Blood Ties: Family is not always a place of safety
Family is not always a place of safety.Kathleen was just eight years old when her mother was tragically killed in a car accident. And when her father remarries it is to the bitter and resentful Irene who has two children of her own and no space in her heart for another. Irene goes out of her way to make Kathleen's life as miserable as possible and will stop at nothing to get her out of their lives…When Kathleen is sixteen, a shocking incident rocks the family, and life takes a darker turn.Among this darkness, Kathleen finds a glimmer of hope in an older man, but Irene is ruthless in her mission to destroy her.Can Kathleen find happiness or is she destined for tragedy?
Blood Sisters: Can a pledge made for life endure beyond death?
It’s 1983 and best friends Vicky and Lucy swear that they will always be there for each other, that they’ll never let anyone come between them. But fast forward 4 years and life on the Canterbury Estate has gotten very messy.Lucy has fallen for local policeman’s son, Jimmy. And Vicky is madly in love with Paddy, the charming but ruthless local bad boy. The boys are bitter enemies and determined to keep the two girls apart. But then Vicky is accused of murder, and even her drug-dealer boyfriend wants her mouth shut, permanently. Maybe Lucy is the only one who can save her…Love, murder, revenge. Who can you really trust when there’s blood on your hands?
Blood Line: Sometimes Tragedy Is in Your Blood
Previously published as My Uncle Charlie.If you lived on the notorious Canterbury Estate in the ‘40s and ‘50s, then you knew there was one man you did not want to cross: Charlie Hudson.A solitary man, feared and respected by the gangsters of the time, Charlie was a boxer who never lost a fight, in or out of the ring – the most infamous of The Canterbury Warriors.Blood Line, the second title in the explosive series unravels a story of debauchery, crime and self-destruction. Charlie Hudson was a born leader. The eldest of eight brothers and four sisters and with a boxer for a father, fighting was in his blood. And as the young protégé of local Italian gangster, Mr Cappovanni, Charlie not only learned to knock every opponent out, he also learned the tools of the crime and extortion trade well; emerging into adulthood in the middle of the war years as a natural heir: running cons, illegal books and a band of prostitutes.But when Charlie met Betty, a sweet, caring girl, he was determined to be a better man for her. He’d still deal with ‘business’ but no more would he bed his working girls, and the birth of their baby girl, Elizabeth, sealed it: he knew life could not get any better. But for a man who had only ever lived in the belly of the Canterbury Estate underworld, it could definitely get worse…Gritty and engrossing, book two of the Hudson family saga delves deeper into history of the infamous Canterbury Warriors; the true story of one man’s ascendancy to power, and the tragedy that brought it all crashing down.
Bird Brain: Over 2,400 Questions to Test Your Bird Knowledge
An ornithological quiz book packed with challenging questions for birders, based on the popular ‘Bird Brain of Britain’ contest at the annual BirdFair.The British Birdwatching Fair, held every August at Rutland Water Nature Reserve, attracts over 30,000 visitors every year. One of the most popular attractions in the events marquee is the ‘Bird Brain of Britain’ contest. Each of the four contestants must answer a set of questions on their nominated specialist subject, and a second set on general (ornithological) knowledge. The participants have included popular presenters and experts throughout the years, including Stephen Moss, Chris Harbard, Mark Andrews, Nigel Redman, Mike Dilger and David Lindo, among many others.The book will feature the questions asked in the contest over its 30-year lifespan. Many seemingly simple questions turn out to have complex answers, and some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. The questions are difficult and varied enough to test any birder’s knowledge, and will provide many hours of challenging entertainment. Be they trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling or strange, the varied bird trivia included makes this compilation as entertaining and enlightening as it is educational.
