SOMETIMES you come across a lofty railway viaduct, marooned in the middle of a remote country landscape. Or a crumbling platform from some once-bustling junction buried under the buddleia. If you are lucky you might be able to follow some rusting tracks, or explore an old tunnel leading to...well, who knows where? Listen hard. Is that the wind in the undergrowth? Or the spectre of a train from a golden era of the past panting up the embankment? These are the ghosts of The Trains Now Departed. They are the railway lines, and services that ran on them that have disappeared and gone forever. Our lost legacy includes lines prematurely axed, often with a gripping and colourful tale of their own, as well as marvels of locomotive engineering sent to the scrapyard, and grand termini felled by the wrecker's ball. Then there are the lost delights of train travel, such as haute cuisine in the dining car, the grand expresses with their evocative...

Secrets of the past.Although Raistlin and Caramon urge him not to go, Sturm Brightblade attends an annual Solamnic ceremony that is interrupted by . . .A stranger, taunting challenge. Clues from the past. Death.Once he accepts a mysterious gauntlet, young Sturm must make a dangerous journey with some curious friends, rescue a fair if querulous maid, defeat a traitor knight, and learn the secret fate of his long-lost father. He must also learn the meaning of honor.The fourth installment in the popular Meetings Sextet tells the story of Sturm Brightblade, the noble Solamnic Knight, in the years before Sturm joined up with the other companions of the best-selling Dragonlance series.

Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other... until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven in South Africa. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that greet refugees everywhere, but eventually Deo finds hope, joining dozens of other homeless, displaced teens on the World Cup Street Soccer team--a possible ticket out of extreme hardship to a new life.Captivating and timely, Now Is the Time for Running is a staggering story of survival that follows Deo and his brother on a transformative journey that will stay with readers long after the last page.

My father says that a journey should always change your life in some way. Well, when you have nothing, I suppose a journey promises everything."Diamonds for everyone." That's what fifteen-year-old Patson Moyo hears when his family arrives in the Marange diamond fields. Soon Patson is working in the mines along with four friends, pooling their profits for a chance at a better life. Each of them hopes to find a girazi, a priceless stone that could change their circumstances forever. But when the government's soldiers come to Marange, Patson's world is shattered. Set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's brutal recent history, Diamond Boy is the story of a young man who succumbs to greed but finds his way out through a transformative journey to South Africa in search of his missing sister, in search of freedom, and in search of himself.A high-stakes, harrowing adventure in the blood-diamond fields of southern Africa, from the critically acclaimed...

'A magical world barely changed since the golden age of rail' Daily Mail'Captivating' Sunday ExpressRenowned railway writer Michael Williams takes us on twelve of today's most captivating and historic British railway journeys - harking back to an era when travel meant more than hurrying from one place to the next in crowded carriages, before small country stations with their milk churns, porters and slumbering cats on seats were replaced by the modern world of security announcements, 'leaves on the line' and Burger King.On the Slow Train reconnects with the long missed need to lift our heads from the daily grind and reflect that there are still places in Britain where we can stop and stare. In its pages you will find many things: a love of railways, a love of history, a love of nostalgia, a love of the exuberance of people, and a love of life.'Deep in our soul, the railways represent an...