Bantam Press The Quiet Before. On the unexpected origins of radical ideas Beckerman Gal

Welcome to Sotheran's, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabelled keys, poisoned books and some things that aren't even books, presided over by one deeply eccentric apprentice • Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd on Sackville Street (est. 1761) to interview for their bookselling apprenticeship, a decision which has bedevilled him ever since • He'd intended to stay for a year before launching into some less dusty, better remunerated career. Unfortunately for him, the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. Soon he was balancing teetering stacks of first editions, fending off nonagenarian widows with a ten-foot pole and trying not to upset the store's resident ghost (the late Mr Sotheran had unfinished business when he was hit by that tram)

World-renowned future forecaster, game designer, and New York Times bestselling author Jane McGonigal gives us the tools to imagine the future without fear • How can we be confident about making plans? • How might we feel secure despite the future being unknown? • How do we learn to feel at peace with the unexpected? • Today it feels more challenging than ever to feel unafraid, hopeful, and equipped to face the future with optimism. How do we map out our lives when it seems impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or next decade? What we need now are strategies to help us recover our confidence and creativity in facing uncertain futures • By learning to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable you can better plan for a future you'd like to see

This Christmas will be the most special of them all • Elderly widow Sabine knows this will be her last Christmas in her beloved home, Mitras Castle. Determined to make it just like the ones she remembers from her childhood, she employs Dido Jones of Heavenly Houseparties to help with the big day • Dido is enchanted by the castle as soon as she steps through the imposing front door. And as Christmas day approaches, her feeling of connection to the old house runs deeper than she first thought • But when the snow begins to fall and Sabine's family arrive at the house - including Dido's teenage crush Xan - tensions rise around the castle's future and long-buried mysteries begin to unravel • As past secrets come to light, can this still be a magical Christmas to remember?

One summer can change everything … • Poppy has always loved Cornwall. So when her boyfriend Dan suggests they leave their office jobs and take over the Starfish Studio on the Isles of Scilly, Poppy doesn’t need asking twice • But things don’t go to plan when Dan dumps her, weeks before they’re due to move. Determined not to give up, Poppy accepts the help of local photographer Jake, her landlord’s grandson. But Jake is distracted by a loss from his past • Can they turn the crumbling gallery into a success in time for tourist season? And will a summer on the little Cornish Isles mend just the studio – or Poppy’s heart too?

'Elegant and enjoyable...a thoughtful exploration of the twin delights of the piano and the Parisian life' Express on Sunday • T. E. Carhart, an American living in Paris, is intrigued by a piano repair shop hidden down a street near his apartment. When he finally gains admittance to the secretive world of the atelier, he finds himself in an enormous glass-roofed workshop filled with dozens of pianos. His love affair with this most magical of instruments and its music is reawakened • Packed with delicate cameos of Parisians and reflections on how pianos work and their glorious history, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is an atmospheric and absorbing journey to an older way of life

Driving is the most dangerous thing each of us does on a daily basis - and yet the average learner receives just eighteen hours' training - less than a Starbucks barista • In this inspirational, fully illustrated, highly entertaining book, former Top Gear star Ben Collins uses his super-charged experience of racing, stunt-work and cutting-edge scientific knowledge to tell you all of the things you didn't learn on your test - and in the process will make your driving safer, more economical and a lot more enjoyable • The skills described in How to Drive, from skid control to gear changes that are as smooth as a cashmere codpiece, have been honed on racing tracks by the greatest drivers in the world. This is the stuff your instructor missed, your dad forgot and your mates pretend to know

Across the planet, the futures of young people hang in the balance as they face the harsh realities of the environmental crisis. Isn't it time we made their voices heard? • The Children of the Anthropocene, by conservationist and activist Bella Lack, chronicles the lives of the diverse young people on the frontlines of the environmental crisis around the world, amplifying the voices of those living at the heart of the crisis • Advocating for the protection of both people and the planet, Bella restores the beating heart to global environmental issues, from air pollution to deforestation and overconsumption, by telling the stories of those most directly affected. Transporting us from the humming bounty of Ecuador's Choco Rainforest and the graceful arcs of the Himalayan Mountains, to the windswept plains and vibrant vistas of life in Altiplano, Bella speaks to young activists from around the world including Dara McAnulty, Afroz Shah and Artemisa Xakriaba, and brings the crisis vividly to life

This collection brings together the four plays that feature Ionesco’s everyman protagonist Jean Berenger. In ‘The Killer’, he comes across a “radiant city”, an ideal civilization which is being terrorized by a killer, whom he tries to help apprehend. In ‘Rhinoceros’, he is the only person in a provincial town who is not affected by a condition that turns its victims into the eponymous horned beast. In ‘Exit the King’, he is the powerful King Berenger the First, who refuses to accept that he is dying. And in ‘A Stroll in the Air’ he acquires the capacity of flight and sees another world lying beyond the clouds • While each play in the Berenger cycle is unique, they are all prime examples of Ionesco’s conception of the theatre of the absurd, and touch on themes that preoccupied the author throughout his career, such as mortality, alienation, freedom and the evils of Fascism

1965. A young white female student becomes involved in the fight for civil rights in North Carolina, falling in love with one of her fellow activists, a Black man, in a time and place where an interracial relationship must be hidden from family, friends and especially the reemerging Ku Klux Klan. As tensions rise in the town, she realises not everyone is who they appear to be • 2010. A recently widowed architect moves into the home she and her late husband designed, heartbroken that he will never cross the threshold. But when disturbing things begin to happen, it's clear that someone is sending her a warning. Who is trying to frighten her away, and why? • Decades later, past and present are set to collide in the last house on the street

Где же прячется божья коровка? Может быть, за этим листиком? А кто тогда спрятался за стогом сена? И кто свалился в навозную кучу (фуу!)? • Каких животных вам удастся найти? • “Who’s on the Farm? A Lift the Flap Book” – это книга от любимой детской писательницы Джулии Дональдсон, основанная на ее серии «Что услышала божья коровка». Ваш ребенок будет с огромным интересом взаимодействовать с интерактивными элементами, чтобы отыскать своих любимых персонажей. Книга с прекрасной переливающейся обложкой станет отличным подарком для детей • Книга на английском языке • Who can you find down on the farm? • Based on Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks' bestselling picture books, What the Ladybird Heard and What the Ladybird Heard Next, children will love lifting the large flaps in this bright and cheery board book to find all their favourite characters