The year is 1866. Josephine Lebrun, still only 16, is forced to earn her living by singing at the Golden Bird inn in Cornwall. With her lovely voice, she captures the attention of Rupert Verne, the rich and powerful owner of the Kerrysmoor estate. Rupert takes Josephine under his patronage, and brings her to live in the remote cottage of Tregonnis from where she travels to Truro to attend lessons with the great former opera singer Signor Luigi. Her beauty and charm weave their magic on Rupert, bringing them dangerously close together, and under the suspicion of his distant and cold mother, Lady Verne. Although Josephine is passionately in love with Rupert, life at Kerrysmoor is far from easy - secrets lie every where, and the grand house is cast in an ominous shadow. As matter comes to a head, Josephine is driven away from Rupert and her home. Will she manage to find her happy ending and marry Rupert? Or will circumstances drive them apart forever? ‘Potrait of a Girl’ is a spell-binding Gothic romance set in the nineteenth century.

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" tells the story of three POWs who endure the hell of the Japanese camps on the Burma-Siam railway - Colonel Nicholson, a man prepared to sacrifice his life but not his dignity; Major Warden, a modest hero, saboteur and deadly killer; Commander Shears, who escaped from hell but was sent back. Ordered by the Japanese to build a bridge, the Colonel refuses, as it is against regulations for officers to work with other ranks. The Japanese give way but, to prove a point of British superiority, construction of the bridge goes ahead - at great cost to the men under Nicholson's command.

'James's confrontation with his approaching death is nothing short of inspirational' Joan Bakewell, IndependentThe publication of Clive James's Sentenced to Life was a major literary event: critically acclaimed, it debuted at #2 in the Sunday Times bestseller list. Facing the end, James looked back over his life with a clear-eyed and unflinching honesty to produce his finest work: poems of extraordinary power that spoke to our most elemental emotions. Injury Time, following Sentenced to Life, finds James with more time on the clock than he had anticipated, and all the more determined to use it wisely – to capture the treasurable moment, and think about how best to live his remaining days while the sense of his own impending absence grows all the more powerfully acute. In a series of intimate poems – from childhood memories of his mother, to a vision of his granddaughter in graceful acrobatic flight –...

This sequel to Deadly Flowers is a fast-paced and compelling read with a multitude of astonishing plot twists. Kata is one of the best employees of a master thief until he sells her to Madame Chiyome, the woman who trained Kata as a ninja. It turns out that Madame Chiyome has been hired by Kata’s enemy, Saiko, to capture Kata and the magical pearl she possesses. But while escaping her enemies, Kata puts her trusted group of friends in danger. Should Kata stay loyal to her mission, as a true ninja would, or to her friends? Can Kata trust the fellow thief who says he is in love with her and wants to help her? The themes of trust versus independence underlie each of Kata’s decisions as she tries to get the pearl out of Japan to weaken the demon within it. As Kata faces one obstacle after another, including a wide range of supernatural creatures, she is tempted to make a wish to save herself, even though could it be the last wish, the one that frees the demon and lets him take her soul. Will her sense of duty and honor prevail against all odds?

'Amanda's life is one of old-fashioned values, hard graft and plenty of love. She, like her life, is extraordinary' Ben FogleAmanda, husband Clive and their nine children live at Ravenseat, one of the most remote hill farms in the country. It's a beautiful place, high in the Dales, and a rewarding existence close to nature. But Ravenseat is a tenant farm and may not stay in the family, so when Amanda saw a nearby farmhouse up for sale, she knew it was her chance to create roots for the next generation. The old house needed a lot of renovation and money was tight, so with her usual resourcefulness Amanda set about the work herself, with some help from an ex-monk, a visiting plumber and Clive. It's fair to say things did not go according to plan . . .In Adventures of the Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen brings the reader up to date with the adventures of her family, as well as revealing how she transformed a damp and dark old house into a dream home....

New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green returns to the bizarre and gleefully dangerous backdrop of the Nightside with this landmark collection of short fiction.Welcome to the Nightside. It’s the secret heart of London, beating to its own rhythm, pumping lifeblood through the veins of its streets and alleys hidden in eternal darkness, where creatures of the night congregate and where the sun is afraid to shine. It’s the place to go if you’re looking to indulge the darker side of your nature—and to hell with the consequences.Tales from the Nightside presents ten macabre mysteries that shine a dim beam into the neighborhood’s darkest corners to reveal things that should never come to light. Take a walk with such deadly and dangerous denizens of the Nightside as Razor Eddie, Dead Boy, and Larry Oblivion as they encounter things even more inhuman and inhumane than they are. And join John Taylor, the PI with a knack for finding lost things, as he confronts Sir Francis Varney, King of the Vampires, in a never-before-published novella-length adventure.There may be nothing to be afraid of in the dark, but there’s plenty to be afraid of in the Nightside…

Prize-winning journalist and the co-author of smash New York Times bestseller I Am Malala, Christina Lamb, now tells the inspiring true story of another remarkable young hero: Nujeen Mustafa, a teenager born with cerebral palsy, whose harrowing journey from war-ravaged Syria to Germany in a wheelchair is a breathtaking tale of fortitude, grit, and hope that lends a face to the greatest humanitarian issue of our time, the Syrian refugee crisis.For millions around the globe, sixteen-year-old Nujeen Mustafa embodies the best of the human spirit. Confined to a wheelchair because of her cerebral palsy and denied formal schooling in Syria because of her illness, Nujeen taught herself English by watching American soap operas. When her small town became the epicenter of the brutal fight between ISIS militants and US-backed Kurdish troops in 2014, she and her family were forced to flee.Despite her physical limitations, Nujeen embarked on the arduous trek to safety and a...