Down The Islands

In 1960, against most predictions, the England cricket team won their first ever series in the West Indies. Even against a home side boasting Hall and Watson, Worrell, Sobers and Ramadhin, the visitors - fuelled by the bowling of Trueman and Statham and a batting order including Dexter, Barrington and Subba Row - emerged triumphant over five tests. Alan Ross describes the action in graphic detail, including some violent scenes at Port-of-Spain. And as always he paints vivid pictures in words of all that he saw outside of the cricket grounds, from Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Nelson's dockyard in Antigua, and the carnival in Trinidad. 'Alan Ross has established himself as one of the most graceful and cultured of cricket writers.' Times

From GMTV weathergirl to Loose Women anchor, Andrea McLean has become one of our most-loved TV presenters. But for years her famous smile has been concealing some devastating secrets. With heartbreaking honesty she opens up about the end of her first marriage and how, on the edge of a breakdown, she found herself juggling her demanding career with raising her son alone. When her second marriage also fell apart - in the glare of the media spotlight - it seemed her life had really hit rock bottom. In her fully updated autobiography, Andrea writes movingly about her joys and sorrows, and about coming to terms with being a single mum again. She describes how she learns that messing up doesn't mean you're wicked - just human. And she takes us behind the scenes at GMTV, Dancing on Ice and Loose Women to reveal that television can be a treacherous place for a good girl!

This remarkable new dictionary represents the first attempt in some four centuries to record the state of development of English as used across the entire Caribbean region.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2019 AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER "Readers who like quiet, meditative works will enjoy this strangely affecting buddy story." —Publishers Weekly "Rather than tying up the loose ends, she leaves them beautifully fluttering in the wind, and you do not feel lost in that experience. The writing is poetic and it’s worth savouring." —Angela Caravan, Shrapnel A bad dream leads to a strange poetic pilgrimage through Japan in this playful and profound Booker International-shortlisted novel. Gilbert Silvester, eminent scholar of beard fashions in film, wakes up one day from a dream that his wife has cheated on him. Certain the dream is a message, and unable to even look at her, he flees - immediately, irrationally, inexplicably - for Japan. In Tokyo he discovers the travel writings of the great Japanese poet Basho. Keen to cure his malaise, he decides to find solace in nature the way Basho did. Suddenly, from Gilbert's directionless crisis there emerges a purpose: a pilgrimage in the footsteps of the poet to see the moon rise over the pine islands of Matsushima. Although, of course, unlike the great poet, he will take a train. Along the way he falls into step with another pilgrim: Yosa, a young Japanese student clutching a copy of The Complete Manual of Suicide . Together, Gilbert and Yosa travel across Basho's disappearing Japan, one in search of his perfect ending and the other a new beginning. Serene, playful, and profound, The Pine Islands is a story of the transformations we seek and the ones we find along the way.

This rare book is an obscure Victorian travel narrative set in the West Indies and written by the prolific Charles Kingsley. This illuminating text offers an insightful depiction of how the British viewed the people and lands of the Indies, wonderfully written in a way that both informs and entertains. This classic text is a worthy addition to anybody's personal library and will especially appeal to collectors of Kingsley's work. Charles Kingsley was a priest of the Church of England, a university professor, historian and novelist particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire. This book was originally published in 1872 and is proudly republished now complete with original illustrations and a new introductory biography of the author.