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Twenty-eight entertaining tales from Japanese folklore are featured here, and everything comes with a magical twist. Monkeys, badgers and other meddlesome creatures abound, as well as fortune tellers, malevolent spirits and mysterious paintings.A man who ardently desires eternal life is taught a lesson. A couple fall in love and find each other across the centuries. More unexpected time-slips happen in ‘Urashima Taro’, where a young fisherman ends up married to a princess and lives undersea for centuries. Spirits are all around us: in ‘The Laughing Dumpling’, an elderly woman outwits a demon with a taste for her cooking. Ghostly hauntings are visited on those who have done wrong, and famous tales like ‘The Marvellous Tea Kettle’ and ‘The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Child’ (which inspired Studio Ghibli’s Princess Kaguya) remind us that the boundary between the magical and the everyday is only too fragile.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning pocket-sized classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is the source of Zen Buddhism, and is probably the most broadly influential spiritual text in human history.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated and introduced by David Hinton. Fluent in ancient Chinese and an acclaimed poet, he skilfully reveals how remarkably current and even innovative this text is after 2500 years.According to legend, Lao Tzu left China at the age of eighty, saddened that men would not follow the path to natural goodness. At the border with Tibet, a guard asked him to record his teachings and the Tao Te Ching is what he wrote down before leaving. Lao Tzu's spirituality describes the Cosmos as a harmonious and generative organism, and it shows how the human is an integral part of that cosmos.

Told in a simple mythical style, the story of Siddhartha is an inspirational classic by Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Hilda Rosner with an introduction by John Peacock.Siddhartha, the son of a wealthy Brahmin, is unable to find peace within his own religion and community so sets off on his travels through India in search of enlightenment. First he spends time with a group of ascetics called Samanas. For a while he embraces their doctrine and rejects all worldly goods. When he hears about a man called Gotama the Buddha he leaves the Samanas. However Buddhist teaching disappoints him and he realizes that self-discovery must come from his own experiences. He rejects the spiritual life, takes a lover and becomes a rich merchant. But after some years, dissatisfied with materialism, he takes off again in search of the spiritual peace he longs for.

Twenty-eight entertaining tales from Japanese folklore are featured here, and everything comes with a magical twist. Monkeys, badgers and other meddlesome creatures abound, as well as fortune tellers, malevolent spirits and mysterious paintings.A man who ardently desires eternal life is taught a lesson. A couple fall in love and find each other across the centuries. More unexpected time-slips happen in ‘Urashima Taro’, where a young fisherman ends up married to a princess and lives undersea for centuries. Spirits are all around us: in ‘The Laughing Dumpling’, an elderly woman outwits a demon with a taste for her cooking. Ghostly hauntings are visited on those who have done wrong, and famous tales like ‘The Marvellous Tea Kettle’ and ‘The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Child’ (which inspired Studio Ghibli’s Princess Kaguya) remind us that the boundary between the magical and the everyday is only too fragile.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning pocket-sized classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

For book lovers, not a day goes by without thoughts of their favourite quotes from books that are special to them. The Macmillan Collector’s Library planner is a true ode to the classics, bringing the magic of reading to your weekly routine.This dateless, customisable, and pocket-sized week-to-view planner offers ample space for notes and can be started at any time of year. Each two-page spread features a carefully chosen quote from a classic work of literature, alongside gorgeous illustrations – placed every fourth week – from celebrated illustrators on our list.Expect wonderful quotes throughout the year from our most beloved authors, including witty and iconic Jane Austen lines, inspirational messages from texts like the Tao Te Ching and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, as well as a whole array of dramatic, emotional and humorous moments from beloved authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa May Alcott, Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton.

The touching story of The Velveteen Rabbit is a magical tale about the bond between a little boy and his favourite toy animal. It’s a story about the transforming power of love that has been enjoyed by generations since it was first published in 1922.The theme of kindness runs through this lovely collection of stories. There’s Kenneth Grahame’s Reluctant Dragon, more interested in writing poetry than being fierce; in ‘The Land of the Blue Flower’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a young king encourages his citizens to plant flowers; and frosty Aunt Kapp succumbs to the warmth and charm of her family. Many stories in the book are accompanied by delightful illustrations.This Macmillan Collector’s Library edition is a beautiful, cloth-bound hardback with gorgeous, classic illustrations throughout. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This anthology is edited by author and critic Nicolette Jones.

Ten of the world’s most famous and cherished fairy stories published in a beautiful, cloth-bound gift edition together with gorgeous, classic illustrations in colour and black and white throughout.We’ve all grown up with fairy tales, whether it be through children’s books, on screen or in modern retellings. Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a very carefully and lovingly curated book that features ten of the most popular fairy stories in the world. Each story goes back to the source from which so much has sprung, from picture books and stage shows, to animated films and their live action interpretations.Amongst this treasure trove, you’ll find The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm and Cinderella by Charles Perrault. Each story is accompanied by beautiful drawings and paintings from the golden age of illustration.For the child in us all, Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a book to cherish for ever.

