In August 1979, the 600-mile Fastnet Race, which began in fine weather off the Irish coast, became, for the men & women sailing it, a terrifying ordeal. A Force 10, 60-knot storm swept across the Atlantic, with a speed that confounded weathermen, into the fleet of 303 boats. For 24 hours, over 2500 men & women were smashed by 40-foot breaking waves. John Rousmaniere, who was there, tells the story of this great disaster in the history of yachting. ...

Guidebook to fastpacking
- multi-day running trips carrying the bare essentials
- in the UK, Europe & beyond.





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Our planet is in the grip of an obesity pandemic. More than a billion people worldwide are overweight & over 600 million are obese. We live in an obesogenic environment in which it is much easier to get fat than to stay fit. How has this come to be? Who is to blame? What can we do? In Fat Planet, Dr David Lewis & Dr Margaret Leitch examine the social & psychological causes of the obesity pandemic in order to answer these questions. They use ground-breaking research to highlight the behaviour of corporations that relentlessly promote foods high in sugar, fat & salt, & show that these `junk` foods have shockingly similar neurological effects to hard drugs. They consider the prevalence of food cues which unconsciously stimulate our desire to consume. & they debunk the myths of fad diets & slimming pills, suggesting practical, easily implemented strategies for sustainable weight loss. The evidence is clear: our problem with obesity must be addressed or we will face catastrophic consequences. It is not too late to change. ...

Approaching forty, Nigel Marsh`s life seems almost perfect: he has moved with his family from the UK to Sydney & runs the Australian office of a leading advertising agency. However, he is also stressed, overweight & struggling to balance a career, a marriage & the demands of four small children. But everything changes when he loses his job. After the initial shock of redundancy, Marsh decides to embrace life outside the office & reconnect with his family. FAT, FORTY & FIRED is the hilarious, insightful & deeply moving account of his `gap year` at home, as he rediscovers fatherhood, loses twenty kilograms, kicks his drinking habit, trains for an ocean swim race & generally gets his house in order. FAT, FORTY & FIRED is a story for anyone who has dreamed about leaving the rat race behind & living a more meaningful life. ...

De Gaulle called it a `fatal avenue`
- that broad sweep of low-lying country stretching north east of Paris. Over the centuries,
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Christopher Wood, a beautiful young Englishman, decided to be the greatest painter the world had seen. He went to Paris in 1921. By day he studied, by night he attended the parties of the beau monde. He knew Picasso, worked for Diaghilev & was a friend of Cocteau. In the last months of his 29-year life, he fought a ravening opium addiction to succeed in claiming a place in history of English painting. Richard Hilary, confident, handsome & unprincipled, flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain before being shot down & horribly burned. He underwent several operations by the legendary plastic surgeon, A H Mc Indoe. His account of his experiences, The Last Enemy, made him famous, but not happy. He begged to be allowed to return to flying, & died mysteriously in a night training operation, aged 23. Jeremy Wolfenden was born in 1936, the son of Jack, later Lord Wolfenden. Charming, generous & witty, he was the cleverest Englishman of his generation, but left All Souls to become a hack reporter. At the height of the Cold War, he was sent to Moscow where his louche private life made him the plaything of the intelligence services.A terrifying sequence of events ended in Washington where he died at the age of 31. ...

The real life disappearance of `the most beautiful car ever made` sparks a compelling new case for Bruno, chief of police The Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic was called the most beautiful car of all time. Only four of them were ever built. A California museum paid $37 million for one; Ralph Lauren bought another; a third was smashed by a train at a level crossing. The fourth disappeared in France during World War 2. It was the car used by British racing ace, William Grover Williams, twice winner of the French & Monaco Grand Prix, who became an undercover agent in Occupied France. The latest adventure in the Bruno series of mystery novels starts from this true story. Two young men, both racing drivers with a passion for antique cars, compete to find new clues as to the car`s hiding place in the Perigord region of France where Bruno is the local chief of police. When a local researcher turns up dead on Bruno`s patch, & French intelligence starts investigating the use of classic car sales to launder money for funding Islamic terrorism, Bruno finds himself once more caught up in a case that reaches far beyond his small town & its people. With the bucolic charm & gourmet cooking that are the hallmarks of this series, Bruno`s latest adventure finds him falling in love again as he races to find the murderer & to track down the fate of the most beautiful car ever made. ...

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is one of the world`s major sporting events. In 1998, it became one of the world`s major sporting disasters. Six sailors tragically perished, countless others suffered injuries, & numerous yachts sank or were badly damaged. The subsequent search & rescue operation was one of the most phenomenally accomplished peacetime efforts the world has ever seen. Telling this story of challenge & survival, Rob Mundle details the history of the race, the excitement of the start & the thrill of competition. It contains extensive interviews with officials, crews, survivors & rescue service personnel, & relates like no other the calamity & tragedy of this classic offshore disaster. ` There are many highly competent skippers & crew...but there is no one who could not benefit from a quiet evening with Fatal Storm.` The Times ` Riveting & harrowing.` The Telegraph `A must-read for anyone who races offshore.` Yachts & Yachting ...

In the hills above Valencia is a notorious nightclub called Sunset. When its larger-than-life owner, Jose Luis, dies suddenly, everyone assumes it was a heart attack. Meanwhile, all is not well for Max Cámara at HQ. His new boss, Rita Hernández, has it in for him & his idiosyncratic methods. He must abandon a complex investigation to check out what looks like a routine death at Sunset. But an anonymous phone call suggests otherwise, leading him to an unholy network of drug dealers, priests & shady officials protecting a dark government secret. ...

In the hills above Valencia is a notorious nightclub called Sunset. When its larger-than-life owner, Jose Luis, dies suddenly, everyone assumes it was a heart-attack. Perfectly understandable for a man of his age, size & lifestyle. Meanwhile, all is not well for Max Camara at HQ. His new boss, Rita Hernandez, has it in for him & his idiosyncratic methods. He must abandon a complex investigation into home-grown extremism to check out what looks like a routine death at Sunset. But an anonymous phone-call suggests otherwise... Back in the city, Max`s journalist girlfriend Alicia is working on a lead that could turn out to be the story of her career. How her own investigation connects with Max`s at Sunset, & an unholy network of drug dealers, priests & shady officials protecting a dark government secret, will place both their lives in jeopardy & push everything to the very edge. ...