The Macmillan Readers series are carefully graded from Starter to Upper Intermediate (A1-B2) to help students choose the right reading material for their ability. Our list of titles includes great stories from both contemporary and classic authors.[...]

On 1 February 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to a tumultuous welcome and the Iranian revolution that that he masterminded has become one of the defining moments of the modern age. Today the challenge of radical Islam represents the greatest threat to world peace seen since the darkest days[...]

The Curious Tale of Mandogi's Ghost incorporates Korean folk tales, ghost stories, and myth into a phenomenal depiction of epic tragedy. Written by a zainichi, a permanent resident of Japan who is not of Japanese ancestry, the novel tells the story of Mandogi, a young priest living on the island of[...]

Stories centering on the lovelorn ghost (Mae Nak) and the magical monk (Somdet To) are central to Thai Buddhism. Historically important and emotionally resonant, these characters appeal to every class of follower. Metaphorically and rhetorically powerful, they invite constant reimagining across time[...]

If the universe is aimless, how do selves and aims emerge? Why do living beings have aims when inanimate things do not? Current science encourages us to reject the ghost-in-the-machine explanation-that something called spirit, soul, mind, or will was somehow breathed into matter-and instead accept t[...]

'Still as the night was, the mysterious population of the distant moonlit woods was not yet lulled to rest'The aim of a good ghost story is to make the blood freeze, pleasurably, and this M. R. James achieves to perfection in these wonderful stories. His most atmospheric settings include English cou[...]

Who better to choose the ultimate in spine-chillers than Roald Dahl, whose own sinister stories have teased and twisted the imagination of millions? Here are fourteen of his favourite ghost stories, including Sheridan Le Fanu's "The Ghost of a Hand", Edith Wharton's "Afterward", Cynthia Asquith's "T[...]

In 1929, in a remote county of the Arkansas Ozarks, the gruesome murder of harmonica-playing drifter Connie Franklin and the brutal rape of his teenaged fiance captured the attention of a nation on the cusp of the Great Depression. National press from coast to coast ran stories of the sensational ex[...]

Ghost in the Shell takes as its premise the idea that the outer person is a reflection of the inner. Tracing the modern photographic portrait over the past 150 years, the book reveals the many ways the photographic arts have investigated, represented, interpreted, and subverted the human face and, c[...]

Montague Rhodes James authored some of the most highly regarded ghost stories of all time-classics such as "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" that have been adapted many times over for radio and television and have never gone out of print. But while James is best known as a fiction writer a[...]