Search results for ""Author Roy"

Yvonne Pope Sintes only ever wanted to fly. But in the 1950s, very few women were allowed into the male dominated world of aviation. Whilst many women were consigned to the role of house-wife, Yvonne chose a different path. Her dream was to join the ranks of the Royal Air Force, crisscrossing international skies. Despite an awareness of the pitfalls that might await her, she embarked upon her mission. Her story, told here for the first time and in her own words, is one characterized by gritty determination against the odds, a startling level of achievement and a continually modest approach to life and her own accomplishments. A career trajectory marked by such landmark achievements as becoming the first female Air Traffic Controller with the Ministry of Aviation, the first female civil airline pilot in the UK, and the first female jet airline captain in Britain are relayed in this inspiring autobiography. Bomb scares, engine failures and other perilous episodes punctuated Yvonne's experience. All are enlivened during the course of the narrative. A raft of prestigious awards including the Brabazon Cup, the International Owner and Pilots Association award for best Air Traffic Controller in Europe, the Amelia Earhart memorial Scholarship for licensed pilots to advance in aviation, the Whitney Straight Award for courage and determination in pursuit of an aviation career (awarded by Princess Anne) and the British Airline Pilots Association Award for work towards air safety all were awarded to Yvonne during the course of a spectacular career, the details of which make for a truly inspiring and engrossing read. Yvonne has taken this opportunity to record the pitfalls and landmark successes of her career for posterity. She does so in a style that is at once both humble and immensely celebratory of a profession that has meant so much to her. "I first met Yvonne and her husband Miguel in Mahon during September 1992 when I was researching my book on Dan-Air. It was immediately clear that she had a rare and fascinating story that deserved telling in its entirety to reach a much wider audience. I am pleased and proud to have played a small part in making that happen!" - Graham M. Simons, Editor

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Louis IX, king of France from 1226 to 1270 and twice crusader, was canonized in 1297. He was the last king canonized during the medieval period, and was both one of the most important saints and one of the most important kings of the later Middle Ages. In Blessed Louis, the Most Glorious of Kings: Texts Relating to the Cult of Saint Louis of France, M. Cecilia Gaposchkin presents six previously untranslated texts that informed medieval views of St. Louis IX: two little-known but early and important vitae of Saint Louis; two unedited sermons by the Parisian preacher Jacob of Lausanne (d. 1322); and a liturgical office and proper mass in his honor—the most commonly used liturgical texts composed for Louis’ feast day—which were widely copied, read, and disseminated in the Middle Ages. Gaposchkin’s aim is to present to a diverse readership the Louis as he was known and experienced in the Middle Ages: a saint celebrated by the faithful for his virtue and his deeds. She offers for the first time to English readers a typical hagiographical view of Saint Louis, one in counterbalance to that set forth in Jean of Joinville’s Life of Saint Louis. Although Joinville’s Life has dominated our views of Louis, Joinville’s famous account was virtually unknown beyond the French royal court in the Middle Ages and was not printed until the sixteenth century. His portrayal of Louis as an individual and deeply charismatic personality is remarkable, but it is fundamentally unrepresentative of the medieval understanding of Louis. The texts that Gaposchkin translates give immediate access to the reasons why medieval Christians took Louis to be a saint; the texts, and the image of Saint Louis presented in them, she argues, must be understood within the context of the developing history of sanctity and sainthood at the end of the Middle Ages.

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Following the top-ten bestselling success of A Battle Won, Under Enemy Colours and A Ship of War, Sean Thomas Russell's captivating fourth novel Until The Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead is the maritime adventure of 2014. Under the command of Captain Charles Hayden, Royal Navy frigate HMS Themis is sent to counter the threat of the French forces in the West Indies. In the middle of the vast Atlantic, Hayden discovers two Spanish noblemen, castaway in a ship's boat - a stroke of almost impossible good fortune. The Spaniards' explanation for their plight seems so improbable that Hayden's officers suspect them of being criminals or even spies. But they have secrets far more shocking than that - secrets which will haunt Hayden in his new posting. Upon reaching the Barbados station, Hayden finds himself under the command of the vainglorious Sir William Jones, an impetuous and foolhardy officer. Refusing orders will cost Hayden his command. Accepting them might cost him his ship and crew. UNTIL THE SEA SHALL GIVE UP HER DEAD is the brilliant fourth tale in the epic maritime adventures of Charles Hayden. A masterpiece already rivalling the stories of Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O'Brian. Praise for Sean Thomas Russell: 'Russell's encyclopaedic command of nautical lore, joined to his rare ability to spin a ripping yarn, combine to place the reader right in the middle of the action, of which there is plenty' Neal Stephenson 'Well-written, plenty of adventure . . . places the reader in the midst of the action of battle' The Marine Society 'An impressive, sweeping and momentous naval epic' Crew Report Sean Thomas Russell is a lifelong sailor whose passion for the sea - and his love of nautical history - inspired the adventures of Charles Hayden. His latest book follows bestsellers A Battle Won, Under Enemy Colours and A Ship of War. Sean lives on Vancouver Island. www.sthomasrussell.com

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From the colonial history in the streets of the Rocks neighborhood, to Aboriginal art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a visit to the iconic Sydney Opera House, to climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge—this easy-to-use guide provides all the information you need. Just beyond Sydney, discover landscapes of outstanding beauty, such as the Royal National Park, the Blue Mountains, and the vineyards of the Hunter Valley. Plus there are suggestions for scenic walking and driving tours and for the best shops, markets, bars, and restaurants in Sydney.Discover DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Sydney. • Hotel and restaurant listings and recommendations. • Detailed itineraries and "don't-miss" destination highlights at a glance. • Illustrated cutaway 3-D drawings of important sights. • Floor plans and guided visitor information for major museums. • Free, color pull-out map (print edition) marked with sights, a selected site and street index, public transit map, practical information on getting around, and a distance chart for measuring walking distances. • Guided walking tours, local drink and dining specialties to try, things to do, and places to eat, drink, and shop by area. • Area maps marked with sights and restaurants. • Detailed city maps include street finder index for easy navigation. • Insights into history and culture to help you understand the stories behind the sights. • Suggested day-trips and itineraries to explore beyond the city. With hundreds of full-color photographs, hand-drawn illustrations, and custom maps that illuminate every page, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Sydney truly shows you this city as no one else can.Series Overview: For more than two decades, DK Eyewitness Travel Guides have helped travelers experience the world through the history, art, architecture, and culture of their destinations. Expert travel writers and researchers provide independent editorial advice, recommendations, and reviews. With guidebooks to hundreds of places around the globe available in print and digital formats, DK Eyewitness Travel Guides show travelers how they can discover more.

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The town of Maidstone became indelibly associated with revolution and riot between the 14th and 16th centuries when it experienced the Peasants' Revolt, Cade's Rebellion and the Wyatt Revolt. The townsfolk seem to have enjoyed an independant spirit ever since. Following the Battle of Maidstone, fought between Parliamentarians and Royalists in 1648, the Mayor was Clerk to the court which tried Charles I and it was probably he who pronounced the death sentence. Town meetings voiced opposition to the Revolutionary War with France, and urged the King to dismiss Pitt the Younger and his ministers, but the local population was patriotic. When the threat to the country became apparent the people speedily raised a regiment of Volunteers to defend the homeland. Maidstone artisans were prominent in the Swing Riots of 1830. The town was a centre for the fulling process, essential to cloth production, and for a long period enjoyed a virtual monopoly in threadmaking. It also provided local ragstone for the Tower of London and Windsor Castle Chapel and became, in time, a major source of hops and fruit. Brewers such as Fremlins and Style and Winch were situated here, as were producers of Hollands gin and cherry brandy.Papermaking was an industry of local importance. Sharps toffee, Fosters Clarks grocery lines, Tilling-Stevents buses and Rootes, who built the first Singer car in 1912, were among national names that began life in the town. Penenden Heath has been the county meeting place and the spot from which justice was dispensed since before Domesday, so it was appropriate that Maidstone should eventually become the county town for Kent. Nowadays the county administration and public services are centred here and they have largely replaced the former industries, which have all but disappeared. But the town is proud of its long and rich history and this fully illustrated account helps explain precisely why Maidstone has been such an important town in south-east England for over a thousand years.

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Casts new and valuable light on English musical history and on Enlightenment culture more generally. This is a book guaranteed to make waves. It skilfully weaves the story of one key musical figure into the story of one key institution, which it then weaves into the general story of music in eighteenth-century England. Anyone reading it will come away with fresh knowledge and perceptions - plus a great urge to hear Cooke's music.' Michael Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool and Fellow of the British Academy. Amidst the cosmopolitan, fashion obsessed concert life of later eighteenth century London there existed a discrete musical counterculture centred round a club known as the Academy of Ancient Music. Now largely forgotten, this enlightened school of musical thinkers sought to further music by proffering an alternative vision based on a high minded intellectual curiosity. Perceiving only ear-tickling ostentation in the showy styles that delighted London audiences, they aspired to raise the status of music as an art of profound expression, informed by its past and founded on universal harmonic principles. Central to this group of musical thinkers was the modest yet highly accomplished musician-scholar Benjamin Cooke, who both embodied and reflected this counterculture. As organist of Westminster Abbey and conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music for much of the second half of the eighteenth century, Cooke enjoyed prominence in his day as a composer, organist, teacher, and theorist. This book shows how, through his creativity, historicism and theorising, Cooke was instrumental in proffering an Enlightenment-inspired reassessment of musical composition and thinking at the Academy. The picture portrayed counters the current tendency to dismiss eighteenth-century English musicians as conservative and provincial. Casting new and valuable light on English musical history and on Enlightenment culture more generally, this book reveals how the agenda for musical advancement shared by Cooke and his Academy associates foreshadowed key developments that would mould European music of the nineteenth century and after. It includes an extensive bibliography, a detailed overview of the Cooke Collection at the Royal College of Music and a complete list of Cooke's works. TIM EGGINGTON is College Librarian at Queens'College, Cambridge.

