Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco. 
 
 
The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.

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Sarah MacDonald

After backpacking her way around India, 21-year-old Sarah Macdonald decided that she hated this land of chaos and contradiction with a passion, and when an airport beggar read her palm and insisted she would come back one day - and for love - she vowed never to return. 
 
But twelve years later the prophecy comes true when her partner, ABC's South Asia correspondent, is posted to New Delhi, the most polluted city on earth. Having given up a blossoming radio career in Sydney to follow her new boyfriend to India, it seems like the ultimate sacrifice and it almost kills Sarah - literally. After being cursed by a sadhu smeared in human ashes, she nearly dies from double pneumonia. It's enough to send a rapidly balding atheist on a wild rollercoaster ride through India's many religions in search of the meaning of life and death. 
 
From the 'brain enema' of a meditation retreat in Dharamsala to the biggest Hindu festival on earth on the steps of the Ganges in Varanasi, and with the help of the Dalai Lama, a goddess of healing hugs and a couple of Bollywood stars - among many, many others - Sarah discovers a hell of a lot more.

Holy Cow!

An Indian Adventure

Christopher Hale

In 1938, on the eve of war, a Nazi expedition set out through British India on a mission sponsored by Himmler himself. Its aim was to trace the origins of the Aryan race, high in the sacred mountains of Tibet. The expedition was led by two complex individuals - Ernst Schäfer, a swashbuckling, gun-toting naturalist for whom Nazism promised a short-cut to personal glory, and Bruno Beger, an anthropologist whose racial theories were taken to their logical conclusion in Auschwitz. 
Schäfer and Beger soon found themselves battling hostility from the British, being manipulated by the Tibetans and struggling with the primitive conditions in the holy city of Lhasa. Every detail of the expedition was recorded in diaries, letters and secret reports. It was also documented in thousands of extraordinary photographs (some of which are reproduced here for the first time in decades) and on film. 
Despite this abundant documentation, the full story of Schäfer's ill-fated expedition has never been told. This encounter between the British and the Nazis so close to the Second World War forms a 'picture in little' of the conflict to come. HIMMLER'S CRUSADE explores the ideological roots of the Nazis' obsession with racial theory and the occult. Using the wealth of primary material as well as his own interviews with Bruno Beger, Christopher Hale has written a fascinating and thought-provoking book that brilliantly evokes this little-known prelude to the unimaginable horror of war.

Himmler's Crusade

Allan Mallinson

Follow Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey through the 19th century as he takes command of the Sixth Light Dragoons, battles to crush the rebellion, and tries to safeguard his country's interests whilst leaving the brutal war as unscathed as possible. With cuts in the army and with his battalion down to a single squadron, can Hervey remain an impartial spectator when the stakes have never been higher?

The Sunday Times bestselling author Allan Mallinson, brings us another enthralling Matthew Hervey adventure. If you like Patrick O'Brian, Bernard Cornwell and CS Forester, you will love this! 
 
"What a hero! What an author! What a book! A joy for the lover of adventure and military buff alike" -- LYN MACDONALD, THE TIMES 
"Splendid...the tale is as historically stimulating as it is stirringly exciting" -- ANDREW ROBERTS, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 
"Impeccably researched and rooted in both time and place" -- ***** Reader review 
"A thrilling tale" -- ***** Reader review 
"Allan Malinson tells an absorbing tale and gives a wonderful insight into life at that time." -- ***** Reader review 
 
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India, 1824: Matthew Hervey and the 6th Light Dragoons are stationed in India, where conflagration looks set to flair. 
 
The usurper prince, Durjan Sal, has taken refuge in the infamous fortress of Bhurtpore. A deep ditch, which can be flooded at a moment's notice, runs round it - and as its notorious Tower of Victory - built with the skulls of defeated men - bears witness, it has withstood all attacks made on it. 
 
Until now. Hot and dangerous work lies ahead for Matthew Hervey and his courageous troop who know their fortunes will be decided by the sabre's edge. 
 
A Sabre's Edge is the fifth book in Allan Mallinson's Matthew Hervey series. His adventures continue in Rumours of War. Have you read his previous adventures A Close Run Thing, The Nizam's Daughters, A Regimental Affair and A Call to Arms?

The Sabre's Edge

(The Matthew Hervey Adventures: 5):A gripping, action-packed military adventure from bestselling author Allan Mallinson

Tahir Shah

Shortly after the 2005 London bombings, Tahir Shah was thrown into a Pakistani prison on suspicion of spying for Al-Qaeda. What sustained him during his terrifying, weeks-long ordeal were the stories his father told him as a child in Morocco. 
Inspired by this, on his return to his adopted homeland he embarked on an adventure worthy of the mythical Arabian Nights, going in search of the stories and storytellers that have nourished this most alluring of countries for centuries. Wandering through the medinas of Fez and Marrakech, criss-crossing the Saharan sands and tasting the hospitality of ordinary Moroccans, he collected a treasury of traditional stories recounted by a vivid and eccentric cast of characters: from master masons who work only at night to Sufi wise men who write for soap operas and Tuareg guides addicted to reality TV. Himself a link in the chain of scholars and teachers who have passed such tales down from father to son, mother to daughter, Shah reveals a world and a way of thinking that most visitors to Morocco barely know exist.

In Arabian Nights

Imran Khan

"A must-read for anyone interested in the intrigue of politics in the most dangerous country on earth" (The Sunday Times) 
 
Read the unique insider's view of a country unfamiliar to a Western audience, seen through the eyes of the man set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister. 
 
Born only five years after Pakistan was created in 1947, Imran Khan has lived his country's history. Undermined by a ruling elite, and unable to protect its people from the carnage of regular bombings from terrorists and its own ally, America, Pakistan has for years suffered from instability. Now Imran Khan and his own political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, offer a real political alternative for the people of Pakistan at a time when tension between Pakistan's government and the powerful military has reached dangerous new levels. How did this flashpoint of volatility and injustice come about? 
 
Pakistan: A Personal History provides a unique insider's view of a country unfamiliar to a western audience. Woven into this history we see how Imran Khan's personal life - his happy childhood in Lahore, his Oxford education, his extraordinary cricketing career, his marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, his mother's influence and that of his Islamic faith - inform both the historical narrativeandhis current philanthropic and political activities. It is at once absorbing and insightful, casting fresh light upon a country whose culture he believes is largely misunderstood by the West.

Pakistan

A Personal History

Tenzin Choedrak

Gilles van Grasdorff

In 1980, following more than twenty years of torture and suffering as a political prisoner of the communist Chinese government, Dr Tenzin Choedrak left his native Tibet to live in exile in India and returned to his duties as the Dalai Lama's personal physician.Now, in his moving memoir, this eminent master of the Tibetan medical tradition gives witness to his extraordinary life.It is a life irrevocably linked to the destiny of the Tibetan people and one of the most terrible collective crimes of the twentieth century. 
 
As Dr Choedrak graphically describes his impoverished early years as a child monk, and his progress as a student doctor in Lhasa, an entire culture and the unique therapeutic practices of Tibetan medicine are vividly brought to life. 
 
Yet it is Dr Cheodrak's account of the atrocities committed by the Chinese against the Tibetan people that ultimately marks this memoir as an exceptional testimony of forbearance and hope.For, despite the incredible cruelty and squalor inflicted upon him and his fellow prisoners, Choedrak used his skill and compassion to attend to his torturers.With unbelievable courage, he also refused to abandon his Buddhist faith and the beliefs to which he has devoted his life. 
 
Through his words, as collected by Gilles Van Grasdorff, and a preface written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Choedrak's The Rainbow Palace is a profound and moving testament to the power of love and faith.

The Rainbow Palace

Terry Deary

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the rich and powerful always look after their own and the working people are always revolting. But every now and again, a new group actually manages to seize power, and it changes history. 
 
Few enjoy the success of Ivaylo, the Bulgarian swineherd who managed to fight off the Mongols, slay the Tsar and marry his widow in the space of a year. But then, some rebels have more modest aims: Spartacus mainly wanted to go home to see his mum. Either way, we have much to learn from the tactics of revolutionaries gone by, like the two suffragists who posted themselves by Royal Mail to see the prime minister. (A first-class idea, though Downing Street declined the parcel.) 
 
From the peasants to the slaves, the martyrs to the mutineers, Revolting celebrates the resilience and determination of those who dared to challenge the status quo.

Revolting

A riotous history of rebellions and revolutions

Deepak Chopra

A revised edition the perennial international bestseller that has helped millions achieve physical and mental healing, rejuvenation and balance from Deepak Chopra, the undisputed master of modern spirituality. 
 
'A brilliant and exhilarating book' -- Sunday Telegraph 
'I could not put this book down, beautifully and clearly written' -- ***** Reader review 
'Inspirational' -- ***** Reader review 
'Deepak is the ultimate guru' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely love this book!' -- ***** Reader review 
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Instead of considering it as something solid, Chopra sees the body as interweaving systems of energies that are constantly being consumed and renewed - the balance of these energies determines the mind-body type. Combining ancient Ayurvedic healing practices with modern Western medicine, this unique book offers a step-by-step program of mind - body medicine that can be tailored to the individual's needs, based on the individual's mind-body type. 
 
 A comprehensive guide, explaining the various body types, Perfect Health explains how we can heal the mind and reduce stress via meditation, healing sounds, music and aromatherapy and how we can nurture the body by optimising diet and exercise. 
 
Originally published in 1990, this revised edition - complete with questionnaires and the latest scientific and medical research studies - is destined to appeal to the millions of Chopra devotees around the world and all those in search of balance, harmony and perfect health.

Perfect Health (Revised Edition)

a step-by-step program to better mental and physical wellbeing from world-renowned author, doctor and self-help guru Deepak Chopra

Portugal 1826 
 
Newly returned from India, Matthew Hervey joins a party of officers sent to lend support to the Portugese regent. But the Peninsula is a place redolent with memories. For it was here as a seventeen-year-old cornet that Hervey had his first taste of military action. The French had forced the British army into ignominious retreat until, under the leadership of Sir John Moore, they made a defiant stand at Corunna. 
 
As he prepares for battle once more, Hervey finds himself confronting ghosts from his past ... 
 
'Captain Matthew Hervey is as splendid a hero as ever sprang from an 
author's pen.' The Times

Rumours Of War

(The Matthew Hervey Adventures: 6): An action-packed and captivating military adventure from bestselling author Allan Mallinson

Lama Surya Das

Many of us long to connect with something greater than ourselves to experience the sacred in our daily lives, and to enhance our sense of spiritual enlightenment - yet often we don't know where to begin. Now, in Awakening to the Sacred, Lama Surya Das integrates essential Buddhist practices with a variety of other spiritual philosophies, wisdoms and traditions to show how we can create a personalized spiritual practice based on our own individual beliefs, aspirations and needs. Here, as he examines common themes that lie at the heart of any spiritual path, including faith, doubt, love and compassion - and explores rituals such as prayer, yoga and meditation - he provides practical advice on how we can nurture our inner spirit every day of our lives. 
With his unique and accessible approach, Surya Das emphasizes that we are all, by nature, spiritual beings and that our lives are naturally filled with sacred moments. Awakening to the Sacred illuminates the natural meditations already present in daily life, and shows how we can use them to awaken our hearts and minds, and progress towards inner peace, happiness and enlightenment.

Awakening To The Sacred

Full of personal stories, anecdotes, practical exercises, guided meditations and reflections, LETTING GO OF THE PERSON YOU USED TO BE addresses life's most universal difficulties in a way that is accessible to all. 
 
'My life has been changed for the better by reading this' -- ***** Reader review 
'Wonderful' -- ***** Reader review 
'Inspirational' -- ***** Reader review 
'This book is amazing and will change your life' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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Lamya Surya Das, American Lama and spiritual leader, whose inimitable light and lively universal teaching style has awakened the spirituality of thousands, now shares an enlightened approach to change and loss, dealing with difficult emotions such as fear, grief, and anger, and the role of crisis in uncovering our authentic selves. 
 
For many people, recent years have been characterized by profound change, whether it relates to financial upheaval, political shifts, or even massive losses of life to disease and violence. Even on the personal level each person must confront the curves life throws his or her way. Buddhism has a great deal to say about change and impermanence and how to meaningfully deal with it. In fact, change - whether on a large or small scale - provides our most important opportunity for learning about ourselves and the nature of reality. 
 
From this essential insight Lama Surya Das has crafted a fulfilling and important path to understanding and healing ourselves and finding peace.

Letting Go Of The Person You Used To Be

lessons on change, love and spiritual transformation from highly revered spiritual leader Lama Surya Das

In this comprehensive book, Lama Surya Das provides a bridge between East and West, past, present and future, making sacred and profound Tibetan teachings clear and easily accessible for anyone who wants to lead a more enlightened and sane life. 
 
Utilizing the unique Buddhist guidelines embodied in the Noble Eight Fold Path and the traditional Three Enlightenment Trainings of Virtue, Meditation and Wisdom, he elucidates the tried and true path of spiritual transformation - including key principles such as karma, rebirth and mind-training, as well as the highest, most secret teaching of Tibet, Dzogchen. In this wonderful marriage of the practical and the profound, Lama Surya Das reveals how sacred wisdom can be integrated into our busy lives. He offers a unique approach to the comprehensive wisdom of ancient Tibetan teachings on conscious living and dying and shows that the power of the Buddha is resting within us all. 
 
Drawing on Buddhist spirituality and wisdom, this is a view of the world written for Western seekers.

Awakening The Buddha Within

From THE Sunday Times bestselling author Allan Mallinson, a riveting read with the perfect combination of hero, history and adventure - perfect for fans of Patrick O'Brian and Bernard Cornwell. 
 
'A very astounding and enjoyable military read' -- ***** Reader review 
'Excellent - full of excitement, adventure and history' -- ***** Reader review 
'Outstanding' -- ***** Reader review 
'Magnificent!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Allan Mallinson is a truly gifted storyteller..."- ***** Reader review 
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1831: riots and rebellions are widespread . . . 
 
In England, the new government is facing protests against the attempts of the Tory-dominated House of Lords to thwart the passing of the Reform Bill. In India, relations are strained between the presidency of Madras and some of the neighbouring princely states. 
 
Having taken command of the action in Bristol to restore order after one of the bloodiest and most destructive riots in the nation's history, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is out of favour with the new government. But then his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, offers him a lifeline... 
 
Somervile has persuaded the Court of Directors of the East India Company to approve an increase in the Madras military establishment. Hervey and the 6th Light Dragoons are sent to the princely state of Coorg. The Rajah is in revolt against the East India Company's terms and Hervey's regiment is called upon to crush the rebellion. 
 
With the stakes raised by an unexpected visitation from his past, for Hervey the question is whether he and his men will get out of this brutal war unscathed?

The Passage to India

(The Matthew Hervey Adventures: 13): a high-octane and fast-paced military action adventure guaranteed to have you gripped!

Terry Darlington

Having survived their voyage to Carcassonne, you might expect pensioners Terry and Monica Darlington and their whippet, Jim, to retire to a comfortable corner of their favourite pub. But no, they looked to the New World for an extraordinary new adventure... 
No-one had ever sailed an English narrowboat in the US before, for reasons that became abundantly clear during the 9-month voyage of the Phyllis May - including 30-mile sea crossings, blasting heat, tornadoes, hurricanes and all manner of intimidating wildlife. But the real danger came from the locals: the Good Ole Boys and Girls of the Deep South. Colonels, bums, captains, planters, heroes, drunks, gongoozlers, dancing dicks and beautiful spies - they all want to meet the Brits on the narrow painted boat and their thin dog and take them home and party them to death. Beautifully written, lovingly observed, and very funny, Narrow Dog to Indian River takes you on a dangerous, surprising and always entertaining journey as a thousand miles of the little-known South-East Seaboard unfold at six miles an hour- the golden marshes of the Carolinas, the incomparable cities of Charleston and Savannah, and the lost arcadias of Georgia and Florida.

Narrow Dog to Indian River

Paul Sussman

This captivating, atmospheric and gripping page-turner by million copy bestselling author Paul Sussman is a must read for fans of Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy and Wilbur Smith. 
 
"A rip-roaring gem of a read - you are in for a real treat! - Raymond Khoury 
"A compelling, high-octane adventure novel that seamlessly meshes past and present..." - James Becker 
"Hands down one of the best writers of international suspense in the business" - Steve Berry 
"This is five star thrills a page. Highly recommended." -- ***** Reader review 
"A sheer pleasure to read" -- ***** Reader review 
"This novel is one of the most gripping I have ever read!" -- ***** Reader review 
 
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Egypt 2153 BC: Eighty priests set out under cover of darkness into the western desert, taking with them a mysterious object swathed in cloth. Four weeks later, having reached their destination, they calmly slit each other's throats... 
 
Albania, 1986: A plane takes off from a remote airfield, bound for the Sudan. On board, a cargo that will forever change the Middle East. Somewhere over the Sahara the plane disappears... 
 
The western desert, the present day: A group of Bedouin discover a mummified corpse half-buried in the dunes. With it are a roll of camera film and a miniature clay obelisk inscribed with a curious hieroglyphic sign... 
 
Three unconnected events - or so it seems until Freya Hannen arrives in Egypt for the funeral of her sister, a desert explorer who has inexplicably taken her own life...For Freya it is the start of a terrifying, life-or-death adventure - one that will lead her and Egyptologist Flin Brodie deep into the forbidding wastes of the Sahara. 
 
Their goal: one of archaeology's greatest mysteries and the astonishing secret at its heart...

The Hidden Oasis

an action-packed, race-against-time archaeological adventure thriller you won’t be able to put down

Raj Persaud

How often do we hear ourselves say, 'I can't cope', 'I'm going mad', 'I'm losing my mind'? Despite the wall-to-wall advice on offer to us today, how often do we struggle to maintain a healthy mental attitude in the face of seemingly endless pressure? 
 
Now, in this groundbreaking work, the eminent psychiatrist and broadcaster, Dr Raj Persaud, confronts crucial issues - such as emotional intelligence and the meaning of happiness - and offers proven strategies for achieving and maintaining a healthy, positive mental attitude, regardless of the stresses and strains of daily life. Packed with case histories, questionnaires and fascinating scientific research, this is an invaluable, twenty-first century survival handbook - the ultimate self-help guide to staying sane. 
 
'He is the most eminent psychiatrist of the age...the guru of common sense' Spectator 
 
'He can do what most consultants can't - translate medspeak into plain English' 
Dr Phil Hammond, Independent

Staying Sane

'Life is about relationships - the relationship we have with ourselves, with each other, with the world, as well as the connection to that which is beyond any of us. WHen our relationships are food, we feel good; when they are bad, we feel awful. Let's accept it:we need each other. We need to feel connected; we need to feel each other's presence and love.' 
 
With his first bestseller, Awakening the Buddha Within, Surya Das, the American-born lama, gave the Western world a primer for Tibetan Buddhism. Now, he continues to share this ancient wisdom as he shows us how to integrate all the experiences of our lives, both positive and negative, into our spiritual search. 
 
How happy we are with our relationships - with others, the world and ourselves - largely determines how joyous and fulfilled we will be. In Awakening the Biddhist Heart, Lama Surya Das shows us how to use our innate Spiritual Intellgence to build more loving and satisfying connections. As he helps us to increase our self-awareness and sensitivity towards others, making us better mates, parents, friends and members of society, Surya Das demonstrates how we can make our relationships more meaningful as he guides us through Buddhist practices that release negative emotions which enable us to learn from those we love, and those we don't.

Awakening The Buddhist Heart

Terry Tarnoff

If you were free, completely free with no ties or commitments: you could go anywhere, do anything - what would you choose? 
 
In 1971, Terry Tarnoff, fed up with a government he couldn't trust and wanting no part of a war he didn't believe in, packed a bag, picked up his guitar and sixteen harmonicas and headed out into the world. What followed was the ultimate drop-out adventure. 
 
For eight years Terry travelled the world. He saw it all: the blues clubs of Amsterdam and the jungles of Africa, he smoked chillums with the lepers of India, trance-danced at a death ceremony in Tibet, developed a heroin habit in Bangkok, nearly died driving through the poppy fields of Thailand with a kamikaze cab driver and found the girl of his dreams in wintry Stockholm. 
 
THE BONE MAN OF BENARES is about true love and spiritual-awakening. It's about turning on, tuning in and dropping out. In a world full of larger than life characters, and where the only limitation is your own imagination, Terry Tarnoff went in search of answers - and, amazingly, found some. Along the way he had the craziest road trip you'll ever encounter.

The Bone Man Of Benares

Look into the eyes of a jinn and you stare into the depths of your own soul... 
Writer and film-maker Tahir Shah - in his 30s, married, with two small children - was beginning to wilt under brash, cramped, ennervating British city life. Flying in the face of friends' advice, he longed to fulfil his dream of finding a place bursting with life, colour, history and romance - somewhere far removed from London - in which to raise a family. Childhood memories of holidaying with his parents, and of a grandfather he barely knew, led him to Morocco and to 'Dar Khalifa', a sprawling and, with the exception of its jinns, long-abandoned residence on the edge of Casablanca's shanty town that, rumour had it, once belonged to the city's Caliph. 
And so begins Tahir Shah's gloriously vivid, funny, affectionate and compelling account of how he and his family - aided, abetted and so often hindered by a wonderful cast of larger-than-life local characters: guardians, gardeners, builders, artisans, bureacrats and police (not forgetting the jinns, the spirits that haunt the house) - returned the Caliph's House to its former glory and learned to make this most exotic and alluring of countries their home. 
The Caliph's House is a story of home-ownership abroad - full of the attendant dramas, anxieties and frustrations - but it is also much more. Woven into the narrative is the author's own journey of self-discovery, of learning about a grandfather he hardly knew, and of coming to love the magical, multi-faceted, contradictory country that is Morocco.

The Caliph's House

James Redfield

In the remote snow-covered mountains near Tibet lies a community long thought to be a mere myth called Shambhala, or Shangri-La. Here, in this place, is knowledge that has been kept hidden for centuries, and an insight that can have a profound impact on the way each of us lives our lives. Your search for Shambhala begins with the words of a child and the vision of an old friend. Those slender clues and a powerful synchronicity will lead to Kathmandu, Nepal, and then to Lhasa, Tibet. 
 
Amid blowing snows and perilous mountains, you will meet the members of the secret Tibetan sect that guards mysterious legends - the verbal instructions handed down for centuries that describe the inner changes one must undergo before entering Shambhala. 
 
Finally, with Chinese Agents in pursuit, you will pass through regions where anger and compassion struggle for ascendancy, and arrive at a place where the stunning reality about human prayer-energy - our underdeveloped ability to increase the synchronicity in our lives and influence what will happen to us in the future - is revealed. 
 
Like James Redfield's other books, The Secret of Shambhala has a parable effect. Open yourself to this amazing adventure and the experience will stretch your world view. It will also leave you determined to channel your thoughts and wishes into a dynamic force that can help you to liberate your life, enhance the lives of others and actively change the world.

The Secret Of Shambhala: In Search Of The Eleventh Insight

Brad Newsham

'Someday, when I am rich, I am going to invite someone from my travels to visit me in America.' 
 
Brad Newsham was a twenty-two-year-old travelling through Afghanistan when he wrote this in his journal. Fourteen years later, he's a Yellow Taxi driver working in San Francisco. He's not rich, but he has never forgotten his vow. 
 
Take Me With You is the compelling account of his journey through the Philippines, India, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa as he searches for the right person - someone who couldn't afford to leave their own country, let alone holiday in the West. Newsham's story will change the way you think about your life and the lives of those you meet when you travel. 
 
Who does he invite home? Read Take Me With You and find out...

Take Me With You

Celia Lyttelton

When Celia Lyttelton visited a bespoke perfumers, she realized a long-held ambition: to have a scent created solely for her. Entering this heady, exotic world of oils and essences, she was transported from a leafy London square to a place of long-forgotten memories and sensory experiences. And once drawn into this world, she felt compelled to trace the origins, history and culture of the many ingredients that made up her unique perfume... 
 
And so began a magical journey of the senses that took Celia from Grasse, the cradle of perfume, to Morocco; from the rose-growing region of Isparta in Turkey, to the Tuscan hills where the iris grows wild. And after journeying to Sri Lanka, the home of the heavenly scented jasmine, Celia ventured to India, the Yemen and finally to the 'Island of Bliss', Socotra. Here she traced the rarest and most mysterious agent in perfumery, ambergris, which is found in the bellies of whales and is said to have powerful aphrodisiac qualities. 
 
