2007, ISBN: 9780007153886

Mass Market Paperback. Good. 1997 Paperback,Bright Cover, no names, minor reading wear, clean and unmarked text, no labels, no stamps. An Epic of Two Worlds In a world as rich and real a… Plus…

Mass Market Paperback. Good. 1997 Paperback,Bright Cover, no names, minor reading wear, clean and unmarked text, no labels, no stamps. An Epic of Two Worlds In a world as rich and real as our own, Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell stand against the ancient forces which besiege the New World-- forces so terrible that when last they threatened, they could only be withstood by sealing off the Old World from whence they came. Now the barrier has been breached, and the New World is again beset by their evil power. War and treachery plague the world, and only Richard and Kahlan can save it from an armageddon of unimaginable savagery and destruction. In Blood of the Fold, Terry Goodkind, author of the brilliant bestsellers Wizard's First Rule and Stone of Tears, has created his most masterful epic yet, a sumptuous feast of magic and excitement replete with the wonders of his unique fantasy vision., 2.5, Harper Collins Publishers. Very Good. 6.02 x 1.1 x 9.21 inches. Paperback. 2004. 400 pages. <br>The first installment of Bernard Cornwell's New Yo rk Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the maki ng of England, like Game of Thrones, but real (The Observer, Lond on)-the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit television series. I n the middle years of the ninth century, the fierce Danes stormed onto British soil, hungry for spoils and conquest. Kingdom after kingdom fell to the ruthless invaders until but one realm remain ed. And suddenly the fate of all England-and the course of histor y-depended upon one man, one king. From New York Times bestsell ing storyteller Bernard Cornwell comes a rousing epic adventure o f courage, treachery, duty, devotion, majesty, love, and battle a s seen through the eyes of a young warrior who straddled two worl ds. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Cornwel l leaps back a millennium from his Richard Sharpe series to tell of the consolidation of England in the late ninth century and the role played by a young (fictional) warrior-in-training who's at the center of the war between Christian Englishmen and the pagan Danes. (Most of the other principal characters--Ubba, Guthrum, Iv ar the Boneless and the like--are real historical figures.) Young Uhtred, who's English, falls under the control of Viking über-wa rrior Ragnar the Fearless when the Dane wipes out Uhtred's Northu mberland family. Cornwell liberally feeds readers history and nug gets of battle data and customs, with Uhtred's first-person wonde rment spinning all into a colorful journey of (self-)discovery. I n a series of episodes, Ragnar conquers three of England's four k ingdoms. The juiciest segment has King Edmund of East Anglia rebu king the Viking pagans and demanding that they convert to Christi anity if they intend to remain in England. After Edmund cites the example of St. Sebastian, the Danes oblige him by turning him in to a latter-day Sebastian and sending him off to heaven. Uhtred's affection for Ragnar as a surrogate father grows, and he surpass es the conqueror's blood sons in valor. When father and adopted s on arrive at the fourth and last kingdom, however, the Danes meet unexpected resistance and Uhtred faces personal and familial cha llenges, as well as a crisis of national allegiance. This is a so lid adventure by a crackling good storyteller. Copyright ® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition. From Booklist An acknowledged master of rousing battlefield fict ion as evidenced by his crackling Richard Sharpeseries, Cornwell also deserves praise for his mesmerizing narrative finesse and hi s authentic historical detailing. Here he introduces a new multiv olume saga set in medieval England prior to the unification of th e four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia, and Wessex. Weakened by civil war, Northumbria is invaded by the fearless Danes, and Uhtred, the rightful heir to the earldom of B ebbanburg, is captured by the enemy. Raised as a Viking warrior b y Ragnar the Terrible, his beloved surrogate father, Uhtred is st ill torn by an innate desire to reclaim his birthright. Fighting as a Dane but realizing that his ultimate destiny lies along anot her path, he seizes the opportunity to serve Alfred, king of Wess ex, after Ragnar is horribly betrayed and murdered by Kjartan, a fellow Dane. Ever watchful and ever practical, Uhtred awaits his chance to settle the blood feud with Kjartan and to seize Bebbanb urg from his treacherous uncle. Leaving his hero suspended on the threshold of realizing his desires, Cornwell masterfully sets up his audience for the second volume in this irresistible epic adv enture. Margaret Flanagan Copyright © American Library Associatio n. