***SIGNED COPIES***

Alfie's Nursery School is right next door to the Big School where the big boys go. Alfie and Bernard wish that they could be friends with the most popular big boy, Ian Barger, but Ian never takes any notice of the little kids. One Saturday morning, Mum takes Alfie and Annie Rose to a Plant Pot Sale. Alfie hasn't been there long when he spots Ian Barger screaming and yelling, "I want my mummy!". Ian grabs Alfie's hand and holds onto him very tightly until his mum returns. Alfie realizes that big boys don't always act so big after all!

ISBN: 9780370328843

t's hardly a surprise to discover that Sam Branson has a love of adventure and a real concern about our future in a world where the climate is changing rapidly. Journeying into the heart of the Arctic wilderness with his father and a film crew, Sam explores the changing landscape and the lives of the native Inuit people who have survived in a relentlessly inhospitable environment for 5000 years. Sleeping on frozen seas and encountering majestic polar bears, Sam and his father embark together on a winter expedition which Sam must ultimately complete on his own, finding new depths of resilience and courage in a formidable and breathtaking landscape.

SIGNED BY SAM BRANSON DIRECTLY ONTO THE TITLE PAGE

ISBN: 9780753513569

In "At Large and At Small", Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favourite genres, the familiar essay - a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth and its miniaturist focus on everyday experiences. With her wonderful combination of wit and erudition, Fadiman draws us into twelve of her personal obsessions: from her slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for catching butterflies to her monumental crush on Charles Lamb, from her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the country.Many of these essays were composed 'under the influence' of the subject at hand. Fadiman divulges her passion for Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip and her brother's homemade Liquid Nitrogen Kahlua Coffee (recipe included); she sustains a terrific caffeine buzz while recounting Balzac's coffee addiction; and she stays up till dawn to write about being a night owl, examining the rhythms of our circadian clocks and sharing such insomnia cures as her father's nocturnal word games and Lewis Carroll's mathematical puzzles. This is a perfect book for life's passionate obsessives.

ISBN: 9781846140433

The marvellously witty memoir by Britain's most popular pianist and bandleader. Jools Holland has had a fascinating life. From playing on bomb sites as a boy in South East London, to skiving off school and then rocketing to international success with Squeeze, the first twenty years of his life were eventful, chaotic and colourful. Then came The Tube, the seminal live music programme of the Eighties. Along with fellow icon, Paula Yates, Jools Holland's provocative and irreverent style of presenting broke the mould of music shows on British television. It was an exhilarating and exciting time. He made further shows in America and England, and in 1992, began broadcasting Later with Jools Holland, one of the BBC's most successful music shows of all time, which has given countless television debuts to now world famous bands. From playing pubs as a teenager greaser in the East End docks, to leading his rhythm and blues orchestra and selling millions of records in this century, it is his passion for music that has made Jools Holland into a doyen of the music scene and which suffuses the pages of this fascinating and delightful autobiography. This memoir is packed with hilarious anecdotes and unusual memories. It provides an inside look into the world of music as well a wonderful insight into the debonair gentleman and national institution that is Jools Holland.

ISBN: 9780718149154

The "Blair Years" is the most compelling and revealing account of contemporary politics you will ever read. Taken from Alastair Campbell's daily diaries, it charts the rise of New Labour and the tumultuous years of Tony Blair's leadership, providing the first important record of a remarkable decade in our national life. Here are the defining events of our time, from Labour's new dawn to the war on terror, from the death of Diana to negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland, from Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, through to the Hutton Inquiry of 2003, the year Campbell resigned his position at No 10. But above all here is Tony Blair up close and personal, taking the decisions that affected the lives of millions, under relentless and often hostile pressure. Often described as the second most powerful figure in Britain, Alastair Campbell is no stranger to controversy. Feared and admired in equal measure, hated by some, he was pivotal to the founding of New Labour and the sensational election victory of 1997. As Blair's press secretary, strategist and trusted confidant, Campbell spent more waking hours alongside the Prime Minister than anyone. His diaires - at times brutally frank, often funny, always compelling - take the reader right to the heart of government. "The Blair Years" is a story of politics in the raw, of progress and setback, of reputations made and destroyed, under the relentless scrutiny of a 24-hour media. Unflinchingly told, it covers the crises and scandals, the rows and resignations, the ups and downs of Britain's hothouse politics. But amid the big events are insights and observations that make this a remarkably human portrayal of some of the most powerful people in the world. There has never been so riveting a book about life at the very top, nor a more human book about politics, told by a man who saw it all.

SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR

ISBN: 9780091796297

As Trafford Sewell struggles to work through the usual crowds of commuters, he is confronted by the intimidating figure of his Parish Confessor. Why has Trafford not been streaming his every moment of sexual intimacy onto the community website like everybody else? Does he think he's different or special in some way? Better than his fellow man and woman? Does he have something to hide?Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where what a person 'feels' and 'truly believes' is protected under the law, while what is rational, even provable is condemned as heresy. A world where to question ignorance and intolerance is to commit a Crime against Faith. Ben Elton's dark, savagely comic novel imagines a post-apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a confessional sex obsessed, self-centric culture to create a world where nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom and privacy is a dangerous perversion. It offers a chilling vision of what's to come? Or something rather closer to what we call reality?

ISBN: 9780593058008

Body Guarding a TV crew on the streets of war-torn Basra, ex-deniable operator Nick Stone seems certain to die when insurgent gunmen attack. Only the reporter's swift action saves his life. When the reporter vanishes within hours, presumed kidnapped, Stone is asked by the Intelligence Service to find him. The trail leads from Iraq to London, Dublin, and ultimately Kabul - the dark and brutal city where governments, terrorism and big business inexorably collide. Caught in the crossfire, Stone's nightmare is only just beginning - for the hunter has suddenly become the hunted, in a heart-stopping race against time...Unrelentingly violent, harrowing and chillingly graphic as it hurtles us towards a truly shocking climax, Nick Stone's tenth adventure is high-voltage, pulse-pounding, no-holds-barred McNab - prose so testosterone-drenched, action so blisteringly paced, it could only have been penned by the master thriller writer at his electrifying, unputdownable best.

ISBN: 9780593055595

Harold Nicolson called her 'the greatest Queen since Cleopatra', while Cecil Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who is she? The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This is partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she is a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faces her challenges and crises, assess her role, how powerful she is, and how she cope. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

ISBN: 9780091800109

In a fractured realm, struggling to maintain an uneasy peace after years of civil war and religious tyranny, a twelve-year-old orphan and her loyal companion, a large and homicidal goose, are about to become the unlikely heroes of a revolution. Mosca Mye has spent her life in a miserable hamlet, where her father was banished for writing inflammatory books about tolerance and freedom. Now he is dead, and Mosca is on the run, in search of a better life. With Eponymous Clent, a smooth-tongued swindler, she heads for the city of Mandelion, living by her wits among highwaymen and smugglers, dangerously insane rulers, secret agents and radical plotters. But the city is in uproar, for someone is once again printing seditious material and no one is quite what they seem. With suspicion and peril at every turn, Mosca uncovers a shocking plot to force a rule of terror on the people of the Realm, and all too soon merry mayhem leads to murder...Funny, surprising and fantastical, with an unforgettable cast of characters, "Fly By Night" contains at its heart an inspiring truth - that the power of books can change the world.

ISBN: 9781405020787

Francesco da Mosto follows his bestselling books on Venice and Italy with his personal quest for the authentic flavours and food of Venice. In this superbly illustrated book Francesco invites us into his family's kitchen in his 16th-century Palazzo in the heart of the city where he acts as the perfect guide to the unique culinary character of traditional Venetian cooking. Francesco shows us how to prepare 150 classic Venetian recipes ranging from Antipasti, sauces, soups and fish, to meats, pasta and puddings. He demonstrates how Venetian food is a fabulous fusion of ingredients brought together over centuries as merchants and traders travelled the Mediterranean. The ancient broeto (stock) and mollusc soups testify to this, as does the richness and variety of dishes based on fish, roasts, grills, tasty deep fried delicacies and sauces. Each chapter is introduced with the history and origins of the recipes and throughout there are personal reminiscences by Francesco of his first encounters with his favourite dishes. As Francesco is keen to tell, his passion for cooking authentic Venetian food comes from home: 'When I start talking about cooking, it is impossible to forget my father, his love and imagination for all things culinary. He has never feared unusual combinations of ingredients and seasonings, and I have always been a willing guinea pig'.