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Durable and waterproof, with a handy slipcase and an easy-fold format, Lonely Planet's Madrid City Map is your conveniently sized passport to travelling with ease. Get more from your map and your trip with images and information about top city attractions, walking tour routes, transport maps, itinerary suggestions, an extensive street and site index, and practical travel tips and directory. With this easy-to-use, full-colour navigation tool in your back pocket, you can truly get to the heart of Madrid, so begin your journey now!Durable and waterproofEasy-fold format and convenient sizeHandy slipcaseFull colour and easy to useExtensive street and site indexImages and information about top city attractionsHandy transport mapsWalking tour routesPractical travel tips and directoryItinerary suggestionsCovers Plaza Mayor, Royal Madrid, La Latina, Lavapias, Sol, Santa Ana, Huertas, El Retiro, Salamanca, Malasaña, Chueca, Parque del Oeste, Northern MadridLooking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Madrid, our most comprehensive guidebook to the city, covering the top sights and most authentic offbeat experiences. Or check out Lonely Planet's Pocket Madrid, a handy-sized guide focused on the can't-miss experiences for a quick trip.About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and phrasebooks for 120 languages, and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, videos, 14 languages, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more, enabling you to explore every day.'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' New York Times'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' Fairfax Media (Australia)

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As Marie Antoinette took her last breath as Queen of France in Paris, another formidable monarch-Antoinette's dearly beloved sister, Charlotte-was hundreds of miles away, in Naples, fighting desperately to secure her release from the revolutionaries who would take her life. Little did Charlotte know, however, that her sister's execution would change the course of history-and bring about the end of her own empire."You are the queen. You are the queen that Antoinette wanted to be."Austria 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte-tenth daughter and one of sixteen children of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria-knows her position as a Habsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, her family, and her cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte's older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she must now marry Ferdinand in her sister's stead.Bereft and alone, Charlotte finds that her life in Naples is more complicated than she could ever have imagined. Ferdinand is weak and feckless, and a disastrous wedding night plunges her into despair. Her husband's regent, Tanucci, a controlling and power-hungry man, has pushed the country to the brink of ruin. Overwhelmed, she asks her brother Leopold, now the Holy Roman Emperor, to send help-which he does in the form of John Acton, a handsome military man twenty years Charlotte's senior who is tasked with overseeing the Navy. Now, Charlotte must gather the strength to do what her mother did before her: take control of a country.In a time of political uprisings and royal executions and with the increasingly desperate crisis her favorite sister, Queen Marie Antoinette, is facing in France, how is a young monarch to keep hold of everything-and everyone-she loves? Find out in this sweeping, luxurious tale of family, court intrigue, and power.Includes a Reading Group Guide.

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The Sunday Times bestseller Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlisted for the Booker Prize ‘It is a book not read, but lived’ Telegraph ‘Her Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century’ Observer The bestselling sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall trilogy. ‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’ England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage. A Guardian Book of the Year • A Times Book of the Year • A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year • A Sunday Times Book of the Year • A New Statesman Book of the Year • A Spectator Book of the Year Sunday Times Bestseller (08/03/2020)

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Situated in a dress circle position on the slopes of the village of Les Avants, overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Chalet Monet is the magnificent home of Dame Joan Sutherland OM AC DBE and her husband, Maestro Richard Bonynge AC CBE. In his charming, eloquent, conversational style, Richard Bonynge takes us inside the home he has shared with Dame Joan, and in so doing provides rare insight into the lives of two of the greatest international cultural icons in opera of all time. The Chalet was introduced to Dame Joan and Richard by their close friend Noël Coward who resided in the neighbouring property. The opulence of each of the distinctive rooms over the four floors and vistas from the Chalet is artfully captured in stunning photography. Paintings and objets dart line the walls and fill the cabinets, each with their own provenance; presented by royalty or celebrities, embroided by Dame Joan or collected by Richard. Through the stories of these artefacts, told by Richard in eloquent conversational style, we learn about the life and times of two of the most formidable figures associated with opera in the 20th century. "For those fortunate enough to have discovered and experienced the thrill of opera and all the larger than life characters associated with it, to enter Chalet Monet is somewhat of a fairy tale experience that could be taken right out of a Cinderella story ... Chalet Monet is a house with a thousand stories. It is living history, theatrical, a beautiful home with enormous spirit like its owners. It radiates grandeur yet intimacy with places to sit and contemplate, views to linger over, books to be read, paintings to admire and music to listen to. It is a treasure trove for the senses where many a story has been told orbegun. Only its walls and its owners remember the decades of music making here and possibly the oddneighbour and the cows on the grassy slopes ... Thank you, Richard for allowing us to enter your private and colourful world." From the Preface by Fiona Janes, Artistic Director/General Manager Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation. This sumptuously produced coffee table book captures the essence of the fairy tale that is Chalet Monet.

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The unvarnished history of America’s most notorious palace and its American queenMoments before the Roaring Twenties sunk into the Great Depression, socialite heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and financier E.F. Hutton constructed an estate to outdo all estates. To the tune of $4 million (about $68 million today) and four years of labor they called forth a 118-room mansion in a conflated Spanish, Portuguese, and Venetian design over a coral reef in hurricane-prone Palm Beach County. They named it Mar-a-Lago—a winter haven where corporate titans, the glitterati, and nobility gathered. But the honeymoon didn’t last long. In American Castle, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary C. Shanklin reveals a century of controversy, politics, and lifestyles of the super-rich and powerful after Mar-a-Lago became a part-time residence and party place upon Post’s divorce from Hutton over mutual adultery. It’s a story of an American royal who, at the age of 27, inherited a cereal company that would later become the General Foods Corporation and spent a lifetime in business, art collection, philanthropy, and the management of multiple estates—including her white elephant, Mar-a-Lago. Though she tried time again, as Shanklin covers in riveting detail, Post could not offload the behemoth due to its extraordinary maintenance costs and the uppity Palm Beach neighbors.Drawing from previously untapped interviews, documents, and recordings, Shanklin follows Mar-a-Lago’s evolution as it collides with the Kennedys, the state of Florida, a potential make-over as The Mar-a-Lago Center for Advanced Scholars, Lady Bird Johnson, Richard Nixon, the National Park Service, and—of course—Donald Trump, who pursued subdivision, threatened to sell to Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, hosted Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, made it a for-profit club, received scandalous dinner guests, turned it into his Winter White House, and watched the FBI raid before holding a home-court presser as the first former president to face criminal charges.How did the Palm Beach hamlet so lacquered in grace and elegance come to find itself rooted in American Castle: One Hundred Years of Mar-a-Lago.

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'A daily love letter from a brave young woman to her adored father . . . immensely evocative of wartime Britain, extremely well edited, and occasionally powerfully moving' ANDREW ROBERTS, TLS'It wasn't easy being a Churchill child - and only Mary managed it with serenity and aplomb, as her diary of wartime ATS service shows' ANNE DE COURCY, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Mary's affectionately intimate and emotionally volatile diaries [...] are an informal record that perfectly complements Churchill's own six authoritative volumes of memoirs of the second world war ... This is a happy book' SPECTATOR'Gives a new and valuable perspective on Churchill in wartime' THE OLDIE 'A fascinating and intimate insight into the iconic Prime Minister's family life' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'I am not a great or important personage, but this will be the diary of an ordinary person's life in war time. Though I may never live to read it again, perhaps it may not prove altogether uninteresting as a record of my life'In 1939 seventeen-year-old Mary found herself in an extraordinary position at an extraordinary time: it was the outbreak of the Second World War and her father, Winston Churchill, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; within months he would be Prime Minister.The young Mary Churchill was uniquely placed to observe this remarkable historical moment, and her diaries -- most of which have never been published -- provide a front-row view of the great events of war, as well as exchanges and intimate moments with her father. But they also capture what it was like to be a young woman during wartime. An impulsive and spirited writer, full of coming-of-age self-consciousness and joie de vivre, Mary's diaries are untrammelled by hindsight or self-censorship or nostalgia.From aid raid sirens at 10 Downing Street to seeing action with the ATS, from cocktail parties with presidents and royals to accompanying her father on key diplomatic trips, Mary's wartime diaries are full of colour, rich in historical insight, and a charming and intimate portrait of life alongside Winston Churchill.Compiled and edited by Mary's daughter, Emma Soames, in collaboration with The Churchill Archives Centre.

