Night trains have long fascinated us with the possibilities of their private sleeping compartments, gilded dining cars, champagne bars & wealthy travellers. Authors from Agatha Christie to Graham Greene have used night trains to tell tales of romance, intrigue & decadence against a rolling background of dramatic landscapes. The reality could often be as thrilling: early British travellers on the Orient Express were advised to carry a revolver (as well as a teapot). In Night Trains, Andrew Martin attempts to relive the golden age of the great European sleeper trains by using their modern-day equivalents. This is no simple matter. The night trains have fallen on hard times, & the services are disappearing one by one. But if the Orient Express experience can only be recreated by taking three separate sleepers, the intriguing characters & exotic atmospheres have survived. Whether the backdrop is 3am at a Turkish customs post, the sun rising over the Riviera, or the constant twilight of a Norwegian summer night, Martin rediscovers the pleasures of a continent connected by rail. By tracing the history of the sleeper trains, he reveals much of the recent history of Europe itself. The original sleepers helped break down national barriers & unify the continent. Martin uncovers modern instances of European unity
- & otherwise
- as he traverses the continent during `interesting times`, with Brexit looming. Against this tumultuous backdrop, he experiences his own smaller dramas, as he fails to find crucial connecting stations, ponders the mystery of the compartment dog, & becomes embroiled in his very own night train whodunit.

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Throughout its history, London has been two places: the daytime city of business & work the nighttime palace of dark desires, crime, & vagrancy. This place has attracted writers, lawyers, poets, & politicians who have all attempted to chart & control the nocturnal flows of the capital. In the medieval city, nightwalking was a punishable crime; by the Victorian era, Charles Dickens was forced to wander the streets by night in order to becalm his disturbed mind. Why has the city shrouded in darkness been such a compelling subject over the centuries? Before the age of the gas lamp, the city at night was a different place, home to the lost, the licentious, & the insomniac. In this brilliant work of literary investigation, Matthew Beaumont shines a light on the dark perambulations of poets, novelists, & thinkers from Shakespeare, to the ecstatic strolls of William Blake, the feverish urges of opium addict De Quincey, as well as the master nightwalker, Charles Dickens. ...

Charles Dickens describes in Night Walks his time as an insomniac, when he decided to cure himself by walking through London in the small hours, & discovered homelessness, drunkenness & vice on the streets. This collection of essays shows Dickens as one of the greatest visionaries of the city in all its variety & cruelty. This is part of Penguin`s ” Great Ideas” range, which selects books that have a had a noticeable impact on the world around us. ...

Poor Zebra just wants to go to sleep! But with tap dancing tigers in tuxedos & piano-playing porcupines in party hats hiding behind every flap, will Zebra ever find some peace & quiet? There`s plenty of peekaboo fun to be found in this hilarious lift-the-flap board book from award-winning Gareth Lucas (Peekaboo 123, Peekaboo A to Z, Peekaboo Opposites). Perfect for bedtimes that are full of bounce! ...

” Alice Hoffman can write about love like no-one else” Jodi Picoult Twig lives in a remote area of town with her mysterious brother & her mother, baker of irresistible apple pies. A new girl in town might just be Twig`s first true friend, & ally in vanquishing an ancient family curse. A spellbinding tale of modern folklore set in the Berkshires, where rumours of a winged beast draw in as much tourism as the town`s famed apple orchards. ...

Available for the first time in English, here is an unforgettable portrayal by a master novelist of the physical & psychological devastation wrought in the homeland by Hitler`s war. Late April, 1945. The war is over, yet Dr Doll, a loner & `moderate pessimist`, lives in constant fear. By night, he is haunted by nightmarish images of the bombsite in which he is trapped
- he, & the rest of Germany. More than anything, he wishes to vanquish the demon of collective guilt, but he is unable to right any wrongs, especially in his position as mayor of a small town in north-east Germany that has been occupied by the Red Army. Dr Doll flees for Berlin, where he finds escape in a morphine addiction: each dose is a `small death`. He tries to make his way in the chaos of a city torn apart by war, accompanied by his young wife, who shares his addiction. Fighting to save two lives, he tentatively begins to believe in a better future. Written with Fallada`s distinctive power & vividness, Nightmare in Berlin captures the demoralised & desperate atmosphere of post-war Germany in a way that has never been matched or surpassed. The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut which is funded by the German Ministry of the Arts.
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Nights at the Alexandra by William Trevor
- a classic early novel by one of the world`s greatest writers. A brief encounter in
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Is Sophie Fevvers, toast of Europe`s capitals, part swan...or all fake? Courted by the Prince of Wales & painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire & star of Colonel Kearney`s circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, & desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg & Siberia. ...

The European city was transformed when public lighting was introduced in the last century & night life was made possible for the first time. This is an investigation of the various aspects of Paris, Berlin, London & their inhabitants at night between 1840 & 1930. It deals with topical issues such as crime in the city, urban improvement & the predicament of women. By day the author sifted through countless police & church archives, city records & first-hand accounts; by night he explored the highways & byways of the three great cities. ...

Chris Yates, one of Britain`s most insightful & lyrical writers, raises his gaze from his beloved rivers & ponds & takes us on a mesmerizing tour of the British countryside. ” Last November, the sudden appearance of a hundred wintering ravens in a wood in Cranborne Chase, where I have lived for twenty-five years without seeing more than a few solitary specimens, reminded me that there is always something ready to flame up again in the landscape, just when it seemed the fire had gone out.” In Nightwalk we accompany Chris Yates on the most magical of journeys into the very heart of the British countryside. His acute observation of the natural world & ability to transcend it exquisitely sets Chris apart from his contemporaries. Time slows down for a deeper intimacy with nature, & through Chris`s writing we hear every rustle of a leaf, every call of a bird. He widens the power of our imagination, heightening our senses & revealing beauty in the smallest details. ...