This is the story of one Englishman's obsession with a half-frozen, roughly duck-shaped island in the cold North Atlantic. 'Iceland, Defrosted' is less about wars over cod, flight-halting volcanoes and globe-shattering financiers, and more about relaxing
There's nothing like a puffin, right? Except soon there may not be anything like a puffin left in the United Kingdom. In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature added the Atlantic puffin to the Red List of Threatened Species for birds. This book is a journey to find the last strongholds of the most enigmatic birds in the United Kingdom. Every last puffin. It's a story of scouting for puffins on the remote Hebridean outpost of St Kilda, where they used to be found on dinner tables, of braving the fierce winds of Shetland to find pufflings, and of unintentionally swimming with puffins in the Shiant Isles. Scottish 'tammie norries' are sought from Lunga to Westray to the Isle of May. Elsewhere, there's a puffin fightback in Skomer, southern puffins in the balmy Isles of Scilly, and the tale of an errant puffin who made an impromptu visit to a sex clinic in Hampshire. This is a celebration of all things puffin, and a last chance to see the clown of the sea before it's too late.
Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness’s Under the Glacier is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, a wryly provocative novel at once earthy and otherworldly. At its outset, the Bishop of Iceland dispatches a young emissary to investigate certain charges against the pastor at Snæfells Glacier, who, among other things, appears to have given up burying the dead. But once he arrives, the emissary finds that this dereliction counts only as a mild eccentricity in a community that regards itself as the center of the world and where Creation itself is a work in progress. What is the emissary to make, for example, of the boarded-up church? What about the mysterious building that has sprung up alongside it? Or the fact that Pastor Primus spends most of his time shoeing horses? Or that his wife, Ua (pronounced “ooh-a,” which is what men invariably sputter upon seeing her), is rumored never to have bathed, eaten, or slept? Piling improbability on top of improbability, Under the Glacier overflows with comedy both wild and deadpan as it conjures a phantasmagoria as beguiling as it is profound.
Chilling and complex, Nightblind is an extraordinary thriller from Ragnar Jónasson, an undeniable new talent. Ari Thor Arason is a local policeman who has an uneasy relationship with the villagers in an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland—where no one locks their doors. The peace of this close-knit community is shattered by a murder. One of Ari’s colleagues is gunned down at point-blank range in the dead of night in a deserted house. With a killer on the loose and the dark Arctic waters closing in, it falls to Ari Thor to piece together a puzzle that involves a new mayor and a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik. It becomes all too clear that tragic events from the past are weaving a sinister spell that may threaten them all.
1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all... In nearby Siglufjörður, young policeman Ari Thór tries to piece together what really happened that fateful night, in a town where no one wants to know, where secrets are a way of life. He’s assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik, who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town of Siglufjörður in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them. Haunting, frightening and complex, Rupture is a dark and atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland’s foremost crime writers. ‘Traditional and beautifully finessed... morally more equivocal than most traditional whodunnits, and it offers alluring glimpses of darker, and infinitely more threatening horizons’ Independent • ‘Jonasson’s books have breathed new life into Nordic noir’ Sunday Express • ‘Bitingly contemporary in setting and tone’ Express • ‘A modern take on an Agatha Christie-style mystery, as twisty as any slalom...’ Ian Rankin • ‘A classic crime story seen through a uniquely Icelandic lens ... first rate and highly recommended’ Lee Child • ‘Chilling, poetic beauty... a must read!’ Peter James • ‘British aficionados of Nordic Noir are familiar with two excellent Icelandic writers, Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Here’s a third: Ragnar Jónasson ... the darkness and cold are palpable’ Marcel Berlins, The Times For fans of Trapped, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Agatha Christie and Ann Cleeves
Officer Gunnhildur investigates the discovery of a body floating off an Icelandic fishing village and uncovers a web of political intrigue and corruption.
In Recipes from a Normal Mum, Holly Bell transforms the daily chore of cooking for the whole family with her collection of inventive, economical and simple recipes. With colour photographs of every dish (in response to the feedback Holly always hears from mums!), this is the must-have book for any mum who is short of time but still wants to cook delicious food for her family. Each recipe is written in straightforward steps and made with ingredients that you can buy at the supermarket. Split into 8 chapters including The More the Merrier, Dinner for 2 in A Flash, Switch to Baking Mode and Food for the Great British Outdoors, Holly has recipes to fit every family occasion. And no longer will you be stumped when you are left with a little-used ingredient or an excess amount of a dish as Holly has supplied ideas for using up the surplus, ensuring you waste absolutely nothing. Recipes include the Mix It Up Breakfast Muffins, Lemony Salmon Pasta with Courgettes & Peas, Tortilla Traybake and Lemon Button Biscuits. Holly is a real mum cooking in real time and 'normal' mums of every variety regularly turn to her blog for advice and fail-safe recipes. Whether it is a speedy recipe for feeding little people, cooking for a hungry crowd, baking for children's parties, or conjuring up grown-up weeknight suppers, this is a book to which you can turn no matter what aspect of family life you're approaching that day.
