Royal Tudor blood ran in her veins. Some thought Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, should be queen of England. She ranked high at the court of her uncle, Henry VIII, and was lady of honour to five of his wives. Beautiful and tempestuous, she created scandal - twice - by falling in love with unsuitable men.

A guide to the works of Louis de Bernieres. It deals with de Bernieres' themes, genre and narrative technique, and includes a close reading of the texts that are accompanied with likely exam questions, and contexts and comparisons.

The narrator of this novel has temporarily abandoned his work-in-progress - an essay on Kafka - and exchanged his writer's pen for the orange vest of a Prague road-sweeper. As he works, he meditates on Czechoslovakia, Kafka, life, art and his passionate and adulterous affair with Daria.

Eavesdrop on the affair that inspired Virginia to write her most fantastical novel, Orlando, and discover a relationship that - even a hundred years later - feels radical and relatable. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM ALISON BECHDEL, AUTHOR OF FUN HOME AND CREATOR OF THE BECHDEL TEST.

The author has a genius for entering the lives of ordinary people and capturing the passions and contradictions that lie just below the surface. This title takes mainly the lives of women - unruly, ungovernable, unpredictable, unexpected, funny, sexy and completely recognisable - and brings their hidden desires bubbling to the surface.

In Hanky Park, near Salford, Harry and Sally Hardcastle grow up in a society preoccupied with grinding poverty, exploited by bookies and pawnbroker, bullied by petty officials and living in fear of the dole queue and the Means Test. His love affair with a local girl ends in a shotgun marriage, and, disowned by his family, he is tempted by crime.

It's 1994 and a gang of good-hearted young people set off in a Ford Transit van armed with several sacks of rice and a half-written play. Their aim is to light a beacon of peace across the Balkans and, very probably, stop the war. Andrew would love to stop the war. But what he'd also love to do is sleep with Penny. Does Penny like him though?

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. Also in the Vintage Minis series: Desire by Haruki Murakami Babies by Anne Enright Depression by William Styron Race by Toni Morrison