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Dinner'A cracking black comedy that has you laughing uproariously one moment and jumping with shock the next . . . For those with strong stomachs, Dinner offers a delicious feast of comedy and the macabre.' Daily TelegraphDying for It'A subversive Russian classic: one that addresses the ultimate question of "e;why live?"e;' Guardian'The play, freely adapted by Moira Buffini, presents a glorious gallery of comic types.' IndependentWelcome to Thebes'It's thrilling. Moira Buffini's strange and daring play is moving, wise, funny, horrifying . . . Full of resonances you weren't expecting, jokes you didn't see coming . . . It raises huge questions with wit.' The TimesHandbaggedWinner of the 2014 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre'A phenomenon.' Sunday Telegraph'Perfectly pitched between the comic and the serious.' Guardian

In Herod: Reflections on Political Violence (first published in 1978) Conor Cruise O'Brien collects a number of essays alongside three short plays that dramatise political arguments through the infamous figure of the Roman king of Judaea for whom the collection is named.'A great book. In it, O'Brien not only denounces IRA terrorism, as you would expect from a mainstream politician, but - in a sense quite different from the rationalisations offered by ideological apologists for political violence - seeks to understand it. I mean, really understand it - not extenuate it by equivocation and non sequitur. And his thinking leads him to attack the republican mythology at the heart of the Irish state. Few writers have analysed terrorism so acutely or been as effective in undermining its ideological justifications.' Oliver Kamm, from his preface to this edition

The Suspecting Glance (first published in 1972) collects Conor Cruise O'Brien's four T. S. Eliot Memorial Lectures as delivered at the University of Kent, Canterbury, in November 1969. The lectures were inspired by O'Brien's experience of holding the Albert Schweitzer Chair in Humanities at New York University from 1965-9, and there teaching students in whom he noted burning radical convictions but also a disconcerting 'lack of suspicion in those bright, young eyes'. Whereas to O'Brien's mind the 'suspecting glance' was a mark of political maturity that had to be first directed at one's own opinions prior to decrying another's.Brien's Eliot lectures were, as his friend Frank Callanan noted, a 'corrective gesture' toward his New York experience. In them he considers four writers - Machiavelli, Burke, Nietzsche, Yeats - whom he reads as being 'profoundly aware of the resource and versatility of violence and deception in man, in society, and in themselves'.

Not one of us must breathe a word of what we've found.It's a dark and stormy night. Jim, the inn-keeper's granddaughter, opens the door to a terrifying stranger. At the old sailor's feet sits a huge sea-chest, full of secrets. Jim invites him in - and her dangerous voyage begins.Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story of murder, money and mutiny, premiered at the National Theatre, London, in December 2014, in a thrilling adaptation by Bryony Lavery.

Written in 1972 in the wake of Bloody Sunday and direct rule, States of Ireland was Conor Cruise O'Brien's searching analysis of contemporary Irish nationalism: part-memoir, part-history, part-polemic.'If The Great Melody (1992) is O'Brien's major academic work, States of Ireland is the one that will endure as a vital moment in Irish intellectual and political history.' Roy Foster, Standpoint'States of Ireland [is] a book which influenced a generation. [O'Brien] saw that partition, while scarcely desirable in itself, recognized the reality of two different communities in the island, and that the Dublin state's formal irredentist claim on Northern Ireland was undemocratic and even imperialistic, as well as insincere. The republican ideology to which most Irish people paid lip service was a shirt of Nessus, he later wrote: "e;it clings to us and burns"e;.' Geoffrey Wheatcroft,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Conor Cruise O'Brien's penetrative reading of Albert Camus, Nobel laureate and author of L',tranger and La Peste, was originally published in 1970.'O'Brien's Camus is brilliant. While having been himself profoundly moved by Camus's work, he asks why students have so often misinterpreted him.' Marghanita Laski, The Times'[Camus] displays O'Brien's cultivated intelligence at its most joyous pitch, and . . . demonstrates his unique critical talent . . . [O'Brien] demonstrates that Camus was far from being an exemplar of the truly independent intellectual and that his conception of "e;Mediterranean culture"e; served to legitimise France's possession of Algeria . . . O'Brien's prose has a sweet rigour as he first explores Camus's sense of estrangement and unreality, and then places his work within a social context.' Tom Paulin, Times Literary Supplement

Arguably Conor Cruise O'Brien's most influential and admired book was this brilliant collection of essays - on history, literature and public affairs - first published in 1965. 'I can still remember the excitement with which I discovered a copy of Writers and Politics, in a provincial library in Devonshire thirty years ago. Nobody who tries to write about either of those subjects, or about "e;the bloody crossroads"e; where they have so often met, can disown a debt to the Cruiser.' Christopher Hitchens, London Review of Books'When a liberal can write such pieces as "e;Mercy and Mercenaries"e;, "e;Journal de Combat"e;, "e;Varieties of Anti-Communism"e;, "e;A New Yorker Critic"e;, and "e;Generation of Saints"e;, an important voice has returned to our culture.' Raymond Williams,Guardian

