The third in the series. Now cleaned up and world weary, Patrick Melrose is a reluctant guest at a glittering party deep in the English countryside. Amid a crowd of flitting social dragonflies he finds his search for redemption and capacity for forgiveness challenged by his observation of the cruelties around him. Armed with his biting wit and a newly fashioned openness, can Patrick, who has been to the furthest limits of experience, drug addiction and alcoholism and back again, find release from the savageries of his childhood? Blackly comic, crisp and light brimming with sardonic perceptiveness and literary finesse. 209pp, paperback.

Follow directions on basic wizard's gear to make party robes, hats and other item including a Chinese wizard's robe, fairy wands and wings or a crystal crown. Learn about dragon wrestling, cabbage bowling, tealeaf reading, Egyptian dice and make special food and drink recipes such as Mandrake Cupcakes and Lavender Lemonade. Mix potions for an alchemists' gathering, make a throne for the realm for Merlin's birthday party, build a merry maypole for the welcome springtime fairy frolic or even make it 'snow' inside for a wizard's winter revels. We dare you to turn out the lights and read the tale of the Beheading Ball or hear Merlin's story about what really happened to King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. Spell-catcher safety goggles, magic flowers, fairy rosewater, orange peel fireworks, magic chameleon eggs, Chinese lanterns, caramel apples, a genie bottle, a fairy wristlet, paper pyramids or an Egyptian fortune catcher, here are magical things to make and marvellous things to do plus feasting and gaming. 144 heavyweight beautifully decorated pages with runes and colour and line art for ages 8-12 years - this old wizard wants to share his magical secrets with eager apprentices. 21 x 22cm and bottle green bonded leather edition with gold embossed decoration.

Published in a paperback edition under the title 'Resistance, Rebellion and Revolt', Professor Walvin looks at the Atlantic world as a whole including the French and Spanish empires and Brazil as well as Britain's colonies. He casts new light on one of the major shifts in Western history - in the 300 years following Columbus's landfall in the Americas, slavery had become a widespread and critical institution. It had seen 12 million Africans forced onto slave ships, a forced migration that had had seismic consequences for Africa and had transformed the Americas and materially enriched the Western world. It had also been largely unquestioned, in Europe at least, and among slave owners, traders and those who profited from the system, yet within a mere 75 years during the 19th century, slavery had vanished from the Americas, declined, collapsed and was destroyed by a complexity of forces that to this day remains disputed. Walvin shows here that it was in large part overthrown by those it had enslaved. He re-examines the significance of the resistance of the enslaved themselves, from sabotage and running away to outright violent rebellion. 304pp, map and fairly large print.

The novel shares the stories of 12 different lives which at times intersect and won the 2019 Booker Prize and its author, Bernardine Evaristo who became the first black woman to receive the award. The book starts on opening night at the National Theatre where Amma anticipates the debut of her new play, 'The Last Amazon of Dahomey' which is based around the life of a Dahomey Amazon, an all-female military regiment in what is today Benin, which existed from 1600s until late 1800s. Spend time with Carole who lives with her Nigerian-born mother Bummi in a south London flat and excels in school to become a successful banker, with the help of her teacher Shirley King. A couple visits Hattie on her farm which has been in her family for 200 years and later Hattie will face revelations over how her family came to make their fortune and buy the farm. The book transports the reader, whether to Carole's flat in London, Bummi's youth in Lagos, life in Plymouth, a commune on the Spirit Moon ranch in America and the life of three girls at university. The story is one of intergenerational experiences, moving from the 1960s to the UK we are familiar with today. Evaristo focuses on people who are often "othered" by society and she told the Guardian she wrote the book as she was frustrated that black British women weren't visible in literature. The form is based on fusion fiction (the absence of full stops and the use of long sentences) which allows the reader's imagination to flow with each character's thoughts. Paperback, 454pp.

