Penguin Group

The humorous story of a former priest and lecturer in theology who pays a final visit to his dying aunt in Hawaii.

When Kino, a poor Mexican pearl-diver, finds a magnificent pearl – ‘the Pearl of the World’ – he believes that all his dreams can come true. He will marry his wife in the church, wearing fine new clothes; their infant son will never want for anything – least of all the medicine so recently denied to him – and the boy might one day go to school, learn to read and write. But Kino’s vision of a bright future blinds him to the greed and fear the pearl arouses in his neighbours and in himself, and his shining dream begins to blacken and twist … John Steinbeck’s timeless tale of wealth and the evil it can bring is powerfully illustrated by José Clemente Orozco.

After two years of being deafened by the TICKTOCK of her biological clock and tormented by Mother Nature's refusal to grant her a baby, Emma Hamilton decides to go for the instant solution: finding a Russian baby in need of a home. But Emma hasn't reckoned on the route to adoption being so complicated. Between proving that she's fit to be a mother (by inventing an unblemished past and discovering an unsuspected talent for housekeeping), driving her long-suffering husband insane with madcap schemes to make them the perfect would-be parents (a few Russian verbs a night and they'll be fluent in no time), and tripping over red tape every step of the way (who knew social workers could be so terrifying?) Emma finds out that adoption is far from the easy option — and that perfection has very little to do with finding the perfect match.

Connie has been happily married for a year. She's just met John Harding. Imagine the sexiest man you can think of. He's a walking stag weekend. He's a funny, disrespectful, fast, confident, irreverent pub crawl. He is also completely unscrupulous. He's about to destroy Connie's peace of mind, her grand plan for living happily ever after with her gentle, loving husband Luke. It's against the rules. It's the closest thing you'll get to an affair, without actually having one.

Can it really be true that 'golf' stands for 'Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden'? Or that 'rule of thumb' comes from an archaic legal principle that a man may chastise his wife, but only with a rod no thicker than his thumb? These and hundreds of other stories are commonly told and retold whenever people meet. They grow up in part because expressions are often genuinely mysterious. Why, for example, are satisfying meals 'square' rather than any other shape? And how did anyone ever come up with the idea that if you're competent at something you can 'cut the mustard'? Michael Quinion here retells many of the more bizarre tales, and explains their real origins where they're known. This is a fascinating treasure-trove of fiction and fact for anyone interested in language.

Enter the world of Susan Lilian Townsend – sun-worshippers, work-shy writers, garden centre lovers and those in search of a good time are all welcome … Over the last decade, Sue Townsend has written a monthly column for Sainsbury’s Magazine, covering everything from hosepipe bans and Spanish restaurants to writer’s block and the posh middle-aged woman she once met who’d never heard of Winnie-the-Pooh. Now collected together for the first time, these funny, perceptive and touching pieces make up this brilliant new book from one of Britain’s most popular and acclaimed writers.

The Roald Dahl Treasury is a wonderful collection by and about Roald Dahl, the great storytelling genius. Four themed sections — Animals; Magic; Family, Friends and Foes; and Matters of Importance — introduce some of Dahl's best-loved characters, from Willy Wonka to the BFG, from the Witches to the Twits, from James to Matilda. In each you will find complete stories, poems, memoirs and letters, as well as some unpublished poetry and letters. The Roald Dahl Treasury is beautifully illustrated in full colour by Quentin Blake, as well as by leading artists such as Raymond Briggs, Babette Cole, Posy Simmonds and Ralph Steadman. 'Those who don't believe in magic will never find it,' Roald Dahl told his readers. you will find a touch of magic on every page of this sumptuous book. It is the perfect gift for all lovers of Roald Dahl, and for all those who have yet to discover his magic.

Until everything goes pearshaped and she finds herself being frogmarched to the Cloisters — Dublin's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. She's outraged. Surely she's not thin enough to be an addict? But on the bright side, she's heard that rehab places are wall-to-wall jucuzzis, gymnasiums and rock stars going tepid turkey. Besides, it's about time she had a little holiday. Rachel isn't expecting plump, middle-aged men in brown jumpers, and more group therapy than you can shake a stick at. That — alarmingly — she seems to be expected to join in with. Who cares for introspection when all there is to look at is damaged and broken? Heartsick and Luke-sick, she seeks redemption in the shape of Chris, a Man with a Past. A man who might be more trouble than he's worth. Rachel is airlifted from addiction to the unfamiliar terrain of adulthood, via a love story or two, in a novel by turns poignant, powerful and seriously funny.

Newly named head of Rainbow, an élite multinational task force, John Clark faces the world's greatest fear — international terrorism. And following each terrifying new outbreak — the ghosts from his own dark past. The challenge of a new mission is just what Clark needs, but the opportunities come faster than he expected. Hostage-taking at a Swiss bank. The kidnapping of an international trader. Carnage at a theme park in Spain. Each incident seems separate, yet the timing disturbs Clark. Is there a connection? Is he being tested? Or is there a bigger threat out there, from terrorists so extreme that no government is ready to admit their existence? RAINBOW SIX — TOM CLANCY AT HIS THRILLING BEST

‘As long as I’m still breathing then I’ll still hope’ Mary Broad is just eighteen when, one spring day in 1786, she makes a foolish mistake and steals a hat from a passerby. For this crime she is sentenced to death. But then she is given a reprieve: she is to be one of several hundred convicts who will sail to a new colony on the other side of the world – Australia. For a Cornish girl who has previously never been further than Plymouth, this is almost as horrifying a fate as death. Suddenly, courage and determination are all Mary has. She promises herself one thing – she will survive whatever it takes. How she accomplishes this, in spite of the horrors that lie ahead of her, not just for herself but also for those she loves, is breathtakingly audacious. Based on a true story, Remember Me is quite simply one of the most gripping and moving tales of human endeavour you will ever read.

