In a renovated Italian palace set above the blue of the sea, the Junoesque figure of Mrs Aldwinkle moves among her guests. These include a poet who earns his living editing The Rabbit Fancier's Gazette; a popular novelist who records every detail of her affair with another guest as future literary material; an aging philosopher who pursues a wealthy yet mentally-disabled heiress & a pair of na-ve & charming young lovers. Deliciously satirical, Those Barren Leaves bites the hands of those who dare to posture or feign sophistication & is as comically fresh today as when it was first published. ...

In a renovated Italian palace set above the blue of the sea, the Junoesque figure of Mrs Aldwinkle moves among her guests. These include a poet who earns his living editing The Rabbit Fancier's Gazette; a popular novelist who records every detail of her affair with another guest as future literary material; an aging philosopher who pursues a wealthy yet mentally-disabled heiress & a pair of na-ve & charming young lovers. Deliciously satirical, Those Barren Leaves bites the hands of those who dare to posture or feign sophistication & is as comically fresh today as when it was first published. ...

In 1940, as the shadows are lengthening over Europe, painter Louis Duval decides to leave his studio in Brittany &, in his small motor boat, make the short but perilous journey to Engl&. His aim is not to flee from the enemy, but to join the Resistance to fight for his beloved France. He arrives in Dartmouth & finds his way to the boarding house run by the delightful young widow Barbara Hillyard, who is trying to make a living for herself & her young evacuee Esme.

Lieutenant-Commander Alan Powell, unfit for active service after being wounded in action, is overseeing undercover operations in that part of the West Country, & he & Duval find themselves in dangerous circumstances. Alan, lonely & frustrated in his work, is drawn towards the lovely Mrs Hillyard, but she seems to have eyes only for the attractive Frenchman

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In 1940, as the shadows are lengthening over Europe, painter Louis Duval decides to leave his studio in Brittany &, in his small motor boat, make the short but perilous journey to Engl&. His aim is not to flee from the enemy, but to join the Resistance to fight for his beloved France. He arrives in Dartmouth & finds his way to the boarding house run by the delightful young widow Barbara Hillyard, who is trying to make a living for herself & her young evacuee Esme.

Lieutenant-Commander Alan Powell, unfit for active service after being wounded in action, is overseeing undercover operations in that part of the West Country, & he & Duval find themselves in dangerous circumstances. Alan, lonely & frustrated in his work, is drawn towards the lovely Mrs Hillyard, but she seems to have eyes only for the attractive Frenchman

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The autobiography of Britain's greatest living composer is as idiosyncratic as the man himself, revealing his insatiable curiosity about people & places, ideas & sensations, & music of every kind. Vigorous, brave, funny, candid about his sexual & emotional life, Sir Michael has written a remarkable, memorable book. ...

Karolina Lanckoronska was an aristocrat & art historian who taught at the University of Lwow, then part of Pol&. When the Soviets came to occupy Lwow, Lanckoronska became active in the Polish resistance & moved to Krakow. She was arrested by the Germans in Kolomyya in 1942, imprisoned & later sentenced to death; incarcerated first in Stanislau, then in Lwow & Berlin before being placed in the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp for women.

As a countess, Lanckoronska was subjected to varying treatment, suffering near starvation at times only to receive extra food & medical care at others according to the fluctuating & often conflicting orders from the authorities in Berlin. With the intervention of some influential friends & the honourable actions of one Nazi, she was saved from death on several occasions. Thanks to efforts by the Swiss diplomat, scholar & International Red Cross President Carl J. Burckhardt (whose correspondence with Heinrich Himmler was found among Lanckoronska's personal belongings) she was finally released in April, 1945.

Throughout her imprisonment, Lanckoronska remained defiantly resilient, loyal to Poland & committed to her fellow prisoners, including women used by Nazi doctors as guinea pigs for horrific medical experiments. Her magnetic personality & superb story-telling makes this a powerful narrative & sustains our interest through harrowing reading. Her ability to view her own horrific
situation with objectivity gives us insight into the motives & behaviour of the Soviets & the Germans not simply as oppressors, but as human beings. Hers is an extraordinary story of courage & will.




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Perhaps no trial changed the course of history as much as one that took place in London in 1772: the case of James Somerset, a black man rescued from a ship bound for the West Indies slave markets. At this landmark trial, two encompassing worldviews clashed in an event of passionate drama & far-reaching significance. Now the noted legal historian Steven M. Wise recreates each exciting moment of the case that slave owners contended would do nothing less than bring the economy of the British Empire to a crashing halt.

In a gripping narrative of Somerset

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Charles Handy may well be Britain's only world-class management guru (Director Magazine) but his thoughts about organisations & the role of the individual involve thoughts beyond pay & display. For five years, Handy delivered a series of Thoughts for the Radio 4 Today Programme which addressed spiritual issues. These were collected in a volume called Waiting for the Mountain to Move, originally published in 1991. The distilled essence of Handy's meditations & advice are published now in a new, small Little Book of Calm format, in two colours & with b&w illustrations. ' My concern is only to point to what I see as the meaning in things & to the ultimate purpose in life in order to encourage other people to find their meaning & their purpose' Charles Handy ...

There was no end to building the bridge until a mason was bricked up in it as propitiatory sacrifice. Only the monk Gjon, the 14th-century chronicler, could say when the bridge was begun & in what circumstances, & indeed what for
- it cannot have been merely to put the ferrymen out of business. & was it to carry troops to the defence of the nations against the invading Turks, or as an escape-route when the armies were overthrown by the invaders? The monk discloses the story layer by layer, the story not only of the building of a bridge but of the intrigues, brutality & superstition that attended the laying of each stone.
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On a hillside near the cosy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gather around their beloved shepherd George, who lies murdered, his body pinned to the pasture with a spade.

Fortunately, George has left behind an unusually intelligent group of sheep. Every night since they were lambs, he has read aloud to them

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