This book explores Tolkien's mythical world of Middle-earth & the Undying lands, the backdrop to his saga ' The Lord of the Rings'. Arranged in an A-Z format, it explains the creatures, plants, events & places that make up these strange & wonderful places. ...

Books True Crime Books Otto Rosenberg is 9 & living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti & Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis, leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, & businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults & children disappear or are 'sent East'. Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 & is later transferred to Buechenwald & Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses & suffers horrific violence & is driven close to death by illness more than once. Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS & certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives. The stories of Sinti & Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, . .. ...

1937. In a village on the Dorset coast, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher has endured a wild & lonely upbringing
- until the arrival
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Engl&, 1937. In the village of Blacknowle on the Dorset coast, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher has endured a wild & lonely upbringing. Shunned by her neighbours, the arrival of renowned artist Charles Aubrey, along with his exotic mistress & their daughters, is like a breath of fresh air. As Charles's muse, Mitzy develops a deep & abiding bond with the Aubrey household over the course of the following three summers. Gradually, Mitzy begins to perceive a future she had never thought possible, & a powerful love is kindled in her. A love that will grow as she does: from innocence to obsession; from childish infatuation to something far more complex. It will be almost seventy-five years before the consequences of this potent desire are fully played out, as a young man in an art gallery looks at a hastily-drawn portrait & wonders at the intensity of it. The questions he asks will lead him back to Blacknowle, & draw him to the truth about those fevered summers in the 1930s. Read by Jacqueline King. ...

A very deadly squib
- likely to upset the equanimity of upholders of capital punishment far more than any ponderous tome of high
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East London, in the late 1880s. With their mother & father dead from diphtheria, fifteen-year-old Maggie, her sister Liz & young brother Charlie must fend for themselves from now on. But suddenly Liz is taken ill, & in caring for her, Maggie loses the little work she had. One night, in desperation, she ventures onto the streets, risking her safety & innocence, discovering both violence & compassion. Yet that dark night also provides Maggie with a chance to lift her family out of poverty & though tragedy still lies in store, a mysterious stranger has her best interests at heart & Maggie ...

What happens when you reach the threshold of life & death
- & come back?

As long as humans have lived together on the


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Ten years ago, intelligence officer Jordan Weiss's life was turned upside down when her college boyfriend Jared drowned. But in a shocking discovery, Jordan reallises that she has been lied to by those cllosest to her. Reeling from the knowledge that Jared faked his own death, she sets out from London to find him. At Jared's last known address in Monaco, she meets Nicole, a mysterious blonde who refuses to disclose what she knows about Jared. She also encounters Aaron, a seductive Israeli private investigator. What lies ahead is a perilous chase across Europe, as Jordan searches for answers about the only man she has ever loved. Will the truth be too devastating to handle? ...

Who were the first Britons, & what sort of world did they occupy? In A HISTORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN turns a spotlight on the very beginnings of the story of Britain; on the first people to occupy these islands & their battle for survival. There has been human habitation in Britain, regularly interrupted by Ice Ages, for the best part of a million years. The last retreat of the glaciers 12, 000 years ago brought a new & warmer age & with it, one of the greatest tsunamis recorded on Earth which struck the north-east of Britain, devastating the population & flooding the low-lying plains of what is now the North Sea. The resulting island became, in time, home to a diverse range of cultures & peoples who have left behind them some of the most extraordinary & enigmatic monuments in the world. Through what is revealed by the artefacts of the past, Neil Oliver weaves the epic story
- half a million years of human history up to the departure of the Roman Empire in the Fifth Century AD. It was a period which accounts for more than ninety-nine per cent of humankind's presence on these islands. It is the real story of Britain & of her people.
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Bridgwater, a Somerset market town, has a history dating back to " Domesday Book", & this long-awaited book traces the fascinating story of the settlement's development from those distant days to the Millennium. In 1200, a medieval feudal lord realised the value of Bridgwater's navigable river & bridge, & obtained licence to build a castle & a royal charter to create a borough. The compelling & entertaining narrative relates the histories of both castle & borough, along with that of the two religious houses, & the town's parish church. The growth & trade of the port, & use & maintenance of the bridge, are also detailed. By Tudor times Bridgwater had further charters, including one granting the town a mayor & corporation. The High Cross & Burgess Hall were also built at this time. Bridgwater was involved in many historic English conflicts: it was besieged during the Civil War, & both the Monmouth rebellion & the battle of Sedgemoor occurred just outside its boundaries. After 1685 the quays were rebuilt & enlarged, a new almshouse & assize hall were erected, & the Duke of Chandos built 'the finest Georgian street outside Bath'. The Victorian era was one of progress: brick & tile manufacture replaced the wool & cloth trade, the railway arrived, a new town hall was built, the turnpikes were abolished & a floating harbour was created. However, the town was also beset by several scandals: a major cholera outbreak, criticism of the Dickensian care of workhouse inmates, & corrupt electoral practices, which led to Bridgwater being disfranchised. The last century, which saw advances in the public sector, ambitious house-building programmes implemented after both world wars, & continued advances in road transport, is covered in detail. The rapid decline of shipping & brick & tile manufacture after 1945 led to the local government changes of 1974 that resulted in Bridgwater becoming part of the Sedgemoor district & thereby losing some of its identity. This remarkably detailed book, enhanced by over 100 splendid illustrations, will appeal both to residents of Bridgwater, & local historians in general. ...