WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALI SMITHA classic of fantastic literature, Leonora Carrington`s The Hearing Trumpet is the occult twin to Alice in Wonderl&, published with an introduction by Ali Smith in Penguin Modern Classics. One of the first things ninety-two-year-old Marian Leatherby overhears when she is given an ornate hearing trumpet is her family plotting to commit her to an institution. Soon, she finds herself trapped in a sinister retirement home, where the elderly must inhabit buildings shaped like igloos & birthday cakes, endure twisted religious preaching & eat in a canteen overlooked by the mysterious portrait of a leering Abbess. But when another resident secretly hands Marian a book recounding the life of the Abbess, a joyous & brilliantly surreal adventure begins to unfold. Written in the early 1960s, The Hearing Trumpet remains one of the most original & inspirational of all fantastic novels. Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a British born Surrealist painter & writer described, alongside people such as Pablo Picasso & Joan Miro, as one of the leading lights of the Surrealist movement. Born in Lancashire to a strict Catholic family, she first came into contact with surrealism through her lover, Surrealist painter Max Ernst, before moving to Mexico in 1942. The Hearing Trumpet, her most famous piece of writing, was first published in France in 1974. If you enjoyed The Hearing Trumpet, you might like Fernando Pessoa`s The Book of Disquiet, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.` Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days` Luis Bunuel` One of the most original, joyful, satisfying & quietly visionary novels of the twentieth century` Ali Smith` This book is so inspiring...I love its freedom, its humour & how it invents its own laws. What specifically do I take from her? Her wig` Bjoerk ...

Stan & Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of economic & social collapse. Living in their car, surviving on tips from Charmaine`s job at a dive bar, they`re increasingly vulnerable to roving gangs & in a rather desperate state. So when they see an advertisement for the Positron Project in the town of Consilience
- a `social experiment` offering stable jobs & a home of their own
- they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for this suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month, swapping their home for a prison cell. At first, all is well. But slowly, unknown to the other, Stan & Charmaine develop a passionate obsession with their counterparts, the couple that occupy their home when they are in prison. Soon the pressures of conformity, mistrust, guilt & sexual desire take over, & Positron looks less like a prayer answered & more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.

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` Sensual, evocative & rich with observational truth, this is a vivid & intricate portrait of three extraordinary women` Jeremy Page, author of Closing Time `I will describe it as best I can. This is their story. Or perhaps just mine. Let us begin, again... ` A vivid & inventive debut novel about four generations of women in a family, their past & their legacy, which evokes the work of Kate Atkinson, Tessa Hadley & Virginia Baily. On a brisk day in 1970, a daughter arrives at her mother`s home to take care of her as she nears the end of her life. ` Home` is the sprawling Italian castle of Roccasinibalda, & Diana`s mother is the legendary Caresse Crosby, one half of literature`s most scandalous couple in 1920s Paris, widow of Harry Crosby, the American heir, poet & publisher who epitomised the ` Lost Generation`. But it was not only Harry who was lost. Their incendiary love story concealed a darkness that marked mercurial Diana & still burns through the generations: through Diana`s troubled daughters Elena & Leonie, & Elena`s young children. Moving between the decades, between France, Italy & the Channel Islands, Tamara Colchester`s debut novel is an unforgettably powerful portrait of a line of extraordinary women, & the inheritance they give their daughters. ` This is a bold, striking & confident novel filled with vivid, sometimes shocking, scenes. It spans decades, generations & continents without ever feeling disjointed. This is a stunning introduction to an intriguing new voice in British fiction, who does real justice to her prodigious forebear` Netgalley reviewer ...

” The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” was Carson Mc Cullers` first novel, written in 1940. Set in a small town in the American South, it is the story of a group of people who have little in common except that they are all hopelessly lonely. A young girl, a drunken socialist & a black doctor are drawn to a gentle, sympathetic deaf mute, whose presence changes their lives. This powerful exploration of alienation is both moving & perceptive. ...

