Taking us through the seasons in England`s apple-growing heartlands, this magical book uncovers the stories & folklore of our most familiar fruit.` An orchard is not a field. It`s not a forest or a copse. It couldn`t occur naturally; it`s definitely cultivated. But an orchard doesn`t override the natural order: it enhances it, dresses it up. It demonstrates that man & nature together can
- just occasionally
- create something more beautiful & (literally) more fruitful than either could alone. The vivid brightness of the laden trees, studded with jewels, stirs some deep race memory & makes the heart leap. Here is bounty, & excitement.`

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Taking us through the seasons in England`s apple-growing heartlands, this magical book uncovers the stories & folklore of our most familiar fruit. ` An orchard is not a field. It`s not a forest or a copse. It couldn`t occur naturally; it`s definitely cultivated. But an orchard doesn`t override the natural order: it enhances it, dresses it up. It demonstrates that man & nature together can
- just occasionally
- create something more beautiful & (literally) more fruitful than either could alone. The vivid brightness of the laden trees, studded with jewels, stirs some deep race memory & makes the heart leap. Here is bounty, & excitement.`

...

'I've been summoned, Thursday, ten sharp'. So begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceaucescu's totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before; but this time she knows it will be worse. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men's suits bound for Italy. ' Marry me', the notes say, with her name & address. Anything to get out of the country. As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot while trying to flee to Hungary; to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them; to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers; &, to Paul, her lover & the one person she can trust. In her distraction, she misses her stop & finds herself on an unfamiliar street. & what she discovers there suddenly puts her fear of the appointment into chilling perspective. Bone-spare & intense, The Appointment is a pitiless rendering of the terrors of a crushing regime. ...

`I`ve been summoned, Thursday, ten sharp.` So begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceausescu`s totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before, but this time she knows it will be worse. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men`s suits bound for Italy. ` Marry me`, the notes say, with her name & address. Anything to get out of the country. As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot while trying to flee to Hungary; to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them; to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers; & to Paul, her lover & the one person she can trust. In her distraction, she misses her stop & finds herself on an unfamiliar street. And what she discovers there suddenly puts her fear of the appointment into chilling perspective. Bone-spare & intense, The Appointment is a pitiless rendering of the terrors of a crushing regime. ...

Arianwyn fluffs her witch`s assessment. Awarded the dull bronze disc of an apprentice
- to the glee of her arch-rival, Gimma
-

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`I JOYOUSLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO YOU` Mark Haddon `RIAD SATTOUF IS ONE OF THE GREAT CREATORS OF OUR TIME` Alain De Botton `A MASTERPIECE` Posy Simmonds `EXCELLENT` Guardian `WORTH A SHELF FULL OF BOOKS` Hari Kunzru The Arab of the Future tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf`s childhood, spent in the shadows of three dictators
- Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, & his father. In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood & the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi`s Libya, & Assad`s Syria
- but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation. Riad, delicate & wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents: his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People`s Libyan Arab State & then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, & with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. The ultimate outsider, Riad, with his flowing blond hair, is called the ultimate insult... Jewish. & in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace. Brimming with life & dark humour, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth & texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East, & also introduces a master cartoonist in a work destined to stand alongside Maus & Persepolis. Translated by Sam Taylor. A GUARDIAN `BEST GRAPHIC BOOKS OF 2015` PICK WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR GRAPHIC NOVELS NOMINATED FOR `BEST REALITY-BASED WORK` AT THE EISNER AWARDS `ENGROSSING` New York Times `A PAGE TURNER` Guardian `MARVELLOUS...BEGS TO BE READ IN ONE LONG SITTING` Herald `AN OBJECT OF CONSENSUAL RAPTURE` New Yorker `ONE OF THE GREATEST CARTOONISTS OF HIS GENERATION` Le Monde

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Spontaneous, unforeseen & contagious, the uprisings of the Arab Spring took everyone
- participants included
- by surprise.

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An acclaimed Middle East expert & Foreign Policy blogger explores the ramifications of upheaval in the Arab world, & how the West should react. The Middle East today is undergoing one of the most fundamental changes in its modern history: the empowerment of a new generation of Arabs who reject the world they inherited. In The Arab Uprising, the director of George Washington University's Institute for Middle East Studies maintains that the revolutions that have so far brought down the governments of Egypt, Tunisia & Libya are only the beginning. It is far too soon to know whether these events will produce new democracies or something else entirely. Whatever happens, we must now come to grips with a region where public opinion actually matters, perhaps for the first time in the region's history. Informed by inside access to the Obama Administration's decision-making process & a wealth of knowledge about youth activists & Islamists alike, The Arab Uprising is a necessary guide to the changing lay of the land in the Middle East & North Africa. ...

Jeremy Bowen has been the BBC`s Middle East correspondent for twelve years & has been on the ground for them as the recent revolutions have swept through the region. Realising this as a game-changing moment in the history of the Middle East, The Arab Uprisings captures the thoughts & feelings of the people involved as the events unfolded, putting these revolutions in their political context, & using them as a prism through which to understand the broader history & landscape of the Middle East. The book will look at the world the demonstrators rejected & its Arab dictators. The author will examine brutal police states, tribal loyalty & foreign help. The West`s response & Israel`s too, will form part of the narrative. This is an urgent & authoritative account of the seismic political changes rocking the Middle East, from one of the foremost reporters of our time. ...

Jeremy Bowen has been the BBC`s Middle East correspondent for twelve years & has been on the ground for them as the recent revolutions have swept through the region. Realising this as a game-changing moment in the history of the Middle East, The Arab Uprisings captures the thoughts & feelings of the people involved as the events unfolded, putting these revolutions in their political context, & using them as a prism through which to understand the broader history & landscape of the Middle East. The book will look at the world the demonstrators rejected & its Arab dictators. The author will examine brutal police states, tribal loyalty & foreign help. The West`s response & Israel`s too, will form part of the narrative. This is an urgent & authoritative account of the seismic political changes rocking the Middle East, from one of the foremost reporters of our time. ...