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An atmospheric mystery from Wales’ best-loved author -The Second World War is over. Artist Riana Evans falls in love with a dilapidated mansion in Wales, despite its rumoured ghosts, and is delighted when its elderly, eccentric owner sells it to her for a pittance. The ‘ghosts’ prove good for business – inspiring her paintings in an almost supernatural way and providing welcome atmosphere at a series of profitable ghost-spotting weekends. But it soon becomes clear that there’s someone – or something – who’ll do anything to make sure Riana never discovers the secrets the house hides . . .
Let us be clear about this much at least: Slough House is not in Slough, nor is it a house... Slough House is Jackson Lamb's kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who've screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They're the service's poor relations - the slow horses - and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it's threatened that he'll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced...
The landscape is flawless, the trees majestic, the flora and the fauna are right and proper. All is picturesquely typical of rural England at its best. Sir Giles, an MP of few principles and curious tastes, plots to destroy all this by building a motorway smack through it, to line his own pocket and at the same time to dispose of his wife, the capacious Lady Maude. But Lady Maude enlists a surprising ally in her enigmatic gardener Blott, a naturalised Englishman in whom adopted patriotism burns bright. Lady Maude's dynamism and Blott's concealed talents enable them to meet pressure with mimicry, loaded tribunals with publicity and chilli powder, and requisition orders with wickedly spiked beer. This explosively comic novel will gladden the heart of everyone who has ever confronted a bureaucrat, and spells out in riotous detail how the forces of virtue play an exceedingly dirty game when the issue is close to home.
During the course of the struggle of African people against European racism, brutality and domination, many innovative thinkers have risen from our ranks . The greatest and most courageous scholars have devoted their lives to the pursuit of an explanation for the virtually inherent animosity most white people appear to have toward people of color / Unlike her predecessors, Dr. Frances cress welsing, a brilliant, Washington, DC psychiatrist has rejected conventional notions about the origin and perpetuation of racism .
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • In a thrilling dramatic narrative, the award-winning reporter traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents. “Gripping. . . . For readers interested in the roots of the Islamic State and the evil genius of its godfather, there is no better book to begin with than Black Flags.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Drawing on unique high-level access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Warrick weaves gripping, moment-by-moment operational details with the perspectives of diplomats and spies, generals and heads of state, many of whom foresaw a menace worse than al Qaeda and tried desperately to stop it. Black Flags is a brilliant and definitive history that reveals the long arc of today’s most dangerous extremist threat.
What makes an ordinary but highly educated Englishman, with no previous military training, decide to travel and fight in one of the most brutal conflicts on the planet? Desert Sniper is an extraordinary, true account of one man's journey from well-meaning volunteer to battle-scarred combat sniper, placing himself daily in the line of fire to fight one of the greatest evils of this new century. Ed Nash has travelled across the globe, and is working with refugees in Burma, when he first becomes aware of the terrible atrocities being committed under ISIS's newly established 'Caliphate', covering vast tracts of Iraq and Syria. In June 2015, he chooses to undertake the hazardous journey, via Nort...
Charts the author's turbulent first year with the Royal Mail, and her transformation from outsider to 'Posh Postie', adopted Cornishwoman and much-loved member of her new community.
In a tense and riveting narrative, The ISIS Hostage details freelance photographer Daniel Rye's 13-month ordeal at the hands of the Islamic State after he was captured in Syria, and the misery inflicted upon him, and 19 other hostages, by their guards.This compelling account also follows Daniel's family and the nerve-wracking negotiations with his kidnappers. It traces their horrifying journey through impossible dilemmas, and offers a rare glimpse into the secret world of the investigation launched to locate and free not only Daniel, but also the American freelance journalist and fellow hostage James Foley.Written with Daniel's full cooperation and based on interviews with former fellow prisoners, jihadists, and key figures who worked behind the scenes to secure his release, The ISIS Hostage reveals for the first time the torment suffered by the captives and tells a moving and terrifying story of friendship, torture, and survival.
'They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.' Everybody knows there's no such thing as a female wizard. So when the wizard Drum Billet accidentally passes on his staff of power to an eighth daughter of an eighth son, a girl called Eskarina (Esk, for short), the misogynistic world of wizardry wants nothing to do with her. Thankfully Granny Weatherwax, the Discworld's most famous witch, has plenty of experience ignoring the status quo. With Granny's help, Esk sneaks her way into the magical Unseen University and befriends apprentice wizard Simon. But power is unpredictable, and these bright young students soon find themselves in a whole new dimension of trouble. Let the battle of the sexes begin . . . 'If you've never read a Discworld novel, what's the matter with you?' Guardian 'Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own' The Times Equal Rites is the first book in the Witches series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.
It is one of the more surprising facts about Old England that one can still find families living in the same houses their ancestors built centuries before and on land that has belonged to them since before the Norman Conquest. The Gropes of Grope Hall are one such family.... The Gropes are an old English family based in Northumberland, separated from the rest of society and as eccentric as they come. It is a line dominated by strong-willed and oversexed women, determined to produce more female heirs regardless of whether their desired partners are willing ... At the dawn of the new millennium, timid and gormless teenager Esmond is abducted and lured to Grope Hall by a descendant of the Gropes. Young Esmond is powerless to escape, and his kidnap sets in motion a stream of farcical events that will have readers laughing out loud. Tom Sharpe's trademark humour abounds in this new novel, marking him out once again as an outstanding and unique British storyteller.