I was warned by all those who knew me that to take on a project like this was madness.` At the peak of her fast-paced career, presenter & interviewer Selina Scott bought a house in the Tramuntana hills of Mallorca. It was a dilapidated old farmhouse without even mains electricity or water, but she had fallen in love with the beauty & peace of the surroundings, & the promise of an escape from her high-pressured job & unwelcome tabloid attention. Selina begins to settle into Mediterranean life & spends time renovating the house. However, she soon realises that making the old house her home is going to be more difficult than she thought. From the unwelcome wildlife that insists on sharing her house, to dubious building work, locals both friendly & hostile, & a forest fire that threatens the whole valley, Selina`s new life is full of unexpected challenges. In this funny, elegantly written account of her Spanish years Selina tells us about the house that captured her heart, the neighbours that became friends, & those that didn`t, the hills & wildlife that enchanted her, the building work that nearly broke her &, crucially, the dog that found her, & changed every single one of her best laid plans! An uplifting story of escape, change & friendship. `A terrific read, beautifully written` Richard Madeley. ...

A House in the Sky is the dramatic & redemptive memoir of Amanda Lindhout, a woman whose curiosity led her to the world`s most beautiful & remote places, its most imperiled & perilous countries, & then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity
- an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, & grace. As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic & imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world & live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, & India, & emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, & Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan & Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. & then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia
- ”the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road. Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives ”wife lessons” from one of her captors, & risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory
- every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity
- & on strategy, fortitude, & hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured. Vivid & suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman & her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity. For fans of the award-winning blockbuster Captain Phillips & readers of Kate Mc Cann`s Madeleine, Natasha Kampusch`s 3, 096 Days & Greg Mortenson`s Three Cups of Tea. Amanda Lindhout is the founder of the Global Enrichment Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports development, aid & education initiatives in Somalia & Kenya. Sara Corbett is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. Her work has also appeared in National Geographic; Elle; Outside; O, the Oprah magazine; Esquire; & Mother Jones.



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Whether it's yearning to run away & join a Mexican circus or simply to settle in a quiet rural village somewhere in a Mediterranean l&, the dream of a pied a terre in an exotic locale is almost universal. Don George has been a pioneer travel writer & journalist in the travel field for more than two decades. He has won numerous writing awards including one for Best Travel Web Site & has edited two travel anthologies. Anthony Sattin is a travel writer, critic & broadcaster. He is the author of many books including the novel Shooting the Breeze. ...

What happens when Dad`s a calamitous boozer & spends all his money down the pub, when Mum has five other children & spends most her free-time on a sewing machine making clothes to pay the rent, when you don`t know where you`ll be living from one day to the next, when bombs are raining down & disease is everywhere, & when you come out of school, chances are you`ll have to go out scrounging to earn your next meal?. A. S. Jasper answers all these questions & more with animated gusto (and without a whimper) in A Hoxton Childhood, a thin volume of memoirs depicting life in a London slum during the First World War, seen through the eyes of a child. ...

Matt Hopwood set off with just a small bag & a walking stick, no possessions & an open mind to walk many hundreds of miles the length & breadth of the country. He relied entirely on the generosity of strangers for shelter & asked people to tell him their transforming stories. They did. All of these deeply enthralling, profoundly honest stories weave a web of tenderness, connection, compassion & community. For some people their love story will span decades & tell a tale of romantic love evolving through the passing years. Others` stories express fleeting moments of connection, care, concern. Most love stories are marked by sadness & loss. Some stories are concerned with maternal & paternal love, others with a love of place, a visceral connection with spirit through landscape. Love stories also connect deeply with our identities, in how we belong & how we are welcomed in society. Each story is different. Each beautiful. Each valuable. ...

A bunch of scruffy urchin kids in the backstreets of Paris outwit thieves to uncover the whereabouts of millions of francs stolen from the Paris-Ventimiglia express. Gaby is the leader, but it is super-cool Marion with her collection of stray dogs who is the heart of the gang. It all begins when a local villain offers the children a fortune for their `horse`
- a headless rocking horse, given old tricycle wheels that they `ride` down the steep cobbled street, but they don`t want to part with it. Then, a few days later, the horse is stolen, & so begins an adventure that is full of twists & turns, leading to a satisfying conclusion when the villains receive their comeuppance.
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The New York Times bestselling novel. Rhode Isl&, 1938. A sweltering summer of secrets, passion & betrayal...`I wish I could remember more. I wish I had taken down every detail, because I didn`t see him again until the summer of 1938; the summer the hurricane came & washed the world away...` Lily Dane has returned to the exclusive enclave of Seaview, Rhode Isl&, hoping for an escape from the city & from her heartbreak. What she gets instead is the pain of facing newlyweds Budgie & Nick Greenwald
- her former best friend & former fiance. During lazy days & gin-soaked nights, Lily is drawn back under Budgie`s glamorous & enticing influence, & the truth behind Budgie & Nick`s betrayal of Lily begins to emerge. & as the spectre of war in Europe looms, a storm threatens to destroy everything...
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There once was a hungry lion, a penguin (Well he was just here...), a little calico kitten (I could have sworn I just saw him...), a brown mouse (Now wait a second...), a bunny with floppy ears & a bunny with un-floppy ears (Okay this is just getting ridiculous), a frog, a bat, a pig, a slightly bigger pig, a wooly sheep, a koala, a hen, & also a turtle. Hey! What`s going on here... The very hungry lion is all set to enjoy an exciting day with his other animal pals. But all of a sudden his friends start disappearing at an alarming rate! Is someone stealing the hungry lion`s friends, or is the culprit a little...closer to home? With sharp wit, adorable illustrations, & hysterical twists galore, this debut picture book asks
- what do you think happened to the hungry lion`s friends?
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Allotments are places to grow food, but they are so much more than that. They are also places that encourage spontaneity, exploration, learning, sharing, restful activity & camaraderie. This book is a celebration of the allotment hut
- their architecture & design, but most of all the wonderful invention & resourcefulness that makes each one unique. A series of original & charming illustrations offer insight into the world of allotment huts & offer inspiration to create your own, very special shed. This is the ideal gift book for allotment folk, gardeners or those curious about alternative lifestyles & the quirkier side of life.
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The first title in a series of concertina fold-out books features a two-metre diorama of New York`s iconic skyline. Spot over eighty objects
- from famous buildings to finger-licking frankfurters
- then flip the page to see a cut-away replication of the same scene, showing what New Yorkers get up to behind closed doors. Detailed & humorous artwork brings one of the world`s best-loved cities to life.

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