British Classics

After reuniting with her lover, Jane Doe thought she finally found her place in life. She has a name, a family and a declaration of love from the enigmatic Edward Rochester, but in a single moment of violence, everything is destroyed. In the aftermath, she’s has no choice but to flee Thornfield if she hopes to save herself from the same darkness that has claimed him. Alone and afraid, Jane turns to the only person she knows can help, John Rivers. He gladly offers her refuge at his art studio and it is here she hopes to find the way forward into a new life… but Thornfield and the secrets...

All her life, all Jane Doe has ever wanted was a name, a family and someone to love. She’s suffered many hardships, but none have come close to her treatment at the hands of the enigmatic Edward Rochester. The only thing Jane wants to do is love Edward openly, but he has forced her to keep their budding romance hidden. Despite giving him an ultimatum, his will is set in stone and he refuses. His secrets run so deep they’ve driven a wedge between their hearts, keeping them apart but still longing for one another. Driven by death, madness, rivalry, violence and love, their story ...

“This book will make you laugh, and cry! The story line was extraordinary and the characters came alive. You FEEL every emotion… You will fall in love with all the men…You will find this book VERY hard to put down!”—Amazon Customer This is an excellent book! The characters are well developed and engaging. It is amazing all that Ellen has endured. Richard rescues her from an evil man. Richard is so kind and giving even though he has suffered unspeakable things. Gavin sees Ellen and instantly wants her. Has to have her, but Ellen has to keep her past a secret. I didn't want to put ...

An assembly of family, friends, lovers, and enemies are ensnared by the long-running court case Jarndyce and Jarndyce. For orphan Esther Summerson, it might lead to the truth of her parentage. The arrogant Lady Dedlock fears the legal tangle could expose her secret. For the malevolent solicitor Mr. Tulkinghorn, the costly dispute is a gainful opportunity. As for John Jarndyce, Esther’s guardian and master of Bleak House, it’s a chance to correct the past. When questions of inheritance become a trigger for murder, the sharp-eyed Inspector Bucket enters the fray.

“Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur everyday than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.” - Benjamin Franklin Captain Whittaker Stanwick has a successful military career and a respectable home farm in Lancashire. What he does not have in his life is felicity. Therefore, when the opportunity arrives, following his wife’s death, Stanwick sets out to know a bit of happiness, at last—finally to claim a woman who stirs his soul. Yet, he foolishly commits himself to one woman only weeks before he has found a woman, though shunned by her people ...

After Arthur Penfold’s wife reveals she is leaving him to care for her ailing aunt, he sets upon a path of murder and deceit to avoid the social embarrassment of a second marital breakdown. But the purchase of a poetry book triggers a sequence of events that begins to unravel both Arthur and a seemingly open-and-shut murder case.

Timeless Elegance By Lillian Cotswold-Hartford Discover the guarded beauty secrets of history's most elegant women - from Bletchley Park's codebreakers to Hollywood's golden era. This essential guide reveals: • The forbidden ingredients banned by mid-century tastemakers • Model-approved morning rituals for lasting radiance • Wartime skincare ciphers that still work today • The unbreakable laws of true sophistication More than a beauty manual - a masterclass in enduring grace.

In 1959, Nancy’s life changes dramatically when her family moves to a new town, Stevenage. Now there is room for a piano, Nancy loses herself in an imagined past of Mozart’s lesser known sister, while making unexpected discoveries of her own inscrutable mother’s history. In 1989 the piano becomes a fixture in a women’s community centre in the town, in a time of personal strife for Martha and her friends. The politics of the era threaten the existence of the centre, and the future of this group of women. A troubled young man buys the piano in 1997 and places it in his sparse flat at ...

Miller Street Murder is a riveting English murder mystery set in the heart of London during the 1920s. Dive into the dark alleys and hidden corners of Miller Street, where secrets are buried, and danger lurks in every shadow. Esteban Olson, a hardworking greengrocer, is living a simple life until one fateful Sunday evening when a mysterious phone call lures him out, only for him to be found murdered on his way back home. With a handleless knife piercing his heart, his death sends shockwaves through the tight-knit community. Who could have committed such a brutal act, and why? As the police ...

