UPDATED May 2022 – These new books are now available for borrowing.

Click below to see:

March 2022 Arrivals – October 2021 Arrivals – July/August 2021 Arrivals – February 2021 Arrivals – January 2021 Arrivals – December 2020 Arrivals – November 2020 Arrivals

Discover more about us on Facebook and TripAdvisor. You will find us at Calle Irlanda 5, Parque Taoro, Puerto de la Cruz (behind the old British School of Tenerife). Telephone: 922 383098.

There has been an improvement in delivery from the UK, as recent orders have arrived without undue delay. We hope this situation will continue!

	Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all. Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes . . . the only way to survive is to open your heart.
	Giordano Bruno returns to England to bring shocking new intelligence to Sir Francis Walsingham. A band of Catholic Englishmen are plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth and spring Mary Queen of Scots from prison to take the English throne in her place. Bruno is surprised to find that Walsingham is aware of the plot, led by the young, wealthy noble Anthony Babington, and is allowing it to progress. His hope is that Mary will put her support in writing and condemn herself to a traitor’s death. Bruno is tasked with going undercover to join the conspirators. Can he stop them before he is exposed? Either way a queen will die; Bruno must make sure it is the right one.
	From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever, a deliciously funny, poignant and wry novel, full of surprising twists and turns. James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy’s virtues, their shopping trips, and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss. Is this really their father, the distant figure who never once turned up for a sports day, now happily chortling over cuckoo clocks and television soaps? Then something happens that throws everything into new relief, and Phoebe and Robert discover that life most definitely does not stop for the elderly. It just moves onto a very different plane – changing all the stories they thought they knew so well.
	The first book in a highly original and delightfully clever crime series in which Queen Elizabeth II secretly solves crimes while carrying out her royal duties. It is the early spring of 2016 and Queen Elizabeth is at Windsor Castle in advance of her 90th birthday celebrations. But the preparations are interrupted when a guest is found dead in one of the Castle bedrooms. The scene suggests the young Russian pianist strangled himself, but a badly tied knot leads MI5 to suspect foul play was involved. The Queen leaves the investigation to the professionals—until their suspicions point them in the wrong direction. Unhappy at the mishandling of the case and concerned for her staff’s morale, the monarch decides to discreetly take matters into her own hands. With help from her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian and recent officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, the Queen secretly begins making inquiries. As she carries out her royal duties with her usual aplomb, no one in the Royal Household, the government, or the public knows that the resolute Elizabeth will use her keen eye, quick mind, and steady nerve to bring a murderer to justice. SJ Bennett captures Queen Elizabeth’s voice with skill, nuance, wit, and genuine charm in this imaginative and engaging mystery that portrays Her Majesty as she’s rarely seen: kind yet worldly, decisive, shrewd, and most importantly a great judge of character.
	Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses’s life for the next four decades. As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot — a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics — he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills. With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a richly drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.
	In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future. The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.
	Seventy-seven years old Judith Potts loves her life and being totally in charge of it. It consists of her routine of setting crosswords for the The Times newspaper, swimming nude in the Thames, drinking, lots of drinking, and riding her bike in town where everyone seems to know her, to her constant surprise. She’s not big on keeping her mansion tidy, there might be a bra hanging from something in the living room, but she is happy with her way of life. When she is nude swimming in the Thames one hot summer night, she hears a yell and a gunshot from her neighbour’s place. When the police do a lousy investigation, Judith takes matters into her own hands and investigates her neighbour’s property herself and finds his body. She knows he’s been murdered even though the police, that seems to be mostly just one beleaguered police woman, aren’t taking the death of her neighbour seriously.
	Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
	Has a killer lain dormant for years only to strike again on New Year’s Eve? LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to find justice for an innocent victim in the new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael ConnellyThere’s chaos in Hollywood on New Year’s Eve. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD Detective Renée Ballard seeks shelter at the end of the countdown to wait out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. As reports start to roll in of shattered windshields and other damage, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. It doesn’t take long for Ballard to determine that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky. Ballard’s investigation leads her to look into another unsolved murder—a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. Ballard and Bosch team up once again to find out where the old and new cases intersect. All the while they must look over their shoulders. The killer who has stayed undetected for so long knows they are coming after him.
	In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later, and approaching forty, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby’s father was murdered twenty years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims. Suspicions are easy enough, but proof seems impossible. The man is brilliant, patient, and always one step ahead of law enforcement. He is the most cunning of all serial killers. He knows forensics, police procedure, and most important: he knows the law. He is a judge, in Florida—under Lacy’s jurisdiction. He has a list, with the names of his victims and targets, all unsuspecting people unlucky enough to have crossed his path and wronged him in some way. How can Lacy pursue him, without becoming the next name on his list?

