'Almost nothing in life is only what it seems.' Soldier, journalist, historian, author of forty books, Jan Morris led an extraordinary life, witnessing such seminal moments as the first ascent of Everest, the Suez Canal Crisis, the Eichmann Trial, The Cuban Revolution and so much more.

My Family and Other Animals meets The Secret Life of Cows: this rediscovered gem of a memoir tells the charming tale of how a baby llama transformed a Welsh farming family forever.

Michael Frayn would like to say a brief word about a few of the friends who have shaped his life - 'before my memory goes'. Some have had a profound effect.

Moran is an old Republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerrilla leader in the War of Independence. Now, in old age, living out in the country, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past.

John McGahern is widely considered to be one of Ireland's greatest writers, with fans including John Updike, Hilary Mantel, Colm Toibin and John Banville.

Ram Karan, a corrupt official in the Delhi school system, lives in one of the city's slums with his widowed daughter and his eight-year-old granddaughter. Bumbling, contradictory, sad, Ram is a man corroded by a guilty secret.

Celebrated children's writer Hans Christian Andersen arrives, unannounced, for a stay at Gad's Hill Place in the Kent marshes - home to Charles Dickens and his large, charismatic family. To the lonely and eccentric guest, the members of Dickens' household seem to live a life of unreachable bliss.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. When the animals overthrow the oppressive Mr. Jones, they think their problems are over, but in Orwell's great indictment of the Russian Revolution, they find that power corrupts and they have merely swapped one form of tyranny for another.