Scotland has a rich prehistory stretching from Neolithic times through the Bronze & Iron Ages. She has islands from the magnificent Orkneys & Shetlands to the Outer Hebrides & the Uists, the Isle of Skye & the Inner Hebrides. Each one is renowned for its ancient sanctity. Scotland was home to many different cultures including the Norse, Picts & Celts. She has a particularly unique & stunning landscape with her holy mountains, spectacular lochs & sacred trees. The Highlands with their Pictish settlements & carved standing stones offer yet another kind of awe-inspiring beauty. Fairy folklore, poets & bards, Arthurian & Merlin related sites, Celtic Christian foundations & their Saints are all to be found in this l&. This book not only takes the reader on a magical journey into Scotland`s historical, cultural, literary & spiritual past, but also offers directions to all the areas regarded by Scots themselves as of special importance, what they mean & why. ...

From the foggy streets of Victorian London to the eerie perfection of 1950s suburbia, the everyday is invaded by the evil otherworldly in this unforgettable collection of new ghost stories from the author of The Woman in Black. In the title story, on a murky evening in a warmly lit club off St James, a bishop listens closely as a paranormal detective recounts his most memorable case, one whose horrifying denouement took place in that very building. In ` The Front Room`, a devoutly Christian mother tries to protect her children from the evil influence of their grandmother, both when she is alive & when she is dead. A lonely boy finds a friend in ` Boy Number 21`, but years later he is forced to question the nature of that friendship, & to ask whether ghosts can perish in fires. This is Susan Hill at her best, telling characteristically flesh-creeping & startling tales of thwarted ambition, terrifying revenge & supernatural stirrings that will leave readers wide-awake long into the night. ...

From the foggy streets of Victorian London to the eerie perfection of 1950s suburbia, the everyday is invaded by the otherworldly in this unforgettable collection of new ghost stories from the bestselling author of The Woman in Black. In the title story, on a murky evening in a club off St James, a paranormal detective recounts his most memorable case, one whose horrifying denouement took place in that very building. A lonely boy makes a friend in ` Boy Number 21`, but years later is forced to question the very nature of that friendship. ` Alice Baker` tells the story of a mysterious new office worker who is accompanied by a lingering smell of decay. & in ` The Front Room`, a devoutly Christian mother tries to protect her children from the evil influence of their grandmother, both when she is alive & afterwards. This paperback edition

Includes:: the chilling ` Printer`s Devil Court` in which three medical students make an unholy pact whose consequences will pursue one of them to the grave
- & perhaps beyond. This is Susan Hill at her best, telling characteristically creepy & surprising tales of thwarted ambition, terrifying revenge & supernatural stirrings that will leave you wide-awake long into the night.


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Nana is on a road trip, but he is not sure where he is going. All that matters is that he can sit beside his beloved owner Satoru in the front seat of his silver van. Satoru is keen to visit three old friends from his youth, though Nana doesn’t know why & Satoru won’t say. Set against the backdrop of Japan’s changing seasons & narrated with a rare gentleness & humour, Nana’s story explores the wonder & thrill of life’s unexpected detours. It is about the value of friendship & solitude, & knowing when to give & when to take. TRAVELLING CAT has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of kindness & truth. It shows, above all, how acts of love, both great & small, can transform our lives. ...

It`s not the journey that counts, but who`s at your side. Nana is on a road trip, but he is not sure where he is going. All that matters is that he can sit beside his beloved owner Satoru in the front seat of his silver van. Satoru is keen to visit three old friends from his youth, though Nana doesn’t know why & Satoru won’t say. Set against the backdrop of Japan’s changing seasons & narrated with a rare gentleness & humour, Nana’s story explores the wonder & thrill of life’s unexpected detours. It is about the value of friendship & solitude, & knowing when to give & when to take. TRAVELLING CAT has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of kindness & truth. It shows, above all, how acts of love, both great & small, can transform our lives. ...

