Life is never dull in Drayton Beauchamp but for Zoe it feels as though her world has been turned upside down. As her elderly employer is rushed off to hospital and the dog rescue centre is set to close, she doesn't think it can get much worse... Until a city developer and his girlfriend turn up and threaten to build a new housing estate on the beloved allotments. With the village up in arms and the tensions rising, Zoe finds herself plunged into the centre of the controversy with some dramatic unforeseen consequences. Everything falls apart but, luckily, it turns out a dog really is a girl's best friend.

Whoever said life in the country was boring... Alicia's a smart sassy lawyer who won't stand for any nonsense. She lives for payday, Prada and becoming a Partner of the firm. Having shaken the proverbial rural dust of Drayton Beauchamp off her Jimmy Choos, she knows exactly what she wants out of life. At least, until one disastrous summer, she thinks she does. Then, stuck back in the village she grew up in things start to get complicated as she rediscovers old friends, Matty the farmer's wife with a passion for fashion and Chloe, the eternal romantic. As she clashes with her mother's favourite gardener, deals with aggressive clients and sees her friend's marriage fall apart, she finds that she becomes inexplicably bound to the village. However much she tries to leave it appears fate has other plans. Whoever said life in the countryside was boring couldn't have been more wrong; there's always a rural affair.

A philosophical picture book from one of China's most celebrated children's authors and 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award-winner Cao Wenxuan. A feather is blown across the sky, meeting various birds along the way, and asking each one, "Do I belong to you?". Cao Wenxuan tells the story of a single feather who is swept away on a journey of discovery and belonging. Encountering a variety of birds, from a kingfisher to a magpie, Feather is hopeful of meeting the bird she belongs to. Again and again, she is dismissed or ignored. Only when she sees that there is also beauty in being close to the earth does fate offer a reunion... Feather is sure to charm young children with a plot at once compelling, meditative, and quietly moving. Roger Mello’s stunningly beautiful, dynamic illustrations will delight readers of all ages.

Today, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are counted among the best science fiction writers of the twentieth century, but their relationship with the late-Soviet literary establishment in their home country of Russia was often fraught. Acclaimed during the brief Khrushchev Thaw, the Strugatskys began to fall from grace in the late 1960s as publishers became increasingly reluctant to release their works. The authors' inability to publish, however, diminished neither their productivity nor their popularity among readers. Their novels and short stories, retyped by hand, circulated widely through unofficial channels within the Soviet Union and occasionally turned up abroad in unauthorized translation. The nested novels Ugly Swans and Lame Fate offer insight into this period of enforced silence. Never before translated into English, Lame Fate is the first-person account of middle-aged author Felix Sorokin. When the Soviet Writers' Union asks him to submit a writing sample to a newfangled machine that can supposedly evaluate the "objective value" of any literary work, he faces a dilemma. Should he present something establishment-approved but middling, or risk sharing his unpublished masterpiece, which has languished in his desk drawer for years? Sorokin's masterwork is Ugly Swans, previously published in English as a standalone work but presented here in an authoritative new translation. Ugly Swans chronicles the travails of disgraced literary celebrity Victor Banev, who returns to his provincial hometown to find it haunted by the mysterious clammies—black-masked men residing in a former leper colony. Possessing supernatural talents, including the ability to control the weather, the clammies terrify the town's adult population but enthrall its teenagers, including Banev's daughter Irma. Together, Lame Fate and Ugly Swans illuminate some of the Strugatskys' favorite themes—the (im)possibility of political progress, the role of the individual in society, the nature of honor and courage, and the enduring value of art—in consummately entertaining fashion. By turns chilling, uproarious and moving, these intertwining stories are sure to delight readers from all walks of life.

A beautiful visual history book of fantasy art from Romanticism and steampunk to modern illustrations from novels. Art has always been one of the most vivid ways to express people's imagination. Fantasy art illustrates the full range of human fears and dreams, from mythology, the Bible, and the artist's own original and exciting stories. This book describes the history of fantasy art from Romanticism in the 18th century to the modern era by exploring the masterpieces of fantasy artists: William Blake, John Martin, Albert Robida, Jules Gabriel Verne, H.G. Welles, and more. It also shows illustrations from science fiction and fantasy novels such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe, mystery novels by Agatha Christie, and contemporary fantasy novelists such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Michael Ende. This book illustrates the remarkable transition of fantasy art that occurred in 19th century when steampunk was introduced to the fantasy art world. Steampunk was unique because it was a fantasy-based style that was inspired by a real event, the Industrial Revolution. Today, the influence of steampunk can be seen in everywhere, from legendary films by Walt Disney and Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. This book will surely satisfy all lovers of fantasy art and literature.

After seven goblins try to steal it, the Rainbow is careful never again to touch the earth.

A collection of poems by and about homosexuals includes authors, such as Sappho, Walter Whitman, W.H. Auden, and Allen Ginsberg