` What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome`
- A.J.
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With America quietly gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a `half-Jewish` farmer`s daughter from the plains of the Midwest, has come to university
- escaping her provincial home to encounter the complex world of culture & politics. When she takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious & glamorous, Tassie is drawn into the life of their newly-adopted child & increasingly complicated household. As her past becomes increasingly alien to her
- her parents seem older when she visits; her disillusioned brother ever more fixed on joining the military
- Tassie finds herself becoming a stranger to herself. As the year unfolds, love leads her to new & formative experiences
- but it is then that the past & the future burst forth in dramatic & shocking ways. Refracted through the eyes of this memorable narrator, A Gate at the Stairs is a lyrical, beguiling & wise novel of our times.



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A poem does not have to be famous to be cherished. The best-known poems of Robert Burns have been loved by countless people over the years, but there are other poems that may be largely unknown that will mean a great deal to the few who are familiar with them. This anthology is a personal curation & not just a simple collection of poems. Each poem, handpicked by Alexander Mc Call Smith, leads the reader from one poem to the another. Intimate in tone, the editor shares the pleasure he finds in these poems through short epigraphs written for each piece. Grouped together in themes, from: Islands, Friendship, Love & Marriage, through to War & Conflict, Secrets, & Joy, this book would make the prefect gift for any occasion. It is a book for readers with a deep love of poetry, as well as those who are looking for the key that will open up the world of poetry. ...

This is the story of a contemporary Japanese teenager who, in a search for an identity, became fascinated with the world of geisha, & discovered in herself the will & the commitment to embark on the many years of apprenticeship necessary to become one. It is also the story of a young Japanese photographer who grew up overseas, & who also was captivated by the traditional lives of these women who choose to dedicate themselves to their art. He began following & documenting the life of teenager Komomo as she studied & grew into her role. Naoyuki Oginos photographs follow Komomos entire journey, from her first tentative visits after finding the geisha house on the internet through her commitment to the hard schedule of an apprentice, learning arts that go back centuries, all the way to the ceremony where she officially became a geiko, as Kyotos geisha are known & beyond. From the cobbled streets where she walks in her elaborate dress to the inner sanctums of her dressing room, these pages offer a rare look at a unique, living art. The photographs are accompanied by autobiographical text & captions by Komomo, as she shares her thoughts & emotions, & describes the day-to-day existence of a Kyoto apprentice. It is an illuminating view of seven years in the life of a very special young woman. ...

On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables & pigeons, burns her furniture & books to stay alive & keeps herself busy by writing her story on the walls of her home. The outside world slowly seeps into Ludo`s life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers & a note attached to a bird`s foot. Until one day she meets Sabalu, a young boy from the street who climbs up to her terrace. ...

On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square & through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. While Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval, the Count, stripped of the trappings that defined his life, is forced to question what makes us who we are. & with the assistance of a glamorous actress, a cantankerous chef & a very serious child, Rostov unexpectedly discovers a new understanding of both pleasure & purpose. ...

This book is the planned successor to A Geologic Time Scale by W. B. Harl&, A. V. Cox, P. G. Llewellyn, C. A. G. Pickton, A. G. Smith & R. Walters published in 1982. It adopts the same style & employs & develops similar methods, but it has been entirely reworked. The state of the art 1989 is thus presented; but the data assembled provide a source of reference which will serve for some years. The work develops & assesses a new calibration of the geologic time scale employing a new database. The new scale is summarized on the book covers & on a wall chart to be published separately. The work has been coordinated in detail throughout; nevertheless each chapter can stand on its own. ...

From the day James rescued a street cat abandoned in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, they began a friendship which has transformed both their lives &, through the bestselling books A STREET CAT NAMED BOB & THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BOB, touched millions around the world. In this new story from their journey together, James looks back at the last Christmas they spent scraping a living on the streets & how Bob helped him through one of his toughest times
- providing strength, friendship & inspiration but also teaching him important lessons about the true meaning of Christmas along the way.
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Street Cat Bob & James, stars of bestselling A Street Cat Named Bob & The World According to Bob that touched millions around the world, spend a cold & challenging December on the streets together in a new adventure. From the day James rescued a street cat abandoned in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, they began a friendship which has transformed both their lives &, through the bestselling books A STREET CAT NAMED BOB & THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BOB, touched millions around the world. In this new story of their journey together, James looks back at the last Christmas they spent scraping a living on the streets & how Bob helped him through one of his toughest times
- providing strength, friendship & inspiration but also teaching him important lessons about the true meaning of Christmas along the way.
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When Patience Ibrahim`s husband died, she feared that her life was over. She had prayed every night for a baby to complete her family, & suddenly she found herself a nineteen-year-old widow, alone in the world. But when she fell in love again, a happy future seemed possible. Patience married once more, & was overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant.A few days later, everything fell apart. Men from Boko Haram arrived at her door, killing Patience`s new husband & kidnapping her. This is the incredible true story of her & her baby daughter`s survival, against all the odds. ...