“I loved every single page.” —Elton John “The best piece of nature writing since H is for Hawk.” —Neil Gaiman ​In this moving, critically acclaimed memoir, a young man saves a baby magpie as his estranged father is dying, only to find that caring for the mischievous bird saves him.One spring day, a baby magpie falls out of its nest and into Charlie Gilmour’s hands. Magpies, he soon discovers, are as clever and mischievous as monkeys. They are also notorious thieves, and this one quickly steals his heart. By the time the creature develops shiny black feathers that inspire the name Benzene, Charlie and the bird have forged an unbreakable bond. While caring for Benzene, Charlie learns his biological father, an eccentric British poet named Heathcote Williams who vanished when Charlie was six months old, is ill. As he grapples with Heathcote’s abandonment, Charlie comes across one of his poems, in which Heathcote describes how an impish young jackdaw fell from its nest and captured his affection. Over time, Benzene helps Charlie unravel his fears about repeating the past—and embrace the role of father himself. A bird falls, a father dies, a child is born. Featherhood is the unforgettable story of a love affair between a man and a bird. It is also a beautiful and affecting memoir about childhood and parenthood, captivity and freedom, grief and love.

The first two volumes chronicling the unique art and design of Roger Dean met with huge critical and popular success. Views (1975) went straight to number one in the Sunday Times bestseller list and went on to sell over a million copies. Magnetic Storm (1984) sold over 650,000 copies. These new editions, reworked to accompany the publication of the third book in the trilogy, Dragon's Dream, showcase the instantly recognizable work of Roger Dean. Views showcases the first seven years of Roger Dean's work after his graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1968. It includes paintings and graphics; branding such as the Yes typography and the first Virgin Records logo; groundbreaking stage sets; and album art including iconic early Yes covers such as the award-winning Tales From Topographic Oceans. The new edition streamlines the original square format and retains the combination of concept sketches and brilliantly displayed finished work. Featuring a new foreword, revised typography, and graphic openers and identifying icons, Views showcases and celebrates the art that defined an era.

Internationally bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger and her husband, graphic artist Eddie Campbell, collaborate on this quirky, irreverent collection that celebrates and satirises love of all kinds. With thirteen different vignettes about love, loss, fairies, misbehaviour, regret, wanton wrongheadedness, cats, supernatural exterminators, spies, ghosts, more cats, more fairies, and a handful of ex-boyfriends, Bizarre Romance runs the gamut when it comes to relationships. It explores the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain weird – with Niffenegger's sharp, imaginative prose and Campbell's diverse comic styles, always with a sense of humour and cosmic justice.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM STUDIO GHIBLI AND ANIME MASTER HAYAO MIYAZAKI (SPIRITED AWAY, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE) "In How Do You Live?, Copper, our hero, and his uncle are our guides in science, in ethics, in thinking. And on the way they take us, through a school story set in Japan in 1937, to the heart of the questions we need to ask ourselves about the way we live our lives. We will experience betrayal and learn about how to make tofu. We will examine fear, and how we cannot always live up to who we think we are, and we learn about shame, and how to deal with it. We will learn about gravity and about cities, and most of all, we will learn to think about things -- to, as the writer Theodore Sturgeon put it, ask the next question." -- from the Foreword by Neil Gaiman This bestselling English-language translation of the Japanese classic about finding one's place in the world is perfect for readers of philosophical fiction like Sophie's World, The Alchemist, or The Little Prince, as well as Miyazaki fans eager to learn more about his favorite book and final film.

'Will undoubtedly become a classic narrative of this scenically magnificent, legend-rich and geologically unique part of Scotland' Cameron McNeish, The Herald Rising a kilometre out of the storm-scoured waters around Scotland's Isle of Skye is a dark battlement of pinnacles and ridgelines: the Cuillin. Plagued by ferocious weather and built from rock that tears skin and confounds compasses, a crossing of the Cuillin is the toughest mountaineering expedition in the British Isles. But the traverse is only part of its lure. Hewn from the innards of an ancient volcano, this mountain range stands like a crown on an island drenched in intrigue. While nineteenth-century climbers flocked to the Alps, the ridge lay untrodden and unyielding. When a generation of mountaineers did come, they found a remarkable prize: the last peaks of Britain to be climbed - peaks that would be named after those who climbed them. Along the way, many others, from artists and poets to mystics and wanderers, have been lured by the Cuillin's haunting beauty and magic. Those who have been seduced by the deadly magic of these mountains attest to the complexity of humans' relationship with the intrigue of our wildest, most dangerous places.The Black Ridge is a journey through the history and into the heights of the Cuillin of Skye - from the ridge's violent birth to the tales of its pioneers, its thrills, its myths and its monsters. From a night spent in a cave beneath its highest peak to the ascent of its most infamous pinnacle, this is an adventure on foot through all seasons across the most mesmerising mountain range in Britain.

