'
Last night Mademoiselle Duchene was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musee Augustin waxworks, alive. Today she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark - a lead that Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and expert of 'impossible' crimes, cannot possibly resist.
Surrounded by the eerie noises of the night, Bencolin prepares to enter the ill-fated waxworks, his associate Jeff Marle and the victim's fiance in tow. Waiting within, beneath the glass-eyed gaze of a leering waxen satyr, is a gruesome discovery and the first clues of a twisted and ingenious mystery.
First published in 1932 at the height of crime fiction's Golden Age, this macabre and atmospheric dive into the murky underground of Parisian society presents an intelligent puzzle delivered at a stunning pace. This new edition also includes 'The Murder in Number Four', a rare Inspector Bencolin short story.
'You see - no, you do not, but I see - such curious faces: and the people to whom they belong flit about so oddly, often at your elbow when you least expect it, and looking close into your face, as if they were searching for someone - who may be thankful, I think, if they do not find him.'
There was an enormous fascination with fairies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which popularised depictions of benevolent winged friends and things of fragile beauty. But in wider folklore, the creatures of the fey are of a much more unsettling and otherworldly stock. Taking inspiration from folk tales and medieval legends, writers of weird tales and ghost stories such as Arthur Machen, M R James and Charlotte Riddell proved that fairies, elves, goblins and their ilk were something to be feared and respected as our ancestors did.
This new collection of stories pairs strange creatures with frightening encounters to revive the fearsome past of the fairy folk.
A richly illustrated look at some of the British Library's most beautiful books from around the world.
For centuries across the world, books have been created as objects of beauty, with bookmakers lavishing great care on their paper, binding materials, illustrations, and lettering.
The Book by Design , featuring an array of books from the British Library's collection, focuses on the sensory experience of holding and reading these objects. Each selection represents a specific moment in the development of what we know today as the book-from scrolls and bound illuminated manuscripts to paperbacks and formatted digital information. These range from the seventh century to the present and include examples from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, in addition to a look at book traditions in Africa and Oceania. John James Audubon's Birds of America , the works of Chaucer, Russian Futurist books, limited editions, historic copies of the Qur'an and the Bible, mass-market paperbacks, and more come together to tell the visual, tactile, artistic, and cultural history of books.
Expert curators and specialists explore these books from the perspective of design and manufacturing, original art photographs offer vivid representations of their textures and materials, and graphics detail the size and specifications of each book. Offering a wide-ranging look at the creation and use of books, illustrated with hundreds of color images, this volume is itself an object of beauty.
Following the success of The Book Lover's Bucket List, Caroline Taggart sets off on a tour of Europe to select 100 literary landmarks across the continent to describe and provide practical advice for visiting. Discover the inspirations in Austria for Mary Shelly and in Sweden for Astrid Lindgren; visit Cervantes' statue in Madrid dating back to 1835 and explore the French Riviera through the eyes of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The entries stretch from Homer in the eighth century BCE all the way to modern-day S
The Book Lover's Joke Book is the funniest book about books you'll ever read. You'll find jokes about writers, agents, publishers, librarians, grammar, poetry, bookcases, and lightbulbs. There are rib-ticklers for typographers, crackers for critics, and badly foxed quips about antiquarian bookshops. Here too are the best literary April Fool's (the joke's on you), rejection letters (the joke's on the publisher), cookbook jests (the joke's a bit crumby) and wardrobe puns (the joke's Narnia business). This delightful literary celebration will make every bibliophile laugh out loud, even in the library.
I love telling people spoilers about The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Never gets old.
Why does Wally always wear a stripey shirt?
Because he doesn't want to be spotted.
What's the difference between Romeo and Juliet and COVID-19?
One's a coronavirus and the other's a Verona crisis.
Who was JRR Tolkien's favourite singer?
Elvish Presley
"Your diary is really good," said his wife.
"My thoughts exactly," replied Samuel Pepys.
