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Douglas of Faurmoor, a noble of the northern aristocracy, possesses strength tempered by compassion. His world changes forever when he encounters Henry, a peculiar outsider who struggles to connect with others yet finds solace in the harmonies of music and the quiet beauty of plants. Amid their differences, a fragile and unexpected bond takes root.

It is the Whitsun weekend of 1931 in the once-fashionable resort of Frencham-on-Sea. A housewarming party at Seaview One, the thoroughly modern home of Sir James and Lady Theodora Phillips, goes horribly wrong when Lady Theodora is found drowned in the swimming pool. Suspicion falls immediately on one of the servants, but the police are unable to make the charge stick. Two of the house guests, Clarice Thompson and Cliff Thorley, begin to notice the undercurrents of tension and rivalry among the guests, and that one person in particular is acting very suspiciously.

Toad Hall, derelict and empty for a century, sees the return of the impecunious Horatio Toad and his six wives to the ancestral home. In need of cash, Horatio has leased out his estate and formed a partnership with oddball rewilder Georges Montgolfiere, who needs the land more than he needs Horatio. Tensions mount as Horatio’s vision of an animal-based theme park replete with zipwires and gift shops is diametrically opposed to Montgolfiere’s purist sensibilities. Meanwhile, a bemused Mole surfaces not to a “Silent Spring”, as Montgolfiere contends, but to a fractious one.

When Samuel Pepys and his loyal inquisitors, Abby Harcourt and Jacob Standish, are summoned to King Charles II’s court, they anticipate frivolous entertainment and unimaginable luxury. Instead, they find only death. One of the King’s beloved mistresses lies slain beneath a fallen chandelier, its rope cunningly sabotaged. Was her demise the work of a jealous rival, or a duplicitous courtier with dire secrets to hide?

“DNA," is what I read in the paper. That’s hard to argue with. Until an unofficial search of the victim’s room uncovers evidence that the police missed, or chose to ignore. An engraved ring; a phone number; and an antique copy of Lorna Doone inscribed with a cryptic message.

A Forgotten Poet follows the fortunes of diffident and reluctant man of letters, Harold Humber, from his early life in the English Midlands through his post-war career as economist, jazz aficionado, expert in industrial architecture, and, in the final reckoning, author of four slim volumes of popular verse.

February, 1932: The highly unpopular Joan Hexham, "the spider at the centre of a web of village gossip", is killed on stage during an amateur performance of Hamlet. An accident, surely. Nobody would be brazen enough to commit murder in full view of 50 witnesses in Lower Addenham village hall—or would they?

Pushkin’s story of thwarted love is set in Russia of the early years of the C19th. In verse at once satiric and penetrating, it tells the tale of a bored young man and the country girl, brought up on romantic novels, whose love he rejects. His behavior leads indirectly to tragedy. The tables are turned some time later when he in his turn becomes obsessed with her. In a final confrontation, she rejects his advances.

October, 1931: an anonymous telegram summons the Reverend Lucian Shaw, country parson and former army chaplain, to the deathbed of his elderly uncle in the remote Scottish Highlands.

These poems range across a number of topics related to marriage: parenthood, family, friendship, sex, divorce and bereavement and refer from time to time to marriages in literature, opera and the Old Testament. The verse is accomplished, the analysis of marriage both instructive and entertaining, the compassion and wisdom remarkable.

This is a tale of witches and wishes, tales and trees, stepmothers, spells and a girl who sleeps in the ashes by the fire.... But it's not the one you know.

"I know of no gamekeepers who are not countrymen to their fingertips. They observe, they consider, they cherish, and they do more than most to look after out woodlands and hedgerows, our moorlands and fens. Theirs is not an easy job—out in all weathers and misunderstood by many townies who are further removed from the countryside and its workings than they have ever been, thanks to increasing technology which keeps them housebound."

Is it true that every life is the stuff of novels? Or are some people just too ordinary? This is the question a struggling Parisian writer asks when he challenges himself to write about the first person he sees when he steps outside his apartment. Secretly hoping to meet the beautiful woman who occasionally smokes on his street, he instead sets eyes on octogenarian Madeleine. She’s happy to become his subject, but first she needs to put her shopping away. Wondering if his project is doomed to be hopelessly banal, he soon finds himself tangled in the lives of Madeleine’s family.

2019. Russia's Web Brigades have created a divided West, but both the European and the American intelligence services are getting wise to their tactics. When Stanislav Kuznetsov, the FSB’s Director of Overseas Strategic Affairs, entrusts a group of young idealists with the task of devising the next phase in the disruption of Russia’s enemies, little does he suspect that six weeks later, they’ll come up with a plan to suborn the British Broadcasting Corporation. His first reaction is mingled incredulity and exasperation. Have they taken leave of their senses?

Summer 1931: After finding the battered corpse of a spiritualist medium at an archaeological site on the Suffolk coast, the Reverend Lucian Shaw is thrust into a dark and deadly mystery. Was the medium a victim of the evil forces he claimed to have harnessed for his own use, or is there a rational explanation for his demise? Discovering a trail of blackmail and intimidation leading from the foothills of the Himalayas to an English seaside town, Reverend Shaw must battle his own inner demons and struggle with the deepest questions of faith before he is able to unmask the killer.

MI7 is expecting an eccentric new recruit in the person of Chasha Jones, self-described (only partly tongue-in-cheek) as "the most intelligent woman in London". She's hard-working, insightful, and fun to work alongside. But the day she's due to begin, there's no sign of her. It turns out she's joined forces with an eccentric Brit called Hector Raynebow. Raynebow used to be an environmentalist, but he's rejected all that on the grounds that humanity, in its present form, is incapable of saving the world. He has the perfect solution: Humankind 2.0.

The Crimean War was a major conflict that took place between 1853 and 1856 involving Russia, the Ottoman Empire, France, and the United Kingdom. In this concise history book, you will delve into the causes, events, and consequences of this brutal war. From the Charge of the Light Brigade to the Siege of Sevastopol, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the key battles and turning points that defined the conflict. With vivid descriptions and insightful analysis, this book is a must-hear for anyone interested in the history of warfare and international relations.

Selected poems from a couple of decades in South East London.

Christmas, 1930. An exiled Balkan king, living incognito in rural Suffolk, is shot dead in his secluded mansion following a meeting with the local vicar, Reverend Lucian Shaw. Special Branch detectives are soon on the trail of sinister agents of a foreign power that they think are responsible, but Shaw begins to realize that the culprit could be much closer to home. Observation, cogitation, meditation, and prayer lead him down a dangerous road toward a desperate killer who will stop at nothing to evade capture.

England, 1930. An antiques dealer is found robbed and murdered in a third class train compartment on a remote Suffolk branch line. The police believe they know who the killer is, and an arrest is soon made. A passenger on the same train, the Reverend Lucian Shaw, country parson and former army chaplain, is concerned that the police have the wrong man and begins an investigation of his own. Before long, Shaw is drawn into a web of intrigue, deceit, and murder which lurks beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful country parish.