Dickens's Little Nell became one of his best-known heroines when The Old Curiosity Shop was first published in 1841. Virtuous and stoic, Nell takes care of her grandfather in his gloomy shop until his gambling debts force the pair of them to flee London. They are hunted by the grotesque and villainous moneylender Quilp and Nell's own worthless brother, Fred, who wrongly believes that their grandfather has a hidden fortune. Through a kaleidoscopic...

In this volume, Edmund de Waal travels the globe to tell the story of his obsession with porcelain, or 'white gold', and the lure it held for the Europeans who encountered it: from Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century China, via the palaces of Versailles and Dresden, to the chemist shops of 18th-century Plymouth, the settlements of the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, and the darkest moments of 10th-century history. Within all this is an intimate...

Alex joins his father on a business trip to Amsterdam. With a friend he visits the usual sights but also coffee shops and flea markets off the beaten track. At one of these markets Alex spots an ancient-looking mask. Before he knows what he's doing he buys it. Later, when he puts the mask on, Alex is sucked into a parallel Amsterdam, one from centuries before which begins to reveal the dark past of both the building he is staying in and the little...

Shopgirls should be heroines, as celebrated as steelworkers in the Industrial Revolution. A million of us were shop assistants by the turn of the twentieth century and since then retail has grown exponentially to become Britain's largest area of economic activity. But the young women at the heart of this economic and cultural revolution, the shop assistants themselves, have largely been ignored. 'Shopgirls' will tell the story of the lives of the...

1820. Alice Lee, middle-aged, and unmarried, takes in a young murderer, Zebediah Bailey, when he's released from Durham gaol. Their acquaintance had begun when Alice's local Methodist minister had asked his congregation if anybody would help the young man, and Alice had volunteered. Alice dutifully writes him every week, sending him sweets from her shop. And when Zeb comes out and has nowhere to go, Alice takes him back to Stanhope in Weardale with...

Are we living in an age where we are more boredom-prone? Or are other people boring us? Or could we be that boring person?! In our current information age, we are constantly connected to technology, and have so many varied ways to spend our leisure time that we should all surely never know what boredom feels like. Yet, boredom appears to be on the rise; it seems that the more we have to stimulate us, the more stimulation we crave. In a quest to relieve...

Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin live near one another - yet they exist worlds apart. Rami is Israeli. Bassam is Palestinian. Rami's license plate is yellow. Bassam's license plate is green. It takes Rami fifteen minutes to drive to the West Bank. The same journey for Bassam takes an hour and a half. Both men have lost their daughters. Rami's thirteen-year-old girl Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber while out shopping with her friends. Bassam's ten-year-old...

Flora Maguire has escaped the country to enjoy some time in fashionable Knightsbridge, London. Extravagant shops, exuberant theatres and decadent restaurants mean 1903's London is a thrilling adventure, but there are dark secrets threatening from the continent. When the body of a London socialite, and leading light of the burgeoning women's movement, is found outside The Grenadier public house, Flora can't resist investigating. Mysterious letters...

Are we living in an age where we are more boredom-prone? Or are other people boring us? Or could we be that boring person?! In our current information age, we are constantly connected to technology, and have so many varied ways to spend our leisure time that we should all surely never know what boredom feels like. Yet, boredom appears to be on the rise; it seems that the more we have to stimulate us, the more stimulation we crave. In a quest to relieve...