Autumn 1624, and Europe is deeply embroiled in what will become the Thirty Years’ War. A young Philip Lord, once favoured at King James’s court, has vanished without a trace, under the shadow of treason. Outside the besieged city of Breda, Captain Matthew Rider faces the brutal reality of wintering his cavalry in the siege […]
On the Narrow Road to the Deep North by Lesley Chan Downer
After eight years working in Japan, immersing herself in its language and literature, Lesley Chan Downer set off in the footsteps of Matsuo Basho, Japan s most cherished poet, to explore the country’s remote northern provinces. Basho’s pilgrimage to find the landscapes that had inspired the great medieval poets gave birth to Japan’s most famous […]
A Cheesemonger’s Tour de France by Ned Palmer
Charles de Gaulle famously said it was impossible to govern a country with 246 different cheeses. And perhaps he was right. Every French cheese carries an essence of the place where it’s made — its history, identity and landscape. Sometimes that’s a physical thing, as the hard texture of Comté echoes its rugged Alpine home. […]
The Little Book of Hertfordshire by Ruth Herman
Hertfordshire is full of stories. The county’s proximity to London attracts the great, the good and those less so: Hertfordshire was once home to saints such as St Alban, St Thomas More and the only English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear. Such virtuous figures pose a sharp contrast to those involved in the Hertford elections of time […]
The Skeleton Army by Alis Hawkins
The Salvation Army has come prancing and singing from the slums of London to the poorest quarters of Oxford, but along with its red-hot gospel preaching and music hall songs it brings a prohibition message which sparks immediate opposition and violence. An Army soldier – an ex-drunk – is brutally killed and a note suggests […]
Menewood by Nicola Griffith
It’s 7th-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is 18, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood. […]
The Living Legend: Ramayana Tales from Far and Near by Vayu Naidu
Rama is all of 16 when Sage Viswamithra takes him to the Dandaka forest, with Lakshmana accompanying them. At first, the spirit of adventure fills the two teenage brothers, but when they enter the forest in broad daylight, it is a curtain of pitch darkness. The smell of decaying flesh, flashes of fire, and the […]
Naples 1944 by Keith Lowe
This is the story of the first major European city to be liberated by the Allies: what happened to Naples when the scourge of war lashed down upon it, but also, crucially, what happened next. The first major history of wartime Naples to appear in the English language fills a glaring gap in the British […]