THE SMALL MIRACLE This simple and sincere story of the faith—and determination—of a little Italian boy from modern Assisi has, like its predecessor in the same genre, The Snow Goose, gained the admiration and affection of many thousands of readers. First published in 1951, it has sold close on 150,000 copies in the original English edition alone. Filmed under the title Never Take No For An Answer it has made one of the best loved pictures of recent years. This new edition is illustrated with 28 four-color drawings by David Knight. They catch admirably the touching charm of Paul Gallico’s story.

Responsible for cleaning the homes of the rich, Mrs Harris is a humble charlady with a knack for putting things in order wherever she goes. When, much to her surprise, she wins a trip for two beyond the Iron Curtain, she has no idea of the adventure that lies ahead of her. Ever the loyal servant, however, Mrs Harris (accompanied by her loyal friend Mrs Butterfield) believes it only right that others benefit from her good fortune as well. With a mink coat in mind for Mrs Butterfield, she also hopes to use their 'oliday to reignite a lost romance between her lovelorn employer and a Russian woman he had loved years ago. Unfortunately, the discreet passing of documents is an activity which can land even the most well-intentioned charlady in hot water with the KGB...

BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE The Poseidon Adventure was not only a major best-seller but a major motion picture. Unlike the book, the picture ended with the Poseidon still afloat. Determined to send the ship to its inescapable fate, Paul Gallico has written a new novel that combines the characters he made famous with the dramatic flair for which he is noted. The result is a sequel that stands completely on its own—a breathtaking adventure of the horrors of impending disaster and of the danger from those modern-day pirates of the sea: scavengers. Sixteen hundred people died in the Poseidon when the luxury liner was capsized by a tidal wave. Only six were saved by the French helicopter that swept over the wreckage. And those six had gone through all the tortures of hell in the eight hours they spent working their way out of the inverted ship. Now their leader, Rogo, the tough New York cop, is demanding at gunpoint to be returned to the Poseidon to see to the secret shipment he had aboard to guard. He finds himself with unexpected company when Manny Rosen, whose beloved wife died trying to help the others to safety, and James Martin, the little haberdasher who had just had the one adventure of his life, determine to join him. Back the three go, aware they will be reentering a chaotic world in which everything is literally upside down, with death and debris everywhere. And they quickly find things even worse than when they left. For others have come to the site, not to rescue but to plunder, and these newcomers are not afraid to kill for what they want. Paul Gallico takes his original adventure and makes of it the prelude to a novel that is as dramatic as it is vivid.

SNOWFLAKE A delightful story of the life of Snowflake, who was “all stars and arrows, squares and triangles of ice and light”. Through Snowflake’s special role in the pattern of creation and life, Paul Gallico has given us a simple allegory on the meaning of life, its oneness and ultimate safety.

'Did you run across that queer sort of legend about a wild goose? It was all up and down the beaches. You know how those things spring up. Some of the men I brought back were talking about it. It was supposed to have appeared at intervals the last days between Dunkirk and La Panne. If you saw it, you were eventually saved. That sort of thing.''Hmm, a wild goose. I saw a tame one. Dashed strange experience. Tragic in a way, too. And lucky for us. Tell you about it ...'The Snow Goose is a beautiful tale of a hunchbacked artist, a girl, a wounded bird and a courageous act at Dunkirk. Also included in this volume is The Small Miracle, a contemporary fable inspired by St Francis of Assisi. Both tales are endearing classics of the storyteller's art.

SCRUFFY Paul Gallico writes: “There is one demonstrable fact in this otherwise total work of fiction and that is on the 25th August, 1944, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, caused a signal to be sent to Gibraltar expressing anxiety over disquieting rumours concerning the welfare of the Barbary apes established there, and directing that every effort should be made to restore the dwindling number of apes to twenty-four, and that this number should be maintained thereafter. So much for truth. All that follows is nothing but the wildest imagination.” From this lurid imagining Paul Gallico has produced Scruffy, the ugliest, nastiest-tempered, roughest old villain of a Barbary ape. The story contains all the fertility of Gallico’s invention, sparked by his love for the British and their odd ways, his understanding of animals, maiden ladies, young lovers, choleric Brigadiers, phychologists doubling as intelligence officers, and prang-prone R.A.F. pilots. It is a unique entertainment written with the inimitable Gallico touch; and renders the unbearable Scruffy the most lovable ape of your acquaintance.

