Backstage'Donna Leon has created a beautifully crafted looking glass into her world.' TLS 'To read her is to restore the soul.' THE TIMES 'Leon writes with great literary panache and evocative power.' SPECTATOR Whether walking along the canals of Venice or teaching English to Iranian pilots, interviewing blood diamond dealers or reading Great Expectations, Donna Leon has found inspiration in the strangest of places. In this engaging collection of stories on

explosively violent

were diagnosed with cancer

chart-topping recording artist

thought and practice that led to extraordinary revolutions of music in each age

build on your skills with 20 crochet patterns and show off with a crochet hat

from the simple sponge to the enormous elephant

including a retelling of Jingle Bells

lusty retelling of the story of the first werewolf

Matthew Palmer

thanks to his Cambridge spies

no one has reckoned with newcomer Jed Greenleaf's extraordinary ability to transform into a half-tree

where the poet