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate paperba ck edition. Review Intoxicating....Thrilling....Cornwell conveys the disquiet of change and the melancholy of extinction as few h istorical novelists manage to. (Washington Post Book World) Ente r Cornwell's vividly drawn ninth-century Kingdom ... after this d ip into the Dark Ages, we want to go back. (Entertainment Weekly) Enthralling ... the desperate, heroic struggle of Alfred the Gr eat ... against the seemingly invincible Vikings. (Wall Street Jo urnal) History comes alive. (Boston Globe) A crackling good sto ryteller. (Publishers Weekly) Cornwell .... makes the usually gl oomy ninth century sound like a hell of a lot of fun. (Kirkus Rev iews) Highly recommended ... another great historical series in the making. (Library Journal (starred review)) Masterful....[An] irresistible epic adventure....Cornwell deserves praise for his m esmerizing narrative finesse and his authentic historical detaili ng. (Booklist) --This text refers to an alternate paperback editi on. From the Back Cover The first installment of Bernard Cornwe ll's bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making o f England, like Game of Thrones, but real (The Observer, London)- the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit BBC America television se ries. This is the exciting-yet little known-story of the making of England in the 9th and 10th centuries, the years in which King Alfred the Great, his son and grandson defeated the Danish Vikin gs who had invaded and occupied three of England's four kingdoms. The story is seen through the eyes of Uhtred, a dispossessed no bleman, who is captured as a child by the Danes and then raised b y them so that, by the time the Northmen begin their assault on W essex (Alfred's kingdom and the last territory in English hands) Uhtred almost thinks of himself as a Dane. He certainly has no lo ve for Alfred, whom he considers a pious weakling and no match fo r Viking savagery, yet when Alfred unexpectedly defeats the Danes and the Danes themselves turn on Uhtred, he is finally forced to choose sides. By now he is a young man, in love, trained to figh t and ready to take his place in the dreaded shield wall. Above a ll, though, he wishes to recover his father's land, the enchantin g fort of Bebbanburg by the wild northern sea. This thrilling ad venture-based on existing records of Bernard Cornwell's ancestors -depicts a time when law and order were ripped violently apart by a pagan assault on Christian England, an assault that came very close to destroying England. --This text refers to an alternate p aperback edition. About the Author BERNARD CORNWELL is the auth or of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales series , which includes The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, Lords of th e North, Sword Song, The Burning Land, Death of Kings, The Pagan Lord, and, most recently, The Empty Throne and Warriors of the St orm, and which serves as the basis for the hit television series The Last Kingdom. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod and in Charl eston, South Carolina. --This text refers to an alternate paperba ck edition. From The Washington Post You will look in vain for b urnt oatcakes in this novel of King Alfred the Great; like Bernar d Cornwell's brilliant trilogy of novels on King Arthur, which la cked both Holy Grail and enchanted sword, The Last Kingdom caters to those of us whose appetite for rehashed legends was satisfied long ago. In addition to providing thrilling combat action and s atisfying details of material life, military accoutrement and bat tle tactics, Cornwell's best historical fiction pleases us mighti ly in the way his renditions of the great actors and events of yo re stray from received versions. Such contrariness is partly the product of meticulous research and partly of a mischievous sense of humor. Happily, both inform The Last Kingdom throughout. The Alfred of history and fable was learned and just, a pious man of delicate health who saved 9th-century England from being entirely colonized by pagan Danes and was elevated to sainthood after his death. Indeed, W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman identified him as En gland's first Good King in 1066 and All That -- which peerless re pository of mangled historical cliché went on, naturally enough, to confound him with Arthur. The Alfred whom Cornwell sets before us is also learned and just, and he's pious in spades, always we aring out his knees in prayer and cherishing such relics as a fea ther from the dove that Noah had released from the ark and a toe ring that had belonged to Mary Magdalene. But he is also a compul sive, if remorseful, fornicator, a martyr to hemorrhoids and inte stinal distress and, at times, a