An attempt to answer the question, how much do our perceptions of things depend on our cognitive ability and how much on our linguistic resources? Eco undertakes a series of idiosyncratic explorations, starting from the perceived data of common sense, to expound a clear critique of Kant.

Katherine Swynford was first the mistress, and later the wife, of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. This book rescues Katherine from the footnotes of history, highlighting her key dynastic position within the English monarchy.

Tells the story of author's parents - their meeting in 1895, marriage in 1903 after his father had returned from the Boer War, and his father's death in an assault on Ypres in 1915, which left his mother a widow until her own death in 1960.

This is the diary of a middle-aged man who is deeply in love with his younger wife, Ikuko. In spite of that love, the pair have grown physically apart, each unsure of the other's desires...until the day Ikuko discovers her husband's diary with its desperate hints of jealousy and voyeurism. Ikuko realises she has found the key to his very soul.

On a stormy night off the coast of Scotland, young David Balfour faces his terrifying test yet. He's been double - crossed by his wicked uncle, tricked into a sea voyage and sold into slavery. When the dashing Alan Breck Stewart comes aboard, he finds a brave friend at least, and pair fight back against their treacherous, black-hearted shipmates.

Francis Kilvert was an country clergyman who lived from 1840 to 1879, and these are his diaries: gossipy, sweet-natured, generous, curious, and full of an abiding wonder and delight in the natural world and the beauties of the changing seasons.

Ginny lives on her husband's pig farm ninety miles from nowhere. Far from the paradise she was promised, this is a bleak place and her husband, Linus, a cruel master. His girls, Cleome and Zinnia, are Ginny's only friends, but when Linus' attentions turn to them, Ginny is torn. When Linus dies, things change for everyone.

You may think you know all about King Arthur, the young boy who plucked the sword from the stone. You've probably heard stories about Merlin's magic powers and the Knights of the round table. These are the stories we learn at school. But they are just the beginning.