' The nightly routine of sirens, barrage, the probing raider, the unmistakable engine (Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?), the bomb-bursts moving nearer & then moving away, hold one like a love-charm' Graham Greene When the first bombs fell on London in August 1940, the city was transformed overnight into a battlefront. For most Londoners, the sirens, guns, planes & bombs heralded gruelling nights of sleeplessness, fear & loss. But for Graham Greene & some of his contemporaries, this was a bizarrely euphoric time when London became the setting for intense love affairs & surreal beauty. At the height of the Blitz, Greene described the bomb-bursts as holding one 'like a love-charm'. As the sky whistled & the ground shook, nerves were tested, loyalties examined & infidelities begun. The Love-charm of Bombs is a powerful wartime chronicle told through the eyes of five prominent writers: Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Rose Macaulay, Hilde Spiel & Henry Yorke (writing as Henry Green). Volunteering as ambulance drivers, fire-fighters & ARP wardens, these were the successors to the soldier poets of the First World War & their story has never been told. Now, opening with a meticulous evocation of a single night in September 1940, Lara Feigel brilliantly & beautifully interweaves letters, diaries & fiction with official civil defence records to chart the history of a burning world in wartime London & post-war Vienna & Berlin. She reveals the haunting, ecstatic, often wrenching stories that triumphed amid the mess of a war-torn world. ...

When the first bombs fell on London in August 1940, the city was transformed overnight into a battlefront. For most Londoners, the sirens, guns, planes & bombs heralded gruelling nights of sleeplessness, fear & loss. But for Graham Greene & some of his contemporaries, this was a bizarrely euphoric time when London became the setting for intense love affairs & surreal beauty. At the height of the Blitz, Greene described the bomb-bursts as holding one `like a love-charm`. As the sky whistled & the ground shook, nerves were tested, loyalties examined & infidelities begun. The Love-charm of Bombs is a powerful wartime chronicle told through the eyes of five prominent writers: Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Rose Macaulay, Hilde Spiel & Henry Yorke (writing as Henry Green). Volunteering as ambulance drivers, fire-fighters & ARP wardens, these were the successors to the soldier poets of the First World War & their story has never been told. Now, opening with a meticulous evocation of a single night in September 1940, Lara Feigel brilliantly & beautifully interweaves letters, diaries & fiction with official civil defence records to chart the history of a burning world in wartime London & post-war Vienna & Berlin. She reveals the haunting, ecstatic, often wrenching stories that triumphed amid the mess of a war-torn world. ...

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, & my father talked to him once about fertilizer. This is Susie Salmon. Watching from heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends & siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet. The Lovely Bones is a luminous & astonishing novel about life & death, forgiveness & vengeance, memory & forgetting
- but, above all, about finding light in the darkest of places.
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Marguerite Duras was one of the leading intellectuals & novelist of post-war France, but her wartime writings were not published in full until after her death. The Wartime Notebooks trace Duras`s formative experiences
- including her difficult childhood in Indochina & her harrowing wait for her husband`s return from Nazi internment
- revealing the personal history behind her bestselling novels. The Lover is the best known of these; set in pre-war Indochina, its haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl & her wealthy Chinese lover is based on her own life. In spare & luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins in the waning days of France`s colonial empire, & the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts. Practicalities is a collection of small & intensely personal pieces Duras dictated near the end of her life. These deceptively simple meditations on motherhood, domesticity, sex, love, alcohol, writing, & more are witty, earthy, outspoken & surprisingly fresh & relevant to the same issues today.

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Yvonne is newly widowed, her children grown up. & so, hoping to revisit memories of a happier time, she travels to Turkey. Despite the sand & sea, memories of Yvonne`s past are overwhelming & she clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector. With Ahmet as her guide, Yvonne finally begins to enjoy the shimmering waters & relaxed pace of the Turkish coast. But when a devastating accident suddenly upends her hard-won peace, she finds her life thrown into chaos & with it her fragile sense of belonging. ...

