Author: Karin, Hampshire Libraries

John le Carré

Karin, Hampshire LibrariesLeave a comment

David John Moore Cornwell, better known as John le Carré, was the author of acclaimed espionage novels including Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People. During a brief career in the secret services his third novel, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller and he left MI6 to become a full-time author. Many of his books have been adapted for film and television, including The Constant Gardner, which starred Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes.  

Although he began as an espionage writer, his works transcended the genre and he won widespread international acclaim as a humanitarian, as well as a literary heavyweight. In 2020 he won the Swedish Olof Palme Prize for “extraordinary contribution to the necessary fight for freedom, democracy and social justice.” and donated the $100,000 prize to Médecins Sans Frontières 

John le Carré’s last novel, Agent Running in the Field, was written ‘in a fever’ after the Referendum of 2016 and reflects on a generation of young men and women horrified by the current state of the country but with no movement to which they can attach themselves. Published to worldwide acclaim in October 2019 his last novel was as prescient about our contemporary divided world as his early novels had been about the Cold War. Le Carré died of pneumonia in 2020 at the age of 89.  

There are moments which are made up of too much stuff for them to be lived at the time they occur

John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Alec Leamas is tired. It’s the 1960s, he’s been out in the cold for years, spying in the shadow of the Berlin Wall for his British masters. Now Control wants to bring him in at last – but only after one final assignment. He must travel deep into the heart of Communist Germany and betray his country, a job that he will do with his usual cynical professionalism. But when George Smiley tries to help a young woman Leamas has befriended, it may prove the worst thing he could ever have done. 

Tinkter, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

A mole, implanted by Moscow Centre, has infiltrated the highest ranks of the British Intelligence Service, almost destroying it in the process. And so former spymaster George Smiley has been brought out of retirement in order to hunt down the traitor at the very heart of the Circus – even though it may be one of those closest to him. 

The Constant Gardener

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Tessa Quayle, a brilliant and beautiful young social activist, has been found brutally murdered by Lake Turkana in Nairobi. The rumours are that she was faithless, careless, but her husband Justin, a reserved, garden-loving British diplomat, refuses to believe them. As he sets out to discover what really happened to Tessa, he unearths a conspiracy more disturbing, and more deadly, than he could ever have imagined.

The Little Drummer Girl

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Charlie, a brilliant and beautiful young actress, is lured into ‘the theatre of the real’ by an Israeli intelligence officer. Forced to play her ultimate role, she is plunged into a deceptive and delicate trap set to ensnare an elusive Palestinian terrorist. 

Agent Running in the Field

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Nat is not only a spy, he is a passionate badminton player. His regular Monday evening opponent is half his age: the introspective and solitary Ed. Ed hates Brexit, hates Trump and hates his job at some soulless media agency. And it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Prue, Florence and Nat himself down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all. Agent Running in the Field is a chilling portrait of our time, now heartbreaking, now darkly humorous, told to us with unflagging tension by the greatest chronicler of our age. 

“It’s the new millennium. People must be allowed to screw up
their lives as they see fit

John le Carré, The Constant Gardene

Head over to the BorrowBox app, or our online catalogue to browse all the amazing books written by John le Carré.

Hampshire Libraries Presents – The Wrong Door, a virtual escape room experience

Karin, Hampshire LibrariesLeave a comment

Get ready for the ultimate big night in, where you and your friends can solve virtual puzzles and escape to freedom! Everything you need to host an escape room, and support Hampshire Libraries, is waiting for you in the link below.

What do I need to do?

Share this link with friends and family, make sure you let your guests know you’re organising an escape room so they can donate.

What is an escape room?

An escape room is a virtual game where players work together, or on their own, to discover clues and solve puzzles to move through a series of rooms and escape.

How many guests should I invite?

There is no limit but we suggest 2 – 6 players set up a video call with each other and each should have access to a computer for the full experience. However, a host can also share their screen with you and talk through what you are seeing. You can also play on your own if you would prefer.

How do I play with a large group?

We suggest that you split into teams and time how long it takes each team to escape, times can be sent to a coordinator who can later reveal the winners.

Is it suitable for children?

The Wrong Door escape room may be too difficult for younger children, but is suitable for children aged 12+ and can also provide a fun family activity.

How long does it take?

Each team will vary, and we would prefer for you to enjoy the experience rather than rush. However, the game is designed to take roughly 2 hours to complete. There are hints and answers available along the way if you get stuck.

If you have any other questions please email us at countyhq@hants.gov.uk

Among the Shelves – Domestic Abuse

Karin, Hampshire LibrariesLeave a comment

The library is not the first place you would think of seeking support when it comes to domestic abuse, harassment, or female genital mutilation (FGM), we cannot take the place of trained professionals, but we can support those who are experiencing domestic abuse by providing the information and the resources they need in a safe environment.  

Living in an abusive household or being in an abusive relationship can be disempowering and leave the affected person feeling there is nowhere to turn. Historically, survivors of abuse have not been offered the support they need to heal and can end up blaming themselves. We want to rewrite the narrative; to show that there is non-judgmental support available, including within libraries. We want to say to those who need support: You are not alone; you are not to blame, and you do not have to suffer in silence.  

To achieve this goal public libraries are partnering with Hampshire Police and Stop Domestic Abuse to develop a pilot training session for library staff in Chandler’s Ford Library and at Gosport Discovery Centre. This training will give them the skills to direct customers to appropriate domestic abuse support. If this pilot is successful, we hope to extend the training to library staff across the county and update our online resources for victims of domestic abuse. 

