A web of spying subterfuge deceit & betrayal... Acute witty.. .winningly cunning". (" Sunday Times"). The year is 1972. The Cold War is far from over. Britain is being torn apart by industrial unrest & terrorism. Serena Frome in her final year at Cambridge is being groomed for MI5. Serena is sent on a secret mission
- Operation Sweet Tooth
- which brings her into the world of Tom Haley a promising young writer. First she loves his stories then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? & who is inventing whom? To answer these questions Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage
- trust no one."


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Watch out all you mythological beasties roaming the streets of San Francisco
- Theres a new kick-ass team of demon-fighters coming
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When the abolitionist Granville Sharpe bought land in Sierra Leone to repatriate freed slaves one former slave living in London foresaw trouble. Is it possible asked Ottobah Cugoano biblically that a fountain should send forth both sweet water & bitter?. Could the slave trade be abolished from West Africa when West Africa was its source? The answer was no. Sweet Water & Bitter" is the extraordinary sequel to Britains abolition of the slave trade in 1807. The last legal British slave-ship left Africa that year but other countries & illegal slavers continued to trade. When the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 British diplomats negotiated anti-slave-trade treaties & a Preventive Squadron was formed to cruise the West African coast. In six decades this small fleet liberated 150 000 Africans & lost 17 000 of its own men in doing so. This is the tale of their exciting & arduous campaign. It is also a story of unforeseen consequences... What to do with the freed slaves? How to manipulate international law so that you could board the ships of other nations? How to fight the intense hostility of African leaders to abolition? In tracing these complex questions Sian Rees shows how the campaign was linked to British imperial & commercial ambition as well as to philanthropy: the colonising of West Africa was a direct though unintended result. Above all however this is a swashbuckling naval adventure full of sensational first-hand accounts of life at sea of the grim barracoons where slaves are held of the luxurious compounds of the slave-brokers & the lonely garrisons dotting the coast. Sailors speak of the boredom of patrol the terror of detached service in small boats upriver the sudden violent battles & the horror of seeing close up the cruelties of slaving. Combining flawless research with an intimate & dramatic narrative this is a voyage that no one will forget." ...

Michael Pennington has spent over 20 000 hours performing & working with Shakespeare. Loosely based on his popular one-man show Pennington illustrates the little we know about Shakespeares childhood early marriage his roles as an actor with wonderfully apt"ations from the works. ...

Carole Matthews backlist is being reissued looking as fresh as ever. Falling in love isnt easy. Sadie Nelson ought to know -- shes got two men to choose from & neither one is hassle-free. First theres Gill Mc Gann a Hollywood producer whos flown her from a grey day in London to sun-soaked LA in order to win her heart. He has more to offer Sadie than she could ever have imagined... Then theres gorgeous actor Tavis Jones whose sense of fun makes Sadie feel immediately at home. But can they ever be more than just good friends? The longer she leaves it the harder it gets & Sadies about to discover that in LA anything can happen... ...

As children Jennifer Harris & Cameron Quick were both social outcasts. They were also one anothers only friend. So when Cameron disappears without warning Jennifer thinks shes lost the only person who will ever understand her. Now in high school Jennifer has been transformed. Known as Jenna shes popular happy & dating everything Jennifer" couldnt be---but she still cant shake the memory of her long-lost friend. When Cameron suddenly reappears they are both confronted with memories of their shared past & the drastically different paths their lives have taken. Sweethearts is a story about the power of memory the bond of friendship & the quiet resilience of our childhood hearts." ...

Whether in wartime or peace tales of love laughter & hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire On a warm Monday morning in 1932 just two days after leaving school fourteen-year-old Madge was about to join her nine brothers & sisters at Rowntree's. The smell of chocolate was in the air but as she walked up the road her footsteps slowed at the daunting thought of what lay ahead..." From the 1930s through to the 1980s as Britain endured war depression hardship & strikes the women at the Rowntree's factory in York kept the chocolates coming. This is the true story of The Sweethearts the women who roasted the cocoa beans piped the icing & packed the boxes that became gifts for lovers snacks for workers & treats for children across the country. More often than not their working days provided welcome relief from bad husbands & bad housing a community where they could find new confidence friendship & when the supervisor wasn't looking the occasional chocolate." ...

It is the summer of 1976 the hottest summer on record. In the heart of Londons bustling East End lies a tight-knit community of families. They lead a very traditional way of life the men are down the pub the women are gossiping at the toddler group in the working womens club & the children stay out late in the long summer evenings playing in the park & roaming the streets carefree. In the sweltering heat Grace Ballantyne leaves her son Adam playing in his toy car in the garden. When she returns she finds the door to the car open & her four-year-old son is nowhere in sight. As Grace frantically searches panic creeps in & so the nightmare begins. A series of horrific assaults on young children spreads through the neighbourhood each one more brutal; there is only so much this close community can take. As they cling to one another for hope & survival the men beat up the school caretaker who they believe to be the perpetrator of this twisted abuse. But have they got the right man? Finally it is the women who take control. In a battle to protect their families
- & seek revenge
- they make sure the attacker gets his just desserts.

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As a child Gretchen's twin sister was taken by a witch-like monster in the woods. Ever since Gretchen & her brother Ansel have felt the long branches of the witch's forest threatening to make them disappear too. When their stepmother casts Gretchen & Ansel out as teens they stumble upon a sleepy Southern town & are invited to stay with Sophia Kelly at her sweet shop. Sophia moulds candied magic: coveted treats that inspire confidence bravery & passion. Life seems idyllic & Gretchen & Ansel finally start to forget their haunted past
- until Gretchen meets handsome local outcast Samuel who gives Gretchen a reason to fear Sophia: girls have been vanishing at Sophia's annual chocolate festival taken by the insatiable 'witch' of Gretchen's nightmares. Can Gretchen save herself the girls of Live Oak & Sophia?? Of one thing Gretchen is certain: a monster is coming & it will never go away hungry.
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For a decade Laetitia Maklouf did all her gardening in window boxes a balcony & across every surface inside her flat. Finally she moved into a house with her own garden. Beautifully illustrated throughout with Jill Mead's acclaimed photographs Sweet Peas for Summer is Laetitia's own story of creating her first garden from scratch in a year & a bible for the gardening beginner. Irreverent practical & funny she sets out how to plan plant & maintain a garden in ten easy steps. There are also over 100 plant recipes for spring summer autumn & winter planting plans for every personality type & plenty of time left over for lounging on the lawn. ...