The last of the three trilogies authored by David Stacton (1923-68) was described by the author as 'an intermezzo designed to deal with sexual relations'. After Old Acquaintance (1962) and Sir William (1963) came Kaliyuga (1965), described by Stacton as 'the story of the relations of Siva and Kali, lightly told'.Its chief figures are Charlie and Denise, an American couple in Switzerland, prone to domestic spats. After one such set-to Charlie finds himself wishing men were gods, so to be spared the banality of life's cyclical little dramas. But he knows not of what he speaks or wants. In Hindu mythology the gods go round and round as we do, making the same mistakes - as Charlie and Denise will discover.

'What will survive of us is love.'In this new anthology poets from across the ages lead us on a journey of love in its many forms. From Shakespeare to Rossetti, Keats to Auden, Byron to Browning an beyond, as well as a host of contemporary voices including Wendy Cope, Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy, this new gathering of timeless love poems speaks to the heart about this most universal of themes.Whether in marriage or heartbreak, friendship or infatuation, whether in pursuit of the unattainable ideal or else settling down together for life, whether in love or out of it, you will find poems here to touch the heart. A vital assembly of our most treasured and enduring love poems.

I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all.Promising young playwright Will Shakespeare is tormented by writer's block until he finds his muse in the form of passionate noblewoman, Viola De Lesseps. Their forbidden love draws many others, including Queen Elizabeth, into the drama and inspires Will to write the greatest love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet.Based on Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's Oscar-winning screenplay, Lee Hall's stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love premiered in July 2014 at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, in a co-production by Disney and Sonia Friedman Productions.

The first literary phase in the brilliant and protean career of Conor Cruise O'Brien was his work as critic for Dublin literary magazine The Bell, which begat this collection of essays first published in 1952 (under the pseudonym 'Donat O'Donnell', as O'Brien was then a working civil servant.) In it, O'Brien set himself to a study of 'the patterns of several exceptionally vivid imaginations which are permeated by Catholicism' - from Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh to Francois Mauriac and Paul Claudel - and to analyse 'what those patterns might share'. The originality and flair of Maria Cross won O'Brien many vocal admirers, among them Dag Hammarskjold, cerebral Secretary-General of the United Nations.'A most interesting and at times brilliant book, admirably and wittily written.'New Statesman'One of the most acute and stimulating books of literary criticism to be published for some years.' Spectator

It Was the Nightingale (1962) was the tenth volume of Williamson's great roman-fleuve, A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight. After only a year of married happiness, Phillip Maddison experiences tragedy when his young wife Barley dies in childbirth. Left with a baby son, a cat, a dog and an otter cub he and Barley rescued while on holiday in France, Phillip endures the deepest grief. When the otter goes missing Phillip dedicates his life to searching for her, in the hope that success might grant him a new start in life.'At times almost unbearably poignant... In It Was the Nightingale Maddison enters a world with which Williamson, on the strength of the remarkable Tarka the Otter, will always be associated.' Anthony Burgess, Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939

Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Toad has always been a silly sort of fellow. But when his latest obsession with motor cars - the faster the better - threatens to lead him to disaster, it is up to Toad's good friends Mole, Ratty and Badger to get him under control. Can they save Toad from prison, and his home Toad Hall from the wicked Weasels and Stoats? Adventure abounds in this classic story of friendship.

The secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.Mary Lennox has grown up in India, surrounded by colour and life, and people who always do exactly what she wants. When her parents die, she is sent to her uncle's cold and lonely manor on the Yorkshire moors. There she finds the house and the gardens full of secrets. And unearthing them might just lead to the greatest discovery of all.The classic tale about the healing powers of friendship and nature in a stunning new edition.

July 1960: The newly independent Congo is hit by the secession of its mineral rich-province Katanga, led by Mo,se Tshombe and backed by Belgium and Britain.June 1961: Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien arrives in Katanga as Special Representative of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskj,ld, his task (under a UN resolution) to arrest and repatriate the mercenaries and foreign interests propping up Tshombe. The consequences of this mission will prove fateful for all parties.This is the story of how a brilliant Irish diplomat found himself in Africa amid one of history's maelstroms. O'Brien reconstructs the complex, tragic, sometimes comic events of a drama in which he found himself controversially at centre stage. The result is history from the inside: a valuable study of 'the game of nations', and of the UN's unique functioning and malfunctioning.

