Dominating the seaport of Whitby from its headland site the imposing & brooding ruins of Whitby Abbey date from the seventh century. The renowned & wise St Hilda ruled over the first monastery & witnessed one of the defining moments in the establishment of the Church
- the Synod of Whitby in AD 664. Sacked by the Vikings it lay in ruins until the Norman Conquest when it was re-established & grew into one of the most powerful & richest Abbeys in Yorkshire. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII the site was sold & the lord of the manor built himself a grand private residence using some of the stone from the Abbey. Over time the abbey ruins came into the guardianship of English Heritage who have in the last fifty years conserved the ruins for posterity & transformed the headland into a major tourist area.
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To visit Whitby's ' Yards' is to step back in time. Hardly changed from the Middle Ages this is where one can still meet old Whitby
- a secret Whitby
- unspoilt & untroubled by the holiday visitor. The yards alleyways & ghauts are fascinating places to explore. Though often private there are enough remaining to catch a glimpse of what this small seaport must have been like two or three hundred years ago. Today over eighty named yards still exist out of more than one hundred & there are in addition another thirty or so places of similar character but perhaps called 'steps' 'lane' 'square' or 'place'. The origins of the yards lay in the days of medieval Whitby & its development. Join Alan Whitworth on this affectionate & lavishly illustrated account which will surprise & delight anyone who knows the area.

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One Love. One Chance. Once Sacrifice. For Sam Mc Grath a brief encounter with a young woman on a turbulent flight changes his life. On impulse crazily attracted to her her vows to follow her
- all the way to Nepal. Finch Buchanan is flying out as doctor to an expedition. But when she reaches the Himalayas she will be reunited with a man she has never been able to forget. Al Hood has made a promise to his daughter. Once he has conquered this last peak he will leave the mountains behind forever. Everest towers over the group silent & beautiful. & the passionate relationship between Finch Al & Sam
- two men driven by their own demons & a woman with a dream of her own
- begins to play itself out with tragic consequences...


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When Muddy Waters came to London at the start of the 60s a kid from Boston called Joe Boyd was his tour manager; when Dylan went electric at the Newport Festival Joe Boyd was plugging in his guitar; when the summer of love got going Joe Boyd was running the coolest club in London the UFO; when a bunch of club regulars called Pink Floyd recorded their first single Joe Boyd was the producer; when a young songwriter named Nick Drake wanted to give his demo tape to someone he chose Joe Boyd. More than any previous 60s music autobiography Joe Boyds White Bicycles" offers the real story of what it was like to be there at the time. His greatest coup is bringing to life the famously elusive figure of Nick Drake
- the first time hes been written about by anyone who knew him well. As well as the 60s heavy-hitters this book also offers wonderfully vivid portraits of a whole host of other musicians: everyone from the great jazzman Coleman Hawkins to the folk diva Sandy Denny Lonnie Johnson to Eric Clapton The Incredible String Band to Fairport Convention."
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One wet November morning a field on Meagher's Farm gives up the dismembered bones of eleven women. In this part of Ireland unmarked graves are common. But these bones date to 1915 long before the Troubles. What's more these bones bear the marks of a meticulous executioner. These women were almost certainly skinned alive. Detective Katie Maguire of the Cork Garda is used to dead bodies. But this is wholesale butchery. Her team think these long-dead women are a waste of police time. Katie is determined to give them justice. & then a young American tourist goes missing & her bones carefully stripped of flesh are discovered on the same farm. With the crimes of the past echoing in the present Katie must solve a decades-old ritualistic murder before this terrifying killer strikes again. Published in America under the title A Terrible Beauty White Bones marks Katie Maguire's UK debut. ...

In this new anecdotal book the unstoppable Dickie Bird takes one County Cricket Club at a time & revisits each with the aid of memorabilia statistics books & videos. A mass of new hilarious stories flow from Dickie as he flexes his memory: he describes the cricketers the matches & the character of these clubs. Dickie also relives his journeys as a umpire to clubs & Test match arenas overseas & recalls the humorous times that have filled his unique career. This is a must have for cricket enthusiasts everywhere. ...

In the seventeenth & eighteenth centuries 300 000 people or more became slaves there in all but name. Urchins were swept up from London's streets to labour in the tobacco fields brothels were raided to provide 'breeders' for Virginia & hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants unaware they would become chattels who could be bought sold & gambled away. Drawing on letters diaries & court & government archives the authors demonstrate that the brutalities associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history. This is a saga of exploitation & cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo" brings the brutal uncomfortable story to the surface." ...

Cassel is cursed. Cursed by the memory of the fourteen year old girl he murdered. Life at school is a constant trial. Life at home even worse. No-one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer. No-one at home is ever going to forget that he isnt a magic worker. Cassels family are one of the big five crime families in America. Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground & into crime. & while people still need their touch their curses their magical killings their transformations times have been hard. His granddad has been driven to drink his mother is in prison & his brothers detest him as the only one of their family who cant do magic. But there is a secret at the centre of Cassels family & hes about to inherit it. Its terrifying & thats the truth. The White Cat is a stunning novel of a world changed by magic. In this world only 1% of the population can work magic but they have the power of nightmares. ...

The unthinkable has happened at Londons Peculiar Crimes Unit. In the bitter depths of winter a key member of staff has been found murdered & everyone who works there is suddenly a suspect. But Arthur Bryant & John May the eccentric elderly detectives who run Londons strangest crime division arent on hand to solve the crime. Theyve ventured into the heart of the English countryside only to become stranded on a desolate snowbound section of road. As the blizzard worsens Bryant & May attempt to solve the crime long distance using only their mobile phones. Unfortunately their situation is about to get very much worse. Unknown to the stranded detectives an obsessed killer has travelled from the Riviera to Dartmoor & is stalking the stranded vehicles searching for one particular victim coming closer with each passing minute... As if it didnt have enough trouble the Peculiar Crimes unit is about to receive a demanding royal visitor & the Home Office is preparing to shut the PCU down when the visit inevitably goes wrong... Two murderers two incapacitated detectives just six hours to solve two crimes & save the unit. Armed only with their wits woolly coats & a stack of dubious veal & ham pies Bryant & May are bracing themselves for the strangest day theyve ever spent trapped inside the white corridor... ...

Captain Titus Oates hero of the Antarctic has been dead for nearly a century. But not in Syms head. In there he is her constant companion her soulmate her adviser. It is as if he walked out of the Polar blizzard & into her mind. In fact if it were not for Titus life might be as bleak a place as the Antarctic wilderness. When she is taken on a mystery expedition by her eccentric uncle Victor Sym cant believe her luck. Destination Antarctica-the very place shes always wanted to visit. But Victor has other plans more sinister than Sym could possibly imagine. Stranded in the most isolated part of the world with her trust in someone she comes to realize is a madman she must find a way to avoid a gruesome fate. But what should a teenage girl do? Could it be that Titus the one who perished in that very place will be the means of her survival? ...