Search results for ""duckworth books""

Angela Benbow and Caledonia Wingate take to the investigative trail when one of their own is found murdered on the beach.

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Hettie Bagshot has bitten off more than any cat could chew. No sooner has she launched her No. 2 Feline Detective Agency than she's thrown into her first case. Furcross, home for senior cats, has a nasty spate of bodysnatching, and three former residents have been stolen from their graves. Hettie and her sidekick, Tilly, set out to reveal the terrible truth. Is Nurse Mogadon involved in a deadly game? Has the haberdashery department of Malkin and Sprinkle become a mortuary? And what flavour will Betty Butter's pie of the week be? In a haze of catnip and pastry, Hettie steers the case to its conclusion, but will she get there before the body count rises - and the pies sell out?

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Gentle chaos sets in when the absent-minded Mr Pim calls in to see George Marden, bearing some innocent news... George is a fine upstanding citizen and a stickler for doing the right thing. He has a devoted wife, Olivia, and is guardian to his somewhat flighty niece, Dinah.But his careful peace is broken when Mr Pim casually announces that he’s recently seen an ex-convict from Australia, Telworthy. The only thing is that the character sounds awfully like Olivia’s first, and supposedly deceased, husband… and if he’s eally still alive, then Olivia is a bigamist.

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To all appearances Joanna Emerson is a fully qualified, gold-medalled graduate of the world’s finest college of Nursery Nurses… Engaged as a nanny to Benedict, newly born heir to a vast cosmetic fortune, she becomes caught up in a complex kidnap plot. But the enigmatic portrait painter, yachtsman and former spy, Johnson Johnson is never far away – and he knows the dangerous game she’s playing. Before long, bullets are flying, and most of them in Joanna’s direction.

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If Ruth had stayed on leave, none of it might have happened. An astronomer working at the Maurice Frazer Observatory, Ruth Russell is enjoying her time in Rome. That is until Charles Digham, top fashion photographer and Ruth’s lover, has his camera stolen and the thief ends up a headless corpse in the zoo park toletta. The enigmatic Johnson Johnson, in Rome to paint a portrait of the Pope, is on hand to unravel the mystery. But as Johnson and Ruth begin the search for clues it soon becomes clear that more is at stake than the secrets of a couture house… something far more deadly.

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Tina Rossi, the world’s leading coloratura soprano, has travelled to Edinburgh, ostensibly to sing in the Festival, in reality to meet her lover, top scientist Kenneth Holmes. But instead of finding Kenneth at their rendezvous, she discovers an unknown corpse. Enter Johnson Johnson, a famous but enigmatic portrait painter whose yacht Dolly is about to sail in a race to the Hebrides where Holmes was conducting his top-secret research. Soon Tina and Johnson are sailing the high seas to investigate Holmes' disappearance, but as Dolly nears Rum, the race has become one for life rather than prize money…

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The only thing harder to win than a war is the peace that follows it… A year on from the human-machine war, both sides are struggling to share custody of the solar system. Prime Minister Fuji Itsu should be fighting Carin Parkeon, the parking meter determined to become the planet’s new manager. But no one has seen Fuji since she fell through the Earth’s crumbling concrete crust. Janice, the First Minister Janice of the Battlestar Suburbia has learned two truths. Humankind is only two meals from anarchy, and you should think twice before giving planning approval to a new supermarket. Somewhere in between, breadmaker turned secret agent Pamasonic Teffal is trying to bring the sides together without curdling them. In this hilarious successor to Battlestar Suburbia and Battle Beyond the Dolestars, humans and robots alike will learn the solutions to their problems lie not in the stars but in the ground beneath their castors. It’s time to Sashay to the Centre of the Earth.

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A collection of theatrical misfits goes on tour across the Atlantic in this nostalgic post-war novel sure to delight fans of P. G. Wodehouse

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Titus Llewellyn-Gwlynne, actor/manager of the Red Lion Theatre, has lost a backer who was going to fund a theatrical tour – when unexpected salvation appears. Their home theatre in the East End of London having been bombed during the war, The Red Lion Touring Company embarks on a tour of Britain to take a play written by their new benefactress into the provinces. As they make their vagabond, singing way, they remain unaware that they leave behind in London a man consumed with thoughts of revenge. Revenge which follows them obsessively from town to town, ending in its final act before the last curtain. This charming series transports the reader to a lost post-war world of touring rep theatre and once-grand people who have fallen on harder times, smoggy streets, and shared bonhomie over a steaming kettle.

