Books published by publisher Zigzag Publishing Ltd

Judge not, lest ye be judged. This timeless wisdom has guided the Anglican Church, fostering a certain tolerance of eccentricity among its members. Good thing, too. The 'Mermaid of Morwenstow' excommunicated a cat for mousing on a Sunday. When he was late for a service, Bishop Launcelot Fleming commandeered a navy helicopter. 'Mad Jack' swapped his surplice for a leopard skin and insisted on being carried around in a coffin. And then there was the man who, like Noah's evil twin, tried to eat one of each of God's creatures.... In spite of all this they saw the church as their true calling. After all, who cares if you're wearing red high heels when there are souls to be saved?

Helen Rappaport's masterful telling of the outbreak of the Russian Revolution through eyewitness accounts left by foreign nationals who saw the drama unfold. Between the first revolution in February 1917 and Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October, Petrograd was in turmoil - felt nowhere more keenly than on the fashionable Nevsky Prospekt, where the foreign visitors and diplomats who filled hotels, clubs, bars and embassies were acutely aware of the chaos breaking out. Among this disparate group were journalists, businessmen, volunteer nurses and expatriate socialites. Many kept diaries and wrote letters home. Helen Rappaport draws upon this rich trove of material to carry us right up to the action - to see, feel and hear the revolution as it happened.

In 1964 the eccentric American novelist Patricia Highsmith is hiding out in a cottage in Suffolk, to concentrate on her writing and escape her fans. She has another motive, too - a secret romance with a married lover based in London. Unfortunately it soon becomes clear that all her demons have come with her. Prowlers, sexual obsessives, frauds, imposters, suicides and murderers: the tropes of her fictions clamour for her attention, rudely intruding on her peaceful Suffolk retreat. After the arrival of Ginny, an enigmatic young journalist bent on interviewing her, events take a catastrophic turn. Except, as always in Highsmith's troubled life, matters are not quite as they first appear....

Praise for Na'ima B. Robert's previous publications:"Interesting, and certainly timely."—Kirkus Reviews, on Boy Vs Girl"Highly recommended."—TheBookBag.co.uk, on Black Sheep"Robert's poetic style is captivating."—School Library Journal, on Ramadan MoonWhen Ali first meets Amirah, he notices everything about her—her hijab, her long eyelashes and her red trainers—in the time it takes to have one look, before lowering his gaze. And, although Ali is still coming to terms with the loss of his mother and exploring his identity as a Muslim, and although Amirah has sworn never to get married, they can't stop thinking about each other. Can Ali and Amirah ever have a halal "happily ever after"?Na'ima B. Robert is descended from Scottish Highlanders on her father's side and the Zulu people on her mother's side. She was born in Leeds, England, grew up in Zimbabwe, and went to university in London, England. At high school, her loves included performing arts, public speaking, and writing stories that shocked her teachers! She has written several multicultural books for children which have won, and been shortlisted, for numerous awards.Na'ima divides her time between London and Cairo, Egypt, and dreams of living on a farm with her own horses. Until then, she is happy to be a mum to her four children and keep reading and writing books that take her to a different world each time.

"An insightful volume that takes on many of the issues confronting Muslim youth in the West, sometimes with humor, oftentimes with brutal frankness, but always with sound knowledge and great clarity."— Imam Zaid Shakir, Zaytuna Institute, CaliforniaThis is not just another book about Muslim youth. It is a book by young Muslims for young Muslims, addressing issues such as media, music, dating, and drugs in a language that is their own. With an introduction by Imam Zaid Shakir.

DC Sam Shephard is stationed in Dunedin CIB, a newbie at the bottom of the pecking order. When a young university student is found battered to death and floating in the Leith, she is pushed to one side by her boss and only given grunt work. Despite this, it is Sam who discovers that there has been a string of unsolved murders on the South Island, and that each has occurred while a travelling circus was in town - the same circus that is presently in Dunedin. Angry at being marginalised, Sam decides to work alone, ignoring the attempts of her friends to help her, and keeping her lines of enquiries secret. But her headstrong attitude, and the fact that she is human and makes mistakes, put her and those she loves in very real danger....

Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. Billy identifies with her silent strength, and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can, discovering through her the passion missing from his life. Barry Hines' acclaimed novel continues to reach new generations of teenagers and adults with its powerful story of survival in a tough, joyless world.

'A clearly written, remarkably comprehensive guide to the greatest story on Earth - man's journey from the earliest times to the modern day. Highly recommended.'- Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England'Just what we all wanted but were too scared to ask for: everything that ever happened in one digestible, readable book.'- Matt Ridley, author There is an increasing realisation that our knowledge of world history – and how it all fits together – is far from perfect. A Short History of the World aims to fill the big gaps in our historical knowledge with a book that is easy to read and assumes little prior knowledge of past events.The book does not aim to come up with groundbreaking new theories on why things occurred, but rather gives a broad overview of the generally accepted version of events so that non-historians will feel less ignorant when discussing the past.While the book covers world history from the Big Bang to the present day, it principally covers key people, events and empires since the dawn of the first civilisations in around 3500 BC. To help readers put events, places and empires into context, the book includes 36 specially commissioned maps to accompany the text.The result is a book that is reassuringly epic in scope but refreshingly short in length. An excellent place to start to bring your historical knowledge up to scratch!

Ibn Battuta was no ordinary traveller. Between 1325 CE when he set off and 1354 CE when he finally returned home to stay, he had visited about 40 modern countries and travelled roughly 75,000 miles, going on foot, camel, horse, wagon, boat and even sled.His travels took him to nearly every part of the Muslim world at the time, from Morocco to Mecca, through Persia and Iraq, down the west coast of Africa, into Russia, over to India and even across to China.Ibn Battuta's journey gives us a fascinating window into what the world was like in the fourteenth century. With illustrations, photographs, and maps, the rich and diverse world that produced Ibn Battuta is vividly brought alive.

“'Berlin, Bromley is fascinating, strangely poetic and compelling.”—Michael Bracewell, The Guardian Bertie Marshall’s memoir as “Berlin” in the notorious Bromley Contingent cuts to the core of the punk sensibility of 1976/77. Combining the outrageous zeitgeist with the lifestyle of scenester and rent boy, Marshall’s account bristles with a raw freshness and honesty. The Bromley Contingent included Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin, Billy Idol and Jordan. Marshall is the ideal narrator, taking in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Sex shop, the formation of the Sex Pistols and the gay netherworld of late 70s London. A post-glam, pre-punk version of The Naked Civil Servant.