vintage publishing united kingdom london (Over 8,600 results)

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Sixty Lights is the captivating chronicle of Lucy Strange, an independent girl growing up in the Victorian world. From her childhood in Australia through to her adolescence in England and Bombay and finally to London, Lucy is fascinated by light and by the new photographic technology. Her perception of the world is passionate and moving, revealed in a series of frozen images captured in the camera of her mind's eye showing her feelings about love, life and loss. In this confident, finely woven and intricate novel Jones has created an unforgettable character in Lucy; visionary, gifted and exuberant, she touches the lives of all who know her. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Over then past fifty years the British countryside has changed out of all recognition. A wide range of wildlife species are disappearing - victims of modern intensive farming, of pesticides and fertilisers and the sheer relentless pressure to maximise output from every hedge bank and field corner. It need not have happened. The loss of our wildlife and countryside has come about through a deliberate and sustained national policy, one that costs the British people 8 billion a year. The Killing of the Countryside is a devastating attack on modern British agricultural policy and practice and a plea for a return to natural cycles, an end to subsidies and the domination of agribusiness, and for a safe, sustainable farming system. Winner of the 1997 BP Natural World Book Award. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Fine. A magnet for trade and travellers from all over the world, stylish, cosmopolitan Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and legendary beauty, but also of civil wars, bloody religious purges, and the tragedy of Anne Frank. In this fascinating examination of the city's soul, part history, part travel guide, Geert Mak imaginatively recreates the lives of the early Amsterdammers, and traces Amsterdam's progress from waterlogged settlement to a major financial centre and thriving modern metropolis.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Powerful Poignant, bleak and haunting, this is a small masterpiece Sunday Mirror Brother and sister, Ted and Rose Howker, grew up in Mount of Zeal, a mining village blackened by coal. They know nothing of the outside world, though both of them yearn for escape. For Rose this comes in the form of love, while Ted seizes the chance of a job away from the pit. But neither can truly break free and their decisions bring with them brutal consequences Gripping all the way to its unexpected end Spectator. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A collection of stories - of longing and passion, ecstasy and betrayal. A mighty angel appears in a girl's bedroom, watched by a terrified cat; a young wife in Aix-les-Bains takes a lover who fancies her clothes; an Italian boy in knickerbockers steals cherries and plunges into hot adult secrets. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. From the author of the Patrick Melrose novels, now a major Sky Atlantic television series starring Benedict Cumberbatch Henry Dunbar, the once all-powerful head of a global media corporation, is not having a good day. In his dotage he handed over care of the corporation to his two eldest daughters, Abby and Megan. But relations quickly soured, leaving him to doubt the wisdom of past decisions. Now imprisoned in a care home in the Lake District with only a demented alcoholic comedian as company, Dunbar starts planning his escape. As he flees into the hills, his family is hot on his heels. Who will find him first, his beloved youngest daughter, Florence, or the tigresses Abby and Megan, so keen to divest him of his estate? The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Good. The Fires of Autumn was written in the last two years of Irene Nemirovskys life, after she fled Paris in 1940. The prequel to her masterpiece, Suite Francaise, it is a panoramic exploration of French life and a witness to the greatest horrors of the twentieth century. After four years of bloody warfare Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. No more the naive hopes and dreams of the teenager who went to war. Attracted by the lure of money and success, Bernard embarks on a life of luxuriant delinquency supported by suspect financial dealings and easy virtue. Yet when his lover throws him off, he turns to a wholesome childhood friend for comfort. For ten years he lives the good bourgeois life, but as another war threatens everything Bernard had clung to starts to crumble, and the future for his marriage and for France looks terribly uncertain. First published posthumously in France in 1957, The Fires of Autumn is a coruscating, tragic evocation of the reality of war and its dirty aftermath, and the ugly colour it can turn a mans soul. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Good. This illustrated puzzle book follows in the tradition of "The Ultimate Alphabet" and "Masquerade". It is a ramble through history, from primeval slime to the present. Each picture is packed with clues and information which, if successfully followed through, lead to a major prize. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Good. The author of "Desperadoes" and "Cowboys and Indians" directs his acid humour upon contemporary Irish life at home and abroad. The result is a headlong, love-struck, end-of-millenium, coast-to-coast tour of the frustrations, contraditions and giddying glories of being Irish in the 1990s. Dissecting the cultural icons of our time, from the Taoiseach to the taxi driver, from the kiwi-fruit-flavoured condom to the Kilfenora ceilidh band, and discoursing on everyone from James Joyce to Jesus Christ, from Rolf Harris to Daniel O'Donnell, O'Connor picks his way between sinking pints in London-Irish pubs to pumping iron in Dublin gymnasia. Fear and loathing, pity and terror, country and western, love, rock and rock, and football are all encompassed by these snapshots of modern Irish life. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Good. 'The tension never wavers' Guardian Sultry and engrossing Observer Summer's almost over and Alex is no longer welcome. Alex is a young woman teetering on the edge. Behind on her rent and with nothing to keep her in New York she agrees to spend August by the beach, in the lavish house of the older man shes been seeing. After one misstep at a dinner party shes dismissed with a ride to the station and a ticket back to the city. But Alex decides to stay on the island, charming her way into the lives of the dazzlingly wealthy set who live there and leaving a trail of destruction behind her. Just how long can she keep going before shes found out? A delicious, dark-sided novel Guardian Eerily captivating Elle Compulsively readable Independent. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Fine. 'A masterpiece. I would urge you to read - and re-read ' Daily Telegraph **Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011** Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. Now a major film.

Paperback. Condition: Good. A study of metropolitan mating manners by the author of "Postcards from the Edge". Dinah Kaufman is attracted to unsuitable men, including her ex-husband, a successful playwright with whom she continues to be obsessed. And she has a tendency to merge real life and the soap opera scripts she writes. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Generations of Arthur Ransome readers have asked the same questions after finishing his Swallows and Amazons books. Are the places true? Are the people real? Christina Hardyment decided to find out. Among the boxes of papers left to Leeds University n Arthur Ransome's death she found a large cabin trunk. Its tattered steamship labels at once betrayed its true identity. It was Captain Flint's trunk from Swallows and Amazons, which had been stolen by burglars from the houseboat and discovered by Titty on Cormorant Island. Inside there was no Mixed Moss, the book that made Captain Flint's fortune, but instead a wealth of old logs, diaries, photographs and sketchbooks which signposted the trail towards the reality behind the stories. Following up clues found in the Leeds archives, the author has sailed in Amazon's wake to Wild Cat Island and climbed Ransome's Kanchenjunga near Coniston. She has prospected among the old High Tops copper mines, which exist today, and even signaled from the actual Winter holiday observatory. Aided and abetted by her own four children, she went in search of Swallowdale, explored the Coot Club haunts on the Norfolk Broads, and camped in the muddy wilderness of the real Secret Water. Incidents in Ransome's own life have been matched to those he wove into his books; the children he knew and who sailed with him have told her that they remember him. She has talked to Titty, Roger and Bridget (who took some of the photographs for the book), untangled the mystery of Nancy Blackett, met Squashy hat's daughter, examined the mastodon's splatchers at his home on Skipper Island and tracked down the real Daisy, Dum and Dee. Until now no one could have guessed at all the influences that were brought to bear on the Swallows and Amazons adventures. Ransome's own boats, most of which are still being sailed with pride by their present owners, contributed greatly to the authenticity of his writing, though nothing reveals more about his brilliant craftsmanship than the secrets that emerge from his working notebooks - the origins of Peter Duck on a Norfolk wherry in winter, the Clay family's contribution to We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, or the ornithologist Myles North's part in the writing of Great Northern? In all Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk provides not only an essential companion to the Ransome books but also a quest that will make magic of reality for the millions of readers of all ages who may be tempted to follow Christina Hardyment's trail of adventure after her. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Fine. THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE The characters who populate an Alice Munro story live and breathe. Passions hopelessly conceived, affections betrayed, marriages made and broken: the joys, fears, loves and awakenings of women echo throughout these twelve unforgettable stories, laying bare the unexceptional and yet inescapable pain of human contact.