Yu'an Hee See LaughsNot since the sinister Dr. Fu Manchu himself has there been a more fascinating villain than Yu'an Hee See, who moves like a dark cloud of evil through the breathless pages of this new book of mystery and adventure. Limehouse, Marseilles, the near East, the placid Mediterranean are the scenes of his murderous battle with Dawson Haigh of Scotland Yard, with the beautiful girl Haig loves as a pawn and a vast fortune of gold as the stake. This is Sax

a professor of Classics

back home in the west country

who shepherds the soon-to-be retired into the unknown

with Operation Bounce House

John Baker strikes out on a different tack with The Chinese Girl different

Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation on the nature of cowardice and bravery

You can get a cappuccino in the caf and the checkout girls are all Nigerian

He's very good at his job

His neighbours all have a reason to hate him and are soon up in arms

without fear of consequence

In The Swallow Stephen Moss documents a year of observing the swallow close to home and in the field to shed light on the secret life of these extraordinary birds

When the entire Soviet Union wheat crop is destroyed by a devastating string of failures