Literature

HAS ROME FINALLY MET ITS MATCH?'A triumph!' Harry Sidebottom 'Exceptional' Anthony Riches'Fans of battle-heavy historical fiction will, justly, adore Clash of Empires' The Times****************THE MIGHT OF ROMEThe great general Hannibal Barca is on the verge of defeat. Victory will crown Rome the most powerful empire in the world. While the ambitious senator Flamininus plots his path to power...THE GLORY OF GREECEOnly unconquered Greece stands in the way of glory. King Philip V of Macedon's mighty phalanx is an enemy Rome has long feared, and one that has never known defeat. THE HEROES OF HISTORYDemetrios has dreamed of fighting with the phalanx his whole life, but the young villager will soon learn that, in a clash of empires, you're only ever one swing of the sword away from death - or entering legend. CLASH OF EMPIRES is the gripping first novel in a new series from the master of historical fiction - for fans of Simon Scarrow, Harry Sidebottom, Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell. *** PRE-ORDER BEN KANE'S NEW NOVEL, THE FALLING SWORD, TODAY ***What readers are saying about Ben Kane's masterful new historical novel:'I have not read much about the Roman Invasion of Greece 200-197BC, so with a breath of fresh air up pops Ben Kane with a very masterful tale' Amazon review'Grabs you from the start and never lets go' - Harry Sidebottom, author of the THE LAST HOUR'Ben does a great job telling the story from both Greek and Roman perspective' Amazon review'I haven't enjoyed a book this much for ages' - Giles Kristian, author of LANCELOT

The scene is London, in 1399. It is the last year of the fourteenth century, and there is talk of an apocalypse. Richard II is on the throne, yet strange signs and portents are troubling the latter part of his reign.

By the side of the River Fleet in Clerkenwell the people are restless, disenchanted with the church and their King. The streets of London are rife with rumour, heresy, espionage and murder and at the centre of the confusion is the nun, Sister Clarice, who has been vouchsafed visions of the future. Is she a genuine prophet, or the tool of earthly powers? This is a story of adventure and suspense set in the late medieval world.

As in many of Peter Ackroyd's novels the distant past is no longer a foreign country but something alarmingly close and authentic. As one critic has put it, 'he is our age's greatest London imagination'.

Hercule Poirot returns in another brilliant murder mystery that can only be solved by the eponymous Belgian detective and his 'little grey cells'. 'What I intend to say to you will come as a shock ...' Lady Athelinda Playford has planned a house party at her mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, but it is no ordinary gathering. As guests arrive, Lady Playford summons her lawyer to make an urgent change to her will - one she intends to announce at dinner that night. She has decided to cut off her two children without a penny and leave her fortune to someone who has only weeks to live ...Among Lady Playford's guests are two men she has never met - the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited ...until Poirot starts to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murderer to strike. But why does she seem so determined to provoke, in the presence of a possible killer? When the crime is committed in spite of Poirot's best efforts to stop it, and the victim is not who he expected it to be, will he be able to find the culprit and solve the mystery?Following the phenomenal global success of The Monogram Murders, which was published to critical acclaim following a co-ordinated international launch in September 2014, international best-selling crime writer Sophie Hannah has been commissioned by Agatha Christie Limited to pen a second fully-authorised Poirot novel. The new book marks the centenary of the creation of Christie's world-famous detective Hercule Poirot, introduced in her first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

IndependentShortlisted for the Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, winner of Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year and a BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club pick'Miraculous'Sunday Times'A masterful feast'Evening Standard'Shamelessly exciting'Spectator'Remarkable'Guardian'Stunning'Daily MailA novel of mind-bending imagination and scope from the author of Ghostwritten and Utopia AvenueSouls cross ages like clouds cross skies . . . Six interlocking lives - one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, Cloud Atlas erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us. *Please note that the end of p. 39 and p. 40 are intentionally blank*PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL'A thrilling and gifted writer'Financial Times'Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good'Daily Mail'Mitchell is, clearly, a genius'New York Times Book Review'An author of extraordinary ambition and skill'Independent on Sunday'A superb storyteller'The New Yorker

