A.A. Milne grew up in a school
- his parents ran Henley House in Kilburn, for young boys
- but never intended to be a children`s

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Getting home after a long day`s work to find your house flying off
- now there`s an upsetting situation. What can you do? Who should
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The American classic
- soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg`s Amblin Entertainment, starring Cate Blanchett,
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CASTROUX, FRANCE, 1939. In a bare farmhouse on a windswept plain above the village, Oriane, orphaned at thirteen, lives in desperate poverty. When the Germans invade, Oriane finds work in a Nazi barracks while her fiance joins the Resistance. Their simple world is thrown into chaos. Casual brutality is common; rebellion is imminent; revenge will be swift & severe. CASTROUX, FRANCE, 2000. In an idyllic gite overlooking the quaint village church, British expat Aisling frets about her chocolate parfait, determined to impress her brother-in-law's glamorous fiancee Claudia. But Claudia couldn't care less about chocolate parfait. She's pregnant by another man & terrified of the future. She confides only in an elderly neighbour, Oriane, & discovers that she too once carried a shameful secret
- from which she still bears the scars. The House with Blue Shutters
- a place that has witnessed the horrors of wartime, the petty concerns of peacetime, & the secrets that bind past & present. A place where history echoes off every wall...

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In 1989, Marianna, the beautiful star soprano at the Lviv opera, is shot dead in the street as she leads the Ukrainian citizens in their protest against Soviet power. Only eleven years old at the time, her daughter tells the story of their family before & after that critical moment
- including, ten years later, her own passionate affair with an older, married man. Just like their home city of Lviv, which stands at the crossroads of nations & cultures, the women in this family have had turbulent lives, scarred by war & political turmoil, but also by their own inability to show each other their feelings. Lyrically told, this is the story of a young girl`s emotional, sexual, artistic & political awakening as she matures under the influence of her relatives, her mother`s former lover, her city & its fortunes. Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
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Working as a housekeeper was one of the most prestigious jobs a nineteenth & early twentieth century woman could want
- & also
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A perennially popular collection of colour cartoon illustrations, with accompanying texts, on the endearing oddities of our British life & character. Drawing on their many years` experience of teaching English as a Foreign Language the authors also offer the wider world a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to get around in English & at the same time make sense of our `funny ways`. It`s a gentle brand of satire, & although there`s the occasional barbed arrow for bland food, fashion disasters or dubious standards of hygiene, the tone of The ” How To Be British Collection” is more nostalgic than scornful, & the pet-loving, royal-watching, tea drinking characters that populate its pages are viewed with wry affection. Cartoons like ” How to be Polite” & ” How to Complain” have been reproduced in publications all over the world, perhaps because they put a finger on that peculiar tentativeness that foreigners find so puzzling (and so funny) about us. In order to be British, or at any rate to pass unnoticed in British society, the visitor must learn not to `make a fuss`. A fuss is something that the true Brit cannot st&. ...

The most unusual feature of Donald Trump`s nationalist & populist campaign for the presidency of the USA was his obsessive use of Twitter. Like other social media, this form of communication has often been assumed to encourage the dissemination of liberal values & the circulation of facts. Trump`s tweets, by contrast, formed a constant stream of provocations, insults, conspiracy theories, `alternative facts` & outright lies. & they helped him win power. Peter Oborne, author of The Rise of Political Lying & Not The Chilcot Report, analyses Trump`s incendiary mendacity in all its bewildering guises, & shows how this fusion of entertainment & cunningly crafted propaganda has destabilised the world`s most powerful democracy. ...

When Gunnar Huttunen turns up in a small village to restore its run-down mill, its inhabitants are wary. Gunnar is big. He`s a bit odd. &, strangest of all, he howls wildly at night. If Gunnar is different, then he must be mad, the villagers decide. Hounded from his home, he must find a way to survive the wilds of nature & the greater savagery of civilization. The Howling Miller is a dark fairytale of community, conformity & our place in the world. ...

Gunnar Huttunen arrives in North Finland after the war & buys a dilapidated mill. Despite being a decent & hard-working Finn, he is also an outsider & an eccentric: prone to mood swings, black depression, high elation & a general lack of decorum. He puts on performances at the mill for local children at which he specialises in imitating animals & making fun of the village notables. Already prejudiced against him by his jibes, the villagers reserve most ire for the howling which Huttunen indulges in at night, which the local dogs join in a delirious chorus. Passionate & outraged by his treatment at the hands of the villagers, it is not long before the accident-prone miller finds that his situation soon spirals out of control... Paasilinna`s riotous book revels in a black, rebellious, deadpan humour. It is also a fable about the eternal struggle between freedom & repressive authority. ...