'Unforgettable' - ROSAMUND LUPTON Virginia Wrathmell has always known she will meet her death on the marsh. One snowy New Year's Eve, at the age of eighty-six, Virginia feels the time has finally come. New Year's Eve, 1939. Virginia is ten, an orphan arriving to meet her new parents at their mysterious house, Salt Winds. Her new home sits on the edge of a vast marsh, a beautiful but dangerous place. War feels far away out here amongst the birds and shifting sands - until the day a German fighter plane crashes into the marsh. The people at Salt Winds are the only ones to see it. What happens next is something Virginia will regret for the next seventy-five years, and which will change the whole course of her life.

The Tree of Misery is the first attempt by an Arab writer to adopt the western style of following the history of a family over more than one generation. In this book, written in 1944, Taha Hussein, who most passionately called for the preservation and unification of the classical Arabic language, nevertheless sought to enrich it by adopting those western elements which would suit and enhance it. He is not simply recounting a story or describing a period of life in the Egyptian provinces. He is calling for social, intellectual and religious reform. This novel is inspired from the real life experiences of the author during his childhood in Upper Egypt.

‘Focuses a razor light on the plight of one of our most iconic birds. Inspirational!’ Tim Birkhead Curlews are Britain’s largest wading bird, known for their evocative calls which embody wild places; they provoke a range of emotions that many have expressed in poetry, art and music.

'The Call of the Country' tells the story of the rural environment as seen through the eyes of a lifelong birdwatcher. It is a nostalgic return to old haunts remembered from the early post war days, and a journey of discovery to find how the countryside and its birds have changed.