Rose Lloyd was the last to suspect that Nathan, her husband of over twenty years, was having an affair, and that he was planning to leave her. But the greatest shock was yet to come; for his mistress was Rose's colleague and friend, Minty. So Rose was left alone in their once-happy family home, where she and Nathan had brought up their children. Then she started thinking — about the man she'd married, and how well she really knew him. About the carefree yet studious girl she had been before she met him. Twenty years ago Rose had to make the choice between two very different lives. Could she recapture what she nearly chose back then, and bring new meaning to her life now?

'I have come to believe that there can be no adequate preparation for the sadness that comes at the end, the sheer regret that one's life is finished, that one's failures remain indelible and one's successes illusory.' Elizabeth and Betsy are old school friends. Born in 1948 and unready for the sixties, they had high hopes of the lives they would lead, even though their circumstances were so different. When they meet again in their thirties, Elizabeth, married to the safe, older Digby is relieving the boredom of a cosy but childless marriage with an affair. Betsy seems to have found real romance in Paris. Are their lives taking off, or are they just making more of the wrong choices without even realising it?

Tragic and hilarious in equal measure, Tim Lott’s story of Charlie and Maureen Buck’s ailing marriage and their climb up (and down) the social ladder during the 1980s is a wonderfully honest portrait of ordinary people living through an extraordinary time. Steeped in the decade’s cataclysmic events, packed with the crimes and misdemeanours we visit on each another, Rumours of a Hurricane is a powerful tale of change, how we face it – and how we don’t.

Science: A History is the enthralling story of the men and women who changed the way we see the world, and the turbulent times they lived in: from Galileo, tried by the Inquisition for his ideas, to Newton, who wrote his rivals out of the history books; from Marie Curie, forced to work apart from male students for fear that she might excite them, to Louis Agassiz, who marched his colleagues up a mountain to prove that ice ages had occurred. Filled with pioneers, visionaries, eccentrics and madmen, this is the history of science as it has never been told before.

»You have an affair. You finish it. You think it's over. You're dead wrong . . . Miranda Cotton thinks she's put boyfriend Brendan out of her life for good. But two weeks later, he's intimately involved with her sister. Soon what began as an embarrassment becomes threatening — then even more terrifying than a girl's worst nightmare. Because this time Brendan will stop at nothing to be part of Miranda's life — even if it means taking it from her . . .»

Stuff is the nickname of our hero, Simon (because he knows a lot of weird stuff). Stuff's parents have split up, and his dad has brought back a new step-mum (the Sherry Trifle), a step-sister (the awful Natasha) and a radical feminist rabbit called Pankhurst (she only attacks men — spooky). In Stuff's own words, here is how he tries (and fails) to run away from home. How he tries to get off with the beautiful Sky, and dump girlfriend Delfine (without being beaten up by her psycho brother). In fact, how to get through life as a teenage boy.

Penguin Books Ltd.. «The True Confessions of Adrian Mole» is the third in the series to be part of Penguin's Sue Townsend repackaging programme. A chance to sell Sue Townsend to a whole new audience! Adrian Mole has grown up. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit «Pinky», working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life Pandora has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he hoped it would be. Still, intellectual poets can't always have things their own way... Included here are two other less well-known diarists: Sue Townsend and Margaret Hilda Roberts, a rather ambitious grocer's daughter from Grantham.

Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the invalid Sir Clifford. Unable to fulfil his wife emotionally or physically, Clifford encourages her to have a liaison with a man of their own class. But Connie is attracted instead to her husband's gamekeeper and embarks on a passionate affair that brings new life to her stifled existence. Can she find a true equality with Mellors, despite the vast gulf between their positions in society? One of the most controversial novels in English literature, Lady Chatterley's Lover is an erotically charged and psychologically powerful depiction of adult relationships.

Aside from being thoroughly debauched, strikingly attractive and astonishingly wealthy, Uncle Oswald was the greatest bounder, bon viviant and fornicator of all time. In this installment of his scorchingly frank memoirs he tells of his early career and erotic education at the hands of a number of enthusiastic teachers, of discovering the invigorating properties of the Sudanese Blister Beetle and of the gorgeous Yasmin Howcomely, his electrifying partner in a most unusual series of thefts ...

She was a schoolmistress with a difference. Proud, cultured, romantic, her ideas were progressive, even shocking. And when she decided to transform a group of young girls under her tutelage into the crème de la crème of Marcia Blaine school, no one could have predicted the outcome. Introduced into a world of adult games and intrigues, the Brodie Set were honoured, privileged — in exchange for their undivided loyalty ...

This is London 1945, when all nice people are poor. Muriel Spark sets us down among the girls of good family but slender means as they fight it out, from their Kensington hostel to the last clothing coupon until this charmingly light-hearted period in their lives descends into horror and tragedy.