. .Alison is a marriage counsellor. Her job is to help couples who fear they have reached the end of the line. But the trouble with spending your time sorting out other people's problems is that you tend to take your eye off your own. Even when her husband's ex Lydia arrives on the doorstep demanding to see her son, Alison thinks she can handle it. But what Alison doesn't realise is that Lydia is the one person who has the ability to destroy their perfect family. And sometimes the cracks can run so deep that even a marriage mender can't repair them . . .

    Because no book of this ilk should be without tit-bits and silliness. If nothing else it's fun to say tit-bits. Repeat after me: tit-bits. You're welcome.I hope you enjoy seeing the scripts in their pure written form on the page before they translated to what you have seen on screen. And if you're a lovely young person still at school let me know if your drama teacher ever lets you do an episode for the school play. Nothing would make me happier. Though I bagsy play Miranda. Your favourite, number one bestselling, comedian Miranda Hart is giving you an access-all-areas VIP backstage pass to her award-winning sitcom.Miranda Hart has won bundles of awards, written a bestselling book and completed a sell-out nationwide tour.But it was her award-winning BBC sitcom Miranda which first made her a much-loved household name. Here Miranda gives us an access-all-areas VIP backstage pass to Miranda the sitcom. The Best of Miranda is a beautiful and hilarious book which will delight Miranda's many fans and earn her many new ones.

    A priest and a poacher. A savage pursuit through the landscape of a changing rural England. When a teenage girl abducts a child, a local priest and poacher are called upon to retrieve them. Chased through the Cumbrian mountains of a distant past, the girl fights starvation and the elements, encountering the hermits, farmers and hunters who occupy the remote hillside communities along the way. Like an American Southern Gothic tale set against the violent beauty of Northern England, BEASTINGS is a sparse and poetic novel about morality, motherhood and corruption.

    Hers was the first English translation of Flaubert's Mme Bovary. She pioneered the theatre of Henrik Ibsen. She was the first woman to lead the British dock workers' and gas workers' trades unions. For years she worked tirelessly for her father, Karl Marx, as personal secretary and researcher. Later she edited many of his key political works, and laid the foundations for his biography. But foremost among her achievements was her pioneering feminism. For her, sexual equality was a necessary precondition for a just society.Drawing strength from her family and their wide circle, including Friedrich Engels and Wilhelm Liebknecht, Eleanor Marx set out into the world to make a difference - her favourite motto: 'Go ahead!' With her closest friends - among them, Olive Schreiner, Havelock Ellis, George Bernard Shaw, Will Thorne and William Morris - she was at the epicentre of British socialism. She was also the only Marx to claim her Jewishness. But her life contained a deep sadness: she loved a faithless and dishonest man, the academic, actor and would-be playwright Edward Aveling. Yet despite the unhappiness he brought her, Eleanor Marx never wavered in her political life, ceaselessly campaigning and organising until her untimely end, which - with its letters, legacies, secrets and hidden paternity - reads in part like a novel by Wilkie Collins, and in part like the modern tragedy it was.

    His first collection follows the narrative of his 5-star Edinburgh Fringe shows, 'Harry Baker's Super-Amazing Mega-Awesome Gap Year Adventures: Birth of a Champion' and 'Proper Pop-Up Purple Paper People'. It details the journey from performing Jay-Z maths parodies in school competitions to representing his country in Paris and becoming the youngest ever World Poetry Slam Champion. 'The Sunshine Kid' contains the raw honesty, tongue-in-cheek humour and blistering wordplay that have characterised his live performances and won the hearts and minds of audiences across the globe.

    But discovering the stabbed body of a stranger in her flat, then becoming prime suspect in a murder enquiry is only the beginning. Her persistent claims of innocence start to crumble when new evidence links her irrevocably with the victim... Leading her first murder enquiry, DCI Helen Lavery unravels a trail of deception, family secrets and betrayal. When people close to the Cottrell family start to disappear, Lavery is forced into a race against time. Can she catch the killer before he executes his ultimate victim?

    Queen Elizabeth II is dead. After a lifetime of waiting, her son ascends the throne. A future of power. But how to rule? Drawing on the style and structure of a Shakespearean history play, King Charles III opened at London’s Almeida Theatre, directed by its Artistic Director Rupert Goold, in 2014, before transferring to the West End.

    But when a Frenchman winds up dead in Georgie’s bathtub, it’s her job to clear her very long family name. A Royal PainWhile entertaining a Bavarian princess at the Queen’s behest, Georgie finds herself investigating the rather more worrisome matter of the dead body in the bookshop, as well as her royal guest’s unwitting involvement in the communist party. Royal FlushAfter being saved from scandal by her on-again-but-mostly-off-again beau, Darcy O’Mara, Georgie is shipped home, where Scotland Yard asks her to keep an eye on a shooting party and prevent someone from killing the Prince of Wales instead of quails.

    Shortly afterwards Thomas began to write. This book is the result.Beginning on the day of Kadian's death, and continuing to the year anniversary, and beyond, Kadian Journal is a record of grief in its rawest form, and of a mind in shock and questioning a strange new reality. Interspersed within the journal are fragments of memory: jewel-bright everyday moments that slowly combine to form a biography of a lost son, and a lost life.It is an extraordinary document, and several things at once: a lucid, raw, and startlingly brave book: a powerful and moving account of a father's grief, and a beautiful tribute to an exceptional son.

    Without the rose-tinted spectacles, but with hindsight and humour, and with poignancy and affection. 1978. The North. Phillip sees life in a simplistic if passionate way: up or down, us and them, black, white and nothing in-between. When not doing his ‘thing’ in Wigan’s Casino Club – voted ‘The Greatest Disco in the World’ by Time Magazine – Phillip hates the world. Or at least he thinks he does. He longs for the weekend, or a greater, permanent escape from the daily grind of factory life in an industrial town. With a little imagination, he might realise things midweek aren’t that bad: there’s the loving family, the secure job amid mass unemployment, a relationship with the perfect young woman… Or maybe he realises too late. And all he’d deemed important was only ever an illusion, his reflected image included. Coming full circle by way of loss and more loss, you would hope lessons are learned… The book progresses through myriad dream sequences, interwoven song-themes, a father’s philosophical ramblings, ever blackening wit, leitmotif – or seemingly recurring scenes; is someone laughing at our hero? And Phillip’s own, lyrical, strut-like, black or white manner. Dancehall adventures via train rides to Heaven, scooter cruising almost coast to coast. Beneath the pier encounters with the opposite sex, et al… set against the birth of Scargill and Thatcher feuding…

    Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the claustrophobic walls of the Abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again.Previously published as The Lord Bishop's Clerk.

    She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband. Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSYWhen Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait?      A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.'      Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.

