” What are you doing, dear?” ” It`s a secret.” ” Secrets are better if you share them a little. So tell Mother why you look so sad on Christmas Eve.” ”I am wondering what to give-someone-for Christmas.” So begins the story of a little mouse`s search for a very special gift for a very special person. Nothing seems just right until the little mouse realizes that the best present of all is already at h&. Palmer Brown has given us something special for Christmas-or any day-an entrancingly lovely story, filled with the true spirit of the holiday season. ...

Something Nasty in the Woodshed
- the third Charlie Mortdecai novel. ” Splendidly enjoyable. The jokes are excellent, but the
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In this extraordinary travelogue Horatio Clare recreates the walk that J S Bach, then an unknown composer & organ teacher, made in the depths of winter in 1705 across Germany to Lubeck. This was the pivotal point in the young composer`s life, when he began his journey to becoming the master of the Baroque. ...

Who can say what the night might bring? Mummy tucking you up with Teddy & a cup of Ovaltine? Fireworks & frivolity? A party? Music? Dancing? Or you could be reading in bed, between clean linen sheets before falling into deep & restful sleep & sweet dreams. & who knows; the night might bring romance, or love, or sex, if you play your cards right. Or you might be working; millions of people work at night. If nobody worked at night, Britain would cease to function. Or the night might be cold, haunted, inhuman & wild. When you look up into the night sky, you see that you are nothing. An insignificant mote of dust. Or the night could be all too human. Hen parties in skimpy dresses & fairy wings being slammed into the back of a police van; girls working on street corners in the part of town where the lights don`t come on; businessmen going to lap-dancing clubs to forget what waits at home. Or you could die. Most people do die at night. Or you could just lie awake & wait for the dawn. Set over the course of an intoxicated night in a house up a mountain in West Cork, Ian Marchant offers a darkly funny account of what people get up to at night, explores his own experience of a life of night times, & shows us how we all have something of the night about us. ...

Who can say what the night might bring? Mummy tucking you up with Teddy & a cup of Ovaltine? Fireworks & frivolity? A party? Music? Dancing? Or you could be reading in bed, between clean linen sheets before falling into deep & restful sleep & sweet dreams. & who knows; the night might bring romance, or love, or sex, if you play your cards right. Or you might be working; millions of people work at night. If nobody worked at night, Britain would cease to function. Or the night might be cold, haunted, inhuman & wild. When you look up into the night sky, you see that you are nothing. An insignificant mote of dust. Or the night could be all too human. Hen parties in skimpy dresses & fairy wings being slammed into the back of a police van; girls working on street corners in the part of town where the lights don't come on; businessmen going to lap-dancing clubs to forget what waits at home. Or you could die. Most people do die at night. Or you could just lie awake & wait for the dawn. Set over the course of an intoxicated night in a house up a mountain in West Cork, Ian Marchant offers a darkly funny account of what people get up to at night, explores his own experience of a life of night times, & shows us how we all have something of the night about us. ...

The bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel & Tulip Fever is back with a warm, witty & wise novel about the unexpected twists that later life can bring...` Nobody in the world knows our secret.. .that I`ve ruined Bev`s life, & she`s ruined mine.` Petra`s love life is a bit of a car-crash, even in her sixties. But then she falls for Jeremy, an old chum, visiting from abroad. The catch? Jeremy is her best friend`s husb&. & just as Petra is beginning to relax guiltily into her happy ever after, she finds herself catapulted to West Africa, & to Bev, her best friend who she`s been betraying so spectacularly. It turns out that no matter where you are in the world, everyone has something to hide. Can Bev
- can anyone
- be trusted?

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` Nobody in the world knows our secret...that I`ve ruined Bev`s life, & she`s ruined mine.` Petra`s romantic life has always been a car-crash, & even in her sixties she`s still capable of getting it disastrously wrong. But then she falls in love with Jeremy, an old chum, visiting from abroad. The fatal catch? Jeremy is her best friend`s husb&. But just as Petra is beginning to relax into her happy ever after, she finds herself catapulted to West Africa, & to Bev, her best friend who she`s been betraying so spectacularly. Meanwhile, on opposite sides of the world, two other women are also struggling with the weight of betrayal: Texan Lorrie is about embark on the biggest deception of her life, & in China Li-Jing is trying to understand exactly what it is her husband does on his West African business trips... It turns out that no matter where you are in the world, everyone has something to hide. Can Bev
- can anyone
- be trusted?

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Jamal Khan, a psychoanalyst in his fifties living in London, is haunted by memories of his teens: his first love, Ajita; the exhilaration of sex, drugs & politics; & a brutal act of violence which changed his life for ever. As he & his best friend Henry attempt to make the sometimes painful, sometimes comic transition to their divorced middle age, balancing the conflicts of desire & dignity, Jamal`s teenage traumas make a shocking return into his present life. ...

Veteran travel writer Eric Newby has a massive following & is cherished as the forefather of the modern comic travel book. However, less known are his adventures during the years he spent as an apprentice & commercial buyer in the improbable trade of women`s fashion. From his repatriation as a prisoner of war in 1945 to his writing of the bestselling `A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush` in 1956, Eric Newby`s years as a commercial traveller in the world of haute couture were as full of adventure & oddity as any during his time as travel editor for the Observer. ` Something Wholesale` is Newby`s hilarious & wonderfully chaotic tale of the disorder that was his life as an apprentice to the family garment firm of Lane & Newby, including hilariously recounted escapades with sudden-onset wool allergies, waist-deep predicaments in tissue paper & the soul-destroying task of matching buttons. In addition to the charming chaos of his work in the family business, it is also a warm & loving portrait of his father, a delightfully eccentric gentleman who managed to spend more energy avoiding & actively participating in disasters than he did in preserving his business. With its quick wit, self-deprecating charm & splendidly fascinating detail, this is vintage Newby
- only with a garment bag in place of a well-worn suitcase.
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Emma Dodd`s four popular picture books are now available in a chunky boardbook format. Illustrated in her appealing iconic style. In Sometimes
- a mother elephant assures her child that no matter what he does & who he is, she loves him unconditionally.
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