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  Ellen Countess of Castle Howel

  Anna Maria Bennett

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  The first republication of this bestselling, influential novel since 1794, responding to Bennett's rising profile.Marked by the sometimes scandalous life experiences of its author, Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel  (1794) is an insightful, often humorous look at Wales, and Britain, at a time of changing social norms and attitudes. Raised in relative seclusion in Wales, where she is preyed on by a corrupt English lord, Ellen marries Lord Castle Howel, a wealthy, older man, in order to save her grandparents' ancient estate.Transplanted to London, accompanied by her indefatigable Welsh maid, Winifred, Ellen's innocence about the workings of fashionable society brings about a separation from her husband and the loss of her reputation. Following a dash to the north of England, where she gives birth to her son, she is reunited with her husband and her good name is restored.When Lord Castle Howel is killed in a riding accident, Ellen returns to Wales and sees her and her family's fortunes transformed.An informative introduction contextualizes Anna Maria Bennett's life and writings.A seminal, insightful, witty example of the Wales-related novels which were ragingly popular in the Romantic period.A humorous and dramatic lens on a changing Welsh and British society.

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  Billion Dollar Brain

  Len Deighton

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  "Dazzlingly intelligent and subtle" —Sunday Times 
   
   
   
  "Worth of Raymond Chandler . . . intelligent, inventive, constantly entertaining" —Sunday Telegraph 
   
   
   
  Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR—even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees him sent from his shabby Soho office to bone-freezing Helsinki in order to penetrate Midwinter's vast anti-Communist network—and stop a deadly virus from wiping out the planet.

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  Rabies - A tale of disease from...

  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

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  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez was born in Valencia, Spain on 29th January 1867.  
   
  At university, he studied law and graduated in 1888 but never felt the urgency to practice - he was more interested in politics, journalism, literature and women.   
   
  Politically he was a militant Republican partisan and, in his youth, founded a newspaper, El Pueblo (The People). The newspaper was taken to court many times and he made many enemies. In one incident he was shot and almost killed. In 1896, Ibáñez was arrested and sentenced to a few months in prison. 
   
  Despite this colourful background he found time to write novels. His first published work was ‘La Araña Negra’ (The Black Spider) in 1892, a work that he later repudiated although at the time it was a useful vehicle for him to express his anti-clerical views. 
   
  In 1894, he published ‘Arroz y Tartana’ (Airs and Graces), about a late 19th Century widow in Valencia trying to keep up appearances in order to marry her daughters well.   
   
  Ibáñez’s next sequence of books studied rural life in the farmlands of Valencia and failed to gain much of an audience.   
   
  His writing now took on a new direction with its now familiar sensational and melodramatic themes in 1908 with ‘Sangre y Arena’ (Blood and Sand), which follows the career of Juan Gallardo from his poor beginnings as a child in Seville, to his rise to becoming a famous matador in Madrid 
   
  However, his greatest success was ‘Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) in 1916, which tells a tangled tale of the French and German sons-in-law of an Argentinian land-owner who find themselves fighting on opposite sides in the First World War.  It was a literary and commercial sensation and became the best-selling book of 1919.  It also propelled Rudolph Valentino to stardom in the 1921 film. 
   
  Ironically his fame in the English-speaking world has come not as a novelist but as the stories behind some of Hollywood’s greatest silent movies. 
   
  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez died in Menton, France on January 28th, 1928, the day before his 61st birthday.

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  Silver Darlings - A captivating...

  LK Wilde

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  Island life is hard... leaving is harder. 
  In 1895, a Northumbrian island welcomes two new residents. Clara and Jimmy are born on the same night, to families poles apart. Clara is an islander through and through; content to live among the rhythms and barren beauty of Holy Island. Jimmy's future is set in stone; fishing with the father he despises on the family boat. 
  When tragedy forces them from their island and each other, they join the herring season in a bid to survive. 
  Jimmy strikes out for Seahouses, where he joins a Scots herring crew. From Seahouses he can still see the island, his father too close for comfort. The crew’s departure for Lowestoft brings welcome relief. 
  Clara is sent to North Shields, to live with her wealthy, estranged grandparents. A chance encounter with a group of herring girls offers her an escape from the grief filled luxury of her grandparents' home. 
  1913 is a record-breaking year, but as Clara and Jimmy chase shoals of silver darlings to Lowestoft, their paths are dogged by war, injury and misunderstandings. Set adrift from all they know; will they ever find each other? And will they ever find their way home?

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  The Cloud Leopard's Daughter

  Anonymous

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  On the gold fields of the colonies, enemies are easily made. In the confines of a ship, they can turn deadly. For readers of Bryce Courtenay's POTATO FACTORY, Philippa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier. 
    
  When Kitty and Rian Farrell sail their schooner Katipo III into Dunedin Harbour in 1863, they are on tenterhooks. The new Otago goldfields have attracted all-comers, including their friend Wong Fu from Ballarat, who has sent a message for their help. 
  To their surprise, Wong Fu reveals he is more than a mere fortune seeker - he is in fact a Cloud Leopard tong master and his daughter, Bao, has been kidnapped and taken to opium-ridden China.  
  Kitty and Rian agree to retrieve the missing Bao, but as they sail closer to their quarry the stakes jump dramatically. And little do they know that the deadliest threat lies in their midst. 
  The Cloud's Leopard's Daughter takes us through dangerous and unpredictable shoals of love, lust, greed and opium, in search of not one, but two, fiery yet vulnerable women - puppets in other people's calculated games. 
  PRAISE FOR DEB CHALLINOR'S A TATTOOED HEART'Brilliant finale to this series based on Australia's convict past' -- Jan GoodReads'... one of those books that you want to read slowly so it doesn't end but can't help rushing through to find out what happens!' -- Sarah Courtney, GoodReads'Fantastic end to the convict girls series! Couldn't put it down!!!' -- Catherine Maisey, GoodReads'Challinor is a good storyteller; her characters have depth and her historical backdrops are well researched, seamless joining fact and fiction and creating a convincing, atmospheric yarn' -- Bookseller + Publisher'Seamlessly fuses historical fact and engrossing fiction' -- Queensland Times

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  The Lost Books ~ Romance and...

  Mo Conlan

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  In a scheme to pay for his endless wars and lavish court, Henry Tudor seizes England's rich monasteries and convents. Thousands of illuminated manuscripts are stolen and destroyed. 
  Squire Henry Truelove of Cornwall, hero of this novel, has simpler ambitions: to win the hand of his reluctant ladylove, Morwenna. But life takes a bad turn for the squire when his family's estate faces ruinous taxation. Truelove and his friends form a band of "holy pirates" to bring down the corrupt taxman, and to rescue the precious lost books. 
  This tale of tumultuous Tudor times will especially please readers who enjoy little known histories and interesting language. The narrative is often lighthearted, with amusing repartee. The mission of the Holy Pirates, though, is vital and dangerous — to save the precious books and their own skins.

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