As seen on TV: now a major BBC4 television series. Things are not going well for Inspector Montalbano. His long-distance relationship with Livia is on the rocks he feels himself getting even older & hes growing tired of the violence in his job. Then the dead body of a young woman is found in an illegal dump with half her face missing. Her identity at first unknown; a tattoo of a sphinx moth on her left shoulder links her with three other girls bearing the same mark all recent Russian immigrants to Italy. Victims of an underworld sex trade these girls have been rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a Catholic charity organization. The problem is the other girls cant help Montalbano with his enquiries. They are all missing. As his investigations progresses it seems that not everyone wants Montalbano to discover what really lies behind the organisations charitable facade. & not only does Montalbano have a case to solve he has a demanding stomach to feed & he must save his foundering relationship with Livia.. . ...

In a world where the price of magic is life itself a group of seemingly immortal sorcerers appear to have cheated the system. & now Kamala has breached their secrets she seeks to join their ranks as the first female Magister. But they would rather see her dead forcing her to flee to the frozen north. There Kamala will find an evil far greater than a sorcerers enmity & will hear a dire prediction of a future war. In a past age an ancient bloodline was cultivated to stand in the path of darkness. Now its warriors must unearth the truth at the heart of the legends & stand firm against an enemy that brought mankind to the very edge of destruction. & Kamala must join their battle. ...

Eric Brown was on a University of Edinburgh exchange course in Germany in 1939 & the first he knew of the war was when the Gestapo came to arrest him. They released him not realizing he was a pilot in the RAF volunteer reserve: & the rest is history. Eric Brown joined the Fleet Air Arm & went on to be the greatest test pilot in history flying more different aircraft types than anyone else. He is the only man alive who has flown every major (and most minor) combat aircraft of the Second World War as well as all the early jets. Speaking perfect German he went to Germany in 1945 to test the Nazi jets interviewing (among others) Hermann Goering & Hanna Reitsch. He flew the suicidally dangerous Me 163 rocket plane & tested the first British jets. He would have been the first man to break the sound barrier except that the British government cancelled the programme & gave the technology to America. His naval career continues to this day as he advises on the new aircraft carrier design for the Royal Navy. A living legend among aviation enthusiasts his amazing life story deserves to be told in full -- from crashing in front of Winston Churchill to unmasking a Neo-Nazi ring in the 1950s to his terrifying flights in primitive jets & rockets. ...

One evening as he made his way to a local church social in the village hall during the 1950s a loud crack shook the ground & the night sky turned to an orange glow lighting the way for him. Shrugging his shoulders the author made his way through the village & in the distance he heard an explosion as a jet aircraft hit the ground. It was a common enough occurrence in the village of Ilton; RAF Merryfield was always losing aircraft & on a regular basis. Fifty years later & in an effort to put his indifference right the author began to investigate air crashes in & around Somerset. What he discovered appalled him at the sheer scale of it all. He now shares his findings of Somerset air crashes since 1945 with you. ...

Lu Ann Tyler is a single mother striving to escape a life of endless poverty. So when she gets a mysterious offer to be the guaranteed winner of the hundred million dollar lottery its like her prayers have been answered. But Lu Ann refuses -- & less than twenty-four hours later shes fighting for her life & on the run from a false murder charge. The offer
- & its condition that she leave the country forever
- seems her only hope. Ten years later Lu Ann secretly returns to the US to begin a new life with Matthew Riggs a man whose origins are as murky as her own. But there are those who have picked up her trail -- & it seems Matthew is the only one who can help her. But is he too closing in for the kill?

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Our planet's resources are running out. The media bombards us with constant warnings of impending shortages of fossil fuels minerals arable land & water & the political Armageddon that will result as insatiable global demand far outstrips supply. But how true is this picture? In Winner Take All" Dambisa Moyo cuts through the misconceptions & noise surrounding resource scarcity with a penetrating analysis of what really is at stake. China Moyo reveals has embarked on one of the greatest commodity rushes in history. Tracing its breathtaking quest for resources
- from Africa to Latin America North America to Europe
- she examines the impact it is having on us all & its profound implications for our future."

