A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

JENNIFER EGAN

The Orphan Master’s Son

Adam Johnson

Rating by our members: 3

Murder Most Royal

Jean Plaidy

At the decadent French court of King François, the young Anne Boleyn grows into an enigmatic and striking woman, a temptation to many courtiers. But whilst Anne s ambitions are high, she has learned from her sister’s unfortunate reputation. Unlike Mary, Anne refuses to become even a King s mistress. So when Anne returns to the English court of Henry VIII, it is the King who is led a dance by this mysterious young beauty. Before long Henry is lured away from his stale marriage to Katharine of Aragon. But the new Queen Anne is not loved by the people, and it is only a matter of time before Henry s patience runs out

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The Shadow of the Pomegranate

Jean Plaidy

Whilst the young King Henry VIII basks in the pageants and games of his glittering court, his doting queen s health and fortunes fade. Henry s affection for his older wife soon strays, and the neglected Katherine decides to use her power as Queen to dangerous foreign advantage. Overseas battles play on Henry’s volatile temper, and his defeat in France has changed the good-natured boy Katherine loved into an infamously callous ruler. With no legitimate heir yet born, Katherine once again begins to fear for her future…

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Katharine, The Virgin Widow

Jean Plaidy

The young Spanish widow, Katharine of Aragon, has become the pawn between two powerful monarchies.After less than a year as the wife of the frail Prince Arthur, the question of whether the marriage was ever consummated will decide both her fate and England s. But whilst England and Spain dispute her dowry, in the wings awaits her unexpected escape from poverty: Henry, Arthur s younger, more handsome brother – the future King of England.He alone has the power to restore her position, but at what sacrifice?

Rating by our members: 5

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Uneasy Lies the Head

Jean Plaidy

In the aftermath of the bloody Wars of the Roses, Henry Tudor has seized the English crown, finally uniting the warring Houses of York and Lancaster through his marriage to Elizabeth of York. But whilst Henry VII rules wisely and justly, he is haunted by Elizabeth’s missing brothers; the infamous two Princes, their fate in the Tower forever a shrouded secret. Then tragedy strikes at the heart of Henry’s family, and it is against his own son that the widowed king must fight for a bride and his throne…

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The Chrysalids

John Wyndham

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the L…

Lewis Carroll

Alice is one of the most beloved characters of English writing. A bright and inquisitive child, one boring summer afternoon she follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole. At the bottom she finds herself in a bizarre world full of strange creatures, and attends a very strange tea party and croquet match. This immensely witty and unique story mixes satire and puzzles, comedy and anxiety, to provide an astute depiction of the experience of childhood.

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Liza’s England

Pat Barker

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

Pip s life as an ordinary country boy is destined to be unexceptional until a chain of mysterious events lead him away from his humble origins and up the social ladder. His efforts to become a London gentleman bring him into contact not just with the upper classes but also with dangerous criminals. His desire to improve himself is matched only by his longing for the icy-hearted Estella, but secrets from the past impede his progress and he has many hard lessons to learn.

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Being Dead

Jim Crace

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier

Changing Places

David Lodge

The Secret Scripture

Sebastian Barry

Engleby

Sebastian Faulks

Mike Engleby says things that others dare not even think. When the novel opens in the 1970s, he is a university student, having survived a traditional school. A man devoid of scruple or self-pity, Engleby provides a disarmingly frank account of English education. Yet beneath the disturbing surface of his observations lies an unfolding mystery of gripping power. One of his contemporaries unaccountably disappears, and as we follow Engleby s career, which brings us up to the present day, the reader has to ask: is Engleby capable of telling the whole truth?

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On The Beach

Nevil Shute

After the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from the United States and the submarine must set sail through the bleak ocean to search for signs of life. On the Beach is Nevil Shute s most powerful novel. Both gripping and intensely moving, its impact is unforgettable.

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Coming Up For Air

George Orwell

Coming Up for Air looks back from the sprawl of thirties housing estates, new arterial roads and the domination of the motor-car, to an idealised golden England, largely rural and unmechanised when, in the nostalgia of childhood, it was ‘summer… always summer’. It looks forward to the destruction wrought by air-raids (though written in 1938-1939, war is expected in 1941) leading to ‘The world we’re going down into, the kind of hate-world, slogan-world. . the rubber truncheons. . the posters with enormous faces’ that will be Nineteen Eighty-Four. Yet, despite its sense of loss and its grim foreboding, Coming Up for Air is a very funny book, with a rich sense of the incongruity of life and people, and it is illuminated by Orwell’s wry, sardonic wit in which there is not a little self-parody.

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Like Water For Chocolate

Laura Esquivel

The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, Like Water For Chocolate is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit – and recipes. A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her. For the next twenty-two years Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.

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