Public libraries in Hampshire provide access to information, support, and guidance for those who need it.  This service is available to all, but I believe it is especially important for those members of our community who need help and assistance when they are at their most vulnerable.  

Alongside our pilot training scheme, we also have a range of books on our shelves and on the BorrowBox app that cover physical, financial, sexual and psychological abuse, harassment, FGM and stalking. We also have a selection of books on domestic abuse for children to help explain these exceedingly difficult subjects. Whether you are looking for advice, to start to heal or to broaden your knowledge, we hope that there is something here to help.  

To borrow our eBooks and eAudiobooks, simply log in to BorrowBox and browse the special featured bookshelf. For physical copies, browse our online catalogue and, for a small charge, reserve the book or books you would like to pick up at your local library.  You can also request books on these subjects under the free Ready Reads; we select – you collect scheme.  

Adult Non-Fiction
Adult Non-Fiction
Adult Non-Fiction
Adult Non-Fiction
Adult Fiction
Adult Fiction

If you’re a victim of domestic abuse, or know someone who is, and there’s an emergency that’s ongoing or life is in danger, call 999 now. If you are in an abusive relationship, or are living with domestic violence and need help and support, you can contact Stop Domestic Abuse in the following ways: 

HELPLINE – FOR ALL PARTS OF HAMPSHIRE 0330 016 5112
HELPLINE – FOR PORTSMOUTH 023 9206 5494
Contact details can also be found at https://stopdomesticabuse.uk/contact

National Storytelling Week 2021

Karin, Hampshire Libraries1 Comment

Join in with National Storytelling Week from 30 January until 6 February and celebrate the tradition that is storytelling! You can be as creative as you like – make up stories, read stories from books or even act them out.
Did you know our Winter Reading Challenge theme this year is Reading Together? If you haven’t already, why not sign up and cuddle up with a couple of books – if your child reads four books they earn a certificate.

Many of us grew up visiting the library as children; sitting down on a rug or cushion as story books were read out loud, that was always a highlight. After all, how lucky weren’t we that our visit coincided with the library’s storytime?
We now know it wasn’t always luck, most of the time our parents, grandparents or carers found out when the weekly storytime took place. Nevertheless, the magic that is listening to stories are just as incredible, and seeing children experience this wonder is just as magical as our own experiences. In the last year, our staff and volunteers have missed sitting down and reading stories to mesmerised children, and we’re sure parents and children alike are missing our storytimes as much as we are.
But a pandemic won’t stop us sharing stories with you all. Over the past ten months our staff have filmed themselves reading stories, which we have shared with you as videos on Facebook and YouTube.

As we all continue to do our part, we here at Hampshire Libraries are continuing to do our virtual storytimes. If you’ve missed them, catch up on our Storytime playlist on YouTube – where we are adding more every week.

If your child or your children enjoy listening to books, why not try eAudiobooks from BorrowBox – our eBook provider. Download the app to your smartphone or tablet, login with your library card, or your child’s library card, and you can download up to five eAudiobooks and eBooks at a time. Perfect to enjoy while crafting, walking or doing chores together.

If they haven’t tried audiobooks before, why not give our bedtime stories a go? Our staff read and recorded reading some of their favourite chapter books, and you can find them, like our other videos, on our YouTube channel.

If you are looking for some books to read together, or to read at bedtime, we can recommend these five titles. All available as eBooks, as well as physical books that you can reserve, for a small charge, and collect from your local library.

Ivy and Bean series
by Written by Annie Barrows
For ages 6+

The moment they saw each other, Bean and Ivy knew they wouldn’t be friends. But when Bean plays a joke on her sister, Nancy, and has to hide quick Ivy comes to the rescue, proving that sometimes the best of friends are people never meant to like each other. Vibrant characters and lots of humour make this a charming and addictive introduction to Ivy and Bean.

The sheep-pig
by Dick King-Smith
Age: 7+

When Farmer Hogget wins a piglet at the local fair, Mrs Hogget thinks of fattening it up for the freezer. But the old sheepdog, Fly, takes him under her wing and starts to train him up as a sheep-pig, whose methods of getting the sheep to do what he wants are rather unconventional.

Image result for matilda book

Matilda
by Roald Dahl
Age: 8+

Matilda’s parents have called her some terrible things. The truth is, she’s a genius and they’re the stupid ones. Find out how she gets the better of them and her spiteful headmistress, as well as discovering that she has a very special power.

Journey to the river sea
by Eva Ibbotson
Age: 10+

Maia, orphaned at 13, is unhappy to be staying with relatives hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She becomes friends with an English boy who lives with the locals. They are forced to flee upriver, pursued by an assortment of eccentric characters.


Skulduggery Pleasant
by Derek Landy
Age: 12+

Stephanie’s uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn’t fiction. Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source – the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard.


What is a book you remember reading as a child with your parents? Or a book you always wanted them to read to you at bedtime? Let us know in the comments below!

Holocaust Memorial Day 2021

Karin, Hampshire LibrariesLeave a comment

On Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the millions of people murdered under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.
This year’s theme is ‘Be the light in the darkness”; a call to action and affirmation to all those marking the day. It was George Santayana who said:

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

It’s 76 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, a day the Allies found the rumours they had heard were true and that the true crimes of the Nazis were worse then anyone could have imagined. Tragically we still have not learnt from history, as in those intervening years we have seen not just one, but another four genocides take place.