hard-nosed conniver. What we se e of him in this, the first volume of a projected sequence, comes through the eyes of one Uhtred, whose tale, narrated from the va ntage of old age, this really is. Born of noble stock in Northumb ria, Uhtred is only 10 in 866, when he witnesses the battle that brings death to his father, a morose man, expecting the worst and not fond of children. Captured and adopted by the far more conge nial Ragnar, a fearless, high-spirited Danish lord, Uhtred embark s upon a perfect pagan boyhood, freed of the trammels of Christia nity. He spends his hours burning green muck off the hulls of Dan ish ships, shield painting, cattle slaughtering, house thatching, tending charcoal burns and practicing with his sword, all admira bly described -- and, eventually, in youthful sexual dalliance, n ot described, but which would have brought fire and brimstone dow n on his head in a Christian community. The boy does not miss hi s father, or monkish censure or the noxious grind of learning to read, and becomes quite the pagan Dane in most ways. Uhtred's gre at object in life is to fight in a shield wall -- one of Cornwell 's specialties (whereby warriors advance in a row, shields overla pping) -- and to reclaim his inheritance, the family domain and s tronghold in Northumbria. His uncle has taken possession of both, cementing his hold by marrying Uhtred's father's widow. Vexed lo yalties begin to proliferate in Uhtred's youthful bosom: toward E ngland, toward the good-natured Danish lord, against a treacherou s Danish villain, toward Danish paganism and against English Chri stian morality. Treacheries and prevarications abound, fortunes r everse, battles rage, and soon enough the youth ends up back with the English -- and his loyalties, well shuffled, begin to gravit ate toward Alfred. This feeling turns to rueful wonder when he re alizes that the great man has sent him on a mission meant to kill him, a breach of saintliness Alfred commits more than once. Thi s is a most enjoyable novel, and Cornwell has seasoned it with da shes of intoxicating pedantry. He shuns the word Viking (which de scribes an activity rather than a people or a tribe. To go viking meant to go raiding) and eliminates horned helmets (for which th ere is not a scrap of contemporary evidence). His prose is not al ways the equal of his historical imagination and sense of charact er: He does not, for instance, achieve Patrick O'Brian's marriage of language and vision. Still, he does convey the disquiet of ch ange and the melancholy of extinction as few historical novelists manage to. The England of the 9th century conjured up here is a palimpsest, an ancient isle giving ghostly testimony to successi ve civilizations. Prehistoric forts, old when the world was young , still exist, moldering and growing into the land. So, too, Roma n roads continue to bear traffic and Roman structures still stand , left behind almost five centuries ago and inherited by peoples lacking the engineering and architectural capability or understan ding to repair them. Here and there these marvels of imperial tec hnology, materials and manpower provide the foundations for crude Saxon building, as in London, where huge Roman buildings were bu ttressed by thatched wooden shacks. Meanwhile, the city's great b ridge is falling down, and the old wharves and quays are long rot ted so that the waterfront east of the bridge was a treacherous p lace of rotted pilings and broken piers that stabbed the river li ke shattered teeth. Place names are abundant in this peripateti c adventure, and in their Saxon forms we find the weird, almost e ctoplasmic predecessors of today's tame locutions: Lundene, Eofer wic (York), Suth Seaxa (Sussex), Thornsaeta (Dorset), Defnascir ( Devonshire) and Snotengaham. Cornwell wouldn't be his merry self if he didn't teach us that Nottingham was once bountiful Snotenga ham, the Home of Snot's people. Nor would he be his generous and indefatigable self if he did not promise us that this story is fa r from over. Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers Copyright 2005, T he Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition. From AudioFile In Northumbria i n the ninth century, 10-year-old Uhtred is adopted by the victori ous Danes after they kill his father. He is trained to be a warri or by King Alfred. Uhtred fights first on the side of the Danes, but eventually he must choose where his loyalties lie as he grows to adulthood. Tom Sellwood is outstanding in this performance, n ot only in his rendering of the myriad character voices, but also in his ability to re-create the atmosphere of the time period. T he battle scenes are so realistic that listeners will feel themse lves part of the shield wall, the preferred military formation of that period. With lots of blood and guts, raping and pillaging, the authenticity is hard to deny. Fortunately, this is the start of a series by Cornwell, and if we're lucky, Sellwood will narrat e them all. S.S.R. ® AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate p aperback edition. ., Harper Collins Publishers, 2004, 3, Simon & Schuster. Very Good. 5.3 x 1.1 x 8.2 Inches. Paperback. 