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"Operation Ark was always about people and animals. Pen Farthing's actions were nothing short of heroic." -- Ricky Gervais67 People. 171 Animals. Getting out was only half the battle. August 2021. The Taliban invaded Kabul. The British Government was "Missing in Action". The evacuation was disastrous, shambolic and deadly. Pen Farthing refused to abandon his charity's staff or rescue animals. Operation Ark was born. He was branded a villain who valued "pets over people", blamed for deserting Afghans, accused of risking British soldiers - nothing could be further from the truth.

Dawson and Lucy hit Cape Town... and Cape Town hits backWhen their new employer dies in a suspicious road accident and his brother, a South African government lawyer disappears in Cape Town, Dawson and Lucy are recalled to MI6. For once their mission is straightforward: liaise with Rebecca Erasmus of South African State Security and find the missing lawyer. Then Rebecca is kidnapped. Surely this has nothing to do with the forthcoming presidential election and the vengeful Chinese assassin in town...Why are Dawson and Lucy held up at gunpoint on Table Mountain?Why is a South African presidential candidate hiding in a vineyard?How are the CIA and Chinese involved?Can you fly a helicopter without scooping some goats up for the ride?And what part does dreadful cooking have to play in proceedings?

Once upon a time, a husband watches as his wife opens a Door. He tries to follow her, waking instead to find his beloved dead beside him.Days later, The Door appears again. He doesn't know where it will take him. All he knows is that he's desperate to see his wife again.This is a story about a husband's sorrow, and where it takes him.This is a story about grief.This is a story about what we do when faced with the loss of those we love.Stepping between the fantastical and the real, this modern fairy tale crystalises hope and mourninginto a reflection on life itself.Bound in hardback and richly illustrated with evocative artwork by Becky Gough.

Final Approach charts the turbulent flightpath between a jetsetting father and a planespotting son.The 1970s were the final gasp of the Golden Age of Flying. Mark Blackburn grew up amidst this fuel-guzzling splendour, with airports his playground of choice. He came to adulthood well-heeled and well-travelled. However, he had to contend with his multimillionaire father.Luxury cars. Private planes. Racing stables. Foreign Mistresses.Paranoia, bullying and power plays.At the centre was the inescapable pull of the father.Half memoir and half travelogue, wrapped in an ode to planespotting, this is one man's journey to break free.It's the trip of a lifetime. Take your seat and buckle up for take-off.

Shortlisted for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2024, Page Turner Awards Winner 2022 and Winner of the Historical Fiction Company Silver Medal 2022It's the Great Depression. The world is tilting towards war. In the White House, nothing is as it seems. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the married president of the United States, has started a long and passionate affair with his cousin Daisy, and moves her into the West Wing. Daisy is one of FDR's band of unconventional women: Eleanor Roosevelt, the fiery labour organiser, Frances Perkins, the first female Secretary of Labour, and his secretary Missy LeHand, a political operative in her own right. Middle-aged spinster Daisy becomes FDR's secret wife. That's not her only secret. This fictional biography written by a family member who knew Daisy is the untold true story of a hidden love and hidden contributions, and of a presidency that benefitted from both.

The truth matters. As our elected representatives make vital decisions on our behalf, an essential requirement of a functioning democracy is that the people in governance are honest with the electorate. Vote for Honesty and Get Democracy Done: Four Simple Steps to Change Politics seeks solutions to the increasing problem of dishonest behaviour by some UK politicians. It is an action plan: simple and politically neutral to force political change. This book is solution-led. We can make a Vote for Honesty Campaign to generate cross-party support for the 2024 General Election, and also use public pressure to enforce political honesty through legal compliance. Voters simply have to 'lend their vote' and only vote for a candidate that has signed the Vote for Honesty Contract. Positive change is possible. A simple solution to a complex problem. Key points:*Politics in the future can be different, better and more relevant to people*Improved transparency in politics saves money*The Vote for Honesty Campaign is politically neutral *Participating candidates have signed a Vote for Honesty Contract*A climate of trust deepens our democracy and also makes society more productivePositive change is possible. A simple solution to a complex problem. This upbeat and pragmatic book suggests UK politics in the future can be better. Honest politicians will feel the benefit and feel good about their profession. A climate of trust and a deepening of democracy will make our society more efficient and effective, open and productive.