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Join Hettie and Tilly as they tune in to a world of blackmail, obsession and murderous pies. As the Easter weekend approaches, feline detectives Hettie Bagshot and Tilly Jenkins are called to investigate the murder of local radio DJ Hartley Battenberg. Bowled over by the prospect of a bake-off competition, a cricket match and an outdoor screening of The Sound of Music, Hettie and Tilly struggle through a sea of trifle to catch out a killer. Will Bunty Basham’s eleven be triumphant? Has Whisker FM played its final jingle? And will celebrity cook Fanny Haddock get her just desserts?

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Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to the seaside. But Fate has other plans in store… From his abduction by a cheerful crook, to his smuggling escapade off the south coast, the timid but plucky Mr Finchley is plunged into a series of the most astonishing and extraordinary adventures. His rural adventure takes him gradually westward through the English countryside and back, via a smuggling yacht, to London. This gentle comedy trilogy was a runaway bestseller on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today. It has been dramatized twice for BBC Radio, with the 1990 series regularly repeated.

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Something doesn't add up about Archie and Pye... After a disastrous day at work, disillusioned junior PR executive Tom Winscombe finds himself sharing a train carriage and a dodgy Merlot with George Burgess, biographer of the Vavasor twins, mathematicians Archimedes and Pythagoras, who both died in curious circumstances a decade ago. Burgess himself will die tonight in an equally odd manner, leaving Tom with a locked case and a lot of unanswered questions. Join Tom and a cast of disreputable and downright dangerous characters in this witty thriller set in a murky world of murder, mystery and complex equations, involving internet conspiracy theorists, hedge fund managers, the Belarusian mafia and a cat called µ.

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Hugely entertaining and affectionate, Jonathan Hollins's tales are full of wonderful creatures and steeped in the unique local history, cultures and peoples of the South Atlantic islands, far removed from the hustle of continental life.

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Traverse the major footballing heartlands of the UEFA Euro 2024 hosts in this eloquent and enlightening search for the soul of modern Germany.

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In 25 witty and vibrant biographical essays,Firebrandsintroduces us to a selection of brilliant and complex women writers about whom every discerning reader should know.

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The highly acclaimed memoir of a renowned artisan with a new introduction by Jenny Uglow, The Lost Carving reveals the inspirational secrets of wood and craft. On a chance visit to St James's church, Piccadilly, David Esterly was awestruck by the delicate beauty and ambition of master carver Grinling Gibbons’s limewood decorations. The encounter changed the course of Esterly's life as he devoted himself to these lost techniques. By 1986, when a fire at Hampton Court Palace destroyed much of Gibbons’s masterpiece, Esterly was the only candidate to restore his idol’s work to glory, though the experience forced him to question his abilities and delve deeply into the subtle skills of making.

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In 1993, aged twenty, Carmel Mc Mahon left Ireland for New York, carrying two suitcases and a ton of unseen baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction, to unpick the intricate traumas of her past and present. Candid yet lyrical, In Ordinary Time mines the ways that trauma reverberates through time and through individual lives, drawing connections to the events and rhythms of Ireland’s long Celtic, early Christian and Catholic history. From tragically lost siblings to the broader social scars of the Famine and the Magdalene Laundries, Mc Mahon sketches the evolution of a consciousness – from her conservative 1970s upbringing to 1990s New York, and back to the much-changed Ireland of today.

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100 lessons from one of Britain's most successful businessmen You must know businesses or leaders that seem to have it all – loyalty and success in equal measure. Do you aspire to the same, but worry that ‘nice guys finish last’? In Nice Is Not a Biscuit, Peter Mead reveals the secrets of his success, and distils a lifetime’s thought about the right way to do business. His 100 entertaining lessons include: How to be a boss and a human being at the same time Why trust in your brand is so precious How to gain a share of both heads and hearts Nice is not patting people on the head. It’s every person respecting every other person. Do that and you create a great business. It’s a credo for life.

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A dazzlingly inventive tale of troubled legacies, desire and unsung power, inspired by The Scarlet Letter. Glasgow, 1829: Isobel, a young seamstress, and her husband Edward set sail for New England, in flight from his mounting debts and addictions. But, arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, Edward soon takes off again, and Isobel finds herself penniless and alone. Then she meets Nathaniel, a fledgling writer, and the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows during the Salem witch trials – while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. Nathaniel and Isobel grow ever closer. Together, they are dark storyteller and muse; enchanter and enchanted. But which is which?

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 (FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR) –––––––––––– A club on the rise. A city in flux. This is Union Berlin. No football club in the world has fans like 1. FC Union Berlin. The underdogs from East Berlin have stuck it to the Stasi, built their own stadium and even given blood to save their club. But now they face a new and terrifying prospect: success. Scheisse! tells the human stories behind the unexpected rise of this unique football club. But it’s about more than just football. It’s about the city Union call home. As the club fights to maintain their rebel spirit among the modern football elite, their trajectory mirrors that of contemporary Berlin itself: from divided Cold War battleground to European capital of cool. Scheisse! will appeal to readers who are captivated by sports biographies such as Raphael Honigstein's Das Reboot and social history like John Kampfner's Why The Germans Do It Better.

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In the late 1990s, Ruth Pavey bought four acres of scrub land above the Somerset Levels. She devoted the next two decades to improving the land into a lush wood; a haven for birds, insects and all manner of wildlife. Beneath the shade of the trees, she now reflects on the fate of her wood. Deeper Into the Wood recounts a year in the life of an amateur naturalist working with wildlife experts to interpret the language of the land with the aim of preserving the wood for generations to come. Lyrically told stories of local people and regional history are accompanied throughout by Ruth’s beautifully hand-drawn illustrations.

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The definitive and revealing biography of the author of The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s favourite theme in her fiction was the reversal of fortune, and she herself knew extremes of poverty and wealth. Born in Manchester in 1849, she emigrated with her family to Tennessee because of the financial problems caused by the cotton famine. From a young age she published her stories to help the family make ends meet. Only after she married did she publish Little Lord Fauntleroy that shot her into literary stardom. On the surface, Frances’ life was extremely successful: hosting regular literary salons in her home and travelling frequently between properties in the UK and America. But behind the colourful personal and social life, she was a complex and contradictory character. She lost both parents by her twenty-first birthday, Henry James called her "the most heavenly of women" although avoided her; prominent people admired her and there were many friendships as well as an ill-advised marriage to a much younger man that ended in heartache. Her success was punctuated by periods of depression, in one instance brought on by the tragic loss of her eldest son to consumption. Ann Thwaite creates a sympathetic but balanced and eye-opening biography of the woman who has enchanted numerous generations of children.

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Described as the Tony Hancock of journalism, for forty years Bernard wrote only about himself and the failures of his life – with women, drink, doctors, horses – which have become legendary. Low Life is an irresistible collection of the best of Bernard's celebrated autobiographical contributions to The Spectator, once described as 'a suicide note in weekly instalments'. Previously published in two volumes entitled Low Life: A Kind of Autobiography and Reach for the Ground, these books are now available in a single volume containing all his derisive reflections on life. Antiauthoritarian, grumpy, charming, politically incorrect, funny, drunk and always mischievous, Bernard could usually be found at the Coach and Horses pub on London’s Greek street, a lit cigarette in his mouth and a drink in hand. He was joined by famous friends including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Graham Green, Peter O’Toole, Ian Fleming and many others and their conversations – as well as with whomever was tending bar at the time – served as the basis for his writing. There were in fact times when he was too drunk to write, hence the famous "unwell" notice that went next to the large, hastily-sketched cartoon that filled its space in the magazine.

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It is easy to see bicycles as commonplace machines, but at the end of the nineteenth-century there was no other piece of technology which attracted the same level of excitement, discussion or controversy. Significant societal shifts followed the invention of the modern bicycle and with cycling’s ever-increasing popularity there has never been a better time to tell this story. Revolution delves into the social history of cycling in 1890s Britain while exploring international parallels that existed in countries such as the US, France and Australia. Drawing on a range of sources from cycling club journals to the writings of H.G. Wells, the book illuminates the major impact the bicycle had on the day-to-day lives of people across the social spectrum with millions experiencing a cheap and personalised means of transport for the first time. Particularly for women it was known as the great emancipator from crib, kitchen and convention. Affordable to the working class, cycling dramatically increased the number of potential marriage partners, bridging the gaps between villages, to the extent that leading biologist Steve Jones has ranked the invention of the bicycle as the most important event in recent human evolution. From cycling as a source of fashion and socialising in sporting clubs, to travel around the British countryside, to its importance for widening the gene pool and its role in the women’s liberation movement Revolution presents the bicycle as a marvel of modern technology that transformed Britain and the world over.