Technology has gone a long way since 1945, we now receive news of events and disasters as they happen across the world. We are bombarded with images, information, facts and news from different platforms, sources and outlets. It can be hard to know what is true and what isn’t, it’s easy to be overwhelmed, to accept information as truth without looking at the whole picture and to simple turn away as the world becomes too much.

In the darkest of times, it’s easy to get lost, to follow the loudest voice in fear of being left behind. It’s easy to lose ourselves, to lose our path and the sight of truth and what is right and wrong. Looking back at the past, to learn from the mistake of humanity, can light the spark of knowledge that will guide us through the darkness. And as we come together, knowing what mistakes to avoid, the signs to look for to stand against oppression, prosecution and fascism, we will create the light we need to ensure the children walking before us will not be lost in darkness.

We will continue to do our bit for as long as we can, secure in the knowledge that others will continue to light a candle long after us.

Gena Turgel MBE, survivor of the Holocaust (1923-2018)

2020 was a long year and as readers it’s understandable we want light-hearted books to read, books that let us escape reality for a short while and leave us feeling good. It can be hard to open a book that deals with prosecution, death and the Holocaust, but if you want to know more about what happened in Nazi occupied Europe during the 30’s and 40’s, we have four books we have read and can recommend.

The first one is The Holocaust by Laurence Rees.

In this book, Laurence Rees tries to answer two questions about the Holocaust: How, and why, did it happen?

Using research and interviews, we are given an in-depth look at not just the monstrosities that were committed, but how they could happen, why they happened and why everyday people committed some of the worst crimes in history.

It would be a lie to say it’s an easy read, but it’s so well written and well researched you can’t stop reading it. It’s not just an insight to the Holocaust and what events lead up to it, but an insight into human psychology, behaviour and needs that is terrifying, yet insightful.

The next book we recommend is Hitler’s Furies by Wendy Lower

This non-fiction book was also written using research and interviews, but instead of looking at the Holocaust as a whole it focuses on the role of women and how most escaped unpunished for their crimes.

Even though the Nazi Government was actively promoting and encouraging women to be mothers and wives who stayed at home, they employed women to work as guards at the women’s camps. It’s an interesting book, not only because it shows another side of the atrocities, but because it shows how sexism, prejudice and presumptions led to most female war criminals escaped justice.

Looking at witness statements and historical documents, this book explores a different side of history and how female guards exploited prejudice to hide their acts of violence, murder and torture.

Our third book is Clara’s War by Clara Kramer

The memoir of 15 year-old Clara, who is forced to go into hiding in 1942, is not an easy read, but one of hope, courage, love and survival.

Cramped into a small bunker to hide from the SS, this heart-braking memoir is a retelling of her experiences as one of many Jewish families trying to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland.

It’s an emotional read to hear of Clara’s survival and life in the bunker, and it’s the book that made me read Anne Frank’s Diary (The Diary Of a Young Girl).
It isn’t a story of the Holocaust in the sense it’s about the camps. Instead it showed the genocide from the view of the prosecuted, from the ones who were hiding. I often did have to remind myself it was a memoir, so Clara had to survive, but it’s hard to fully understand how anyone could have survived what she lived through.

Our fourth and final recommendation, though it’s been hard to only choose four, is The Children’s Block by Otto B Kraus

This is not the only book written about the children’s block at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the one that comes to mind especially is The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe. For those of you familiar with Iturbe’s book you may recognise the basic story, but the characters and the way they react to the situations they find themselves in is different.

This fresh point of view provides a different perspective on some of the events and actions that took place in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Children’s Block is written from an adult perspective, which arguably gives us a fuller understanding of the context and outcome of events.

Kraus has written an ‘autobiographical novel’, which mixes his experiences with fictional characters, merged real-life characters and changes to the historical timeline. It’s a powerful book that is hard to read at times, but it will live with you for a long time. This book can be read on its own, or in companion with The Librarian of Auschwitz, you can find both through Hampshire Libraries.

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day we have also put together a collection of titles, which includes the four recommended books, as eBooks and aAudiobooks, on BorrowBox.
If you prefer physical books, you are still able to reserve books to collect from your local library, for a small charge. And you can also sign up to our click and collect service, Ready Reads, where you tell us the kind of books you like and our talented staff select books for you.

What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.

Anne Frank

A healthy January with Steve

Karin, Hampshire Libraries1 Comment

Hello, my name’s Steve and for nearly a year now I’ve been making regular videos on the subject of health and wellbeing for Hampshire Library Service’s brilliant social media accounts. In this little blog post I’m going to share some of the things I’ve learned over that time, along with some of my favourite videos and the books that I used to make them. 

Spending the last few months learning about health and wellbeing has really changed my perspective on how interconnected our minds and bodies are. For instance, our state of mind directly effects how motivated we are to look after ourselves physically and, in turn, our physical health directly affects our state of mind. I’ve also learned that even tiny parts of our everyday routine, like cooking, can have an important impact on our wellbeing. Not only are they an opportunity to live more healthily but, if we experiment a little with them, they can also be exciting and absorbing activities. I’ve found that regularly trying new recipes has given me a sense of achievement.  

I really enjoyed making bruschetta out of stale bread and old garlic because, not only was it delicious, but it also gave me an opportunity to show that you can make something (reasonably) healthy out of things you just have lying around. Decreasing waste is always good and I think saving money by using up leftover is particularly helpful to people during these difficult times.  

