Laurence Olivier was a true legend. No classical actor had ever been such a dazzling star. No star had been such a magnificent actor. In this marvellous autobiography Laurence Olivier tells his own story: his brilliant career as actor, director, film-maker and producer; his role as husband to three women including Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright; and his many friendships - with Sir Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward and Sir Winston Churchill, to name just a few. CONFESSIONS OF AN ACTOR is more than just a memoir. It is a deeply felt testament by one of the most astonishingly gifted artists of all time.

Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch), by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface (An Infidel Half Century) and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden), The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920.

One of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the definitive novel on the idle rich of the 1920s Jazz Age: The Great Gatsby, first published by Penguin in 1950. Here, his preoccupation with moneyed society takes on a fantastical form, in a playful yet sinister fairy-tale about a family so wealthy they are entirely above the law.

Roald Dahl turns his pen to anything, twisting everyday life into powerful, and sometimes terrifying fantasies: turtles, fingersmiths, "The Mildenhall, Treasure", and even a man who can see with his eyes closed.

The rivalry that presaged the world’s most tenacious conflict
As the Arab -Israeli conflict continues to plague the Middle East, historian Ronald Florence offers extraordinary new insights on its origins. This is the story of T. E. Lawrence, the young British officer who became famous around the world as Lawrence of Arabia, Aaron Aaronsohn, an agronomist from Palestine, and the antagonism that divided them over the fate of the dying Ottoman Empire during World War I—a clash of visions that set Arab nationalism and Zionism on a direct collision course that reverberates to this day.

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In Oil! Upton Sinclair fashioned a novel out of the oil scandals of the Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of the development of the oil industry in Southern California. Bribery of public officials, class warfare, and international rivalry over oil production are the context for Sinclair's story of a genial independent oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father. Senators, small investors, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading evangelist people the pages of this lively novel. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This title surveys the pre-Christian beliefs of the Scandinavian and Germanic people. It provides an introduction to this subject, giving basic outlines to the sagas and stories, and helps identify the character traits of not only the well known but also the lesser gods of the age.

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Book Dimension:
length: (cm)18 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　 　 width:(cm)11.3

For decades the Magistrate has run the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement, ignoring the impending war between the barbarians and the Empire, whose servant he is. But when the interrogation experts arrive, he is jolted into sympathy for the victims, and into a quixotic act of rebellion which lands him in prison.

A bestselling, prizewinning novel of obsession and psychological intrigue about two enigmatic unmarried women, one of whom manipulates the other from afar, by one of Japan's most acclaimed young writers
Almost every day, the Woman in the Purple Skirt buys a single cream bun and goes to the park, where she sits on a bench to eat it as the local children taunt her. She is observed at all times by the undetected narrator, the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. From a distance the Woman in the Purple Skirt looks like a schoolgirl, but there are age spots on her face, and her hair is dry and stiff. Like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, she is single, she lives in a small, run-down apartment, and she is short on money. The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan lures her to a job where she herself works, as a hotel housekeeper; soon the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the boss. Unfortunately, no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and the Woman in the Purple Skirt.
Studiously deadpan, highly original, and unsettling, The Woman in the Purple Skirt explores the dynamics of envy, the mechanisms of power in the workplace, and the vulnerability of unmarried women in a taut, voyeuristic narrative about the sometimes desperate desire to be seen.

We were friends, somehow. But in the end, somehow, he intended to be a mortal enemy. All the while that he was making the gestures of a close and precious friend he was fattening my soul in a coop till it was ready for killing.' Vital, exuberant, streetwise and philosophizing, Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow is one of the undisputed masters of American prose. In this inspired novella an ageing man writes an apology for his rudeness to a librarian thirty-five years earlier, unleashing a dazzling, rancorous comic riff on growing old, regret, rudeness, smoking and 'the world's grandeur'.

Mark Sway is eleven and he knows a terrible secret. He knows where a body is hidden. Some secrets are so dangerous that it's better not to tell. But it's just as dangerous if you don't. So Mark need help fast... because there isn't much time.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.