Kate Gallagher has returned to Hogarth only to learn terrible news: as he was leading a secret expedition south, her estranged friend Hawklight was murdered by unknown assassins. Driven by guilt because she created the rift in their friendship, Kate vows to avenge his death. But as she begins to sift through the facts about his mysterious mission, she uncovers a diabolical plot that threatens to resurrect the spectre of Varak in the form of a new overlord of Bexus. Time is running out as Kate and her friends embark on a perilous adventure to prevent the unthinkable from happening. Unfortunately, others are constantly a step ahead in the race, and throughout the quest Kate and her companions are ruthlessly pursued in an attempt to prevent them from succeeding. Kate's destiny is inextricably entwined in this twisted power struggle, as she alone possesses the capability to prevent another tyrant from enslaving the planet. But she has yet to discover that there is a steep price to pay as an old nemesis seeks to settle a score.

"Kareem cradled her close to him, tucking her between his arm and his body, trying to keep her head above the thrashing, pounding waves, but Kate fought against him and slipped from his grasp. Moments later, she resurfaced beside him, and as he reached for her once more, she gripped his head between her two hands and screamed into his face. "Hawklight Find Hawklight He can't swim Leave me I can make it back to the boat " He opened his mouth to argue, but she yelled him down. "Don't you understand? Find Hawklight " A flash of lightning lit her face. Her eyes were wide, fearful, and pleading." The world of Bexus, a hostile place of magic, adventure, and tremendous danger, is once again in peril, and only Kate Gallagher can help. The Hornshurst Talisman, also known as the Toki-Moai, has been stolen, and the citizens of Hornshurst want it back-at any cost. Because of the theft, the city-states of Hornshurst and Cherath have led Bexus to the brink of another crippling war. The Council of Hogarth orders Kate to intervene and wield the power of the crystal that she wrested from Varak only months ago, but Kate has discarded the stone. Once this fact becomes known, she must agree to track down the thief and return the talisman to its rightful owners to avert the war. But Kate and her companion, Hawklight, are not the only ones seeking the Toki-Moai. Fate has played its hand, and Kate cannot begin to comprehend all that she may lose in order for the quest to succeed.

She stopped and raised the torch. Kate looked. Alone on the wall was the figure of a girl with ice blue eyes and skin that glowed with a pure golden aura, standing out like an island in a dark black lagoon. ... There was no mistaking the identity of the tiny figure. Kate was staring at her own image burned into the wall. Bexus is another world, a hostile world of magic, adventure, and tremendous danger, and there's only one way to get there-die. Neither heaven nor hell, Bexus is a world where the souls of the dead get a second chance. When Kate Gallagher awakens in Bexus after she is killed in a train wreck, she finds that her soul has retained a powerful memory of her earthly form. She also finds she bears a very dangerous mark-a golden aura that indicates purity and possibly the fulfilment of a prophecy. Kate finds herself chosen and suddenly thrust into the middle of a conflict she cannot hope to survive. With nowhere to turn and an entire world counting on her, Kate has no choice but to set out to fulfil her destiny. But Kate and her new friends are not the only ones who know of the prophecy that foretold her arrival. Varak, the tyrant lord of Bexus, is well aware of what her coming could mean for him. He's determined to capture and kill Kate before she can fulfil her destiny and return peace to Bexus.

From the creation myth of Izanagi and Izanami designed to explain the origins of the island of Japan, to the hundreds of kami (gods or spirits) and monsters populating the tales, Japanese legends tell the story of the land, the nation, the people and the divine heritage of the emperors of Japan. Often bloody and fantastic, the tales are a powerful, rewarding read, gathered together in the gorgeous, deluxe hardcover binding of the Flame Tree Epic Tales series. The latest title in Flame Tree's beautiful, comprehensive series of Gothic Fantasy titles, concentrates on the ancient, epic origins of modern fantasy.

Ten years of luminous photographic portraits of Hollywood celebrities who attended the most exclusive and glamorous after-party of the year For the past decade, photographer Mark Seliger has set up an elaborate pop-up studio inside the annual Vanity Fair after-party on Oscar Night, producing exquisite portraits of Hollywood’s A-list personalities in the immediate afterglow of cinema’s biggest event of the year. Vanity Fair: Oscar Night Sessions gathers the best of these portraits in one volume and includes a foreword by Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones, as well as an afterword by actor Alan Cumming, who sheds light on what it’s like to be in front of Seliger’s lens on the night of nights. With more than 200 portraits, featuring names such as Lady Gaga, Robert DeNiro, Donald Glover, Jessica Chastain, Taika Waititi, Spike Lee, Regina King, and Timothée Chalamet, this over-the-top collection will be the talk of both the publishing and film worlds.

