An unusual and moving story about the magical bond between a boy and his grandfather. Does it just happen that Gavin and Grandad see the seal while they are fishing in the harbor? Just happen that Grandad talks about the selkies, the seal people who can leave the water and take human form? Just happen that Grandad is finishing the beautiful miniature boat he’s making for Gavin’s tenth birthday, and Gavin decides to call her Selkie? And at that moment, Grandad has his stroke. Could the selkies have something to do with all this? Day after day at the hospital, Gavin tries to get through to helpless and speechless Grandad, trying to reach him, explain what’s happened to him. Everyone else has given up. But Gavin will try anything. Even asking the selkies to help. To do that, he must give them something to show them how much it matters. What is the dearest thing he owns?

At the request of his fellow slave Granny Judith, Christmas John risks his life to take runaways across a river from Kentucky to Ohio. Based on slave narratives recorded in the 1930s.

His ability scrupulously to evoke the landscapes and the peoples of the Highlands, his blending together of myth and reality and his wide-ranging imagination make Neil Gunn the most important Scottish novelist of the 20th century. --Trevor Royle, The Macmillan Companion to Scottish Literature

A mysterious red boat and George the dog help Posy cope with moving house.

When Ben Kozel finished rafting the Amazon from source to sea (as described in his bestselling Three Men in a Raft), the question uppermost in his mind was 'where to next?'. He found the answer in the Yenisey. From its headwaters in Mongolia all the way to the Arctic Circle, the Yenisey is Asia's second longest river, and the fifth longest in the world, yet remains one of the world's least-known river systems. With three other companions, including fellow Australian Tim Cope, Ben embarked on an extraordinary river journey, taking him through the Mongolian Steppe and crossing the whole of Siberia from south to North, rowing a leaking and formerly-derelict wooden dory, painstakingly rebuilt by them on a shoe-string budget. Risking rivers in flood, the treacherous and mysterious Lake Baikal, deadly tick-born diseases, Siberian mobsters, radioactive contamination and the onset of the Arctic winter in a five-month, 5650 kilometre odyssey, Ben has confirmed his place as one of Australia's most gifted and intrepid travel writers. Five Months in a Leaky Boat is a brilliant adventure story, and a travel narrative that illuminates the beauty and complexity of an almost unknown part of the world.

THE BBC RADIO TWO BOOK CLUB PICK A hugely charming, uplifting story that shows it's never too late for new adventures - for fans of HAROLD FRY, DEAR MRS BIRD and THE LIBRARIAN. 'Full of grace and humanity' SUNDAY TIMES 'Life-affirming and funny' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING Meet Eve, who has departed from her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia: defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller, suddenly vulnerable as she awaits a life-saving operation. Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Sally and Eve embark upon a journey through the canals of England, guided by the remote and unsympathetic Anastasia. As they glide gently - and not so gently - through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of canalboat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds. Disarmingly truthful and narrated with a rare, surprising wit, THREE WOMEN AND A BOAT is a journey over the glorious waterways of England and into the unfathomable depths of the human heart. ---------------------------- What customers are saying: 'Moving, tender and just a balm for the soul' ***** 'Perfect for those in need of an uplifting read' **** 'A warm and enjoyable read' *****