The Aviary Gate PDF Download

Author: Katie Hickman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608196917
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Constantinople, 1599. Paul Pindar, a secretary to the English ambassador, thinks he has lost his love, Celia, in a shipwreck. Now, two years later, clues begin to emerge that she may be hidden among the ranks of the slaves in the Sultan's harem. But how can he be sure? And can they be reunited? With a secret rebellion rising within the Sultan's palace, danger surrounds the lovers. A lush, ancient tale of treacherous secrets, forbidden love, and murder in the Ottoman palace,The Aviary Gate is exotic historical fiction at its very best.

Author: Katie Hickman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608192849
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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In a small town on the Italian coast, a mysterious woman washes ashore. She is crippled, mute, and clutches a bundle to her chest-a baby the townspeople insist is a real-life mermaid. It can only bring bad luck; they pay a troupe of acrobats to carry mother and child away. In the bustling trade center of Venice, merchant Paul Pindar is the subject of his colleagues' concern. Since his return from Constantinople, they have found him changed; raging over the loss of his beloved, Celia, he has gambled away his fortune at the gaming tables. But when a priceless blue diamond surfaces in the city, Pindar recognizes the opportunity to regain everything he has lost-including, perhaps, the woman he loves. A celebrated writer of history and travel books, Katie Hickman has always been a master of evoking time and place. With The Pindar Diamond, her follow-up to The Aviary Gate, she brings early-seventeenth-century Italy vividly to life, and also demonstrates her maturity as a novelist. A tale of love and avarice, with a touch of the mystical, The Pindar Diamond is rich with historical detail, and unfolds with urgency and grace. It is accomplished, wholly satisfying historical fiction.

Author: Katie Hickman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1408853620
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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_______________ 'A wonderful writer ... An adventure hard to beat in terms of sheer exotic allure' - Guardian 'Mexico will not have been portrayed more vividly since Graham Greene's The Lawless Roads ... Enchanting' - Daily Telegraph 'Magic is at the heart of Hickman's narrative, not just in the fabulous illusions of the acts themselves or the superstitions of the circus people, but in the fantastic stories of the characters she presents' - Sunday Times _______________ The delightfully beguiling account of novelist Katie Hickman's adventures with a Mexican circus Katie Hickman went to Mexico looking for magic. She found it in the circus – Big Top, clowns, elephants and all – where cheap, torn materials and tarnished sequins are transformed into nights of glittering illusion. Gradually adjusting to the harsh ways of the circus's nomadic lifestyle, she soon became absorbed into this hypnotic new world, at first as a foreigner but later as 'La Gringa Estrella', a performer in her own right. Travels with a Mexican Circus is an unforgettable account of a year-long journey through an extraordinary and bizarrely beautiful country. _______________ 'A delight... The stories of the cirqueros themselves read like tales by Gabriel Garcia Marquez' - Harpers & Queen 'The most ambitiously imaginative sort of travel writing' - Patrick Skene Catling

Author: Kathleen O'Dell
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0375852263
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Twelve-year-old Clara Dooley has spent her whole life in the crumbling Glendoveer mansion, home to a magician's widow, a cage full of exotic birds, and a decades-old mystery. Clara loves old Mrs. Glendoveer, but the birds in the aviary frighten her—they always seem to screech and squall whenever she's near. And then one day, the mynah bird speaks, and a mystery starts to unravel. Clara discovers dark secrets about the family, and about her own past. Somehow the birds in the aviary seem to be at the center of it all, and Clara can't shake the feeling that they are trying to tell her something. . . .

Author: Katie Hickman
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780060934231
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
In an absorbing mixture of poignant biography and wonderfully entertaining social history, Daughters of Britannia offers the story of diplomatic life as it has never been told before. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vita Sackville-West, and Lady Diana Cooper are among the well-known wives of diplomats who represented Britain in the far-flung corners of the globe. Yet, despite serving such crucial roles, the vast majority of these women are entirely unknown to history. Drawing on letters, private journals, and memoirs, as well as contemporary oral history, Katie Hickman explores not only the public pomp and glamour of diplomatic life but also the most intimate, private face of this most fascinating and mysterious world. Touching on the lives of nearly 100 diplomatic wives (as well as sisters and daughters), Daughters of Britannia is a brilliant and compelling account of more than three centuries of British diplomacy as seen through the eyes of some of its most intrepid but least heralded participants.

Author: Pascal Janovjak
Publisher: Black Inc.
ISBN: 1743821859
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Rome, too, wants the sound of roaring as evening falls ... The Rome Zoo: a place born of fantasy and driven by a nation’s aspirations. It has witnessed – and reflected in its tarnished mirror – the great follies of the twentieth century. Now, in an ongoing battle that has seen it survive world wars and epidemics, the zoo must once again reinvent itself, and assert its relevance in the Eternal City. Caught up in these machinations is a cast of characters worthy of this baroque backdrop: a man desperate to find meaning in his own life, a woman tasked with halting the zoo’s decline and a rare animal, the last of its species, who bewitches the world. Drifting between past and present, The Rome Zoo weaves together these and many other stories, forming a colourful and evocative tapestry of life at this strange place. It is both a love story and a poignant juxtaposition of the human need to classify, to subdue, with the untameable nature of our dramas and anxieties. Spellbinding and disturbing, precise and dreamy, this award-winning novel, translated by Stephanie Smee, is unlike any other. Winner of the Swiss Literature Award, the Prix Michel-Dentan and the Prix du public de la RTS “Like all truly great literary allegories, The Rome Zoo is both innocent and wise, filled equally with tenderness and darkness. A gorgeous, dream-like fable of Italy's past and present.” —Ceridwen Dovey

