Wendy Denison

A lively retelling of Shakespeare's famous work about the foolish ways people behave when they're in love.

Blood is vital to most animals. In mammals it transports oxygen and food, carries away waste, and contains the white cells that attack invading microbes. Playing a central role in life, it has had profound cultural and historical significance and plays an important role in religious ritual. Blood was one of the four humours in early Western medicine and is still probably the major diagnostic tool in the doctor's armoury.

In this Very Short Introduction, Chris Cooper analyses the components of blood, explains blood groups, and looks at transfusions, blood tests, and blood-borne diseases. He considers what the future may hold, including the possibility of making artificial blood, and producing blood from stem cells in the laboratory. 

Josie has just finished her last term at school when the country hears of the heroic evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk. Her mother, worried about a possible invasion, decides to send Josie from London, to stay with an aunt and uncle in the country. There she meets the Peterson brothers, and is drawn into a tangled web of romance.

A delightful collection of short stories from an author better known for her historical novels. A TV chef who specializes in outrageous cakes tempts a monk; a surprise visitor invites mayhem into the perfect minimalist flat; and a woman explains her unique view of straying husbands.

Buckinghamshire is an ancient county of Roman forts and highwaymen, motorways and urban myth. These are the Buckinghamshire folk tales of past, present and future: old tales in new towns, and new stories from old legends. Look out for witches and dragons, mind all those roundabouts, and whatever you do don't eat the stew...

Verity adores her cat Mabel, and is desperately sad when she dies. Remembering her recent school lessons about the Ancient Egyptians, Verity decides to mummify Mabel and keep her hidden.

Verity's dad and grandparents can't bear to talk about death, having lost Verity's mum several years ago - but when they eventually discover what Verity has done, the whole family realises it's time to talk.

Aldminster Cathedral faces financial problems and the fate of the choir hangs in the balance.

Actress and cookery writer Madhur jaffrey gives an enchanting account of her childhood in India. She also includes several family recipes.

Book 2 of the 'Raj Quartet' sequel to 'The Jewel in the Crown' (6241). India, August 9th 1942. The detainment of a former Chief Minister is the first of wholesale arrests of influential Indians suspected of anti-British sympathies. For families such as the Laytons, the social and political realities are disturbing.

There are 100,000 freighters on the seas. Between them they carry nearly everything we eat, wear and work with. In this unique investigation, we join the crew of a container ship to chart the murky waters of international shipping to reveal the hidden industry upon which our world turns and our future depends.

Elizabeth von Arnim creates and immortalises that place so perennially dear to an Englishwoman's heart - her garden. Through her eyes we watch the seasons, each bringing new events as friends and neighbours come and go. There too is her upright Teutonic husband, inspiring in her a mixture of irritation, affection and irreverence.

This autobiographical novel by one of New Zealand's most celebrated poets, follows the development of Eliza Hannay as she negotiates growing up in early twentieth century Wellington. Eliza encounters love, family tension, a love of poetry, and, like the migrating godwits, an inherited pull towards the motherland, England.

In this collection of short stories, written between 1939 and 1944, many aspects of English domestic life during the War are explored including separation, sewing parties, and evacuees.

It is 1805 and in Bexleyheath Mabel Flinchurst is witness to a gruesome death which holds the key to a conspiracy whose effects are felt from Italy to Britain.

Three women, who all made the mistake of loving Michael Knight, TV star and philanderer, meet to put an end to their unhappiness.

Following the death of her guardian, Helen Stanley is urged to share the home of her childhood friend Lady Cecilia. But this charming socialite is withholding secrets and soon Helen is drawn into a web of 'white lies' and evasions that threaten not only her hopes for marriage, but her very place in society.

The true story of a young woman's flight as a refugee in World War II and how she re-united her war-scattered family.

Seventeenth century France is a hotbed of religious frenzy and political instability. Juliette, an actress and dancer abandons her travelling ways and joins a remote convent, to create a stable life for herself and her daughter. Several years later, following the death of the Abbess, life in the convent unravels as Juliette's past catches up with her.

