2077. Réage, Pauline: Story of O: Volumes 1 and 2

Published by The Leisure Circle, London, 1988

Hardback, 1st edition. Both the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in very good condition. The book leans slightly and the page edges are a little browned. The Story of O relates the love of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer for Rene. As part of that intense love, she demands debasement and severe sexual and psychological tests. Before 50 Shades of Grey, there was Story of O... Shocking and dangerously sexy, this famous story of love, dominance and submission is one of the most erotic novels of all time.

1230. Redmond, Patrick: The Wishing Game

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1999

Hardback 1st edition. Fine book in a very good unclipped d/w. The jacket is scratched on the back panel but no loss. The book has no previous owner names or marks. Kirkston Abbey is no place for the weak. Standing stark against the Norfolk sky, its aim is conformity and control; its rules harsh, its discipline savage. To 14-year-old Jonathan Palmer, it is a prison; a world in which he feels threatened and powerless. When he is offered the chance of escape, in the guise of an unexpected friendship, he accepts it gladly. But all is not as it seems. In combining his frustrations with a nature that is far more intense and destructive than his own, Jonathan is unleashing forces more powerful than he can ever hope to control. In the bleak winter term of 1954, something terrible happened at Kirkston Abbey School for boys. Now, more than forty years later, journalist Tim Webber thinks he's found the key to uncovering the truth. But is he prepared to live with the consequences...?

927. Rhinehart, Luke: Adventures of Wim

Published by Grafton, 1986

1st edition hardback, very good in a very good dust wrapper. When the gods frown, surf on the furrows. Wim is a midget from the declining Montauk tribe. Their motto: Brave Men Hide. Wim gives up his heritage to live amongst humans. Wim wreaks havoc amongst high school friends and wealthy foster parents in his quest for Ultimate Truth. Wim grows the biggest dope plant in history - and it sprouts tomatoes. Wim masters invisibility and levitation by giving up Chocolate Chip Cookies. Wim founds the major religion of the 23rd century. Wim is the guru of Ignorance and Chance.

2076. Ross, Barry: Nasty Plots: and murky biz and little David Lemon

Published by Michael Joseph, London, 1972

Hardback, 1st edition. Both the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in very good condition. All kinds of people are after David Lemon, he's convinced of it, for all the acts of sin and squalor which he has committed. He decides he will shake off his pursuers by disguising himself as a nun and escaping to North Scotland. There he will work for the Forestry Commission, find peace, and commune with good old Mother Nature. However, things go wrong…

928. Ross, Ian: Rocking the Boat

Published by Heinemann, 1990

1st edition hardback, very good in a very good dust wrapper. Set in London in the "swinging sixties" this story centres on 19-year-old Paul Shaw, a late 20th-century Bertie Wooster, who muddles his way through the sex and drugs and rock'n'roll of London and Liverpool in pursuit of the girl of his dreams.

2173. Rowling, J.K.: The Casual Vacancy

Published by Little, Brown, London. 2012

Hardback 1st UK edition. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults.

929. Salaman, Nicholas: The Garden of Earthly Delights

Published by Harper Collins, 1993

1st edition hardback with dust wrapper in fine condition. Taking as its starting point a German town in the 1530s where the extraordinary painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" was created by Hieronymus Bosch, this is the story of Bosch's apprentice, the bastard Julius, and of his lifelong quest to finish Bosch's "Hell".

933. Sandford, John: The Night Crew

Published by Headline, 1997

A fine 1st edition hardback in a fine dust wrapper. Anna Batory is a scavenger. Roaming the streets of LA by night, her video news crew hunt for sensational stories which they can sell to the TV networks. And Anna knows just where to dig to find the stories people want to see. When they film an attack on the UCLA Medical Centre by animal rights activists, Anna's not convinced the networks will go for it. Later the same night, however, they get the scoop they've been hoping for - a teenager jumps from a five-storey hotel window to his death - and all of it's on tape. The networks love it - but for Anna it's the beginning of a dizzying freefall into madness, obsession and murder. Soon, disturbing connections between her and the dead teenager start coming to light. And then she finds she's being stalked by someone with a frighteningly warped sense of reality. Someone who claims to know her better than she knows herself...

