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Hard cover. 160 p. Audience: General/trade. No previous owner's name a few pages circled HC 182 Good in fine dust jacket. Highlighting/underlining.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. 'Read not more than one of her stories a day, and allow them to work their spell slowly: they are made to last' Guardian When her father marries his second wife, Chrissy gets a new step sister. Three years older than her, Queenie is beautiful and kind, someone everybody wants to be friends with. Chrissy worships her. But when Queenie runs away at eighteen, their lives quietly diverge.Joyce Carol Oates has described Alice Munro's work as 'tales of domestic tragicomedy that seemed to open up, as if by magic, into wider, deeper, vaster dimensions.' Queenie is Munro at her subtle, heart-breaking best.'One of the great short story writers not just of our time but of any time' New York Times Book Review An unforgettable masterpiece from the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Darren Mile has been in and out of prison since he was fifteen. Now twenty-seven, he's released from his latest stretch and returns home vowing to go straight. But things aren't that easy: his girlfriend has ditched him, he has to live on his brother's sofa and he can't get a job to save his life. On top of this, DS Weasel of CID keeps pulling him in for every little thing that happens in town. Now his former criminal mates have a humdinger of a job they want him in on ? a massive out-of-town supermarket. All he has to do is put together a gang of seven or eight lads and he could have the biggest payout of his life. Or the biggest headache. Milo's Marauders is the first in a new series of crime capers from the author of The Burglar Diaries. Set in the same crap town as King's riotous debut and featuring some of the same dodgy characters, Milo's Marauders will have you laughing like a maniac and gagging for more. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ella is nearing thirty, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student have given way to an unintended career as a care worker. One spring, Bryn - a retired carpenter - hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self. As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple's household, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds - between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between men and women - in new ways. Tightly woven, humane and insightful, tracing the most intimate reaches of a young woman's heart and mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always running out. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. How can you measure the speed of light with chocolate and a microwave? Why do yo-yos yo-yo? Why does urine smell so peculiar after eating asparagus (includes helpful recipe)? How long does it take to digest different types of food? What is going on when you drop mentos in to cola? 100 wonderful, intriguing and entertaining scientific experiments which show scientific principles first hand - this is science at its most popular. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Jasper Rees has always wanted to be Welsh. But despite Welsh grandparents (and a Welsh surname) he is an Englishman: by birth, upbringing and temperament. In this singular, hilarious love letter to a glorious country so often misunderstood, Rees sets out to achieve his goal of becoming a Welshman by learning to sing, play, work, worship, think - and above all, speak - like one. On the way he meets monks, tenors and politicians, and tries his hand at rugby and lambing - all the while weaving together his personal story with Wales's rich history. Culminating in a nail-biting test of Rees's Welsh-speaking skill at the National Eisteddfod, this exuberant journey of self-discovery celebrates the importance of national identity, and the joy of belonging. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Socrates Fortlow has spent 27 years in prison and can kill a man with his bare hands. But now he's out and determined to use his strength for good, to help the downtrodden and oppressed of the Los Angeles ghetto. Like his Greek namesake, Socrates Fortlow asks questions in an attempt to understand his world. His attempt to find morality in poverty and deprivation makes Socrates a modern-day hero. 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.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there's more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero's fate was settled. In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don't tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong . The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In post-war London two girls are relieved to find husbands. One lands the 1950s dream of wealth and security. The other, Elaine, endures fourteen years married to a man with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. At first Elaine finds Gerald's activities curious but manageable. But he grows increasingly withdrawn, sometimes violent. The birth of their daughter heralds a complete breakdown and five years of silence, fear and despair. With startling honesty and great eloquence, Bass describes their poverty, her loneliness, her fears for her child, finding comfort in an affair with the village doctor and how the relationship finally ends. A Secret Madness is a remarkable personal evocation of an era. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Melissa, the Sicilian girl from One Hundred Strokes who was desperate for love and willing to do anything to find it, is now a successful writer in Rome, living with her new lover, Thomas. He is sensual, patient, and comforting ? the antithesis of all the men who came before. But as soon as she meets Viola, a young woman from Thomas' past, sexual passion and insecurity grow in tandem, and Melissa is consumed with jealousy. Written as a confessional letter to her mother, the story is one of dark obsession, violent lust, and soul-destroying talent, teeming with the ghosts and dragonfly-women Melissa is convinced are trying to steal her man and bring about her ruin. Driven by Melissa?s singular voice ? that unique and compelling combination of impetuous na?vete and poetic sophistication that has mesmerised readers around the world ? The Scent of Your Breath blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy and delves deep into the disturbing yet strangely familiar mind of a teenage girl terrorized by love. 'An uninhibited and compelling reflection on obsessive love' Elle 'Gossamer writing with a tarantula's bite.' The Sunday Express 'What makes her tale so compelling is the way she infuses each sentence with sensual, descriptive language somewhere between Ana?s Nin and Jeanette Winterson' Diva ?A second self-assured sexual coming-of-age tale by the young Sicilian author.An experimental work that relentlessly tests states of reality versus fantasy.? Kirkus Reviews. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. L. Vaughan Spencer studied the Philosophy of Table Tennis and Anti-Social French at the University of the Isle of Wight and gained his MBA at the Jimmy Connors Institute in San Diego over the course of a weekend. Aside from holding motivational workshops in Watford, he also writes books; previous works include Chicken Nuggets for the Soul, Who Grated My Cheese? and What they don't teach you at Harvard Nursery School. All of his work is based on rigorous analysis - apart from when it's easier not to. In a hilarious - and surprisingly useful - satire of the corporate self-improvement industry the satirical character L. Vaughan Spencer finally puts his wisdom into book form. This ultra-observant how-not-to guide, on everything from clothes and hairstyles to spellology and 720 degree feedback, is a based on a successful stage show that won the Edinburgh Fringe Report Award for Best Satire of 2002 and has toured to theatres and corporate conferences across the world. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. How do you make your way in a world that is changing at an unprecedented rate? Why do we have less and less time? Why are some people unfaithful? How can our government act against threats before they happen? This book is about change - from the small and seemingly insignificant transitions in our day-to-day lives, to the big and almost incomprehensible shifts in human history. Drawing on expert advice and often complex theories, the authors of the bestselling The Decision Book present fifty simple and effective models to help us make sense of change in our world. Change is happening all around us, in every sphere from the personal and political to economics and the environment. In The Change Book you'll find models explaining the financial crisis, why biotechnology is the industry of the future and why cities are the new nations. Whether you're buying a new car, deciding who to vote for, or making an investment, this little black book will offer surprisingly simple explanations of our complicated world - and radically challenge some of your preconceived ideas. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 'Brilliant' The Times 'An absorbing summer read' Mail on Sunday 'Gripping' Sunday Times 'A skilful domestic whodunit' Shots When two families - one rich, one not - go on vacation together, little do they know that someone won't be returning home. Fripp Island, South Carolina, is the perfect destination for the wealthy Daly family. For Lisa Daly's childhood friend, Poppy, it's a world away from her everyday life - so when Lisa invites Poppy's family to join them, she can hardly turn down an all expenses paid vacation for her husband and children. But everyone brings secrets to the island, distorting what should be a convivial, relaxing summer on the beach. As revelations from the past unfold, events in the present build to a shocking conclusion. What would you do to keep someone you love safe? What wouldn't you do?'. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Can be read in forty-five minutes: the memoirs of a Prime Minister with Asperger's Syndrome who thinks it is a good idea to launch a war in Iraq. 