After the best part of forty years spent either living under his parents’ roof, in the tropical rainforests of three continents, a vast array of student digs or most recently a one-bedroom flat, The One Show’s Mike Dilger has at last bought a house – and with it, a (potentially) glorious garden...

'What we all need,' said Larry, 'is sunshine . . . a country where we can grow.' 'Yes, dear, that would be nice,' agreed Mother, not really listening. 'I had a letter from George this morning - he says Corfu's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go to Greece?' 'Very well, dear, if you like,' said Mother unguardedly. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood. 'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph

In 1970 at the height of the Cold War, the young Sandhurst-trained Sultan Qaboos of Oman, with secret British military backing, took on communist insurgents in a fierce but little known war. Along with regular British Army and contract officers, the Special Air Service played a key role in this bitterly fought but ultimately successful campaign.The value of winning the Hearts and Minds of the local population was quickly recognised and this is where a select band of Royal Army Veterinary Corps officers came in. The local economy was a primitive one based on agriculture, and the author, freshly qualified and, by his own admission, somewhat naive, found himself solely responsible for the veterinary care of a territory the size of Hungary.Attached to A Squadron, 22 SAS, Andrew Higgins learned how to respond to the Jebali peoples love and concern for the animals that provided their livelihood goats, camels, sheep and most importantly their cattle. Then there were the Sultans horses, pedigree dogs, exotic birds and even bears and hyenas.His first-hand experiences and anecdotes of life dealing with every level of Omani society, from the Ruler and his Court to the humblest refugees and their varied livestock make for wonderfully atmospheric and amusing reading. It also provides a thoughtful insight into the value of hearts and minds campaigns in other military operations where the support of the civilian population is crucial to success.With the SAS and Other Animals is an unusual and potent mix of Special Forces action and veterinary experiences. Readers may well conclude that it really shouldnt have happened to a vet even in a desert war!

Most of us are not old enough to remember the sinking of the Titanic, since most of us were not even born, but almost everyone has a vivid, mental picture of the last minutes in the life of the huge, luxurious liner that was supposed to be unsinkable. We can see the great ship, ablaze with lights and tilting severely by the bow as the lifeboats were slowly moving away. We can only imagine what it must have been like to sit in one of those small boats and look back, or stand on the slanting deck when the realization that the unsinkable ship was going down, must have struck even the most faithful. The "women and children" mandate, though it was not followed to the letter, is an integral part of the legend, and the cause of more than one childhood nightmare, in which husbands and fathers were forever lost beneath the icy black water. Since it sank on April 14, 1912, the Titanic has been the subject of an endless stress of books, pamphlets, magazine articles, films, and even in the 1930s a country song was written by Roy Acuff, "What a Shame, When That Gre-e-eat Ship Went Down." It has been 90 years since the sinking of the Titanic, but the story, as told by Anna Thomas, is as compelling and popular as any ever written.