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Macmillan Publishers
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It is just before the outbreak of World War I and Britain must enlist the aide of Russia. Czar Nicholas' nephew is to visit London for secret naval talks with Lord Walden, who has lived in Russia and has a Russian wife, Lydia. But there are other people who are interested in the arrival of Prince Alexei: the Waldens' only daughter, Charlotte — willful, idealistic, and with an awakening social conscience; Basil Thompson, head of the Special Branch; and, above all, Feliks Kschessinky, the ruthless Russian anarchist. No one could have foretold that Lydia should recognize Feliks, or that she might put her own daughter's life at risk for his sake. As the secret negotiations progress, the destinies of these characters become ineluctably enmeshed. And as Europe prepares for the catastrophe of war, the final private tragedy which will shatter the complacency of the Waldens is acted out. |
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Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father's will, aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel, after all, had nothing to leave — except a letter he had never opened himself, a letter that can only bring further disgrace to the family name. Against his mother's advice, Adam opens the letter, and immediately realizes his life can never be the same again. The contents leave him with no choice but to follow a course his father would have described as a matter of honour. |
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Richard I was crowned King in 1189 and set off almost immediately for the Third Crusade. This was a bloody campaign to regain the Holy Land, marked by internecine warfare among the Christians and extraordinary campaigns against the Saracens. Men and women found themselves facing new sorts of challenges and facing an uncertain future. John, the youngest son, was left behind and with Richard gone, he was free to conspire with the French king to steal his brother's throne. Overshadowing the battlefields that stretched to Jerusalem and beyond were the personalities of two great adversaries: Richard and Saladin. They quickly took the measure of each other in both war and diplomacy. The result was mutual admiration: a profound acknowledgement of a worthy opponent. In this gripping narrative of passion, intrigue, battle and deceit, Penman reveals a true and complex Richard a man remarkable for his power and intelligence, his keen grasp of warfare and his concern for the safety of his men, who followed him against all odds. |
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It is the biggest treasure hunt in history with contesting nations involved in a headlong race to locate the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 4500 years ago, a magnificent golden capstone sat at the peak of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was a source of immense power, reputedly capable of bestowing upon its holder absolute global power. But then it was divided into seven pieces and hidden, each piece separately, within the seven greatest structures of the age. Now it's 2006 and the coming of a rare solar event means it's time to locate the seven pieces and rebuild the capstone. Everyone wants it — from the most powerful countries on Earth to gangs of terrorists... and one daring coalition of eight small nations. Led by the mysterious Captain Jack West Jr, this determined group enters a global battlefield filled with booby-trapped mines, crocodile-infested swamps, evil forces and an adventure beyond imagining. 'More action, hair-raising stunts and lethal hardware than you'd find in four Bond movies. Reilly is the hottest action writer around'. |
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In the late 1940s in Hartford, Connecticut a set of twins is parted at birth. Nat Cartwright goes home with his parents, a schoolteacher and an insurance salesman. But his twin brother is to begin his days as Fletcher Andrew Davenport, the only son of a multi-millionaire and his society wife. During the years that follow, the two brothers grow up unaware of each other's existence. Nat leaves college at the University of Connecticut to serve in Vietnam. He returns a war hero, he finishes school and becomes a successful banker. Fletcher, meanwhile, has graduated from Yale University and distinguishes himself as a criminal defence lawyer before he is elected to the Senate. Even when Nat and Fletcher fall in love with the same girl they still don't meet. They continue on their separate paths until one has to defend the other for a murder he did not commit. But the final confrontation comes when Nat and Fletcher are selected to stand against each other for governor of the state. 'There's a touch of the magician about Jeffrey Archer' Mail on Sunday. |
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This brand new edition brings together three of Jeffrey Archer's classic collections of short stories: A Quiver Full of Arrows, A Twist in the Tale and Twelve Red Herrings. Every reader will have their own favourites: the choices run from an imprisoned man who is certain that his supposed murder victim is very much alive, to a female driver pursued relentlessly by a menacing figure in another vehicle. An offhand remark is taken seriously by a Chinese sculptor in one tale, while a British diplomat unexpectedly becomes the owner of a priceless work of art in another... And over three of the stories, discover a hauntingly written, atmospheric account of two undergraduates at Oxford in the thirties: a tale of bitter rivalry that ends in a memorable love story. These stories are packed full of the master storyteller's unexpected twists, richly drawn characters and ingenious, witty denouements — some will make you laugh, others will bring you to tears. And, as always, every one of them will keep you spellbound. |