In 1966, while browsing in the Bibliotheque Nationale, the author is confronted by an old man who insists she is the daughter of French Resistance heroes, Jacques and Lotka de Prevaux. She had never heard of them but that night her mother confirmed the old man's tale. Gradually she unravelled the lives and ultimate tragedy of her real parents.

Three generations of women, Ina, Margo, and Rose, all live in a small Scottish fishing community. Despite leading very different lives, they are all caught up in the life of the sea.

When Captain Merridene dies penniless, his daughters Martha and Penelope take an unusual job offer - as teachers in the distant town of Tapton, working for mill owner Jonas Wright. But soon they realise life in Tapton will be more complicated than they had bargained for. Penelope meets Clem Porter, whose family have been brought to starvation by a rival mill owner. Meanwhile, Martha is drawn - against her better judgement - to Ben Seaton, the father of one of her students. The sisters must face hardships and challenges in their new lives, but will they also find love?

Quiet Helena and her flamboyant step-mother Irene, both adore Irene's son Ivo, but is there something sinister behind his charm?

A century ago when a valuable watch was stolen from Silas Heron a passing beggar boy was blamed, but the truth was more complex as Sophie, Jack and Simon discover.

1759: Deborah Jannvier and her widowed mother live in a tiny cottage at the mercy of her cruel uncle. When a hansome stranger brings a message from a dying relative, offering to leave her everything if she does as he asks, Deborah doesn’t hesitate. A midnight ride takes her to Marymoor House, but can she trust herself to this man? And what will she have to do to secure her future?

Edith Hahn, a bright law student in Vienna was also a Jew, but with help she hid her identity from the Gestapo. Under her assumed identity she married a German officer, Werner Vetter, but after the war the marriage broke up. Eventually she moved to England with her daughter, who only found out the extraordinary truth of their survival in 1977.

The author and her companion rediscover a valley on the Tibetan Frontier closed to the outside world for 70 years.

Kate Ivory is drawn into a complex murder at an Oxford College and into conflict with her old sparring partner.

Caroline Harding, already twenty-six and bullied by her sister, was plain and nervous in company, and had no marriage prospects at all. So when Johnny Gates sent her a proposal, she was forced to accept, and found herself sailing for India to marry a man she hadn't seen for eight years..

A novel which vividly recounts the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, the most famous female artist in Italian history. Set in the 16th century, Artemisia painted for the Medicis and was a friend of Galileo but she suffered at the hands of the men in her life.

How could her mother, a peace-campaigner, have sent Hilde to live with her father, a librarian on a USAF base? Hilde is furious, refuses to attend school and joins an archeological dig. Though she is against war, she thinks protest is futile - until she finds a gold brooch from the grave of a sixth-century peace weaver.

A host of vividly caught characters are here: Mirabel's extrovert, free-spirited mother Phyllis; Aylmer Vallance, who with extraordinary love letters would rescue her mother from a twilight life; Stella Bowen, Phyllis's lifelong friend and fellow student under Ezra Pound, their introduction to the London literati, notably Ford Madox Ford. Throughout Mirabel's childhood, it was Stella who would be the one fast colour amid her mercurial mother's love affairs.

Turning closer to the present we encounter Michael, Mirabel's late husband, who's barbaric public-school childhood contrasted so dramatically with Mirabel's own, affectionate and carefree; whose repressed father so adored roses; their childhood meeting; their delight in their children and beloved Shropshire garden, a character in its own right, full of the joy of the unexpected.

This is the story of Richard Whiteley the man - rather than the tv star. Kathryn shares her memories, both good and bad, and her love for him shines through.

Danger and romance for Clare in Regency England;

Empress Josephine’s family has been called to Napoleon’s court for the terrible news that he is going to divorce her for failing to provide an heir and take a younger bride.

Lovely Bianca has a queue of admirers anxious to marry her. But her older sister, Katharina, must get married first. Katharina has such a fiery temper she is known as "the shrew", and no man is brave enough to propose. Can Petruchio tame her with his outrageous behaviour?

Mexico possesses an immense ethnic diversity which is described by the author as she experiences the many different faces of the patchwork. In showing the stark realities and ancient mysticism, this is the perfect evocation of this country of extremes.