Harsh winds scour the rocky coastline. The villagers' lives are inseparable from nature and its enchantments.Verlyn Webbe, born with a wing for an arm, unfurls his feathers in defiance of past shame; Plum is snatched by a water bull and dragged to his lair; little Crab Skerry takes his first run through the gorse-maze; Madden sleepwalks through violent storms, haunted by horses and her father's wishes.As the tales of this island community interweave over the course of a generation, their earthy desires, resentments, idle gossip and painful losses create a staggeringly original world. Crackling with echoes of ancient folklore, but entirely, wonderfully, her own, Zoe Gilbert's Folk is a dark, beautiful and intoxicating debut.

    What could have possibly happened to produce a tight-lipped Darcy, a sheepish Elizabeth, and an embarrassed Georgiana? Colonel Fitzwilliam is determined to find out during one entertaining and unprecedented evening. The only problem lies in knowing that truth can be hard to discern from fiction, especially with three story-tellers. Overheard at Pemberley – The position as lady’s maid to the mistress of an estate is an enviable one in service, particularly for an unrepentant eavesdropper like Daisy Tiller. She is in a unique position to be confidante and observer both, apt to hear much of interest. When she is hired by Mrs Darcy, Tiller finds there is much to keep her entertained throughout the days at Pemberley, especially with a master and mistress like Mr and Mrs Darcy. A Stolen Day at Pemberley – After an insulting marriage proposal, Elizabeth Bennet desires nothing more than to never see rude Mr Darcy again. But that very night she endures a vivid nightmare of his home at Pemberley, one in which she is his wife, and mother to his children, and happy to be so! What is she to do with this confusion, even as she becomes more convinced that the nightmare world might be real? Could she really love Mr Darcy? This collection of short stories is the first publication from Georgina Pryke, based on the novel by Jane Austen.

    Curl up in front of a warm fire on a silent night and choose your poison.

    Eliot for his godchildren and friends in the thirties. They have delighted generations of children since, and inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's brilliant musical Cats.

    Here in one attractive paperbound volume - with enlarged print - are Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltzkin, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Puss in Boots, Trusty John, Jack and the Giantkiller, Goldilocks, and many other favorites that have become an indispensable part of our culture heritage.All in all, this collection contains 37 stories, all arranged in the clear, lively prose for which Lang was famous. Not only are Lang's generally conceded to be the best English versions of standard stories, his collections are the richest and widest in range. His position as one of England's foremost folklorists as well as his first-rate literary abilities makes his collection invaluable in the English language.

    In the foothills of the French Alps the narrator meets a shepherd who has quietly taken on the task of planting one hundred acorns a day in an effort to reforest his desolate region. Not even two world wars can keep the shepherd from continuing his solitary work. Gradually, this gentle, persistent man's work comes to fruition: the region is transformed; life and hope return; the world is renewed.

    

    In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community and forgiveness "speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness and wisdom" (Ursula K. Le Guin).