Observer 'Always of the elect, Margery Allingham now towers among them'

Way back during the crusades Richard I presented the Huntingforest family with the tiny Balkan state of Averna but since then the kingdom has been forgotten, until circumstances in Europe suddenly render it extremely strategically important to the British Government. They hire unconventional detective Albert Campion to recover the long-missing proofs of ownership - the deeds, a crown, and a receipt - which are apparently hidden in the village of Pontisbright.
On arriving in Pontisbright, Campion and his friends meet the eccentric, young, flame-haired Amanda Fitton and her family who claim to be the rightful heirs to Averna and join in the hunt.
Unfortunately, criminal financier Brett Savanake is also interested in finding the evidence for his own ends. Things get rather rough in the village as Savanake's heavies up the pressure on Campion to solve the mystery before they do. In the course of the hunt, Campion dresses in drag, takes refuge in a tree, is nearly drowned in a mill race, and his friends find themselves bound and gagged in sacks, shot at, and witnesses to a satanic ceremony led by the local doctor. The rural calm of Pontisbright is well and truly shattered.

Margery Allingham was a prolific writer who sold her first story at age eight and published her first novel before turning 20. Allingham went on to become one of the preeminent writers who helped bring the detective story to maturity in the 1920s and 1930s.

Judge Crowdy Lobbett has found evidence pointing to the identity of the criminal mastermind behind the deadly Simister gang. After four attempts on his life, he ends up seeking the help of the enigmatic and unorthodox amateur sleuth, Albert Campion. After Campion bundles Lobbett off to a country house in Mystery Mile deep in the Suffolk countryside, all manner of adventures ensue. It's a race against time for Campion to get the judge to safety and decipher the clue to their mysterious enemy's name. Luckily for Judge Lobbett, underneath his constant stream of nonsensical banter, Campion displays a diamond-sharp intelligence and a natural detective's instinct.

Margery Allingham was a prolific writer who sold her first story at age eight and published her first novel before turning 20. Allingham went on to become one of the preeminent writers who helped bring the detective story to maturity in the 1920s and 1930s.

Monica Ali - Introduction

William Faulkner 'One of the most true and moving novels of my time, in anybody's language'

The love affair between Maurice Bendix and Sarah, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends when she suddenly and without explanation breaks it off. After a chance meeting rekindles his love and jealousy two years later, Bendix hires a private detective to follow Sarah, and slowly his love for her turns into an obsession.

Graham Greene was born in Hertfordshire in 1904. While at Balliol College, Oxford he published his first book of verse. He continued to write throughout his lifetime, and served with the Secret Intelligence Service during the Second World War. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.' He died in 1991.

Christopher Hitchens (Introduction

A gripping spy thriller that unfolds aboard the majestic Orient Express as it crosses Europe from Ostend to Constantinople. Weaving a web of subterfuge, murder and politics along the way, the novel focuses upon the disturbing relationship between Myatt, the pragmatic Jew, and naive chorus girl Coral Musker as they engage in a desperate, angst-ridden pas-de-deux before a chilling turn of events spells an end to an unlikely interlude. Exploring the many shades of despair and hope, innocence and duplicity, the book offers a poignant testimony to Greene's extraordinary powers of insight into the human condition.

Graham Greene was born in Hertfordshire in 1904. While at Balliol College, Oxford he published his first book of verse. He continued to write throughout his lifetime, and served with the Secret Intelligence Service during the Second World War. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.' He died in 1991.

Giles Foden - Introduction

Querry, a world famous architect, is the victim of a terrible attack of indifference: he no longer finds meaning in art of pleasure in life. Arriving anonymously at a Congo leper village, he is diagnosed as the mental equivalent of a 'burnt-out case', a leper who has gone through a stage of mutilation. However, as Querry loses himself in work for the lepers his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure. Then the white community finds out who Querry is...

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Graham Greene died in April 1991. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.'

J.M. Coetzee - Introduction

William Golding, Independent ‘In a class by himself-the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety'

A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold, who is determined to avenge a death.

Graham Greene was born in Hertfordshire in 1904. While at Balliol College, Oxford he published his first book of verse. He continued to write throughout his lifetime, and served with the Secret Intelligence Service during the Second World War. He died in 1991.

, Paul Theroux - Introduction

Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt 'Papa Doc' and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American and Jones the confidence man - these are the 'comedians' of Graham Greene's title. Hiding behind their actors' masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. And, to begin with, they are men afraid of love, afraid of pain, afraid of fear itself...

Graham Greene was born in Hertfordshire in 1904. While at Balliol College, Oxford he published his first book of verse. He continued to write throughout his lifetime, and served with the Secret Intelligence Service during the Second World War. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.' He died in 1991.

Nicholas Shakespeare - Introduction

Graham Greene's gripping tragicomedy of a bungled kidnapping in a provincial Argentinian town is considered one of his finest. It tells of Charley Fortnum, the 'Honorary Consul', a whisky-sodden figure of dubious authority taken by a group of revolutionaries. As Eduardo Plarr, a local doctor, negotiates with revolutionaries and authorities for Fortnum's release, the corruption of both becomes evident. In this spare, tense novel, Graham Greene explores the morality of a political system that turns priests into killers.

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He worked as a journalist and and critic, and was later employed by the Foreign Office. He died in April 1991.

James Wood - Introduction

Scobie, a police officer serving in a war-time West African state, is distrusted, being scrupulously honest and immune to bribery. But then he falls in love, and in doing so he is forced to betray everything he believes in, with drastic and tragic consequences.

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Graham Greene died in April 1991. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.'

Mail on Sunday 'Acutely funny and sad'

Desmond never did have much luck with women - except in getting them through their driving tests. Now a coach driver, he is at the most crucial crossroads of his life. His wife has thrown him out. The crisis serves only to deepen his despair over another failed liaison - until he elects to steer his coach on a spectacularly reckless quest for the son he has never seen.

Deborah Moggach is the prize-winning author of numerous screenplays including Stolen, Goggle-Eyes, See-Saw and Close Relations, and Final Demand (starring Tamsin Outhwaite) will be shown on BBC 1 this Easter. Her many novels include the bestselling Tulip Fever and Porky. She is Chairman of the Society of Authors and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in North London.

Anita Brookner 'Extraordinarily skilful'

At school they called her Porky on account of the pigs her family kept outside the bungalow near Heathrow. But she felt no diffrent - not until she realised she was losing her innocence in a way that none of her friends could possibly imagine. Only a child robbed of her childhood can know too late what it means to be loved too little and loved too much...

Deborah Moggach is the prize-winning author of numerous screenplays including Stolen, Goggle-Eyes, See-Saw and Close Relations, and Final Demand (starring Tamsin Outhwaite) will be shown on BBC 1 this Easter. Her many novels include the bestselling Tulip Fever and Porky. She is Chairman of the Society of Authors and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in North London.