At the heart of Codename Xenophopn is the Greek nation: its history, culture and current predicament. We see a dysfunctional society through the eyes of George Zafiris, an Athens based private investigator. A thoughtful loner, he is forced to probe the heart of a failing society as he investigates a series of crimes the police show no interest in solving. A distinguished professor of ancient history is shot dead. Then a politician dies in mysterious circumstances and a journalist is murdered. George Zafiris has to find out if these deaths are connected. A gang of Georgian thugs may know the answer. Leo Kanaris has written a thoughtful crime mystery and has created a private investigator the Greek nation can be proud of.

'Marvellously unpredictable . . . by the end of the book you wish it was twice as long' (Daily Telegraph)How does the legacy of a family past shape who we are?Ferdinand von Schirach is one of Germany's most eminent criminal defence lawyers and an internationally bestselling writer. He is also the grandson of Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth movement. In Coffee and Cigarettes, his most personal book, von Schirach confronts his family history, through autobiographical vignettes and short stories drawn from his life and career. From conversations with imprisoned clients, great writers and supreme court judges; meditations on art, film, writing and smoking; to reflections on Germany's heavy history, Coffee and Cigarettes is a portrait of the author, and our modern world. Revealing, revelatory and thought-provoking, these essays confirm von Schirach as one of the most inimitable writers in Europe today.

The narrator of Cold Nights of Childhood grows up in a rapidly changing Turkey, where the atmosphere is nationalist, patriarchal, technocratic. As a misfit in search of freedom, love and happiness, she escapes to Berlin, is overcome by depression on her return, and trapped in a psychiatry clinic for five years. After electroshock therapy and inhumane treatment, she is released into the care of friends and family, making tentative steps in a halting journey towards recovery. In her unique, unstructured style, Tezer OEzlu explores the extremity of her inner life and the painful pleasures of memory. Translated into English for the first time by Maureen Freely, this novel is a classic akin to The Bell Jar and Good Morning, Midnight.

A few magical poems by Coleridge remain among the most celebrated works in the language: KUBLA KHAN, CHRISTABEL and - above all -THE ANCIENT MARINER. All are included in this volume, together with many other superb but lesser-known poems and a selected prose extracts from the BIOGRAPHIA LITERIA and the NOTEBOOKS which show that Coleridge was not only a major poet but also a great critic and prose writer.

With an Introduction by Donald McFarlan. Robert Burns, the most celebrated of all Scottish poets, is remembered with great devotion - his birthday on 25th January provokes fervour and festivity among Scots and many others the world over. Born in 1759 into miserable rustic poverty, by the age of eighteen Burns had acquired a good knowledge of both classical and English literature. In June 1786 his first collection of verse, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, which included 'To a Mouse' and 'The Cotter's Saturday Night', was greeted with huge acclaim by all classes of society. His later poems and ballads include 'Auld Lang Syne', the beautiful song 'My Love is like a Red Red Rose', 'Highland Mary', 'Scots Wha Hae' and his masterpiece, 'Tam o'Shanter'.

The definitive edition of Dylan Thomas's five published volumes of poems: 18 POEMS, TWENTY-FIVE POEMS, THE MAP OF LOVE, DEATHS AND ENTRANCES and IN COUNTRY SLEEP. Dylan Thomas wrote passionately about life in all its moods and moments: from the first thrilling moments of childbirth to the darker moments of death and loss. COLLECTED POEMS is introduced by the poet himself with a passionate seashore 'Prologue', in which the self-styled Noah of poetry builds his ark against ruin.

This edition includes his last, unfinished poem 'Elegy', and the opening of 'In Country Heaven' - an ambitious project conceived after the dropping of the atom bomb.