In the early hours of an August morning a gunfight broke out in an Italian restaurant in Duisburg; in less than five minutes over seventy shots were fired into the bodies of six men. Both victims & assassins were members of the ` Ndrangheta crime organization; Calabria`s Mafia had extended the savage tentacle of its influence outside Italy for the first time. For the men of the ` Ndrangheta, time is still measured in hour-glasses & honour may only be washed with blood. Petra Reski dispels the Hollywood romance surrounding the Mafia to reveal the huge & menacing force lurking everywhere
- from street corner to parliament offices, construction site to corporate headquarters
- & involved in everything from petty extortion to the disposal of nuclear waste. Reski`s searing portrait of the criminals who have come to control not only Italy but vast swathes of Europe, is a journalistic tour de force.

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A chance meeting has New Zealand writer Laszlo Winter thinking back to his time in London in the late 1950s. The Empire might be in a state of collapse, but for young `colonials`, England remains a mythical place that draws them from the farthest corners of the globe. There was Australian Samantha Conlan, clever, desirable, hopelessly in love with married Jewish New Zealander Freddy Goldstein, who carried with him a dark history. Rajiv, an earnest young Indian at work on a study of Yeats & the Indian mind. The enigmatic Margot, whose bond with her athletic brother Mark troubled Laszlo in ways he didn`t quite underst&. Heather, the call girl with whom Laszlo exchanged lessons on Shakespeare for lessons in love. The great writers of the time, & the details of their lives are recorded by Samantha in her idiosyncratic research project that she named her Secret History of Modernism. There was all of that & more, & then there was Laszlo, knocking blindly about among them, despairing at his academic prospects, & gradually realising that he was, would only ever be, a storyteller. Now, years later, from the other side of the world, the people seem to spring to life again, in this beguiling work by one of New Zealand`s foremost writers. ...

The Secret History of Our Streets explores six roads spread across inner London
- from Camberwell, Holland Park & Islington to
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The Secret History of Oxford offers the reader an off-the-beaten-track tour of the city`s landmarks & streets. Filled with hundreds of facts & anecdotes, it reveals the amusing, unlikely & downright wonderful stories hidden beneath the surface. Some, such as the fact that the founder of Oxford was eaten by wolves, will be known; many others, such as the fact that Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, stole a piece of New College`s unicorn horn, that one of the Fellows of Christ Church was a bear or that Oxford Castle has England`s most frequently sighted ghost, are much less widely known
- & some of these stories have not appeared in print for hundreds of years. With rare photographs & intriguing information on the people, eras & events that defined the city`s history, this book lets the flying cats out of the bags, rattles the dragons` cages & reveals all the skeletons in the city`s cupboards.
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In Enid Blyton`s very first full-length adventure novel, meet siblings Peggy, Mike & Nora. They live with their cruel uncle & aunt & long to escape, so when their friend Jack takes them to a secret, deserted isl&, they run away to live there. But not all is as it seems on the island & the children soon find their adventures are only just beginning... ...

Tiger is a cat with simple pleasures. He likes to spend his days wandering about, chatting with friends & having a little snack. But at night his secret life is revealed
- & its very surprising! Find out about Tiger`s unexpected night hobby in this delightfully funny, warm-hearted picture book that reminds us that sometimes animals (and people) behave in unexpected ways.
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In ” The Secret Life of Birds”, lifelong bird enthusiast Colin Tudge explores the extraordinary variety, secret history & hidden importance of birds around the world. Birds are beautiful, intriguing & life-enhancing. They can do everything mammals can, & even more besides. Collected here are birds who navigate using the stars, tool-making crows, territorial robins, cooperative penguins & swans who mate for life
- among hundreds of others. Revealing everything from why birds sing to how they fly, think, bond & survive, from how they evolved (and whether it really is from dinosaurs) to why, in so many ways, they are very much like us, this rich, evocative book will make you love & admire the birds that are all around you. ” Enjoyable.. .entertaining.. .masterful”. (Stephen Moss, ” Guardian”). ” Simply fizzing with ideas.. .his heart is with the birds”. (” Literary Review”). ” Inspired... Tudge`s writing is always clear & frequently embellished with wry humour”. (Richard Fortey, ” Sunday Telegraph”). ” Only when we read this scintillating study do we see how little we`ve known about the creatures we see around us”. (Michael Kerrigan, ” Scotsman” Books of the Year).” An author whose own deep relish for the extraordinary lives of birds seems only marginally less pleasurable to him than sharing that wonder with others”. (”BBC Wildlife Magazine”). When Colin Tudge was a small boy, he could recognize only five kinds of birds. After studying zoology at Cambridge, Colin wrote for the New Scientist & was a documentary maker for BBC radio. His other books, also published by Penguin, include ” The Secret Life of Trees” & ” So Shall We Reap: What`s Gone Wrong with the World`s Food
- & How to Fix It”.

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Bletchley Park was where one of the war`s most famous
- & crucial
- achievements was made: the cracking of Germany`s ” Enigma”

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Cows are as varied as people. They can be highly intelligent or slow to underst&, vain, considerate, proud, shy or inventive. Although much of a cow`s day is spent eating, they always find time for extra-curricular activities such as babysitting, playing hide & seek, blackberry-picking or fighting a tree. This is an affectionate record of a hitherto secret world. ...

`A lovely, thoughtful little book about the intelligence of cows.` James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd`s Life Cows are as varied as people. They can be highly intelligent or slow to underst&, vain, considerate, proud, shy or inventive. Although much of a cow`s day is spent eating, they always find time for extra-curricular activities such as babysitting, playing hide & seek, blackberry-picking or fighting a tree. This is an affectionate record of a hitherto secret world. ...