In terms of overall wellbeing, I found Men’s Health by Jim Pollard a useful and accessible guide to all aspects of keeping myself healthy, and a surprising amount of its information was equally relevant for all genders. For instance, if you have trouble motivating yourself to exercise then try to ‘nudge’ yourself into doing it by adopting little habits, like making sure any equipment you need is laid out and easily accessible to you before you go to bed. Its guide to the importance on getting a good night sleep is another good example. 

Over the last few months I’ve read too many useful books on exercise to name. But one thing that all the best ones had in common was to stress how vital it is not to overdo things. Fitness is important, but hurting yourself is always detrimental to your wellbeing, both physically and mentally. It’s vital to stretch and warm up before you attempt any exercise, but flexibility is an often-overlooked part of our general health. Not only can it keep you limber, it can also build strength as well, particularly in activities like Yoga. Another fascinating aspect of health and wellbeing that we tend to overlook is our energetic health. This is something that is more focused on in the eastern medical tradition and is the subject of The Qigong Bible by Katherine Allen. Qigong is a form of ancient Chinese moving meditation which is focused on cultivating energy as well as increasing peace of mind and this book gives a very thorough and graspable introduction to it.  

So, what have I learned about health and wellbeing over the course of 2020? And what overall piece of advice can I give you about looking after yourself? Well, overall, I think you need to make sure that the upkeep of your mind and body is as varied and interesting as possible. Having a sense of routine can help our state of mind while we’re all stuck in doors by making us feel in control, but it can also become monotonous if we’re not careful, which can make us feel low. Staying physically and mentally healthy should be fun!  So, remember to spice things up: try a new recipe, a new form of exercise, different ways to relax. And, above all, keep reading. 

No wait, No fuss – January’s collection

Karin, Hampshire Libraries2 Comments

Do you love eBooks or eAudiobooks, but find you have to wait for a copy to become available? Well, you will love this collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks then!
Each month a collection of titles, some in both formats, become available to download. There’s an almost unlimited number of copies of each title, meaning there’s no wait, no fuss or reserving; just download and enjoy right away.

This month we have 8 eBooks and 13 eAudiobook titles available to download without any wait; have a look at the titles available, and find them on the BorrowBox app.
We’ll start with the children’s ones, so keep scrolling if you would like to see the adult titles.
These titles will be available from 1 January.

eBooks and eAudiobooks for children

His Dark Materials
by Philip Pullman

Set in a parallel world, Northern Lights tells the story of 12-year-old Lyra’s quest to rescue her friend and find her father, aided by her daemon, an armoured bear, and a witch-queen….

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Philip Pullman and Full Cast
Suitable for ages 13+

eBooks and eAudiobooks for adults

The Shelf
by Helly Acton

Ever feel like you’re losing a race you never signed up for?

Everyone in Amy’s life seems to be getting married, having children and settling down (or so Instagram tells her), and she feels like she’s falling behind.

So, when her long-term boyfriend surprises her with a dream holiday, she thinks he’s going to finally pop the Big Question. But the dream turns into a nightmare when, instead, she finds herself on the set of a Big Brother-style reality television show, The Shelf.

Along with five other women, Amy is brutally dumped live on TV and must compete in a series of humiliating and obnoxious tasks in the hope of being crowned ‘The Keeper’.

While inside the house, will Amy learn that there are worse things than being ‘left on the shelf’?

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones
Fiction

The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Amy Landecker, Ann Dowd, Elisabeth Moss and Bradley Whitford
Fiction

The Positive Habit
by Fiona Brennan

Love, calmness, confidence, gratitude, hope and happiness: these are the six emotions that tip the balance of our mindset in favour of a positive outlook rather than a negative one. Wouldn’t it be great to feel more of these positive emotions? Now you can with Fiona Brennan’s ultimate manual for the mind.

With a chapter on each emotion and practical steps on how to cultivate them, the plan utilises mindfulness, habit loops, positive psychology and neuroscience to help soothe anxiety and stress. It will show you how to train your brain to embrace negative thoughts with courage and love before transforming them into positive ones.

Accompanied by audio hypnotherapies that take just a few minutes a day, split between morning and evening, it will transform your mental health as you doze off peacefully to the sleep-time audio and start the day happy with the seven-minute morning ritual. Take control of your emotional health and build your ladder to happiness so that you flourish as you develop The Positive Habit.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Fiona Brennan
Non-Fiction

Peaky Blinders: The Real Story
by Carl Chinn

The Peaky Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused with drama and dread. Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but deeply flawed Shelby family blind enemies by slashing them with the disposable safety razor blades stitched in to the peaks of their flat caps, as they fight bloody gangland wars involving Irish terrorists and the authorities led by a devious Home Secretary, Winston Churchill.

But who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist?

Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author, Carl Chinn, has spent decades searching them out. Now he reveals the true story of the notorious Peaky Blinders, one of whom was his own great grandfather and, like the Shelbys, his grandfather was an illegal bookmaker in back-street Birmingham.

In this gripping social history, Chinn shines a light on the rarely reported struggles of the working class in one of the great cities of the British Empire before the First World War. The story continues after 1918 as some Peaky Blinders transformed into the infamous Birmingham Gang. Led by the real Billy Kimber, they fought a bloody war with the London gangsters Darby Sabini and Alfie Solomon over valuable protection rackets extorting money from bookmakers across the booming postwar racecourses of Britain.

Drawing together a remarkably wide-range of original sources, including interviews with relatives of the 1920s gangsters, Peaky Blinders: The Real Story adds a new dimension to the true history of Birmingham’s underworld and fact behind its fiction.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Carl Chinn
Non-Fiction

The Long call
by Ann Cleeves

In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.

Now he’s back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.

A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew’s new home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.

Finding the killer is Venn’s only focus, and his team’s investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind, and the deadly secrets that lurk there.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Ben Aldridge
Fiction

The Bad Daughter
by Joy Fielding

Robin Davis hasn’t spoken to her family in six years.
Not since it happened.

Then they’re attacked; left fighting for their lives.
And Robin is back.

All families have their secrets.
And one of theirs may have put them all in terrible danger . . .

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Brittany Pressley
Fiction

Those who are loved
by Victoria Hislop

Athens 1941. After decades of political uncertainty, Greece is polarised between Right- and Left-wing views when the Germans invade.

Fifteen-year-old Themis comes from a family divided by these political differences. The Nazi occupation deepens the fault-lines between those she loves just as it reduces Greece to destitution. She watches friends die in the ensuing famine and is moved to commit acts of resistance.

In the civil war that follows the end of the occupation, Themis joins the Communist army, where she experiences the extremes of love and hatred and the paradoxes presented by a war in which Greek fights Greek. Eventually imprisoned on the infamous islands of exile, Makronisos and then Trikeri, Themis encounters another prisoner whose life will entwine with her own in ways neither can foresee. And finds she must weigh her principles against her desire to escape and live.

As she looks back on her life, Themis realises how tightly the personal and political can become entangled. While some wounds heal, others deepen.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Juliet Stevenson
Fiction

Love You Dead
by Peter James

An ugly duckling as a child, Jodie Bentley had two dreams in life – to be beautiful and rich. She’s achieved the first, with a little help from a plastic surgeon, and now she’s working hard on the second. Her philosophy on money is simple: you can either earn it or marry it. Marrying is easy, it’s getting rid of the husband afterwards that’s harder, that takes real skill. But hey, practice makes perfect . . .

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is feeling the pressure from his superiors, his previous case is still giving him sleepless nights, there have been major developments with his missing wife Sandy, and an old adversary is back. But worse than all of this, he now believes a Black Widow is operating in his city. One with a venomous mind . . . and venomous skills. Soon Grace comes to the frightening realization that he may have underestimated just how dangerous this lady is.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Daniel Weyman
Fiction

The Carer
by Deborah Moggach

James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy’s virtues, their shopping trips and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss. Is this really their father, the distant figure who never once turned up for a sports day, now happily chortling over cuckoo clocks and television soaps?

Then something happens that throws everything into new relief, and Phoebe and Robert discover that life most definitely does not stop for the elderly. It just moves onto a very different plane – changing all the stories they thought they knew so well.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Patience Tomlinson
Fiction

Sycamore Gap
by LJ Ross

The past never stays buried for long …

Detective Chief Inspector Ryan believes he has put his turbulent history behind him. Then, in the early hours of the summer solstice, the skeleton of a young woman is found inside the Roman Wall at Sycamore Gap. She has lain undiscovered for 10 years, and it is Ryan’s job to piece together her past.

Enquiry lines cross and merge as Ryan is forced to face his own demons and enter into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who seems unstoppable.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Daniel Weyman
Fiction

We Begin
by Chris Whitaker

Thirty years ago, Vincent King became a killer.

Now, he’s been released from prison and is back in his hometown of Cape Haven, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed.

Duchess Radley, Star’s thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin – and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town.

Murder, revenge, retribution.

How far can we run from the past when the past seems doomed to repeat itself?

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by George Newbern
Fiction

Traces
by Patricia Wiltshire

In Traces, Professor Patricia Wiltshire will take you on a journey through the fascinating edgeland where nature and crime are intertwined.

She’ll take you searching for bodies of loved ones – through woodlands, along hedgerows, field-edges, and through plantations – solving time since death, and disposal of remains, from ditches to living rooms. She will give you glimpses of her own history: her loves, her losses, and the narrow little valley in Wales where she first woke up to the wonders of the natural world. Pat will show you how her work with a microscope reveals tell-tale traces of the world around us, and how these have taken suspects of the darkest criminal activities to court.

From flowers, fungi, tree trunks to car pedals, walking boots, carpets, and corpses’ hair, Traces is a fascinating, unique, and utterly compelling audiobook on life, death, and one’s indelible link with nature.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Antonia Beamish
Non-Fiction

Download the BorrowBox app and log in with your Hampshire Library card to enjoy these titles, and thousands of others!

Agatha Christe

Karin, Hampshire LibrariesLeave a comment

Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the best-selling novelist of all time.  

She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.   She was home schooled by her American father and taught herself to read by the age of 5. 

Her first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920 in the US and in 1921 in the UK. 

She was married twice, once to Archibald Christie with whom she had a daughter, and then to archaeologist Max Mallowan.  After marrying him in 1930 she spent many months a year on archaeological digs in the Middle East.  These trips proved to be a great source of inspiration for her.  Another way she found knowledge and inspiration was her work in hospital dispensaries during both World Wars.  It was here that she gained her full understanding on a vast array of poisons. 

In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award. Later that year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award for best play. In 2013, she was voted the best crime writer and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers’ Association. In September 2015, And Then There Were None was named the “World’s Favourite Christie” in a vote sponsored by the author’s estate. Most of Christie’s books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games, and graphic novels. More than thirty feature films are based on her work.  The most recent adaptation, Death on the Nile, is due to be released close to Christmas this year. 