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This engaging poem depicts Winston Churchill as a hero, in traditional epic style and echoes the works of Homer and Virgil. The metre adds an emotional intensity to the events of 20th century history more usually found within Classical literature. The narrative covers the period from 1940, when Great Britain faced perhaps the greatest threat to its very existence as an independent nation: invasion and defeat by the rampant forces of Nazi Germany, to 1941 when the United States entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In this acute crisis King George VI appointed a man whose reputation and earlier political success were questioned by many influential figures. Yet public opinion and some wiser men and women of substance, such as Lord Halifax, the alternative choice as Prime Minister at the time, determined the outcome. Their choice was thoroughly vindicated by the events that followed. His courage, boldness, rhetoric and inspiration united the country in its solitary stand against the might of the Luftwaffe and the potential landing of the dreaded Wehrmacht on British soil. Under his leadership the Royal Air Force defeated the Luftwaffe's attack, foiling Hitler's plans to invade England to the extent that he began to think instead of attacking his apparent ally, the Soviet Union, and to leave Britain to wither alone. Churchill knew that that he had only won a respite, but he set about to strengthen the country and to turn it from defence to aggression. The bomber force was developed, the army enlarged and re-equipped, the navy set to the task of eliminating German surface marauders and submarines. The population at large were motivated to make a supreme effort to resist the still extant threat to their whole way of life. Until Hitler attacked Russia, Britain stood alone, confronting a Europe largely controlled by the Nazis and their allies. To Stalin he offered full support: Hitler was the immediate threat to a civilised world. Only when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the USA into the war, did he realise that Germany - and Japan - were sure to be defeated. He had led the British people from the brink of utter disaster to the expectation of victory.

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This pocket-sized travel guide to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering what to do, what to see and how to get around the destination. It covers top attractions like Promenade des Anglais, La Croisette, the Musee Matisse, Zplage, The Vieux Port, as well as hidden gems, including Cap d'Ail and Royal Fort. Our Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo guide book will save you time and enhance your exploration of this fascinating region. This Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo travel guide has been fully updated post-COVID-19. This Mini Rough Guide to NICE, CANNES & MONTE CARLO covers: Nice; Cannes; Monaco; Excursions.In this guide book to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo you will find: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER Experiences selected for every kind of trip to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo, from cultural explorations in Vieux Nice to family activities in child-friendly places, like Colline du Chateau or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Mougins.TOP TEN ATTRACTIONSThis Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo travel guide covers the destination's top ten attractions not to miss, including Chapelle Bellini, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Promenade des Anglais, La Croisette and a Perfect Day itinerary suggestions.COMPACT FORMATCompact, concise, and packed with essential information, with a sharp design and colour-coded sections, this guide book to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo is the perfect on-the-move companion when you're exploring Monaco.HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTSIncludes an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture of Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo.WHAT TO DODetailed description of entertainment, shopping, nightlife, festivals and events, and children's activities.PRACTICAL MAPSHandy colour maps on the inside cover flaps of this travel guide to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo will help you find your way around.PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATIONPractical information on eating out, including a handy glossary and detailed restaurant listings, as well as a comprehensive A-Z of travel tips on everything from getting around to health and tourist information.STRIKING PICTURESInspirational colour photography throughout.FREE EBOOK Free eBook download with every purchase of this Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo guide book to access all content from your phone or tablet for on-the-road exploration.

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Naming a boat is as personal as naming a baby (even if few male skippers would risk telling the wife that). The culmination of many years of dreaming and penny pinching, the purchase of a boat of any size is a huge event for any sailor, and with that comes serious naming pressure. Many boatowners have a secret fear that someone else got their brilliantly original name first – or ruined it for ever by reducing its reputation to snigger-worthy opprobrium. Sometimes it’s so difficult to name a boat that skippers are desperate enough to ask the sorts of people who think Boaty McBoatface would be a good choice… The perfect gift for any skipper or would-be skipper, and featuring hundreds of common and uncommon names, this entertaining little book will answer perhaps the most important question new owners should ask themselves: what will this name say about me? And as everyone knows, once you’ve named a boat, you never ever change it, so it also answers the question: what is my boat name saying about me? Names will be categorised and listed alphabetically within these chapters: - Pun Intended (some reveal a classic wit, others reveal just how many desperate unfunny dullards there are sailing around in yachts called Seas the Day) - Common as Muck (bad names – Moondancer, Wave Catcher and others that sound like names from a bad children’s novel: where they come from, why they’re bad, and how to avoid inventing another) - A Bit of Pedigree (good names – but probably too classy for you to get away with copying them) - Don’t Even Go There (they might be uncommon these days, but sometimes there’s a good reason for that) - Word Piracy (expressions borrowed from other languages - with varying degrees of wisdom) - Myths, Legends and Gods (inspired by heroes and deities of cultures now lost to the past) - The Devil’s Own (don’t tempt fate by calling your boat Invincible, as the Royal Navy did each time the last one sank/exploded – plus other superstition-violating names) With fascinating history, a fair bit of psychology and a lot of humour, this is the essential guide for all would-be boat owners, and anyone buying a gift for Dad for Father’s Day or Christmas.

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In the summer of 1845, Sir John Franklin and a crew of 128 men entered Lancaster Sound on board HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of a Northwest Passage. The sturdy former bomb ships were substantially strengthened and fitted with the latest technologies for polar service and, at the time, were the most advanced sailing vessels developed for Polar exploration. Both ships, but especially HMS Terror, had already proven their capabilities in the Arctic and Antarctic. With such sophisticated, rugged, and successful vessels, victory over the Northwest Passage seemed inevitable, yet the entire crew vanished, and the ships were never seen again by Europeans. Finally, in 2014, the wreck of HMS Erebus was discovered by Parks Canada. Two years later, the wreck of HMS Terror was found, sitting upright, in near pristine condition. The extraordinarily well-preserved state and location of the ships, so far south of their last reported position, raises questions about the role they played in the tragedy. Did the extraordinary capabilities of the ships in fact contribute to the disaster? Never before has the Franklin Mystery been comprehensively examined through the lens of its sailing technology. This book documents the history, design, modification, and fitting of HMS Terror, one of the world's most successful polar exploration vessels. Part historical narrative and part technical design manual, this book provides, for the first time, a complete account of Terror's unique career, as well as an assessment of her sailing abilities in polar conditions, a record of her design specifications, and a full set of accurate plans of her final 1845 configuration. Based on meticulous historical research, the book details the ship's every bolt and belaying pin, and ends with the discovery and identification of the wreck in 2016, explaining how the successes and ice-worthiness of Terror may have contributed to the Franklin disaster itself. It is an ideal reference for those interested in the Franklin Mystery, in polar exploration, the Royal Navy, and in ship design and modelling.

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Dr. BARRY ROSE, OBE Born in 1934, Barry Rose originally set out on a career in insurance, but at the age of 24 he suddenly quit the world of commerce, and became a mature student at the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst there, and still without any musical qualifications, he was appointed as the first Organist and Master of the Choristers of the new Guildford Cathedral, founding and directing a choir which made several award-winning recordings for EMI (including Platinum, Gold and Silver discs). In 1974 he was invited to move to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he took over the training the world-famous choir, directing them at many great State Occasions, including The Queen’s Silver Jubilee and the 1981 wedding of The Prince of Wales. His recordings with the Cathedral choir range from Mozart and Handel with Dame Kiri te Kanawa to a gold-disc recording of the pop-song My Way and the original soundtrack of The Snowman. From St. Paul’s Barry moved on to run the choral music at The King’s School, Canterbury, but was lured back into Cathedral music at St. Albans Abbey and Cathedral in 1988 – where he stayed until Christmas 1997. With the St. Albans choir he toured the USA no less than five times, as well as making recordings and broadcasts. Barry was also the BBC’s Music Adviser to the Head of Religious Broadcasting – a post he was to hold from 1971-1990, broadcasting regularly as conductor, organist, pianist, and even writing and presenting a series of church music programmes on BBC2. With his brother-in-law he also founded and produced recordings for GUILD RECORDS, as well as acting as recording producer for other choirs on different record labels. A regular visitor to the USA since 1974, he has been visiting director of several high-profile choirs on the East Coast, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and many European countries. Married, with three grown-up children, he and his wife Elizabeth (to whom the book is dedicated) now live in rural Somerset, where he still makes music and enjoys his hobby of collecting and restoring vintage fountain pens.

