Translated by Paul Auster, this poetic handbook was written when the hire wire artist was just 23 years old. Philippe Petit became world famous with his feats such as walking between the towers of Notre Dame and the World Trade Center. Addressing such topics as the rigging of the wire, the walker's first steps, his salute and exercises, and the work of other renowned high-wire artists, Petit offers us a book about the ecstasy of conquering our fears and reaching for the stars. Translator Paul Auster shares his experiences while living in Paris and first seeing Petit perform as a juggler on the streets and later befriending him and reading his manuscripts, back in 1971. A unique and beautiful work which delves into the psyche of a person willing to risk all to accomplish his feats, its dangers and rewards. Attractive hardback edition, 115pp reprint of the 1985 original.

Stalin's daughter was a difficult, complicated and deeply sympathetic woman. In one of the most momentous events of the Cold War, Svetlana Alliluyeve, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, abandoned her life in Moscow in 1967, arriving in New York to a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side is Peter Horvath, a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle Svetlana into America. She is a contradictory celebrity, charismatic and headstrong, lonely and alienated by her adopted country's radically different society. Persuading herself that all she yearns for is a simple American life, she attempts to settle into a suburban existence, but when this dream ends in disillusionment, she reaches out to Peter. He is the one person who understands how the chains of her past still hold her prisoner. As their relationship deepens, unfolding under the eyes of her CIA minders, their private lives cease to be their own. The author's father was in fact that young lawyer who escorted Svetlana to the US, and he has drawn upon private papers and years of extensive research to recreate this story of one woman's search for a place to belong. Fictionalised into an excellent novel. 268pp, paperback.

'From beak to tail feather and from flipper to fin, this is a book that will long be known, read and savoured.' - James W. Muller of the International Churchill Society. One of Winston Churchill's key characteristics was his fascination with the animal kingdom, and he was a bold rider whether in the realm of sport, politics or war. Born prematurely on 30th November 1874 in his grandfather's magnificent residence Blenheim Palace, the nucleus of the estate was teeming with animals, domestic and wild, the former to be cherished and the latter killed. The young Winston unhesitatingly adopted hunting, shooting and fishing while doting on the horses, hounds and other furred or feathered friends, and he fished well into old age. In this intriguing book we meet his pet cats, poodles, budgerigars and golden orfe, via horses, swans, parrots and butterflies to his own lion, leopard and white kangaroos kept at London Zoo. Churchill even tried to acquire a duck-billed platypus. He identified with animals signing boyhood letters home 'The Pussy Cat' and deliberately personifying the British bulldog as wartime Prime Minister. This charming book is based on original sources but follows the pattern of ancient bestiaries, A to Z beginning with Albatross. The chief proponent of the Government of India Bill, the Secretary of State Sir Samuel Hoare was an old enemy of Churchill's who would win the vote. So Churchill suggested that the victory would be to him what killing the albatross had been to Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. Next entry is Alligators and the next three paragraphs in this extraordinary range of biographical material, this time informing us that Churchill approved of London Zoo's plan to swap two Père David's deer for a pair of Chinese alligators and another reference to his amusing remark to the diarist Harold Nicolson about Britain's appeasement policy in 1938. With all manner of fabulous beasts, rare photographs throughout the text, extensive notes, a timeline of Churchill's life and beautiful endpaper colour image of his spectacular library. 320pp.

