Faber and Faber

Tells the story of ten exceptional soldiers who left their mark on Britain and the world. Some — including Wellington, Kitchener and Montgomery — are names etched in the national mythology. Others are more obscure figures, whose achievements or failures may have had consequences quite different to those they had intended.

»Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it`s awful.» This line was adopted by Jean Anouilh, to characterize the first production of Waiting For Godot at the Theatre de Babylone, in 1953. Anybody acquinted with Beckett`s masterly black comedy would not question the recognition of this twentieth-century literature classic.

Forced to leave his woodland home, destroyed by the expansion plans of the evil Gretsch, Wirral the squirrel vows to find the fabled land of Animalia, where all the animals are said to live in freedom and without fear. Aided and abetted by Froggo the hot-air-ballooning frog, Wilhamina the plucky red squirrel, and Ratsy the street-wise rodent, Wirral's personal quest turns into a full-blown plan to save enslaved animals everywhere — a plan which is fraught with danger. Exciting, fast and funny, this lavishly illustrated adventure will delight children of all ages.

Why is a left foot either trusty or educated, but a right foot is neither? Why is a bad back pass almost invariably suicidal? Why can you score from a corner with a free header, but never with a free shot? Why are hooligans always a tiny minority even when there seem to be hundreds of them throwing seats across Kenilworth Road? Discover how stock phrases — «schoolboy howler», «sweeper system» — are only part of the story in the artfully twisted language of football. Let Leigh and Woodhouse take you on a journey, from the «top-flight» vocabulary of commentators to the more «speculative efforts» of footballers, from the «Champions League circus» to a «Wednesday night in Rochdale». And prepare to be very entertained.

DBC Pierre’s second novel charts the unlikely meeting between East and West that follows Ludmila Derev’s appearance on a Russian brides website. Determined to save her family from starvation in the face of marauding Gnez troops, Ludmila’s journey into the world and womanhood is an odyssey of sour wit, even sourer vodka, and a Soviet tractor probably running on goat’s piss. Thousands of miles to the West, the Heath twins are separated after thirty-three years conjoined at the abdomen. Released for the first time from an institution rumoured to have been founded for an illegitimate child of Charles II, they are suddenly plunged into a round-the-clock world churning with opportunity, rowdy with the chatter of freedom, democracy, self empowerment and sex. A wild and raucous picaresque dripping with flavours of British bacon and nasty Russian vodka, «Ludmila’s Broken English» is a tale of tangoing twins on a journey into the unknown. A ride so outrageously improbable it just may happen, DBC Pierre’s second novel confirms his place in the ranks of today’s most original storytellers.

Nathan and Tom are an uncle and nephew double-act — one in remission from lung cancer, divorced, and estranged from his only daughter, the other hiding away from his once-promising academic career. Matters change when Lucy, a little girl who refuses to speak, comes into their lives...

The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction. Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiat, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably, as he faces agonising choices, which could affect the future of mankind.

Guides us through the monuments and lost paradises, dilapidated Ottoman villas, back streets and waterways of Istanbul — the city of the author's birth and the home of his imagination. This is an account of one man's love affair with the city that has been his home since his birth.

When the corpse of the shady industrialist, who owns the local football team, is found both shot and stabbed with a Parmesan knife, Italian police inspector Aurelio Zen is called to Bologna to oversee the investigation. Recovering slowly from surgery, Zen is only too happy to take on what at first appears to be an undemanding assignment.

This work is set in Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckley — the wide-eyed Irish heroine of «The Observations» — takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts. And it seems that Arabella has a few secrets of her own — including her near-obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances. Then a childish prank has drastic consequences which throw into jeopardy all that Bessy has come to hold dear. Caught up in a tangle of madness, ghosts, sex and lies, she is determined to remain devoted to Arabella. But who is really responsible for what happened to her predecessor Nora? As her past threatens to catch up with her and complicate matters even further, Bessy begins to realise that she has not quite landed on her feet. «The Observations» is a brilliantly original, funny and endlessly intriguing story of one woman's journey from a difficult past into an even more disturbing present.

Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire on his cathedral. His mason anxiously advises against it, for the old cathedral was built without foundations. Nevertheless, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, until the stone pillars shriek and the ground beneath it swims. Its shadow falls ever darker on the world below, and on Dean Jocelin in particular.