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On 18 April 1947, British forces set off the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The target was a small island in the North Sea, fifty miles off the German coast, which for generations had stood as a symbol of Anglo-German conflict: Heligoland. A long tradition of rivalry was to come to an end here, in the ruins of Hitler's island fortress. Pressed as to why it was not prepared to give Heligoland back, the British government declared that the island represented everything that was wrong with the Germans: 'If any tradition was worth breaking, and if any sentiment was worth changing, then the German sentiment about Heligoland was such a one'. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, Jan Rüger explores how Britain and Germany have collided and collaborated in this North Sea enclave. For much of the nineteenth century, this was Britain's smallest colony, an inconvenient and notoriously discontented outpost at the edge of Europe. Situated at the fault line between imperial and national histories, the island became a metaphor for Anglo-German rivalry once Germany had acquired it in 1890. Turned into a naval stronghold under the Kaiser and again under Hitler, it was fought over in both world wars. Heavy bombardment by the Allies reduced it to ruins, until the Royal Navy re-took it in May 1945. Returned to West Germany in 1952, it became a showpiece of reconciliation, but one that continues to wear the scars of the twentieth century. Tracing this rich history of contact and conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War, Heligoland brings to life a fascinating microcosm of the Anglo-German relationship. For generations this cliff-bound island expressed a German will to bully and battle Britain; and it mirrored a British determination to prevent Germany from establishing hegemony on the Continent. Caught in between were the Heligolanders and those involved with them: spies and smugglers, poets and painters, sailors and soldiers. Far more than just the history of a small island in the North Sea, this is the compelling story of a relationship which has defined modern Europe.

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This beautifully illustrated monograph presents the first overview in English of the life and work of Luisa Roldán (1652–1706), a prolific and celebrated sculptor of the Spanish Golden Age. The daughter of Pedro Roldán, a well-known sculptor from Seville, she developed her talent in her father’s workshop. Early in her career she produced large polychromed wooden sculptures for churches in Seville, Cádiz, and surrounding towns. She spent the second half of her career in Madrid, where she worked in both polychromed wood and polychromed terracotta, developing new products for a domestic, devotional market. In recognition of her talent, she was awarded the title of Sculptor to the Royal Chambers of two kings of Spain, Charles II and Philip V. This book places Roldán within a wider historical and social context, exploring what life would have been like for her as a woman sculptor in early modern Spain. It considers her work alongside that of other artists of the Baroque period, including Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán. Reflecting on the opportunities available to her during this time, as well as the challenges she faced, Catherine Hall-van den Elsen weaves the narrative of Roldán's story with analysis, revealing the complexities of her oeuvre. Every year, newly discovered sculptures in wood and in terracotta enter into Roldán’s oeuvre. As her artistic output begins to attract greater attention from scholars and art lovers, Luisa Roldán provides invaluable insights into her artistic achievements.

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More Than Love is a memoir of loss, grief, and coming of age, set amid Hollywood glamour and royalty, by Natasha Gregson Wagner, the oldest daughter of Natalie Wood and her second husband Richard Gregson. Beginning with the night Natalie Wood went sailing on the family boat with her husband Robert Wagner off the coast of Catalina and never returned, we meet the young Natasha at the age of 11, hearing the news of her mother’s disappearance on the radio while having a sleepover at a friend’s house. From this turning point of profound and shattering loss, Natasha stretches back to tell the story of her cosseted childhood in a warm, bustling family where her mother loved to decorate, entertain, keep ducks in the backyard, and often overprotected her daughters. An inside look at Natalie’s classic movies—Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel without a Cause, Splendour in the Grass, West Side Story and Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice, among others—More Than Love also offers a riveting, first-hand portrait of what it is like to experience a Hollywood childhood, where Elia Kazan, known as Gadge, for his love of gadgets, is lounging by the pool, Ruth Gordon is your godmother, and Josh Evans, the son of Ali MacGraw, is your first boyfriend. As Natasha steps back into the past, looking through the carefully preserved archive of her mother’s letters, notes, and photographs, and comes to terms with her grief, a vivid and magnetic portrait of Natalie Wood emerges —the child star, the young actress, the teen idol, the young wife, mother and eventual hostess extraordinaire. Along the way Natasha comes to terms with her mother’s legacy and her own loss: making her peace, having her own daughter, and forging a strong and independent sense of self.

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More Than Love is a memoir of loss, grief, and coming of age, set amid Hollywood glamour and royalty, by Natasha Gregson Wagner, the oldest daughter of Natalie Wood and her second husband Richard Gregson. Beginning with the night Natalie Wood went sailing on the family boat with her husband Robert Wagner off the coast of Catalina and never returned, we meet the young Natasha at the age of 11, hearing the news of her mother’s disappearance on the radio while having a sleepover at a friend’s house. From this turning point of profound and shattering loss, Natasha stretches back to tell the story of her cosseted childhood in a warm, bustling family where her mother loved to decorate, entertain, keep ducks in the backyard, and often overprotected her daughters. An inside look at Natalie’s classic movies—Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel without a Cause, Splendour in the Grass, West Side Story and Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice, among others—More Than Love also offers a riveting, first-hand portrait of what it is like to experience a Hollywood childhood, where Elia Kazan, known as Gadge, for his love of gadgets, is lounging by the pool, Ruth Gordon is your godmother, and Josh Evans, the son of Ali MacGraw, is your first boyfriend. As Natasha steps back into the past, looking through the carefully preserved archive of her mother’s letters, notes, and photographs, and comes to terms with her grief, a vivid and magnetic portrait of Natalie Wood emerges —the child star, the young actress, the teen idol, the young wife, mother and eventual hostess extraordinaire. Along the way Natasha comes to terms with her mother’s legacy and her own loss: making her peace, having her own daughter, and forging a strong and independent sense of self.

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A definitive analysis of the most successful tribute system in the Americas as applied to Afromexicans.During the eighteenth century, hundreds of thousands of free descendants of Africans in Mexico faced a highly specific obligation to the Spanish crown, a tax based on their genealogy and status. This royal tribute symbolized imperial loyalties and social hierarchies. As the number of free people of color soared, this tax became a reliable source of revenue for the crown as well as a signal that colonial officials and ordinary people referenced to define and debate the nature of blackness.Taxing Blackness:Free Afromexican Tribute in Bourbon New Spain examines the experiences of Afromexicans and this tribute to explore the meanings of race, political loyalty, and legal privileges within the Spanish colonial regime. Norah L. A. Gharala focuses on both the mechanisms officials used to define the status of free people of African descent and the responses of free Afromexicans to these categories and strategies. This study spans the eighteenth century and focuses on a single institution to offer readers a closer look at the place of Afromexican individuals in Bourbon New Spain, which was the most profitable and populous colony of the Spanish Atlantic.As taxable subjects, many Afromexicans were deeply connected to the colonial regime and ongoing debates about how taxpayers should be defined, whether in terms of reputation or physical appearance. Gharala shows the profound ambivalence, and often hostility, that free people of African descent faced as they navigated a regime that simultaneously labeled them sources of tax revenue and dangerous vagabonds. Some free Afromexicans paid tribute to affirm their belonging and community ties. Others contested what they saw as a shameful imposition that could harm their families for generations. The microhistory includes numerous anecdotes from specific cases and people, bringing their history alive, resulting in a wealth of rural and urban, gender, and family insight.

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Remarkable Golf Courses encompasses the extremes of the sport – from the highest golf course in La Paz, Bolivia, to the lowest, in Death Valley, USA; from the most northerly in the Arctic Circle to the most southerly in Tierra del Fuego. The many quirks of the golfing world are covered, such as the 18th green the other side of the River Lea which is serviced by an electric ferry, or the LA golf course that has its own funicular railway, or the floating golf hole in Idaho, where it’s not just the pin position that’s changed every day, it’s the distance from the shore! Golf courses that feature neolithic standing stones (Scotland), Roman roads (England), and ruined medieval castles (Wales) take their place alongside the old temples of Delhi or a UNESCO World Heritage bridge that is used to link the 9th and 10th at Angkor Wat. There are the beloved classic courses of St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal St. George and Westward Ho!. There are spectacular golf courses hewn out of the Nevada and Arizona desert, green oases in a cactus-strewn, rocky landscape, along with Hawaiian courses fringed by barren black lava flows. But nothing can beat the thrill in Guatemala of lining up your drive on an active volcano at the Fuego Maya course. In comparison there are the traditional wind-blown Scottish links, such as the Machrie Hotel on the island of Islay which has the most blind greens on any course, or the remote Isle of Barra where greens are only accessible via a kissing gate. Fancy swapping countries mid-round? You can at the Llanmymynech club in Wales. At the fourth hole golfers tee off in Wales and putt out on the green in England. Remarkable Golf Courses brings together some astonishing stories with some extraordinary photography.

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The framework of this history of the Kingdom of Israel is based on information provided by epigraphic sources. They show that the religion and the ethnic identity of Israel connect traditions of semi-nomadic tribes of the Cisjordanian highland with conceptions and practices of pastoralists living in Transjordan, Midian, Negeb, and Sinai. They are known as Shasu in Egyptian texts, which provide the earliest written sources. The book is divided in six chapters. The first one deals with the proto-history of Israel in the second millennium B.C., starting with the mention of the Joseph-El and Simeon tribes in the Egyptian Execration texts of the 19th-18th centuries B.C. Jacob-El, Reuben, and Israel appear somewhat later, as well as the Shasu of the Yahwe-El area in Northern Sinai. The figure of Moses is related to this region and dates presumably from the second half of the 12th century B.C., when starts the period of the Judges. Graeco-Aegean Philistines settled in Canaan in the late 12th century were a serious menace to the confederation of Israelite tribes whose elders decided ca. 980 B.C. to adopt a royal government system. The first king was Saul, followed by his son Ishbaal. The unsettled period of David’s and Solomon’s reigns (ca. 960-927 B.C.) still belongs to the transition period from tribal confederacy to monarchy, continued by wars between Israel and Judah and by internal troubles. This is examined in chapter II. Chapter III deals with the dynasty of Omri, which ruled from ca. 882 to 749 B.C., a period documented also by Moabite, Neo-Assyrian, and Aramaic inscriptions which show that Jehu belonged to an Omride side-branch and that Jehoram and Ahaziah were killed by Aramaeans at the battle of Ramoth Gilead (841 B.C.), not by Jehu or his men. The rule of the Omrides was followed by a restless period and by Assyrian invasions ending with the annexation of the country to the Assyrian Empire and deportations of some of its elite, as presented in chapter IV. Since monotheism goes to the hearth of Israelite self-understanding, chapter V examines the religion of Israel, characterized by the cult of El, whose identity was specified by the full name Yahwe-El. A certain continuity of the Israelite political entity appears in the Persian period with Samarian governors, often members of the Sanballat lineage, as proposed in chapter VI.

