Lyra Belacqua & her daemon Pan live in a world that is similar to our own but also very different. The disappearance of Lyra's best friend Roger coincides with the arrival of the mysterious Mrs. Coulter who takes Lyra to live with her in London. There Lyra uncovers some sinister secrets that take her on a journey far north to the land of armoured bears & ultimately to the Experiment Station
- a place of unspeakable horror.
...

Paradise has been home to generations of Trevannions: Paradise the house at the head of a sheltered Cornish valley where Mrs Trevannion lives surrounded by her family. Frail & elderly Honor Trevannion bedridden following a nasty fall is inexplicably anxious & distressed by the arrival of a young American bearing an old black & white photograph of a double wedding & looking for a long-lost relation. Her children Bruno & Emma granddaughter Joss & faithful cousin Mousie try to nurse Honor back to health unaware of the secrets which she keeps from those closest to her. Increasingly troubled & confused she begs Joss to find a cache of letters which have been hidden for fifty years. Too late to hear the story from Honor herself the family are faced with revelations which could destroy the tranquillity of life in their beloved valley. Will they be torn apart or can they unite in admiration for one womans courage in standing by the life-changing decision she made so many years ago? ...

Where were you when John F. Kennedy was shot? Today the answer more often than not is going to be not born. You have to be some way past 45 to know where you were when Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963. A generation later you could ask the same question about the World Trade Centre. Where were you when the plane hit the twin towers on 11 September 2001? But this book is about what happened between those two moments. The worlds perception of America changed between those two waves. AA Gills book is about the things hes always found admirable & optimistic about the United States & its citizens. Two of the happiest times of his life were spent living in New York & the mountains of Kentucky. The contrast between the two couldnt have been more complicated & different. The America he found was contradictory & elusive not the simpletons place hed been led to believe. It was still a list of raw ingredients rather than the old stew of Europe. Now AA Gill takes another look at the America he knew in the Seventies a place that seemed to hold promise practical energy & a plan for the future. How did it become the political magnetic north against which the liberal intellectuals from the rest of the world set their opinions. Why is it so easily mocked so comprehensively blamed so thoughtlessly hated? The book is a collection of linked essays based around places that will open up truths & mythologies about America & Americans. The theme of his journey will be searching for the home of. Every other small town in America boasts on its Welcome sign that it is the home of something or other. A mountain a mine peaches spotted pigs a president the worlds biggest ball of string barbeques the deepest hole. So thats where AA Gill starts going to find the home of everything. ...

Where were you when John F. Kennedy was shot? Today the answer more often than not is going to be 'not born'. You have to be some way past 45 to know where you were when Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963. A generation later you could ask the same question about the World Trade Centre. Where were you when the plane hit the twin towers on 11 September 2001? But this book is about what happened between those two moments. The world's perception of America changed between those two waves. A.A. Gill's book is about the things he's always found admirable & optimistic about the United States & its citizens. Two of the happiest times of his life were spent living in New York & the mountains of Kentucky. The contrast between the two couldn't have been more complicated & different. The America he found was contradictory & elusive not the simpletons' place he'd been led to believe. It was still a list of raw ingredients rather than the old stew of Europe. Now A.A. Gill takes another look at the America he knew in the 1970s a place that seemed to hold promise practical energy & a plan for the future. How did it become the political magnetic north against which the liberal intellectuals from the rest of the world set their opinions? Why is it so easily mocked so comprehensively blamed so thoughtlessly hated? This book is a collection of linked essays based around places that will open up truths & mythologies about America & Americans. The theme of his journey will be searching for 'the home of'. Every other small town in America boasts on its Welcome sign that it is the home of something or other: a mountain a mine peaches spotted pigs a president the world's biggest ball of string barbecues the deepest hole. So that's where A.A. Gill starts going to find the home of everything. ...

Twenty-one years ago when a conductor was poisoned & the Questura sent a man to investigate readers first met Commissario Guido Brunetti. Since 1992's Death at La Fenice Donna Leon & her shrewd sophisticated & compassionate investigator have been delighting readers around the world. For her millions of fans Leon's novels have opened a window into the private Venice of her citizens a world of incomparable beauty family intimacy shocking crime & insidious corruption. This internationally acclaimed bestselling series is widely considered one of the best ever written & William Heinemann is thrilled to be publishing the twenty-second installment The Golden Egg in April 2013. When making routine enquiries into a possible bribery case that could embarrass the mayor
- a humiliation Vice-Questore Patta is very keen to avoid
- Commissario Brunetti receives a call from his wife Paola who is evidently very upset. The middle-aged deaf mute with the mental age of a child who helped out at the Brunetti's dry cleaners has been found dead
- an 'accidental' overdose of his mother's sleeping pills
- & for some reason Paola is distraught by the news. To the neighbourhood he was just the 'boy' who helped out but nobody knew much about him
- not even his name. That a soul could have lived such a joyless life is too much for Paola to bear & she asks Guido if he can find out what happened. It is a surprise to Brunetti just how little was known about this man-child
- there are no official records to show he even existed. The man's mother is angry & contradictory when questioned about his death & Brunetti senses that there much more to the story than she is willing to tell. With the help of Inspector Vianello & the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra perhaps Brunetti can get to the truth & find some measure of solace.





...

She felt Ramon come awake & spring from the bed naked & lithe as a jungle cat. She heard the metallic snicker of a firearm as he snatched the pistol from the holster. In the darkness a yellow flower of gun-flamed bloomed & a single bullet whiplashed across twenty yards of open ground... In the searing heat of a divided Africa two decades of bitter dynastic conflict explode with terrifying ferocity. To Gary & Sean Courtney it is a struggle to the end; brother pitted against brother as they are dragged unwittingly into the lair of an international terrorist. Only Isabella Courtney stands between them & the mutual destruction they have willed for so long. Beautiful headstrong Isabella; the link to ' Golden Fox'
- a man whose alias hides a sinister & deadly secret... Traversing a vast panorama from the heart of London society to the grandeur of Spain from parched Ethiopia to war-torn Angola & on to the blazing hunting grounds of South Africa & Zimbabwe Golden Fox is masterful storytelling from the arena of war; an adventure of stirring irresistible intensity.
...

Jess & Pia are stuck at home revising while all their friends from Porchester Park jet off on glamorous holidays. They're feeling pretty miserable until Jess's new boyfriend JJ asks them to join him & his family on a 7 star all-expenses paid trip to India! It's a dream come true for Jess
- until she arrives & realises she's not the only golden girl with her heart set on JJ...
...

The third book in the gripping Jamie Johnson series. Jamie's dreams of becoming a professional footballer seem to be coming true after years of hoping & practising. But just when he's close to living the dream a shocking event turns his world upside down. He's never been a quitter but can he rise to the toughest challenge of his life? ...

Everyones got a child a friend or a neighbour who works in the City. The six-figure bonuses & golden hellos are no secret nor are the hundred-hour weeks the highpressure deals or the regular rounds of redundancies in the Square Mile. Its a cut-throat world...everyone knows that. But do they know what its like for the thousands of fresh-faced young graduates who pour into the City each year? Do they know what its like to get woken up at three in the morning by a taxi outside your window ready to haul you back into the office? What its like to feel guilty for sloping off to the gym at nine oclock at night? This cynical but entertaining novel follows two high-flyers through their first year in the City. Based on the writers experience at an American investment bank it reveals a world that doesnt quite match up with the fast-paced exhilarating one that was painted so enticingly on the undergraduate milk-round. Golden Handcuffs" is about twenty-something graduates in the City. It tells of ambition hard work & disillusionment. It has been called a latter day version of " Liars Poker" by Michael Lewis a must-read for all young professionals & strikes a similar chord to "I Dont Know How She Does It" by Allison Pearson though it is aimed at a younger reader. A witty insight into the City it is told with a fresh young style that cannot fail to appeal to this as-yet untapped market." ...

The legendary U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer was branded 'the wolf of the Atlantic' & for good reason. In his dramatic wartime career he sank ship after ship sowing terror among Allied convoys & dismay in those charged with their protection. Kretschmer was a daring officer who favoured bringing his U-boat into the heart of the convoy & destroying it from within. He earned himself a tremendous reputation before his capture in March 1941 & The Golden Horseshoe makes it clear why. Terence Robertson's biography of the U-boat ace draws upon first-hand experience of conditions & the deadly game as the hunter sought to outfox the hunted. He paints a masterly portrait of life at sea & weaves in the fascinating story of Kretschmer & the exploits of his U-Boats. Kretschmer was eventually captured & interviewed by Captain Mc Intyre of HMS Walker an episode which is also recounted in this book. Otto Kretschmer became a prisoner of war in March 1941 & spent most of the rest of the war in Bowmanville camp Canada before his release in 1947. ...