HarperCollins Publishers

A novelists search for the wife who left him without an explanation takes him on a long journey from France to Central Asia where he discovers something new about the meaning of life, marriage, and his own celebrity.

The first volume of The Lord of the Rings, now featuring Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design. Includes special packaging and the definitive edition of the text with fold-out map and colour plate section. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power — the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring — the ring that rules them all — which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose. Now, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first publication, the text has been fully restored with almost 400 corrections — with the full co-operation of Christopher Tolkien — making it the definitive version, and as close as possible to the version that J.R.R. Tolkien intended. Also included is the original red and black map of the Shire and — for the first time — a special plate section containing the pages from the Book of Mazarbul. This 50th anniversary hardback features Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design, which has been reworked to celebrate this special anniversary.

The second volume of The Lord of the Rings, now featuring Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design. Includes special packaging and the definitive edition of the text, with fold-out map. Frodo and the Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in the battle with an evil spirit in the Mines of Moria; and at the Falls of Rauros, Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape the rest of the company were attacked by Orcs. Now they continue their journey alone down the great River Anduin — alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go. Now, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first publication, the text has been fully restored with almost 400 corrections — with the full co-operation of Christopher Tolkien — making it the definitive version, and as close as possible to the version that J.R.R. Tolkien intended. Also included is the original red and black map of Middle-earth as a fold-out sheet. This 50th anniversary hardback features Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design, which has been reworked to celebrate this special anniversary.

The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, now featuring Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design. Includes special packaging and the definitive edition of the text, with fold-out maps. The Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures as the quest continues. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard, and took part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by orcs, escaped into Fangorn Forest and there encountered the Ents. Gandalf returned, miraculously, and defeated the evil wizard, Saruman. Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo progressed towards Mordor to destroy the Ring, accompanied by Smeagol — Gollum, still obsessed by his 'preciouss'. After a battle with the giant spider, Shelob, Sam left his master for dead; but Frodo is still alive — in the hands of the orcs. And all the time the armies of the Dark Lord are massing. Now, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first publication, the text has been fully restored with almost 400 corrections — with the full co-operation of Christopher Tolkien — making it the definitive version, and as close as possible to the version that J.R.R. Tolkien intended. Also included are the original red and black maps as fold-out sheets, and — for the first time — a fully revised and enlarged index.

On the scale of 1:20,000 (3.17 inches to 1 mile) and Central London at 1:12,500 (5.1 inches to 1 mile), this is a compact and slim pocket sized atlas with exceptionally clear mapping showing a wealth of detail. Main features of this map include: handy pocket sized format; Central London at large scale; extensive area of coverage; full index to street names; and clear, easy to use full colour mapping. It includes: colour classified roads and buildings; postal district boundaries; car parks, hospitals and police stations; tourist information centres; and an underground map on rear cover. Area of coverage extends from Chiswick in the west to Barking in the east and Hackney in the north to Dulwich in the south. Who the product is aimed at? This neat, handy little atlas is an ideal purchase for resident and visitor alike.

A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer's escape across the Himalayas to Tibet, set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Heinrich Harrer, already one of the greatest mountaineers of his time, was climbing in the Himalayas when war broke out in Europe. He was imprisoned by the British in India but succeeded in escaping and fled to Tibet. Settling in Lhasa, the Forbidden City, where he became a friend and tutor to the Dalai Lama, Heinrich Harrer spent seven years gaining a more profound understanding of Tibet and the Tibetans than any Westerner before him. More recently made into a film starring Brad Pitt, Seven Years in Tibet is a stunning story of incredible courage and self-reliance by one of the twentieth century's best travel writers.

A novel about a family man struggling to reconcile his shambolic personal life with the job of football reporting he has grown to hate. Jimmy Stirling's wife despairs of him, while his editor at the newspaper for which he is a football reporter both despairs of him and actively despises him as well. Not to be outdone, Jimmy Stirling despairs of his job, himself and the local Budgens where most of his meagre salary goes providing for his needy twins (and his aggressive smoking habit). His father has just died, the mortgage is destroying him, and the pints in the Butt of Lewis (his London pub) and the Hare and Greyhound (his country pub) are adding up. Is his wife having an affair? Is he having an affair? Does he want to hold on to his job? Ladies and gentlemen, in Will Buckley's hilarious and piercing first comic novel, I'm afraid we have another man in crisis.

