At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly boy. The boy is not his son. It is a single act of violence, but this one slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, THE SLAP is the most talked-about novel of 2010, & looks set to be the most read book of 2011. ...

Jacob, a Jewish slave held in a mountain village after escaping a massacre by Cossacks, will be killed if he tries to escape. The one saving grace is his love for his master`s daughter, Wanda. They begin a secret affair, trying to avoid the cruelty of the other villagers, until one day Jacob`s fortunes unexpectedly change. Now he must choose between his need to be with his people & his love for Wanda, who in turn will also discover the meaning of brutality. In ” The Slave”, published in 1962, Isaac Bashevis Singer creates a dreamlike portrayal of isolation, rejection, love & the meaning of sacrifice. ...

This text is an entertaining account of one man's journey through distant lands. Artist Harry Holcroft visits over 20 countries across Africa & America as he retraces the path of the ancient slave routes, adopting the various historical means of travel along the way. An enthusiastic storyteller, Holcroft's diary conveys the idiosyncratic charm of these exotic lands, while a unique collection of over 100 paintings & sketches capture the haunting atmosphere of some of the world's most evocative places. ...

Beijing, 1956: foreign correspondent Alan Winnington heard reports of slaves being freed in the mountains of south-west China. The following year he travelled to Yunnan province & spent several months with the head-hunting Wa & the slave-owning Norsu & Jingpaw. From that journey was born The Slaves of the Cool Mountains, which Neal Ascherson has called `one of the classics of modern English travel writing`. The first European to enter & leave these areas alive, Winnington met a slave-owner who assessed his value at five silver ingots (` Your age is against you, but as a curiosity you would fetch a decent price`), a head-hunter who a fortnight earlier killed a man in order to improve his own rice harvest, & a sorcerer struggling against the modern medicines sapping his authority & livelihood. Meeting recently released slaves was a scoop of which most journalists can only dream — ` Nobody will ever again be able to see them as I saw them` — & Winnington`s account of their struggle to come to terms with new-found freedom is unforgettable. ...

A thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman & illustrator Chris Riddell
- weaving
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This is an evocative family memoir & unique portrait of Afghanistan from a young Afghan journalist. Hamida Ghafour's family fled Kabul after the Russian invasion. In 2003, she was sent back by the Telegraph to cover the country's reconstruction. She finds a place changed utterly from the world her parents had described & her grandmother
- an Afghan Virginia Woolf
- had written about. All around her is the West's first post-9/11 experiment with an Islamic democracy. But the people she meets reveal a different kind of nation building: the 'beautician without borders' whose school teaches women a new kind of independence; her cousin's determined parliamentary campaign; &, the archaeologist digging for his country's lost civilization in the form of a giant sleeping Buddha. As she participates in her country's present, its elusive past & her family's own story come vividly together for Hamida. But only when she's standing by her grandmother's grave
- after a heavily escorted Chinook trip to the wildest corner of the land
- does she start to find her own place in it all.



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An enchanting take on the legend of King Arthur from War Horse author & former Children`s Laureate Michael Morpurgo.` There stood before me an ancient man swathed in a dark & tattered fleece, his long hair & beard matted with filth, his face grey with grief & age. Holding the sword out in front of me, I backed away until I felt the sink behind me & I could go no further. His eyes followed me all the way.` When Bun Bendle is struck blind, he feels like he is drowning in blackness. But the discovery of an ancient tomb & a strangely familiar sword changes him forever. The Sleeping Sword weaves a contemporary tale with Arthurian legend in a way that is utterly spellbinding. A gripping children`s adventure from the master storyteller of An Eagle in the Snow, Listen to the Moon, Shadow, Arthur, High King of Britain & An Elephant in the Garden.------Former Children`s Laureate Michael Morpurgo needs no introduction. He is one of the most successful children`s authors in the country, loved by children, teachers & parents alike. Michael has written more than forty books for children including the global hit War Horse, which was made into a Hollywood film by Steven Spielberg in 2011. Several of his other stories have been adapted for screen & stage, including My Friend Walter, Why the Whales Came & Kensuke`s Kingdom. Michael has won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children`s Book Award & has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times. He started the charity Farms for City Children in 1976 with his wife, Clare, aimed at relieving the ”poverty of experience” many young children feel in inner city & urban areas. Michael is also a patron of over a dozen other charities. Living in Devon, listening to Mozart & working with children have provided Michael with the ideas & incentive to write his stories. He spends half his life mucking out sheds with the children, feeding sheep or milking cows; the other half he spends dreaming up & writing stories for children. ” For me, the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out
- the writing down of it I always find hard. But I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hand & sharing my dream with my readers.” Michael received an OBE in December 2006 for his services to literature.
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Christopher Clark’s “ Sleepwalkers” is a highly acclaimed study of the causes of World War I. Charting the problems leading up to the Great War, from the polarization of Europe in 1887 – 1907 to the actual commencement of the fighting, the book presents the personalities & the unfolding events in London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Vienna & Belgrade in considerable detail, but its author never looses sight of the simple fact that serious books on history should also be readable & enjoyed by the wider public. The book received great reviews from fellow authors & historians, & was selected by several newspapers & periodicals as one of their books of 2102. AWARDS: The Sleepwalkers was shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History & finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize, & is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History, French Prix Aujourd`hui, Cundill Recognition of Excellence Prize, Bruno Kreisky Prize for Political Literature, & the Braunschweiger Geschichtspreis A SELECTION FROM THE REVIEWS: Max Hastings, Sunday Times: ” Formidable.. .one of the most impressive & stimulating studies of the period ever published”. Niall Ferguson: ”A lovingly researched work of the highest scholarship. It is hard to believe we will ever see a better narrative of what was perhaps the biggest collective blunder in the history of international relations”. Harold Evans, New York Times Book Review: ”[ Reading The Sleepwalkers], it is as if a light had been turned on a half-darkened stage of shadowy characters cursing among themselves without reason...[ Clark] demolishes the standard view... The brilliance of Clark`s far-reaching history is that we are able to discern how the past was genuinely prologue... In conception, steely scholarship & piercing insights, his book is a masterpiece ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christopher Clark is Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge & a Fellow of St Catharine`s College. He is the author of The Politics of Conversion, Kaiser Wilhelm II, & Iron Kingdom – a history of Prussia. Widely praised around the world, Iron Kingdom became a major bestseller. He has been awarded the Officer`s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

Number one bestselling author David Walliams presents his first picture book, illustrated by artistic genius Tony Ross. What's big, blue, bossy, & turns up uninvited? A slightly annoying elephant, of course! Introducing a magnificently warm & funny picture book from two remarkable talents. Adopt your copy today! ...

Number one bestselling author David Walliams presents his first picture book, illustrated by artistic genius Tony Ross. What`s big, blue, bossy, & turns up uninvited? A slightly annoying elephant, of course! Introducing a magnificently warm & funny picture book from two remarkable talents. Adopt your copy today! ...