Long light evenings, swimming and tennis, striped cotton frocks...it's summer term at Raeburn. New arrival Constance King hates her boarding school on sight, yet dreams of being accepted by the other girls. Instead, she finds a ferment of frustrated hopes mingled with excited expectations...

When Phoebe married Duncan Moon, she imagined they would get around to loving one another. But she hadn't bargained on the stifling effect on her husband of his alarming family, nor the many ways in which the family would contrive to exclude her from their affluent but hollow lives. It is only when Phoebe reads the hidden diaries of her father-in-law's ex-mistress that she learns the truth about the Moons - and discovers love where she had never thought she'd find it. In this wickedly funny first novel Maggie Makepeace paints a devastating portrait of upper middle-class family life. By turns hilarious, painful, tragic and unexpectedly poignant, this is black comedy at it startling best.

In this work, C. Day Lewis, former Professor of Poetry at Oxford, chooses a form that enables his various gifts to be displayed to advantage and to sustain rapt interest in a poem longer than convention now favours. It is a poem in seven parts: 'Dialogue at the Airport'; 'Flight to Italy'; 'A Letter from Rome'; 'Bus to Florence'; 'Florence: Works of Art'; 'Elegy Before Death: at Settignano'; 'The Homeward Prospect'. The whole resembles a suite in music; various metres are used, and each part is self-contained, though all are on the same subject - a journey to and in Italy. The poet has used his first impressions of the country to illustrate certain deeper themes indicated by the epigraph: '...an Italian visit is a voyage of discovery, not only of scenes and cities, but also of the latent faculties of the traveller's heart and mind.' If anybody has had the slightest doubt about Mr. Day Lewis's ability to practice what he professes so eloquently and vigorously in his lectures, An Italian Visit should be convincing proof that its author is a poet in the full and splendid exercise of his powers.' Eric Gillett in the National Review.

Moderne, nachhaltige und wirtschaftliche Bauwerke sind heute Ergebnis werkstoffübergreifender Entwurfsplanung. Daher werden mit neuen Büchern unter dem Titel "Werkstoffübergreifendes Entwerfen und Konstruieren" erstmals die Entwurfs-, Bemessungs- und Konstruktionsgrundlagen für die Bauarten Holz, Stahl, Stahlbeton und Mauerwerk gemeinsam behandelt. Diese Darstellung erschließt dem Leser die Prinzipien der Tragwerksplanung, die allen Bauarten zugrunde liegen, dabei erleichtert die vergleichende Darstellung das Erkennen grundlegender Zusammenhänge. Zahlreiche praxisnahe Beispiele dienen der Vertiefung und Anwendung des Wissens.Der erste Band behandelt die Grundlagen der Tragwerksplanung und -bemessung unter Berücksichtigung der Eurocodes. Eingangs werden detailliert das Sicherheitskonzept im Bauwesen, die Lastannahmen und die Baustoffeigenschaften beschrieben. Den Schwerpunkt bildet die werkstoffübergreifend aufbereitete Querschnittsbemessung. Der Band schließt mit einer Einführung in die Planung von Tragwerken des Hallen- und Geschossbaus.Der zweite Band stellt den Entwurf, die Bemessung und Konstruktion von allen wesentlichen Bauteilen im Hallen- und Geschossbau im Kontext des Tragwerksentwurfs dar. Die Betrachtung der einzelnen Bauteile geht von deren Funktion, Beanspruchung und Einordnung im Tragwerk aus. Ziel ist die Entwicklung von Ausführungslösungen, die alle Aspekte des Entwurfs wie Gebrauchstauglichkeit, Gestaltung, Dauerhaftigkeit und Wirtschaftlichkeit berücksichtigen. Für die einzelnen Bauteile werden die bei der statischen Bemessung und konstruktiven Durchbildung zu beachtenden baustoffspezifischen Besonderheiten beschrieben. Dabei wird sowohl auf die Kriterien der Tragfähigkeit (einschließlich der Bauteilstabilität) als auch der Gebrauchstauglichkeit eingegangen.Zahlreiche Beispiele dienen der Anschaulichkeit und dem Vergleich.

Die Bodendynamik hat bei einer Vielzahl von geotechnischen Aufgaben eine besondere Bedeutung. Im Erdbebeningenieurwesen betrifft dies die Stabilität von Dämmen, Böschungen, Gründungen, Stützwänden und Tunneln, während Erschütterungen infolge Verkehr und Baubetrieb einen wesentlichen Aspekt des Umweltschutzes darstellen. Maschinenfundamente und zyklisch belastete Offshore Strukturen gehören ebenfalls zum Anwendungsspektrum. Das Buch behandelt die Grundlagen der Bodendynamik und darauf aufbauend die praktische Anwendung im Erschütterungsschutz und im Erdbebeningenieurwesen."

