The use of natural and seeded grass pastures for the feeding of livestock and other unfamiliar uses for the ubiquitous grass family are described in this succinct and beautifully illustrated work. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.com The New Naturalist series has already covered many facets of the interrelationship between man and nature, but the grass family is probably the most important man in the whole plant kingdom - just how important is shown in this book. Dr. Moore, the Principal of Seale Hayne Agricultural College in Devon, is our leading authority on grasses and their utilization. His special interest is the use of natural and seeded grass pastures for the feeding of livestock. Striking advances have been made in recent years in the improvement of such pastures and Dr. Moore deals very fully with this vital link in the feeding of the human race; but he also covers that other equally important role of the grass family in our economy, the cultivation of cereal crops for the production of grain. Grass lawns and playing fields form a centre-piece in most British gardens and public parks and there is a chapter on these, but the horticultural value of grasses as ornamental plants in herbaceous borders and woodland gardens is less well known. These and many other unfamiliar uses for the ubiquitous grass family are described in this succinct and beautifully illustrated work.

A powerful story of revolution, love and intense rivalry set in 1870 during the four-month siege of Paris. 1870. All over Paris the lights are going out. The Prussians are encircling the city and Europe’s capital of decadent pleasure and luxury is becoming a prison, its citizens caught between defiance and despair. Desperate times lie ahead as the worst winter for decades sets in and starvation looms. One man seems to shine like a beacon in the shadows. Jean-Jacques Allix promises to be the leader the people need, to save the city itself. Painter Hannah Pardy, his young English lover, believes in him utterly; taking up arms for his cause, she is drawn into the heart of the battle for Paris. But as the darkness and panic spreads it is harder and harder to see things as they really are, and Hannah struggles to separate love from self-interest and revolutionaries from traitors. Faced with impossible decisions, Hannah must confront the devastating reality of her beloved Paris to establish what truly matters to her – and what she will do to protect it.

Will & Tom is a glimpse into the life of the infamous artist JMW Turner as a young man during a week spent at Harewood House fighting for a commission against his childhood friend and rival Tom Girtin. 1797, West Yorkshire. When rising artist Will Turner arrives at Harewood House in high summer, his intention is to sketch the house and grounds, receive his commission and return to London, where he has started attracting serious attention at the Royal Academy. But things at the grand house are not quite as he expects. The atmosphere is strange, both above and below stairs, and Will’s treatment by his hosts is surprisingly offhand. Most perplexing of all, however, is the appearance of another painter – his childhood friend and now rival, Tom Girtin. While Tom is welcomed into the aristocratic circle, Will finds few allies. As it becomes harder to ignore the whispers of scandal , Will witnesses something that will threaten both his commission and his friendship. Alive with intrigue, artistic rivalry, Will & Tom offers a glimpse into the early life of Britain’s greatest painter, J M W Turner, through the story of a complicated, vibrant friendship, and how it is tested by the dark dynamic of art and power.

A family near breaking point hire a nanny with secrets of her own in this gripping novel from an exciting new talent. On the surface, Ruth and Christian seem like an ordinary working couple with two kids – and a home in chaos. As the cracks in their marriage widen, they decide to get their very own super-nanny, Aggie. Quietly efficient, she brings calm and order, and the children adore her. But why is Aggie so eager to gain their trust? Is there something sinister about her efforts to create the perfect family? And what is she really doing in their home? ‘Everything and Nothing’ builds to a mesmerising climax in a story that is, at its heart, about thwarted and damaged love.

An engrossing novel about political and personal life in Central America, from the award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking. Set in the ruined Central American nation of Boca Grande, A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women and their conflicting experiences of wealth, politics and personal history. We follow the intriguing life of Grace Strasser-Mendana – an American expatriate and member of one of Boca Grande’s most influential families – alongside the story of Charlotte Douglas, whose daughter Medin has run off with a group of Marxist radicals. What follows is an exploration of the women’s ability to make sense of the behaviour that surrounds them, as their worlds are made hazy by the atmosphere of evil and innocence that envelops their strained and entangled lives.

