This story is set in London, 1807. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he & his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. The Thornhills arrive in this harsh & alien land that they cannot understand & which feels like a death sentence. But, among the convicts there is a rumour that freedom can be bought, that 'unclaimed' land up the Hawkesbury offers an opportunity to start afresh, far away from the township of Sydney. When William takes a hundred acres for himself, he is shocked to find Aboriginal people already living on the river. & other recent arrivals
- Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan & Mrs. Herring
- are finding their own ways to respond to them. Soon Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life...

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2006 COMMONWEALTH WRITERS` PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE IMPAC DUBLIN PRIZELondon, 1806. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he & his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. Soon Thornhill, a man no better or worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life. ...

A Plotting Duchess, a Mysterious Death & a Castle Full of Intrigue in Catherine Bailey`s The Secret Rooms. At 6 am on 21 April 1940 John the 9th Duke of Rutl&, & one of Britain`s wealthiest men, ended his days, virtually alone, lying on a makeshift bed in a dank cramped suite of rooms in the servants` quarters of his own home, Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire. For weeks, as his health deteriorated, his family, his servants
- even the King`s doctor
- pleaded with him to come out, but he refused. After his death, his son & heir, Charles, the 10th Duke of Rutl&, ordered that the rooms be locked up & they remained untouched for sixty years. What lay behind this extraordinary set of circumstances? For the first time, in The Secret Rooms, Catherine Bailey unravels a complex & compelling tale of love, honour & betrayal, played out in the grand salons of Britain`s stately homes at the turn of the twentieth century, & on the battlefields of the Western Front. At its core is a secret so dark that it consumed the life of the man who fought to his death to keep it hidden. This extraordinary mystery from the author of Black Diamonds, perfect for lovers of Downton Abbey, Brideshead Revisited & The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Praise for The Secret Rooms: ” Reads like the best kind of mystery story. It is a tale of mistresses & heirlooms, cowardice & connivance, & a deeply dysfunctional family.. .gripping”. (Sunday Times). ” Astonishing.. .jaw-dropping... It would spoil the book if I revealed the whole works, suffice it to say.. .what a family”. (Sunday Telegraph). ” An extraordinary detective operation”. (John Julius). Norwich Catherine Bailey is the author of Black Diamonds. She read history at Oxford University & is a successful, award-winning television producer & director, making a range of critically acclaimed documentary films inspired by her interest in twentieth century history. She lives in West London.

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A plotting Duchess, a mysterious death & a castle full of lies in Catherine Bailey's The Secret Rooms. At 6 am on 21 April 1940 John the 9th Duke of Rutl&, & one of Britain's wealthiest men, ended his days, virtually alone, lying on a makeshift bed in a dank cramped suite of rooms in the servants' quarters of his own home, Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire. For weeks, as his health deteriorated, his family, his servants
- even the King's doctor
- pleaded with him to come out, but he refused. After his death, his son & heir, Charles, the 10th Duke of Rutl&, ordered that the rooms be locked up & they remained untouched for sixty years. What lay behind this extraordinary set of circumstances? For the first time, in The Secret Rooms, Catherine Bailey unravels a complex & compelling tale of love, honour & betrayal, played out in the grand salons of Britain's stately homes at the turn of the twentieth century, & on the battlefields of the Western Front. At its core is a secret so dark that it consumed the life of the man who fought to his death to keep it hidden. This extraordinary mystery from the author of Black Diamonds, perfect for lovers of Downton Abbey, Brideshead Revisited & The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Praise for The Secret Rooms: Reads like the best kind of mystery story. It is a tale of mistresses & heirlooms, cowardice & connivance, & a deeply dysfunctional family.. .gripping. (Sunday Times). Astonishing.. .jaw-dropping... It would spoil the book if I revealed the whole works, suffice it to say.. .what a family. (Sunday Telegraph). An extraordinary detective operation. (John Julius Norwich). Catherine Bailey is the author of Black Diamonds. She read history at Oxford University & is a successful, award-winning television producer & director, making a range of critically acclaimed documentary films inspired by her interest in twentieth century history. She lives in West London.

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Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne Mc Nulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr. Grene, & their relationship intensifies & complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking & deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory & retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character & the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment & ignorance, & yet marked still by love & passion & hope. ...

