Virago Modern Classics – serie

FALL IN LOVE WITH THE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED TAYLOR SWIFT'An unforgettable masterpiece . . . filled with razor-sharp tension, escalating dread, and a twist that chills to the bone' FREIDA MCFADDEN'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY'Rebecca has woven its way into the fabric of our culture with all the troubling power of myth or dream. A stunning book' SARAH PERRY***He did not belong to me at all, he belonged to Rebecca. . .Everyone knows that Maxim de Winter was obsessed with his glamorous wife - and devastated by her tragic death. So when he proposes to a shy, anxious young woman after a whirlwind meeting in the South of France, no one is more surprised than the new bride herself. But when they reach Manderley, his beautiful, isolated Cornish mansion, the second Mrs de Winter begins to realise that every inch of her new home - and everyone in it - still belongs to Rebecca.'The perfect story by the perfect storyteller' JOANNA CANNON'One of my all-time favourites' ERIN MORGENSTERN'Will chill you as much as any thriller' ALICE SLATER'Daphne du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings' STEPHEN KING'She's so deviant. So fascinating' EMERALD FENNELL

NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM starring Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily Collins. 'The moment I finished this story, I turned to page one and started it over again' MALORIE BLACKMAN'Excellent entertainment . . . du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings' STEPHEN KING'Rebecca is a masterpiece in which du Maurier pulls off several spectacular high-wire acts that many great writers wouldn't attempt' JIM CRACE, GUARDIAN On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of Rebecca falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him. But as they arrive at her husband's home, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread. Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, and the new Mrs de Winter walks in her shadow.Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the other woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.'As a new generation of readers are introduced to the wicked housekeeper Mrs Danvers and learn Maxim de Winter's terrible secret, this chilling, suspenseful tale is as fresh and readable as it was when it was first written' DAILY TELEGRAPH

This book is the very simple story of the love affair between Miss Helene Hanff of New York and Messrs Marks and Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, at 84 Charing Cross Road, London'. DAILY TELEGRAPHTold in a series of letters in 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD and then in diary form in the second part THE DUCHESS OF BLOOMSBURY STREET, this true story has touched the hearts of thousands.

Her mother's dying request obliges Mary Yellan to make a grim journey across bleak Cornish moorland to Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience and her overbearing husband, Joss Merlyn. With the coachman's warning echoing in her mind and affected by the inn's brooding power, Mary is thwarted in her intention to help her aunt. She finds herself drawn unwillingly into the misdeeds of Joss and his accomplices, and even more disturbing are her feelings for a man she dare not trust ...Jamaica Inn is a dark and gripping gothic tale that will remind readers of two other great classics, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

DISCOVER THE DU MAURIER DARK ROMANCE COLLECTION'Du Maurier is mistress of the sleight of hand in fiction . . . brilliantly, marvellously chilling' MAGGIE O'FARRELL'Moody and unnerving' GILLIAN FLYNN'Sinuous and undeniably feral' JULIE MYERSON***'Every day, haunted still by doubt, I ask myself a question which I cannot answer. Was Rachel innocent or guilty?'Philip Ashley has been raised by his cousin Ambrose as heir to his beautiful Cornish estate. But this close-knit world is shattered when Ambrose travels to Florence, where he unexpectedly falls in love and marries - only to die of a strange illness. Before long, his beautiful, mysterious widow arrives in England - and despite himself, Philip is caught in her spell. But is Rachel a victim, a saviour - or a murderess?Du Maurier is a storyteller whose sole aim is to bewitch and beguile' NEW YORK TIMES'Du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

INTRODUCED BY MAVIS CHEEK'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' Richard Osman'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' Anne TylerTogether yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of new curates, secure in the knowledge that Count Ricardo Bianco will propose to her yet again this year. Belinda, meanwhile, has harboured sober feelings of devotion towards Archdeacon Hoccleve for thirty years.Then into their quiet, comfortable lives comes a famous librarian, Nathaniel Mold, and a bishop from Africa, Theodore Grote - who each takes to calling on the sisters for rather more unsettling reasons.'Some Tame Gazelle is my personal favourite for its sparkling high comedy and its treasury of characters . . . [Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies, and, above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that?' MAVIS CHEEK

Alexander's beauty, strength and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion taught him trust, while Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fuelled his aspirations. Killing his first man in battle at the age of twelve, he became regent at sixteen and commander of Macedon's cavalry at eighteen, so that by the time his father was murdered, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.

