Bloomsbury

Five friends. One year. All bets are off.Reading, 2009. It may not be Vegas, but for Nick, Doug, Vijay, Alan and Simon, it's as good as they're going to get.Each in their forties, and beset by anxieties, flaws and frustrations, they meet monthly in each other's houses for a 'friendly' game of poker, enabling Doug to show...

Nadine Gordimer is one of our most telling contemporary writers. With each new work, she attacks - with a clear-eyed lack of sentimentality, and an understanding of the darkest depths of the human soul - the inextricable link between personal life and political, communal history. The revelation of this theme in each new work, not only in her...

Pete's dad is being pursued by a secret organisation and both their lives are in danger. That's why they never stay in the same place long, and always stay out of sight. Pete knows he leads an unusual life for a twelve year old boy, but he's never dared to ask questions before. Now he needs some answers. He's clever, he starts...

Science, Revolution and the Birth of the SmithsonianIn 1836 the United States government received a strange and unprecedented gift - a bequest of 104,960 gold sovereigns (then worth half a million dollars) to establish a foundation in Washington &'for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men&'. The Smithsonian Institution, as it would...

Twelve-year-old Harriet is doing her best to grow up, which is not easy as her mother is permanently on medication, her father has silently moved to another city, and her serene sister rarely notices anything. All of them are still suffering from the shocking and mysterious death of her brother Robin twelve years earlier, and it seems to Harriet...

Obernewtyn Chronicles: Book OneIn a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. But for Elspeth Gordie, born with enhanced mental abilities, it is also dangerous. Survival is only by secrecy and so she determines never to use her forbidden powers. But it is as if they have their own imperative and she is brought to the...