THE FOURTH INSTALMENT IN THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING DARK ICELAND SERIES OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD When the body of a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted Icelandic village of Kálfshamarvík, police officer Ari Thór Arason uncovers a startling and terrifying connection to an earlier series of deaths, as the killer remains on the loose... 'Jónasson's books have breathed new life into Nordic noir' Sunday Express 'Jónasson skilfully alternates points of view and shifts of time ... The action builds to a shattering climax' Publishers Weekly ________________ Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop? With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim's mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place. Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland's bestselling crime writers. ________________ 'Traditional and beautifully finessed ...morally more equivocal than most traditional whodunnits, and it offers alluring glimpses of darker, and infinitely more threatening horizons' Andrew Taylor, Independent 'Jónasson has come up with a bleak plot and characters, but his evocation of Iceland's chilly landscape is hard to put down' Sunday Times 'A distinctive blend of Nordic Noir and Golden Age detective fiction ... masterful' Laura Wilson, Guardian 'Required reading' New York Post 'Puts a lively, sophisticated spin on the Agatha Christie model, taking it down intriguing dark alleys' Kirkus Reviews 'The best sort of gloomy storytelling' Chicago Tribune 'The prose is stark and minimal, the mood dank and frost-tipped. It's also bleakly brilliant, although perhaps best read with a warming shot of whisky by your side' Metro 'A classic crime story seen through a uniquely Icelandic lens ... first rate and highly recommended' Lee Child 'Ragnar Jónasson writes with a chilling, poetic beauty - a must-read' Peter James 'A modern take on an Agatha Christie-style mystery, as twisty as any slalom' Ian Rankin 'Seductive ... Ragnar does claustrophobia beautifully' Ann Cleeves
This is the dramatic story of the ups and downs of a born entrepreneur. Malcolm Walker was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1946. With fellow Woolworth’s trainee manager Peter Hinchcliffe, Walker opened a small frozen food shop called Iceland in the Shropshire town of Oswestry in 1970. Iceland became a public company 14 years later, through one of Britain’s most successful stock exchange flotations of all time, and by 1999 it had grown into a £2 billion turnover business with 760 stores. In August 2000, Iceland merged with the Booker cash and carry business and Walker announced that he would step down as CEO in March 2001. In preparation for his retirement, he sold half his shares in the company and left for the holiday of a lifetime in the Maldives. However, while he was away the new management of the company slashed profit expectations, plunging Iceland into a £26m loss rather than the £130m profit the City had been expecting. Walker was fired and spent three years under investigation by the authorities before being cleared of any wrongdoing. In Walker’s absence, Iceland’s sales collapsed as customers deserted the company – and, almost exactly four years after he had left the business, he returned as its boss. His amazing revival of Iceland has seen like-for-like sales grow by more than 50% and the business winning the accolade of Best Big Company To Work For In the UK. In March 2012 Walker led a £1.5bn management buyout of the company and is now personally worth over £200m. The incredible story of Walker’s life – which he tells here for the first time – is as dramatic as any you will find in business, and it serves as a model for how, through hard work and intelligent risk-taking, it is possible from a relatively modest upbringing to build a national enterprise and a household name known to millions.
'As chilling as an Icelandic winter' S. J. Bolton 'Superior crime fiction set in Iceland' The Times The discovery of a corpse washed up on a beach in an Icelandic backwater sparks a series of events that propels the village of Hvalvik's police sergeant Gunnhildur into deep waters. Although under pressure to deal with the matter quickly, she is suspicious that the man's death was no accident and once she has identified the body, sets about investigating his final hours. The case takes Gunnhildur away from her village and into a cosmopolitan world of shady deals, government corruption and violence. She finds herself alone and less than welcome in this hostile environment as she tries to find out who it was that made sure the young man drowned on a dark night one hundred kilometres from where he should have been - and why. The first chilling and atmospheric thriller in Quentin Bates's Icelandic crime series. A dark page-turner perfect for fans of Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell and Søren Sveistrup's The Chestnut Man. Praise for Quentin Bates: 'A great read - leaves you craving the next installment' Yrsa Sigurðardóttir 'A perfect book to curl up with in front of the fire' The Bookbag 'Well written and absorbing' Woman's Way 'Captures the chilly spirit of Nordic crime fiction . . . Fans of Arnaldur Indridason's Reykjavík mysteries will want to add Bates to their reading lists' Booklist '[A] crackling fiction debut ... palpable authenticity' Publishers Weekly 'A superb new series' Eurocrime