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Michael Winner the legendary film director writer & food critic is a colourful figure who has led a remarkable life. He has a reputation for being outspoken & true to form in his autobiography he tells it like it is with sharp & insightful observations. ' Winner Takes All' begins with his unconventional childhood as a Jewish boy attending a Quaker boarding school & introduces his eccentric mother who was a compulsive gambler. Michael Winner gained his first taste of fame when aged fourteen he met the stars for a showbusiness column in twenty London local papers. At Cambridge he edited the student newspaper & became a local celebrity. The author is a natural raconteur & his anecdotes from the film industry are compelling. He recounts his early life with relish & provides fascinating accounts of his experiences directing some of the world's most famous actors & actresses including Charles Bronson Sophia Loren Joan Collins Orson Welles Marlon Brando & Anthony Hopkins. Many of them became close friends. As a food critic Michael Winner is famous for shooting from the hip. Love him or loathe him he is constantly in the public eye. His esure TV commercials
- which produced a national catchphrase ' Calm down dear!'
- have been an advertising industry phenomenon. What may come as a surprise to the reader is the gentle side that he reveals in his autobiography. He speaks with candour about his private life; he admits his fear of relationships with women & confides the heartbreaking story of the love of his life a famous female star.

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Winnie & Wolf" is the story of the extraordinary relationship between Winifred Wagner & Adolf Hitler that took place during the years 1923-40 as seen through the eyes of the secretary at the Wagner house in Bayreuth. Winifred an English girl brought up in an orphanage in East Grinstead married at the age of eighteen to the son of Germanys most controversial genius is a passionate Germanophile a Wagnerian dreamer a Teutonic patriot. In the debacle of the post-Versailles world the Wagner family hope for the coming not of a warrior a fearless Siegfried but of a Parsifal a mystic idealist a redeemer-figure. In 1923 they meet their Parsifal
- a wild-eyed Viennese opera-fanatic in a trilby hat a mac & a badly fitting suit. Hitler has already made a name for himself in some sections of German society through rabble-rousing & street corner speeches. It is Winifred though who believes she can really see his poetry. Almost at once they drop formalities & call one another Du rather than Sie. She is Winnie & he is Wolf. Like Winnie Hitler was an outsider. Like her he was haunted by the impossibility of reconciling the pursuit of love & the pursuit of power; the ultimate inevitability if you pursued power of destruction. Both had known the humiliations of poverty. Both felt angry & excluded by society. Both found each other in an unusual kinship that expressed itself through a love of opera."
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Winnie decides she needs a seaside break so she & Wilbur zoom off to the coast. Winnie makes a beeline for the sea to cool down. Wilbur makes a beeline for anywhere other than the sea
- he hates water & cant bear getting wet. Winnie is having so much fun in the water that she doesnt notice her broomstick being washed out to sea. She waves her magic wand in an attempt to get the broomstick back but it doesnt really go according to plan. The mix of magic & mayhem that follows involves a surfer & a whale & predictably its poor Wilbur who gets the worst of things...
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Those who know her know that Winnie the Witch can be a little batty to say the least. In ' Big Top Winnie' Winnie would love to have the grace of a high-wire walker only to discover her talents are more suited to clowning around; in ' Winnie's Bubble Trouble' Winnie gets (literally) carried away in her attempt escape from doing the housework; in ' Winnie Digs Deep' Winnie hunts for priceless objects in her garden but finds out that Wilbur & Jerry are her real treasures; & in ' Winnie Goes Batty' Winnie is about to rustle up some batburgers in the kitchen when she discovers that bats are actually sweet little creatures & should certainly never be on the menu! Four crazily funny stories featuring everyone's favourite witch her big black cat Wilbur & a zany supporting cast of new characters. Korky Paul's exuberant black line illustrations complement the humour slapstick & moments of real drama that run through each story. Pure magic! ...