I got back from England on Thursday night and I have to say that particular trip back wins the prize for the worst journey of all time (even over the time my whole family had norovirus and spent the drive vomiting into plastic bags) because we were involved in an accident on the motorway. Or to be more precise, a lorry smashed into our car, totally scuppering the passenger door (which I was sitting on the other side of). I was actually asleep at the moment of impact so I woke up to the car lurching, air bags exploding, smoke coming out the air vents and the smell of burning, which was pretty terrifying since I had no idea what had just happened. But thankfully we're all okay (apart from my sprained wrist), even though the car is probably a goner - it really was extraordinarily lucky that it wasn't a whole lot worse!

Anyway, on a slightly more positive note being back from the UK means I have a couple of cracking hauls for you, which I've divided into books & DVDs and clothes & accessories. To be fair I didn't buy everything in this one while I was there, as the first half was an Amazon order I did beforehand and collected from my grandparents' house so as to save on the extortionate postage costs to Belgium. Nevertheless, I'm extremely excited about everything I got!

Valley of the Dolls (1967), The Moth Diaries (2011), The Virgin Suicides (2000)

Shakespeare in Love (1998) / Marie Antoinette (2006) / Vanity Fair (2004)

I'm SO HAPPY to finally get my hands on all these DVDs, there are no words. The first three are all ones where I've read the book and immediately wanted to see the film, especially as stills from The Virgin Suicides in particular are always popping up on my tumblr dash. The Valley of the Dolls film is supposed to be quite bad as a film but I'm still interested to watch it as a fan of the book. And last but not least I originally just wanted to get just Marie Antoinette on its own, but this 3 pack version was actually cheaper so I figured why not indeed.

Rookie Yearbook Two edited by Tavi Gevinson

The Goddess Experience by Gisele Scanlon

Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the 90s Regenades Who Remade Fashion by Maureen Callahan

Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter by Louise Pentland

I grouped these together because they're all non-fiction: The Goddess Experience is the 'sequel' to The Goddess Guide, which is a real treasure trove of girly tips and tricks and interesting anecdotes and interviews by the author, all presented in a beautifully formatted little book - I would really recommend it as a gift for any girly girl! Champagne Supernovas I spotted ages ago but waited patiently until it came out in paperback. I've read mixed reviews of it, so I'm reserving judgement for the time being but it looks great. And it was inevitable that I would end up buying Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter, so I decided to throw it in too. I've definitely grown out of YouTube lately, but Louise has always been my favourite YouTuber and I'm honestly interested to see what her book is like and how it compares to Tanya and Fleur's.

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley

Urban Legends by Helen Grant

These were the only two fiction books that were part of the original Amazon order - I limited myself to just a couple as I'm trying to get through the bulk of the unread ones I already have. These two are both part of a series though (which makes it better somehow): The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches is the sixth book in the adorable Flavia de Luce mystery series, and Urban Legends is the final book in the Forbidden Spaces trilogy (which is set in Belgium, yay).

Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman

Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver

Then I made the mistake of going into a discount bookshop while I was out shopping and ended up getting these two and the next four books in this haul on a '3 books for £5' deal, which is always my undoing... Murder at the Brightwell is just a murder mystery that caught my eye (something about the 1920s style cover and font?), while from that I can tell Rage Against the Dying is a lot more modern and FBI-esque.

Death of a Cosy Writer by G. M. Malliet

Ten Little Herrings by L. C. Tyler

Another couple of homely mystery/crime stories. I've probably whizz through these but when I get onto a mystery roll I get slightly addicted so I thought I'd stock up.

When in Rome by Nicky Pellegrino

The King's Sister by Anne O'Brien

When in Rome is set in Rome (surprise surprise) in the 1950s, and it really reminded me of Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani, which is set in a similar period in New York but is about an Italian family. It's a book I really enjoyed so I thought this wasn't too bad a choice to bring my small stack of books up to 6 in order to get them for £10. The King's Sister is about Elizabeth of Lancaster, and in actual fact isn't technically Tudor fiction, if anything it's Lancastrian-Plantagenet fiction (if that's a thing).

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Finally, these two were bought for me by my mum who was feeling generous in WH Smith's (thanks mum!). The Secret History was recommended for me on Goodreads because I loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics, so I'd been meaning to buy this for a while. I actually already have an unread copy of Rebecca that I bought secondhand off Amazon, but I was unlucky with the copy I got as it's quite frankly disgusting to the point where I'd rather not touch it. This one, however, is really beautiful!

The clothes & accessories part of this haul will be coming soon!