Dr. Dulcinea (Dulcie) Chambers is honored to have the esteemed British artist Logan Dumbarton as a guest at the Maine Museum of Art. The abstract expressionist painter has come all the way from London to teach a master class. His students, a group of talented local artists, are initially in awe. However, the eccentric artist is accompanied by an entourage that is proving less than ideal. His stunningly exotic wife Isabel is a constant distraction with her incessant whining, while Linda, Logan's ever-efficient sister and business manager, does nothing but placate her brother's whims. To make matters worse, Logan seems to vacillate between annoyingly sniveling and irritatingly egocentric at any given moment.Within a week the entire class loathes him. Is he really worth all of this trouble? Somebody doesn't seem to think so, and it's up to Dulcie to find out who. But she'll have to team up with Detective Nicholas Black once again, and at the moment their relationship can only be...

Tim, aged seventeen, sensitive and intellectual, has a number of seemingly intractable problems. Deeply disturbed by the realisation he was homosexual, his conflicts are made worse by his strict Roman Catholic upbringing, and the fact that the boy he has fallen in love with is not only attracted to girls but would reject him scornfully if he revealed his feelings. There seems to be no possible reconciliation between the pattern of his sexual orientation and the teachings of the church, nor any way that his love for Aaron can be other than frustrating and humiliating. Tim retreats into a fantasy-world in which, he imagines he is in Exeter during the Civil War, that he is a member of the besieged Royalist garrison trying to put off for as long as possible the inevitable capture of the city by the advancing Puritan armies. In reality, the crisis of his life occurs and it is partly resolved when he unexpectedly finds himself with Aaron and two other boys on a mountain walking expedition in the Lake District which goes disastrously wrong. Because of bad weather and the loss of their compass, they are forced to stay in the tent for several days, unsure of where they are, and have to face the possibility of dying from exposure or starvation if help does not come.

In rural Ireland in the 1840s, English landlord Anthony Altarnun and his servant Michael Tangney find themselves forced to cope not only with the horrors of the potato famine, but also the hostility aroused by their relationship in the small community they are trying to save from starvation.

I have come to believe that there can be no adequate preparation for the sadness that comes at the end, the sheer regret that one's life is finished, that one's failures remain indelible and one's successes illusory.' Elizabeth and Betsy are old school friends. Born in 1948 and unready for the sixties, they had high hopes of the lives they would lead, even though their circumstances were so different. When they meet again in their thirties, Elizabeth, married to the safe, older Digby is relieving the boredom of a cosy but childless marriage with an affair. Betsy seems to have found real romance in Paris. Are their lives taking off, or are they just making more of the wrong choices without even realising it?

The wind, which had been blowing at gale force all morning, was beginning to fling water over the sea wall, but no one on Flatsea Island was seriously alarmed. They were used to January gales and, besides, everyone said those walls were impregnable. So even when the creek stayed full at what should have been low tide, the little community went about its business as though it were any other Sunday. And so no one was prepared when the water came surging through the walls that night, covering the bridge that joined Flatsea to the mainland and swamping the coastline too. Young Peter Brown was helplessly trapped in his family’s pub, where the flood had burst open the doors and was rising steadily up the stairs, and was worrying desperately about what had happened to his brother Aaron, due back on the last train home after a night out in Oozedam, or to Martin, who lived on the mainland and had left with his girlfriend only a short time ago, or to his parents, who had driven into town to see their first grandchild, or to his grandparents alone in their cottage a little way inland. David Rees tells his story of the flood and its aftermath with great power and clarity. You’ll find yourself getting involved with every member of the close-knit Brown family as they face this crisis, whose shocking effect is, for more than one of them, a turning-point in their lives. For older Puffin readers.

Join Jade and her ponies for another adventure - this time the stakes are high. Ages 9-12 At the time, offering to take home the worst behaved pony at the showjumping champs seemed like a brave decision. Now, back in Mr White's paddock, too nervous to even mount her five-year-old monster, taniwha, Jade is feeling stupid. "Have you ever been hunting? It's probably exactly what your feisty Kaimanawa boy needs." two years older than Jade, and home from boarding school, Zoe Death couldn't be much more intimidating. But maybe she's right? Persuaded by her friends Becca and Laura, Jade spends the winter holidays on the Deaths' sheep station. Is this the perfect opportunity for Jade to recover her confidence and bond with taniwha, or a dangerous mistake? Ages 9-12

A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil ServantA hilarious guide to the lost art of artisanal pencil sharpening"...I am so thrilled David Rees is picking up the reins of the forgotten art of manual graphite-encased-in-wood point-crafting. I love my pencil!"—AMY SEDARIS"You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference."—JOHN HODGMAN"Truly, my life before I was presented with correctly sharpened pencils by an artisan was a dull and ill-sharpened void. Learn from my mistakes."—NEIL GAIMANHave you got the right kind of point on your pencil? Do you know how to achieve the perfect point for the kind of work you need out of that pencil?Deep in New York’s Hudson River Valley, craftsman David...