ISBN: 9780091922283

Lord Shigeru, heir to the Otori clan, faces hostility from the shrewdly ambitious Iida family in the East and base treachery at home from his uncles. His noble education and training as a warrior have prepared him for leadership and combat, but fate and Shigeru's youthful determination bring the Three Countries to war, and he must endure terrible and tragic defeat at the battle of Yaegahara ...and its brutal consequences. "Heaven's Net is Wide" is the first and last tale, which both closes the circle and introduces new readers to the strange and beautiful world of the Otori. It is an epic historical fantasy of revenge and betrayal, honour and loyalty, beauty and passion and the overwhelming power of love.

ISBN: 9780230013971

In this fascinating book Roy Strong tells the dramatic story of the English parish church, from the first temporary buildings erected in Anglo-Saxon times to its uncertain future in the twenty-first century. Starting with the Christianisation of Britain by missionaries from Ireland and Rome, he takes us on a journey through the Middle Ages, when elaboration and beauty in church art and architecture reached their peak in the building boom of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He describes in vivid detail the rituals and ceremonies at the heart of the parish community - the processions and celebrations of the church year, the public piety and rites of passage that guided parishioners through their lives and, most of all, the miracle of the Mass performed every Sunday. The rich spirituality of medieval Catholicism was destroyed by the cataclysm of the 'long Reformation' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which replaced the splendour of Catholic ritual and its adoration of the Sacrament with a simple service that centred on the preaching of the Word; moreover, it abolished age-old concepts of devotion and salvation. From the mid-seventeenth century reformers tried to repair the damage caused by the iconoclasm of the Reformation by re-introducing images, decoration and ceremonial to the average country church. From the 'beauty of holiness', advocated by Archbishop Laud in the 1630s, to the liturgical revival of the Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century, they looked back to the Middle Ages for a tradition of worship that engaged all the senses. At the same time, we witness the gradual dissolution of the parish church as the social hub of the local community; first the Catholics, then the Dissenters, and later the Methodists would leave the church and form their own congregations. In addition, the disintegration of the rural community from the early nineteenth century would change the social setting of the English country church for ever. Yet despite the dramatic changes that took place inside the parish church over the centuries, the building remained a symbol of continuity, etched into the tableau of the English countryside. Over the last few decades, however, the building itself has come under threat and Roy Strong concludes that, in order to survive, the country church will need to find a new role within a changed countryside. Roy Strong's little history is an elegy for the English country church - and a passionate plea for its preservation.

ISBN: 9780224075220

Ever since the author Paul Kieve was given a magic set at the age of ten, he has been buying magic books, props and posters and honing his skills as a magician. He keeps all his magical paraphenalia in his house in Hackney, right around the corner from the magnificent Hackney Empire, a venue played at by all the great illusionists of the golden era of magic, some hundred years ago. One day, as Paul is on the phone to his friend, sitting in his 'Poster Room', chatting to a friend about how well his magic show went from the night before, he gets a strange sensation ...Suddenly, the huge figure of Alexander steps out of the poster and starts telling Paul off for getting too big-headed! Alexander and the other brilliant magicians in the posters are going to show Paul what magic is really about!