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OUT OF AFRICA, INTO DARKNESS... When an archaeologist goes missing in the Congo basin, Professor Randolph Harkness and young tearaway Ross McCartney go in search of her – only to stumble upon a conspiracy to conceal ancient horrors lost to the passage of time. Evading spies and trained killers, can they expose this cover-up? Or will they be buried with it? An unputdownable thriller, The Killing Gene reveals the story of our species, the paradox of the modern mind and our innate predilection for murder...

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If superheroes stepped off the comic book page, could they actually work their wonders in a world constrained by the laws of physics? How strong would Superman have to be to 'leap tall buildings in a single bound'? Could Storm of the 'X-Men' possibly control the weather? James Kakalios provides an engaging and witty commentary while introducing the lay reader to both classical and cutting-edge concepts in physics, including: what Superman's strength can tell us about the Newtonian physics of force, mass, and acceleration; what villains like Electro and Magneto tell us about electricity and magnetism; how Iceman's powers show the principles of thermal dynamics; what the Human Top can tell us about angular momentum; why physics professors gone bad are the most dangerous evil geniuses... and more!

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Sam Hunt is a confused modern male in his very late twenties. A work-shy, commitment-phobic would-be actor, he is beginning to worry that turning thirty might just be the last straw. Flatmate Alan, the sensible one, has just been proposed to by his girlfriend Jess, with his femme fatale boss looking on with a saucy gleam in her eye. Newly-dumped Ed spends his time tearfully watching 'Sex and the City' in a pile of his ex-girlfriend's pyjamas and plotting his revenge. Meanwhile unemployed doctor Matt embarks on a dubious bet with Sam to see who can be the first to ensnare a rich wife and enjoy a life of leisure... Are your carefree twenties a retreating memory? Are your friends discussing children and fixed-rate mortgages while you clutch your Xbox, sobbing? You're not the only one. Beta Male is a riotously funny and painfully honest chronicle about friendship, masculinity, marriage and the beginning of adulthood. PRAISE FOR TWENTY SOMETHING: ‘Funny, rude and entertaining... Will strike a chord with anyone who is, was, or will be a twenty something’ Danny Wallace ‘Wonderful… Hollingshead writes with the cynicism of many clever young men, but the passion of very few’ Matthew Parris, columnist for The Times 'A tasty dollop of British wit' Boston Globe ‘Excellent… a very entertaining romp’ Evening Standard 'Pure comic gold' Booklist ‘Sharp. Exceptionally observant and consistently amusing' Independent on Sunday ‘More than enough laughs for Hollingshead to stake a claim to being Tony Parsons for SW-something twenty-somethings’ Literary Review ‘Wildly entertaining and well-written – five stars’ Zoo

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'Twenty Something' introduces us to Jack Lancaster, who, at only 25 is far too young to be having a mid-life crisis, but who's going to have a pretty good shot at it anyway.

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Set amidst the urban fantasia of Hong Kong, William Marshall's Yellowthread Street novels raise crime fiction to a high art form. Surrealistic and suspenseful, vivid in their procedural details and brilliant in their scope, they are the work of a uniquely gifted writer. "As an inspired poet of the bizarre, [Marshall] orchestrates underlying insanity into an apocalyptic vision of the future." - New York Times Book Review "Marshall's novels feature seemingly supernatural events that turn out to have logical, if not precisely rational, origins. He has savage fun with police procedure." - TIME Postman Lawrence Shang was watching a film called The Axeman of Shanghai when his life abruptly ended. Carpet trader Edward Peng was enjoying The Last Picture Show. Death in both cases was instantaneous, caused by a small calibre handgun used at a range of two feet. With their deaths begins a series of apparently motiveless murders in one cinema after another across the Hong Bay district of Hong Kong – and a nightmarish investigation for Harry Feiffer, Detective Chief Inspector, Royal Hong Kong Police Force, and his staff at the Yellowthread Police Station. The Hatchet Man's next victim is a sailor off an American ship. Then a German is shot in an auction room. There's an unaccountable killing on a train near the Chinese border. And the crazy old Mrs Mortimer from the Old People's Home steps in front of a tram ... And for Harry Feiffer, time is running out. Full of real police procedure, suspense and fine irony, but with whole extra dimensions of the surreal and the poignant, the Yellowthread Street novels have no real compare. For those open to their charms, this series is a hidden masterpiece of crime fiction.