UPDATED 26th March 2022 – These new books are now available for borrowing.

Click below to see:

March 2022 Arrivals
October 2021 Arrivals
July/August 2021 Arrivals
February 2021 Arrivals
January 2021 Arrivals
December 2020 Arrivals
November 2020 Arrivals

Discover more about us on Facebook and TripAdvisor. You will find us at Calle Irlanda 5, Parque Taoro, Puerto de la Cruz (behind the old British School of Tenerife). Telephone: 922 383098.

There has been an improvement in delivery from the UK, as recent orders have arrived without undue delay.  We hope this situation will continue!

	Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It’s been easy enough to avoid her parents–her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings – and with the childhood they shared.
	Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together – birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they’re a happy family. Johnny’s wife, Jessie – who has the most money – insists on it. Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . . Everything stays under control until Ed’s wife Cara, gets concussion and can’t keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny’s birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets. In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?
	The harrowing true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry–with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter. Drawing on firsthand accounts of the Belgica’s voyage and exclusive access to the ship’s logbook, Sancton tells the tale of its long, isolated imprisonment on the ice–a story that NASA studies today in its research on isolation for missions to Mars. In vivid, hair-raising prose, Sancton recounts the myriad forces that drove these men right up to and over the brink of madness.
	This beguiling collection draws together a selection of Guardian writing that is both informative and celebratory, tracking the sport’s history and uncovering how public perception has changed over time. Postings on how cigarettes ‘aided breathing’ on some of the earliest Everest expeditions. Victorian advice to ‘lady climbers’: ‘Small rings should be sewn inside the seams of the skirt … [so] that the whole dress may be drawn up at a moment’s notice to the requisite height’. Articles on scrambling, fell-running, rock-climbing and rambling. Whether you’re a serious mountaineer or a weekend rambler, On the Roof of the World is packed full of insights and stories that make it the perfect bedside companion.
	Umiko Wada has recently had quite enough excitement in her life. With her husband recently murdered and a mother who seems to want her married again before his body is cold, she just wants to keep her head down. As a secretary to a private detective, her life is pleasingly uncomplicated, filled with coffee runs, diary management and paperwork. That is, until her boss takes on a new case. A case which turns out to be dangerous enough to get him killed. A case which means Wada will have to leave Japan for the first time and travel to London.
	Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren’t that different.It’s been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn’t have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie’s back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy. Eddie only has forty-eight hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial – and win – if he wants to save his daughter. Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his ‘client’ and ensure Amy’s safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible?
	TWO SISTERS ON TRIAL FOR MURDER. THEY ACCUSE EACH OTHER.WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?’ 911 what’s your emergency? ”My dad’s dead. My sister Sofia killed him. She’s still in the house. Please send help.” “My dad’s dead. My sister Alexandra killed him. She’s still in the house. Please send help.” One of them is a liar and a killer. But which one?
	When David Child, a major client of a corrupt New York law firm, is arrested for murder, the FBI ask con artist-turned-lawyer Eddie Flynn to persuade him to testify against the firm.Eddie is not someone who is easily coerced, but when the FBI reveal that they have incriminating files on his wife, he knows he has no choice.But Eddie is convinced the man is innocent, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. With the FBI putting pressure on him to secure the deal, Eddie must find a way to prove his client’s innocence.But the stakes are high – his wife is in danger. And not just from the FBI.
	BEFORE YOU READ THIS BOOK, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THREE THINGS: 1. The police are looking to charge me with murder. 2. No one knows who I am. Or how I did it. 3. If you think you’ve found me. I’m coming for you next. After you’ve read this book, you’ll know: the truth is far more twisted…
	WHO IS DEADLIER …Leonard Howell’s worst nightmare has come true: his daughter Caroline has been kidnapped. Not content with relying on the cops, Howell calls the only man he trusts to get her back…. THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH …Eddie Flynn knows what it’s like to lose a daughter and vows to bring Caroline home safe. Once a con artist, now a hotshot criminal attorney, Flynn is no stranger to the shady New York underworld…. OR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES A LIE?However, as he steps back into his old life, Flynn realizes that the rules of game have changed – and that he is being played. But who is pulling the strings? And is anyone in this twisted case telling the truth…?
	It’s the murder trial of the century. And Joshua Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house – and to be sure the wrong man goes down for the crime. Because this time, the killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury. But there’s someone on his tail. Former-conman-turned-criminal-defense-attorney Eddie Flynn doesn’t believe that his movie-star client killed two people. He suspects that the real killer is closer than they think – but who would guess just how close?
	When pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations, the last thing she expects is builders uncovering a body. Two bodies, in fact.  POLICE INVESTIGATE  Forensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years, which leads the police to question the cottage’s former owner – Saffy’s grandmother, Rose.  OWNER QUESTIONED  Rose’s Alzheimer’s means her memory is increasingly confused. She can’t help the police – but it is clear she remembers something.  A KILLER AT LARGE?  As Rose’s fragmented memories resurface, and the police dig ever deeper, Saffy fears she and the cottage are being watched . . .What happened thirty years ago?  What part did her grandmother play?And is Saffy now in danger? . .
	Stone Heart Deep is a compelling and claustrophobic thriller with a remarkable twist, as if Iain Banks had rewritten The Wicker Man. When burned-out investigative journalist Adam Budd’s estranged mother dies, he inherits her estate. This includes Stone Heart House, a huge, ramshackle mansion on a remote Scottish island. He visits the island to sort out her tangled affairs, and at first it seems like a charming haven of tranquillity. But after he witnesses a strange accident, he begins to develop suspicions about the inhabitants. Why does everyone seem so eerily calm, even under stress? What is stopping Harriet, the lawyer helping him with his affairs, from leaving the island when she so clearly wants to? Is he making a big mistake by falling for her? And why have so many children gone missing?
	Summer 1988. Jamie Ryder had a promising Army career ahead of him. Now he’s in a rut. He has quit his regiment and his girlfriend has dumped him. But his life is in for a radical and unexpected change on his return to England. A chance meeting with Ruth at a cocktail party stirs him into action. While Ryder poses as a freelance journalist in the Scilly Isles, Ruth persuades him to help sail an Irish yacht to a port in northern Spain. The former soldier unwittingly plunges headfirst into a gun-running operation between the Irish Republican Army and Basque Separatists. The Basques suspect that Ryder is an infiltrator acting on behalf of British Intelligence. Ryder soon realises his life is in danger. He should walk away, but he doesn’t.

