The Honourable Christopher Fancot, on leave from the diplomatic service in the summer of 1817, is startled to find his entrancing but incorrigibly extravagant mother on the brink of financial & social ruin
- & more than alarmed to find that his twin, Evelyn, has disappeared without trace. Christopher
- Kit
- is forced into an outrageous masquerade by the tangled affairs of his wayward family: his rigid uncle, Lord Brumby, the surprisingly wily Sir Bonamy Ripple, the formidable old Lady Stavely & Evelyn's betrothed, Cressy. But in the face of Evelyn's continues absence, Kit's ingenuity is stretched to the limit.. .


...

Teasing out the extraordinary within the everyday, FALSE PRETENCES is a contemporary novel in mosiac. Through the separate yet interlinked stories, it traces the lives of two women as they deal with the complexities of love, private terrors, violence &
- most precarious of all
- hope. There is mystery, wry humour, sometimes tragedy beneath the jaunty surfaces glimpsed through the years, until, by the end, we have encompassed their lives.

...

Teasing out the extraordinary within the everyday, False Pretences is a contemporary novel in mosaic. Through the separate yet interlinked stories, it traces the lives of two women as they deal with the complexities of love, private terrors, violence &
- most precarious of all
- hope. There is mystery, wry humour, sometimes tragedy be-neath the jaunty surfaces glimpsed through the years, until, by the end, we have encompassed their lives.

...

WHAT DOES BIG BROTHER TELL US ABOUT ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY?



WHAT DOES THE FATE OF ACHILLES SAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF AYRTON



...

What makes a family happy? Why do some marriages 'succeed' & others 'fail'. How can we free ourselves from the legacy of past mistakes & bring about positive change? Love, sex & marriage & parenthood, depression & sadness, independence & experience are just a few of the many issues explored in coversation by family therapist Robin Skynner & his former patient & comedian, John Cleese. Guiding us through the daily issues that confront us all, FAMILIES & HOW TO SURVIVE THEM offers vital advice in helping each of us to maintain a happy, healthy family life. Looking candidly at everything from our relationships with our parents to why & how we choose our partners, no emotional stone is left unturned: jealousy, rage, fear, envy, love, obsession, hope & despair
- all are featured-with practical advice on how to turn round a negative situation & bring about change for the better.
...

In 2001, Michael Sanders spent a year abroad creating an eloquent portrait of rural French life, a story he told through the seasons of a local restaurant & its patrons, the critically-acclaimed FROM HERE YOU CAN'T SEE PARIS. After spending some time back in the States, Sanders decided to return to southern France to complete his journey. This time he decided to focus on the regional wines.

FAMILIES OF THE VINE invites the reader into the working lives of three families whose sole crop is the grapes grown in their vineyards, grapes from which they all make very good, yet quite different, wine, as they have been doing for more than four generations. FAMILIES OF THE VINE loosely follows them throughout the winemaking year, from the hopes of spring, through the drama of a summer drought & heat wave, to the mad dash of fall harvest, & then into the wine barns heady with the smells of fermentation & the reek of aging barrels.

Rich with the history & tradition of French winemaking, FAMILIES OF THE VINE is told through the voices of winemakers & their friends, from a barrelmaker in Bordeaux to a sommelier in a one-star restaurant. Whether puzzling over the maddeningly imprecise French concept of terroir or taking a gentle swipe at the 'science' of wine tasting, Michael Sanders has an engaging writing style that will appeal to amateur & enthusiast alike.



...

At every lecture & workshop she has given in recent years, Debbie Bliss has been asked why her stunning childrens` knitwear ...

The 1950s are in full swing, & the Adams family is blessed with many new additions. Chinese Lady now has so many grandchildren that even she can sometimes scarcely remember them all. Boots & Sammy are kept up-to-date by the Adams youngsters, some of whom are now working in the family business. But they also welcome newcomers, including the lovely Anneliese, whose German ancestry makes her less than popular with some of her South London neighbours, & Joe & Hortense, newly arrived from the West Indies & working very hard for Matt & Rosie on their farm in Kent.

Sammy, meanwhile, has trouble with the newly-formed trade union at his factory, & the shadows of the war continue to haunt the family when Felicity

...

Mr Ahuja, Minister of Urban Development, is beset by problems: thirteen children & another on the way, not to mention the daily struggles over whether to resign for the sixty-third time; his wife, Sangita, adrift on a sea of knitting & nappies, is mourning the loss of her favourite TV soap star; son Rishi drives everyone mad with his serial apologies; & finally there's Arjun, the oldest & perhaps the wisest of the sprawling, noisy crew.

For once, though, Arjun is confounded: how to tell the girl on the school bus that he's crazy about her? (Serenading her with cover versions of Bryan Adams' greatest hits perhaps isn't the answer.) & Arjun's father must not only confront the roots of his strange & disturbing marriage but do so in the troubled landscape of modern-day New Delhi that he himself has built. Following father & son as they blunder their way over & under the flyovers of the megalopolis, Karan Mahajan brilliantly juggles the cultural & political worlds of India's capital city to create a moving

...