Böcker av Richard Skinner

The subject matter of Richard Skinner's witty and reflective poems starts with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden and concludes with the events of the first Easter, taking in on the way Julian of Norwich's hazelnut, Mastermind, God as a blizzard, and the eighth deadly sin. A psalm based on the New Testament and a modern take on Epiphany are included, along with a dozen new 'Invocations'.

Ben Baxter (aged 11) and his sister Katie (aged 13) aided by Ben?s friend Johnny enjoy solving mysteries. So when Ben and Johnny find a coded message in an old Jaguar in a scrapyard they decide to solve it. The clues lead them to discover that the car used to belong to a notorious London gangland criminal. But what secrets are hidden in...

As Ben Baxter continues to write his diary, we find him faced with several more curious crimes and the odd mystery. He is helped as usual by his pal Johnny, his sister Katie and Chippy. Ben and Johnny return to being store detectives; this time, however, they have been invited back by the store manager. Knowing they have solved crimes in the past, the manager has offered to show them his store's crime prevention set up. However, things don't run as smoothly as expected, which leads to a certain amount of danger and excitement all round!Soon after this, Ben's detective team gains a new assistant in the form of Millie. She is an ex-police sniffer dog who was injured during the course of her work. Although largely recovered from her injuries, the police decide she should be retired and rehomed. What better home to go to than Ben and Katie's, where she will be well-loved and possibly help sniff out the odd crime? She does indeed prove valuable in this respect.When it comes to investigating a haunted room in a local vicarage, even Millie's hair is seen to stand on end. What on earth is behind this spooky business which we are told has been happening on and off over the last one hundred years?

Mata Hari's fame soon spreads throughout the cabarets and theatres of Europe and, as the major powers lurch towards inevitable conflict, she begins to attract the attention of numerous admirers - many of whom are officers, all too keen to share their secrets with a woman of notorious intrigue and allure.

Erik Satie - composer, dandy, eccentric - is dead. Told to select one memory to take with him into the afterlife, he finds himself in limbo with a community of the deceased, looking back at his fifty-nine years for their most precious moments. Evenings of absinthe at the Chat Noir? Friendships with Debussy, Duchamp and Man Ray? What of his great musical triumphs and disasters? How will he choose his own legacy before silent whiteness descends? Venice, 1511. In the convent of Sant' Alvise, Oliva is about to take the veil and become a bride of Christ. When her world is shaken - first, literally, by an earthquake, and then, spiritually, by forces that threaten to change the convent for ever - she begins to ask questions about her faith and her future. When she agrees to sit for Signor Avilo, the renowned portrait painter, he brings with him a diabolical object: a mirror. And reflections can be dangerous. Told with playful elegance, these are two utterly original tales of art and devotion, of religious and creative fervour. They contemplate the eternal in different ways - one examining a life only just beginning, tentatively; the other a life lived without compromise as it reaches its close.