2007. 415 pages. <br>Tom Clancy fans who have not yet discovered bestse ller Flynn (Consent to Kill) and his maverick, do-whatever-it-tak es hero, CIA operative Mitch Rapp, will find this page-turner rig ht up their alley. When an al-Qaeda?style bomb attack on the moto rcade of the Democratic presidential candidate, Georgia governor Josh Alexander, in Washington, D.C., a month before the November election kills the candidate's wife and several Secret Service ag ents, Rapp uses all the tools at his disposal to investigate the claim of the now discredited head of the protective detail that a mysterious figure in a red baseball cap set off the fatal bomb. Rapp soon finds that the motive for the outrage may be personal r ather than political. While the underlying plot elements require a great deal of suspended disbelief, Flynn will pull most readers along with his taut writing and plausible vision of the real wor k of the intelligence community. ., Simon & Schuster, 2007, 3, Holt Paperbacks. Very Good. 19 x 13cm. Paperback. 2000. 181 pages. <br>One dark and stormy night in 1956, a stranger name d Fludd mysteriously turns up in the dismal village of Fetherhoug hton. He is the curate sent by the bishop to assist Father Angwin -or is he? In the most unlikely of places, a superstitious town t hat understands little of romance or sentimentality, where bad bl ood between neighbors is ancient and impenetrable, miracles begin to bloom. No matter how copiously Father Angwin drinks while he confesses his broken faith, the level of the bottle does not drop . Although Fludd does not appear to be eating, the food on his pl ate disappears. Fludd becomes lover, gravedigger, and savior, tra nsforming his dull office into a golden regency of decision, unas hamed sensation, and unprecedented action. Knitting together the miraculous and the mundane, the dreadful and the ludicrous, Fludd is a tale of alchemy and transformation told with astonishing ar t, insight, humor, and wit. Editorial Reviews Amazon Review Fetherhoughton, the shabby and provincial village of Hilary Mant el's fifth novel, Fludd, possesses a charm that is, at best, late nt. The surrounding moorland is foreboding, the populace is queru lous and ill-educated, and the presiding priest is an atheist. It 's 1956, and drabness is general to this English backwater. Until , that is, the appearance of a disarming young priest who, appare ntly, has been dispatched to wrest Fetherhoughton out of its supe rstitious stupor. One of the novel's several wonders is that Flud d surpasses all expectations. Father Angwin, Fetherhoughton's di sbelieving priest, has--much to the displeasure of his superiors- -grown comfortable with the entrenched, misapprehending devoutnes s of his flock. Fludd, who may or may not be the curate sent to d eliver the wayward, exerts an immediate, if unexpected, influence . He intrigues the townspeople, flusters the church's gaggle of n uns, kindles a welcome self-examination in Father Angwin, and aro uses the passion of the young and yearning Sister Philomena. A ch arge of possibility suddenly animates the village, accompanied by several incidents that seem midway between coincidence and mirac le. Fludd, however, remains beset by an insistent disillusionment --his clarity, it seems, arcs outward only. Mantel's cramped and pliant village is a marvel. Fetherhoughton wrestles not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, again st the rulers of the darkness of this world, insists the dour hea dmistress, Mother Perpetua. A local tobacconist, not so trivially , just might be the devil in human garb. Fludd's gift lies in une arthing all the lovely and fearsome truths buried just beneath th e surface. The frightening thing is that life is fair, he observe s, but what we need... is not justice but mercy. The fruits of th is conviction, in Fetherhoughton, are rebellion, self-assertion, and even scandal; but Mantel's lovely tale suggests that difficul t possibility is fair compensation for a sloughed predictability. --Ben Guterson From Publishers Weekly Originally published in 1989 in the U.K., Mantel's slim, intense novel displays the autho r's formidable gift for illuminating the darker side of the human heart, offering metaphoric and literal incarnations of the power ful central images of Catholicism. Her circa-1956 setting of Feth erhoughton, a provincial English village surrounded on three side s by gloomy moors, is stark and dreary, a dead end where unwanted people are unceremoniously dumped. Such is the case of Sister Ph ilomena, a sturdy farm girl-turned-nun banished