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As usual the RAF top brass don't know what to do with maverick flying ace and well-known loose cannon Major Bartholomew Bandy. They pack him off to a squadron where everything’s as smart as paint and the flying record barely registers, thinking it'll keep him out of their hair. But after a shaky start Bart gets a firm grip on things – one of those things being the adjutant, who jealously guards his own private and baroquely magnificent WC. With old pal Dick Milestone, Bart reinvigorates the superbly turned out but demoralized pilots, who start doing some serious flying and very serious damage to the enemy, in the notoriously tricky new Dolphin Camels. With the blackest of black comedy and seat-of-the pants escapades, Donald Jack’s series about a young pilot makes the War to End All Wars come roaring to life. What people are saying about The Bandy Papers: “Reading can lead to involuntary bursts of loud laughter.” “Very descriptive, full of air combats and written with a fine eye for period detail . . . there is quite simply no finer book of its kind. Highly recommended.” “It is clear that Bandy likely should've been killed several times, but very likely the Grim Reaper was laughing too hard to hold his scythe straight . . .” “Hysterically funny! . . . each book is another installment in the continuing saga of a Canadian and his adventures in war, the world, and women.” “I have yet to find another author with the wit and humor of Donald Jack.” Editorial reviews: “I enjoyed every word . . . terrifically funny.” P.G. Wodehouse “Jack does more than play it for laughs . . . The mingling of humor and horror is like a clown tap-dancing on a coffin, but Jack is skillful enough to get away with it.” Time Magazine “Funny. Very. Donald Jack has as light a touch with this fragile art as his hero has on throttle of a Sopwith Camel. Excessive corn is avoided in favour of wit and a delight in life.” New York Times “Bartholomew Bandy is the most remarkable hero (or anti-hero) since Harold Lloyd impersonated the Freshman.” Chicago Tribune “To know Bandy is to love him . . . you tend to gallop through and come hurtling out at the end panting for more.” The Sunday Sun “For those to whom Bandy is a newcomer, what a treat is in store.” Toronto Star

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Artist and writer Anna Chapman Parker records in prose and stunning original line drawings a year spent looking closely at weeds, our most ubiquitous plants.

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The classic guide to improving your memory at work, at school and at play. Unleash the hidden power of your mind through Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas's simple, fail-safe memory system, and you can become more effective, more imaginative, and more powerful, at work, at school, in sports and play. Discover how easy it is to: file names, passwords, data, figures, and appointments right in your head; learn foreign words and phrases with ease; read with speed – and greater understanding; shine in the classroom – and shorten study hours; dominate social situations, and more.

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A KILLER. A SAINT. A TOWN FULL OF WHISPERS When an English expat is brutally murdered, his charred corpse left on a Loire Valley hillside, the police turn to juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard to find the killer. Instead, Lombard discovers a wealth of secrets, grudges and feuds in the idyllic town of Saint-Genèse-sur-Loire. He begins to suspect that the remaining members of the Comité des Fêtes know more about the death than they are letting on. But rather than towards an arrest, each clue he uncovers seems to point in one, unexpected direction: Joan of Arc. Is the answer to the murder hiding in the barroom gossip of the Lion d’Or? Or in another century altogether? The thrilling new crime series from The Times-bestselling author of Death and Croissants

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Hettie and Tilly are summoned to a mysterious tea party hosted by Tilly's long-lost great-aunts. The ancient windmill they live in is not what it seems, and very soon the mill begins to reveal its terrifying secrets of murder and betrayal. Tilly must face her family's demons as Hettie fights to unravel the tragedies of the past. Who are the hippy cats camped in the field? Why do the walls of the windmill whisper at night? And who haunts the derelict priory? Will Hettie and Tilly have the wind blown out of their sails before this baffling case is brought to a grinding conclusion? Join these fearless cats as they investigate another pastry-laden mystery for The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency.

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Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that’s the way he likes it. One day, however, one of his older guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wallpaper. Another guest, the exotic Valérie, persuades a reluctant Richard to join her in investigating the disappearance. Richard remains a dazed passenger in the case until things become really serious and someone murders Ava Gardner, one of his beloved hens... and you don’t mess with a fellow’s hens! Unputdownable mystery set in rural France, by TV/radio regular and bestselling author Ian Moore – perfect for fans of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club

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Rita, a small, tough Scottish make-up artist, is on Madeira investigating who killed Kim-Jim, an American make-up supremo. Also anchored off the island is Dolly, the yacht of Johnson Johnson with whom Rita teams up to get to the bottom of this foul deed. Rita’s fighting spirits are aroused despite the danger. She is not one for quitting, even when she learns she is caught up in an international drug-smuggling ring. But she also discovers that dealing with the maddeningly enigmatic Johnson Johnson is, by no stretch of the imagination, plain sailing.