One of only four girls from the 160 children in her primary school to pass the eleven plus, Sylvia Vetta was the first in her family to enjoy higher education and got to enjoy that post-WWII wonder: upward mobility.Battling racism in Smethwick in the West Midlands during the most racist election in British history changed her life. The slogan bandied by the supporters of the Conservative candidate was, 'If you want a n***er for a neighbour, Vote Labour.' By chance she met Indian-born Atam Vetta. Being less than 21 years of age, her boss could legally inform her parents of her young man and his racial background without Sylvia knowing of it. Sylvia and Atam married anyway and 55 years later, they're still married. When Sylvia married Atam, mixed relationships were rare and viewed with hostility, not just in the UK. Sylvia's story embraces a revolutionary change in attitudes in the UK. Marriages and partnerships like hers are no longer rare and it is predicted that by 2075, the majority of the population will be of mixed ancestry.She was plunged into a challenging new reality. Through Atam, she learned about glass ceilings for ethnic minority Brits. Atam's research in quantitative genetics confronted institutional and individual racism with the knowledge that discrimination had been justified by scientific racism. Atam set about helping to expose those lies.Nine months in the USA opened her eyes to the probability that she was more disadvantaged being a woman than being married to a man of colour. Changing careers, she entered into a world where women were mostly excluded: business. Sylvia set about changing that, creating a vibrant and successful business career. Peppered with facts and research, Sylvia's life showcases the personal within the political, the successes and setbacks of forging a fairer, more tolerant and better Britain. Part of a unique demographic that challenges traditions, Sylvia's life epitomises its clashes, its frustration, and its opportunities.Now on her third career as a writer, Sylvia explores what we have in common, while being honest about the challenges. The ultimate prize is an enhanced understanding that comes from 'walking in someone else's shoes' and the creativity that comes from crossing cultures and allowing cream to rise.Food of Love is a poignant account of changes to our society from the mostly untold perspective of a white woman married to a man of colour. Recipes relishing the difference flow through the narrative. The recipes at the end of chapters reflect the diversity diet in our diet that rises with the diversity in the population.With food comes love and with love comes hope.

Truth Never DiesIt had been solely personal.But now there's a new hunt for the truth. Determined to lay the ghosts of her past, Cassandra Fortune asks a former head of GCHQ for help, only to receive a message from beyond the grave. A riddle to puzzle out. A murder to solve. Cassie must negotiate the treacherous waters of the intelligence services, their rivalries and secrets. She revisits an old betrayal in an ancient land, uncovering subterfuge and treason. And she grapples with her own disgrace and the man who'd destroyed her career and almost destroyed her. As everyone prepares for Christmas, Cassie hosts the return visit of the Greek politicians. Yet a shadowy presence haunts her footsteps. Is he still seeking vengeance? And Cassie? What is real and what only appears to be so? Who can be trusted and who is double-dealing? Cassie must find and face up to the truth, and survive. Book 3 of the Cassandra Fortune mysteries

MacShane offers 12 pragmatic suggestions for turning Labour into a party of power as well as protest.

Bored to Death in the Baltics is a comedy thriller, a sequel to A Very Important Teapot, set four months later. Saul Dawson and Lucy Smith, still working for a minor department of MI6, get caught up in the apparent assassination of a foreign scientist working on a top secret project. Meanwhile, a traitor is on the loose within the secret service.It's murder, mayhem and mirth. Full of twists, puns and action, it's so brilliantly constructed that only the comedic genius of Steve Sheppard could have written it. When a bomb explodes in front of Dawson on a sunny June morning, he is lucky to escape with his life, certainly luckier than the man he is following.But finding himself a few hours later in the bilges of a ship heading for the eastern Baltic is less fortunate as that is not how he'd planned to spend his weekend. Who is the man assassinated by the bomb?Who has kidnapped Dawson, and will Lucy Smith find him in time?What is happening deep underground in rural Estonia and leafy Surrey?Is there a double agent within MI6?Who are the tantalising Sesks twins really working for?Can Dawson and Lucy distinguish Wright from Rong?And can Dawson avoid being bored to death?

