Strange Places, Questionable People is the first volume of John Simpson`s autobiography. For over thirty years, John Simpson has travelled the world to report on the most significant events of our time. From being punched in the stomach by Harold Wilson on one of his first days as a reporter, to escaping summary execution in Beirut, flying into Teheran with the returning Ayatollah Khomeini, & narrowly avoiding entrapment by a beautiful Czech secret agent, Simpson has had an astonishingly eventful career. In 1989 he witnessed the Tiananmen Square massacre, the fall of the Berlin Wall & the collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe &, only weeks later, in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela. With Simpson`s uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, this autobiography is a ring-side seat at every major event in recent global history. ...

A missing woman. A missing boy. Detective Erlendur returns
- for the last time. A young woman walks into the frozen fjords of Icel&,
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The La Fleur restaurant has a slew of unusual phenomena. Bonnet-clad apparitions pass through walls, blood leaks from ceilings & rats besiege the dining room. Experts from the Great Essex Witch Museum are called in to quell these strange sights. But before Rosie Strange & Sam Stone can do their thing events turn darker. For La Fleur`s chef has been strung up & slaughtered like a pig. More oddly, the only witness, the owner`s daughter Mary, swears blind a ghost did it. Rosie & Sam must find out what`s happening before Mary takes the fall. But intuitions & tip-offs lead them stumbling into the dark waters of the past, exposing secrets of a wider conspiracy, as well as secrets all Rosie`s own. With strange chills Rosie & Sam learn that seeing isn`t always believing, while thoughts of truth may be just as illusory. ...

They were coming tonight to tell ghost stories. `A tale to freeze the blood, ` was the only rule. Switzerl&, 1816. On a stormy summer night, Lord Byron & his guests are gathered round the fire. Felix, their serving boy, can`t wait to hear their creepy tales. Yet real life is about to take a chilling turn
- more chilling than any tale. Frantic pounding at the front door reveals a stranger, a girl covered in the most unusual scars. She claims to be looking for her sister, supposedly snatched from England by a woman called Mary Shelley. Someone else has followed her here too, she says. & the girl is terrified. This breathtaking new book from Emma Carroll, the critically-acclaimed author of Frost Hollow Hall, The Girl Who Walked On Air, In Darkling Wood & The Snow Sister, is a deliciously creepy story inspired by the creation of Frankenstein, & is brought to life by a leading talent in children`s literature.
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Long considered a masterpiece of the eerie & fantastic, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is a collection of supernatural-themed tales compiled from ancient Chinese folk stories by Songling Pu in the eighteenth century. These tales of ghosts, magic, vampirism, & other things bizarre & fantastic are an excellent Chinese companion to Lafcadio Hearn`s well-known collections of Japanese ghost stories Kwaidan & In Ghostly Japan. Already a true classic of Chinese literature & of supernatural tales in general, this new edition of the Herbert A. Giles translation converts the work to Pinyin for the first time &

Includes:: a new foreword by Victoria Cass that properly introduces the book to both readers of Chinese literature & of hair-raising tales best read with the lights turned low on a quiet night. Some of the stories found in these pages include: The Tiger of Zhaocheng The Magic Sword Miss Lianziang, the Fox-Girl The Quarrelsome Brothers The Princess Lily A Rip Van Winkle The Resuscitated Corpse Taoist Miracles A Chinese Solomon.

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Tsukiko is in her late 30s & living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, ` Sensei`, in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired &, she presumes, a widower. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food & drink sake, & as the seasons pass
- from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms
- Tsukiko & Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly & poignantly into love. Perfectly constructed, funny, & moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a tale of modern Japan & old-fashioned romance.

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Astor, Ontario. 1904.A boy staggers out of the forest covered in blood & collapses at the feet of 16-year-old Emmy. While others are suspicious & afraid, Emmy is drawn to him. Is he really the monster the townsfolk say he is? Astor, Ontario. 1994. Megan arrives from London for her great grandmother Emmy`s 105th birthday. It should be a happy family occasion, but Megan is nursing a broken heart & carrying a secret she fears might consume her. One family. Two women. A century of secrets. A timeless love story. ...

Gershom Scholem, the great humanist thinker & founder of modern Kabbalah, is all but forgotten today. But here, in a biography as daring & inquisitive as its subject, George Prochnik goes in search of Scholem, restoring the reputation of a vital intellectual & finding in his work a vision with the power to reinvigorate contemporary religious & political thought. Tracing Scholem`s life from his upbringing in Berlin, where he experienced a close & transformative friendship with Walter Benjamin, Prochnik reveals how Scholem`s frustration with the bourgeois ideology of Germany during WWI led him to discover mystic Judaism, Kabbalah, &, finally, Zionism. But having emigrated to what was to become Israel, Scholem again found himself a `stranger in a strange land`, ill at ease with a prevailing conservative form of Zionism. Prochnik follows Scholem to the modern Holy Land
- only to find that he too is disillusioned by the state politics he encounters. But through his profound study of Scholem & his own experience of Jerusalem, Prochnik not only questions the ideological & religious constructs of Jerusalem, but finds an ethical way forward, showing how a new form of pluralism might energize Jewish thought.
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A handsome re-issue of a travel classic. With his trademark wit & inquisitive eye, H. V. Morton travels through a Spain unspoilt by tourism, revealing a country where the past is very much alive. Interspersed with episodes from Spain`s rich history, ”A Stranger in Spain” is a journey of discovery that should appeal to those with a sense of adventure. Morton`s classic travel book on Spain is a delightful travel guide & a striking introduction to Spanish history & culture. ” The stranger who wishes to approach Spain with sympathy & appreciation, ” H. V. Morton wrote, ”must do so through its history.” Thus, as he takes us on a leisurely tour through a country where the past is very much alive, he reveals a rich tapestry of events, related with his inimitable humor, charm, & sincerity. The Spain of the Christian kings & the caliphs of Cordoba, of Philip II, & the tragic Hapsburgs, the Spain of Columbus, of St Teresa, of Cortes & Pizarro, Velazquez, & Goya, is the thread on which his narrative is strung. Vivid, varied, & enchanting, ”A Stranger in Spain” reflects the pleasures & surprises of travel at its best, & will be enjoyed by all who know the country or intend to visit it, or simply prefer to travel at home. ...

A bilingual fiction title for children who are independent readers. The parallel text, speech bubbles & pictures by different, talented illustrators provide a child-friendly bridge to reading
- & speaking
- in another language. There is a quiz at the end of each story to help comprehension & revise vocabulary.

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