Parini really did travel around Scotland with Borges in an old Morris Minor, his ears flapping, heart opening and mind sharpening all the way. The result is a wonderful work of autofiction -... read more
A rollicking account of the pursuit of love among the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful; abridged from 3 large volumes of memoirs that he left on his death in 2011.
A biography of Mildred Harnack (by her great-great-niece), the American woman who worked with political activists in Berlin1930s and then, when WW2 broke out, with the German resitance. She ... read more
From the author of the excellent 'The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are', an account of the dazzling city that was the hub of the known world in the C16th.
A young French woman leaves Paris after the liberation in 1944 and joins her husband on a farm in Morocco, where she finds herself lonely, alienated, mistrusted and increasingly restless. Th... read more
The distinguished archaeologist looks at 15 'scenes' in Britain over the last million years, to understand the changing daily routines of people and their impact on the landscape.
A work of self-investigation by a remarkable and versatile writer, which explores why an artist would respond to the world without being invited to do so. Essays about voice, finding it and ... read more
From its source to the sea: its wildlife, geography, natural history, people and history. Good non-fcition, imaginatively illustrated and conceived, for ages 7-10.
First published in 1901, Mawson's book was hugely influential for decades, both for garden designers and landscape gardeners. Large format, handsomely produced in dark green cloth, many ill... read more
Berberova was one of the great Russian emigrée writers, best known for her short stories and memoir. This novel - about the experiences of a group of exiles, is its first translation into E... read more
The buildings that are falling into disuse and ruin all around the UK were once essential in their communities. This study - from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-C16th shows how they worked.
Friends are hard to find for Jon Swift, an aging journalist whose career is on the ropes. A chance encounter with an old friend from Tiananmen Square days leads to power games in China, with... read more
Satisfyingly creepy crime novel from the acclaimed Icelandic author: a doll caught in a fishing net, dead bodies, cold cases... an atmospheric and well-plotted chiller to read in sunlight!
Soon after her husband leaves her, Pru goes to a friend's funeral - but it's the wrong one. She has such fun that she buys a black dress and starts attending strangers' funerals quite delibe... read more
A powerful exploration of illicit desire, in which a 17-year-old girl has a crush on a friend of her parents that turns on some dark events of 24 years previously.
New edition of these wonderful, open-eyed letters by the wife of the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte; fascinating glimpses of the world of Ottoman women, not least their practice of ... read more
An artist joins an island community of impoverished like-minded souls. When the island's owner pushes up the rent, a conflict ensues in which the dispossessed protest against gentrification.