This voyage is special. It will change everything… One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours & brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence & through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… & a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost. Where will their ambitions lead? & will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess? In this spell-binding story of curiosity & obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart & wit. ...

Somebody in Laos is wooing & wedding country girls
- & then killing them on honeymoon & binding their bodies to trees. The horror
...

Unable to find stage work, actresses Cordelia Preston & Rillie Spoons need to find a way of making a living. Cordelia remembers the skills of her aunt & sets out to be a phreno-mesmerist, advising couples on their compatibility & enlightening women on The Gentle Intricacies of the Wedding Night'. Cordelia finds that she does indeed possess the gift for mesmerism, & as her popularity grows, she & Rillie are finally living their dream. But events from Cordelia's past return to haunt her, & the women become embroiled in a scandal that threatens to ruin not only them but those they love.. . ...

When the battered body of a young woman is discovered on a remote Greek isl&, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident. Then a stranger arrives, uninvited, from Athens, announcing his intention to investigate further. His methods are unorthodox, & he brings his own mystery into the web of dark secrets & lies. Who has sent him, on whose authority is he acting, & how does he know of dramas played out decades ago? ...

After the critical & commercial success of her Orange Prize-shortlisted novel, Foreign Bodies (2012), Atlantic Books is proud to republish what is widely considered to be Cynthia Ozick`s masterpiece, The Messiah of Stockholm Lars Andeming, perhaps overly intellectual & certainly eccentric, is the Monday book reviewer for a Stockholm daily. He is also the self-proclaimed son of Bruno Schulz, a Polish writer who was executed by the Nazis before his last novel, The Messiah, could be published. When a manuscript of The Messiah mysteriously appears in Stockholm, in the possession of Schulz`s `daughter`, Lars`s circumscribed world of paper, apartment, & favorite bookstore turns upside down, catapulting him into a whirlwind of dream, magic, & illusion. ...

If you enjoy watching clouds & want to know more about cloud types & what they mean then this practical reference guide is for you. Beautifully illustrated with lovely images from the Met Office, this handy pocket-sized book provides you with all the information you need to identify different kinds of clouds & the kind of weather that may be on its way. Full of useful information, this book provides: quick reference pages for rapid identification; a cloud classification chart & a guide to the unique cloud identification system; clear informative explanations from weather experts; a simple, easy-to-understand progression from low clouds to high stratus clouds, as well as covering unusual cloud phenomena; a detailed introduction on the history of cloud classification & an introduction to the three principle cloud forms, with clear explanations of the atmospheric processes that create them. This is an invaluable companion for the casual cloud-spotter & for all those fascinated by the variety & beauty of clouds & cloud names. Take it with you on walks & have it handy in the garden so that you can enjoy sky-gazing every day. This book is the ideal daytime partner for our book on the night sky
- The Star Book by Peter Grego.
...

Ovid`s deliciously witty & exuberant epic starts with the creation of the world & brings together a series of ingeniously linked Greek & Roman myths & legends in which men & women are transformed, often by love
- into flowers, trees, stones & stars. This new verse translation, in simple & swift English hexameters, allows Ovid`s narrative to flow
- pulling the reader along with it.

...

Mia Holl lives in a state governed by The Method, where good health is the highest duty of the citizen. Everyone must submit medical data & sleep records to the authorities on a monthly basis, & regular exercise is mandatory. Mia is young & beautiful, a successful scientist who is outwardly obedient but with an intellect that marks her as subversive. Convinced that her brother has been wrongfully convicted of a terrible crime, Mia comes up against the full force of a regime determined to control every aspect of its citizens` lives. ...

After battling for justice, at great personal risk, in his first recorded case, Sergeant Caleb Cluff made a swift return to duty in this book. The story opens one wet & windy night, with the discovery of a young woman`s corpse, lying face down on the cobblestones of a passageway in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw. The deceased is Jane Trundle, an attractive girl who worked as an assistant in a chemist`s shop. She yearned for the good life, & Cluff finds more money in her handbag than she would have earned in wages. There are echoes of Sherlock Holmes (` You know my methods, Watson`) in the title, & in an exchange in the first chapter between Cluff & Superintendent Patterson, but Cluff is very much his own man. Little that goes on in & around the mean streets of Gunnarshaw escapes him. He is scornful of detectives who rely solely on supposed facts: ` More than facts were in question here, the intangible, invisible passions of human beings.` Understanding those passions leads him gradually towards the truth about Jane`s murder. ...

In 1974 The Metropolitan Critic started a new trend in cultural comment which has since become an orthodoxy. The young Clive James was the first journalist in London to talk about high culture & pop culture in the same all-consuming, sparkling style. Even at that early stage, the learning behind his literary high-wire act was formidable: a portent of the wide-ranging erudition that in subsequent years was to back up his four further volumes of critical prose & the television column that made him famous. An extra delight of this new edition is a set of newly-written self-critical footnotes which combine with a nostalgic introduction to evoke what literary London was like when the author, low on salary but high on hope, was making his spectacular start. ...