With an introduction by Sebastian Faulks Winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2004, a classic novel about class, politics & sexuality in Margaret Thatcher`s 1980s Britain. There was the soft glare of the flash -- twice -- three times -- a gleaming sense of occasion, the gleam floating in the eye as a blot of shadow, his heart running fast with no particular need of courage as he grinned & said, ` Prime Minister, would you like to dance? In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the wealthy Feddens: Gerald, an ambitious Tory MP, his wife Rachel & their children Toby & Catherine. Innocent of politics & money, Nick is swept up into the Feddens` world & an era of endless possibility, all the while pursuing his own private obsession with beauty. The Line of Beauty is Alan Hollinghurst`s Man Booker Prize-winning masterpiece. It is a novel that defines a decade, exploring with peerless style a young man`s collision with his own desires, & with a world he can never truly belong to. ...

In February 1793 France declared war on Britain & Holland & by 1815, established dynasties & kingdoms were overthrown, the United States had been established as a world power & a new age was dawning. This was to be the longest, hardest & cruellest war ever fought at sea & while the war on land saw the rise of the greatest soldier ever known
- Napoleon Buonaparte
- the war at sea had the formidable genius of Horatio Nelson. In The Line Upon A Wind, Noel Mostert has achieved a work of unparalleled research & illuminating analysis. He has also brought us the story of the daily lives of the sailors on board the fighting ships. There are heroes & villains, captains so harsh that crews were goaded to mutiny & others whose concern for the welfare of their crews changed life at sea forever. It is a tale of ordinary men & extraordinary bravery, of the building & navigation of fearsome warships & of a period of tumultuous conflict, change & innovation
- maritime history at its very best.


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A deceptively simple adventure into the unknown using only paper, a pencil & a single line. Wreck This Journal had a simple premise: destroy the book in all the ways you can imagine. The Line is even simpler: find pencil, start a line. As you move through the pages of Keri Smith`s newest book, you`ll be asked to let your line meander, explore the book`s gutter, & jump around the edges of the pages. You`ll hide your line, cut your line & even let someone else take over your line for a bit. The farther you get into the book, however, the more you`ll discover that maybe things aren`t as simple as they first seemed. The line has a mind of its own, & it`s up to you to discover what`s at the end of the line (hint: it`s just the beginning). ...

Large ships have always evoked awe & nostalgia among shiplovers, & none more so than the giant liners of the nineteenth & twentieth centuries. They sailed the oceans with a wide range of passengers long before any other mode of long-distance transport was available to the ordinary man. Their sheer size & opulence were genuinely admired & frequently amazed at around the world, & the romance & tragedy surrounding them has ensured an enduring place in the hearts & minds of those who served or travelled on them as well as those who have only ever seen their like in literature or on film. Here, for the first time, the history of these vessels is recounted with full exploration into their design, construction & development, along with a social history of those who worked & travelled on them. The well-known perennial favourites such as ' Mauretania', ' Olympic', & ' Titanic', ' Bremen', ' Europa' & the ' Cunard Queens' will be looked at in a fresh new light in the context of emerging & changing lifestyles. The book also offers detailed information on some of the lesser known but significant ships such as 'l' Atlantique', ' Empress of Britain', & ' Cap Arcona'. The story is brought full circle with a discussion of the liner's increasing influence on cruise ship design & what is foreseen as the ultimate triumph of the ocean liner, the new Cunard ' Queen Mary II' project to initiate a new liner era for the twenty-first century. With both original & contemporary illustrations in both colour & black-&-white, this will be an essential work for liner enthusiasts & maritime historians alike. The illustrations alone are a goldmine of period pieces, industrial splendour & style. ...

Aesop`s Fables are given a contemporary twist in this series of retellings with bright & graphic artwork. Featuring ingenious die-cuts, you can lift the page to release the mouse from the lion`s claws, then, later, turn the page to make the mouse release the lion in return. The upmarket format & stylish illustrations make this series of books perfect gift material. ...

Emily (16), Travers (10), Angus (9), Maisie (7) & Oakley (1) lived in an idyllic 300-year-old cottage in the Cotswolds. They attended the local school, watched TV & did all the things English middle-class children do. Then, in 1995, their biologist mother seized the opportunity to study lions in Botswana &, in the space of 3 months, changed the family's lives forever. Within 24 hours of landing in Gaborone they were travelling to their new home at Maun in the Okavango Delta, one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth. Weeks after arriving, the children had made home in an old mission house full of stray dogs & were learning to fetch fresh water, dig a toilet & which creepy crawlies could kill you & which couldn't. Their classroom was an open hut & free days were spent in a Land Rover tracking prides of lions across hundreds of miles of bush. The Lion Children is an extraordinary life-enhancing story about the joy of childhood & living in an environment as different as it can be. But above all it is about the lions, who we get to know through the eyes of the children themselves. This story will capture the public's heart & imagination. It is illustrated with the children's own drawings & photographs taken over the 5 years. ...

From the creator of the known & loved Bright Side lifestyle br&, Rachel Bright, & the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, comes a feelgood rhyming story about one little mouse trying to make himself heard & discovering along the way that even the smallest of us has the heart of a lion. Perfect for fans of Giraffes Can`t Dance this stylish book from two contemporary stars really is something to shout about
- it will make you laugh, cry & read it every bedtime.
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For Rian Malan, the blessing of living in South Africa is that every day presents him with material whose richness astounds those who live in saner places. Twenty years after the publication of his bestseller My Traitor`s Heart, he is still strongly committed to the struggle against suffocating political rectitude. Malan eviscerates politicians, provokes rabid fury in Aids activists, pursues justice in the music industry, & exults in the company of an extraordinary cast of characters from truckers to tycoons. ...

Be careful what you wish for... Long ago, Andrew made a childhood wish, & kept it in a silver box. When it finally comes true, he wishes he hadn`t... Long ago, Ben made a promise & he had a dream: to travel to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve. When he finally makes it, it isn`t for the reasons he imagined... Ben & Andrew keep meeting in unexpected places, & the intense relationship that develops seems to be guided by fate. Or is it? What if the very thing that draws them together is tainted by past secrets that threaten everything?A dark, consuming drama that shifts from Zimbabwe to Engl&, & then back into the past, The Lion Tamer Who Lost is also a devastatingly beautiful love story, with a tragic heart...`A stirring novel, beautifully written, reminiscent of the early work of Maggie O` Farrell` Irish Times` Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine will love it` Red Magazine` Quirky, darkly comic, heartfelt & original` Sunday Mirror` This achingly sad story has wonderful characters, including the spiky, sweary Catherine` Sunday People`A beautiful & compassionate read` Prima ...

In his “ Liquid Continent” trilogy, Nicholas Woodsworth combines travel narrative, history & reflection of the essence of life in the Mediterranean. Beginning in Alexandria, the author travels overland around the eastern rim of the sea. Behind the spread of modern apartment blocks, he encounters an older, sophisticated existence
- the city of Cleopatra; the city where renowned mathematicians corresponded with the Greek Archimedes & where great scholars such as Eratosthenes, a lover of all knowledge who was appointed by the Ptolemies as Chief Librarian, turned geography into the rational study it is today. This fluid & lively account unravels a mythic city whose grand historical reputation has sustained it through the ages, even if physically it has changed beyond recognition.
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