'His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction' Mail on SundayNAMED AS ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 MOST INSPIRING NOVELS The Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . . ____________________In the beginning there was…a turtle.Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules.But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.Unfortunately, the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard…____________________The Discworld novels can be read in any order but The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Wizards series.

Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" is a childhood classic that has seen many adaptations since it was first published. This is the original 1894 edition that started it all. It includes the original illustrations which introduced the imagination of Kipling to a generation of readers. While many know Mowgli and Baloo and other beloved favorites from the movies, many parents will enjoy presenting the original tale to their children almost exactly the way young people enjoyed it from the beginning. In fact, this original edition also includes illustrations that were drawn by Rudyard Kipling's own father. This 1894 reprint edition will be a family heirloom for generations to come.

Sell the cemetery?Over their dead bodies . . . Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And he's got bad news for them: the council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learnt a thing or two from Johnny. They're not going to take it lying down . . . especially since it's Halloween tomorrow. Besides, they're beginning to find that life is a lot more fun than it was when they were . . . well . . . alive. Particularly if they break a few rules . . .The second book in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy.

How can anyone describe this book? It isn't a parable, a fairy story or a poem, but rather a mixture of all three. It is beautiful and it is comic. It is philosophical and it is cheery. What we suppose we are trying fumblingly to say is, in a word, that it is Thurber. There are only a few reasons why everybody has always wanted to read this kind of story, but they are basic: Everybody has always wanted to love a Princess. Everybody has always wanted to be a Prince. Everybody has always wanted the wicked Duke to be punished. Everybody has always wanted to live happily ever after. Too little of this kind of thing is going on in the world today. But all of it is going on valorously in "The 13 Clocks.

A book for lovers of all things Italian -- an homage to the city of Trieste. This history-drenched city on the Adriatic has always tantalized Jan Morris with its moodiness and changeability. After visiting Trieste for more than half a century, she has come to see it as a touchstone for her interests and preoccupations: cities, seas, empires. It has even come to reflect her own life in its loves, disillusionments, and memories. Her meditation on Trieste is characteristically layered with history and glows with stories of famous visitors from James Joyce to Sigmund Freud. A lyrical travelogue, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is also superb cultural history and the culmination of a singular career -- "an elegant and bittersweet farewell" (Boston Globe).

"The single most beautiful, solid, unearthly, and unjustifiably forgotten novel of the twentieth century …a little golden miracle of a book." — Neil Gaiman Lud-in-the-Mist is a flourishing town and the capital of the Free State of Dorimare, located at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. Bordering to the west and said to flow from the Dapple is Fairyland. Dorimare law has banished Fairyland inhabitants and forbidden all fairy things, but someone is smuggling fairy fruit into the state, causing addiction, fits of delusion, and possibly murder. Despite being one of the first books published in the fantasy genre, Lud-in-the-Mist has received surprisingly little attention. Hope Mirrlees's 1926 novel is an enchanting narrative intertwined with folklore and the magical realm of the fairy folk, mysterious intrigue, and rural superstitions. A delightful discovery for lovers of fantasy.

“I loved every speck of it.” —Kelly Barnhill, Newbery Medal–winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon From New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente comes an inventive middle grade fantasy that follows a boy journeying away from the only home he’s ever known and into the magical realm of the dead to fulfill a bargain for his people.Osmo Unknown hungers for the world beyond his small town. With the life that Littlebridge society has planned for him, the only taste Osmo will ever get are his visits to the edge of the Fourpenny Woods where his mother hunts. Until the unthinkable happens: his mother accidentally kills a Quidnunk, a fearsome and intelligent creature that lives deep in the forest. None of this should have anything to do with poor Osmo, except that a strange treaty was once formed between the Quidnunx and the people of Littlebridge to ensure that neither group would harm the other. Now that a Quidnunk is dead, as the firstborn child of the hunter who killed her, Osmo must embark on a quest to find the Eightpenny Woods—the mysterious kingdom where all wild forest creatures go when they die—and make amends. Accompanied by a very rude half-badger, half-wombat named Bonk and an antisocial pangolin girl called Never, it will take all of Osmo’s bravery and cleverness to survive the magic of the Eightpenny Woods to save his town…and make it out alive.

