Louis De Bernières

When the haughty Dona Constanza diverts the village river to fill her swimming pool, the government is convinced that guerrillas are to blame and dispatches the brutal Figueras and his men to find them

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts

A philosopher living in a society governed by the supernatural and warped by the drug trade is driven to colossal revenge when the drug lords he was exposing in the press harm his loved ones

Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord

A funny and heartbreaking new book from one of Britain's favourite and bestselling writers. Welcome to the village of Notwithstanding where a lady dresses in plus fours and shoots squirrels, a retired general gives up wearing clothes altogether, a spiritualist lives in a cottage with the ghost of her husband, and people think it quite natural to confide in a spider that lives in a potting shed. Based on de Bernières' recollections of the village he grew up in, Notwithstanding is a funny and moving depiction of a charming vanished England.

Stories from an English Village

Notwithstanding

When the spoilt and haughty Dona Constanza tries to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, she starts a running battle with the locals. The skirmishes are so severe that the Government dispatches a squadron of soldiers led by the fat, brutal and stupid Figueras to deal with them. Despite visiting plagues of laughing fits and giant cats upon the troops, the villagers know that to escape the cruel and unusual tortures planned for them, they must run. Thus they plan to head for the mountains and start a new and convivial civilization. "The War of Don Emmanuel s Nether Parts" is the first novel in a trilogy set in South America. It won a Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1991."

In early 1998 I went to Perth in Western Australia in order to attend the literature festival, and part of the arrangement was that I should go to Karratha to do their first ever literary dinner. Karratha is a mining town a long way further north. The landscape is extraordinary, being composed of vast heaps of dark red earth and rock poking out of the never-ending bush. I imagine that Mars must have a similar feel to it. I went exploring and discovered the bronze statue to Red Dog outside the town of Dampier. I felt straight away that I had to find out more about this splendid dog. A few months later I returned to Western Australia and spent two glorious weeks driving around collecting Red Dog stories and visiting the places that he knew, writing up the text as I went along. I hope my cat never finds out that I have written a story to celebrate the life of a dog.

Red Dog

After a chance meeting, Chris, an unhappily married, middle-aged Englishman and Rosa, a young Serbian woman recently moved to London starts to tell him the story of her life. Chris is gradually drawn into her world, from her childhood as a daughter of one of Tito's partisans, throught to her recent colourful and dangerous past.

A Partisan's Daughter

Contemporary / British English This is a great love story set in the tragedy of war. It is 1941. The Italian officer, Captain Corelli, falls in love with Pelagia, a young Greek girl. But Pelegia's fiance is fighting the Italian army Captain Corelli's Mandolin is now a film, starring Nicolas Cage.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Roman

Traum aus Stein und Federn

Kanatsız ku,slar

Sevgi Sanlı

Özden Arıkan

Underfundig skildring af livet under 2. verdenskrig på en græsk ø, hvor kærlighed og menneskelighed kommer til at vende op og ned på, hvem der er ven, og hvem der er fjende

Yüzbaşı Corellinin mandolini :roman

The Dust that Falls from Dreams

This is a celebration of the author's ten years living above a small shop in a London suburb. De Bernieres writes about the people, their humour and their tragedy, that helped make him feel he was living at the centre of the world."

A Play for Voices

Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World

A Day Out for Mehmet Erbil

Günter Weber's Confession

Corellis Mandoline

Shawn Slovo

With Nicholas Cage as Captain Corelli, John Hurt as Dr Iannis, Penelope Cruz as Pelagia, and Christian Bale as Mandras. It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracized by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilized, humorous – and a consummate musician. When the local doctor’s daughter’s letter to her fiancé – and members of the underground – go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?

Screenplay

Chris is in his forties: bored, lonely, trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage. He's a stranger to the 1970s youth culture of London, a stranger to himself on the night he invites a prostitute into his car. Roza is Yugoslavian, recently moved to London. She's in her twenties, but has already lived a life filled with danger and misadventure.

This limited edition of Labels, Louis de Bernières' quirkily affectionate short story debut, is being re-released as a facsimile edition to celebrate Hardie Grant's 20th anniversary. The debut publication for Hardie Grant Books 20 years ago, it is a tale of obsession, with tender moments and gristly bits, that will delight cooks, collectors and cat-lovers anew, and teach public inspectors a thing or two.

Louis De Bernières

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