The pseudonymous Italian author of Days of Abandonment returns with a daughter`s attempt to unlock the mystery of her mother`s death by drowning following years of domestic abuse. Days before her body washed ashore near her hometown of Naples, Amalia called her oldest daughter, Delia, now 45, with shocking news that she was with a man—not her estranged husb&, a two-bit painter—then hung up, laughing. After the funeral (Amalia`s husband doesn`t show), Delia goes in search of the story behind the expensive new brassiere Amalia was found wearing at her death, incongruous for a poor seamstress who deliberately downplayed her good looks to avoid arousing her husband`s savage jealousy. Caserta, a man who acted as Delia`s father`s agent as well as rival for Amalia`s attention, plays a role here—and in Delia`s past. In tactile, beautifully restrained prose, Ferrante makes the domestic violence that tore the household apart evident, including the child Delia`s attempts to guard her mother from the beatings of her father. By the time of the denouement, Ferrante has forcefully delineated how the complicity in violence against women perpetuates a brutal cycle of repetition & silence. ...

Richard Brautigan`s wonderfully zany, hilarious episodic novel set amongst the rural waterways of America. Here`s a journey that begins at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in San Francisco`s Washington Square, wanders through the wonders of America`s rural waterways & ends, inevitably, with mayonnaise. With pure inventiveness & free-wheeling energy, the counterpoint to all those angry Beatniks, Brautigan tells the story of rural America, & the hunt for a bit of trout fishing. Funny, wild & sweet, Trout Fishing in America is an incomparable guidebook to the delights of exploration
- of a country & a mind.
...

Trowbridge in 1899 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. Two versions have published for this area showing how the town changed across the years. The map shows the town of Trowbridge including Longfield & Lower Studley. The left hand side of the map shows a large area of farml&, interrupted by Trowle Manor Court Farm, Talbot Farm & Cockhill Farm. The contrasting right hand side displays Trowbridge & the Great Western Railway track that cuts through it. St Thomas`s Church, St James`s Church, St Stephen`s Church, St John`s RC Church, the Holy Trinity Chapel & two Methodist Chapels are illustrated on the sheet. Other places of interest are also marked on the maps such as the Royal Artillery Barracks, Usher`s Brewery, Bellefield House, & its various mills & iron works. The 1899 map is double-sided &

Includes:: part of adjacent sheet 38.08 on the reverse; this continues coverage eastward to include Ashton Mills & Hilperton Road. The 1886 version is in full colour, taken from the beautiful 1st Edition h&-coloured map. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK.

...

Street plan of Troyes, part of an extensive series covering French cities & towns from Blay-Foldex, the country’s largest, oldest & most experienced publisher of urban mapping. Blay plans include outer suburbs &, where appropriate, adjoining localities forming part of the urban agglomeration & provide brief descriptions of the town’s main sights, contact details for hotels & other places of interest, etc. The plans show one way streets, car parks & pedestrian zones. Important public buildings are clearly marked & identified. Blay street maps are usually double-sided & include an enlargement for the town centre & a street index with separate lists of “edifices publics”: main public buildings, places of worship, schools, sport facilities, stations, etc. Each of the outer suburbs or the adjoining localities, identified with its postcode, has a separate index. Many titles also provide a road map of the environs. All the text is in French only.PLEASE NOTE: to see the list of Blay-Foldex street plans of French towns & cities please click on the series link – the series description also

Includes:: a comparison between Blay & IGN street plans.

...

Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...

Imagine that all around you, hidden from sight, there are thousands of tiny people. They are four inches tall, brave, stubborn & resourceful. They are the nomes. The nomes in this story live under the floorboards of a large Department Store & have never been outside. In fact, they don`t even believe in outside. But new nomes arrive, from
- where else?
- & they bring with them terrifying news: the Store is closing down & Everything Must Go.. . The fantastically funny first book of the nomes, from the author of the bestselling Discworld series.

...

When J. R. Daeschner first heard about 'shin kicking' he was intrigued. As an American who had lived in Britain for some time, he thought he knew a thing or two about the country. But he'd never come across this centuries-old 'sport', which had to be one of the most painful & infuriating ever invented. J. R. had to find out more, & soon discovered that Britain has dozens, if not hundreds, of similar acts of lunacy enshrined as traditions; strange-named events such as cheese rolling, gurning, bog snorkelling... True Brits is a funny & fascinating travel guide to Britain's oddest places. people & traditions. Readers can follow J. R. as he meets some of the great British eccentrics who involve themselves in a host of bizarre pastimes which include hurling themselves down a grassy cliff in pursuit of a cheese, coating themselves in prickly green burrs, hanging toast on trees & prancing around with reindeer antlers on their heads. In an attempt to understand why seemingly ordinary people do such extraordinarily strange things, J. R. talks to countless characters, watches them in action, & even participates in many of the events himself, encountering plenty of occupational hazards along the way. ...

Bear Grylls knows what it takes to survive. But he's not the first. Take the American bombardier Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days stranded at sea by catching & killing hungry sharks & drinking the warm blood of albatrosses
- only to be captured by the Japanese & horrifically tortured for years in their most brutal POW camps. Or Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL who single-handedly took on a Taliban regiment before dragging his bleeding, bullet-ridden body for days through the harsh mountains of Afghanistan. Or Nando Parrado, one of the survivors of a horrific air-crash high in the ice-bound Andes, who only lived because he was willing to eat the flesh of his dead companions. In this gripping new book, Bear tells the stories of the adventurers, explorers, soldiers & spies whose refusal to quit in the most extreme situations has inspired him throughout his life. Some of them make uncomfortable reading
- survival is rarely pretty. But all of them are tales of eye-watering bravery, death-defying resilience & extraordinary mental toughness by men & women who have one thing in common: true grit.

...

Bear Grylls knows what it takes to survive. But he`s not the first. Take the American bombardier Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days stranded at sea by catching & killing hungry sharks & drinking the warm blood of albatrosses -- only to be captured by the Japanese & horrifically tortured for years in their most brutal POW camps... Or Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL who single-handedly took on a Taliban regiment before dragging his bleeding, bullet-ridden body for days through the harsh mountains of Afghanistan... Or Nando Parrado, one of the survivors of a horrific air-crash high in the ice-bound Andes, who only lived because he was willing to eat the flesh of his dead companions... In this gripping new book, Bear tells the stories of the adventurers, explorers, soldiers & spies whose refusal to quit in the most extreme situations has inspired him throughout his life. Some of them make uncomfortable reading
- survival is rarely pretty. But all of them are tales of eye-watering bravery, death-defying resilience & extraordinary mental toughness by men & women who have one thing in common: true grit.
...

Who are the people that inspired Bear Grylls to become one of the world`s toughest adventurers? From famous explorers whose never-say-die attitude led them to achieve astonishing feats, to everyday people unexpectedly caught up in life-threatening situations, True Grit is a collection of some of the toughest feats of survival ever accomplished. Learn what it takes to make it through alive in some of the planet`s most dangerous locations from these exciting tales of death-defying resilience. Abridged for younger readers. ...