A wonderful collection of Cecelia’s short stories As the smell of pinecones and cinnamon fill the air and the plump turkey roasts in the oven, the final preparations for Christmas day have begun just as they do every year. The tree lights are twinkling and the mince pies are cooked and there is just one final tradition to carry out before the Christmas magic can begin. This year though, something is different and it's time for life-long traditions to change. For years the family has followed the same pattern, not changing their routine through the generations; babies have grown into teens and then adults, and then eventually have had children of their own, but one thing always remained constant throughout… Time has finally caught up with the family and this year the new traditions must be formed.

For all fans of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY comes this masterclass in suspense about a spy caught up in his own web of deception… Alec Milius is young, smart and ambitious – with a talent for deception. When a chance encounter opens the door to a career with MI6, he is desperate to make his mark. But life as a spy begins to take a terrible toll on himself and those around him, and soon Alec is chasing not just success but survival. Forced to work alone, he spins a web of deceit that traps him centre stage in a game of global espionage. In this new job, the difference between truth and a lie can be a matter of life and death. And for Alec, it’s getting harder to tell them apart… A Spy By Nature is the bestselling novel with which Charles Cumming announced his arrival as heir apparent to masters like John le Carré and Len Deighton; compellingly told, utterly authentic and heart-racingly intense, it will grip you till the very last page.

A secret history of scent, memory and desire from the Sunday Times bestselling author of ELEGANCE and THE DEBUTANTE. One letter will turn newly-married Grace Munroe’s life upside down: ‘Our firm is handling the estate of the deceased Mrs Eva D’Orsey and it is our duty to inform you that you are named as the chief beneficiary in her will. We request your presence at our offices at your earliest convenience, so that we may go through the details of your inheritance.’ There is only one problem. Grace has never heard of Eva D’Orsey. So begins a journey which leads Grace through the streets of Paris and into the seductive world of perfumers and their muses. An abandoned perfume shop on the Left Bank will lead her to unravel the heartbreaking story of her mysterious benefactor, an extraordinary woman who bewitched high society in 1920s New York and Paris.

No-one thought she had the courage… Those looking in from the outside think Lucy Lovejoy’s life is like any other, but at the centre of her family there is a big empty hole where all the love and warmth should be. Over the years, her children have watched while their father chipped away at Lucy’s self-confidence. Now the children are following their own paths, and Lucy has never felt more alone. When tragedy strikes at the heart of the family, it’s a wake-up call for Lucy. Everyone has taken a little piece of her, and she isn’t sure who she is anymore. So when Lucy faces a betrayal from those she loves deepest, she knows that it’s time to make a choice. Is she brave enough to find herself again?

The brand new dramatic novel about the power of a father’s love, a little boy’s journey,and the desperate search for a place to call home, from Number 1 best-selling author Josephine Cox. Eight-year-old Casey’s mother Ruth is a cruel woman, with a weakness for other women’s husbands. Casey’s father is gentle and hard-working and, though Tom Denton has long suspected his wife of having sordid affairs, he has chosen to turn a blind eye to keep the peace. But then, out of the blue, Tom’s world is cruelly shattered when he receives two bits of devastating news. Because of this, Tom realises that from now on their lives must change, forever. Tom is made to fight for his son, determined to keep him safe. But, when fate takes a hand, life can be unbearably cruel, and Casey is made to remember his father’s prophetic words… ‘It’s done. The dice is thrown, and nobody wins.’ But, unbeknown to Casey, there are three letters penned by his father, that may just change his destiny forever.