From the internationally-renowned author of The Beach, a gripping mystery and stylistic tour de force that delves into the subconscious mind, with brilliantly disturbing results. The brilliant mindmessing thriller from the author of 28 Days Later and The Beach A big success in its original editions, the paperback looks set to become an essential lead title in all summer reading promotions The award-winning illustrations from Nicholas Garland make this a beautiful and atmospheric book Massive advertising campaign across the Underground, national press and magazines to make The Coma an unmissable summer highlight.

In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory.

A few years ago, Owen Sheers stumbled upon a dusty book in his father's study by the extraordinary Arthur Cripps, part-time lyric poet and full-time unorthodox missionary who served in Rhodesia for fifty years from 1902. Sheers' discovery prompts a quest into colonial Africa at the turn of the century, by way of war, a doomed love affair and friction with the ruling authorities. His personal journey into the contemporary heart of darkness that is Mugabe's Zimbabwe finds more than Cripps' legacy — Sheers finds a land characterised by terror and fear, and blighted by the land reform policies that Cripps himself anticipated.

When Commander Adam Dalgliesh visits Larksoken, a remote headland community on the Norfolk coast in the shadow of a nuclear power station, he expects to be engaged only in the sad business of tying up his aunt's estate. But the peace of Larksoken is illusory. A serial killer known as the Whistler is terrorising the neighbourhood and Dalgliesh is drawn into the lives of the headlanders when it quickly becomes apparent that the Whistler isn't the only murderer at work under the sinister shadow of the power station.

This much loved comic adventure story has magical characters and a gripping plot for all the family to enjoy. When Prince Abu Ali, son of Aladdin, is born his destiny has already been foretold: he is the one that has been chosen to break the spell of the mysterious land of Green Ginger. His quest brings him in contact with flying carpets, button-nosed tortoises, magic phoenix birds — and two very villainous princes. This title contains original Edward Ardizzone illustrations throughout.

Two men lie in a welter of blood in the vestry of St Matthew's Church, Paddington, their throats brutally slashed. One is Sir Paul Berowne, a baronet and recently resigned Minister of the Crown, the other an alcoholic vagrant. Dalgliesh and his team, set up to investigate crimes of particular sensitivity, are faced with a case of extraordinary complexity as they discover the Berowne family's veneer of prosperous gentility conceals ugly and dangerous secrets.

Edward Thomas was perhaps the most beguiling and influential of First World War poets. This title gives an account of his final five years, centred on his extraordinary friendship with Robert Frost and Thomas' fatal decision to fight in the war. It culminates in Thomas' tragic death on Easter Monday 1917.

The Peverell Press, a two-hundred-year-old publishing firm housed in a dramatic mock — Venetian palace on the Thames, is certainly ripe for change. But the proposals of its ruthlessly ambitious new managing director, Gerard Etienne, have made him dangerous enemies — a discarded mistress, a neglected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues and staff. When Gerard's body is discovered bizarrely desecrated, there is no shortage of suspects and Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of extraordinary complexity and a murderer who is prepared to strike again.

The Peverell Press, a two-hundred-year-old publishing firm housed in a dramatic mock — Venetian palace on the Thames, is certainly ripe for change. But the proposals of its ruthlessly ambitious new managing director, Gerard Etienne, have made him dangerous enemies — a discarded mistress, a neglected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues and staff. When Gerard's body is discovered bizarrely desecrated, there is no shortage of suspects and Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of extraordinary complexity and a murderer who is prepared to strike again.

Mankind must put a stop to the dreadful destruction caused by the Iron Man. A trap is set for him, but he cannot be kept down. Then, when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world.

Revered by his peers and idolised by his fans, Ian Curtis left behind a legacy rich in artistic genius. Mesmerising on stage but introverted and prone to desperate mood swings in his private life, Curtis died by his own hand on 18 May 1980. Touching from a Distance documents how, with a wife, child and impending international fame, Curtis was seduced by the glory of an early grave. Regarded as the essential icon of the post-punk era, Touching from a Distance includes a full set of Curtis' lyrics, discography and gig list.

Esther Greenwood is at college and is fighting two battles, one against her own desire for perfection in all things — grades, boyfriend, looks, career — and the other against remorseless mental illness. As her depression deepens she finds herself encased in it, bell-jarred away from the rest of the world. This is the story of her journey back into reality. Highly readable, witty and disturbing, The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel and was originally published under a pseudonym in 1963. What it has to say about what women expect of themselves, and what society expects of women, is as sharply relevant today as it has always been.

The Iron Woman has come to take revenge on mankind. Full of the power and fantastic imagination of his book The Iron Man, this sequel from the late Poet Laureate is a cry against the relentless pollution of the Earth's waterways through the dumping of industrial waste.