Lord Clark of Windermere has always believed the Lake District a special place. His memoirs of the 1940s and 50s give a unique insight into a thriving rural community of working people which is now long gone. His warm style brings to life his happy years growing up in a family struggling to make ends meet including facing eviction, which made a lasting impression on him. Working on the land meant the family lived close to nature and he learned the names of all the local flora and fauna. He rejected a job on the farm for one in forestry and 50 years later became Chairman of the Forestry Commission. He attended university as a mature student and in 1970 was elected to Parliament where he spent almost 50 years including a spell in Cabinet. He was dubbed the 'First Green MP' and later led a successful campaign for World Heritage Status for the Lake District. The beauty of Lakeland is shaped by nature and then moulded by human activities. The sheep and cattle farmers of the uplands cleared the scrub trees and opened up the fells to grazing, providing humans with inspirational views and the freedom to roam at will. The traditional sheep breed, the Herdwicks, are 'hefted' to the land and won't stray from it. The mountainous area has been mined for over a thousand years and there have been over 1,000 mines and quarries and more than 20 minerals extracted. The tourist hotspot of Coniston has its extensive copper mines, whilst Grasmere and Glenridding also have their remains of lead mines. 182 page well illustrated softback, one colour plate.

'You're all fallen women. You've sowed the seed of Satan. You are nothing.' When Mary Creighton found herself pregnant at just 15 out of wedlock in 1960s Ireland, she dreamed of a happy life with her child, but found herself sent away to Castlepollard, a home for mothers and their unborn babies. Stripped of their clothes and forced into gruelling work, those women who survived childbirth were made to force-feed their children for adoption into wealthy families. Babies were ripped out of their mother's arms, but Mary refused to let that happen to her. She managed to escape only to later lose her beautiful daughter to social services and the meddling nuns, who always caught up with her. After spending time in an infamous Magdalene Laundry, and having two other children snatched away, Mary sought to demand answers for the atrocities committed in God's name. Hundreds of babies died and are still buried in the grounds of Castlepollard today. 325pp, paperback.

Welcome paperback reprint of a book first published in 1980 under the title 'The Zoo Quest Expedition: Travels in Guyana, Indonesia and Paraguay.' In 1954 a young David Attenborough had the opportunity of a lifetime, to travel the world finding rare and elusive animals for London Zoo's collection, and to film the expedition for the BBC in a new show called Zoo Quest. This is his story written in his inimitable voice of these travels. Staying with local tribes while searching for giant anteaters, Komodo Dragons in Indonesia and armadillos in Paraguay, he battles with cannibal fish, aggressive tree porcupines and escape-artist wild pigs to record the incredible beauty and biodiversity of these regions. The methods may be outdated now, but the fascination and respect for wildlife, the people and the environment are not. Now we can all travel vicariously with the old-fashioned adventurer and Britain's favourite naturalist who is an elegant and gently funny writer. See also the follow up 90905 Journeys to the Other Side of the World. 398pp in paperback reprint with 90 archive photos, three in colour.

A companion to 90904 Adventures of A Young Naturalist, the book was first published in 1981 under the title 'Journeys to the Past: Travels in New Guinea, Madagascar, and the Northern Territory of Australia', and in paperback in 2018 under the title 'Two Roads'. With some 90 photos, many colour plates and maps, we can travel vicariously with the pioneering naturalist Sir David Attenborough in his early days. Following the success of the original Zoo Quest expeditions in the late 1950s onwards the young David Attenborough embarked on further travels. From the land divers of Pentecost Island and the Sing-Sings of New Guinea to a Royal Kava ceremony on Tonga and the ancient art of the Northern Territory, this is a journey like no other. Alongside these remarkable creatures, Sir David encounters paradise birds, chameleons, Sifakas, pygmies and dancing birds, flamingos, tenrecs and mouse lemurs, the dog-headed man, babakoto, geese and goannas, painted caves and buffaloes, and the hermits of Borroloola. 'Every year for a decade, between 1954 and 1964, it was my great luck to go to the tropics and make natural history films.' 'I have left the accounts of these places and events essentially as I wrote them.' Written with his usual charm and generosity, he allows us to go along for the ride. 413pp, paperback. 90 illus. including colour plates.

