August 1939 the last hot days of a perfect English summer
- war is now certain this week next week.. .soon. Lord Edward Corinth
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A fascinating tale of a decade that produced some of the finest music ever. In a narrative that captures all the tumult & liberating energy of a country in division & transition Sweet Soul Music is the story of the birth of modern rhythm-&-blues. Guralnick records the rise & fall of Stax Records
- the Memphis powerhouse label that produced a string of classics from the likes of Otis Redding & Booker T. & the MGs
- & other labels such as Atlantic as well as profiling such major artists as Aretha Franklin Sam Cooke James Brown Solomon Burke & Al Green.

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Maddie's getting it from all sides. Her bitchy new boss at the radio station humiliates her live on air about her figure her glamour-puss mum keeps dropping not-so-subtle hints that Maddie should lose weight & her kids are embarrassed to be seen with her after the disastrous Mums' race at their school sports day. Something's got to change... Maddie joins the local weight-watching group expecting more humiliation but instead finds two unlikely allies -- bitter divorcee Lauren who despite running a dating agency has signed off romance for ever & shy Jess the beautician who's desperate to fit into a size 10 wedding dress for her Big Day. ...

An elaboration on John Steinbecks greatest theme
- the common bonds of humanity & love which make goodness & happiness possible
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A cross between Bambi & Cormac Mc Carthy's The Road Sweet Tooth tells the story of Gus a rare new breed of human/animal hybrid children who has been raised in isolation following an inexplicable pandemic that struck a decade earlier. Dr. Singh arrives in Alaska & uncovers the origins of Gus & the hybrid children & the cause of the plague that decimated the world. & as Gus & Jepperd finally arrive in Alaska & come face-to-face with the truth the militia continues to bear down on them. Their deadliest battle is still ahead. ...

Watch out all you mythological beasties roaming the streets of San Francisco
- Theres a new kick-ass team of demon-fighters coming
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When the abolitionist Granville Sharpe bought land in Sierra Leone to repatriate freed slaves one former slave living in London foresaw trouble. Is it possible asked Ottobah Cugoano biblically that a fountain should send forth both sweet water & bitter?. Could the slave trade be abolished from West Africa when West Africa was its source? The answer was no. Sweet Water & Bitter" is the extraordinary sequel to Britains abolition of the slave trade in 1807. The last legal British slave-ship left Africa that year but other countries & illegal slavers continued to trade. When the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 British diplomats negotiated anti-slave-trade treaties & a Preventive Squadron was formed to cruise the West African coast. In six decades this small fleet liberated 150 000 Africans & lost 17 000 of its own men in doing so. This is the tale of their exciting & arduous campaign. It is also a story of unforeseen consequences... What to do with the freed slaves? How to manipulate international law so that you could board the ships of other nations? How to fight the intense hostility of African leaders to abolition? In tracing these complex questions Sian Rees shows how the campaign was linked to British imperial & commercial ambition as well as to philanthropy: the colonising of West Africa was a direct though unintended result. Above all however this is a swashbuckling naval adventure full of sensational first-hand accounts of life at sea of the grim barracoons where slaves are held of the luxurious compounds of the slave-brokers & the lonely garrisons dotting the coast. Sailors speak of the boredom of patrol the terror of detached service in small boats upriver the sudden violent battles & the horror of seeing close up the cruelties of slaving. Combining flawless research with an intimate & dramatic narrative this is a voyage that no one will forget." ...

Michael Pennington has spent over 20 000 hours performing & working with Shakespeare. Loosely based on his popular one-man show Pennington illustrates the little we know about Shakespeares childhood early marriage his roles as an actor with wonderfully apt"ations from the works. ...

Carole Matthews backlist is being reissued looking as fresh as ever. Falling in love isnt easy. Sadie Nelson ought to know -- shes got two men to choose from & neither one is hassle-free. First theres Gill Mc Gann a Hollywood producer whos flown her from a grey day in London to sun-soaked LA in order to win her heart. He has more to offer Sadie than she could ever have imagined... Then theres gorgeous actor Tavis Jones whose sense of fun makes Sadie feel immediately at home. But can they ever be more than just good friends? The longer she leaves it the harder it gets & Sadies about to discover that in LA anything can happen... ...

If only everything in life was as simple as baking a cake... Jennie Copeland thought she knew the recipe for a happy life: marriage to her university sweetheart a nice house in the suburbs & three beautiful children. But when her husband leaves her she is forced to find a different recipe. & she thinks she's found just what she needs: a ramshackle house on the outskirts of the beautiful Talyton St George a new cake-baking business a dog a horse chickens... But life in the country is not quite as idyllic as she'd hoped & Jennie can't help wondering whether neighbouring farmer Guy Barnes was right when he told her she wouldn't last the year. Or perhaps the problem is that she's missing one vital ingredient to make her new life a success. Could Guy be the person to provide it? ...