Category Archives: Travel Guides
Burial Rites
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD. Northern Iceland, 1829. A woman condemned to death for murdering her lover. A family forced to take her in. A priest tasked with absolving her. But all is not as it seems, and time is running out: winter is coming, and with it the execution date. Only
The Good People
Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2017County Kerry, Ireland, 1825. Nora, bereft after the sudden death of her beloved husband, finds herself alone and caring for her young grandson Micheal. Micheal cannot speak and cannot walk and Nora is desperate to know what is wrong with him. What happened to the healthy, happy grandson she
The Psycopath Test
From the author of “Them and The Men Who Stare at Goats”, this is a book exploring the psychopath… This is a story about madness. It all starts when journalist Jon Ronson is contacted by a leading neurologist. She and several colleagues have recently received a cryptically puzzling book in the mail, and Jon is
Shakespeare`s Local: Six Centuries of History Seen Through One Extraordinary Pub
Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy, wood-pannelled, galleried coaching house a few minutes` walk from the Thames. Grab yourself a pint, listen to the chatter of the locals and lean back, resting your head against the wall. And then consider this: who else has rested their head against that wall, over
Nefertiti in the Flak Tower
Clive James` power as a poet has increased year by year, and there has been no stronger evidence for this than Nefertiti in the Flak Tower. Here, his polymathic learning and technical virtuosity are worn more lightly than ever; the effect is merely to produce a deep sense of trust into which the reader gratefully
Tudors: A History of England Volume II: Volume II
Rich in detail and atmosphere and told in vivid prose, Tudors recounts the transformation of England from a settled Catholic country to a Protestant superpower. It is the story of Henry VIII`s cataclysmic break with Rome, and his relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir; of how the brief reign of
The Sparsholt Affair
In October 1940, the handsome young David Sparsholt arrives in Oxford. A keen athlete and oarsman, he at first seems unaware of the effect he has on others ‘“ particularly on the lonely and romantic Evert Dax, son of a celebrated novelist and destined to become a writer himself. While the Blitz rages in London,
The Killing
Who killed Nanna Birk Larsen?That was the question on many lips when, in 2011, the BAFTA winning first series of The Killing was aired on British television. The subsequent column inches, not least about a certain black and white Faroe Island jumper, and critical success it garnered were partly a legacy of the previous year’s
Astray
With the turn of each page, the characters that roam across these pages go astray. They are emigrants, runaways, drifters; gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross borders of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, under duress or incognito. A sequence of fourteen fact-inspired fictions about travels to,
Burying the Typewriter
At 2 a.m. on 10 March 1983, Carmen Bugan`s father left the family home, alone. That afternoon, Carmen returned from school to find secret police in her living room. Her father`s protest against the regime had changed her life for ever. This is her story.
The Boys in the Boat
Cast aside by his family at an early age, abandoned and left to fend for himself in the woods of Washington State, young Joe Rantz turns to rowing as a way of escaping his past. What follows is an extraordinary journey, as Joe and eight other working-class boys exchange the sweat and dust of life
Almost English
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013. Home is a foreign country: they do things differently there …In a tiny flat in West London, sixteen-year-old Marina lives with her emotionally delicate mother, Laura, and three ancient Hungarian relatives. Imprisoned by her family`s crushing expectations and their fierce unEnglish pride, by their strange traditions and stranger
The Anonymous Venetian
Commissario Brunetti`s hopes of a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera – a body so badly beaten the face is unrecognizable. Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can identify the dead man. But he is met with a wall of silence. Then he
A Venetian Reckoning
A lorry crashes on one of the treacherous bends in the Italian Dolomites, spilling a terrible cargo …A prominent international layer is found dead in the carriage of an intercity train at Saint Lucia …Can the two tragedies possibly be connected? Commissario Guido Brunetti digs deep into the secret lives of the once great and
Acqua Alta
Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is shocked to hear that Brett Lynch, a friend since a murder case at La Fenice, has suffered a savage beating. The attack, in the beautiful palazzo home of Flavia Petrelli, reigning diva of La Scala, had come with a message: `Don`t keep that appointment with Dottor Semenzato.`
The Death of Faith
Commissario Guido Brunetti is kicking his heels, pondering the recent lack of crime in Venice, when a beautiful young woman appears at his office door. Now calling herself Maria Testa, his visitor is more familiar to Brunetti as Suor`lmmacolata, the nun who once cared for his mother at the casa di cura in Dolo. But
The Book of Life
These seven stunning tales are about all the big things: faith, love, family, temptation and redemption. They show us at our most vulnerable and our most miraculous. They show moments of grief and betrayal as well as humour and happiness. They show us the best of people and the worst. They show us life. Stuart
A-Z of Greenwich: Places-People-History
The historic Royal Borough of Greenwich is well known for its magnificent maritime, military and civil architecture, ancient royal park, ship and boat building, and pioneering developments in scientific discovery, light industry and manufacturing. Its streets stretch out across the Meridian Line and show how Greenwich evolved into a working-class suburb of London, where a
On Booze
“First you take a drink,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once noted, “then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” Few writers have conveyed the effects of alcohol as vividly as Fitzgerald, and this collection gathers debutantes and dandies, rowdy jazz musicians, lost children and ragtime riff-raff into a collection taken from The Crack-Up
