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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When Daniel Kalder, acclaimed author of Lost Cosmonaut, descended into the sewers of Moscow in pursuit of the mythical lost city of tramps, he didn`t realise that he was embarking on a bizarre, year-long odyssey that would lead him thousands of miles across Russia to the Arctic Circle via the heart of Asia. After exploring the depths of Moscow`s ` Underground Planet`, Kalder chases down demons & exorcists in a post-Orange Revolution Ukraine, meets Vissaron Christ, one-time traffic cop, now messiah to thousands of followers in Siberia, enters the only wooden skyscraper on the planet & encounters a man with a bizarre secret that may explain everything... ...

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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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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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.

...

More a memoir than a travelogue, Stranger on a Train is Jenny Diski’s account of daydreaming & smoking around America with interruptions
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