'No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just learn to manage and prioritise it. I believe the second you feel you have triumphed or overcome something, anything - an abuse, an injury to the body or the mind, an addiction, a character flaw, a habit, a person - you have merely decided to stop being vigilant and embraced denial as your modus operandi. And that is what this book is about, and for: to remind you not to buy in to the Hollywood ending.' Baggage chronicles the actor's life in Hollywood and the ways in which work has repeatedly whisked him away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. Taking us through the highs and lows of his career, his struggle with mental health, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X-Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), every bad decision or moment of sensual joy, Cumming shows how every experience - good or bad - has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage. Startlingly honest, both poignant and joyous, Baggage shines a light on how to embrace the complicated messiness of life.

DISCOVER THE NEW MEMOIR FROM ALAN CUMMING. BAGGAGE: TALES FROM A FULLY PACKED LIFE PUBLISHES 28 OCT '21 'One of the most memorable, heart-stopping autobiographies I have ever read' STEPHEN FRY WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2015 THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ATTITUDE MAGAZINE'S BOOK OF THE YEAR A beloved star of stage and screen, Alan Cumming's life and career have been shaped by a complex and dark family past - full of troubled memories, kept buried away. But then an unexpected phone call from his long-estranged father brought the pain of the past hurtling back into the present, and unravelled everything he thought he knew about himself. Not My Father's Son is the story of his journey of discovery, both a memoir of his childhood in Scotland, and an investigation into his family history which would change him forever. 'Equal parts memoir, whodunnit and manual for living . . . beautifully written, honest . . . I was completely sucked in' NEIL GAIMAN

Haiku poems about the natural world and the seasons are well known, but many poets have used the genre to capture the evocations of love. Combining elegant and restrained haiku with lively senryu poems, all aspects of romantic love are explored here with humour, satire, wit and compassion. Poems by both men and women from the 1600s to the present day are beautifully illustrated with images from the unrivalled collection of Japanese paintings and prints in the British Museum. From the tender and the melanch oly to the witty and the ribald, the poems and images in Haiku: Love comment on the most universal of human emotions.

Baggage is the story of Alan Cumming's life in Hollywood, taking us through the highs and lows of his career, from his struggle with mental health and failed relationships to encounters with legends (Liza! X Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!). Cumming shows how every experience - each bad decision or moment of sensual joy - has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage. Startlingly honest, both poignant and joyous, Baggage shines a light on how to embrace the complicated messiness of life.

Love in a Cold Climate is the wickedly funny sequel to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love which is now a major BBC series and Prime Video series directed by Emily Mortimer starring Lily James, Andrew Scott and Dominic West 'How lovely - green velvet and silver. I call that a dream, so soft and delicious, too.' She rubbed a fold of the skirt against her cheek. 'Mine's silver lame, it smells like a bird cage when it gets hot but I do love it. Aren't you thankful evening skirts are long again?' Ah, the dresses! But oh, the monotony of the Season, with its endless run of glittering balls. Even fabulously fashionable Polly Hampton - with her startling good looks and excellent social connections - is beginning to wilt under the glare. Groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, fearsome Lady Montdore, Polly instead scandalises society by declaring her love for her uncle 'Boy' Dougdale, the Lecherous Lecturer, and promptly eloping to France. But the consequences of this union no one could quite expect . . . NANCY MITFORD'S WICKEDLY FUNNY SERIES CONTINUES IN DON'T TELL ALFRED. ***** 'Peerless' Zoe Heller 'Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible' Philip Hensher, Spectator 'A comic genius' Independent on Sunday

This is the first of a three-volume anthology of Edo- and Meiji-era urban literature that includes An Edo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Mega-City, 1750-1850 and A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Modern Metropolis, 1850-1920. The present work focuses on the years in which bourgeois culture first emerged in Japan, telling the story of the rising commoner arts of Kamigata, or the "Upper Regions" of Kyoto and Osaka, which harkened back to the Japan's middle ages even as they rebelled against and competed with that earlier era. Both cities prided themselves on being models and trendsetters in all cultural matters, whether arts, crafts, books, or food. The volume also shows how elements of popular arts that germinated during this period ripened into the full-blown consumer culture of late-Edo. The tendency to imagine Japan's modernity as a creation of Western influence since the mid-nineteenth century is still strong, particularly outside Japan studies. A Kamigata Anthology challenges such assumptions by illustrating the flourishing phenomenon of Japan's movement into its own modernity through a selection of the best examples from the period, including popular genres such as haikai poetry, handmade picture scrolls, travel guidebooks, kabuki and joruri plays, prose narratives of contemporary life, and jokes told by professional entertainers. Well illustrated with prints from popular books of the time and artwork containing poems and commentaries, the volume emphasizes texts currently unavailable in English and translated into entertaining, vibrant prose.

