Overweight, oversexed and over there . . . Morgan Leafy is hardly the most respectable of Her Majesty's representatives in the West African state of Kinjanja. For starters, he probably shouldn't have involved himself in wholesale bribery. Nor was it a good career move to go chasing after his boss's daughter; especially when his doctor banned him from horizontal pursuits. But life is about to change for young Morgan Leafy. Every betrayal and humiliation he has suffered at the hands of petty persecutors is suddenly put into perspective. For Morgan has a dead body on his hands - and somehow, some way he's going to have to get rid of it . . .

William Tell is a good man, but his country is a dangerous place. The Swiss people don't like the Austrian emperor or his governor in Switzerland. Can William Tell help them in their fight with the Austrians? Or is he a man of peace?

William Tell is a good man, but his country is a dangerous place. The Swiss people don’t like the Austrian emperor or his governor in Switzerland. Can William Tell help them in their fight with the Austrians? Or is he a man of peace? Retold by Nancy Taylor.

A compulsively readable account of an African country now virtually inaccessible to the outside world and one journalist's daring and adventurous journey. When war correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to cover Africa in 2000 he quickly became obsessed with the idea of recreating H.M. Stanley's famous nineteenth century trans-Africa expedition - but travelling alone. Despite warnings that his plan was 'suicidal', Butcher set out for the Congo's eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vessels including a motorbike and a dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of unlikely characters, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers. Butcher's journey was a remarkable feat, but the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still. ‘A masterpiece’ John Le Carrй ‘Extraordinary, audacious, completely enthralling’ William Boyd ‘A remarkable marriage of travelogue and history, which deserves to make Tim Butcher a star for his prose, as well as his courage’ Max Hastings

Lose yourself again in the heady, mythical expanse of the Vorrh. The Vorrh is a vast unmapped and very mysterious jungle in Africa. No-one comes out of it in one piece. Survivors report strange, mind-bending phenomena and horrific monsters. It is rumoured that the Garden of Eden still exists somewhere in the middle of it. In The Erstwhile it transpires that some angels have escaped Eden and the Vorrh and are living in hiding in London, some in disguise as lunatics in Bedlam. It's also revealed that William Blake, a character in these novels, is interacting with these angels. Good and evil angels and humans, including William Blake, are heading towards a final, Miltonic apocalyptic battle for the soul of humanity. The Erstwhile is the second book in the Vorrh trilogy.

A Bend in the River is V. S. Naipaul's vivid exploration of post-colonial Africa at the time of Independence. With an introduction by Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Salim has spent most of his life on the east coast of Africa, living and working with his family. When he sets out to build a new life for himself, moving to an unnamed country in the heart of the continent he believes he is doing so to fulfil his duty as a man. He buys a small shop in a sleepy town, at a bend in the river, where he sells sundries to the locals. First published in 1979, A Bend in the River is V.S. Naipaul's vivid exploration of post-colonial Africa at the time of Independence. Serving as a microcosm of this changing world, his bend in the river is a scene of chaos, violent change, warring tribes, ignorance, isolation and poverty. And from this rich landscape emerges one of the author's most potent works - a truly moving story of historical upheaval and social breakdown.

Can she escape her past? After being orphaned as a child, Mary is taken in by her mother's friend Nell and raised as her own. But when Nell dies her step-father takes too much of an interest in Mary and she is forced to leave home, landing a job as a bar maid. Only Whitelocks is no spit and sawdust pub but a new gin palace in the centre of Leeds. Mary thinks she's landed on her feet. More so when she catches the eye of William Winn, the charming owner of a glamorous new hotel. But Mary is the daughter of a music hall singer and the adopted child of a prostitute. Will she ever be good enough for a man like William?

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. In The Ghost Kings Rachel Dove and Richard Darrien meet in Africa, when the brave man saves Rachel, a minister's daughter, from a flash flood. Years pass before they meet again: This time Rachel needs help escaping a Zulu tribe that would have her as their goddess and evading another man who wants her for his own.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. In The Ghost Kings Rachel Dove and Richard Darrien meet in Africa, when the brave man saves Rachel, a minister's daughter, from a flash flood. Years pass before they meet again: This time Rachel needs help escaping a Zulu tribe that would have her as their goddess and evading another man who wants her for his own.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. In The Ghost Kings Rachel Dove and Richard Darrien meet in Africa, when the brave man saves Rachel, a minister's daughter, from a flash flood. Years pass before they meet again: This time Rachel needs help escaping a Zulu tribe that would have her as their goddess and evading another man who wants her for his own.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. In The Ghost Kings Rachel Dove and Richard Darrien meet in Africa, when the brave man saves Rachel, a minister's daughter, from a flash flood. Years pass before they meet again: This time Rachel needs help escaping a Zulu tribe that would have her as their goddess and evading another man who wants her for his own.

Treasure and the occult are vividly blended in this stirring tale of Africa. Allan Quatermain finds a village in the middle of the Dark Continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events.

Treasure and the occult are vividly blended in this stirring tale of Africa. Allan Quatermain finds a village in the middle of the Dark Continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events.

Treasure and the occult are vividly blended in this stirring tale of Africa. Allan Quatermain finds a village in the middle of the Dark Continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events.

Treasure and the occult are vividly blended in this stirring tale of Africa. Allan Quatermain finds a village in the middle of the Dark Continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events.

You're beautiful, Johnny told her. So, full of hope, seventeen-year-old Felicia crosses the Irish Sea to England to find her lover and tell him she is pregnant. Desperately searching for Johnny in the bleak post-industrial Midlands, she is instead found by Mr Hilditch, a strange and lonely man, a collector and befriender of homeless young girls... 'Immensely readable. The plot twist is both sinister and affecting, and so skilfully done that you remember why authors had plot twists in the first place' Guardian Readers of The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer will adore Felicia's Journey. It will also be cherished by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written eighteen novels and novellas, and hundreds of short stories, for which he has won a number of prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. In 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature.