This first volume of the autobiography of an inveterate journalist and communicator ends in 1933 when the author was 30.

This book starts with a general introduction to phytochemistry, followed by chapters on plant constituents, their origins and chemistry, but also discussing animal-, microorganism- and mineral-based drugs. Further chapters cover vitamins, food additives and excipients as well as xenobiotics and poisons. The book also explores the herbal approach to disease management and molecular pharmacognosy and introduces methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of plant constituents. Phytochemicals are classified as primary (e.g. carbohydrates, lipids, amino acid derivations, etc.) or secondary (e.g. alkaloids, terpenes and terpenoids, phenolic compounds, glycosides, etc.) metabolites according to their metabolic route of origin, chemical structure and function. A wide variety of primary and secondary phytochemicals are present in medicinal plants, some of which are active phytomedicines and some of which are pharmaceutical excipients.

In 1897, deep in the wilderness of the Hindu Kush, a seventeen year-old English girl is sold as a slave. Lalla endures two years before she can try to escape across Afghanistan back to her life as the heiress to the estates of Witchwood.

This collection includes tales by Daphne du Maurier, Evelyn Anthony, Victoria Holt, Jessica North, Phyllis Whitney, and Madeleine Brent.

Jailed for stealing food for orphans in her care, Lucy meets a prisoner who marries her before his execution and wills her his fortune, but after her release the real adventure begins.

Set in England and Italy in 1910, this is the story of a young English girl who by accident starts to unravel the unknown elements of her grandmother's past and is brought by the mystery to the faraway city of Venice. There among the gondolas and canals, she slowly comes to comprehend the meaning of two strange and puzzling dreams--dreams that seem to hold an eerie and menancing prophecy of the future.

In 1897 a small ship sails the Caribbean, trading between the islands. It is the home of a man and girl, runaways wanted for murder and who live in fear of arrest. Casey had once been Emma Delaney, wife of Oliver Foy and mistress of Diablo Hall, one of Jamaica's great houses. A devil had dwelt within Diablo Hall, a devil who meant to break her to his will. When Emma escapes that sinister marriage she wanders across the seas learning the skills that she now depends on. Her life as Casey comes to an end when she is brought penniless to England, where she must face the man who possesses the “evil eye,” and when she finds love it brings new danger and an agonizing choice.

It is 1890 and Hannah McLeod, an 18 year-old English girl, is living in Paris, where she works at a small restaurant. Only her neighbour, Toby Kent, a struggling artist, knows the strange and horrifying secret that makes her afraid to return to England. Then one night, rescuing a stranger, Andrew Doyle, from attach by Montmartre apaches, Hannah unwittingly becomes entangled in circumstances that force her to flee from France to England and take up the mysterious offer she had received to become French tutor in the household of a Mr. Sebastian Ryder. But why should Mr. Ryder want to employ her? Does he know something about her of which she is unaware? Are there still more secrets in her past? A Heritage of Shadows is the haunting story of a girl, ignorant of her true identity and convinced that she is forever denied love on account of her shameful past, who is plunged into a world of nightmarish intrigue. As the tale unfolds, carrying her from England to Mexico and back again to Paris, Hannah finds herself caught up in a vicious struggle between two men of great wealth and power - a struggle which threatens her life - before the final discovery of where her happiness lies. Madeleine Brent, the bestselling author, has once again written a story packed with drama and suspense. It vividly recreates the atmosphere of the 1890s, exposing the darker and more sinister elements that lurked below that outwardly respectable era.