From the author of the bestselling Jalna series, a story of one small thing that creates a lot of beauty. Bill and Coo were two pigeons who built their nest in the shelter of the gable of the Dullards’ house. Mr. and Mrs. Dullard hated all birds, especially pigeons. Mr. Dullard even tries to hit Bill with a rock, but the rock bounced back from the roof and hit Mr. Dullard instead. After that they let the pigeons alone, but they grumbled about them continually. When the beautiful new egg Coo...
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!’It is the end of the eighteenth century, and the navy recruits the eponymous hero – the ‘Handsome Sailor’ – to its fleet. Accused of mutinous behaviour, Billy Budd is forced to defend himself, but his fearful, silent response soon gives way to a terrible act of violence. The consequences are disastrous, and nothing can prevent the force of judgment and...
An extraordinary story of war and friendship from one of America’s most revered authors of the 20th CenturyTwo teenagers form an unlikely friendship in pre-War Philadelphia. Al is obsessed with lifting weights, looking good and chasing girls. Birdy is obsessed with flight.Birdy’s passion becomes all-encompassing. Birdy wants to fly.A few years later these young men find themselves emotionally and physically scarred by Word War Two. Al is called to an army psychiatric hospital to help the doctors...
The sequel to ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’.‘Birthday’ is the sequel to Alan Sillitoe’s classic novel of the 1950s, ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’.Four decades on from the novel which was at the forefront of the new wave of British literature, we rediscover the Seaton brothers: older, certainly; wiser – possibly not.Arthur and Brian Seaton, one with an ailing wife, one with an emotional knapsack of failure and success, are on their way to Jenny’s seventieth birthday party. Jenny and...
A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. When Black Beauty is trained to carry a rider on his back, or to pull a carriage behind him, he finds it hard at first. But he is lucky – his first home is a good one, where his owners are kind people, who would never be cruel to a horse. But in the nineteenth century many people were cruel to their horses, whipping them and beating them, and using them like machines until they dropped dead....
One woman’s passion for books and search for romance lie at the heart of this touching and funny novel about literature and longing in Los Angeles.‘Women do different things when they’re depressed. Some smoke, others drink, some call their therapists, some eat…And I do what I have always done – go off on a book bender that can last for days.’Whenever she’s in crisis – her marriage ends, her career stalls, her fantasy man shows signs of human frailty – Dora (named after Eudora Welty) escapes into...