from an Irish con vent because her sister Kathleen breaks convent rules. It becomes apparent that Philomena will not fit in anywhere, as she is a st range mix of innocence and knowledge, a sage romantic. Philomena finds an unlikely confidant in Father Angwin, the parish priest, who has lost his faith, thinks the town tobacconist is the devil and fears the threat of a youthful replacement for his post. When a rain-soaked man named Fludd arrives on a stormy night, Angwin assumes it is the newly appointed curate, but even so, the two be come close friends and, in time, Angwin sheds his bitterness and paranoia to become a more compassionate, wiser person. Fludd swee ps the nosy housekeeper, Agnes, off her feet with his gentlemanly manners and cool confidence, but Philomena is also strangely att racted to the devilish Fludd, who magically transforms everyone h e meets. The monstrous Mother Perpetua, headmistress of the St. T homas Aquinas School, is the lone exception, and she ends up bein g a key player in the rural face-off between good and evil. Hawth ornden Prize-winner Mantel (The Giant, O'Brien) uses her knack fo r dry wit and lovely, scene-setting detail to liven up crisp, uti litarian prose, revealing, as her characters do, the ever-surpris ing divine in the mundane. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business I nformation, Inc. From Publishers Weekly Originally published in 1989 in the U.K., Mantel's slim, intense novel displays the autho r's formidable gift for illuminating the darker side of the human heart, offering metaphoric and literal incarnations of the power ful central images of Catholicism. Her circa-1956 setting of Feth erhoughton, a provincial English village surrounded on three side s by gloomy moors, is stark and dreary, a dead end where unwanted people are unceremoniously dumped. Such is the case of Sister Ph ilomena, a sturdy farm girl-turned-nun banished from an Irish con vent because her sister Kathleen breaks convent rules. It becomes apparent that Philomena will not fit in anywhere, as she is a st range mix of innocence and knowledge, a sage romantic. Philomena finds an unlikely confidant in Father Angwin, the parish priest, who has lost his faith, thinks the town tobacconist is the devil and fears the threat of a youthful replacement for his post. When a rain-soaked man named Fludd arrives on a stormy night, Angwin assumes it is the newly appointed curate, but even so, the two be come close friends and, in time, Angwin sheds his bitterness and paranoia to become a more compassionate, wiser person. Fludd swee ps the nosy housekeeper, Agnes, off her feet with his gentlemanly manners and cool confidence, but Philomena is also strangely att racted to the devilish Fludd, who magically transforms everyone h e meets. The monstrous Mother Perpetua, headmistress of the St. T homas Aquinas School, is the lone exception, and she ends up bein g a key player in the rural face-off between good and evil. Hawth ornden Prize-winner Mantel (The Giant, O'Brien) uses her knack fo r dry wit and lovely, scene-setting detail to liven up crisp, uti litarian prose, revealing, as her characters do, the ever-surpris ing divine in the mundane. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business I nformation, Inc. Review Hilary Mantel's wildly inventive novel about a reincarnated alchemist and an imaginary village in Englan d in the fifties is 'in every sense a magical book'. ?Listener, E ngland Fludd...establishes [Mantel] in the front rank of novelis ts writing in English today. ?The Guardian (London)) About the Author Hilary Mantel twice won the Booker Prize, for her best-sel ling novel Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. The fin al novel of the Wolf Hall trilogy, The Mirror & the Light, debute d at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and won critical ac claim around the globe. Mantel authored over a dozen books, inclu ding A Place of Greater Safety, Beyond Black, and the memoir Givi ng Up the Ghost. About the Author Hilary Mantel twice won the Bo oker Prize, for her best-selling novel Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. The final novel of the Wolf Hall trilogy, Th e Mirror & the Light, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestsel ler list and won critical acclaim around the globe. Mantel author ed over a dozen books, including A Place of Greater Safety, Beyon d Black, and the memoir Giving Up the Ghost. Excerpt. ® Reprinte d by permission. All rights reserved. Fludd A NovelBy Hilary Ma ntel Holt Paperbacks Copyright © 2000 Hilary Mantel All right re served. ISBN: 9780805062731 ONEOn Wednesday the bishop came in pe rson. He was a modern prelate, brisk and plump in his rimless gla sses, and he liked nothing better than to tear around the diocese in his big black car.He had taken the precaution-advisable in th e circumstances-of