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All aboard for the Summer of Fluff! Meet Hettie Bagshot, a long-haired tabby cat whose whiskers twitch at the first sign of a mystery, and her best friend Tilly Jenkins. Together, they run the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency, and nothing will stop them from untangling each brain-teasing case that comes their way. In scorching temperatures, Hettie Bagshot and her sidekick Tilly set out on a road trip to catch a killer cat amid a sea of entertainers. As Psycho Derek’s bus lurches from one venue to the next, the killer strikes again. The big question for The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency is who will be next? Will it be Patty Sniff, the ageing punk star? Or Kitty O’Shea from the Irish dance troupe? Or perhaps Belisha Beacon’s days are numbered. As the fur flies and the animosity builds, Hettie and Tilly become embroiled in a world of music, mayhem and murder. As matters draw to a terrifying conclusion, will Magical Mystery Paws finally top the bill?

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Whatever can have happened to Lil? Flaxborough butcher Arthur Spain is worried that his sister-in-law hasn’t been in touch lately, so he pays her a visit. But Lil’s not at home, and by her porch door are a dozen bottles of curdling milk… Alarmed, he calls in the local police, D.I. Purbright and his ever-reliable Sergeant Sid Love. It transpires Lilian Bannister is the second middle-aged woman in the town to mysteriously vanish, and the link is traced to a local lonely hearts agency called Handclasp House. So when a vulnerable-seeming lady with the charming title of Lucy Teatime signs up for a romantic rendezvous, the two detectives try extra hard to look out for her. But Miss Teatime has a few surprises of her own up her dainty sleeve! Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson’s tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.

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Miss Seeton accused! The kindly Miss Seeton? A thief? A preposterous notion – until the lovable spinster mistakes tomato ketchup for blood . . . and the “wounded” man she’s trying to help is robbed by a pickpocket. In a flurry of confusion, Miss Seeton is accused of being the thief’s accomplice! And in the hands of the London police, our unlikely jailbird uncovers a veritable nest of crime . . . Serene amidst every kind of skulduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella!

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What strange passions seethe beneath the prosperous surface of Flaxborough town? Affable but diligent Detective Inspector Purbright is tasked with uncovering the darker underbelly of greed, corruption and crime. A classic British series of police mysteries, laced with wry humour. "Watson has an unforgivably sharp eye for the ridiculous." - New York Times "Flaxborough is Colin Watson's quiet English town whose outward respectability masks a seething pottage of greed, crime and vice ... Mr Watson wields a delightfully witty pen dripped in acid." - Daily Telegraph The gripping sight of four burly policemen manhandling a bath down the front path of a respectable villa isn't one the residents of Flaxborough see every day. Net curtains twitch furiously, and neighbours have observations to make to Chief Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love about the inhabitants of 14, Beatrice Avenue. Nice Gordon Periam, the mild-mannered tobacconist, and his rather less nice (in fact a bit of a bounder) lodger Brian Hopjoy had apparently shared the house amicably. But now neither man is to be found and something very disagreeable seems to be lurking in the drains... Then a couple of government spooks turn up, one with an eye for the ladies the drama is acquiring overtones of a Bond movie! Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson's tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay. AUTHOR: Colin Watson was born in 1920 in Croydon in south London. At age 17 he was appointed cub reporter on the Boston Guardian, a regional newspaper. His years as a journalist in the Lincolnshire market town proved formative, and he collected there much of the material that provided the basis for the Flaxborough novels. He won two CWA Silver Dagger awards, and the Flaxborough series was adapted for television by the BBC under the title Murder Most English. Watson died in 1983.

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The clearest, most accessible explanation yet of the amazing world of quantum mechanics. How can matter behave both like a particle and a wave? Does a particle exist before we look at it or does the very act of looking bring it into reality? Is there a place where the quantum world ends and our perceivable world begins? Many of science's greatest minds - including Thomas Young, Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman - have grappled with the questions embodied in the simple yet elusive 'double-slit' experiment in order to understand the fabric of our universe. With his extraordinary gift for making the complicated comprehensible, Anil Ananthaswamy travels around the world and through history, down to the smallest scales of physical reality we have yet fathomed, to reveal the answers.