Ten of the world’s most famous and cherished fairy stories with gorgeous, classic illustrations in colour and black and white throughout.We’ve all grown up with fairy tales, whether it be through children’s books, on screen or in modern retellings. Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a very carefully and lovingly curated book that features ten of the most popular fairy stories in the world. Each story goes back to the source from which so much has sprung, from picture books and stage shows, to animated films and their live action interpretations.Amongst this treasure trove, you’ll find The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm and Cinderella by Charles Perrault. Each story is accompanied by beautiful drawings and paintings from the golden age of illustration.For the child in us all, Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a book to cherish for ever.

Parties and Passions is a literary celebration. Love, betrayal, sadness, humour and more are explored in this collection of party stories by classic authors.Featuring tales from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Parties and Passions shows making merry doesn’t always go to plan. Joy and disappointment, murder and mix-ups: there’s a party for everyone here. Find stories of glamorous masked balls from Edgar Allan Poe and Alexandre Dumas, ghostly wedding celebrations dreamed up by Edith Nesbit and Washington Irving, and more occasions for dancing and music in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘Wiser Than a God’. Nothing happens as expected in Nella Larsen’s ‘The Wrong Man’ and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Bridal Party’, and calm gatherings descend into chaos in witty and ironic writing from Saki and Nathaniel Hawthorne.With an international range of much-loved writers from Akutagawa to Tolstoy, here is an eclectic collection of literary parties to suit every mood.The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway and The Picture of Dorian Gray are also available in this Macmillan Collector’s Library series of gorgeous paperbacks featuring the greatest parties and the wildest passions in literature.

Now, for the first time, three landmark books on the world of locks and keys are available together in one handsome collection. From ancient mechanisms to master-crafted European designs and the intricate ingenuity of Persian locks, this set offers an extraordinary journey through the evolution of security and metalwork. Antique Locks and Keys – This is the most beautiful, complete, and largest book on antique locks and keys ever published. Not only are there 1,000 stunning high-resolution photos of European locks and keys from Roman times through the Industrial Revolution, with dates, dimensions, and provenance, but the detailed photos and the author’s notes allow us to examine and understand the workings of the locks’ internal mechanisms. This is a book that every lock and key collector, locksmith, and architectural restorer will want to own. Locks and Keys Throughout the Ages – Widely considered the best book ever written on the history of locks. Illustrated throughout with photos from the Lips’ Collection, it was written in 1957 by the director of one of the most important lock manufacturing companies in the world at that time (now part of the Assa Abloy Group). The author was not only a master locksmith but also a collector and was passionate about the history and development of locking mechanisms. His extensive knowledge of the field comes across on every page. Persian Locks – In this beautiful and informative book, the author shares, in over 500 photos and drawings, the most interesting examples of locks from his famous collection, first introduced to the American public by the Smithsonian. Detailed drawings clearly illustrate the workings of various locking mechanisms (e.g., barbed-spring, helical-spring, notched-shackle, hook and revolving catch, etc.). All locks are dated and the place of manufacture is given. A smaller version of this updated and expanded book was published by The Smithsonian Institution in 1976 with the title, Locks from Pre-Islamic to Twentieth Century.

'The Mona Lisa of literature' T. S. EliotIn Shakespeare's verbally dazzling and eternally enigmatic exploration of conscience, madness and the nature of humanity, a young prince meets his father's ghost in the middle of the night, who accuses his own brother - now married to his widow - of murdering him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild insanity while plotting revenge. But his actions soon begin to wreak havoc on innocent and guilty alike.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by T. J. B. SpencerIntroduction by Alan Sinfield

Life in pre-revolutionary Cuba is not easy and James Wormold, a failing vacuum cleaner salesman, is struggling to fund the increasingly lavish lifestyle of his manipulative sixteen year-old daughter, Milly. So when an enigmatic Englishman offers him an extra income in return for a little spying, he is sorely tempted . . . But when the fake reports he’s been sending to London start to come true, Havana suddenly becomes a very dangerous place indeed.Both a brilliant Cold War thriller and hilarious work of satire, Our Man in Havana is Graham Greene’s classic tale of an accidental spy, and a truly gripping read.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautifully bound gift editions of much loved classic titles.

Complete and unabridged.Three Men in a Boat remains one of the best-loved and most entertaining comic novels. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, unabridged, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features illustrations by A. Frederics and an afterword by David Stuart Davies.Join our young heroes J., George and Harris (not forgetting Montmorency, the mischievous, irascible fox terrier) as they take a boating holiday along the Thames. Their aim is to escape the weary workaday world and improve their health, but they are ill prepared for the various escapades, difficulties and vicissitudes that they encounter along the watery way. The adventures of these incompetent innocents abroad are magnified to epic proportions by the storyteller, J. His narration gives the book not only a wonderful endearing freshness but also a series of hilarious moments of timeless comedy.

