” One can either do this or do that.. . do it or not do it
- you will regret both.” Soren Kierkegaard A bench looking out onto
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Susie Kelly & her husband Terry had long dreamed of owning a home in France, but ironically it wasn`t until they were facing homeless penury in England that they realized their dream. With five dogs, two parrots & their elderly horses, they moved to an old farmhouse in the Poitou-Charentes region with dirt floors, no water & a primitive electricity supply. While Terry was back in England trying to support them all, Susie Kelly contended with a homicidal gas cooker at the bottom of the garden, burst pipes, a guinea fowl that turned somersaults & bit people on the shin & a constant stream of people turning up at her door with needs of their own. Sometimes the enormity of renovating a house with insufficient funds & little help seemed overwhelming. She saw her husband infrequently. Their English neighbour was imprisoned on drug-smuggling charges. & when Terry developed a condition that brought him close to death, the dream threatened to turn into a nightmare. There were times when Susie & Terry seemed to be taking two steps backward, but the kindness of the local community & the tranquillity of the landscape inspired them to make a new life for themselves & their animals in the place they now called home. ...

A smart & funny story from the author of The Rosie Project
- two misfits walk 2, 000 km along the Camino to find themselves &,
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Virginia Woolf was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. With her husb&, Leonard Woolf, she started the Hogarth Press in 1917: the list ranged widely in fiction, poetry, politics & psychoanalysis, & published all Virginia Woolf’s own work. Its first publication appeared in 2017: Two Stories, bound in bright Japanese paper, contained a short story from both Virginia & Leonard. Typeset & bound by Virginia, with illustrations by Dora Carrington, 134 copies were printed by Leonard using a small handpress installed in the dining room at Hogarth House, Richmond. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of ‘ Publication No. 1’ this new edition of Two Stories takes the original text of Virginia’s story, ‘ The Mark on the Wall’ (with illustrations by Dora Carrington), & pairs it with a new story, ‘ St Brides Bay’, by Mark Haddon, a lifelong reader of Virginia Woolf. ...

” Two Vagabonds in Languedoc”
- written in 1925
- is Jan & Cora Gordon`s charming & evocative sketch of the French village of

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Beginning in Kathmandu in Nepal, & ending in the tranquill hill town of Kandy in Sri Lanka, Anne Mustoe's amazing journey by bicycle followed the path of the Ramayana's central characters Rama & Sita -- & Hanuman, their divine helper. With her chosen method of transport, she was able to mix & interact with local people; to learn of their customs & daily lives in ways that are closed to the conventional traveller. Rich experiences make up this remarkable adventure, & the book is packed with anecdotes that really bring the journey alive.

The Indian subcontinent is explored in all its cultural & spiritual diversity & the story is told with sympathy, humour, keen observation & the relish of the open road.

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Two Wheels in the Dust: From Kathmandu to Kandy covers Anne Mustoe’s amazing trip by bicycle from the mountains of Nepal, across the hectic cities of India, to the tranquil charm of Sri Lanka’s ancient capital Kandy. The author interweaves her evocative descriptions of her journey, full of keen observations & enjoyment of the open road, with the story of the Sanskrit epic The Ramayana. ...

As bicycle races go, the attractions of the Tour Divide are not immediately apparent. For a start, it is the longest mountain-bike race in the world, running nearly 3, 000 miles down the Rockies from Canada to Mexico. But the distance is not the only challenge
- the total ascent of 200, 000 ft is the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest nearly seven times. Then there are the dangerous animals likely to be encountered on the route: grizzly bears, mountain lions & wolves, not to mention rattlesnakes & tarantulas. Worse, the rewards for all this effort are strictly limited. Unlike in the Tour de France, there is no fabled yellow jersey & no prize money. Yet, undaunted, & in spite of never having owned a mountain bike, Paul Howard signed up. Battling the worst weather for generations, drinking whiskey with a cowboy & singing karaoke with the locals, Howard`s journey turned into more than just a race
- it became the adventure of a lifetime.

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In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub-Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor`s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes & boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining. Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world. Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia`s children & others will play a role in an epic war between light & dark spanning a thousand & one nights
- or two years, eight months, & twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, in which beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, & a noise may contain a hidden curse.
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From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, & a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our world has been plunged into an age of unreason, Two Years Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights is a breathtaking achievement & an enduring testament to the power of storytelling. In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub-Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor`s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes & boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining. Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn, who live in a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world. Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia`s children & others will play a role in an epic war between light & dark spanning a thousand & one nights
- or two years, eight months, & twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, in which beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, & a noise may contain a hidden curse. Inspired by the traditional `wonder tales` of the East, Salman Rushdie`s novel is a masterpiece about the age-old conflicts that remain in today`s world. Two Years Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights is satirical & bawdy, full of cunning & folly, rivalries & betrayals, kismet & karma, rapture & redemption.
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