According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author. And Then There Were None is one of the highest-selling books of all time, with approximately 100 million sales. Christie’s stage play The Mousetrap holds the world record for the longest initial run. It opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End of London on 25 November 1952. The play was closed down in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic – a return date is expected soon.   

The reception of Poirot’s death was international, even earning him an obituary in The New York Times; he is still the only fictional character to have received such an honour. 

After a hugely successful career and a very happy life Agatha died peacefully on 12 January 1976. She is buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Cholsey, near Wallingford. 

What can I say at seventy-five?
‘Thank God for my good life, and for all the love that has been given to me.

Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

The mysterious affair at Styles

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

With the help of Inspector Japp, a Scotland Yard detective and the investigating officer, Hercule Poirot endeavors to uncover the mystery of who killed Emily Inglethorp.

The murder of Roger Ackroyd

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected that she was being blackmailed. Then came the news that she had taken her own life. But, before he found all the clues, he was murdered.

The Mystery of the Blue Train

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

The daughter of an American millionaire dies on a train en route for Nice…When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again – for a heavy blow has killed her.  The prime suspect is Ruth’s estranged husband, Derek. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board…

Black Coffee

Available as a physical book

Sir Claud Amory has the formula for a new powerful explosive, which is stolen by a member of his household. Locking everyone in the library, he switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula. When the lights come on, he is dead.

Peril at End House

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Upon discovering a bullet-hole in Nick’s sun hat, Hercule Poirot decides she needs his protection. At the same time, he begins to unravel the mystery of a murder that hasn’t been committed. Yet.

Murder on the Orient Express

Available as a physical book

Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer – in case he or she decides to strike again.

The ABC Murders

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

There’s a serial killer on the loose. His calling card is an ABC Railway Guide, left beside each victim’s body. But if A is for Alice Ascher, and B for Betty Bernard, then who will victim C be? Hercule Poirot is the man to find out.

Death on the Nile

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…

Dead Man’s Folly

Available as an eBook, eAudiobook and physical book

Sir George and Lady Stubbs hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well-known crime writer, agrees to organise their murder hunt and calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance.

Curtain

Available as an eBook and physical book

A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place. The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara, Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington.

I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. 
Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.

Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage

Head over to the BorrowBox app, or our online catalogue to browse all the amazing books written by Agatha Christie.

Digital Readers – December 2020

Karin, Hampshire Libraries2 Comments

The book our online reading group will be reading (or listening to) and discussing in December has been decided on through a vote in the group. The results are in and the December book is…

The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.
Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the ‘essential nature’ of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

From 1 December, until the end of the month, this book will be available to download through the BorrowBox app without having to wait or having to reserve it. It will be available to simply download right away – as both an eBook and an eAudiobook.

The group is open to anyone above the age of 16, with a Facebook account and a Hampshire Library card. If you would like to join the group; just head over to our Facebook page.

Hang on; how does an online reading group work?

Through the BorrowBox app, using your Hampshire Library Card, you will be able to download an eCopy of the selected title to your tablet or smart phone to read and enjoy. Ther will be hundreds of copies, of both the eBook and the eAudiobook version, available for you to download right away, so no need to reserve it or get it added to a waiting list; just download it right away and get reading!

Throughout the month you will be able to talk about the book with others in the group, and there will be regular discussions happening, so check back in to join in on the conversations as they pop up. As is the case with any reading group, there will be books you love, and books you might wish you had never picked up -and that’s okay!
In the group you will be able to discuss your opinions, feelings and thoughts on the month’s title in a friendly environment. To keep the group friendly, and ensure everyone feels confident expressing their thoughts, we ask that everyone keep the language clean and show respect to one another.

There won’t be a set day or time when you have to be available; this means you can join in the discussions whenever it suits you! There is also not a physical place to meet, as all discussions are taking place in the Facebook group, so you won’t have to leave the house to be part of the reading group!
On the last Friday of each month, the book for the following month will be announced, it will then become available for download on the 1st of each month.

If you don’t have a Hampshire Library card, you can apply for one online. It is completely free to sign up to the library, and as long as any physical items borrowed are returned on time, it will continue to be free.
After you sign up, your library card will be sent to your home and you can then join the reading group using your Facebook account.

If you would like to join the group, then head over to our Facebook page and join the ‘Digital readers’ group, you can find it here!

No wait, No fuss – December’s collection

Karin, Hampshire LibrariesLeave a comment

Do you love eBooks or eAudiobooks, but find you have to wait for a copy to become available? Well, you will love this collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks then!
Each month a collection of titles, some in both formats, become available to download. There’s an almost unlimited number of copies of each title, meaning there’s no wait, no fuss or reserving; just download and enjoy right away.

This month we have 9 eBooks and 13 eAudiobook titles available to download without any wait; have a look at the titles available, and find them on the BorrowBox app.
We’ll start with the children’s ones, so keep scrolling if you would like to see the adult titles.
These titles will be available from 1 December.

eBooks and eAudiobooks for children

Enid Blyton’s Christmas Stories
by Enid Blyton

In this collection there is mystery and magic, laughter and mischief, the joy of shared times and plenty of delicious food – many of the ingredients that have been delighting Enid Blyton’s fans for more than seventy years.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Jilly Bond
Suitable for ages 3+

The Girl Who Saved Christmas
by Matt Haig

When Amelia wants a wish to come true she knows just the man to ask – Father Christmas.

But the magic she wants to believe in is starting to fade, and Father Christmas has more than impossible wishes to worry about. Upset elves, reindeers dropping out of the sky, angry trolls and the chance that Christmas might be cancelled.

