From time immemorial Afghanistan has been both a fortress of faith & a mountainous crossroads. Through its high valleys merchants traded Chinese porcelains, bundles of indigo cloth, sacks of lapis lazuli, golden jewellery, emeralds & fine carvings from both east & west. Ancient scrolls & beliefs entered the land in the satchels of Buddhist pilgrims & in the baggage of military invaders
- from Alexander the Great to Mughal, Persian & Arab conquerors & even the ill-fated armies of the British Raj. In this resonant account, Peter Levi seeks the clues which each migration left, in the company of the young Bruce Chatwin. Since his journey in the 1970s, Afghanistan has suffered forty years of invasion & civil war, making it all the more poignant to rediscover, with Levi, not a rocky wilderness guarded by fearsome tribes, but `this highway of archangels/this theatre of heaven/the light garden of the God-forgiven angel King.`
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” Magical, moving & deeply atmospheric”
- Patrick Barkham; As November stubs out the glow of autumn & the days tighten into shorter
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Arthur Simpson
- ` British to the core`, but without a passport to prove it
- lives in Athens, scraping by as a driver, journalist

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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MOTHERING SUNDAY & LAST ORDERS, & reissued for the first time on the Scribner list, The Light of Day is both a gripping crime story & a remarkable love story. On a cold but dazzling November morning George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, prepares to visit Sarah, a prisoner & the woman he loves. As he goes about the business of the day he relives the catastrophic events of two years ago that have both bound them together & kept them apart. Making atmospheric use of its suburban setting & shot through with a plain man`s unwitting poetry & rueful humour, The Light of Day is a powerful & moving tale of murder, redemption & of the discovery, for better or worse, of the hidden forces inside us. Praise for Mothering Sunday:` Bathed in light; & even when tragedy strikes, it blazes irresistibly... Swift`s small fiction feels like a masterpiece` Guardian ` Alive with sensuousness & sensuality.. . wonderfully accomplished, it is an achievement` Sunday Times ` From start to finish Swift`s is a novel of stylish brilliance & quiet narrative verve. The archly modulated, precise prose (a hybrid of Henry Green & Kazuo Ishiguro) is a glory to read. Now 66, Swift is a writer at the very top of his game` Evening Standard ` Mothering Sunday is a powerful, philosophical & exquisitely observed novel about the lives we lead, & the parallel lives
- the parallel stories
- we can never know.. . It may just be Swift`s best novel yet` Observer

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From the bestselling author of THE WEIRD SISTERS comes an enchanting tale of self-discovery that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt they`ve lost their way. `I adored The Light of Paris. It`s so lovely & big-hearted` JOJO MOYES ` Soulfulness & emotional insight meet laugh-out-loud humour` PAULA Mc LAIN, author of The Paris Wife Chicago, 1999. Madeleine is trapped
- by her family`s expectations, by her controlling husband
- in an unhappy marriage & a life she never wanted. But when she finds a diary detailing her grandmother Margie`s trip to Jazz Age Paris, she meets a woman she never knew: a dreamer who defied her strict family & spent a summer living on her own, & falling for a charismatic artist. When Madeleine`s marriage is threatened, she escapes to her hometown to stay with her disapproving mother. Shaken by the revelation of a family secret & inspired by her grandmother`s bravery, Madeleine creates her own summer of joy. In reconnecting with her love of painting & cultivating a new circle of friends, the chance of a new life emerges
- but will she be bold enough take it?


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The Man Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse begins on a North Sea ferry. The recently-separated middle-aged Futh stands on the blustery deck en route to Germany ahead of a rejuvenating walking holiday. His break begins in Hellhaus at a modest, family-run hotel. The landlady is hospitable & pleasant
- but Futh is perplexed by the outward hostility of the hotel barman. Forgetting about him, Futh begins his week-long circular walk of the Rhine & some much-needed contemplation regarding his parents` failed marriage, his troublesome friendship with the son of a lonely neighbour & his own broken relationship. But there`s one thing he struggles to come to terms with
- why did Futh`s mother disregard him as a child? There`s also that first trip to Germany with his newly-single father, & that certain something he never got round to doing. On return to the Hellhaus hotel, Futh is totally unaware of what`s gone on while he`s been away. Get your copy now!

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Combe Island off the Cornish coast has a bloodstained history of piracy & cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men & women in positions of high authority who require privacy & guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is violated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered. Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly & discreetly, but at a difficult time for him & his depleted team. Dalgliesh is uncertain about his future with Emma Lavenham, the woman he loves, Detective Inspector Kate Miskin has her own emotional problems & the ambitious Anglo-Indian Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is worried about working under Kate. Hardly have the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects that there is a second brutal killing & the whole investigation is jeopardised when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insidious & as potentially fatal as murder. This eagerly awaited successor to The Murder Room displays the qualities which aficionados have come to expect of P D James: sensitive characterisation, an exciting & superbly structured plot & vivid evocation of place. The Lighthouse is a subtle & powerful work of contemporary fiction. ...

Once there was a lighthouse keeper called Mr. Grinling. At night time he lived in a small white cottage perched high on the cliffs, & in the daytime he rowed out to his lighthouse to clean & polish the light. A fancy dress party is being held to celebrate the lighthouse`s 200th birthday, & the Grinlings are determined to dress up as pirates. But when a real crew of pirates appear, the Grinlings get a big surprise! Are the scurvy pirates all they seem
- or is something fishy going on? The first Lighthouse Keeper story, THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER`S LUNCH, was published over thirty years ago & his adventures have been loved by children ever since. It is now a modern picture book classic.
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Once there was a lighthouse keeper called Mr. Grinling. At night time he lived in a small white cottage perched high on the cliffs, & in the daytime he rowed out to his lighthouse to clean & polish the light. The Lighthouse Inspectors have decided that it`s time for Mr Grinling to retire. But when a stranded whale desperately needs the Grinlings` help, the Lighthouse Inspectors realise that Mr Grinling is still the best man for the job. The first Lighthouse Keeper story, THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER`S LUNCH, was published over thirty years ago & his adventures have been loved by children ever since. It is now a modern picture book classic. ...

The Lighthouse Stevenson is Bella Bathurst`s epic story of Robert Louis Stevenson`s ancestors & the building of the Scottish coastal lighthouses against impossible odds. ` Whenever I smell salt water, I know that I am not far from one of the works of my ancestors, ` wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in 1880. ` When the lights come out at sundown along the shores of Scotl&, I am proud to think they burn more brightly for the genius of my father!` Robert Louis Stevenson was the most famous of the Stevensons, but not by any means the most productive. The Lighthouse Stevensons, all four generations of them, built every lighthouse round Scotl&, were responsible for a slew of inventions in both construction & optics, & achieved feats of engineering in conditions that would be forbidding even today. The same driven energy which Robert Louis Stevenson put into writing, his ancestors put into lighting the darkness of the seas. The Lighthouse Stevensons is a story of high endeavour, beautifully told; indeed, this is one of the most celebrated works of historical biography in recent memory. ...