    Throughout his life, Churchill painted to relieve his mind from the demands of leadership—and to stave off depression. Included in this volume are Churchill’s meditations on painting as a salve for the spirit and an important method of relaxation—particularly for people under considerable stress over a long period of time. In addition, it includes 18 reprints of Churchill’s original work in oil, giving the reader a window into the little-known creative and artistic talent of this prominent figure in contemporary history. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published. During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions—including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler—and played an important part in the Allies’ eventual triumph. One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works. ABOUT THE SERIES When the Conservative government was defeated in Britain’s 1929 general election, Winston Churchill was exiled from the party—chiefly because of his disagreements with party leaders over Indian Home Rule and protective tariffs, as well as his connections with financiers, press barons, and others who were not trusted by Conservative leadership. This period, between 1929 and 1939, came to be known as Churchill’s “wilderness years.” During this time, he focused on his writing—and served as an important voice for British armament against the rise of Hitler. Many of his works published during this time—including collections of newspaper articles and one very rare short story—are considered lost classics in the Churchill canon.

    Spanning Richard Benson's great-grandmother Winnie's ninety-two years in the valley, and drawing on years of historical research, interviews and anecdotes, The Valley lets us into generations of carousing and banter as the family's attempts to build a better and fairer world for themselves meet sometimes with triumph, sometimes with bitter defeat. Against a backdrop of underground explosions, strikes and pit closures, these are unflinching, deeply personal stories of battles between the sexes in a man's world sustained by strong women; of growing up, and the power of love and imagination to transform lives.

    In River Cottage Light & Easy Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall delivers wholesome delights with zero compromise on taste for all occasions - from brilliant breakfasts to goodness on the go, from crunchy salads to simple roasts and hotpots, from nutrient-packed fish dishes to lighter breads, baking and treats (we all need those!). Each recipe is dairy-free and wheat-free, and all are guaranteed to bring a fresh energy and vitality to your everyday cooking and eating.The 170 flavour-hitting recipes include: easy almond milk, pumpkin seed drop scones, savoury buckwheat galettes, wheat-free spinachy wraps, rye grissini, swede and smoky bacon soup, fragrant Asian broth, raw courgette and fennel salad with peanut dressing, Nordic slaw with rye crumbs, fish-rizo with broad beans, speedy fish and tomato curry, easiest ever storecupboard fishcakes, spiced beef with bashed beans, aromatic nutty chicken, lamb and cashew curry, smashed roast Jerusalem artichokes, beetroot burgers, perky pestos, feisty salsas, rhubarb, apple and ginger pie, peach and orange sorbet, chocolate and avocado mousse, chestnut marmalade muffins and life-loving brownies.With striking photography from Simon Wheeler, this beautiful book provides solutions to creating the most nourishing and healthy of meals as quickly and easily as possible.

    Their two paths converge with tragic inevitability. Jones writes of the physiology of grief and the isolation of loss with brilliance, and about the simple rawness of animal existence with a naturalist's unblinking eye. His is a pared-down prose of resonant simplicity and occasional lushness. His writing about ducks and dogs and cows is axe-sharp. There is not a whiff of the bucolic pastoral or the romanticized sod here. This is a real rural ride. It is short, but crackles with latent compressed energy that makes it swell to fill more space than at first glance it occupies.

    This entertaining insult generator and flip book collects hundreds of words from Shakespeare's most pointed barbs and allows readers to combine them in creative and hilariously stinging ways. From "apish bald-pated abomination" to "cuckoldly dull-brained blockhead" to "obscene rump-fed hornbeast," each insult can be chosen at random or customized to fit any situation that calls for a literary smackdown. Featuring an informative introduction on Shakespearean wit, and notes on which terms were coined or only used once by the author in his work, this delightful book will sharpen the tongue of Shakespeare fans and insult aficionados without much further ado.

    The house and all its problems now belong to her. As Laura struggles to to save the manor, she is pulled back into the lives, and loves, of the home's past inhabitants. Unfortunately, time is running out, not only for the preservation of the house, but for those who now live there. Centuries before, Lorraine Bonville, a young French girl, was forced to flee her chateau and cross the English Channel. Her fate was tied to Lord Bannock, a man twenty-five years her senior, and to the beautiful manor house he built for her. From castles in their full glory to the ruins of war, this novel weaves a beautiful tapestry of history, the struggle to rebuild life and love, and the desire to protect a very special home.The CHAMBER AND THE CROSS is a contemporary thriller wrapped around a medieval romance. It was a finalist with the 2015 San Diego Book Awards.

    In this first issue, Naomi Alderman talks books, body-building, fatherhood and feminism with debonair actor and Booker judge DAN STEVENS; and we reconsider THE WOMAN IN WHITE as The Book of the Season, getting to grips with the Victorian classic through fashion, film, food and more.

    Inheriting Ivy Compton-Burnett’s uncanny sensitivity to the terrifying undercurrents that swirl beneath the apparent calm of respectable family life while showing a deep sympathy of her own for human loneliness, Taylor depicted dislocation with the unflinching presence of mind of Graham Greene. But for Taylor, unlike Greene, dislocation began not in distant climes but right at home. It is in the living room, playroom, and bedroom that Taylor stages her unforgettable dramas of alienation and impossible desire. Taylor’s stories, many of which originally appeared in The New Yorker, are her central achievement. Here are self-improving spinsters and gossiping girls, war orphans and wallflowers, honeymooners and barmaids, mistresses and murderers. Margaret Drabble’s new selection reveals a writer whose wide sympathies and restless curiosity are matched by a steely penetration into the human heart and mind.

    Through necessity, he has lived life in the shadows. But when tragedy points to regicide, Andrew delves deeper into a maze of dangerous duplicity.She's a fighter who barely survived a treacherous relationship…When young Tyballis discovers her husband arrested for murder, she is delighted. As a young orphan, coerced to marry her abusive neighbour, she was horribly used. Now is her chance to be rid of him for good and find the confidence she never had.Can they try their hand at uncovering one of England's biggest conspiracies?When Tyballis joins forces with the motley network of Andrew’s informers and thieves, they are lured into the dark and dangerous world of medieval London’s political intrigue and back alley slums.It’s not long before Tyballis is accused of murder herself…A thought-provoking mystery that fuses fact and fiction to stunning effect and explores what it means to be human.This edition of Blessop’s Wife includes editorial revisions.What readers are saying:•“This is a terrific book! As a lover of English history, I was totally engrossed with this story. Spies, treachery, poison, plots against England's throne and romance all combine into a thoroughly absorbing tale. I couldn't stop reading it!”•“Wow! Well developed, multifaceted, relatable characters set in a historical era fraught with medieval political intrigue come together to create a thoroughly enjoyable book.” •“I was expecting a common bodice ripping historical romance and was happily surprised to find myself immersed in 15th-century intrigue instead.”•"A great read that transported the reader instantly into 15th century England. I felt I walked in the footsteps of the characters and lived their lives."•"Medieval London, the setting for this tale, is as much a character as are the people who populate the city and the story. We see it as it was back in the 1400s."

