It began with A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Historian Diana Bishop descended from a line of powerful witches & long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches daemons vampires & humans is dangerously threatened. Seeking safety Diana & Matthew travel back in time to London 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet & spy for Queen Elizabeth the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons the creative minds of the age including playwright Christopher Marlowe & mathematician Thomas Harriot. Together Matthew & Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782 & search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers... Fall under the spell of Diana & Matthew once more in this stunning richly imagined epic tale. ...

It began with A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Historian Diana Bishop descended from a line of powerful witches & long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches daemons vampires & humans is dangerously threatened. Seeking safety Diana & Matthew travel back in time to London 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet & spy for Queen Elizabeth the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons the creative minds of the age including playwright Christopher Marlowe & mathematician Thomas Harriot. Together Matthew & Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782 & search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers... Fall under the spell of Diana & Matthew once more in this stunning richly imagined epic tale. ...

Shadow of the Knight is a celebration of Sir Alex Fergusons trophy-studded management career brilliantly analysing the factors which have contributed to his success
- then looking to the future & the vexed question of how Manchester United will ever be able to replace their iconic leader. Paul Smiths detective work uncovers the key decisions & methods the people & beliefs which have shaped Fergusons values & helped evolve his deadly mode of operation. He scrutinises Fergusons credentials through the eyes of former team-mates managerial charges & those who have worked closest to him. & so to the almost unthinkable question of United after Ferguson & who best to follow in his illustrious footsteps. Discover the ruthless & softer sides of Ferguson the key role of family in the Manchester United success story
- & how the past might offer up the key to the future at Old Trafford.

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' Real life' or the death defying adventures of the Greek myths with their heroes & monsters daring deeds & narrow escapes
- which
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M.M. Kaye author of The Far Pavilions" sweeps her readers back to the vast glittering sunbaked continent of India. " Shadow of the Moon" is the story of Winter de Ballesteros a beautiful English heiress who has come to India to be married. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall her escort & protector who knows that Winters husband to be has become a debauched wreck of a man. When India bursts into flaming hatreds & bitter bloodshed during the dark days of the Mutiny Alex & Winter are thrown unwillingly together in the brutal & urgent struggle for survival." ...

On buses donkey carts trains jeeps & camels Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia across northern Afghanistan & the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. Covering over 7000 miles in eight months Thurbron recounts extraordinary adventures
- a near-miss with a drunk-driver incarceration in a Chinese cell during the SARS epidemic undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic in Iran
- in inimitable prose. Shadow of the Silk Road" is about Asia today; a magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment."

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Evil Pharaoh Oba has imprisoned the gods who protect Egypt & now bloodthirsty monsters roam the l&. Only one boy can stop them: Akori an orphaned farm-boy with a huge destiny. The battle to end all battles has begun. Akori must fight Set the dark Lord of Storms himself & beat Oba the evil Pharaoh to claim his rightful throne. But can Egypts young hero finally win the crown? Dont miss a single battle in this huge new adventure series! ...

Only with the greatest of simplifications for the sake of convenience can we say Africa. In reality except as a geographical term Africa doesnt exist". Ryszard Kapuscinski has been writing about the people of Africa throughout his career. In a study that avoids the official routes palaces & big politics he sets out to create an account of post-colonial Africa seen at once as a whole & as a location that wholly defies generalised explanations. It is both a sustained meditation on themosaic of peoples & practices we call Africa & an impassioned attempt to come to terms with humanity itself as it struggles to escape from foreign domination from the intoxications of freedom from war & from politics as theft." ...

First published in 1964 The Shadow of the Sun is the story of Anna Severell's struggle at the age of seventeen to evolve her own personality in the shadow of her father Henry Severell a famous English novelist. In the introduction to this edition the 1990 Booker Prize winning author looks back at the novel's genesis & the problems she faced as a woman writing her first novel. ...

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books' a labyrinthine library of obscure & forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves & pulls out ' La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax. But as he grows up several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then one night as he is wandering the old streets once more Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from La Sombra del Viento a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life & death of Julian Carax & to save those he left behind. A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature & love & the places that obsession can lead. ...