Hesperus Press (27)

The Princess and the Goblin

ISBN: 9781843914754

Author: George MacDonald    Publisher: Hesperus Press

Perfect for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling, The Princess and the Goblin is a magical adventure story full of princesses and monsters, secre...


Perfect for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling, The Princess and the Goblin is a magical adventure story full of princesses and monsters, secret towers, dungeons and magic.
Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives a lonely life in a wild, desolate, mountainous kingdom, with only her nursemaid, Lootie for company. She is protected from the outside world and oblivious to the existence of goblins, hideous creatures that live underground and only come out at night.
One day, while out walking, Irene and Lootie get lost. As night falls, strange shadows creep out from under boulders and around corners, closing in on them. Terrified, they try to run but the goblins give chase. It is then they run into Curdie, the brave miner’s son who isn’t afraid of the goblins and knows how to scare them away.
While working late one night in the mines Curdie overhears a diabolical plan the goblins are plotting. The terrible goblin Queen plans to kidnap the princess and force her to marry her son. That way she believes humans will be forced to accept goblins as their rulers. Can they be stopped and the kingdom be saved before it is too late?


Bind: paperback


Pages: 240


Publication Date: 25-10-2013


$24.99
The Coral Island

ISBN: 9781843914815

Author: R.M. Ballantyne    Publisher: Hesperus Press

Ralph, Jack and Peterkin find themselves the sole survivors of a shipwreck on a deserted coral island in the South Pacific. Although fate has led them to tempor...


Ralph, Jack and Peterkin find themselves the sole survivors of a shipwreck on a deserted coral island in the South Pacific. Although fate has led them to temporary safety, the three marooned lads are forced to carve out a life for themselves from what nature provides. They rapidly learn which fruit to eat, which animals to hunt, and which lagoons are best for bathing.

Resourceful as they are, their desert island idyll is often disturbed and they face numerous terrifying threats – pirates, sharks, cannibalism and local tribes among them. Amidst all the chaos, the trio still face the riddle of how to engineer their rescue from their tropical exile.

Following in Robinson Crusoe’s footsteps, and yet with added adventure, Ballantyne’s writing is a classic adored by previous generations of children and which deserves to be discovered all over again by a modern audience.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 232


Publication Date: 25-10-2013


$24.99
Dickens' Women

ISBN: 9781843913511

Author: Miriam Margolyes & Sonia Fraser    Publisher: Hesperus Press

In his novels Dickens presents a series of unrivalled portraits of women, young and old. From Little Nell to Miss Havisham, these girls and women speak to us to...


In his novels Dickens presents a series of unrivalled portraits of women, young and old. From Little Nell to Miss Havisham, these girls and women speak to us today, making us laugh and sometimes cry. The popular British actress Miriam Margolyes will be touring the world in 2012, the bicentenary of Dickens birth, with a one-woman show about Dickens' women, and this book accompanies the show by building on the script and expanding to include many more of the female characters Dickens described and analysed so astutely in his novels. The countries to be visited are Australia, New Zealand, the USA and India. 'Mrs Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured, ill-conditioned old lady, of a stooping figure, with a mottled face, like bad marble, a hook nose, and a hard grey eye, that looked as if it might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury.'


Pages: 120


Dimensions: 122 x 190 x 13 mm


Publication Date: 01-11-2011


$24.99 $7.99
The Best Book In The World

ISBN: 9781780942247

Author: Peter Stjernstrom    Publisher: Hesperus Press

Author Titus Jensen is waiting for his big break. But he's middle-aged, has rather a fondness for alcohol and no one seems to take him seriously enough. He make...


