Showing results by publisher "Quercus" in All Categories

It is 1628, Charles 1 is on the throne, and the British Crown is finally taking control of Ulster. Returning to his rooms one night, Alexander Seaton is shocked to find a stranger standing there - a man who could be his double. His name is Sean O'Neill, and he carries a plea for help from Maeve O'Neill, forbidding matriarch of Alexander's mother's family in Ireland. All those who bear their blood have been placed under a poet's curse: one by one they are going to die.

Brutally dumped by her girlfriend, Ally is homeless, friendless and jobless...but at least she has Malcolm. Wounded and betrayed, Ally has made off with the one thing she thinks might soothe the pain: Emily's cat. After a long train journey she arrives home to her dad in Sheffield, ready to fold herself up in her duvet and remain on the sofa for the foreseeable. Her dad has other ideas. A phone call later, and Ally is reunited with her first ever beard and friend of old, Jeremy. He too is broken-hearted and living at home again.

What if you could see the toll that over-work, too much sugar or bad sleep really take on your system? What if you knew what boosts your energy, and what saps it, and when you are heading for burnout? What if you could feel more vitality and joy, have stronger will power and live longer? With the aid of your phone, smartwatch or a wearable heart rate monitor and The Pulse Cure, you can. The key lies in measuring your heart rate variability - the distance between your heart beats - which indicates what is happening in your autonomic nervous system.

Falling in love wasn't on Emma's agenda for her year abroad at Dunbridge Academy, the boarding school where her parents once met. Here she wants to find out where her father disappeared to when he left their family all those years ago. She has no time for distractions. But when she meets fellow student Henry, Emma knows she's in trouble. During secret midnight parties and moonlit walks through the old school buildings, feelings grow between them, and Emma feels powerless to resist. But Henry has a girlfriend and Emma doesn't want her heart broken....

Dr Jojo has it all figured out. Or so it seems to her Instagram followers, who love her no-nonsense advice about men, self-love, dating and sex. But behind the camera, it's a different story - she's in love with her best friend, Ezra, and he doesn't feel the same way. Committed to moving on, Jo soon finds the perfect distraction - sweet, shy and sexy writer Malcolm. As the pair begin to date, sparks fly, and Jo's hard exterior begins to soften.

It is summer in St Denis and Bruno is busy organising the annual village concert. He's hired a local Périgord folk group, Les Troubadours, to perform their latest hit 'A Song for Catalonia'. But when the song unexpectedly goes viral, the Spanish government, clamping down on the Catalonian bid for independence, bans Les Troubadours from performing it. The timing couldn't be worse, and Bruno finds himself under yet more pressure when a specialist sniper's bullet is found in a wrecked car near Bergerac.

Aberdeen, 1631. University librarian Robert Sim takes receipt of a gift of books recently arrived from overseas, mysterious works on alchemy and hermetics - the pursuit of ancient knowledge. By nightfall he has been brutally murdered. His colleague and good friend Alexander Seaton is left with the task of hunting for clues as to his killer's motive, as well as locating the missing books. What did Sim discover in the package, and what makes these books so dangerous?

Judy, a beautiful liver and white English pointer, and the only animal POW of WWII, truly was a dog in a million. Whether she was dragging men to safety from the wreckage of a torpedoed ship, scavenging food to help feed the starving inmates of a hellish Japanese POW camp, or by her presence alone bringing inspiration and hope to men living through the 20th century's darkest days, she was cherished and adored by the British, Australian, American and other Allied servicemen who fought to survive alongside her.

Nordland. A region in the Norwegian Arctic; a remote valley that stretches from the sea up to the mountains and the glacier of the Blue Man. It is May. In Nordland it's a time of spring and school-leavers' celebrations - until Daniel, a popular teenage boy, goes missing. Conflicting stories circulate among his friends, of parties and wild behaviour. As the search for Daniel widens, the police open a disused mine in the mountains. They find human remains, but this body has been there for decades, its identity a mystery.