Two boys. One identity. He can change his life if he says yes! An explosive new mystery from the award-winning author Jenny Valentine, The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight is the story of a boy who assumes the identity of a missing teenager and in-so-doing unearths a series of shattering family secrets — and the truth about who he really is. With all the classic hallmarks of a Jenny novel — a fantastically strong, sensitive and memorable first person narration; themes of loss and betrayal, family secrets and personal identity; truly quality writing that is 'literary' but never inaccessbile or pretentious, this is the thrilling new novel from the author of Finding Violet Park.

A pacy literary thriller, 'The Buried Circle' is a gripping blend of fact and fiction, peopled with extraordinary characters. The village of Avebury is one of the most mysterious places in the English countryside. Surrounded by ancient standing stones, crop circles and burial mounds, this is a place where all is not as it seems. In 1938, the archaeologist Alexander Keiller — a millionaire playboy with a passion for ritual magic — plans to reconstruct the 5,000-year-old stone circle at Avebury. As war looms, Frannie Robinson and her boyfriend Davey are among those who fall under Keiller's spell, with fatal results. Seventy years later, Frannie's granddaughter India, filming in the area, survives a helicopter crash. Devastated, she decides to move back to Avebury and to her grandmother, setting out on a quest to discover the truth about her family. But why is her grandmother so reluctant to talk about Keiller and the war? And exactly whose past is India unearthing!?

A novel for those who loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lovely Bones. Raped then murdered in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong in 1942, Lin Shui's 'Hungry Ghost' clings tenaciously to life. Holing up in a hospital morgue, which is destined to become a school, just in time she finds a host off whom to feed. It is twelve-year-old Alice Safford, the deeply-troubled daughter of a leading figure in government. The parasitic ghost follows her to her home on the Peak. There, the lethal mix of the two, embroiled in the family's web of dark secrets and desperate lies, unleashes chaos. All this unfolds against a background of colonial unrest, riots, extremes of weather and the countdown to the return of the colony to China. As successive tragedies engulf Alice, her ghostly entourage swells alarmingly. She flees to England, then France, in a bid to escape the past, only to find her portable 'Hungry Ghosts' have accompanied her. It seems the peace she longs for is to prove far more elusive that she could ever have imagined. 'The Hungry Ghosts' is a remarkable tour de force of the imagination, full of instantly memorable characters whose lives intermesh and boil over in a cauldron of domestic mayhem, unleashing unworldly spirits into the troubled air.

Matt Ridley, acclaimed author of the classics Genome and Nature via Nurture, turns from investigating human nature to investigating human progress. In The Rational Optimist Ridley offers a counterblast to the prevailing pessimism of our age, and proves, however much we like to think to the contrary, that things are getting better. Over 10,000 years ago there were fewer than 10 million people on the planet. Today there are more than 6 billion, 99 per cent of whom are better fed, better sheltered, better entertained and better protected against disease than their Stone Age ancestors. The availability of almost everything a person could want or need has been going erratically upwards for 10,000 years and has rapidly accelerated over the last 200 years: calories; vitamins; clean water; machines; privacy; the means to travel faster than we can run, and the ability to communicate over longer distances than we can shout. Yet, bizarrely, however much things improve from the way they were before, people still cling to the belief that the future will be nothing but disastrous. In this original, optimistic book, Matt Ridley puts forward his surprisingly simple answer to how humans progress, arguing that we progress when we trade and we only really trade productively when we trust each other. The Rational Optimist will do for economics what Genome did for genomics and will show that the answer to our problems, imagined or real, is to keep on doing what we've been doing for 10,000 years — to keep on changing.

A brutal murder. A country's darkest secret. A detective pushed to the edge! Inspector Kari Vaara returns, more haunted than ever, in the follow-up to Snow Angels. The Sufia Elmi case left Kari Vaara with a scarred face, chronic insomnia, a constant migraine, and a full body count's worth of ghosts. Now it's a year later, in Helsinki, and Kari is working the graveyard shift in the homicide unit, terrified that his heavily pregnant wife will miscarry again after she lost the twins just after Christmas. Kari is pushed into investigating a ninety-year-old national hero for war crimes committed during World War II. The Interior Minister demands a conclusion of innocence, preserving Finland's heroic perception about itself and its role in the war, but Germany wants extradition. In a seeming coincidence, Kari is drawn into the murder-by-torture case of Iisa Filippov, the philandering wife of a Russian businessman. Her lover is clearly being framed for the crime-and Ivan Filippov's arrogance and nonchalance point the finger at him. But he's being protected from above, leading Kari to the corrupt corridors of power. Soon the past and present collide in ways no one could have anticipated.

