It is Florence, 1691. The Renaissance is long gone, & the city is a dark, repressive place, where everything is forbidden & anything is possible. The Enlightenment may be just around the corner, but knowledge is still the property of the few, & they guard it fiercely. Art, sex & power
- these, as always, are the obsessions. Facing serious criminal charges, Gaetano Zummo is forced to flee his native Siracusa at the age of twenty, first to Palermo, then Naples, but always has the feeling that he is being pursued by his past, & that he will never be free of it. Zummo works an artist in wax. He is fascinated by the plague, & makes small wooden cabinets in which he places graphic, tortured models of the dead & dying. But Cosimo III, Tuscany's penultimate Medici ruler, gives Zummo his most challenging commission yet, & as he tackles it his path entwines with that of the apothecary's daughter Faustina, whose secret is even more explosive than his. Poignant but paranoid, sensual yet chilling, Secrecy is a novel that buzzes with intrigue & ideas. It is a love story, a murder mystery, a portrait of a famous city in an age of austerity, an exercise in concealment & revelation, but above all it is a trapdoor narrative, one story dropping unexpectedly into another, the ground always slippery, uncertain...
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Growing up in post-war Paris the sickly only child of glamorous, athletic parents, the narrator invents for himself a make-believe brother
- older, stronger, & more brilliant than he can ever be. It is only when the boy begins talking to an old family friend that he comes to realise that his imaginary sibling had a real predecessor: a half-brother whose death in the concentration camps is part of a buried family secret that he was intended never to unearth.
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Splat the Cat turns detective in this hilarious new title in the internationally best-selling series from the creator of Russell the Sheep. Splat the Cat notices that something isn`t quite right in his house. First the toy ducks his father makes start to go missing. Then they are mysteriously returned but, strangely enough, without their beaks! Who could possibly be causing all of this trouble? To solve the mystery, Splat musters up his courage & rises to the challenge as Secret Agent Splat! ...

Secret Amsterdam in the Jonglez series of guides; profiling a range of European cities as well as thematic titles & designed to explore the undiscovered & hidden attractions usually hidden from tourists. The ‘ Secret’ titles present a range of sites
- including gardens, museums, squares, churches, parks & distinctive architecture
- that are often not covered by other guides. Double page spreads have a description of the site & a glossy full length photograph opposite. Addresses, opening times, contact details & relevant transport information is also provided. Jonglez also publish a range of “ Unusual…” titles, with an emphasis on thematic experiences, including hotels & shopping, to a range of destinations. Each guide has a similar format to the ‘ Secret’ series, with individual recommendations & suggestions accompanied by colour photographs throughout the text.

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Secret Anchorages of Brittany provides concise pilotage directions for practically all the natural anchorages along the Brittany coast, from the Bay of Mont St Michel round to the great estuary of the Loire. As with the first edition, the anchorages start near Cap de la Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula & include Iles Chausey. The book enters Brittany waters near Cancale & follows the whole 300-mile coastline, with its rivers, estuaries & offshore islands, looking into every nook & cranny on the way. This stylish second edition

Includes:: many new anchorages & is lavishly illustrated in colour, while the anchorage charts have been redrawn & verified against the Admiralty or French SHOM charts. The pilotage sections are peppered with short features on the maritime traditions, life & history of this inimitable coast. Peter Cumberlidge is a well known writer & photographer who cruises widely under sail & power. He always returns to Brittany with affection & the new Secret Anchorages reflects his sympathy for this fabulous cruising area, the people who live here & the superlative seafood for which the coast is justly renowned.

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The secrets of Gaudi & the Sagrada Familia, a taxi-ride in the nude, a fantastic model railway network below the central station, a mysterious h&, an extraordinary dissection hall, an unsuspected anti-aircraft shelter, a deadly kiss, a museum in the back shop, some very special toilets, romance in love hotels or helicopters, ants & scorpions on the menu... Night & day, Barcelona only reveals its secrets to those residents & visitors who know how to stray off the beaten track. But you have to know where to look... An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew Barcelona well, or who would like to discover the hidden face of the city.” ...

Let Secret Belfast guide you around the unusual & unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Belfast guide book & let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of this amazing city. Ideal for local inhabitants & curious visitors alike. Discover how the city stood up against the evils of the slave trade, admire its stunning art deco facades, unearth beautiful stained-glass windows by an accomplished yet little-known female artist, take to the windy coastal paths just out of town & peak into caves where smugglers once hid their loot, visit the humble cottage of an American president, uncover the mysteries of Bronze Age burial grounds & Stone Age forts, squeeze down a secret underground tunnel or take a boat ride to see the city`s seal colony, visit the place where Marconi sent his first wireless signal across the waves, go to a cinema shaped like a ship... Small, yet bursting with history & mystery, Belfast, far from the crowds & the usual cliches, is a reserve of well-concealed treasures that only reveal themselves to those who know how to wander off the beaten track, whether residents or visitors. An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew Belfast well, or who would like to discover the hidden face of the city. ...

Let Secret Brighton guide you around the unusual & unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Brighton guide book & let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of this amazing city. Ideal for local inhabitants & curious visitors alike. Wander through a hidden city orchard, hang out with a 19th-century circus troupe, find a forgotten railway line in the sea, discover Brighton`s only waterfall, visit a hidden pet cemetery, borrow books from the secret library in a fridge, unearth a long-forgotten mural, browse a museum in a back-street chip shop, tap the nose of a gargoyle & make a wish, enter an Earthship, step inside a secret walled garden & play glow-in-the-dark miniature golf with dinosaurs. Away from the cliched seaside sights, Brighton is a city full of hidden treasures revealed to residents & travellers who like to wander off the beaten path. Secret Brighton An Unusual Travel Guide is the perfect companion for those ready to discover the unusual & underground & see the city through new eyes. ...

” Secret Britain” is an exploration of the fascinating & beautiful, yet more obscure & less-visited, corners of the country. Landscapes & heritage sites that receive little coverage in more conventional guides are revealed here in all their glory, & there is a diverse range of locations to suit every mood. Travel from the rugged beaches of Cornwall to the ancient burial sites of the Orkney Islands, & in between encounter a colourful mix of museums, stately homes, pubs, abbeys, monuments, nature reserves, & the many other gems that add to the rich tapestry of this unique & exciting country. Tom Quinn brings the fascinating architecture, eccentricities of local culture, breathtaking landscapes & mystical heritage of Britain to life with his lively commentary. Each chapter is accompanied by a full-colour map & Chris Coe`s beautiful photography, which captures the unique character of each site. ...

Some of our most intriguing history is missing. Perhaps there has been a conspiracy, a cover-up? Or maybe some stories have been lost, forgotten or were just too embarrassing to talk about at the time? But now they are back, revealed in all their glory: secret passages, events, societies, loves, identities & even dark secrets of the grave. After much sleuthing, Justin Pollard takes us into undisclosed historical waters to discover why the city of Burlington isn`t on the map; how ` Agent Pickle` saved the lost treasure of Bonnie Prince Charlie; what Sir Thomas Overbury knew in 1613 that got him murdered with a poisoned enema & how Virginia Woolf sweet-talked her way aboard HMS Dreadnought dressed as Abyssinian Prince. Secret Britain will also reveal the tragic love story behind the Rolls Royce mascot; how agent Garbo managed to get an MBE & an Iron Cross; the sinister properties of the Hand of Glory; the lost smuggling ship Peggy; the Mystery Runner of Nos Galan; the extraordinary history of the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan; London`s only Nazi war memorial & the secrets of the WWII Monopoly board. ...