Books published by publisher Hesperus Press Ltd (28 Feb. 2014)

This charming, magical story from award-winning author Elizabeth Goudge beautifully depicts early twentieth century English country life while conjuring an air of magical adventure. Written by the author who inspired J.K. Rowling, it is full of vivid characters, battles between good and evil and wonderful spell-binding moments. Locked away in separate rooms as punishment by their ruthless grandmother, Nan, Robert, Timothy and Betsy decide to make their escape - out of the house, out of the garden and into the village. Commandeering a pony and trap, the children and their dog are led away as the pony makes his way nonchalantly home. The pony's destination happens to be a house that belongs to the children's uncle Ambrose. Gruff but loveable Uncle Ambrose agrees to take them under his wing, letting the children have free reign in his sprawling manor house and surrounding countryside. Befriending the motley collection of house guests including an owl, a giant cat and a servant who converses with bees, and getting to know the miscellaneous inhabitants of the village, the four siblings discover a life in which magic and reality are curiously intermingled and evil and tragedy lurk never far away. Winner of Hesperus Press' 'Uncover a Children's Classic Competition', The Runaways is a truly charming story from a bygone era.

The international publishing sensation-over two million copies sold.\n\nA reluctant centenarian much like Forrest Gump (if Gump were an explosives expert with a fondness for vodka) decides it's not too late to start over ...\n\nAfter a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant).\n\nIt would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the mo

Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives a lonely life in a wild, desolate, mountainous kingdom, with only her nursemaid, Lootie, for company. She is protected from the outside world and oblivious to the existence of goblins, hideous creatures that live underground and only come out at night. One day, while out walking, Irene and Lootie get lost. As night falls, strange shadows creep out from under boulders and around corners, closing in on them. Terrified, they try to run but the goblins give chase. It is then they run into Curdie, the brave miner's son who isn't afraid of the goblins and knows how to scare them away. While working late one night in the mines Curdie overhears a diabolical plan the goblins are plotting. The terrible goblin Queen plans to kidnap the princess and force her to marry her son. That way she believes humans will be forced to accept goblins as their rulers. Can they be stopped and the kingdom be saved before it is too late? Before the creation of Middle Earth or Narnia, George MacDonald was inventing wonderful kingdoms and populating them with magical creatures and enchanted beings. This is a must-read for all fantasy aficionados and fans of J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.

Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives a lonely life in a wild, desolate, mountainous kingdom, with only her nursemaid, Lootie, for company. She is protected from the outside world and oblivious to the existence of goblins, hideous creatures that live underground and only come out at night. One day, while out walking, Irene and Lootie get lost. As night falls, strange shadows creep out from under boulders and around corners, closing in on them. Terrified, they try to run but the goblins give chase. It is then they run into Curdie, the brave miner's son who isn't afraid of the goblins and knows how to scare them away. While working late one night in the mines Curdie overhears a diabolical plan the goblins are plotting. The terrible goblin Queen plans to kidnap the princess and force her to marry her son. That way she believes humans will be forced to accept goblins as their rulers. Can they be stopped and the kingdom be saved before it is too late? Before the creation of Middle Earth or Narnia, George MacDonald was inventing wonderful kingdoms and populating them with magical creatures and enchanted beings. This is a must-read for all fantasy aficionados and fans of J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is a legendary children's story by the enchanting E. Nesbit which has delighted countless generations of children; this brand new edition ensures that it will be able to reach a whole new modern audience. The Bastable children (Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel and Horace Octavius - H.O.) live in London with their widowed father. Too poor to attend school, the children are left to their own devices and they spend their days coming up with ingenious plans to restore their father's fortune. Told from the first person perspective - which lends the narrative substantial bias - The Story of the Treasure Seekers was Nesbit's first work. Refreshingly free of Victorian sentimentality, yet still wonderfully evocative of a bygone era, The Story of the Treasure Seekers makes for timeless reading. Adapted numerous times for television, The Story of the Treasure Seekers is proof of Nesbit's esteemed place in the canon of children's literature.

A masterpiece of farcical comedy by the author of Treasure Island sees two brothers about to inherit a fortune, if only one pesky relative would adhere to the rules… The Wrong Box is a black comedy novel, co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. Morris and John Finsbury stands to gain a lot of money if their Uncle Masterman dies, but none if Uncle Joseph dies first. So when Joseph seems to have come to an untimely end in a railway accident, a farcical sequence is set in motion. Determined to conceal the death, Morris hides the body in a barrel which he then ships to London. How will the situation resolve itself and how long can the deception continue for…? First published in 1889 and adapted several time for film and musical, The Wrong Box is Stevenson at his funniest. The farce moves at a tremendous pace with Stevenson rapidly piling up train crashes, missing uncles, cases of mistaken identity and surplus dead bodies.