Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen she yeams for her mother & for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father she has only one friend: Rosaleen a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon & Rosaleen is arrested & beaten Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice & from Lily's harsh & unyielding father they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world as about the mystery surrounding her mother. ...

Bletchley Park was where one of the war's most famous
- & crucial
- achievements was made: the cracking of Germany's Enigma"

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Catherine Alliott bestselling author of One Day in May" & "A Crowded Marriage" takes a heart-warming look at what happens when your whole world is turned upside-down in " The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton". Evie Hamilton has a secret.. .one she doesnt even know about. Yet.. . Evies an Oxfordshire wife & mum whos biggest worry in life is whether or not she can fit in a manicure on her way to fetch her daughter from clarinet lessons. But shes blissfully unaware that her charmed & happy life is about to be turned upside-down. For one sunny morning a letter lands on Evies immaculate doormat. Its a bombshell knocking her carefully arranged & managed world completely askew & it threatens to sabotage all she holds dear. What will be left & what will change forever? Is Evie strong enough to fight for what she loves? Can her entire world really be as fragile as her best china? Step into Alliott country with " The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton" Praise for Catherine Alliott: " Classy wonderfully gossipy & breathless". (" Red"). " We defy you not to get caught up in Alliotts life-changing tale". (" Heat"). " Alliott at her best". (" Daily Telegraph"). Catherine Alliott is the author of twelve bestselling novels: "A Crowded Marriage" "A Married Man" " Not That Kind of Girl" " Going Too Far" " The Old-Girl Network" " Olivias Luck" " Rosie Meadows Regrets..." " The Wedding Day" " The Real Thing" " The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton" " One Day in May" "A Rural Affair". She lives with her family in Hertfordshire." ...

Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives Kalush & Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British & Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent. In exchange for his cooperation the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments such as his participation in early aerial surveillance & his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information. After the war Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever. Grounded in solid research but as exciting & dramatic as a good thriller THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI traces the magicians long & circuitous route from struggling vaudevillian to worldwide legend. ...

Seduction is the sweetest secret... One kiss then another & before she knows it Lady Julia Leighton succumbs to the breathtaking charms of a stranger... at the ball celebrating her betrothal to a man who considers her a sister. The steamy encounter changes her life in more ways than one. When she meets her seducer again Julia is no longer a lady but an outcast a paid companion to a lady who used to be her equal-- & her desire for him burns as strong as ever. He goes by Thomas Merritt a name as questionable as his intentions. A thief with a secret past he was utterly bewitched by the beautiful & innocent Lady Julia. But after their one glorious evening together the handsome rogue left without a backward glance--knowing that he could never be a part of her world again. Now in a Vienna rife with political intrigue Thomas harbors a perilous secret--and the only person who can aid him is the woman who has captured his heart. ...

Neil Mc Kenna argues that our view of Oscar Wilde even after Ellmans magisterial volume is determined by Victorian sentimentality. In his own much more modern version of Wildes story he is not only extremely promiscuous but also a sort of campaigner for sexual freedom. He reveals for example that Wildes relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas was not an idealistic doting on a beautiful boy but that Bosie was the more dominant experienced of the two who used to go out hunting together for young boys. Wildes last days in Paris were not Mc Kenna shows miserable & defeated; Paris was for him an idyllic sensual & intellectual playground free from the narrowness of London. ...

Colin Tudges The Secret Life of Trees: How they Live & Why they Matter" explores the hidden role of trees in our everyday lives
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The greatest writer of them all brought to glorious life. How well do you know the man you love? How much do you think you know about Shakespeare? What if they were one & the same? He is an ordinary man: unwilling craftsman ambitious actor resentful son almost good-enough husb&. & he is also a genius. The story of how a glove-maker from Warwickshire became the greatest writer of them all is vaguely known to most of us but it would take an exceptional modern novelist to bring him to life. & now at last Jude Morgan acclaimed author of Passion & The Taste of Sorrow has taken Shakespeares life & created a masterpiece. ...

Behind the celebrated code-breaking at Bletchley Park lies another secret... The men & women of the 'Y' (for Wireless') Service were sent out across the world to run listening stations from Gibraltar to Cairo intercepting the German military's encrypted messages for decoding back at the now-famous Bletchley Park mansion. Such wartime postings were life-changing adventures
- travel out by flying boat or Indian railways snakes in filing cabinets & heat so intense the perspiration ran into your shoes
- but many of the secret listeners found lifelong romance in their far-flung corner of the world. Now drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans Sinclair Mc Kay tells their remarkable story at last.

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The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An elite establishment that moves to an exotic new city every term its students are impossibly beautiful sophisticated & rich. & the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy the more curious she becomes. What sinister secrets are guarded by the Few
- the select group of students who keep outsiders away? Who is the dark stranger prowling the corridors at night? & what really happened a year earlier when the last scholarship girl died in mysterious circumstances? One thing Cassie will discover is that a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing but knowing too much can be deadly...
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