THE MOST FAMOUS LESBIAN NOVEL FOR DECADES - AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'The bible of lesbianism' THE TIMES'A beacon for sexual self-discovery' HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, BBC CULTURE 'One of the first and most influential contributions of gay and lesbian literature' NEW STATESMANA powerful novel of love between women, The Well of Loneliness brought about the most famous legal trial for obscenity in the history of British law. Banned on publication in 1928, it then went on to become a classic bestseller.'What do I care for the world's opinion? What do I care for anything but you!'Stephen Gordon (named by a father desperate for a son) is not like other girls: she hunts, she fences, she reads books, wears trousers and longs to cut her hair. She is an ideal child of aristocratic parents who grows up to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. In the stifling grandeur of Morton Hall, the locals begin to draw away from her, aware of some indefinable thing that sets her apart. And when Stephen Gordon reaches maturity, she falls passionately in love with another woman. As her ambitions drive and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.Introduced by Diana Souhami, author of the acclaimed biography The Trials of Radclyffe Hall.

INTRODUCED BY LAUREN GROFF 'Rumer Godden's novels have a timeless shimmer' GUARDIAN'One hundred years after her birth, Rumer Godden's novels still pulse with life' MATTHEW DENNISON, TELEGRAPH'Her craftsmanship is always sure' NEW YORK TIMES'The motto was Pax but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Peace, but what a strange peace, made of unremitting toil and effort . . .'Bruised by tragedy, Philippa Talbot leaves behind a successful career with the civil service for a new calling: to join an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns. In this small community of fewer than one hundred women, she soon discovers all the human frailties: jealousy, love, despair. But each crisis of heart and conscience is guided by the compassion and intelligence of the Abbess and by the Sisters' shared bond of faith and ritual. Away from the world, and yet at one with it, Philippa must learn to forgive and forget her past . . .A vivid, moving and insightful portrait of religious community, In This House of Brede is one of Godden's very best 'convent novels - from the author of Black Narcissus and The River

ONE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S MOST GIFTED AMERICAN WRITERS 'Tillie Olsen's is a unique voice. Few writers have gained such . . . reverence' MARGARET ATWOOD'Almost unbearable in its harsh poetry and bitter fidelity to lives that are now forgotten' ALICE WALKER'There's no diminishing its fierce bloody-and-literal-mindedness' KIRKUS REVIEWS Tillie Olsen carved a permanent place in American literature on the strength of a single book, Tell Me a Riddle in 1962. This collection was widely hailed as a work of genius, in which the voices of ordinary Americans, black and white, male and female, were given their own rhythms and forms of expression.Yonnondio, Olsen's only novel, was begun during the depression and completed in 1974. It tells the story of the Hollbrooks, an itinerant working-class family in America during the thirties. Brutalised by poverty, they struggle to find a space to breathe, to dream and to create a bettter life for their children. Told in compelling, haunting prose, it is a profound and timeless story of the human will to survive.

INTRODUCED BY RACHEL COOKE'Virginia Woolf's roving consciousness lies behind the prose in Novel on Yellow Paper, but the tone owes more to Dorothy Parker . . . When first published in 1936, it overnight turned Smith into a celebrity . . . the subversiveness of this novel has never lost its appeal, its greatness lying in its exuberant celebration of the uncircumscribed spirit' - Frances Spalding, IndependentStevie's alter ego Pompey is young, in love and working as a secretary for the magnificent Sir Phoebus Ullwater. In between making coffee and typing letters for Sir Phoebus, Pompey scribbles down - on yellow office paper - her quirky thoughts. Her flights of imagination take in Euripedes, sex education, Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church, shattering conventions in their wake.

'Oh, it seems so wonderful that I'm going to live with you and belong to you. I've never belonged to anybody - not really' When a scrawny, freckled girl with bright red hair arrives on Prince Edward Island, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are taken by surprise; they'd asked the orphanage for a quiet boy to help with the farmwork at Green Gables. But how can you reject a child like an unwanted parcel, especially when she tells you her life so far has been a 'perfect graveyard of unburied hopes'? So the beguiling chatterbox stays. Full of imagination, spark and spirit, it is not long before Anne Shirley wins their hearts.

