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Following The Story of the Treasure Seekers, this is the second book in the Bastable trilogy. 'We felt all it all the more becauase we had not really meant to do anything wrong. We only thought perhaps the grown-ups would not be quite pleased if they knew, and that is quite different'Sent away to the country after a particularly unruly episode, the well-meaning but wayward Bastable children solemnly vow to reform their behaviour, and establish 'The Society of the Wouldbegoods'. But their grand schemes for great and virtuous deeds lead to just as much mayhem as their ordinary games, and sometimes more ...A collection that will be coveted by children and adults alike, this list is the best in children's literature, curated by Virago. These are timeless tales with beautiful covers, that will be treasured and shared across the generations. Some titles you will already know; some will be new to you, but there are stories for everyone to love, whatever your age. Our list includes Nina Bawden (Carrie's War, The Peppermint Pig), Rumer Godden (The Dark Horse, An Episode of Sparrows), Joan Aiken (The Serial Garden, The Gift Giving) E. Nesbit (The Psammead Trilogy, The Bastable Trilogy, The Railway Children), L. M. Montgomery (The Anne of Green Gables series) and Susan Coolidge (The What Katy Did Trilogy). Discover Virago Children's Classics.

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICK SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTRE FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE AND THE LAMBDA AWARD *'Absolutely incredible. Beautiful, powerful writing. These pages will stay with me forever' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of QUEENIE *'A gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself' Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONE *'Hilariously funny and quietly devastating' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY and HERE COMES THE SUN *'There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the suns burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books' Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVY A THING IS MIGHTY BIG WHEN TIME AND DISTANCE CANNOT SHRINK IT It was a quote by Zora Neale Hurston. Malaya liked the words. The message was a mouthful of meaning, and it changed each time she read it. At first it had seemed ominous, but now she looked at it differently. She wondered for the first time if there could be something good about bigness, something mighty about not shrinking, after all. Growing up in rapidly gentrifying 90s Harlem, Malaya struggles to fit into a world that makes no room for her. She's funny, creative and smart, but all people see - even those who love her - is her size. At eight, she is forced to go to Weight Watchers; at twelve, her parents fear she'll be taken from them; by sixteen, a gastric bypass is discussed. On good days, Malaya braids bright colours into her hair, turns up Biggie Smalls on her Walkman, and strides through Harlem, his words galvanising her; on bad days, she doesn't leave her bed other than for furtive trips for the forbidden food that will comfort her - for a while. Big Girl is an unforgettable portrait of a queer Black girl as she learns to take up space in the world on her own terms.

An unconventional, unexpectedly funny, brutally honest memoir about infertility, pregnancy and motherhood 'You and your partner want a baby. But your two bodies can't make a baby together.' If you want a baby but your body says otherwise - If you don't know the polite way to say thank you for the sperm - If you're waiting for the sound of a brand-new heartbeat - If you know it takes a village to raise a baby but have no idea who should be doing what - If you're lurching between bliss and bewilderment - If you don't fit the shape of what you've been told a mother should be - Reach for The Unfamiliar and don't let go. Moving and immersive, and written with wisdom, disarming humour and raw honesty, The Unfamiliar casts a fresh eye on motherhood and challenges our assumptions about pregnancy, gender roles, queer identity and what it means to be a parent. 'Cold, hard, raw writing that somehow sets your heart on fire' LAURA DOCKRILL 'Fierce, honest, beautifully written... A marvel' PRAGYA AGARWAL 'Kirsty Logan writes with bright wit and wonder - I read this book in awe' DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA 'Wonderful... Luminous writing captures the uncertainty, the fear, the sheer physicality of love' MARIANNE LEVY

While I waited for sleep I retraced the road which brought me to you. Unbelievably it only took six months, equinox to equinox. This dazzling rediscovered classic, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1973, is a heady, witty and seductive exploration of female sexuality - perfect for fans of Iris Murdoch and Brigid Brophy. *** 'Funny and brave and moving and absolutely bonkers. I love this novel' CHARLOTTE MENDELSON 'A transgressive classic . . . intrepid, eccentric, and not giving a damn' OBSERVER 'Elizabeth Mavor relishes spirited, unorthodox women, free with their tongues and ready to snap their fingers at convention' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS Hero Kinoull is an antiquarian bookseller whose sedate life in the picturesque English town of Beaudesert is turned upside down between the spring and autumn equinoxes of a single year. First her quiet but forbidden liaison with Hugh Shafto, the curator of the country's finest collection of Rococo art, comes to an abrupt halt when she develops an adoration for his straight-talking, do-gooding wife Belle. But this relationship leads to other, even more unexpected feelings for Belle's widowed mother-in-law, the majestic Kate Shafto, who spends her days tending her garden and sailing her handmade boats in the waters of the miniature archipelago she's constructed in a disused gravel pit. 'A strange little nugget of a novel . . . I'd like any book that could be described as a mix between Beatrix Potter, JG Ballard and Sophocles' Irish Times 'A sprawling pleasure (come for the oddly troubled surface of a reclaimed gravel-pit, stay for the tragicomedy of intergenerational queer desire)' Eley Williams

One of the most enchanting books about cats ever written, Minka and Curdy describes the adventures - and misadventures - of two very different kittens.Victoria, a real tyrant of a cat, spent so many years training her owner to be the ideal hostess that Mrs Bell feels it would be disrespectful to replace that formidable creature. But her resolve is worn down, and she finally agrees to take a marmalade kitten - and is immediately offered a Siamese that she also simply cannot resist. This is the story of a writer seduced by the contrasting charms of two kittens: Curdy, lively and mischievous; and Minka, elegant, imperious, and disdainful of the ginger upstart. Delightfully illustrated with line drawings, this is a witty and charming love letter to feline companionship from the author of Frost in May, and the perfect book for all cat lovers.

