For decades the Magistrate has run the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement ignoring the impending war between the barbarians & the Empire whose servant he is. But when the interrogation experts arrive he is jolted into sympathy with the victims & into a quixotic act of rebellion which lands him in prison branded as an enemy of the state. Waiting for the Barbarians is an allegory of oppressor & oppressed. Not just a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times the Magistrate is an analogue of all men living in complicity with regimes that ignore justice & decency. ...

Waiting For Wednesday" by Nicci French is the thrilling third novel in the highly acclaimed " Frieda Klein" series. Ruth Lennox beloved mother of three is found by her daughter in a pool of her own blood. Who would want to murder an ordinary housewife? & why? Psychotherapist Frieda Klein finds she has an unusually personal connection with DCI Karlsson's latest case. She is no longer working with him in an official capacity but when her niece befriends Ruth Lennox's son Ted she finds herself in the awkward position of confidante to both Karlsson & Ted. When it emerges that Ruth was leading a secret life her family closes ranks & Karlsson finds he needs Frieda's help more than ever before. But Frieda is distracted. Having survived an attack on her life she is struggling to stay in control & when a patient's chance remark rings an alarm bell she finds herself chasing down a path that seems to lead to a serial killer who has long escaped detection. Or is it merely a symptom of her own increasingly fragile mind? Because as Frieda knows every step closer to a killer is one more step into a darkness from which there may be no return... Praise for Nicci French: " Brilliantly crafted". (" Daily Mirror"). " Full of dark psychology & tension.. .nerve-tingling & addictive". (" Daily Express"). " Magnificent". (" Evening Standard"). Nicci French is the pseudonym for the writing partnership of journalists Nicci Gerrard & Sean French. The couple are married & live in Suffolk. Over eight million Nicci French books have been sold worldwide. There are fourteen other internationally bestselling novels: " Blue Monday" " Tuesday's Gone" " Complicit " What To Do When Someone Dies" " Until It's Over" " Losing You" " Catch Me When I Fall" " The Memory Game" " Beneath the Skin" " The Safe House" " The Red Room" " Land of the Living" " Killing Me Softly" & " Secret Smile" all published by Penguin. " Blue Monday" & " Tuesday's Gone" are the first two novels in the highly acclaimed bestselling " Frieda Klein" crime series." ...

Beautiful. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer Penn Thea & Lexi have caught everyone's attention including the eye of practical Harper. But it's her sister Gemma they've chosen to be part of their group. Sixteen-year-old Gemma seems to have it all
- carefree pretty & falling in love with the boy next door. But her greatest passion has always been the water. She craves late night swims under the stars where she can be alone yet belong to the sea. Lately she's had company. Penn Thea & Lexi spend their nights dancing singing & partying on the cove
- & one night Gemma joins them. When she wakes up groggy on the beach the next morning she knows something has changed. Suddenly Gemma is stronger faster & more beautiful than ever. As she uncovers the truth about her new mythical powers Gemma is forced to choose between staying with those she loves or entering a dark world brimming with unimaginable secrets. ' Generated an excitement not felt in the industry since Stephenie Meyer or perhaps even J. K. Rowling' New York Times 'A fast-paced romance.. .addictive' Guardian on Switched ' Drew me in & kept me hooked... cracking pace' Sunday Express on Switched

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For seventeen-year-old Janie getting sucked into other peoples dreams at any given moment is getting tired. Especially the falling dreams & the standing-in-front-of-the-class-naked ones. But then there are the nightmares the ones that chill her to the bone...like the one where she is in a strange house...in a dirty kitchen...and a sinister monster that edges ever closer. This is the nightmare that she keeps falling into the one where for the first time Janie is more than a witness to someone elses twisted psyche. She is a participant... ...

I squeezed through the narrow gap & out into the hallway & I stood for a moment unable to decide where to go. Should I make a dash for the kitchen where my mother would be swigging from a bottle? Or should I run upstairs & try to find somewhere to hide? It was a choice I didnt really need to make because there was no escape. Anna Lowe grows up on the doorsteps of pubs waiting for her mum to come out. Having to give up her bedroom to her mothers drunken friends. & regularly calling out the ambulance after finding her mother unconscious & covered in vomit. But it is when they move in with her mothers boyfriend Carl that things take the ugliest turn. Not only is he violent with her mother but he also sexually abuses Anna from the age of six
- destroying any semblance of normal childhood she had left. Wake Up Mummy" is the heartbreaking true story of a little girl who eventually found the courage to break free from the past."
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A little ghost tries to give Lydia Lou a scare.. .but he can't even wake her up. So he fetches his noisy animal friends to help: Mew! Moo! Too-whit too-whoo! Wake up do Lydia Lou! Will anything ever wake her? A gentle & playful bedtime read from the author of THE GRUFFALO full of fun sounds which children will love to join in with time & time again. ...

A pocket-sized collection of sleep-themed Simons Cat cartoons selected from the first three Simons Cat books. In full colour & featuring a selection of brand new cartoons Simons Cat is back only smaller cheaper & cuter but as sleepy as ever. ...

Over the past few hundred years animism has been dismissed as a primitive naive & irrational perspective irrelevant within the civilised West. In The Wakeful World Emma Restall Orr argues that this is based on the misrepresentation drawn in crayon that each tree & stone has its own Christian-like immortal soul. Taking the reader on a philosophical adventure Restall Orr explores the heritage of Western thought with precision enthusiasm & sensitivity considering how soul spirit mind & consciousness have been understood through millennia. Challenging the prevailing worldviews of materialism & dualism she presents animism as a radically different yet mature & coherent philosophy. Providing deep green ethics with a wholly rational metaphysical foundation The Wakeful World is a compelling view of the nature of existence & the experience of reality giving solid ground for the now necessary journey to a sustainable world. ...

Twenty thousand years ago our planet was an icehouse. Temperatures were down six degrees; ice sheets kilometres thick buried much of Europe & North America & sea levels were 130m lower. The following 15 millennia saw an astonishing transformation as our planet metamorphosed into the temperate world upon which our civilisation has grown & thrived. One of the most dynamic periods in Earth history saw rocketing temperatures melt the great ice sheets like butter on a hot summer's day; feeding torrents of freshwater into ocean basins that rapidly filled to present levels. The removal of the enormous weight of ice at high latitudes caused the crust to bounce back triggering earthquakes in Europe & North America & provoking an unprecedented volcanic outburst in Icel&. A giant submarine landslide off the coast of Norway sent a tsunami crashing onto the Scottish coast while around the margins of the continents the massive load exerted on the crust by soaring sea levels encouraged a widespread seismic & volcanic rejoinder. In many ways this post-glacial world mirrors that projected to arise as a consequence of unmitigated climate change driven by human activities. Already there are signs that the effects of climbing global temperatures are causing the sleeping giant to stir once again. Could it be that we are on track to bequeath to our children & their children not only a far hotter world but also a more geologically fractious one? ...

Columbus is a small fading town untouched by the twenty-first century. But when three young women are found dead
- victims of what
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