Kirjahaku

A true modern classic, THE SMALL BACK ROOM is a towering novel of the Second World War.Sammy Rice is a weapons scientist, one of the 'back room boys' of the Second World War. A crippling disability has left him cynical and disillusioned - he struggles with a drink problem at home, and politics and petty pride at work. Worse still, he fears he is not good enough for the woman he loves.The stakes are raised when the enemy begin to drop a new type of booby-trapped bomb, causing many casualties. Only Sammy has the know-how to diffuse it - but as he comes face to face with real danger, all his old inadequacies return to haunt him.Can he, at last, prove his worth and put his demons to rest?

The classic novel of the London Blitz, DARKNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR captures the chaos, absurdity and ultimately the tragedy of life during the bombardment.Featured on BACKLISTED podcastBill Sarratt is a civil servant working on the war effort. Thwarted at every turn by bureaucracy and the vested interests of big business, the seemingly unflappable Bill is also on the verge of losing his wife Marcia to a literary poseur named Stephen. As the bombs continue to fall, Bill must decide whether he his willing to compromise his principles and prevent his life from crumbling before his very eyes.

A psychological study of marriage, loyalty and justice, A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD is a remarkable post-war novel.'A superb storyteller' SUNDAY TIMES 'I'd place him up there with Graham Greene' Philippa Gregory'Balchin writes about timeless things, the places in the heart' Ruth Rendell'Balchin has been absurdly overlooked for too long' Julian FellowesJames Manning is perfectly content. He has a successful life as a businessman in the city, a bright young thing of a wife, Jill, and an idyllic home in the countryside, where he is a local magistrate. The only fly in the ointment is the 'Honbill' - the Honourable William Bule, a gentleman with too much time on his hands.When a young man is knocked off his bicycle and subsequently dies, James is sure that Bule is the culprit - after all, he saw a scratch on the Honbill's car the day of the accident and it matches the description to a T. But events take an unexpected turn when James discovers that it was really Jill driving that night, and he is torn between obligations to his wife and to his profound sense of right and wrong.A WAY THROUGH THE WOOD was the inspiration for SEPARATE LIES, a 2005 British film adapted by Academy Award-winning writer Julian Fellowes and starring Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett.

Katherina Feldic: Yugoslavian typist; young, beautiful, desirable. Jim Petersen: British scriptwriter; lost and lonely, mourning his dead wife. After meeting Katherina at a party in Paris, Jim agrees to travel to Yugoslavia with her to try to smuggle out some valuables from under the eyes of the Communist authorities. But when they reach Belgrade it gradually dawns on Jim that his companion may have lied to him about the true nature of their mission. And who is the mysterious Petrov, a good-looking Serb who keeps cropping up in nightclubs and restaurants and seems to be very interested in Katherina? Soon Jim realizes not only that he is completely out of his depth, but also that his life may be in grave danger. A gripping thriller with an authentic tang of Eastern Europe, In the Absence of Mrs Petersen is also an extended rumination on relations between men and women, and on the difference between what people say and what they actually mean. Praise for In the Absence of Mrs Petersen: 'a thoroughly gripping yarn' - Roy Fuller, Times Literary Supplement 'superb entertainment' - Anthony Burgess, Listener 'better than anything he has written since "The Small Back Room"' - Sunday Telegraph 'another expert tale of the middle-aged man on the flying trapeze' - Observer

Walter Parrish is fifteen, handsome, athletic and highly intelligent. But his head is also stuffed full of ideas gleaned from romantic poetry and so, when he spends the summer on his uncle Patrick's fruit farm, it is perhaps not surprising that he quickly becomes besotted with Patrick's bewitching partner, Leonie. And when Leonie reveals that she is not married to Patrick, but is only his mistress, Walter realizes that his hopeless passion may not be quite as hopeless as he first thought. So he embarks upon a scheme to prise Leonie away from Patrick, only to discover that Leonie is playing a much deadlier game, one that could have life-changing consequences for both her and Walter.Set in the glorious Kent countryside in high summer, and told with all Nigel Balchin's consummate skill as a storyteller, Seen Dimly Before Dawn is a richly enjoyable novel about adolescence, love, loss and the vast gulf that separates a child's view of the world from an adult's.Praise for Seen Dimly Before Dawn: 'the story pounds along eagerly with all senses alert' - New Statesman 'excellent' - Sunday Times'thoroughly readable and consistently entertaining' - The Times