Anton Lesser

Cat O'Nine Tales is the fifth collection of irresistible short stories from the master storyteller. Ingeniously plotted, with richly drawn characters and Jeffrey Archer's trademark of deliciously unexpected conclusions, some of these thirteen stories were inspired by the two years Archer spent in prison, including the story of the company chairman who tries to poison his wife while on a trip to St. Petersburg--with unexpected consequences. There

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After a shipwreck, twin siblings Viola and Sebastian wash up on the shores of Illyria. Viola, disguised as a man named Cesario, takes up service with the Duke Orsino, who is madly in love with the Lady Olivia. But Olivia is in mourning over her brother's death, so Orsino sends Cesario over as an emissary of love, except that Olivia falls for Viola!

In an effort to give their younger brother, Norman a project to keep him busy now that he has joined the family publishing house, the older Warne brothers agree to publish Miss Beatrix Potter's first children's book. They don't expect the book to sell well, but they need to keep Norman busy. As a single woman living in Edwardian London, Beatrix suspects this endeavor may provide her with a small measure of freedom. But she also has very specific ideas...

WHEN ONE OF Sally’s clients loses a large sum of money in the unexpected collapse of a British shipping firm, Sally sets out to investigate. But as she delves deeper into the identity of a wealthy and elusive industrialist, she uncovers a plot so diabolical, it could subvert the entire civilized world.

Aesop was an Ancient Greek story-teller and slave, famed and cherished for his short fables that often involve personified animals. In the renowned collection of works that is Aesop's Fables, he weaves moral education and entertainment together into tales that have been enjoyed by many, many generations. A lot of the stories in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (giving us the term "sour grapes"), The Tortoise and the

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In George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion a phonetician believes the power of speech is such that he can introduce a Cockney flower girl to polite society after careful language and etiquette training, and no one will discern her true roots. The professor and the flower girl grown close, but after her successful debut she rejects the professor and his overbearing ways for a poor gentleman.

The most famous adaptation of the play is the 1964

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Romeo and Juliet is the tragic love story of the "star-crossed lovers," Romeo and Juliet. Set in the city of Verona, Italy, the play revolves around the feud between two affluent families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Despite the enmity, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall passionately in love and wed in secret. However, the enmity between both disapproving families overpowers and leads everything to go terribly wrong.