The epic story of one mans fight for his love his God & his country The Road to Jerusalem
- Book 1 in the Crusades Trilogy. Arn
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This is not a book about French Gardens. It is the story of a man travelling round France visiting a few selected French gardens on the way. Owners intrigues affairs marriages feuds thwarted ambitions & desires the largely unnamed ordinary gardeners wars plots & natural disasters run through every garden older than a generation or two & fill every corner of the grander historical ones. Families marry. Gardeners are poached. Political allegiances forged & shattered. The human trail crosses from garden to garden. They sit in their surrounding landscape not as isolated islands but attached umbilically to it sharing the geology the weather food climate local folklore accent & cultural identity. Wines must be drunk & food tasted. Recipes found & compared. The perfect tarte-tartin pursued. None of these things can be ignored or separated from the shape & size of parterre fountain herbaceous border or pottager. So this is a book filled with stories & information some of it about French gardens & gardening but most of it about what makes France unlike anywhere else. From historical gardens like Versailles Vaux le Vicomte & Courances to the kitchen gardens of the Michelin chef Alain Passard. There are grand potagers like Villandry & La Prieure D' Orsan & allotments & back gardens spotted on the way. Monty celebrates the obvious French associations of food & wine & finds gardens dedicated to vegetables herbs & fruit. It is a book that any visitor to France whether gardeners or not will want to read both as a guide & an inspiration. It is a portal to get under the French cultural skin & to understand the country in all its huge variety & disparity a little better. ...

In 1967 Celtic manager Jock Stein stepped from the tunnel of Lisbons Estadio Nacional & took up a position pitch-side as his team of home-grown journeymen trotted out to face Inter Milan the charismatic superstars of Italian football in the European Cup final. Celtic were a team forged in Steins own image steeled with a relentless industry & integrity by their inspirational manager whose character had in turn been honed by the horrors of the deep dark of the Lanarkshire coalfields. Martin Greig & Charlie Mc Garrys extraordinary novel delves to the very heart of that incredible season through the eyes of Stein
- as he plots & plans & drags his team to the very pinnacle of European club football
- & those of Tom an idealistic young fan from the East End of Glasgow whose dreams of life beyond the decaying slums of the Gorbals are inextricably tied to those of his heroes. The Road to Lisbon is a novel of hopes & dreams of self discovery & triumph over adversity
- & of an unerring love with an institution that represents so much more than just a football club.


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Thomas is desperate to join 'the players' he'll do anything to watch them perform even skip school & risk a caning. But when Thomas' rule breaking gets him in trouble with more than just his school master he has to flee his home & make his way to London. Here he meets his hero Shakespeare & his players. But behind the excitement of the theatres is a grimy world of deception poison & treason. Will Thomas manage to uncover the plot in time? & will he manage to save Shakespeare from a fate worse than death? ...

The definitive guide to the origin of J.R.R. Tolkiens books from The Hobbit to The History of Middle-earth series --



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Still a legend in his own lifetime the Hawk hero or anti-hero of THE ROAD TO GANDOLFO is back irrepressibly maddening a $500 million caper up his sleeve. Worshipped by the men he once led into battle General Mac Kenzie Hawkins is now in his sixties & shows no sign of retiring from the intrigue & politicking which is his lifeblood. Now he's planning to take on the Government. From the Oval Office to the Pentagon the President's men do all they can to stop him before he threatens national security. ...

A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact & fiction the Penguin Classics" edition of Robert Byrons " The Road to Oxiana"

Includes:: an introduction by Colin Thubron. In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut Jerusalem Baghdad & Teheran to Oxiana
- the country of the Oxus the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan & the Soviet Union. " The Road to Oxiana" offers not only a wonderful record of his adventures but also a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers. Robert Byron (1905-41) was born in 1905 & educated at Eton & Merton College Oxford. He died during the Second World War when the ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath. Byrons " The Road to Oxiana" is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing. If you enjoyed " The Road to Oxiana" you might like Charles Darwins " The Voyage of the Beagle" also available in " Penguin Classics". " The greatest of all pre-war travel books". (William Dalrymple). " What " Ulysses" is to the novel between the wars & what " The Waste Land" is to poetry " The Road to Oxiana" is to the travel book". (Paul Fussell). " In any list of the great travel books of the 20th century Robert Byrons account of his travels in Persia & Afghanistan " The Road to Oxiana" must be put somewhere near the very top". (" Telegraph")."


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Having survived the perils of a journey across half the world Romulus & Tarquinius are press-ganged into the legions which are under imminent threat of annihilation by the Egyptians. Meanwhile in Rome Romulus' twin sister Fabiola lives in fear for her life loved by Brutus but wooed by Marcus Antonius his deadly enemy. Soon after Romulus fights at Zela the vicious battle where Caesar famously said ' Veni vidi vici'. Tarquinius separated from Romulus in the chaos of war hides in Alexandria searching for guidance. But mortal danger awaits them both. From the battlefields of Asia Minor & North Africa to the lawless streets of Rome & the gladiator arena they face death daily until on the Ides of March the twins are reunited & must decide either to back or to betray Caesar on his day of destiny. ...

Having survived the perils of a journey across half the world Romulus & Tarquinius are press-ganged into the legions which are under imminent threat of annihilation by the Egyptians. Meanwhile in Rome Romulus twin sister Fabiola lives in fear for her life loved by Brutus but wooed by Marcus Antonius his deadly enemy. Soon after Romulus fights at Zela the vicious battle where Caesar famously said Veni vidi vici. Tarquinius separated from Romulus in the chaos of war hides in Alexandria searching for guidance. But mortal danger awaits them both. From the battlefields of Asia Minor & North Africa to the lawless streets of Rome & the gladiator arena they face death daily until on the Ides of March the twins are reunited & must decide either to back or to betray Caesar on his day of destiny. ...

Ben Hatch is on the road again. Commissioned to write a guidebook about France (despite not speaking any French) he sets off with visions of relaxing chateaux & refined dining. Ten thousand miles later his family's been attacked by a donkey had a run-in with a death-cult & after a near drowning & a calamitous wedding experience involving a British spy his own marriage is in jeopardy. A combination of obsessions about mosquitoes French gravel & vegetable theme parks mean it's a bumpy ride as Ben takes a stand against tyrannical French pool attendants finds himself running with the bulls in Pamplona & almost starring in a snuff movie after a near fatal decision to climb into a millionaire's Chevrolet Blazer. Funny & poignant Road to Rouen asks important questions about life marriage & whether it's ever acceptable to tape baguette to your children's legs to smuggle lunch into Disneyland Paris. ...