A riveting, real-life equivalent of The Kite Runner-an astonishingly powerful & profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women`s rights in the Muslim world.” She is his Juliet & he is her Romeo, & her family has threatened to kill them both...” This is the heartrending account of Zakia & Mohammad Ali, a couple from opposing Islamic sects, who defying their society`s norms have left behind everything they know & are quite literally risking their lives for their love. She is a Sunni, he is a Shia, but as friends from childhood Zakia & Mohammad Ali could never have predicted that their love would anger their families so much that they would be forced to leave their homes finding refuge in the harsh terrain of the Afghani mountains. Without money or passports they rely on the kindness of strangers to house them for a couple of days at a time as they remain on the run, never deterred. New York Times journalist, Rod Nordl&, has chronicled the plight of the young lovers telling their extraordinary story of courage, perseverance & love in one of the world`s most troubled countries. This moving love story is told against the bigger backdrop of the horrific but widespread practices that women are subjected to in Afghanistan. ...

This book offers a unique culinary slant on dinner a deux with fun & adventurous recipes that will help love to blossom, tease palates & arouse the senses...and make all the difference between a firecracker of an evening & a damp squib: Something to Slurp on
- get the juices flowing with a Basil Martini or a Bloody Mary with Clam Juice Nibbles & Tit-bits
- get down to some fun foreplay with Spiced Honey Almonds or Caviar Blini Shapely Veg
- get forking Asparagus with White Crab Meat or Pommes Sarladaises with Truffles Smooth & Slippery
- serve Milton`s Moules or Salmon Tikka Skewers with Dill & Pomegranate Raita for a boost in the bedroom Flesh
- wrap your mouth around Pot-roast Haunch of Venison & Beef Fillet, Ceps & Marsala Sauce The Spice of Life
- get hot & spicy with Saffron Roast Chicken or Paneer Chilli Getting Fruity
- with Pineapple & Pork Curry or Poached Quince with Mascarpone & Gorgonzola Cream Sweet Bits
- down & dirty desserts, from Chocolate Chilli Fondant to Raspberry Rose Puddin Read on & let Milton Crawford share his secret potions of love. ” Cooking is like love: It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” (Harriet van Horne).







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For fans of Apple Tree Yard & The Silent Wife, The Loving Husband draws readers into a marriage where nothing is as it seems... For better, for worse, to love & to cherish, till death us do part... Fran Hall & her husband Nathan have moved with their two children to a farmhouse on the edge of the Fens
- a chance to get away from London & have a fresh start. But when Fran wakes one night to find Nathan gone, she makes a devastating discovery. As questions about her husband & her relationships start to mount, Fran`s life begins to spiral out of control. What is she hiding from the police about her marriage, & does she really know the man she shared her bed with?
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” The Low Carbon Diet” is for all those out there who really want to save the planet (but just haven`t got round to it). It provides an easy-to-follow programme for individuals & families to cut down the carbon calories they consume at home, on the road & at play. If you only try one diet this year, make it this one. No preaching, no doom-mongering. Just practical, achievable, everyday actions that can make all the difference
- to your carbon weight, bank balance & fitness level. Not to mention the health of the only planet we have.
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More & more people are becoming interested in growing their own fruit & vegetables as food prices rise & awareness of food provenance & chemical usage increases, but getting started can seem daunting & many are deterred by a lack of knowledge & time. This book sets out to overcome these problems. With clear practical instructions & inspirational pictures this book aims to demystify the growing of fruit & veg & shows that, with the right approach, it can be done successfully as a weekend project or slotted into a busy week. The book explains simple short cuts, unusual low maintenance strategies & promotes a relaxed, robust attitude to growing-your-own which really works. The book has been shot by the well-respected garden photographer Clive Nichols in the author`s own weekend vegetable garden over two years where the principles promoted in this book have been tried, tested & proven. Filled with fantastic images & sound horticultural advice, the book will appeal to the complete novice planning a new vegetable garden as well as the more experienced gardener who is looking to save time & increase productivity. This title is suitable for: amateur vegetable growers looking for a comprehensive guide; experienced gardeners who are keen to begin growing their own produce; &, anyone with limited time who still wants to achieve high yields from their vegetable plot. ...