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Picador ‘At Last’ is the fifth and final part of Patrick Melrose’s personal narrative. The first four novels take Patrick from upper-class childhood where he was sexually abused by his father from the age of five, through his understandably drug-addicted youth, on to the nervous beginnings of recovery at thirty and to being a disappointed husband and father. ‘At Last’ takes place on the day of Eleanor, Patrick’s mother, funeral. Patrick is now hoping for some release from his traumatic past, having resented his mother’s failure to protect him from his abusive father. Despite its grim subject matter, Edward St. Aubyn’s (autobiographic) novel is a characteristic blend of wit, intellect and compassion, free of any self-pity. At last, Patrick realises that he needs to let go of the past in order to transcend it. A wonderfully witty and psychologically astute book!
Price: EUR 14.95
Corgi It is freezing midwinter on Exmoor. In a close-knit community where no stranger passes unnoticed, a local woman is murdered in her bed. The local policeman, Jonas Holly, is called in for his first murder investigation. Holly feels responsible for all the inhabitants of the Somerset village of Shipcott having known them personally all his life. He is, therefore, both hurt and distracted when he receives an anonymous letter accusing him of failure and incompetence. Thus taunted by the killer and side-lined by his abrasive senior officer, Jonas has little choice but to strike out alone. But the question is: who is hunting who? Bold, tense and compassionate in its tone, this taut, well written thriller is also impressively original- read it and be convinced!
Price: EUR 8.50
Canongate Life changes for Jaffrey Brown, a nineteenth century street urchin in London, when an escaped tiger carries him bodily through the streets of the city and he survives the ordeal. Rescued by Mr. Charles Jamrach, an importer of exotic animals, the eight-year-old boy begins working for him, pairing up with another boy, Tim, who becomes his friend and rival. When the two take off on a whaling expedition in the Indian Ocean to hunt for a fabled dragon for a client, they expect an adventure. But through a twist of fate, they get more than they bargained for and Jaffrey grows up quickly as he learns the true meaning of friendship, sacrifice, loss and survival. Written in a poetic style reminiscent of Charles Dickens, Carol Birch’s book is a coming-of-age story set with sensual detail both in Victorian England and on the high seas. Although told by an adult Jaffrey, the narrator never loses his young boy’s sense of wonder as the events of his life unfold, even when they have tragic consequences. Loosely inspired by the sinking of the ship Essex by a whale in 1820, Jamrach’s Menagerie is at times uncomfortable but also magical and reminds us of the adventure of living.
Price: EUR 8.70
Windmill This novel features four characters in crisis, each having taken a leap toward what they hope is a better life. Coincidence brings them together in the cocktail lounge of a Toronto airport hotel, while the world outside descends into chaos. When oil prices suddenly rise to almost a thousand dollars a barrel, planes stop taking off, the power cuts out, phones stop working and the TV fades to static. While things explode, and toxic fallout drifts closer, we get to know Karen, a receptionist at a psychiatric clinic who has flown in to meet a man from an internet chat room; Luke, a small-town pastor who has absconded with $20,000 from the church renovation fund; Rachel, an impossibly beautiful young autistic woman who has bought a $3,400 Chanel dress in order to help find a man to father her child; and Rick, an ex-alcoholic bartender who wants to give everything he owns to a self-help guru. Douglas Coupland uses these characters to explore what technology in its present form does and might do to consciousness, identity and individuality. A quirky, humourous and provocative read.
Fourth Estate In the early 1980’s in American colleges, while intellectual students are wising up about Derrida and Lacan, Eugenides deftly introduces Madeline Hanna, an English major who is writing her thesis on Jane Austen and George Elliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the great English novels. As Madeline studies the intricacies of the human heart in her safe ivory tower, two very different men interpose: Leonard Bankhead, a charismatic loner and college Darwinist who appears at a seminar and the other, an old friend, Mitchell Grammaticus, a student of Christian mysticism and convinced that Madeline is destined to become his wife. Through these two men, Eugenides juxtapositions two competing images of love and relationship and asks whether the great love stories of the nineteenth century are dead and buried or can they be resurrected to fit within the framework of twenty-first century feminism, sexual freedom, pre-nups and divorce. With humour, real understanding of the human heart and affection for his characters, Eugenides injects freshness into ‘The Marriage Plot’ that reads as an intimate journal into our own lives.
