Manderley Press is delighted to announce the publication of a brand-new edition of Helene Hanff's Letter from New York - another literary jewel from the author of 84, Charing Cross Road. To showcase this wonderful book, we commissioned the New York Times bestselling author Jean Hanff Korelitz (The Plot) to pen a new introduction - she is a cousin of Helene Hanff's, and was inspired to become a writer after meeting her as a teenager. The front cover was specially designed by New Yorker illustrator Bruce Eric Kaplan, also a fan of the author and a resident of New York City too. Over several years, Helene Hanff read aloud these stories of her life in New York for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. This book is a collection of selected scripts from this series, composed with a British audience in mind, in which the author offers us a glimpse into her own everyday tales of the city. Written in her trademark whimsical and upbeat style, Helene Hanff transports us right to the heart of Manhattan in the 1980s, describing her favourite places, people and pets with gentle humour, and introducing the reader to the ups and downs of life in a high-rise apartment building in New York City ("the last small town in America"). We are introduced to Bentley, the Old English Sheepdog belonging to a neighbour who captured the author's heart; we take a stroll through the beautiful Shakespeare's Garden in Central Park; and we join the author to enjoy annual city parades down Fifth Avenue - especially the St Patrick's Day parade, when the whole of New York turned green. And we meet Helene's friends: Arlene, whose glamorous social life - and wardrobe - puts Hanff's tiny apartment and simple writer's life into perspective, and Nina, whose garden on the sixteenth-floor overflows with flowers and fruit trees. Finally, we accompany the author as she travels to London to celebrate the opening night of the dramatisation of her best-selling book 84, Charing Cross Road. What started out as a six-month trial in 1978 eventually turned into a six-year project, during which time Helene Hanff captivated radio audiences with her monthly broadcasts - each one a love letter to her beloved NYC. Long before the cast of Friends - and Sarah Jessica Parker's iconic evocation of life in the city - recreated a New York existence for us to experience vicariously, these 5-minute vignettes were the perfect way for native New Yorkers and international readers alike, to revel in the quotidian as well as the glamour of city life, and to discover the unexpected hidden gems - and treasured traditions - of New York City. Letter from New York is still a delight to read, 40 years after it was first written - a timeless and beguiling tale of everyday life in this great city, by one of the best-loved authors of the 20th-century.

Metaphysics isn't ordinarily much of a laughing matter. But in the hands of acclaimed comedy writer and scholar Eric Kaplan, a search for the truth about old St. Nick becomes a deeply insightful, laugh-out-loud discussion of the way some things exist but may not really be there. Just like Santa and his reindeer. Even after we outgrow the jolly fellow, the essential paradox persists: There are some things we dearly believe in that are not universally acknowledged as real. In Does Santa Exist? Kaplan shows how philosophy giants Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein strove to smooth over this uncomfortable meeting of the real and unreal - and failed. From there he turns to mysticism's attempts to resolve such paradoxes, surveying Buddhism, Taoism, early Christianity, Theosophy and even the philosophers at UC Berkeley under whom he studied. Finally, this brilliant comic writer alights on - surprise! - comedy as the ultimate resolution of the fundamental paradoxes of life, using examples from The Big Bang Theory, Monty Python's cheese shop and many other pop-culture sources. Kaplan delves deeper into what all this means, from how our physical brains work to his own personal confrontations with life's biggest questions: If we're all going to die, what's the point of anything? What is a perfect moment? What can you say about God? Or Santa?