You can indulge without guilt! Enjoy delicious desserts, perfect pastries, cookies and cakes, breads and bakes as part of a healthy lifestyle. Who says you can’t have it all? The third title from Sally Bee. Busy mum, home cook and heart-attack survivor Sally Bee knows better than anyone how to incorporate healthy eating into a busy lifestyle with her gorgeous, flavoursome and balanced recipes. In her new book, Have Your Cake and Eat it Too, Sally turns her attention to the sweet things in life to show that you don’t have to give up your favourite treats to maintain a healthy lifestyle or slimmer waistline. In fact, Sally claims that depriving yourself of these little pleasures makes it harder to stick to a nutritious and balanced diet long term. Sally shows how to make your favourite treats a little less naughty with healthier versions of much loved puddings, bakes, cakes and desserts. You can rest assured that they won’t be as sinful as they taste; a sensible attitude and a bit of creative cooking is all that’s needed to spoil yourself the healthier way. Sally also shares her helpful tips, advice and experience to show you how to enjoy little luxuries sensibly. She also reveals some of her culinary secrets and how to make compensations for 'naughty' ingredients by adding more of the good stuff. At the age of 36 Sally Bee suffered three major heart attacks in a single week. Sally defied all odds and, 5 years on, is glowing with health. She is the ultimate endorsement for living a sustainable healthy life, and is living proof that her recipes work. Recipes Include… Hot Choccy Soufflé Raspberry Muffins Low-fat Zesty Lemon Buttercream Pineapple, Raspberry and Amaretti Parfaits Chocolate Vanilla Mousse Peach and Strawberry Sorbet Soda Bread Spicy Apple Muffins Almond and Hazelnut Gateau Gooey Chocolate Orange Cookies Caramelised Apples Almond Macaroons Oatmeal Fruit Bread Chocolate Pistachio Biscuits Passionate Pear Crumble

In a twisting, fast-moving adventure, ex-Navy Seal Nolan Kilkenny finds himself on a dangerous mission where he must recover a priceless artifact of human existence. The key to all life has suddenly become worth killing for… Deep in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, a remote NASA research lab rests atop a two-mile thick glacier, covering a vast underground water resevoir. But the true discovery isn’t the lake buried in ice - it’s what has been found within its boundaries. Something amazing. Something alive. And it may hold the answers to existence itself. When the lab is attacked and its scientists murdered, Nolan Kilkenny realises that there is more than science at stake - there’s power, money, and what may be another step in evolution. Racing around the globe, Kilkenny must stop the machinations of a diabolical adversary and recover a priceless artifact of human existence - or die trying…

Three crazy, funny stories, featuring the two clumsiest talking mice you’ll ever meet… ‘The mouse started to trundle away, glancing at Howard over its shoulder, nervously. “You may well glance at me nervously," said Howard, picking up an empty water glass and placing it over the mouse. "You'll stay in there so I can eat my breakfast in peace. I shall deal with you afterwards…”’ But you can't really deal with the Clumsies, afterwards or at any time. Once you've got them, you're stuck with them. From the moment when Howard Armitage first finds two talking mice under his desk – the inimitable and hilarious Purvis and Mickey Thompson – his life, and his belongings, are turned forever upside down. Obsessed with biscuits and forever playing incomprehensible games of their own devising, the Clumsies are not your average mice – and though they're desperate to help Howard get out of trouble with his evil boss, they're only really good for one thing… …making a mess.

More hilarious stories about the two clumsiest talking mice you’ll ever meet… It’s Clumsies on Sea as Howard and the Clumsies head to the seaside for what Howard calls a “conference” and the Clumsies call a “holiday”! Will Howard manage to impress his evil boss Mr Bullerton? Will he get to the hotel on time? And will the trip pass without mess or incident of any kind? Of course not. Nothing goes to plan when the Clumsies are about! Sandcastles, talking donkeys, runaway supermarket trollies: this clumsy adventure has it all!