'Alistair said I should write something I would want to read myself. And I thought about that. I thought that this was good advice. Alistair is always full of good advice. That's why I like him. That and his socks. The book I would most like to read about is myself. And about my place in history. When I told this to Alistair he smiled. And then he said that the book would need an angle. Something that would catch the reader's imagination. Something that would intrigue them. Something that would "sex it up". So I said what about WMD. And Alistair smiled again. But this time it was a slightly different smile.' The Curious Incident of the WMD is a mystery like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Anthony Algernon St. Michael Blair, the Prime Minister of Britain. He knows a great deal about New Labour, sound bites and why he makes a good leader and very little about the history of Iraq. He loves cheese and hates Gordon Brown. He discovers what he thinks is the central mystery and sets out to investigate it, but subsequently discovers a deception which leaves him forever linked in an uneasy triangle with a stumbling, inarticulate US president and a genocidal dictator. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. New and uncollected tales of murder, mischief, magic and madness. Ruth Rendell was an acknowledged master of psychological suspense: these are ten (and a quarter) of her most chillingly compelling short stories, collected here together for the first time. In these tales, a businessman boasts about cheating on his wife, only to find the tables turned. A beautiful country rectory reverberates to the echo of a historical murder. A compulsive liar acts on impulse, only to be lead inexorably to disaster. And a wealthy man finds there is more to his wife's kidnapping than meets the eye. Atmospheric, gripping and never predictable, this is Ruth Rendell at her inimitable best. The stories are: Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror; A Spot of Folly; The Price of Joy; The Irony of Hate; Digby's Wives; The Haunting of Shawley Rectory; A Drop Too Much; The Thief; The Long Corridor of Time; In the Time of his Prosperity; and Trebuchet. Introduction from Sophie Hannah. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. London, March 1992. Nearly a year after the release of Brit noir sensation, Bent, the capital is still in the grip of its cultural and stylistic impact. Diana Kemp, journalist on the alternative arts magazine Lux, is dismissive of the film?s cult following but admires the technique of its debut director, Jon Jackson. In fact, some of her admiration has a more personal nature and when Jon disappears following a triumphant Guardian lecture, she feels the loss, acutely. Two weeks? later, Jackson?s body is found in a condemned lock-up in the arches behind Camden market. A victim of his own success? Perhaps - the murder site resembles the particularly bloody final scene of Bent. But why would anyone want to destroy the golden boy in such a way? Attempting to put a lid on the past, Diana buries herself in work. But an assignment, at the ICA?s Crimewave festival, leads her on a voyage of discovery where not knowing might be the only thing that saves her. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Here is the exciting, encouraging and positive story of science's progress in changing cancer from what we die from to what we live with. Part memoir, part science, One in Three is the story of the author's father and ultimately the death of an old man, interweaved with the history of the discovery of cancer, its treatment and - increasingly now - its prevention. One-third of us will contract cancer, and One in Three is a personal and authoritative book which will help everyone to understand it without blind terror. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In 1909, the largest department store in London's West End, designed and built from scratch, opened in Oxford Street in a glorious burst of publicity. The mastermind behind the facade was American retail genius Harry Gordon Selfridge: maverick businessman, risk-taker, dandy and one of the greatest showmen the retail world has ever known. His talents were to create the seduction of shopping, and as his success and fame grew, so did his glittering lifestyle: mansions, yachts, gambling, racehorses - and mistresses. From the glamour of Edwardian England, through the turmoil of the Great War and the heady excesses of the 1920s and beyond, Selfridges Department Store was 'a theatre with the curtain going up at 9 o'clock each morning'. Mr Selfridge reveals the captivating story of the rise and fall of the man who revolutionised the way we shop. The third series of Mr Selfridge will air on ITV in January 2015. 'Lively and entertaining' Sunday Telegraph 'Will change your view of shopping forever' Vogue 'Harry Selfridge revolutionised the way we shop . fascinating' Daily Mail. