New Releases by Jill Paton Walsh

Laurence und Rosamund Harwell gelten in ihren Kreisen als Paradebeispiel einer amour fou. Während Laurence als Theaterproduzent seinen Geschäften nachgeht, bändelt die kapriziöse Rosamund mit einem jungen Dramatiker an. Als sie kurze Zeit später ermordet aufgefunden wird, soll sich Lord Peter ein wenig in der feinen Gesellschaft umhören ...

A PLAGUE - A VILLAGE - A LOCKDOWN 1665, Eyam, Derbyshire. ''Here I have set down all that I know of the Plague'' It is 1665 and Mall Percival is a shepherd girl living in a Derbyshire village. She tends her flock, spends time with her best friend and teaches her young suitor to read. But one day a parcel of patterns, meant for a new dress for the pastor''s wife, wings its way from London. The parcel carries an infection that spreads with horrifying speed. Herbal teas and open windows are the only defence against the sickness. Yet the villagers make a brave and selfless decision: to isolate themselves from the rest of the country. It is a lockdown that saves the neighbouring towns, but at heart-breaking cost to Mall''s world. Based on the true events of the village of Eyam, this is the story of a courageous sacrifice that saved Derbyshire and beyond from a deadly virus. *SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD PRIZE* ''A pocket masterpiece'' Guardian Readers love A Parcel of Patterns ''I couldn''t put it down'' ''Brought me to tears too many times to count'' ''If you think social distancing is hard in the Coronavirus pandemic, read this wonderful novel based on the true story of the village of Eyam''

Lord Peter and Harriet return to the scene of their literate courtship to resolve an Oxford University dispute that is complicated by the disappearance of several prominent Fellows.

A re-issue of a forgotten favourite, FIREWEED is an evocative and unflinching story of wartime survival for younger readers Bill is a fifteen-year-old runaway evacuee, and he''s finding that surviving on the streets of London is pretty easy, thank you very much. He''s fed by a local cafe owner, he earns some cash as a barrow-boy in Covent Garden, and sleeping in the Underground air-raid shelters is cosy - if a bit smelly. Things get more complicated for Bill with the arrival of Julie. She''s a runaway too, and although she''s a bit posh, she''s just as determined as Bill to stay free of interfering parents and ''the social''. But although it''s fun for a while to duck Jerry missiles and camp out in bombed-out houses, the reality of living through the Blitz quickly begins to set in. Winter is coming, and Bill and Julie will discover that playing at being grown-ups can be a very dangerous game.... First published in 1969, and winner of the 1970''s Book World Festival Award, FIREWEED evokes a time of tin Spitfires, powdered eggs, warm woollen mittens and reading by firelight. Perfect for readers young and old, this book is a beautifully written classic, full of adventure, heroism and British wartime courage.

Jill Paton Walsh''s classic science fiction novel The Green Book is now available from Square Fish with a brand–new cover! Pattie and her family are among the last refugees to flee a dying Earth in an old spaceship. And when the group finally lands on the distant planet which is to be their new home, it seems that the four-year journey has been a success. But as they begin to settle this shiny new world, they discover that the colony is in serious jeopardy. Nothing on this planet is edible, and they may not be able to grow food. With supplies dwindling, Pattie and her sister decide to take the one chance that might make life possible on Shine.

Sometimes, Birdy watches her father row people across the dangerous sea, but when the wrinkled old woman asks to be ferried across, Birdy jumps in too. The woman tells Birdy that she has second sight, but Birdy isn''t sure she wants this special gift. However, soon she finds that looking twice at things can bring the most unexpected results . . . With an engaging story told in short chapters, and illustrations in black and white and colour on every double-page spread, this short novel is ideal for newly confident readers.

''A jewel in the traditional English detective mode . . . Ms. Morse has arrived'' Observer According to certain Cambridge scholars, the locked library of St Agatha''s College is home to an unrivalled - and deeply uninteresting - collection of seventeenth century volumes. It also contains one dead student. At first glance it seems like a tragic accident - even if malicious rumours suggest that Philip Skellow had been stealing books rather than acquiring knowledge when he''d slipped, banged his head, and bled to death overnight. Only Imogen Quy, the college nurse, has her doubts. And before long, another student is found, drowned in an ornamental fountain . . .

The long-awaited new Lord Peter Wimsey novel, telling the story of his first case and his last. Paton Walsh, takes over from Dorothy L Sayers to bring back Lord Wimsey.

Prince Dhutmose has commanded a splendid tomb to be built for his final journey to the Land of the Dead. Pepi''s father is to decorate it, but how can he paint the unimaginable - the Lions of the Horizon, the terrible gods Horus the Hawk and Sebek the crocodile, and Mertseger the deadly Winged Cobra? Pepi decides to find real-life models for his father, using his knowledge of secret names. In this enthralling, magically illustrated story, young readers can solve the secret names for themselves, using a simple hieroglyphics key to enter the mysterious world of ancient Egypt.