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For most Americans, Cambodia was a sideshow to the war in Vietnam, but by the time of the Vietnam invasion of Democratic Kampuchea in 1978 and the subsequent war, it had finally moved to centre stage. Kenneth Conboy chronicles the violence that plagued Cambodia from World War II until the end of the twentieth century and peels back the layers of secrecy that surrounded the CIA’s covert assistance to anticommunist forces in Cambodia during that span.Conboy’s path-breaking study provides the first complete assessment of CIA ops in two key periods—during the Khmer Republic’s existence (1970–1975), in support of American military action in Vietnam, and during the Reagan and first Bush presidencies (1981–1991), when the CIA challenged Soviet expansion by supporting exiled royalists, Republicans, and even former Communists trying to expel the Vietnamese from their country. Through interviews with dozens of CIA Cambodia veterans—as well as special forces officers from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia—he sheds new light on the contributions made by foreign intelligence services. Through information gleaned from the U.S. Defense Attache’s Office in Phnom Penh, he offers a detailed look at the development of the Khmer Rouge military structure, while his use of Vietnamese-language histories released by the People’s Army of Vietnam helps more fully illuminate the PAVN’s participation in the Cambodian wars. More than a simple exposé of CIA activities, however, The Cambodian Wars is also an authoritative history of that country’s struggles over half a century. Conboy examines Cambodia as kingdom, colony, republic, revolutionary state, and Vietnamese satellite, and offers fresh insight into the actions of key players—Norodom Sihanouk, Lon Nol, Sisowath Sirik Matak, Son Ngoc Thanh, and others—that will enlighten even those who think they know that country’s history.Three decades in the making, The Cambodian Wars tells a little known chapter in the Cold War in which non-communists pulled off a surprising victory. Featuring dozens of photos covering events from 1970 to the trial of Pol Pot in 1997, it is must reading for anyone interested in contemporary Southeast Asian history, CIA covert operations, and the Vietnam War.

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Thomas Coram was a supporter of women's and children's rights long before such causes became fashionable and founder of the children's hospital charity which still bears his name. This acclaimed biography unravels the many sides of this remarkable private man. Thomas Coram is forever identified with the foundling hospital he established in 1739. This, however, came near the end of his life: previous records seemed few and far between until Gillian Wagner began to look at the scarce butintriguing evidence for his earlier career. As a young man Coram went to Massachusetts, where he stayed for ten years building ships in Boston and Taunton, working to further the spread of Anglicanism. He returned to England disappointed and heavily in debt. Surviving this early setback, he slowly secured for himself a place within English society through his championing of further settlements to exploit America's natural resources, and his characteristic support for radical causes. A strong believer in women's rights and equal opportunities for girls, he believed that it was due to the unique support of a group of aristocratic women - twenty-one ladies of quality and distinction - that he was granted a royal charter for his foundling hospital. Within two years of the establishment of the hospital, Coram fell out with the governors and was ejected from the governing body. His last years were clouded by disagreements and poverty, but a pension, granted in 1749, finally signalled recognition of his achievements. He died in 1751 and was buried in the chapel of his hospital. GILLIAN WAGNERwas the first woman to chair the Thomas Coram Foundation, successor to the foundling Hospital and which continues as the children's charity Coram, and Barnardo's - whose founder's biography she has also written. Her other books include Children of the Empire, the story of children sent to live and work in Canada and Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She has had a long and noteworthy involvement with the voluntary sector (in particular, chairing the influential review into residential care, 'A Positive Choice'), and was created a Dame in 1994.

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'An extraordinary account of heroism and sacrifice. An unexpected and important story, rivetingly told. Rip roaring stuff. Get this into the paws of the sea dog in your life.' - Griff Rhys Jones 'A book that had to be written' - Let's Talk 'People ashore don’t realise what a grim war we are waging at sea with the Germans. A cold-blooded war, in a way I think requiring the maximum of bravery from the men of both sides in the long run, as it is so ceaseless and intangible. You just don’t know whether the next moment will be your last.' Robert Hichens, RNVSR Several years ago, Julia Jones was searching through long-forgotten items stored at her house and discovered some suitcases of old written material, which turned out to be accounts by her father of his experiences in the RNVSR (Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve). She realised that as a child she’d met some of the people mentioned, and although she was too young to truly know them, these youthful impressions spurred her on to rediscovery and understanding. In this absorbing book Julia tells the compelling stories of the yachtsmen. Some were famous (such as Sir Peter Scott), others were wealthy (such as August Courtauld, who returned his pay to help with the war effort) but the majority were just 'ordinary' professionals such as publishers, lawyers and advertising agents, who signed up because they loved sailing. Few could ever have dreamed that they would end up acting in areas that were so far beyond their normal lives, as they found themselves commanding destroyers and submarines, and undertaking covert missions of sabotage. Some undertook the dangerous daily drudgery of minesweeping; others tackled unexploded bombs, engaged the enemy in high-speed attacks or played key roles in Ian Fleming's famous intelligence commandos. This varied crew of men were given tasks vital to the war effort, requiring endurance, extraordinary bravery, resourcefulness and quick thinking. Some died in the process, but for the ones who survived, Julia asks how their experiences changed them. Could their love of sailing and the sea survive the harsh realities of war?

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From Timur's tent in Samarqand to Shah 'Abbas's palace in Isfahan and Humayun's tomb in Delhi, the pavilion has been an integral part of Persianate gardens since its earliest appearance at the Achaemenid garden in Pasargadae in the sixth century BC. Here, Mohammad Gharipour places both the garden and the pavilion within their historical, literary and artistic contexts, emphasizing the importance of the pavilion, which has hitherto been overlooked in the study of Iranian historical architecture. Starting with an examination of the depictions and representations of gardens in religious texts, Gharipour analyses how the idea of the garden developed from the model of pre-Islamic gardens in Achaemenid and Sassanian Persia to its mentions in the Zoroastrian text of Aban Yasht and on to its central role as paradise in the Qur'an. Continuing on with an exploration of gardens and pavilions in Persian poetry, Gharipour offers in-depth analysis of their literal and metaphorical values. It is in the poetry of major Persian poets such as Ferdowsi, Naser Khosrow, Sa'di, Rumi and Hafez that Gharipour finds that whilst gardens are praised for their spiritual values, they also contain significant symbolic worth in terms of temporal wealth and power. Persian Gardens and Pavilions then goes onto examine the garden and the pavilion as reflected in Persian miniature painting, sculpture and carpets, as well as accounts of travelers to Persia. With masters such as Bizhad representing daily life as well as the more mystical prose and poetry in, for example, Sa'di's Bustan (The Orchard) and Golestan (The Rose Garden), the garden and the pavilion can be seen to have crucial semiotic significance and cultural meanings. But in addition to this, they also point to historical patterns of patronage and ownership which were of central importance in the diplomatic and social life of the royal courts of Persia. Gharipour thereby highlights the metaphorical, spiritual, symbolic and religious aspects of gardens, as well as their more materialistic and economic functions. This book reaches back through Persia's rich history to explore the material and psychological relationships between human beings, pavilions and gardens, and will be a valuable resource for Art History, Architecture and Iranian Studies.

