Dealing with the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal thoughts and observations on one of the most popular and enduring forms of literature, the author examines the challenges, achievements, and potential of this genre.

Takes an irreverent yet illuminating look at the living myths and folklore that are reflected, celebrated and affectionately libelled in the uniquely imaginative universe of Discworld.

Ever since boys' comics were first published in the middle years of the nineteenth century, they have offered readers fun, adventure and escapism. This book tells the stories of footballing heroes. It presents the history of the comic book footballer. It introduces the magic of these imaginary sporting stars to a whole new generation.

A major reassessment of the great English novelist

Covers key Hitchhiker's concepts and plot devices from tea, cricket and towels to small yellow fish. This book contains stories behind all your favourite characters: Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent, Zaphod Beeblebox, Trisha McMillan and, of course, Marvin, the paranoid Android.

* A follow-up to Aurum's successful Agatha Christie Companion * Lavishly illustrated throughout in full colour * Aimed at the gift market as well as the aficionado * Plot summaries of every Holmes story * Includes original interviews with actors who've played Holmes

Covers such subjects as the secretive (and, to some, sinister) world of Freemasonry and the influence it had on America's founding fathers, the Masonic symbolism found in, for instance, the US one-dollar bill and the architecture of Washington DC. This book is suitable for those who want to delve deeper into the mysteries of Dan Brown's fiction.

'York Notes Advanced' offer an accessible approach to English Literature. This series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, 'York Notes Advanced' introduce students to sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Explores what Proust had to say about friendship, reading, looking carefully, paying attention taking your time, being alive. This book also contains the author's own commentary on Proust.

'York Notes Advanced' offer an accessible approach to English Literature. This series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, 'York Notes Advanced' introduce students to sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

A collection of original documentary photographs of the landscape that was integral to Tony Hillerman's writing. It also contains brief synopses of Hillerman's novels, descriptive passages from each work, the author's own comments about the sites, and narrative information on the locations pictured.

Full of analysis and interpretation, historical background, discussions and commentaries, York Notes will help you get right to the heart of the text you're studying, whether it's poetry, a play or a novel.

A collection of 29 essays that covers a mixture of canonical and the non-canonical themes, authors, literatures, and critical approaches. It explores various topics, such as ecological literature and ecocriticism, children's literature, and the influence of Darwin on fiction.

Suitable for readers who dream of solving crimes in turn-of-the-century London, this handbook features skills that would-be sleuths should know: How to Use Deductive Reasoning, How to Analyze Fingerprints - Without Computers, How to Master a Dozen Disguises, How to Survive a Plunge over a Waterfall, and How to Fake Your Own Death.

To the Lighthouse is one of Virginia Woolf's most widely read and commonly studied novels. This guide introduces its context, language, themes, criticism and afterlife. It is suitable for undergraduate students.

'York Notes' offer an approach to English literature that aims to fully reflect student needs. They are filled with summaries, commentaries, exam advice, margin and textual features to offer a wider context to the text and encourage a critical analysis.

Simon Callow brings the world of Charles Dickens to life, re-creating the phenomenon of Christmas that fascinated the great novelist.

This collection examines how J.R.R. Tolkien delved into the Middle Ages to fashion a critique of the modern world that is postmodern in implication, subversive in nature, and oddly still traditionalist in motivation, in a way that is relevant to current debate over forging workable cross-cultural coalitions on pressing global problems.

The historical novel is not only an immensely popular genre, but also one that raises fascinating questions about the nature of key foundational concepts such as fact and fiction, history, reading and writing. This guide offers an introduction to both the genre and the critical debates around it.

Thomas Hardy is one of the sacred figures in English writing, a great poet and a novelist with a world reputation. His life was also extraordinary: from the poverty of rural Dorset he went on to become the Grand Old Man of English life and letters, his last resting place in Westminster Abbey. This seminal biography, by our leading biographer, covers Hardy's illegitimate birth, his rural ...