'One of the greatest historical novels ever written' SARAH WATERS'I love to find queer representation in historical fiction . . . Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing' DOUGLAS STUART'Fierce, complex and eloquent' MADELINE MILLER'Mary Renault is a shining light' HILARY MANTELA groundbreaking queer classic and powerful reimagining of the last years of Alexander the Great, told through the eyes of his lover. I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a king.And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.Bagoas, abducted as a boy and sold as a eunuch, has been transported to the heart of the Persian court as courtesan to King Darius. But when the Macedon army conquers his homeland, Bagoas finds freedom at the hands of their golden young commander, whose name is already becoming a legend: Alexander. Their encounter sparks a passionate devotion that shapes the Persian boy's future - and deepens into a relationship that will sustain them both through assassination plots, political intrigue and the threat of Alexander's own restless ambition. This is a spellbinding tale of power, loyalty and loss - a vision of history transfigured by love.'Nowhere else in fiction have Alexander's beauty and charisma blazed with such potency' TOM HOLLAND'Passionate and captivating' SEÁN HEWITT'All my sense of the ancient world - its value, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault' EMMA DONOGHUE'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the twentieth century' ANTONIA SENIOR, THE TIMES

Acerbic, wisecracking and hilarious, this is the definitive essay collection from New York legend and satirist, Fran Lebowitz, star of Martin Scorsese's hit Netflix series, Pretend It's a City.'The gold standard for intelligence, efficiency and humour. Now and forever' DAVID SEDARIS'She's inexhaustible - her personality, her knowledge, her brilliance, most of all her humour' MARTIN SCORSESE'The rare example of a legend living up to her own mythology. She really is THAT funny' HADLEY FREEMANLebowitz turns her trademark caustic wit to the vicissitudes of life - from children ('rarely in the position to lend one a truly interesting sum of money') to landlords ('it is the solemn duty of every landlord to maintain an adequate supply of roaches'). And her attitude to work is the perfect antidote to our exhausting culture of self-betterment ('3.40pm. I consider getting out of bed. I reject the notion as being unduly vigorous. I read and smoke a bit more').The Fran Lebowitz Reader was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 11-06-22

'A small masterpiece' Colm Toibin, Daily Telegraph'I don't know how many times I have reread the book, including several times in Catalan, with such effort that speaks volumes to my devotion to the novel' Gabriel Garcia Marquez'The fierce beauty of Rodoreda's writing makes it one of the masterpieces of modern European literature' IndependentFirst published in 1962 as 'La Placa del Diamant', this is considered the most important Catalan novel of all time. This is a new English translation. It has previously been published in English as The Time of the Doves.Barcelona, early 1930s: Natalia, a pretty shop-girl from the working-class quarter of Gracia, is hesitant when a stranger asks her to dance at the fiesta in Diamond Square. But Joe is charming and forceful, and she takes his hand.They marry and soon have two children; for Natalia it is an awakening, both good and bad. When Joe decides to breed pigeons, the birds delight his son and daughter - and infuriate his wife. Then the Spanish Civil War erupts, and lays waste to the city and to their simple existence. Natalia remains in Barcelona, struggling to feed her family, while Joe goes to fight the fascists, and one by one his beloved birds fly away.A highly acclaimed classic that has been translated into more twenty-eight languages, In Diamond Square is the moving, vivid and powerful story of a woman caught up in a convulsive period of history.'An extremely moving love story translated from the Catalan, which reveals much about the Spanish civil war as ordinary, non-political people had to live it' Diana Athill'Go along with Natalia on her night out and you'll soon find you'd follow her anywhere. Rodoreda's writing pays such fierce and tender attention to the experience of being alive, and the tempest that ordinary life can be' Helen Oyeyemi

Athens and Sparta, the mighty city states of ancient Greece, locked together in a quarter century of conflict: the Peloponnesian War. Alexias the Athenian was born, passed through childhood and grew to manhood in those troubled years, that desperate and dangerous epoch when the golden age of Pericles was declining into uncertainty and fear for the future. Of good family, he and his friends are brought up and educated in the things of the intellect and in athletic and martial pursuits. They learn to hunt and to love, to wrestle and to question. And all the time his star of destiny is leading him towards the moment when he must stand alongside his greatest friend Lysis in the last great clash of arms between the cities.

Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece and Egypt to India. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C. his only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a simpleton half-brother. Every long-simmering faction exploded into the vacuum of power. Wives, distant relatives and generals all vied for the loyalty of the increasingly undisciplined Macedonian army. Most failed and were killed in the attempt. For no one possessed the leadership to keep the great empire from crumbling. But Alexander's legend endured to spread into worlds he had seen only in dreams.