announcing himself two hours before his arriva l. The telephone bell, ringing in the hall of the parish priest's house, had in itself a muted ecclesiastical tone. Miss Dempsey h eard it as she was coming from the kitchen. She stood looking at the telephone for a moment, and then approached it gingerly, walk ing on the balls of her feet. She lifted the receiver as if it we re hot. Her head on one side, holding the earpiece well away from her cheek, she listened to the message given by the bishop's sec retary. Yes My Lord, she murmured, though in retrospect she knew that the secretary did not merit this. The bishop and his sycopha nts, Father Angwin always said; Miss Dempsey supposed they were a kind of deacon. Holding the receiver in her fingertips, she repl aced it with great care. She stood in the dim passageway, for a m oment, thinking, and bowed her head momentarily, as if she had he ard the Holy Name of Jesus. Then she went to the foot of the stai rs and bellowed up them: Father Angwin, Father Angwin, get yourse lf up and dressed, the bishop will be upon us before eleven o'clo ck. Miss Dempsey went back into the kitchen, and switched on the electric light. It was not a morning when the light made a great deal of difference; the summer, a thick grey blanket, had pinned itself to the windows. Miss Dempsey heard the incessant drip, dr ip, drip from the branches and leaves outside, and a more urgent metallic drip, pit-pat, pit-pat; it was the guttering. Her figure moved, the electric light behind it, over the dull green wall; i mmense hands floated towards the kettle; as in a thick sea, her l imbs swam for the range. Upstairs, the priest beat his shoe along the floor and pretended to be coming.Ten minutes later he had go t himself up; she heard the creak of the floorboards above, the g urgle of water from the washbasin, his feet on the stairs. He sig hed as he came down the hallway, his solitary morning sigh. Sudde nly he was behind her, hovering: Agnes, have you something for my stomach?I daresay, she said. He knew where the salts were kept; but she must get it for him, as if she were his mother. Were ther e many at seven o'clock Mass?It's funny you should ask, Father sa id, just as if she did not ask it every morning. There were a few old Children of Mary, along with the usual derelicts. It wouldn' t be some special feast of theirs, would it? Walpurgisnacht?I don 't know what you mean, Father. I'm a Children of Mary myself, as you perfectly well know, and I've not heard of anything. She look ed aggrieved. Were they wearing their cloaks and all?No, they wer e in mufti, just their usual horseblankets.Miss Dempsey brought t he teapot to the table. You ought not to make mock of the Sodalit ies, Father.I wonder if something has got out about the bishop co ming? Some intelligence of a subterranean variety? Am I to have b acon, Agnes?Not with your stomach in its present state.Miss Demps ey poured from the pot, a thick brown gurgling stream, adding to the noise: the dripping trees, the wind in the chimneys.And anoth er thing, he said. McEvoy was there. Father Angwin hunched himsel f over the table. He warmed his hands around his cup. When he sai d the name of McEvoy, a shadow crossed his face, and hovered abou t his jaw, so that Miss Dempsey, who was given to imagination, th ought for a moment she had seen what he would look like when he w as eighty years old.Oh yes, she said, and did he want something?N o.I wonder why you mention him then?Dear Agnes, give me some peac e. Go and let me compose myself for His Corpulence. What does he want, do you think? What's he after this time?Agnes went out, a d uster in her hand, her face full of complaints. Whatever he had m eant about subterranean intelligence, surely he was not accusing her? Nobody but the bishop himself, forming the intention in his deep heart, had known he meant to visit-except perhaps the sycoph ants might have known. Therefore she, Miss Dempsey, could not kno w, therefore she could not hint, divulge, reveal, to the Children of Mary or anyone else in the parish. Had she known, she might h ave mentioned it. Might-if she had thought that anyone needed to know. She herself was the judge of what anyone needed to know. Fo r Miss Dempsey occupied a special mediatory position, between chu rch, convent, and everyone else. To acquire information was her p ositive duty, and then what she did with it was a matter for her judgement and experience. Miss Dempsey would have eavesdropped on the confessional, if she could; she had often wondered how she m ight manage it.Left at the breakfast table, Father Angwin stared into his teacup and shifted it about. Miss Dempsey had not master ed the use of a strainer. Nothing in particular could be seen in the leaves, but for a moment Father Angwin thought that someone h ad come into the room behind him. He lifted his face, as he did i n