Culiner's intrepid pursuit of the elusive troubadour and the lost world from which he emerged enriches us with a double depiction of the turbulent times and places of the bard's era and the galloping commercialization of our own. Like a chef who manages to document great recipes before they disappear, Culiner serves us an utterly delicious feast of flavours we do not want to lose.Robin Roger, writer, reviewer, Associate Publisher, New Jewish Press 2016-18 Invited by Culiner to join her travels to find Velvel was a gift in isolated pandemic times. Part history, part biography and part literature, the writing poetically transfixed. Train rides, villages, and Velvel's life move between magical realism and extraordinary insights into Jewish history generally missing in heritage tourism.Daniel J Walkowitz, Professor of History Emeritus, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis Emeritus New York University, author of The Remembered and Forgotten Jewish World A captivating romance, a thrilling mystery, a fascinating tour back and forward in time, and so much more. Culiner takes us out of the contemporary fast-paced, digital society and superbly redraws the varied contours of the shtetls of Eastern European countries of yore via one remarkable itinerant Jewish existence. The book brilliantly brings back to life the unjustly forgotten Hebrew poet and Yiddish melodrama author, Velvel Zbarzher, a significant precursor of Yiddish theatre that moved from Galicia to Romania, the Russian Pale of Settlement, Austria, and finally Turkey. A breathtaking read! Dana Mihailescu, Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Bucharest What a beautiful book! The writing is clear and direct, the subject matter is interesting and important, and the characters are lively and realistically portrayed. In short, it's a good piece of reporting, and was entirely successful in wafting me to another time and place.Barrington James, former foreign correspondent for the Herald Tribune and UPI, author of The Musical World of Marie AntoinetteThe Old Country, how did it smell? Sound? Was village life as cosy as popular myth would have us believe? Was there really a strong sense of community? Perhaps it was another place altogether.In 19thc Eastern Europe, Jewish life was ruled by Hasidic rebbes or the traditional Misnagedim, and religious law dictated every aspect of daily life. Secular books were forbidden; independent thinkers were threatened with moral rebuke, magical retribution and expulsion. But the Maskilim, proponents of the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment, were determined to create a modern Jew, to found schools where children could learn science, geography, languages and history.Velvel Zbarzher, rebel and glittering star of fusty inns, spent his life singing his poems to loyal audiences of poor workers and craftsmen, and his attacks condemning the religious stronghold resulted in banishment and itinerancy. By the time Velvel died in Constantinople in 1883, the Haskalah had triumphed and the modern Jew had been created. But modernisation and assimilation hadn't brought an end to anti-Semitism.Armed with a useless nineteenth-century map, a lumpy second-hand coat, and an unhealthy dose of curiosity Jill Culiner trudged through the snow in former Galicia, the Russian Pale, and Romania searching for Velvel. But she was also on the lookout for a vanished way of life in Austria, Turkey and Canada.This book, chronicling a forgotten part of Jewish history, follows the life of one extraordinary Jewish bard, and it is told with wry humour by award-winning Canadian writer Jill Culiner.

PHOEBE GREEN is an anti-war activist in an alternate 2003 where Tony Blair held a referendum to determine whether the UK should go to war with Iraq. The pro-war side won by 52% to the anti-war side's 48%. The nation is split. Political tensions are running high with accusations that the Yes side manipulated the referendum. Phoebe is at a protest with her fellow activists CASSIE, XIA, VINCE, PAULA, GUS, LIAM, her ex-boyfriend SEFU and her sister MEL, when they are all arrested except Cassie and Paula. Hours later, Phoebe is interrogated by the police and is informed that Cassie has been murdered.Phoebe has trouble coping and decides to try to solve Cassie's murder in order to maintain some sense of control. The activists tidy up in the wake of a police raid, and Liam tells Phoebe that malicious gossip will be emerging about him soon.Phoebe calls a friendly lawyer, ERYL, who offers to follow up with some of her contacts about Cassie's murder. Phoebe and Mel clean out Cassie's room. Phoebe finds a strange piece of paper containing the addresses of several men named RICHARD LAMPART. Phoebe goes to the pub where Cassie was murdered, where she learns the attack was far from random, as the police claimed.On her return, Sefu tells Phoebe that he spotted strangers on the farm, away from the house. Phoebe and Sefu see Vince being attacked by a right-wing agitator who they recognise from PATRIOT'S UNITE, a far-right organisation.Phoebe and Sefu run to help Vince but he's been killed by the time they arrive. Phoebe comforts Mel, who was dating Vince. Phoebe and Sefu decide to find Vince's attackers and bring them to justice. Xia is unhappy with this - she wants the activists to go on another action to ground some American B-52s at a nearby airbase before they can bomb Iraq.Phoebe and Sefu locate one of the attackers in a barn and trap him. The attacker, who Phoebe dubs COWARDLY WINSTON, tells them that he saw Vince and the other attacker being stabbed by a third party. Sefu and Phoebe return to the house and find a sword belonging to Sefu covered in blood. The investigators establish that it is possible for Vince to have been attacked in the way Cowardly Winston described. They can only conclude one of their friends is the murderer.Phoebe and Sefu used to think that the only people could they trust were inside the house. They now know they're wrong. One of their own is a murdered. But why would one of them kill Vince? And what does that have to do with the murder of young Cassie. And who is next to die?

Power is a contagion as strong as any disease - and it kills. An ancient plague pit and within it, a very recent corpse is found linked to the Prime Minister A shadowy network of influence and power might destroy of the Mother of Parliaments. Time is running out and it's not clear what, or who, is going to survive.

"If the history of a country can be traced in a single life, then a history of Russia can be traced all the way back to suburban England. This is the path that runs through me, and for this reason it has not been possible to start anywhere else." Highly informed with a unique perspective, Black Tea chronicles the changing face of Russia.

A comedy thriller about Nazi diamonds that includes more countries than an atlas, an unemployed am dram drifter, and an teapot. A hilarious page-turner. If Terry Prachett wrote James Bond, this would be it.

War spreads further into Dumnon despite the coming of winter, and even more Murecken priests are on the hunt for those with power in their blood.Coryn now trains young warriors in Storr Haven in the use of magic, but he still searches for Katleya, the woman he lost.Two young Londoners, Evie and Alan, are flung through a Portal into Dumnon. They must learn to fight and survive in an alien world they don't understand.A castle comes under siege. A Portal fractures. Sleeping dragons wake.

Witty, charming and enlightening, British theatre director Tim Luscombe's comic diary is an ode to a potential (E)Union, a lament for a lost citizenship and a celebration of a new life in Berlin's cosmopolitan bubble as the writer grapples with a referendum, adapts Jane Austen's Emma and learns 7 different ways to say 'the'.

The Project Saboteur has been undermining big projects since the beginning. Not just IT projects, although sabotage gets the most awareness there, but all projects in business.Every project has opponents who try to manipulate it so that the result better suits them. A naive idea? Hardly! People have the inclination to adjust truth to suit themselves and thus serve their own interests: more power, more income, more respect.Even though it is rampant, little attention has been paid until now to the art of undermining and manipulating projects. And yet many millions of Euros a year are squandered as a result of project sabotage. If more attention is given to the motivation and methods of project saboteurs, this will lead to large savings and better project results.This book explains how to sabotage a project, the motivations that guide the project saboteur, the alliances the project saboteur might make, and most importantly, how to stop him. Because you understand how the saboteur is thinking and why he is doing what he does, then you have a greater chance of stopping him. You might even be able to convert him to your cause.It includes real-life case studies, examples, and helpful check lists and tables to determine if there's a project saboteur at work. They're out there, and now you know how to kill them - we accept no legal responsibility for your actions as a result.

Inspired by author Sarah Gray's ability to creatively harness her experience of Motor Neurone Disease, Claret Press sponsored a short story competition. It called for entries that dealt with mental or physical disability in innovative ways. With Sarah, Katie Isbester PhD (editor-in-chief of Claret Press), and Dr James Scott (an orthopedic surgeon) as judges, the competition offered prizes of £250, £150 and £50. Over 70 stories flowed in. The quality was exceptionally high, and the stories were, without exception, moving. The best of a great selection have been collected here. Some stories are hilarious, some heartbreaking. They include sci-fi, romance, satire and memoir. All challenge us to see mental and physical disability through a different lens - one infused with humanity.This beautiful full-colour book includes fifteen original photographs by internationally renowned artist, Tansy Spinks, whose photography can been seen in the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, the National Media Museum in Bradford, and now at the V&A.Net proceeds from the sale of the book go to support the Motor Neurone Disease Association. We are proud to announce that our fundraiser has raised almost £2000 and counting. FInd Sarah's work here: Surface Tension, Half Life, and Urban Creatures - coming soon.

Alan Steele Nicholson, Former Press Officer - US Senator Jacob Javitz, New YorkBrilliant and timely political who-done-it. Having been a press officer for a US Senator for a number of years, I've had a front row seat to the inter workings of Capital Hill. To my mind, Powell has masterfully combined the timeliness of today's political intrigue with a gripping detective story/who-done-it. By bringing the mind-boggling swirling mess that is Washington politics down to the level of one family's pain he held me glued to the page.What I found particularly remarkable was how easily I found myself sympathizing with the ';villain', and how well-crafted and human was Powell's plea that we need to finally bring common sense back to our government and its approaches to critical problems facing the country and the world.A deceptively easy read given its thunderous message. Term Limits should be require reading for every new politician heading to Washington.Murder week after week, month after month, across the country. Pushed beyond his limits, one man takes on the establishment, the gun lobby, and corruption at the highest levels. To break the power of entrenched elites, he leads the nation on a grisly hunt. He's hunting them. And they're hunting him. One side will have to blink. In the meantime, people are dying. Term Limits is a thriller from the front pages of our newspapers. It couldn't be more topical.

This memoir of fictional Chinese artist, Little Winter, is written for her American daughter. It takes the story of Communist China beyond the death of Mao and for the first time in fiction shows the birth of the radical art movement, The Stars, in1979."