A memoir about home and belonging, from the author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography, beginning with I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Though she fiercely loves the world, as a black woman, she also knows its cruelty. Angelou has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In the fifth volume, Maya Angelou emigrates to Ghana only to discover that 'you can't go home again', but she comes to a new awareness of love and friendship, civil rights and slavery - and the myth of mother Africa. 'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY 'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON

'Janet Frame's luminous words are the more precious because they were snatched from the jaws of the disaster of her early life. It is one of the classics of autobiography. She knew that a writer must search her soul in order to say anything that is essential' HILARY MANTEL 'Janet Frame is the greatest New Zealand writer. She is utterly herself. Any one of her books could be published today and it would be ground-breaking' ELEANOR CATTON After being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia as a young woman, Janet Frame spent several years in psychiatric institutions. She escaped undergoing a lobotomy when it was discovered that she had just won a national literary prize. She then went on to become New Zealand's most acclaimed writer. As she says more than once in this autobiography: 'My writing saved me.' This edition contains all three volumes of Frame's autobiography: To the Is-Land, An Angel at My Table and An Envoy from Mirror City. 'One of the most beautiful and moving books I have ever read . . . A masterpiece . . . Janet's autobiography had an enormous effect on me. She struck a blow right to my heart' JANE CAMPION, GUARDIAN 'One of the great autobiographies written in the twentieth century' MICHAEL HOLROYD, SUNDAY TIMES 'All my preoccupations as a writer - my notions of home, beauty, madness of sorts and longing - come from her' MEG MASON

'Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant' COSMOPOLITAN 'A brilliant novel: honest, engaging and sharp as a tack' SARAH WATERS 'Lively, vivid and exceedingly entertaining' SUNDAY TIMES Not one of them, if she could help it, was going to marry a broker or a banker or a cold-fish corporation lawyer. . . New York, 1930. Eight Vassar graduates meet in New York to attend the wedding of one of their friends - and reconvene seven years later at her funeral. Young and fearless, they vow not to become stuffy and frightened like their parents, but to lead fulfilling, emancipated lives. But which of them will achieve that dream - and at what cost? Ground-breaking in its fearless portrayal of female friendship, sex and the struggle to have it all, The Group was a revelation, a scandal, and an instant bestseller. 'McCarthy's characters confront many of the same issues as their modern counterparts: sex and contraception, career and marriage, love and lust, fidelity to one's husband versus loyalty to one's friends and the attempt to carve out a place for oneself unconstrained by the gender limitations of previous generations. Its continuing relevance is one of the book's most extraordinary attributes' ELIZABETH DAY, GUARDIAN

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 'Highsmith writes about men like a spider writing about flies' OBSERVER 'For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith' TIME 'The Glass Cell has lost little of its disturbing power . . . Highsmith was a genuine one-off' DAILY TELEGRAPH Based on a true story, The Glass Cell is Highsmith's deeply disturbing fictionalisation of everything she learned. Falsely convicted of fraud, the easy-going but naive Philip Carter is sent to prison. Despite his devotion to Hazel, his wife, and the support of David Sullivan, a lawyer and friend who tries to avenge the injustice done to him, Carter endures six lonely and drug-ravaged years. Upon his release, Carter is a much more discerning, suspicious, and violent man. His beautiful wife is waiting for him. He has never had any reason to doubt her. For those around him, earning back his trust can mean the difference between life and death.

**I HAVE NOT BEEN AS PROFOUNDLY MOVED BY A BOOK IN YEARS' JODI PICOULT** **I LOVED THIS BOOK MORE THAN I CAN SAY' NIGELLA LAWSON** **THE PERFECT GIFT FOR MOTHER'S DAY** Bess Kalb has saved every voicemail message her grandmother Bobby - her best friend, her confidante - ever left her until the day she died. In this vivid memoir, Bobby's voice is still in Bess's head. Stubborn, glamorous, larger than life, she gives Bess advice on everything from lipsticks to life partners and tells the history that made them both. These are the truths - full of devotion, killer instincts and hard-won wisdom - that grandmothers gift us even when they hurt, and even once they're gone. 'I CRIED TWICE . . . I DELIGHTED IN BOBBY'S JOY' MIRANDA POPKEY, NEW YORK TIMES 'BITTERSWEET' OBSERVER 'UNIQUE' EMMA GANNON, RED 'SPARKLING' DAILY MAIL

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 'The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer' THE TIMES 'I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is' GILLIAN FLYNN 'No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying' VOGUE 'Ramón had done it. Obviously! He thought about Ramón, his Catholic soul trapped in his passion for Lelia. He'd find Ramón and see that he paid with his life for what he had done.' In A Game for the Living, threads of sexual jealousy and guilt are shot through with all Patricia Highsmith's uncanny talent for the unexpected. Ramón mends furniture. Theodore paints. A devout Catholic, Ramón lives in Mexico City, not far from where he was born into poverty. Theodore, a rich German transplanted to a country where money buys some comfort but no peace, believes in nothing at all. You'd think the two had nothing in common. Except, of course, that both had slept with Lelia. The two were good friends, so neither minded sharing her affections. They did mind, however, when Lelia was found raped, murdered, and horribly mutilated. The two friends, suspects both, twist in a limbo of tension and doubt, each seeking his own form of solace and truth. A thrilling, psychologically complex novel, rich with setting, A Game for the Living is Highsmith at her best.

A battle against fate. A race against time. Taylor Montclair is a regular girl from the quiet backwater of Woodbury, England. Sacha Winters is a darkly mysterious boy from the City of Lights - Paris, France. While Taylor's focussed on her dream of attending Oxford University, school couldn't be further from Sacha's mind . . . Sacha knows exactly when he's going to die. Because he's done it before. On the appointed day, Sacha's time will run out. And his death will fulfil an ancient destiny that could unleash chaos and catastrophe. Taylor is the only person who can save him. Neither of them knows that yet. Because they haven't even met. Hundreds of miles and a body of water separate them. Deadly forces will stop at nothing to keep them apart. They have eight weeks to find each other and unravel an ancient web of mystery and danger. The clock starts NOW.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Captivating' New York Times 'Dazzling' Financial Times 'A cracking good read' Historical Novel Society SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER. At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China. The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they? As playful and thought-provoking as it is compelling, as brutal and harrowing as it is achingly poignant and tender, this is a novel about love and war, deceit and betrayal, about identity, storytelling and the trickery required for survival.

The prize-winning 100,000-copy Italian bestseller A 2023 book of the year for the Financial Times, the Irish Times, the New European, Marie Claire and Largehearted Boy 'Deliciously enjoyable' Katherine Heiny 'I adored it' Naoise Dolan 'Wild, funny and disturbing' Roddy Doyle 'Thrillingly original' Monica Ali 'It would be simply impossible for a book this good to go unnoticed' Big Issue _________________________________ A delightfully funny Italian novel about sex, love, family - and how a writer transforms her life into art Vero has grown up in Rome with her eccentric family: an omnipresent mother who is devoted to her own anxiety, a father ruled by hygienic and architectural obsessions, and a precocious genius brother at the centre of their attention. As she becomes an adult, Vero's need to strike out on her own leads her into bizarre and comical situations: she tries (and fails) to run away to Paris at the age of fifteen; she moves into an unwitting older boyfriend's house after they have been together for less than a week; and she sets up a fraudulent (and wildly successful) street clothing stall to raise funds to go to Mexico. Most of all, she falls in love - repeatedly, dramatically, and often with the most unlikely and inappropriate of candidates. As she continues to plot escapades and her mother's relentless tracking methods and guilt-tripping mastery thwart her at every turn, it is no wonder that Vero becomes a writer - and a liar - inventing stories in a bid for her own sanity. Narrated in a voice as wryly ironic as it is warm and affectionate, Lost on Me seductively explores the slippery relationship between deceitfulness and creativity (beginning with Vero's first artistic achievement: a painting she steals from a school classmate and successfully claims as her own). Deceptively simple, its tenderness offset by moments of cool brutality, Lost on Me is a masterwork of human observation.

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York TimesIt's the summer of 1947, and peacetime has brought new challenges to Barsetshire. Beliers Priory, once a military hospital during the War, has now become a flourishing preparatory school for boys run by Leslie and Philip Winter. When Charles Belton is hired as the new school master, six young people are thrown together in a web of flirtations and misunderstandings: Charles and his elder brother, Naval Captain Freddy Belton; Susan Dean, now Red Cross Depot Librarian, and her glamorous sister Jessica, an actress in thrall to the theatre; pragmatic Lucy Marling and her brother Oliver. And with the old social order in ruins, the scene is set for a delicious summer of comic - and romantic - possibilities. Love Among the Ruins is a delightful, clever and wryly poignant classic, and the 17th novel in Angela Thirkell's beloved Barsetshire series.

'A volume in which rich and unexpected seams of precious materials await discovery' Guardian Three hundred years of wanderlust are captured in this collection as women travel for peril or pleasure, whether to gaze into Persian gardens or imbibe the French countryside, to challenge the fierce Sahara or climb an impossible mountain. The extraordinary women in this collection are observers of the world in which they wander; their prose rich in description, remarkable in detail. Mary McCarthy conveys the vitality of Florence while Willa Cather's essay on Lavandou foreshadows her descriptions of the French countryside in later novels. Others are more active participants in the culture they are visiting, such as Leila Philip, as she harvests rice with Japanese women. Whether it is curiosity about the world, a thirst for adventure or escape from personal tragedy, all of these women are united in that they approached their journeys with wit, intelligence, compassion and empathy for the lives of those they encountered along the way. Also includes writing by Willa Cather, Joan Didion, Vita Sackville-West, M. F. K Fisher, Christina Dodwell and more.