Author Titus Jensen is waiting for his big break. But he's middle-aged, has rather a fondness for alcohol and no one seems to take him seriously enough. He makes ends meet by giving public readings from obscure books at festivals across Sweden which is okay, but he can't help thinking there has to be more to life for an author of his quality - Eddie X is cool. Eddie X is hip. Eddie X is a hit with the ladies and loves being the centre of attention. A radical poet and regular on the festival circuit, he can't help thinking there has to be more to life for a talented, good-looking man like himself - One night, after a successful event at which Titus reads from The Diseases of Swedish Monarchs and Eddie X waxes lyrical to the thrashing tones of metal band The Tourettes, the unlikely pair get horribly drunk together and hatch a plan. There's only one thing for a budding writer to do to get worldwide recognition: write the best book in the world - a book so amazing that it will end up on all the bestseller lists in every category imaginable: thriller, self-help, cookery, business, dieting - a book that combines everything in one! But there is only room for one such amazing book and as the alcohol-induced haze clears Titus and Eddie X both realise they are not willing to share the limelight. Who will win the race to write the best book in the world, and to what unimaginable lengths will they go to get there first ... ? Hilariously quirky and witty, The Best Book in the World will take you on a meandering race to the finish line, throwing plenty of satirical punches along the way.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 400


Publication Date: 01-09-2013


$34.99
12 Years A Slave

ISBN: 9781780942155

Author: Solomon Northup    Publisher: Hesperus Press

12 Years a Slave, soon to be a huge new Hollywood film (February 2014 release), is the harrowing true story of Solomon Northup who was kidnapped and sold into s...


12 Years a Slave, soon to be a huge new Hollywood film (February 2014 release), is the harrowing true story of Solomon Northup who was kidnapped and sold into slavery, enduring unimaginable degradation and abuse until his rescue twelve years later.
Tricked by two men offering him a job as a musician in New York State in 1841, Solomon Northup was drugged and kidnapped. His life in jeopardy, he was forced to assume a new name and fake past. Taken to Louisiana on a disease-ridden plague ship, he was initially sold to a cotton planter. In the twelve years that follow he is sold to many different owners who treat him with varying levels of savagery; forced labour, scant food and numerous beatings are his regular fare. Against all odds, Northup eventually succeeds in contacting a sympathetic party and manages to get word to his family. The ensuing rescue and legal cases are no less shocking and intriguing than the rest of the tale. Northup's meticulous first-hand recordings of slave life provide a true-life testament to tremendous courage and tenacity in the face of unfathomable injustice. A new film premiering in 2014, featuring Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch, and directed by Steve McQueen, is sure to introduce this amazing story to a new audience.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 300


Publication Date: 01-08-2013


Tag: Biography
$24.99
The Sea-Wolf

ISBN: 9781843914709

Author: Jack London    Publisher: Hesperus Press

A classic tale of adventure at sea, The Sea-Wolf tells the story of the naive young Humphrey van Weyden, whose ship is wrecked in a terrible storm. He is rescue...


A classic tale of adventure at sea, The Sea-Wolf tells the story of the naive young Humphrey van Weyden, whose ship is wrecked in a terrible storm. He is rescued by the mysterious Captain Wolf Larsen of the ship Ghost. Humphrey's new life aboard Ghost will test him to the limits of his endurance but also bring him the greatest happiness he has ever known. Captain Wolf Larsen is a powerful, brutal man with a razor sharp intelligence. When there is an attempted mutiny on board he shows no mercy to the would-be mutineers, and when his brother Death Larsen attempts to take over the Ghost by force, there is no love lost between them in their vicious battle. Wolf's cruel manner is thrown into sharp relief by the gentle spirit of the beautiful poetess also rescued, Maud Brewster, who charms both Wolf and Humphrey. As Humphrey falls in love with Maud, he must contend not only with the dangers of being at sea but with competition from his cruel and scheming captain. The Sea-Wolf is a dramatic tale of mutiny and shipwreck, but at its heart is the story of a love that flourishes in the unlikeliest of places. Jack London's thrilling narrative of the seven seas remains just as gripping today as it was a hundred years ago.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 320


Publication Date: 01-08-2013


Tag: Classics
$27.99
Long Ago and Far Away : Eight Traditional Fairy Tales

ISBN: 9781843913627

Author: Various    Publisher: Hesperus Press

Suddenly, fairy tales are everywhere. Up to ten major feature films have been made or are in production using as a basis traditional fairy tales that...