From Jeanne Kalogridis, critically acclaimed author of The Borgia Bride, Painting Mona Lisa and The Devil's Queen, comes another irresistible historical novel about a countess whose passion and willfulness knew no bounds: Caterina Sforza. Daughter of the Duke of Milan and wife of the conniving Count Girolamo Riario, Caterina Sforza was the bravest warrior Renaissance Italy ever knew. She ruled her own lands, fought her own battles, and openly took lovers whenever she pleased. Her remarkable tale is told by her lady-in-waiting, Dea, a woman knowledgeable in reading the 'triumph cards' — the predecessor of modern-day Tarot. As Dea tries to unravel the truth about her husband's murder, Caterina single-handedly holds off invaders who would steal her title and lands. However, Dea's reading of the cards reveals that Caterina cannot withstand a third and final invader — none other than Cesare Borgia, son of the corrupt Pope Alexander VI, who has an old score to settle with Caterina. Trapped inside the Fortress at Ravaldino as Borgia's cannons pound the walls, Dea reviews Caterina's scandalous past and struggles to understand their joint destiny, while Caterina valiantly tries to fight off Borgia's unconquerable army.

Donna Hay is swiftly becoming the source American cooks go to when they ask themselves, What should we have for dinner tonight? She has garnered a passionate global following for her fresh and modern approach to food — bringing out clean, sparkling flavors with simple techniques and streamlined instructions. In The Instant Cook, she offers more than a compendium of flexible recipes; it is an elegantly simple philosophy of cooking, and of eating. Donna Hay pulls together flavor combinations and cooking skills from the Mediterranean and the Pacific Rim — two of the most luscious and quick-cooking cuisines on the planet — to create delicious meals with a handful of ingredients in a few minutes. She gives home cooks the confidence to cook with instinct and with style. Exquisite full color photographs on every page illustrate Donna's signature look — chic yet never fussy. It reminds you that cooking is a pleasure. Pour a glass of wine and catch up with family as you cook; shop without waste or confusion; host a weeknight dinner party with little planning and less effort. The Instant Cook is destined to be the cookbook that is never put back on the shelf.

Nowhere to run! The spine-chilling new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author. No place to hide! The crime scenes are horrifying: the victims arranged with deliberate care, posed to appear alive despite their agonized last moments and the shocking nature of their deaths. For grief counsellor Audrey Sherrod it's clear the murders are work of a deranged serial killer. At first, the only link is the victims' physical appearance. But then another connection emerges, tying them to a past series of horrifying crimes — crimes that hit all too close to home. As the truth is unravelled, its more twisted and terrifying than anyone could ever imagine. Prepare to lose sleep with this shocking and utterly engrossing thriller, for fans of Karen Rose and Karin Slaughter.

Spanning decades and moving from the stark beauty of the Welsh landscape to the Himalayas and Kashmir, this is a story of bravery, courage and love. Within one exotic land lie the secrets of a lifetime! Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales for the first time in her life, to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India. Travelling from lonely Ladakh, high up in the Himalayas, Nerys discovers a new world in the lakeside city of Srinagar. Here, in the exquisite heart of Kashmir, the British live on carved wooden houseboats and dance, flirt and gossip as if there is no war. But the battles draw ever closer, and life in Srinagar becomes less frivolous when the men are sent away to fight. Nerys is caught up in a dangerous friendship, and by the time she is reunited with her husband, the innocent Welsh bride has become a different woman. Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her father's house, she finds an exquisite antique shawl, woven from the finest yarns and embroidered in the shades of lake water and mountain skies. Wrapped within its folds is a lock of child's hair. Tracing her grandparents' roots back to Kashmir, Mair embarks on a quest that will change her life forever.

Annie Proulx, one of America's finest writers, invites us to share her experience in the building of her new home on a rich plot of untouched, unspoilt prairie and her pleasure in uncovering of the layers of American history locked beneath the topsoil. 'Bird Cloud' is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and 400 foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She knew she had to purchase the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she would build on it — a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character — a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen. Proulx's first non-fiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of building that house — solar panels, a Japanese soak tub, a concrete floor, elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets — and an enthralling natural history and archeology of the region, inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians. It is also a family history, going back to nineteenth century Mississippi river boat captains and Canadian settlers, and an illuminating autobiography. Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time.

