“You must understand that the only phenomenon we have actually been able to observe over England during the last five years has been the weather. Most Western powers—France, America, Russia, Germany—have sent agents in to your island, but very few have returned. Those who did return brought no useful information, except that the island was now fragmented into a series of rural communities, united by a common hostility to machines of any sort, and by a tendency to try to return to the modes of living and thought that characterized the Dark Ages. The agents themselves say that they felt similar urges and were tempted to stay too ...“So you are doubly interesting to us, Mr. linker. First, because you explain the English weather pattern. And secondly, because you appear to be genuinely immune to the machine phobia which affects anyone who sets foot in England. You seem to be the first convincing case in the twenty million people who have left England.”

In this gripping novel by CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson, the survivor of a manor-house crime delves into the past to solve a mystery At the elegant English manor known as Snailwood, tourists come daily to hear decades-old gossip about the second wife of the sixth earl. Zena was a remarkable young woman whose scandalous reputation has been dimmed neither by time nor by her bizarre death. In the 1930s, Zena was the star of a notorious party set whose members included playwrights, politicians, and Nazi sympathizers. They passed wild weekends at this stately manor, arguing about politics and drinking until dawn. At the center of their parties was Snailwood's magnificent tower clock. The clock stopped long ago, but the darkness of its legacy continues to spread. When a workman offers to fix the clock for free, the only remaining survivor of the old days is forced to revisit her memories of Zena's last mad party, when death came to Snailwood and...

CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson is back: An Indian doctor joins the English underground to fight racial oppression Dr. P. P. Humayan expects prejudice from the English. Growing up in Bombay, he was raised on stories of the injustices of life in Britain, where racial status is marked on one's papers and anyone of Celtic descent is born with green skin and forced to live in walled-off ghettos. But when he travels to London to announce that he has solved the genetic mystery of why the Celts are born green, he is shocked by the system's brutality. Only one English girl is kind to him—and she will soon find herself in mortal peril. When his host family is murdered, Humayan slips underground, joining a small band of rebels who would do anything to see racial equality restored to England. There are powerful men working to maintain the sinister status quo, and bringing them down will be the toughest problem this mathematician has ever faced.

For one young boy, a box full of nothing is a ticket to adventure While skipping school, James sees his mother on the street. He ducks inside an abandoned store, where an aged shopkeeper asks what he wants to buy. When James says "nothing," the old man sells it to him: a heavy cardboard box stuffed full of top-quality nothing. James tries to explain this to his mother, but she doesn't believe him and throws the box over the fence and into the dump. He sneaks in to retrieve his new possession—and finds himself trapped in another world. The dump is an eerie place populated by hyperintelligent rats, monstrous seagulls, and a very clever pile of garbage called the Burra. Once it was a thriving community, but something strange has happened, and the dump has become stuck in time. To get back home, James must help the Burra save the dump—using all the nothing he can find. This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Peter Dickinson...

Alone and exhausted after a rebel attack on his father's mission settlement in remote China, thirteen-year-old Theodore is relieved to meet the earthy and colourful Mrs Jones, a botanist, and they flee together for the forbidden land of Tibet.But are they really fleeing? Or being summoned? For the old Lama who rules in the many-domed monastery of Dong Pe insists they hold the clue to the birth of the long-awaited Tulku - a reincarnated spiritual master...

Reading Group Questions included."Mr. Dickinson has a nice dry wit and a talent for deft characterization."—New York Times"Everything here is exactly right."—New YorkerDeath of a Unicorn is the first in a series of reprints of Peter Dickinson's mysteries from Small Beer Press. This classic British mystery will win fans currently engrossed in Downton Abbey.From Peter Dickinson's Timeline on his website: "When the youngest member of the five-strong editorial staff of Punch (founded 1843) turned 40 the editor, Kenneth Bird (the cartoonist Fougasse) had written to a don he knew at Cambridge to ask him to find someone younger to train up. On his way to the interview for the job Peter was knocked down by a tram and arrived covered with blood and dirt, but they gave him the job because he was the only candidate. A lot of his novel Death of a Unicorn is based on the seventeen years he spent there."Peter Dickinson OBE has twice received the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger as well as the Guardian Award and Whitbread Prize. He is the author of over fifty books including The Poison Oracle, A Summer in the Twenties, and many more. His latest book is Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Big Mouth House). He lives in England and is married to the novelist Robin McKinley."Peter Dickinson is my own chosen demigod in the pantheon of crime fiction."—Laurie R. King"The Tolkien of the crime novel."—H.R.F.KeatingPraise for Peter Dickinson's mysteries:"He is the true original, a superb writer who revitalises the traditions of the mystery genre . . . incapable of writing a trite or inelegant sentence . . . a master."—P. D. James"He sets new standards in the mystery field that will be hard to live up to."—Ruth Rendell"He has an eye and a mind and a voice like no other."—Donald E. Westlake"A fresh triumph . . . a simultaneous insight into kids and their minders, and emerging nations, and the concept of freedom - all done with consummate story-telling skill."—Peter Lovesey"Read this book carefully. It's a jewel."—The New York Times Review"Brilliantly imaginative first detective story . . .wonderfully convincing."—The Observer"Mr Dickinson is the most original crime novelist to appear for a long, long time."—The Guardian"Brilliantly original, as always."—Times Literary Supplement"Wry, witty, irresistible."—The Financial Times"A literary magician controlling an apparently inexhaustible supply of effects . . . Craftsmanship such as this makes for compulsive reading."—Penelope Lively"Dickinson tops all his prizewinners with this stunning psychological thriller."—Publishers WeeklyAbout the AuthorPeter Dickinson: Peter Dickinson OBE has twice received the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger as well as the Guardian Award and Whitbread Prize. His latest book is Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Big Mouth House). He lives in England and is married to the novelist Robin McKinley.

One small body curled around the mass of sleepers. Different. Yes, I'm different . . .Four million years ago, then, a young girl - Li - lives with her tribe along the shores of a mothering sea. But Li is different. A thinker, a questioner, her sense of wonder and intuition could help shape the future of her race.In Africa, now, on the site of that very same plain - Vinny visits her father who is working as part of a team searching for fossil remains of our ancestors. Fascinated by the tiny fragments of bone that are painstakingly dug out of the ground, Vinny's curiosity helps lead the team towards a major discovery . . .An enthralling and original tale from the award-winning author of Tulku.

CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson is back: Now-retired Scotland Yard superintendent James Pibble isn't about to go quietly into the night—not when there's a murder case or two (or three) to solve At Flycatchers, a well-to-do nursing home watched over by no-nonsense nurse Jenny, one-time detective James Pibble shuttles between his nothing-to-live-for present and memories of the crimes he's solved—or failed to. He's roused from his listless existence when he discovers a dead body on top of the water tower. Security guard George Tosca isn't the only one at Flycatchers who has met his maker a bit too abruptly. There have been other suspicious deaths in the last three years, including those of military man Sir Archibald Gunter and Bertie Foster-Banks, an inveterate gambler and shareholder in the home. The arrival of a woman in black sets off a sinister chain of events, and before he knows it, Pibble is on the case. As he travels down a...