    The Tudor court is a tangible place, filled with real people and gives us a sixth wife of Henry VIII that stands out in Tudor fiction." Nancy Bilyeau, The Crown "An evocative and compelling story of Tudor intrigue, set in the final years of King Henry VIII." Tony Riches 1537. England. Henry VIII is in conflict with the Pope and the country is divided. A contingent of people in the north embark upon the Pilgrimage of Grace, to compel their monarch to bring him back into the fold. But the unyielding Henry sends an army to quell the uprising. In Yorkshire, Lady Katheryn Latimer, and her step-children, Margaret and John, are held under siege at Snape Castle. Henry proves victorious, although his victory doesn't wholly heal the divisions in the country. A few years later, widowed for the second time, Katheryn joins the household of Lady Mary Tudor where she encounters an old sweetheart, Thomas Seymour. But they are forced to cancel their plans to marry when King Henry VIII makes Katheryn an offer that she is unable to refuse. Haunted by the fates of Henry’s previous wives, Katheryn becomes the king’s trusted consort. But the court is treacherous and Katheryn wins more enemies than friends. . It is not until the Henry's death that Katheryn is finally able to follow the desires of her heart. Judith Arnopp is the author of numerous bestselling historical novels, including The Kiss of the Concubine, written from the perspective of Tudor women, from all walks of life.

    London Times war correspondent, George Adams, is a tortured soul, devastated by his wife's death and rejected by all branches of the military. Destroyed by events he couldn't control, he can't face the future and won't forget the past. His editor sends him to Singapore, a city threatened by the Japanese, hoping the exotic location and impending crisis will erase his haunting memories. Within minutes of his arrival, George is caught in a near-fatal air raid that triggers a chain of conflict and catastrophes. Injured and sheltered underground, he meets Thomas Montclair, a crafty French spy, and Lady Jane Carrington Smythe, an English aristocrat, who are destined to share his adventures. When a Japanese general is murdered, Lady Jane becomes the prime suspect. The trio flees the enemy and their own troubled pasts, confronting personal demons as well as the Japanese. They chase their dreams and elude their nightmares, evading a manhunt that spans the islands of the southwest Pacific, their lives wrapped in a swirling kaleidoscope of death, doubt, and desire.

     * Contents: - Far From the Madding Crowd - The Return of the Native - The Mayor of Casterbridge - Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Jude the Obscure * Just as accessible and enjoyable for today's readers as they would have been when first published over a century ago, the novels are some of the great works of English literature and continue to be widely read throughout the world. * This meticulous digital edition from Heritage Publishing is a faithful reproduction of the original texts.

    It's also the story of his times, and the ideas that shaped him. It's a story of why you know your birth sign, why you have friends called Willow, why sex and drugs and rock’n’roll once mattered more than money, why dance music stopped the New-Age Travellers from travelling, and why you need to think twice before taking the brown acid.It's the story of the hippies for those who weren't there – for Younger Readers who've never heard of the Aldermaston marches, Oz, the Angry Brigade, the Divine Light Mission, Sniffin' Glue, Operation Julie, John Seymour, John Michell, Greenham Common, the Battle of the Beanfield, but who want to understand their grandparents’ stories of turning on, tuning in and not quite dropping out before they are gone for ever. It's for Younger Readers who want to know how to build a bender, make poppy tea, and throw the I-Ching.And it's a story of friendship between two men, one who did things, and one who thought about things, between theory and practice, between a hippie and a punk, between two gentlemen, no longer in the first flush of youth, who still believe in love.

    A regular visitor to London, to the seashore for holidays, and to the estates of friends and relatives, Jane carried her own notion of home with her wherever she went and drew inspiration for her brilliantly witty novels from every new experience. She wrote most everywhere she traveled, accompanied by her portable writing desk.With gorgeous photography and illustrations, At Home with Jane Austen explores Austen’s world, her physical surroundings, and the journeys the popular author took during her lifetime. Author Kim Wilson ties Austen’s novels to places where she lived, visited, and even attended school, ending with her final months in temporary lodgings in Winchester, England. Jane Austen’s enduring legacy is the final chapter of this beautiful and eye-opening book.

    Here they try to live their daily lives, but all is not well and their talents are fading. Things change, however, when, from a strange egg, Yoshiko is born - a dragon with a unique destiny. Great adventure lies ahead as many challenges must be overcome, leading to a dangerous mission to the human world in attempt to return to the clans their missing magic!Can Yoshiko make it in time?

    Selected by leading expert Peter Davison.Famous for his novels and essays, Orwell remains one of our very best journalists and commentators. Confronting social, political and moral dilemmas head-on, he was fearless in his writing: a champion of free speech, a defender against social injustice and a sharp-eyed chronicler of the age. But his work is also timeless, as pieces on immigration, Scottish independence and a Royal Commission on the Press attest. Seeing Things As They Are, compiled by renowned Orwell scholar Peter Davison, brings together in one volume many of Orwell’s articles and essays for journals and newspapers, his broadcasts for the BBC, and his book, theatre and film reviews. Little escaped Orwell’s attention: he writes about the Spanish Civil War, public schools and poltergeists, and reviews books from Brave New World to Mein Kampf. Almost half of his popular ‘As I Please’ weekly columns, written while literary editor of the Tribune during the 1940s, are collected here, ranging over topics as diverse as the purchase of rose bushes from Woolworth’s to the Warsaw Uprising. Whether political, poetic, polemic or personal, this is surprising, witty and intelligent writing to delight in. A mix of well-known and intriguing, less familiar pieces, this engaging collection illuminates our understanding of Orwell’s work as a whole.

    When she clears it, she finds that the desk holds an unexpected surprise; one she wishes, in a way, that she hadn’t found, as wedged in the corner is a blank, faded postcard addressed to her, in her mother’s hand. At first, the postcard serves only to haunt her; a constant reminder of her mother’s last message, now forever silenced, and she can’t help but wonder what unwritten secret lies unsaid. Yet, as the days pass mysterious inexplicable things begin to happen, odd items go missing from her studio, only to reappear, ethereally transformed in the seemingly empty desk. Soon Ivy realises that the postcard was never really blank, it was simply waiting … waiting for her to find it. Part ghost story, part magical Christmas tale, The Postcard is about a love that transcends time and space to transform and heal.

    A beautifully presented gift book that children will love to receive on any special occasion, this is a fully illustrated collection of retellings of the classic stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, from the sword in the stone to the last battle.

    But it is also about war and family, and how an unexpected background can give you the insight and the courage to say the unexpected thing.

    I was a lucky girl.'So begins Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from that sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today.This is not a book about bricks and mortar, or about how a house becomes a home with the right scatter of cushions.This is a book about what houses are to us, the effect they have on the way we live our lives. It is also a wonderful backwards glace at the changing nature of our accommodation: from blacking grates and outside privies; to cities dominated by bedsits and lodgings; to houses today being converted back into single dwellings, all open-plan spaces and bringing the outside in.Finally, it is a gently insistent, personal inquiry into the meaning of home.