Pre-order Sandi Toksvig's new novel FRIENDS OF DOROTHY now - coming in September 2024 The long-awaited memoir from one of Britain's best-loved characters - presenter of QI, former host of The Great British Bake Off 'Wise and kind... part celebration, part confession... it will make you miss your stop' Observer 'A fun-filled, fact-packed, memorable ride' Sunday Times 'Life-affirming and addictive' Sunday Express Between the Stops is a sort of a memoir, my sort. It's about a bus trip really, because it's my view from the Number 12 bus. From a brief history of lady gangsters at Elephant and Castle to anecdotes about boarding school, this is the long-awaited memoir from one of Britain's best-loved characters. Presenter of QI, former host of The Great British Bake Off, writer, broadcaster, activist and comic on stage, screen and radio for nearly forty years: this is an autobiography with a difference - as only Sandi Toksvig can tell it. A funny and moving trip through memories, musings and the many delights on the number 12 route, Between the Stops is also an inspiration to us all to get off our phones, look up and talk to each other because as Sandi says: 'some of the greatest trips lie on our own doorstep'.

INTRODUCED BY HAZEL HOLT 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' Richard Osman 'I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen' Philip Larkin When Barbara Pym died in 1980, she left a considerable amount of unpublished material. This volume contains an early novel, Civil to Strangers, three novellas and an autobiographical essay, 'Finding a Voice', Pym's only written comment on her writing career. In Civil to Strangers, the lives of a young couple, Cassandra Marsh-Gibbon and her self-absorbed writer husband Adam, are thrown into upheaval when a mysterious Hungarian arrives in their village. 'A sublime social comedy . . . It exists inside the Pym Eden of safety, silliness and a kind of subdued hilarity. Look out for one of her best curates - the starchy, spinster-dodging Mr Paladin - and a typically deliciously insensitive vicar' KATE SAUNDERS, THE TIMES 'Brilliant, hilarious, poignant and so very, very English' TIME

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CLARE CHAMBERS 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN 'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend' JILLY COOPER 'The subtlest of her books . . . the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art' PHILIP LARKIN Wilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good-looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her staid husband Rodney, a civil servant, is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her conventional life takes a turn when she meets the handsome brother of a close friend. Attractive, cultured and attentive, Piers Longridge is a delectable mystery Wilmet is determined to solve.

THE FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES 'The novel's richness lies in its entertaining meandering, and the vitality of its spoken rhythms' MAYA JAGGI, GUARDIAN 'A moving affirmation of forgiveness and trust . . . The Healing should be cause for hope, sustenance and even celebration' VALERIE SAYERS, NEW YORK TIMES Harlan Jane Eagleton is a faith healer, travelling to small towns, converting sceptics, restoring minds and bodies. But before that she was a rock star's manager and race-track gambler. She's had a fling with her rock star's ex-husband and along the way she's somehow lost her own husband - a medical anthropologist now travelling with a medicine woman in Africa. Harlan tells her story from the end backwards, drawing us ever deeper into her world and the mystery at the heart of her tale - the story of her first healing.

'Powerful, timely and relentlessly compelling. HOLLOW FIRES burns brightly with Samira Ahmed's trademark blend of thought-provoking social relevance, heartfelt coming-of-age and whip-smart plotting' Karen McManus, author of ONE OF US IS LYING Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. One thing she's learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist's job is to find the facts and not let personal bias affect the story: but that changes the day she discovers Jawad. Jawad Ali was just fourteen when a teacher saw him wearing a cosplay jetpack and mistook it for a bomb. A mistake that got Jawad arrested, labelled a terrorist - 'Bomb Boy' - and eventually killed. But who was the young boy behind the headlines? With Jawad's haunting voice guiding her throughout her investigation, Safiya seeks to tell the whole truth about the murdered boy and those who killed him. A powerful story of our times, Hollow Fires exposes the evil that hides in plain sight and the silent complicity of privileged bystanders who use alternative facts to bend the truth to their liking.

Vienna, 1938. Beautiful actress Julia Homburg and her politician husband Franz Wedeker embody all the enlightened brilliance of their native city. But Wedeker is Jewish, and just across the border the tanks of the Nazi Reich are primed for the Anschluss. When the SS invades and disappearances become routine, Franz must be concealed. With daring ingenuity, Julia conjures a hiding place. In the shadow of oppression, a clear conscience is a luxury few can afford, and Julia finds she must strike a series of hateful bargains with the new order if she and her husband are to survive. A highly acclaimed bestseller when first published in the 1960s, Night Falls on the City is a true lost classic, and an unforgettable portrait of wartime.

After five years in the Summerlands, Gideon has gained his freedom. Elizabeth knows he will go straight for Tegan, and that she must protect the girl she had come to regard as her own daughter. In the time since she the dramatic night in Batchcombe woods, Tegan has traveled the world learning from all manner of witches, and she is no longer the awkward teenager and novice spellcaster she once was. However, her skills are no match for Gideon's dark, vengeful power, and he succeeds in capturing her. Will Elizabeth be able to find her? Will they be able to defeat their nemesis once and for all? In a breathless journey that takes them through history, witch pursues warlock. Three people steeped in magic weave a new story, but not all will survive until the end.

