An early gem from one of the great writers of the classic crime genre, in which Inspector Bencolin must tread the streets of a foggy London in search of a fictional bogeyman, Jack Ketch, who appears to be on a murder spree.

Aiming to firmly position Sheridan Le Fanu alongside other canonical horror writers published by the British Library, this anthology focuses on some of his lesser-known stories, exploring eight thoroughly Gothic tales of murderous families, dark castles and ghosts whose business with the living remains unfinished.

From the Swiss Alps to New York's hipster cheese bars, journalist Patrick McGuigan has written about cheesemakers, maturers and cheesemongers around the world for The Telegraph, Delicious and The Financial Times. He is partial to a slice of Kirkham's Lancashire. www.patrickmcguigan.com

With neglected stories by John Bude and E. C. R. Lorac, as well as tales by little-known writers of crime fiction, Martin Edwards blends the cosy atmosphere of the fireside story with a chill to match the temperature outside. This is a gripping seasonal collection sure to delight mystery fans.

The Book of Book Jokes includes a huge range of comic material concentrating exclusively on the themes of books, reading, libraries, bookshops, and the literary life.

With a foreword by Kathleen Jamie. The Heart of the Forest explores four enduring ways in which we connect to the woods - through Refuge, Sacredness, Horror and Hope - making fascinating links between emotion and genre.

Sejal Sukhadwala probes the complex intersection of tradition and colonialism through the fascinating history of curry, from its association with Ayurveda - one of the world's oldest holistic healing systems to its enduring popularity in contemporary British culture.

In Penned & Painted, Lucy Freeman Sandler, one of one of the world's most respected authorities on medieval art, takes us on a personal but highly insightful exploration of some of the British Library's most precious manuscript holdings and describes the many uses and meanings of these 'books in books'.