Bianco: Pizza, Pasta and Other Food I Like
The ultimate pizza, pasta, bread and Italian recipe book from one of world’s leading chefs and co-owner of Union Jacks with Jamie Oliver.Chris Bianco’s ‘perfect pizza’ has won him awards and accolades from fellow chefs, food critics and millions of customers since he first opened his diminutive Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona. Chris’ skill and inspired cooking has made him the pizza expert that other chefs turn to, including Jamie, who joined forces with him to revolutionise British pizza with their Union Jacks restaurant.In his much-anticipated first cookbook, Chris finally reveals the secrets behind his phenomenal Italian food. Chris guides you through the alchemy and history of flatbreads and pizzas, pasta and bread doughs. He explains the magic trio of flour, water and tomatoes, the science of leavening and bringing your food together with ‘fire and smoke’ – or the simple domestic oven and hob.Chris’ infectious approach combines cheffy knowledge with down-to-earth accessible recipes; after all, Chris explains, pizza is only ‘posh cheese on toast’, to deliver a cookbook that is both insightful and doable.Including all-time-favourite pizzas such as Margherita and Wise Guy, pasta including pappardelle and gnocci, and foccacia and country breads, this stunning book also includes over 60 simple Italian-inspired recipes.Recipes include: antipasti such as Roasted Dates with Fontina & Prosciutto; salads and sides including Watermelon, Fennel & Parsley Salad and Panzanella; pastas including Tagliatelle with Lemon and Spinach & Ricotta Crespelle; mains such as Slow-Roasted Lamb and Pappa a Pomodoro; desserts such as Rhubarb & Ricotta Pudding and Seasonal Fruit Crostata.With beautiful food photography by David Loftus, Chris’ distinctive first book will inspire novice Italian food lovers as well as more confident cooks looking to learn from the best.
Bestselling Conspiracy Thriller Trilogy: Sanctus, The Key, The Tower
The complete SANCTUS trilogy including an EXCLUSIVE FOREWORD from bestselling author Simon Toyne, whose apocalyptic conspiracy thrillers have set the world alight…SANCTUS: The certainties of the modern world are about to be blown apart…A man throws himself to his death from the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, a mountainous citadel in the historic Turkish city of Ruin. This is no ordinary suicide but a symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world.But few understand it. For charity worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others in the know, it is what they have been waiting for. The cowled and secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel suspect it could mean the end of everything they have built – and they will kill, torture and break every law to stop that. For Liv Adamsen, New York crime reporter, it begins the next stage of a journey into the heart of her own identity.And at that journey's end lies a discovery that will change EVERYTHING …THE KEY: Liv Adamsen lies in an isolation ward staring at walls as blank as her memory. She knows she entered the monumental Citadel at the heart of Ruin but can remember only darkness. Something strange is stirring within her, whispering that she is ‘the key’. But the key to what?Hunted across continents and caught up in events that defy explanation, Liv turns to the only person she trusts – a charity worker named Gabriel Mann. Together their paths lead to a shocking discovery – one that will tear them apart and change the world forever…THE TOWER: The forbidden Citadel at the heart of the ancient Turkish city of Ruin opens its gates for the first time in history.A deadly disease has erupted within, and threatens to spread beyond its walls. Infected charity worker Gabriel Mann may hold the cure – but can one dying man stop an epidemic?Without him, former journalist Liv Adamsen is vulnerable, surrounded by strangers in the desert oasis that is her new home. Liv, however, has far bigger concerns than just her own life…Something big is coming. Something that will change everything. But will it be a new beginning or the End of Days?
Belle: The True Story of Dido Belle
The extraordinary true story behind the film Belle. The life of Dido Elizabeth Belle – the first mixed race aristocrat who was brought up as the adopted daughter of Lord Mansfield – the Lord Chief Justice of England. Now a Major Motion Picture.Beautiful, wealthy and sophisticated, Dido Belle appears, in her famous portrait alongside her ‘sister’ and companion Lady Elizabeth Murray, a vision of eighteenth-century aristocratic virtue. But Dido Belle was no normal eighteenth century Lady, and this was no common painting. Adopted and raised by Lord Mansfield – one of the most powerful men of the day – Dido Belle’s mixed race and illegitimacy became the controversy of English high society. Born to a captured slave mother and a captain in the Royal Navy, Dido’s evident grace and adoption by the Mansfield family to be raised as a daughter in Kenwood House challenged English notions of race at their highest rank.Meanwhile, as Lord Chief Justice of England, Mansfield presided over the case that would come to be known as the Zong affair – a crucial legal ruling that would galvanise a nascent abolitionist movement and radically alter attitudes towards the barbarism of the Atlantic Slave trade. From the elegant surroundings of Kenwood (reopening after extensive renovation in November), Dido Belle and Elizabeth, to the economics of the Caribbean and the horrific journeys of African slaves to the New World, Paula Byrne vividly depicts for the first time the diverse contexts of this controversial painting. The portrait shocked its contemporary viewers but also resonated with the public of the time – the name of Lord Mansfield was synonymous with the great civil rights question of the age. Today the picture is presented as an icon of black female history.Telling the story behind the major new film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson and Miranda Richardson, this book is the real life of Dido Belle.