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Inspired by a true story Daughter Midwife Princess ‘A fascinating story reflecting the past moving alongside the present day’ USA Today Bestseller Glynis Peters Born Nigerian royalty, Princess Adenrele Ademola trained as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital in London and stepped up to serve the people of Britain when war broke out – facing both the devastation of the Blitz and the prejudice of some of the people she was trying to help. 80 years later, Ade’s great-niece Yemi arrives in London clutching the Princess’s precious diaries and longs to uncover the mysteries they hold… A richly-detailed, compelling historical novel shining a light on a hidden voice of WW2 and one woman’s courageous contribution to Britain ‘A wonderful unfurling of such an important history … I was utterly absorbed in Ade's life!’ Chioma Okereke Readers love A Nurse’s Tale: ‘I must admit I knew very little about Nigeria, its history, culture, heritage and traditions and now I do…a great debut novel and perfect for readers who enjoy historical fiction full of long buried secrets, and learning about different cultures and I want to make Jollof rice’⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This is one of the best historical books I have read in a long time’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Incredible to learn more about Nigeria and the repercussions of the war on the country. The writing itself is magic, the perspective unique and the characters beautifully written. This is a special novel, one to cling to and savour’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Don’t miss this fantastic true story! Awonubi not only shares history, she honours Princess Ademola’s legacy and champions the recognition she deserves’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I can say that I have learned quite a bit with reading this story…Wholeheartedly recommend this novel’⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A great historical novel, it had everything that I was hoping for’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Very enjoyable and thought-provoking’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I was so sad this book ended…I love historical fiction, especially when it’s well written, and this was’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘How do I explain it except to say READ IT! It’s phenomenal’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I read a lot of World War II historical fiction but this book gave me a very different viewpoint…I love character-driven novels and the women in this one are treasures’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘

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Smitten by Scotland since childhood, travel writer Rebecca Gibson moved to Moray and started exploring her new home region on foot to produce this new title in Bradt's award-winning series of Slow travel guides to UK regions. Walkers, cyclists, wildlife lovers, families, history and folklore enthusiasts, and foodies are all catered for, with coverage of a wide range of attractions. As the only comprehensive guidebook to North East Scotland in print, it also contains all the practical information you could need to plan and enjoy time in this thrillingly diverse yet largely under-explored part of Britain. This region of mountains and coasts, ancient Caledonian pine forests and salmon-rich rivers harbours much to enthral and surprise. Long famous among hillwalkers, mountaineers and nature lovers, the Cairngorms is the UK's largest National Park and holds five of its six tallest summits - but also abounds in fairy folklore. Balmoral Estate has been a royal residence since Queen Victoria's reign, while Aberdeenshire - with its unique language, Doric - has Scotland's highest density of castles and numerous Pictish stone circles among an astounding 30,000 sites of historical and archaeological interest. Between Inverness and Aberdeen lies the less-familiar region of Moray, which hosts the world's most northerly population of bottle-nosed dolphins, Scotland's oldest independent museum, and Forres, where Shakespeare's Macbeth met the three witches. Here the Scots language and culture are celebrated through gatherings such as fire festivals. This guidebook's Slow approach to travel fits with a growing ethos of sustainability in this part of Scotland, from Findhorn Ecovillage to a celebration of locally sourced, artisan and organic food alongside the well-known products of whisky, Aberdeen Angus beef and River Dee salmon. Key heritage attractions are described in intimate detail - but so too are opportunities to see some of Scotland's most special wildlife, from pinewood-dwelling crested tits to high-altitude specialists like ptarmigan. Whether you are keen to visit castles or indulge in whisky-tastings amid Britain's highest concentration of distilleries, to hike among Cairngorm's remote mountains or to stride boldly along miles upon miles of coastline, discover North East Scotland with Bradt's unique Slow guide.

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This is the first biography of Captain Robert Ryder V.C., Royal Navy (1908-1986), one of the greatest naval heroes of the Second World War. Ryder led the audacious raid on St Nazaire in March 1942 which completely destroyed the ports dry dock, depriving the Germans mighty pocket battleships of its use for the remainder of the war. The raid was one of the most brilliantly-executed combined operations of the war, much of the credit for which must go to Ryders outstanding planning and courageous leadership. He received one of five Victoria Crosses awarded for the operation. Although Ryders name will be forever linked with the raid on St Nazaire, the rest of his war service was no less distinguished. Torpedoed in a Q ship in 1940 he was rescued after clinging to a piece of wreckage for four days. After St Nazaire, he was heavily involved in the planning of combined operations and took part in the ill-fated raid on Dieppe. On D Day he lead a naval assault party in the first wave of the invasion. For the rest of the war Ryder commanded a destroyer on the Arctic convoys. Ryders naval career before the war was, as The Times put it on his death, unorthodox. In 1933-34 he, as captain, and four other young naval officers sailed the Tal-Mo-Shan, a 54 food ketch, from Hong Kong to England via the Panama Canal in a voyage lasting exactly a year, an outstanding achievement. Recently there has been press speculation that the voyage was a cover for naval espionage in Japanese waters. The Tal-Mo-Shan herself has now acquired international celebrity as a result of her sail-on part in the Abba film Mamma Mia. Between 1934 and 1937 Ryder served in the Antarctic as captain of the Penola, the base ship of the British Graham Lane Expedition. His formidable navigation and seamanship was largely responsible for the Penola, which was ill-adapted to polar conditions, surviving her ordeal intact. Ryder also took part in some of the earliest ocean yacht races, including the second Fastnet race in 1926.

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Joachim Murat, son of an innkeeper, had won his spurs as Napoleon’s finest cavalry general and then won his throne when, in 1808, Napoleon appointed him king of Naples. He loyally ran this strategic Italian kingdom with his wife, Napoleon’s sister Caroline, until, in 1814, with Napoleon beaten and in retreat towards ruin and exile, the royal couple chose to betray their imperial relation and dramatically switched sides. This notorious betrayal won them temporary respite, but just a year later Murat engineered his own dramatic fall. A series of blunders took the cavalier king from thinking he had secured his dynasty to fleeing his kingdom. His native France did not welcome him, initially because Napoleon had not forgiven him, then, after Napoleon’s fall following Waterloo, because the restored Bourbons were offering a reward for Murat’s head. Fleeing again, fate brought him to Corsica where, welcomed at last, Murat turned to plotting the reversal in his fortunes he so felt he deserved. Murat soon resolved to bet everything on a hare-brained plan to return to Naples as a conquering hero and king. His aim was to take a small band of followers, land near his capital, organise regime change and reclaim his throne. In September 1815, he set off with a small band of followers. What happened next forms the core of this part-tragic, part-ridiculous story and a lesson in how not to stage a coup. Just five days after landing in Calabria, King Joachim was hauled before a firing squad and executed. There is a fine line in history between a fool and a hero. Had Murat succeeded then he would be lauded as daringly heroic but, alas, he failed, and his final adventure has been consigned to oblivion. This is unfortunate as the fall of Joachim Murat is the final act of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe as well as being a dramatic story in its own right. Based on research in the archives of Paris and Naples, Jonathan North’s book aims to throw light on the fate of the mightily fallen Murat and restore some history to a tale that, until now, lay smothered under two centuries of fable and neglect.

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Celebrating the rich, deep partnership between the British car industry and Italian design, this book is packed with coachbuilt cars, design classics and concept cars from the 1920s to the current day. The story starts with the early days of coachbuilt cars on separate chassis from illustrious marques like Bentley, Frazer Nash and Rolls-Royce, which were bodied by such Italian coachbuilders as Pinin Farina, Viotti and Zagato. After World War Two came the golden era of coachbuilt cars, with Italian companies creating some of the world’s most beautiful shapes of all time on chassis from the likes of Aston Martin, Austin-Healey, Bristol, Jaguar, Jowett, MG, Riley and Rover. Then came the era when Italian carrozzerie morphed into design houses, penning shapes for mass-produced cars like the BMC 1100/1300 and Triumph Herald, and crafting what are widely recognised to be some of the world’s most beautiful cars, such as the Aston Martin DB4, AC 428 and Lotus Esprit. Finally came the era of the ‘concept car’, with incredible show designs based on British marques such as Jaguars by Bertone, the BMC 1800 Berlina Aerodinamica by Pininfarina and Lotus by Italdesign. This book reveals the full stories behind the intense, diverse, sometimes surprising and always fascinating links between British cars and Italian design: the characters, the deals, the designs and above all the cars themselves. Over 40 British marques are included, from AC to Wolseley, and from major names like Jaguar down to smaller operations such as Jensen, TVR, Elva and Gordon-Keeble. These are matched by more than 40 Italian carrozzerie, from Allemano to Zagato. As well as major collaborations – such as Pininfarina and BMC, Michelotti and Triumph, Touring and Aston Martin – myriad never-before-told stories of small operators really make this book special: the likes of Frua, Boano, Fissore, Monviso, Sibona-Basano and Schiaretti. Richly illustrated with hundreds of period images, high-quality modern photography and dozens of sketches by the designers themselves – many never seen in print before – this is a book to relish for both lovers of design and enthusiasts of British and Italian cars.

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The ideal travel companion, full of insider advice on what to see and do, plus detailed itineraries and comprehensive maps for exploring Hungary.Experience luxurious spas, wander the historic Castle District in Budapest or explore the immense Hortobágy National Park: everything you need to know is clearly laid out within colour-coded chapters. Discover the best of Hungary with this indispensable travel guide.Inside DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Hungary:- Over 30 colour maps help you navigate with ease- Simple layout makes it easy to find the information you need- Comprehensive tours and itineraries of Hungary, designed for every interest and budget- Illustrations and floorplans show the inside of the Royal Palace of Gödölló, St Stephen's Basilica, Esztergom Basilica, Pannonhalma Abbey, Budapest's striking Memento Park and more- Colour photographs of vibrant cities, historic churches and castles, pretty rural towns, spectacular architecture, serene countryside and more- Detailed chapters, with area maps, cover Budapest, Szentendre, Esztergom, Northern Transdanubia, Székesfehérvár, the Bakony, Sopron, Pécs, Southern Transdanubia and the Northern Highlands - Historical and cultural context gives you a richer travel experience: learn about Hungary's history, way of life, architecture, diverse cuisine, festivals and events, thermal springs and baths, winemaking tradition and more- Essential travel tips: our expert choices of where to stay, eat, shop and sightsee, plus useful phrases, and transport, visa and health information DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Hungary is a detailed, easy-to-use guide designed to help you get the most from your visit to Hungary.DK Eyewitness: winner of the Top Guidebook Series in the Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards 2017. "No other guide whets your appetite quite like this one" - The IndependentPlanning a city break? Try our DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Budapest.About DK Eyewitness Travel: DK's highly visual Eyewitness guides show you what others only tell you, with easy-to-read maps, tips, and tours to inform and enrich your holiday. DK is the world's leading illustrated reference publisher, producing beautifully designed books for adults and children in over 120 countries.

