Gemma Barder

Do you know your Pugs from your Poodles? This guide to everything dog and puppy is packed with essential information from different dog breeds to how to look after a dog to facts about famous and record-breaking dogs.

Do you know your Siamese from your Shorthair? This guide to everything cat and kitten is packed with essential information from different cat breeds to how to look after a cat to facts about famous and record-breaking cats.

Do you know your Shires from your Shetlands? This guide to everything horse and pony is packed with essential information from different breeds to how to look after a pony to facts about famous and record-breaking horses.

First published in 1862, Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" is widely considered to be the author's greatest literary achievement. It is a novel about the clash of ideologies of two generations. The older generation, the fathers, represents an upper class whose power and influence is fading and giving way to the younger generation, the sons, who represent an increasing objection to the status quo. This conflict is embodied in the characters of Arkady...

"A Hero of Our Time" by Mikhail Lermontov, translated by Marr Murray and J. H. Wisdom, is a timeless classic of Russian literature that delves into the complexities of human nature, love, and the pursuit of meaning in a world marked by moral ambiguity and existential angst. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Caucasus Mountains, the novel follows the life of Pechorin, a young Russian officer whose enigmatic personality and reckless behavior...

Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812-1891) was a Russian novelist who achieved literary fame later in life, after a career in the civil-service which spanned more than thirty years. His first novel, "A Common Story", was a definitive success and his notoriety was cemented with the publication of his second novel, "Oblomov", in 1850. Based on a short story written a year prior, "Oblomov" is about a cultured, intelligent, upper middle class man experiencing...

Love and Friendship is a collection of early works by Jane Austen, showcasing her wit and satirical prowess long before her novels became literary classics. This collection includes Love and Friendship, a novella presented as a series of letters that humorously critiques the romantic and social conventions of the 18th century. The stories offer a playful and ironic take on the pursuit of love and the follies of youthful sentiment, reflecting...

Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C., where he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. He was in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before he was able to secretly get information to friends and family in New York, who in turn secured...

"The Last of the Mohicans," penned by the literary maestro James Fenimore Cooper, is a tour de force that beckons readers into the heart of the untamed American wilderness. Published in 1826, this timeless novel unfolds against the backdrop of the French and Indian War, a tumultuous period that serves as the canvas for Cooper's masterpiece. In the vast expanse of the North American frontier, where verdant forests echo with the whispers of ancient...

An adapted and illustrated edition of the Russian classic, at an easy-to-read level for all ages! Eugene Onegin is young, handsome, rich ... and bored. Nothing impresses him: not his grand house filled with expensive furniture, not the glittering balls he attends, not the sumptuous dinners he eats. When his uncle dies, leaving him his rundown estate, Eugene moves to the countryside. Here he meets the lively and intelligent Lensky, and the beautiful,...