{"title":"Lydia Syson","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Lydia Syson's captivating historical fiction, bringing untold stories to life with vivid detail and emotional depth. Perfect for readers who enjoy Sarah Waters and Tracy Chevalier.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"mr-peacock-s-possessions-book-lydia-syson-9781471403699","title":"Mr Peacock's Possessions","description":"'Intelligent, beautifully written'  The Times  'Historical fiction fans, meet your new favourite author'  Stella Magazine  'Beautifully written, immaculately  researched and powerfully imagined'  Lancashire Evening Post   Oceania, 1879. For two years the Peacocks, a determined family of settlers, have struggled to make a remote volcanic island their home. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled over eight hundred miles in search of new horizons. Hopes are high, until a vulnerable boy vanishes.   In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far more than they were looking for. The island's secrets force young Lizzie Peacock to question her deepest convictions, and slowly this tiny, fragile community begins to fracture . . .  An intimate, intense and beautifully realised novel of possession, power and the liberating loss of innocence. The perfect Christmas gift for fans of MISTER PIP and THE POISONWOOD BIBLE.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49509924733201,"sku":"GOR009749653","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49778308055313,"sku":"NGR9781471403699","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50377814049041,"sku":"CIN1471403696G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50432275480849,"sku":"GOR009941969","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1471403696.jpg?v=1759231528"},{"product_id":"new-scientist-boxset-book-9781846683558","title":"New Scientist Boxset","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49520523051281,"sku":"GOR002373102","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49558037561617,"sku":"GOR002443168","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49881796706577,"sku":"GOR005978303","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49928782905617,"sku":"GOR005767092","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50401754579217,"sku":"CIN1846683556G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846683556.jpg?v=1750768552"},{"product_id":"mr-peacock-s-possessions-book-lydia-syson-9781785764882","title":"Mr Peacock's Possessions","description":"'An intelligent, beautifully written story about a dysfunctional family in a sinister paradise' The Times  Oceania 1879. A family of settlers from New Zealand are the sole inhabitants of a remote volcanic island.  For  two years they have struggled with the harsh reality of trying to make  this unforgiving place a paradise they can call their own. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled eight  hundred miles across the ocean in search of work and new horizons. Hopes are high for all, until a vulnerable boy vanishes. In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far  more than they were looking for. The island's secrets force them all  to question their deepest convictions.  Praise for Mr Peacock's Possessions:  'Syson's novel, a modern take on the literary genre known (after Robinson Crusoe) as the robinsonade, is a haunting exploration of Lizzie's disillusion with her father's dreams and their damaging consequences'  The Sunday Times   'Syson's novel is richly evocative of a Pacific world in flux, as cultures clash and individuals battle to find their place amid the ensuing confusion . . . a very moving story of   fathers and children, of faith and disillusion, and of the dangerous   consequences of trying to take possession of people as well as land' BBC History Magazine  'Lushly written, with immaculate historical detail, it worked for me on many levels'  Women and Home  'As compelling, mysterious and haunting as the troubled tropical paradise it portrays . . . Syson doesn't just write about the past, she transports us there. A tour de force' Piers Torday  'A wonderful book full of drama, courage and aspirations. The language is rich and the characters so humanely drawn'  Carol Drinkwater  'A thrilling story of love and courage, brutality and hope all told with equal measures of deep humanity, imagination and élan.  Lydia  Syson has an amazing gift of bringing history alive through  richness  of language, dramatic pace and fabulous visual imagery. This is  better  than watching a film!' Anne Sebba  'With its chorus of vivid voices, Lydia Syson's novel reminds us why we consumed The Poisonwood Bible and The Underground Railway so avidly' Michelle Lovric  'What a powerful, rich and fascinating book. Dark historical events are interwoven with the mystery of a missing child on a remote Pacific island in 1879. Highly compelling'  Anna Mazzola  'Swiss Family Robinson meets Lord of the Flies in Lydia Syson's superb and engrossing book. This scintillating story evokes an island paradise which descends into a nightmarish hell as Mr Peacock's Possessions builds towards a shocking revelation and a thrilling climax' Wendy Moore  'A tense, evocative, richly imagined novel'  Emma Darwin  'Lydia Syson writes very well about the natural world . . . [and] the dark tensions in family life that overwhelm the Peacocks' Miranda Miller","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49525852602641,"sku":"GOR009531979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1785764888.jpg?v=1759226575"},{"product_id":"mr-peacock-s-possessions-book-lydia-syson-9781785761867","title":"Mr Peacock's Possessions","description":"An intimate, intense, beautifully realised novel of possession, power and loss of innocence, for fans of Mister Pip and The Poisonwood Bible.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49541279252753,"sku":"GOR009133987","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50007699292433,"sku":"CIN1785761862G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50400850542865,"sku":"CIN1785761862A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697662562577,"sku":"NGR9781785761867","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51327747850513,"sku":"CIN1785761862VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51365953175825,"sku":"GOR009489461","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52460023120145,"sku":"GOR014529508","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1785761862.jpg?v=1759232719"},{"product_id":"doctor-of-love-book-lydia-syson-9781846880544","title":"Doctor of Love","description":"Widely accepted as the world's first sex therapist, Dr Graham was devoted to the research of the effect of physical stimuli on the psyche, and more specifically on sexual activity. It was this that led him to invent his infamous Celestial Bed, a contraption akin to a torture rack, yet built with the intent to impart exquisite sexual pleasure rather than excruciating physical pain. Medicine in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was generally more prone to inflict pain than to relieve it. Patients were bled, blistered, lanced, poked and chopped up, all with little or no anaesthesia, and it was the hurt administered by these methods which caused Graham to concern himself with the more \"gentle\" side of the profession.Unsurprisingly, such a concern was met with both outrage and controversy. Syson's biography is a truly emotive depiction of both the man himself and eighteenth-century society. By following him from his native Edinburgh to America and back again, \"The Love Doctor\" achieves a breadth not commonly found in biography, and renders an unforgettable portrait of a truly remarkable man.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49552219537681,"sku":"GOR003209736","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49954217689361,"sku":"GOR004938516","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846880548.jpg?v=1751346394"},{"product_id":"that-burning-summer-book-lydia-syson-9781471400537","title":"That Burning Summer","description":"Full of passion, this wartime coming of age story is about a girl, a boy and a crash-landing  Romney Marsh, July 1940.  When invasion threatens, you have to grow up quickly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy has been putting on a brave face since the fall of France, but now the enemy is overhead, and the rules are changing all the time. Staying on the right side of the law proves harder than she expects when a plane crash-lands in the Marsh: it's Peggy who finds its pathetic, broken pilot; a young Polish man, Henryk, who stays hidden in a remote church, secretly cared for by Peggy. As something more blossoms between the two, Peggy's brother Ernest's curiosity peaks and other secrets come to light, forcing Peggy and Henryk to question all the loyalties and beliefs they thought they held dear.  In one extraordinary summer the lives of two young people will change forever, in a tense and gripping historical drama from Lydia Syson, the author of the acclaimed A WORLD BETWEEN US.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49594774683921,"sku":"GOR005273916","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50384134013201,"sku":"CIN1471400530G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51844929683729,"sku":"GOR007139135","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1471400530.jpg?v=1758967010"},{"product_id":"world-between-us-book-lydia-syson-9781471400094","title":"A World Between Us","description":"An epic romance set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War  Spain, 1936. 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