A collection of poems in which questions of belief & trust, of identity & knowledge, mingle with more mundane considerations, such as the problems of owning a dog, & the vicissitudes of the job market. Simon Armitage was the 1993 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. ...

Uncovers the academic scandal par excellence of the 20th century. This book presents the story of how & why up to 75 per cent of the 800 ancient Hebrew & Aramaic manuscripts, hidden for 19 centuries, remained concealed from the world. It has interviews, historical analysis & a close study of both published & unpublished scroll material. ...

There's simply no limit to the sins people will commit for a tasty meal. The Japanese are notorious for their trade in bluefin tuna, while newlyweds in Bangkok, Shanghai & Singapore devour a gelatinous soup made from poached abalone & fins hacked from living sharks. But surely there's no need for you to feel bad about ordering sea bass in a London restaurant. Unless, of course, you consider that you may well be enjoying one of the very last members of the species. In " Dead Seas" we follow acclaimed journalist Taras Grescoe on a year-long, round-the-world trip, as he eats his way from the top to the bottom of the food chain with one purpose in mind: to find out whether he can continue to eat such delicacies in good conscience. As well as painting a vivid & often hilarious picture of the fascinating people Taras encounters, Dead Seas explores the impact we are having on sea life by overfishing & draws our attention to some of the ethical choices we can make. At a time when many of the fish we take for granted are on the verge of extinction, we need to face the fact that very soon jellyfish sandwiches may be all that is left for us to eat. ...

Wilkie Collins's fifth novel, The Dead Secret explores the relationship between a fallen woman, her illegitimate daughter & the recovery of a hidden secret. Set in rugged Cornwall, the novel blends romance with Gothic drama, & in characterization & setting, clearly anticipates the qualities of Collins's next novel, The Woman in White. ...

Kate Mc Bain (Shannon Tweed) is a beautiful & dedicated cop who will do anything to bring a criminal to justice, even if that



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Russia in the 1840s. There is a stranger in town, & he is behaving oddly. The unctuous Pavel Chichikov goes around the local estates buying up 'dead souls'. These are the papers relating to serfs who have died since the last census, but who remain on the record & still attract a tax dem&. Chichikov is willing to relieve their owners of the tax burden by buying the titles for a song. What he does not say is that he then proposes to take out a huge mortgage against these fictitious citizens & buy himself a nice estate in Eastern Russia. Will he get away with it? Who will rumble him? Does this narrative contain a deeper message about Russia itself or the spiritual health of humanity? There is much interest & some suspense in considering these issues, but the real pleasure of this story lies elsewhere. It is an enjoyable comic romp through a retarded part of a backward country, a picaresque series of grotesque portraits, situations & conversations described with Gogolian humour based mainly on hyperbole. This is, quite simply, the funniest book in the Russian language before the twentieth century. ...

Stalking a poisoner at the local zoo, Inspector John Rebus comes across a paedophile taking pictures of children. When the social

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With its rich & ebullient language, ironic twists & startling juxtapositions, Dead Souls (1842) stands as one of the most dazzling & poetic masterpieces of the nineteenth century. This brilliant new translation by Christopher English is complemented by a superb introductory essay by the pre-eminent Gogol scholar, Robert Maguire. ...

Two girls meet by chance on Londons Hampstead Heath
- well-mannered & smartly dressy Verity & dishevelled & grubby Ruby.




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Sookie comes to the rescue of a naked, amnesiac vampire
- & ends up in the middle of a war between witches, werewolves & vampires!
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