THE BOY WHO INVENTED THE BUBBLE GUN The author of the great best seller THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE has written a new tale that is both suspenseful and beguiling. It involves international intrigue, a nationwide search for a runaway nine-year-old boy, and a psychopath who holds the lives of a busload of people in his grenade-filled hand. The boy, Julian West, is a headstrong but endearing prodigy who decides to travel from San Diego to Washington, D.C., in order to patent his invention—a seemingly innocuous toy gun that shoots beautiful, luminous soap bubbles. Armed with the makings of tuna fish sandwiches, two changes of underwear and socks, a clean shirt, and a toothbrush but no toothpaste, Julian embarks on an adventure that will have repercussions in the Kremlin and the Pentagon and that will make him the nation's most unlikely hero. En route, Julian encounters a high school couple masquerading as honeymooners, a murderer on the lam, a cynical but congenial Vietnam veteran, a bungling Russian spy, a frustrated American counterspy, a passel of police, and two elderly British gun-toting sisters. And throughout this fast-moving story is interwoven a wise and heartwarming theme on the inviolability of innocence.

THE LONELY IN THIS NEW NOVEL the author of The Snow Goose tells a story of tenderness and yearning, the tale of two young lovers who thought they could fix boundaries for love. Jerry Wright had planned on love—for the future. He was engaged—to Catherine, back home. But in the meantime he was lonely: a boy forced into manhood and grown alien to the people and customs of his youth. That explained the place of Patches in his life and the choice that changed him into a man. In The Lonely, Paul Gallico tells how Jerry and Patches tried to arrange just how much they would mean to each other, and for just how long. Here is a story to make you feel young and happy and delighted with life again. Only Paul Gallico could see so far into hearts that are simple, ardent, and young.

London hasn't been kind to Peter, a lonely boy whose parents are always out at parties, and though Peter would love to have a cat for company, his nanny won't hear of it. One day, as Peter is walking out the door, he sees a truck bearing down on a tabby. Dashing out to save the cat, he is struck by the oncoming truck himself. Everything is different when Peter comes to: He has fur, whiskers, and claws; he has become a cat himself! But London isn't any kinder to cats than it is to children. Jennie, a savvy stray who takes charge of Peter, knows that all too well. Jennie schools young Peter in the ways of cats, including how to sniff out a nice napping spot, the proper way to dine on mouse, and the single most important tactic a cat can learn: "When in doubt, wash." Jennie and Peter will face many challenges--and not all of them are from the dangerous outside world--in their struggle to find a place that is truly home.

Imagine seeing the Queen that close as she goes by in her golden carriage! The kiddies will have something to tell their kiddies, won't they? And a drink of real champagne to go with it! Coronation Day, 2 June 1953! A humble, working-class family from Sheffield is desperate to buy train tickets to London to see the coronation, but doing so means forsaking their annual seaside holiday. After some scrimping and saving, and a family meeting in which the enthusiasm of the children overrules the reluctance of their long-suffering mother and grandmother, the Clagg family take the plunge and buy premium, champagne tickets for the big day. But alas, not everything goes smoothly. Will their tickets be everything they hoped for and dreamed? Will granny stop grumbling that it's all a waste of money? And, most importantly, will they all get to see their beloved Queen? In this tender and heartwarming story, Paul Gallico brings to life the joy and fervor that swept the nation.ReviewIt is almost impossible not to succumb to Gallico's spell Times Literary Supplement Beautifully written, as you'd expect from the author of the Snow Goose, it's a wonderful evocation of that special day in the life of so many Britons Choice Magazine About the AuthorPaul Gallico was born in New York City, of Italian and Austrian parentage, in 1897, and attended Columbia University. From 1922 to 1936 he worked on the New York Daily News as sports editor, columnist, and assistant managing editor. In 1936 he bought a house on top of a hill at Salcombe in South Devon and settled down with a Great Dane and twenty-three assorted cats. It was in 1941 that he made his name with The Snow Goose, a classic story of Dunkirk which became a world-wide best-seller. Having served as a gunner's mate in the U.S. Navy in 1918, he was again active as a war correspondent with the American Expeditionary Force in 1944. Paul Gallico, who later lived in Monaco, was a first-class fencer and a keen sea-fisherman. He wrote over forty books, four of which were the adventures of Mrs Harris: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (1958), Mrs Harris Goes to New York (1959), Mrs. Harris, M.P. (1965) and Mrs Harris Goes to Moscow (1974). One of the most prolific and professional of American authors, Paul Gallico died in July 1976.

Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth charlady, content with her lot, cleaning the homes of the rich. However, her knack of setting things straight often has the tendency to stray beyond keeping things neat and tidy... In Mrs Harris MP, the honest as-ever old char impresses her employer with her no-nonsense political views to such an extent that he - an MP, no less - encourages her to become a voice for the people of Battersea and stand for election herself. The world of local politics, however, soon proves a test for a lady as straight-laced as Mrs Harris; political skulduggery, the glare of the media and the apparent betrayal of a trusted friend all becoming issues she just hadn't bargained on...

Here is Paul Gallico’s most moving fable since the immortal The Snow Goose. “This story was told to me when I was a boy, by my great-grandmother on a Christmas Eve by the fire. I always believed that stories told by great-grandmothers must be so, for their old eyes look inward and they recall . . . “I never knew whether this was something she had heard, or perhaps read in old letters. yellowing in an attic loft, but only that it happened in the wilderness of Britain’s colonies in the New World in the long distant past on Christmas Eve.” So begins Paul Gallico’s Christmas tale about a frontier family in colonial America. Jasper Adams had settled in the North American wilderness, cleared the forest, and built the fortlike cabin to which he later brought his bride, Dorcas, whom he had wooed and won in Albany. Her family was newly arrived from England, but her great love for Jasper enabled her to adapt to this new life. And in April 1752 she gave birth to their son. It was a hard life but a rewarding one. It was also dangerous. For the last fifty years the French, sometimes with Indian allies, and the British had been struggling for control of America. But constant vigilance and luck had kept Jaspers family and home safe. That is, until the morning of December 24, when an Indian raiding party surprised Dorcas while Jasper was out hunting. Without a miracle, all would be lost. In this heartwarming story of faith and fortitude, Gallico describes a confrontation between two cultures and a victory for humanity.

An insightful story of cat-ology and the life of homeless cats told as a small boy’s strange dream.

LOVE, LET ME NOT HUNGER Paul Gallico’s haunting novel, LOVE, LET ME NOT HUNGER, is the saga of a little British traveling circus stranded in Spain. Deserted by the owner and the main body of performers, their livelihood reduced to ashes, their resources exhausted, strangers marooned in the heart of a savage, poverty-stricken land, five ill-assorted human beings embark upon the struggle to keep their remaining animals, themselves, and their hopes alive. The need is for food, but the hunger is for love. There is Toby, the young rider striving to escape from his prudish family into sexual manhood; Janos, the Hungarian dwarf clown who lives only for his stomach and his dogs; Fred Deeter who once punched cattle down through Wyoming and Texas and now presents cowboy and animal acts; Mr. Albert, the old beastman who after a life of pervading failure has found an aim in the love of animals and a profession in caring for them—and Rose. Rose who? Rose nothing! Rose nobody! Rose the outsider, picked up off the streets by Jackdaw Williams, august and professional funny man, and forced upon the strait-laced circus artists as his mistress and caravan companion. Their fate becomes entangled with the grotesque and horrifying Marquesa de Pozzoblanco, who battens upon human misery and degradation, obese monster who might have stepped down from the most macabre canvas of a Goya. Yet, without her, none might have survived. Not Rose, with her well-nigh hopeless love for Toby, nor Judy, the great elephant who tried to kill her, or the big, graceful, helpless cats. Through this passionate and thoughtful novel runs the theme of the humility, humanity and simplicity of old Mr. Albert in his rusty frock coat and bowler hat, who inadvertently becomes a comic butt through the forces of his own kindliness and pity, drawing upon himself and his last shreds of dignity the greedy and fatal gaze of the Marquesa.