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The climate movement has gathered some pace but what about the other, inextricably linked crisis in biodiversity? A radically hopeful manifesto, The Case for Nature sets out with clarity how we can use groundbreaking natural capital frameworks - ways of valuing services that nature provides - to make our economies work with, not against, our living planet. Siddarth Shrikanth, an expert in green investing, introduces a host of nature-positive pioneers and, taking a cue from many indigenous worldviews, argues powerfully that nature must be woven into our societies, not set apart.

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For Nicholas Hawthorne, the Catholic heir to Measham Hall in Derbyshire, subterfuge is part of everyday life. But there are deeper and darker secrets even than his family’s outlawed religion: why is his father, Sir William, so reclusive? What became of his mother, and his aunt Alethea? And who fatally betrayed his cousin Matthew? Nicholas is determined to find out, but as England slides towards invasion by the Protestant forces of Prince William of Orange, he becomes entangled in conspiracies within King James’s court – and soon learns that both truth and love come at a high price.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS’ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH PRIZE 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2023 –––––––––––– Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents – whether Muslim, Croat or Serb – push the makeshift barriers aside. When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.

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'The classic assertiveness bible' GUARDIAN Do you sometimes struggle to state what you want (or don’t want)? Do tricky conversations go wrong? Does it at times seem easier to suffer in silence? This book has the solutions you need. Despite recent advances in gender equality in education, the workplace and the home, in practice many women and girls still find it a challenge to speak up and be heard. Assertiveness – defined by psychologist and assertiveness trainer Anne Dickson as clear, honest and direct communication – is an art, which can be learned. Instead of being governed by the desire to please – the Compassion Trap – assertiveness teaches us to take charge of our own feelings and behaviour, without blaming others. In her pioneering handbook, now fully updated to mark its 40th anniversary, Dickson draws on her long experience of in-person training to give all women the practical skills and tools we need to assert what we feel and want, manage difficult conversations, avoid being sidetracked by culturally learned behaviours, say ‘No’, and find self-acceptance.

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The definitive biography of perhaps the most respected political figure in the world – updated to include her final months in office Matthew Qvortrup’s insightful biography of Angela Merkel is essential reading for anyone interested in current affairs, the fate of Europe, or simply the story of a truly remarkable woman. Updated to within a month from when Merkel steps down as German chancellor. Based on over 14 years of in-depth research, Angela Merkel tells the story of the political titan’s astonishing rise from obscurity to become the most influential leader in Europe today. It follows the German Chancellor’s journey to prominence and power from a bleak childhood in East Germany, and offers an unprecedented understanding of her inimitable personality and perspective, explaining how her unique qualities have made Merkel perhaps the most respected political figure on the world stage today.

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The extraordinary true story of a West African girl’s upbringing in North Korea under the guardianship of President Kim Il Sung. In 1979, aged only seven, Monica Macias was sent from West Africa to the unfamiliar surroundings of North Korea by her father, the President of Equatorial Guinea, to be educated under the guardianship of his ally, Kim Il Sung. Within months, her father was executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises. Reaching adulthood, she went in search of her roots. Spending time in Madrid, Malabo, New York, Seoul and finally London, at every step she had to reckon with others' perceptions of her adoptive homeland. Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica’s astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.

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Bone is a marvel, an adaptable and resilient building material developed over 500 million years of evolutionary history. It has manifested itself in wings, sails, horns, armour, and an even greater array of appendages since the time of its origin. In dinosaur fossils, skeletons are biological time capsules that tell us of lives we’ll never see in the flesh. Inherited from a common fishy ancestor, it is the stuff that binds all of us vertebrates together into one great family. Swim, slither, stomp, fly, dig, run - all are expressions of what bones make possible. But that’s hardly all. In The Secret Life of Bones, Brian Switek frames the history of our species through the importance of bone from instruments and jewellery, to objects of worship and conquest from the origins of religion through the genesis of science and up through this very day. While bone itself can reveal our individual stories, the truth very much depends on who’s telling it. Our skeletons are as embedded in our culture as they are in our bodies. Switek, an enthusiastic osteological raconteur, cuts through biology, history, and culture to understand the meaning of what’s inside us and what our bones tell us about who we are, where we came from and the legacies we leave behind.

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