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One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize, The Line of Beauty is a classic novel about class, politics and sexuality in Margaret Thatcher's 1980s Britain.

In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the wealthy Feddens: Gerald, an ambitious Tory MP, his wife Rachel and their children Toby and Catherine.

Innocent of politics and money, Nick is swept up into the Feddens' world and an era of endless possibility, all the while pursuing his own private obsession with beauty.

The Line of Beauty is Alan Hollinghurst's Man Booker Prize-winning masterpiece. It is a novel that defines a decade, exploring a young man's collision with his own desires, and with a world he can never truly belong to.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

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'An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it' Guardian

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - and the two never seem to balance.

Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

Kate Atkinson, Sunday Times bestseller, September 2024",{"_809":828,"_811":1029,"_782":1030},{"_809":828,"_811":838,"_782":1131},"Transworld Publishers Limited",{"_809":828,"_811":816,"_782":1133},"Trade Paper",{"_809":828,"_811":843,"_782":844},{"_809":828,"_811":1136,"_782":1137},"bic_subject","CRIME & MYSTERY; FICTION & RELATED ITEMS_EUROPE; FICTION & RELATED ITEMS; FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS",{"_809":828,"_811":849,"_782":1139},"2005-06-01",{"_809":828,"_811":852,"_782":1141},"432",{"_809":828,"_811":819,"_782":1143},"Black Swan",{"_809":855,"_811":344,"_782":856},{"_809":855,"_811":724,"_782":856},{"_809":855,"_811":859,"_782":860},{"_809":855,"_811":862,"_782":860},{"_809":855,"_811":864,"_782":860},{"_809":855,"_811":866,"_782":1150},"03/11/2025",{"_809":855,"_811":869,"_782":1152},"24/03/2026",{"_809":855,"_811":872,"_782":1154},"26.0",{"_809":855,"_811":874,"_782":1154},{"_809":855,"_811":876,"_782":1157},"0",{"_809":855,"_811":879,"_782":877},{"_809":882,"_811":883,"_782":884},{"_809":882,"_811":344,"_782":884},{"_809":882,"_811":724,"_782":884},{"_809":882,"_811":888,"_782":740},{"_809":882,"_811":890,"_782":740},{"_809":882,"_811":892,"_782":740},{"_809":882,"_811":894,"_782":895},{"_809":882,"_811":897,"_782":895},{"_809":882,"_811":899,"_782":895},{"_809":882,"_811":901,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":904,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":906,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":908,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":910,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":912,"_782":913},{"_809":882,"_811":915,"_782":913},{"_809":882,"_811":917,"_782":913},{"_759":1177},[1178],{"_762":109,"_763":-5,"_123":1179,"_203":1180,"_773":1184,"_779":1185,"_17":1105,"_783":1187,"_785":1188},"gid://shopify/ProductVariant/44624669507781",{"_766":1181,"_768":769,"_123":1182,"_755":1108,"_771":1183},"Case Histories Cover Image","gid://shopify/ProductImage/37542989824197",1318,{"_775":776,"_777":1154},[1186],{"_744":745,"_782":1105},"9780552772433",{"_787":1189},[1190,1193],{"_790":1191},{"_792":36,"_126":1192},{"_744":341},{"_790":1194},{"_792":109,"_126":1195},{"_744":722},{"_123":1197,"_17":1198,"_735":1199,"_753":1200,"_806":1202,"_757":1252},"gid://shopify/Product/7976026603717","Ocean Stirrings","ocean-stirrings",{"_755":1201},"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0625/6679/3413/files/Ocean_20Stirrings.jpg?v=1718604897",[1203,1204,1206,1207,-5,1209,1210,1211,1212,1214,1216,1218,1219,1221,1222,1223,-5,-5,1224,1226,-5,-5,1228,-5,1229,1230,-5,1231,-5,1233,-5,1235,1236,-5,1238,1240,-5,1242,1244,-5,1245,1246,-5,1247,1248,-5,1249,1250,-5,1251],{"_809":810,"_811":17,"_782":1198},{"_809":810,"_811":813,"_782":1205},"COLLINS MERLE",{"_809":810,"_811":816,"_782":817},{"_809":810,"_811":819,"_782":1208},"PEEPAL",{"_809":810,"_811":825,"_782":826},{"_809":828,"_811":829,"_782":830},{"_809":828,"_811":17,"_782":1198},{"_809":828,"_811":1123,"_782":1213},"A Work of Fiction in Tribute to Louise Langdon Norton Little, Working Mother and Activist, Mother of Malcolm X and Seven Siblings",{"_809":828,"_811":813,"_782":1215},"Merle Collins",{"_809":828,"_811":836,"_782":1217},"A mix of fictive narrative, letters and poetry, with