THE ULTIMATE SCOTTISH CYCLING BOOK is the first to deal with cycle-touring in Scotland in such a comprehensive manner. Much more than just a set of directions, the author's own experience on each route is described in an entertaining narrative, & detailed maps are featured to allow readers to follow the routes for themselves. The best way to see any country is to travel slowly & without pressure. Freed from the stresses of timetables & connections or concentration needed for driving, cycle touring allows just that. The unique commentary accompanying every route in this book will inspire readers to set off & get to know Scotland both on & off the beaten track. Through following any of these routes, cyclists will encouter events & places that have played an important but lesser-known role in the bigger Scottish picture. The routes take in everything one would expect from a holiday in Scotland but reveal unexpected little-known gems in addition. The time has never been better to go out & cycle. SUSTRANS have filled in crucial gaps in the quiet roads with dedicated cycle paths & the awareness amongst the tourist industry of the needs of cyclists has never been higher. After reading this book, there will be nothing blocking the way of an unforgettable, fulfilling trip. Every aspect of travelling with a bike is covered & each route is carefully constructed to make the cyclist feel safe & remove the need for expensive & inconvenient car hire. THE ULTIMATE SCOTTISH CYCLING GUIDE features nine of the best routes that cyclists of any level will find possible & enjoyable. The tours included are not about putting miles on the clock but about genuine experiences & taking everything in at your own pace. ...

Time is short in the working day & it is difficult to find time at the end of it to produce a hot meal. With a slow cooker, you can be eating a nutritious & thrifty hot supper every evening, with minimal effort & preparation time.

This must-have guide is an invaluable companion to your slow cooker, with delicious recipes for every occasion

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The Ultimate Stress Buster is a six-point plan to overcome the damaging effects of stress.--Recognise the signs--identify the causes of stress--plan a nutritious diet--take exercise & learn to relax--export alternative therapies--discover how to organise your life more efficiently With quick-fix solutions & long-term strategies this is a highly practical approach to the problem of stress. ...

John Emmerson was a lonely man. He had a wife, a son, friends, but he was isolated from all the people & events about him by the tragedy of his past. Then he met Cissie, & for the first time his loneliness eased a little.

Cissie was everything his wife Ann was not. She was warm, & compassionate, & generous. & she was quick to sense the needs of a desolate, unhappy man.

But Cissie was also a young widow: poor, & with a young son to support. & John Emmerson was one of the town's leading solicitors
- a man of importance whose every move was watched by the local dignitaries...




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The Unblemished artfully interweaves the stories of a serial killer who believes he is the rightful son & heir to an ancient ...

We all know that things go wrong: wine stains, toast burns, computers crash. But how many of us pause to think why these accidents happen? Undercover Scientist Peter Bentley is fascinated by the science of the everyday, & in this eye-opening book, organised in the form of one of those days when everything falls apart, he probes into the reasons why mishaps occur, from sleeping through the alarm to making the bathwater overflow. As he does so he explains exactly what happens when you put metal in a microwave (the electric field inside the oven causes it to heat up like a lightbulb filament) & why getting the juice from chilli peppers in your eye is so painful (they contain a chemical that fools your nerve-endings into behaving as though they've been burnt). & from there he goes on to show how these simple events form part of a pattern of scientific principles that govern everything around us. If you want to find out how a diesel engine is able to run on chip fat or why lightning actually does strike the same place twice, The Undercover Scientist has all the answers. ...

Like all poets, inspired by death, Lynch is, unlike others, also hired to bury the dead or cremate them & to tend to their families in a small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director. In the conduct of these duties he has kept his eyes open, his ears tuned to the indispensable vernaculars of love & grief. In these twelve essays is the voice of both witness & functionary. Lynch stands between 'the living & the living who have dies' with the same outrage & amazement, straining for the same glimpse we all get of what mortality means to a vital species. So here is homage to parents who have died & to children who shouldn't have. Here are golfers tripping over grave-markers, gourmands & hypochondriacs, lovers & suicides. These are essays of rare elegance & grace, full of fierce compassion & rich in humour & humanity
- lessons taught to the living by the dead.
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In The Underworld Captain, Alexander Shannon reveals how he escaped his shady gangland past to enjoy a glittering career ...