Books

An adapted and illustrated edition of Jane Austen's romantic classic - at an easy-to-read level for all ages.

Laura has lived a fairy-tale life until a stranger knocks on her cottage door. Then her adventures and her troubles begin. In dramatic letters, Laura tells of heartless fathers and runaway children, long-lost grandfathers and thieving cousins. Hers is a story of doomed love, fierce friendship, and the unexpected dangers of fainting.

All Catherine wants is to be like the heroines in the books she reads. On her first trip away from home, she finally gets her chance. A new friendship and a growing love lead her to the spooky Northanger Abbey. There Catherine will find that a little imagination can cause a lot of trouble.

A beautifully illustrated adapted classic that will introduce children to the works of Jane Austen.

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen's brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen's previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel's characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolises for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.

Filled with rusting relics and tattered treasure maps, The Old Curiosity Shop is Nell Trent’s favourite place in the whole world. This is lucky, because it’s also her home.

Both the experienced detective, Mr Lestrade, and consulting expert, Mr Sherlock Holmes, have concluded that this horrible series of events is the work of a MADMAN, not a common criminal. No other explanation makes sense.

I am perfectly willing to act as business manager for the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, at a minimum salary of £500 – Mr Hall Pycroft.

A children’s retelling of The Legends of King Arthur - with a QR code for the free audiobook!

All Merlin knows is the village where he mixes potions for wary customers, and dreams strange dreams that sometimes come true. Then a mysterious hooded man appears, seeking a boy with no mortal father, and Merlin is taken far away, to a crumbling tower and a ruthless king. To a place where his is not the only magic.

About The Legends of King Arthur Series Epic battles, thrilling quests and forbidden love combine in the medieval story of the boy who would be king. A retelling of the Arthurian legends, adapted and illustrated to introduce children aged 7+ to classic folklore. Great to share aloud, just like the original tales.

When a young governess, unemployed and desperate for a position, accepts a job with a couple living in a remote country home, her positive first impressions of the man and his family begin to change. With a mixture of fear and uncertainty, she asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate the increasingly disturbing events that have begun to unfold around her.

An illustrated adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock Holmes mystery – at an easy-to-read level for readers of all ages! Also includes a QR code for the free audiobook!

The police are no closer to solving the murder of horse trainer, John Straker. He was killed on Monday night, 22nd October. The famous racehorse, Silver Blaze, has been missing since the night of the attack.

The country’s most famous racehorse has mysteriously disappeared. What’s worse, his trainer has been murdered! All eyes turn to Sherlock Holmes to unravel this strange mystery, find the murderer and return Silver Blaze to safety – all before the Wessex Cup race.

In the story, Holmes recounts to Watson the events arising after a visit from a university acquaintance, Reginald Musgrave. Musgrave visits Holmes after the disappearance of two of his domestic staff, Rachel Howells, a maid, and Richard Brunton, the longtime butler. The pair vanished after Musgrave had dismissed Brunton for secretly reading a family document, the Musgrave Ritual.