Topsy & Tim are always finding fun adventures in the real world & this story is reassuring for young children having first experiences of their own. In Topsy & Tim At the Farm" the children meet all kinds of interesting animals. They help collect eggs from the chickens & find some little ducklings learning how to swim. They are a little bit frightened when they get chased by some large geese but Farmer Stewart soon finds them a nice job to do helping to feed a calf." ...

The conclusion of the bestselling Demon War series which began with Rides a Dread Legion Recent events have devastated the Conclave of Shadows; the discovery of the demon horde on the heels of the taredhel invasion of Midkemia the threat of the star elves themselves & the terrible personal cost paid by Pug & his family. But grieving must wait. At a deserted fortress in the Valley of Lost Men the Conclave's agents witness horror beyond their imagination orchestrated by a familiar enemy. But Belasco's motives are as yet unclear. The Conclave must regroup & discover the true meaning behind the chaos seeded by the evil magician if they are ever to find a way to stop the destruction of Triagia before the demon horde even arrives. ...

CAPTIVE OF THE CLAN To regain control of his fractured clan Robert Matheson must take Lilidh Mac Lerie hostage as a bargaining tool. But Lilidh is no ordinary captive. She's the woman he once loved
- & rejected! Rob's touch is etched permanently into her memory & unaware that he was forced to repudiate their love Lilidh has never forgotten the man who broke her heart all those years ago. Now looking into the eyes of her captor she no longer recognises this fearsome leader. She should be afraid
- there's no telling what he will do. But something about him both excites & unnerves her in equal measure...

...

Lucy has been forced to run away from home as she fears for her safety from her drunken father. She is taken on as a maid at the house of Dr Dee court magician upon whom Elizabeth I relies heavily even down to advising the date of her coronation. The household is strange & sinister & Lucy has a nose for intrigue.. . And she has more than enough to satisfy her: Lucy stumbles across a plot to assassinate the queen & has to find means to warn her.. . ...

For many years Andrew Greig saw the poet Norman Mac Caig as a father figure. Months before his death Mac Caigs enigmatic final request to Greig was that he fish for him at the Loch of the Green Corrie; the location even the real name of his destination was more mysterious still. His search took in days of outdoor living meetings & fishing with friends in the remote hill lochs of far North-West Scotl&. It led finally to the waters of the Green Corrie which would come to reflect Greigs own life his thoughts on poetry geology & land ownership in the Highlands & the ambiguous roles of whisky love & male friendship. At the Loch of the Green Corrie is a richly atmospheric narrative a celebration of losing & recovering oneself in a unique landscape the consideration of a particular culture & a homage to a remarkable poet & his world. ...

What happens in an old farmhouse when the farmers have left? Perhaps only a poet-historian-storyteller can say. These traditional work centres were established centuries ago sometimes in the village street often far away in their own fields. But the pattern of the toil was the same. This quietly vanished a few years ago. Ronald Blythe describes the going of it in his celebrated Akenfield. Some years before this his friend John Nash had rescued an already abandoned farmhouse in the Stour Valley from total dereliction. It was called Bottengoms. Nobody knows why. John Nash called himself an Artist-Plantsman. Behind both artist & writer there existed many generations of farmers & shepherds. Old houses will always have their say. For Ronald Blythe at Bottengoms Farm it was in the form of a meditation on past & present. He found that the ancient place asked more questions than it gave answers & was challenging & was energetic rather than spent. It must have been part of a prehistoric settlement in a stony valley & also a farm seen by the young John Constable whose uncles ground its corn. For they were Bottengoms neighbours & were known to the artist as the Wormingford folk. Ronald Blythe himself knows what the old farm is talking about. Its great days & routine days its seasonal labour & play its faith & despair. Its land was both poor & rich in snatches flint fields & mossy pastures vast trees & weeds & high skies. Once Queen Elizabeth arrived to hunt below where the Stone Age people lay in their circular graves. Inside Bottengoms there are telling handprints & footprints everywhere & this is their tale. It is a tale told by a true countryman who has looked & listened all his life. & mostly in his native place. ...

Still in his mid thirties Michael Buble has a fan base as varied as the music he sings
- a hip mix of standards cleverly chosen
...

Etta Peter & Jonah all find themselves at a cabin by the shore of Yellow Lake & flung together in the terrifying series of events that follows. Jonah has come to Yellow Lake to try to get in touch with his Ojibwe roots. Peter is there to bury a lock of his mothers hair
- her final request. Etta is on the run from her mothers creepy boyfriend Kyle & his dodgy friends. But as the three take shelter in the cabin finding surprising solace in each others company they soon realise that they have inadvertently stumbled onto the scene of a horrifying crime & Kyle & his cronies have no intention of letting them escape. A sparkling debut from new teen author Jane Mc Loughlin At Yellow Lake will keep readers gripped until the final page. A page turning story which oozes menace. A fantastic debut & a treat for Young Adult readers." Anne Cassidy award-winning author of Looking for JJ"
...

42 atheist celebrities comedians scientists & writers give their funny & serious tips for enjoying the Christmas season. When the Atheist Bus Campaign was first launched over GBP150 000 was raised in four days
- enough to place the advert Theres probably no God. Now stop worrying & enjoy your life on 800 UK buses in January 2009. Now dozens of atheist writers comedians & scientists are joining together to raise money for a very different cause. The Atheists Guide to Christmas is a funny thoughtful handbook all about enjoying Christmas from 42 of the worlds most entertaining atheists. It features everything from an atheist Christmas miracle to a guide to the best Christmas pop hits & contributors include Richard Dawkins Charlie Brooker Derren Brown Ben Goldacre Jenny Colgan David Baddiel Simon Singh AC Grayling Brian Cox & Richard Herring. The full book advance & all royalties will go to the UK HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust.
...

The powerful & innovative King Athelstan reigned only briefly (924-939) yet his achievements during those eventful twelve years changed the course of English history. He won spectacular military victories (most notably at Brunanburh) forged unprecedented political connections across Europe & succeeded in creating the first unified kingdom of the English. To claim for him the title of first English monarch" is no exaggeration. In this nuanced portrait of Athelstan Sarah Foot offers the first full account of the king ever written. She traces his life through the various spheres in which he lived & worked beginning with the intimate context of his family then extending outward to his unusual multi-ethnic royal court the Church & his kingdom the wars he conducted & finally his death & legacy. Foot describes a sophisticated man who was not only a great military leader but also a worthy king. He governed brilliantly developed creative ways to project his image as a ruler & devised strategic marriage treaties & gift exchanges to cement alliances with the leading royal & ducal houses of Europe. Athelstans legacy seen in the new light of this masterful biography is inextricably connected to the very forging of England & early English identity." ...