Homage to Catalonia remains one of the most famous accounts of the Spanish Civil War. With characteristic scrutiny, Orwell questions the actions and motives of all sides whilst retaining his firm beliefs in human courage and the need for radical social change.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Helen Graham, a leading historian on the Spanish Civil War.When George Orwell arrived in Spain in 1936, he signed up to fight with the Republican army against Fascism. Homage to Catalonia is his bracing personal account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. From the front line he describes, with brutal honesty, the frustrations and inefficiencies of battle; he is caught up in vicious street fighting in Barcelona and must flee for his life when Republican factions turn on each other.

In the early 1500s five men and five women find themselves trapped by floods and compelled to take refuge in an abbey high in the Pyrenees. When told they must wait days for a bridge to be repaired, they are inspired - by recalling Boccaccio's Decameron - to pass the time in a cultured manner by each telling a story every day. The stories, however, soon degenerate into a verbal battle between the sexes, as the characters weave tales of corrupt friars, adulterous noblemen and deceitful wives. From the cynical Saffredent to the young idealist Dagoucin or the moderate Parlamente - believed to express De Navarre's own views - The Heptameron provides a fascinating insight into the minds and passions of the nobility of sixteenth century France.

All legends begin somewhere, and the two novels here are where one of the world's best-loved legends began. In A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson first meet and investigate a seemingly impossible mystery that begins with a corpse in a deserted house. In The Sign of the Four the detective faces an even greater challenge: solving both the disappearance of Captain Arthur Morstan and the theft of the Agra treasure in India.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. In this edition, Sherlock scholar David Stuart Davies provides an illuminating afterword.

Not just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him 'unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living'. Clark Ashton Smith - autodidact, prolific poet, amateur philosopher, bizarre sculptor, and unmatched storyteller - simply wrote like no one else, before or since. This new collection of his very best tales and poems is selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi and allows readers to encounter Smith's visionary brand of fantastical, phantasmagorical worlds, each one filled with invention, terror and a superlative sense of metaphysical wonder.

The perfect introduction to one of the world's best-known classics.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics bound in real cloth with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Translated and edited by author and scriptwriter Jonathan Clements.This is a fresh, contemporary translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War for the 21st century. As well as its historical importance, it is one of the most influential political and business books of our era. This edition rediscovers the essential clarity of the ancient masterpiece, cited by generals from a dozen Chinese dynasties, international business leaders, and modern military field manuals. It also contains a full commentary on Sun Tzu, the man and his ideas, contemporary of Confucius and Buddha; and a critical guide to further reading.

Inspired by his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the International Brigades fighting to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco. After being ordered to work with guerrilla fighters to destroy a bridge, Jordan finds himself falling in love with a young Spanish woman and clashing with the guerrilla leader over the risks of their mission.One of the great novels of the twentieth century, For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published in 1940. It powerfully explores the brutality of war, the loss of innocence and the value of human life.This stunning edition features an afterword by Ned Halley.Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Animal Farm is George Orwell’s brilliant political satire and allegorical fable about the corrupting effects of power. Published in 1945 it is, to this day, one of the most famous and influential works of fiction ever written.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. This edition features an introduction by journalist, award-winning writer and editor of the New Statesman, Jason Cowley.When the old Major, a highly respected white boar, gathers his fellow farm animals to preach about freedom, rebellion and the evils of man, he incites a revolution that has been brewing for years. The animals drive out their drunken farmer and create their own society – with the promise of equality for all, two scheming pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, appoint themselves leaders. What begins as a supposedly equalitarian community descends into an increasingly violent and hierarchical society, permeated by lies and corruption. Years after publication, Orwell's words remain a stark warning against the lure of fascist populism.

Marlowe's seven plays dramatise the fatal lure of potent forces, whether religious, occult or erotic. In the victories of Tamburlaine, Faustus's encounters with the demonic, the irreverence of Barabas in THE JEW OF MALTA, and the humiliation of Edward II in his fall from power and influence, Marlowe explores the shifting balance between power and helplessness, the sacred and its desecration.

The stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece are sprawling, dramatic and wonderfully strange; their lives intertwine with mortals and their behaviours fluctuate wildly from benevolent to violent, from didactic to fickle, from loving to enraged.Greek Myths: Gods and Goddesses is part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Classicist and author Jean Menzies captures the magic of Greek myths by drawing on a wide variety of vivid retellings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which bring to life the stories of Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, Pandora and many more. Coupled with her own entertaining commentary, this is the perfect book for learning about the world of the Greek deities and a treat for all fans of Greek mythology.Discover even more mythology with Greek Myths: Heroes and Heroines edited by Jean Menzies.

Composed for recitation at festivals, these 33 songs were written in honour of the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon. They recount the key episodes in the lives of the gods, and dramatise the moments when they first appear before mortals. Together they offer the most vivid picture we have of the Greek view of the relationship between the divine and human worlds.