Here in Tenerife, July 25th is a special day; this year, even more so, as it is the 225th anniversary of the defeat of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Tenerife in 1797. Nelson not only lost the battle but his right arm which was shattered by a musket ball.

However, the dashing Rear Admiral, who thought that his career was over after this disaster, made an exceptionally quick recovery; enough to demolish Napoleon’s fleet the following year, 1798, on the 1st August at the Battle of the Nile

Once again not having the best of luck personally, Nelson was unconscious for part of the action, having been hit on the head by metal shrapnel. Nelson and his Band of Brothers having destroyed the French fleet had stranded Napoleon and his army in Egypt. It also made Nelson a household name throughout Europe.

After the Nile adventure, Nelson spent two years with the Mediterranean fleet based in Naples.

Although Horatio Nelson never visited the town of Bronte in Sicily, he received a large estate, the title, Duke of Bronte, and a diamond-hilted sword from King Ferdinand 1V of Sicily as a reward for rescuing the royal family from the French army in 1798, and for assisting in their restoration to the throne of Naples in 1799.

From then on, he signed his letters, with pride, Nelson and Bronte.

One poor Irish boy, the eldest of ten children, whose mother was Catholic and his father a protestant, idolised Nelson. His name was Patrick Brunty and in 1802 he won a scholarship to Cambridge where he studied theology. On registering at Cambridge, Patrick signed his surname as Bronte in honour of his hero. He received his BA degree in 1806 and the same year was ordained a deacon of the Church of England. Bronte gradually moved up through the Church until in 1815 he was offered the post of perpetual curate of Thornton in the district of Bradford in Yorkshire.

He must have been overjoyed and relieved for, by then, Patrick had married Maria Branwell, with whom he eventually had 6 children.

Bronte was next offered the perpetual curacy of Haworth in 1819, with a large vicarage where they could house their large family. But tragedy struck the vicarage. Maria died in 1821.

Patrick was left alone to bring up the children. He was rescued when his sister-in-law moved in as housekeeper. But death was never far away from this doomed family.

The two eldest children Maria and Elizabeth died in 1825 aged 12 and 11 respectively, after typhoid raged through their school.