'Utterly absorbing... addictive, funny and brilliantly observed' Daily Mail Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth, the estuary town north of Aberdeen that on a bleak day can seem to offer little more than sea-fog, gangsters, cheap drugs and a suspension bridge irresistible to suicides. After a five-year exile, Stewart's presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life. But Stonemouth is also home to the girl who still haunts his dreams.... Praise for Iain Banks: 'The most imaginative novelist of his generation' The Times 'His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers' Ken MacLeod, Guardian 'His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent' Neil Gaiman 'An exceptional wordsmith' Scotsman

WINNER OF THE WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE 2020 When a dead body is found in the Thames, caught in the chains of HMS Belfast, it begins a search for a missing woman. A policeman, a documentary film-maker and an Irish nurse named Chrissie all respond to the death of the unknown woman in their own ways. London is a place of random meetings, shifting relationships - and some, like Chrissie, intersect with many. The wonderful Linda Grant weaves a tale around ideas of home; how London can be a place of exile or expulsion, how home can be a physical place or an idea, how all our lives intersect. 'Reminds us of the depth and strength of the communities that are our beloved London. Thank you' Philippe Sands 'There's a Dickensian quality to the opening scene and yet it's one of the most bitingly contemporary publications of the year - a shifting, polyphonic narrative' Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday 'There is a richness in this novel, found in a migrant experience that is deeply embedded rather than distinct from its environment... a compelling read' Jake Arnott, Guardian 'The novel is fleet-footed... the way even the minor characters flare into life gives the novel richness and depth... a novel fit for shifting, uncertain times' Suzi Feay, Financial Times

BY ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL INDIAN WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 'The deftness with which Attia Hosain handles the interplay of manners, class, culture and different forms of female power is gorgeously done . . .' KAMILA SHAMSIE 'An extraordinary novel, with an extraordinary heroine' MONICA ALI 'A masterful examination of class, culture, family and women's lives set against the backdrop of Partition' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE 'My life changed. It had been restricted by invisible barriers almost as effectively as the physically restricted lives of my aunts in the zenana. A window had opened here, a door there, a curtain had been drawn aside; but outside lay a world narrowed by one's field of vision.' Laila, orphaned daughter of a distinguished Muslim family, is brought up in her grandfather's traditional household by her aunts, who keep purdah. At fifteen she moves to the home of her 'liberal' but autocratic uncle in Lucknow. As the struggle for Independence sharpens, Laila is surrounded by relatives and university friends caught up in politics, but she is unable to commit herself to any cause: her own fight for independence is a struggle against tradition. With its stunning evocation of India, its political insight and unsentimental understanding of the human heart, Sunlight on a Broken Column is a classic of Muslim life. Attia Hosain published only two books, but her writing has influenced generations of writers. Discover Phoenix Fled, Hosain's acclaimed short-story collection, also published in Virago Modern Classics.

The Blunderer was written by Highsmith in between Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley. The novel follows the young, successful and handsome, Walter Stackhouse who seems to have it all, that is, until the day his wife's body is found at the bottom of a cliff. Under the intense scrutiny of the investigation he commits one mistake, then another, until - in true Highsmithian fashion - Walter finds his perfect life derailed. Now Walter is running from the obsessions of the murderer, and the suspicions of the lead cop, not to mention his own increasingly life-threatening blunders.

40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, WITH A FOREWORD BY STANLEY TUCCI 'I have bought more copies of this book to give to people, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, than any other . . . Heartburn is the perfect, bittersweet, sobbingly funny, all-too-true confessional novel' NIGELLA LAWSON 'I kept a copy of Nora Ephron's Heartburn next to me as a reminder of how to be funny and truthful, and all I ended up doing was ignoring my writing and rereading Heartburn' AMY POEHLER Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. The fact that this woman has a 'neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb' is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. Heartburn is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and most satisfyingly revenge. This is Nora Ephron's (screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle) roman a clef: 'I always thought during the pain of the marriage that one day it would make a funny book,' she once said. And it is! 'It is snortingly funny in its depiction of the death throes of a relationship. And it bursts with recipes. What more could you ask for?' ADAM KAY PART OF THE VIRAGO DESIGNER COLLECTION. COVER FEATURES TEXTILE DESIGN BY ELZA SUNDERLAND

Award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior tries to tackle the issue of the effects of children on their parents, isolating and analyzing the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half-century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear. Recruiting from a wide variety of sources - in history, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology - she dissects both the timeless strains of parenting and the ones that are brand new, and then brings her research to life in the homes of ordinary parents around the country. The result is an unforgettable series of family portraits, starting with parents of young children and progressing to parents of teens. Through lively and accessible storytelling, Senior follows these mothers and fathers as they wrestle with some of parenthood's deepest vexations - and luxuriate in some of its finest rewards. All Joy and No Fun makes us reconsider some of our culture's most basic beliefs about parenthood, all while illuminating the profound ways children deepen and add purpose to our lives. All Joy and No Fun is original and essential reading for mothers and fathers of today - and tomorrow.