All the episodes from the popular drama series, created by American Beauty writer Alan Ball, that takes a darkly comical look at members of a dysfunctional Pasadena family that runs an independent funeral home. Episodes comprise: Season One - 'Pilot', 'The Will', 'The Foot', 'Familia', 'An Open Book', 'The Room', 'Brotherhood', 'Crossroads', 'Life's Too Short', 'The New Person', 'The Trip', 'A Private Life' and 'Knock Knock'; Season Two - 'In The Game', 'Out, Out, Brief Candle', 'The Plan', 'Driving Mr. Mossback', 'The Invisible Woman', 'In Place of Anger', 'Back To The Garden', 'It's The Most Wonderful...', 'Someone Else's Eyes', 'The Secret', 'The Liar And The Whore', 'I'll Take You' and 'The Last Time'; Season Three - 'Perfect Circles', 'You Never Know', 'The Eye Inside', 'Nobody Sleeps', 'The Trap', 'Making Love Work', 'Timing and Space', 'Tears Bones and Desire', 'The Opening', 'Everyone Leaves', 'Death Works Overtime', 'Twilight' and 'I'm Sorry I'm Lost'; Season Four - 'Falling Into Place', 'In Case Of Rapture', 'Parallel Play', 'Can I Come Up Now', 'That's My Dog', 'Terror Starts At Home', 'The Dare', 'Coming And Going', 'Grinding The Corn', 'The Black Forest', 'The Bomb Shelter' and 'Untitled'; Season Five - 'A Coat of White Primer', 'Dancing For Me', 'Hold My Hand', 'Time Flies', 'Eat a Peach', 'Rainbow of Her Reasons', 'The Silence', 'Singing For Our Lives', 'Ecotone', 'All Alone', 'Static' and 'Everyone's Waiting'.

A humorous philosophical investigation into the existence of Santa from a co-executive producer of The Big Bang Theory-the perfect stocking stuffer for the deep thinker on everyone's list. Emmy award-winning comedy writer and philosophy scholar Eric Kaplan brilliantly turns a search for the truth about Santa into a laugh-out-loud metaphysical romp. Surveying everything from the analytic philosophy of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein to Buddhism, Taoism, and Kabbalah, Kaplan alights on comedy-including The Big Bang Theory and Monty Python-as the best way to resolve life's most profound paradoxes, including the existence of perfect moments, Santa, and even God.

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY
It's a terrible world out there and we all know it. But now that we have this delightful picture book for adults by famed "New Yorker "cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan, it's just a little bit better. In these pages you will discover a unique story of two people, one graduation speech, and many things you mayor may not need to know. This wise and wonderful book is the perfect gift for any graduate. In fact, we promise that anyone who reads it will be enthralled, inspired, moved, amused, and most important, will learn the secret to having a deeply fulfilling life. Results are 100 percent guaranteed but completely beside the point.

"Every Person On The Planet" tells the delightful story of Edmund and Rosemary, an average couple who lead an uneventful life, and what happens when one fateful day they decide to throw a party for the holidays. As their guest list becomes longer and longer, they become paralyzed with the fear of forgetting anyone. So naturally, there's only one thing to do--they invite every person on the planet. They never expect that the whole world will show. But what happens when the whole world does?
"Every Person On The Planet" is hilarious, touching, thoughtful, and uniquely beautiful. We think this is an altogether perfect book and you will too.

One Sunday afternoon, an ordinary couple named Edmund and Rosemary decide to go for a walk in their Brooklyn neighborhood. Within moments, they are plunged into a wonderful, nerve-racking, hilarious, unique adventure that begins with a cell phone and ends in a jungle halfway around the world.

In "Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell," famed New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan uses his trademark incisive wit to explore what it is that prevents us from seeing all that we have. By turns wickedly funny and oddly touching, this provocative and ultimately hopeful picture book for adults will appeal to anyone who has ever been stuck in traffic or, more to the point, stuck inside themselves.

Don't read this. It's boring. You want to have fun? Just look at any one of the side-splitting, eye-opening cartoons in this collection by Bruce Eric Kaplan.

Yes, he's the one whose drawings have the little initials BEK in the corner. You've probably seen them in "The New Yorker." They're in there almost every week, for God's sake.

His stomping ground is the usual territory of classic literature -- love, relationships and the search for a meaningful existence. Like the work of James Thurber, his warring husbands and wives, world-weary children and hostile therapists convey the timeless absurdity of modern life.

Oh yeah, there's also a foreword by Neil Simon.

So, there's not much else to say. Just that "No One You Know" is the laugh-out-loud, can't-put-it-down, just-let-me-show-you-this-one book of the year. Now, stop reading this already.

In this brilliant new cartoon collection, Bruce Eric Kaplan examines the lives and loves of anxious housewives, mournful insects, crabby senior citizens, self-righteous toddlers, bitter sheep, and befuddled businessmen, among others. If you are one of the above, or know anyone who is, or ever hope to be one yourself, this book is for you.