From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous, evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue & Kate Atkinson.2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane, where history never feels far away, & move to Apricot Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac, she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life.1851: & Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the working classes. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. Roaming the Southwark streets, he is tempted by brothels` promises of pleasure
- & as he struggles with his assignment, he seeks answers in Apricot Place, where the enigmatic Mrs Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past & present, the two eras brush against each other
- a breath at Madeleine`s neck, a voice in her head
- the murmurs of ghosts echoing through time. Rendered in immediate, intoxicating prose, The Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire & exploitation, isolation & loss, & the faltering search for human connection; this is Michele Roberts at her masterful best.


...

From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous, evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue & Kate Atkinson 2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane, where history never feels far away, & move to Apricot Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac, she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: & Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the working classes. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. Roaming the Southwark streets, he is tempted by brothels` promises of pleasure
- & as he struggles with his assignment, he seeks answers in Apricot Place, where the enigmatic Mrs Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past & present, the two eras brush against each other
- a breath at Madeleine`s neck, a voice in her head
- the murmurs of ghosts echoing through time. Rendered in immediate, intoxicating prose, The Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire & exploitation, isolation & loss, & the faltering search for human connection; this is Michele Roberts at her masterful best. Review: A magnificent writer -- Helen Dunmore * Guardian * Michele Roberts is one of those writers descended perhaps as much from Monet & Debussy as Virginia Woolf or Keats.. . To read a book by her is to savour colour, sound, taste, texture & touch as never before * The Times * Her fictions are high-risk, unconventional.. . The otherwise cautious reader is taken almost without realising it into dangerous & exhilarating territory -- Rachel Cusk A disciplined & elegant writer * Observer * Writing of such a high calibre can make you feel that the life of the mind is everything, that the acute observation & intelligence of the writer is a sort of mirror to what matters most in life.. . Strong & lustrous prose -- Susie Boyt * Financial Times * Roberts`s greatest skill is the insight with which she writes about women caught up in heightened states of awareness... Her writing breaks new ground * The Times * One of Britain`s best novelists * Independent on Sunday * Roberts is at her best when she writes about food & sex, about feelings & desires that cut across boundaries of time & class * Sunday Times * Roberts`s polished, ornately wrought prose adds depth & a sense of acute realism to her captivating story--which flows seamlessly between the protagonists as they take turns narrating this accomplished & inspired novel of wartime France. -- Starred Review for IGNORANCE * Publishers Weekly * Expect to walk, sleep, eat, feel, touch, smell & fear with the characters in this rich & haunting tale of two lives colliding through time.. . With her gift for awakening all out senses & hurling us into strange goings-on, Roberts has created a kaleidoscopically unsettling tale * Sainsbury`s Magazine * An exploration of imagination as the keyhole through which we may glimpse the otherwise unreachable past...A novel fuelled more by poetry & ideas than by events: words are laid out to be savoured, everyday details are observed & sensually reframed... The stylistic mastery will delight readers -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times * London`s seamy, irrepressible history is the star of an atmospheric ghost story...A slow beginning gives way to an intoxicating blend of the fanciful & the gritty -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday * Roberts interrogates past & present through vivid detail, from the velvet-slippered rooms of the Victorian pleasure house to the slick city bars in the modern metropolis * Herald * Roberts is a rare talent, a mellifluous writer who weaves spells with words that draw the reader in like a crackling hearth... Sensory descriptions are executed with exciting precision... Roberts is a writer at the top of her game -- violet Hudson * Daily Telegraph * Roberts piles on the sensuous detail...also conjures the edgy reality of city life...imagines lives lost to history -- Suzi Feay * Guardian * The novel is a nod to the city`s wandering writers, Dickens & Woolf foremost among them... The language is lush & humid as a hothouse, unabashedly sensual... This is above all else a London novel
- Covent Garden, Smithfields, Highgate Cemetery, Stew Lane & Waterloo Bridge all pulse with as much life as the characters who walk them... We are left no doubt that the joy of the city is its dense human history -- Francesca Segal * Financial Times * A haunting tale of desire & the exploitation of women in Victorian London * Grazia * Expansive yet intimate... There`s no sentimentality to be found here, one of her novel`s greatest strengths.. . The love that Roberts has for her city becomes almost palpable as her heroine traces it by night, by day... it`s also a reminder of the humanity of the city, & the warm, & sometimes dangerous, messiness humanity creates. Roberts makes the task of dipping one`s toes back in the past look easy; this is polished writing -- Lesley Mc Dowell * Herald * The narrative structure echoes other novels that shuttle between Victorian & modern settings, such as A.S. Byatt`s Possession, while the choppy intimacy of Roberts`s style reaches back to modernists such as Joyce... Roberts`s setting starts to feel less like a slice of London than a container of her imagination; a house of fiction that is pulsing with ideas & brimming with life -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Times * A treat for the senses, as vivid in its re-creation of London`s past as in its evocation of the contemporary metropolis... What Roberts captures brilliantly is the bright colours & shapes of Southwark... This is not a novel to speed-read; pleasure builds from the accumulation of detail -- Fiona Stafford * Literary Review * The author peels away the layers of place to reveal the past pulsing within.. . As well as London`s pathways & water ways, Roberts explores the human heart &, in lyrical language, locates beauty in unexpected places * Observer * ` Roberts interrogates past & present through vivid detail, from the velvet-slippered rooms of the Victorian pleasure houses to the slick city bars in the modern metropolis` * Woman`s Way * richly atmospheric & poetic.. . Full of rich colour & supple evocation, this is a provocative novel whose strong flavours linger * Country Life * Author Biography: Michele Roberts is the author of thirteen highly acclaimed novels, including The Looking Glass & Daughters of the House, which won the WHSmith Literary Award & was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her most recent novel Ignorance was longlisted for the Women`s Prize for Fiction in 2013 & her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4`s Book of the Week. She has also published poetry & short stories, most recently collected in Mud- stories of sex & love (2010). Half-English & half-French, Michele Roberts lives in South-East London. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. micheleroberts.co.uk