When Evie Nicholson is asked to visit Kettlesheer Castle in Scotland to archive the family heirlooms, she jumps at the chance. Evie's passion for antiques means that, for her, the castle is a treasure trove of mysteries just waiting to be uncovered. But in each heirloom lies a story, and in the course of her investigations Evie stumbles upon some long-buried family secrets. Add handsome, gloomy heir Robert McAndrew and a traditional candlelit gala to the mix, and Evie's heart is sent reeling with an enthusiasm that may just extend beyond the Kettlesheer silver...

Issy is the perfect combination of gay and depressed. Living in Margate with her mum and pet chinchilla, she has always drawn inside the lines. Crafting is her biggest comfort - the way she quiets her thoughts. So when an artist comes calling with Issy's dream internship, she knows it is time to start living her life at last. Moving to Hackney, Issy has a lot of firsts to catch up on - falling for housemates, navigating sex and dating, and avoiding the neighbour who seems to hate you for no good reason.

In the spring of 1945, farm-worker Matthew Peoples runs into a burning byre and does not come out alive. The farm's owner, Barnabas Kane, can only look on as his friend dies and all 43 of his cattle are destroyed in the blaze. Following the disaster, the bull-headed and proudly self-sufficient Barnabas is forced to reach out to the farming community for assistance. But resentment simmers over Matthew Peoples' death, and Barnabas and his family begin to believe their efforts at recovery are being sabotaged.

The Sacred History is an account of the workings of the supernatural in history. It tells the epic story of angels, from Creation to Evolution and through to the operations of the supernatural in the modern world. This tale of how people and peoples have been helped by angels and other angelic beings is woven into a spellbinding narrative that brings together Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Elijah, Mary and Jesus, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, the angels who helped Hungarian Jews persecuted by the Nazis, and stories from African, Native American, and Celtic traditions.

If war is madness, how can love survive? Growing up in the borderlands between Croatia and Serbia, Miro's blissful childhood is shattered when his best friend is horribly wounded by a land mine, a legacy of conflicts gone by. Moving to the Dalmatian coast, where his parents start a small hotel, he thinks he has left this all behind - he falls in love and starts a family with his childhood sweetheart, Dina.

Ian Poulter is one of golf's most charismatic figures, with an appeal extending way beyond his sport. Here he tells his inspirational story, from his early rejection as an Spurs youth player, right through to his match-winning contributions to successive European Ryder Cup Triumphs. Poulter went from an Assistant Professional staffing the club shop to a global superstar, turning pro when he still had a handicap of 4 but the drive and self-belief to make it to the top.

Sex Matters tackles one of the most urgent, yet unspoken issues facing women's healthcare today: all models of medical research and practice are based on male-centric models that ignore the unique biological and emotional differences between men and women - an omission that endangers women's lives. McGregor explores the issues that arise from such treatment and offers clear, practical suggestions for what can be done.

There is an ongoing crisis with regards to young men and mental health, with unhelpful gender stereotypes contributing to this malaise. Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different offers a welcome alternative narrative. It is an extraordinary compilation of 100 stories of famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present day, every single one of them a rule breaker and innovator in his own way, and all going on to achieve amazing things.

Brighton, 1965. When theatrical impresario Bert Billington is found dead in his retirement home, no one suspects foul play. But when the post-mortem reveals that he was poisoned, suspicion falls on his wife, eccentric ex-music hall star Verity Malone. Frustrated by the police response to Bert's death and determined to prove her innocence, Verity calls in private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins.

In the first thaw of spring the body of a young woman surfaces in the River Torne in the far north of Sweden. Rebecka Martinsson is working as a prosecutor in nearby Kiruna, her sleep troubled by visions of a shadowy, accusing figure. Could the body belong to the girl in her dream? Joining forces with Police Inspector Anna-Maria Mella, Martinsson will need all her courage to face a killer who will kill again to keep the past buried under half a century of silent ice and snow.

Aston Martin's first, wickedly fast models were forged at a time when Ferrari's premises at Maranello was nothing but a ploughed field. This book celebrates a century of innovators who kept the fire burning brightly for over a century, from the visionary pioneers Martin and Bamford to modern-day design guru Adrian Newey; from a glamorous web of pre- and post-war spies and racing drivers, to David Brown and the achingly beautiful DB models beloved of Bonds past and present.