'My mother said I was over imaginative, but I was simply a liar by nature. I was happily at home with mendacity. It was less boring than the truth. My natural home lay in fiction.' Booker-prize winning writer Bernice Rubens' poignant, evocative and funny memoir reveals not only many of the origins of her darkly brilliant novels, but brings to life her war-time childhood, her work as a film-maker and her deep friendships - and some equally deep enmities - in the literary world which she enlivened so magnificently.

ISBN: 0 316 73127 7

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1947: One year before the Israeli War of Independence and Palestine is still under the British Mandate. However, young Israelis are flocking to the leadership of Menachim Begin and his Irgun terrorist movement in an attempt to overthrow their rulers. Two British sergeants are kidnapped by the Irgun. They will be executed unless there is a widespread amnesty for the Irgun freedom fighters - and so begins a hunt throughout Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the whole of Palestine to find and liberate the two innocent young men.

ISBN: 0 316 72639 7

The killer's modus operandi is the same in each instance: strangulation, always with a guitar string. And there is one other similarity that Inspector Wilkins can't help noticing.

ISBN: 0 316 85911 7

Resting in a hospice for the terminally ill, Annie is dying. Supported by her oldest friend Clemmie, who listens and sympathises, she looks back over her life, revealing her daughter's search for her father - an American GI - and her return from the US with a man of whom Annie is highly suspicious.

ISBN: 0 316 85571 5

ISBN: 0 316 64809 4

ISBN: 0 316 63987 7

Bronwen Davis looks back over her life, which was blighted when she killed a man who tried to rape her in the lane behind her parents' terraced house when she was little more than a child.

ISBN: 0 316 87547 3

This humorous novel tells what happens when a close friend dies and you can't let go. Martin Peabody responds by cutting out the mind of his friend and mentor, Walter Berry, a great novelist. "Autobiopsy" is the story he culls from the late Walter's life-time thoughts.

ISBN: 1 85619 332 2

ISBN: 1 85619 057 9

A powerful and entertaining story which captures the fierce heat of the Italian landscape as well as the rhythm of London days and evenings.

ISBN: 0 241 12881 1

The martyr of the family, Gladys brought up her four younger siblings - with a little help from their mother. When they flew the nest, they tried to find a husband for Gladys, but failed. Then suddenly, at the age of 60, she became a bride.

ISBN: 0 349 10106 X

George Verry Smith, suburban schoolmaster, is bored; with his wife, his life, his job. He lives only for Sunday, when he dresses up. On Sundays, George becomes Emily.

ISBN: 0 349 13018 3

One day in the desert, Veronica Smiles, professional explorer, meets God. She'd called out to Him. At least, that's His story - she hadn't given Him a thought for years. Gradually, however, she came to realize how much she needed Him.

ISBN: 0 241 11979 0

Luke is a failure - until one day a different kind of catastrophe occurs. The man in front of him at the post office queue drops down dead. Instinctively, Luke's hand snakes out and slips the corpse's unposted letter into his pocket. With this impulsive act, he begins a search for justice.

ISBN: 0 241 11549 3

ISBN: 0 349 13014 0

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Norman is the clever one of a closely-knit Jewish family in London's East End. Infant prodigy, brilliant barrister, the apple of his parents' eyes - until at 41 he becomes a drug addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of his hallucinations and paranoia.

ISBN: 0 241 11112 9

The story of four generations of the Bindel family as they fight for survival in a hostile world. From Imperial Russia in 1825, they head towards Western Europe, returning finally to modern Russia - where the Jews are still being persecuted

ISBN: 0 241 10994 9

The book follows the path of a single lady who has worked and taken orders all of her life. She has worked her way through many tough times in life from the orphange, through the war to her early years, working in a sweet factory on the production line and finally promotion in the accounts dept until retirement.

ISBN: 0 241 11139 0

ISBN: 0 241 10844 6

ISBN: 0 241 10664 8

Buster wasn't happy. He was a gifted violinist but he feared that his ambitious, greedy family would exploit and destroy his talent. They were already quarrelling over his future. But he had one protection - he had not yet been born.

ISBN: 072 2175 302