Recommended Reads
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This Bird is Free
Missing out on a lucrative career in glamour and fashion modelling via a sinister incident, young Lorna Karlin marries early, and her dream passes her by. Then, years later, aged forty-two, after a dull marriage, a new incredible chapter in her life story begins.
Her husband, Thomas Pell, a construction engineer, goes missing in France, having been involved in a criminal conspiracy, it seems. Lorna has proof he had a lover too and knew she had to change her own life around.
Surprisingly, she accepts work as a mature escort, and a client, a new contact, Carmine Sapelli, passes her on to a high-flying producer in the movie business. Is she brave enough to answer the challenge which professional acting will demand? Only Lorna can make such active choices. Will love feature in this unpredictable future? She hopes sex will, and can she conquer self-doubt? Again, only Lorna must be the one to address these questions in her fluid mind and with her actions.
£11.99 -
Energy Transition - The Mandatory Reality Check
As a matter of fact, world coal production is still experiencing a notable increase. This rise has nothing to do with current changes in the US administration policy. It is just a new trend.
As an example:
- In 2024, Australia approved three coal mine expansions.
- There are 25 additional proposals for new or expanded coal mines currently waiting for Federal government approval. This is more than during the last ten years and will simply represent massive additional CO2 emissions.
These pending projects exceed the total from any single year of the last decade. Energy transition appears fraught with challenges, complexities, and structural contradictions. As we grapple with the harsh truths of the present, two fundamental questions arise:
- Will we be able to reach the 2050 net zero targets?
- What needs to change to make it happen?
Clearly, the world will not be saved by:
- Switching to an electric car.
- Limiting your meat consumption.
In what we could name “sofa-ecology behavior,” we must refuse to shy away from inconvenient truths. Society should observe no taboos. We have no time for fear.
£8.99 -
Where are Sean's Sheep?
Come on an adventure with Sean the sheepman and his three furry Border Collie friends, Kate, Storm and Echo, whose sheep have gone missing on their farm. Follow the muddy paw prints to help find their sheep to give them a very nice, hearty breakfast.
£5.99 -
The Teahouse of Experience
This poetry book contains a four-year collection of poetry and prose, memories, rituals, life, death, rebirth, and women’s wisdom. Dedicated to every woman who managed to find a room of their own to practise creative art, experience their own writing journey, and find a voice and a path to the ‘middle way’ and freedom, which, once tasted and known, can never be unknown.
Aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, Japanese haiku, Sanskrit and other words in foreign text are strung together somatically like threads of art, entwined and embodied as body, as ritual, as landscape, as sanctuary with pieces of Self, and excerpts of experimental poetry submitted for classes on this journey.
The experience was sometimes intense, at times challenging, but mostly filled with awe, creativity, and joy at what transformed from pen to page. I journeyed ‘all-in’, saying yes to what this immersion experience presented, then further coaxed myself into depths that I can only call echoes and whispers received from the unseen ancestors, embedded within divine guidance from those that had walked the path before me.
£7.99 -
Can't Stomach It
Navigating the turbulence of adolescence is challenging for anyone—but for Kayleigh-Ann, it quickly becomes a battle for survival. When medical symptoms strike, her world as she knows it crumbles. What should be a time of self-discovery and joy turns into a relentless fight against an unyielding system, an undiagnosed illness, and the betrayal of her own body.
In Can’t Stomach It, Kayleigh-Ann takes you on a raw and transformative journey—a fight for answers, for justice, and for herself. Thrust into an unforgiving adult world far too soon, she confronts trauma, loss, family breakdowns, mental health struggles, and abuse of power—all while trying to navigate the everyday chaos of teenage life: friendships, school, love, and the daunting uncertainty of the future.
This is more than just a story. It’s a powerful testament to human resilience, a striking portrait of strength in the face of adversity, and an unfiltered glimpse into the realities of living with a complex condition. Join Kayleigh-Ann’s fight for survival and diagnosis. Witness her courage, vulnerability, and unwavering determination to reclaim her life and health.
