WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2012 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST AN AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK: BEST BOOKS OF 2012 A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR AN INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR AN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR A SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A SCOTSMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A SUNDAY HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR An unforgettable depiction of the psychological impact of war, by a young Iraq veteran & poet, THE YELLOW BIRDS is already being hailed as a modern classic. Everywhere John looks, he sees Murph. He flinches when cars drive past. His fingers clasp around the rifle he hasn't held for months. Wide-eyed strangers praise him as a hero, but he can feel himself disappearing. Back home after a year in Iraq, memories swarm around him: bodies burning in the crisp morning air. Sunlight falling through branches; bullets kicking up dust; ripples on a pond wavering like plucked strings. The promise he made, to a young man's mother, that her son would be brought home safely. With THE YELLOW BIRDS, poet & veteran Kevin Powers has composed an unforgettable account of friendship & loss. It vividly captures the desperation & brutality of war, & its terrible after-effects. But it is also a story of love, of great courage, & of extraordinary human survival. Written with profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on families at home, THE YELLOW BIRDS is one of the most haunting, true & powerful novels of our time. 'THE YELLOW BIRDS is the All Quiet on the Western Front of America's Arab Wars.' (Tom Wolfe, author of The Bonfire of the Vanities ) ' Kevin Powers has conjured a poetic & devastating account of war's effect on the individual.' (Damian Lewis, star of Homeland & Band of Brothers ) ' Inexplicably beautiful'. (Ann Patchett, Orange Prize-winning author of Bel Canto & State of Wonder) ...

Published annually in February by The National Gardens Scheme (NGS), The Yellow Book has detailed listings of thousands of gardens open for visiting, & is packed with photographs of gardens & informed comment. The so-called 'bible' of garden visiting & the key to secret gardens of England & Wales, The Yellow Book 2013 is your essential guide to the thousands of gardens that open for the NGS. With a new look for 2013 & full colour throughout, finding a garden to visit near you has never been easier. Look out for water gardens, sensory gardens, gardens offering accommodation & learn how to create your own patch. ...

Published annually in spring, The Yellow Book 2015 lists nearly 4, 000 gardens open for visiting. It is packed with full-colour photographs & informed comment. Fully updated & supported by an online database, The Yellow Book 2015 is now easier to use than ever. Look out for sensory gardens, those offering accommodation & delicious treats, & learn how to create your own patch. Find a garden to visit near you & support the NGS`s vital charity work. ...

In The Yellow Cross, René Weis tells the story a group of heretics in thirteenth century southwest France, the Cathars, & how they became a serious threat to the Catholic church. In several waves of repression, thousands of Cathars were killed. Yet so ardent was their faith that, early in the next century, the Cathars rose one last time. Using the breathtakingly detailed & uniquely extant documentation from this period, & drawing on his intimate knowledge of the last Cathars` tracks & hiding places, many of which survive to this day, René Weis tells the full story of this gripping historical episode. ...

Georges Simenon`s gripping tale of small town suspicion & revenge, book five in the new Inspector Maigret series. There was an exaggerated humility about her. Her cowed eyes, her way of gliding noiselessly about without bumping into things, of quivering nervously at the slight-est word, were the very image of a scullery maid accustomed to hardship. & yet he sensed, beneath that image, glints of pride held firmly in check. She was anaemic. Her flat chest was not formed to rouse desire. Nevertheless, she was strangely appealing, perhaps because she seemed troubled, despondent, sickly. In the windswept seaside town of Concarneau, a local wine merchant is shot. In fact, someone is out to kill all the influential men & the entire town is soon sent into a state of panic. For Maigret, the answers lie with the pale, downtrodden waitress Emma, & a strange yellow dog lurking in the shadows...” Compelling, remorseless, brilliant”. (John Gray). ” One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century... Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories”. (Guardian). ”A supreme writer.. .unforgettable vividness”. (Independent). Georges Simenon was born in Liege, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels & short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerl&, where he had lived for the latter part of his life. Linda Asher is a former fiction editor of the New Yorker & the award winning translator of many works from French including those of Milan Kundera. ...

The Yellow Jersey Club contains just twenty-six living members. To become one of this exclusive number requires complete dedication, brutal self-sacrifice & the most extraordinary physical attributes. Yet along with the ability to climb mountains, bomb along time trials & survive all the perils of the road, what really makes a Tour de France champion? Edward Pickering set out on a mission to ask them, & gained some astonishing insights into the minds of cycling`s best ever riders of the past forty years, from giants like Greg Le Mond & Stephen Roche to more unfamiliar names like Bernard Thevenet & Joop Zootemelk. With his trademark sharp analysis & deft style, Pickering explores the myriad factors that combine to produce success. What does it take to accumulate such great mental strength, skill & endurance? What are the differences as well as the key factors in common? What sets these men apart from the rest of the field? The Yellow Jersey Club gives the reader unprecedented access into the secrets of the greats of cycling. ...

The Yellow Jersey Club contains just twenty-six living members. To become one of this exclusive number requires complete dedication, brutal self-sacrifice & the most extraordinary physical attributes. Yet along with the ability to climb mountains, bomb along time trials & survive all the perils of the road, what really makes a Tour de France champion? Edward Pickering set out on a mission to ask them, & gained some astonishing insights into the minds of cycling`s best ever riders of the past forty years, from giants like Greg Le Mond & Stephen Roche to more unfamiliar names like Bernard Thevenet & Joop Zootemelk. With his trademark sharp analysis & deft style, Pickering explores the myriad factors that combine to produce success. What does it take to accumulate such great mental strength, skill & endurance? What are the differences as well as the key factors in common? What sets these men apart from the rest of the field? The Yellow Jersey Club gives the reader unprecedented access into the secrets of the greats of cycling. ...

A hundred years ago, a character made his first appearance in the world of literature who was to enter the bloodstream of 20th-century popular culture: the evil genius called Dr Fu Manchu, described at the beginning of the first story in which he appeared as the yellow peril incarnate in one man. Why did the idea that the Chinese were a threat to Western civilization develop at precisely the time when that country was in chaos, divided against itself, victim of successive famines & utterly incapable of being a peril to anyone even if it had wanted to be? Here, Sir Christopher Frayling assembles an astonishing diversity of evidence to show how deeply ingrained Chinaphobia became in the West so acutely relevant again in the new era of Chinese superpower. Along the way he talks to Edward Said, to the last Governor of Hong Kong, to Sax Rohmers widow, to movie stars & a host of others; he journeys through the opium dens of the 19th century with Charles Dickens; takes us to the heart of popular culture in the music hall, pulp literature & the mass-market press; & shows how film amplifies our assumptions, demonstrating throughout how we neglect the history of popular culture at our own peril if we want to understand our deepest desires & fears. ...

In a soft comfy nest in a safe warm place there snoozed a great big orange thing called the Yes. He was snug, but the Yes had a Where to go to. So he left his nest & went trundling out. But the Where was an endless place of Nos. They teemed & seethed. They picked & nipped, & snipped & snicked. The Yes yessed in all his goodness & bigness & yesness. But was he strong enough to overcome them? ...

In a soft comfy nest in a safe warm place there snoozed a great big orange thing called the Yes. He was snug, but the Yes had a Where to go to. So he left his nest & went trundling out. But the Where was an endless place of Nos. They teemed & seethed. They picked & nipped, & snipped & snicked. The Yes yessed in all his goodness & bigness & yesness. But was he strong enough to overcome them? ” Kitamura is one of the world`s most original & stylish children`s illustrators.” (Sunday Times). ...