I hear someone coming. It has happened before. I pause & listen but no longer hear anything. I sigh. As always, hope is snatched away before it can take root. & so then, as always, I am carried back to that first December so very long ago... Rooted in the elemental landscapes of Sussex, Brittany & the Languedoc, here are tales of ghosts & spirits seeking revenge, grief-stricken women & haunted men coming to terms with their destiny. ...

As the acknowledged ` Queen of Crime`, P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers & magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Four of the best of these have been drawn from the archives & published here. P. D. James` prose illuminates each of these perfectly formed stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. While she delights in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at family gatherings, her Christmas stories also provide tantalizing puzzles to keep the reader guessing. P. D. James embraces the challenge of the short-story form, & ingeniously weaves the strands of plot, setting, characterisation & surprise to create a satisfying whole within only a few thousand words. From the title story about a strained country-house party on Christmas Eve, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, & two cases for James` poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh, each treats the reader to James` masterfully atmospheric storytelling, always with the lure of a mystery to be solved. ...

P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers & magazines to write a short story for Christmas, & four of the best have been drawn from the archives & published here together for the first time. From the title story about a strained country-house Christmas party, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, plus two cases for detective Adam Dalgliesh, these are masterfully atmospheric stories by the acknowledged ` Queen of Crime`. ...

The year is 1930 & the British are in Arabia. Ivor Willoughby, a young Orientalist, embarks on an ambitious quest to find his father, an officer abroad with the British Army. In all of Ivor`s life, Robert has returned to England only once, bedraggled & wild-eyed with tales of As`ir, a land of Sheikhs & white-turbaned bandits, where he is fighting alongside Captain Lawrence & is known by the name ` Ullobi`. After that single meeting which left such a mark on his son, Robert is never heard from again. Ten years on, Ivor must find out what became of him. So he sets out on the journey of a lifetime. Travelling to Cairo to join the Locust Bureau, then circuitously to Abha, Yemen, & along the Red Sea coast, Ivor searches everywhere for clues about Ullobi, but no one appears to remember him. Or perhaps they are afraid to admit to it. Along the way Ivor hears whispers of a woman warrior called Na`ema who was once a slave. Her story seems tantalisingly connected with his father`s, & Ivor finds himself in the misty heights of Ayinah looking for an Abyssinian seer who was carried on the same slave ship as Na`ema in 1914 & might unlock the mystery. In this dazzling epic, William Newton brings to life Lawrence`s Arabia in fascinating & vivid detail. ” The Mistress of Abha” is a tale of Empire, of wild daring, of devastating love & an utterly surprising heroine. ...

From its dawn in the 1660s to its twilight in the 1960s, Cliveden was an emblem of elite misbehaviour & intrigue. Conceived by the Duke of Buckingham as a retreat for his scandalous affair with Anna-Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury, the house later served as the backdrop for the Profumo Affair, which would bring down a government & change the course of British history. In the three hundred years between the Countess & Christine Keeler, the house was occupied by a dynasty of remarkable women: Elizabeth Villiers, an intellectual who brokered the rise & fall of governments; Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, a minor German royal who almost became queen of England; Harriet Duchess of Sutherl&, the glittering society hostess turned political campaigner; & Nancy Astor, the consummate controversialist who became the first woman to take a seat in parliament. Under the direction of these women, Cliveden provided a stage for political plots & artistic premieres, hosted grieving monarchs & republican radicals, was idealised as a family home, & maligned as a threat to national security. The Mistresses of Cliveden is by turns a historical epic, a political thriller, a family drama, & an intimate history of the relationships between people & place. Above all, it is a story about sex & power, & the ways in which exceptional women have evaded, exploited, & confronted the expectations of their times. ...

The Misunderstanding is Irene Nemirovsky's first novel, written when she was just twenty-one & published in a literary journal two years later. An intense story of self-destructive & blighted love, it is also a tragic satire of French society after the Great War. Yves Harteloup, scarred by the war, is a disappointed young man, old money fallen on hard times, who returns for the summer to the rich, comfortable Atlantic resort of Hendaye, where he spent blissful childhood holidays. He becomes infatuated by a beautiful, bored young woman, Denise, whose rich husband is often away on business. Intoxicated by summer nights & Yves' intensity, Denise falls passionately in love, before the idyll has to end & Yves must return to his mundane office job. In the mournful Paris autumn their love founders on mutual misunderstanding, in the apparently unbridgeable gap between a life of idle wealth & the demands of making a living, between a woman's needs & a man's way of loving. As Denise is driven mad with desire & jealous suspicion, Yves, too sure of her, tortures himself & her with his emotional ambivalence. Taking her sophisticated mother's advice, Denise takes action.. .which she may regret forever. With a sharp satirical eye & a characteristic perception for the fault lines in human relationships, Irene Nemirovsky's first novel shows sure signs of the brilliant novelist she was to become. ...

THE MITFORD GIRLS tells the true story behind the gaiety & frivolity of the six Mitford daughters
- & the facts are as sensational
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Mix drinks like a pro with this indispensible collection of 150 of the world`s finest cocktails, all of which can be made from the comfort of your own mixing lab: your kitchen. Dan Jones shares recipes for classic tipples such as the Margarita & Martini to the more modern Thank God it`s Friday & Morning After, in the ultimate format for usefulness
- the manual. Starting with ` Basic Tools`, Dan covers the fundamental kit required to make your moonshine
- the shaker, glassware, bottle opener, spirits & mixers, manly patience & know-how. He then moves on to signature drinks, social occasions, quirky ingredients & designer ice
- no element of the cocktail goes unturned. With a stylish vintage design & illustrations throughout, Mixers Manual is witty & informative, set to become a classic.


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Whether you re looking for mocktail recipes, trying a juice detox, or after a warming winter drink, ” The Mocktail Manual” has a recipe for you. This stylishly illustrated book shares over eighty recipes for nonalcoholic drinks that will quench your thirst in the most satisfying of ways. From healthy juices & smoothies to indulgent milk shakes & fizzes, ” The Mocktail Manual” will take your drinks repertoire to new heights. Start your morning with an energizing green goddess juice or a satisfying cacao, matcha, & banana smoothie. If you ve suffered one hangover too many over the festive period, swap your tipple for a delicious hibiscus mimosa. Or if you want a warm hug in a mug, look no further than the marshmallow milk. With a quirky design & fun recipes, The Mocktail Manual will revolutionize the way you fix your drinks.” ...

”A masterly work of profound research & reflection, objective & humane”. (Hugh Trevor-Roper, Sunday Telegraph). What would have happened if the Nazis had invaded Britain? How would the British people have responded
- with resistance or collaboration? In Madeleine Bunting`s pioneering study, we begin to find the answers to this age-old question. Though rarely remembered today, the Nazis occupied the British Channel Islands for much of the Second World War. In piecing together the fragments left behind
- from the love affairs between island women & German soldiers, the betrayals & black marketeering, to the individual acts of resistance
- Madeleine Bunting has brought this uncomfortable episode of British history into full view with spellbinding clarity.


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