A wonderful collection of more than a dozen little-known tales of magical fun from all over the globe. A beautifully illustrated edition of a classic compendium of tales from around the world. Escape to a faraway mystical world where anything can happen: where a boy can find a belt that gives him amazing strength, where a frog can be a beautiful princess in disguise, and where princes can fly on magic carpets. Retold in wonderful detail by long-time Quentin Blake collaborator John Yeoman, these stories sparkle with enchantment, adventure, and a beautifully imagined mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. Stories Include: The Blue Belt, Half-Man-Half-Lame-Horse, The Crystal Ship, The Five Strange Brothers, The Magic Handkerchief, The Pumpkin Tree, The Magic Cakes, The Frog Skin, The Three Old Crones, Prince Baki and the White Doe, The Old Man and the Jinni, The Poor Girl and Her Cow.

Originally published: London: Jonathan Cape, 1983.

From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! Someone's been stealing from the three meanest farmers around, and they know the identity of the thief--it's Fantastic Mr. Fox! Working alone they could never catch him, but now Boggis, Bunce, and Bean have joined forces, and they've concocted a cunning plan to dig him out of his hole once and for all. What they don't know is they're not dealing with just any fox. Mr. Fox would rather die than surrender, and he just happens to have a fantastic plan of his own . . . This special edition of Roald Dahl's beloved story has a beautiful full-color interior and large trim to feature Quentin Blake's iconic art.

The authors of The Hypnotist and The Nightmare deliver their most thrilling novel yet Flora Hansen calls herself a medium and makes a living by pretending to commune with the dead. But after a gruesome murder at a rural home for wayward girls, Hansen begins to suffer visions that are all too real. She calls the police, claiming to have seen a ghost, but only one detective puts aside his skepticism long enough to listen: Joona Linna. Linna has spent more time at the scene of the crime than any other detective would. The case seems obvious on the face of it: One of the girls at the home escaped in the middle of the night, leaving behind a bloody bed with a hammer under the pillow. But why does Hansen insist that the murder instrument was a stone, not a hammer? And what's the story behind the dark red grain of sand, almost like a splinter from a ruby, stuck beneath the dead girl's fingernail? As Linna refuses to accept easy answers, his search leads him into darker, more violent territory, and finally to a shocking confrontation with a figure from his past. Just as Lars Kepler's The Hypnotist and The Nightmare did, The Fire Witness has spent months at number one on the Swedish bestseller lists. As the newspaper Dagens Nyheter put it, you start the thriller "on the subway home, keep reading at the dinner table, and then don't stop until well into the wee hours." Kepler writes with the force of Stieg Larsson and the plotting of Jo Nesbø. The Fire Witness is an unflinching page-turner, sure to join the ranks of its predecessors as an international sensation.

A hilarious, touching and extraordinary fable from David Walliams, number one bestseller and fastest growing children’s author across the globey, with EXCLUSIVE audio and video from David Walliams

Wonderful, witty and wise, this classic Quentin Blake tale will warm hearts of young and old alike.

"Genuinely fascinating reading."—The New York Times Book Review "Diverting and patently authoritative."—The New Yorker "Grand and fascinating … a history, a compendium and a critical study all in one, and all first rate."—Rex Stout "A landmark … a brilliant study written with charm and authority."—Ellery Queen "This book is of permanent value. It should be on the shelf of every reader of detective stories."—Erle Stanley Gardner Author Howard Haycraft, an expert in detective fiction, traces the genre's development from the 1840s through the 1940s. Along the way, he charts the innovations of Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the modern influence of George Simenon, Josephine Tey, and others. Additional topics include a survey of the critical literature, a detective story quiz, and a Who's Who in Detection.