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Harpia Publishing is proud to announce the launch of a new title for 2017, EMB-312 Tucano: Brazil’s turboprop success story, set to become the definitive English-language reference work on this revolutionary Latin American aerospace product. Written by an expert in the field, this book recounts the story of Embraer’s EMB-312 turboprop trainer, the first aircraft in its class to offer a cockpit and controls equivalent to its fighter contemporaries, as well enough power to match the high-speed manoeuvres of comparable jet trainers. Cheap to fly, capable of operating from unprepared runways and with limited maintenance requirements, the Tucano was Embraer’s first design to be built under license outside Brazil, and more than 660 units were produced for service in 16 countries, seven of which have taken it into combat. Although it is best known as a trainer, this remarkable aircraft has also provided front-line air defence in countries including Paraguay and Honduras. After almost 30 years of service, it remains in widespread use today. This lavishly illustrated story of the first-generation Tucano includes accounts of Embraer’s path to global success, service of the EMB-312 in its native Brazil, including with the air force’s display team, licence production for the Royal Air Force and for export as the Shorts Tucano, and a detailed breakdown of every worldwide operator, past and present. Also included is the story of how the EMB-312 began its evolution towards the EMB-314 Super Tucano, which Harpia will cover in a separate book at a future date. Appendices, in typically thorough Harpia style, include a six-view drawing and a full inventory of EMB-312 units and insignia. With the level of accuracy and insight familiar to Harpia’s regular readers, this unique aircraft profile also includes specifications, and details of training syllabuses, upgrades, avionics and weapons.

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Diana Armfield RA Hon RWS NEAC has a highly personal attachment to subject and a subtly distinctive affinity with the rhythms of form and tone. These qualities make her an important, influential figure in modern British art - and a very popular one. Flower paintings have brought her wide acclaim, but this book - created to mark her 100th birthday - also richly represents Diana's feeling for landscape and place. Including an inspiring number of more recent works, it brings her fascinating artistic and life story up to date.'I think I was born making things', Diana comments to Andrew Lambirth, whose absorbing interview with her forms the narrative thread of Diana Armfi eld: A Lyrical Eye. Diana's was a creative childhood steeped in experiments with drawing, pottery and embroidery, played out against the backdrop of a picture-fi lled house, a lovely garden and an artistic family. She studied at Bournemouth, Slade and Central art schools, starting out as a talented textile designer - a legacy that lent her a unique approach to the geometry, cadences and colour qualities of a painting. After organising cultural activities for workers and troops in World War II, Diana became one half of a successful partnership designing textiles and wallpaper, whose work featured in the Festival of Britain in 1951. The 1960s brought a turn to painting and from 1966 Diana has been a regular exhibitor at the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She has continued to paint and draw throughout her life and, as this book clearly demonstrates, always thinks afresh about each subject she tackles in order to respond to it with a close,warm sincerity.Diana Armfi eld: A Lyrical Eye charts Diana's personal and artistic journey with over 200 beautiful reproductions of her work, tracing favourite subjects and events - from a Welsh landscape to an informal fl ower display or the much-loved location of a painting trip in Italy or France. Andrew Lambirth's interview also explores the unique bond with her husband, painter Bernard Dunstan, who died in 2017, looking at how two leading artists interwove their personal and creative lives over a marriage of almost 70 years. As well as this interview, Andrew has contributed an essay on Diana's work to the book. Diana's standing and popularity have led to regular exhibitions, especially at prominent London gallery Browse& Darby. Her work is held in private and public collections worldwide, from London's V&Ato the Yale Center for British Art.

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Some of the finest architectural structures in India are to be found below ground: these are its ancient stepwells. Stepwells are unique to India; the earliest rudimentary wells date from about the 4th century CE, and eventually they were built throughout the country, particularly in the arid western regions. Stepwell construction evolved so that, by the 11th century, they were amazingly complex feats of architecture and engineering, not only providing water all year round but also serving as gathering places, refuges and retreats. The journalist Victoria Lautman first encountered stepwells three decades ago, and this book – now available in paperback for the first time – is a testament to her determined efforts over several years to document these fascinating but largely unknown structures before they disappear. Of the thousands of stepwells that proliferated across India, most were abandoned as a result of modernization and the depletion of water tables. Frequently commissioned by royal or wealthy patrons, the wells vary greatly in scale and design. Some also functioned as subterranean Hindu temples, featuring columned pavilions and elaborate stone carvings. Islamic wells were generally less flamboyant, but often incorporated shady loggias and small chambers in which to relax and escape the stifling heat. Today, few stepwells are in use. The majority have been left to silt up, fill with rubbish and crumble into disrepair. Gradually, however, the Indian government and heritage organizations are recognizing the need to preserve these architectural wonders. In 2014 India’s grandest and best-known stepwell, the Rani ki Vav in Patan, Gujarat, became a UNESCO World Heritage site. In her introduction, Lautman discusses why and where the stepwells were built. She reflects on the reasons they became derelict and considers how the appreciation of stepwells is changing with the work of organizations and individuals who aim to protect and restore them. The main part of the book is arranged in a broadly chronological order, with up to four pages devoted to each of c. 70 stepwells, every one unique in design and engineering. The name, location (including GPS coordinates) and approximate date of each well accompany colour photographs and a concise commentary by Lautman on the history and architecture of the well and her experience of visiting it. While many of the stepwells are rather decrepit, their magnificent engineering and great beauty never fail to impress.

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For more than 600 years the Livery Companies have played a leading role in commercial activities and social and political life in the City of London. These trade associations, each representing a particular craft or profession, were originally responsible for controlling, for example, wages and working conditions. As the Companies were established and incorporated by royal charter, largely in the 14th and 15th centuries, they began acquiring and adapting buildings from which to operate. The Companies’ headquarters – the Livery Halls – gradually evolved from large medieval town houses to become an identifiable building type matched in scale and ambition only by the guild houses of northern European mercantile cities and the Venetian scuole. By the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666, there were at least 53 Livery Halls. Of the 40 Halls standing today, half remain on their medieval sites, but all have been rebuilt several times. To give only two examples: there have been six incarnations of Clothworkers’ Hall on Mincing Lane and six Salters’ Halls on three different City sites. This beautiful book is the first major exploration of these architecturally significant yet under-researched buildings. Dr Anya Lucas, who has studied the Halls in depth, provides an introduction and an illustrated history of the buildings that have been lost over the centuries. The Great Fire, in particular, resulted in a period of energetic reconstruction. Companies rebuilt and beautified their Halls in recognition that the image they projected was as crucial as their wealth and regulatory powers. More building activity took place in the 18th and 19th centuries as Halls were required to accommodate new functions. Many of the Restoration Halls did not survive these years, and, where they did, alterations continued apace. Only 3 out of 36 Halls remained untouched after the Blitz of 1940–41, leading to another wave of reconstruction, the buildings being predominantly traditional or neo-Georgian in style. Henry Russell surveys each of the 40 present-day Halls, no two of which share an identical plan. Sited across the City from east to west, they range from the London Proof House, the home of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, on Commercial Road, outside the old City walls, to HSQ Wellington, headquarters of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, moored on the Thames at Victoria Embankment. All existing Livery Halls have been photographed especially for the project by the renowned interiors photographer Andreas von Einsiedel, making this a truly outstanding publication.

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The 1914-18 conflict narrated through the voices of the men whose combat was in the air.'This moving book uses letters and diaries to evoke the terrible cost of such warfare...Sleepless nights, separated lovers and grieving parents are recalled with painful immediacy in this meticulously researched tribute to those who died or were lucky enough to survive' DAILY MAILThe empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young First World War airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander-in-chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new faces could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the squadron dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues as they drank to their memory.Life for most of the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps was appallingly short. If they graduated alive and unmaimed from the flying training that killed more than half of them before they reached the front line, only a few would for very long survive the daily battles they fought over the ravaged moonscape of no-man's-land. Their average life expectancy at the height of the war was measured only in weeks. Parachutes that began to save their German enemies were denied them.Fear of incarceration, and the daily spectacle of watching close colleagues die in burning aircraft, took a devastating toll on the nerves of the world's first fighter pilots. Many became mentally ill. As they waited for death, or with luck the survivable wound that would send them back to 'Blighty', they poured their emotions into their diaries and streams of letters to their loved ones at home.Drawing on these remarkable testimonies and pilots' memoirs, Ian Mackersey has brilliantly reconstructed the First Great Air War through the lives of its participants. As they waited to die, the men shared their loneliness, their fears, triumphs - and squadron gossip - with the families who lived in daily dread of the knock on the door that would bring the War Office telegram in its fateful green envelope.