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Illustrated for the first time, with eighty full-colour photographs showing the beauty, complexity and mystery of the world around us, here is the next eagerly awaited volume of science questions and answers from New Scientist magazine. From ripples in glass to 'holograms' in ice, the natural world's wonders are unravelled by the magazine's knowledgeable readers. Six years on from Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005), the New Scientist series still rides high in the bestseller lists, with well over two million copies sold. Popular science has never been more absorbing or more enjoyable. Like Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (2006), Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? (2008) and Why Can't Elephants Jump? (2010), this latest collection of resourceful, wry and well-informed answers to a remarkable range of baffling science questions is guaranteed to impress and delight. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. "Compulsively readable laugh out loud history." Mary Roach Bomb-carrying bats. Poisoned flower arrangements. Cigars laced with mind-altering drugs. Listening devices implanted into specially-trained cats. A torpedo-proof aircraft carrier made out of ice and sawdust. And a CIA plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon . just because. In Nuking the Moon, Vince Houghton, Historian and Curator at the International Spy Museum, collects the most inspired, implausible and downright bizarre military intelligence schemes that never quite made it off the drawing board. From the grandly ambitious to the truly devious, they illuminate a new side of warfare, revealing how a combination of desperation and innovation led not only to daring missions and brilliant technological advances, but to countless plans and experiments that failed spectacularly. Alternatively terrifying and hilarious, and combining archival research with newly-conducted interviews, these twenty-six chapters reveal not only what might have happened, but also what each one tells us about the history and people around it. If 'military intelligence' makes you think of James Bond and ingenious exploding gadgets . get ready for the true story. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. It's time we all stopped whining and learned a thing or two from The Toughest Cyclists Ever. Including: Stephen Roche, whose cure for exhaustion was to go up a gear and fight harder, all the way to the ambulance. Eddy Merckx, who hurt himself so badly in breaking the Hour record that, he estimated, he shortened his career by a year. Beryl Burton, who crushed her (male) rival's morale with the offer of a piece of liquorice, before speeding past to victory. Nicole Cooke and Edwig Van Hooydonck, who rejected dope and became legends. The Hardmen tells the stories - the good bits, anyway - of the 40 most heroic Cyclists ever. Their bravery, their panache and their Perfect Amount of Dumb. It reminds us that suffering on a bike liberates us from our daily lives, and that, in the words of Lance Armstrong "pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever"; proof that even assholes can be insightful. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is the third compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the 'Last Word' column of New Scientist, the world's best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005) and the even more spectacularly successful Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (2006), this latest collection includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful answers never before seen in book form. As usual, the simplest questions often have the most complex answers - while some that seem the knottiest have very simple explanations. New Scientist's 'Last Word' is regularly voted the magazine's most popular section as it celebrates all questions - the trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling and strange. This all-new and eagerly awaited selection of the best again presents popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Mark Stevenson has been to the future a few years ahead of the rest of us - and reckons it has a lot going for it. His voyage of discovery takes him to Oxford to meet Transhumanists (they intend to live forever), to Boston where he confronts a robot with mood swings, to an underwater cabinet meeting in the Indian Ocean, and Australia to question the Outback's smartest farmer. He clambers around space planes in the Mojave desert, gets to grips with the potential of nanotechnology, delves deep into the possibilities of biotech, sees an energy renaissance on a printer, a revolution in communications, has his genome profiled, and glimpses the next stage of human evolution . and tries to make sense of what's in store. Insightful and often very funny, An Optimist's Tour of the Future is a book that tracks one curious man's journey to find out what's in store. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Alan Bennett is the author of Writing Home, The Madness of George III, Talking Heads, The Clothes They Stood Up In and much else besides. Miss Shepherd lived in a Robin Reliant opposite Bennett's house in Camden Town. After a series of attacks on her van, he suggested she move, with her van, to his front drive. Initially reluctant, she agreed - and Bennett landed himself a tenancy that went on for fifteen years. The Lady in the Van is probably Alan Bennett's best-known work of non-fiction, and follows his other little blockbuster The Clothes They Stood Up In. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 'Inspiring' GUARDIAN 'Heartbreaking' INDEPENDENT 'I loved it' ADAM KAY 'Beautiful' MATT HAIG 'Luminous' NICCI GERRARD 'Essential reading' MADELEINE BUNTING 'A celebration' CHRISTIE WATSON ----- A Best Book for Summer in The Times, Guardian and The i Independent Book of the Month ----- Caring is an issue that affects us all - as bestselling novelist Kate Mosse knows all too well. Kate has cared in turn for her father and mother, and for Granny Rosie, her 90-year-old mother-in-law. Along the way she has experienced the joys, challenges and frustrations shared by an invisible army of carers. At the heart of this care lie everyday acts of love, and the realisation that, sooner or later, most of us will come to rely on an extra pair of hands. ----- 'Lifts the spirits without pulling punches' IAN RANKIN 'Irresistible' RACHEL JOYCE 'Questions how and why we fetishise independence when the reality of human experience is always interdependence' GUARDIAN, BOOK OF THE DAY 'Heartfelt, funny and at times heartbreaking. 10/10' INDEPENDENT 'Utterly beautiful' FRANCESCA SEGAL. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The debut novel by the bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENT One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He shuts up the bookshop no one ever comes to and drives out of London. When his car breaks down and he becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help, and stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms - but there's more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, they've prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along. Who are these people? And what do they intend for John? Elegant, gently sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the author of The Essex Serpent. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. CHOSEN BY GAIL HONEYMAN ON BBC RADIO 4 A GOOD READ 'Sad, funny and full of charm - a delight' Gail Honeyman, author of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD A lost little girl with her notebook and toy monkey appears on the CCTV screens of the Green Oaks shopping centre, evoking memories of junior detective Kate Meaney, missing for 20 years. Kurt, a security guard with a sleep disorder, and Lisa, a disenchanted deputy manager at Your Music, follow her through the centre's endless corridors - welcome relief from the tedium of their lives. But as this after-hours friendship grows in intensity, it brings new loss and new longing to light. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Scarlet Ribbons is the story of the Rev. Simon Bailey, a priest with AIDS, and the remarkable support he received from his Yorkshire mining village parish. He remained rector of Dinnington until the end: the only priest with AIDS to stay in his parish. In 1995, BBC?s Everyman screened Simon's Cross, his story, and received a phenomenal response. In his struggle to make sense of his suffering and approaching death, Simon articulated the suffering of the many: the sick, the bereaved, those trying to come to terms with their homosexuality, other AIDS sufferers and their carers. Simon's sister, journalist Rosemary Bailey, has tried, as he did, to make some sense of his death. Her unsentimental and poignant account is a story for our time. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ox-Tales is a set of four compelling and collectible books, each themed on one of the elements. 'Earth' features stories by Rose Tremain, Jonathan Coe, Marti Leimbach, Kate Atkinson, Ian Rankin, Marina Lewycka, Hanif Kureishi, Jonathan Buckley and Nicholas Shakespeare, and a poem by Vikram Seth. The idea behind Ox-Tales is to raise money for Oxfam and along the way to highlight the charity's work in project areas: agriculture in Earth, water projects in Water, conflict aid in Fire, and climate change in Air. The four books will play a central role in the first ever Oxfam Bookfest, a new annual event launching in July 2009. Created in partnership with Hay Festival, the program includes more than 300 events across the UK. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ox-Tales is a set of four compelling and collectible books, each themed on one of the elements. 'Water' features stories by Esther Freud, David Park, Heri Kunzru, Zoe Heller, Michel Faber, William Boyd, Joanna Trollope, Giles Foden and Michael Morpurgo, and a poem by Vikram Seth. The idea behind Ox-Tales is to raise money for Oxfam and along the way to highlight the charity's work in project areas: agriculture in Earth, water projects in Water, conflict aid in Fire, and climate change in Air. The four books will play a central role in the first ever Oxfam Bookfest, a new annual event launching in July 2009. Created in partnership with Hay Festival, the program includes more than 300 events across the UK. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.