    Choose Your Way... "Stephen R. Marriott takes us on a journey through the eyes of Diego, a young guitarist, as he struggles to find his path in life. It's a touching tale which will not only have you reaching for the next in the series, but maybe your backpack as well." - Richard Paul Evans, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Diego is drifting. He has been content with living his life in a sun-scorched village that lies on the route of the pilgrim path: The Camino de Santiago. But one stormy night, change is forced upon Diego when his father, Eduardo, the local candyfloss maker, unexpectedly catches him entertaining a captivated crowd with flamenco guitar rhythms. At that moment, Eduardo lets go of the ghosts from his past and realises it's time for Diego to find his path in life. Eduardo arranges for Diego to live and work on a farm and sends him on his way with the gift of his old Spanish guitar. Will Diego commit to working on the farm, or will he confront his destiny on the road where a million pilgrims have passed before him? - - - - WARNING (By Candyfloss Guitar Readers) - - - - - "Very inspirational!" "I could NOT PUT IT DOWN!!" "Loved it" "great characters" "A great read!" "This story sucks you right in." "Very well crafted, and executed." "I would recommend this story to everyone." "A very enjoyable read." "Excellent storytelling..." "I am looking forward to hearing more" "Fascinating story!" "swept away in this story about self-discovery" "I wanted more, much more." "Thought provoking!" "a fantastic story about self-discovery." "I absolutely loved it." "I definitely recommend reading this." "Filled with lushly descriptive language" "Surprised me with both its subject and quality." The people Diego encounters on the way and the faith they share will take him on a much longer journey, one that once would have seemed unimaginable. Candyfloss Guitar is the first book in the Reluctant Pilgrim series about one man's journey of self-discovery and the hope he will eventually bring to others. A journey both physical and spiritual, guided at times by the unlikeliest of angels!

    But Raedwald is urged to kill his guest by Aethelfrith, Edwin's usurper. As Edwin walks by the shore, alone and at bay, he is confronted by a mysterious figure--the missionary Paulinus-- who prophesies that he will become High King of Britain. It is a turning point.Through battles and astute political alliances Edwin rises to power, in the process marrying the Kentish princess Aethelburh. As part of the marriage contract the princess is allowed to retain her Christian faith. But, in these times, to be a king is not a recipe for a long life.This turbulent and tormented period in British history sees the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon settlers who have forced their way on to British shores over previous centuries, arriving first to pillage, then to farm and trade--and to come to terms with the faith of the Celtic tribes they have driven out.The dramatic story of Northumbria's Christian kings helped give birth to England as a nation, English as a language, and the adoption of Christianity as the faith of the English.

    The dying soldier shifts his head To watch the glory that returns; He lifts his fingers toward the skies Where holy brightness breaks in flame; Radiance reflected in his eyes, And on his lips a whispered name.   The poems in this anthology—all written by poets who served on the front line—draw readers into the horrors of life in the trenches, documenting events as they unfolded in excruciating detail and creating a body of work so vivid that it continues to haunt us one hundred years later. With First World War Poems from the Front, Paul O’Prey offers an in-depth exploration of the Great War poets, including powerful poems by Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Julian Grenfell, as well as two World War I nurses: Vera Brittain and Mary Borden. The poems are accompanied by a brief and accessible introduction and short biographical profiles that set them in context for readers new to the works.

    This deluxe collection of Shakespeare’s most dazzling insults is neatly separated into sections for quick retrieval when a stinging retort is demanded. Become the master of your own villainy with creative insults that will show those rogues and ruffians who’s in charge!

    Daughter of John of Gaunt, sister to the future King Henry IV, Elizabeth of Lancaster has learned the shrewd tricks of the court from England’s most powerful men. In a time of political turmoil, allegiance to family is everything. A Plantagenet princess should never defy her father’s wishes. Yet headstrong Elizabeth refuses to bow to the fate of a strategic marriage. Rejecting her duty, Elizabeth weds the charming and ruthlessly ambitious Sir John Holland: Duke of Exeter, half-brother to King Richard II and the one man she has always wanted. But defiance can come at a price. 1399. Elizabeth’s brother Henry has seized the throne. Her husband, confident to the usurped Richard, masterminds a secret plot against the new King. Trapped in a dangerous web, Elizabeth must make a choice. Defy the King and betray her family. Or condemn her husband and send him to his death. Sister. Wife. Traitor. She holds the fate of England in her hands.

    One secret is deadly.

    Boi, as she is known to her friends and family, just loves going to school. Her primary school is in the local village, but when she graduates to secondary school, two obstacles stand in the path to her further education. Firstly, there are fees to be paid. Secondly, it is eleven miles to the nearest secondary school. She would have to get up very early, and walk that long distance to school every day, and walk home after school. There are many potential dangers along the remote African track between her village and her school.This is the inspiring story of how Boi overcomes the obstacles and dangers to gain the education that she so desires. Not only does she achieve her ambitions, but she manages to make life better for the children of her village who wish to follow in her footsteps. Eleven Miles is a fictional story based upon a true life situation in Botswana. Until the target of Princess Boikanyo's School Bus Project is achieved, 50% of all profits from the sales of this book will go into the project funds. In the meantime, please feel free to make additional contributions to this worthy cause by clicking on the project link.

    Award-winning author Jonathan Rose explores in tandem Churchill’s careers as statesman and author, revealing the profound influence of literature and theater on Churchill’s personal, carefully composed grand story and on the decisions he made throughout his political life.   Rose provides in this expansive literary biography an analysis of Churchill’s writings and their reception (he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 and was a best-selling author), and a chronicle of his dealings with publishers, editors, literary agents, and censors. The book also identifies an array of authors who shaped Churchill’s own writings and politics: George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Margaret Mitchell, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, and many more. Rose investigates the effect of Churchill’s passion for theater on his approach to reportage, memoirs, and historical works. Perhaps most remarkably, Rose reveals the unmistakable influence of Churchill’s reading on every important episode of his public life, including his championship of social reform, plans for the Gallipoli invasion, command during the Blitz, crusade for Zionism, and efforts to prevent a nuclear arms race. In a fascinating conclusion, Rose traces the significance of Churchill’s writings to later generations of politicians, among them President John F. Kennedy as he struggled to extricate the U.S. from the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    When his bride-to-be is abducted the night before his wedding, Ivan Gelski takes to the hills and turns to banditry to seek revenge. But a chance encounter with a travelling guitarist, and the bloodshed that follows, set him on a musical journey through fame, martyrdom and legend. In this remarkable reinvention of the tale of Orpheus, Will Buckingham plunges us into the music and folklore of Bulgaria, in a parable about storytelling, sainthood and myth-making.

    There is no me, there is no you, and there is certainly no self.Princeton, New Jersey. 1955. Thomas Stoltz Harvey performs the autopsy on Albert Einstein - and then steals his brain.Bath, England. 1953. Henry undergoes pioneering brain surgery. The surgery changes Henry's life, and the history of neuroscience.London, England. The Present. Martha is a clinical neuropsychologist. When her marriage breaks down she starts to make radically different choices.Three interwoven stories exploring the nature of identity and how we are defined by what we remember, Incognito is an exhilarating exploration of what it means to be human.Nick Payne's Incognito premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle, in April 2014 in a co-production with nabokov and HighTide Festival Theatre.

    A journey peppered with daydreams through a poetic child's eye view from the cracks in the pavement to the faces in the clouds. This book is a salute to every curly-top, scabby knee'd, mixed-up, half-crazy kid out there. It's a tale of the kids who had free school dinners and hand-me-downs as told by the daughter of a Jazz musician and a go-go dancer. It's a story for those who love to relax in days gone by. Springfield Road sets out to capture a snapshot of the seventies through the eyes of the author's child self. It vividly recalls a world without health and safety, a time of halfpenny sweets, fish and chips in newspaper, cassette tapes of the Sunday night top ten, scrumping apples and foraging for conkers.It's about discovering that life is unfair and that parents die. It's also about seeking the good in the world, the humour and the tenderness of life, this book is not a misery memoir.

