Recommendations based on "Maurice"

The award winning artist Charles Keeping, breathes new life into Tennyson's romantic poem. Keeping's evocative pictures tell the story of the lovely maiden, imbowered on her silent isle, grieving with love for bold Sir Lanceleot. The paperback is now reissued with a new cover.

A beautiful jacketed hardback with a new introduction and extra bonus material written by the author, Michelle Magorian, reissued to mark the 40th anniversary of first publication.Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM is of one of the best-loved stories set during the Second World War.'Everyone's idea of a smash-hit novel: full-blown characters to love and hate, moments of grief and joy, and a marvellous story that knows just how to grab the emotions' - GuardianGoodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian is the unforgettable story of young Willie Beech, evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of the Second World War. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the unlikely care of grumpy old Tom Oakley. But then his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother to come back to London. As the weeks pass by Tom begins to worry when William doesn't answer his letters, so he goes to London to find him, and there makes a terrible discovery.

Patrick Hamilton may be best known now for the plays Rope and Gaslight and for the classic Alfred Hitchcock and George Cukor movies they inspired, but in his heyday he was no less famous for his brooding tales of London life. Featuring a Dickensian cast of pubcrawlers, prostitutes, lowlifes, and just plain losers who are looking for love—or just an ear to bend—Hamilton’s novels are a triumph of deft characterization, offbeat humor, unlikely compassion, and raw suspense. In recent years, Hamilton has undergone a remarkable revival, with his champions including Doris Lessing, David Lodge, Nick Hornby, and Sarah Waters.Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is a tale of obsession and betrayal that centers on a seedy pub in a run-down part of London. Bob the waiter skimps and saves and fantasizes about writing a novel, until he falls for the pretty prostitute Jenny and blows it all. Kindly Ella, Bob’s co-worker, adores Bob, but is condemned to enjoy nothing more than the attentions of the insufferable Mr. Eccles; Jenny, out on the street, is out of love, hope, and money. We watch with pity and horror as these three vulnerable and yet compellingly ordinary people meet and play out bitter comedies of longing and frustration.

Winner of the 2004 Orange Prize for FictionA Picador Original Trade PaperbackHortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'Wonderful. Immensely moving' Daily Telegraph As darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, two men sit down to a final meal together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered - and each of them alone. Tonight, as wine stirs the blood, it is time to talk of old passions and that last, fateful meeting. 'Extraordinary. Elegiac, sombre, musical and gripping. An immensely wise book' Observer 'A masterpiece. Works beautifully as a novel of suspense ... whose denouement is as exciting as a detective tale. It is a thrill to read something so startlingly original' Evening Standard 'Utterly compelling. An extraordinary and beautiful novel' Scotsman 'One of those novels which stays in the memory long after it has been put down. A masterpiece' Sunday Telegraph

Her captivating bestseller of loss and the healing power of love now re-issued with a stunning new jacket look. Elfrida Phipps loves her new life in the pretty Hampshire village. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog Horace and the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar - to ensure that her days include companionship as well as independence. But an unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfrida's tranquillity: Oscar's wife and daughter are killed in a terrible car crash and he finds himself homeless when his stepchildren claim their dead mother's inheritance. Oscar and Elfrida take refuge in a rambling house in Scotland which becomes a magnet for various waifs and strays who converge upon it, including an unhappy teenage girl. It could be a recipe for disaster. But somehow the Christmas season weaves its magical spell and for Elfrida and Oscar, in the evening of their lives, the winter solstice brings love and solace.

The women of No. 13 Article Row know that joy is short lived in the London of 1941. It's a treacherous place, especially for the tender-hearted. As Valentine's Day approaches, the perils of war threaten life as they know it and all matters of the heart.

With the arrival of baby Gloria in the house, Frances feels that living with her parents is not as much fun as it used to be. So after dinner, she runs away under the dining room table. But when she overhears her parents talking about how much they miss her, she decides that she should go back home.

In this book we follow the life of Sarah Rainborough from age 3 in 1851 to the end of her life in 1948. In the opening chapter Sarah is taken to Britain’s *Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace where she catches a glimpse of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Throughout the novel Spring gives his readers the opportunity to share Sarah’s perspective on English history which for Sarah from age 3 on is somehow magically, metaphorically, reflected on the glass windows of the Crystal Palace. As a matter of fact, we learn in the author’s foreword that the title of this book comes from an old music hall song with the words, “You could see the Crystal Palace if it wasn’t for the houses in between.”

Set in London and Cornwall between World War II and the present, this is the story of the Keeling family, and of the passions and heart-break that have held them together for three generations--a story of life, hope, children and death.