A Portway large print book

Ex-jockey Jonah Dereham agrees to bid on a young steeplechaser for a wealthy American woman. But right after the auction Dereham and his client are threatened by thugs who want the horse.

Delightful memoir of a retired schoolteacher who went crofting on a remote Hebridean island and fell in love with the place and its people.

Lillian Beckwith's settling in on the island of Bruach and having a croft of her own, is the basis of these comic adventures. Adapting to a totally different way of life provides many excuses for humour and the eccentric cast of characters guarantees there is never a dull moment on Bruach. In one story, beachcombing yields a strange find. In another a Christmas party results in a riotous night's celebration. I haven't laughed so much since Whisky Galore''--EVENING NEWS (fr. Cvr. )**

Pick his brains - you know it makes sense. Well, what would you do if your mentor and best friend, herald as the 'greatest novelist of our time', suddenly expires, and you find yourself bereft of a cherished companion's wit and wisdom. Your twelve-year stretch of writer's block, too, now seems like a life sentence. For Martin Peabody, the answer is simple. You remove your dead friend's brain, syphon off his thoughts, and use them as inspiration to revive your career and write a fitting testament to a great man - an autobiopsy, if you like. This superbly sharp and funny novel shows Booker-winner Bernice Rubens at her best.

When a young Englishwoman named Jennifer Morton leaves London to visit relatives on their sheep ranch in the Australian outback, she falls in love both with the gloriously beautiful country and with Carl, a Czech refugee who was a doctor in his own land and now works as a lumberjack. They are brought together through dramatic encounters and strange twists of fate, but their relationship hangs in the balance when Jennifer is called back to England.

These are some of the strange clues to the mystery that tormented a young English girl. In pursuit of them, her life changed dramatically and brought her from her father's fishing cottage to a agrand English manor. But the final clues to the mystery were in a distant palace in Venice and before her adventure was complete this fisherman's daughter would know to the full the terror lurking behind the ancient walls of that romantic city.

One of the most intriguing war fiction ever written...the perfect blend of the gruesome realities of war and captivating fiction plot that takes you from the war ravaged Berlin to the serene Bavarian alps where another war is being fought...the war between humanitarian emotions and military discipline...two men Both of the same thoughts in opposite uniforms..the truth about how men in power use honest men to wage their wars...a masterpiece which takes you back in time..

Farmer's daughter Anna Lacey, fresh from the country and from teacher's college, takes a job in a new and bleak London suburb, in a school that already holds twice the children for which it was built. The story of her first teaching year in these challenging circumstances is told with gentle wit and an understanding of the vagaries of human nature -- even among schoolteachers. Anna survives not only the terrors of teaching (unruly students, crowded classrooms, monomaniac inspectors, ambitious school staff, and confrontational parents) but also the ordeal of what must be one of literature's grimmest landladies.

From Google Books: "The last decade of old Septimus Howard’s life sees many upheavals. War comes to Caxley and his favorite grandson Edward, a pilot, brings home a wife who seems too cold and aloof for the Howard family. The Howards’ restaurant in Market Square survives the wartime shortages, but its temperamental manager, Robert, is slipping past the point when eccentricity becomes insanity. "

It's all a grand adventure when Christy Mansel unexpectedly runs into her cousin Charles in Damascus. And being young, rich, impetuous, and used to doing whatever they please, they decide to barge in uninvited on their eccentric Great-Aunt Harriet—despite a long-standing family rule strictly forbidding unannounced visits. A strange new world awaits Charles and Christy beyond the gates of Dar Ibrahim—"Lady Harriet's" ancient, crumbling palace in High Lebanon—where a physician is always in residence and a handful of Arab servants attends to the odd old woman's every need. But there is a very good—very sinister—reason why guests are not welcome at Dar Ibrahim. And the young cousins are about to discover that, as difficult as it is to break into the dark, imposing edifice, it may prove even harder still to escape .