Amanda Valentino is the most mysterious, the most magnetic girl you’ll never meet. But if you join THE AMANDA PROJECT you just might find out what happened to her… Who is Amanda? And why did she vanish? When Amanda Valentino started at Endeavor High on Halloween, she changed everything. A fabulous mix of the weird and the wonderful, Amanda was the most extraordinary student ever. Amanda herself was drawn to only three other students: Callie, Hal and Nia – the popular girl, the loner and the intellectual misfit. Without Amanda they would never had been friends, but now Amanda has disappeared and it’s up to them to find out what happened. Reluctantly, and with only the most cryptic of clues and the fragments of her life that Amanda let slip, this unlikely trio must find out where she’s gone, and why… The mystery begins in THE AMANDA PROJECT, Invisible i and continues online at www.theamandaproject.com

A hugely entertaining and glamorous debut, perfect for fans of the X-Factor, from an exciting voice in young women’s fiction Meet Jenna Jonsson and Sadie Laine: two gorgeous, glamorous twenty-somethings fighting to make it to the top of their chosen professions. Beautiful and talented, Jenna is an international pop star, determined to take her career to the next level. And when a chance meeting leads to an opportunity for Jenna to work with world-famous rock band Phoenix, Jenna is quick to agree – although her decision is somewhat influenced by Nick Taylor, the drummer with Phoenix and the most gorgeous man Jenna has ever met… Meanwhile, Sadie is a struggling dancer and a childhood rival of Jenna's. Ambitious and passionate, she is determined to fulfil her dreams. And a move to Las Vegas yields an unmissable career opportunity and a chance at true love. Jenna and Sadie's lives are about to collide but will sparks fly? Or will they be able to put the past behind them?

A hugely entertaining and glamorous book, from an exciting new voice in young women’s fiction Stunning and sexy, Dionne Summers is a girl who speaks her mind. Brought up on the mean streets of Detroit, she is determined that nothing will stop her from becoming the world’s next supermodel. Beautiful and innocent, Alyson Wakefield is desperate to escape her upbringing. She decides it is time to take hold of her life and follow her dreams. Heading to the chic streets of Paris, the girls move in with a maverick young designer, Ce Ce Bouvier. Born to a life of luxury and glamour, Ce Ce is determined to stand on her own two feet and take the fashion world by storm. The girls vow to make it to the top, but their friendship is about to be tested to the limits when deception, betrayal and tragedy are played out in the glare of the paparazzi flashbulbs. Can the three girls overcome the ghosts of the past – or will the catwalk consume them?

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook. Asked to investigate an incident that needs to be dealt with discretion, Poirot reluctantly agrees to spend Christmas in the countryside with the Laceys. Dreading the cold and traditional English fare Poirot attempts to locate a missing ruby in order to save a kingdom…

Build scalable, reliable, and cost-effective applications with a serverless architecture About This Book ? Design a real-world serverless application from scratch ? Learn about AWS Lambda function and how to use Lambda functions to glue other AWS Services ? Use the Java programming language and well-known design patterns. Although Java is used for the examples in this book, the concept is applicable across all languages ? Learn to migrate your JAX-RS application to AWS Lambda and API Gateway Who This Book Is For This book is for developers and software architects who are interested in designing on the back end. Since the book uses Java to teach concepts, knowledge of Java is required. What You Will Learn ? Learn to form microservices from bigger Softwares ? Orchestrate and scale microservices ? Design and set up the data flow between cloud services and custom business logic ? Get to grips with cloud provider’s APIs, limitations, and known issues ? Migrate existing Java applications to a serverless architecture ? Acquire deployment strategies ? Build a highly available and scalable data persistence layer ? Unravel cost optimization techniques In Detail Over the past years, all kind of companies from start-ups to giant enterprises started their move to public cloud providers in order to save their costs and reduce the operation effort needed to keep their shops open. Now it is even possible to craft a complex software system consisting of many independent micro-functions that will run only when they are needed without needing to maintain individual servers. The focus of this book is to design serverless architectures, and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, along with decision factors to consider. You will learn how to design a serverless application, get to know that key points of services that serverless applications are based on, and known issues and solutions. The book addresses key challenges such as how to slice out the core functionality of the software to be distributed in different cloud services and cloud functions. It covers basic and advanced usage of these services, testing and securing the serverless software, automating deployment, and more. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with knowledge of new tools and techniques to keep up with this evolution in the IT industry. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach, showing you all the examples you need to build efficient serverless applications.

