The brand new novel in Bernard Cornwell`s number one bestselling series on the making of England & the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. BBC2`s major TV show THE LAST KINGDOM is based on the first two books in the series. From the day it was stolen from me I had dreamed of recapturing Bebbanburg. The great fort was built on a rock that was almost an isl&, it was massive, it could only be approached on land by a single narrow track
- & it was mine. Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbria`s Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, & Mercia`s Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed a truce. & so England`s greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his traitorous uncle stole from him so many years ago
- & which his scheming cousin still occupies. But fate is inexorable & the enemies Uhtred has made & the oaths he has sworn combine to distract him from his dream of recapturing Bebbanburg. New enemies enter into the fight for England`s kingdoms: the redoubtable Constantin of Scotland seizes an opportunity for conquest & leads his armies south. Britain`s precarious peace threatens to turn into a war of annihilation. But Uhtred is determined that nothing, neither the new enemies nor the old foes who combine against him, will keep him from his birthright. He is the Lord of Bebbanburg, but he will need all the skills he has learned in a lifetime of war to make his dream come true.

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When Elspeth Huxley`s pioneer father buys a remote plot of land in Kenya, the family sets off to discover their new home: five hundred acres of Kenyan scrubl&, infested with ticks & white ants, & quavering with heat. What they lack in know-how they make up for in determination: building a grass house, employing local Kikuyu tribe members & painstakingly transforming their patch of wilderness into a working farm. Huxley`s unforgettable childhood memoir is a sensitive account of settler life at the turn of the twentieth century & a love song to the harshness & beauty of East Africa. ...

The year is 1977 & Reno
- so called because of the place of her birth
- has come to New York intent on turning her fascination

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This is shortlisted for the 2013 national book awards. Reno mounts her motorcycle & sets a collision course for New York. In 1977 the city is alive with art, sensuality & danger. She falls in with a bohemian clique colonising downtown & the lines between reality & performance begin to bleed. A passionate affair with the scion of an Italian tyre empire carries Reno to Milan, where she is swept along by the radical left & drawn into a spiral of violence & betrayal. The Flamethrowers is an audacious novel that explores the perplexing allure of femininity, fakery & fear. In Reno we encounter a heroine like no other. ...

The clue to a murder in the art world of contemporary Madrid lies hidden in a medieval painting of a game of chess. In a 15th-century Flemish painting two noblemen are pictured playing chess. Yet two years before he could sit for the portrait, one of them was murdered. In 20th-century Madrid, Julia, a picture restorer preparing the painting for auction, uncovers a hidden inscription in Latin that points to the crime: Quis necavit equitem? Who killed the knight? But as she teams up with a brilliant chess theoretician to retrace the moves, she discovers the deadly game is not yet over. ...

A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through city streets in search of adventure & fulfillment. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets & avenues & along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors & indeed to many Parisians. In the hands of the learned White, a walk through Paris is both a tour of its lush, sometimes prurient history, & an evocation of the city`s spirit. The Flaneur leads us to bookshops & boutiques, monuments & palaces, giving us a glimpse the inner human drama. Along the way we learn everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette`s life. ...

Forget the mass-produced tortilla chips & E-flavoured salsa dips. Discover the taste of real Latin American food, as diverse as its beautiful landscapes, drawing on age-old indigenous recipes with influences from Spain, Portugal & Africa. From the snow-capped mountains of the Andes there is drunken chicken, potatoes with walnut, cheese, & chilli sauce & corn arepas stuffed with cream cheese; from the palm-fringed Caribbean, avocado & codfish appetizer, & Trinidadian callaloo; from the dusky hills of Mexico, red chicken with almonds, chopped courgettes & cream. The recipes are interspersed with stories about the origins of Latin American foods & the cooks who introduced the author to this cuisine. Poems, diaries & extracts from Latin American novels are also included. ...

Winner of the 1992 Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year, this is a cookery book with a strong travel bias, dealing with each of Andalucia`s eight provinces in turn to provide a personal, geographical & culinary survey of the area. It shows how the land itself & historical events have influenced the culinary tradition of the region, with its intriguing combination of hearty peasant fare & the delicate seasonings that are a legacy of the Moorish invasions. Each province draws on its own magnificent natural larder, & the recipes, such as hot gazpacho from Huelva, salt cod with potatoes & peppers from Jaen, pork & beans with chard from Seville & chickpea & wheat soup from Almeria, reflect this diversity. The author lived in the area for several years. Her personal reminiscences are interwoven with a wealth of cultural & historical information, & the text is accompanied by the author`s own watercolours of dishes, places & scenes of Andalucian life. ...

Far more than just a cook book, this richly illustrated volume not only features more than eighty recipes, but also provides a survey of the culinary customs, traditions & history of eight Islamic countries. Insights into everyday eating habits, the use of spices & herbs, coffee houses, restaurants & bazaars, & the famous hospitality of Arabia make this book both pleasurable & practical. ...

For those who loved The Alchemist, Siddhartha, & Jonathan Livingston Seagull, This Flawless Place Between is a mesmerising & uplifting story about death & dying. Interweaving themes from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Portier takes us to Tibet & the scene of a motorcycle accident. Anne`s life is over, but with the help of a stranger her spirit begins a cathartic voyage that carries her back through the traumas & ecstasies of her life. As she revisits her past, & the futures of those she will leave behind, Anne begins to accept not only her death but also her life
- & that what happens next will be up to her.
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