Maria is always getting lost in the secret world of her imagination...A ghostly mystery and winner of the Whitbread Award, newly republished in the Essential Modern Classics range. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But [...]

A House Unlocked is Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively's classic memoir. The only child of divorced parents, Penelope Lively was often sent to stay at her grandparents' country house Golsoncott. Years later, as the house was sold out of the family, she began to piece together the lives of t[...]

"Family Album" is the sixteenth novel from Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively. Allersmead is a big shabby Victorian suburban house. The perfect place to grow up for elegant Sandra, difficult Gina, destructive Paul, considerate Katie, clever Roger and flighty Clare. But was it? As adults, the childr[...]

A respected literary biographer, Mark is working on the life of Gilbert Strong - a writer about whom he thinks he knows everything. Happily married, and apparently dedicated to a life of letters, he nevertheless falls in love with Strong's granddaughter Carrie, a vague and unsophisticated young woma[...]

" In this] haunting new novel, the act of forgetting is as strange and interesting as the power of remembering."
-"The New York Times Book Review"
Penelope Lively is renowned for her signature combination of silken storytelling and nuanced human insights. In "Family Album," lively masterfu[...]

A vibrant new novel from Penelope Lively--a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels[...]

"Sharp, unsentimental and ruefully funny. A fascinating portrait not only of Lively but of the times through which she has lived". (Daily Telegraph). "Clever and poignant ...there is much to enjoy. This is Lively at her best". (Sunday Express). In this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', Pe[...]