Price: EUR 12.50
Simon & Schuster In this thrilling, passionate saga Alice Hoffman takes her inspiration from the events that occurred at the Israeli mountaintop fortress of Masada almost 2,000 years ago. According to first-century historian, Flavius Josephus, some 900 Jewish rebels held out for months under Roman attack, then set their storerooms on fire and committed mass suicide rather than face subjugation. Josephus reported that two women and five children survived. From that extraordinary possibility, the author imagines four women: fiery redhead, Yael, who grows up with a father who despises her because her mother died in childbirth; Revka who has survived the killing of her husband and daughter and brought up her grandsons; Shirah, who excels at spells and medicine and her daughter, Aziza, who fights alongside men as a warrior. These women are drawn together by their work as Masada's dovekeepers. The work is humble and dirty but, amid the filth and noise of the birdhouses, the women grow close, their lives becoming inextricably bound together. Hoffman is a writer of great perception and she captures with precision the complexity of the relationships between the women, their fear, guilt, courage and hunger for companionship. She vividly depicts the brutal harshness of the desert and a world where strong women are feared as 'prophetesses or witches', while men's magic is legitimised and public.
Price: EUR 15.00
Orion In ‘The House of Silk’ Sherlock Holmes returns in the first new adventure officially approved by the Conan Doyle Estate. The Horowitz tale begins in November 1890 when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at Baker Street, begging Holmes for help with trouble relating to an American art deal gone awry. The case moves quickly towards a solution but then Ross, one of the young Baker Street Irregulars in Holmes’s employ, is brutally murdered. Feeling a deep responsibility for Ross’s murder, Holmes will stop at nothing to solve the crime but he finds that he is up against a well-connected mysterious organization and he, himself, in grave danger. With devilish plotting and excellent characterisation, Anthony Horowitz delivers a first-rate Sherlock Holmes mystery for a modern readership whilst remaining true to the spirit of the original Conan Doyle books. A new series worth looking forward to…!
Pan This atmospheric novel is a unique blend of seventeenth century history, memoir and fiction. Set in New England during the1670’s, strong willed, intelligent and unmarried Martha Allen is packed off to be a servant in her cousin’s home. She competently takes charge of the neglected household and annoys everyone around her with her sharp tongue, except a mysterious Welsh farmhand called Thomas whose intractable nature matches that of her own. As they both let their guard down, a fragile friendship develops between these two outsiders. Meanwhile in Britain under the auspices of Charles II, a band of assassins charter a ship to capture Thomas Morgan, the Welshman and Republican, who fought along side Cromwell and personally executed Charles I. As the assassins arrive in New England, Thomas’s life is in grave danger. Can Martha find it in herself to become a traitor’s wife? This subtle and unusual book is also political in character as both Thomas and Martha are tested within the prevailing spirit of their times which the author depicts with a startling vivacity.
Price: EUR 9.95
Penguin With two shopping days left to Christmas, wife and mum, Clara Dunphy, is racing against time, trying to make everything perfect for her extended family’s festive get together, as she does every year. This wickedly funny novel spans three consecutive Yules, during which time Clara’s one ex-husband is joined by a second, and we learn that a certain sadness in her youth is the motor driving her desire to make Christmas a happy time for everyone. Miraculously, this is a feel-good story that manages not to be saccharine. Our heroine, Clara, may be nice, but she’s also barbed, tough and clever. India Knight has a superb ear for dialogue and a keen eye for delicious detail making this book witty and heart warming at the same time. An escapist read infused with seasonal spirit and a feeling of goodwill to all men, including ex-husbands!