Volume Four of the dramatic saga of the Lorimer Family From the general strike to the Second World War the Lorimer spirit struggles to survive...On the peaceful Thameside estate of Blaize, Alexa Glanville shares the long years of her widowhood with Matthew Lorimer, the man she loves but can never marry. Meanwhile Kate Lorimer loses her lover and her ideals in the turmoil of Stalin's Russia and her daughter Ilsa becomes a tragic victim of the Second World War. But a new generation of Lorimers is on the way - and all of them are drawn back to Blaize by their love for Alexa, whose indomitable spirit keeps the family alive. Lorimers in Love is the engrossing story of an English family caught up in the great events of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

Norma Ackroyd is the quintessential English country rose-pretty and rather innocent. But on the day her path crosses with that of the notorious womanizer from London, George Laxton, fate itself seemed determined to shatter her previously sheltered life. For Norma fell hopelessly in love with Laxton and chose to ignore or disbelieve all the bad things she heard about him-to the intense chagrin of her family. They knew that many of the stories were true and that Norma was courting almost certain disaster. But she was determined to let heart rule head, and who knows, maybe leopards can change their spots? This delightful story, which twists and turns like the vicissitudes of love itself, will appeal strongly to all readers of romantic fiction.

Volume Three of the dramatic saga of the Lorimer Family Scattered by War, but the Lorimer saga continues...The ball which Lord and Lady Glanville give for the 21st birthday of their nephew Brinsley Lorimer is a glittering social occasion in their country house, Blaize. But the year is 1914 and the telegram which summons Brinsley from the dance floor to the Western Front heralds the scattering of the Lorimer family. While Brinsley's 23-year-old sister Kate goes to Serbia to work as a doctor, Dr Margaret Lorimer converts her sister's opera house at Blaize into a military hospital. Only after the war ends is Margaret able to look into the future with hope for those of the younger generation who have survived...Lorimers at War is the third engrossing novel in the series which chronicles the lives and fortunes of the Lorimer family from the 1870's to the 1940's.

The Next Great War begins, and soon all Europe is involved. The war lasts a year - and then the women, robbed of husbands and sweethearts and sons, grow doubtful of the benefits of military policy, and begin to think that victory will come too late to do them any good. But what can they do? A remedy was discovered by Aristophanes about 2350 years ago. It is re-discovered and re-applied. And it is again successful. This is an Aristophanic comedy, and takes some Aristophanic liberties. It is satirical when the author pleases and when he cares to be serious he is very serious indeed. There is no monotony. The story shifts from realism to wild burlesque; from earnest appeal to uproarious extravagance. The final scenes are in Edinburgh. Aristophanes made his insurgent women seize the Acropolis - here they take possession of Edinburgh Castle, as tall an eminence, and hold it against the infuriated men. The fight for the Castle is the culminating incident in a vigorous and many-sided novel.

Bullett's novel centers on the lives of three brothers growing up at the end of the 19th Century, and their adaptation to the birth of a new age following the First World War.

Rem McAllister took the job reluctantly. He was to lead an army mule-train laden with gold across the desert from Mesquite Springs - and he knew that with Clancy and the ruthless Franchon Gang on the rampage, and Gaton and his Apaches out for white scalps, there wasn't much chance of its getting through. So when the mule-train was bushwhacked, the army escort massacred, the gold stolen and he himself wounded, McAllister wasn't really surprised. Just good and mad. And out for bullet-fast revenge.

Volume Five of the dramatic saga of the Lorimer Family Survivors of a disappearing generation, the Lorimers struggle to preserve their heritafe...The end of the Second World War finds Kate Lorimer a refugee in occupied Germany. Once back in England she and Alexa must accept that they will have no descendants as the family teeters towards bankruptcy. Only Asha can keep the family traditions alive, but women of her generation are faced with a choice between family and career. As guardian of the Lorimer heritage, she is presented with the most difficult decision of her life...The Last of the Lorimers is the powerful fifth volume in the sequence which chronicles the lives and fortunes of the Lorimer family from the 1870s to the 1940s.