Author: Dick King-Smith
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 1429998032
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
BAD-TEMPERED RUNAWAY CAMEL. Funny, fast, and satisfying--a hilarious yarn from the "master of animal stories."* Tired of his lonely life at the zoo, Hezekiah--an ornery, very hairy Bacrian camel--busts out and heads across country. His adventure leads him to an eccentric (and equally hairy) aristocrat, a new life at a wildlife park, and company in the form of a female camel. Laughs, action, short chapters, and a genuine appreciation of the animal world make this a satisfying choice for newly independent readers. Nick Bruel's antic black-and-white drawing add to the fun. *The Guardian (London)

Author: Antoine Wilson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 198218180X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A novel in which a successful art dealer confesses the story of his rise to a former classmate in an airport bar--a story that begins with his rescue and resuscitation of a drowning man with whom he becomes inextricably and disturbingly linked.

Author: Curry, Karen
Publisher: Hierophant Publishing
ISBN: 1938289102
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The Owner’s Manual for Your Life! Founded in the twentieth century by the late spiritual teacher Ra Uru Hu, Human Design is often called the “new Astrology,” and the “intersection of science and spirituality.” Your Human Design chart is formulated by taking your birth date, time, and location and extrapolating specific personality traits and life paths from this convergence. A Human Design chart offers an astonishingly accurate guide to your personality, as well as direction and counsel on how each individual can deal with challenges in their life. Previously, Human Design charts have been notoriously difficult to interpret and decipher, usually taking a dedicated expert to read and translate them into plain English. At least, that used to be the case—until now. In Understanding Human Design: The Science of Discovering Who You Really Are, author Karen Curry walks you through the sometimes complex and intimidating Human Design chart with simple, direct language. You will learn about each level of Human Design, from the most basic elements of the chart to the deeper, more nuanced insights Human Design offers, all in an approachable and interesting way. Understand how every line, intersection, and symbol correlates to a personality trait that can directly affect your life with an experienced guide by your side. Your personal Human Design Chart can reveal your strengths, your weaknesses, and perhaps most importantly, your potential. Prepare for repetitive difficulties that you might encounter throughout your life, and embrace the opportunity to grow as you understand your personal Human Design strategy. With author Karen Curry’s assistance and knowledge, you have a path to overcome these difficulties simply by following the directions set out in your Human Design chart, the “owner’s manual” to your life.

Author: Saffia Farr
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781897312506
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Everybody has a dream, images of the fantasy life they'd lead if not trapped behind an office desk. Saffia's dream was to live in the sunshine. She didn't realise it would lead to raising her first child up fifty-eight steps in a concrete Kyrgyz tenement. Saffia had barely heard of Kyrgyzstan when she agreed to move there with her water-engineer husband, Matthew. Kyrgyzstan is a small country of huge landscapes, a smudge in the vastness of Central Asia. Saffia arrived in the ex-Soviet republic fifteen weeks pregnant, scared about life in a place where people eat sheep's eyes, drink fermented mare's milk and live in felt tents. Revolution Baby is Saffia's story of leaving Bristol for Bishkek and raising Baby Tom in the shadow of the Tien Shan mountains, while Matthew struggles to bring clean water to isolated villages. When Kyrgyzstan descends into anarchy after corrupt parliamentary elections, Saffia is trapped in Bishkek. She witnesses the 'Tulip Revolution' and the violence and insecurity which follow as politicians, mafia gangs, crime lords and Islamic militants exploit the political void. Review by Katie Hickman - Revolution Baby's is Saffia Farr' s delightful account of several years spent living in Bishkek, captial of Kyrgyzstan, with her husband, Matthew, a water engineer. Pregnant with her first child, she samples the delights of ex-pat life in one of the poorest and remotest countries on earth, the bald realities of which are, of course, not delightful at all. Health care is rudimentary, if not non-existent (in Bishkek, 'health', she comments acerbically, meant only smoking at the weekend), and her first flat has a bathroom with a padded loo seat in it, so old and stained thatfoam can be seen escaping from the gashes in the plastic (This could not be hygienic.) But never mind, armed with a good dose of English stiff-upper lip, she learns to look on the bright side, and finally even to love her adopted country, which she writes about with unpretentious freshness, and an occasionally wicked sense of humour. (During one Russian lesson, she tries not to giggle too hard on finding that she has eaten cok for breakfast.) I was surprised to find that Farr-by her own admission-could not find a publisher for her memoir, and had to print it herself. Although, having a small baby in tow, her travels in the wider country were not extensive, her account of ex-pat life in a remote country, with all its playgroups, craft mornings and competitive mahjong-playing ladies, is one of the best I have read; equally, if not more, entertaining than a regular travel book. Katie Hickman is the author of six books, among them the bestselling Daughters of Britannia. Her novel, The Aviary Gate, set in the Sultan's harem in late sixteenth-century Constantinople, is published by Bloomsbury in April.