Aubrey And The Terrible Yoot

Aubrey's father, Jim, has fallen under an horrendous spell, which Aubrey is determined to break. Everyone says his task is impossible, but Aubrey will never give up and never surrender - even if he must fight the unkillable Spirit of Despair itself: the TERRIBLE YOOT!

Aubrey is a rumbunctious boy who tries to run before he can walk and has crashed two cars before he's old enough to drive one. But when Aubrey's father, Jim, falls under an horrendous spell, Aubrey is determined to break it. Everyone says his task is impossible but with the help of the animals of Rushing Wood and a touch of magic, Aubrey will never give up and never surrender - even if he must fight the unkillable spirit of despair itself - the Terrible Yoot!

Part memoir, part adventure story, and part study of the natural world, this is an evocative and vividly written memoir of a childhood on a remote sheep farm in Wales.

'Deeply moving, darkly funny and hugely powerful' Robert Macfarlane 'A brave, lit-up account of going mad and getting better' Jeanette Winterson After a lifetime of ups and downs, Horatio Clare was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. From hypomania in the Alps, to a complete breakdown and a locked ward in Wakefield, this is a gripping account of how the mind loses touch with reality, how we fall apart and how we may heal. 'One of the most brilliant travel writers of our day takes us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth and humanity' Reverend Richard Coles

A moving ghost story that explores the overcoming of loss, and how to move on Thomasine has spent months living in her great-great-aunt's dusty, dark house with her father, and her aunt, uncle and cousins. While her father's siblings bicker about how much the house must be worth, her distant, elderly aunt is upstairs, dying, and her father has disappeared inside himself, still mourning the death of Thomasine's little brother. But one day, her youngest cousin makes a discovery: a wardrobe, filled with all the mirrors missing from the big house. And through the mirrors, a different world - one in which you can find not what you most wish for, but perhaps what you most need... A beautiful tale of love, grief and growing up, A House Without Mirrors is an unforgettable adventure into families and the power of love.

'Magnificent' Robert Macfarlane Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Our lives depend on shipping but it is a world which is largely hidden from us. In every lonely corner of every sea, through every night, every day, and every imaginable weather, tiny crews of seafarers work the giant ships which keep landed life afloat. These ordinary men live extraordinary lives, subject to dangers and difficulties we can only imagine, from hurricanes and pirates to years of confinement in hazardous, if not hellish, environments. Horatio Clare joins two container ships on their epic voyages across the globe and experiences unforgettable journeys. As the ships cross seas of history and incident, seafarers unfold the stories of their lives, and a beautiful and terrifying portrait of the oceans and their human subjects emerges. 'Tremendous' The Times

From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries - this epic journey is nothing to swallows, they do it twice a year. But for Horatio Clare, writer and birdwatcher, it is the expedition of a lifetime. Along the way he discovers old empires and modern tribes, a witch-doctor's recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to travel without money or a passport, and describes a terrifying incident involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog. By trains, motorbikes, canoes, one camel and three ships, Clare follows the swallows from reed beds in South Africa, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May.

Unsentimental love story told from a man’s point of view Jase is a soldier who falls for a girl at a gig in Newport. When he finds out that Charlotte is a writer from London this brave man is terrified. She loves words. Jase has spent his life hiding the fact that he cannot read. Desperate to see more of her, Jase signs up for a writing course she is teaching in Wales. Can Jase possibly keep his secret there? Lust becomes love despite their differences. But Jase is called away by the Army, back to the Middle East, and now Charlotte has a secret, too...