episodes of great warmth, exuberant humour, drama, and heartbreak, telling a story of Louse Little. The mother of the revolutionary firebrand Malcolm X was a Grenadian woman born at the turn of the 20th century in a small rural community in a deeply colonial society where access to education had only just begun for the children of working people. She emigrated to Canada and then the USA, where she became involved in the struggle for Black civil rights led by Marcus Garvey. Within the sparse facts of Louise Langdon Norton Little' s biography, Merle Collins, the distinguished Grenadian novelist, has created a moving and deeply feminist work that gives vivid inwardness to both the heroism and tragedy of a life that involved fighting the Ku Klux Klan, discovering that male comrades in the struggle could be abusers at home, recognition of her skills as an organiser, but also a period of mental collapse that saw her incarcerated in a mental hospital until her family fought for her release.",{"_809":828,"_811":1029,"_782":1030},{"_809":828,"_811":838,"_782":1220},"Peepal Tree Press, Limited",{"_809":828,"_811":816,"_782":1133},{"_809":828,"_811":843,"_782":844},{"_809":828,"_811":846,"_782":847},{"_809":828,"_811":849,"_782":1225},"2023-09-21",{"_809":828,"_811":852,"_782":1227},"396",{"_809":855,"_811":724,"_782":856},{"_809":855,"_811":862,"_782":860},{"_809":855,"_811":864,"_782":860},{"_809":855,"_811":869,"_782":1232},"02/06/2024",{"_809":855,"_811":874,"_782":1234},"46.0",{"_809":855,"_811":879,"_782":880},{"_809":882,"_811":883,"_782":1237},"Fiction,Historical Fiction",{"_809":882,"_811":724,"_782":1239},"Fiction;Historical Fiction",{"_809":882,"_811":888,"_782":1241},"FICTIO,HISFIC",{"_809":882,"_811":892,"_782":1243},"FICTIO;HISFIC",{"_809":882,"_811":894,"_782":895},{"_809":882,"_811":899,"_782":1071},{"_809":882,"_811":901,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":906,"_782":1076},{"_809":882,"_811":908,"_782":902},{"_809":882,"_811":910,"_782":1076},{"_809":882,"_811":912,"_782":913},{"_809":882,"_811":917,"_782":913},{"_759":1253},[1254],{"_762":109,"_763":-5,"_123":1255,"_203":1256,"_773":1260,"_779":1261,"_17":1263,"_783":1264,"_785":1265},"gid://shopify/ProductVariant/43730330452165",{"_766":1257,"_768":769,"_123":1258,"_755":1201,"_771":1259},"Ocean Stirrings Cover Image","gid://shopify/ProductImage/35085136691397",1341,{"_775":776,"_777":1234},[1262],{"_744":745,"_782":1263},"Default Title","9781845235529",{"_787":1266},[1267,1270],{"_790":1268},{"_792":36,"_126":1269},{"_744":341},{"_790":1271},{"_792":109,"_126":1272},{"_744":722},{"_123":1274,"_17":1275,"_735":1276,"_753":1277,"_806":1279,"_757":1324},"gid://shopify/Product/8366236434629","Accidental Darlings","accidental-darlings",{"_755":1278},"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0625/6679/3413/files/978-0-00-865760-4.jpg?v=1751508679",[1280,1281,1283,1284,-5,1286,1288,1289,-5,1290,1292,1294,1295,1297,1298,1299,-5,-5,1300,1302,-5,-5,1304,-5,1305,1306,-5,1307,-5,1309,-5,1311,1312,-5,1313,1314,-5,1315,1316,-5,1317,1318,-5,1319,1320,-5,1321,1322,-5,1323],{"_809":810,"_811":17,"_782":1275},{"_809":810,"_811":813,"_782":1282},"JEANS CRYSTAL",{"_809":810,"_811":816,"_782":817},{"_809":810,"_811":819,"_782":1285},"BOROUG",{"_809":810,"_811":825,"_782":1287},"HEDS",{"_809":828,"_811":829,"_782":830},{"_809":828,"_811":17,"_782":1275},{"_809":828,"_811":813,"_782":1291},"Crystal Jeans",{"_809":828,"_811":836,"_782":1293},"

'Delightfully subversive, I loved it' RED

The darkly funny new novel from Polari Prize-shortlisted author Crystal Jeans, inspired in part by Dickens' Great Expectations...

It's 1924, and the village of Skimpole is full of secrets.

When Anastasia's mother dies, she must move in with 'the Aunt' - a writer, too fearsome for a first name, who lives in a dilapidated mansion with her dogs.

But mysteries abound: who wrote the raunchy love letters she discovers in the Aunt's bedroom, signed 'Big Willy'? Why do the villagers hate the Aunt so much? And how did Anastasia's father, who passed before she was born, really die?

When the Aunt's friends arrive at the house one summer, wreathed in cigarette smoke and an air of debauchery, Anastasia may be closer to finding answers - but the truth will turn her world upside down...

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The Uncommon Reader

by Alan Bennett