David Timson

Devilish, debonair rogue, Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar, robs from within prison, leaves its walls with ease, steals priceless diamonds from the rich and outwits the greatest detective of all: Sherlock Holmes. These eight dazzling short stories display some of Lupin’s greatest thefts and escapes.

1812: Matthew Hawkwood, soldier turned spy, is stranded behind enemy lines, in America, a country at war with Britain. Heading for the safety of the Canadian border, with Major Douglas Lawrence, the two men uncover an American plot to invade Canada. If it is successful, the entire continent will be lost. The British authorities must be warned...

Six crime-solving adventures of a rather unconventional detective. Having accumulated wisdom and empathy from years of listening to the dark confessions of his parishioners, Father Brown is able to solve mysteries in a flash that confound all others.

Father Brown is an eccentric priest with his own particular ways of dealing with crime. This collection of stories, shows the quiet wit and compassion that has endeared him to many, whilst solving his mysteries by a mixture of imagination and a sympathetic worldliness.

Jason and the Argonauts is the only surviving full account of Jason's voyage on the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece, aided by the sorceress princess Medea. Written in the Hellenistic period, this epic story of one of the most beloved heroes of Greek mythology, with its combination of the fantastical and the real, winged heroes and a magical vessel that speaks, was hugely influential on later literature, especially the Roman poetry of Virgil and Ovid.

Norman Stokoe has just been appointed Children's Czar by the new government..He settles down to wait for the green light to begin his mission. The green light never comes. What does happen is that two children go missing. The search will take him to dark places and will make him ask questions about the system he is supposed to uphold.

Written by journalist and reformer Henry Mayhew, a founder of the satirical magazine Punch, this is a fascinating insight into the daily lives of the underclass of Victorian London. Collecting testimonials from the lower strata of society, we encounter street entertainers, cabinetmakers, gingerbread sellers, swindlers and burglars. The intimate and detailed first-hand accounts provide an unprecedented insight into the day-to-day struggle for survival.

The extraordinary story of Edward Glyver, booklover, scholar and murderer begins on a cold October night in 1854 with the murder of an innocent victim. Glyver seeks to prove his right to the position of power and great wealth held by his old rival, poet, Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, in this tale of greed, betrayal and ruthless obsession.

Through a mist of decay and opium, Dickens weaves a tale of murder and mystery in this, his last novel. Set in the fictional cathedral town of Cloisterham, John Jasper, the choir-master, takes an obsessive interest in his nephew Edwin Drood and his fiancée Rosa Bud. But when young Edwin disappears on Christmas Eve, has Jasper killed him? Alas, we’ll never know as Dickens died before completing the novel.

'A lyric comedy unlike any other,' wrote Verdi about his last opera. That the last work of a composer who was notorious for his preference for tragic and gloomy subjects should be a brilliant human comedy, remains one of the wonders of music. Thomas Smillie's detailed and illuminating musical analysis explains the challenges and risks of the undertaking in this fascinating introduction.

Puccini's La Bohème is one of the most beloved and enduring operas of all time. The poignant story of Mimì and Rodolfo is told in music of tender beauty, resulting in an opera that readily appeals to our emotions and senses. Thomson Smillie outlines the background to the opera, explaining how painstakingly the composer worked to achieve this effect. An absorbing introduction both for those approaching La Bohème for the first time and for those wanting to know a bit more than just the big arias.

In this first novel by Dickens we follow Mr Pickwick and Sam Weller, his sharp-tongued cockney servant, travelling around England with their friends in search of adventure and knowledge. Brilliantly comic scenes at the Eatanswill election and the trial of Mrs Bardell vs Pickwick contrast with the horrors of the debtor’s prison.

David Lodge looks back over his childhood and youth, including his undergraduate years at University College London. After National Service and two years’ postgraduate research, married at last and soon a father, he struggles to make a start as both novelist and academic.

October 1812: Britain and France are still at war. Meanwhile in London, Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood has been seconded to the foreign arm of the Secret Service. There, he meets the urbane Henry Brooke, who tells him he’s to join a colleague in Paris on a special mission. Failure would mean prison, torture and a meeting with the guillotine…

London, 1813: Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood is summoned to a burial ground and finds the corpse of a young woman murdered and cast into an open grave. His hunt for the killer will lead him from London's backstreets into the heart of a government determined to protect its secrets at all costs. Only Hawkwood's contacts within the criminal underworld can now help.

IThe first of the Sherlock Holmes stories: Holmes and Watson are summoned to a London house where they find a dead man whose contorted face is a twisted mask of horror. On the wall, a mysterious word has been written in blood. The police are baffled by the crime, but when Sherlock Holmes applies his brilliantly logical mind to the problem he uncovers a tragic tale of love and deadly revenge...