£10.99 -
Enchantment
David, at age ten, had one passion in his young life: he loved rock-pooling, where he would spend hours on the beach searching for rock-pools that the receding tide had left behind. One day, though, an amazing sight met his eyes as a small face grinned back at him from the rock pool. Indicating that he should join them, he found himself sitting on soft sand surrounded by little people laughing and squealing in high-pitched voices. After being entertained, he was restored to the side of the rock pool where his bucket and net remained unattended. Wondering if this could be sunstroke, he blinked twice, but the little people had gone from his sight. On the way home, he pondered what had happened, resolving to tell nobody. As the years progressed, he finally left school and attended university to pursue a career as a marine biologist, giving him every opportunity to search the oceans of the world to find his newfound friends, but he had no sight or sound of them. Marriage to Stephanie and two children later, he was none the wiser; he even searched the Mariana Trench, but nothing showed up. On his son's eighteenth birthday he took the family to NASA Space Station in Florida, and there, one day on the beach, he disappeared from view. Police and tracker dogs searched the beaches but could not find any explanation for David's disappearance. A distraught Stephanie returned home to resume her life without David. Suddenly a telephone call alerted her from Florida that a body had been found thirteen years later and identified by a diver's wristwatch as being David; he hadn't aged! Interrogated by police and thought to be used in an international smuggling organisation, Interpol kept them under hotel arrest whilst they investigated his bizarre story of being taken by the little people, where he was made to work under the surface of the sea to encourage sailors to their doom. Finally, David began to age until he was near seventy years, thereafter being allowed home for he and Stephanie to resume their lives together.
£7.99 -
In the Path of Leonardo
In the heart of Paris, 1978, young Billy finds himself in a chilling dance with Madam Terminator, an artist notorious for painting young men at the moment of their death. When his friend Tom is ensnared by her sinister web, Billy embarks on a harrowing journey to save him.
But the enigmatic artist, with her hypnotic allure and seductive charms, proves a formidable adversary. Enter Madelyn Allard, an investigative journalist who knows from bitter personal experience just what Madam Terminator is capable of.
As the French police shy away from involvement due to Madam Terminator’s fearsome reputation, a powerful trio emerges: Billy, Madelyn, and the artist’s housekeeper Charlotte, who seeks vengeance for the sabotaging of her own artistic career. Together, they devise a daring plan to save Tom and bring down the artist, apart from Charlotte, unaware that they are being manipulated by the cunning Police Commissioner.
With millions of Francs at stake and lives hanging in the balance, can they outsmart an enemy who will stop at nothing to preserve her dark legacy? As our heroes race against time to save Tom and expose the truth behind Madam Terminator’s chilling art, they must navigate treacherous waters where art meets horror.
£11.99 -
Waking Up in Africa
“Today was the most wonderful day of my life,” he says. “Today, my life stopped being hard.” That’s it. I hang up and cry.
When Gila Svirsky moves to Uganda to follow her wife’s new job, she is drawn into the lives of a group of mostly parentless teens—hungry to stay in school, desperate to carve out a future. As her plan to provide them with support takes shape, they slowly become her extended family, opening their hearts and lives to her. But she carries a dangerous secret: she is married to the woman posing as her sister. In Uganda, being gay is a felony, and even knowing but failing to report a gay person carries a harsh prison sentence.
From the front lines of peace activism in Israel to the uncertain paths of Uganda’s rural teenagers, this is a memoir of reinvention by PEN Prize winner Gila Svirsky. It’s a story of seeking purpose in unfamiliar places, of risking the consequences of discovery, and of the unexpected ways resilience, trust, and quiet determination reshape all their lives.
“Svirsky’s story is a testament to the grace of lives lived with commitment, empathy, and purpose. Thanks to her engaging literary voice and endearing humor, this inspiring memoir comes to vibrant life on the page.”
– Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author and founding editor of Ms. Magazine
“This brilliant memoir is a tribute to what is possible, to the idea that all of us—regardless of faith, race, nationality, gender, economics, or sexual orientation—can participate in the much-needed work of making this a better world.”
– Ruth Messinger, former Manhattan Borough President
and past president of the American Jewish World Service“This is an engaging and powerful memoir—a travelogue equal parts hilarious and inspiring. It is the account of a woman who, while changing the lives of a group of Ugandan teenagers, transforms her own. A testament to the power of quiet activism and enduring connection.”