Believe: Not Until You, Part 7
Part 7 of 8 of an intensely erotic serial in the Loving on the Edge series. Perfect for fans of Fifty Shades of Grey.Roni Loren’s sexy novel Not Until You picks up as Cela decides to leave the life of submission behind. But having had a taste of Foster’s intense passion isn’t making it easy to go back to her old ways…Having flirted with forbidden desires, Cela leaves Foster and returns home to her small Texas town to work in her father’s veterinary practice and embrace a “normal” life. Everything is exactly how she left it – everything except her. But Foster made his feelings clear about their relationship, and she’s determined to find a way forward without him…even if her heart refuses to let go.Foster knows that he made a mistake in letting Cela go before he told her his true feelings. Intending to set things right, he goes to her hometown to lay himself bare. But when he gets there, he sees Cela in a compromising situation that makes him doubt that there was anything special between them at all…
Being Wagner: The Triumph of the Will
Simon Callow plunges headlong into Wagner’s world to discover what it was like to be Wagner, and to be around one of music’s most influential figures.A hundred and thirty-five years after his death, Richard Wagner’s music dramas stand at the centre of the culture of classical music. They have never been more popular, nor so violently controversial and divisive. His music is still banned in Israel – the only classical composer whose music is banned in the western world. His ten great mature masterpieces constitute an unmatched body of work, created against a backdrop of poverty, revolution, violent controversy, critical contempt and hysterical hero-worship.As a man, he was a walking contradiction, aggressive, flirtatious, disciplined, capricious, heroic, visionary and poisonously anti-Semitic. At one point, he had four lengthy operas written with no hope of being performed when, as if in a fairy-tale, he was rescued by a beautiful young king with limitless wealth which he bestowed on the composer. When one of those works, Tristan and Isolde, was at last performed, it revolutionised classical music at a stroke. Finally he fulfilled his lifelong dream of creating a vast epic to rival the work of the great Greek playwrights, a music drama in four massive segments, ushering gods and dwarves, heroes and thugs, dragons and rainbows onto the stage, the apotheosis of German art as he saw it, so extreme in its demands that he had to train a generation of singers and players to perform it, and erect a custom-built theatre to house it. Wagner died, exhausted, after creating one final piece – Parsifal – that seems to point to an even more radical new future for music.Simon Callow recalls the intellectual and artistic climate in which Wagner worked, recording the almost superhuman effort required to create his work, and evoking the extraordinary effect he had on people – this composer like no other who ever lived, extreme in everything, creator of the most sublime and most troubling body of work ever known.
Behind the Lie: A nail-biting psychological suspense for 2018
‘Without a doubt one of the best books I have read this year.’ – Amazon ReaderWho can you trust, when you can’t trust yourself?Holly West has turned her life around. She’s found a successful and loving husband in Simon and is expecting twins. She is definitely a woman who has taken back control of her future.Until she gives birth, only for one twin to survive. Holly can’t let it go.Holly’s world is in a tailspin and suddenly she can’t trust herself or anyone else. No one believes her, not her husband or her best friend. Because she thinks she knows the truth…her son is still alive and she won’t stop until she finds him.What readers are saying about BEHIND THE LIE:‘One of the best books of it's genre so far this year.’ – Julia (Netgalley)‘Will keep you turning the pages and racing towards the dramatic finale.’ – OneWorld‘Great edge of your seat read’ – Taurus Girl‘A story that will reel you in and keep you hooked until the end. I loved it!’ – KellyF‘Gripped from beginning to end’ – Amazon Reader‘Fast-paced and deeply emotional’ – Celia (Amazon)‘Fast paced and tense!’ – Shaz (Goodreads)‘A deep and cleverly written thriller. – Amazon Customer‘a very exciting psychological thriller.’ – Andrew (Netgalley)