JACOBSON, Howard The Finkler Question Former BBC radio producer Julian Treslove & Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, are old school friends who have never lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik. Now, both Libor & Finkler are recently widowed. When the three dine at Libor's apartment, it's a bittersweet evening of reminiscence.
JAMES, Henry Portrait of a Lady When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt, Mrs Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, doesn't hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors.
JAMES, P D Death comes to Pemberley P.D. James masterfully recreates the world of 'Pride and Prejudice', and combines it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted detective story.
JANES, Diane Edwardian Murder Featuring previously unpublished evidence, this book provides a definitive account of the murders of Caroline Luard and John Nisbet.
JANES, Diane The Pull of the Moon When Kate Mayfield receives a letter from Mrs Ivanisovic, she realises that the secret she has kept for more than 30 years is not as safe as she imagined. Haunted by echoes of a vanished summer which changed her life forever, Kate is forced to confront memories she would rather forget.
JANMOHAMED, Sheila Love in a Headscarf Young British Muslim Shelina Janmohamed chose to take the traditional 'arranged' route to finding a partner, despite having liberal parents and plenty of Western friends. This book charts her ten-year journey to find Mr Right, Muslim style, with plenty of soul-searching, heartache, laughter and learning experiences along the way.
JARRAR, Nada Somewhere, home A moving novel about modern Lebanon, this story intermingles the lives of three women and explores their reactions to war, loss, displacement, exile and return to the homeland
JEROME, K Three Men in a Boat 'Three Men in a Boat' relates the adventures and mishaps of three late-Victorian gentlemen and a dog on holiday on the Thames. With its picaresque digressions and asides, Jerome depicts the group's attempts to keep themselves afloat and cope with the English weather
JOHNSTON, Jennifer How many miles to Babylon? Alec and Jerry shouldn't have been friends - Alec's life was one of privilege, while Jerry's was one of toil. But their love of horses brought them together. When war breaks out in 1914, both Jerry and Alec sign up. They find themselves back together, but now as officer and enlisted man.
JONES, G. RHYS The Nation’s Favourite Poems Last year in response to a unique poll organised by the BBC TV programme Bookworm, the nation voted for its top 100 poems. This book contains all of the winners including classics such as The Lady of Shalott, The Ancient Mariner and If.
JONES, G. RHYS The Nation’s Favourite 20th Century Poems This collection brings together a wealth of innovative poetry styles that have flourished in the 20th century, whether in the witty modern-day sonnets of Wendy Cope, the nonsense poems of Spike Milligan, or the prose poems of T.S. Elliot.
JONES, Kathleen Norman Nicholson Norman Nicholson has been described as the greatest Lake District poet since Wordsworth. In his twenties he was a protege of T.S. Eliot and won major awards alongside Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, who referred to him as ‘a fathering voice’.
JONES, Kathleen A Passionate Sisterhood Poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, have become a literary myth, and we are used to looking at the Lake District landscape through its romantic prism. But for their wives, sisters and daughters the view was very different.
JONES. Lloyd Mister Pip On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations. So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide.
JOYCE, Rachel The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life
KAMARA, Mariatu* Bite of the Mango 'Bite of the Mango' tells the astonishing story of one girl's journey from war victim to UNICEF Special Representative.
KANE, Jessica The Report In March 1943, 173 people died on the steps of a London tube station while seeking shelter from an air raid. The job of compiling the report on the tragedy falls to magistrate Laurence Dunn, and he uncovers a precarious - even damaging - truth which forces him question which path to take.
KARGAR, Zarghuna* Dear Zara Moving, enlightening, heart-breaking - this is a book of true stories from women in Afghanistan, giving voice to these women for the first time and allowing them to tell their stories in their own words.
KAT, Otto de Man on the Move A young drifter makes an unforgettable friendship in wartime before fate leaves him once again alone and unable to settle.
KAY, Jackie Red Dust Road In this revelatory and redemptive book Jackie Kay tells the story of her own life. It is a book about belonging and beliefs, strangers and family, biology and destiny and what makes us who we are.
KELMAN, Stephen Pigeon English With equal fascination for the local gang - the Dell Farm Crew - and the pigeon who visits his balcony, 11-year-old Harri absorbs the many strange elements of his new life in England. But when a boy is knifed to death and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own.
KENT, Hannah Burial Rites In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnusdottir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of her lover. Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district office Jon Jonsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Toti, the young assistant priest appointed Agnes's spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her.
