Penguin Group

Brace yourself, Clarkson's back. And he'd like to tell you what he thinks about some of the most awe-inspiring, earth-shatteringly fast and jaw-droppingly gorgeous cars in the world (alongside a few irredeemable disasters ...). Or he would, if there weren't so many things competing for his attention first. So much to get off his chest. The world according to Clarkson is a perplexing place, filled with thorny subjects like: the prospect of having Terry Wogan as president; why you'll never see a woman driving a Lexus; the unforeseen consequences of inadequate birth control; and, why everyone should spend a weekend with a digger. Fearless, independent, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny, Driven to Distraction is full-throttle Clarkson at his best; a unique look at the joys, absurdities and frustrations of modern life. With wheels. Buckle up, get comfortable, and hold on tight. There's no one who writes about cars like Jeremy.

During the Second World War Roald Dahl served in the RAF and suffered horrific injuries in an air crash in the Libyan desert. Drawing on his own experience as a fighter pilot, Dahl crafted these ten spine-tingling stories: of air battles in the sky; of the nightmare of being shot down; of the infectious madness of conflict; and of the nervy jollity of the Mess and Ops room. Dahl brilliantly conveys the bizarre reality of a wartime pilot's daily existence, where death is a constant companion and life is lived from one heartbeat to the next.

A tremendous bestseller when it was published in 1925, «An American Tragedy» is the culmination of Theodore Dreiser's elementally powerful fictional art. Revised reissue.

The game started with a murder. Now, it's Eve Dallas's move. It is the most puzzling case Eve Dallas has ever faced: the founder of the computer gaming giant U-Play is found decapitated in his locked, private playroom. And now Eve and her team are about to enter the next level of police work, in a world where fantasy is the ultimate seduction-and the price of defeat is death...

Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big-time producer who wants him to cut a demo and play some gigs — which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he's been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael's all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell...

School psychologist Skye Denison reluctantly agrees to act as maid of honor in her California cousin's over-the-top wedding — and is also expected to assist the control-freak wedding planner. But when she discovers the planner dead, Skye is suddenly working double-duty.

Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well. The secondhand bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage.

Natalie and her sisters have known Tom and his family forever. They climbed trees together, scraped knees on the same pavements and, in taking shared steps towards adulthood, shaped bonds that would last a lifetime. So when Natalie's long-term love walks out on her, Tom's is the much-needed shoulder she cries on.

»Penguin Decades» bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling. Anthony Burgess' «A Clockwork Orange» was published in 1962 and has been controversial ever since. It tells the story of fifteen-year-old Alex — whose chief preoccupations are Beethoven's Ninth and ultra-violence — as he and his droogs rampage though a dystopian future seeking thrills, until they come under the control of the state's sinister apparatus.

To mark the centenary of its foundation, the British Security Service, MI5, has opened its archives to an independent historian. This book reveals the precise role of the Service in twentieth-century British history, since its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909 to root out 'the spies of the Kaiser'.

Why do oil and diamonds lead to economic disaster more often than boom? Why doesn't Africa grow cocaine? Why might believing in God be good for your balance-sheet? Using the stories of economic triumph and disaster, this title explains how some countries went wrong while others went right.

Trojan Industries are in Russia and there's a new gang in their sights. Eagles 88, a twisted group of Neo-Nazi extremists, are terrorizing the streets of Moscow, attacking innocent civilians. Can Alexi Zukov, Trojan's latest teenage recruit, infiltrate the inner workings of the gang and save the capital's streets from another tragedy?

It was Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver. Some lines will never be crossed. Aibileen is a black maid: smart, regal, and raising her seventeenth white child. Yet something shifted inside Aibileen the day her own son died while his bosses looked the other way. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is by some way the sassiest woman in Mississippi. But even her extraordinary cooking won't protect Minny from the consequences of her tongue. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter returns home with a degree and a head full of hope, but her mother will not be happy until there's a ring on her finger. Seeking solace with Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, Skeeter finds she has gone. But why will no one tell her where? Seemingly as different as can be, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny's lives converge over a clandestine project that will not only put them all at risk but also change the town of Jackson for ever. But why? And for what? «The Help» is a deeply moving, timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we won't. It is about how women, whether mothers or daughters, the help or the boss, relate to each other — and that terrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, even love them, better than you.

When Joel Knox's mother dies, he is sent into the exotic unknown of the Deep South to live with a father he has never seen. But the sinister and eccentric figures he meets there are curiously and ominously evasive when Joel asks to see his father.

In the summer of 1812, Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his empire lay in ruins. This title explores Russia's crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars, creating the epic battle between two empires.

Alex Leamas is tired. It's the 1960s, he's been out in the cold for years, spying in Berlin for his British masters, and has seen too many good agents murdered for their troubles. Now Control wants to bring him in at last — but only after one final assignment. He must travel deep into the heart of Communist Germany and betray his country, a job that he will do with his usual cynical professionalism. But when George Smiley tries to help a young woman Leamas has befriended, Leamas' mission may prove to be the worst thing he could ever have done. In le Carre's breakthrough work of 1963, the spy story is reborn as a gritty and terrible tale of men who are caught up in politics beyond their imagining.

A #1 «New York Times» — bestselling author takes readers deep into the rugged Black Hills of South Dakota, where the shadows hide secrets, hunters stalk the land, and a childhood friendship matures into an adult passion.

There's only one vampire that cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is involved with (at least voluntarily) and it's Bill Compton. But when she catches him in a serious act of betrayal, she's not sure whether to save him — or sharpen some stakes.

From the Elizabethan period's second-biggest dramatist comes the story of Faustus, a brilliant scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for limitless knowledge and powerful black magic. Includes new material. Revised reissue.

Jockey Freddie Croft discovers a high-stakes conspiracy that exposes the seedy underside of horse racing — and faces even deadlier odds of survival than in any steeplechase run.

A provocative... persuasive («The New York Times») book that examines countries' economic destinies. «False Economy» reveals that governments and countries make concrete choices that can determine whether they remain rich or poor.

A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make, and the ultimate choice one teenage girl commands, this emotionally arresting novel is sure to captivate readers.

In 2060, Lieutenant Eve Dallas searches the backstreets of New York City for a dastardly and despicable criminal, in the newest novel by #1 «New York Times» — bestselling author J.D. Robb.

From the incredible wizadry of Merlin to the passion of Sir Lancelot, these tales of Arthur and his knights offer epic adventures with the supernatural as well as timeless battles with out own humanity.