Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak & his love for & pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene whose wayward nature leads her to both tragedy & true love. It tells of the dashing Sergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was '...the past was yesterday; never the day after'. & lastly of the introverted & reclusive gentleman farmer Mr Boldwood whose love fills him with '...a fearful sense of exposure' when he first sets eyes on Bathsheba. The background of this tale is the Wessex countryside in all its moods. ...

* * * * * * * BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week * * * * * * * ' Andrew Solomon's investigation of many of the most intense challenges that parenthood can bring compels us all to re-examine how we understand human difference. Perhaps the greatest gift of this monumental book full of facts & full of feelings is that it constantly makes one think & think again.' Philip Gourevitch. In this seminal new study of family Andrew Solomon tells the stories of parents who learn to deal with their exceptional children & find profound meaning in doing so. He introduces us to families coping with deafness dwarfism Down syndrome autism schizophrenia disability with children who are prodigies who are conceived in rape who become criminals who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating Solomon documents repeated triumphs of human love & compassion to show that the shared experience of difference is what unites us. ' Reading Far from the Tree is a mind-opening experience.' Eric Kandel. Drawing on interviews with over three hundred families Solomon documents ordinary people making courageous choices whether considering prenatal screening for genetic disorders cochlear implants for the deaf or gender reassignment surgery. Parents & children are challenged to their limits but often grow closer as a result; many discover supportive communities of others similarly affected; some are inspired to become activists celebrating the conditions they once feared. Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original thinker Far From The Tree explores themes of generosity acceptance & tolerance
- & shows how love for one's children can transcend every prejudice. This crucial & revelatory book expands our definition of what it is to be human. 'A brave & ambitious work bringing together science culture & a powerful empathy. Solomon tells us that we have more in common with each other
- even with those who seem anything but normal
- than we would ever have imagined.' Malcolm Gladwell.


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Lost on a remote Sumatran volcano...pursued through a Tokyo backstreet by a Japanese gangster...picnicking with the French Foreign Legion in the Horn of Africa: Frank Gardner's idea of a holiday is not everyone's. But ever since his student days the BBC security correspondent has done some epicly hard travelling in a remarkable number of countries. Drawing on the diaries sketches & photos he kept during his travels his immaculately observed accounts of these often strange sometimes daring adventures form the backbone of his new book. In June 2004 while on what should have been a routine assignment in Riyadh his life
- never mind his ability to travel the world
- was nearly brought to a violent end by Islamist gunmen. Frank survived against all the odds & through force of will has found himself looking towards far horizons once more. He's not only been skiing in the Alps scuba diving in the Red Sea & explored the jungles of Cambodia he is also reporting once more from far-flung destinations like Afghanistan & Colombia
- & this is a man who no longer has the use of his legs... This is Frank Gardner's compelling personal account of the myriad adventures that made him the man he was on that fateful day
- & of the journeys he's made since & how they've helped him to become the remarkable & inspiring individual he is today.



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The Far Pavilions" is the story of an English man
- Ashton Pelham-Martyn
- brought up as a Hindu. It is the story of his

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Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning with Master & Commander these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery. This is the tenth book in the series. It is still the War of 1812. Patrick O' Brian takes his hero Jack Aubrey & his tetchy sardonic friend Stephen Maturin on a voyage as fascinating as anything he has ever written. They set course across the South Atlantic to intercept a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. If they do not come up with her before she rounds the Horn they must follow her into the Great South Sea & as far across the Pacific as she may lead them. It is a commission after Jack's own heart. Maturin has fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence. Aubrey has to cope with a succession of disasters
- men overboard castaways encounters with savages storms typhoons groundings shipwrecks to say nothing of murder & criminal insanity. That the enemy is in fact faithfully dealt with no one who has the honour of Captain Aubrey's acquaintance can take leave to doubt.
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At the height of the Seven Years War Great Britain made an audacious strike at the heart of Spanish colonial power in the Caribbean. Gathering troops from bases in Britain & Canada & sailing across the Atlantic in secrecy was an incredible feat. The raid on Havana took Spanish colonial forces completely by surprise & following vicious fighting the city defences at El Moro collapsed. Havana the jewel in the Spanish colonial crown now belonged to Britain. The success of the raid influenced British military policy for centuries as the true potential off amphibious warfare was realized. ...

Ashley Dartnells mother was a glamorous American her father a dashing Englishman each trying to slough off their past & upgrade to a more romantic & exotic present in Iran. As the story starts Ashley is eight years old & living in Tehran in the 1960s: the Shah was in power life for Westerners was rich & privileged. But somehow it didnt all add up to a fairytale. There were bankruptcies & prisons betrayals & lovers lies & evasions. & throughout it all Ashleys passionate & strong-willed mother Genie. Stories of mothers & daughters are some of the most compelling in contemporary memoir from The Liars Club & The Glass Castle to Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight & Bad Blood. Farangi Girl deserves to be in their company. Its an honest & endlessly recognisable portrait of a mother by a daughter who loved her (and was loved in return). Against this extraordinary background Ashleys journey into adulthood was more helter-skelter than most & this portrait of a bewitching & endlessly inventive mother is surprising & deeply moving. ...

Farewell My Lovely is a classic novel by Raymond Chandler the master of hard-boiled crime. Eight years ago Moose Malloy & cute little redhead Velma were getting married
- until someone framed Malloy for armed robbery. Now his stretch is up & he wants Velma back. PI Philip Marlow meets Malloy one hot day in Hollywood & out of the generosity of his jaded heart agrees to help him. Dragged from one smoky bar to another Marlowe's search for Velma turns up plenty of dangerous gangsters with a nasty habit of shooting first & talking later. & soon what started as a search for a missing person becomes a matter of life & death... Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence". (Daily Telegraph). " One of the greatest crime writers who set standards others still try to attain". (Sunday Times). " Chandler is an original stylist creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes". (Anthony Burgess). Best-known as the creator of the original private eye Philip Marlowe Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 & died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen & he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction. His books include The Big Sleep The Little Sister Farewell My Lovely The Long Good-bye The Lady in the Lake Playback Killer in the Rain The High Window & Trouble is My Business."
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A poignant & brilliant sequel to Dandelion Wine from the author of Fahrenheit 451 In Green Town Illinois Douglas Spaulding is in the midst of a small civil war with the old pitted against the young in this the second book in Bradburys semi-fictionalised account of his childhood. As the school boards figure of authority Mr Calvin C. Quartermain attempts to outwit the boys at every turn their antics increase & become ever more daring & mischevious. Once the shadow of winter draws across Green Town the boys quickly realise that their enemy is not so much the senior members of their own community but rather time itself which is ever ebbing away just beyond the reach of their most daring trick yet: a bold attempt to sabotage the towns clock. ...

In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war to the 'war to end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy was wounded & twice decorated. Out of his experiences came his early masterpiece A Farewell to Arms. In an unforgettable depiction of war Hemingway recreates the fear the comradeship the courage of his young American volunteers & the men & women he encounters along the way with conviction & brutal honesty. A love story of immense drama & uncompromising passion A Farewell to Arms offers a unique & unflinching view of the world & people by the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. ...