In a small village at the foot of the Italian Dolomites the gardens of a deserted farmhouse have lain untouched for decades. But the new owner keen for renovations to begin is summoned urgently to the house when his workmen disturb a macabre grave. Wild animals have done their grisly work & the human corpse is badly decomposed. Then a valuable signet ring is found close by providing the first vital clue. It leads Commissario Guido Brunetti right to the heart of aristocratic Venice to a family still grieving for its abducted son.. . ...

During the twentieth century there was an unprecedented & largely unforeseen transfer of property in Britain from private ownership into the hands of a single charitable institution the National Trust. In 1945 the Trust owned 112 000 acres & had a membership of 7 850. Fifty years later when celebrating its centenary it had a membership of 2 million & the area of land it owned had increased more than fivefold Only relatively recently has the significance of this transfer begun to attract the serious interest of political & social historians. The National Trust & its donors have tended to be diffident about their generosity. The reasons for such generosity prove to be as varied as they are surprising & illuminating. Merlin Watersons new book concentrating on the period since 1940 & accompanied throughout by rare & unusual illustrations sheds new light on the motives of some of the Trusts most important donors. ...

A harrowing account by one of the survivors of the Haut de la Garenne childrens home Robbie was born in Jersey fifty six years ago. When he was five his mother placed him & his three siblings in care. They were collected from their home by the police. It was the same day that the children had witnessed their fathers suicide attempt by hanging. The children were separated; Robbie & his younger brother were taken to The Sacre Coeur an orphanage for children under twelve while their elder brother was placed in Haut de la Garenne. Their baby sister disappeared. The boys never saw her again. Robbie & his three year old brother were bewildered & frightened by their surroundings. Their world as they had known it had disintegrated in just a matter of a few hours. They had sobbed as their eldest brother was taken away from them; they had never been apart before. Sacre Coeur run by nuns was a place where unimaginable abuse was committed against defenceless small children. The nuns gave them no explanation. Just gave them their scratchy uniforms & showed them their dormitory. They had joined the tribe of lost boys; the ones who no one cared about. The two boys were eventually transferred to Haut de la Garenne a place where sick twisted minds had devised even more tortuous methods of sexually abusing the helpless. There were suicides there. One boy blew himself up by creeping into a bunker with a supply of butane gas. & of course there were the children who simply disappeared. Gone somewhere better Robbie was told. After all in a childrens home there was a lot of coming & going. Today Robbie holds down a full time job & looks after his brother who he has loved & cared for since they were those little frightened boys. He wonders what happened to his friends who disappeared. ...

The uptown girls are headed downtown as Serena & Jenny take on their new fabulous roles as rock-star model girlfriends of New Yorks hottest band The Raves. Meanwhile Dan is too busy drowning his sorrows in empty bottles to notice a mysterious French beauty who has a penchant for dirty Jim Morrison wannabe lead singers. Blair takes residence at the Plaza to think about her future. Will she become a gun-toting international spy or Manhattans snobbiest society hostess? Decisions are so difficult! Sounds like everyone needs a day off at the spa. & Senior Spa Day promises to serve up further doses of scandal for New Yorks busiest private-school vixens. ...

John grew up in poverty in Limerick Ireland in the 1960s. Fatherless & with a family in chaos John fell prey to the predatory clutches of a neighbour setting off a cycle of sexual abuse that eventually led to being sold as a teenage prostitute. Against all odds John put himself through college & became a lawyer. But there was no escaping his past. One day a man arrived in desperate need of representation & failed to recognise John as the boy hed once abused. Now John had a choice to make... Nobody Heard Me Cry is both a devastating expose of a stolen childhood & an unforgettable story of survival. Most of all it is a heartfelt plea to hear the cries of other children in need. ...

You can see why Im King of the Jungle " said Pa Lion. " Its because Im the best." But what is he best at? Each time he thinks of something he sees another animal who does it better. As Cheetah Monkey Snake & Elephant try to control their giggles Pa Lion gets more & more cross because Nobody laughs at a lion!" ...

In 1994 punk rock trio Green Day were on top of the world with DOOKIE their massive hit album. They were loud fast bratty pissed off hopeless truthful drunk maybe high & somehow absolutely massive. It was glorious. But by 2004 the hoopla seemed to be over. The band were still respected by up-&-coming bands but their album sales were down. & then in October 04 came a new album AMERICAN IDIOT. A furious & impassioned reaction against American politics
- & in particular George W. Bush
- AMERICAN IDIOT spoke directly to millions of people around the globe. Once again Green Day were reaching legions of disaffected teenagers as well as millions of older fans. Few bands achieve Green Days early success & even fewer come back for an even more explosive second act. Highly respected rock journalist Marc Spitz has interviewed the band many times & has won their respect. His book will be the definitive history of the band charting their transformation from snotty-nosed mall rats into the ultimate punk rock protest band
- The Clash for the 21st century.


...

' Take care 007. Take special care. The continent's a hotbed of villainy these days & you can never be too careful' Bond was supposed to be on leave. But SPECTRE leader Tamil Rahani dying from injuries suffered at Bond's hand is determined to make it the holiday to die for. With a price on his head Bond must evade the world's greatest assassins in a ruthless game of cat-&-mouse across Europe while trying to save the lives of the two women who matter to him most his housekeeper May & Miss Moneypenny. But Bond has been a target before. & when it comes to staying alive nobody does it better than 007. In Nobody Lives Forever the fifth in Gardner's bestselling series Fleming's superspy is at the top of his game. ...

'I wasn't there when I died...' Jim True knows. He has returned from an out-of-body experience to find he has been brutally murdered & his body mutilated. No one can see him no one can hear him no one except his killer knows he still exists. Freed from his body True embarks on a quest to find his killer & discover why & how he has managed to survive. As he closes in on his murderer True discovers that even the very people he loved & trusted have betrayed him. He meets his killer a strange & sinister figure who can also leave his body at will. An epic & deadly battle ensues between True & a seemingly unstoppable & hideous serial killer
- a man now intent on even more murders including True's wife & child...
...

Whats your name? Where were you born? What is your date of birth? Simple questions that we are asked throughout our life
- but
...