Darjeeling`s tea bushes stretch across a picturesque landscape steeped in religious, sacred & mythical history. Planted at high elevation in the heart of the Eastern Himalayas
- in an area of northern India bound by Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east & Sikkim to the north
- the rows of brilliant green, waist-high shrubs that coat the steep slopes & valleys around this Victorian `hill town` produce only a fraction of the world`s tea, & less than one per cent of India`s total. Yet the tea from this limited crop, with its characteristic bright, amber-coloured brew & muscatel flavours
- delicate & flowery, with hints of apricots & peaches
- is generally considered the best on the globe. This is the story of how Darjeeling developed its prodigious tea industry under Imperial British rule & eventually came to produce some of the highest-quality leaves in the world. It is a fascinating portrait of the region from the days of the Raj to that of the `voodoo farmers` of the present day, who get world-record prices for their fine teas, all set against the backdrop of the looming Himalayas & drenching monsoons. It is a story rich in intrigue & empire, full of adventurers & unlikely successes in culture & religion, ecology & terroir, & one that began with one of the most audacious acts of corporate smuggling in history. It is also the tale of how the industry had spiralled into decline by the end of the twentieth century, & how this paradisiacal spot in the high Himalayas seethes with union unrest & a violent struggle for independent statehood. It is on the front line against the devastating effects of climate change & decades of harmful farming practices, a war that is being fought in some tea gardens
- &, astonishingly, won
- using radical methods.





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Basic city map naming the main streets & marking places of interest. The map comes with a booklet of useful & essential information for visitors, including information on treks in the region around Darjiling, a basic plan of Gangtok, & a route map of Calcutta-Darjiling-Gangtok. ...

Family ties can bind dangerously tight. Viktor Algard was in love. Reckless in the grip of passion, he left his wife & grown-up children to be with his new lover. His last act was a celebratory drink at a glamorous party... Inspector Anders Knutas must find out who on the island of Gotland hated Algard enough to poison him. At first Algard's spurned wife seems like the obvious suspect. But a second attack confirms his suspicion that there's a more complex motive behind the murder. If Knutas is to catch the killer, he must discover the truth that lies hidden at the heart of a broken family
- & face some secrets within his own.
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Edward Follis had a Sig Sauer pistol shoved into his ribs while working deep undercover in Burma, purchasing heroin from an army of stoned zombie insurgents. He was told he was never going to walk out of the jungle alive. In this & other situations like it, all he could do was have faith. As far back as he could remember, Edward Follis had dreamed of being an undercover agent. Taking a job with the Drug Enforcement Administration saw his dreams come true across three decades & five continents. He would be responsible for infiltrating some of the biggest drugs rings in the world, getting intimately close to some of the worst drug lords, before making the last call
- the one that would bring them down. The Last Call tells a transformational story: the account of a federal agent & the sweep of his career, following the changing face of drug enforcement & taking us to the frontlines of the global fight against terrorism.
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Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Iraqi who received US citizenship in exchange for translating during the war, he & his sister relocate to Michigan. His sister graduates university & becomes engaged, while Haris works menial jobs & grows increasingly restless. Instead of attending his sister`s wedding, he flies to Gaziantep to join the Free Army`s fight against Bashar al-Assad. But he`s caught & robbed trying to enter Syria, & is taken in by a refugee couple Amir, a former revolutionary, & Daphne, a sophisticated woman haunted by grief. After discovering they had to flee Syria without their young daughter & that Daphne is desperate to return, Haris`s choices become ever more wrenching: Whose side is he really on? Is he a true radical or simply an idealist? What is he really searching for? Dark at the Crossing is a trenchantly observed novel of raw urgency & compassion that explores loss, second chances, & why we choose to believe. ...

This fashionable notebook is adorned with Breton stripes in Navy Blue. With a real cloth cover & beautiful contrasting ribbon marker, this notebook is a must have accessory. The Breton stripes Notebook is also available in Sunny Yellow, Hot Pink & Sky Blue. Originally worn by French Sailors, Breton stripes are now worn by people of all ages, genders & nationalities. This timeless fashion staplenow adorns our notebooks to make the perfect accessory. ...

The soft-cover Volant Notebooks come packed in sets of two
- with one book a slightly lighter shade of colour that the other. The
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When Carl sells a box of slimming pills to his close friend Stacey, inadvertently causing her death, he sets in train a sequence of catastrophic events which begin with subterfuge, extend to lies, & culminate in murder. In Rendell`s dark & atmospheric tale of psychological suspense, we encounter mistaken identity, kidnap, blackmail, & a cast of characters who are so real that we come to know them better than we know ourselves. Infused with her distinctive blend of wry humour, acute observation & deep humanity, this is Rendell at her most memorable & best. ...

Intrigue, prestige, debauchery: Dark Diversions by acclaimed author John Ralston Saul is a black comedy of international proportions. From aristocrats & the privileged circles of New York & Paris to military dictators & the political infighting, double-dealing & corruption or their regimes in Morocco & Haiti, welcome to the world where money & power reside. Through a series of encounters with its inhabitants, at once beguiling & grotesque, our investigative narrator uncovers bizarrre & disturbing stories of secret lovers, exiled princesses, religious heresies & murder. But as he becomes further enmeshed in this savage realm, his ambiguous status becomes increasingly unsettling: is he the impartial observer of priviliged foibles & fundamental inequity he appears to be? Or is he, perhaps, an embodiment of the dark diversions he chronicles? Laced with scathing wit, Dark Diversions is a novel that inveigles its reader on a picaresque journey of depravity. ”A delightful novel, invigoratingly wicked”. (Le Monde). ” Saul has the eye, the aloofness, the killer turn of phrase of a Truman Capote”. (Le Figaro). John Ralston Saul is Canada`s leading public intellectual. Declared a `prophet` by Time magazine, Saul has received many awards & prizes, including Chile`s Pablo Neruda Medal. He is president of PEN International, & his thirteen works have been translated into twenty-two languages in thirty countries. Dark Diversions is his sixth novel. ...

It is 1540 & the hottest summer of the sixteenth century. Matthew Shardlake, believing himself out of favour with Thomas Cromwell, is busy trying to maintain his legal practice & keep a low profile. But his involvement with a murder case, defending a girl accused of brutally murdering her young cousin, brings him once again into contact with the king's chief minister
- & a new assignment... The secret of Greek Fire, the legendary substance with which the Byzantines destroyed the Arab navies, has been lost for centuries. Now, an official of the Court of Augmentations has discovered the formula in the library of a dissolved London monastery. When Shardlake is sent to recover it, he finds the official & his alchemist brother brutally murdered
- the formula has disappeared. Now, Shardlake must follow the trail of Greek Fire across Tudor London, while trying at the same time to prove his young client's innocence. But very soon he discovers nothing is as it seems.

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