British Library In an age of e-mails, tweeters and face-book, this beautiful selection of original love letters invites us into a privileged realm and reminds us why the written word is still so special and intimate. The twenty-five hand written letters included in this book span centuries, cultures and continents from 168 BC to the 1980’s with letters from figures such as Henry VIII, James I, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Oscar Wilde, Horatio Lord Nelson and Ted Hughes. The letters contain expressions of every shade of love from the joys of falling in love to the torture of unrequited love, including amorous declarations, the pain and grief expressed along side the philosophical reflections at the end of a love affair. These love letters demonstrate that lovers’ preoccupations have changed very little over the past 2000 years and remind us that there is simply nothing like receiving private, enveloped, hand-written letters from a person you love.
Price: EUR 14.90
Faber & Faber Elizabeth I (1558-1603) came to the throne at a time of religious insecurity and political unrest. Rivals threatened her reign as England was a Protestant country surrounded by a predominately Catholic Europe. Walsingham, as the first great English spy-master and Elizabeth’s loyal and devoted secretary, was prepared to go to any length to protect both the queen and Protestantism. As a young man, he had witnessed the French massacres in Paris when Protestants were attacked by Catholic mobs and was determined to save England from a similar fate. His intricate network of agents provided valuable information about secret plots against the queen and was instrumental in quashing Catholic Irish rebels as well as facilitating the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s arch rival to the English throne. Elizabeth’s long, stable reign can be credited to Walsingham’s ingenious network of secret agents and clever code breakers of cryptic, illicit, treasonable messages.
Price: EUR 25.00
Allen Lane This book brings two scientists together in a brilliant, ambitious mission to explain to the layperson the intricacies and deepest questions of modern science. Professors Cox and Forshaw begin by explaining the term quantum physics, its connections to both Einstein and Newton while also illustrating how unique the term ‘quantum’ has become, originally entering physics in 1900 through the works of Max Planck. Fox and Forshaw trace the bizarre behaviour of atoms involved in that energy which make up the universe. Such observations have led to some rather eccentric, pseudo-scientific pronouncements about the nature of all inter-connectedness. Cox and Forshaw set the record straight by giving us ‘real science’ and reveal the profound theories that still allow for concrete, yet astonishing, predictions about the world.
Allen Lane We habitually think of the European past as the history of countries which exist today - France, Germany, Russia, Britain - but this paradigm blunts our sensitivity to the ever-changing political landscape. Europe’s history is littered with kingdoms, duchies, empires and republics, much of whose history is now half-remembered or half-forgotten at best. Davies asks, for example, how many British people know that Glasgow was founded by the Welsh in a period before England of Scotland had ever existed. How many of us will remember the former Soviet Union in a few years time? This stimulating, surprising book, full of unexpected stories, observations and connections gives us a fresh and original perspective on European history.
Price: EUR 37.00
Little Brown At a time when cultures around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Steve Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. Based on interviews with Jobs as well as with family member, friends, adversaries, competitors and colleagues, Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute and former managing editor of Time magazine, chronicles the rollercoaster life and intense personality of this creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing. The man and his products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, and his extraordinary tale, told through this masterly biography, is filled with lessons about innovation, character, values and leadership. A must Christmas read!
Price: EUR 24.90
Faber The most admired British artist of his generation, Burke-Jones was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement of the 1880’s, inventing that ‘Burke-Jones’ look seen on the angels on Christmas cards, stained glass windows in churches and paintings in art galleries. His work bridged Victorian and modern art as he influenced later artists such as Klimt and Picasso. In this new book, Fiona MacCarthy re-evaluates his life and achievements pointing out the susceptibility to women which both inspired his art and ruined his marriage. There were also darker elements to his life, such as periods of ill-health and depression as well as the devastating rift with his great friend and rival, artist, William Morris. With new research and fresh historical perspective the ‘Last Pre-Raphaelite’ shows how Burke-Jones progressed from being appreciated by an initiate few to becoming a key figure in shaping the Victorian imagination.