2285. Sayle, Alexei: The Weeping Women Hotel

Published by Sceptre, London. 2006

1st edition hardback. The unclipped dust wrapper is a slightly rubbed at the edges otherwise both book and jacket are fine. Northern girl Harriet lives and works on a London estate which is a battleground between the white working class plus the immigrants versus the newly arrived middle class focaccia-eaters. Unhappy and overweight, she hires a personal trainer who lures her into joining the martial arts class he runs. There she learns the regime of the completely phoney martial arts master and embarks on a spiritual and literal journey which leads her to a hotel opposite the railway station at Crewe, the Weeping Women Hotel. This is Alexei Sayle's best work to date good plot, great characters plus his trademark anarchic black humour.

934. Scarrow, Simon: Young Bloods: Revolution Volume 1

Published by Headline Review, London. 2006

1st edition hardback in very good condition. The book leans a little otherwise fine. There are no previous owner names or marks. The dust wrapper is not clipped. The first title in bestselling author Simon Scarrow's Revolution series: a quartet of novels focusing on two giants of European history, Wellington and Napoleon. Europe in the late eighteenth century was a tumultuous place, with war and rebellions breaking out on many fronts. Young Arthur Wesley (later Wellington) and Napoleon Bonaparte grow up worlds apart yet immersed from youth in a culture where a military career is a natural choice for men of ambition. While Wellington is blooded in Ireland and Flanders, Napoleon is caught up in the dramas of the French Revolution and war with Prussia, Britain and Holland. None of this is enough to distract Wellington from his pursuit of Kitty Pakenham or Napoleon from his future bride, Josephine, for these men throw themselves into all aspects of life as enthusiastically as they rush to battle. A wonderful, multi-layered introduction to an epic series.

935. Scott, Hardiman: Operation 10

Published by Bodley Head, 1982

1st edition hardback in fine condition as is the dust wrapper. In an empty school outside Dublin, four people are summoned to meet the Provisional IRA's Army Council. They have never met before, but, apart from certain skills that each possesses, the four have one thing in common - none of them is known in any way to the British security forces. Their mission, codenamed Operation 10, is to kidnap and hold hostage the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

936. Scruton, Roger: Francesca

Published by Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991

1st edition hardback in very good+ condition. The dust wrapper is also very good+. This love story is the author's second novel. His first, "Fortnight's Anger" followed other works including "Art and Imagination", "The Meaning of Conservatism", "Sexual Desire" and "The Philosopher on Dover Beach".

937. Sebastian, Tim: Spy Shadow

Published by Simon & Schuster, 1989

A near fine hardback 1st edition in a very good dust wrapper. In the snows of southern Poland, an underground leader is found dead. In King's Cross in London, an old man with a dangerously long memory is murdered. This thriller weaves a spellbinding story with chilling topicality.

938. Sebastian, Tim: Savior's Gate

Published by Simon & Schuster, 1991

1st edition hardback in very good condition as is the dust wrapper.. For the Soviet leader the public entrance to the Kremlin is through the Saviour's Gate on Red Square. But could he use this gate to steal away in secret and head for exile in the West? And if he did, could the West afford to take him?

2111. Self, Will: How the Dead Live

Published by Bloomsbury, London, 2000

Hardback 1st UK edition. Both the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. There are no previous owner names or other marks. The extraordinary story of a 65 year old woman who lies dying in a London hospital. As she's in the process of being ferried across to the other world (which turns out to be remarkably like this one), she reflects on her husbands, her children, her entire life. Brilliant and witty as always, Self has this time written a novel that carries a huge emotional punch in its portrait of a wonderful middle-aged woman - based apparently on his mother.

2112. Self, Will: Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys

Published by Bloomsbury, London, 1998

UK hardback edition, second printing. The book leans slightly otherwise both the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. There are no previous owner names or other marks. Will Self's third collection of short stories takes his readers straight into the distorting hall-of-mirrors that is his fictional world. In one story a Londoner finds his house underpinned by an enormous rock of crack cocaine; in another, a misanthrope learns that flies have feelings. This collection of short stories explores the 'muddy foreshore and abysmal depths' of the human psyche. "Caring, Sharing" envisages a realm where adults can be the children they really are, while "The Nonce Prize" presents a chilling portrait of a man who has been framed as a child abuser.