KESEY, Ken One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' is the classic story of Randle Patick McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity and is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.
KHADRA, Yasmina The Swallows of Kabul Moshen and his wife, Zunaira, met at university and once looked forward to a happy life together. Yasmina Khadra's novel weaves together the stories of Moshen and Zunaira and two others who live with the knowledge that pleasure is sin and that death has become a mere banality under the rule of the Taliban.
KIBLER, Julie Calling me home Shalerville, Kentucky, 1939 - a world where black maids and handymen are trusted to raise white children and tend to white houses, but from which they are banished after dark. 16-year-old Isabelle McAllister, born into wealth and privilege, finds her ordered life turned upside down when she becomes attracted to Robert, the ambitious black son of her family's housekeeper. Before long Isabelle and Robert are crossing extraordinary, dangerous boundaries and falling deeply in love.
KIDD, Sue Monk The Secret Life of Bees Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now 14, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness.
KIM, Eugenia The Calligrapher’s Daughter Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny. Smart and headstrong, she is encouraged by her mother - but her stern father is determined to maintain tradition, especially as the Japanese steadily gain control of his beloved country.
KING, Stephen Carrie Carrie has the gift of telekinesis. To be invited to prom night by Tommy is a dream - the first step to social acceptance. But events take a turn on that night as Carrie is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her.
KING, Stephen Different Seasons 'Different Seasons' contains four stories with an interlacing of horror that capture the dark corners of our times.
KING, Stephen Misery He was a writer and she was his number one fan. She had pulled him out of the car-wreck, brought him home and splinted and set his mangled legs. All he had to do in return was to write a very special book, just for her, all about her favourite character from his novels. If he didn't, she would make him scream.
KING, Stephen 11.22.63 What happens when a young teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, gets the chance to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from shooting JFK in November 1963? This is the premise of the latest novel by Stephen King.
KING, Stephen The Stand First came the days of the plague, then came the dreams. Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.
KING, Stephen Under the Dome It's a bright Autumn morning in the small town of Chester's Mill. Claudette Sanders is having a flying lesson and Dale Barbara is hitching a ride out of town. Neither make it to their intended destinations, for an invisible barrier has descended over the town.
KING, Stephen The Wind through the Keyhole For readers new to 'The Dark Tower', 'The Wind Through the Keyhole' is a stand-alone novel, and a wonderful introduction to the series. It is a story within a story, which features both the younger and older gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the dark tower.
KINGSOLVER, Barbara The Lacuna 'The Lacuna' is the story of a man's search for safety in the grinding jaws of two nations, at a moment when the entire world seemed bent on reinventing itself at any cost.
KINGSOLVER, Barbara The Poisonwood Bible A fiery evangelist takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959, carrying all they need from home, but find it is calamitously transformed on African soil. The tale recounts the family's tragic undoing and reconstruction.
KINGSOLVER, Barbara Flight Behaviour On the Appalachian Mountains above her home, a young mother discovers a beautiful and terrible marvel of nature. As the world around her is suddenly transformed by a seeming miracle, can the old certainties they have lived by for centuries remain unchallenged?
KIPLING, Rudyard Plain Tales from the Hills 'Plain Tales from the Hills' was Kipling's first published volume of fiction. The stories with their brevity and concentration of effect are a landmark in the history of the short story.
KLAUSSMANN, Liza Tigers in Red Weather Tiger House is where the beautiful and the damned have always come to play in summer, scene of martinis and moonlit conspiracies, and newly inherited by the sleek, beguiling Nick. The Second World War is just ending, Nick's cousin Helena has left her in search of married bliss in Hollywood, and Nick's husband is coming home.
KNEALE, Matthew Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance This is a collection of stories - funny, wise and audacious - from the bestselling and Whitbread prize-winning author of 'The English Passengers'.
KOHLER, Sheila Becoming Jane Eyre The year is 1846. In a damp parsonage on the Yorkshire moors, a family seems cursed with disaster: a mother and two children dead; a father sick; a son destroyed by alcohol; and three intelligent young women, reduced to poverty, with nothing to save them except their literary talent.
KOOFI, Fawzia The Favoured Daughter Fawzia Koofi, the first Afghani woman Parliamentary president, shares her amazing story, interwoven with a series of letters written to her two daughters at a time when she feared for her life. She offers hope for the future of one of the most dangerous parts of the world.
