Harpercollins The Battle of Maldon. Together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Tolkien John Ronald Reuel

Collector’s slipcased edition of the first ever standalone presentation of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts • In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the river Blackwater, near Maldon in Essex. The attack is widely considered one of the defining conflicts of tenth-century England, and is immortalised in the poem, The Battle of Maldon • Written shortly after the battle, the poem survives only as a 325-line fragment, but its value to today is incalculable. J.R.R. Tolkien considered The Battle of Maldon ‘the last surviving fragment of ancient English heroic minstrelsy’

This de luxe collector’s edition features the first edition text and contains a facsimile page of Tolkien’s original manuscript. The book is quarterbound with a special gold motif stamped on the front board and is presented in a matching slipcase • “Many years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien composed his own version, now published for the first time, of the great legend of Northern antiquity, in two closely related poems to which he gave the titles The New Lay of the Volsungs and The New Lay of Gudrun • In the Lay of the Volsungs is told the ancestry of the great hero Sigurd, the slayer of Fafnir most celebrated of dragons, whose treasure he took for his own; of his awakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild who slept surrounded by a wall of fire, and of their betrothal; and of his coming to the court of the great princes who were named the Niflungs (or Nibelungs), with whom he entered into blood-brotherhood

Вновь доступная после долгого отсутствия в печати, эта книга является выдающимся критическим исследованием того, как мифы и легенды сыграли столь значительную роль в творчестве Дж.Р.Р. Толкина • "Песнь о Средиземье" по-новому смотрит на "Властелина колец", глубоко проникая в основы мира Толкина, чтобы раскрыть сложный гобелен истории и мифологии, лежащий в основе его рассказов • Обвинение в том, что творчество Толкина было просто производным - что он извлек элементы из других мифологий и включил их в свою собственную художественную литературу, - отвергается в пользу увлекательного изучения богатой исторической предыстории Средиземья • Книга на английском языке • Available again after being long out of print, this is the pre-eminent critical study, and exploration, of how myth and legend played such a significant role in the works of J

Once upon a time there were two geese called Mr and Mrs Plumpster. Each Spring they returned to the marshes of their ancestors, and Mrs Plumpster laid her eggs. Soon six fine young Plumpsters hatched: Archie, Freda, Jennifer, Oswald, Timothy and Borka. But Borka was different. Borka had no feathers and could not fly. When winter came the other geese flew off in search of warmer climates, leaving Borka all alone. But her adventure was only just beginning

This de luxe collector’s edition includes the first edition text and features an exclusive colour frontispiece illustration on a fold-out sheet. The book is quarterbound, with a specially commissioned motif stamped in three foils on the front board, and is presented in a matching slipcase • The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are finally together in a volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for readers young and old • Roverandom is a toy dog who, enchanted by a sand sorcerer, gets to explore the world and encounter strange and fabulous creatures • Farmer Giles of Ham is fat and unheroic, but – having unwittingly managed to scare off a short-sighted giant – is called upon to do battle when a dragon comes to town • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells in verse of Tom's many adventures with hobbits, princesses, dwarves and trolls • Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle who sets out to paint the perfect tree • Smith of Wootton Major journeys to the Land of Faery thanks to the magical ingredients of the Great Cake of the Feast of Good Children

The fourth volume in the acclaimed Emperor series, in which Conn Iggulden brilliantly weaves history and adventure to recreate the astonishing life of Julius Caesar • Caesar must fight his toughest battle yet – with Rome itself • Julius Caesar, fresh from triumph in Britain and Gaul, is marching on Rome with his legions of hardened veterans. His goal: to unseat Pompey, now dictator of the Empire • But waging war on your own people is never easy. And even after the city itself is taken and Julius, Brutus, Mark Antony and Octavian re-enter in triumph, there are many battles left to fight. For across the Empire – in Spain, Africa, Greece, across Asia Minor – there are legions loyal to Pompey. How will Caesar prevail? And at what cost? • ‘The Gods of War’ is the story of ambition and loyalty, of friendship and power, of love and war

