The product of an affair between a nurse & an injured American soldier during the Great War Ruby OHagans early life is in an orphanage. At sixteen she runs away with a farmworker & two years later she is alone & homeless with her two daughters. Her friend Mrs Hart leaves her big friendly house for Ruby to look after & it is here that her life unfolds. Her children leave but return when tragedy befalls them. Through all this the enigmatic Matthew Flynn drifts in & out of Rubys life. She ignores him until it is almost too late. ...

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is best known today as one of the Victorian periods leading exponents of supernatural fiction & was described by M.R. James as standing absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories. The House by the Churchyard is perhaps his best novel in this genre. Set in the village of Chapelizod near Dublin in the 1760s the story opens with the accidental disinterment of an old skull in the churchyard & an eerie late-night funeral. This discovery relates to murders both recent & historical whose repercussions disrupt the complacent pace of village affairs & change the lives of many of its notable characters forever. Charm & chilling darkness abound in equal measure in one of the greatest novels of a Victorian master of mystery. ...

The House by the Dvina is the riveting story of two families separated in culture & geography but bound together by a Russian-Scottish marriage. It

Includes:: episodes as romantic & dramatic as any in fiction: the purchase by the authors great-grandfather of a peasant girl with whom he had fallen in love; the desperate sledge journey in the depths of winter made by her grandmother to intercede with Tsar Aleksandr II for her husband; the extraordinary courtship of her parents; & her Scottish granny being caught up in the abortive revolution of 1905. Eugenie Fraser herself was brought up in Russia but was taken on visits to Scotl&. She marvellously evokes a childs reactions to two totally different environments sets of customs & family backgrounds while the characters are beautifully drawn & splendidly memorable. With the events of 1914 to 1920
- the war with Germany the Revolution the murder of the Tsar & the withdrawal of the Allied Intervention in the north
- came the disintegration of Russia & of family life. The stark realities of hunger deprivation & fear are sharply contrasted with the adventures of childhood. The reader shares the familys suspense & concern about the fates of its members & relives with Eugenie her final escape to Scotl&. In The House by the Dvina Eugenie Fraser has vividly & poignantly portrayed a way of life that finally disappeared in violence & tragedy.



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Ten-year-old Floriana is captivated by the beauty of the magnificent Tuscan villa just outside her small village & dreams of living there someday. When Dante the son of the villas owner invites her inside she knows that her destiny is there with him. But as they grow up they cross an unseen line jeopardizing the very thing they hold most dear... Decades later & hundreds of miles away a beautiful old country house hotel on Englands Devon coast has fallen on hard times. Its owner Marina hires an artist-in-residence to stay the summer & teach the guests how to paint. The man she finds is charismatic & wise & begins to pacify the discord in her family & transform the fortunes of the hotel. However it soon becomes clear that he is not who he seems... From the Italian countryside to the English coast The House by the Sea is a moving & mysterious tale of love forgiveness & the past revealed. ...

Just across the River Thames from St Pauls Cathedral stands an old & elegant house. Over the course of almost 450 years the dwelling on this site has witnessed many changes. From its windows people have watched the ferrymen carry Londoners to & from Shakespeares Globe; they have gazed on the Great Fire; they have seen the countrified lanes of Londons marshy south bank give way to a network of wharves workshops & tenements
- & then seen these too become dust & empty air. Rich with anecdote & colour this fascinating book breathes life into the forgotten inhabitants of the house
- the prosperous traders; an early film star; even some of Londons numberless poor. In so doing it makes them stand for legions of others & for whole world that we have lost through hundreds of years of Londons history.

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The motivation for dividing a property into smaller homes is not hard to find. Demand for housing continues to outstrip supply & the spiralling prices of homes are bewildering. Creating an annexe to the home is no longer a desirable luxury it is increasingly becoming a necessity & not just for the grandparents. The children have reached adulthood only to discover they cant afford to buy their first home & are staying in the parental home for longer. For the more ambitious dividing a larger house into apartments or maisonettes not only creates the space for independent living it can realise the full potential & maximum value of your property & set you on a career path as a property developer. This book contains clear concise advice & informative diagrams that will help at every stage of the process from submitting planning applications complying with building regulations dividing services & utilities to creating flats maisonettes & annexes. ...

How else can you defend yourself against losing your hi-fi equipment your TV set & computer your watch & rings? A house gun like a house cat; that is a fact of ordinary life in many cities of the world as we come to the end of the twentieth century especially in South Africa. At this time the successful respected executive director of an insurance company Harold & his doctor wife Claudia for whom violence could never be a means of solving personal conflict are faced with something that could never happen to them: their son has committed murder. What kind of loyalty do a mother & a father owe a son who has committed this unimaginable horror? What have they done in influencing his character; more ominously where is it they have failed him? The House Gun" is a passionate narrative of love being particularly complex between parents & their children. It moves with the restless pace of living itself from the intimate to the general condition; if it is a parable of present violence it is also an affirmation of the will to human reconciliation that starts where it must between individuals." ...

Warm rich & funny
- a beautifully illustrated title from acclaimed picture-book maker Inga Moore. When two Little Pigs leave their
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Now fully updated Ideal for owners of pet lurchers & domestic greyhounds including rescue greyhounds With the tips & training techniques in this book owners of pet lurchers & domestic greyhounds can learn how to live happily with their dogs at home & in public. In particular they will learn how to establish a sound recall so that their lurcher can be exercised with complete confidence off the lead. All aspects of owning & training lurchers are covered in detail. ...

The Lake District 1908. It seems as though Livia Ella & Maggie Angel lead a charmed life on a large country estate. But since the death of their mother their family home has been far from a quiet haven as their bullying father is determined to marry off the girls to his greatest advantage. When the sisters discover their father had an affair many years ago which resulted in the birth of a baby girl they determine to find their half-sister & their search begins in the local workhouse. Mercy had been unaware of her connection to the rich Angel family until her mothers death-bed confession & once she knows shes not at all sure that she wants to be part of the family. ...