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Is an historical novel by Bernard Cornwell. Set in July 1809 during the Peninsular War and featuring the Battle of Talavera it is the 8th (chronologically) in the Richard Sharpe Series. As the first of the series to be written the events in this nove l do a great deal to establish Sharpe's legacy as a hero.

The first of Richard Sharpe's Indian adventures, pitting him against the sinister Tippoo Sultan in the siege of Seringapatam, 1799. Like most of the Sharpe novels this one is based on a real campaign, and almost all of the actions described in the bo ok really did take place. Sharpe begins this novel as a private and his worst enemy is not the Tippoo, nor even the Tippoo's professional strongmen who had interesting ways of putting prisoners to death, but Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill who will contin ue to harass Sharpe all through the Indian novels.

Sharpe's Prey is the 2001 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell set during the Napoleonic Wars . This book tells the story of Second Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, who is sent to Copenhagen in 1807 with the job of protecting a nobleman on an important, bu t secret, mission. Sharpe soon discovers that his task is not as simple as it seemed and that he must overcome traitors, spies and the bombardment of Copenhagen.The year is 1807, and Richard Sharpe is back in England, where his army career is at an e nd. Without love, destitute, and relegated to the job of quartermaster, Sharpe is on the streets of London, trying to contemplate a new life away from the army.Then an old friend quite unexpectedly invites him to undertake a secret mission to the Dan ish capital, Copenhagen. Denmark is officially neutral, but Napoleon is threatening an invasion in order to capture the powerful Danish fleet, which could replace the ships France lost in its defeat at Trafalgar.The British, fearing such enhancement of French power, threaten their own preemptive invasion. Sharpe, whose errand seemed so simple, is trapped by the treachery that will end only when the city, which thought itself safe, is subjected to a brutal and merciless bombardment.

Sharpe's Battle is a detailed description of Richard Sharpe's life for a few days in May 1811. Sharpe is a rifleman officer in the British army fighting Napoleon's forces. Sharpe manages to enrage a French general who vows to get him and gets caught in politics that could ruin his career. Sharpe is given charge of the Real Companía Irlandesa, the guard for the Spanish king, and he is determined to turn them into soldiers against his superiors' desires. As thousands of French converge on a tiny v illage, Sharpe's hope for stopping the court of inquiry and restoring his honor depends on leading these men to special glory on the battlefield.

Sharpe's Escape is the tenth novel in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, finding the hero embroiled in the British retreat through Portugal in 1810 from the defence of the Ridge at Bussaco to the Lines of Torres Vedras, where the French offensive was successfully halted. Set in 1810, the novel finds Captain Richard Sharpe threatened as commander of the South Essex Regiment Light Company by the family politics of the Regiment's Commanding Officer. While the British and their Portuguese allies see off the French assault at Bussaco, Sharpe becomes embroiled in a private feud with the criminal Ferragus, whom he pursues from the abandoned town of Coimbra back towards the massive defensive works which Wellington has ordered built at Torres Vedras.

The story of the battle - and Sharpe's part in it. For some reason this was published in the US as, simply, Waterloo. There's almost no plot in this book because there doesn't need to be (though Sharpe does have to settle accounts with the man who po ached his second wife). The story of the battle is so dramatic, so unlikely and so full of suspense that fiction is scarcely needed. Nevertheless the book does suggest that perhaps it was not the enemy who shot the Prince of Orange. It also made a ve ry good video.

Sharpe's Rifles was the first prequel novel in the series written by Bernard Cornwell. It tells the story of Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809. Written ninth, the book naturally fits before Sharpe's Eagle which was the f irst to be written, although the later novel Sharpe's Havoc is set between the two. The story recounts Sharpe's exploits in the retreat to Corunna. Sharpe's battalion, acting as rearguard to the army, are cut down by a squadron of French regular cava lry. From then on the story follows the small band of surviving riflemen (from the 95th Rifles) as they try to foment an uprising in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Sharpe's Spanish ally is Major Don Blas Vivar and they are fighting the Don's bro ther, the Count of Mouromorto. Patrick Harper is introduced as well as the core group of the surviving company for the first time. Running along in the background is the other Irishman in the series, Captain Hogan, who appears for the first time at t he very end of the novel. In this book, Sharpe sees Captain Murray's heavy cavalry sword as clumsy and cumbersome, yet in India he wishes he had such a heavy sword to butcher people with. During his time in India he used a claymore which he found les s cumbersome than the cavalry sword.

