Profile: 418 books

a) The Unicorn As with the night-scented stock, the full splendour of the unicorn manifests itself most potently at twilight. Then the horn sprouts, swells, blooms in all its glory. SEE THE HORN (bend the tab, slit in slot marked 'x') Despite being one of the most influential - and best-loved...

An exceptionally haunting memoir that also shows us what it is to be really human. In a hardware store, Joe sits on a display toilet amidst the throng of customers and wees, smiling serenely. He thumps crying babies. He is amazed when the car he runs in front of actually hits him. Joe is ten and mentally...

This wonderful new collection of ghost stories, including the 15 winning entries in a competition run by Saga Magazine and one vintage example from the master of the genre, M. R. James, ranges from classic tales of antiquarians and Victorian psychic researchers to homely yet chilling stories of the...

P.G. Wodehouse wrote that: 'the three essentials for an autobiography are that its compiler shall have had an eccentric father, a miserable misunderstood childhood and a hell of a time at his public school and I had none of these advantages'. Jeremy Scott had them all and then went on to: * Have an...

Like everything Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. They all have brilliant twists, are immensely entertaining and highly moral. And all are modern classics. The Laying on of Hands The painfully observant account of a memorial...

It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it ... There have long been debates about 'correct' pronunciation in the English language, and Britain's most distinguished linguistic expert, David Crystal, is here to set the record straight. Sounds Appealing tells us exactly why, and how,...

In a frank and unpretentious series of letters addressed to a teenage granddaughter, this highly original book teaches us to know and understand the world we live in and its rules, and how to behave in it. In these thirty letters, Alan Macfarlane answers his granddaughter's questions about how the...

England's views are remarkable for their beauty and variety. In this illustrated, first-of-its-kind guide, bestselling author Simon Jenkins picks the very best views from South and East England, including Arundel, the Chilterns (Coombe Hill and Turville Down), the white cliffs of Dover, North Downs'...

England's views are remarkable for their beauty and variety. With his usual insight and authority, bestselling author Simon Jenkins picks 100 of the very best from the white cliffs of Dover to Hadrian's Wall - and explains the fascinating stories behind each. Jenkins' entertaining and erudite entries...

England's views are remarkable for their beauty and variety. In this illustrated, first-of-its-kind guide, bestselling author Simon Jenkins picks the very best views from South West England, including Dartmouth, Dartmoor's Haytor, Plymouth Hoe, Tintagel, Bath (Royal Crescent and Prior Park), Bristol's...

'I can never understand how the scribbles of such an ordinary person ... can possibly have value.' So wrote Nella Last in her diary on 2 September 1949. Sixty years on, tens of thousands of people have read and enjoyed the first two volumes of her uniquely detailed and moving diaries, written...

Outwardly Nella's life was probably seen as ordinary; but behind this mask were a lively mind and a persistent pen - a pen that never gave up over almost three decades, reporting, describing, pondering, and disclosing. Nella, 55 when the war ends, writes of what ordinary people felt during those years...

Ideally spooky Halloween reading... A chilling ghost story by the author of The Woman in Black. One murky November evening after a satisfying meal in their Fleet Street lodgings, a conversation between four medical students takes a curious turn and Hugh is initiated into a dark secret....

This entertaining and endlessly surprising book takes us on an exploration into every aspect of Japanese society from the most public to the most intimate. A series of meticulous investigations gradually uncovers the multi-faceted nature of a country and people who are even more extraordinary than...