A portrait not only of old soldiers, but of old age in general. Other work by the author includes A Distant Likeness, Peter Smart's Confessions, Gabriel's Lament, Sugar Cane, and An Immaculate Mistake.

Ma Jianzhong was a close adviser to the powerful Qing government official, Li Hong-zhang, and wrote several essays between 1878 and 1890 outlining his plans for economic and administrative reform. He was the first Chinese to advocate the creation of a specialized and professional diplomatic corps. His contribution to the late nineteenth-century Chinese discourse on the state and the economy has hitherto been neglected. Paul Bailey's translation of his essays will contribute to a wider understanding of the origins and circulation of reform ideas in the late Qing.

Harry Chapman is gravely ill in hospital. Why can he hear his mother's voice, acerbic and disappointed in him as usual? Is it because of Dr Pereira's wonder drug? Perhaps her presence would be understandable enough, but what is Pip from 'Great Expectations' doing here? Soon, more and more voices add to the chorus.

The haunting new novel from Paul Bailey, whose work has been short-listed twice for the Booker prize. At the age of 70, Andrew Peters suddenly finds himself speaking in the language he has not used since childhood, when he came to live with his doting Uncle Rudolf . Rudolf transformed Andrew's world. Looking back across the years, Andrew remembers the captivating man who rescued him in 1937 from a likely death in fascist Romania. A sublimely gifted lyric tenor, Rudolf's talent had exiled him from his native land, leading him to Paris, Vienna and London, where he became a much-loved star in...