A PLAGUE - A VILLAGE - A LOCKDOWN 1665, Eyam, Derbyshire. 'Here I have set down all that I know of the Plague' It is 1665 and Mall Percival is a shepherd girl living in a Derbyshire village. She tends her flock, spends time with her best friend and teaches her young suitor to read. But one day a parcel of patterns, meant for a new dress for the pastor's wife, wings its way from London. The parcel carries an infection that spreads with horrifying speed. Herbal teas and open windows are the only defence against the sickness. Yet the villagers make a brave and selfless decision: to isolate themselves from the rest of the country. It is a lockdown that saves the neighbouring towns, but at heart-breaking cost to Mall's world. Based on the true events of the village of Eyam, this is the story of a courageous sacrifice that saved Derbyshire and beyond from a deadly virus. *SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD PRIZE* 'A pocket masterpiece' Guardian Readers love A Parcel of Patterns 'I couldn't put it down' 'Brought me to tears too many times to count' 'If you think social distancing is hard in the Coronavirus pandemic, read this wonderful novel based on the true story of the village of Eyam'

A poignant story of love & sacrifice by the brave people of a small English village, who make the ultimate sacrifice to keep a dreadful disease from spreading. Based on true story

A re-issue of a forgotten favourite, FIREWEED is an evocative and unflinching story of wartime survival for younger readers Bill is a fifteen-year-old runaway evacuee, and he's finding that surviving on the streets of London is pretty easy, thank you very much. He's fed by a local cafe owner, he earns some cash as a barrow-boy in Covent Garden, and sleeping in the Underground air-raid shelters is cosy - if a bit smelly. Things get more complicated for Bill with the arrival of Julie. She's a runaway too, and although she's a bit posh, she's just as determined as Bill to stay free of interfering parents and 'the social'. But although it's fun for a while to duck Jerry missiles and camp out in bombed-out houses, the reality of living through the Blitz quickly begins to set in. Winter is coming, and Bill and Julie will discover that playing at being grown-ups can be a very dangerous game.... First published in 1969, and winner of the 1970's Book World Festival Award, FIREWEED evokes a time of tin Spitfires, powdered eggs, warm woollen mittens and reading by firelight. Perfect for readers young and old, this book is a beautifully written classic, full of adventure, heroism and British wartime courage.

Lift the flap. Engaging first introduction to shapes. Can you help mouse and his friends unwrap the parcel and guess its content? 2-5 yrs.

Sixty years after Dorothy L. Sayers began her unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey novel, Thrones Dominations, Booker Prize finalist Jill Paton Walsh took on the challenge of completing the manuscript---with extraordinary success. "The transition is seamless," said the San Francisco Chronicle; "you cannot tell where Sayers leaves off and Walsh begins." "Will Paton Walsh do it again?" wondered Ruth Rendell in London's Sunday Times. "We must hope so." Jill Paton Walsh fulfills those hopes in A Presumption of Death. Although Sayers never began another Wimsey novel, she did leave clues. Drawing on "The Wimsey Papers," in which Sayers showed various members of the family coping with wartime conditions, Walsh has devised an irresistible story set in 1940, at the start of the Blitz in London. Lord Peter is abroad on secret business for the Foreign Office, while Harriet Vane, now Lady Peter Wimsey, has taken their children to safety in the country. But war has followed them there---glamorous RAF pilots and even more glamorous land-girls scandalize the villagers, and the blackout makes the nighttime lanes as sinister as the back alleys of London. Daily life reminds them of the war so constantly that, when the village's first air-raid practice ends with a real body on the ground, it's almost a shock to hear the doctor declare that it was not enemy action, but plain, old-fashioned murder. Or was it? At the request of the overstretched local police, Harriet reluctantly agrees to investigate. The mystery that unfolds is every bit as literate, ingenious, and compelling as the best of original Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

'Imogen Quy positively sparkles on the page as an amateur sleuth' - Sunday Express What is the Summerfield secret? Biography is usually a safe profession. But more than one biographer has found that writing about the late mathematician Gideon Summerfield has nasty consequences. Consequences that can sometimes be deadly. Imogen Quy, the coolly competent nurse at St. Agatha's College, Cambridge, first notices the pattern when her enthusiastic lodger Fran becomes the latest Summerfield biographer. Before she realises how deadly the Summerfield secret is, Fran's life is in danger. And Imogen may be next . . .

Expecting the usual carefree and happy summer with her cousin Paul at their grandmother's seaside home, Madge finds this summer to be different from all the others.