– Jessie Montell, former Executive Director, Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual,
and recipient of France’s National Order of Merit.The Book Contains 39 full‑colour photographs
£20.99 -
Whispers of the Veil
Raised in the human world under the quiet watch of trusted guardians, she’s kept her heritage – and her powers – carefully hidden. As the daughter of a respected family from the ancient kingdom of Verdalen, Faelan has always known her life was never truly her own.
On the day she turns eighteen, the truth can no longer be contained.
Summoned to Ethereon Academy, Faelan enters a realm ruled by elemental magic, powerful shifter Orders, and kingdoms teetering on the edge of war. As she trains among heirs and warriors, scholars and spies, she finds herself entangled in secrets older than the realm itself – and watched by forces that have waited far too long to rise again.
Her brother is preparing to pledge his soul to the royal line. His allies—loyal, deadly, and far more complicated than they appear—draw Faelan into their tangled world of legacy and loyalty. Among them are twin blood-sworn candidates and a royal adversary who seems to know more than he should.
But in a realm where power is inherited and loyalty is tested, Faelan’s greatest threat may not lie in the war around her...
But in the whispers stirring within.
Some truths are buried for a reason.
£17.99 -
Vive la Différence!
Everybody knows that the histories of England, and then Britain, and of France have, one way or another, been closely connected since at least the time of the Norman Conquest. And yet, this long-standing warm, and sometimes not so warm, relationship has been accompanied by different ways in which everyday things are done and said in our two countries. In a well-researched, factual, highly entertaining and easily readable account, Richard Symington examines the differences in traditions and contemporary customs in France and Britain and the way our languages differ and, indeed, in some respects are the same. His account is interspersed with his comments, sometimes sarcastic, amusing anecdotes, humour, and much relevant and interesting history.
The book is a must for anyone wishing to be reminded of the rich Norman French heritage of the English language, to discover interesting facts about French life generally, to navigate curiosities and oddities and, dare it be said, some anomalies and idiosyncrasies of the French language and of the French way of doing things, to learn some relevant snippets from history, or simply to improve their French, both spoken and written, and anyone who plans to visit France, on holiday or business, and wants some good topics with which to open up conversations.
£9.99 -
Infantrymen
Infantrymen is a book the reader won’t want to put down as they accompany the author on a journey through the lives of four young Sheffield brothers: three lives that terminated on the battlefields of France and Flanders and for one, the War Hospital in Bradford.
With an all-embracing level of detail, Mick Drewry has created a moving picture of a turn-of-the-century working-class family that had moved from the idyllic Lincolnshire countryside to the dark and dismal east end of Sheffield, capturing the personal stories of four young men’s transition from infants to infantrymen.
Whilst this is a must-read for anyone of Pridmore pedigree, this is a riveting book that those interested in local history, social history, military history, or genealogy will find fascinating. It grips the readers’ emotions like no work of fiction could do because it is a real story—a story of love, of fear, of courage, of great personal loss and of grief.
Infantrymen is an intensely moving piece of biography meticulously researched and skilfully written by a great-grandson of one of the Pridmore brothers; lest we forget!
£9.99 -
Astro & B.O.B in the Sticky Mystery
Hello, Earthlings!!
Why do some things slide, stick, or stop? Join Astro, the curious space explorer, and his trusty robot buddy B.O.B. as they return to Earth and land straight into a muddy, slippery, and totally puzzling adventure!
When Astro’s feet get stuck in the mud and he slides down a hill like a rocket, one thing becomes clear: Earth is full of invisible forces! From sticky ground to speedy slopes, from clever geckos to floating feathers, Astro and B.O.B. are on a mission to discover the truth about friction and force.
Packed with laughs, facts, home experiments, and the basics of the scientific method, this first adventure in the Astro & B.O.B. series makes science fun, funny, and full of wonder.
Perfect for curious minds aged 7–11. Aligned with early science curriculum Includes hands-on activities to try at home. Encourages kids to ask questions and think like scientists. Designed to be read aloud and acted out between parent and child.
Join Astro & B.O.B in their next adventure:
Ripples and Echoes: Discovering Sound Waves
Written for my daughter, Emily
£9.99
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