For recent college graduate Ronald Hastie, a job at the legendary Shakespeare & Company bookshop offers the perfect occupation during a summer abroad in Paris. Working part-time in exchange for room & board leaves plenty of freedom to explore the city once visited by his literary hero, Robert Louis Stevenson, & things only get better when he meets a collector who claims to have the original manuscripts of both the first draft of Jekyll & Hyde & the never-published The Travelling Companion (both thought to have been destroyed). Then Ron meets the man`s mysterious assistant, & a reckless obsession stirs inside him. As the life he knew back home in Scotland fades from memory, he desperately seeks the secret lying within Stevenson`s long-lost pages... ...

Jonathan Cranston is no ordinary vet. In addition to his day job in the Gloucestershire countryside treating cows, dogs, pigs & cats, he`s also worked with an astonishing range of species around the world, including crocodiles, rhinos & pandas. In this charming collection he introduces us to some of his favourite patients, ranging from beloved family pets through to magnificent creatures of the wild. Whether microchipping armadillos, anaesthetising giraffes or birthing a calf, Jonathan`s love for his work & the entire animal kingdom is infectious. From the preposterous (castrating a sugar glider) to the poignant (encountering victims of rhino poaching), the stories in The Travelling Vet will delight & enthral every animal lover. ...

This is a sparkling new translation of one of the greatest travel books ever written: Marco Polo`s seminal account of his journeys in the east, in a collectible clothbound edition. Marco Polo was the most famous traveller of his time. His voyages began in 1271 with a visit to China, after which he served the Kublai Khan on numerous diplomatic missions. On his return to the West he was made a prisoner of war & met Rustichello of Pisa, with whom he collaborated on this book. His account of his travels offers a fascinating glimpse of what he encountered abroad: unfamiliar religions, customs & societies; the spices & silks of the East; the precious gems, exotic vegetation & wild beasts of faraway lands. Evoking a remote & long-vanished world with colour & immediacy, Marco`s book revolutionized western ideas about the then unknown East & is still one of the greatest travel accounts of all time. For this edition
- the first completely new English translation of the Travels in over fifty years
- Nigel Cliff has gone back to the original manuscript sources to produce a fresh, authoritative new version. The volume also contains invaluable editorial materials, including an introduction describing the world as it stood on the eve of Polo`s departure, & examining the fantastical notions the West had developed of the East. Marco Polo was born in 1254, joining his father on a journey to China in 1271. He spent the next twenty years travelling in the service of Kublai Khan. There is evidence that Marco travelled extensively in the Mongol Empire & it is fairly certain he visited India. He wrote his famous Travels whilst a prisoner in Genoa. Nigel Cliff was previously a theatre & film critic for The Times & a regular writer for The Economist, among other publications, & now writes historical nonfiction books. His first book, The Shakespeare Riots, was published in 2007 & shortlisted for the Washington-based National Award for Arts Writing. His second book, The Last Crusade: Vasco da Gama & the Birth of the Modern World appeared in 2011 & was shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize.

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This is a sparkling new translation of one of the greatest travel books ever written: Marco Polo`s seminal account of his journeys in the east. Marco Polo was the most famous traveller of his time. His voyages began in 1271 with a visit to China, after which he served the Kublai Khan on numerous diplomatic missions. On his return to the West he was made a prisoner of war & met Rustichello of Pisa, with whom he collaborated on this book. His account of his travels offers a fascinating glimpse of what he encountered abroad: unfamiliar religions, customs & societies; the spices & silks of the East; the precious gems, exotic vegetation & wild beasts of faraway lands. Evoking a remote & long-vanished world with colour & immediacy, Marco`s book revolutionized western ideas about the then unknown East & is still one of the greatest travel accounts of all time. For this edition
- the first completely new English translation of the Travels in over fifty years
- Nigel Cliff has gone back to the original manuscript sources to produce a fresh, authoritative new version. The volume also contains invaluable editorial materials, including an introduction describing the world as it stood on the eve of Polo`s departure, & examining the fantastical notions the West had developed of the East.

...

He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling instead through more than forty countries on the modern map, covering seventy-five thousand miles & getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China & as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, & comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian & occasional botanist & gastronome. With this edition by Mackintosh-Smith, ” Battuta`s Travels” takes its place alongside other indestructible masterpieces of the travel-writing genre. ...