1938 is a tumultuous year in the small Trinidadian island of El Caracol. In the sultry heat of the summer a young orphan, Theo, is sent to live with the island`s doctor, Vincent Metivier. The doctor knows little of Theo`s past only that it has been troubled & that he now needs love & attention. Yet Theo is not the only one who needs Vincent`s attention. The island is rife with leprosy. Together with Sister Weil, Vincent tries to educate the population about this most taboo of diseases. With war in Europe looming & a feeling of civil unrest building in Trinidad, the staggering beauty of the island is overshadowed by human discord. ...

In 1886, a mysterious travelling circus becomes an international sensation. Open only at night, constructed entirely in black & white, Le Cirque des Reves delights all who wander its circular paths & warm themselves at its bonfire. Although there are acrobats, fortune-tellers & contortionists, the Circus of Dreams is no conventional spectacle. Some tents contain clouds, some ice. The circus seems almost to cast a spell over its aficionados, who call themselves the reveurs
- the dreamers. At the heart of the story is the tangled relationship between two young magicians, Celia, the enchanter's daughter, & Marco, the sorcerer's apprentice. At the behest of their shadowy masters, they find themselves locked in a deadly contest, forced to test the very limits of the imagination, & of their love...A fabulous, fin-de-siecle feast for the senses & a life-affirming love story, The Night Circus is a captivating novel that will make the real world seem fantastical & a fantasy world real.
...

The Night Climbers of Cambridge was first published in 1937 under the pseudonym of Whipplesmith (now known to be Noel Howard Symington) & recounts the courageous, foolhardy nocturnal exploits of a group of Cambridge students who climbed the ancient university & town buildings in the city. The exploits, up & atop the likes of the Fitzwilliam museum & the venerable King ...

The Night Climbers of Cambridge was first published in 1937 under the pseudonym of Whipplesmith (now known to be Noel Howard Symington) & recounts the courageous, foolhardy nocturnal exploits of a group of Cambridge students who climbed the ancient university & town buildings in the city. The exploits, up & atop the likes of the Fitzwilliam museum & the venerable King’s College Chapel, were recorded with ancient photographic paraphernalia, hauled over battlements & down drain-pipes, whilst the students somehow endeavoured to avoid detection by the ‘minions of authority. Long before the present day’s much followed trend of urban climbing or ‘buildering’, Cambridge students of the 30’s continued an already established tradition & The Night Climbers of Cambridge is testament to their adrenalin packed, humorous & intriguing exploits. ...

One of Julia Donaldson`s classic picture book stories about two monkeys who are as different as night & day. Night Monkey & Day Monkey don`t think they have much in common. But when they each spend time in the other`s opposite worlds, they learn a lot. & they also learn to be the best of friends. One of the finest rhyming picture book stories from Julia Donaldson, the author behind The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom & What The Ladybird Heard. Full of fun & food for thought, Night Monkey, Day Monkey is beautifully drawn by Lucy Richards, one of the most talented illustrators drawing today. ...

It began with a spark...A house is burning. Its six tenants include a failed priest, a naturalist, a neurosurgeon & a photographer. Their landlord`s relationship to them is both intimate & shadowy. At times he shares their obsessions & memories. He will also share their fate. The passions of these individuals reach beyond the dying house that holds them. One recalls a lonely childhood, another the cremation grounds of India, another an African refugee camp. But will their stories be consumed forever by the flames? ...

` It began with a spark.` A house is burning. Its six tenants include a failed priest, a naturalist, a neurosurgeon & an invalid dreaming of his anxious boyhood. Their landlord`s relationship to them is both intimate & shadowy. At times he shares their preoccupations & memories. He will also share their fate. In Night of Fire the passions & obsessions in a dying house loom & shift, from the hallucinating drug addict in the basement to the landlord training his telescope on the night skies. The tenants` stories range through an African refugee camp, a Greek Orthodox sanctuary & the cremation-grounds of India: memories that start to criss-cross & mutate in a novel of lingering beauty & mystery. Night of Fire is Colin Thubron`s fictive masterpiece. ...

This volume examines how Russia, Ukraine & other territories of the former Soviet Union have coped with more unnecessary death than any other countries on Earth during the 20th century. Two World Wars & one Civil War, state created famines & purges are only the most significant chapters in an unrelenting epic of destruction. The way in which Russians coped with loss & bereavement is a central issue in this volume. A description of the ornate, public services of the old Orthodox rite & an examination of the various attempts to impose an acceptable & emotionally fulfilling atheist alternative under Bolshevism. Millions of Russians were forbidden to mourn their loved ones who died as enemies of the people. This text documents the memories of those left behind & looks at this theme in light of the evolvement of the modern Russian Empire. ...

When Lisa Marie & her step-brother Vernon pop into town to get their dad a birthday present, they discover the Create-a-Ted shop is offering free Halloween bears! Making two grisly bears for themselves & choosing an Elvis bear named Bearvis for Dad, they head home. That night the shopkeeper brings the bears to life for nefarious purposes.. . but Vernon`s bear, Grizz, doesn`t want to be a slave to humans
- he wants to rule the world! Converting the shopkeeper`s Stuff-U-Lator into a machine for turning living matter into stuffed bears, he begins to prowl the streets. Can the children & Bearvis save themselves
- & the world
- from being stuffed?


...