Locked into a bloody cycle of murder and reprisal, Electra, haunted by her father's assassination, is consumed by grief and a thirst for vengeance. When her brother Orestes at last returns, she urges him to a savage and terrifying conclusion. Frank McGuinness's charged adaptation of Sophocles' powerful tragedy was first performed at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1997 and was revived at the Old Vic, London, in 2014.

1946, Texarkana: a town on the border of Texas and Arkansas. Disgraced New York reporter Charlie Yates has been sent to cover the story of a spate of brutal murders - young couples who've been slaughtered at a local date spot. Charlie finds himself drawn into the case by the beautiful and fiery Lizzie, sister to one of the victims, Alice - the only person to have survived the attacks and seen the killer up close. But Charlie has his own demons to fight, and as he starts to dig into the murders he discovers that the people of Texarkana have secrets that they want kept hidden at all costs. Before long, Charlie discovers that powerful forces might be protecting the killer, and as he investigates further his pursuit of the truth could cost him more than his job... Loosely based on true events, The Dark Inside is a compelling and pacy thriller that heralds a new voice in the genre. It will appeal to fans of RJ Ellory, Tom Franklin, Daniel Woodrell and True Detective.

Above all don't use the word good as though it meant something in evolutionary science.Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness?This is 'the hard problem' which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry.Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask?Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard premieres at the National Theatre, London, in January 2015.

A new edition of the well-loved classic story.Even before she came to Belton, Minty Cane had known that she was a witch, or something very like it...Minty is the kind of girl who notices things. Pockets of cold air on a stairway. Cries on the wind. Ghosts.On night-time jaunts from the house where she's staying while her mother recovers from an accident, Minty stumbles upon a moondial which takes her back in time. She finds Tom, a sickly kitchen boy, and Sarah, a girl with a birthmark who is only allowed out at night because her family think she has the mark of the devil...Can Minty save her friends, or will she get stuck in the past...?

It's November 1917 and the Third Battle of Ypres is lurching towards its bloody conclusion. Young soldiers Will, Robbie and Jumbo are thrust into a landscape starkly different to the playing fields and estates of their Sunderland home. When the trio's singing causes a disturbance up the line, they face unwelcome attention from their commanding officers. Is music their ticket away from the front, as Robbie dreams, or will the passion it brings about prove more dangerous than bullets and gas?The Muddy Choir is a story about boys growing up and the humanising power of music. The play, which includes period songs, tells the story of three young boys serving with the Durham Light Infantry in 1917.Marking the centenary of the First World War, Jesse Briton's The Muddy Choir was first performed in a UK tour in 2014 produced by Theatre Centre.

The Innocent Moon (1961) was the ninth volume in Henry Williamson's great roman-fleuve, A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight. It is the early 1920s and Phillip Maddison, out of the army, is determined to become a writer. When his career as a journalist founders, he retires to Devon on his motorcycle to share a cottage with a friend and devote himself to his work. But this arrangement does not succeed and before long Phillip finds himself alone. Meanwhile, his heart is assailed by what he takes for love - but not until he has shed certain illusions does he discover what he seeks, from a source that is least expected. Set against the London literary world as well as the superbly drawn Devon landscape, The Innocent Moon paints an unforgettable picture of its times.

London and the Reformation (1989) was the first book by Susan Brigden (later to win the prestigious Wolfson Prize for her Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest). It tells of London's sixteenth-century transformation by a new faith that was both fervently evangelised and fiercely resisted, as a succession of governments and monarchs - Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary - vied for control. London's disproportionate size and wealth, its mix of social forces and high politics, and the strength of its religious sectors made the capital a key factor in the reception of the English Reformation. Brigden draws upon rich archival sources to examine how these religious dilemmas were confronted.'A tour de force of historical narrative... which can be read with both pleasure and profit by scholars and non-scholars alike.' Times Literary Supplement'Magisterial... richly detailed... teeming with the vivid street language of the sixteenth century.' London Review of Books

The Fall of Doctor Onslow (1994) was the sixth and final novel by Frances Vernon (1963-91). Published posthumously, it is perhaps her finest work. Set in 1858, it is the story of Dr George Onslow, reformist headmaster of a leading public school, who harbours private passions that are fated to be the death of his life's ambition.'A searing indictment of the process of education... The narrative is tersely written in a style that successfully captures Victorian restraint and its stifling sensibilities.' Ben Preston, The Times'A remarkable work, written with spirit and erudition... It is difficult to believe when reading it that the author was a child of our times and did not actually live in the middle of the last century: she recreates that world so vividly, with such understanding of its characters, such an ear for its speech, such feeling for its attitudes and taboos.' Jill Delay, Tablet