A practical guide to help you undertand the ability of Apache jMeter to load and performance test various server types in a more efficient way. About This Book ? Use jMeter to create and run tests to improve the performance of your webpages and applications ? Learn to build a test plan for your websites and analyze the results ? Unleash the power of various features and changes introduced in Apache jMeter 3.0 Who This Book Is For This book is for software professionals who want to understand and improve the performance of their applications with Apache jMeter. What You Will Learn ? See why performance testing is necessary and learn how to set up JMeter ? Record and test with JMeter ? Handle various form inputs in JMeter and parse results during testing ? Manage user sessions in web applications in the context of a JMeter test ? Monitor JMeter results in real time ? Perform distributed testing with JMeter ? Get acquainted with helpful tips and best practices for working with JMeter In Detail JMeter is a Java application designed to load and test performance for web application. JMeter extends to improve the functioning of various other static and dynamic resources. This book is a great starting point to learn about JMeter. It covers the new features introduced with JMeter 3 and enables you to dive deep into the new techniques needed for measuring your website performance. The book starts with the basics of performance testing and guides you through recording your first test scenario, before diving deeper into JMeter. You will also learn how to configure JMeter and browsers to help record test plans. Moving on, you will learn how to capture form submission in JMeter, dive into managing sessions with JMeter and see how to leverage some of the components provided by JMeter to handle web application HTTP sessions. You will also learn how JMeter can help monitor tests in real-time. Further, you will go in depth into distributed testing and see how to leverage the capabilities of JMeter to accomplish this. You will get acquainted with some tips and best practices with regard to performance testing. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to take full advantage of the real power behind Apache JMeter. Style and approach The book is a practical guide starting with introducing the readers to the importance of automated testing. It will then be a beginner’s journey from getting introduced to Apache jMeter to an in-detail discussion of more advanced features and possibilities with it.

Learn the art of leveraging PowerShell to automate Office 365 repetitive tasks About This Book ? Master the fundamentals of PowerShell to automate Office 365 tasks. ? Easily administer scenarios such as user management, reporting, cloud services, and many more. ? A fast-paced guide that leverages PowerShell commands to increase your productivity. Who This Book Is For The book is aimed at sys admins who are administering office 365 tasks and looking forward to automate the manual tasks. They have no knowledge about PowerShell however basic understanding of PowerShell would be advantageous. What You Will Learn ? Understand the benefits of *ing and automation and get started using Powershell with Office 365 ? Explore various PowerShell packages and permissions required to manage Office 365 through PowerShell ? Create, manage, and remove Office 365 accounts and licenses using PowerShell and the Azure AD ? Learn about using powershell on other platforms and how to use Office 365 APIs through remoting ? Work with Exchange Online and SharePoint Online using PowerShell ? Automate your tasks and build easy-to-read reports using PowerShell In Detail While most common administrative tasks are available via the Office 365 admin center, many IT professionals are unaware of the real power that is available to them below the surface. This book aims to educate readers on how learning PowerShell for Office 365 can simplify repetitive and complex administrative tasks, and enable greater control than is available on the surface. The book starts by teaching readers how to access Office 365 through PowerShell and then explains the PowerShell fundamentals required for automating Office 365 tasks. You will then walk through common administrative cmdlets to manage accounts, licensing, and other scenarios such as automating the importing of multiple users,assigning licenses in Office 365, distribution groups, passwords, and so on. Using practical examples, you will learn to enhance your current functionality by working with Exchange Online, and SharePoint Online using PowerShell. Finally, the book will help you effectively manage complex and repetitive tasks (such as license and account management) and build productive reports. By the end of the book, you will have automated major repetitive tasks in Office 365 using PowerShell. Style and approach This step by step guide focuses on teaching the fundamentals of working with PowerShell for Office 365. It covers practical usage examples such as managing user accounts, licensing, and administering common Office 365 services. You will be able to leverage the processes laid out in the book so that you can move forward and explore other less common administrative tasks or functions.