Suddenly, fairy tales are everywhere. Up to ten major feature films have been made or are in production using as a basis traditional fairy tales that we think we are all familiar with. But are we? \n This collection reprints or retranslates the earliest versions of eight of those tales, and shows how they are sometimes very far from the stuff of cosy bedtime stories or jolly pantomimes. \n The stories include: \n The Little Mermaid \n Sleeping Beauty \n Cinderella \n Beauty and the Beast \n Jack and the Beanstalk \n Snow White \n Hansel and Gretel \n Little Red Riding Hood


Pages: 140


$29.99 $7.99
E. M. Forster : The Final Years

ISBN: 9781843913757

Author: Tim Leggatt    Publisher: Hesperus Press

A moving and insightful biography of the later years of classic British author E.M. Forster's life. \n Tim Leggatt knew E.M. Forster for the last half of his li...


A moving and insightful biography of the later years of classic British author E.M. Forster's life. \n Tim Leggatt knew E.M. Forster for the last half of his life, decades after the last of his acclaimed novels was published, and in this memoir he draws on the unpublished correspondence he held with Forster over this period, as well as journals of their travels together, Forster's own confidential diary and his Commonplace Book. 'In Forster's declining years,' Leggatt writes, 'his thoughts often concerned sex and his health, his increasing blindness and deafness, his hospital visits, all of which led him to think about death and how he would meet it and how others did. But this was not as gloomy as it may well sound. 'He was much concerned about the world's growing population and in this country about the disappearance of the countryside. I have also included many of his sharp and attractive descriptions of people and scenes, those of a very perceptive and thoughtful writer.'


Pages: 120


Tag: Biography
$29.99 $7.99
The Marvellous Land of Oz

ISBN: 9781843913917

Author: L. Frank Baum    Publisher: Hesperus Press

The sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and set shortly after the events in the first book, The Marvellous Land of Oz follows the adventures of a young boy nam...


The sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and set shortly after the events in the first book, The Marvellous Land of Oz follows the adventures of a young boy named Tip, who, for as long as he can remember, has been under the guardianship of a witch named Mombi in the Land of Oz. One night he plans his escape to the Emerald City, stealing Mombi’s powder of life. Along the way he meets with our old friends the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman as well as making some new ones such as Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, and the amazing Gump. Can they escape Mombi and make it to the Emerald City?

A fantastical tale of endless imagination, The Marvellous Land of Oz is as exciting and endearing today as it was when first published over eighty years ago.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 120


Publication Date: 25-01-2013


Tag: Classics
$19.99 $7.99
The Emerald City of Oz

ISBN: 9781843913924

Author: L. Frank Baum    Publisher: Hesperus Press

Dorothy has decided to take Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to the Land of Oz, with the help of Princess Ozma. As they embark together on a tour of the land, Dorothy is...


Dorothy has decided to take Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to the Land of Oz, with the help of Princess Ozma. As they embark together on a tour of the land, Dorothy is unaware that the Nome King, squatting in his underground Kingdom, is plotting to seize the Land of Oz. He sets out to recruit new allies to help the Nome army and burrows his way to the centre of the Emerald City. Can his diabolical army be defeated by Dorothy, Princess Ozma of Oz and their friends?
In this captivating installment in the Oz series, as well as being reacquainted with favourite characters from previous books such as the Cowardly Lion, Billina the yellow hen and the Wooden Sawhorse, we are introduced to many weird and wonderful new ones such as Miss Cuttenclip, the paranoid Flutterbudgets and the living kitchen utensils of Utensia.


Bind: paperback


Pages: 120


Publication Date: 25-01-2013


Tag: Classics
$19.99 $7.99
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