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A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. In this festive short story featuring Francis Durbridge’s favourite debonair amateur detective, Paul Temple journeys to Switzerland to identify an elusive criminal.

Keith Floyd started out in a hotel kitchen in Bristol. He made and lost fortunes, was married four times, and dealt with a level of fame that bemused him. Now, in this revealing memoir, he reflects upon his colourful career. As irrepressible, funny and charming as the man himself, this is a must-read for anyone who loves life, food, women... and a quick slurp.

March, 1918. British newspapers carry the dreadful news that the German Spring Offensive has begun, with thousands of British lives lost. Detective Sargeant Joe Keedy is awaiting release from hospital in London and is anxious to resume the fight against crime on the Home Front. Late one night, a bank is raided by a gang and the villains escape by car with a sizeable haul. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion is put in charge of the case, but without Keedy at his side he faces an uphill battle to solve this perplexing case.

Bert Trautmann is famed as the goalkeeper who broke his neck in an FA Cup final and played on. But his early life is no less extraordinary: he grew up in Nazi Germany and fought for the Germans in World War Two. In 1945 he was captured and sent to a British POW camp where, for the first time, he saw a better way of life. He embraced England as his new home and before long became an England football hero. This is his extraordinary story.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. Each year the Christmas card arrives from 'Leech', an unknown member of Timothy Trent’s family asking for money in return for their silence. But this year he’s determined to find out who is behind the cruel Christmas request and put an end to it once and for all....

Ada Hobbes has cleaned for Dr Tindall for many years and begins the morning like any other day. But the house is not empty after all. The blood-covered George Tindall is sprawled across the floor. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy arrive to a horrific scene. Someone enjoyed killing Tindall, without a doubt. Their investigation takes them out of London and on the trail of three different women as it emerges that Dr Tindall was not the respectable local GP after all, but a bigamist whose third wife had some very interesting connections in the crime fraternity.

On 16 July 1940, Hitler issued Directive No. 16, setting in motion Operation Sea Lion: his plan to invade England. The success of Operation Sea Lion hinged entirely on the destruction of the RAF and the Royal Navy, but even as Hitler's plans swung into action and England, barely recovered from Dunkirk, rallied her defences, the Battle of Britain began and in just a few months Germany had lost all hope of dominating England's skies and with it, the key to the invasion. On 17 September, 1940, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely and the entire episode faded from memory.

Alderman John Foster purchases a piece of land from the Magdalen Nunnery intending to build a chapel, dedicated to the Magi - the Three Kings of Cologne - and some almshouses. He little imagines the shocking discovery about to be made.

While attending a lavish masked ball in Venice, retired Scotland Yard Detective Jasper has a shock when, at the midnight démasqué, he spots a woman whose accidental death he investigated in England three years ago. Even more stunned than Jasper is the woman's husband, Lord Bantham, who has since remarried, not to mention his new wife who sees her acquired position and wealth slip away. Then there are her old friends who all seem to have known more about the 'accident' than they ever let on. Then, the resurrected lady is found dead the next morning.

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War, which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain. Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the war and is virtually lost to the modern audience. This new collection is an important work of recovery, introducing little-known magazine short fiction - which was primarily written for a civilian readership - by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors.

Howard Pyle's heroic version of Robin Hood begins after a conflict with some foresters leads to Robin of Locksley becoming the outlaw famous for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Each chapter tells a different tale of Robin as he recruits Merry Men, resists the authorities, and aids his fellow man. Pyle's version includes the popular stories of Little John and Robin's staff fight, Friar Tuck's besting of Robin, Robin's collusion with Allan-a-Dale, and several of his conflicts with the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Drake read the obituary for Howard Gray in the Daily Telegraph. It had intrigued him because he had been very close to Gray many years ago, though they had lost touch later for reasons that were certainly not mentioned in the newspaper. A lot that had happened in those early years, things that whoever had supplied the material for the obituary obviously didn't want to see in print. As Drake recalls his adventures with Gray, he wonders who supplied the material.

Born at the beginning of the 20th century, Raphael Ignatius Phoenix is determined to take his own life as the new millennium begins and he turns 100 years old. But before he ends it all, he wants to get his affairs in order, and that includes making sense of his own life. He decides to write it down, remembering the experiences, the myriad encounters and, of course, the 10 murders he committed along the way.

When four postcards are sent anonymously to the staff of an advice centre, each with the word “murder” scribbled in a foreign language and the same precise OS map reference, the police are called. DCI Hennessey and his team of detectives visit the sinister location and make a chilling discovery: The body of a professional man who had been reported missing ten years earlier. Who sent the postcards, and why so long after the crime?

With a single daring leap from an Italian train carrying prisoners of war, John Miller jumped out of the war of soldiers and into the war as lived by Italian civilians - many of whom risked their lives to help him. The year was 1943 and Captain Miller had been in captivity for over a year. Italian anti-fascists harboured and fed him, first in a remote mountain village, then in Rome itself.

A fifties murder mystery set in Malaya from author of the popular Crowner John books. Arriving in Singapore, newly-qualified pathologist Tom Howden soon discovers that his new home is a hotbed of scandal and intrigue. When an English planter is attacked one night, the finger of suspicion points at local bandits. It soon becomes clear, however, that the situation is far more complicated - and deadly - than it first appeared. Tom Howden's newly-acquired forensic skills are about to be put to the ultimate test.

George Hennessey, Detective Chief Inspector at Micklegate Bar Police Station in York, is contented in his work...until the body of ambitious news-hound Cornelius Weekes is discovered. With the help of loyal Detective Sergeant Yellich, Hennessey is determined to solve this case quickly.

A collection of Peter Fleming’s essays written for The Spectator.

The Hall family live under the brooding shadow of the Black Mountains, in the mining town of Hillsbridge. Charlotte, James and their seven children are independent spirits, united by strong family values. Living in a mining community is never easy, and when the shadow of impending war threatens, they must pull together to face the hardship to come. Can this close-knit family overcome whatever tragedy life throws at them?

The plague has struck London once again but so has opportunity for theatre company Lord Westfield’s Men. Invited to perform at the wedding celebrations of Sophia Magdalena, the fair maid of Bohemia, the company’s bookholder Nicholas Bracewell and his acting troupe begin the long journey across Europe. Confident they will arrive safely and deliver Lord Westfield’s secret missive to an alchemist in the Imperial Court, Nicholas is unaware what danger travels with them.