Fay Wray was most famous as the blonde in a diaphanous gown who captured the heart of the mighty King Kong, the 25 foot 60 tonne gorilla as he placed her, nestled in his 8 foot hand, on the ledge of the 102 story Empire State Building, putting Wray at the height of New York's skyline and cinematic immortality. She starred in more than 120 films opposite Hollywood's biggest stars including Gary Cooper (The Legion of the Condemned, The First Kiss, The Texan, One Sunday Afternoon), Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, William Powell and Charles Boyer and cowboy stars like Ronald Colman (The Unholy Garden), Ralph Richardson and Melvyn Douglas. She was directed by the masters of the age in The Wedding March, The Street of Sin, The Four Feathers and King Kong, Thunderbolt, Behind the Make-Up directed by Dorothy Arzner and Dirigible by Frank Capra among them. The book's and Fay Wray's counterpart Robert Riskin was considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. Academy-Award winning writer (nominated for five), producer, ten-year-long collaborator with Frank Capra on pictures such as American Madness, It Happened One Night, Mr Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon and Meet John Doe, he was hailed by many as 'among the best screenwriters in the business' - F. Scott Fitzgerald. Riskin wrote women characters who were smart, sexy and always resilient and made streetwise optimistic films with a sense of humour. The couple lived large lives finding each other after establishing their artistic selves and after each had had many romantic attachments - Wray an 11 year long difficult marriage and a fraught affair with Clifford Odets and Riskin a series of romances with among others Carole Lombard, Glenda Farrell and Loretta Young. Here are their lives, work, their fairy-tale marriage that ended so tragically, told in a dual quintessential biography of American lives, ultimately and blissfully intertwined. The book is written by their daughter, an acclaimed writer and producer. 397 desirable roughcut US pages, approximately 50 illustrations.

Ravi Shankar became a household name when the Beatles started promoting his music in 1968, but he was already a prominent figure in the American West Coast scene, with David Crosby of The Byrds pronouncing him one of the finest musicians on the planet. By 1967, when Shankar had settled in California, Indian music was linked with the psychedelic experience, though Ravi denied taking drugs himself and was horrified by a visit to Haight-Ashbury, centre of San Francisco's hippie scene. The Monterey Pop Festival was initially built round Shankar's performance, and although the Festival was ruthlessly taken over and reorganised by The Mamas and the Papas, Ravi's own performance was widely hailed as a profound religious experience. Shankar had the good fortune to be born in Benares, centre of Hindi pilgrimage. His early career was spent on tour as a dancer, including a visit to Weimar Germany as Hitler was rising to power, and he had meetings with Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. But it was his change to concentrate on the sitar that brought him world fame as he introduced audiences to the two key elements of Indian classical music, the raga or melody and the tala, the time or rhythm. Shankar first visited America in 1956, and he moved to California in time for the Summer of Love, performing at Woodstock as well as Monterey. His international fame increased as he became associated with conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Yehudi Menuhin and he was nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score of the film Gandhi. This comprehensive biography by an author who knew him personally includes not only Shankar's career but also his personal life including many love affairs. 658pp, photos in black and white and colour.

A tender, transporting and deeply moving story of a young man asked to give the eulogy of his childhood rabbi, intersected with sermons and fables and meetings with his pastor. We see that both the faiths written about hold such important and different functions to different people and these beliefs are followed by many Jews and Christians alike. The book is about a remarkable eight year journey into what it means to live with hope in your heart. It begins with Mitch Albom being asked by his ailing 82 year old former mentor to deliver his eulogy upon his death. Feeling unworthy, Mitch insists on getting to understand the man better. At the same time he is getting to know a man with a deeply tragic past who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church, but who remains full of hope and happiness. Albom spends years exploring churches and synagogues, the suburbs of the city of Detroit and the 'us' versus 'them' of religion. Even in the crumbling church that houses the homeless he is stunned at how similar belief can be. As his own beloved cleric slowly lets go, Albom writes his final farewell, having learned that a faithful heart comes in many forms and places. By the bestselling author of 'Tuesdays with Morrie' and 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven'. 262pp, paperback.