Lady of Quality

Ghosts of Vesuvius by

It is hard to blurb this book. On the one hand it is about Vesuvius and volcanic explosions and disasters both natural and man-made. But it is also a book about the origins of the earth, of the universe, and about how precarious our existence is. How so much of what we are today is dependent on natural events a thousand years ago, or a millennia ago, or so long ago that it is almost pointless to count the time because it is so difficult to grasp those sort of numbers.

Son of heaven by

9781848875258 #1 in the Chung Kuoseries A thin layer of mist wreathed the meadows all the way to reeds that traced the meandering path of the river. It is the year...

Spartacus : Gods of the arena dir. by

First things first, this is an awesome show. Awesome! Anyone who says different is just plain wrong!

When I first started watching Spartacus : Blood and Sand I have to say that I wasn’t overly impressed. Obviously influenced by the style and look of 300 it seemed to be a show that existed only to show glossy violence and sex. And boy did it ever show that. But after the first few episodes it developed into a very enjoyable, almost addictive, show. But then its star was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and so film making was delayed as he underwent treatment. And so instead of a second season we got a prequel. Spartacus : gods of the arena. Don’t be fooled by that name in the title, this has no Spartacus as all, instead it tells the story of how John Hannah’s Lentulus Batiatus comes to run the family ludus, and how Crixus becomes a gladiator.

Mad Bad Richard Dadd by

Mad Bad Richard Dadd has been commissioned by Sir Thomas to paint a record of their journey through Europe. But travelling from Greece he is visited one night by a strange figure calling himself Osiris. But that is just a name this figure has taken, he is insistent that he is no supernatural character.

Dadd is a real-life character, a famous Victorian painter, and infamously a murderer. This is a possible telling of how he became this murderer.

Tongues of Serpents by

ISBN: 9780007256778 book 6 in the Temeraire series There were few streets in the main port of Sydney which deserved the name, besides the one main thoroughfare, and even that bare...

The woman in black by

ISBN: 9780099511649 It was nine-thirty on Christmas eve. Arthur Kipps is a mature and responsible individual. His first wife & child died many years ago, but he has since found happiness...

Kraken by

ISBN: 9780330531627 ; Bits I especially liked The sea is full of saints. Billy works in the Natural History Museum in London. The book opens with him running through his usual...

Tamar by

ISBN: 9781406303940 In the end, it was her grandfather, William Hyde, who gave the unborn child her name. It is World War II and two Dutch men are in England learning...

How many miles to Babylon? by

ISBN: 9780141046969 ; Quotes Because I am an officer and a gentleman they have given me my notebooks, pen, ink and paper. Growing up Alec has always been isolated. His parents...

Singled out by

Full title: Singled Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men After the First World War ISBN: 9780670915644 The term “lost generation” is often used to refer to the generation...

Lady of Quality by

ISBN: 033236490 Miss Annis Wychwood is in her late twenties, and as she is still unmarried, she believes her future to hold nothing but remaining single. However she is not about...