From the excellent Lives of Great Religious Books series, this illustrated edition has desirable roughcut 'deckle' page edges, highly desirable in the USA, in a Princeton University Press publication. It is the untold story of how the Arabic Qur'an became the English Koran for millions of Muslims; the Koran is sacred only in Arabic, the original Arabic in which it was revealed to the prophet Mohammad in the 7th century. To many Arab and non-Arab believers alike, the book literally defies translation, yet English translations exist and are growing, both in number and in importance. Bruce Lawrence tells the remarkable story of the ongoing struggle to render the Koran's lyrical verses into English, and to make English itself an Islamic language. He revisits the life of Mohammad and the origins of the book before recounting the first translation of the book into Latin by a non-Muslim - Robert of Ketton's 12th century version paved the way for later ones in French and German, but it was not until the 18th century that George Sale's influential English version appeared. Many of these early translations, while part of a Christian agenda to 'know the enemy', often revealed grudging respect for their Abrahamic rival. Fresh English translations emerged by South Asian Muslim scholars, and this book is the first to explore the complexities of this translation saga. It also looks at cyber Korans, versions by feminist translators, and now a graphic Koran by the acclaimed visual artist Sandow Birk. 248 deckle pages, illus. including covers for various first editions and reprints.

Following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, the ruined nation was home to millions of homeless concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave labourers, political prisoners and Nazi collaborators in hiding. British and US forces gathered these malnourished and desperate refugees together and a huge repatriation exercise was begun. But, even after these exhaustive efforts, there remained a million displaced persons in Germany - Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans - who had no home to go to. The Last Million would spend the next three to five years in displaced persons camps set up by nationality, with their own police, churches and synagogues, schools, hospitals and newspapers. The International Refugee Organisation, set up in 1946, arranged for many to be resettled in countries suffering from post-war labour shortages, but no nations were willing to accept the 250,000 Jewish men, women and children who remained trapped in Germany. Even when the US belatedly agreed to accept refugees, they had to demonstrate that they were reliably anti-Communist, which meant visas for plenty of Nazi collaborators and war criminals, but only 10% of the Jewish applicants, as they were suspected of being Communist sympathisers and the majority were from Russian-influenced Poland. It was not until the partition of Palestine and the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 that the remaining Jewish survivors of the war finally began to leave Germany. Acclaimed and multi-award-winning historian David Nasaw's masterwork tells the gripping and, until now, largely hidden story of post-war displacement and statelessness. People from a shattered past with an unknowable future spread all over the world carrying their wounds, fears, hopes and secrets, from innocent children to sadistic war criminals. Nasaw here illuminates their incredible history and with a profound contemporary resonance shows us that it is our history too. 654pp.

The popular Manchester-based writer presents a new volume of missives about combat by Alexander Hamilton, General Sherman, Evelyn Waugh, Kurt Vonnegut to offer a more nuanced and moving look at the act of war. A black corporal beseeches President Lincoln to ensure that his regiment receive proper payment for performing their duties. Evelyn Waugh relates the hijinks that ensued when his brigade tried to blow up an old tree stump for a local nobleman. Defeated Cossacks taunt the pompous sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a suicide bomber in Iraq explains his simple motivation to his family. Gandhi implores Adolf Hitler to turn back the tides of World War Two. After learning about her son's last months in combat, a Gold Star mother leaves a heartbroken letter by his name on the Vietnam Veterans? Memorial Wall. Each of these 30 remarkable letters sheds light on what it means for us to take up arms against one another and each records a piece of that terrible deed. They encapsulate the full experience of battle from feats of courage and sacrifice to the grief that follows acts of violence. A poignant collection, 132 pages with roughcut deckle edges denoting quality in the USA. Softback 13 x 18cm approx.

