Five Run Away TogetherEnid Blyton
Julian, Dick and Anne arrive in Kirrin Cottage to stay with Georgina for the holidays. They plan to spend time exploring Kirrin Island but their happiness is spoilt when Aunt Fanny falls ill and has to leave with Uncle Quentin to be treated in a far-off hospital. They are cared for by Aunt Fanny's temporary cook... read more »
A Myth of ShakespeareCharles Williams
This play contains no thesis of Shakespeare's life, character, or genius, except that he was a born poet and working dramatist. The scenes included were intended, quite mythically, to represent barely possible incidents in his life, passages read to or by his friends, or performances in his theatre.-adapted from the... read more »
Men at ArmsEvelyn Waugh
Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade that seriously blots his Halberdier copybook. Men... read more »
Poirot InvestigatesAgatha Christie
The very first collection of superb short stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings… First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond… then came the ‘suicide’ that was murder… the mystery of the absurdly cheap flat… a suspicious death in a locked gun-room… a million dollar bond... read more »
The Queen Who FlewFord Madox Ford
An intriguing fairy tale about an innocent Queen of a remote kingdom, who befriends and spends much of her time, talking to a bat. The bat tells her that he was once unable to fly, and convinces her that a magic flower will give her the power to fly. An adorable tale for young readers, and a great bedtime story as... read more »
Mystery under the SeaLester Dent
The dread riddle of Taz. There was only one clue to the bloody enigma of TAZ-the illegible, dying scrawl of a horribly mutilated sailor. What was the message he had so desperately tried to deliver? Why had sizzling acid been forced into his mouth? What secret had the dead man unraveled about the flamboyant and... read more »
Biggles in MexicoW. E. Johns
Biggles and Ginger, are sent to Mexico by Air Commodore Raymond in an attempt to trace the whereabouts of a stash of diamonds that have been stolen by a London gang. They had been tipped off by David ‘Tricky’ Adamson, who had originally been involved with the gang but had fled to Canada after a murder had been... read more »
The Secret MountainEnid Blyton
Jack, Peggy, Mike and Nora are off on another exciting adventure when they run away to Africa, with their friend Prince Paul, in a desperate search for their parents who are being held captive in the Secret Mountain. But where is the mountain? And who are the strange red-haired people who live there? The rescue... read more »
The Mask of Fu ManchuSax Rohmer
After discovering the tomb of El Mokanna - the Veiled Prophet - and retrieving the precious relics buried there, the eminent archaeologist Sir Lionel Barton blows up the tomb. The heretic sect faithful to Mokanna interpret the fireball as their prophet's second coming, and a violent uprising begins. Meanwhile, the... read more »
Decline and FallEvelyn Waugh
Expelled from Oxford for indecent behaviour, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly unsurprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk)... read more »
The Secret of Spiggy HolesEnid Blyton
While on holiday by the sea, Mike, Peggy, Nora and their friend Jack - reunited again with their parents - go exploring in the caves on the beach. They soon discover a secret passage that leads to the Old House on the cliff, where they find a kidnapped young prince is being held captive! The friends make a bold plan... read more »
A Ship of the LineC. S. Forester
May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List.' Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must... read more »
Biggles in the OrientW. E. Johns
The war supply route between Calcutta and China is vital but something is attacking the planes that fly it. One by one pilots set off, only to disappear. By the time Biggles and his squad of eight arrive, flying the run is a suicide mission, and Biggles is their last hope. read more »
Last TalesIsak Dinesen
Last Tales is a collection of twelve of the last tales that Isak Dinesen wrote before her death in 1962. They include seven tales from Albondocani, a projected novel that was never completed but occupied the author for many years; The Caryatids, an unfinished Gothic tale of a couple bedeviled by an old letter and a... read more »
The Happy ReturnC. S. Forester
June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an insane Spanish landowner; to find a water route across the... read more »
Worms of the EarthRobert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, vows revenge on the Roman governor Titus Sulla after witnessing the crucifixion of a fellow Pict. He seeks forbidden aid from the Worms of the Earth, a race of creatures who were once men but after generations of living underground have become monstrous and semi-reptilian. He... read more »
