From petticoat duels & lucky cats to the Stiffs Express, Lord Nelson`s spare nose, the Piccadilly earthquake & the Great Beer Flood of 1814, A Curious Guide to London takes you on a captivating, wildly entertaining tour of the city you think you know, unearthing the capital`s secrets & commemorating its rich, colourful & unusual history. Brimming with tales of London`s forgotten past, its strangest traditions & its most eccentric inhabitants, this book celebrates the unique, the unusual & the unknown. Perfect for tourists, day-trippers, commuters & the millions of people who call London home, this alternative guidebook will make you look at the city in a whole new light. ...

Ever wondered where noodles came from? How Worcester Sauce was invented? Or even who the ` Cucumber King of Burma` was? Beginning with the hippo soup eaten in Africa in 6000 BC, through to the dangerous blowfish enjoyed in contemporary Japan, A Curious History of Food & Drink reveals the bizarre origins of the food & drink consumed throughout history. From the pheasant brains & flamingo tongues scoffed by the Roman emperor Vitellius, to the unusual uses of liquorice (once a treatment for sore feet)
- Ian Crofton makes use of original sources
- including journals, cookbooks & manuals
- to reveal the bizarre, entertaining & informative stories behind the delicacies enjoyed by our ancestors.


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Isabella Bird was a woman of remarkable gifts. In 1872, at the age of forty, this rather earnest daughter of a country parson abandoned the rectory nest & began her pioneering journeys to some of the most inhospitable corners of the world. Undismayed by discomfort or danger she was to spend almost thirty years travelling
- to the Rocky Mountains, the Sandwich Isles, to Japan, Malaya, Kashmir & Tibet, to Persia, Korea & China
- where an indomitable spirit, an unassuming cordiality &, above all, a limitless capacity for being interested won her universal welcome. Her accounts of her experiences became best-selling books & established for Isabella Bird a reputation as one of the great travel writers of her day. ” Miss Barr has her measure. She & Miss Bird are well suited. The style of both is fresh, energetic, visual, making an enchanting book”. (” Evening Standard”). ” Rich & riotous as her intrepid heroine moves at the speed of a silent movie through landscapes lusher than any technicolour”. (” Times Literary Supplement”). ”A rare book”. (” Sunday Telegraph”).

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It is the first night of Ramadan. At Shivaji Nagar in the heart of Bangalore, a young male prostitute is killed & burnt alive. It would have stayed as yet another unsolved murder, but for Inspector Borei Gowda, the investigating officer. As bodies begin to pile up one after the other, & it becomes clear that a serial killer is on the prowl, Gowda recognizes a pattern in the killings which no one else does. Even as he negotiates serious mid-life blues, problems with his wife & son, an affair with an ex-girlfriend, & official apathy & ridicule, the killer moves in for the next victim... Steeped in the lanes & atmosphere of the city of Bangalore, A Cut- Like Wound introduces to the reader a host of unforgettable characters & is a brutal psychological thriller unlike any in world fiction. ...

This is an account of what happened to the thousands of people who left the Scottish Highlands to make a new life in the United States & Canada. The book evaluates the impact of people from the Highlands on the New World. It is the story of how soldiers, explorers, fur traders, lumberjacks, guerilla fighters, railway builders & pioneer settlers from the northern part of Scotland contributed to the United States & Canada. ...

Spellbinding multi-layered crime novel set in a fascinating period & place. Set in the first months of 1944, Rome is declared an `open city` as the Allies steadily get closer. The German occupying forces know their days are numbered & yet the SS, the Gestapo & the Army desperately vie for power. The partisans attack the fascists & the Germans, triggering mass-murder retaliation. Controversially, the hero is an aristocratic German officer in the Wehrmacht. With echoes of Claus von Stauffenberg, he is torn between his duty as an officer & his integrity as a human being. He must investigate the deaths of a young German Embassy secretary, a Roman socialite & a cardinal, forcing him to confront historical characters like Field Marshal Kesselring & Monsignor Montini (the future Pope Paul VI). ...

Bristol has much to be proud of, having prospered as a city & a major port for over six hundred years. But its past



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Original Swedish crime stories from the masters of Nordic noir including a never before published story by Stieg Larsson. Ever since Stieg Larsson shone a light on the brilliance of Swedish crime writing with his bestselling Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, readers have devoured this dark & compelling genre. Now the nation`s best crimewriters have been brought together to form the first ever anthology of Swedish crime. Contributors include:
- Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
- Henning Mankell, creator of Wallander.
- Per Wahloo & Maj Sjowall, creators of Martin Beck.
- Eva Gabrielsson, writer & thirty-year partner to Stieg Larsson.



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MORTAL ENGINES launched Philip Reeve`s brilliantly-imagined creation, the world of the Traction Era, where mobile cities fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic future. Now, in time for the film debut, the critically acclaimed MORTAL ENGINES quartet is repackaged with a fantastic & eye-catching cover featuring new artwork. In the fourth & final brilliant installment of Philip Reeve`s award-winning quartet, after twenty years, the devastating world war between the predatory Traction Cities & their enemies is ending. Wren & her father Tom Natsworthy travel the Bird Roads in their airship, trying to forget Hester`s betrayal. But in the ruined wreckage of the city of London they make a discovery that changes everything. & Hester faces an implacable foe with the means & the will to destroy the entire human race. ...

” When Niccolo Rosselli, the driven, charismatic leader of a Florentine political movement, collapses at a rally, his young party immediately comes under threat. & when it emerges that his long time partner, Flavia, has disappeared, leaving behind not only a devastated husband but their newborn son, the political becomes dangerously personal
- & Sandro Cellini is drafted in to investigate. The trail leads to a tired sea-side town & a modest hotel, where Flavia chose to end her life. But Cellini isn`t satisfied
- why would one so young & with so much to live for, walk away from all she loves? As he digs into Flavia`s secret world, however, Sandro uncovers the hidden life of a woman consumed with private passions & a deadly, dark obsession. & as the private & public realms intersect, he cannot forget that life in modern Italy has a perilous edge
- fuelled as much by rage as desire.”


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