A litter of kittens a train of camels a pride of lions: these are some of the animal collective nouns you may already know. But have you heard of a parcel of hogs an embarrassment of pandas or a business of ferrets? Then turn the pages of this book to discover a collection of lesser-known & sometimes more fanciful ones... ...

Droving has been hugely important in shaping farming practice across Northumberland for 1 000 years or more. The necessity of transporting sheep & cattle has changed the landscape & developed the roads & buildings & at one time animals would be herded from as far a field as Scotland & Irel&. Today the scene is very different but the legacy of the drovers can still be seen & enjoyed all over the region. Local archaeologists Ian Roberts Alan Rushworth & Richard Calrton have been determined to preserve this history on behalf of the Northumberland National Park Authority. Following the development of droving in Northumberland from prehistoric times through Middle Ages the eighteenth century & right up to date they offer the definitive history of this significant activity. ...

One of the great classics of Scottish history The Drove Roads of Scotland interweaves folklore social comment & economic history in a fascinating account of Scotlands droving trade & the routes by which cattle & sheep were brought from every corner of the land to markets in central Scotl&. In pastoral Scotland the breeding & movement of livestock were fundamental to the lives of the people. The story of the drove roads takes the reader on an engrossing tour of Scottish history from the lawless cattle driving by reivers in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries to the legitimate movement of stock which developed after the Union of the Crowns by which time the large-scale movement of stock to established markets had become an important part of Scotlands economy & a vital aspect of commercial life in the Empire. Haldanes work is one of the great classics of Scottish history. ...

Shortly after completing THE DROWNED & THE SAVED Primo Levi committed suicide. The matter of his death was sudden violent & unpremiditated & there were some who argue that he killed himself because he was tormented by guilt
- guilt that he had survived the horrors of Auschwitz while others better than he had gone to the wall. THE DROWNED & THE SAVED is Levis impassioned attempt to understand the rationale behind the concentration camps was completed shortly before his tragic death in 1987. THE DROWNED & THE SAVED dispels the myth that Primo Levi forgave the Germans for what they did to his people. He didnt & couldnt forgive. He refused however to indulge in what he called the bestial vice of hatred which is an entirely different matter. The voice that sounds in his writing is that of a reasonable man...it warns & reminds us that the unimaginable can happen again. A would-be tyrant is waiting in the wings with beautiful words on his lips. The book is constantly impressing on us the need to learn from the past to make sense of the senseless PAUL BAILEY
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On the third day there were PIRATES! Arthur Penhaligon finds himself on an adventure that will pit him against pirates storms explosions & a vast beast that eats everything it encounters. Will our unwitting hero be able to find the third part of the Will & claim the Third Key? No rest for poor Arthur Penhaligon. As Grim Tuesday ends he discovers a square of stiff cardboard under his pillow gilt-edged & inscribed with the following words: LADY WEDNESDAY Trustee of the Architect & Duchess of the Border Sea has great pleasure in inviting ARTHUR PENHALIGON to a Particular Luncheon of Seventeen Removes Transport has been arranged RSVP not required! It's an invitation he cannot refuse. From hospital room to the high seas Arthur finds himself on an adventure that will pit him against pirates storms explosions of Nothing-laced gunpowder & a vast beast that eats everything it encounters. Through it all he is drawn deeper into the central mystery of the House. Arthur must find the third part of the Will & claim the Third Key -- not just for himself but for the millions (if not trillions) who will suffer if he doesn't. The first step? Surviving life aboard ship on the Border Sea! ...

Swedish crime sensation & No. 1 international bestseller Camilla Lackbergs new psychological thriller
- for fans of Stieg Larsson
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The Drowning City: home to exiles & expatriates pirates & smugglers. & violent revolutionaries who will stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government. For Isyllt Iskaldur necromancer & spy the brewing revolution is a chance to prove herself to her crown. All she has to do is find & finance the revolutionaries & help topple the palaces of Symir. But she is torn between her new friends & her duties & the longer she stays in this monsoon-drenched city the more intrigue she uncovers
- even the dead are plotting. As the waters rise & the dams crack Isyllt must choose between her mission & the city she came to save.
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Jenna is sweet sixteen the age when a girl is supposed to find her prince. Instead she finds Mr Anderson
- intelligent handsome
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A lost child. A shattered past. A life going under.. . Vincent Ruiz is lucky to be alive. A bullet in the leg another through the hand he is discovered clinging to a buoy in the River Thames losing blood & consciousness fast. It takes six days for him to come out of his coma & when he does his nightmare is only just beginning. Because Vincent has no recollection of what happened & nobody believes him. A mile away from his body a boat was found covered in blood -- Vincent's & that of three others. Forensics say at least one of them must be dead. Vincent a police detective had signed his service pistol out of the station armoury despite being on leave. Many murder suspects fake amnesia & the investigating team are not sure this case is any different.. . The only clue is a picture in his pocket a photograph of a young girl Mickey Carlyle who disappeared three years ago. & though Mickey is presumed dead Vincent has the nagging doubt that she is alive & in terrible danger.. . ...

The secrets of the past never die. But they can kill
- August Penrose created the stained glass Lady Window to adorn the chapel
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