In the spring of 1883, Claude Monet decided it was time to find a permanent residence for his family & he selected the village of Giverny. It was small & relatively untouched by industry & the region had a picturesque appeal. Gentle rolling hills rose to the north, while to the south there were cultivated fields of wheat & poppies as well as meadows covered with wildflowers & irises. Not suitable for children under the age of 3 years. ...

The essential guide to creating beautiful watercolour paintings

Includes:: practical hints & tips, covering

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Books Historical Fiction Books Wakefield 1870 On the banks of the River Calder, Meg Taylor struggles to care for her younger siblings & sick mother whilst her father is away working as a boatman on the canals. The slums where they live are rife with disease, & Meg longs for a different life, away from the grinding poverty, but she'll never leave her family. But with the canals slowly dying as trade moves to the railways, & with Meg’s father stubbornly holding onto the past, Meg fears her family’s future is going to get even bleaker. If only there was a way she could save them…. Christian Henderson is tired of the greed of his wealthy family. He sees the poverty around him & wishes he could do more to help the proud working-class people he meets. People like Meg Taylor, whose courage he so admires. From the moment he meets Meg, Christian is captivated – Meg might be poor, but she is proud & spirited! Meg’s dreams of being with a man like Christian are fantas... ...

Have hours of fun piecing together this stunning Watermill image!

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' Weeks went by when Ismay never thought of it at all. Then something would bring it back or it would return in a dream. The dream began in the same way. She & her mother would be climbing the stairs, following Heather's lead through the bedroom to what was on the other side, not a bathroom in the dream but a chamber floored & walled in marble. In the middle of it was a glassy lake. The white thing in the water floated towards her, its face submerged, & her mother said, absurdly, Don't look!' The dead man was Ismay's stepfather, Guy. Now, nine years on, she & her sister, Heather, still live in the same house in Clapham. But it has been divided into two self-contained flats. Their mother lives upstairs with her sister, Pamela. & the bathroom, where Guy drowned, has been demolished. But Death will rear its ugly head once more... Ismay & Heather get on well. They always have. They never discussed the changes to the house, still less what had happened that August day. But as their love lives start to develop, someone is murdered along the way, & long buried suspicions re-emerge with potentially tragic results. ...

I am writing to a rhythm & not to a plot', Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel, The Waves. Widely regarded as one of her greatest & most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature & the passage of time. Six children
- Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny & Louis
- meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back & forth from the shore. The subsequent continuity of these six main characters, as they develop from childhood to maturity & follow different passions & ambitions, is interspersed with interludes from the timeless & unifying chorus of nature. In pure stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf presents a cross-section of multiple yet parallel lives, each marked by the disintegrating force of a mutual tragedy. The Waves is her searching exploration of individual & collective identity, & the observations & emotions of life, from the simplicity & surging optimism of youth to the vacancy & despair of middle-age.

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Delve into this astonishingly beautiful & poetic novel by the illustrious twentieth-century author, Virginia Woolf.



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North London, 1916. When Olivia Bone & Lieutenant Lucas Black shared a passionate kiss one summer's evening, it seemed as

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Bestselling author Lisa Faulkners new collection of innovative recipes based around moments to share with family & friends. Lisa focuses on food she loves to cook for her family & friends, with an original collection of over 130 recipes based around different occasions ? dishes for Sunday mornings, rainy days, something special, when the sun is shining, when she has no time or a house full of kids. There is something here for get-togethers of all kinds, with recipes ranging from the delicate Crab Ravioli with Chive Beurre Blanc & the sublime Venison, Celeriac & Apple Puree, Red Wine & Chocolate Sauce to Crispy Cornflake Chicken & Homemade Fish Fingers, perfect fare for hungry kids. Every recipe has Lisas personal introduction, giving an insight into her life & how she likes to do things. ...

The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. & he is the city's most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, & learned the hard way to judge people quickly
- & to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint. But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life & embrace a new identity & name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics & strange magics
- & cultivate a flair for death.

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