The Secret IslandEnid Blyton
Peggy Arnold, and younger twin siblings Mike and Nora, are living with a harsh aunt and uncle after their parents are thought to have been killed in a plane crash. Aided by Jack, an orphan boy they have befriended, they run away to an island on a nearby lake, and together they make a new home constructed with the... read more »
The Man in the Brown SuitAgatha Christie
Newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfeld is a nice English girl looking for a bit of adventure in London. But she stumbles upon more than she bargained for! Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead, and... read more »
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (Book 3)Ian Fleming
The final book in Iam Fleming's fantastical children's adventure about a flying, floating, self-driving automobile that takes the Pott family on a riotous series of adventures as they try to capture a notorious gang of robbers. Filled with humor, adventure, and gadgetry that only a genius like Fleming could invent... read more »
Last And First MenOlaf Stapledon
A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first and most primitive. Stapledon's conception of history is based on the Hegelian Dialectic, following a repetitive cycle... read more »
PastoralNevil Shute
World War II pilot Peter Marshall leads the most successful bombing crew at his airbase, having survived an unusual number of extremely dangerous missions over Germany. However, when Peter falls hopelessly in love with an attractive WAAF officer—one who insists that wartime duties should take precedence over... read more »
The Lost OasisLester Dent
While seeking to solve the mystery of "the trained vampire murders," Doc Savage and his amazing crew suddenly find themselves prisoners of Sol Yuttal and Hadi-Mot aboard a hijacked Zeppelin. Their deadly destination is a fabulous lost diamond mine guarded by carnivorous plants and monstrous, bloodsucking bats. read more »
Brideshead RevisitedEvelyn Waugh
Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian’s magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, artistic inhabitants the Marchmains, becoming infatuated with them and the life of privilege they... read more »
Charlie Chan Carries OnEarl Derr Biggers
Inspector Duff, a Scotland Yard detective and friend of Chan's, is pursuing a murderer on an around-the-world voyage; so far, there have been murders in London, France, Italy and Japan. While his ship is docked in Honolulu, the detective is shot and wounded by his quarry; though he survives, he is unable to continue... read more »
Hornblower and the AtroposC. S. Forester
January 1808, Hornblower is called upon to act as a bargeman while traveling with his wife and baby son to London where he is to take command of the Atropos. Skippering the flagship for Nelson's funeral on the Thames is not Hornblower's idea of thrilling action. But soon his orders come, and he sets sail for the... read more »
IslandAldous Huxley
For over a hundred years the Pacific island of Pala has been the scene of a unique experiment in civilisation. Its inhabitants live in a society where western science has been brought together with eastern philosophy and humanism to create a paradise on earth. When cynical journalist, Will Farnaby, arrives to search... read more »
The House Of ArdenEdith Nesbit
The famous Arden family treasure has been missing for generations, and the last members of the Arden line, Edred, Elfrida, and their Aunt Edith, have nothing to their names but the crumbling castle they live in. Just before his tenth birthday, Edred inherits the title of Lord Arden; he also learns that the missing... read more »
A Woman of No ImportanceOscar Wilde
Wilde's audacious drama of social scandal centres around the revelation of Mrs Arbuthnot's long-concealed secret. A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstanton's country home, when it is announced that Gerald Arbuthnot has been appointed secretary to the sophisticated, witty Lord Illingworth. Gerald's mother... read more »
They Winter AbroadT. H. White
White's exciting and engrossing novel of a glittering resort hotel, where every room was the setting for a private drama, and the most forbidden dreams could come shockingly true. read more »
The Man With the Golden GunIan Fleming
The Man with the Golden Gun, Paco Scaramanga, is one of the deadliest hit men in the world and the British Secret Service want him eliminated. A brainwashed James Bond tried, and failed, to kill his boss, M. It’s time for him to prove he can be trusted again. Bond finds his man in the sweltering heat of Jamaica... read more »