The year is 1506, & the streets of Lisbon are seething with fear & suspicion when Abraham Zarco is found dead, a naked girl at his side. Abraham was a renowned kabbalist, a practitioner of the arcane mysteries of the Jewish tradition at a time when the Jews of Portugal were forced to convert to Christianity. Berekiah, a talented young manuscript illuminator, investigates his uncle`s murder, & discovers in the kabbalah clues that lead him into the labyrinth of secrets in which the Jews sought to hide from their persecutors. A challenging mystery & a powerful indictment of the evils of intolerance, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is an extraordinary & spellbinding historical thriller. ...

Two strong women. Two cultures. One unifying cause: survival. Ellen Thomas, experienced war correspondent, returns to Afghanistan`s dangerous Helmand Province on assignment, keen to find the murderer of her friend & translator, Jalil. In her search for justice in a land ravaged by death & destruction, she uncovers disturbing truths. Hasina, forced by tradition into the role of wife & mother, lives in a village which is taken by British Forces. Her only son, Aref, is part of a network of underground fighters & she is determined to protect him, whatever the cost. Ellen & Hasina are thrown together
- one fighting for survival, the other searching for truth
- with devastating consequences for them both. The Last Kestrel is a deeply moving & lyrical story of disparate lives
- innocent & not-so-innocent
- caught up in the horrors of war. It is a book which will resonate with fans of The Kite Runner & The Bookseller of Kabul.



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What would it be like to become Idi Amin`s personal physician? Giles Foden`s best-selling thriller is the story of a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of the Ugandan dictator`s surreal & brutal regime. Privy to Amin`s thoughts & ambitions, he is both fascinated & appalled. As Uganda plunges into civil chaos he realizes action is imperative
- but which way should he jump?
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Giles Foden’s first novel The Last King of Scotland is told from the point of view of Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor, who comes to Uganda when he accepts a position with the Ministry of Health. His arrival in Kampala, the capital city, coincides with Idi Amin’s coup overthrowing President Obote. After a few days he moves out to the bush to begin his assignment but is then called back when Amin is involved in a freak accident featuring his sports car & a cow. Within a few months Garrigan becomes the president’s personal physician & quickly descends into a position where he is squeezed between his duty to his patient & his own government’s attempts to have him help them control Amin. Amin’s character is not a simple one of a monster but is actually often appealing. Garrigan is cast as an average man, like us, who falls under Amin’s spell & suffers a moral slide from the little compromises he makes
- it could happen to nearly anybody. Along the way the reader is treated to a stirring portrait of Africa’s natural, political & social complexity. An amazing story of tropical corruption & an extraordinarily well researched account of Uganda & one of Africa`s most notorious leaders.
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Giles Foden’s first novel The Last King of Scotland is told from the point of view of Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor, who comes to Uganda when he accepts a position with the Ministry of Health. His arrival in Kampala, the capital city, coincides with Idi Amin’s coup overthrowing President Obote. After a few days he moves out to the bush to begin his assignment but is then called back when Amin is involved in a freak accident featuring his sports car & a cow. Within a few months Garrigan becomes the president’s personal physician & quickly descends into a position where he is squeezed between his duty to his patient & his own government’s attempts to have him help them control Amin. Amin’s character is not a simple one of a monster but is actually often appealing. Garrigan is cast as an average man, like us, who falls under Amin’s spell & suffers a moral slide from the little compromises he makes
- it could happen to nearly anybody. Along the way the reader is treated to a stirring portrait of Africa’s natural, political & social complexity. An amazing story of tropical corruption & an extraordinarily well researched account of Uganda & one of Africa`s most notorious leaders.
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The story opens on the day that the Western Roman Empire collapses finally in 470AD, as the Last Emperor of Rome is encamped protected by the Nova Invicta Legion. All is lost in the space of a few minutes as a horde of Barbarians sweep through the camp in the fog, kill the Imperial family & take the young Emperor captive. The Roman Empire is in ruins.. . But all is not lost. From the dust of battlefields emerges a small team of invincible warriors
- The Last Legion. Their task is to rescue the Emperor & his enigmatic tutor & to try & resurrect the glory of Rome. All their strength of character & bravery come into play as they guide the last Caesar in a dramatic journey of escape through a devastated Italy & Northern Europe to their ultimate destinies in the land of the Britons...and the beginning of a new legend.
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Martine is looking forward to the holidays & riding Jemmy, her white giraffe, until an accident sends her & Ben on a journey to the Matobo Hills wilderness in Zimbabwe. It is a lawless l&, where nothing is as it seems. When they uncover a plot in which the fate of a magnificent leopard & the lost treasure of an African King are mysteriously linked, their friendship faces its greatest test. Far from home & the help of Grace & Tendai, & with Gwyn Thomas languishing, under false accusations, in jail, Martine & Ben must use every survival skill they possess. They`ll come face to face with Griffin, Mercy, Mr Ratcliffe (known as Rat), Magnus the hornbill, & a witch doctor, not to mention Khan, the last leopard. They must decide who their friends are, & who are enemies, as they race against time to save the world`s rarest leopard & each other. This third African adventure is written with all the zest & skill that have endeared so many readers to THE WHITE GIRAFFE & DOLPHIN SONG. ...

David Gilmour`s biography of Giuseppe di Lampedusa unearths the life story of the creator of ” The Leopard”, one of the great novels of the twentieth century. A book whose imagery, once tasted, haunts the reader forever. ” The Leopard” describes the golden era of the nineteenth-century Sicily in all its sensual, fading, aristocratic glory. But beneath the surface lurk Sicily`s millenial contagions
- corruption, brutality & inequality. Who wrote this masterpiece, this work of art? the answer is as unlikely as one might hope. This is a fascinating meditation on what it is that makes a writer.
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Spanning forty years, two women`s stories of love, loss & betrayal are intertwined in this award-winning novel by Jojo Moyes, internationally bestselling author of Me Before You, After You & the new bestseller Still Me. `A fabulous, emotional & evocative book
- perfect for anyone who loves Mad Men` Sophie Kinsella When journalist Ellie looks through her newspaper`s archives for a story, she doesn`t think she`ll find anything of interest. Instead she discovers a letter from 1960, written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband
- & Ellie is caught up in the intrigue of a past love affair. Despite, or perhaps because of her own romantic entanglements with a married man. In 1960, Jennifer wakes up in hospital after a car accident. She can`t remember anything
- her husb&, her friends, who she used to be. & then, when she returns home, she uncovers a hidden letter, & begins to remember the lover she was willing to risk everything for. Ellie & Jennifer`s stories of passion, adultery & loss are wound together in this richly emotive novel
- interspersed with real `last letters`.



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Nick Ostler`s The Last Lingua Franca looks at the rise & fall of world languages, prompting the quesiton ”in the twenty-first century, can we really take the dominance of English for granted?”. In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit & Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. & yet they have all been displaced, just as Nicholas Ostler predicts English will be. What forces drive these linguistic currents? What characteristics do lingua francas share? & most importantly, how do they lose their power? In this revelatory book, Ostler explores the rise of a linguistic diversity that we could never before have imagined. ...