conversation, but there was no one there. Come in, whoever you are, he said. Have some stewed tea. Father Angwin was a foxy man, with his deadleaf-colour eyes and hair; head tilted, he sniffed the wind, and shied away from what he detected. Somewhere else in the house, a door slammed. Consider Agnes Dempsey: duster in ha nd, whisking it over the dustless bureau. In recent years her fac e had fallen softly, like a piece of light cotton folding into a box. Her neck too fell in floury, scalloped folds, to where her c lothing cut off the view. Her eyes were round, child-like, bright blue, their air of surprise compounded by her invisible eyebrows and her hair, a faded gold streaked with grey, which sprang up f rom her hairline as if crackling with static. She had pleated ski rts, and short bottle-shaped legs, and pastel twin-sets to cover the gentle twin hummocks of her bosom. Her mouth was small and pa le and indiscernible, made to ingest the food she liked: Eccles c akes, vanilla slices, miniature chocolate Swiss rolls that came w rapped in red-and-silver foil. It was her habit to peel off the f oil carefully, fold it as thin as a pencil, twist it into a ring, and pop it on her wedding finger. Then she would hold out both h ands-fingers bloodless and slightly bent by incipient arthritis-a nd appraise them, a frown of concentration appearing as a sing, Holt Paperbacks, 2000, 3, Voyager. Fair. Paperback. 2005. 312 pages. worn cover and corners creases to spine,<br><br><p> <strong>THE TRAITOR'S SWORD</strong><br /><br /><em>Sangreal Tril ogy: II</em><br /><br />by Amanda Hemingway <br /><br />Voyager, UK, 2005<br />ISBN 9780007153886<br />trade pb, 312pp<br /><br /> <br />FAIR: worn cover and corners; creases to spine,<br /><br /> Nathan Ward's dreams take him to other worlds, real worlds but re cently he's begun to dream about a place haunted by shadow and cu rsed by fear.<br /><br />Bartlemy Goodman is approximately 1500 y ears old. An albino of Greek parentage he was born in Byzantium a midst the decline of the Roman Empire and now resides in the vill age of Thornyhill, England with his dog, Hoover. Bartlemy is one of the Gifted. On a warm evening in 1991 a young homeless woman h olding a baby turns up on Bartlemy's doorstep and he senses desti ny at work. The woman's name is Annie Ward and her son, Nathan, i s an exceptional child. Whilst Nathan grows and Bartlemy continue s to watch over the small family, strange occurrences begin to pl ague the village. The Thorn family, who gave their name to the vi llage have lived close by since pre-Christian times, were once th e guardians of a strange cup of greenish stone and set with jewel s. But the matter becomes complicated and sinister when Nathan di scovers the body of the Austrian owner in the wood nearby and beg ins to experience disturbing visions involving the cup itself.</p > ., Voyager, 2005, 2<

2005, ISBN: 0007153880

[EAN: 9780007153886], Gebraucht, sehr guter Zustand, [SC: 2.38], [PU: HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, London], AMANDA HEMINGWAY THE TRAITOR€™S SWORD SANGREAL TRILOGY TWO, The s… Plus…

[EAN: 9780007153886], Gebraucht, sehr guter Zustand, [SC: 2.38], [PU: HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, London], AMANDA HEMINGWAY THE TRAITOR€™S SWORD SANGREAL TRILOGY TWO, The second part of the captivating new english fairytale, the Sangreal trilogy, from the author of PROSPERO's CHILDREN. Bartlemy Goodman is approximately 1500 years old. An albino of Greek parentage he was born in Byzantium amidst the decline of the Roman Empire and now resides in the village of Thornyhill, England with his dog, Hoover. Bartlemy is one of the Gifted. But long experience has taught him the perils of the power of the witch-kind and so throughout the ages has channelled his considerable talents into cooking, his culinary prowess becoming the stuff of legend: he worked for the Borgias, was among the first to discover chocolate and even taught the likes of Escoffier. On a warm evening in 1991 a young homeless woman holding a baby turns up on Bartlemy's doorstep and he senses destiny at work. The woman's name is Annie Ward and her son, Nathan, is an exceptional child as Annie cannot account for his conception. Her husband Daniel died in a car accident so Nathan cannot be his. Soon Bartlemy comes to believe that the boy was created beyond the Gate of Death by a superior being for a special purpose, one that may threaten all of witch-kind and that it is his job to protect him. Whilst Nathan grows and Bartlemy continues to watch over the small family, strange occurrences begin to plague the village. The Thorn family, who gave their name to the village have lived close by since pre-Christian times, were once the guardians of a strange cup of greenish stone and set with jewels. When it was lost; sold to a Jewish collector in Austria by the black sheep of the family who absconded with it in the 1920's, the family's fortune soon followed suit. Rumoured to have been stolen by the Nazis during the war it has now turned up at Sotheby's and the last of the Thorns is determined to get it back by proving the original sale false. Bartlemy joins his friend, Rowena Thorn, in her campaign. But the matter becomes complicated and sinister when Nathan discovers the body of the Austrian owner in the wood nearby and begins to experience disturbing visions involving the cup itself. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged., Books<

