I am drowning in this roaring silence. I am drowning. I'm going to die... Cameron is thirteen & desperately in need of a heart transplant when a pioneering doctor approaches his family with a startling proposal. He can give Cameron a new heart
- but not one from a human, one from a pig. It's never been done before. It's experimental, risky & very controversial. But Cameron is fed up with just sitting on the side of life, always watching & never doing. He has to try
- to become the world's first pig-heart boy.

...

Reunited for the summer, the Swallows & Amazons with Dick & Dorothea launch a prospecting expedition to find the lost gold mine of the high hills above the lake. But the mining camp runs into all sorts of trouble: not only the danger of fire in the drought ridden countryside but also scary encounters with unsafe tunnels. Worst of all is the sinister Squashy Hat, who appears to be a rival prospector & who's certainly a spy
- how can they keep working without him discovering what they've found?
...

A Blandings novel

Can the Empress of Blandings win the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Show for the third year running?

...

A Blandings novel

Can the Empress of Blandings win the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Show for the third year running?

...

Although very little is known for certain about Pontius Pilate, the man who crucified Christ, this has not stopped writers in every age from imagining his life. In this extraordinary book, Ann Wroe recounts the lives of all our Pilates; among them the glittering medieval tyrant, devoted to gambling & getting around the law, & the wriggling modern pragmatist, whose dilemma over Jesus has been described by Tony Blair as 'a timeless parable of political life'. This is also the story of the man Pilate might have been; & the man who mirrors us. Ann Wroe shows how, in his struggles with fate & free will, Pilate's story has also become the story of ourselves. ---' The sheer skill of the writing-the touch of a master novelist-Few have ever explored so imaginatively, or with such passionate attention to detail' Sunday Telegraph--' Extraordinary & compelling' Victoria Glendinning, Daily Telegraph --' She manages always to keep Pilate living & breathing in the text, & occasionally kicking & screaming' Independent on Sunday--' Wroe is a creative, even a beautiful writer-It is a wonderfully enjoyable, rich, generous book' A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail--' Because so little s known, it is possible to speculate endlessly. If one's mind is a brilliant engine of speculation like Wroe's, then one is dazzlingly equipped to do so. Her book is excellent & discloses an intense imaginative sympathy, a lyricism, & a fine-tuned psychological perception' Daily Express ...

Although very little is known for certain about Pontius Pilate, the man who crucified Christ, this has not stopped writers in every age from imagining his life. In this extraordinary book, Ann Wroe recounts the lives of all our Pilates; among them the glittering medieval tyrant, devoted to gambling & getting around the law, & the wriggling modern pragmatist, whose dilemma over Jesus has been described by Tony Blair as 'a timeless parable of political life'. This is also the story of the man Pilate might have been; & the man who mirrors us. Ann Wroe shows how, in his struggles with fate & free will, Pilate's story has also become the story of ourselves. ---' The sheer skill of the writing-the touch of a master novelist-Few have ever explored so imaginatively, or with such passionate attention to detail' Sunday Telegraph--' Extraordinary & compelling' Victoria Glendinning, Daily Telegraph --' She manages always to keep Pilate living & breathing in the text, & occasionally kicking & screaming' Independent on Sunday--' Wroe is a creative, even a beautiful writer-It is a wonderfully enjoyable, rich, generous book' A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail--' Because so little s known, it is possible to speculate endlessly. If one's mind is a brilliant engine of speculation like Wroe's, then one is dazzlingly equipped to do so. Her book is excellent & discloses an intense imaginative sympathy, a lyricism, & a fine-tuned psychological perception' Daily Express ...

It was Autumn when Paul Mc Dermott stood on the doorstep of a house that would exert a pull on him years after he closed the door for the final time. He was nervous, & totally unprepared to meet the woman he had agreed to visit. Val lived in this house, in a small military town; she was 74 & had been diagnosed with cancer. Though bewildered & frightened underneath, she appeared simply as a small, wrinkled, elderly woman with a mischievous awareness & a penetrating stare.

So began Paul's series of regular visits to Val over a number of years. As he sat & listened to her talk in her front lounge, or struggled ineptly with the tasks she set him, Val opened up her world: the secrets & memories & lessons of her life that were soon to be extinguished & perhaps forgotten. Gradually, as she came to terms with her past
- & also with her future
- she took on an effortless clarity & peace that brought her into a supremely human focus. &, at the same time, Paul's own perceptions were challenged in a way he would never have believed when he first arrived at her door. Somehow they created something profound & very precious between them.

Full of a surprising warmth, mixed with courage & humour, this remarkable story is deeply life-affirming, not only for the two central characters on their parallel journey
- but also for us all.






...

When Natasha moves to a new house, she discovers a statue of a fairy in her garden beneath a huge menacing fir tree, which Natasha is sure is a witch. Gradually, with the help of a local boy, she unravels an ancient story that fairies stole the witch ...