DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE is a book unbounded by genre but located at a magical crossroads where THE PASSAGE meets PHILIP PULLMAN & TWILIGHT meets PAN'S LABYRINTH. Errand requiring immediate attention. Come. The note was on vellum pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. ' He never says please' she sighed but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called she always came. In general Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other err&-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world half in ' Elsewhere' she has never understood Brimstone's dark work
- buying teeth from hunters & murderers
- nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole. Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing & Karou must choose between the safety of her human life & the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought. ' Remarkable & beautifully written.. . The opening volume of a truly original trilogy.' GUARDIAN

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Archaeologist spy Arabist linguist author poet photographer mountaineer & nation builder Gertrude Bell was born in 1868 into a world of privilege & plenty but she turned her back on all that for her passion for the Arab peoples becoming the architect of the independent kingdom of Iraq & seeing its first king Faisal safely onto the throne in 1921. Daughter of the Desert is her story vividly told & impeccably researched drawing on Gertrude's own writings both published & unpublished. It is a compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class & age & in so doing created a remarkable & enduring legacy. ' What a great Oscar-laden biopic this will make the combination of epic scenes & personal drama makes Georgina Howell's saga a winner' Daily Express ' Howell sketches in the gradations of colour & emotion that have been lacking in hitherto monochrome accounts of Bell's life.. . Exemplary' Sunday Times ' Riveting few women have had a life more worth reading about.' Diana Athill Literary Review ...

From the imagination of two of fantasys greatest names comes a magnificent epic of heroic & dynastic struggle. At age 17 Maras ceremonial pledge of servantship to the goddess Lashima is interrupted by the news that her father & brother have been killed in battle on Trigia the world through the rift. Now Ruling Lady of the Acoma Mara finds that not only are her familys ancient enemies the Minwanabi responsible for the deaths of her loved ones but her military forces have been decimated by the betrayal & House Acoma is now vulnerable to complete destruction. ...

The autobiography of a young girl growing up in Maos China. Hong Ying grew up in a slum on the banks of the Yangtze an area permanently veiled in fog & steeped in superstition. Life was precarious & Hong Ying the youngest of the six children grew up afraid that she would be condemned to a life of carrying sand & emptying chamber pots. Gradually Hong Ying began to try & solve some of the mysteries which had seemed to surround her early life: a stalker who had followed her since she was a child a VD record in her fathers file & a persistent feeling that there was something strange about her birth. Among her discoveries Hong Ying learnt that her mother was once married to a Triadman who had died in a labour camp as a counter-revolutionary while her father now a blind sailor had several times barely escaped with his life during the civil war. Under the corrupt rule her mother had taken extreme measures to keep the children alive while several of her relatives starved to death during the Great Famine. Moreover Hong Yings stalker turned out to have an astoundingly close connection with her. After the tragic deaths of both her first lover & her first child Hong Ying decided she had to take control of her own life: she left home & worked hard to become a published poet & a novelist. After the events in Tiananmen Square she left China to live in London. ...

Josephine Tey's classic novel about Richard III the hunchback king whose remains were recently discovered. The Daughter of Time investigates his role in the death of his nephews the princes in the Tower & his own death on the battlefield. Richard III reigned for only two years & for centuries he was villified as the hunch-backed wicked uncle murderer of the princes in the Tower. Josephine Tey's novel The Daughter of Time is an investigation into the real facts behind the last Plantagenet king's reign & an attempt to right what many believe to be the terrible injustice done to him by the Tudor dynasty. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard recuperating from a broken leg becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive noble face actually belong to one of the world's most heinous villains
- a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother's children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim turned into a monster by the the Tudors? Grant determines to find out once & for all with the help of the British Museum & an American scholar what kind of man Richard III really was & who killed the Princes in the Tower.
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A family torn apart. A daughter's courage... When Elizabeth & her four sibling are orphaned she & her brother are sent to a children's home; their younger sisters into foster care. Life in the home is hard but she is determined to look after her brother & make a better life for them both. Working as a nurse gives her a purpose but she risks everything by falling for wounded officer Jack Benson. Far above her in wealth & station Elizabeth cannot marry him & she risks losing her nursing place if there is any hint of impropriety about her conduct. Then Elizabeth learns that her sister Jenny has been adopted by an abusive farmer. Torn between her hopeless love for Jack & her sister must Elizabeth make an extreme sacrifice to reunite her family? ...

This book will break open a secret. It is a gripping tale of love loyalty & domestic happiness that came to be overwhelmed by the forces of ambition deceit & treachery from the award-winning author of ' My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots'. The life of Sir Thomas More is familiar to many. His opposition to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn his arrest for treason in 1534 his virtuoso defence at his trial & his execution in 1535 (and subsequent martyrdom) make up one of the most famous stories in British history. While More's place in history is secure Margaret his daughter has been almost forgotten. She was airbrushed out of the story even though she played a leading role in this very public drama. During More's imprisonment in the Tower of London Margaret became his sole intermediary with the outside world. She visited frequently & the pair wrote long & loving letters to one another. Margaret also smuggled more inflammatory letters in & out of the Tower during these visits & it is through these that we see a dramatic new portrait of Sir Thomas More emerge. In this enlightening new book John Guy returns to original sources that have been ignored by generations of historians & re-writes a story that we think we already know. ...

Mr Justice Coombe is a well-respected judge who has beautiful twin daughters. One goes to the Bar while the other becomes a solicitor. They each fall in love with the sons of Major Claude Buttonstep. Unfortunately the Major dislikes lawyers & cannot accept his sons' choice of partner. The Major is then unexpectedly forced into litigation with his neighbour Mr Trotter & events take an interesting turn for everyone concerned.. . ...

Readers of Princess Sultana's extraordinary biography Princess were gripped by her powerful indictment of women's lives behind the veil within the royal family of Saudi Arabia. They were every bit as fascinated by the sequel Daughters of Arabia. Here the princess turns the spotlight on her two daughters Maha & Amani both teenagers. Surrounded by untold opulence & luxury from the day they were born but stifled by the unbearably restrictive lifestyle imposed on them they reacted in equally desperate ways. Their dramatic & shocking stories together with many more which concern other members of Princess Sultana's huge family are set against a rich backdrop of Saudi Arabian culture & social mores which she depicts with equal colour & authenticity. We learn for example of the fascinating ritual of the world-famous annual pilgrimage to Makkah as we accompany the princess & her family to this holiest of cities. Throughout however she never tires of her quest to expose the injustices which her society levels against women. In her courageous campaign to improve the lot of her own daughters of Arabia Princess Sultana once more strikes a chord amongst all women who are lucky enough to have the freedom to speak out for themselves. ...

Daughters of Eden "focuses on the lives & fortunes of four very different young women at the outbreak of the Second World War. Marjorie left at a boarding school by her emigrating mother; plain Poppy pushed into marriage with a mean-spirited aristocrat; Kate despised by her father but determined to prove herself; & man-mad Lily who turns out to be the bravest of them all. That all of them are chosen to work undercover for the espionage unit at beautiful stately home is a surprise not least to them. At Eden Park they not only meet each other but become involved with three unusual young men -- Eugene the seemingly feckless Irishman; Robert Kates brother; & dashing Scott a master of disguise & the undisputed favourite of the unit. While there is hardly time for romance before each is sent out into the field there is just enough for passionate new relationships to form. Only Jack Ward the mysterious spymaster manages to remain aloof as he guides their destinies. The fact that they will look back on this time as having made them feel more exquisitely alive than ever before is not something they will know until much later." ...