Price: EUR 29.00
Profile Pulitzer Prize winning authors Naifeh and Smith spent a decade researching into the life of a complex man whose simple, colourful, yet compelling paintings seem to speak to us all. The authors trace Van Gogh’s early years through his troubled childhood and aborted careers as an art dealer and preacher. In his lifetime, Van Gogh remained under appreciated, once lamenting ‘as a painter I shall never amount to anything important’. Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh museum, Naifeh and Smith trace the inner working of a genius and shed new light on the artist’s troubled romantic life and the obscure circumstances of his early death at the age of thirty-seven. This definitive biography, full of rich, interwoven stories, brings to life the extraordinary genius of Van Gogh and his remarkable legacy as artist.
Price: EUR 31.20
Harvard U. P. The oldest discovered statue, fashioned some fifteen to twenty years ago, is that of a bear, showing that the lion was not always king! From antiquity to the Middle Ages, the bear’s centrality left its traces in European languages, literatures and legends from the Slavic East to Celtic Britain. Historian Michael Pastoureau traces how this once venerated animal was deposed by the onset of Christianity and continued to sink lower in the symbolic bestiary before being resurrected in modern times as the teddy bear. He explains how the early church was threatened by pagan legends of the bear’s power, particularly its panache for women which apparently engendered half-men, half bear invincible warriors! Marked for death by the clergy, bears were massacred. This compelling history reminds us that humans and bears share a linked history, united by a kinship that gradually moved from nature into culture.
Bloomsbury Comprehensive yet carefully assembled ‘Robertson’s Book of Firsts’ catalogues watershed events of social relevance. It includes obvious achievements such as the first women to serve in a regular army (Canada, 1906) as well as the first plastic garbage bag (1950). Over fifty years in the making, Robertson writes with wit and fluency on a massive array of topics including the first computer, the first department store and the first black head of state. The United States, in particular, has been a cradle of innovation: 44% of modern innovation stemming from there by Robertson’s calculation. This unique volume is filled with new research and surprising revelations, including key-dramas in science, history, culture, sport and much more. As an index of social change and human ingenuity this book makes a perfect Christmas gift.
Hutchinson One of the best-loved comic novelists of the twentieth century, P.G. Wodehouse, when not writing stories, lyrics or editing screenplays, wrote a profuse number of letters. The letters in this splendidly edited collection, many never previously published, not only demonstrate Wodehouse's writing flair but also occasionally reveal his private thoughts. Each chapter is preceded by a biographical section describing what happened in Wodehouse's life at the time the particular letters were written and are supplemented with invaluable footnotes. The editor, Sophie Ratcliffe, has clearly spent a long time with the Wodehouse archives and composes a most sympathetic and moving of character sketches. The book is worth reading alone for the vivid and delicately observant introduction. Ratcliffe's writing is adroit, elegant but also penetrating in her revelations. P.G. Wodehouse is presented as a more complex, somewhat angrier, more venal character than his novels portray and this definitive collection of his correspondence provides an enriched self-portrait.
Price: EUR 36.00
BBC Books Isolated by frozen seas and extreme cold, the poles support animals found nowhere else. Now that the polar worlds are melting, changing forever the lives of the animals there, this timely book documents their behaviours, often for the first time. We explore the ingenious teamwork adopted by killer whales hunting other whales and seals in the Antarctic, the courtship of polar bears and the hunting exploits of wolves in the far north. ‘The Frozen Planet’ team also takes us under the ice-crystal caves, showing us tantalizing glimpses of Weddell seals and female emperor penguins as they emerge out from under the Antarctic ice. Both captivating and informative!
Thames & Hudson Modern photography has always sought out dramatic events as they unfold. ‘Afterwards’ presents us just that: from leading contemporary photographers with each body of work in a self-contained sequence of images, analogous to the rooms of an exhibition. Over thirty photographers are featured including Rover Polidori, Suzanne Opton and Simon Norfolk, inviting the viewer to contemplate the aftermath of events that have taken place during the past sixty years of modern history: the Srebrenica Massacre, human trafficking and slave labour, the Hiroshima bombing, the Holocaust and various natural disasters, leaving one a sense of the physical and emotional scars they left behind. Accompanied by academic essays on cognitive responses to photographs, the ability to see and empathize with the nature of trauma and the meaning of stigmata, ‘Afterwards’ shows the possibility for contemporary photography to question what happens in the world and tries to understand it better.