KRAUSS, Nicole Great House George Weisz has spent his entire life in the pursuit of a single aim: to recreate his father's study exactly as it was that evening in 1938 when the Nazis arrived and the family home was abandoned forever. 60 years later, one final piece of the puzzle remains to be found. And someone who he least suspects knows exactly where it is.
KUNDERA, Milan The Unbearable Lightness of Being In this story of irreconcilable loves and infidelities, Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of 20th century 'being'. The novel encompasses the extremes of comedy and tragedy, and embraces, it seems, all aspects of human existence.
KYI, Aung Sang Suu Letters from Burma In these letters, Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burmas borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land. Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives.
LAHIRA, Jhumpa The Lowland Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portrayal of lives undone and forged anew, 'The Lowland is a deeply felt novel of family ties that entangle and fray in ways unforeseen and unrevealed, of ties that ineluctably define who we are.
LANCASTER, John Capital The residents of Pepys Road, London - a banker and his shopaholic wife, an old woman dying of a brain tumour, a family of Pakistani shop owners, the young football star from Senegal and his minder - all receive an anonymous postcard one day with a simple message: we want what you have. Who is behind it? What do they want? As the mystery of the postcards deepens, the world around Pepys Road is turned upside down by the financial crash and all of its residents' lives change beyond recognition over the course of the next year
LARKIN, Philip The Whitsun Weddings This collection of poetry has been written clearly, rythmically, and thoughtfully about what all of us can understand. The poems range across a whole emotional landscape.
LAST, Nella Nella Last’s War In September 1939, housewife and mother Nella Last began a diary whose entries, in their regularity, length and quality, have created a record of the Second World War which is powerful, fascinating and unique.
LAST, Nella Nella Last’s Peace Picking up where 'Nella Last's War' left off, this moving and often comic diary tells the story of her post-war struggles and describes what ordinary people felt during those years of privation, hope and rebuilding - and whether 'peace' really meant 'peace' for everyone.
LAWRENCE, D.H Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence's first major novel was also one of the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside.
LAWRENCE, D.H The Virgin and the Gypsy The reverent tale of a young girl's emotional awakening in the elemental presence of a gypsy. In this story, as in "Lady Chatterley's Lover", Lawrence explores the possibilities of a new physical basis for social relationships.
LAWRENCE, D.H Women in Love In Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence explores sexuality through the story of the Brangwen sisters and their relationships, and the ensuing clashes in thought, passion and belief as they search for a truly complete life.
LEAR, Linda Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature In this remarkable biography...the author's meticulous attention to detail is obvious throughout, not to mention her elegant writing and exceptional scholarship. Highly recommended.
HARPER, Lee To Kill A Mockingbird 'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'. This is a lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of the story - a black man charged with raping a white girl in the 30s.
LE Bon, Eva Bring down the Moon Written with sensitivity and compassion, the manuscript Bring Down the Moon straddles the genre of romance and family saga over 50 years. At times romantic, at times tragic It offers an overarching message of hope.
LE CARRE, John The Constant Gardener The young and beautiful Tessa Quayle has been horribly murdered on the shores of Lake Turkana. Her African lover has vanished, and her husband, Justin, a career diplomat and amateur gardener, sets out in pursuit of the killers and their motive.
LE CARRE, John Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Mr George Smiley is small, podgy, middle-aged and disillusioned. He is also compassionate, ruthless, and a senior British intelligence officer. Smiley comes up against Karla, his old Moscow adversary, and so begins a long battle of wits.
LEE, Chang-Rae The Surrendered June Han has forged a life thousands of miles from her birthplace: she has built a business in New York, survived a husband, borne a child. But her past holds more secrets than she has ever been able to tell, and 30 years after her escape from war-ravaged Korea, the time has come for her to confront them.
LEE, Laurie As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning It was 1934 when Laurie Lee left his home to tramp through Spain. This first book of Lee's autobiography paints a lyrical picture of a beautiful and violent country that was to involve him inextricably.
LEE, Laurie Cider with Rosie This is a vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belonging to a now distant past.
LELORD, Francois Hector and the Search for Happiness Hector and the search for happiness is a feel-good gem and has already sold two million copies around the world.Francois Lelord has created a 21st-century hero in kind-hearted psychiatrist Hector, who travels the globe to find out what makes people happy. - Good Housekeeping
LEMMON, Gayle Dressmaker of Khair Khana This is the remarkable story of an unlikely entrepreneur who, against all odds, saved her family and inspired her community in Afghanistan.