But Amelia isn’t just any ordinary girl. And – as Father Christmas is going to find out – if Christmas is going to be saved, he might not be able to do it alone . . .

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Carey Mulligan
Suitable for ages 5+

How Winston Delivered Christmas
by Alex T. Smith

Winston the mouse is on a Very Important Mission. On Christmas Eve, he finds a letter that has gotten lost on its way to Father Christmas – so, with no time to lose, he sets out to deliver it himself in time for Christmas Day! He has a lot of Very Exciting Adventures on his Very Important Mission and makes some wonderful friends along the way.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Mathew Baynton
Suitable for ages 5+

Tom Gates; Everything’s Amazing (sort of)
by Liz Pichon

Back to school, but it’s not all bad. Sports Day, the school fair and Tom’s birthday are all coming up. And even better, his awful big sister Delia won’t be at any of those events! On the downside, Granny Mavis is threatening to make his birthday cake – uh oh! But on the other hand, Mr Keen has asked Dogzombies to perform in front of the whole school! YEAH! Maybe they can even play at the school disco too. How can the term turn out any less than seriously amazing?

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Rupert Grint
Suitable for ages 7+

Cinder
by Marissa Meyer

CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She’s reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen – and a dangerous temptation.

Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth’s future.

This is not the fairytale you remember. But it’s one you won’t forget.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Rebecca Soler
Suitable for ages 13+

eBooks and eAudiobooks for adults

The Christmas Train
by David Baldacci

Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to LA in time for Christmas. Forced to take the train across the country because of a slight ‘misunderstanding’ at airport security, he begins a journey of self-discovery and rude awakenings, mysterious goings-on and thrilling adventures, screwball escapades and holiday magic.
He has no idea that the locomotives pulling him across America will actually take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart, where he will rediscover people’s essential goodness and someone very special he believed he had lost.
In equal parts hilarious, poignant, suspenseful and thrilling, The Christmas Train by David Baldacci is a delightful journey filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief . . .

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Tim Matheson
Fiction

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae
by Stephanie Butland

Ailsa Rae is learning how to live.

She’s only a few months past the heart transplant that – just in time – saved her life. Life should be a joyful adventure. But . . .

Her relationship with her mother is at breaking point and she wants to find her father. Have her friends left her behind? She’s felt so helpless for so long that she’s let polls on her blog make her decisions for her. She barely knows where to start on her own.

Then there’s Lennox. Her best friend and one time lover. He was sick too. He didn’t make it. And now she’s supposed to face all of this without him.

But her new heart is a bold heart.
She just needs to learn to listen to it . . .

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Cathleen McCarron
Fiction

Inspector Morse; Last Seen Wearing
by Colin Dexter

Last Seen Wearing is the second novel in Colin Dexter’s Oxford-set detective series.
Morse was beset by a nagging feeling. Most of his fanciful notions about the Taylor girl had evaporated and he had begun to suspect that further investigation into Valerie’s disappearance would involve little more than sober and tedious routine . . .
The statements before Inspector Morse appeared to confirm the bald, simple truth.
After leaving home to return to school, teenager Valerie Taylor had completely vanished, and the trail had gone cold.
Until two years, three months and two days after Valerie’s disappearance, somebody decides to supply some surprising new evidence for the case . . .

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Samuel West
Fiction

Moonlight Over Mayfair
by Anton du Beke

London, 1937.

With a new king in place, tensions are rising in London and across Europe. Shaken by the Great Depression and with
talk of another war coming, the Buckingham Hotel is trying to regain some stability.

Upstairs, Vivienne Edgerton is desperate to do something worthwhile with her time and her stepfather’s money, rather than spending it on frivolity and debauchery – but will this land her in even more trouble?

And downstairs, chambermaid Nancy Nettleton is finally starting to feel more settled at the Buckingham, and hopes her brother will soon call London home, too. But she misses the man she loves, demonstration dancer Raymond de Guise, who is noticeably absent from the Grand Ballroom dance floor.

The staff and guests of the Buckingham soon discover that in a hotel full of secrets, there’s always someone listening . . .

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Thomas Judd
Fiction

Tidelands
by Philippa Gregory

England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different …

Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.

Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.

Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbours. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Louise Brealey
Fiction

Charlotte
by Helen Moffett

Everybody believes that Charlotte Lucas has no prospects. She is unmarried, plain, poor and reaching a dangerous age. When she stuns the neighbourhood by accepting the proposal of buffoonish clergyman Mr Collins, her best friend Lizzy Bennet is appalled by her decision. Yet this is the only way Charlotte knows how to provide for her future. Her married life will propel her into a new world: not only of duty and longed-for children, but secrets, grief, unexpected love and friendship, and a kind of freedom.

Jane Austen cared deeply about the constraints on women in Regency England. This powerful reimagining takes up where Austen left off in Pride and Prejudice, showing us a woman determined to carve a place for herself in the world. Charlotte offers a fresh, feminist addition to the post-Austen canon, beautifully imagined, and brimming with passion and intelligence.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Isabella Inchbald
Fiction

What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty

When Alice Love surfaces from a beautiful dream to find she’s been injured in a gym, she knows that something is very wrong – she hates exercise. Alice’s first concern is her baby – she’s pregnant with her first child, and she’s desperate to see her husband, Nick, who she knows will be worried about her.

But Alice isn’t pregnant. And Nick isn’t worried. Alice is the mother of three children and her hostile husband is in the process of divorcing her. Alice has lost ten years of her life.

