Seabreezes are the lifeblood of cruising & racing sailors
- but they are a fickle resource & it`s vital to be able to predict &
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After a separation of many years, Emily ` Fido` Faithfull bumps into her old friend Helen Codrington on the streets of Victorian London. Much has changed: Helen is more & more unhappy in her marriage to the older Vice-Admiral Codrington, while Fido has become a successful woman of business & a pioneer in the British Women`s Movement. But, for all her independence of mind, Fido is too trusting of her once-dear companion & finds herself drawn into aiding Helen`s obsessive affair with a young army officer. Then, when the Vice-Admiral seizes the children & sues for divorce, the women`s friendship unravels amid accusations of adultery & counter-accusations of cruelty & attempted rape, as well as a mysterious `sealed letter` that could destroy more than one life.. . ...

A Zoe Ball ITV Book Club Pick` Sally Magnusson has taken an amazing true event & created a brilliant first novel. It`s an epic journey in every sense: although it`s historical, it`s incredibly relevant to our world today. We had to pick it` Zoe Ball Book Club`A remarkable feat of imagination.. . I enjoyed & admired it in equal measure` Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent `A powerful tale of Barbary pirates.. . richly imagined & energetically told.` Sunday Times
- 100 Best Books to Read This Summer` Engrossing` Sunday Express ` Fascinating.. . a really, really good read` BBC R2 Book Club` The best sort of historical novel` Scotsman `A lyrical tale` Stylist ` Compelling stuff` Good Housekeeping` An extraordinarily immersive read.. . examining themes of motherhood, identity, exile & freedom` Guardian 1627. In a notorious historical event, pirates raided the coast of Iceland & abducted 400 people into slavery in Algiers. Among them a pastor, his wife, & their children. In her acclaimed debut novel Sally Magnusson imagines what history does not record: the experience of Asta, the pastor`s wife, as she faces her losses with the one thing left to her
- the stories from home
- & forges an ambiguous bond with the man who bought her. Uplifting, moving, & witty, The Sealwoman`s Gift speaks across centuries & oceans about loss, love, resilience & redemption. Chosen for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club (a really really good book) & the ITV Zoe Ball Book Club (the quality of the writing is amazing).` Icelandic history has been brought to extraordinary life... An accomplished & intelligent novel` Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, author of Why Did You Lie?` Vivid & compelling` Adam Nichols, co-translator of The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson


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School`s out, & Bobby Parrish is spending the summer on his dad`s boat. Job number one is to deal with the seals infesting the peninsula. The money`s good
- but Bobby knows, deep down, that he hasn`t got it in him. Will Bobby’s dad let him be different?A story of the split-second choices that can change lives forever. Eoin Colfer`s trademark humour & lightness of touch & Victor Ambrus`s classic artwork evoke a strong sense of place, character & vitality.
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Maria Duenas`s million copy best-selling tale of adventure, tragedy, love & war, ” The Seamstress”, a Richard & Judy 2012 book club pick. Spain, 1936 & the brink of civil war. Young, poor Sira Quiroga is swept up in a whirlwind romance with her wily love Ramiro. Fleeing Madrid together for Morocco, her love blinds her to his real failings. Soon abandoned, left penniless & in debt to the authorities, she has to rely on the one skill she still possesses: sewing. Taken under the wing of the bullish but caring housekeeper Candelaria, Sira is able to sew for the glamorous foreign English & German women in Tetouan. Privy to their unbridled gossip, Sira becomes invaluable to the British secret service, a position that is filled with untold risk. A story of danger, espionage, romance & war, ” The Seamstress” is a WWII tale like no other. ...

In the late-19th & early-20th centuries, as China opened its doors to the rest of the world, Western archaeologists introduced new field methods that led to important discoveries & the establishment of scientific bodies of research. However, as China turned in on itself from 1949 to 1990, Chinese archaeology entered a dark age. Today, in an era of cooperation, the splendours & achievements of ancient China are revealed to modern eyes. This work is an examination of the latest discoveries in the archaeology of Ancient China, including: the early Neolithic painted pottery; the Shang bronzes; the bronze bells of the Marquis Yi of Zeng; the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor; & the lavish tomb of the Marquis of Dai & his family from the Han dynasty. ...

The Search for Ancient Egypt is Jean Vercoutter & Ruth Sharman`s riveting compilation of the major discoveries of ancient Egypt, including the stories of Howard Carter & Lord Carnarvon, Belzoni & Champollion. They write of the `pharaoh`s curse`, the Patagonian Samson, the unlocking of the ever-secretive hieroglyphs & a remarkable rescue of Egypt`s monuments from ravaging flood waters. Buried treasure, looting, intrigue & dedicated scholarship; `wonderful things` gleaming in the darkness; the cache of royal mummies; &, most wonderful of all, the tomb of Tutankhamun. Add this to your cart today! ...

The idea of a hidden refuge, a paradise far from the stresses of modern life, has universal appeal. In 1932 the writer James Hilton coined the word ” Shangri-La” to describe such a place, when he gave that name to a hidden valley in the Himalayas in his popular romance, Lost Horizon. Charles Allen, oral & military historian, acclaimed traveller, & author of several best-selling books on colonial themes, explores here the myth behind the story, tracking down the sources that Hilton drew upon in writing his novel, & then setting out to discover what lies behind the legend that inspired him. In the course of this lively & amusing account of his four journeys into Tibet, Allen also provides a controversial new reading of the country`s early history, dismissing notions of Tibet as a Buddhist paradise & seeking to restore the mysterious pre-Buddhist religion of Bon to its rightful place in Tibetan culture. In his travels to Tibet, Allen located the ”lost” kingdom of Shang-shung &, in doing so, the original Shangri-La itself: in an astounding gorge beyond the Himalayas, full of extraordinary ruins. ...

George Orwell, a man fond of a pint, used to write about his fantasy pub, The Moon Under Water, in his Evening Standard columns
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Inspired by George Orwell, Paul Moody & Robin Turner take a nostalgic road trip around Britain in search of the perfect pub. `A deeply satisfying travelogue` Stuart Maconie In 1946, George Orwell, a man fond of a pint, wrote about his favourite pub, The Moon Under Water, in his EVENING STANDARD column. But it didn`t actually exist. It was Orwell`s vision of a perfect pub. Today, Wetherspoons have fourteen Moon Under Waters, & the nation is awash with identikit, high-street lounge bars competing for a dwindling clientele. Paul Moody & Robin Turner`s road trip around Britain, therefore, is not just a search for the perfect pub. It is a deeper investigation into what has happened to British pub culture, once the toast of the world. In fact, it is a search for a kind of life-force kindled by the British public, something the powers-that-be are forever trying to extinguish. Along the way, such luminaries as Pete Brown (`the King of Beer`), Tim Martin (Wetherspoon`s boss), Iain Sinclair, James Dean Bradfield & Paul Kingsnorth are consulted
- along with a host of micro-brewers, landlords, politicians, bloggers & barroom philosophers. What emerges is a picture of the country as seen through a pint glass, a vision that goes to the heart of what it means to be British.
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