G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is a thrilling novel of deception, subterfuge, double-crossing and secret identities, and this Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Matthew Beaumont. The Central Anarchist Council is a secret society sworn to destroy the world. The council is governed by seven men, who hide their identities behind the names of the days of the week. Yet one of their number - Thursday - is not the revolutionary he claims to be, but a Scotland Yard detective named Gabriel Syme, sworn to infiltrate the organisation and bring the architects of chaos to justice. But when he discovers another undercover policeman on the Council, Syme begins to question his role in their operations. And as a desperate chase across Europe begins, his confusion grows, as well as his confidence in his ability to outwit his enemies, unravelling the mysteries of human behaviour and belief in a thrilling contest of wits. But he has still to face the greatest terror that the Council has: a man named Sunday, whose true nature is worse than Syme could ever have imagined ... In his introduction, Matthew Beaumont examines the book's themes of identity and confrontation, and explores its intriguing title. This edition also contains a chronology, notes and suggested further reading. G.K. Chesterton (1874-1938) attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best-known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938. If you enjoyed The Man Who Was Thursday, you might enjoy Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, also available in Penguin Classics. 'The most thrilling book I have ever read' Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim

OVER 4 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDEShortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 'Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years ... Funny, moving, scary, otherworldly, practical and magical' NEIL GAIMANThe year is 1806. centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell, whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

“A major work of twentieth-century American literature...Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within...once into it, there is no stopping.” —The New York Times on The Book of the New SunThis new Tor Essentials edition of Sword & Citadel contains a new introduction by historian and novelist Ada Palmer, author of the award-winning Too Like the Lightning.Gene Wolfe has been called "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" by the Washington Post.THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is unanimously acclaimed as Wolfe’s most remarkable work, hailed as “a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis” by Publishers Weekly and “one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century” by the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.The Sword of the Lictor is the third volume in Wolfe's remarkable epic, chronicling the odyssey of the wandering pilgrim called Severian, driven by a powerful and unfathomable destiny, as he carries out a dark mission far from his home.The Citadel of the Autarch brings The Book of the New Sun to its harrowing conclusion, as Severian clashes in a final reckoning with the dread Autarch, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that will alter forever the realm known as Urth."Wonderfully vivid and inventive... the most extraordinary hero in the history of the heroic epic.” —The Washington Post

"This impressive collection-- a high-water mark in the graphic novel's short history-- confirms that no one else in the medium combines emotional truth, literary intelligence, and formal daring with such adroitness and elegance." -- Booklist (starred review) "Witty and thoughtful ... a great and epic comic documentary novel like no other."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The fact that we are finally able to watch young Alec slowly evolve, page by page, from a cheeky wastrel into a mature artist deeply committed to his work and his family is nothing less than a revelation ... the three decades of mature, complex and emotionally compelling work compiled here represent a major accomplishment in comics storytelling, and in storytelling, period. It's nothing less than a modern epic of the everyday."-- Glen Weldon, NPR "A profound piece ... Campbell makes it feel like the greatest adventure imaginable."-- Alex Pappademas, GQ "Campbell's art develops into a heroism of the freed line: like the blade of a skater, his pen achieves a precarious and delicate grace that should be recognized as a landmark in the history of comics."-- Rain Taxi Review of Books "Eddie Campbell's Alec stories were among the first of the modern era of autobiographical comics, and they still rate among the best-- witty, brilliantly illustrated, self-mocking without ever being mopey or pathetic, and most importantly, forever changing style to suit the needs of the story... Watching Campbell's storytelling and approach to art progress and evolve as these stories unfold is as close as you can get to watching a real human life change on the page. One of the must-own releases of the year."-- The AV Club "If autobiography is the lingua franca of the graphic novel form, Campbell is its undisputed Shakespeare."-- Richard Pachter, Miami Herald "ALEC is magic, and even if I knew how all of it was done I'd be doing you a disservice if I pointed out the wires and mirrors. ... It is written by someone who obviously finds being alive an endless source of novelty and conundrum."-- Alan Moore "Do you need me to tell you how good Eddie Campbell is? Or that ALEC is probably the best book-length comic about art and wine and midlife crises and families and friends and wine and love and art and saying goodbye and terror there is?"-- Neil Gaiman DESCRIPTION: For the first time ever, the groundbreaking autobiographical comics of master cartoonist Eddie Campbell (FROM HELL) are collected in a single volume! Brilliantly observed and profoundly expressed, the ALEC stories present a version of Eddie's own life, filtered through the alter ego of "Alec MacGarry."Over many years, we witness Alec's (and Eddie's) progression "from beer to wine"-- wild nights at the pub, existential despair, the hunt for love, the quest for art, becoming a responsible breadwinner, feeling lost at his own movie premiere, and much more! Eddie's outlandish fantasies and metafictional tricks convert life into art, while staying fully grounded in his own absurdity. At every point, the author's uncanny eye for irony and wry self-awareness make even the smallest occasion into an opportunity for wit and wisdom. Quite simply, ALEC is a masterpiece of visual autobiography. ALEC: THE YEARS HAVE PANTS (A LIFE-SIZE OMNIBUS) collects the previous Alec books THE KING CANUTE CROWD, GRAFFITI KITCHEN, HOW TO BE AN ARTIST, LITTLE ITALY, THE DEAD MUSE, THE DANCE OF LIFEY DEATH, AFTER THE SNOOTER, as well as a generous helping of rare and never-before-seen material, including an all-new 35-page book, THE YEARS HAVE PANTS.

