'Raffles, Gentleman Thief' by E.W. Hornung
A. J. Raffles — cricketing star, man about town and London’s most debonair thief — moves effortlessly between respectable Mayfair drawing rooms and midnight escapades. With his loyal companion Bunny Manders at his side, Raffles turns crime into an art, blending wit, charm and daring ingenuity. These tales of high society and higher stakes remain some of the finest adventures of the Victorian gentleman tradition: sophisticated, sly and delightfully entertaining.
Raffles, Gentleman Thief is the twentieth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'An English Murder' by Cyril Hare
Snow falls thick on Warbeck Hall as a small group gathers for a country house Christmas. But when one guest is found dead, it soon becomes clear that the killer is among them. With secrets, politics and old grudges simmering beneath the surface, Cyril Hare delivers a classic whodunnit — wry, ingenious and irresistibly English.
First published in 1951, this novel perfectly captures the uneasy post-war mood of Britain, weaving social change and political tensions into a timeless country house mystery.
An English Murder by Cyril Hare is the nineteenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Excellent Women' by Barbara Pym
Mildred Lathbury is one of those excellent women who are often taken for granted. As a clergyman’s daughter, she is capable of dealing with the great moments of life: birth, marriage, death, a jumble sale, a garden fête spoilt by bad weather. But as she becomes embroiled in the lives of her new neighbours, anthropologist Helen Napier and her dashing husband Rockingham – for whom Mildred has rather a soft spot – she wonders if there are some problems that even tea cannot solve. A wry, insightful and beautifully observed portrait of postwar London, this is Barbara Pym’s world at its funniest and most touching.
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym is the eighteenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Riotous Assembly' by Tom Sharpe
When Miss Hazelstone of Jacaranda Park kills her Zulu cook in a sensational crime passionel, the gallant members of the South African police force are soon on the scene: Kommandant van Heerden, whose secret longing for the heart of an English gentleman leads to the most memorable transplant operation yet recorded; Luitenant Verkramp of the Security Branch, ever active in the pursuit of Communist cells; Konstabel Els, with his propensity for shooting first and not thinking later - and also for forcing himself upon African women in a manner legally reserved for male members of their own race.
Not a 'political' novel in any previously imagined sense, Riotous Assembly provided a completely fresh approach to the South African scene - an approach startling in its deadpan savagery and yet also outrageously funny.
Riotous Assembly is the seventeenth volume in The Hatchards Library, and comes numbered with a stylish new dust jacket and William Morris endpapers.
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
It’s the day of Mrs Dalloway’s party. Old friends, her husband’s Westminster colleagues and even the Prime Minister himself are all invited. Yet it’s the past that floods and haunts Clarissa’s mind, especially when her friend Peter arrives out of the blue, back from India. While Mrs Dalloway buys flowers, considers the books displayed in Hatchards’ window, mends her dress and prepares for the evening ahead, Septimus Smith, a man shell-shocked from the Great War, struggles with his memories too – dead comrades speak to him from the skies above Regent’s Park. Clarissa and Septimus never meet, yet their stories culminate – shockingly – just as the party begins.
Limited, numbered and featuring a stylish new jacket and William Morris endpapers, this edition is sure to look fabulous gracing any and all bookshelves.
Mrs Dalloway is the sixteenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
As the music drifts away from Regent’s Park and twilight descends, we find ourselves in the midst of wartime London. It’s 1942 and, whilst people are living recklessly in the moment, Stella has miraculously found home and romance. Until, that is, the truculent Harrison steers himself into her life and suggests her lover, Robert, is a Nazi informant. Preposterous as that might seem, Stella soon finds her world unravelling. Who should she believe? Who can she trust?
Limited, numbered and featuring a stylish new jacket and William Morris endpapers, this edition is republished by Hatchards to commemorate the 80th anniversary of V.E. Day on 8th May 1945.
The Heat of the Day is the fifteenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
With a voice like a loud-speaker and a complete lack of grace, the formidable Lady Bobbin liked to keep tight control of Christmas at Compton Bobbin. However, the tutor she has employed for her son is there under false pretences, her wayward daughter is spurning a suitable Lord in favour of a penniless author and an attractive ex-courtesan with ulterior motives is staying nearby. Described by Harold Acton as ‘frolicsome’, Nancy Mitford’s story of the Bright Young Things is astute, sharp and delightfully wicked.
Christmas Pudding is the fourteenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett
Theodore Racksole may be the third richest man in the United States but his daughter Nella always gets what she wants; when the head waiter declines to serve the steak and beer she demands, the millionaire simply buys the Grand Babylon Hotel. Based on the Savoy in London, it is the epitome of respectability and discretion but a murder, two disappearances, a kidnapping, a string of false identities and a lost prince threaten to disrupt its serene status. Hotel hilarity par excellence.
The Grand Babylon Hotel is the thirteenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Lonely Skier' by Hammond Innes
It lies somewhere beneath the snow, high in the Dolomites: Nazi gold, tainted with the blood of murdered men. Only a few know its secrets, and one by one they come in search of it – a hot-tempered Italian Comtessa, a racketeering pimp, a Greek criminal, a film-maker and a hapless writer. A tense battle of wits leads to an explosive finale in Innes’ classic tale of revenge and deadly greed.
