When twenty-two-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess in early 1914, she has no idea of the vast political upheavals ahead, nor how completely her fate will be shaped by them. Yet as her intimacy with the charismatic inventor, Nikita Slavkin, deepens, she`s inspired by his belief in a future free of bourgeois clutter, alight with creativity & sleek as a machine. In 1917, revolution sweeps away the Moscow Gerty knew. The middle classes
- & their governesses
- are fleeing the country, but she stays, throwing herself into an experiment in communal living led by Slavkin. In the white-washed modernist rooms of the commune the members may be cold & hungry, but their overwhelming feeling is of exhilaration. They abolish private property & hand over everything, even their clothes, to the collective; they swear celibacy for the cause. Yet the chaos & violence of the outside world cannot be withstood for ever. Nikita Slavkin`s sudden disappearance inspires the Soviet cult of the Vanishing Futurist, the scientist who sacrificed himself for the Communist ideal. Gerty, alone & vulnerable, must now discover where that ideal will ultimately lead. Strikingly vivid, this debut novel by award-winning writer Charlotte Hobson pierces the heart with a story of fleeting, but infinite possibility.

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When twenty-two-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess in early 1914, she has no idea of the vast political upheavals ahead, nor how completely her fate will be shaped by them. Yet as her intimacy with the charismatic inventor, Nikita Slavkin, deepens, she`s inspired by his belief in a future free of bourgeois clutter, alight with creativity & sleek as a machine. In 1917, revolution sweeps away the Moscow Gerty knew. The middle classes
- & their governesses
- are fleeing the country, but she stays, throwing herself into an experiment in communal living led by Slavkin. In the white-washed modernist rooms of the commune the members may be cold & hungry, but their overwhelming feeling is of exhilaration. They abolish private property & hand over everything, even their clothes, to the collective; they swear celibacy for the cause. Yet the chaos & violence of the outside world cannot be withstood for ever. Nikita Slavkin`s sudden disappearance inspires the Soviet cult of the Vanishing Futurist, the scientist who sacrificed himself for the Communist ideal. Gerty, alone & vulnerable, must now discover where that ideal will ultimately lead.

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In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velazquez, he bought the picture & set out to discover its strange history. When Laura Cumming stumbled on a startling trial involving John Snare, it sent her on a search of her own. At first she was pursuing the picture, & the life & work of the elusive painter, but then she found herself following the bookseller`s fortunes too
- from London to Edinburgh to nineteenth-century New York, from fame to ruin & exile. With an innovative fusion of detection & biography, this book shows how & why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. & on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, the Vanishing Man is an eloquent & passionate homage to the Spanish master Velazquez, bringing us closer to the creation & appreciation of his works than ever before.
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Stephanie Harker is travelling through security at O` Hare airport with five-year-old Jimmy. But in a moment, everything changes. In disbelief, Stephanie watches as a uniformed agent leads her boy away
- & she`s stuck the other side of the gates, hysterical with worry. The authorities, unaware of Jimmy`s existence, just see a woman behaving erratically; Stephanie is wrestled to the ground & blasted with a taser gun. By the time she can tell them what has happened, Jimmy is long gone. But as Stephanie tells her story to the FBI, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. There are many potential suspects for this abduction. With time rapidly running out, how can Stephanie get him back? A breathtakingly rich & gripping psychological thriller, The Vanishing Point is Val Mc Dermid`s most accomplished standalone novel to date, a work of haunting brilliance.
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Some of the most stunning architectural structures in India are to be found below ground: these are its stepwells, ancient ...

` This war is not the end but the beginning of violence. It is the forge in which the world will be hammered into new borders & new communities. New molds want to be filled with blood, & power will be wielded with a hard fist.` Ernst Junger (1918) For the Western allies 11 November 1918 has always been a solemn date
- the end of fighting which had destroyed a generation, & also a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of their principal enemies: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary & the Ottoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe this was a day with no meaning, as a continuing, nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed country after country. In this highly original, gripping book Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War. In large part it was not the fighting on the Western front which proved so ruinous to Europe`s future, but the devastating aftermath, as countries on both sides of the original conflict were wrecked by revolution, pogroms, mass expulsions & further major military clashes. If the War itself had in most places been a struggle purely between state-backed soldiers, these new conflicts were mainly about civilians & paramilitaries, & millions of people died across central, eastern, & south-eastern Europe before the USSR & a series of rickety & exhausted small new states came into being. Everywhere there were vengeful people, their lives racked by a murderous sense of injustice, & looking for the opportunity to take retribution against enemies real & imaginary. Only a decade later, the rise of the Third Reich & other totalitarian states provided them with the opportunity they had been looking for.
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Our planet is full of life! Did you know there are 400, 000 species of beetle
- but only eight species of bear? This stunning
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Set in the 1890s, Andre Gide`s famous satire centres around a group of ingenious fraudsters (` The Millipede`) who convince their wealthy victims that the pontiff has been imprisoned in the Vatican cellars, & a false Pope has been enthroned in his place. Posing as clergy, they con money by promising to obtain the true Pope`s release & restoration. The book features one of Gide`s most memorable creations: the amoral Lafcadio, who in pushing a man from a moving train commits the ultimate motiveless crime. Unavailable in the UK for 25 years, this scandalous, funny & highly original novel has been re-translated to mark the centenary of its publication. Supported by English PEN. ...

Marrying the art of butchery with the joy of gorgeous seasonal produce, The Vegetable Butcher is the fresh, inspiring, & essential guide that demystifies the world of vegetables, from exotic crosnes & gnarly celeriac to the amazingly versatile everyday potato. It`s the book that shows exactly how to prepare an artichoke-plus peel a tomato, chiffonade kale, slice kohlrabi into carpaccio, break down a butternut squash, & cut a cauliflower into steaks. This is a complete vegetable education, from what to look for at the market to how to make vegetables the centre of truly distinctive dishes. Over 100 recipes, all vegetarian (and all extraordinarily luscious), celebrate the soul-satisfying flavour of each vegetable: Orange- Shallot Fiddlehead Ferns & Ricotta Crostini; a summery Zucchini, Sweet Corn, & Basil Penne with Pine Nuts & Mozzarella; Cauliflower & Caramelized Fennel Soup; a Parsnip-Ginger Layer Cake with Burnt-Buttercream Frosting to sweeten a winter meal. Vegetables are modern, sexy, & outrageously delicious. & now, completely knowable, too. ...

Get inspired to grow your own fruit, vegetables & herbs with this practical & accessible guide to seasonal edible planting. You can find out when to plant runner beans, where best to store your produce & how to make cider from your apple harvest. With diary pages for recording your own notes, this pocket-sized companion is an indispensable piece of gardening kit for the green-fingered
- homemade produce has never tasted so good.
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