    Its centerpiece is the song cycle, "Drift," which takes the anonymous 10th century Anglo-Saxon quest poem The Seafarer as its inspiration. Both ancient and contemporary tales of travel and exile shadow the plight and losses of wanderers across the waters in this haunting new book. Drift is the second of Bergvall's explorations of historical English language.

    Peel back the layers under a London street and you'll discover a haunting, dreamlike world of hand-laid brick sewers, forgotten tube stations, World War II evacuation shelters, secret government bunkers, and tunnel boring machines laying new sewer, communication, and transport grids. Bradley L. Garrett has worked with explorers of subterranean London to collect an astonishing array of images documenting forbidden infiltrations into the secret bowels of the city. This book takes readers through progressively deeper levels of historical London architecture below the streets. Beautifully designed to allow for detailed viewing and featuring bespoke map illustrations by artist Stephen Walter, this unique book takes readers to locations few dare to go, and even fewer succeed in accessing.

    Eleanor of Aquitaine, the indomitable dowager queen, has ordered all of England onto a war footing while her son King Richard languishes in a German dungeon. When Gwendolyn de Cardinham happens upon mercenaries from Prince John's rebellion, she draws her sword and defends her home as well as any knight could have. But more of John's mercenaries are coming, her sister-in-law claims Gwendolyn’s husband has died on crusade, and the local prior has absurdly informed Gwendolyn that King Arthur’s fabled sword is destined to be hers. Self-educated and martially trained, Gwendolyn gave her husband her oath to guard and protect their estate of Penhallam while he fought in the crusade. Gwendolyn travels to London with her constable to present herself to the dowager queen. But Gwendolyn has a secret that could put all of Penhallam—and herself—at risk if the queen discovers it.

    But images and events of her recent past and the reading of her great-grandmother Elizabeth's diary haunt her night and day, forcing Jo to come to terms with demons she thought she could leave behind.Written as a long confession to Jo's former lover Susie, alternating with Elizabeth's account of nursing Indian soldiers at the Brighton Pavilion in 1915, The Repercussions--Catherine Hall's most ambitious novel to date--is a sweeping narrative dealing with the psychological and emotional reality of war, as well as race, guilt, love, and loss.

    Widow Lady Katherine Swynford presents herself for a role in the household of merciless royal prince John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, hoping to end her destitution. But the Duke’s scandalous proposition leaves her life of pious integrity reeling...Seduced by the glare of royal adoration, Katherine becomes John’s mistress. She will leave behind everything she has stood for to play second fiddle to his young wife and ruthless ambition. She will live in the shadows of the most powerful man in England in the hope of a love greater than propriety. But soon the court whispers – whore, harlot, vile temptress – reach the ears of not just John’s bride but his most dangerous political enemies. As the Plantagenet prince is accused of bringing England to its knees, who better to blame than shameless she-devil Katherine Swynford? Dragged from the shadows, Katherine must answer for her sins.‘Anne O’Brien has joined the exclusive club of excellent historical novelists.’Sunday Express

    The meaning we give something can terrify or elevate us, and in psychotherapy it's often the meaning our clients have given a life event that is as the root of their problems.Hence why the art of reframing - changing meaning - is central to effective therapy.In New Ways of Seeing, therapist of 20 years Mark Tyrrell gives transcripts of real cases where reframes have been used to release clients from restrictive perspectives. Clients with abusive childhoods who now feel they are damaged goods. Smokers who can't resist 'one more cigarette'. People with self esteem so low they believe they have failed at life. By reading the case studies and absorbing the theoretical framework around reframing, you can experience the shifts in meaning for yourself, enhancing your own ability to deliver carefully crafted reframes that will set your clients free.

    The war involved people from so many different backgrounds and countries and included here are, among others, British, German, Russian and Indian voices. Alongside testament from the many ordinary people whose lives were transformed by the events of 1914-18, there are extracts from names that have become synonymous with the war, such as Siegfried Sassoon and T.E. Lawrence. What unites them is a desire to express something of the horror, the loss, the confusion and the desire to help - or to protest. A Broken World is an original collection of personal and defining moments that offer an unprecedented insight into the Great War as it was experienced and as it was remembered.Edited by the bestselling author of Birdsong and Dr Hope Wolf, this is an original and illuminating non-fiction anthology of writing on the First World War.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another.In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from taunting humour to outright sabotage, with a literal spanner put in the works of the factories and salt mines prisoners were forced to slave in. British PoWs also fought a valiant war against the conditions in which they were mired. They battled starvation, disease, Prussian cruelties, boredom, and their own inner demons. And, of course, they escaped. Then escaped again. No less than 29 officers at Holzminden camp in 1918 burrowed their way out via a tunnel (dug with a chisel and trowel) in the Great Escape of the Great War. It was war with heart-breaking consequences; more than 12,000 PoWs died, many of them murdered, to buried in shallow unmarked graves.Using contemporary records - from prisoners' diaries to letters home to poetry - John Lewis-Stempel reveals the death, life and, above all, the glory of Britain's warriors behind the wire. For it was in the PoW camps, far from the blasted trenches, that the true spirit of the Tommy was exemplified.

    

    The process is fun and easy and takes surprisingly little time, making it as appropriate for children as it is for adults. Each Classic Edition, with its embossed cover and foil-edged pages, is based on a much-loved classic work of fiction. In ArtFolds: LOVE, readers will find the complete text of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, the cherished story of the Dashwood sisters and their search for love.With 206 pages to fold, this ArtFolds is at Advanced level.

    The collection includes tales acquired from more than 30 years studying and taking part in ancient seasonal customs, and discovering the folk tales intrinsically linked to those customs, such as the Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels (Devon), the Viking "Up Helly Aa" (Shetland), and the Haxey Hood Game (Lincolnshire). This is a book to curl up with in front of an open fire on long winter nights.

    Press the buttons to hear a range of gentle, musical sounds which relate to the simple pictures. Delightful to share, this book will engage even a tiny baby's attention and as babies grow they will love to press the sound buttons themselves. This series is designed to be used from birth. Babies will love looking at the bright, high-contrast pictures, feeling the textures and listening to the musical sounds as they explore this vibrant board book. With musical sounds created especially to appeal to babies, by composer Anthony Marks. Low-decibel sound buttons are safe for babies' ears.

    Though Hess had been one of Hitler's closest confidantes he was immediately denounced as a traitor in Berlin. Imprisoned in England, he was questioned by British MI6 and Churchill himself. The documents he had brought with him were confiscated and have not been made public to this day. Hess was tried at Nuremburg at the war's end and imprisoned at Spandau in Berlin, one of only seven former Nazis held there. The other six were all released, but Hess lingered there alone until his death in 1987, possibly by suicide, possibly not. The official report on Hess has always been that he acted alone, but many historians question this conclusion. In Night Flight to Dungavel, award-winning historian Peter Padfield presents striking new evidence that spurs a wholesale reappraisal of the mystery: what actually happened, what role was played by Churchill and British intelligence, and what has been this episode's significance as a real turning point of the war. Expertly woven into a compelling narrative that touches on Nazi sympathizers among the British aristocracy, possible British foreknowledge of the "final solution," and the mysterious circumstances of Hess's death in Spandau prison, Night Flight to Dungavel is among the most important and gripping stories of World War Two.