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This is the second volume of Peter Ackroyd's masterful history of England: the Tudors. Rich in detail and atmosphere and told in vivid prose, Tudors recounts the transformation of England from a settled Catholic country to a Protestant superpower. It is the story of Henry VIII's cataclysmic break with Rome, and his relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir; of how the brief reign of the teenage king, Edward VI, gave way to the violent reimposition of Catholicism and the stench of bonfires under 'Bloody Mary'. It tells, too, of the long reign of Elizabeth I, which, though marked by civil strife, plots against the queen and even an invasion force, finally brought stability. Above all, however, it is the story of the English Reformation and the making of the Anglican Church. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, England was still largely feudal and looked to Rome for direction; at its end, it was a country where good governance was the duty of the state, not the church, and where men and women began to look to themselves for answers rather than to those who ruled them. |
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The second book in the Tales of the Otori trilogy continues the epic story of Otori Takeo and Shirakawa Kaede, the young lovers whose fate is played out in an ancient Oriental world, where ritualized codes of high honor counter the cruelty of savage blood-feuds. Takeo has pledged his life to the Tribe, a secret clan of spies and assassins who claim his legendary supernatural skills for their own ruthless purposes, in doing so he must deny his birthright as an Otori lord — and his love for Kaede. If he does not serve them, the Tribe will kill him.Kaede, separated from Takeo, must use her intelligence, beauty and cunning to assert her place in a world of all-powerful men — who must never know that she is carrying Takeo's child. In growing from boy to man, Takeo must make a choice — and the dangerous path he undertakes is a journey of high adventure, treachery and passion that establishes this extraordinary trilogy as one of the most brilliant and enduring works of modern fiction. Grass For His Pillow, the sequel to Across the Nightingale Floor, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, is one of the most eagerly-awaited novels of 2003. Lian Hearn has created a brilliantly imagined culture. Here is epic storytelling whose appeal crosses genres, genders and generations. |
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The year is 2020. Hyper-corporations control everything. In the name of domination, these sprawling organisations have recruited their own military forces to fight clandestine battles against one another. Enter ex-bounty hunter Joanna Dark: young, beautiful and lost, her run-in with data Dyne, the world's most powerful organisation, has left her with a wound only vengeance can heal. But Daniel Carrington, the charismatic founder of the Carrington Institute, believes Joanna's deadly skills may be the key to victory over their mutual enemy — an enemy he has been fighting for years. Initial Vector is the first of three Perfect Dark science fiction thrillers which take readers into a shadowy, mysterious new world of espionage, conspiracy and global conflict. Set partly in London and Wales, Initial Vector takes place six months after the events in Perfect Dark Zero. |
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After a health scare, Brighton-based Lou is forced to confront the fact that her time to have a baby is running out. She can't imagine a future without children, but her partner doesn't seem to feel the same way, and she's not sure whether she could go it alone. Meanwhile, up in Yorkshire, Cath is longing to start a family with her husband, Rich. No one would be happier to have a child than Rich, but Cath is infertile. Could these strangers help one another out? Combining Sarah Rayner's deft exploration of raw emotions with the joy and resilience of friendship, The Two Week Wait is a memorable, moving page-turner about two very different women, each yearning to create a family of her own. |
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This is the spellbinding new novel from the author of The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours. 1959: On a sweltering summer's day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can't wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything. 2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. This is a tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds — Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy — who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined. Shifting between the 1930s, the 1950s and the present, The Secret Keeper is a spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, theatre and thievery, murder and enduring love. |
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Caleb and Camille Fang have dedicated their lives to making great art. But for their children, Annie and Buster, who have been unwillingly involved in their parents' crazy performances for as long as they can remember, their art is an embarrassment. As soon as the children grow up they flee home, desperate to escape chaos of their parents' world. |
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Dead bodies are piling up for Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel. Usually when a serial killer is on the loose, the pressure would be building to find the perpetrator but the victims are all hardened criminals themselves. The national media can't believe their luck with an apparent vigilante on the streets, while Jessica's new boss seems grateful someone else is doing their job for them. But things aren't so straightforward when forensics matches blood from the apparent killer to a man already behind bars. |