ISBN: 9780747590897

"Human Traces" explores the question of what kind of beings men and women really are. Jacques Rebire and Thomas Midwinter, both sixteen when the story starts in 1876, come from different countries and contrasting families. They are united by an ambition to understand how the mind works and whether madness is the price we pay for being human. As psychiatrists, their quest takes them from the squalor of the Victorian lunatic asylum to the crowded lecture halls of the renowned Professor Charcot in Paris; from the heights of the Sierra Madre in California to the plains of unexplored Africa. Their search is made urgent by the case of Jacques's brother Olivier, for whose severe illness no name has yet been found. Thomas's sister Sonia becomes the pivotal figure in the volatile relationship between the two men, which threatens to explode with the arrival in their Austrian sanatorium of an enigmatic patient, Fraulein Katharina von A, whose illness epitomises all that divides them. As the concerns of the old century fade and the First World War divides Europe, the novel rises to a climax in which the value of what it means to be alive seems to hang in the balance. This is Sebastian Faulks's most ambitious novel yet, with scenes of emotional power recalling his most celebrated work, yet set here on an even larger scale.

ISBN: 9780091794552

As the sun blazes over the Caribbean island of Lagrimas Negras, its bloodthirsty ruler is watching and waiting. Criminals come here to hide, with blood on their hands and escape on their minds. On the mainland, in the quiet town of Tres Hermanas, ex-flying ace Jack Stone leaves his son and daughter in the company of James Bond. But a gang of thieves lies in ambush - they want Stone's precious safe, and will kill for its contents. James embarks on a deadly chase through the Mexican jungle. On this terrifying trail of greed and betrayal, only danger is guaranteed ...Survival is not.

ISBN: 9780141383910

They're called Lincoln Lawyers: the bottom of the legal food chain, the criminal defence attorneys who operate out of the back of a Lincoln car, travelling between the courthouses of Los Angeles county to take whatever cases the system throws in their path. Mickey Haller has been in the business a long time, and he knows just how to work it, how to grease the right wheels and palms, to keep the engine of justice working in his favour. When a Beverly Hills rich boy is arrested for brutally beating a woman, Haller has his first high-paying client in years. The evidence mounts on the defence's side, and he is sure this is going to be a slam-dunk. He might even be in the rare position of defending a client who is actually innocent. But as Haller knows, criminal cases can turn on a dime; when his case starts to fall apart and neither the suspect nor the victim are quite who they seem, Haller quickly discovers that when you swim with the sharks, it's easy to wind up as prey.

ISBN: 9780752865836

Beware! Only those who are McFearlessly brave may read from the pages of these monstrous memoirs. Minerva McFearless is an eleven-year-old monsterminator. Her family has been hunting down and destroying monsters for thousands of generations. But now the monsters have taken their revenge. The dreaded Zarmaglorg, the king of evil himself, has kidnapped Minerva's father. She and her little brother Max must set off to rescue him. They are armed only with the Monstranomicon - a living book that holds every secret about every bloodthirsty beast known to mankind...

ISBN: 9780141383095

When Tony Benn left Parliament after 51 years he quoted his wife Caroline's remark that now he would have 'more time for politics'. And so this has proved: in the first seven years of this century he has helped reinvigorate national debate through public meetings, mass campaigns and appearances in the media, passionately bringing moral and political issues to wide audiences. And throughout, as ever, he has been keeping his diaries.Commenting on the demise of the New Labour project from the re-election of Tony Blair in 2001 to the ultimate foreign policy disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq, he gives other prescient accounts of the government's by-passing of Cabinet, parliament and the party, of the 'war on terror', the debate about Islam, globalisation and the changes in British society. Although he is no longer in power or in parliament, Tony Benn remains a figure of enormous respect whose direct views, honestly expressed, have often awakened the national conscience. His latest "Diaries", human and challenging in turn, are an enthralling read.