    Equal to men in both their bravery and in the sacrifices they made, the female undercover operatives of the Second World War deserve to have their incredible stories told. The Women Who Spied for Britain traces the fascinating and sometimes tragic stories of eight women who put their lives on the line and made invaluable contributions to the British war effort. Drawn from many different walks of life, including a princess, a beauty queen, a war widow, a teenage girl and a bawdy Australian journalist, all of these women shared a sense of adventure, daring and determination that allowed them to embrace the role of secret agent. Trained in the art of clandestine warfare, guerilla tactics and radio operation, these women worked closely with resistance movements throughout Occupied Europe. Their stories are portraits of courage, offering a mixture of thrilling adventure, gutsy humour, hard-fought triumphs and, for far too many, horrific tragedy.

    The latter, originally a commission for BBC Radio, rendered the classical tale with all the flare, wit and engagement that we have come to expect from this most distinctive of contemporary authors, and in so doing brought Odysseus's return from the Trojan War memorably to life.

    He runs for cover – his first escape in a series of encounters with destiny. Imagine the Adventure: The boy and his brother work for the SOE, an underground branch of the English Intelligence Service. When the resistance movement is uncovered, they quickly escape through the mountains of Crete, hiding from the enemy in broad daylight. Danger looms everywhere.Imagine the Glamour: The boy trains to be a spy for the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services), the SOE’s newly formed American intelligence counterpart. Imagine the Peril: While on his undercover mission in Salonica, the boy constantly risks his life, operating a wireless radio in plain view. Will the German police ever discover him?Imagine the Courage: If captured, the boy resolves to take a poison capsule that will quickly end his young life, rather than endure torture. Often, he finds himself seconds away from that dreaded event.Imagine the Victory of living to tell the tale at age 91…It’s all true! No imagination is necessary. This is the stuff of movies—a must-read story about the Game of Life.The author’s story, along with those of other agents, was featured in the documentary Camp X: Secret Agent School, a production by YAP Films, and was aired on HISTORY Channel in Canada and other networks worldwide.

    Simon Swanson wishes he had a ticket. He dreams of walking on fine coral beaches with the sun burning overhead, but for now he watches, happy that some, at least, have the hope of a good life. Michael Judd is going to save the world and he won't let anything stop him. Five lives intertwine in a tale of hope, redemption and salvation on the journey to Paradise. Praise for Jason K. Lewis..."...leaves you on the edge of a thread, dangling, really wanting more...""...Lewis has a knack for quickly developing characters through their behaviours...complexities are expressed with power and subtlety..."

    They are her life, her sole reason for being. But when Baldwin Rutledge steps into her barn looking for a cat, she develops a whole new interest. One in which she must continually remind herself there is no future. No. Best to hope for nothing beyond friendship and spare herself a broken heart. Baldwin Rutledge is desperate to stop his aunt from trying to find him a wife. So he decides to distract her by procuring a second cat for her. His plan is working beautifully, until he meets pretty Jessie Selkirk. Now marriage is the only thing he thinks about. He’d like to be more than acquaintances, but convincing her of that might take some doing.

    This book tells the remarkable story of how the grandees of Anglo Jewry persuaded the British Government to allow them to establish a transit camp in Sandwich, in East Kent, to which up to 4000 men could be brought while they waited for permanent settlement overseas—known as the Kitchener camp. The whole rescue was funded by the British Jewish community with help from American Jewry. Most of the men left their families behind. Would they get their families out in time? And how would the people of Sandwich—a town the same size as the camp—react to so many German speaking Jewish foreigners in their midst? There was also a well organized branch of the British Union of Fascists in Sandwich. Captain Canning, a virulent anti-Semite, lived there. He and his grand friends, including the Prince of Wales, used to meet there to play golf. This background adds to the drama of the race against time to save lives.

    In this book you will learn about ranch life on the Dadanawa, one of the world’s largest working cattle ranches. You’ll read how Brock went from an English school boy to vaquero and ranch manager. You’ll learn of the beginnings of Remote Area Medical, an international, non-profit, volunteer, airborne medical relief corps that serves the remote areas of the United States and the world.Brock’s humorous, heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking stories of his personal experiences with the Wapishana and Wai-Wai Indians form a fascinating and accurate history of a bygone place and time when all the cowboys were Indians.

    But it's hard to get excited about weddings when you're terminally single and the best man is the boy who broke your heart: Jamie, the groom's dashing and irresistible brother. How can she face the man who dumped her when she's still so hopelessly in love? Then again, maybe this is the perfect opportunity - after all, where better to get back together than at a wedding? So Luce has six months to figure out how to win back her ex, but she has plenty else on her plate - from an old friend returned to Newcastle with an announcement of her own, to a youthful colleague who may or may not have a crush on her and a mother who is acting very strangely indeed... and that's all before a mysterious, handsome American walks into her life. Sometimes being a bridesmaid isn't all confetti and champagne... 'A smarter, funnier Bridget Jones' Diary for the 2010s - great pithy writing and instantly likeable characters' Cass Green, Sunday Times/USA Today bestselling author of In a Cottage in a Wood'

    Scrimping and scraping, people telling me not to do it, I couldn't do it. That my life wouldn't amount to very much. Now I might have had a bit of natural talent but I got here because of pure determination and persistence. Stubbornness you might say. I always went that extra mile, pushed myself that bit harder than anyone else and never took anything for granted.It was 1954 when Beryl Charnock met keen cyclist Charlie Burton. In those days they cycled in clubs and once Beryl started she was smitten, not only with Charlie, but by the thrill and freedom found on two wheels. Beryl was better than good, she was the best, and she was determined to stay that way.Beryl Burton was five times world-pursuit champion, thirteen times national champion, twice road-racing world champion and twelve times national champion. Her accolades include time trials, former world-record holder, former British record-holder, numerous sports awards an MBE and an OBE. Burton was one of the most astonishing sports people ever to have lived, but she remains something of a mystery.Beryl, which celebrates the extraordinary sporting achievements of this inspirational cyclist, has been specially commissioned as an adaptation from Maxine Peake's acclaimed 2012 Radio 4 play and marks her stage-writing debut. It received its world premiere on 30 June 2014 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the Courtyard Theatre.

    a rogue vampire is picking off the homeless at Christmas... a vicious murderer is using the chaos of the Edinburgh Fringe to cover his crimes.This collection of Dark Dates stories sees the hunter Cain reluctantly reunited with his rival, the vampire Laclos. Can they work together against a common enemy, or will they kill one another first? "Sinclair's characters are made of the same stuff as cult favourites Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse but with a fresh, British flavour" - Byte the Book[Contains A Vampire Walked Into A Bar, A Vampire Christmas and A Vampire In Edinburgh]