This omnibus containsThe History of Egg Pandervil and Nicky, Son of Egg. Bullett writes in the 1930 edition 'In this volume the two parts of one novel, divided hitherto by the accident of their several publication, appear as a continuous whole: which is to say, as originally planned by their author. It was not the tale of Egg but of Nicky that I sat down to tell...only to discover, after writing a few paragraphs, that of these two Pandervils, father and youngest son, the father, being overscored with the intimate tracery of time, was at the moment the far likelier to engage my passionate interest...So it is that the heart of Egg Pandervil, which...becomes, and remains to the end, the true heart of this novel.'

Phyllis Bentley a native of Halifax, has written many novels with a background set in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Her descriptive power has been compared to that of the Brontes, who lived but twelve miles from Miss Bentley's home. Of her stories The House of Moreysis perhaps best known, and in the same blunt, homely, Yorkshire tradition comes her novel Noble in Reason. So intimately written that it appears to be an autobiography, it tells the story of Christopher Jarmayne, a delicate, sensitive lad who suffers a great deal from continued friction with the robust Yorkshire family into which he was born. Filled with self-pity and resentment, he spends an unhappy life until he realizes, in a moment of illumination, that he is as tiresome to them as they are to him. In the light of this revelation he tells the strange and poignant story of his life and, with the wisdom gained from experience, he makes it a dramatic and fascinating story of unusual power.

Volume Two of the dramatic saga of the Lorimer Family A Legacy may be of great value and still bring bad luck...Although Margaret Lorimer has made her own way as a doctor, she does not at all approve of the ambitions of her beautiful young ward Alexa. Being an opera singer is considered a disreputable career for a young lady. But Alexa has inherited a superb voice from her Italian mother, and is determined to have her way, even if it means travelling abroad. And she has also inherited a legacy from the father she never knew - a legacy which will bring her no happiness. The Lorimer Legacy is the un-put-downable second volume in the Lorimer series which chronicles the lives and fortunes of this vibrant family from the 1870s to the 1940s.

The sheriff was a violent, crooked man. He traded - in death, and always showed a profit. His mine in the Arizona hills was a kind of hell on earth, guarded by hard-bitten desperadoes. All around lurked the deadly Apache, as lethal and quick to strike as rattlers. Somewhere in the mine was McAllister's friend. He had to be busted loose before it was too late. McAllister, armed with his gun and his iron nerves, smashed in...Another rapid-fire Rem McAllister adventure from the master of authentic Western excitement, Matt Chisholm.

Gina was a cool young beauty with enough money and sufficient charm to get almost anything she desired. Then she met Jim Shepheard. It was love at first sight-for Gina at least. And when, some time later, Jim asked her to dine with him, her happiness seemed complete. But love-like life-is never that easy. And for Gina it was the return into her life of Ronnie Freeman that put the first cloud in her sky. The power of the past can be a strong force -especially in the hands of a jilted lover - and there were many more clouds to come before Gina was to find real happiness.

An independent island state in the North Atlantic has fallen under the sway of Rolph Mylchraine, a landowner who has gained ascendancy by stage-managing witchcraft orgies and purveying cheap liquor. Opposing him is Keig, a peasant of extraordinary physical strength who gradually emerges leader on the grand scale. Through their developing struggle, which becomes a guerrilla war in the classic mould, echoes the sombre theme of the fatal tendency of power to corrupt. Mr Keating, already acknowledged as a writer of distinguished crime novels, has produced at perhaps the height of his powers a book that is not only a new departure for himself but also genuinely original.

It's not often a Nobel Prize winner gets murdered...on your patch...very likely by a member of your own family. DCI Phil Benholme has the reputation for being a little soft because he tries to see both sides of every story. And if he hadn't on this occasion, the murder of Professor Unwala - Nobel Prize winner of 1945 - would have been recorded as a tragic accident. Was the elderly man a victim of a violent burglary? Or of a racist assault by Britforce troopers? Or did he know something about the collection of Celtic coins thought to be buried nearby? Clearly Inspector Benholme has a number of leads to follow up. Unfortunately they all point to one person - Conor Benholme. What does a 'soft cop' do when his teenage son is also his prime suspect?

Is at the heart of village life, and marks the beginning of the Squire's land. It is the rescue of Squire Ingham's son by the Irish servant-girl which creates the uneasy bond between Sarah, the respectable family into which she marries, and the Squire's family. But it is Kate, the foundling Sarah adopts, whose doomed, forbidden love for the young Squire forces the families into explosive confrontation. A grand saga, set in all the beauty and pride of Yorkshire, amid the power and excitement of the Victorian era.