Sir William (1963) was the second entry in David Stacton's triptych of novels on the theme of 'The Sexes', for which he chose to fictionalise one of history's great love affairs.'David Stacton's novel of the notorious m,nage , trois between the fetching Lady Hamilton, her husband Sir William, and her lover, Lord Nelson, is a scintillating piece of historical fiction.' New York World-Telegram'Stacton's best book... written with epigrammatic wit and grace.' Kirkus Reviews'A sweeping luxuriant romp through the pre-Trafalgar life of Lady Hamilton. Her Pygmalion rescue from whoredom by the ineffable Charles Greville is wickedly told.' Sunday Times'Stacton is a magnificent storyteller.' Book Week

The Marquis of Westmarch (1989) was Frances Vernon's fifth novel, and perhaps her most original and richly imagined work, fit to stand comparison with Th,ophile Gautier's famous gender-bending historical romance Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835). Its protagonist is Meriel Longmaster, a handsome and well-liked nobleman who conceals a secret known only to the loyal steward who has known him since youth. Meriel begins to feel the need to confide that secret in another, while sensing, rightly, that this will have dire consequences.'A book which combines the narrative excitement of Georgette Heyer with the sexual premises of Germaine Greer ... a provocative and lively presentation of feminist issues.' Caroline Brandenburger, Independent 'A fantastic, haunting, and extremely well-written story of love and death.' Philippa Toomey, The Times

A few friends. People we like. No craziness. The days of a big blow out are over.Kate is delighted when she finds a house in the country to escape to for New Year's Eve. Gathering together a select group of her closest friends, she is keen to start the coming year afresh. But successful, stressed-out thirtysomethings in search of a good time can make for one very fearsome party . . . and some surprising resolutions.Michael Wynne's The Priory premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in November 2009.

April, 1945.East of Berlin, the Red Army stands poised to unleash its final assault upon the ruined capital of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich.To the north, at a lonely outpost near the Baltic sea, German scientists perfect a guidance system for the mighty V2 rocket, which has already caused massive damage to the cities of London and Antwerp. This device, known only by the codename Diamondstream, will allow the rocket to arrive at its target with pin-point accuracy. So devastating is the potential of this newly-mastered technology that Hitler's promise to the German people of a 'miracle weapon' that will turn the tide of the war might actually come true.When a radio message sent to Hitler's Headquarters, heralding the success of Diamondstream, is intercepted by an English listening station, British Intelligence orders one of its last agents operating in Berlin to acquire the plans for the device, Desperate to evacuate their agent from the doomed city before the Red Army swarms through its streets, British Special Operations turns to the Kremlin for help. They ask for one man in particular - Inspector Pekkala.Anxious to acquire the plans for himself, Stalin readily agrees to risk his finest investigator on what appears to be a suicide mission. But when Pekkala learns the reason that the British have singled him out, he knows that he must make the journey, no matter what the outcome might be. The agent he must rescue is the woman he had planned to marry, before the Revolution tore them apart, sending her to Paris as a refugee and Pekkala to a gulag in Siberia.This time, for Pekkala, it is personal.

This volume of Paul Auster's collected novels includes Travels in the Scriptorium, Man in the Dark, Invisible and Sunset Park.

First published in 2001, Dr Berlin was the final volume in Francis Bennett's Cold War trilogy.'For all of us now the Cold War is history... What interested me as a writer was how we survived. What went on behind the scenes?... I went looking for my own fictional explanations for historical events...' Francis Bennett Dr Andrei Berlin is a respected Moscow academic and Party member - also a secret informer who has sickened of his own lies and weakness. On the eve of departure to lecture in Cambridge he is asked by a disillusioned faction in the Soviet military to deliver a message to the West. Can Berlin redeem his life of deception by one courageous act?'A fine, satisfying espionage novel.' Kirkus Reviews'A rare piece of subtle and complex storytelling.' The Times

First published in 1998, Making Enemies was the opening volume in Francis Bennett's Cold War trilogy.'For all of us now the Cold War is history... What interested me as a writer was how we survived. What went on behind the scenes?... I went looking for my own fictional explanations for historical events.' Francis Bennett Making Enemies centres on the race for the hydrogen bomb in 1947. Russia and the West, wartime allies, are now bitter enemies. Soviet Colonel Andropov tries to stall Britain's development of a nuclear deterrent, and a young British army officer unwittingly becomes enmeshed in his conspiracy.'[Making Enemies] is more than the intelligent reader's spy thriller... Like all the best historical novels, the authenticity of background and time lend the story added credibility. I have never read the relationship between an intelligence officer and his pawn described so well.' Phillip Knightley, Daily Mail