In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past & present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist & a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sandor so violently unwelcome in her parents` home? This is a novel about survival
- both banal & heroic
- & a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live. Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise & tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, & about how they define us all.

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How do you clothe a book? In this deeply personal reflection, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri explores the art of the book jacket from the perspectives of both reader & writer. Probing the complex relationships between text & image, author & designer, & art & commerce, Lahiri delves into the role of the uniform; explains what book jackets & design have come to mean to her; & how, sometimes, ”the covers become a part of me.” ...

AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 WOMAN`S HOUR In this assured debut about loneliness & passion in Africa, Sue Eckstein enthrals with a deliciously intricate plot, compelling characters & razor-sharp dialogue. West Africa in the early 1990s. Isabel Redmond is tiring of her iconoclastic husband`s penchant for pendulous black breasts; the High Commissioner & his wife Fenella are both enjoying illicit affairs; an old English judge is wandering through the scrub following a tribe of Fulani herdsmen; Bob Newpin is about to make a killing in timeshares; & just what Father Seamus is up to is anyone`s guess. Enter new diplomat Daniel Maddison on his first posting abroad. Rebelling against the endless rounds of cocktail parties, golf & gossip, he finds himself drawn to people & places that lie way beyond the experience of his High Commission colleagues
- & specifically to the dusty warehouse in the heart of the city where a thin white woman is silently measuring out lengths of brightly coloured cloth.
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By the author of THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, David Mitchell`s bestselling & Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, one of Richard & Judy`s 100 Books of the Decade, CLOUD ATLAS has now been adapted for film. The major motion picture, directed by the Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer, stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent & Hugh Grant. The novel features six characters in interlocking stories, each interrupting the one before it: a reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan`s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified dinery server on death-row; & Zachry, a young Pacific islander witnessing the nightfall of science & civilisation. The narrators of CLOUD ATLAS hear each other`s echoes down the corridor of history, & their destinies are changes in ways great & small. Mitchell`s other novels are GHOSTWRITTEN, BLACK SWAN GREEN & NUMBER9DREAM, all published by Sceptre. www.sceptrebooks.com Facebook: Sceptre Books Twitter: Sceptre Books ...

THE CLOUD COLLECTOR`S HANDBOOK fits into the pocket, allowing cloudspotters to identify cloud formations anytime & anywhere. All the common cloud types are represented, as are many of the rare ones, each fully described & illustrated with a range of photographs. Not only is THE CLOUD COLLECTOR`S HANDBOOK an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to be able to identify & understand every cloud that floats by, it also caters for the competitive cloudspotter. Points are awarded for each cloud type identified
- the rarer the cloud, the greater points
- & there`s space to fill in where & when it was sighted. Beautifully designed, in colour throughout, & full of the humour that made THE CLOUDSPOTTER`S GUIDE so engaging, the HANDBOOK is the essential reference for anyone with their head in the clouds.

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Hunting the skies is not for the faint-hearted. In a world where water is scarce & deadly jellyfish swim through the sky, mollycoddled teenager Christien dreams of excitement & danger. When he meets the exotic & alluring Jenine & her family of Cloud Hunters, he becomes determined to fulfil that dream... In a richly imaginative tale, perfect for both boys & girls as they launch themselves into the world of fiction as independent readers, Alex Shearer creates a Dahl-esque fantasy that roams through realms of magic, wonder & adventure. ...

A fortress in the sky... Japan, 1701. A woman is brutally attacked within a bamboo prison as clouds swirl around her head. Meanwhile, at Edo Castle, samurai detective turned chamberlain Sano Ichiro is suspicious of his old rival, Yanagisawa, who has been oddly cooperative since his return from exile. But just as Yanagisawa`s true motives begin to emerge, Sano`s estranged uncle comes to him for help: his daughter has disappeared, & he begs Sano & his wife
- who once suffered through the kidnapping of their own son
- to find her before it is too late.

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In these evocative & elegiac writings L.T.C. Rolt meditates on landscape, history, poetry, steam railways, vintage cars & the endless summer days of his childhood. He also recalls his many happy boating voyages on Britain's canals: the peace & tranquility, the wildlife & people, the changing scenery as he travelled from county to county, & the role he played in preserving the waterways for future generations. Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside
- but it has profoundly shaped us too. It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians & people who live & work on the land
- as well as those who are travelling through it. English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie & country churches, to man's relationship with nature & songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts & love-struck soldiers).

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This amusing book from the chairman & founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society does exactly what it says on the cover
- it’s a
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For over 70 years, Clowns International
- the oldest established clowning organization
- has been painting the faces of its

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