On arrival he finds the climate delicious, the food even better, and two of the locals ravishing. Unfortunately, the wine produced on his new property is swill. Why then are so many people interested in it? Enter a beguiling Californian who knows more about wine than Max does – and may have a better claim to the estate. Fizzy with intrigue, bursting with local color and savor, A Good Year is Mayle at his most entertaining.

    It contains a careful selection of thirty three magnificent Quranic tales retold in age-appropriate language. A simple text and fabulous colour illustrations, which brings the narratives vividly to life, make the message of the Quran more meaningful for children. The book offers a special dimension to these wonderful goodnight stories, and acts as a foundation on which to build a growing knowledge of the Quran.

    a fictional story, circulated by word-of-mouth, that is perpetuated by the continual assertion of truth. All the rumors that have passed through office e-mail networks, the fantastic stories that have "happened to a friend" and the horrifying tales told around campfires are gathered here for the first time in one fascinating, unbelievable collection. Organized by subject, chapters include: Naked at His Own Surprise Party and Other Sexual Escapades, The Stolen Kidney and Other Medical Disasters, The Gulf War Computer Virus and Other High Tech Scares, Roswells's Area 51 and Other Extraterrestrial Encounters, Elvis's Motorcycle and Other Celebrity Rumors, and many more. Each story runs one-to-two-pages long. Many of the stories have been told with a different twist--variations are included at the end of each tale.

    Taking on the boorish behavior that for some has become a point of pride, Talk to the Hand is a rallying cry for courtesy. Like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Talk to the Hand is not a stuffy guidebook, and is sure to inspire spirited conversation. For anyone who’s fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (or lack thereof), Talk to the Hand is a colorful call to arms—from the wittiest defender of the civilized world.

    Marked by the signature charm and subtle wit of one of India's best-loved writers, Ruskin Bond's Book of Humour, will make even the hardened among us crack a smile.

    Now revised, it includes up-to-date work on variants, chronology of the poems, and critical commentary by Harold Bloom. An "Approved Edition" of the Center for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.

    Over 60,000 sold in small format. The Clothes They Stood Up In, has sold over 200,000 copies as a small novella and was 14 weeks in the Bestseller lists. It is the painful story of what happens to an elderly couple when their flat is stripped completely bare. The Laying on of Hands, a memorial service for a masseur to the famous that goes horribly wrong. Over 100,000 copies sold as a novella. Like everything Alan Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. And they all have a brilliant and surprising twist; are immensely funny and profoundly moral.

    S. Byatt knows that fairy tales are for grownups. And in this ravishing collection she breathes new life into the form.Little Black Book of Stories offers shivers along with magical thrills. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women, childhood friends reunited by chance, venture into a dark forest where once, many years before, they saw–or thought they saw–something unspeakable. Another woman, recently bereaved, finds herself slowly but surely turning into stone. A coolly rational ob-gyn has his world pushed off-axis by a waiflike art student with her own ideas about the uses of the body. Spellbinding, witty, lovely, terrifying, the Little Black Book of Stories is Byatt at the height of her craft.

    We meet the Greek gods on Olympus and Norse gods in Valhalla. We follow the drama of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus. We hear the tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cupid and Psyche, and mighty King Midas. We discover the origins of the names of the constellations. And we recognize reference points for countless works of art, literature, and cultural inquiry--from Freud's Oedipus complex to Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas to Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. Praised throughout the world for its authority and lucidity, Mythology is Edith Hamilton's masterpiece--the standard by which all other books on mythology are measured.

    The challenging 256-mile route is usually approached from south to north, from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm, the other side of the Scottish border. He resolved to tackle it the other way round: through beautiful and bleak terrain, across lonely fells and into the howling wind, he would be walking home, towards the Yorkshire village where he was born. Travelling as a 'modern troubadour' without a penny in his pocket, he stopped along the way to give poetry readings in village halls, churches, pubs and living rooms. His audiences varied from the passionate to the indifferent, and his readings were accompanied by the clacking of pool balls, the drumming of rain and the bleating of sheep. Walking Home describes this extraordinary, yet ordinary, journey. It's a story about Britain's remote and overlooked interior - the wildness of its landscape and the generosity of the locals who sustained him on his journey. It's about facing emotional and physical challenges, and sometimes overcoming them. It's nature writing, but with people at its heart. Contemplative, moving and droll, it is a unique narrative from one of our most beloved writers.

    Fortunately Tommy Brock the badger and Mr. Tod the fox dislike each other so much that they Tommy Brock kidnaps Benjamin's young family, Mr Tod unwittingly becomes the rabbits' ally.The Tale of Mr Tod is number 14 in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books, the titles of which are as follows:1 The Tale of Peter Rabbit2 The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin3 The Tailor of Gloucester4 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny5 The Tale of Two Bad Mice6 The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle7 The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher8 The Tale of Tom Kitten9 The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck10 The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies11 The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse12 The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes13 The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse 14 The Tale of Mr. Tod15 The Tale of Pigling Bland16 The Tale of Samuel Whiskers17 The Tale of The Pie and the Patty-Pan18 The Tale of Ginger and Pickles19 The Tale of Little Pig Robinson20 The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit21 The Story of Miss Moppet22 Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes23 Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

    Folklorist Helene Adeline Guerber brings to life the gods and goddesses, giants and dwarves, and warriors and monsters of these stories in Tales of Norse Mythology. Ranging from the comic to the tragic, these leghends tell of passion, love, friendship, pride, courage, strength, loyalty, and betrayal.

    After the death of her only child, 73 handwritten notebooks came to light, from single jots to lists, to full outlines of memorable plots and characters, plus grocery and schedule memos from a bountiful creative mind - a complex web of connections to unravel and link. Actual notebook page reproductions. 2 unpublished Hercule Poirot short stories: "The Capture of Cerebrus", and "The Incident of the Dog's Ball".

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