Sixty years after Dorothy L. Sayers began her unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey novel, Thrones Dominations, Booker Prize finalist Jill Paton Walsh took on the challenge of completing the manuscript---with extraordinary success. "The transition is seamless," said the San Francisco Chronicle; "you cannot tell where Sayers leaves off and Walsh begins." "Will Paton Walsh do it again?" wondered Ruth Rendell in London''s Sunday Times. "We must hope so." Jill Paton Walsh fulfills those hopes in A Presumption of Death. Although Sayers never began another Wimsey novel, she did leave clues. Drawing on "The Wimsey Papers," in which Sayers showed various members of the family coping with wartime conditions, Walsh has devised an irresistible story set in 1940, at the start of the Blitz in London. Lord Peter is abroad on secret business for the Foreign Office, while Harriet Vane, now Lady Peter Wimsey, has taken their children to safety in the country. But war has followed them there---glamorous RAF pilots and even more glamorous land-girls scandalize the villagers, and the blackout makes the nighttime lanes as sinister as the back alleys of London. Daily life reminds them of the war so constantly that, when the village''s first air-raid practice ends with a real body on the ground, it''s almost a shock to hear the doctor declare that it was not enemy action, but plain, old-fashioned murder. Or was it? At the request of the overstretched local police, Harriet reluctantly agrees to investigate. The mystery that unfolds is every bit as literate, ingenious, and compelling as the best of original Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

Booker Prize finalist Walsh returns to her series set at Cambridge Universityfeaturing amateur sleuth Imogen Quy.

An English boy, shipwrecked, hungry, and lost, finds his way into the court of Constantine where he is interpreted as a symbol of good luck and, as such, ordered to be kept always near the king.

"As divided post-war Europe unravels around them, they must make what they can of lives buffeted by circumstance. For many, individual freedom is at best problematic. For better or worse, communities are destroyed, families uprooted, and the ties of trust, friendship and duty which bind them together are broken down by the implacably irresolvable forces at work."--BOOK JACKET.

" C''est trop tard ! " dit Marian. Les mots étaient montés à ses lèvres avant d''avoir atteint sa conscience... " Trop tard pour lui demander tellement de choses, mais elle était toujours occupée... Oh, j''ai attendu trop longtemps... " Toby et Alice croyaient tous les deux savoir ce qu''elle aurait voulu savoir : la vérité sur son père, leur grand-père inconnu, jamais nommé, jamais évoqué, dont l''absence semblait avoir amputé leur mère d''une sorte de sixième sens et conduit le moment venu - du moins c''est ainsi qu''ils voyaient la chose - à la défection de leur propre père. Le non-dit au sein d''une famille est un sujet brûlant entre tous. À plus de quarante ans, Marian va entreprendre une bien étrange enquête pour tenter de découvrir qui était son père. Quels indices a-t-elle ? Rien ou presque : un tableau retrouvé dans l''atelier - sa mère était peintre - représentant un homme nu inconnu. Et puis loin, loin au fond de sa mémoire, le souvenir d''une grotte aux parois lisses et colorées, vert foncé et rouge foncé - de la serpentine - que l''eau envahit peu à peu...

Gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and his bride Harriet Vane have settled into thier life together in 1930s London when an extra complication arises suddenly.

Depuis la Première Guerre mondiale, l''Empire britannique perd de son prestige... Cette puissance fièrement attachée à ses institutions les voit disparaître les unes après les autres, emportant avec elles les vestiges du passé. La monarchie elle-même semble souffrir de ces transformations, lorsque Edouard VIII renonce au trône par amour ! La décadence s''étend à toute la société ; du moins est-ce là le sentiment de l''aristocratie, pour qui les classes sociales ne peuvent se mélanger. Aussi le mariage de Lord Peter Wimsey avec Harriet Vane, roturière, n''est-il pas sans déranger... Pourtant cette union se révèle des plus parfaites : lui s''ingénie à résoudre des énigmes réelles, tandis qu''elle en imagine dans ses romans policiers à succès. Mais cette passion commune va malheureusement prendre l''allure d''une malédiction... Déjà témoins d''un crime peu avant leur lune de miel, Les Wimsey doivent désormais enquêter sur l''assassinat d''une de leur proches... Une enquête inédite du célèbre héros de Dorothy Sayers, considérée par ses pairs comme l''égale de la grande Agatha Christie.

Dialogue entre une petite fille et sa grand-mère. Comparaison entre la vie aujourd''hui et celle d''autrefois.

In Cambridge, England, three writers undertake to write a mathematician''s biography and each in turn comes to an untimely end. To find out why, PI Imogen Quy, the school nurse at St. Agatha''s College, travels to Wales, to discover genius, jealousy and murder.

When Connie comes to play she uses her imagination.

The reader is transported to a medieval island, where the enduring legend of the wolf child is re-enacted, the story of a pitiful, savage girl found by shepherds in the mountains.

After helping her father rescue the survivors of a shipwreck on the coast of England in 1838, Grace Darling finds her quiet life crumbling around her as she is unwillingly fashioned into a national hero.

James''s difficulty in adjusting to a new school and life in the Fens is further complicated by the request of an elderly neighbor to find his lucky piece, a task which puts James in some danger.