` Part whodunnit, part coming of age, this is a gripping debut about the secrets behind every door` RACHEL JOYCE `A very special book` NATHAN FILER ` An utter delight` SARAH WINMAN `A delight` PAULA HAWKINS `A treasure chest of a novel` JULIE COHEN ` One of the standout novels of the year` HANNAH BECKERMAN `I didn`t want the book to end` CARYS BRAY ` An excellent debut` JAMES HANNAH ` Grace & Tilly are my new heroes` KATE HAMER `A wonderful debut` JILL MANSELL `A modern classic in the making` SARAH HILARY `A stunning debut` KATIE FFORDE ` Phenomenal` MIRANDA DICKINSON Engl&, 1976. Mrs Creasy is missing & The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace & Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands. & as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined... ...

Engl&, 1976. Mrs Creasy is missing & The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace & Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands. And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined… ...

Irshad Manji calls herself a Muslim refusenik. ' That doesn't mean I refuse to be a Muslim, ' she writes, 'it simply means I refuse to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah.' These automatons, Manji argues, include many so-called moderate Muslims in the West. In blunt, provocative & deeply personal terms, she unearths the troubling cornerstones of Islam as it is widely practised: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-Semitism & an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final, & therefore superior, manifesto of God. In this open letter to Muslims & non-Muslims alike, Manji breaks the conspicuous silence that surrounds mainstream Islam with a series of pointed questions: ' Why are we all being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians & the Israelis? Who is the real coloniser of Muslims
- America or Arabia? How can we read the Koran literally when it's so contradictory & ambiguous? Why are we squandering the talents of women, fully half of God's creation?' Not one to be satisfied with merely criticising, Manji offers a practical vision of how Islam can undergo a reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities & fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives Islam's lost tradition of independent thought. The recipient of death threats as well as heartfelt support from her co-religionists, Manji will inspire struggling Muslims worldwide to revisit the foundations of their faith. She will also compel non-Muslims to start posing the questions we all have about Islam today. In that spirit, The Trouble with Islam is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.
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Drawn from the best of Adrian Morgan`s entertaining columns musing on the world of traditional boats & the joys of building, sailing & working on them, here is his long-awaited bunkside read. Billed as a `zen & the art of wooden boatbuilding`, it will resonate with classic boat enthusiasts everywhere. Illustrated with evocative watercolour paintings by Charlotte Watters. ...

CAN WOMEN BE GENIUSES? OR ARE THEIR ARMS TOO SHORT? WHY DID WE ONLY LEARN ABOUT THREE WOMEN AT SCHOOL? WHAT WERE ALL THE OTHERS DOING? The Trouble With Women does for girls what 1066 & All That did for boys: it reminds us of what we were taught about women in history lessons at school, which is to say, not a lot. A brilliantly witty book of cartoons, it reveals some of our greatest thinkers` baffling theories about women. We learn that even Charles Darwin, long celebrated for his open, objective scientific mind, believed that women would never achieve anything important, because of their smaller brains. Get ready to laugh, wince & rescue forgotten women from the `dustbin of history`, whilst keeping a close eye out for tell-tale `genius hair`. You will never look at history in the same way again. ...

Every morning Hakan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. Then, one day he fails to come home. Detective Kurt Wallander is not officially involved but Hakan`s son is engaged to his daughter Linda. A few months earlier Hakan was eager to talk to Kurt about a controversial incident from his past. Could this be connected to his disappearance? When Hakan`s wife also goes missing, Wallander is determined to uncover the truth but the investigation will force him to look back over his own past, as he comes to the unsettling realisation that even those we love the most can remain strangers to us... ...

An unforgettable adventure story of two journeys, one hundred years apart, into the untravelled heart of Burma. Part travelogue, part history, part reportage, The Trouser People is an enormously appealing & vivid account of Sir George Scott, the unsung Victorian adventurer who hacked, bullied & charmed his way through uncharted jungle to help establish British colonial rule in Burma. Born in Scotland in 1851, Scott was a die-hard imperialist with a fondness for gargantuan pith helmets & a bluffness of expression that bordered on the Pythonesque. But, as Andrew Marshall discovered, he was also a writer & photographer of rare sensibility. He spent a lifetime documenting the tribes who lived in Burma`s vast wilderness & is the author of The Burman, published in 1882 & still in print today. He also not only mapped the lawless frontiers of this ”geographical nowhere”
- the British Empire`s eastern-most land border with China
- but he widened the imperial goalposts in another way: he introduced football to Burma, where today it is a national obsession. Inspired by Scott`s unpublished diaries, Andrew Marshall retraces the explorer`s intrepid footsteps from the moldering colonial splendor of Rangoon to the fabled royal capital of Mandalay. In the process he discovers modern Burma, a hermit nation misruled by a brutal military dictatorship, its soldiers, like the British colonialists before them, nicknamed ”the trouser people” by the country`s sarong-wearing civilians. Wonderfully observed, mordantly funny, & skillfully recounted, ` The Trouser People` is an offbeat & thrilling journey through Britain`s lost heritage & a powerful expose of Burma`s modern tragedy.

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` Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.` Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary & three moody children, widowed accountant Martin Santome is about to retire. He assumes he`ll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people do. What he least expects is to fall passionately in love with his shy young employee Laura Avellaneda. As they embark upon an affair, happy & irresponsible, Martin begins to feel the weight of his quiet existence lift
- until, out of nowhere, their joy is cut short. The intimate, heartbreaking diary of an ordinary man who is reborn when he falls in love one final time, this beloved Latin American novel has been translated into twenty languages & sold millions of copies worldwide, & is now published in Penguin Classics for the first time.
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In the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, a strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly artist in order to persuade her that she needs companionship. But what does she hope to gain by doing this? & who ultimately is deceiving whom? In this portrayal of two women grappling with truth & lies, nothing can be taken for granted. By the time the snow thaws, both their lives will have changed irrevocably. ...