The Lonely Skier is the twelfth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Christmas Holiday' by W. Somerset Maugham
Based on a Parisian murder trial Maugham attended, Christmas Holiday tells the story of a shocking crime. Charley Mason, a charming and gentle young man, plans a ‘glorious, wild and romantic’ Christmas in Paris before settling down in the family firm. On his first night he meets a supposed Russian princess in exile; murder, communism and impoverished émigrés fill the rest of his holiday, making an intriguing study of human nature. A fascinating comment on the period and a marvellous picture of 1930s Paris.
Christmas Holiday is the eleventh volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Lucky Jim' by Kingsley Amis
Few novels have skewered the absurdities of academia so precisely and wittily. Jim Dixon, the novel’s comic and finely-drawn protagonist, is disgruntled with post-war life, particularly with his post as history lecturer at a red-brick university under a fusty professor he despises. His splendidly chippy attitude does little to help as he delivers a lecture drunk, picks the wrong girl and burns a bed, and with it his chances of a future. But, of course, he has luck on his side.
Lucky Jim is the tenth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Man Who Was Thursday' by G.K. Chesterton
Imagine a society of anarchists so secret that their members are only known as days of the week. Then imagine a police force where officers are interviewed in a pitch-dark room. Into this extraordinary world comes Gilbert Syme, poet of order and policeman, who is promised an evening of entertainment. The farce which follows has policemen following criminals, criminals following policemen and a chase through London involving hansom cabs and an elephant. The day before he died Chesterton wrote that this book was misunderstood because readers ignored its subtitle: A Nightmare. Which is exactly what it is, albeit a very entertaining and hilarious one.
The Man Who Was Thursday is the ninth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Red House Mystery' by A.A. Milne
The Red House is the country residence far removed from the world of the Hundred Acre Wood but its story has much of the same charm and wit. There is, of course, a murder and when the local police fail to come up to scratch, an amateur sleuth is conveniently ready to take over. What follows is a delightful and traditional whodunit with humour, excitement and a suitably surprising twist at the end.
The Red House Mystery is the eighth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Shooting Party' by Isabel Colegate
Set in 1913 this novel gives a glimpse of life in a great country house just before the First World War. Above and below stairs, on the estate and in the village there are rivalries, loves and tensions. In Isabel Colegate’s deft hand the gamekeeper and the poacher are as real as the lords and ladies; they are all human, fallible and capable of errors of judgement. It is an elegant and poignant book, which should be read slowly and savoured for it describes a way of life which ends, for the characters at the end of a fateful day, for the world the following year.
The Shooting Party is the seventh volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Tied Up in Tinsel' by Ngaio Marsh
Christmas time in an isolated country house and, following a flaming row in the kitchen, there's murder inside. When a much disliked visiting servant disappears without trace after playing Santa Claus, foul play is at once suspected -- and foul play it proves to be. Only suspicion falls not on the staff but on the guests, all so unimpeachably respectable that the very thought of murder in connection with any of them seems almost heresy. When Superintendent Roderick Alleyn returns unexpectedly from a trip to Australia, it is to find his beloved wife in the thick of an intriguing mystery!
Tied Up in Tinsel is the sixth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Case of the Abominable Snowman' by Nicholas Blake
A seemingly simple investigation into the unusual behaviour of a cat turns into something far more sinister when a melting snowman reveals a macabre surprise. Luckily Nigel Strangeways is on hand to solve the crime. All the ingredients of a classic crime are here: a rambling country house, a splendidly eccentric family, and a charming detective who outwits the police.
The Case of the Abominable Snowman is the fifth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Don't Tell Alfred' by Nancy Mitford
A posting to Paris should be every diplomat’s dream. For this particular diplomat’s wife, however, it is a posting full of potential pitfalls: her mother ‘The Bolter’ is there with her new – unsuitable – husband; her idle son is there when he shouldn’t be, and the previous Lady Ambassador refuses to move out of the Embassy. Can things get any worse? In Nancy Mitford’s hands, obviously yes. To quote Evelyn Waugh from his piece on the book in The London Magazine, 'There is an excellently rendered farcical conclusion which should not be revealed to the reader'.
Don't Tell Alfred is the fourth volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Ascent of Rum Doodle' by W.E Bowman
Led by the reliably unwise Binder, a team of seven British men including Dr Prone (constantly ill), Jungle the route finder (constantly lost), Constant the diplomat (constantly arguing) and three thousand Yogistani porters, set out to conquer the highest peak in the Himalayas.
The Ascent of Rum Doodle is the third volume in The Hatchards Library.
'Thou Shell of Death' by Nicholas Blake
Nigel Strangeways is one of fiction’s most delightful private investigators, choosing the profession because he felt it was the only one left which gave scope for good manners and scientific discovery. Here he is in classic crime territory: a Christmas party in a lonely country house; a collection of entertaining guests and staff – one of whom must have committed the murder; and, a romantic complication.
Thou Shell of Death is the second volume in The Hatchards Library.
'The Diary of a Provincial Lady' by E.M Delafield
It’s not easy being a provincial lady in Devonshire in the 1920s, juggling a grumpy husband, mischievous children and a host of domestic dilemmas. But this provincial lady will not be defeated; not by wayward flower bulbs, not by unexpected house-guests, not by school sports day, not even by foreign travel. She will continue to preside over the W.I., endure rain-drenched family picnics and succeed as a published author – all whilst tending her strawberries.
The Diary of a Provincial Lady is the first volume in The Hatchards Library.
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