ISBN: 9780091920562

In "Moro East", Sam and Sam Clark renew their passion for the food of Spain and the Muslim Mediterranean, but this time they find their inspiration a little closer to home ...in an East End allotment. Bordered by the River Lea and the Grand Union Canal, on its own little island, Manor Garden allotments may seem a world away from Moorish Spain or Morocco. However, once beyond the gates, you are transported to the Eastern Mediterranean by a community of Turks and Cypriots who cultivate and cook an extraordinary range of ingredients, many of which are integral to the food served at Moro. It is here that Sam and Sam took on their very first allotment."Moro East" follows a year in the life of this East End allotment, reflected in recipes that are unusual without being daunting. Sam and Sam experiment with plants that can be eaten at various different stages of their growth; they include recipes for parts of the crop that might otherwise be discarded (celery leaves, pea shoots, poppy leaves), even making use of produce that does not ripen, such as green tomatoes. They also offer recipes to use up the gluts of produce at the end of the growing season, such as chilli jam, tomato preserve and pickled garlic.Many of the recipes reflect everyday activities at the allotment - Turkish women rolling flatbreads or clipping the young vine leaves to make dolmades, families gathering to grill kebabs at the weekend - and the spirit of the community is captured in the photographs and the dishes. The 150 imaginative and seasonal recipes include Moro favourites and new combinations such as pigeon salad with figs, chickpeas and pomegranate molasses, tortilla with onion tops, and courgette and yoghurt soup. With the allotment set to be bulldozed in 2007 to make way for the 2012 Olympics, "Moro East" documents the last ever growing season for Sam and Sam and the unique men and women of Manor Garden allotments.

ISBN: 9780091917777

This book is the follow up to the previous volume, "On Beauty". Apparently beauty and ugliness are concepts that imply each other, and by ugliness we usually mean the opposite of beauty, so all we need do is define the first to understand the nature of the second. But the various manifestations of ugliness over the centuries are richer and more unpredictable than is commonly thought. The anthological quotations and the extraordinary illustrations in this book lead us on a surprising journey among the nightmares, terrors, and loves of almost three thousand years, where acts of rejection go hand in hand with touching gestures of compassion, and the rejection of deformity is accompanied by decadent ecstasies over the most seductive violations of all classical canons.Among demons, madmen, horrible enemies, and disquieting presences, among horrid abysses and deformities that verge on the sublime, among freaks and the living dead, we discover a vast and often unsuspected iconographic vein. So much so that, on gradually encountering in these pages the ugliness of nature, spiritual ugliness, asymmetry, disharmony, disfigurement, and the succession of things sordid, weak, vile, banal, random, arbitrary, coarse, repugnant, clumsy, horrendous, vacuous, nauseating, criminal, spectral, witchlike, satanic, repellent, disgusting, unpleasant, grotesque, abominable, odious, crude, foul, dirty, obscene, frightening, abject, monstrous, hair-raising, ugly, terrible, terrifying, revolting, repulsive, loathsome, fetid, ignoble, awkward, ghastly and indecent, the first foreign publisher to see this book exclaimed: 'How beautiful ugliness is!'

ISBN: 9781846551222

Thirteen-year-old Ben Tracey is looking forward to spending the summer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his father has been hired to examine the valuable mineral Coltan that's being mined there. They soon realise that the people living in the village near the mine are frightened and it doesn't take long for Ben and his father to discover why: behind the door of every hut there is at least one person dying or seriously ill, and no one seems to be doing anything to help. One night Halima, a girl from the village, takes Ben to see the witch doctor performing a ritual trance, asking the ancestral gods to rid the mine of the evil spirits who dwell there - none of the villagers believe that the sickness is malaria, as the rich mine owners are trying to claim. Then Ben's father becomes ill and it's up to Ben to try and tell the government what's going on so the village can be isolated before the sickness spreads further. But he hasn't predicted the lengths that Suliman, the mine manager, will go to to prevent that from happening ...Only just just escaping with their lives, Ben and Halima flee into the jungle, leaving Ben's father dangerously ill and the virus to spread unchecked Will they be able to prevent disaster?

ISBN: 9780385612890

'What I want you to have, Imogen, above all, is a sense of your own history; a sense of where you come from, and of the forces that made you.' Rosamund lies dying in her remote Shropshire home. But before she does so, she has one last task: to put on tape not just her own story but the story of the young blind girl, her cousin's granddaughter, who turned up mysteriously at her party all those years ago. This is a story of generations, of the relationships within a family - and of what goes to make a child. Called "the best English novelist of his generation" by Nick Hornby, Jonathan Coe extends his range in this magnificent account of a Shropshire family in the last half of the twentieth century.