'Effortlessly cool, funny yet sad, breezy but thoughtful - this is an edgy and unputdownable work of modern literature' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti 'Crimson is written with immense courage - there's no faking the feeling of honesty on each page. It is a brave novel reminiscent of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting' Laline Paull, author of The Bees The island has run out of oxygen. The island is swollen. The island is rotten. The island has taken my beloved from me. The island is a Greenlander. It's the fault of the Greenlander. In Nuuk, Greenland . . . Fia breaks up with her long-term boyfriend and falls for Sara. Sara is in love with Ivik who holds a deep secret and is about to break promises. Ivik struggles with gender dysphoria as their friends become addicted to social media, listen to American pop music and get blind drunk in downtown bars and uptown house parties. Then there is Inuk, who also has something to hide - it will take him beyond his limits to madness, and question what it means to be a Greenlander, while Arnaq, the party queen, pulls the strings of manipulation, bringing a web of relationships to a shocking crescendo. Crimson weaves through restlessness, depression, love and queer experiences to tell the story of Greenlanders through a unique and challenging form. The original text was written and published in the Greenlandic language.

A classic piece of literary criticism addressing both the writer and the iconSince her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30, Sylvia Plath has become a strange icon. This book addresses why this is the case and what this tells us about the way culture picks out important writers. The author argues that without a concept of fantasy we can understand neither Plath's work nor what she has come to represent. She proposes that no writer demonstrates more forcefully than Plath the importance of inner psychic life for the wider sexual and political world.

Beware the women who are called witches, or those who claim the name for themselves... Banshees - a howling night-witch and harbinger of death; She-devils - Lilith and her daughters; or Bitches - Hecate, whose chariot is drawn by dogs. Alluring women, enchantresses, seekers of revenge, wise old women and badly-behaved girls. As Shahrukh Husain says, witches are 'womanhood in all its complexity'. Over fifty stories of crones and nixies, shape shifters and beauties are here, including the loving fox witch of Japan; Italy's Witch-Bea-Witch; Scotland's Goodwife of Laggan; Biddy Earl and the terrifying Kali and Baba Yaga who comes in many forms to haunt, entice, possess, transform and challenge. From every corner of the globe, with tom-foolery, fun, strife and victory, these folklore and legends celebrate women who step out of line.

A prize-winning, spine-tingling gothic suspense novel based on a real-life murder trial in 1897 West Virginia A SUNDAY TIMES BEST HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 IRISH BOOK AWARDS 'A novel that demands you turn the pages' THE TIMES, BEST HISTORICAL FICTION 'A gothic mystery pulsing with suspense' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'An intense, memorable tale' SUNDAY TIMES 'Brilliant' IRISH TIMES 'I was tenterhooked from the very first to the very last page' JO BROWNING WROE, author of A Terrible Kindness 'Compelling' ANNE ENRIGHT 'A glorious tour de force - gorgeous and moving' IRISH AMERICA 'Truly superb' VICTORIA MACKENZIE, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain West Virginia, 1897. Young newlywed Zona Heaster Shue is found dead in her house, in what seems to have been a tragic accident. However, her mother, Mary Jane, is convinced Zona was murdered - and by none other than Zona's husband, Trout, the handsome blacksmith beloved in their small Southern town. But when Trout is put on trial, no one believes he could have done it, apart from Mary Jane and Zona's best friend Lucy, who was always suspicious of Trout. As the trial raises to fever pitch and the men of Greenbrier County stand aligned against them, Mary Jane and Lucy must decide whether to reveal Zona's greatest secret in the service of justice. But it's Zona herself, from beyond the grave, who still has one last revelation to make. *The Red Bird Sings was announced as the winner of the Kate O'Brien Award 2024 on 25/02/24 Readers love THE RED BIRD SINGS: 'Amazing' READER REVIEW 'This book has so much: feisty feminist characters ahead of their time, ghosts, historical drama, justice, beautiful writing' READER REVIEW 'Very compelling . . . not one to be missed!' READER REVIEW 'A haunting story of love, revenge and grief' READER REVIEW 'Difficult to put down' READER REVIEW

The sequel to I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Though fiercely loving the world, as a black woman, she also knows its cruelty. Angelou has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In the sequel to her bestselling I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou is a young mother in California, unemployed, embarking on brief affairs and transient jobs in shops and nightclubs, turning to prostitution and the world of narcotics. Maya Angelou powerfully captures the struggles and triumphs of her passionate life with dignity, wisdom, humour and humanity. 'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY 'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON

Spinster. Cougar. Carer. Matron. Wife. A rich, provocative and entertaining history of women's words - of the language we have, and haven't, had to share our lives Special commendation from the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 'A gem of a book' KATE MOSSE '(A] thoughtful, eye-opening book' ALICE VICENT, author of Why Women Grow 'A fascinating look at how we talk about women' WASHINGTON POST 'Wonderful' DAILY TELEGRAPH From the dawn of Old English to the present day, Dr Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words we have used to describe women and the experiences they might share including menstruation, sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, paid and unpaid work. Along the way, she argues that as women have made slow progress towards equality, we've lost some of the most eloquent parts of our vocabulary for our lives. Inspired by Nuttall's deep knowledge of the English language as well as conversations with her teenage daughter, this is a book for anyone who loves language, and for feminists who want to look to the past in order to move forward. 'Sharply funny and wonderfully shareable . . . Incredible' WOMAN AND HOME 'This superb book teems with historical marvels and their 21st century resonances' REBECCA WRAGG SYKES, author of Kindred 'A great book on the history of women's words in the English language' NEW EUROPEAN 'Even longtime word enthusiasts will find plenty of new trivia' NEW YORKER 'A must-have for any lover of language, history or women' BUZZ MAGAZINE 'Entertaining' SPECTATOR 'Edifying and enlivening' BOSTON GLOBE 'There is a nugget of joy and wisdom on every single page' VICTORIA WHITWORTH, historian and author of Swimming with Seals

The funny, wise and brilliant new novel from the star of QI and the author of Between the Stops - an instant Sunday Times bestseller 'Warm, witty and wise . . . the perfect balm for these turbulent times' GRAHAM NORTON After much searching, the happily married young couple, Amber and Stevie think they have found the perfect spot in Grimaldi Square. Despite the rundown pub across the way, the overgrown garden and a decidedly nosy neighbour, number 4 is the house of their dreams. Stevie, a woman who has never left anything to chance, has planned everything so nothing can spoil their happiness. But upstairs in their new home, seated on an old red sofa is the woman they bought the place from - eighty-year-old foul-mouthed, straight-talking, wise-cracking Dorothy - who has decided that she's not going anywhere. It turns out that Dorothy will be only the first in a line of life-changing surprises. Friends of Dorothy is a touching, funny novel about a family that is not biological, but logical; a story close to Sandi Toksvig's heart. Readers can't get enough of Friends of Dorothy! 'Superb. Buy this book . . . Enjoyed it so much that I feel like starting at the beginning again' 'I absolutely adored this book! I hope to be half as hilarious as Dorothy when I reach my 70s' 'I literally read this in 24 hours and really could not put it down' 'It's a rare thing to find a novel that's warm and funny, but in no way cheesy or predictable . . . can't wait to re-read!' 'A great big warm hug of a book' 'I would give this six stars if I could'

New parts for thirty of Shakespeare's women, letting them speak their minds, written by famed stage and screen actress, Dame Harriet Walter DBE 'It is STUNNING and I simply sat and read it right through, and shall start again at once. I had no idea that she is such a sensationally fine poet. Astonishing' JOANNA LUMLEY 'Bold and original . . . Anyone who cares about Shakespeare will want to own and share this book' JAMES SHAPIRO 'With her gravitas, empathy, intellect and absolute belly laugh wit, the unheard voices soar. A real celebration of her life and art' PHYLLIDA LLOYD Dame Harriet Walter, renowned for her wonderful portrayals in Succession and Killing Eve among others, is one of Britain's most esteemed Shakespearean actors. Now, having played most of the Bard's female characters, audaciously she lets them speak their minds. Written in 'Shakespearean' verse and prose, Harriet Walter goes between the lines of the plays to let us hear what she imagines - sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly - these women were really thinking. Gertrude tells Hamlet the unvarnished truth; Lady MacBeth has her regrets; Kate, the Shrew, challenges us; Juliet's nurse challenges the nobility; Cleopatra's handmaiden reveals her mistress's secrets; Ariel is frightened of freedom; Ophelia surprises us; Olivia surprises herself; and the Witches have a good old rap. Harriet Walter herself says, 'I worship Shakespeare. His psychological insight is second to none but the mirror that he held up to nature reflected a predominantly male image of the world. I pondered the long shadow of his genius and tried to think of ways to let a little sunlight in on some of his women's stories. I like to think he wouldn't mind'. 'Harriet Walter's years of inhabiting and imbibing so many of those great roles gives her a special licence to speak for them' GREG DORAN, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company 'Harriet Walter unpicks and re-centres the inner life and journey of these women as only one of our most talented and celebrated classical actors could. A must read!' MAXINE PEAKE 'Effortlessly witty, charming, surprising, delightful. Clearly, Harriet Walter should have been in the writers' room with us for Succession' FRANCESCA GARDINER 'An incisive, funny, mischievously subversive homage to Shakespeare's heroines, written by one of mine' MEERA SYAL 'With characteristic wit, compassion and fierce intelligence, she gives tantalising voice to the Bard's female greats' TAMSIN GREIG

'Has a queasily compelling power' The Times 'Haunting and visceral as a fairytale' Lilly Dancyger 'Brims with sex and violence and threat, and moves to a crescendo of strange and magical beauty' Rebecca Stott 'Gorgeously written ...resurrected for me the exquisite and ecstatic pains of girlhood' Hannah Lillith Assadi, author of Sonora and The Stars Are Not Yet Bells 'Exhilirating' Allison Behringer Sissy is used to being on the outside. The new girl in her West Country school, she recently arrived with her troubled mother, prone to letting Sissy fend for herself. But from the day Sissy fights a boy in front of Tegan, she's no longer alone. Bonded by violence, they grow so close they feel like one being: wrapped around each other in bed at sleepovers, sending photographs to men they meet online, and scaring each other with reports of the girls being snatched at night in their town. Over the course of the school year, they find themselves on the threshold of girlhood, with threats gathering thick and fast around them. And as their make-believe worlds bleed into their daily lives, Sissy feels herself transforming into something strange and terrifying. Amphibian is a tender, haunting coming-of-age debut about desire, precocity and the intensity of early friendships that have the power to upend our lives.