There’s a new detective on the Lake District beat. Owen Irvine is an ex-cop, a countryman, a craftsman - and a natural detective. So when he hears a disturbing tale of a con man who’s preying on vulnerable women in search of love, he just can’t help but become involved. J J Salkeld’s regular readers will already know the Kendal CID team, led by the newly un-retired DI Andy Hall. And although the police can’t commit investigative resources, recently promoted DC Abla Khan is only too keen to join Irvine on the trail of the man they call ‘Jason Strong’. But when events take a ...

The remarkably honest and brilliantly entertaining memoir of one of our finest acting Dames whose long and celebrated career includes her much-loved performance as Livia in I, Claudius and who was married for 20 years to the hell-raising Hollywood star Peter O'Toole. Siân Phillips has a long and celebrated career on both stage and screen. For the first time, her two best-selling volumes of memoir Private Faces and Public Places will be available as a single volume with a brand new foreword by the author.

During her lifetime Violet Paget, who wrote as Vernon Lee, was referred to as 'the greatest of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction', and yet today she remains on the periphery of the genre. This collection of her uniquely weird short stories and dark fantasies proves why she was once considered among the best of the genre, and why she deserves to return to those ranks today.

With his longtime girlfriend, Ellie, detective Peter Pascoe is off to Thornton Lacey for an exciting weekend reunion with a few of his college friends. However, upon arrival, he finds no cause for celebration. Instead, there's been a triple homicide, and one of his friends-the chief suspect-is missing.

LADY CORA TAKES SOCIETY BY STORM . . . Lady Cora Midland, a highly-spirited country beauty, offers no pretensions, which wins her many admirers, despite her lack of knowledge on how to manage the beau monde. However, Matthew Harrington, Lord Lindmore, believes she is taking advantage of his elderly grandmother, who is assisting with the girl’s presentation, and he means to put a stop to the chit’s shenanigans. LORD MATTHEW LINDMORE IS IN DENIAL . . . So he might keep an eye on the woman, Lindmore reluctantly assists his grandmother in bringing Lady Cora out in Society. Yet, what ...

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection The Edinburgh Mystery. Published in 1955, this is a domestic tale which sees a family member commit the ultimate crime when they’ve had enough of their miserly aunt’s frugal ways.

With his partner away on a honeymoon, Yorkshire detective Andrew Dalziel tries to beat the blues by taking a vacation of his own. But after getting caught in a torrential rain and running into a funeral procession, he winds up accompanying a crowd of upper-class mourners to a crumbling country house. Dalziel isn't known for his elegant manners, but he has bigger problems than not fitting in: The owner of the home has died under unusual circumstances, and soon more bodies are turning up.

A woman goes missing. Her car is discovered in the Australian Outback, burnt out but there is no body. Her husband, her son and the local gigolo are all suspects but the case comes to a dead end then Police Constable Elizabeth West is bound, gaged and abducted by a ruthless killer. Can Detective Bigfoot save her? 'Deadly serious and laugh out loud funny.' Revised and Rewritten.

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett. The untold, steamy hot story… While staying at Hunsford Parsonage, Miss Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) Bennet befriends the clever and provocative Abby Trenwith, a woman dedicated to enlightening others in the pleasures of the flesh. Intrigued, Lizzy agrees to receive an education from a mentor appointed by her new friend. Little does she know that her masked mentor is the arrogant Mr. Darcy, a man who ruined her sister’s prospects for marital happiness. Darcy, a longtime friend of Abby, is desperately looking for a way to take his mind off the clever and ...

“Frank Hugh Smallwood was first murdered on the 15th of April, 1927” Bookseller Theodore Terhune investigates an old homicide case after he stumbles on the freshly murdered corpse of seaman Frank Smallwood, a man thought to have been murdered nearly twenty years previously during a houseboat party on the Thames. Smallwood’s alleged killer Charles Cockburn was convicted and served a lengthy prison sentence before being killed in the war. So who wanted Smallwood dead now? And what actually happened between Smallwood and Cockburn all those years ago? A book of poetry found lying near the...

Patrick O’Brian is acclaimed as one of the greatest historical novelists of the twentieth century, celebrated throughout the world for his masterful roman fleuve, the Aubrey‒Maturin series. But he was also a prolific writer of short stories, and it is in this form that he first made his mark. Encompassing stories written in his unvarnished youth to tales told by a seasoned traveller, this is the most comprehensive collection of O’Brian’s short fiction ever published. It is a treasure chest, containing more than sixty tales, including rarities, uncollected works, and forgotten jewels.