ISBN: 9780670917280

On 4 May 1980, seven terrorists holding twenty-one people captive in the Iranian Embassy in London's Prince's Gate, executed their first hostage. They threatened to kill another hostage every thirty minutes until their demands were met. Minutes later, armed men in black overalls and balaclavas shimmied down the roof on ropes and burst in through windows and doors. In seconds all but one of the terrorists had been shot dead, the other captured. For most people, this was their first acquaintance with a unit that was soon to become the ideal of modern military excellence - the Special Air Service regiment. Few realized that the SAS had been in existence for almost forty years, playing a discreet, if not secret, role almost everywhere Britain had fought since World War II, and had been the prototype of all modern special forces units throughout the world. In "The Regiment", Michael Asher - a former soldier in 23 SAS Regiment - examines the evolution of the special forces idea and investigates the real story behind the greatest military legend of the late twentieth century.

ISBN: 9780670916337

Published to accompany Rick Stein's new five-part television series for BBC2, this new book starts where French Odyssey left off - at the mouth of the Rhone in the port of Marseilles. Reluctantly abandoning his idyllic canal boat, the Anjodi, Rick takes to the public ferry system which plies between the islands and coastlines of the Mediterranean. The book contains over 100 recipes divided by types of ingredient or types of dish - from mezze and tapas to calamari and couscous.Although Mediterranean food is always considered to be very healthy, by virtue of its ingredients, Rick will not shy from luxurious ice creams and sticky pastries and the book will also include basic recipes, accompaniments and sauces. He introduces the book with a diary of his gastronomic journey, recounting the many interesting characters and interesting dishes he discovered en route. Mediterranean food is first and foremost the simple cooking of simple ingredients so it translates extremely well into everyday dishes that cooks of all levels will enjoy making, and above all, eating.

ISBN: 9780563493662

Ballet's first pop icon, Rudolf Nureyev revolutionised an old art form, bringing a new young audience to opera houses, and sparking Rudimania across the globe. From his birth on a train in Siberia at the height of Stalin's Terrors, Nureyev's life was extraordinary. His career was decided at the age of 8 and nine years later, leaving his Tatar peasant family behind him, he realised his dream of studying at the Kirov's school. The account of Nureyev's Leningrad years has never been more compellingly told, focusing on a teacher of genius who moulded the late starter into a star; the guilty affair with his beloved mentor's wife; and the dancer's homosexual rite of passage, a secret liaison with an East German student who was the catalyst behind Nureyev's escape to the West.The 1961 defection was just the beginning. Nureyev spent the rest of his life breaking barriers, re-inventing male technique; 'crashing the gates' of modern dance; iconoclastically changing ballet's most hallowed classics; and making dance history by partnering England's prima ballerina assoluta Margot Fonteyn - a woman twice his age. Through previously unpublished letters the author traces Nureyev's passionate and deeply troubled relationship with the great Danish dancer Erik Bruhn, and tells the story of his poignant, on-off 'marriage' to a young American film student. Then there were the women; women of all ages were dazzled by the star, a few successfully seduced him, others simply enslaved themselves. Sex was a driving force for Nureyev, but conjoined to the sinner was always the saint, and it was this Byronic duality in himself of 'dirt and deity' that Nureyev used his ballets to explore.This definitive biography, nine years in the making, draws for the first time on private papers, diaries and home-movie footage, and includes reminiscences from scores of colleagues and friends, the closest of whom had hitherto refused to co-operate with any writer. Julie Kavanagh, herself a former dancer, examines with authority Nureyev's legacy as a choreographer and director (an inspirational Diaghilev figure to young proteges like Sylvie Guillem), and her memories of the star's greatest years creates a sense of the exultation and heart-bursting impact of watching Nureyev on stage.