Fact: A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there... When the Goon turns up demanding "Archer’s two thousand", life turns upside-down. As Howard desperately tries to get to the bottom of this peculiar demand, he discovers that the town is run by seven crazy wizards (not all of whom live in the present!) and someone is trying to take over the world! Exciting, bizarre and truly hilarious!

HORROR & GHOST STORIES. Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache ...and a pair of horns growing from his temples. Once, Ig lived the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned American musician, and the younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, Ig had security and wealth and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more - he had the love of Merrin Williams, a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic. Then beautiful, vivacious Merrin was gone - raped and murdered, under inexplicable circumstances - with Ig the only suspect. He was never tried for the crime, but in the court of public opinion, Ig was and always would be guilty. Now Ig is possessed with a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look, and he means to use it to find the man who killed Merrin and destroyed his life.

Dickens' grandest, most virtuosic achievement, Bleak House combines two tales: the story of wealthy Lady Dedlock, recounted in the third person, and that of penniless Esther Summerson, told in her own words. The haughty noblewoman and the orphan are connected by the court case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a tangle of disputed wills and disrupted inheritance that has tied up the High Court of Chancery for decades. Inspired by an actual court case that dragged on for more than 50 years, Dickens drew upon his own experiences as a law clerk and plaintiff to enliven his novel, which remains utterly contemporary in its portrait of a system invested in making business for itself at the expense of its plaintiffs. In addition to its complex and compelling portrayal of the English judiciary, Bleak House is also a brilliant detective story in which a police officer, Inspector Bucket, uncovers a richly plotted tale of secrets, murder, and mystery. www.doverpublications.com

Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rules their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons. Lord of Light.

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. In perhaps the most magnificent of what he called his 'strange stories', Robert Aickman blurs the lines between memory, premonition and the hallucinated life.Lene, a woman now recovering from the losses of the Second World War, recalls a gothic dolls' house of her childhood and the way in which its uncanny inhabitants entered her dreams. Most chillingly, the geometries of the house didn't add up; there had to be a secret room inside it.Years later, she comes across a life-size version in a wood not marked on any map . . .

Supernatural fusion of horror and police procedural set in Phoenix, Arizona. When Police Sergeant Alex Volchak discovers the true nature of a predator that has survived among us unnoticed for generations, he places himself and those around him in mortal danger. It's older than the desert, a thing without a name, but as vicious, jealous and self-preserving a creature as ever walked the earth. And it hides in plain sight.

'A sweet, filthy peach of a memoir from a cultural explosion of a man.'CAITLIN MORANBorn in the mid-twentieth century and raised in the heart of conservative North Carolina, Armistead Maupin lost his virginity to another man “on the very spot where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.” Realizing that the South was too small for him, this son of a traditional lawyer packed his earthly belongings into his Opel GT (including a beloved portrait of a Confederate ancestor), and took to the road in search of adventure. It was a journey that would lead him from a homoerotic Navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam to that strangest of strange lands: San Francisco in the early 1970s. Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his “logical family,” the people he could call his own. "Sooner or later, we have to venture beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us,” he writes. “We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives." From his loving relationship with his palm-reading Grannie who insisted Maupin was the reincarnation of her artistic bachelor cousin, Curtis, to an awkward conversation about girls with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, Maupin tells of the extraordinary individuals and situations that shaped him into one of the most influential writers of the last century.Maupin recalls his losses and life-changing experiences with humor and unflinching honesty, and brings to life flesh-and-blood characters as endearing and unforgettable as the vivid, fraught men and women who populate his enchanting novels. What emerges is an illuminating portrait of the man who depicted the liberation and evolution of America’s queer community over the last four decades with honesty and compassion—and inspired millions to claim their own lives.