...

Wands at the ready! Whether you`re a Hufflepuff or a Slytherin, from an old wizarding family or new to the wizarding world, your magical journey usually begins at Ollivanders wand shop. In this spellbinding hardcover book, Harry Potter film fans of all ages can explore Ollivanders & learn what makes a w&. Then take a wand for a spin as you discover the most magical moments from the Harry Potter films in this incredible book. The wand included activates seven different spell sounds. Simply perform the proper wand motion, hold the wand over the spell you wish to use, & tap the button. It`s just like magic! ...

You are electing to join a secret underground movement. Membership will require you to conduct research on your immediate environment & complete a variety of assignments designed to creatively disrupt your everyday life. That is all you need to know for now. All else will be revealed in time. Society wants us to live a planned existence. The path of the wanderer is not this! The path of the wanderer is an experiment with the unknown. To be idle, to play, to daydream. The Wander Society offers us all a way to experience the joys & possibilities of unplanned time. ...

The beautiful, questing second novel in Tim Pears` acclaimed West Country trilogy. Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in pre-First World War Devon & Cornwall 1912. Leo is on a journey. Aged thirteen & banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries & sleeping in copses. Behind him lies the past, & before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might
- & soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their waggons, horses & vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, & must forge on to Penzance, towards the western horizon... Lottie is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love & Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, & the mysteries of anatomy. & of course, Leo is absent. How will the two young people ever find each other again? In The Wanderers, Tim Pears`s writing, both transcendental & sharply focused, reaches new heights, revealing the beauty & brutality that coexist in nature. Timeless, searching, charged with raw energy & gentle humour, this is a delicately wrought tale of adolescence; of survival; of longing, loneliness & love.
...

As they look to the stars, what are they missing back home? ` Phenomenal. A transcendent journey into the mysteries of space & self. Howrey`s expansive vision left me awestruck` RUTH OZEKI, author of A Tale for the Time Being The best of Helen Kane exists in space. If she doesn`t go back up, she`ll be consigned to a lesser version of herself on a planet that has also seen better days. Helen is an experienced astronaut with a NASA position & a struggling grown-up daughter who needs her but when, at fifty-three, she is offered a place on the training programme for the first mission to Mars, the most realistic simulation ever, she cannot refuse a last chance to walk among the stars. Her fellow astronauts are Sergei, a gruff Russian whose teenage sons are less mysterious to him than they`d like to think; & Yoshi, who wants to prove himself worthy of the wife he has drifted apart from. The three will be enclosed for months in a tiny craft, while outside their loved ones negotiate everyday life on Earth. How far will the wanderers travel in the pursuit of endeavour, & what will it be like to come home? Station Eleven meets We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this brilliantly inventive & sharply observed novel of science, ambition, endeavour & family. ` An astounding, insightful, exhilarating ride` HELEN SEDGWICK, author of The Comet Seekers `A stealthily brilliant novel. A distinct, shimmering vision of who we are.. . at once simple, gorgeous & profoundly moving` PETER NICHOLS, author of The Rocks ...

