Judith OReilly author of the hugely popular blog & book Wife in the North" embarks on a year long social experiment in the witty "A Year of Doing Good". Fed up of New Years resolutions involving diets & exercise abandoned on January 2nd Judith is attempting to be good. For one whole year. She embarked on a mission to do one good deed every day. Some called it a social experiment. At times she called it madness. Juggling family friends & a variety of neighbours in the small Northumberland village she calls home she recounts the ups downs moments of doubt & sheer bloody hard work of doing good. From the small
- babysitting a friends child clearing up her neighbours dead mice & feeding her friendship cake Herman the German to the slightly larger
- trying to raise GBP10 000 for charity with her Jam Jar Army & teaching a severely handicapped child to write
- she describes what she learns along the way: that no good deed is too small & that being good makes you happy. Well most of the time. A " Year of Doing Good" inspires the reader with the day-to-day journey of meaning gratification & joy that comes from contributing to the lives of others in so many creative ways. For those who want to put "do unto others" in the centre of their lives & reap the unexpected benefits of happiness & health this is the book for you. Elegantly written the words jump off the page by Stephen G. Post Ph D author of " The Hidden Gifts of Helping". "I howled with laughter tears of recognition at every bloody page. My only problem with this book was choosing who to pass it on to first". (Jenny Colgan author of " Amandas Wedding on Wife in the North"). Judith OReilly is a writer & journalist. Her first book Wife in the North was based on her blog of the same name & was a bestseller. Her second book a novel is living in a drawer. Her third book is this one. She is married with three children & for one year she tried to be good."


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The Guide to the Worlds Greatest Happenings A Year of Festivals" takes you around the world in pursuit of festivals in all their flamboyant color & variety. Discover music camel races feats of endurance manic street parties & monumental food fights! From the sublime (Venices Carnevale or Indias Krishna Janmastami) to the absurd (Finlands Wife-Carrying Championships or Australias Beer Can Regatta)
- the best of the famous & little-known alike are represented here. Be inspired & plan a year to remember! Organized by month & week to help you to plan a great festival experience at any time of year. Country & Festival indexes allow you to also search by the destination of your next vacation or by the name or theme of the festival you want to experience.

Includes:: essential planning tips & contacts for further information on events throughout the book."


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Avoiding shellfish was easy. The stoning of adulterers proved a little more difficult
- & potentially controversial. Was it enough
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From one of America's iconic writers a portrait of a marriage & a life
- in good times & bad
- that will speak to anyone who

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A superb work of literary fantasy. In a truly original imagined world of breathtaking sometimes surreal beauty fifty utterly ...

In 1959 British agents masterminded the escape of the Dalai Lama from Tibet. Three years later Paul Chavasse is doing it all over again...A vitally important scientist holding intelligence that could shift the balance of world power is being held in China. British secret agent Paul Chavasse responsible for extracting the Dalai Lama from under Chinese noses is the perfect man to slip through the border locate the scientist & bring him back to the West. But Chavasse's nerve stamina & loyalties will all be tested as he finds the Chinese are reluctant to let their asset go without a fight... ...

It had never been the best of marriages & over recent years it had become effectively a marriage in name & outward appearance only. Yet in the autumn of 1960 Winifred & Daniel Coulson presented an acceptable facade to the outside world for Daniel had prospered sufficiently to allow them to live at Wearcill House a mansion situated in the most favoured outskirt of the Tyneside town of Fellburn. Of their children it was Donald on whom Winifred doted to the point of obsession & now he was to be married Winifreds prime concern was whether Donald was entering wedlock with an unbesmirched purity of body & spirit for amidst the strange workings of her mind much earlier conceptions of morality & the teachings of the Church held sway. There was something potentially explosive just below the surface of life at Wearcill House but when that explosion came it was in a totally unforeseeable & devastating form plunging the Coulsons into an excoriating series of crises out of which would come both good & evil as well as the true significance of The Year of the Virgins"..." ...

Get Close To The Worlds Most Amazing Animals Every week of the year something astounding happens in the animal kingdom. A million wildebeest trek 800 km across the Serengeti; killer whales surf Argentinean beaches; lizards fly like paper planes in the jungles of Borneo; 10 million puffins descend on Iceland; & the worlds biggest feeding frenzy takes place off the coast of South Africa. A Year of Watching Wildlife" shows you where when & how to take part in the natural worlds greatest happenings
- be inspired & go wild! Organized by month & week to help you plan the years wildlife adventures
Includes: essential planning tips & links to more information about each encounter Country & animal indexes allow you to search by destination or by animal"

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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March & People of the Book. A young womans struggle to save her family & her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666 when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666 plague swept through London driving the King & his court to Oxford & Samuel Pepys to Greenwich in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until in a small community of leadminers & hill farmers a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection. So begins the Year of Wonders in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate the villagers turn to sorcery herb lore & murderous witch-hunting. Then led by a young & charismatic preacher they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who at only 18 must contend with the death of her family the disintegration of her society & the lure of a dangerous & illicit attraction. Geraldine Brookss novel explores love & learning fear & fanaticism & the struggle of 17th century science & religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. Year of Wonders is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during Englands last great plague. ...

Dartmoor can present a mask of barren wilderness to the uninitiated. But for those willing to explore the moor unfolds the secrets of its seasonal changes revealing faces of spectacular colour inspiring light & landscape distinctly marked over time by the shared presence of humans wildlife & natural elements alike. The 954 square kilometres of unyielding granite plateau are dotted with tors peat bogs & stocky trees stubbornly adhering to the scoured earth. David Entricans moody panoramic photographs capture the magic of this landscape through the seasons & through the changing English weather. ...