The classic crime novel featuring blind detective Max Carrados, whose popularity rivalled that of Sherlock Holmes, complete with a new introduction and an extra short story • In his dark little curio shop Julian Joolby is weaving an extravagant scheme to smash the financial machinery of the world by flooding the Oriental market with forged banknotes. But this monster of wickedness has not reckoned on Max Carrados, the suave and resourceful investigator whose visual impairment gives him heightened powers of perception that ordinary detectives overlook • Max Carrados was a blind detective whose stories by Ernest Bramah appeared from 1914 alongside Sherlock Holmes in the Strand Magazine, in which they often had top billing. Described by George Orwell as among ‘the only detective stories since Poe that are worth re-reading’, the 25 stories were collected in three hugely popular volumes, culminating in a full-length novel, The Bravo of London (1934), in which Carrados engages in a battle of wits against a fiendish plot that threatens to overthrow civilisation itself

In one volume for the first time, this revised and updated examination of how J.R.R.Tolkien came to write his original masterpiece The Hobbit includes his complete unpublished draft version of the story, together with notes and illustrations by Tolkien himself • The Hobbit was first published on 21 September 1937. Like its sequel, The Lord of the Rings, it is a story that ‘grew in the telling’, and many characters and plot threads in the published text are quite different from the story J.R.R. Tolkien first wrote to read aloud to his young sons as one of their ‘fireside reads’ • Together in one volume, The History of the Hobbit presents the complete text of the unpublished manuscript of The Hobbit, accompanied by John Rateliff’s lively and informative account of how the book came to be written and published

The ups and down of three plucky factory girls, set in Britain’s best loved wrapped chocolate factory • The Quality Street Factory is fizzing with the news that the King and Queen and the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, are going to visit the Mackintosh Factory where the country’s favourite wrapped chocolate is made. The factory floor is heady with excitement but plans are dealt a blow when a much loved staff member is the victim of a poisoning incident • Everyone is under suspicion, which only adds to Reenie Calder’s woes, anxious that her new promotion has only made her stick out even more like a sore thumb. Can she and her friends, Mary and Diana, get their heads together and find the malicious troublemaker before something unthinkable happens?

The second volume in the bestselling Emperor series, an acclaimed sequence of novels in which Conn Iggulden brilliantly interweaves history and adventure to recreate the astonishing story of Julius Caesar - an epic tale of ambition and rivalry, bravery and betrayal • The young Caesar must overcome enemies on land and at sea to become a battle-hardened leader - in the spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of The Gates of Rome • Forced to flee Rome, Julius Caesar is serving on board a war galley in the dangerous waters of the Mediterranean and rapidly gaining a fearsome reputation. But no sooner has he had a memorable victory than his ship is captured by pirates and he is held to ransom • Abandoned on the north African coast after hard months of captivity, he begins to gather a group of recruits that he will eventually forge into a unit powerful enough to gain vengeance on his captors and to suppress a new uprising in Greece

The brand new and final novel from the magical pen of 'the Godmother of Fantasy', Diana Wynne Jones; co-authored with her sister Ursula Jones. Now in paperback • How are you supposed to turn into a Wise Woman if your powers just won't show up? Aileen is convinced she'll never become as magical as her Aunt Beck • Then one day her aunt is set a seemingly impossible mission. She must go to the island of Logra and rescue the kidnapped High Prince from the enemy, and Aileen must go with her. They set off along with Ivar, Aileen's spoilt cousin, and Ogo his clophopping servant, recruiting on their way a huge and elusive cat, a monk with an uncannily wise parrot, and a boy inventor who keeps a pet lizard up his sleeve. But this is no band of mighty warriors, and the evil Lograns and their wizards have blocked their way with an invisible barrier in the sea

Deluxe collector’s edition featuring the first edition text and containing a facsimile page of Tolkien’s original manuscript. The book is quarterbound with a gold motif stamped on the front board and is presented in a matching slipcase • The Fall of Arthur, the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre, in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur’s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere’s flight from Camelot, of the great sea-battle on Arthur’s return to Britain, in the portrait of the traitor Mordred, in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle