Literature

Agatha Christie's ingenious murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. Nick Buckley was an unusual name for a pretty young woman. But then she had led an unusual life. First, on a treacherous Cornish hillside, the brakes on her car failed. Then, on a coastal path, a falling boulder missed her by inches. Later, an oil painting fell and almost crushed her in bed. Upon discovering a bullet-hole in Nick's sun hat, Hercule Poirot decides the girl needs his protection. At the same time, he begins to unravel the mystery of a murder that hasn't been committed. Yet.

THE PERSIANS is a definitive new history of the Persian Empire, the world's first superpower. The Great Kings of Persia ruled over the largest Empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the Steppes of Asia, and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. At the heart of the Empire was the fabled palace-city of Persepolis where the Achaemenid monarchs held court in unparalleled grandeur. From here, Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes, and their heirs passed laws, raised armies, and governed their multicultural Empire of enormous diversity. The Achaemenids, however, were one of the great dysfunctional families of history. Brothers fought brothers for power, wives and concubines plotted to promote their sons to the throne, and eunuchs and courtiers vied for influence and prestige. Our understanding of the Persian Empire has traditionally come from the histories of Greek writers such as Herodotus - and as such, over many centuries, our perspective has been skewed by ancient political and cultural agendas. Professor Llewellyn-Jones, however, calls upon original Achaemenid sources, including inscriptions, art, and recent archaeological discoveries in Iran, to create an authentic 'Persian Version' of this remarkable first great empire of antiquity - the Age of the Great Kings.

'It was the discovery of the essays celebrating his childhood and youth that altered my perception of Camus, from a thinker to a writer whose intellectual lucidity was a product of the wealth - the sensual immediacy and clarity - that had been heaped on his senses' Geoff Dyer Albert Camus was born in a 'world of poverty and sunshine' in Algeria, which would infuse all of his work. This new collection brings together three volumes of Camus' most intimate autobiographical writings for the first time. The Wrong Side and the Right Side, his first book, describes his family and his early years in a working-class neighbourhood. Nuptials rejoices in the sensuality of sun, landscape and sea, while Summer ranges over the cities of Algiers and Oran, nature and identity. Lyrical and emotional, these pieces enrich our understanding of Camus and his love of life.

Mrs. Darling dozes in the nursery as her children sleep. Suddenly, the window bursts open, and Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up, flies in. Seeing a grown-up in the room, he gnashes his perfect set of pearly baby teeth at her. The children’s nurse, Nana, a Newfoundland dog, gallops in and chases the boy out the window, slamming it shut with her paws. Peter escapes just in time, but his shadow is not so lucky. Now it is trapped in the nursery, and everyone knows he will come back for it. When he does, Wendy, John, and Michael will begin the greatest adventure any siblings have ever had. Peter whisks the children off to Neverland to meet the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell the fairy, and Princess Tiger Lily. Together, they wage fierce battles against the evil Captain Hook and his dreaded band of ruthless pirates, whose only goal in life, it seems, is to destroy Peter and his friends. Â

Fifty years before its golden age, Athens was just another city-state in Sparta's shadow. David Stuttard tells the story of the father and son who lifted Athens. Miltiades defeated the Persians at Marathon; Cimon drove them from Greece, revitalized the war-torn city, and moderated its foreign policy, creating the conditions for Athenian greatness.

'A bold, sumptuous portrait of a great artist and the women who inspired, frustrated, loved, and loathed him... Picasso's Lovers is an epic, sensuous delight' Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling authorA vivid reimagination of the women drawn into Pablo Picasso's charismatic orbit, for readers of The Paris Wife and Mrs Hemingway. Paris, 1923. The city is a Bohemian paradise for beautiful and wealthy foreigners seduced by the promise of a different life. Pablo Picasso is already famous, and anything seems possible in the name of art. New York, 1953. For aspiring journalist Alana Olson, there's always been something about Picasso. Her fascination leads to a series of intimate interviews with Sara Murphy and Irene Legut - two women from Picasso's once-vibrant French social circle. But as Alana is pulled deeper into the glamorous and tragic stories of the past, she begins to uncover what really lies beneath the canvas - and a disturbing convergence with her own life that bring her closer to Picasso, and those who loved and loathed him, than she ever could have imagined.

Ιt was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. . . .
 
Mysterious and subtly erotic, Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling landmark of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides as a masterpiece of intrigue.

Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is mixing business with pleasure - he's getting paid to follow a lovely mysterious redhead called Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble is sure to follow. But she's easy on the eye and Marlowe's happy to do as he's told. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon's snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder . . .