Bloomsbury Publishing

It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife. But, Frank's behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends with Frank into an inferno of evil, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

Great Uncle Bulgaria loves telling the ancient and revered history of the Wombles clans to the younger Wombles. But to his great sadness he notices that the young Wombles are not nearly as interested in the history as he is. So Great Uncle Bulgaria decides to take action and show these young Wombles how wonderful — and international — the history of the Wombles is. Tobermory invents some very eco-friendly clockwork air balloons to travel in and Orinoco, Bungo, Tomsk and Wellington are sent variously to America, Tibet and Australia. In these interesting and farflung places the young Wombles get quite as much excitement as they could wish for!

It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, reaches Road Hill House a fortnight later. He faces an unenviable task: to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects. The murder provokes national hysteria. The thought of what might be festering behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes — scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing — arouses fear and a kind of excitement. But when Whicher reaches his shocking conclusion there is uproar and bewilderment. A true story that inspired a generation of writers such as Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, this has all the hallmarks of the classic murder mystery — a body; a detective; a country house steeped in secrets. In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale untangles the facts behind this notorious case, bringing it back to vivid, extraordinary life.

Jane Mansfield, a gentleman's daughter in 1813 England, has long wished to escape a life in which career choices are limited to wife or maiden aunt. But awakening one morning in twenty-first-century Los Angeles — in the body of someone called Courtney Stone — is not exactly what she had in mind. Jane must quickly get to grips with a world in which no one knows her true identity: a dizzying world of horseless metal carriages, unrestricted clothing, tiny apartments, all manner of flirting, and unheard-of liberties for womankind. The only thing Jane appears to have in common with the lady in whose life she has landed is a love for the novels of Jane Austen. But are the wise words of her favourite novelist enough to guide her through this bewildering new world? And what is she to make of Courtney's attentive friend Wes, who is as attractive and confusing as the man who broke her heart back home? As Courtney's romantic entanglements become her own, Jane wonders: Would she actually be better off back in Regency England — and will she ever be able to return?

Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-find managers have emerged as the stars of twenty-first century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. This is the inside story of their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, their explosive battles with central banks in the 1980s and 1990s, and finally their role in the financial crisis of 2007-9. Hedge funds reward risk takers, so they tend to attract larger-than-life personalities. Jim Simons began life as a code-breaker and mathematician, co-authoring a paper on theoretical geometry that led to breakthroughs in string theory. Ken Griffin started out trading convertible bonds from his Harvard dorm room. Paul Tudor Jones happily declared that a 1929-style crash would be 'total rock-and-roll' for him. Michael Steinhardt was capable of reducing underlings to sobs. 'All I want to do is kill myself', one said. 'Can I watch?' Steinhardt responded. A saga of riches and rich egos, this is also a history of discovery. Drawing on insights from mathematics, economics and psychology to crack the mysteries of the market, hedge funds have transformed the world, spawning new markets in exotic financial instruments and rewriting the rules of capitalism. And while major banks, brokers, home lenders, insurers and money market funds failed or were bailed out during the crisis of 2007-09, the hedge-fund industry survived the test, proving that money can be successfully managed without taxpayer safety nets. Anybody pondering fixes to the financial system could usefully start here: the future of finance lies in the history of hedge funds.

A groundbreaking book, this unprecedented study is the authoritative account of the best-known intelligence organisation in the world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of espionage, the two world wars, modern British government and the conduct of international relations in the first half of the twentieth century, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 is a uniquely important examination of the role and significance of intelligence in the modern world.

There's this set of things everyone expects from you... Since her boyfriend Gus was killed in 9/11, Billy has been pretending. It is easier for her to stay silent and go through the motions of grief than to tell the truth: that she was planning to leave Gus, and that his death left her feeling a mixture of ambivalence and anguish that she is still struggling to resolve. Drawing from her experience, Billy writes The Lake Shore Limited. The opening night of the play brings together three people whose lives intersect and interweave with Billy's: Leslie, Gus's older sister, haunted by his death and constantly aware of what could have been; Rafe, the actor who brings the joy and sadness of his own marriage into his role; and Sam, a recently divorced man who is irresistibly drawn to Billy's distinctive, enigmatic beauty. Together these four voices create a mesmerizing novel of entanglements, connections and inconsolable losses.

Orinoco is certainly the tubbiest of the Wombles and is perhaps the Womble who needs the most encouragement to go out on the daily sortie to clear up and recycle all the rubbish that humans leave behind... Meanwhile, Tomsk, DIY extraordinaire, is getting to grips with the one of the humans' more ingenious inventions: the vacuum cleaner!

When Alton's ageing, blind uncle asks him to attend bridge games with him, he agrees. After all, it's better than a crappy summer job in the local shopping mall, and Alton's mother thinks it might secure their way to a good inheritance sometime in the future. But, like all apparently casual choices in any of Louis Sachar's wonderful books, this choice soon turns out to be a lot more complex than Alton could ever have imagined. As his relationship with his uncle develops, and he meets the very attractive Toni, deeply buried secrets are uncovered and a romance that spans decades is finally brought to a conclusion. Alton's mother is in for a surprise!

What shall we have for dinner? Such a simple question has grown to have a very complicated answer. We can eat almost anything nature has to offer, but deciding what we should eat stirs anxiety. Should we choose the organic apple or the conventional? If organic, local or imported? Wild fish or farmed? Low-carb or low-cal? As the American culture of fast food and unlimited choice invades the world, Pollan follows his next meal from land to table, tracing the origin of everything consumed and the implications for ourselves and our planet. His astonishing findings will shock all who care about what they put on their plate.

Lily is the daughter of a humble farmer, and to her family she is just another expensive mouth to feed. Then the local matchmaker delivers startling news: if Lily's feet are bound properly, they will be flawless. In nineteenth-century China, where a woman's eligibility is judged by the shape and size of her feet, this is extraordinary good luck. Lily now has the power to make a good marriage and change the fortunes of her family. To prepare for her new life, she must undergo the agonies of footbinding, learn nu shu, the famed secret women's writing, and make a very special friend, Snow Flower. But a bitter reversal of fortune is about to change everything.

Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. Achilles, 'best of all the Greeks', is everything Patroclus is not — strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess — and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper — despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel and deathly pale sea goddess with a hatred of mortals. Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate. Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

Walking to Hollywood is a dazzling triptych — obsessive, satirical, elegiac — in which Will Self burrows down through the intersections of time, place and psyche to explore some of our deepest fears and anxieties with characteristic fearlessness and jagged humour. 'Very Little' is ostensibly the account of a curative journey to Canada and the USA, but in fact the record of a nematode's progress, as the worm of obsession — with scale and packing and the 'stuff' of our lives — bores through a mind in extremesis. 'Walking to Hollywood' is an extreme satire on celebrity, in which the narrator believes that everyone he meets is played by a famous actor, and that only he can solve the mystery of who murdered the movies. 'Spurn Head' leads Self to a tormented sojourn with a madman whose house is sliding over the edge of a cliff, to a game of checkers with Death, and finally to an encounter with one of Swift's immortal Struldbruggs and a march through a tear in time itself. In Walking to Hollywood Will Self pushes memoir to the limits of invention.

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

Carries EU Toy Safety Directive 'CE' logo. This small library, perfect for little baby hands, features not only the selfish crocodile but a whole host of his friends, as familiar themes for pre-school readers are explored. Children will relish learning about numbers, colours, animals, sounds, food and first words in these bright and brilliant board books.

Michael Vyner recalls a terrible story, one that happened to him. One that would be unbelievable if it weren't true! Michael's parents are dead and he imagines that he will stay with the kindly lawyer, executor of his parents' will... Until he is invited to spend Christmas with his guardian in a large and desolate country house. His arrival on the first night suggests something is not quite right when he sees a woman out in the frozen mists, standing alone in the marshes. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself as he is kept from his guardian and finds himself spending the Christmas holiday wandering the silent corridors of the house seeking distraction. But lonely doesn't mean alone, as Michael soon realises that the house and its grounds harbour many secrets, dead and alive, and Michael is set the task of unravelling some of the darkest secrets of all. A nail-biting story of hauntings and terror by the master of the genre, Chris Priestley.

It takes a particular kind of man to want an embroidered polo player astride his left nipple. Occasionally, when I am tired and emotional, or consumed with self-dislike, I try to imagine myself as someone else, a wearer of Yarmouth shirts and fleecy sweats, of windbreakers and rugged Tyler shorts, of baseball caps with polo players where the section of the brain that concerns itself with aesthetics is supposed to be. But the hour passes. Good men return from fighting Satan in the wilderness the stronger for their struggle, and so do I. Man Booker Prize-winning Howard Jacobson shimmers with life in this collection of his most acclaimed journalism. From the unusual disposal of his father-in-law's ashes and the cultural wasteland of Chitty Bang to the melancholy sensuality of Leonard Cohen and desolation of Wagner's tragedies, Jacobson writes with all the hostility and joy of a man possessed. Absurdity piles upon absurdity, and glorious sentences weave together to create a hilarious, hearty, heartbreaking and uniquely human collection. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will read it again and again.

Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al's Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has Kemp stewing in his own lust. But the idle tension that builds up in places where men sweat twenty-four hours a day is reaching a violent breaking point.

A boy is put on a train by his stepmother to make his first journey on his own. But soon that journey turns out to be more of a challenge than anyone could have imagined as the train stalls at the mouth of a tunnel and a mysterious woman in white helps the boy while away the hours by telling him stories — stories with a difference.

From the Arab Spring to the Royal Wedding, the rescue of the Chilean miners to the fall of the News of the World and the London Riots, compelling tweet-by-tweet accounts freeze-frame the breaking of the biggest news stories of the past twelve months, alongside profiles of top tweeters, striking visual analysis and fascinating statistics. In the year the 'micro-blogging' website celebrates its fifth anniversary, Twitter continues to grow at an incredible rate. A global phenomenon, there are now an estimated 200 million accounts around the world, with everyone from the British monarchy to Lady Gaga tweeting their perfectly formed 140 character messages. And it shows no sign of slowing down: during two hours on the night of Osama bin Laden's death, average activity peaked at a record-breaking 3,440 tweets per second. The Twitter Year gathers together some of the funniest, sharpest and most insightful voices on Twitter to bring you a unique celebration of modern global communication.

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what Chinese parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it... Amy Chua's daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu) were polite, interesting and helpful, they had perfect school marks and exceptional musical abilities. The Chinese-parenting model certainly seemed to produce results. But what happens when you do not tolerate disobedience and are confronted by a screaming child who would sooner freeze outside in the cold than be forced to play the piano? Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old. Witty, entertaining and provocative, this is a unique and important book that will transform your perspective of parenting forever.

Li Jing, a high-flying financier, has just joined his father for dinner at the grand Swan Hotel in central Shanghai when, without warning, the ground begins to rumble. It shifts like a pre-historic animal, then explodes in a roar of hot, unfurling air. As Li Jing drags his unconscious father out of the collapsing building, a single shard of glass whistles through the air and neatly pierces his forehead. In an instant, Li Jing's ability to speak Chinese is obliterated. After weeks in hospital, all that emerge from his mouth are unsteady phrases of the English he spoke as a child growing up in Virginia. His wife, Zhou Meiling, whom he courted with beautiful words, finds herself on the other side of an abyss, unable to communicate with her husband and struggling to put on a brave face — for the sake of Li Jing's floundering company, and for their son, Pang Pang. A neurologist who specialises in Li Jing's condition — bilingual aphasia — arrives from the US to work with Li Jing, to coax language back onto his tongue. Rosalyn Neal is red-haired, open-hearted, recently divorced, and as lost as Li Jing in this bewitching, bewildering city. As doctor and patient sit together, sharing their loneliness along with their faltering words, feelings neither of them anticipated begin to take hold. Feelings Meiling does not need a translator to understand. A sensitive exploration of the power of words and of silence, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai is a wonderfully evocative debut about love and language, duty and passion, in a vibrant modern city.

Patricia Borlenghi brings a fresh take to familiar stories, making them ideal for children under five, while Eleanor Taylor adds humour, sweetness and a lot of refreshing detail with the images in this charming book. Each tale is the perfect length for a bedtime story, or a classroom read. This treasury will take pride of place on home, school and library bookshelves up and down the country.

It's winter in Paris and Madeleine is having problems at school. A new girl, Mirabelle, is bullying her. Madeleine is too ashamed to ask for help from her friends, Madame Pamplemousse and Camembert, but she's befriended by a woman called Madame Bonbon, who runs an alluring-looking sweet shop. The sweets Madame Bonbon gives Madeleine have the most bewitching effect, at first making her feel much stronger and able to confront Mirabelle. But soon they start drawing her into a strange, enchanted world from which she finds she cannot escape. For Madame Bonbon is really someone else in disguise — an old enemy from Madame Pamplemousse's past who has come to Paris seeking her revenge...