The narrator, Isobel, 16, is a time traveller, while her brother is afraid of abduction by aliens. They are abandoned by their parents, then seven years later the father returns with a new wife. Where is mother? The grandmother who looks after them won't answer. An English tragicomedy by the author of Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

When their father is sent away to prison, three London children move to the country where they keep busy preventing accidents on the nearby railway, making many new friends, and generally learning a good deal about themselves.

"You're not doing very much at the moment, darling. I don't suppose you'd care to house-sit for a while?" Thus begins the irresistible story of two fixer-uppers-an old house and a young woman-and their efforts to recapture their true luster. When Hetty Longden, freshly dumped and brokenhearted, agrees to look after her great-uncle's long-abandoned mansion in the British countryside, she's at something of a lifetime low. With no job, no lover, no...

Celebrated for his playwriting, British author Michael Frayn has also written screenplays and several acclaimed novels. Headlong, a Booker Prize finalist, combines a heavy dose of humor with a fascinating glimpse into the world of priceless art. When Martin Clay and his art historian wife are asked to appraise the private collection of a loutish man, it is Martin, not his wife, who believes he has discovered a lost masterpiece from Dutch painter Bruegel....

Shows the little village facing the consequences of a fire that destroyed the rectory, making room for a retirement community and a group of new residents.

Matt comes across photos of him as a child yet they seem unfamiliar; is it really him? He can't remember the clothes or the toys, and his sister Imogen is nowhere in the pictures. Since her childhood Imogen has loved the Summer House, a charming folly in the grounds of an ancient house on Exmoor and now she and her veterinary husband have the chance of buying. But her marriage is threatened when her husband refuses to live so far from his practice....

A retired educator and London government service administrator living in a rural house inherited from her aunt finds renewal, hope and consolation for earlier unsatisfying relationships and her lack of religious faith by learning more about her aunt and herself.