This is a wonderful volume of Conrad`s short fiction, reissued alongside the new film The Secret Sharer. This volume of Conrad`s short works explores a vast array of human experience in a variety of settings across the globe, from the sea to the colonial world, from the Far East & Africa to Europe. ` The Nigger of the ” Narcissus”` shows life on the `small planet` of a ship threatened by storms & anarchy, while ` Youth` & ` The Secret Sharer` portray men at sea confronting turning points in their lives. ` The Informer` reveals anarchy & activism in London, ` Il Conde` depicts a secret double life in Naples & ` The Duel` dramatizes conflicts & obsession in Napoleon`s army. All show Conrad to be a continuously experimental writer, ranging across time & place & constantly reinventing the nature of storytelling. This volume
Includes:: The Nigger of the ` Narcissus`; Youth, A Narrative; The Secret Sharer
- The Lagoon; An Outpost of Progress; The Idiots; The Informer; Il Conde; & The Duel. Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 & grew up under Tsarist autocracy. In 1874 he travelled to Marseilles, where he served in French merchant vessels before joining a British ship in 1878 as an apprentice. In 1886 he obtained British nationality. Eight years later he left the sea to devote himself to writing, publishing his first novel, Almayer`s Folly, in 1895. The following year he settled in Kent, where he produced within fifteen years such classics as Youth, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent & Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in 1924. Gail Fraser (introducer), author of Interweaving Patterns in the Works of Joseph Conrad (1988), has also written on Conrad`s short fiction for The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad (1996) & Conradiana: A Journal of Joseph Conrad Studies. Allan Simmons (co-editor) is author of Joseph Conrad (2006). J.H. Stape (co-editor) is the author of The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad (1996).

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Recovering from a hip replacement operation, & suffering from a mid-life crisis, Iain Gately sets out to catch a tube. This is no London underground train, but rather that evanescent space, beneath the lip of a breaking wave, that every surfer yearns to visit. In all his years of surfing, Iain Gately has never caught one. He realises it is now or never. His quest takes him to the Atlantic beaches of England`s West Country, & to the sandbars & reefs of Galicia & the Canary Isl&. By turns funny, energetic & inspiring, The Secret Surfer is a tale of self-knowledge through endeavour, a beguiling blend of black humour, adventure & soul searching. Above all, it is a rousing call to all of us not to give up too soon. ...

Espionage & counter-espionage between the Soviets & the British during London`s Roaring Twenties At the height of the hedonistic Jazz Age, many in British society became convinced that they were under attack from the new Soviet state. Still reeling from the Russian revolution of 1917, disturbed by the development of militant workers movements at home, & deeply paranoid about the recent wave of Russian immigration to the UK, the British government tasked the intelligence services to look for evidence of espionage. Over the next decade, as the political pressure mounted, the spooks began to cast their net of suspicion wider, to include not only suspect Russians, but British aristocrats, Bloomsbury artists, ordinary workers, & even members of parliament. It was the biggest spying operation in British Intelligence`s peacetime history to date, undertaken with enthusiastic support from anti-Red crusaders like Winston Churchill, & its ramifications were profound. On the strength of the evidence uncovered, Britain deported hundreds of Russians & broke off diplomatic links with Moscow for more than two years. This was the first Cold War, & it not only set the rules of engagement for Russia & Britain for decades to come, but also sent shockwaves through the British establishment, bringing down a government & ending careers. Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified & previously unseen material, Timothy Phillips uncovers a world of suspicion & extremism, bureaucracy & betrayal set against the sparkling backdrop of cocktail-era London. The Secret Twenties shines fresh light on a glamorous decade, & offers a gripping account of the lives of the first Soviet spies, the British Secret Services that pursued them & the double agents in their midst. ...

In the 1920s, many in the British establishment became convinced that their way of life was being threatened by the new Soviet state. The British government launched vast spying operations in response, carrying out surveillance on not only suspect Russians, but British aristocrats, Bloomsbury artists, ordinary workers & even MPs. What they discovered had profound ramifications for the whole of British society, dividing the nation & laying the foundations for the later Cold War. Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified archives, The Secret Twenties tells the story of the first Soviet spies & the double agents in their midst, all of it set against the sparkling backdrop of cocktail-era London. ...

T.S. Spivet is a genius mapmaker who lives on a ranch in Montana. His father is a silent cowboy & his mother is a scientist who for the last twenty years has been looking for a mythical species of beetle. His brother has gone, his sister seems normal but might not be, & his dog
- Verywell
- is going mad. T.S. makes sense of it all by drawing beautiful, meticulous maps kept in innumerable colour-coded notebooks. He is brilliant, & the Smithsonian Institution agrees, though when they award him a major scientific prize they don`t suspect for a moment that he is twelve years old. So begins T.S.`s life-changing adventure, travelling two thousand miles across America to reach the awards dinner, the secret-society membership & the TV interviews that beckon. But is this what he wants? Do maps & lists explain the world? & why are adults so strange?

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