Irvine Welsh, `poet laureate of the chemical generation`, exposes the seamy underbelly of rave`s utopian dream. Lloyd, our permanently pilled-up protagonist, pushes his weekends to breaking point & beyond in this frazzled trip through Scottish clubl&. He experiences the vertiginous uppers & downers of the Second Summer of Love, dabbles in a spot of disc jockeying & closes in, gradually, on some kind of redemption... Selected from Irvine Welsh`s novel Ecstasy.VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world`s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human Also in the Vintage Minis series: Home by Salman Rushdie Dreams by Sigmund Freud Eating by Nigella Lawson Work by Joseph Heller ...

Raven Black is the first book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series -- which is now the major BBC1 drama starring Douglas Henshall, SHETL&. It is a cold January morning & Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance.. . The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man -- loner & simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion & fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst. Also available in the Shetland series are White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning & Dead Water. Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series (ITV television drama VERA) contains five titles, of which The Glass Room is the most recent. ...

Anya lives with her mother & father in the shadow of the icy glacier where the Snow-Witch reigns. Every spring, Anya`s mother journeys to the glacier to pick the blue gentian flowers that grow there. But this time, she does not return. She has been captured by the Snow-Witch & imprisoned in the ice. Anya & her father set off with the ravens to rescue her. It`s a treacherous journey, & there is no knowing what they will find; but the strength of Anya`s love conquers all; the Snow-Witch is defeated & Anya`s mother is saved. Linda Sunderland recently gained an MA in Creative Writing (Contemporary Poetry). Raven Child & the Snow-Witch is her first picture book. Daniel is a hugely talented illustrator & has published many books including The Little Red Riding Hood for Harper Collins, New York. ...

Striking physical image of the world as three circular views of the continents & the surrounding oceans presented against a black background on a large, 158 x 87cm (5’2” x 2’10” approx) wall map from Raven Maps & Images. Three overlapping circular maps present most of Eurasia with Africa & the Polar Regions, the Americas, & Pacific Ocean with the Far East & Australia. The maps have bright altitude colouring & provide names of main geographical features such as mountain chains, rivers, deserts, etc. Most capitals & other large cities are indicated, but no country names or boundaries are marked. All place names are in English. Latitude & longitude lines are drawn at intervals of 15’. Projection is orthographic. ...

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak & weary, Over many a quaint & curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.. . Edgar Allan Poe`s ” The Raven” is one of the most widely recognised poems in the English language. When it first appeared in the New York Evening Mirror, in 1845, the poem made Poe an overnight sensation. Master paper engineer David Pelham amazes us once again with his pop-up design to interpret this haunting love story. ...

Ravenna on an indexed street plan at 1:9, 000 from Litografia Artistica Cartografica, with a detailed enlargement of the city’s historic centre at 1:6, 000. 31 monuments including historic buildings & churches, cultural or educational institutions, & important municipal buildings or facilities are numbered & listed next to the plan. Car parks in & around the city centre are prominently marked. An inset next to the main map extends the coverage to Classe for those who want to see the wonderful mosaics in the church of San Apollinare in Classe. On the reverse a road map of Ravenna’s environs shows which other locations are covered by panels with separate indexed plans at scales between 1:8, 000 & 1:10, 000: Casal Borsetti, Lido di Dante, Lido di Classe with Lido di Savio, Lido Adriano, Marina di Ravenna with Porto Corsini, Marina Romea, & Punta Marina Terme. Litografia Artistica Cartografica (LAC) are Italy’s leading publishers of street plans with an extensive range of titles. Where appropriate, the plans include an enlargement showing the historic centre in greater detail. On each plan monuments including historic buildings & churches, archaeological sites, cultural or educational institutions, & important municipal buildings or facilities are numbered & listed next to the plan. Unless indicated to the contrary in the individual description, one way streets are not marked. Street index is on the reverse. ...

Ravenna Province in a series of handy size road maps from Litografia Artistica Cartografica (LAC) with more minor local roads & tracks than can be found on most regional maps. The series is gradually being changed to a new style of digitally derived cartography, so presentation of adjoining titles may vary. All the maps have hill shading to represent the general relief with spot heights for selected peaks, & show a few more local roads & rough tracks than the other road map series. Intermediate road distances are indicated. Regional, provincial & communal borders are marked, & railways, funiculars, airports, sea ferry links & campsites are shown. The legend is in Italian only. The new, digitally produced editions are indexed & have enhanced, more finely drawn cartography: the hill-shading is less bold, motorway service areas are marked, natural parks are highlighted & an expanded range of symbols indicates various landmarks & sites, e.g. antiquities, churches, etc. Two styles of the new cartography are produced, differing only in the colour of the predominant background shading: grey or yellow/green. Some of the new editions include geographical coordinates for the map corners. The index of localities is on the reverse. This title is still produced in the traditional cartographic style. ...

In recent years Eric Ravilious has become recognized as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, whose watercolours & wood engravings capture an essential sense of place & the spirit of mid-century Engl&. What is less appreciated is that he did not work in isolation, but within a much wider network of artists, friends & lovers influenced by Paul Nash`s teaching at the Royal College of Art
- Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Tirzah Garwood, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus & Helen Binyon among them. The Ravilious group bridged the gap between fine art & design, & the gentle, locally rooted but spritely character of their work came to be seen as the epitome of contemporary British values. Seventy-five years after Ravilious`s untimely death, Andy Friend tells the story of this group of artists from their student days through to the Second World War. Ravilious & Co. explores how they influenced each other & how a shared experience animated their work, revealing the significance in this pattern of friendship of women artists, whose place within the history of British art has often been neglected. Generously illustrated & drawing on extensive research, & a wealth of newly discovered material, Ravilious & Co. is an enthralling narrative of creative achievement, joy & tragedy.
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` They were all the same, communists, Nazis, parents, church, book reviews, features section, editorial, revolutionary struggle, Baader-Meinhof, capital, television, Club Voltaire, pacifism, guerrilla, Mao, Trotsky, Red Student Action, the underground scene & Germania Security. They were all part of the same idea, they knew how things ought to be, they had a monopoly on consciousness, love, human happiness.` In Raw Material Jorg Fauser casts an eye over the times he lived in & his own life: a junkie in Istanbul, the move to a commune in Berlin & a squat in Frankfurt, work on an underground magazine & unceasing efforts to get a novel published. The autobiographical testament of Fauser`s alter ego Harry Gelb is an unsparing, razor-sharp but often lovingly ironic portrait of the 1960s & 70`s. It is a portrait of the artist to rank with the best, & a portrait of the ferment of Europe at that time. ...

As a native of Scotl&, bestselling author Iain Banks has decided to undertake a tour of the distilleries of his homeland in a bid to uncover the unique spirit of the single malt. Visiting some of the world`s most famous distilleries & also some of its smallest & most obscure ones, Banks embarks on a journey of discovery which educates him about the places, people & products surrounding the centuries-old tradition of whisky production. Using various modes of transport
- ferries to the islands, cars across the highlands, even bicycles between bus stops
- Banks` tour of Scotland combines history, literature & landscape in an entertaining & informative account of an exploration in which the arrival is by no means the most important part of the journey.

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