As they look to the stars, what are they missing back home? ` Phenomenal. A transcendent journey into the mysteries of space & self. Howrey`s expansive vision left me awestruck` RUTH OZEKI, author of A Tale for the Time Being Helen Kane may not be the best mother in the world, but she is one of the world`s best astronauts & when, at fifty-three, she`s offered a chance to train for the first crewed mission to Mars, she doesn`t hesitate. She & her fellow astronauts Sergei & Yoshihiro will be confined in a desert facility, striving to prove themselves, while outside their loved ones
- Helen`s actress daughter, Sergei`s teenage son, & Yoshi`s lonely businesswoman wife Madoka
- pursue complex explorations of their own. All six will find themselves confronting the bonds of love & loyalty, sacrifice & desire. Station Eleven meets We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this brilliantly witty & inventive novel of ambition, endeavour & family. ` An astounding, insightful, exhilarating ride` HELEN SEDGWICK, author of The Comet Seekers `A stealthily brilliant novel. A distinct, shimmering vision of who we are.. . at once simple, gorgeous & profoundly moving` PETER NICHOLS, author of The Rocks

...

The beautiful, questing second novel in Tim Pears` acclaimed West Country trilogy. Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in pre-First World War Devon & Cornwall Lonely & grieving for her exiled best friend, thirteen-year-old Lottie feels a prisoner. Her only solace is her study of the natural world around her father`s estate: the strange profusion of its plants, the beauty & brutality of its predators, its mysterious dances of life, death & survival. Grazing on berries & sleeping in copses, Leo travels alone through the wild, strange tapestry of the West Country towards Penzance. But a wanderer is never alone for long
- & when the gypsy waggons rattle into view, Leo is drawn into a colourful & dangerous world far beyond his imagination. Author Biography: Tim Pears is the author of nine novels, including In the Place of Fallen Leaves (winner of the Hawthornden Prize & the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award), In a Land of Plenty (made into a ten part BBC series), Landed (shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012 & the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2011, winner of the MJA Open Book Awards 2011) &, most recently, The Horseman, the first book in this trilogy. He has been Writer in Residence at Cheltenham Festival of Literature & Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. He lives in Oxford with his wife & children. timpears.com
...

The lake of Lop-nor, the `heart of the heart of Asia`, is one of the world`s strangest phenomena. Situated in the wild Chinese province of Xinjiang, Lop-nor
- `the wandering lake`- has for millennia been in a perpetual state of flux, drifting north to south, often tens of kilometres in as many years. It was once the lifeblood of the great Silk Road kingdom of Lou-lan, which flourished in this otherwise barren region 2, 000 years ago & its peculiar movements confused even Ptolemy, who marked the lake twice on his map of Asia. Following `the pulse-beats of Lop-nor as a doctor examines a patient`s heart`, Sven Hedin became captivated by its peripatetic movements & for forty years his destiny was inextricably linked with that of this mysterious lake & the region surrounding it. His last journey to Lop-nor was in 1934, just days after he was released as a prisoner of General Ma Chung-yin (the rebel leader of Xinjiang). Travelling the length of the Konche-daria & Kum-daria rivers by canoe, Hedin embarked on his last Central Asian expedition & proved what he had always suspected
- that Lop-nor did indeed shift position
- & why. When he camped on its vast banks at night, Lop-nor was deep & full. Today, this once great lake
- a mighty reservoir in the desert
- is nothing but windblown sand & salty marsh. The third in Sven Hedin`s ” Central Asia” trilogy, ” The Wandering Lake” is arguably his most famous work. It is, typically, a gripping story of adventure & discovery but it is also a rare account of a now-vanished world; a masterpiece by one of history`s last great explorers.




...