Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, herding reindeer across the tundra with Lapps & shadowing the Trans-Alaskan pipeline with truckers, Sara Wheeler discovers a compex & ambiguous land belonging both to ancient myth & modern controvery. The Magnetic North is a spicy confection of history, science & reflection in which Wheeler meditates on the role of the Arctic: fragmented lands which fed imaginations long before the scientists & oilmen showed up (not to mention desperado explorers who ate their own shoes). The Magnetic North tells of all this, plus gulag ghosts, old & new Russia, colliding cultures & bioaccumulated toxins in polar bears. ...

Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, herding reindeer across the tundra with Lapps & shadowing the Trans-Alaskan pipeline with truckers, Sara Wheeler uncovers the beautiful, brutal reality of the Arctic.

When she puts up her tent on the top of the Greenland ice sheet, she experiences climate change at the sharp (and cold) end. The Magnetic North is a spicy confection of history, science & reflection in which Wheeler meditates on the role of the Arctic in public & in private. The fragmented circumpolar lands were a repository of myth long before the scientists & oilmen showed up (not to mention desperado explorers who ate their own shoes), & the hinterland north of the tree line has fed literary imaginations from Dickens to Chekhov. The Magnetic North tells of all this, plus gulag ghosts, old & new Russia, colliding cultures & bioaccumulated toxins in polar bears.

The unowned homogeneity of the Antarctic that enchanted the youthful author in the bestselling Terra Incognita finally finds a counterpart in the embattled polar lands at the other end of the earth. The complex & ambiguous Arctic, Wheeler writes,



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Six lively spreads simplifying the seemingly complicated laws & language of music. Children start to make music from a very early age, so by the time they are 6 or 7 they are ready to grapple with notation. In fact the reader of this book can open it with no knowledge of musical notation & close it with a real understanding of music on the page. An entertaining & absorbing read with ingenious pop-ups & moving parts. This book will launch you into a musical world. ...

On a remote Greek Isl&, Nicholas Urfe finds himself embroiled in the deceptions of a master trickster. As reality & illusion intertwine, Urfe is caught up in the darkest of psychological games. John Fowles expertly unfolds a tale that is lush with over-powering imagery in a spellbinding exploration of human complexities. By turns disturbing, thrilling & seductive, The Magus is a feast for the mind & the senses. ...

Katie Nicholl, Royal Correspondent for the Mail on Sunday, has been at the centre of royal reporting since she joined the ...

One day, out of the blue, Henry Nagel inherits a sumptuous apartment in St John's Wood. Divine intervention? Or his late father's love nest? Henry doesn't know, but he is glad to escape the North. After nearly sixty years of angry disappointment, Henry's life is about to change. Not that the ghosts of Henry's past are prepared to disappear without a struggle
- his old school-friend & rival Osmond ' Hovis' Belkin, currently enjoying success in Hollywood, his tragic great aunt Marghanita for whom Henry once entertained a dangerous passion, & his father Izzi, upholsterer turned illusionist, fire-eater & origamist, whose shade Henry interrogates relentlessly. But the present clamours as loudly as the past. His dyspeptic neighbour Lachlan wants his sympathy, Lachlan's sloppy red setter, Angus, wants a walk, & Moira, the waitress with the crooked smile & custard hair, seems to want him. Kicking & screaming every inch of the way, Henry realises he might finally be falling in love.
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One day, out of the blue, Henry Nagel receives a solicitor's letter telling him he has inherited a sumptuous apartment in St John's Wood. Divine intervention? Or his late father's love nest? Henry doesn't know, but he is glad to escape the North, where there is nothing & no one to keep him.

After nearly sixty years of angry disappointment, Henry's life is about to change. Not that the ghosts of Henry's past are prepared to disappear without a struggle
- his old school-friend & rival Osmond ' Hovis' Belkin, currently enjoying a spectacularly successful career in Hollywood, his tragic great aunt Marghanita for whom Henry once entertained a dangerous passion, & his father Izzi Nagel, upholsterer turned illusionist, fire-eater & origamist, whose shade Henry interrogates relentlessly.

But the present clamours as loudly as the past. His dyspeptic neighbour Lachlan wants his sympathy, Lachlan's sloppy red setter, Angus, wants a walk, & Moira, the waitress with the crooked smile & custard hair who serves him cake & cappuccino, seems to want him. Kicking & screaming every inch of the way, Henry realises he might finally be falling in love. Will love be the making of Henry? Or will walking his neighbour's dog?

Tender, funny & beautifully told, The Making of Henry is Howard Jacobson's richest novel to date. The writing makes you gasp with pleasure, the story builds effortlessly to its crescendo of revelations, & above all, it adds a new warmth to his reputation as the most exhilaratingly intelligent of contemporary novelists.






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One day, out of the blue, Henry Nagel inherits a sumptuous apartment in St John's Wood. Divine intervention? Or his late father's love nest? Henry doesn't know, but he is glad to escape the North. After nearly sixty years of angry disappointment, Henry's life is about to change. Not that the ghosts of Henry's past are prepared to disappear without a struggle
- his old school-friend & rival Osmond ' Hovis' Belkin, currently enjoying success in Hollywood, his tragic great aunt Marghanita for whom Henry once entertained a dangerous passion, & his father Izzi, upholsterer turned illusionist, fire-eater & origamist, whose shade Henry interrogates relentlessly. But the present clamours as loudly as the past. His dyspeptic neighbour Lachlan wants his sympathy, Lachlan's sloppy red setter, Angus, wants a walk, & Moira, the waitress with the crooked smile & custard hair, seems to want him. Kicking & screaming every inch of the way, Henry realises he might finally be falling in love.
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Steven Rose's The Making of Memory is about just that, in both its senses:the biological processes by which we humans
- & other
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