An extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss. The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do. But it isn`t the monster Conor`s been expecting. He`s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he`s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness & the wind & the screaming... The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild. & it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Costa Award winner Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous & painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel of coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults. ...

The bestselling novel about love, loss & hope from the twice Carnegie Medal-winning Patrick Ness. Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don`t quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there`s a visitor at his window. It`s ancient, elemental, a force of nature. & it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd & weaves anextraordinary & heartbreaking tale of mischief, healing & above all, the courage it takes to survive. ...

The bestselling novel about love, loss & hope from the twice Carnegie Medal-winning Patrick Ness, soon to be a major motion picture. The bestselling novel about love, loss & the power of story-telling from the twice Carnegie Medal-winning Patrick Ness, soon to be a major motion picture. Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don`t quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there`s a visitor at his window. It`s ancient, elemental, a force of nature. & it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd & weaves an extraordinary & heartbreaking tale of mischief, healing & above all, the courage it takes to survive. ...

Bombed & cut-off from normal contact with the rest of the world, life in Gaza is beset with structural, medical & mental health problems, yet it is also bursting with political engagement & underwritten by an intense enjoyment of family life. During her ” Month By The Sea”, Dervla develops an acute eye for the way in which isolation has shaped this society. Time & again she meets men who have returned to the Strip as an act of presence. Yet the mosque is often their only daily activity, as difficulties obtaining supplies mean few opportunities for creative work. This acts as a recruiting sergeant for the Islamist Qassam brigades & a pressure cooker for the creation of domestic tyrants. In this situation, Dervla becomes a shameless supporter of women`s rights
- acting as agony aunt & feminist mentor by turn.
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Over the summer of 2011, Dervla Murphy spent a month in the Gaza Strip. She met liberals & Islamists, Hamas & Fatah supporters, rich & poor. Used to western reporters dashing in & out of the Strip in times of crisis, the people she met were touched by her genuine, unflinching interest & spoke openly to her about life in their open-air prison. What she finds are a people who, far from the story we are so often fed, overwhelmingly long for peace & an end to the violence that has so grossly distorted their lives. The impression we take away from the book is of a people whose real, complex, nuanced voice has rarely been heard before. A MONTH BY THE SEA gives unique insight into the way in which isolation has shaped this society: how it radicalises young men & plays into the hands of dominating patriarchs, yet also how it hardens determination not to give in & turns family into a towering source of support. Underlying the book is Dervla`s determination to try to understand how Arab Palestinians & Israeli Jews might forge a solution & ultimately live in peace. Dervla looks long & hard at the hypocrisies of Western & Israeli attitudes to peace`, & at Palestinian attitudes to terrorism. While this shattered people long for a respite from the bombings that have ripped a hole, both literally & psychologically, in their world, it seems that politicians have an agenda that pays little attention to their plight. ...

A Month in Marrakesh is a celebration of the wonderful tastes & sensational allure of Morocco. Inspired by the diversity of his culturally rich visits to Marrakesh, Andy Harris scoured the maze-like souks for the best flavours, & has produced a wealth of exotic-tasting recipes with fresh ingredients & minimum fuss. You'll be enticed by the delicate sweet pastries such as Khab el ghzal, Muhallabia (milk pudding), the savoury Chicken bistilla or one of the many delicious tagines. Impress your guests with modern Moroccan dishes such as Roast lamb with orange & honey syrup, Spicy squid with harissa yoghurt or Orange flower donuts. Part cookbook, part travelogue, Andy leads you through a spectacular pageant of flavour & colours of the Medina, from the pulsating Djemaa el Fna, to timeless winding alleys & tranquil gardens. David Loftus illustrates the recipes with stunning location photography that will have you smelling the fragrant aromas of the spice market with every turn of the page. A Month in Marrakesh is a sumptuous book that captures the soul of this remarkable & unique city. ...

In the summer of 1920 two men, both war survivors meet in the quiet English countryside. One is living in the church, intent upon uncovering & restoring an historical wall painting while the other camps in the next field in search of a lost grave. Out of their meeting, comes a deeper communion & a catching up of the old primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War. ...

During the 1530s, rumours of a potentially revolutionary theory of how the heavens worked emanating from a small city in Poland began to spread throughout Europe. The architect of this theory was a Polish cleric named Nicolaus Copernicus. In around 1514 Copernicus had written & h&-copied an initial outline of his heliocentric theory, in which he placed the Sun, not the Earth, at the centre of our universe, with the planets, including the Earth, revolving about it. Titled his Commentariolus, it circulated among a very few astronomers. Over the next two decades Copernicus expanded his theory through hundreds of sightings, leading to a secretive manuscript whose existence tantalised mathematicians & scientists all over the world. In 1539 a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, travelled to Frombork to meet Copernicus; months later he departed with the manuscript for the book that would change the way we understand our place in the universe. Rheticus arranged for the publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres)
- legend has it Copernicus received a copy on his deathbed. This book would forever change the way we thought about our place in the universe. In her compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles the history of the Copernican Revolution, relating the story of astronomy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages. & as she achieved with her international bestsellers Longitude & Galileo's Daughter, in A More Perfect Heaven, Sobel expands the bounds of popular science writing, giving us an unforgettable portrait of a major step forward in the human knowledge of our universe.
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In the 1520s a Polish cleric named Nicolaus Copernicus developed a revolutionary theory which placed the Sun, not the Earth, at the centre of our universe. The secret existence of this manuscript tantalised scientists everywhere in Europe. Then in 1539 a young German mathematician, Rheticus, travelled to meet Copernicus in the hope of setting eyes on it. Dava Sobel tells the story of a new concept of the heavens, & how Rheticus persuaded the cautious Copernicus to allow him to take the precious but dangerous manuscript out into a world that it would change for ever. In her compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles the history of the Copernican Revolution, relating the story of astronomy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages. & as she achieved with her international bestsellers Longitude & Galileo`s Daughter, in A More Perfect Heaven, Sobel expands the bounds of popular science writing, giving us an unforgettable portrait of a major step forward in the human knowledge of our universe. ...

` That London could have had electric buses a hundred years ago is extraordinary enough, but as Mick Hamer recounts with great panache, the reason it didn`t is even more extraordinary. This is a great tale, expertly told`
- Michael Palin On a warm April morning in 1906 a crowd of expectant correspondents from London`s leading newspapers gathered at the Hotel Cecil in the Strand to view the new wonder of the age
- the electrobus. This clean, green machine was gearing up to take on the noisy, polluting petrol vehicle, which was just starting to replace the horse-drawn omnibus & surely had the potential to be a game changer in terms of what it would mean to Londoners & other city-dwellers who were already choking on petrol fumes. Disastrously though, the London Electrobus Company was in the grip of a gang of greedy & fraudulent financiers, who systematically conned shareholders, looted the company`s coffers & drove the promise of the electrobus into the ground. Rammed with fascinating characters & vividly capturing the Edwardian era, A Most Deliberate Swindle uncovers one of the biggest frauds in history & reveals why a century later this historic scam has left us all gasping for breath.

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