Helen Baker: 20 books

The machinations of the Thorpe family dominate Northanger Abbey. Read now how John Thorpe's extravagance brought his family to the brink of ruin and enabled Captain Tilney to master that proud beauty Isabella Thorpe. Nor would he stop there when she possessed two lovely sisters, one barely sixteen....

Self-improvement has never been so erotic. Or so funny. Combine profit with sensual pleasure, sheer entertainment with instruction. Based on twenty years' experience, Helen Baker tells you how to achieve both."What an extraordinary book you've written! I enjoyed it wholeheartedly, kept laughing and laughing at the poor Frenchmen, I hope other teachers and students will find your book!"

Corpus linguistics has much to offer history, being as both disciplines engage so heavily in analysis of large amounts of textual material. This book demonstrates the opportunities for exploring corpus linguistics as a method in historiography and the humanities and social sciences more generally....

In Regency England, a leisured lady wrote eighteen thousand words of a delightful story and then abandoned her attempt. Everyone who read the fragment regretted her decision. Now, all has been incorporated into a complete novel which, it is to be hoped, should give pleasure to many.

An entertaining way to maintain and improve your English. 2007 jokes for adults, carefully written in correct (British) English with no crude language. Each joke is supplied with helpful explanations of grammar and background. Native speakers too can enjoy the jokes and learn more than most schools teach about grammar.

We all know Caroline Bingley because the Bennet family suffered from her duplicity. Can such a woman ever be a heroine? In fact she struggled against obstacles which make Lizzy Bennet's vulgar relations appear trivial.'Superb! I have spent a leisurely and extremely enjoyable two days reading Precipitation... this was SO enjoyable I thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed it.'

Miss Austen wrote ten chapters of a novel she called The Brothers before illness stilled her pen for ever. Now, her entire draft has been incorporated into the complete story. The daring English lady responsible hopes that the resulting romance may satisfy Miss Austen's myriad admirers who have long regretted that such vivid characters were left in suspense.

Jane Austen's Mansfield Park chronicles the mutual love of Mary Crawford and Edmund Bertram until he abandons his love, claiming that she has forfeited even his respect. Can our flawed heroine, with her beauty, her charm and her twenty thousand pounds ever find a worthy gentleman who will appreciate...

Longbourn House in Hertfordshire remains the home of the Bennet family but, five years after the conclusion of Pride and Prejudice, find Kitty and Mary still unwed and discontent. Then Mary's deep reading leads her to a plan. "it was absolutley delightful , so much so that I couldn't stop reading...

Lady Susan is the most beautiful, beguiling schemer in Regency England. She must subjugate every gentleman who crosses her path, conducting multiple flirtations and extracting herself deviously from all the complications. When her husband dies, leaving her destitute with a pretty, innocent daughter...

With both Elinor and Marianne Dashwood happily established at Delaford, their mother's thoughts must turn to her remaining daughter Margaret. No one had expected Colonel Brandon to attempt the impossible. Bringing Eliza Williams to Delaford as a respectable daughter of the house was to create grave problems for everyone concerned.

Miss Austen finished Persuasion with an enigma. Was the deceitful widow Mrs Clay so lost to all honour, decency and - yes - self-interest as to live installed in town under the capricious protection of that equal dissembler Mr Elliot Or was the lady, as Lady Russell proclaimed her, a very dangerous...

A romance, based on a true incident, of multi-layered intrigue and unexpected passion set in the turmoil of the Wars of Religion in Southern France. Two different beauties, one a vivacious aristocrat, the other a penniless dishonoured waif, both become the pawns of an embittered court beauty of a previous...

A visit of curiosity by a Russian speaker to a tranquil city on the verge of erupting.