2005, ISBN: 0007153880

[EAN: 9780007153886], Gebraucht, guter Zustand, [SC: 2.38], [PU: HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, London], AMANDA HEMINGWAY THE TRAITORâ‚ „¢S SWORD SANGREAL TRILOGY TWO, The s… Plus…

[EAN: 9780007153886], Gebraucht, guter Zustand, [SC: 2.38], [PU: HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, London], AMANDA HEMINGWAY THE TRAITORâ‚ „¢S SWORD SANGREAL TRILOGY TWO, The second part of the captivating new english fairytale, the Sangreal trilogy, from the author of PROSPERO's CHILDREN. Bartlemy Goodman is approximately 1500 years old. An albino of Greek parentage he was born in Byzantium amidst the decline of the Roman Empire and now resides in the village of Thornyhill, England with his dog, Hoover. Bartlemy is one of the Gifted. But long experience has taught him the perils of the power of the witch-kind and so throughout the ages has channelled his considerable talents into cooking, his culinary prowess becoming the stuff of legend: he worked for the Borgias, was among the first to discover chocolate and even taught the likes of Escoffier. On a warm evening in 1991 a young homeless woman holding a baby turns up on Bartlemy's doorstep and he senses destiny at work. The woman's name is Annie Ward and her son, Nathan, is an exceptional child as Annie cannot account for his conception. Her husband Daniel died in a car accident so Nathan cannot be his. Soon Bartlemy comes to believe that the boy was created beyond the Gate of Death by a superior being for a special purpose, one that may threaten all of witch-kind and that it is his job to protect him. Whilst Nathan grows and Bartlemy continues to watch over the small family, strange occurrences begin to plague the village. The Thorn family, who gave their name to the village have lived close by since pre-Christian times, were once the guardians of a strange cup of greenish stone and set with jewels. When it was lost; sold to a Jewish collector in Austria by the black sheep of the family who absconded with it in the 1920's, the family's fortune soon followed suit. Rumoured to have been stolen by the Nazis during the war it has now turned up at Sotheby's and the last of the Thorns is determined to get it back by proving the original sale false. Bartlemy joins his friend, Rowena Thorn, in her campaign. But the matter becomes complicated and sinister when Nathan discovers the body of the Austrian owner in the wood nearby and begins to experience disturbing visions involving the cup itself. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine., Books<

2005, ISBN: 9780007153886

Voyager. Fair. Paperback. 2005. 312 pages. worn cover and corners creases to spine,<br><br><p> <strong>THE TRAITOR'S SWORD</strong><br /><br … Plus…

Voyager. Fair. Paperback. 2005. 312 pages. worn cover and corners creases to spine,<br><br><p> <strong>THE TRAITOR'S SWORD</strong><br /><br /><em>Sangreal Tril ogy: II</em><br /><br />by Amanda Hemingway <br /><br />Voyager, UK, 2005<br />ISBN 9780007153886<br />trade pb, 312pp<br /><br /> <br />FAIR: worn cover and corners; creases to spine,<br /><br /> Nathan Ward's dreams take him to other worlds, real worlds but re cently he's begun to dream about a place haunted by shadow and cu rsed by fear.<br /><br />Bartlemy Goodman is approximately 1500 y ears old. An albino of Greek parentage he was born in Byzantium a midst the decline of the Roman Empire and now resides in the vill age of Thornyhill, England with his dog, Hoover. Bartlemy is one of the Gifted. On a warm evening in 1991 a young homeless woman h olding a baby turns up on Bartlemy's doorstep and he senses desti ny at work. The woman's name is Annie Ward and her son, Nathan, i s an exceptional child. Whilst Nathan grows and Bartlemy continue s to watch over the small family, strange occurrences begin to pl ague the village. The Thorn family, who gave their name to the vi llage have lived close by since pre-Christian times, were once th e guardians of a strange cup of greenish stone and set with jewel s. But the matter becomes complicated and sinister when Nathan di scovers the body of the Austrian owner in the wood nearby and beg ins to experience disturbing visions involving the cup itself.</p > ., Voyager, 2005, 2<

ISBN: 9780007153886

Paperback. Very Good., 3