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Published in Paris in 1922, but seized, burned and banned by English and American authorities until 1936, this novel was acclaimed as a work of genius by T.S. Eliot, Hemingway and Arnold Bennett. It describes the events of one day in Dublin in 1904, and ranges from realism to parody and fantasy. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. At home, Paul shares a private world with his sister Elisabeth, a world from which parents are tacitly excluded. Their room is where the Game is played, the Game being their own bizarre version of life. All that they do outside is effectively controlled by the rules of the Game: unfortunately the rules of the Game prescribe that the two children must die. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Good. The events of Pietro Russell's life are told in 26 chapters. From A-Z each chapter is set in a different place and reveals a fragment of his story. As his memories flicker back and forth through time in his search for a resolution to the conflicts of his life, his story gradually unfolds. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Margaret Davison, the lost, fragmented heroine of this thriller about personal identity, never goes back. This book explores how she reinvents herself and how, after a horrific car accident, her shaky sense of identity is challenged when everyone believes that she is someone else. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Take a drop of existential angst, mix with a group of old friends, stir in the sweet agony of midlife nostalgia, and you have the recipe for the Thanksgiving dinner from hell - especially when it's narrated in part by a mischievous God who pulls their strings and show us the workings. A group of cosmopolitan friends in midlife gather in New England for a Thanksgiving dinner - and are trapped there when it snows. Sean, the Irish hard-drinking poet is their host, but hasn't told them he's dying of cancer. In fact none of them would be there if they didn't have the kind of dysfunctional lives and problems which prevent them being with their own families. With the exception of the enigmatic outsider, a new young trophy wife, they all know too much about each other, their weak points and failures. Relationships and histories criss-cross; they have little in common except a mutual past and a search for meaning in the present. And meanwhile they're all at the mercy of fate - both inevitable and surprising, funny and tragic. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Fine. Geoffrey Chaucer has some claim to being the greatest poet in the English language. Yet he has also been considered to be an invisible poet, self-depreciating and ironic, leaving only the breath of his comedy behind. In truth a great deal is known of him. He was a royal servant, who was indicted for rape. He was captured in battle and held for ransom. He knew at first hand the most powerful people in the country and, as the king's servant; he was concerned with the most pressing events of the realm. Yet even in this crowded life he found time and opportunity to write some of the finest poems in the language. Troilus and Criseyde is the first modern work of English literature. His genius was prolific and diverse and, while he was a true London artist, he was also part of the European renaissance of learning. The Canterbury Tales is an epic of Englishness itself, presided over by the genial and generous figure of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Paperback. Condition: Good. A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star - a pentagram, the devil's star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on notice to quit the force and is left with little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and get to work. A wave of similar murders is on the horizon. An emerging pattern suggests that Oslo has a serial killer on its hands, and the five-pointed devil's star is key to solving the riddle. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Fine. 'A web of spying, subterfuge, deceit and betrayal. Acute, witty.winningly cunning' Sunday Times The year is 1972, the Cold War is far from over and Serena Frome, in her final year at Cambridge, is being groomed for MI5. Sent on Operation Sweet Tooth - a highly secret undercover mission - she meets Tom Haley, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? And who is inventing whom? To answer these questions, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage - trust no one.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. 'The best Italian food writer around.anyone who loves food - reading about it, cooking it, eating it - should have this book. I kiss the ground she walks on' Nigella Lawson In this book Anna Del Conte has collected together the best of her delicious recipes along with tips, anecdotes and reminiscences about her life in Italy and London. Packed with inspiring information from the best way to make a tomato sauce and a tiramisu to more unusual dishes such as nettle risotto and chestnut mousse, each chapter is devoted to a different ingredient. As well as explaining the basics and introducing more surprising recipes, Anna includes special additional chapters describing traditional regional and historical menus. So whether you want to eat tagliatelle with ham and peas or rabbit with rosemary and tomato, a Roman Late Supper or a Renaissance Dinner, you will find what you need here. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The world's most popular travel writer takes a humorous look at just what it means to be "American", from the Pilgrim Fathers to the hamburger and beyond. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. An account of the 1350-mile coast-to-coast crossing of Antarctica by Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud. It took 95 days on foot, unsupported by men, dogs or machines, enduring temperatures as low as minus 85 degrees Celsius. Stroud, a survival consultant, also offers a portrait of his co-adventurer. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. This book attempts to portray Queen Victoria as she was, not as icons and caricatures have depicted her. The copy-book sovereign of pious propaganda bears little resemblance to the flawed but endearing mortal who governed half the world. "If they only knew what I am really like", she remarked ruefully on being shown an absurdly extravagant tribute. Many of her contemporaries carried idolatry too far, and after the First World War a reaction set in. Her detractors, however, got little nearer the truth in their anxiety to disparage her. To maintain that she was an hypocritical kill-joy demanded a perversity bordering on total ignorance. The Queen was born in the last year of George III's reign, and died a couple of months before Hitler's 12th birthday. She corresponded with Tennyson, was taught drawing by Edward Lear, and had singing lessons from Mendelssohn. Not only was she a dominant force in British politics for most of the 19th century, but wielded an influence over the rulers of Europe unprecedented in history. It has often been argued that Queen Victoria was a "representative" figure, but in many respects she was also a nonconformist. Her views on class and race were far in advance of her time, and her churchmanship was positively heretical. Greville described her as possessing "the most interesting mind and character in the world", and the more one learns of her richly ambivalent nature, the more one falls under her spell. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. Join celebrated naturalist Stephen Moss, host award-winning BBC series Springwatch and author of The Robin, for a year in the idyllic village of Mark on the Somerset Levels a watery wonderland rich in nature and wildlife, from birds to butterflies to badgers As the year unfolds, Moss transports the reader to the entrancing landscape of flora and fauna that accompanies the dawn of each month. Deeply informative and profoundly inspiring, Wild Hares and Hummingbirds is a celebration of the Great British countryside, animals and the natural world. Moss captures the flora and the fauna of his Somerset home with a grace and charm to warm the coldest winter night Independent. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. It is 1969 and James Bond is about to go solo, recklessly motivated by revenge. A seasoned veteran of the service, 007 is sent to single-handedly stop a civil war in the small West African nation of Zanzarim. Aided by a beautiful accomplice and hindered by the local militia, he undergoes a scarring experience which compels him to ignore Ms orders in pursuit of his own brand of justice. Bonds renegade action leads him to Washington, D.C., where he discovers a web of geopolitical intrigue and witnesses fresh horrors. Even if Bond succeeds in exacting his revenge, a man with two faces will come to stalk his every waking moment. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In this dynamic new book Naomi Wolf explores and celebrates the phenomenon of female sexuality - empirically, imaginatively, anatomically and personally. By following a group of four contemporary girls - including her younger self - as they come of age in the seventies, Wolf shows how our culture tries to shape and confine women's desire. Embarking on a voyage of discovery, she illustrates how flawed and prescribed are the notions of what women want, and how these change through the ages - from Taoist techniques for giving women pleasure, to Victorian repression, and the so-called liberated ninties. Drawing on scholary texts, secret diaries, real life and fantasy, she demonstrates that female sexuality is wilder, more demanding and more powerful than our culture dares to accept. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Fair. 'Magnificent' Robert Macfarlane Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Our lives depend on shipping but it is a world which is largely hidden from us. In every lonely corner of every sea, through every night, every day, and every imaginable weather, tiny crews of seafarers work the giant ships which keep landed life afloat. These ordinary men live extraordinary lives, subject to dangers and difficulties we can only imagine, from hurricanes and pirates to years of confinement in hazardous, if not hellish, environments. Horatio Clare joins two container ships on their epic voyages across the globe and experiences unforgettable journeys. As the ships cross seas of history and incident, seafarers unfold the stories of their lives, and a beautiful and terrifying portrait of the oceans and their human subjects emerges. 'Tremendous' The Times. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.