    Winner of Britain's most prestigious awards, Christine was actually born in pre-war Poland, living a carefree life of privilege, the daughter of a feckless count who was frequently absent from her life. He did appear now and then, long enough to teach her to ride. Her have-a-go attitude toward life and her natural beauty attracted a bevy of admirers, one of whom married her before the war. CHRISTINE however was not satisfied with being the wife of a wealthy man and found herself divorced before the war. A second marriage ended in the same manner. Free and with no ties CHRISTINE quickly bought into Warsaw's revived social life and it was in that over-heated milieu that she met the British journalist and covert agent who recruited her for the secret service. CHRISTINE and her second husband were enjoying a honeymoon in Africa when the Germans invaded Poland. Unable to return to her homeland the couple fled to England. There she was reunited with that journalist-agent. By early 1940 CHRISTINE found herself in Budapest posing as a travel writer. Her true mission was to enter occupied Poland and gather as much intelligence as she could. To do this she made the arduous trek across the Tatra mountains, braved furious snow- storms, narrowly escaped Nazi agents and finally made it to Warsaw. There she connected with a renegade outfit calling themselves the Musketeers. They began a 2-year association gathering information about the Germans which CHRISTINE then smuggled across the mountains on her return to Budapest. CHRISTINE'S role with the Musketeers ended when she and her lover Andrew Kennedy were arrested by the Hungarian secret police. By feigning a consumptive illness she tricked her captors in to releasing her and Andrew. Budapest was no longer safe for them and so began the long trip to Cairo. Rumors that she was a German spy reached Cairo before she did and she was summarily dismissed from the secret service. Two years passed before she was cleared of all charges. Preparations began to drop her into France where she was to become deputy to the head of the Jockey Circuit. But shortly after arriving in France, Francis Cammaerts, Jockey's leader, was arrested by the Gestapo. CHRISTINE then took charge of matters. She brazenly walked into the German prison, declared herself to be a British agent and began negotiating for Cammaerts' release. She was so convincing that the prison warden not only released Cammaerts but left his post with his prisoners. With the Allies steaming across Europe in 1944 spies were no longer needed in France. CHRISTINE returned to London where she floated through a series of menial jobs, looking forward to an uncertain future. She did find a job that appealed to her but it came with a high price. A man she befriended aboard a cruise ship fell passionately in love with CHRISTINE. She could not return his affection and when his erratic behavior became threatening she decided to leave England. Fate intervened however. Before she could manage her escape the frustrated lover appeared at her hotel and after a brier argument, stabbed her to death. CHRISTINE died in the hotel lobby on June 15, 1952, age 44. She was given a state funeral with full military honours and is buried in St Mary's cemetary, north London.

    It is an omnibus of crime stories from the smaller collections Thirteen: Unlucky For Some and Under Dark Skies. Several of the stories have been published before in magazines and anthologies. It includes: Afterburn - a retired astronaut investigates the death of an old friend (mystery) Diamond Pass – a man returns to his home town and discovers shocking secrets (crime drama) Distant Relatives - a man and his daughter cross the dangerous Australian Outback (crime drama) Pulling No Punches - a boxer risks his life for his family (noir) Falling in Love – a greedy husband tries to kill his new wife with unexpected complications (noir) Hollywood Asylum – a reclusive screenwriter meets a beautiful woman living next door (noir) The Kidnapping – a light-hearted tale about an unusual kidnapping (comic crime) Deal Breaker – a little girl needs the help of a lawyer to get justice (legal drama) Bad Advertising – a man hears a murder happen in the flat below him (suspense) Patriotic Duty - a headless body leads a New Orleans detective to a gang of killers (action and suspense) My Cousin Shunsuke – a teenage girl helps her cousin investigate the death of his girlfriend (mystery) The Abduction – a man disappears at a convention for ufologists (mystery) On the Road – two couples have a deadly journey (crime drama) Fever Pitch – an ex-convict looks for revenge (suspense) The Good Samaritan – an Australian trucker soon wishes he had not stopped for two people on a lonely road (dark suspense) The Pledge – a college student encounters a dangerous secret society (thriller) The Enigma of Lucy Ash – a beautiful woman returns home with tragic consequences (noir) A Deadly Prelude – a music producer has to make a deadly decision when he discovers a new artist (crime drama) The New Boss – DCI Lisa Boone investigates the drowning deaths of three young people in a Welsh town (detective, mystery) Flash Stories: The Vow The Eggs Bonus: Afterburn 2.0 (alternative version)

    Concerned, she went to South Africa to investigate and assist. She threaded her way through the conflict, all on her own and undaunted by the danger, discomfort and considerable difficulties. What she found was very disturbing. But her government did not want to listen when she told them what she had found and they did not want her to tell anyone. They did not want the world to know what they were doing. This book tells the remarkable story of a courageous woman who, in a dark moment in British history, confronted the leaders of her nation – military, political and administrative – to uphold the values we all cherish. Her courageous and committed work would be acclaimed around the world if she were alive today. Carefully researched and beautifully written, this thought-provoking book has been highly commended.

    The forces which brought about her terrifying decline are shrouded in mystery. Meanwhile, her estranged daughter Dory is forced to abandon her fast paced city life to be by her mother’s bedside. Dory is resentful. She hates the country and she and her mother were never exactly close. Luckily Vida already has a carer, the enigmatic Rhiannon Townsend. A long-standing fan of Vida’s, Rhiannon is happy to take care of the bedside vigil. Dory is free to resume her life. Or is she? Then she discovers her mother’s journal. Vida’s chilling testament reveals the trigger for her spiralling into madness. It also reveals the danger that still lurks close by. A danger that will call on Dory’s every reserve of courage if she’s to free her mother, and maybe in doing so, to free herself.

    [that] proffer the reader equal measures of autobiography, insight and quirky charm." —Michael Dirda, The Washington PostIn the game of bocce, no matter how intensely you study the world's surface, there is always a chance an unseen pebble will knock your ball in an unexpected direction. In these essays, poet, antiquarian bookseller, and celebrated travel writer Marius Kociejowski chronicles serendipitous encounters with authors, manuscripts, and eccentrics, in which “the curious workings of fate” and “art's unbidden swerve” intervene to shift the course of fortune.Carried by keen wit, aphoristic prose, and a rich sense of characterization, and featuring chance meetings and comic misadventures with such figures as Bruce Chatwin, Zbigniew Herbert, and Javier Marías, The Pebble Chance is a sumptuous offering of belles lettres exploring the incandescent moments when skill and providence collide.

    Then her eccentric, but lovely neighbour, Dee Dee Derota, has a precious jewel stolen. Could the new family be to blame? Violet is on the case to uncover the truth…

    Roger Scruton evokes a world in which every word and gesture bears a double meaning, as people seek to find truth amid the lies and love in the midst of betrayal. The novel tells the story of Jan Reichl, condemned to a menial life by his father's alleged crime, and of Betka, the girl who offers him education, opportunity and love, but who mysteriously refuses to commit herself.