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Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester and the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground. With a lengthy missing persons list and frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones, she has plenty to deal with — and that's before a detached finger arrives for her in the post. By the time a second hand is found and a local MP's wife goes missing, Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to, how they are connected and just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all. |
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When a body is found in a locked house, Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is left to not only find the killer but discover how they got in and out. With little in the way of leads and a journalist that seems to know more about the case than she does, Jessica is already feeling the pressure — and that's before a second body shows up in identical circumstances to the first. How can a murderer get to victims in seemingly impossible situations and what, if anything, links the bodies? |
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As Queen Victoria's reign reaches its end, Grace Farringdon dreams of polar explorations and of escape from her stifling home with her protective parents and eccentric, agoraphobic sister. But when Grace secretly applies to Candlin, a women's college filled with intelligent, like-minded women, she finally feels her ambitions beginning to be take shape. There she forms an Antarctic Exploration Society with the gregarious suffragette Locke, the reserved and studious Hooper and the strange, enigmatic Parr, and before long the group are defying their times and their families by climbing the peaks of Snowdonia and planning an ambitious trip to the perilous Alps. Fifteen years later, trapped in her Dulwich home, Grace is haunted by the terrible events that took place out on the mountains. She is the society's only survivor and for years people have demanded the truth of what happened, the group's horrible legacy a millstone around her neck. Now, as the eve of the Second World War approaches, Grace is finally ready to remember and to confess... From one of the finest writers of the psychological thriller comes this beautifully woven, deeply unsettling historical novel; powerfully atmospheric, shivering with menace and reminiscent of the very best of Sarah Waters. |
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Coroner Jenny Cooper returns in her most explosive journey yet. When Flight 189 plunges into the Seven Estuary, Coroner Jenny Cooper finds herself handling the case of a lone sailor whose boat appears to have been sunk by the stricken plane, and drawn into the mysterious fate of a ten year-old girl, Amy Patterson, a passenger on 189, whose largely unmarked body is washed up alongside his. While a massive and highly secretive operation is launched to recover clues from the wreckage, Jenny begins to ask questions the official investigation doesn't want answered. How could such a high tech plane — virtually impregnable against human error — fail? What linked the high powered passengers who found themselves on this ill-fated flight? And how did Amy Patterson survive the crash, only to perish hours later? Under pressure from Amy's grieving mother, and opposed by those at the very highest levels of government, Jenny must race against time to seek the truth behind this terrible disaster, before it can happen again... |
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Young Sherlock Holmes is back to solve his fifth amazing adventure. Kidnapped and taken to China, Sherlock finds himself plunged into mystery. How can three men be bitten by the same poisonous snake in different parts of Shanghai? Who wants them dead, and why? The answer seems to lie in a message hidden in a diagram like a spider's web. But solving it leads to an even more urgent question: what has all this got to do with a plot to blow up an American warship? Sherlock is about to brave terrors greater than any he has faced before... Sherlock Holmes: think you know him? Think again. |
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Global is a true multimedia course, with a range of digital components fully integrated into its structure. Stylish print coursebooks are mirrored by digital versions for interactive whiteboards. The innovative eWorkbook enables students to take control of their learning, at their own pace, whenever and wherever they like. All of these features combine to give both you the teacher and your students the best of all worlds. Displays the Coursebook pages whilst making all the associated multimedia assets (audio/video/ interactive activities) instantly accessible. It features a full set of tools for creating content in the Teacher's Area, and is platform independent so it can be used with any interactive whiteboard or even a projector/laptop combination. |
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Global is a ground-breaking 6-level adult course for today's learners of English. It enables for today's learners of English. It enables you to learn English as it is used in our globalised world, to learn through English using information-rich topics and to learn about English as an international language. Global offers a comprehensive range of interactive digital components for use in class, out of class and even on the move. These include extra listening, video material online practice. The global course book is also available in a fully interactive digital version with embedded multimedia assets. |
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