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British Library Publishing Publishing original, unpublished or neglected content from extensive holdings in British Library Crime Classics

Calling all Crime Classics fans! 🔍We're delighted to share that the special edition hardback of The Santa Klaus Murder: ...
14/10/2026

Calling all Crime Classics fans! 🔍

We're delighted to share that the special edition hardback of The Santa Klaus Murder: A Christmas Crime Story is now available to shop online and in-store. First published in 1936, this classic country-house mystery has enjoyed renewed success as part of the British Library Crime Classics series, making this cosy whodunnit the perfect Christmas gift for any lover of ingenious puzzles. 🎁

🔗Visit our website to shop now!

Have you been enjoying The Classic Crime Companion by acclaimed author and editor Martin Edwards? This brand-new guide ...
13/10/2026

Have you been enjoying The Classic Crime Companion by acclaimed author and editor Martin Edwards?

This brand-new guide is a much-expanded, revised and updated edition of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books – winner of the Macavity award from Mystery Readers International for best book about the crime genre and shortlisted for four other awards in Britain and the US.

🔗Visit our website to shop now!

🗺️ A History of Roads in 100 Maps is available online and in-store today 🗺️Taking as its principal research source one o...
08/10/2026

🗺️ A History of Roads in 100 Maps is available online and in-store today 🗺️

Taking as its principal research source one of the world’s greatest historical map collections at the British Library, this volume transports you along pilgrim routes, across conqueror’s maps, along early Modern post-roads and via the beautiful cartography of Japan’s 1666 Tōkaidō map.

This book provides the first unique survey of the mapping of roads, exploring the development of these most essential of societies’ arteries.

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Have you ever loaned a bedpresser (a heavy lazy fellow) a muckender (handkerchief)? Or felt your mind skimble-skamble (w...
30/09/2026

Have you ever loaned a bedpresser (a heavy lazy fellow) a muckender (handkerchief)? Or felt your mind skimble-skamble (wander) in the company of an abecedarian (one who teaches the alphabet)? This book might be for you...

Elizabeth Drury has skillfully combed through Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language to compile a new dictionary of forgotten, curious, hilarious and – occasionally – quite useful words.

Hotcockles and Twittletwattle is available now online and in-store.

Drawing on 125 works of vintage crime, acclaimed author and editor Martin Edwards tells the story of how crime develop...
30/09/2026

Drawing on 125 works of vintage crime, acclaimed author and editor Martin Edwards tells the story of how crime developed as a literary genre in Britain during the first half of the 20th century.

Perfect for classic crime lovers, this book is the ultimate guide to vintage mysteries.

The Classic Crime Companion is available now online and in-store.

A mouth-watering feast of crime fiction, including stories of mushroom murders, brown bread spread with bacillus botulin...
10/09/2026

A mouth-watering feast of crime fiction, including stories of mushroom murders, brown bread spread with bacillus botulinus, and tales in which the identity of killers is proved by a purchase of fillet steak or an inexpert knowledge of fine wines.

This new collection from British Library Crime Classics features some of the greatest mystery tales from the Golden Age of detective fiction to be based around food and drink. Complete with a well-stuffed introduction from expert editor, anthologist and crime author Martin Edwards, detailing the fascinating role of what we imbibe to the genre, this anthology includes tales from the likes of Dorothy L Sayers, Michael Gilbert and E.C. Bentley, and is sure to leave readers hungry and wanting more.

Fans of our Crime Classics series won't want to miss this... We are thrilled to be publishing a special edition hardback...
09/09/2026

Fans of our Crime Classics series won't want to miss this...

We are thrilled to be publishing a special edition hardback of The Santa Klaus Murder. Perfect for amateur detectives and cosy crime lovers this Christmas. 🔍❄️

Available to pre-order now. Publishing 14th October.

***
At the Melbury family’s Christmas gathering at their country house, Flaxmere, the formidable family patriarch Sir Osmond Melbury is discovered dead by a guest dressed as Santa Klaus. Almost everyone present has something to gain from Sir Osmond’s death. Amid mistrust, hatred, and half hidden truths, one startling fact comes to light: there was not one Santa Klaus at Flaxmere, but two.

31/08/2026

Calling all Crime Fiction lovers 🔍

Announcing The Classic Crime Companion - a much-expanded, revised and updated edition of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. Now drawing on 125 works of vintage crime, acclaimed author and editor Martin Edwards tells the story of how crime developed as a literary genre in Britain during the first half of the 20th century.

Publishing 29th September. Available for pre-order now.

28/08/2026

Visit an island of mortals and immortals, warriors and giants, druids and shapeshifters; of rolling hills echoing with the sound of hunting horns and dark forests and mystic lakes where swan-children reside. It is across these storied landscapes that the canon of Irish mythology unfurls.

Using the four story cycles – the Mythological Cycle, Ulster Cycle, Finn Cycle and the Cycle of the Kings – to structure his narrative, Gerry Smyth brings his experience of growing up in the historical, physical and mythological landscapes of Ireland to give these age-old tales a new life.

Publishing 15th October 2026. Available for pre-order now.

Was it reality, this scene, or a form of nightmare? In the 1930s, when a string of pearls is stolen from a wealthy guest...
20/08/2026

Was it reality, this scene, or a form of nightmare?

In the 1930s, when a string of pearls is stolen from a wealthy guest at the Wheatsheaf hotel in Derriford, suspicion quickly falls on Ann Bacon, an 18-year-old maid. Though she protests her innocence, she is arrested and hauled up in front of the county court. In 1752, a rich traveller stays at the C**k Inn just outside the town, where she, too, is relieved of her pearls. Everyone is convinced of the guilt of Patience Passey, an 18-year-old serving girl at the inn, and she too is arrested and tried at the local assizes.

Linking the two eras is a marshal of the court who starts to realise he may be the only person able to witness both cases first-hand.

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