‘The only badgers I ever get to see are dead ones.’ ‘Well, if you keep seeing dead ones, their family can’t be far away.’ This throwaway conversation niggled, leading Caroline Greville to seek out her own neighbourhood badgers near her Kent home. She found them and was soon well-acquainted – so too were most of her family. A sense of interconnectedness developed as they had more badger contact than they could have hoped for. Badger Clan charts a simple quest that turns into a full-blown obsession. From loitering near a sett to working as local contact for a regional badger group, this memoir tells of wild encounters and gradual, intimate knowledge of the local clan. The story is rooted in rural village life, while the family are honestly depicted and relatable. A feel-good read in which enthusiast and elusive creature become inextricably bound.

To his fellow West Indians who assemble every weekend for the all-night poker game at Mrs Knight's, he is always known as Bageye. Bageye already finds it a struggle to feed his family on his wage from Vauxhall Motors, but now his wife Blossom has set her heart on her sons going to private school and she will not settle for anything less.

It's New York, 1950. A young PR man working at General Electric sold his first magazine piece. By the time he'd sold his third, he decided to quit his job and make a living as a full-time writer. That young man was Kurt Vonnegut. This title collects his stories from the postwar years.

And what about the men - and the children - in their lives? Susie Moran has always been the breadwinner in her family.

The tale of the unlikely friendship between and an old woman and a young girl, this is one of Rosamond Lehmann's finest novels

A man of devilish charm and enterprising spirit, Dougal Douglas is employed to revitalize the ailing firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley. Strange things begin to happen as Dougal exerts an uncanny influence on the inhabitants of Peckham Rye and brings lies, tears, blackmail and even murder into the lives of all he meets.

A collection of Carson McCullers' stories, including her novella "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and "Wunderkind".

An innovative collection of folk ballads re-told by professional storytellers. In association with the Society of Storytelling

During sessions with his psychiatrist, Balthazar, their intricate love affair is cast in a radical, sinister light, illuminating a mysterious plot connected to a recent murder - but Lawrence Durrell's dazzling, kaleidoscopic storytelling means that nothing is ever as it seems ...

Bangkok in Times of Love and War is the story of life and death, passion, loyalty and loss, and of a man and a woman caught up in the upheaval of history.

A captivating short story collection from award-winning novelist Mary Costello exploring love, loss and the turbulent lives of ordinary people

Set on the eve of the financial crash of 2008, Barcelona Dreaming is made up of three stories that are linked by time and place, and also by the moving, unexpected interactions of a rich cast of characters.

The renowned comedian and presenter Alexei Sayle proves himself to be a formidable literary talent in this wonderful collection of sleek, dark, and witty short stories.

Barchester Towers (1857) was the book that made Trollope's reputation and it remains his most popular and enjoyable novel. The arrival of a new bishop in Barchester sets the town in turmoil: who will come out on top in the battle between the archdeacon, the bishop, Mr Slope, and Mrs Proudie?

A collection of eight stories by one of America's beloved and admired short story writers. This book explores the passage of time, and summons up its inevitable sorrows and comic pitfalls.

Shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, this book explores the passing of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and comic pitfalls.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017 A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the world's forests.

An unforgettably exuberant and potent novel by a writer at the height of her powers

"Written at a time of social unrest in Victorian Britain and set in London at the time of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots, Dickens's brooding novel of mayhem and murder in the eighteenth century explores the relationship between repression and liberation in private and public life."--P. [4] of cover.

Before his brain began to shrink, Barney Panofsky clung to two cher-ished beliefs. Life was absurd, and nobody ever truly understood any-body else. Even his friends tend to agree that Barney is 'a wife-abuser, an intellectual fraud, a purveyor of pap, a drunk with a pen-chant for violence and probably a murderer'.