WEST WITH THE NIGHT appeared on 13 bestseller lists on first publication in 1942. It tells the spellbinding story of Beryl Markham -- aviator, racehorse trainer, fascinating beauty -and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and 30s. Markham was taken to Kenya at the age of four. As an adult she was befriended by Denys Finch-Hatton, the big-game hunter of OUT OF AFRICA fame, who took her flying in his airplane. Thrilled by the experience, Markham went on to become the first woman in Kenya to receive a commercial pilot's license. In 1936 she determined to fly solo across the Atlantic -- without stopping. When Charles Lindbergh did the same, he had the wind behind him. Markham, by contrast, had a strong headwind against her and a plane that only flew up to 163 mph. On 4 September, she took off ...Several days later, she crash-landed in Nova Scotia and became an instant celebrity.

A BESTSELLING NOVEL AND MAJOR FILM STARRING MERYL STREEP AND JACK NICHOLSON'I have bought more copies of this book to give to people, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, than any other . . . Heartburn is the perfect, bittersweet, sobbingly funny, all-too-true confessional novel' NIGELLA LAWSON'A perfect example of Ephron's gift for turning tragedy into comedy' PAULA HAWKINS, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN'She is wit without cynicism, the ultimate romantic' GAIL COLLINS, NEW YORK TIMESSeven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. The fact that this woman has a 'neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb' is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. Heartburn is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and most satisfyingly revenge.This is Nora Ephron's (screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle) roman à clef: 'I always thought during the pain of the marriage that one day it would make a funny book,' she once said - And it is!Books included in the VMC fortieth anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

In this, her second novel, (awarded the 1967 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize) Angela Carter's brilliant imagination and starting intensity of style explore and extend the nature and boundaries of love.

ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NOVELS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 'This novel is a packet of surprises as we have no idea what's going to happen next' GUARDIAN 'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON 'Devilishly funny and academically solid: delicious mixture' MAYA ANGELOU'There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITHWhen, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams - who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds.With a cover design by Harlem renaissance artist, Lois Mailou Jones

'Absorbing . . . testaments such as Janina Bauman's are important and should never be allowed to fade away. The drama of Anne Frank is rightly always before us but the equally vital stories of those who suffered but survived need to be listened to with just as much attention' MARGARET FORSTER'A profound and moving book which everyone ought to read' ALAN SILLITOE, NEW STATESMANJanina Bauman was a year older than Anne Frank when the Second World War began but, unlike The Diary of Anne Frank, this is a story of survival.When Hitler's decree forced her family into the Warsaw Ghetto, Janina, an intelligent, lively girl, suddenly found herself in a cramped flat hiding with other Jewish families. At first even curfews and the casual cruelty meted out by the German occupiers could not dim her passion for books, boys and romance. Then came the raids, and Janina with her sister and mother, had to keep on the move, hiding in the ruins of the ghetto to avoid being one of thousands rounded up every day and deported to the camps. Their escape to the 'Aryan' side was followed by two years in hiding, taking shelter with those willing to help them and living in constant fear of betrayal.Told through her teenage diaries, giving her story a rare immediacy, this is the extraordinary tale of a passionate young woman's courage and survival.

'As profound as Katherine Mansfield, restrained as Jane Austen, sharp as Dorothy Parker' IndependentINTRODUCED BY NICOLA BEAUMAN The lark rose in the brilliant air, higher, higher on its spun-glass spiral of song, knowing nothing of peace or war, accepting joyously the bounty of another day. A hot summer's day in 1946. The village of Wealding is no longer troubled by distant sirens, yet the rusting coils of barbed wire are a reminder that something, some quality of life, has evaporated. Together again after years of separation, Laura and Stephen Marshall must find their way in an altered, shabbier world. Their rambling garden refuses to be tamed, the house seems perceptibly to crumble. Hour by hour, as the glorious weather holds, the Marshalls and their daughter Victoria are preoccupied by the small pleasures and irritations of everyday life. But alone on a hillside, as evening falls, Laura comes to see how much could have been lost - and how much the future might still hold. Exquisitely written and achingly poignant, One Fine Day is an unforgettable portrait of a world, and a marriage, changed forever by war - perfect for fans of Small Pleasures and A Month in the Country.'This short novel lyrically evokes the effect war has had on a small English village and, in particular, on one marriage . . . Beautifully written, it's a tribute to the women who held everything together as their men marched away' Daily Mail