Just how badly do you want to find paradise? When Tom Finn is almost jailed for confronting two burglars in his own home, this taxi driver takes his young family to live on the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is all the Finn family dreamed of — a tropical paradise where the children swim with elephants, the gibbons sing love songs in the jungle, the Andaman Sea is like turquoise glass and this young family is free to grow. But both man-made disaster and the unleashed forces of nature shatter this tropical idyll for Tom Finn's family. CATCHING THE SUN is a gripping, moving story of a family who go in search of Paradise — and end up discovering themselves.

Biscuit wants to meet the new baby. But the baby is sleeping, and Biscuit must be patient-and quiet! It's not easy having to wait, but at last the curious puppy gets to meet the baby, and make a brand new friend!

Colleen McCullough's sweeping saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback has enthralled readers the world over. This is the chronicle of three generations of Clearys, ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. Most of all, it is the story of only daughter Meggie and her lifelong relationship with the haunted priest Father Ralph de Bricassart — an intense joining of two hearts and souls that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma. A poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit, Colleen McCullough's acclaimed masterwork remains a monumental literary achievement — a landmark novel to be cherished and read again and again.

From the author of 'Britain BC', 'Britain AD' and 'Britain in the Middle Ages' comes the fourth and final part in a critically acclaimed series on Britain's hidden past It might be thought that in the modern world, where documentary evidence abounds, there is no place for archaeology. But nothing could be further from the truth. Documentary records alone are not sufficient to provide a balanced view of Britain's recent history. This is hardly surprising in the agricultural and industrial 'revolutions', when pioneers were too busy inventing to record what was happening around them. But the same could apply in much later times. In the Second World War the imminent threat of invasion and the sheer pressure of events made the keeping of records less important than the building of physical defences, such as concrete anti-tank cubes and pill-boxes. As a result, archaeological evidence still provides the most reliable guide to the extent of Britain's anti-invasion defences in the autumn of 1940. Covering the whole of the post-medieval period, from 1550 to the present day, Francis Pryor brings his customary wit and erudition to the study of modern historical archaeology, probably the fastest-growing branch of the subject. Ranging over topics as diverse as the birth of modern agriculture, the growth of towns and cities, and the development of roads, canals and railways, he brings to a gripping conclusion his illuminating journey into Britain's archaeological past.

When Rebekkah returns to her small-town home for her beloved Grandmother's funeral, she little suspects that she is about to inherit a darkly dangerous family duty on behalf of Claysville's most demanding residents — the dead. Everyone in Claysville knows that the Barrows are no ordinary family, but no one can really explain why. When respected matriarch Maylene Barrow dies suddenly her granddaughter Rebekkah returns to the small town she grew up in, where she must face the demons of her past — the suicide of her half-sister Ella, the person she was closest to in the world, and the subsequent break-up of her parents marriage. And she also re-encounters Byron, Ella's old boyfriend, someone to whom she has always felt a deep and mysterious connection. But the demons of the past are nothing compared with what the future has in store for Rebekkah. Her grandmother has left her an inheritance both wonderful and terrible. An onerous responsibility now rests on her shoulders — one for which she is ill-prepared to say the least. For behind Claysville's community-spirited, small-town facade lies a dark secret. One that ties Rebekkah and Byron together in an inextricable bond, and that will require them both to sacrifice everything to keep their friends and neighbours from harm.

Lisa Edwards This Prada-wearing magazine editor thinks her life is over when her «fabulous» new job turns out to be a deportation to Dublin to launch Colleen magazine. The only saving grace is that her friends aren't there to witness her downward spiral. Might her new boss, the disheveled and moody Jack Devine, save her from a fate worse than hell? Ashling Kennedy Ashling, Colleen's assistant editor, is an award-winning worrier, increasingly aware that something fundamental is missing from her life — apart from a boyfriend and a waistline. Clodagh «Princess» Kelly Ashling's best friend, Clodagh, lives the domestic dream in a suburban castle. So why, lately, has she had the recurring urge to kiss a frog — or sleep with a frog, if truth be told? As these three women search for love, success, and happiness, they will discover that if you let things simmer under the surface for too long, sooner or later they'll boil over. Discover the Keyes to a Great Read!

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of — and in the words of — America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.