ISBN: 9781905490158

Seven o'clock, on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again...Maddy Smith was born with a rusty-coloured ruinmark on her hand - a symbol of the old gods and definitely cause for suspicion. For magic is dangerous. Or so everyone thinks. But Maddy enjoys working magic. Even if it is just to control some pesky goblins. And every time her friend, One-Eye - a good-for-nowt Outlander - comes by, he teaches her more and more about the gods and the runes. Now he wants Maddy to open Red Horse Hill and descend into World Below to retrieve a relic of the old gods. Otherwise it is likely to be the End of Everything. Again...An epic romp into the heart of the old Norse tales: wild, dangerous, richly inventive and superbly imaginative.

ISBN: 9780385611305

In her award-winning bestseller EXTREME, Sharon Osbourne revealed the truth about her life in her famously frank and gutsy way. In her new autobiography SURVIVOR she goes even deeper - revealing the secrets and heartbreak behind the headlines, along with the love and humour that have pulled her through. From the recent sad loss of her father, to her experiences as a judge on number 1 hit shows THE X FACTOR and AMERICA'S GOT TALENT, to the further jaw-dropping adventures and dramas in the Osbourne family, Sharon tells it like it really is - with wit, honesty and style. Set to be a huge bestseller this autumn, SURVIVOR is as astonishing, big-hearted and fascinating as Mrs O herself ...

ISBN: 9781847441720

On the surface it may seem slightly surprising that a master of verbal humour should also be a devotee of silent comedy, but Paul Merton is completely passionate about the early days of Hollywood comedy and the comic geniuses who dominated it. His knowledge is awesome - as anyone who watched his BBC 4 series "Silent Clowns" or attended the events he has staged nationwide will agree - his enthusiasm is infectious, and these qualities are to be found in abundance in his new book. Starting with the very earliest pioneering short films, he traces the evolution of silent comedy through the 1900s and considers the works of the genre's greatest exponents - Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd - showing not only how each developed in the course of their career but also the extent to which they influenced each other. At the same time, Paul brings a comedian's insight to bear on the art of making people laugh, and explores just how the great comic ideas, routines, gags and prat-falls worked and evolved. His first book for ten years, this richly illustrated history of silent comedy is destined to be a classic.

ISBN: 9781905211708

It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was.

ISBN: 9780755331260

Do you ever find yourself still chopping vegetables when your dinner guests arrive? Do you sometimes get home hungry for something delicious and home-made but without the time or inclination to slave away at the cooker for an hour? Do you occasionally want to spend some time lovingly preparing and cooking something spectacular at the weekend? "Time to Eat" is full of delicious, simple food arranged into chapters according to the time it takes to cook the dishes, from ten minutes to two hours, so you can choose the right recipe for the time you have. The recipes in "Time to Eat" follow "Keeping it Simple" in their ease and simplicity but are all devised to suit our time-poor lifestyles. With clear instructions, easy to source ingredients and Gary's inimitable take on taste and flavours, "Time to Eat" will become the only cookbook to make time for.

ISBN: 9780718153144

Over several years, Parry spent a month living with fifteen different tribes in remote regions of the world. The result is an insight into wildly differing cultures that are vibrant, hospitable and full of spirit despite numerous hardships. Parry's insatiable curiosity takes him deep into the heart of each community, whether they be forest people, cannibals or nomadic herders, where beyond the obvious differences, he finds the same loves, trials and issues we have the world over. His encounters also throw up some thought-provoking and challenging questions: is change good? Should we protect tribes people? And, more importantly, who are we to impose our own cultural sensitivities in our judgement of their customs? Along the way, Parry takes part in some ridiculously dangerous rituals, which include taking mammoth amounts of a potentially lethal hallucinogen, having his penis forced back into his body and eating rats' livers cake. He also forges new friendships that will last him a lifetime.

ISBN: 9780718149185

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin, brilliantly conveying the reality of their terrible choices. Soviet history has generally been seen either as a story of a political system or the story of its victims. "The Whisperers" is about Russians from across the whole range of experience under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. "The Whisperers" recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it; a society in which everyone spoke in whispers: whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them. This is Figes' masterpiece. It is both a gripping and emotional account of lives lived in impossible times and a remarkable example of the power and value of writing history.

ISBN: 9780713997026