2012. Photographer Valentina Rosselli has been invited to exhibit at a show of erotic photography in London where her ex-lover Theo now lives. Valentina leaps at the chance for Theo has got under her skin in a way no other man ever has & shes secretly hoping she might be able to rekindle what theyve lost. 1948. Valentinas grandmother Maria leaves Italy to study contemporary dance in London. Here she falls passionately in love for the first time
- however it is a love that pushes her to behave in a way she never believed could be possible. & when her lover convinces her to accompany him into the dark underworld of desire in post-war France Maria teeters on the edge of life itself. As Valentina uncovers the story of her grandmother she begins to question how much one should change for love. For Theo has made a sexual request shes not sure she wants to fulfill
- but if she refuses she may never have a chance to show her love to him again.

...

London 1897 & a young girl Valentine Grey arrives in Engl&. Shes been brought up in the remote & sunny climes of India & finds being forced into corsets & skirts in damp & cold country insufferable. The only bright spot: her exciting cousin Reggie. Reggie & his lover Frank seek out the adventure the clandestine bars & streets of London offer & are happy to include Valentine in their secret showing her theatre gardens
- even teaching her how to ride a bicycle. & then comes the Boer War & Reggies father volunteers him; the empire must be defended. But it wont be Reggie who dons the Volunteer Regiments garb. Valentine takes her chance puts on her cousins uniform leaving Reggie behind & heads off to war. & for a long while its glorious & liberating for both of the cousins but war is not glorious & in Victorian London homosexuality is not liberating.. .
...

The Valentines card was meant to be Orlas fairy tale ending but really it was only the beginning.. . Orla adores her actor boyfriend Sim whos away filming a sumptuous costume drama. Although the long-distance relationship means that she can eat toast for dinner & watch as much reality TV as she likes she misses him like crazy. But Valentines Day changes everything.. . The same morning Orla learns that Sim has died she receives a card from him. As Orla travels from Ireland to London to live & breathe Sims final moments can she bring herself to open the Valentines card & read his final message? ...

This is the new fourth edition of a fabulous visual study compiled by one of the best bike racing journalists in the business. Compelling photographs & sharp narrative capture the larger-than-life character of Valentino Rossi both on & off the track. Rossis life is charted from his earliest days through to his domination of Moto GP first with Honda then with Yamaha & now for 2011 with Ducati to form a captivating all-Italian title challenge. This is a visual treat for all who appreciate Rossis talent & take on life in this age of conformist motorsport. ...

The electrifying WWII bestseller from the master of the game. On the 30th April 1945 Russian radar reported a light aircraft leaving the vicinity of the Tiergarten in Berlin. But who was on board & where was the plane going? Berlin was in ruins as the Russians moved relentlessly towards the concrete bunker where the Nazi adminstration had been destroyed. But one man Reichsleiter Martin Bormann Adolf Hitlers secretary & eminence grise had a daring plan to escape. Far away to the south--west at Schloss Arlberg above the River Inn five prisoners of war were contemplating their fate. Would they be murdered by their captors or liberated by the Russians? Unbeknown to them Bormann has his own plans. They are about to become part of a mystery that has fascinated the world for over sixty years. What exactly did happen to Bormann & his prisoners? ...

Three times an Ashes winner Trevor Bailey is regarded next to Ian Botham as Englands premier all-rounder since the Second World War. He was a schoolboy prodigy at Dulwich College & won cricket & soccer blues at Cambridge University & an FA Amateur Cup winners medal with Walthamstow in 1951-2. At the heart of the story is the fighting spirit of a loyalist that served England
- & his home county Essex
- so well in a crisis. He was at his greatest when the tensions ran high especially in one of the most celebrated of rearguard actions against Australia at Lords in 1953. Bailey played in 61 Tests in which he became then only the second Englishman after Wilfred Rhodes to score 2000 runs & take 100 wickets. His cricket acumen in retirement brought him to the attention of another listening public as a broadcaster on the BBCs Test Match Special programme.

...

The RAFs first Cold War strategic bomber the Vickers Valiant was procured as an insurance measure in case either the Vulcan or Victor was found to have a serious flaw. The Valiant was the equivalent of the US B-47 Stratojet & it blazed the trail for the British airborne nuclear deterrent as the aircraft enjoyed a far more active service career than later V-bombers. It was the launch platform for all British free fall nuclear weapons tests both in the Pacific & in central Australia it took part in the Suez campaign in 1956 & it was the only V-bomber to drop (conventional) weapons in anger until the Falklands operation in 1982. The Valiant was modified to serve in the electronic warfare strategic reconnaissance & airborne tanker role however it had to be grounded in early 1965 when the aircraft succumbed to metal fatigue. ...

Warrior-maiden & consort of the blood god Khorne the name Valkia the Bloody is feared among all the tribes of the north
- friend
...

The heavens are stained with the blood of men As the Valkyries sing their song. Njals Saga Jan Fabel is a troubled man. His relationships with the women in his life are becoming increasingly complicated: his partner Susanne is looking for a deeper commitment. His daughter is considering joining the police & his ex-wife holds him responsible. If that werent enough after a gap of ten years a female serial killer
- the Angel of St Pauli
- again makes the headlines when an English pop star is found in Hamburgs red-light district dying of the most savage knife wounds. Links emerge with a series of apparently unrelated events. A journalist murdered in Norway. The death of a Serbian gangster. & a long-forgotten project by East Germanys Stasi conceived at the height of the Cold War involving a highly-trained group of female assassins known by the codename Valkyrie. Fabels hunt for the truth will bring him up against the most terrifyingly efficient professional killer. The ultimate avenging angel. Fabel soon realizes the real danger he faces in hunting the Valkyrie.. . That he might just catch up with her.

...

During the 1950s at the time Elvis Presley was rocking the world with Hound Dog & the USA was aiming to become the worlds only superpower plans were being drawn at North American Aviation in Southern California for an incredible Mach-3 strategic bomber. The concept was born as a result of General Curtis Le Mays desire for a heavy bomber with the weapon load & range of the subsonic B-52 & a top speed in excess of the supersonic medium bomber the B-58 Hustler. If Le Mays plans came to fruition there would be 250 Valkyries in the air; it would be the pinnacle of his quest for the ultimate strategic bomber operated by Americas Strategic Air Comm&. The design was a leap into the future that pushed the envelope in terms of exotic materials avionics & power plants. However in April 1961 Defence Secretary Mc Namara stopped the production go-ahead for the B-70 on grounds of rapid cost escalation & the USSRs new-found ability of destroying aircraft at extremely high altitude by either missiles or the new Mig-25 fighter. Nevertheless in 1963 plans for the production of three high-speed research aircraft were approved & construction proceeded. In September 1964 the first Valkyrie now recoded A/V-1 took to the air for the first time & in October went supersonic. This book is the most detailed description of the design engineering & research that went into this astounding aircraft. It is full of unpublished details photographs & firsthand accounts from those closely associated with the project. Although never put into full production this giant six-engined aircraft became famous for its breakthrough technology & the spectacular images captured on a fatal air-to-air photo shoot when an observing Starfighter collided with Valkyrie A/V-2 which crashed into the Mojave Desert. The loss of the $750 million aircraft & twolives stopped future development although there were several attempts to redesign it as an airliner to compete against the European Concorde. ...