Private Eye Productions The satirical magazine, ‘Private Eye’, first published in 1961, celebrates half a century of informative, entertaining, provocative and often controversial journalism in this clever compendium. A surprisingly sleek hardback, it includes never-before-seen photographs, unpublished cartoons and exclusive interviews with contributors past and present, as well as archive articles from hacks and humourists as diverse as Craig Brown, Peter Cook, Willie Rushton and Auberon Waugh. This diverting anthology would make an ideal present for anyone familiar with British politics and all the scandals plus those clever in-jokes over the past half century or for anyone who would simply like to amuse themselves while finding out all about them!
Yale Throughout the history of the western world, countless attempts have been made to define beauty in art and life, especially with regards to women’s bodies and faces. This beautifully illustrated, thought provoking book examines concepts of female beauty concentrating historically on the period from 1540 to 1940. It traces in terms of reality and fantasy how beauty has been enhanced through cosmetics and hairstyles. Beginning with the Renaissance with its renewed interest in the individual and weaving its way through the Baroque period which initiated a more ‘natural’ look, Rebeiro shows how during the eighteenth century, the artificial face as masks of ideal beauty were popular; by the late nineteenth century beauty preparations were more readily available leading to the beauty industry of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Complete with images of female beauty from costume books, fashion plates and cosmetic advertisements, the evolving story of beauty springs to life!
Price: EUR 37.50
Alison Green Books Age 2-6 'Give me your buns and your biscuits! Give me your chocolate éclairs! For I am the Rat of the highway, and the Rat Thief never shares'! Life is not safe for the other animals, as the villainous Highway Rat gallops along the highway, stealing their food. Clover from a rabbit; nuts from a squirrel - he even steals his own horse's hay. Will this villainous rat finally meet his comeuppance, in the form of a cunning duck? This fabulous new picture book from the award-winning creators of 'The Gruffalo' is a rollicking rhyme, in the style of the famous Alfred Noyes poem, 'The Highwayman'. Julia Donaldson's jolly verse is perfectly complimented by Axel Scheffler's vibrant, characterful illustrations in a book which is sure to become a family favourite.
Price: EUR 13.70
Puffin Age 8+ Hapless preteen Greg Heffley is in big trouble in this latest instalment of his hilarious diary. School property is damaged and Greg is the prime suspect. The authorities are closing in, but when a sudden blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that as soon as the snow melts he will be forced to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family over the festive season? Once again Jeff Kinney’s story and simple black and white drawings go straight to the funny bone, providing really good fun for readers of any age.
Price: EUR 10.60
Doubleday Age 12+ ‘It’s difficult to believe that the end has finally arrived.’ These were the words of Christopher Paolini as he completed ‘Inheritance’, the fourth and last book in the cycle about the adventures of the poor farm boy and his dragon Saphira. With ‘Inheritance’, Paolini goes one step further in his cycle as he leaves the fate of an entire civilization on the shoulders of the rider and his dragon. Here, Eragon is up against the evil king Galbatorix in the hope to restore justice to Alagäesia. The ‘Inheritance’ cycle consumed twelve years of the young writer’s life to this date, yet as Paolini, himself confesses ‘I don’t intend to abandon Alagäesia….I’ve put too much time into building this world and at some point in the future I’ll return to it.’
Price: EUR 17.50
Abrams Age 9-12 This beautiful, large format picture book, illustrated with both extraordinary photographs and colour drawings features thirty-five endangered animals from around the world. From the puffin to the spectacled bear, the takin to the white giraffe, the tree kangaroo to the hammerhead shark, each of the two-page spreads in this book covers a different species depicting its natural habitat in detail, as well as its relationship with mankind. The in-depth text covers each animal's unique features and provides key figures, maps, interesting trivia, and information on major threats to the species' survival. ‘Extraordinary Endangered Animals’ also suggests simple ways everyday citizens can contribute to the preservation of these threatened species and what each of the featured creatures can teach us.
Price: EUR 22.00