Born in Hampstead in 1904, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton was an Oscar-winning stage and costume designer for films and theatre, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter and interior designer. He won awards for his work on My Fair Lady and Gigi and Coco in 1970 and lived in great style in his beautiful home at Ashcombe House near Salisbury. 'Since I was probably wearing fur gauntlet gloves, a cloth-of-gold tie, scarlet jersey and flowing 'Oxford Bags', perhaps it is reasonable to suppose that I was noticeable.' Cecil Beaton had a preference for three piece suits, jackets always a size too small that emphasised the waist, and enlarged shirt collars. Bold colours favoured in the 1920s continued to be in use during the 30s. His diaries reveal a particular fondness for deep reds and greens and a general dislike of white and pale colours. Beaton also favoured the use of blocks of solid colour as is evident in the design of the many hotel suites he was employed to decorate in New York. And the blocks of colour were used for his costume designs in Gigi and My Fair Lady. Huge full page images in both colour and black and white show the interiors of his home, out and about with friends, his felt hats, a self portrait photograph and of course with Audrey Hepburn for the film version, 1964. Pictured in a frayed jumper and flannel trousers, his shirts were made by Excello of New York and his shoes by Lobbs. There are his short nipped in cream woollen jackets from Lanz of Salzburg when he is pictured smoking and concentrating on his costume designs at his desk in the Waldorf Astoria, New York January 1934 and in the same outfit with zebra-print pumps in the studio at his home in Wiltshire. In fancy dress 1935, he is a remarkably beautiful man with an exquisite sense of taste in dress and style. Here he is with Greta Garbo and Gary Cooper, making a film with friends and neighbours in the cast, having fun and partying and being seen. From the moment Beaton arrived at Cambridge University in 1922 wearing evening jacket, red shoes, black and white trousers and a large cravat, to his appearance at Truman Capote's 1970 Black and White Ball, he expressed a flamboyant sartorial nonchalance - a sprezzatura. Now his clothing along with other elements of his wardrobe are at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the V&A London, with whom he worked to select and curate and become a champion of dandyism and vintage clothing. Spectacular showcase publication, 144 very large pages, 23.6 x 31.5cm.
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Sub-titled 'The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front', on July 17th 1939, Eileen Alexander, a bright young woman recently graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, begins a correspondence with fellow Cambridge student Gershon Ellenbogen that lasts five years and spans many hundreds of letters. As the relationship flourished from friendship and admiration into passion and love, the tensions between Germany, Russia and the rest of Europe reached a crescendo. When war is declared, Gershon heads for Cairo and Eileen forgoes her studies to work in the Air Ministry. As the Luftwaffe begins its bombardment of England, Eileen, like her fellow Britons, carries on while her loved ones are called up to fight. Gossipy, amusingly observant, 'blue stocking' Eileen's love letters run the gamut of sometimes catty and chatty, to ruminative, plaintive and frank, and all bookworms will appreciate her breadth of literary knowledge and unique style of expression. 'Darling, I've watched this relationship from the beginning and although Robert is a man of immense charm and intellect I think he is more selfish than anyone I have ever known. He mixes in a set of people who have no standards and above all, no sense of emotional responsibility... But Joan is not like that - she needs her friends and her family and he wants to uproot her...' 474pp, remainder mark, well illustrated with archive and family photos.

Author Bernardine Evaristo won the 2019 Booker Prize - a historic and revolutionary occasion as she was the first black British person ever to win the prize in its 50-year history. However, Evaristo had been working 40 years in the arts before this career landmark. This nonfiction debut from Evaristo looks at the author's childhood as one of eight siblings with a Nigerian father and white Catholic mother, her experience helping set up Britain's first black women's theatre company, the relationships of her twenties and her determination to write novels she found to be absent in the literary world around her. Born in 1959 in London and raised in Woolwich, Evaristo recalls the bigotry she experienced, including frequent vandalism of her family's home with bricks thrown through the window and noting 'Black was bad and white was good'. Learn how Evaristo graduated Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and worked with two colleagues to build Theatre of Black Women which created productions that included 'an experimental mixture of dramatic poetry, minimalist sets, movement and music - a theatrical collage, a poetry theatre'. Another important strand of Evaristo's life is her relationships which are chronicled in a chapter about her flings, relationships, crushes and sexuality. She writes that her creative life 'has been inextricably interwoven with my romantic entanglements with other people' and shares her experiences with a 'Mental Dominatrix' who convinced Evaristo she was better at reading the author's own poetry, a long distance affair with a Dutch woman and a restorative fling with a 'docile, sweet- natured, spiritual man'. Evaristo also reflects on her experience learning about Black history and how one 'cannot divorce Britain's imperialist history from its national identity'. At the end of the book, she leaves artists with the guidance to be wild, disobedient and daring with creativity, take risks instead of following predictable routes as 'those who play it safe do not advance our culture or civilisation'. There are fantastic photographs also included in the book, from photographs of her family including her parents' wedding day in Camberwell in 1954 and a portrait photo of her as a 'little dumpling' at the age of one, to a group photo with friends during her last year of school where she writes 'Ms Evaristo of the House of Suburbia is wearing an attention-grabbing woollen coat' and a shot of the author standing beside her fellow 2019 Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood on 14 October 2019, under which she writes 'I wasn't an overnight success, but everything changed overnight'.