On the Road (Penguin Essentials)

‘I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills . . . Up in this high air you breathed easily . . . you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.’ From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage […]

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is bestselling author Marina Lewycka’s hilarious and award winning debut novel, now available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. ‘Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into […]

‘What we all need,’ said Larry, ‘is sunshine…a country where we can grow.‘ ‘Yes, dear, that would be nice,’ agreed Mother, not really listening. ‘I had a letter from George this morning – he says Corfu’s wonderful. Why don’t we pack up and go to Greece?’ ‘Very well, dear, if you like,’ said Mother unguardedly. Escaping […]

‘There has been a lot of fighting hereabouts. The trenches have made themselves rather than been made, and run inconsequently in and out of the big thirty-foot high stacks of bricks; it is most confusing. The parapet of a trench which we don’t occupy is built up with ammunition boxes and corpses . . .’ […]