Simon Prebble

"Ebenezer Scrooge is a bitter and selfish old man, and worst of all...he hates Christmas! But this Christmas Eve there's a surprise in store for Scrooge when four spooky ghosts pay him an unexpected visit. As they journey between the past, present and future, Scrooge is shown how his mean and nasty behaviour has affected everyone around him... But is it enough to help Scrooge change his ways, just in time for Christmas Day? Or is he destined to stay...

A chilling portrait of a totalitarian society under the ever-watchful gaze of Big Brother, where love, privacy, and individuality are banned. The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's nightmare vision from 1949 of the world we are becoming is timelier that ever. 1984 is the great modern classic of a 'negative utopia' - a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing

"When an eccentric professor acquires an ancient book, a riddle on a spare piece of parchment tucked neatly within its pages leads him and his nephew on an unparalleled adventure. The unlocked riddle brings them to a remote mountain on Iceland, where they enter an extinct volcano on a daring quest to reach the center of the earth. They soon find themselves at a giant underground ocean where the laws of science are constantly redefined and prehistoric...

"All the ton agree: there is no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. Fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken and - according to some, particularly one Gareth St. Clair - probably best in small doses. But there's something about her - something charming and vexing - that grabs one and won't quite let go. Gareth and Hyacinth cross paths at the annual - and annually discordant - Smythe-Smith musicale. To Hyacinth, Gareth's every word seems a dare, and...

Michael Stirling and his cousin John, the Earl of Kilmartin, are as close as brothers. However, Michael is secretly in love with John's wife Francesca Bridgerton. When John suddenly dies from an aneurysm, Michael is wracked with guilt and pain from his loss. The earldom is now Michael's responsibility, but he doesn't want it. And, his self-imposed exile to India does nothing to relieve him of his shame--or his longing for Francesca. Even though he...

Artist Basil Hallward is greatly impressed by Dorian Gray's physical beauty when he paints his portrait. Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode in Basil's art. Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new kind of hedonism, Lord Henry suggests that the only thing worth pursuing in life is beauty, and the fulfilment of the senses. Dorian...

After a chance encounter with assassin Yassen Gregorovich in the South of France, teenage spy Alex Rider investigates international pop star and philanthropist Damian Cray whose new video game venture hides sinister motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the international drug trade.

"Bound for Antarctica, where polar explorer Ernest Shackleton planned to cross on foot the last uncharted continent, the Endurance set sail from England in August 1914. In January 1915, after battling its way for six weeks through a thousand miles of pack ice and now only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted northwest before it was finally crushed. But...

An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible--but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard. Alan Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years, is the suspect in an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horserace honoring the late King Edward VII. His disappearance began a manhunt that consumed Britain for a decade. Now it appears that Barrington has returned to England,...

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own.... So begins The War of the Worlds, the science fiction classic that first proposed the possibility of intelligent life on other planets and has enthralled readers for generations. This compelling tale describes the Martian invasion of earth. When huge, tireless...