Fran Benedetto's husband beats her. What began as a trusting marriage is now shadowed by abuse & Fran escapes by disappearing with her young son. With the help of an underground support organisation for abused wives, Fran begins life afresh in Florida, gaining in confidence as she gradually realises that she has found a safe haven. However, a fairground accident draws Fran back into the spotlight, & her fears that her husband is pursuing her return. Tense, powerful, suspenseful, Anna Quindlen's new novel is exceptional in it's insight into love, marriage & pain. Exploring the bonds between mother & son & the delicate line between love & cruelty, Black & Blue is unputdownable & extraordinarily moving in its portrayal of a woman on the run from her own life. ...

Described on the title-page of the first edition as 'the autobiography of her horse, translated from the original equine', BLACK BEAUTY was Anna Sewell's only book, written when she fatally ill but determined to record her passopnate indignation at the insensitive behaviour of people towards animals. It has been loved by children ever since its first publication in 1877, just a few months before the death of its author, whose declared aim had been to 'induce kindness, sympathy & an understanding treatment of horses'. The illustrations by Lucy Kemp-Welch first apperared in 1915. ...

Next was break me to harness. First, a stiff heavy collar on my neck. Then there was a bridle with great side-pieces called blinkers against my eyes. Then there was a small saddle strap that went under my tail: that was the crapper. I hated it, it stopped me having a crap. I never felt more like kicking so I kicked him in the goolies & they swelled up like melons. He had to put the harness on me while balancing his balls with one hand & could only move very slowly. In time I got used to everything (and he got used to swollen balls) & I could do my work as well as my mother. I used to wash up after dinner. Yes, I was a very good horse. ...

A powerful & tragicomic blend of politics & personal destiny, Black Box records in a series of letters the wrecked marriage of Ilana & Alex. Seven years of silence following their bitter divorce is broken when Ilana writes to Alex for help over their wayward & illiterate son, Boaz, & old emotional scars are reopened. ...

' If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light, If I lose paper & ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world & bring them to you.'
Henry Rollins, renowned spoken-word performer, musician, actor & author of several books, has a unique, hard-edged view of the world. This collection of writings from 1989
- 1991 is the classic Rollins book.
From dramatic fiction shorts detailing stark, disturbing realities to gut-wrenching tour journals destroying all misconceptions of the glamour of fame & the music industry; from the challenging poetry to revealing dream sequences, Rollins' writing is unflinching in its honesty, uncompromising in its truth & irresistibly addictive.


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Born in pre-Revolutionary China & brought up in the Midlands, Esther Cheo Ying returned to China in 1949 after a traumatic childhood, convinced that there she would find the happiness & sense of belonging she longed for. Caught up in the turmoil of civil war & sympathetic to the Communist Revolution, she joined the Red Army & then stayed on to work in the new People's Republic. But despite her determination to make a new life in China could she truly be happy in a country which encouraged constant self criticism & viewed her as a 'false foreign devil'?

Black Country to Red China is an extraordinary account of life during & beyond the Cultural Revolution, but it is also a fascinating insight into the struggle to come to terms with your own identity.

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Born in pre-Revolutionary China & brought up in the Midlands, Esther Cheo Ying returned to China in 1949 after a traumatic childhood, convinced that there she would find the happiness & sense of belonging she longed for. Caught up in the turmoil of civil war & sympathetic to the Communist Revolution, she joined the Red Army & then stayed on to work in the new People's Republic. But despite her determination to make a new life in China could she truly be happy in a country which encouraged constant self criticism & viewed her as a 'false foreign devil'?

Black Country to Red China is an extraordinary account of life during & beyond the Cultural Revolution, but it is also a fascinating insight into the struggle to come to terms with your own identity.

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