939. Seymour, Gerald: Red Fox

Published by Collins, 1979

1st edition hardback in very good condition in a very good dust wrapper. Beautiful, seductive and extremely dangerous, Franca Tantardini is one of Italy's most ruthless political extremists. When she is captured in a shoot-out, her fanatical young lover, Giancarlo Battestini, vows to set her free and, with quiet watchfulness, waits for the moment to strike. In Rome, a British businessman, Geoffrey Harrison, has been taken hostage by a ruthless organised crime syndicate - kidnap is, after all, a growth industry. The British Government are adamant that they will not pay the two-million-dollar ransom and discharge responsibility to the Italian police. As political wrangling takes hold, Battestini sees a weakness and realises that the only way to secure the release of his beloved Franca is to capture Harrison and bargain his life for hers. The authorities are confronted with a terrible choice. Should they release a woman who has masterminded the murder of so many or let an innocent man die?

941. Seymour, Gerald: Killing Ground

Published by Bantam, 1997

A fine 1st edition hardback in a fine dust wrapper. A young English schoolteacher, Charlotte Parsons, is invited to resume her job as nanny to the children of a well-to-do Sicilian family. But this time Charley is the central figure in a desperate plot by the US Drug Enforcement Agency to trap Mario Ruggerio, would-be head of the Sicilian Mafia, the man who masterminds a multi-billion dollar international drugs trade. Charley is to be the bait in the trap and, in deciding to return to the Ruggerio family in Palermo, is about to enter the killing ground…

942. Seymour, Gerald: The Journeyman Tailor

Published by Harvill, 1992

1st edition hardback in very good condition with dust wrapper. In the villages and on the mountains of County Tyrone, in the heartland of the Provisional IRA's most active Brigade, the golden rule is 'Hear nothing, see nothing, and know nothing'. To collaborate with British Intelligence is to invite an inescapable death sentence. But there is word on the mountain that inside the Brigade there is a 'tout', an informer. He will be identified, interrogated, tortured, then hooded and shot. Gary Brennard, the MI5 field agent, and Parker, who runs the informer, have to protect their man at all costs: he is the critical asset to hold on to until the stakes are high enough...and if the innocent step into the crossfire, that's just bad luck.

2084. Sharpe, Tom: Grantchester Grind: A Porterhouse Chronicle

Published by André Deutsch and Secker & Warburg, London, 1995

1st edition hardback in very good condition. There are no previous owners etc. Pages slightly browned and boards top corners bumped otherwise very good. The jacket is also very good and is unclipped. The instinct of the true Porterhouse man when faced with a crisis is to reach for the bottle! Then to fall back on the subtle tactical skills honed at Cambridge down the centuries: blackmail and kidnapping! But will these be enough? Menaced on all sides by the collapse of the Chapel, the tentacles of organized crime and the hovering threat of the abominable Dog's Nose Man, will Porterhouse be forced to unleash his most fearsome weapon: college food?

943. Sharpe, Tom: Wilt in Nowhere

Published by Hutchinson, London. 2004

1st edition hardback in fine condition. There are no previous owner names or marks. The dust wrapper is not price clipped. When his endlessly capricious wife Eva receives plane tickets for the family to visit Auntie Joan and Uncle Wally in Atlanta, Wilt knows only one thing - that nothing could entice him to fly three thousand miles over the water, and especially not two rotund Americans with more money than sense. What better way to escape and find equilibrium then to embark on a walking tour? Just Wilt, the countryside, and an ill-judged bottle of whiskey... Meanwhile, Eva finds her plans to inherit Joan and Wally's fortune slipping away faster than her sanity, thanks to a combination of sinister teenage quadruplets with foul mouths, and her unexpected role as lead suspect in a drug-trafficking plot.

2275. Shute, Nevil: Beyond the Black Stump

Published by Heinemann, London. 1956

1st edition hardback. A very good book in a very good price clipped dust wrapper. The jacket is a little rubbed and chipped at the edges and has a couple of small tears but is bright and not sunned. Stanton Laird, a young American geologist with a secret, comes to the Australian outback to search for oil. There he meets an unconventional farming family and falls in love with their Mollie Regan. However cultural differences between Stanton's and Mollie's worlds force the two lovers to make difficult decisions.

