National Cake Day In Ruritania

Do the job, collect the fee, and don’t look in the envelope. Rory Redman’s exploits might drive his contemporaries to rage and himself to insolvency, but he has never put anyone in real danger – before now. His desperation for money drives him to accept a commission that he knows has crossed a line. All he has to do is keep a lid on his curiosity and his troubles are behind him. But Rory Redman was never one to deny an impulse. There is a heart-stopping inevitability about the way his choices funnel him ever further from safety and ever further from home. The mutual attraction between him and Ariadne Sowerby might be the route to salvation except that both strive to hide their feelings and Rory’s suicidal curiosity focuses on Klarissa Alterleta, the strange woman whose antics escalated his minor troubles into the stratosphere. In Ruritania, a country that roams Europe like a restless wanderer, a national crisis is brewing. Cut-throat revolutionaries, national security forces and Britain’s secret service are all involved, and are all overtly or covertly at each other’s throats. But they share a lone goal – each is determined to find Rory Redman and wipe him from the face of the earth. Ariadne might have helped him if he hadn’t alienated her. Klarissa could save him from the worst of his pursuers, but she won’t. Forced back on to his own inner strength, Rory girds his loins and faces the fact that his only real expertise lies in logic, marathon running and Morris dancing. The contest is surely lost before it has begun.

Seventh century England; a baby is found in a tree by a party of monks. He’s brought up in their monastery and given the name Arborius. Young Arborius appears to have miraculous powers, so he’s awarded a halo (second-hand, source uncertain)—but all is not as it seems. His “miracles” are really the work of his guardian spirit, a foul-mouthed thin dog, visible only to himself and to the slowest-witted of his fellow monks. This biography of a little-known (actually non-existent) saint reveals how Arborius ostensibly earned his halo, worsted the Devil, was famed for feeding the poor and healing the sick, founded many of our Christmas traditions, departed the world in a manner recalling the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk—and was canonised. Warning: the story contains groan-inducing word games!

A new year at the University of Stancester, and Lydia Hawkins is trying to balance the demands of her studies with her responsibilities as an officer for the Christian Fellowship. Her mission: to make sure all the Christians in her hall stay on the straight and narrow, and to convert the remaining residents if possible. To pass her second year. And to ensure a certain secret stays very secret indeed. When she encounters the eccentric, ecumenical student household at 27 Alma Road, Lydia is forced to expand her assumptions about who's a Christian to include Quaker Becky, bells-and-smells Peter, and bisexual Methodist Colette. As the year unfolds, Lydia discovers that there are more ways to be Christian, and more ways to be herself, than she had ever imagined. Then a disgruntled member of the Catholic Society starts asking whether the Christian Fellowship is really as Christian as it claims to be, and Lydia finds herself at the centre of a row that will reach far beyond the campus.

Fenella is officially a damsel, but she’s the despair of her parents, who want to marry her to young Sir Mallicose. Big, muscular, dark, scruffy and bold, Fenella would rather chop logs and shoot arrows than embroider a tapestry, and she isn’t interested in Sir Mallicose at all. Her younger sister Felicity—delicate, pretty, shy and retiring—loves embroidery, loves Sir Mallicose, and hates Fenella. When the terrible dragon Faffer arrives in the neighborhood, wreaking havoc and stealing livestock and maidservants, Sir Mallicose goes to fight him—and is captured. Fenella sets off to rescue him, despite the fears of her friend Harold the Steward. Her only weapons against Faffer the dragon are her axe . . . and her magic mirror, which shows you the thing you most greatly fear. Will they be enough? And if Sir Mallicose is rescued, which sister will he marry? (Illustrated)

This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that moral non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.

In the years following the First World War a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties' Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. In a quest for treasure, a favourite party occupation, a vivid assortment of characters hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the fulfilment of unconscious desires.

Crossing decades with a global span, Lisabeth Reynold’s The Purple Bowtie is a passionate tale with Lisa Robertson and her lover, Rachel, at its heart. Intricately conveying the nuances of the LGBT+ scene in both 1920's Paris, and 1980's Miami, Reynold’s novel takes inspiration from the lives of real women trying to exist in a hostile world. Intrigued by the idea of sexual fantasy as an act of creation, Reynolds’ novel seamlessly mixes sexual politics and the multifaceted aspects of lesbian identity with the mysteries of the creative process and humankind's urge to reach out to the stars.

A collection of folk tales from the surrounding areas of the Peak District.