"Kareem cradled her close to him, tucking her between his arm and his body, trying to keep her head above the thrashing, pounding waves, but Kate fought against him and slipped from his grasp. Moments later, she resurfaced beside him, and as he reached for her once more, she gripped his head between her two hands and screamed into his face. "Hawklight Find Hawklight He can't swim Leave me I can make it back to the boat " He opened his mouth to argue, but she yelled him down. "Don't you understand? Find Hawklight " A flash of lightning lit her face. Her eyes were wide, fearful, and pleading." The world of Bexus, a hostile place of magic, adventure, and tremendous danger, is once again in peril, and only Kate Gallagher can help. The Hornshurst Talisman, also known as the Toki-Moai, has been stolen, and the citizens of Hornshurst want it back-at any cost. Because of the theft, the city-states of Hornshurst and Cherath have led Bexus to the brink of another crippling war. The Council of Hogarth orders Kate to intervene and wield the power of the crystal that she wrested from Varak only months ago, but Kate has discarded the stone. Once this fact becomes known, she must agree to track down the thief and return the talisman to its rightful owners to avert the war. But Kate and her companion, Hawklight, are not the only ones seeking the Toki-Moai. Fate has played its hand, and Kate cannot begin to comprehend all that she may lose in order for the quest to succeed.

She stopped and raised the torch. Kate looked. Alone on the wall was the figure of a girl with ice blue eyes and skin that glowed with a pure golden aura, standing out like an island in a dark black lagoon. ... There was no mistaking the identity of the tiny figure. Kate was staring at her own image burned into the wall. Bexus is another world, a hostile world of magic, adventure, and tremendous danger, and there's only one way to get there-die. Neither heaven nor hell, Bexus is a world where the souls of the dead get a second chance. When Kate Gallagher awakens in Bexus after she is killed in a train wreck, she finds that her soul has retained a powerful memory of her earthly form. She also finds she bears a very dangerous mark-a golden aura that indicates purity and possibly the fulfilment of a prophecy. Kate finds herself chosen and suddenly thrust into the middle of a conflict she cannot hope to survive. With nowhere to turn and an entire world counting on her, Kate has no choice but to set out to fulfil her destiny. But Kate and her new friends are not the only ones who know of the prophecy that foretold her arrival. Varak, the tyrant lord of Bexus, is well aware of what her coming could mean for him. He's determined to capture and kill Kate before she can fulfil her destiny and return peace to Bexus.

Toommy is twenty-nine, lives and loves in London, and has a morbid fear of the c word (commitment), the b word (boyfriend), and the f word (forgetting to call his drug dealer before the weekend). But when he begins to feel the urge to become a father, he starts to wonder if his chosen lifestyle can ever make him happy. Faced with the choice of maintaining his hedonistic, drugged-out, and admittedly fabulous existence or chucking it all in favor of a far more sensitive, fulfilling--and let's face it--sober lifestyle, Tommy finds himself in a true quandary. Through a series of adventures and misadventures that lead him from London nightspots to New York bedrooms and back, our boy Tommy manages to answer some of life's most pressing questions--and even some he never thought to ask.

Kate Gallagher has returned to Hogarth only to learn terrible news: as he was leading a secret expedition south, her estranged friend Hawklight was murdered by unknown assassins. Driven by guilt because she created the rift in their friendship, Kate vows to avenge his death. But as she begins to sift through the facts about his mysterious mission, she uncovers a diabolical plot that threatens to resurrect the spectre of Varak in the form of a new overlord of Bexus. Time is running out as Kate and her friends embark on a perilous adventure to prevent the unthinkable from happening. Unfortunately, others are constantly a step ahead in the race, and throughout the quest Kate and her companions are ruthlessly pursued in an attempt to prevent them from succeeding. Kate's destiny is inextricably entwined in this twisted power struggle, as she alone possesses the capability to prevent another tyrant from enslaving the planet. But she has yet to discover that there is a steep price to pay as an old nemesis seeks to settle a score.