The olive harvest is drawing to a close in the town of Dendra & when Hermes Diaktoros arrives for the celebratory festival he expects an indulgent day of food & wine. But as young men leap a blazing bonfire in feats of daring one of them is badly burned. Did he fall or was he pushed? Then as Hermes learns of a deep-running feud between two families one of their patriarchs dies. Determined to find out why Hermes follows a bitter trail through the olive groves to reveal a motive for murder & uncovers a dark deed brought to light by the sin of gluttony. ...

It was hard to imagine how Claire's day could get any worse...and then the vampires holding her hostage wanted breakfast. In the town of Morganville vampires & humans have learned to live in relative peace. Still Claire Danvers knows that after dark her homework can take a backseat to staying alive. But this tenuous harmony is really turned on its head with the arrival of Mr Bishop. Bad to the bone the ancient old-school vampire cares nothing about keeping the peace. Staying at the top of the food chain is enough. What he wants from the town's living & dead is unthinkably sinister. It's only at a formal ball attended by vampires & their human dates that Claire realises Bishop's plan
- & the elaborately evil trap he's set for the warm-blooded souls of Morganville.
...

Clement Freud who died suddenly in April 2009 was a man of many parts. His life embraced a variety of careers including TV chef gambler owner of a night club & several racehorses radio broadcaster adventurer &
- not least
- Member of Parliament. Yet as his son Matthew declared at his funeral it was Freuds writing that brought us closest to the man. In addition to several books
- notably the childrens book Grimble" (1968) " Freud on Food" (1978) " The Book of Hangovers" (1981) & a volume of autobiography " Freud Ego" (2001)
- he wrote on a vast range of subjects for newspapers & magazines including the " Observer" " Sun" " Financial Times" " Sporting Life" " Daily Mail" " Tatler" " Guardian" " New Yorker" & " Racing Post". "A Feast of Freud" presents a generous helping of Clement Freuds best & most humorous writing on a broad sweep of topics including his consuming passions of food sport politics & the absurdity of the human condition reflecting his extraordinarily varied life through the prism of his distinctive deadpan humour. From the pen of the man who once joked of being out-grandfathered by the younger Winston Churchill comes this richly stocked volume that every Freud fan no matter in which of his many lives they encountered him will treasure."



...

Against a backdrop of glittering kingdoms & dark prophecies a rogue magister & a dying prince fight for their lives. Magisters from across the known world are gathering for an unusual meeting. King Aurelius has summoned them to heal his dying son who has fallen victim to an incurable wasting disease. The King has demanded an explanation & a cure yet appearances are deceptive. Its clear to the initiated that a magister is responsible
- so the order remains quiet & organises a manhunt to silence the culprit. But while men are distracted strangeness is stirring in the world. An ancient evil is rising in the north but the old warnings are long forgotten. Only those carrying the Protector bloodline feel fear & their numbers are few. So the powerful will soon find themselves playing a new & more dangerous game.
...

In the High Kingdom of Danton Aurelius magisters from across the known world are gathering for an unusual meeting. The High King's son is dying of an apparently incurable wasting disease & he has charged them with providing an explanation & a cure. There is a mystery here but not the one the High King thinks: the magisters know the cause of the prince's illness but they dare not reveal it for fear that it will expose the secret at the heart of their order. No the mystery is not what is responsible but who... Now the magisters must embark upon a manhunt racing against time before the High King learns the truth. But they have not counted on the young prince's determination to control his own fate nor on the existence of Kamala a young woman schooled in their own arts who will soon shake the world to its very roots. ...

Now in paperback this is Thor Hansons critically-acclaimed natural & cultural history of natures finest invention. Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: aerodynamic insulating & beguiling. Their story begins in the Jurassic period & leads through the development of flight to high fashion
- from leaping dinosaurs to da Vinci sketches to showgirls on the Las Vegas Strip they date back to the dawn of time. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle" biologist Thor Hanson tells a sweeping natural history of feathers as theyve been used to fly protect attract & adorn through time & place. Applying the research of palaeontologists ornithologists biologists engineers & even art historians Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us? Engineers call feathers the most efficient insulating material ever discovered. Theyve inspired legends & literature from Icarus to Shakespeare. Theyve inked documents from the Constitution to the novels of Jane Austen. Theyve decorated queens jesters plague doctors Aztec priests & the fabled birds of paradise. They silence the flight of owls give shimmer to hummingbirds & keep penguins dry below the ice. They are at the root of biologys most enduring debate. It goes without saying the importance & intrigue of feathers is patent. Informed by Hansons own field experiences form Africa to Antarctica " Feathers" deftly traces a history of evolution fluff flight fancy & function. A captivating & beautifully-written exploration of the human fascination with a most enchanting object " Feathers" transports readers from mythical associations with the divine to the height of modern-day science & technology."
...

Davie Armstrong watches as his master Angus Mc Bain publicly thrashes young Molly Geary for refusing to name the man who had made her pregnant. & yet only an hour later Davie sees the two of them alone in the malthouse & learns that the child is Mc Bains. In a whirl of disbelieving rage he overhears them plotting to let him Davie take the blame & marry Molly. Meanwhile the masters wife is also pregnant. & a few months later the birth of the Mc Bains son Amos unleashes violence & tragedy at the farm. Born with no legs & emotionally crippled Amos will learn to wield power of frightening intensity over everyone around him. ...

Simon Templar is the Saint
- daring dazzling & just a little disreputable. On the side of the law but standing outside it he dispenses
...

On New Years Eve Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. Theyll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Now hes on the run. The people who killed his father want him dead & the police are chasing him for a crime he didnt commit. A month has gone by & hes still no nearer to solving the Ormond Riddle the family secret that has turned his life into a nightmare. Can he trust the mysterious Winter Frey or will she lead him further into danger? He has 334 days. The clock is ticking... ...

The central event in Hildes childhood occurred on 2 February 1945. She was a confused but compliant girl at the time. Now she is a depressed & angry old woman who is haunted by the memory of that shameful day. For on that day in February the ordinary citizens of her village hunted down & murdered Approx. 500 prisoners who had escaped from the concentration camp in Mauthausen. This brilliant novel renders the experiences of common people caught up in the political cyclone of the time reminding us that history is not behind us nor is it outside us. ...