An unhappy wife is found dead in her bed, in circumstances that point to murder. Her husband, Roderick Strood, is arrested and put on trial. But before this happens we have become intimately acquainted not only with the Stroods and their problems, but with the individual members of the jury on whose verdict Roderick's fate is to depend. We see them first in their private lives, each unaware of the others' existence; watch them enter the jury-box; and finally go with them into the jury-room and hear them debating the issue of life and death. What is the truth? And what will the verdict be?

Ana would never fall in love - at least, so she thought. But an invitation to spend the summer with an old school friend changed that idea rapidly. Her friend had a husband.And from the moment they first met, Ana knew that Anthony Hambledon was somebody she would not, could not, forget. The path of true love never runs smooth, and this was no exception. But neither of them could have foreseen the pain and ultimate tragedy that lay ahead...

Rosie took herself off to the pub. She had to escape from the supercilious highbrows on whom she was billeted. To them she was "common," middle-aged and homeless. She knew that, but nevertheless she was happy. She still had her memories and she still had young Joe, her Air Force officer son. Rosie's childhood was spent in the carefree atmosphere of the theatre, with Dad (a Comedian) as hero. She had a bad time after his death with her mother's melancholia and the contempt of her sister (who had successfully snared a peer as a husband). After that came the best years of her life-her marriage with old Joe, landlord of the Crown, a big boisterous fellow, but the most gentle, unselfish husband any woman could imagine. The last war ended their happiness. Old Joe was killed; their son was born soon after. From that moment nobody and nothing mattered except young Joe. She was dead set on making a gent of him. She skimped her little luxuries to send him to a "posh" school. What wonder that they gradually grew apart, that he seemed to prefer "high life" and a chromium-plated flat to his homely mother and the old-fashioned Crown? Then came the second war and his enlistment in the Air Force. Rosie sat in the pub thinking how her life had changed; bombed out of the Crown, her livelihood gone, an unwanted evacuee. But everything was all right, for young Joe would come on leave. The war and the R.A.F. had brought him back to her.

'I am,' writes Mr. Pritchett, 'an offensive traveller'-meaning not that he is rude to porters, but that his praise of a country has sometimes been taken by its inhabitants as abuse or ridicule. Be that as it may, his book, which is based upon sojourns in Spain, Turkey, Persia, and the Iron Curtain countries, will delight every English reader. Pritchett's alert eye and relaxed manner, his flair for meeting new places and people without any warping preoccupations, produce the most felicitous results, particularly with the 'Peoples' Democracies', which most travellers approach with a bias to left or right. 'The Communist countries are like schools: the population is trained, and like school-children have their own ways of getting round authority.' The low heels and low rents of Czechoslovakia; the high spirits and out-spokenness of the Polish; Bulgaria, where the water is delicious and roses grow everywhere; Romania, so obdurate beneath its Latin sur-face-wherever he goes Pritchett uner-ringly picks out significant details, giving us the genius loci, sharing with us his curiosity about ways of life different from our own, im-parting to us the warmth of his own response to them.

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them...

Harry Antlers, a once-successful theatre director, falls obsessively in love with Viola Windrush when she comes to New York for an audition. There follows a wild pursuit, taking him to her Norfolk house and to London, where she is decorating for her uncle. Finally, Harry is driven to desperation.

Quiet, clever, sensible Virginia Fly, still a virgin at thirty-one, harbors erotic thoughts of an intensity and vividness unimagined by her suburban parents, her unassuming elderly suitor Hans or even her virile American pen-friend of twelve years, Charles Whitmore Oakhampton Jr - Charlie. When Charlie announces that he is, at last, to visit England, it seems too much to hope that he should make Virginia's dreams of passion reality. Yet his arrival coincides with her appearance on a television documentary and suddenly Virginia is presented with a bewildering variety of opportunities to rid herself of her virginity. The only question remaining seems to be whether any of them - even the suave and delicious stranger Ulick Brand - could possibly fulfill her considerable expectations.

This is an imaginative reconstruction of the mind of the young girl who was to become Queen Elizabeth I of England, that effulgent, daunting, and perplexing figure, one of the most influential women in history.

Our story begins with the birth of Mary Hanskye in 1841 as the Industrial Revolution is changing the face of pastoral England. While still a child, Mary comes under the influence of her uncle, one of England's great shipbuilders. Soon she is a young woman involved in a loveless marriage arranged by a father she has hardly known. Though tragedy and disappointment follow her like shadows, The Lovely Ship is a story of the survival of a strong woman as we follow her through marriage, childbearing, family crisis, and her ultimate ascent to the throne of power in the great shipbuilding company.