Published by Michael Joseph, London. 2008

1st edition hardback in fine condition. The dust wrapper is also fine and unclipped. There are no previous owner names or marks. The first book in the Warrior of Rome series. AD 255 - the Roman Imperium is stretched to breaking point, its authority and might challenged throughout the territories and along every border. Yet the most lethal threat lurks far to the east in Persia, where the massing forces of the Sassanid Empire loom with fiery menace. The far-flung and isolated citadel of Arete faces out across the wasteland, awaiting the inevitable invasion. One man is sent to marshal the defences of this lonely city - one man to shore up the crumbling walls of a once indomitable symbol of Roman power - a man whose name itself means war, a man called Ballista. Alone, Ballista is called to muster the forces and the courage to stand first and to stand hard against the greatest enemy ever to confront the Imperium.

Published by Michael Joseph, London. 2010

1st UK hardback edition. Both the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in fine/as new condition. There are no previous owner names or other marks. Mesopotamia, AD 260.Betrayed by his most trusted adviser, the Roman Emperor Valerian has been captured by the Sassanid barbarians. The shame of the vanquished beats down mercilessly like the white sun, as the frail old emperor prostrates himself before Shapur, King of Kings.Ballista looks on helplessly, but vows under his breath to avenge those who have brought the empire to the brink of destruction with their treachery. One day, maybe not soon, but one day, I will kill you . . . But first he must decide what price he will pay for his own freedom. Only the fearless and only those whom the gods will spare from hell can now save the empire from a catastrophic ending.Ballista, the Warrior of Rome, faces his greatest challenge yet.

944. Sillitoe, Alan: The Widower's Son

Published by W. H. Allen, 1976

Hardback 1st edition. Page edges are a little grubby otherwise a very good book in a like unclipped d/w. Jacket designed and illustrated by Leonard Baskin. Book 2 of the Flame of Life series.

Published by Anthony Blond, London, 1965

1st edition hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in very good+ condition. There is some minor wear to the dust wrapper edge but no loss. There are no previous owner names. An excellent example of a very scarce book. A rollicking, picaresque spy novel set during World War II. This is the story of Thomas Levin, ladies man, pacifist, gourmand and reluctant secret agent. Through a series of circumstances, Thomas is driven out of his beloved London and forced to work as a spy for no less than 4 different countries - England, France, Germany and the U.S. One of the charming aspects of this novel is the inclusion of the recipes (in broad strokes) of the numerous fine meals our hero prepares for those he encounters along the way.

2087. Simmonds, Posy: Gemma Bovery

Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1999

1st edition UK hardback in fine condition. There are no previous owners etc. The jacket is also fine and unclipped. Gemma is the bored, pretty second wife of Charlie Bovery, the reluctant stepmother of his children and the bête-noire of his ex-wife. Gemma's sudden windfall and distaste for London take them across the Channel to Normandy, where the charms of French country living soon wear off. Is it a coincidence that Gemma Bovery has a name rather like Flaubert's notorious heroine? Is it by chance that, like Madame Bovary, Gemma is bored, adulterous, and a bad credit risk? Is she inevitably doomed? These questions consume Gemma's neighbour, the intellectual baker, Joubert. Denying voyeurism, but nevertheless noting every change in the fit of her jeans, every addition to Gemma's wardrobe, her love-bites and lovers, Joubert, with the help of the heroine's diaries, follows her path towards ruin. Adultery and its consequences. Disappointment and deception. The English in France. Fat and slim. Then and now.

945. Sinclair, Clive: Cosmetic Effects

Published by Andre Deutsch, 1989

1st edition hardback in very good+ condition, in a very good dust wrapper. Jonah Isaacson, lecturer in film studies at the University of St Albans, sometimes feels like two people in a single body. He is the good husband and he is also the anonymous philanderer. His philandering leads him into scrapes and tricky situations including losing the use of his left arm.

946. Sinclair, Clive: Blood Libels

Published by Allison & Busby, 1985

Hardback 1st edition. Very good+ condition, both book and d/w. Only very slight wear at the edges. "Wildly erotic and weirdly plotted, the subconscious erupting into everyday life".

947. Sisman, Robyn: Special Relationship

Published by Heinemann, 1995

1st edition hardback in fine condition with a fine dust wrapper. Everyone has a special relationship in their lives ... the one they never forget. Annie, a successful London literary agent, is married to the very dependable, very English Edward. But she can't forget her passionate love affair with Jordan at university, which ended abruptly when he returned to America. Jordan is now married to efficient, pushy Virginia, and is running for the American presidency. But he and Annie are brought together again when a secret from their past is unearthed that could put Jordan's career in jeopardy, and destroy both their marriages. Will they do the right thing and keep the past where it belongs, or will the power of their special relationship prove too strong?