This is the only book that covers the history & current production of the prestigious estates of Bordeaux`s Graves region. This beautiful & informative book reveals both the history & the distinctive characteristics of the 16 wines that comprise the Crus Classes (classified growths) of Bordeaux`s Graves region. Named for the area`s gravelly soil, Graves is known for its fine reds (primarily Cabernet Sauvignon) & whites (Sauvignon blanc & Semillon). With individual chapters on each of the chateaux, including Haut-Brion, Bouscaut, Olivier, Pape Clement, Smith Haut Lafitte, Domaine de Chevalier & 10 others, the book describes in detail the history of the estate & its wine production. Gorgeous photographs of the vineyards, the residences & the surrounding countryside are accompanied by archival material that gives a sense of the great history of this area. As an added bonus, ” The Heart of Bordeaux” features recipes created by some of the world`s great chefs
- Daniel Boulud, Pierre Gagnaire & Eric Ripert among them
- to complement one of the fine wines of Graves` classified growths.

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Today Orkney retains a vast archaeological treasury of buildings, artefacts & evidence from this time. In recognition of this, ” The Heart of Neolithic Orkney” was inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1999. Because of their outstanding universal value, ” The monuments of Orkney, dating back to 3000-2000BC, are outstanding testimony to the cultural achievements of the Neolithic peoples of northern Europe.” This guide covers all of the monuments in the nominated area, as well as many contemporary places of interest throughout Orkney. The village of Skara Brae, stone circles of the Ring of Brodgar & the Standing Stones of Stenness, & Maeshowe Chambered Cairn are described in depth. Isolated standing stones, such as the Watchstone, chambered cairns, such as Unstan & more enigmatic sites all over Orkney are included. The major current excavations at the Ness of Brodgar & Links o` Noltland on Westray show that much remains to be discovered about Neolithic Orkney. Numerous smaller scale digs in various other places have elucidated the study of Neolithic houses. Small settlements & isolated homesteads were widespread across Orkney during the Neolithic, reaching a peak c.3000BC, before sharply falling until c.2800BC. There was a revival which peaked c.2500BC, followed by abandonment c.250 years later. ...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JAMES WOOD. Scobie, a police officer serving in a wartime West African state, is distrusted, being scrupulously honest & immune to bribery. But then he falls in love, & in doing so he is forced to betray everything he believes in, with drastic & tragic consequences. ...

The Heart of Tuscany set of four hiking maps at 1:50, 000 from Kompass covering in all an area from Pistoia north of Florence, across Chianti & the hills of Siena, to Monte Amiata, & in the coastal region from Pisa to Piombino. Coverage

Includes:: Lucca, Livorno & the Etruscan Riviera, San Gimignano, San Miniato, Volterra, Poggibonsi, Monticiano, Montalcino, etc. Contours are at 40m intervals, with a 2-km UTM grid. In addition to the region

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Camp Chippewa, 1962. Thirteen-year-old Nelson, loner & over-achiever, is nicknamed the Bugler as he proudly sounds the reveille each morning. This is the summer that everything changes, marking the beginning of Nelson`s uncertain friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan, & the discovery of his father`s betrayal, which tears his family apart. As time moves on, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa, while Jonathan marries, divorces, & transforms his father`s business. When something unthinkable happens during a visit from Jonathan`s grandson & daughter-in-law, the aftermath tests the depths
- & the limits
- of Nelson`s selflessness & bravery. Nickolas Butler`s The Hearts of Men is a powerful, wise & deeply affecting novel about the slippery definitions of right & wrong, family & fidelity, & the redemptive power of friendship.

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Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that`s what his adoptive parents tell him. & he never will be. But if he isn`t a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community & adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous & dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune & coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself & where he came from
- & over his three score years & ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country & much more. In this, Boyne`s most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart`s Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh & cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.
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