We meet on a train, see, and nobody knows we know each other! The psychologists would call it folie a deux... Strangers on a Train was Patricia Highsmith's first novel, and adapted into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock. 'A true original in crime fiction' The Times

In a room with no windows on the eastern coast of Africa, an Englishman, James More, is held captive by jihadist fighters. Posing as a water engineer to spy on al-Qaeda activity in the area, he now faces extreme privation, mock executions and forced marches through arid Somali badlands.

As the 2022 French Presidential election looms, two candidates emerge as favourites: Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and Muhammed Ben Abbes of the growing Muslim Fraternity. Ben Abbes sweeps to power, and overnight the country is transformed. This proves to be the death knell of French secularism, as Islamic law comes into force...

A man barges into a writer's house and, holding a gun to his head, demands that he tell him a story, something to take him away from real world. A pathological liar discovers one day that the lies he tells come true. A young woman finds a zip in her boyfriend's mouth, and when she opens it he unfolds to reveal a completely different man inside.

A young girl, Liv, lives with her mother on a remote island in the Arctic Circle. Her only friend is an old man who beguiles her with tales of trolls, mermaids, and the huldra, a wild spirit who appears as an irresistably beautiful girl, to tempt young men to danger and death.

Selected from the book Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. Also in the Vintage Minis series: Liberty by Virginia Woolf Eating by Nigella Lawson Swimming by Roger Deakin Drinking by John Cheever

During his reign Louis XIV was the most powerful king in Europe. He presided over a golden age of military and artistic achievement in France, and deployed his charm and talents for spin and intrigue to hold his court and country within his absolute control.