From the peasants and farmers growing their own crops, and the traders who sell to the great perfume houses, to the 'noses' who create the scents and the marketing kings who rule this powerful billion-dollar industry, Celia Lyttelton paints a mystical, sensual landscape of sights, sounds and aromas as she recalls the extraordinary people and places she encountered on her unique Scent Trail.

The Scent Trail

A Journey of the Senses

Ian Denys Peek

In February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese. Denys Peek and his brother were just two of tens of thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers and citizens taken prisoner. 
Eight months later, he and his comrades were packed into steel goods wagons and transported by rail to Siam. They were to become part of the slave labour force destined for the massive construction project that would later become infamous as the Burma Thailand Railway. He would spend the next three years in over fifteen different work and 'hospital' camps on the railway, stubbornly refusing to give in and die in a place where over 20,000 prisoners of war and uncounted slave labourers met their deaths. 
Narrated in the present tense and written with clarity, passion and a remarkable eye for detail, Denys Peek has vividly recreated not just the hardships and horrors of the railway and the daily struggle for survival but also the comradeship, spirit and humour of the men who worked on it. It stands as a haunting, evocative and deeply moving testimony to the suffering of those who lived and died there - a salutary reminder of man's potential for inhumanity to his fellow man.

One Fourteenth Of An Elephant

Souad

When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one's family and was punishable by death. This was her crime. Her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning while Souad was washing the family's clothes, he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. 
 
In the eyes of their community he was a hero. An execution for a 'crime of honour' was a respectable duty unlikely to bring about condemnation from others. It certainly would not have provoked calls for his prosecution. More than five thousand cases of such honour killings are reported around the world each year and many more take place that we hear nothing about. 
 
Miraculously, Souad survived rescued by the women of her village, who put out the flames and took her to a local hospital. Horrifically burned, and abandoned by her family and community, it was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled Souad to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed and to start her life again. She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day. 
 
Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty. It speaks of amazing courage and fortitude and of one woman's determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices and which ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence.

Burned Alive

Joshua M Greene

'The soundtrack of [Harrison's] spiritual journey begins with the explosions of battle and ends, fifty-eight years later with the harmonies of eternal peace. And like all good stories, this one starts when the hero was just a child.' 
 
In Here Comes the Sun Joshua Greene sheds new light on the most mysterious of the Beatles, George Harrison, and provides a unique portrait of the man through his music and his spiritual quest. 
 
As Greene looks back at Harrison's early life and the years he spent growing up in an impoverished, post-war Liverpool, he follows the path taken by the quietly rebellious teenage, the experiences and friendships that helped to shape his destiny and, of course, explores Harrison's rollercoaster ride to fame as a member of the legendary Beatles. He also draws on scores of previously unpublished transcripts of recorded conversations, first-hand accounts and fresh anecdotes about Harrison and other musical greats such as Dylan and Presley. 
 
Poignant, insightful, and written with an immediacy that captures the very essence of the 'quiet one', Here Comes the Sun gives us an unprecedented close-up of Harrison's often underrated contribution to the Beatles' legacy, and his spiritual awakening through Indian music, mysticism and meditation.

Here Comes The Sun

Jean Sasson

Readers of Princess Sultana's extraordinary biography Princess were gripped by her powerful indictment of women's lives behind the veil within the royal family of Saudi Arabia. They were every bit as fascinated by the sequel, Daughters of Arabia. 
 
Here, the princess turns the spotlight on her two daughters, Maha and Amani, both teenagers. Surrounded by untold opulence and luxury from the day they were born, but stifled by the unbearably restrictive lifestyle imposed on them, they reacted in equally desperate ways. 
 
Their dramatic and shocking stories, together with many more which concern other members of Princess Sultana's huge family, are set against a rich backdrop of Saudi Arabian culture and social mores which she depicts with equal colour and authenticity. We learn, for example, of the fascinating ritual of the world-famous annual pilgrimage to Makkah as we accompany the princess and her family to this holiest of cities. Throughout, however, she never tires of her quest to expose the injustices which her society levels against women. In her courageous campaign to improve the lot of her own daughters of Arabia, Princess Sultana once more strikes a chord amongst all women who are lucky enough to have the freedom to speak out for themselves.