INTRODUCED BY STUART EVERS: 'A genuine, fully fledged masterpiece of the twentieth century; one that remains just as terrifyingly relevant and truthful in the twenty-first'An existential, political, literary thriller first published in 1944, Transit explores the plight of the refugee with extraordinary compassion and insight. Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany and a work camp in Rouen, the nameless narrator finds himself in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he was asked to deliver a letter to Weidel, a writer in Paris whom he discovered had killed himself as the Nazis entered the city. Now he is in search of the dead man's wife. He carries Weidel's suitcase, which contains an unfinished novel - and a letter securing Weidel a visa to escape France.Assuming the name Seidler - though the authorities think he is in fact Weidel - he goes from cafe to cafe looking for Marie, who is in turn anxiously searching for her husband. As Seidler converses with refugees over pizza and wine, their stories gradually break down his ennui, bringing him a deeper awareness of the transitory world they inhabit as they wait and wait for that most precious of possessions: transit papers.'This novel, completed in 1942, is in my opinion the most beautiful Seghers has written . . . almost flawless' - Heinrich Boll

'Spellbinding . . . Probably her best fiction' - Sunday TimesThe soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him. His wife, Kitty, with her cold, moonlight beauty, and his devoted cousin Jenny wait in their exquisite home on the crest of the Harrow-weald. Margaret Allington, his first and long-forgotten love, is nearby in the dreary suburb of Wealdstone. But the soldier is shell-shocked and can only remember the Margaret he loved fifteen years before, when he was a young man and she an inn-keeper's daughter. His cousin he remembers only as a childhood playmate; his wife he remembers not at all. The women have a choice - to leave him where he wishes to be, or to 'cure' him. It is Margaret who reveals a love so great that she can make the final sacrifice.Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

NOW A CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED FILM WITH BAFTA WINNING ACTRESS, JUDY DAVIS 'A splendidly vivid display . . . its sharply detailed, entirely convincing voice' THE TIMES 'An insightful exploration of class, gender and youthful frustration' ANITA SETHI, GUARDIAN'It combines linguistic surprise and inertness in a way possible only to genius' NEW YORK TIMES First published in 1901, this Australian classic recounts the live of sixteen-year-old Sybylla Melvyn. Trapped on her parents' outback farm, she simultaneously loves bush life and hates the physical burdens it imposes. For Sybylla longs for a more refined, aesthetic lifestyle - to read, to think, to sing, but most of all to do great things.Suddenly her life is transformed. Whisked away to live on her grandmother's gracious property, she falls under the eye of the rich and handsome Harry Beecham. And soon she finds herself choosing between everything a conventional life offers and her own plans for a brilliant career.

A tale of love and adventure from the internationally bestselling author of Rebecca. 'She wrote exciting plots . . . a writer of fearless originality' GUARDIAN 'One of the last century's most original literary talents' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A pure, exhilarating adventure story - a swashbuckling tale of exquisite danger and tangled love' JULIE MYERSON Lady Dona St Columb seems to revel in scandal: she is involved in every intrigue of the Restoration Court. But secretly, the shallowness of Court life disgusts her, and in her heart she longs for freedom and honest love. Retreating to Navron, her husband's Cornish estate, she seeks peace and solitude away from London. But Navron is being used as the base for a French pirate, an outlaw hunted all over Cornwall.Instead of feeling fear, Dona's thirst for adventure has never been more aroused; in Jean-Benoit Aubéry she finds a sensitive man who would, like her, gamble his life for a moment's joy. Together they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which will force Dona to make the ultimate choice: will she sacrifice her lover to certain death, or risk her own life to save him?

Set in fourth-century B.C. Greece, The Mask of Apollo is narrated by Nikeratos, a tragic actor who takes with him on all his travels a gold mask of Apollo, a relic of the theatre's golden age, which is now past. At first his mascot, the mask gradually becomes his conscience, and he refers to it his gravest decisions, when he finds himself at the centre of a political crisis in which the philosopher Plato is also involved. Much of the action is set in Syracuse, where Plato's friend Dion is trying to persuade the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger to accept the rule of law. Through Nikeratos' eyes, the reader watches as the clash between the two unleashes all the pent-up violence in the city.

The daughter of a Welsh gypsy and a crazy bee-keeper, Hazel Woodus is happiest living in her forest cottage in the remote Shropshire hills, at one with the winds and seasons, protector and friend of the wild animals she loves. But Hazel's beauty and innocence prove irresistible to the men in her orbit. Both Jack Reddin, the local squire and Edward Marston, the gentle minister, offer her human -- and carnal -- love. Hazel's fate unfolds as simply and relentlessly as a Greek tragedy as a child of nature is drawn into a world of mortal passion in which she must eternally be a stranger.