It is 330 BC, the year that Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis and gained a fortune. Someone has snatched Anthia, heiress of a prominent silver merchant. Stephanos and Aristotle pursue her and her abductor on the road to Delphi and its ancient Oracle. But can the Oracle solve the mystery?[...]

In Vintage Living Texts teachers, students and any lover of literature will find the essential guide to the major works of A. S. Byatt. Also included is an exclusive in-depth interview with A. S. Byatt relating specifically to the novels under discussion. A. S. Byatt's themes, genre and narrative te[...]

In the winter of 330-329 BC Athens itself suffers a series of alarming thefts and home robberies. The great philosopher Aristotle helps his former student Stephanos investigate a break-in and brutal murder at the house of one of his Athenian neighbours. The man fingered for the crime turns against S[...]

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed . If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future ha[...]

Don and Louise's eighteen-year-old daughter Miranda has died in a sailing accident. While Louise takes steps to move on with her life, Don cannot come to terms with the chain of events that led to her death. Instead, he is determined to bring someone to account.[...]

Re-examines the mythology and suggests a complex reality behind the idealized picture accepted by Lady Thatcher's early biographers.[...]

Isamay's unusual name comes from her two very different grandmothers, Isa and May, who were both present at her birth and who have both formed and influenced her whole life in very particular ways.[...]

In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate "Handmaids" under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holdi[...]

Born in Carlisle in 1887, brought up in a children's home and by reluctant relatives, Evie, with her wild hair and unassuming ways, seems a quiet, undemanding child. Shona, born almost seventy years later, is headstrong and striking. She grows up in comfort and security in Scotland, the only child o[...]

This is a compelling new series set in County Durham just before the First World War. It is perfect for fans of Longbourn and Downton Abbey. When Evie Forbes starts as an assistant cook at Easterleigh Hall, she goes against her family's wishes. For ruthless Lord Brampton also owns the mine where Evi[...]

Rennie Wilford, a young jounalist running from her life, takes an assignment to a Caribbean island and tumbles into a world where no one is what they seem. When the burnt-out Yankee Paul (does he smuggle dope or hustle for the CIA?) Offers her a no-hooks, no strings affair, she is caught up in a let[...]

Life Before Man explores the lives of three people imprisoned by walls of their own construction and in thrall to the tragicomedy we call love. Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality and suppressed rage, has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning [...]

A man finds himself surrounded by women who are becoming paler, more silent and literally smaller; a woman's intimate life is strangely dominated by the fear of nuclear warfare; a melancholy teenage love is swept away by a hurricane, while a tired, middle-aged affection is rekindled by the spectacle[...]