Daughters Of Arabia

Princess 2

John Man

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
A stately pleasure dome decree 
 
Kublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind this legend is even more fantastic than the poem would have us believe. He inherited the second largest land empire in history from his grandfather, Genghis Khan. He promptly set about extending this into the biggest empire the world has ever seen, extending his rule from China to Iraq, from Siberia to Afghanistan. His personal domain covered sixty-percent of all Asia, and one-fifth of the world's land area. 
 
The West first learnt of this great Khan through the reports of Marco Polo. Kublai had not been born to rule, but had clawed his way to leadership, achieving power only in his 40s. He had inherited Genghis Khan's great dream of world domination. But unlike his grandfather he saw China and not Mongolia as the key to controlling power and turned Genghis' unwieldy empire into a federation. Using China's great wealth, coupled with his shrewd and subtle government, he created an empire that was the greatest since the fall of Rome, and shaped the modern world as we know it today. He gave China its modern-day borders and his legacy is that country's resurgence, and the superpower China of tomorrow.

Kublai Khan

Na'ima B Robert

Covered from head to toe with only her eyes visible, the sight of a Muslim woman on a western city street rarely fails to provoke a strong reaction. Feelings of shock, horror, repulsion, pity or even fear are not uncommon. But have you ever wondered who it is behind the veil and what makes her tick? Ever wondered what her life is really like and whether her dreams, hopes and aspirations differ from yours? From My Sisters' Lips offers a rare glimpse into the lives of a community of women, most of whom are converts to Islam, and invites you to share their joys, sorrows, convictions and faith. 
 
When Na'ima B Robert abandoned her western lifestyle and embraced Islam six years ago, it was not a decision taken lightly. Yet soon after she took her first tentative steps towards covering, she felt empowered; no longer judged on physical appearances alone, no longer seeking the approval to feel beautiful - or using her looks to wield power over men - the experience effected her greatly. Before long she grew in confidence and courage. As she says, 'Something just clicked. I thought, "Good, don't look; don't compare me with your latest squeeze, don't try and guess my measurements - my body is my own business!"' 
From My Sisters' Lips offers a glimpse into the lives of just some of the extraordinary women who, like herself, have chosen to live behind the veil. What emerges is a vivid and intimate portrait of a sisterhood; as they speak candidly and with conviction on a diverse range of subjects ranging from marriage to motherhood, stereotypes, submission and self-image, we hear the strong, proud voices of those who are seldom heard.

From My Sisters' Lips

Anne Thomas Soffee

SNAKE HIPS follows an Arab-American woman's life as she shimmies her way from getting dumped by her tattoo-artist boyfriend to coming to grips with being single, ample, and 30. Her heart broken, Soffee moves back home to wallow in self-pity. There she comes across a flier advertising the usual classes in yoga, vegetarian cookery, ballet and...belly dancing. Against the wishes of her extended family and friends, she enrols, hoping to heal her heart and reconnect with her Lebanese roots. 
 
Soffee soon discovers that her life will never be the same after she enters the riotous world of belly dancing, a warm and welcoming subculture where younger and thinner are not necessarily better. Soffee's ethnic high leads to Princess Jasmine fantasies - for example, being 'third-favourite wife' to a sheik she is cyber-dating, a perfect relationship until she realizes that being obedient is easier online. Then she falls for a beautiful Lebanese boy-next-door. Among the zils (finger cymbals) and thrills of performing in moose lodges and county fairs, Soffee is surprised to find happiness and true love along the way.

Snake Hips

From the time she was a little girl, Maryam rebelled against the terrible second-class existence that was her destiny as an Afghan woman. 
 
She had witnessed the miserable fate of her grandmother and three aunts, and wished she had been born a boy. As a feisty teenager in Kabul, she was outraged when the Russians invaded her country. After she made a public show of defiance, she had to flee the country for her life. 
 
A new life of freedom seemed within her grasp,but her father arranged a traditional marriage to a fellow Afghan, who turned out to be a violent man. Beaten, raped and abused, Maryam found joy in the birth of a baby son. But then her brutal husband stole him away far beyond his mother's reach. For many long years she searched for her lost son, while civil war and Taliban oppression raged back home in Afghanistan. 
 
Set against a landscape littered with tragic tales of horrific suffering, Jean Sasson, author of Princess, chronicles the story of one resolute but tormented woman determined to achieve freedom and equality with men.

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