Colonel Wyvern, stationed with the army in Madras during the height of British imperial rule, opened a cookery school upon his return to England & was a passionate enthusiast for both European & Indian cuisine. In these vivid, common-sense & entertaining writings, he gives advice on re-creating French classics in the steaming heat; describes tiffin parties & cooking while at camp; & laments the declining popularity of curry in the Raj, providing foolproof recipes for curry powder, tamarind chutney, korma & `mulligatunny` soup. With devotees including Elizabeth David, Wyvern`s unique brand of anglo-Indian cookery is still reflected in the way we eat today. ...

The 900-day siege of Leningrad (1941-44) was one of the turning points of the Second World War. It slowed down the German advance into Russia & became a national symbol of survival & resistance. An estimated one million civilians died, most of them from cold & starvation. Lydia Ginzburg, a respected literary scholar (who meanwhile wrote prose `for the desk drawer` through seven decades of Soviet rule), survived. Using her own using notes & sketches she wrote during the siege, along with conversations & impressions collected over the years, she distilled the collective experience of life under siege. Through painful depiction of the harrowing conditions of that period, Ginzburg created a paean to the dignity, vitality & resilience of the human spirit. This original translation by Alan Myers has been revised & annotated by Emily van Buskirk. This edition

Includes:: `A Story of Pity & Cruelty`, a recently discovered documentary narrative translated into English for the first time by Angela Livingstone.

...

Notes from the Jam Cupboard by Mary Tregellas is a delicious collection of over 90 easy-to-follow recipes for sweet & savoury preserves, sauces, liqueurs & breads including a few recipes for dishes that use them. After an introduction on useful equipment, key ingredients & general preserving tips the book is structured in chapters & according to fruits & vegetables. These, Luscious berries, Wholesome vegetables, Aromatic herbs & spices, Intoxicating alcoholic drinks & Breads, to name just a few, will show you how to make a wide range of products. Thus, in the Luscious berries section you will find Fruits of the forest jam, Strawberry & Redcurrant Cordial as well as Summer Fruit Trifle recipe & including a brief of its history for the curious minded. Accompanying the instructions are tantalising pictures & anecdotes that make this book more than just recipe collection, Notes from the Jam Cupboard is a friend in the kitchen you will relish. ...

An introduction to what was France`s last undiscovered Mediterranean secret
- the Languedoc. This is a guide to the Languedoc composed
...

For the last six years of his life, Roger Deakin kept notebooks in which he wrote his daily thoughts, impressions, feelings & observations. Discursive, personal & often impassioned, they reveal the way he saw the world, whether it be observing the teeming ecosystem that was Walnut Tree Farm, thinking about the wider environment, walking in his fields, on Mellis Common or on his travels at home, or contemplating his past & his present life. Notes from Walnut Tree Farm collects the very best of these writings, capturing Roger’s extraordinary, restless curiosity about the natural & human worlds, his love of literature & music, his knack for making unusual & apposite connections, & of course his distinct & subversive charm & humour. Together they cohere to present a passionate, engaged &
- in spite of the worst pressures of contemporary life
- optimistic view of our changing world.

...

Shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize, Zoe Heller`s Notes on a Scandal is a darkly compelling novel that explores the taboo subject of pupil/teacher relationships, obsession & betrayal. From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George`s history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced she has found a kindred spirit. Barbara`s loyalty to her new friend is passionate & unstinting & when Sheba is discovered having an illicit affair with one of her pupils, Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba`s chief defender. But all is not as it first seems in this dark story &, as Sheba will soon discover, a friend can be just as treacherous as any lover.` Brilliant, nasty, gripping` Zadie Smith` Compelling, dark, sexy` Observer` Superbly gripping. One of the most compelling books I`ve read in ages` Daily Telegraph` Deliciously sinister` Daily Mail Zoe Heller is the author of three novels, Everything You Know, Notes on a Scandal, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003 & The Believers. The 2006 film adaptation of Notes on a Scandal, starring Cate Blanchett & Judi Dench, received four Oscar nominations. She lives in New York. ...

In the past, culture was a kind of vital consciousness that constantly rejuvenated & revivified everyday reality. Now it is largely a mechanism of distraction & entertainment. Notes on the Death of Culture is an examination & indictment of this transformation
- penned by none other than the Nobel winner Mario Vargas Llosa, who is not only one of our finest novelists but one of the keenest social critics at work today. Taking his cues from T S Eliot
- whose treatise Notes Towards the Definition of Culture is a touchstone precisely because the culture Eliot aimed to describe has since vanished
- Vargas Llosa traces a decline whose ill effects have only just begun to be felt. He mourns, in particular, the figure of the intellectual: for most of the twentieth century, men & women of letters drove political, aesthetic, & moral conversations; today they have all but disappeared from public debate. But Vargas Llosa stubbornly refuses to fade into the background. He is not content to merely sign a petition; he will not bite his tongue. A necessary provocateur, here vividly translated by John King, provides an impassioned & essential critique of our time & culture.


...

The Second World War is long over but its legacy continues to tear a town
- & a young boy's life
- apart. Knud is growing up

...

In the summer of 1875, two travellers walk south across the Lincolnshire Wolds to a village riven with dark secrets. When Norman Tanner kills his workmate on a cold February morning a century later, he thinks he`s got away with murder. But Norman doesn`t know about the workmate`s girlfriend, or the child that will come back to haunt him; & how he is caught up in a story that stretches back to that Victorian summer. For some in the village of Southby & its nearby grand estate, man is master of his fate, & the world is full of meaning; for others there is nothing but grass. ...

Description: Arthur Maxley is a tense & listless young man. One day he receives a letter from his long-estranged father. Arthur`s fear & aversion to the man is powerful, yet his compulsion to see his father is irresistible. After their meeting, Arthur is propelled into a night of drinking & spontaneous intimacy with a beautiful young woman. But as the memories of childhood trauma surface & disorientate, Arthur`s night out rises towards the pitch of disaster. ...