This tragedy left four siblings who, like Nelson, didn’t reach to see old age. But each one of the girls became world famous in their own right.

Whilst Charlotte Bronte (April 21, 1816 – March 31 1855), Emily Bronte (July 30 1818 – December 19 – 1848) and Anne Bronte (January 17, 1820 – 28 May 1949) didn’t show any hero worship for Nelson in their writings (correct me if I’m wrong), Branwell, Patrick’s only son, wrote a poem, as a tribute to the Rear Admiral, Nelson and Bronte, the final verse being:-

They see where fell the Thunder bolt of war,
On the storm swollen waves of Trafalgar,
They see the spot where fell a star of glory,
The Finis to one page of England’s story,
They read a tale to wake their pain and pride,
In that brass plate engraved ‘HERE NELSON DIED’.

Patrick Bronte died in 1861 having outlived not only his wife (by 40 years), but all six of his children. He had helped Mrs Gaskell to write the biography of Charlotte, published in 1857.

Ken Fisher
President – The English Library

The Librarian’s Report from the AGM 2022

“As many of you will have noticed by now, the library is currently receiving a long-delayed overhaul, and is being dragged into the 21st Century. It’s been something of a struggle, as many of the well-engrained rules and concepts have been in place for over a century. But we’re getting there! The biggest change has been the introduction of new technology. I still find it quite remarkable that the library didn’t even have a telephone until about 12 years ago!

For the last 18 months a group of us, led by Graham and Cal, have been preparing to introduce an online system which includes a catalogue of the entire holdings of the library, together with an electronic checking-out and checking-in facility. This has been a huge undertaking, and my first official duty as librarian is to formally thank everybody who has been involved in the project so far. Hundreds of hours have been spent setting up the system, cataloguing, checking and labelling over 18,000 items, many of which have had to be entered onto the database manually. In addition, templates have had to be set up, and thousands of QR code labels printed, as well as membership cards. These will be made available as soon as the labelling of fiction and DVDs has been completed. As far as the new system affects library members, there will be no big changes. You will just have your membership card scanned at the desk, and your books will then be checked out or in. This will be a new experience for the desk staff as well, so please remember to be patient! And remember to keep your membership card with you.

The online catalogue has actually been up and running – albeit in an incomplete format – for 10 months now, and many members are making good use of it. Once the new system is fully-functional members will also be able to login and reserve books and DVDs for collection. This will be particularly useful in an item is already out on loan to someone else.

The big table in the reading room has been a scene of chaos for some time now, and I’m afraid that is entirely down to me! The decision was made to remove a number of books from the general shelves as they are now approaching, and in many cases well over 100 years old. These are currently being re-shelved as a special collection, and have a separate category in the online catalogue. They will be available for use in the library, but due to their age, condition and value, will not be available for loan. I am also in the process of cataloguing the library’s fascinating collection of archival material. This includes minute books, original plans and applications, together with legal papers and letters dating back to the founding of the library at the beginning of the 20th Century. Once this collection is fully catalogue it will be available to consult on application, and the entire collection will also be preserved digitally on disk.

Since BREXIT we seem to have experienced an ongoing and ever-increasing problem with receiving book and DVD orders, and I know this is also affecting some individual’s orders as well, including my own. Nobody seems to be able to get to the bottom of the problem, but many parcels seem to be getting stuck for weeks-on-end in Madrid, and then again at various courier depots across the islands. The President of the Partido Popular in Gran Canaria has recently denounced the Correos, and it appears that there are over 3000 letters and parcels being held back for no apparent reason at the company’s depot in Madrid. The trick seems to be to order in small amounts, and to have them delivered to someone living in a built-up area! It seems to be working at the moment!

We have managed to add a small but respectable number of books and DVDs to the library since summer 2021, and I plan to get this back on track with monthly orders from now on. So please use the suggestion sheets for books and DVDs if you think an item would be worth adding to the collection. I will of course consider all suggestions, but due to obvious financial restraints at the moment, the priority will be given to items that will appeal to a general clientele – fiction books and recent films and series DVDs. In fact, I feel that this will be the general policy for the future. Non-fiction books date very quickly, and the majority of people now tend to use online searches for factual information. This does not mean that the library will stop purchasing non-fiction: the category is huge and somewhat misleading. ‘True Stories’ and ‘Biographies’ are both included in the category and we will certainly not be ceasing to purchase those. And of course, good quality non-fiction books are always welcome as donations.”