The classic ghost story from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction for adults & children alike. James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage
- with grounds that are great for excavations, & trees that are perfect for climbing
- & stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. But it`s not him who`s writing strange things on shopping lists & fences. It`s not him who smashes bottles & pours tea in the Vicar`s lap. It`s a ghost
- honestly. Thomas Kempe the 17th century apothecary has returned & he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It`s up to James to get rid of him. Or he`ll have no pocket money or pudding ever again. An iconic ghost story for children, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is adored by generations of readers.


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An old woman is awoken in the dead of night by knocks at her front door. She opens it to find her daughter, Doruntine, standing there alone in the darkness. She has been brought home from a distant land by a mysterious rider she claims is her brother Konstandin. But unbeknownst to her, Konstandin has been dead for years. What follows is chain of events which plunges an Albanian village into fear & mistrust. Who is the ghost rider? ...

' People will die, ' says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters. She has been standing in blazing sunshine for more than an hour, & refuses to speak to anyone besides Commissaire Adamsberg. Her daughter has seen a vision: ghostly horsemen who target the most nefarious characters in Normandy. Since the middle ages there have been stories of murderers, rapists, those with serious crimes on their conscience, meeting a grizzly end following a visitation by the riders. Soon after the young woman's vision a notoriously cruel man disappears, & the local police dismiss the matter as superstition. Although the case is far outside his jurisdiction, Adamsberg agrees to investigate the strange happenings in a village terrorised by wild rumours & ancient feuds. ...

The Ghost Road is the final instalment in Pat Barker`s Regeneration trilogy. Winner of the 1995 Booker Prize. 1918, the closing months of the war. Army psychiatrist William Rivers is increasingly concerned for the men who have been in his care
- particularly Billy Prior, who is about to return to combat in France with young poet Wilfred Owen. As Rivers tries to make sense of what, if anything, he has done to help these injured men, Prior & Owen await the final battles in a war that has decimated a generation... The Ghost Road is the Booker Prize-winning account of the devastating final months of the First World War. ” An extraordinary tour de force. I`m convinced that the trilogy will win recognition as one of the few real masterpieces of late twentieth-century British fiction”. (Jonathan Coe). ” Powerful, deeply moving”. (Barry Unsworth, Sunday Times). ” Harrowing, original, unforgettable”. (Independent). ”A triumph”. (Sunday Times). Pat Barker was born in 1943. Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy, comprising Regeneration, which has been filmed, The Eye in the Door, which won the Guardian Fiction Prize, & The Ghost Road, which won the Booker Prize. The trilogy featured the Observer`s 2012 list of the ten best historical novels. She is also the author of the more recent novels Another World, Border Crossing, Double Vision, Life Class, & Toby`s Room. She lives in Durham.
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Ever since first visiting Ireland twenty years ago, John Mc Carthy has felt a strong affinity with its people & the landscape, but despite his roots has never considered himself remotely Irish. He now returns to a much-changed country & discovers his heritage is still alive & thriving. With sections on politics, religion, literature, language & music, Mc Carthy presents an unsentimentalised account of the people & places he encounters, while tackling some of the ghosts in his own life. ...

In a remarkable & indefatigable archaeological quest Juliet Barnes, who has lived in Kenya all her life & whose grandparents knew some of the Happy Valley characters, has set out to explore Happy Valley to find the former homes & haunts of this extraordinary & transient set of people. Happy Valley was the name given to the Wanjohi Valley in the Kenya Highlands, where a small community of affluent, hedonistic white expatriates settled between the wars. While Kenya`s early colonial days have been immortalised by farming pioneers like Lord Delamere & Karen Blixen, & the pioneering aviator Beryl Markham, Happy Valley became infamous under the influence of troubled socialite, Lady Idina Sackville, whose life was told in Frances Osborne`s bestselling The Bolter. The era culminated with the notorious murder of the Earl of Erroll in 1941, the investigation of which laid bare the Happy Valley set`s decadence & irresponsibility, chronicled in another bestseller, James Fox`s White Mischief. But what is left now? With the help of a remarkable African guide & further assisted by the memories of elderly former settlers, she finds the remains of grand residences tucked away beneath the mountains & speaks to local elders who share first-hand memories of these bygone times. Nowadays these old homes, she discovers, have become tumbledown dwellings for many African families, school buildings, or their ruins have almost disappeared without trace
- a revelation of the state of modern Africa that makes the gilded era of the Happy Valley set even more fantastic. A book to set alongside such singular evocations of Africa`s strange colonial history as The Africa House, The Ghosts of Happy Valley is a mesmerising blend of travel narrative, social history & personal quest.
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At 28, 251 ft, K2 might be almost 800 ft shorter than Everest, but it`s a far harder climb. In this definitive account, Mick Conefrey grippingly describes the early attempts to reach the summit & provides a fascinating exploration of the first ascent`s complex legacy. From the drug-addicted occultist Aleister Crowley to Achille Compagnoni & Lindo Lacedelli, the Italian duo who finally made it to the summit, The Ghosts of K2 charts how a slew of great men became fixated on this legendary mountain. Through exclusive interviews with surviving team members & their families, & unrivalled access to diaries & letters that have been archived around the world, Conefrey evokes the true atmosphere of the Savage Mountain & explores why it remains the `mountaineer`s mountain`, despite a history steeped in controversy & death. Wrought with tension, & populated by tragic heroes & eccentric dreamers, The Ghosts of K2 is a masterpiece of mountaineering literature. ...

K2 is almost 800ft shorter than Everest, yet it`s a far harder climb. Many great mountaineers became obsessed with reaching its summit, not all of them lived to tell of their adventures. Capturing the depth of their obsession, the heart-stopping tension of the climb & delving into the controversy that still surrounds the first ascent, Mick Conefrey delivers the definitive account of the ` Savage Mountain`. From drug-addicted occultist Aleister Crowley to the brilliant but tortured expedition leader Charlie Houston &, later, the Italian duo who finally made it to the top, Conefrey resurrects the tragic heroes, eccentric dreamers & uncompromising rivalries forever instilled in K2`s legacy. This is the riveting, groundbreaking story of the world`s deadliest mountain. ...

A giant-sized adventure story from bestselling author Julia Donaldson. Every giant knows beanstalks & little people don`t exist. Almost every giant, anyway... When Jumbeelia`s curiosity leads her to a real-live bimplestonk at the edgeland of Groil & down, down, down into Colette, Stephen & Poppy`s lives, the children find themselves in BIG trouble! They`re desperate to get home
- but it`s not easy when even the wasps are giant sized! This upside-down fairy tale is perfect for fans of Roald Dahl & David Walliams, as well as children who enjoyed The Gruffalo when they were younger.
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The Giant`s Causeway on Ireland`s north Antrim coast is a place where myth & science meet. For over 300 years visitors have pondered the choice between giants & geology to explain this natural & cultural wonder. From tales of the Irish giant, Finn Mac Cool, & his building of the huge stone causeway, to the ancient & mysterious cooling of lava to form the basalt columns, The Giant`s Causeway takes the reader on an illustrated tour of the history, folklore, people, geology, wildlife, & stunning landscape of this unique place. Today the Giant`s Causeway is one of Ireland`s most popular tourist attractions, with half a million visitors each year from all over the world. ...