Tintin`s flat has been ransacked & there`s a shooting outside the front door! Whilst Tintin & Captain Haddock delve deep into a bloody adventure on the high seas, Snowy discovers a mysterious roll of parchment with a perplexing message. Could this be the key to the secret of the Unicorn? ...

The Cold War is over & Ned has been demoted to the training academy. He asks his old mentor, George Smiley, to address his passing-out class. There are no laundered reminiscences; Smiley speaks the truth
- perhaps the last the students will ever hear. As they listen, Ned recalls his own painful triumphs & inglorious failures, in a career that took him from the Western Isles of Scotland to Hamburg & from Israel to Cambodia. He asks himself: Did it do any good? What did it do to me? & what will happen to us now? In this final Smiley novel, the great spy gives his own humane & unexpected answers.
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When Daisy arrives at the farm campsite where her family are spending her summer holiday, she knows she`s going to have the best time ever. Especially when she finds out that the farm dog has just had puppies! Daisy can`t help falling in love with Barney, the smallest of the litter of German shepherd pups. Barney takes to the friendly new girl who sneaks her food & smuggles him into her sleeping bag at night, & soon the pair are inseparable. Daisy longs to take Barney home with her & can`t bear the thought of leaving the puppy behind. Will she find a way to persuade Mum & Dad to let her keep him? ...

In The Secret Race
- Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, & Winning at All Costs its author Tyler
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London, 1806
- William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2006 COMMONWEALTH WRITERS` PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE IMPAC DUBLIN PRIZELondon, 1806. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he & his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. Soon Thornhill, a man no better or worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life. ...

A Plotting Duchess, a Mysterious Death & a Castle Full of Intrigue in Catherine Bailey`s The Secret Rooms. At 6 am on 21 April 1940 John the 9th Duke of Rutl&, & one of Britain`s wealthiest men, ended his days, virtually alone, lying on a makeshift bed in a dank cramped suite of rooms in the servants` quarters of his own home, Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire. For weeks, as his health deteriorated, his family, his servants
- even the King`s doctor
- pleaded with him to come out, but he refused. After his death, his son & heir, Charles, the 10th Duke of Rutl&, ordered that the rooms be locked up & they remained untouched for sixty years. What lay behind this extraordinary set of circumstances? For the first time, in The Secret Rooms, Catherine Bailey unravels a complex & compelling tale of love, honour & betrayal, played out in the grand salons of Britain`s stately homes at the turn of the twentieth century, & on the battlefields of the Western Front. At its core is a secret so dark that it consumed the life of the man who fought to his death to keep it hidden. This extraordinary mystery from the author of Black Diamonds, perfect for lovers of Downton Abbey, Brideshead Revisited & The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Praise for The Secret Rooms: ” Reads like the best kind of mystery story. It is a tale of mistresses & heirlooms, cowardice & connivance, & a deeply dysfunctional family.. .gripping”. (Sunday Times). ” Astonishing.. .jaw-dropping... It would spoil the book if I revealed the whole works, suffice it to say.. .what a family”. (Sunday Telegraph). ” An extraordinary detective operation”. (John Julius). Norwich Catherine Bailey is the author of Black Diamonds. She read history at Oxford University & is a successful, award-winning television producer & director, making a range of critically acclaimed documentary films inspired by her interest in twentieth century history. She lives in West London.

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A plotting Duchess, a mysterious death & a castle full of lies in Catherine Bailey's The Secret Rooms. At 6 am on 21 April 1940 John the 9th Duke of Rutl&, & one of Britain's wealthiest men, ended his days, virtually alone, lying on a makeshift bed in a dank cramped suite of rooms in the servants' quarters of his own home, Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire. For weeks, as his health deteriorated, his family, his servants
- even the King's doctor
- pleaded with him to come out, but he refused. After his death, his son & heir, Charles, the 10th Duke of Rutl&, ordered that the rooms be locked up & they remained untouched for sixty years. What lay behind this extraordinary set of circumstances? For the first time, in The Secret Rooms, Catherine Bailey unravels a complex & compelling tale of love, honour & betrayal, played out in the grand salons of Britain's stately homes at the turn of the twentieth century, & on the battlefields of the Western Front. At its core is a secret so dark that it consumed the life of the man who fought to his death to keep it hidden. This extraordinary mystery from the author of Black Diamonds, perfect for lovers of Downton Abbey, Brideshead Revisited & The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Praise for The Secret Rooms: Reads like the best kind of mystery story. It is a tale of mistresses & heirlooms, cowardice & connivance, & a deeply dysfunctional family.. .gripping. (Sunday Times). Astonishing.. .jaw-dropping... It would spoil the book if I revealed the whole works, suffice it to say.. .what a family. (Sunday Telegraph). An extraordinary detective operation. (John Julius Norwich). Catherine Bailey is the author of Black Diamonds. She read history at Oxford University & is a successful, award-winning television producer & director, making a range of critically acclaimed documentary films inspired by her interest in twentieth century history. She lives in West London.

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Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne Mc Nulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr. Grene, & their relationship intensifies & complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking & deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory & retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character & the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment & ignorance, & yet marked still by love & passion & hope. ...

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne Mc Nulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she`s spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene, & their relationship intensifies & complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking & deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory & retelling, Roseanne`s story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland`s changing character & the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment & ignorance, & yet marked still by love & passion & hope. ...