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In Letters of Note: Sex, Shaun Usher collects together some of the most noteworthy missives ever written on the subject, from euphemism-laden, flirtatious exchanges and desire-driven expressions of passion to sincere and thoughtful meditations on the meaning of sex.

Peter Ackroyd's insightful new biography positions Shakespeare in the close context of his world. In this way, Ackroyd not only richly conjures up the texture of Shakespeare's life, but also imparts an amazing amount of vivid, interesting material about place, period and background. Walk with Ackroyd through sixteenth century London and Stratford as he uncovers the intimate circumstances of Shakespeare's life.

Charles Dickens was a prolific writer of letters throughout his life. There are extant more than 13,000 letters that he wrote to friends, family, fellow authors, and actors as well as many letters written to people involved in good causes he espoused. In the hands of actor and writer Simon Callow, one of the most prominent Dickens interpreters of our time, this informative and entertaining selection shows Dickens in his many guises. We know Charles Dickens the author, but these letters offer a fascinating glimpse into Charles Dickens the man.

Read by Juliet Stevenson and Simon Callow, A Literary Christmas is a seasonal anthology that collects together poems, short stories, and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they are representative of times old and new - from John Donne’s Elizabethan hymn over the baby Jesus to Rudyard Kipling’s "Christmas in India", from Thomas Tusser counting the cost of a Tudor feast to Laurie Lee’s "Cider with Rosie".

A fascinating new volume of messages about motherhood, from the author of the best-selling Letters of Note collections. In Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun Usher gathers together exceptional missives by and about mothers, celebrating the joy and grief, humor and frustration, wisdom and sacrifice the role brings to both parent and child.

In Letters of Note: Dogs, Shaun Usher brings together a delightful collection of correspondence about our canine friends, featuring affectionate accounts of pups' playful misdemeanors, heartfelt tributes to loyal fidos, and shared tales of remarkable hounds.

Descriptive copy is not yet available from the publisher.

'I would be most unhappy to think that any part of this memoir should be cut on grounds of 'decency', for those bits are essential....' So begins the lively true story of aristocrat and travel writer Roderic Fenwick Owen. Born in 1921, Fenwick Owen had an extraordinary life, which careered between some of the biggest moments in history and took him to the ends of the earth, meeting (and even living with) some of the 20th century's most well-known people along the way, including Eisenhower, Jackson Pollock, Christopher Lee and Sean Connery.

In The Eyes of Max Carrados, our blind hero, who can read a newspaper headline with the touch of his fingers and shoot a villain by aiming at the sound of his beating heart, discovers a story of murder, suicide and a desperate daughter’s quest to clear her father’s name. As the First World War rapidly approaches, we arrive in a sleepy south coast town where Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective, is soon investigating the sudden death of the local museum curator. All is not as it seems, as our blind hero finds himself on the cliff top in a duel to the death.

Beethoven yearns to see his famously unknown Immortal Beloved. A Victorian farmer proposes marriage to a woman he's never met. Zora Neale Hurston gives her ex-husband relationship advice. Mildred Loving asks the ACLU for help challenging the racist marriage laws of the Jim Crow South. Revealing deep, eternal truths from the heart, this intimate collection of 30 letters traces all of love's incarnations, from first blush and mutual enchantment to unrequited feelings and the ache of passions past. It offers a rare, passionate, and timeless look at what it means to love and be loved.

Peter Ackroyd's insightful new biography positions Shakespeare in the close context of his world. In this way, Ackroyd not only richly conjures up the texture of Shakespeare's life, but also imparts an amazing amount of vivid, interesting material about place, period and background. Walk with Ackroyd through sixteenth century London and Stratford as he uncovers the intimate circumstances of Shakespeare's life.

Peter Ackroyd's insightful new biography positions Shakespeare in the close context of his world. In this way, Ackroyd not only richly conjures up the texture of Shakespeare's life, but also imparts an amazing amount of vivid, interesting material about place, period and background. Walk with Ackroyd through sixteenth century London and Stratford as he uncovers the intimate circumstances of Shakespeare's life.

Claude is no ordinary dog.... Claude and Sir Bobblysock think they've caught a burglar coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve. They clap on the handcuffs and turn on the lights. Oh no! It isn't a burglar - it's none other than Santa Claus! Now the key for the handcuffs is lost, and it's up to our two heroes to deliver all the presents before midnight....

An everyday story of towering genius, set in and around the Lakeland retreat of William and Dorothy Wordsmith. The Wordsmiths have not long settled in their sublime cottage when they are visited by the inebriate Samuel Tailor Cholericke and the lascivious Lord Biro, followed by numerous other romantically inclined writers and leech-pedlars who arrive at the door of Vole Cottage. Dorothy must manage the increasingly chaotic household (assisted by Stinking Iris) while William focuses on his latest masterpiece, 'The Withered Turnip'.

Defeated Cossacks taunt the pompous sultan of the Ottoman Empire. A black corporal beseeches Abraham Lincoln to ensure that his regiment receives proper payment for performing their duties. Mohandas Gandhi urges Adolf Hitler to turn back the tide of war. A suicide bomber in Iraq explains his simple motivation to his family. This poignant collection offers a nuanced and moving look at the act of armed conflict. Each of these 30 remarkable letters sheds light on what it means for us to take up arms against one another and record a piece of that terrible deed.

The kingdom of Albion is under threat from The Evil One. The elves have trusted the kingdom with a mystic device (the number seven) and have entrusted a wizard by the name of Radox The Green to find a hero to save the land, in the shape of Agar Son of Athar. The series consists of four half-hour episodes or "Chronicles", originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from November 25 to December 16, 1980 and was written by Andrew Marshall (2 Point 4 Children) and John Lloyd (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & QI).

Ackroyd portrays London from the time of the druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century, noting magnificence in both epochs, but this is not a simple chronological record. It is a comprehensive account, animated by Ackroyd's concern for the close relationship between the present and the past as well as by what he describes as the peculiar "echoic" quality of London whereby its texture and history actively affect the lives and personalities of its citizens.

The Thames has been a highway, a frontier, and an attack route; it has been a playground and a sewer, a source of water and a source of power. Every stretch has its own character, atmosphere and stories. Thames: Sacred River explores the river from source to sea. Peter Ackroyd, best-selling author of London: The Biography, tells the story of the river and the people who have lived on and by it over the centuries.

Florence Nightingale sends care instructions to the woman who has just adopted her angora tomcat, Mr. White. T. S. Eliot issues a rhyming birthday party invitation to all Jellicle cats for his four-year-old godson. Jack Kerouac's mother grieves at the death of the family cat. Jack Lemmon winkingly suggests to Walter Matthau that they go in on a cat ranch in Mexico. This utterly charming collection offers a warm and friendly look at the place that cats occupy in our hearts and lives.

David Copperfield was Dickens' favorite novel. Strikingly autobiographical in its childhood scenes, it relates David's history from birth to manhood, and the classic Dickensian characters he meets on his journey of self-knowledge: Mr. Micawber, the Peggottys, Betsey Trotwood, Steerforth and Uriah Heep among many.