LESSING, Doris The Golden Notebook Anna Wulf is a young novelist with writer's block. Divorced, with a young child, and disillusioned by unsatisfactory relationships, she feels her life is falling apart. In fear of madness, she records her experiences in four coloured notebooks.
LESSING, Doris Time Bites Assembled in this text are the very best of several decades' worth of occasional writings from perhaps the best-loved and most-admired of Britain's great female writers - Doris Lessing.
LEVY, Andrea Small Island Returning to England after the war Gilbert Joseph is treated very differently now that he is no longer in an RAF uniform. Joined by his wife Hortense, he rekindles a friendship with Queenie who takes in Jamaican lodgers. Can their dreams of a better life in England overcome the prejudice they face?
LEWYCKA, Marina A Short History of Tractors in the Ukrainain Somewhere in the heart of the green and pleasant land called England is a valley filled with strawberries. A group of migrant workers, who hail from Eastern Europe, China, and Africa have come here to harvest them for delivery to British supermarkets, and end up living in two small trailer homes, a men's trailer and a woman's trailer. They are all seeking a better life
LEWYCKA, Marina Two Caravans In a Kent field, and around their caravans, a group of strawberry pickers celebrate a birthday. But what lies behind the buy-one-get-one-free offers at the supermarket and who picks the strawberries? The Ukrainians, the Poles, the Chinese? And although he can't pick strawberries, there's also the dog!
LEYSHON, Neil The Colour of Milk 1831. 15-year-old Mary begins the difficult task of telling her story. Mary leads a harsh life working on her father's farm. In the summer she is sent to work for the local vicar's invalid wife, where the reasons why she must record the truth of what happens to her are gradually revealed.
LIGHTFOOT, Freda The Bobbin Girls The Bobbin Girls is a heartwarming Lakeland saga in the bestselling tradition of Audrey Howard. Freda Lightfoot also writes under the pseudonym Marion Carr, and her previous novels include Madeiran Legacy, Hester, Luckpenny Land & Wishing Water.
LIGHTFOOT, Freda Grace’s Sin In Gracie's Sin three young women craving adventure join the Women's Timber Corps. The novel contains fascinating wartime details. Previous novels by Lightfoot include Luckpenny Land, Wishing Water, Larkrigg Fell, Lakeland Lily and Polly's War.
LIGHTFOOT, Freda Lakeland Lily Written in the tradition of Audrey Howard, and set in the Lake District at the time of WW1, this is the story of one young woman's fight for justice and her struggle to overcome the prejudices of Edwardian society.
LIGHTFOOT, Freda Larkrigg Fell This is an engaging tale set in the Lake District. It is the story of two twins, but in particular the tale of Beth, who endures hardship but emerges the wiser and stronger for it.
LIGHTFOOT, Frederick Migrants A novel about migrant workers caught up in the relentless commodification of the illegal labour market in which an accusation of rape serves as a loose thread which unravels a complicated web of exploitation, deceit and unexpected - though tragically pointless - heroism
LIGHTFOOT, Frederick My Name is E This story is about deafness, the senses, the struggle for language and recognition, but family feuds, lies and secrets lie at its heart.
LIVELY, Penelope Family Album Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively again shows her mastery of different viewpoints as she delves into the mystery of happy family life.
LIVELY, Penelope The Photograph When Glyn Peters chances upon an old photograph of his wife holding hands with another man his mind is filled with questions. As he investigates the truth, even his work as a historian doesn't prepare him for the ensuing radical shift in perception as certainties of past and present slip away.
LOCKE, Attica Black Water Rising On a dark night, out on the Houston bayou to celebrate his wife's birthday, Jay Porter hears a scream. Saving a distressed woman from drowning, he opens a Pandora's Box.
LOVRIC, Michelle The Book of Human Skin 12-year-old Minguillo, who has already contrived to lose one sibling, is listening to the birth-cries of his new sister Marcella, a threat to his inheritance. Minguillo's jealousy will condemn his sister to a series of fates as a cripple, a madwoman and a nun. But Marcella is not quite the soft target Minguillo
LUPTON, Rosamund Sister What would you do if your sister disappeared without a trace? This is an emotionally fraught and at some times terrifying story about two sisters and the strength that binds them.
LYCETT, Andrew Conan Doyle With access to new material, Lycett gives a comprehensive, psychologically and readable portrait of the man who created Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle.