Every family is a ghost story.. . As a child Charley Benetto was told by his father You can be a mamas boy or a daddys boy but you cant be both. So he chooses his father only to see him disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later Charley is a broken man. His life has been destroyed by alcohol & regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits rock bottom after discovering he wont be invited to his only daughters wedding. & he decides to take his own life. Charley makes a midnight ride to his small hometown: his final journey. But as he staggers into his old house he makes an astonishing discovery. His mother
- who died eight years earlier
- is there & welcomes Charley home as if nothing had ever happened. What follows is the one seemingly ordinary day so many of us yearn for: a chance to make good with a lost parent to explain the family secrets & to seek forgiveness.

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Miserable at an elegant day school for girls Victoria Coren finds an escape in the mysterious world of poker. Twenty years later she has won a million dollars & forgotten to have children. What price adventure? This is a true story of happiness & heartbreak smoke & mirrors bright lights & shady characters. It is a memoir of friendship & belonging love & loss. It might also teach you how to win a million.. . ...

In this second instalment of John Gardners Bond series Bond teams up with CIA agent Cedar Leiter daughter of his old friend Felix Leiter to investigate Markus Bismaquer who is suspected of reviving the notorious criminal organisation SPECTRE. ...

From the time she was a little girl Maryam rebelled against the terrible second-class existence that was her destiny as an Afghan woman. She had witnessed the miserable fate of her grandmother & three aunts & wished she had been born a boy. As a feisty teenager in Kabul she was outraged when the Russians invaded her country. After she made a public show of defiance she had to flee the country for her life. A new life of freedom seemed within her grasp but her father arranged a traditional marriage to a fellow Afghan who turned out to be a violent man. Beaten raped & abused Maryam found joy in the birth of a baby son. But then her brutal husband stole him away far beyond his mothers reach. For many long years she searched for her lost son while civil war & Taliban oppression raged back home in Afghanistan. Set against a landscape littered with tragic tales of horrific suffering Jean Sasson author of Princess chronicles the story of one resolute but tormented woman determined to achieve freedom & equality with men. ...

In this mouth-watering collection of inspired & delicious dishes renowned chef Denis Cotter takes vegetarian cooking to a new level. ' No other book on vegetables in my library is so beautifully written or so thought-provoking. The recipes are intriguing & original but even if you never cook a single thing out of this book (which would be a crying shame) its worth buying for Denis's beautiful prose
- you'll never think of vegetables in the same way again.' Darina Allen in the Irish Examiner on Wild Garlic These recipes are designed to complement busy modern-day life & include ideas for mid-week bowl dishes & simple snacks as well as summer barbecue recipes & mouth-watering salads & risottos. Denis is famous for his inventive approach & this collection will inspire cooks everywhere no matter what your taste or skill level. For the Love of Food is an essential cookbook for vegetarians but will also appeal to non-vegetarians who enjoy flavour-packed food & new combinations. Full of simple & satisfying solutions this is a book that you will turn to everyday. These beautiful recipes are a joy to read. Recipes include: Orecchiette with broad beans & baby courgettes Mussaman curry of new potatoes chickpeas & green beans with cucumber & coriander salsa Pumpkin stew with fennel leeks & borlotti beans Chocolate olive oil mousse with salt & chilli sesame praline & cherry salsa Rhubarb & strawberry trifle with prosecco orange mascarpone & pistachio-lemon praline The best cheese on toast in the world Maple & chilli roasted beetroot with wild rice pecans bitter greens & orange yoghurt Broad bean & ricotta stuffed braised artichoke with citrus yoghurt & beetroot pastry Saffron-braised squash with aubergine pine nut & spinach stuffing & lentil-goat's cheese sauce
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There are only three things a cat needs for a fine life
- good food a comfortable bed & universal praise & love. Luckily
- after

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Elena Weaver in her skimpy dresses & bright jewellery exuded intelligence & sexuality. A student at St Stephen's College Cambridge she lived a life of casual but intense physical & emotional relationships with scores to settle & targets to achieve. Until someone lying in wait on the bank of the River Cam where Elena went running every morning bludgeoned the young woman to death. Called into the rarefied world of academia Inspector Thomas Lynley & his partner Barbara Havers find a tangled skein of love obsession & desire
- a maelstrom of emotion that has claimed Elena Weaver's life.
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Commander Graham Martineau was awarded the Victoria Cross for pressing home an attack against impossible odds. Few survived & crimson ribbon remains a haunting symbol of the sacrifice of ship & men. Now as captain of the crack Tribal Class destroyer H.M.S. Hakka Martineau must once again call from ordinary seamen the ultimate in courage & prepare to defend to the death vital convoys to Russia. There is no hiding place in these bitter Arctic seas where a pitiless enemy awaits a fatal rendezvous. All are heroes & no man & no ship is immortal. ...

High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan a young American volunteer has been sent to handle the dyamiting. There in the mountains he finds the dangers & the intense comradeship of war. & there he discovers Maria a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels. Like many of his novels adapted into a major Hollywood film For Whom the bell Tolls is one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century by one of the greatest American writers. ...

Martin Bell OBE has been many things
- an icon of BBC war reporting Britains first independent MP for 50 years a UNICEF ambassador
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