*A Book of the Year in the Telegraph and Dazed* 'A brutal and brilliant study of female celebrity ... a joy to read, fizzing with intelligence' Megan Nolan, Telegraph 'Wildly entertaining' Dazed 'Snow's prose is beautiful, white-hot and breathless, like a sports car speeding through the canyon' Observer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- How does an icon become an icon? How did Anna Nicole Smith model herself on Marilyn Monroe? What connects Lindsay Lohan with Elizabeth Taylor? How is self-made beauty Pamela Anderson like trans bond girl Caroline 'Tula' Cossey? In a series of interconnected essays about pairs of famous women, award-nominated essayist and art critic Philippa Snow explores the echoes and connections between a constellation of female stars and lays bare the artful and gruelling demands of femininity - from the golden age of Hollywood to the Instagram era. Full of the fascinating, entertaining and lurid details you might expect from the lives of mega-famous celebrities, dissected with icicle-sharp intelligence and rendered in stylish, flamboyant prose, Philippa Snow's first full-length non-fiction work is a radically insightful book about the complex meanings and layers of femininity in a male-dominated world.

'This novel catches fire' NEW YORK TIMES DISCOVER THIS THRILLING STORY OF DESIRE AND AMBITION FROM THE AUTHOR OF REBECCA Men did as they pleased, and women suffered for it. There was only one way to beat them, and that was to match your wits against theirs and come out the winner. Raised in the squalid backstreets of Regency London, Mary Anne Clarke develops a sharp wit and a ruthless ambition. With her manners polished by a few years of education, and her heart hardened by a disastrous early marriage, she is determined to use all her charms to climb the social ladder - and soon catches the eye of the Duke of York. But Mary Anne aims higher than the role of a royal mistress. As her taste for luxury and power grows, the scandal she provokes will rock the government, scandalise a nation, and threaten to destroy everything she holds dear. As vivid and seductive as its unforgettable heroine, Mary Anne is a glittering reimagining of the life of du Maurier's own great-great-grandmother. 'Like its heroine the book is possessed of such unforgettably vivid charm that one is seduced' LS HINTON 'With unfailing du Maurier skill, the author has coupled family interest with dramatic sense' ELIZABETH BOWEN 'Likely to rank as the author's best book' SATURDAY REVIEW

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'Wickedly readable . . . every woman instinctively wants to read her' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'A tale of dramatic longings . . . unexpected and fun' MARGARET DRABBLE***It was Charles who called us the parasites . . . No one would choose the Delaneys as their ideal guests. Vain Maria, capricious Niall and self-sacrificing Celia have grown up in the shadow of their famous parents, ferried around Europe from one performance to the next. But beneath the glittering surface of their own artistic careers, old loyalties, rivalries and secrets still bind the half-siblings together - at the expense of all outsiders. A razor-sharp portrait of a family - and the world of the theatre - The Parasites weaves together humour, poignancy and darkness in one of du Maurier's most personal novels.'One of the last century's most original literary talents' DAILY TELEGRAPH' Somehow more personal than Daphne du Maurier's other novels' KIRKUS REVIEWS

Named a Best Book of Summer by the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New York Times and CrimeReads 'A thrilling, clever and powerful story of family, class, money and morality. Megan Abbott is a phenomenal storyteller' CHRIS WHITAKER 'Suspenseful, beautifully written and, quite simply, exquisite' GILLIAN FLYNN 'A smart, twisty, and riveting family drama' KARIN SLAUGHTER 'Intoxicating contemporary noir' IRISH TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A brutally well-observed suburban thriller' MAIL ON SUNDAY The thrilling new novel from bestselling writer Megan Abbott: a story about three sisters who join an exclusive women's club which promises to empower its members, but will actually put them in mortal danger... Pam, Debra and Harper are three sisters who grew up in Detroit when the city was a boom town thanks to the auto industry. Now in mid-life, their lives have faltered in different ways, mirroring the fortunes of their city. Debra's husband needs expensive medical treatment. Pam is in the middle of a nasty divorce. And Harper has a big debt which is also a big secret. In desperate need of money, support and just some fun, the three sisters join The Wheel, an exclusive women's club that promises financial security. As The Wheel turns, the money flows, the stakes get higher - and then a shocking murder tears everything apart. El Dorado Drive is a nail-biting, brilliantly dark story about class, money, women in mid-life, and the decline of the American dream. 'Tense, chilling and beautifully written, El Dorado Drive is an absolute knockout' HARLAN COBEN 'Suspenseful as all hell but also beautifully observed' DENNIS LEHANE 'An incisive evisceration of the American Dream, served up as a noirish novel about sisters, envy, and innocence. Exhilarating, explosive and hugely entertaining' SARAH HILARY