In the days that follow, small bubbles of the past rise to the surface, and Alice is forced to confront uncomfortable truths. It turns out forgetting might be the most memorable thing that’s ever happened to her.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by Caroline Lee
Fiction

Cilka’s Journey
by Heather Morris

Her beauty saved her life – and condemned her.

Cilka was only sixteen-years-old when she was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, in 1942. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, noticed her long beautiful hair, and forced her separation from the other women prisoners.

Cilka did what she had to in order to survive Auschwitz. And yet after Russian soldiers liberated Auschwitz in 1945, Cilka was charged as a collaborator and sentenced to serve a fifteen-year sentence for ‘sleeping with the enemy’. Once again, she found herself on a brutal train journey, crammed into a carriage with many desperate women and children. This time, her destination was Siberia. She was by then only eighteen-years-old.

So began a new life of horror and brutality in a prison camp close to the Arctic Circle. But in this unimaginable darkness, this terror beyond terror, Cilka found endless resources within herself, her profound humanity and determination helping her to survive against all odds.

Cilka’s Journey is a remarkable novel of courage and resilience, based upon the heart-breaking true story of Cilka Klein.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Louise Brealey
Fiction

The Nursemaid’s Secret
by Sheila Newberry

A warm-hearted and nostalgic festive family saga – Will Tilly finally find a family to call her own?

As Christmas grows nearer, Tilly, a young maid, is sent away from her home in London to care for a sick child in an old cottage on the Isle of Sheppey, and she little imagines how her life will change . . .

Having settled in with her new family, Tilly dares to believe that the happiness she’s longed for could be hers at last, and that she might finally be free from the secrets of her past. But tragedy strikes, and Tilly is forced to return to London, leaving the cottage under the sea wall – and her new life – behind.

As war approaches and new challenges arise, will Tilly be able to overcome her struggles and find her way home?

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Eve Webster
Fiction

Battle Ready
by Ollie Ollerton

How do you make a commitment and achieve your goals?
How do you end procrastination and hesitation that feeds self-doubt?
How do you learn to be courageous in all aspects of your life?

Ex-Special Forces soldier Ollie Ollerton knows more than his fair share about keeping going. As a recruit he survived the infamously tough SAS selection process on a busted ankle with the Directing Staff pleading with him to give up. But it’s in Ollie’s personal life that he really had to dig deep. At his lowest he was battling a failed relationship, substance abuse, depression and a reckless disregard for his own life. In his new book Ollie tells the story of how he turned his life around and passes on the lessons he has learned.

In Battle Ready Ollie shares the step-by-step plan that changed his life. From finding purpose and visualising an outcome, to breaking bad habits and establishing positive new routines, his advice will help readers to overcome their own obstacles; to become ready for any battle.

Featuring an exclusive debrief with Ollie and Jason Fox (co-host of SAS: Who Dares Wins, and author of Battle Scars and Life Under Fire).

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Ollie Ollerton
Non-Fiction

The President is Missing
by James Patterson and Bill Clinton

There are things only a President can know.

There are things only a President can do.

And then there are times when the only option is unthinkable …

The President is Missing.

The thriller only a president could write.

Available as an eAudiobook
Narrated by January LaVoy, Mozhan Marnò, Peter Ganim, Dennis Quaid and Jeremy Davidson
Fiction

The Living Mountain
by Nan Shepherd

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape.

Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the ‘essential nature’ of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Tilda Swinton
Non-Fiction

River God
by Wilbur Smith

Fame and popularity breed envy in high places, and the adulation of the mob is fickle. They often take as much pleasure in tearing down the idols that they have grown tired of as they did in elevating them in the first place. It is safer by far to live unseen and unremarked, as I always attempt to do.

An ancient kingdom. An incredible destiny.

Taita is a humble slave, an expert in art, poetry, medicine and engineering as well as keeping important secrets. He is the most treasured possession of Lord Intef. Yet when Intef’s beautiful daughter, Lostris, is married to the Pharaoh, Taita is commanded to follow her and swiftly finds himself deeper than he ever could have imagined in a world of deception and treachery.

But outside the palace, the great kingdom of Egypt is divided and in even greater danger. Enemies threaten on all sides, and only Taita holds the power to save them all….

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Mark Meadows
Fiction

Christmas in the Snow
by Karen Swan

No secret stays buried forever . . .
In London, the snow is falling and Christmas is just around the corner – but Allegra Fisher barely has time to notice. She’s pitching for the biggest deal of her career and can’t afford to fail. And when she meets attractive stranger, Sam Kemp, on the plane to the meeting, she can’t afford to lose her focus either. She learned to shut off her emotions long ago and only her sister and best friend Isobel knows why. But when Allegra finds herself up against Sam for the bid, their passion quickly turns sour.
In Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, a long-lost mountain hut is discovered in the snow after sixty years and the last person expecting to become involved is Allegra – she hasn’t even heard of the woman they found inside. But it soon becomes clear the two women are linked and, as she and Iz travel out to make sense of the mystery, hearts thaw and dark secrets are uncovered, long buried by the snow.
With glamorous locations and heart-breaking twists, Christmas in the Snow by Karen Swan is all you need in your stocking for a truly decadent Christmas holiday. The perfect gift – even if it’s just to yourself.

Available as an eBook and eAudiobook
Narrated by Katie Scarfe
Fiction

Download the BorrowBox app and log in with your Hampshire Library card to enjoy these titles, and thousands of others!