Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography 2014 Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a great English writer, who would never have described herself in such grand terms.

Viktor - last seen in Death and the Penguin fleeing Mafia vengeance on an Antarctica-bound flight booked for Penguin Misha - seizes a heaven-sent opportunity to return to Kiev with a new identity.

Beginning with Vera Lynn's 'We'll Meet Again', a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war, and culminating with the manic energy of 'Bonkers', Dizzee Rascal's anthem for the push and rush of the 21st century, this is an entertaining tour of Britain's popular music, and how it reflects society and the times.

Inspired by views and romantic dreams of finding love in the mountains, the author impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Here, he plans to finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, untroubled by the problems of the world. This book shares his experience on how not to buy a house in France.

pistache (pis-tash): a friendly spoof or parody of another's work. Possibly a cross between pastiche and p**stake.] From Thomas Hardy's football report to Dan Brown's visit to the cash dispenser, the work of the great and the not-so-great is here sent up with little hope of coming down.

Ten years on from Trainspotting Sick Boy is back in Edinburgh after a long spell in London.

*** A Sunday Times Bestseller ***In Roman Londinium the city was dotted with lupanaria (`wolf dens' or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels) and thermiae (hot baths). Ackroyd tells us the hidden story of how it got there, celebrating its diversity, thrills and energy on the one hand;

______________________________'He is, as Proust was before him, the great literary chronicler of his culture in his time.' GUARDIAN'A Dance to the Music of Time' is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. There is a chance that you may receive the edition with the classic cover instead of the cover displayed here.