The book starts with a historical prologue in which Julius Venator, a Roman, along with a group of Roman soldiers and slaves, sail in a fleet of ships ferrying the treasures from the Library of Alexandria before its destruction to a secret location t o be buried in underground caverns. After the treasures are buried the people, the Roman soldiers, and slaves are all slaughtered by the natives. While one small ship manages to get away, they never reach land and the secret of the treasure is lost. The story then shifts to an envoy of the US President having a secret meeting with a would be Aztec dictator Topiltzin. He kills the envoy, and sends his skin and heart back to the President. The plot then shifts to a Middle Eastern terrorist secretl y hijacking a plane carrying Hala Kamil, the new United Nations Secretary-General, the hijacker bails out of the plane after ensuring that the plane crash lands in Greenland, where Dirk Pitt, Al Giordino, and Rudi Gunn are trying to locate a sunken S oviet submarine. Also in the area is Lily Sharp, who discovers an ancient coin. They rescue Hala from the plane wreck. As the plot unfolds, several more attempts are made on Halas life, since she is trying to stop would-be dictator Akhmad Yazid from taking over Egypt. Dirk is distracted by the promise of treasure, however. Locating a shipwreck in Greenland, they soon find a tablet detailing a mission to hide the treasure of the library at Alexandria. As Dirk, Al, and the Special Operations Forc es rescue Hala Kamil from a hijacked ship in the Straits of Magellan, Hiram Yaeger locates the treasurein Texas. The final stretch of the novel involves Dirk trying to hide the treasure from Yazid and his brother, Topiltzin, a would-be Aztec dictato r. Eventually, the treasure is discovered and Yazid, Topiltzin and their henchmen are killed.

"Oliver Twist" (1838) is one of the best loved and darkest of Dickens' novels and presents some of the most memorable of Dickens' great characters, from the rascal antics of street urchin the Artful Dodger, the manipulative seediness of Fagin and the threatening brutality of Bill Sykes, to the kindness of prostitute Nancy and the innocence of Oliver, who escapes the horrors of the workhouse where he dares to ask for more, only to find himself taken in by a den of thieves in London's underworld. "Oliver Twist" is Dickens' first social tract and a significant development in his growth as a writer keen to appeal to the widest audience while discussing the most serious of subjects. Shocking for its time, it is a masterful expose of the inadequa cy of the British Poor Laws and the evils that corrupted the childhood innocence in Victorian society...Based on the world-famous "Nonesuch Press" edition of 1937, the text is taken from the 1867 Chapman and Hall edition, which became known as the Ch arles Dickens edition, and was the last edition to be corrected by the author himself. "The Nonesuch" edition contains illustrations selected by Dickens himself, by artists including Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'), George Cruikshank, John Leech, Rober t Seymour and George Cattermole. The new "Nonesuch Dickens" reproduces the original elegance of these beautiful editions. Books are printed on natural cream shade high quality stock, are quarter bound in bonded leather with cloth sides, include a rib bon marker and feature special printed endpapers. Each book is wrapped in a protective, clear acetate jacket.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there’. Conside

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘My true name is so well known in the Records or Registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating

The sweep of a century, the hand of history, three women whose lives will never be the same again. As the twentieth century dawns, so begins one of the most dramatic periods in the history of South America. Women are emancipated, Che Guevara and Fide l Castro free Cuba, the Perons take power in Argentina, and three generations of Firielli women are to live, love, and fight for their independence and freedom. Pajarita is the founder of the dynasty, born into a rural village and constantly chafing against its narrow confines. A love-match with a circus performer offers her escape, but she is trapped in a cage of another sort when her husband becomes a monster. Her spirited daughter, Eva, enters a world shaken by revolution. Fleeing childhood a buse, and alienated from her mother, she heads to Buenos Aires, but the glittering circles she moves in cannot erase the memories of her past. Her daughter, Salome, driven by political passion becomes a guerrilla fighter, but her idealism turns to tr agedy when she is captured, and brutalised. From bohemian Buenos Aires to the hills of Rio de Janeiro; from tangos to demonstrations; from the broad sweep of history to the intimate lives of the Fierelli family, THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN traverses a cha nging South America, in which some things - love, family, hope - continue forever.

A sharp, witty and hugely entertaining debut novel, "The Devil Wears Prada" is "The Nanny Diaries" set in the world of high fashion. Welcome to the dollhouse, baby! When Andrea first sets foot in the plush Manhattan offices of Runway she knows nothin g. She's never heard of the world's most fashionable magazine, or its feared and fawned-over editor, Miranda Priestly. But she's going to be Miranda's assistant, a job millions of girls would die for. A year later, she knows altogether too much: That it's a sacking offence to wear anything lower than a three-inch heel to work. But that there's always a fresh pair of Manolos for you in the accessories cupboard. That Miranda believes Hermes scarves are disposable, and you must keep a life-time sup ply on hand at all times. That eight stone is fat. That you can charge cars, manicures, anything at all to the Runway account, but you must never, ever, leave your desk, or let Miranda's coffee get cold. And that at 3 a.m. on a Sunday, when your boyf riend's dumping you because you're always at work, and your best friend's just been arrested, if Miranda phones, you jump. Most of all, Andrea knows that Miranda is a monster who makes Cruella de Vil look like a fluffy bunny. But also that this is he r big break, and it's going to be worth it in the end. Isn't it?

The long-awaited, never-before-told, no-holds-barred memoir from the legendary Aerosmith frontman. Finally, all the lurid tales of debauchery, sex, drugs and rock n' roll are told straight from the horse's lips as The Demon of Screamin' describes his unimaginable highs and unbelievable lows as lead singer of the biggest rock band in the world. Prolific frontman, rock icon and sex symbol, Steven Tyler is a living legend. With his raw, sharp-edged vocals, musical versatility and unprecedented song writing skills, Tyler has, as lead singer of Aerosmith, sold millions of records and played sell-out concerts to as many as 450,000 people. Now, at last, he tells his own story, taking us on a wild rollercoaster ride through the bust-ups, binges, or gies and good old American excess in the jaw-droppingly honest, in-your-face way that only Tyler can. Following a fateful meeting with his 'mutant twin' Joe Perry in the summer of 1970, Aerosmith was formed!and the rest, as they say, is rock history. They released their first album in 1973, and by 1976 Aerosmith had gone from being nobodies to massive to off the radar, making history as a multi-platinum, chart-topping band. But with great success comes great excess. Nicknamed the Toxic Twins for their insatiable appetite for drugs, booze and women, Tyler and Perry got caught up in the glamour of self-destruction - smashing each other up with guitars, having seizures and passing out on stage. By 1980 it seemed that the band and its members w ere set to implode, but after successful stints in drug rehab, Aerosmith were back on track and better than ever. But although he may have given up his wicked, wicked ways, Tyler still enjoys talking about the bad old days. He has so many outrageous stories to tell, and he's gonna tell them all. All the uncensored, head-spinning tales of debauchery, sex, booze, transcendence and chemical dependence you will ever want to hear. As raucous, intoxicating and edgy as his music, this is the most outra geous rock n' roll autobiography of all time.

The sparkling new romantic comedy from the author of BEHAVING BADLY and RESCUING ROSE. Sometimes the questions you ask yourself are the hardest ones to answer...Laura Quick's life is as out of control as her mop of unruly curls. With her shabby-chic flat on Portobello Road - complete with psychic neighbour - and her work for a chaotic TV company, Laura is anything but conventional. So she's the most unlikely candidate to present a quirky new quiz show. But her boss, Tom, see that her quickwitted ness and her knack for general knowledge makes her the ideal choice. It's the chance of a lifetime - and when old flame Luke turns up out of the blue, Laura's sisters think also it's time for Laura to move on and lay to rest the memory of her husband , Nick. But dating Luke again is a step back in time - and spells trouble. Luke is every bit as attractive as when he broke her heart. His wit and charm - not to mention his talent for trivia - captivate her once again. But this time around he's got a 6-year-old daughter in tow - as well as an ex-wife whose behaviour is less than charming. As Laura questions whether to gamble everything on a past love, she must also face up to the unexpected truth about Nick and the life she thought she once kne w!

The fifth volume in the greatest epic work of the modern age The future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance. In the east, Daenerys, last scion of House Targaryen, her dragons grown to terrifying maturity, rules as queen of a city built on dust an