    Artists and poets have fathomed their deepest thoughts searching for the hill's hidden meanings, archaeologists have tunnelled through earth for fragments that prove its purpose. But for all this human endeavour, Silbury Hill remains a mystery. We do know it is the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. But was it once an island, moated by water? Was it a place of worship and celebration, perhaps a vast measure of the passing seasons? Along with Stonehenge and Avebury, was it part of a healing landscape or a physical memory of the long-ago dead? Silbury Hill is the sum of all that we project. A blank screen where human dreams and nightmares flicker. The hill has been part of Adam Thorpe's own life since his schooldays at Marlborough, which he would often escape in the surrounding downlands. He has carried Silbury ever since, through his teenage years in Cameroon, into his adulthood in southern England and France: its presence fused to each landscape which became his home. On Silbury Hill is Adam Thorpe's own projection onto Silbury's grassy slopes. It is a chalkland memoir told in fragments and family snapshots, skillfully built, layer on layer, from Britain's ancient and modern past.

    But amid the wealth of approaches to her life and work, no one has made a full-length study of the concept of aging in her novels, and this book sets out to fill that gap. With chapters on the loss of youth and beauty, old wives, old maids, merry widows, and dowager despots, the theme allows for a lively exploration of many of Austen's most memorable characters. There are also chapters on hypochondria and illness, age and poverty, and death and wills. The book draws on the six novels, major literary fragments, Austen's own letters, and the reminiscences of family members and contemporaries. Real-life examples are used to underline the fidelity of Austen's fictional representation. Austen's wry approach to the perils and consolations of growing older is bound to strike chords with many.

    A virus breaks out in a couple of Arctic naval bases, and then, even more strangely, inside the White House. The guards become animated corpses, and rescue teams are rendered helpless by a mysterious trance effect. Most US citizens seem unconcerned, but some people are watching. Underpaid academic Dr. Weaver has documents that refer to something similar happening in the time of Christ, and a group of billionaires seek him out and set him to work. With the help of a super-hacker he manages to track down a veteran who’s not susceptible to mind control. But this Sean “Jester” Solberg character is a wild card—an aggressive loner who lives with the immigrants outside the cities. The next recruit is even more unusual. Curtis Ferguson is the son of a couple of anthropologists and reportedly the world’s most powerful witch doctor. Into this bizarre, dysfunctional group is thrust Jodie Goodwin, a down-to-earth Texan girl with exceptional shooting skills. The newly formed team creep into the bunkers deep under the capital and encounter mankind’s ancient enemies. They end up fighting for survival and soon discover that their lives depend on the powers of the young, but untested, shaman

    From the author of In All Probability,Out on Top sees Steve Morris return to set a few things straight.”

    Between them on Dan's council estate comes the beautiful but troubled Cal, to Bron a songbird and daydream but to Dan a byword for all that he knows comes with her. On their horizon gleams the mirage of being something and someone, but ever closer behind is Dan's past, inventive in its nemeses and indiscriminate in its prey.

    Honest, powerful, and authentic.”—Dr. Roderick Bailey, SOE author and historianA War of Shadows is W. Stanley Moss’s sequel to his classic Ill Met by Moonlight. A former British operative who, along with Patrick Leigh Fermor, once kidnapped a Nazi general (as told in Ill Met), Moss offers this rousing account of his World War II adventures as an agent in Crete, Macedonia, and the Siamese jungle—rife with intrigue: ambushes, double-dealing, and back-door missions.“Billy Moss was one of those daring adventurers, the like of which we no longer see. This book, reissued after 52 years, tells of his further exploits in Crete, Macedonia, and Siam—the story of a man of initiative and great courage.”—Hugo Vickers, author and historian“The romance and adventure of resistance operations, with splendid companions, the spates of violence and maddening hitches to plans presumably perfected, the nuances of bravery, courage, heroism—and fear—again this is one of the most personally descriptive reportings of one phase of the past war.”—Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Ill Met by Moonlight:“The remarkable story of how [Moss] and a fellow British commando [Patrick Leigh Fermor] infiltrated a Nazi stronghold in Crete, kidnapped a German general, and spirited him back to Egypt. Though based on fact, this could rival any best-selling espionage novel.”—Library Journal“This amazing story is marvelously well told, in an exuberant, racing style that makes it impossible to lay the book aside once the first page is read.”—San Francisco ChronicleW. Stanley Moss was a World War II hero and later a best-selling author. He traveled extensively after the war, notably to Antarctica with a British Antarctic Expedition. Eventually he settled in Kingston, Jamaica.

    Harry Friedman is the gunner of the Macey May, an American Flying Fortress stationed in East Anglia. The Second World War is raging and the Nazis have swept over Europe. The crews of every Flying Fortress face terrible odds on their bombing missions. To make it through alive, Harry will need luck on his side and courage … Courage to keep going when he has watched close friends die. Courage to confront a terrible evil. And the courage to make it home from deep behind enemy lines.Nail-biting tension and compelling storytelling combine with Dowswell's meticulous research to deliver a page-turner for fans of John Boyne, Morris Gleitzman and Marcus Zusak.

    This Companion offers a comprehensive guide to the intellectual and social contexts surrounding Bloomsbury and its coterie, which includes writer Virginia Woolf, economist Maynard Keynes, and art critic Roger Fry, among others. Thirteen chapters from leading scholars and critics explore the Bloomsbury Group's rejection of Victorian values and social mores, their interventions in issues of empire and international politics, their innovations in the literary and visual arts, and more. Complete with a chronology of key events and a detailed guide to further reading, this Companion provides scholars and students of English literature fresh perspectives on the achievements of this remarkable circle of friends.

    A friendly widow takes Jane under her wing, but their carriage overturns on the road and after that things never go quite as Jane intended. Unwittingly she takes a job as secretary to the grandmother of the Duke of Grantley, the mysterious stranger who rescued them after the accident. When Jane at last realises who he is she clashes with him over a number of things, since they are poles apart politically. Little does she know that the Duke is taking more than a passing interest in her developing business, concerned at the lengths she is willing to go to in order to achieve success. Little does he know what Jane will be capable of when she discovers his own subterfuge.

    An elderly butler gives them bizarre warnings, eerie statues of children are dotted around the island, and - worse - she's expected to be friends with her moody cousin, Arthur. But things become much worse when Jack disappears - and no one else on the island remembers he ever existed! Molly and Arthur must work together to save Jack. They unlock a hidden world of vicious spirits, but will they uncover the secret behind the Lost Children before it's too late?

    Graham walked across large parts of the Tsarist Empire in the years before 1917, describing his adventures in a series of books and articles that helped to shape attitudes towards Russia in Britain and the United States. In later years he travelled widely across Europe and North America, meeting some of the best known writers of the twentieth century, including H.G.Wells and Ernest Hemingway. Graham also wrote numerous novels and biographies that won him a wide readership on both sides of the Atlantic. This book traces Graham's career as a world traveller, and provides a rich portrait of English, Russian and American literary life in the first half of the twentieth century. It also examines how many aspects of his life and writing coincide with contemporary concerns, including the development of New Age spirituality and the rise of environmental awareness. Beyond Holy Russia is based on extensive research in archives of private papers in Britain and the USA and on the many works of Graham himself. The author describes with admirable tact and clarity Graham's heterodox and convoluted spiritual quest. The result is a fascinating portrait of a man who was for many years a significant literary figure on both sides of the Atlantic.