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'It's no wonder Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon are fans of Jasmine Guillory - she writes the sexiest and smartest romances. This tale . . . ticks all the romcom boxes' Red MagazineHave you discovered New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick Jasmine Guillory yet? 'The queen of contemporary romance' OprahMag.comReaders are loving While We Were Dating, one of Time Magazine's 100 Must-Reads of 2021!'A compelling and thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish . . . all capped off by skilful writing' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'This book was so lovely (as all of Guillory's books are) . . . Ben was a great romantic hero: sexy and smart but also kind and respectful . . . Highly recommended!' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'This was my first Jasmine Guillory book, and it won't be the last!''A great summer read . . . I always enjoy Jasmine Guillory's books and this did not disappoint'...........................................................................Can a Hollywood romance work in the real world? Ben Stephens has never been one to mix business and pleasure, but when he lands a huge ad campaign featuring movie star, Anna Gardiner, and it turns out she's as funny and down-to-earth as she is gorgeous, Ben can't help flirting a little. Anna Gardiner is hoping this ad campaign will be a great distraction while she waits to hear if she's booked her dream role, but she doesn't anticipate that Ben Stephens might be an even bigger distraction . . . After a family emergency and a late-night road trip moves them past light-hearted flirtation, Ben and Anna grow closer. But when Anna's manager decides to use their fling to help Anna's Hollywood career, will Ben be content to play the background role in Anna's life and leave when the cameras stop rolling? Or could he be the leading man she's looking for?...........................................................................PERFECT FOR FANS OF EMILY HENRY, CHRISTINA LAUREN AND TESSA BAILEY!'A charming, warm, sexy gem' ROXANE GAY'The undisputed queen of the modern-day romance' Vogue'Juicy yet meaningful, like every Guillory classic' Elle'Steamy and swoonworthy' PopSugar'When Jasmine Guillory comes out with a book, buy it' Refinery29If you love this, be sure to check out all of Jasmine's smart and sexy rom-coms:The Wedding DateThe ProposalThe Wedding PartyRoyal HolidayParty of TwoWhile We Were DatingDrunk on Love

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When studying the planning behind the Combined Operations cross-Channel raids that harassed the Germans along the coast of Occupied France during the Second World War, one name appears repeatedly - that of Captain John Jock' Hughes-Hallett. Hughes-Hallett was Deputy Director of the Local Defence Division at the Admiralty in 1940 and 1941, before becoming Naval Adviser at Combined Operations Headquarters. Along with the head of Combined Operations, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Hughes-Hallett orchestrated the Commando raids from Norway to Normandy - attacks which tied down German troops far in excess of the numbers employed on the raids. Hughes-Hallett became Commodore commanding the Channel Assault Force (known as J' Force) and Naval Chief of Staff (X) from 1942 to 1943\. He is perhaps best known for being the Naval Commander of the Dieppe Raid of August 1942, and attack which, despite its disastrous outcome, led to one of the most important decisions regarding the D-Day landings of June 1944\. At a meeting following the Dieppe raid, Hughes-Hallett declared that if a port could not be captured, then one should be taken across the Channel. Although this was met with derision at the time, the concept of Mulberry Harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the Operation Overlord planners. It was in the planning for D-Day that the then Commodore Hughes-Hallett's experience came to the fore. The ultimate success of that enormously complex operation owed much to his many years in Combined Operations. Hughes-Hallett retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Vice Admiral, taking up a new career as Member of Parliament for Croydon East and then Croydon North East. It is remarkable that the Hughes-Hallett memoirs have not been published until now for, without doubt, they constitute one of the most important wartime autobiographies to presented to the world in recent decades.

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An American Book Fest Best Book Award finalist and Royal Dragonfly Book Award honorable mention. A memoir of a parent’s sudden passing from ALS, recalling life lessons learned and regaining faith in the process. Kevin P. Martin, Sr. was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, better known as ALS, in August 2019. He died only a month later. Over a thousand people would attend the wake and funeral in South Boston—after all, Kevin Sr. was a leader in the Southie community and in the Catholic Church, both as a business owner and family man. But Kevin Jr. struggled with a bottomless grief; neither his father’s example nor his own faith as a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Boston fully equipped him to cope with the loss.All Is Well is the story of the good life well-lived and life lessons Kevin Sr. taught his son. It’s a story of how Kevin Jr. moved from darkness to light after his father’s death. It is a memoir that gives a roadmap out of grief, taking a path whose landmarks are the Beatitudes, family, miracles, baseball, rites of passage, bucket lists, and love; it offers insights into leadership, marriage, parenting, resilience, practicality, suffering, giving, forgiveness, joy, and savoring the little things. It paints a portrait of a servant leader, a consummate professional and family man, and sheds light on the up-close realities of ALS. It offers one exceptional father’s example for how we can better live a life without regrets, how we can make the best of the time we have, and how we can do the most good with the journey we’re given. Part Tuesday's With Morrie and part Townie, this memoir offers solace and a path for those who are experiencing or have experienced grief from losing a parent, especially to terminal illness. Those that believe in a higher power (especially but not limited to the Catholic community), those from Boston and elsewhere in New England, and those looking to find lessons in the good life well-lived will readily find themselves in All is Well. 100% of this book’s profits will go to ALS research, care charities, and support organizations.

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This pathbreaking study uses the extraordinary life of Meir Macnin, a prosperous Jewish merchant, as a lens for examining the Jewish community of Morocco and its relationship to the Sephardi world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Macnin, a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in Marrakesh, became the most important merchant for the sultans who ruled Morocco, and was their chief intermediary between Morocco and Europe. He lived in London for about twenty years, and then shuttled between Morocco and England for fifteen years until his death in 1835. This book challenges accepted views of Muslim-Jewish relations by emphasizing the ambivalence in the relationship. It shows how elite Jews maneuvered themselves into important positions in the Moroccan state by linking themselves to politically powerful Muslims and by establishing key positions in networks of trade. The elite Jews of Morocco were also part of a wider Sephardi world that transcended national boundaries. However, Macnin remained more connected to Morocco, where Jews were, according to Islamic law, protégés of the ruler and still subject to specific legal disabilities. The early-nineteenth-century sultan Mawlay Sulayman confined Jews in a number of Moroccan cities to newly created Jewish quarters as part of a policy of defining boundaries between Muslims and Jews. Yet Macnin remained closely tied to royal power, and in 1822 he became the principal intermediary between Morocco and the European powers for Mawlay Sulayman’s successor, Mawlay ‘Abd al-Rahman. At the beginning of the period covered in this book, Meir Macnin belonged to a wide, transnational Sephardi world, and moved easily between Morocco and Europe. By the end of his life, however, this Sephardi diaspora had virtually come to an end. Emancipation in Western Europe and the growing identification of European Jews with the nations in which they lived meant that their affinity to their Sephardi heritage no longer transcended their national attachments. The gap between Moroccan and European Jewry grew, and a new kind of division—between “Western” and “Oriental” Jews—now existed within the Jewish world.

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Famed as the ultimate penalty for traitors, heretics and royalty alike, being sent to the Tower is known to have been experienced by no less than 8,000 unfortunate souls. Many of those who were imprisoned in the Tower never returned to civilisation and those who did, often did so without their head! It is hardly surprising that the Tower has earned itself a reputation among the most infamous buildings on the planet. There have, of course, been other towers. Practically every castle ever built has consisted of at least one; indeed, even by the late 14th century, the Tower proudly boasted no less than 21. Yet even as early as the 1100s, the effect that the first Tower had on the psyche of the local population was considerable. The sight of the dark four-pointed citadel - at the time the largest building in London - as it appeared against the backdrop of the expanding city gave rise to many legends, ranging from the exact circumstances of its creation to what went on within its strong walls. In ten centuries what once consisted of a solitary keep has developed into a complex castle around which the history of England has continuously evolved. So revered has it become that legend has it that should the Tower fall, so would the kingdom. Beginning with the early tales surrounding its creation, this book investigates the private life of an English icon. Concentrating on the Tower's developing role throughout the centuries, not in terms of its physical expansion into a site of unique architectural majesty or many purposes but through the eyes of those who experienced its darker side, it pieces together the, often seldom-told, human story and how the fates of many of those who stayed within its walls contributed to its lasting effect on England's - and later the UK's - destiny. From ruthless traitors to unjustly killed Jesuits, vanished treasures to disappeared princes and jaded wives to star-crossed lovers, this book provides a raw and at times unsettling insight into its unsolved mysteries and the lot of its unfortunate victims, thus explaining how this once typical castle came to be the place we will always remember as THE TOWER.

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In Improving Mental Health: Four Secrets in Plain Sight, Dr. Lloyd Sederer draws upon four decades of diverse clinical practice, mental health research and public health experience to create a memorable volume that is as elegant as it is instructive. The book aims to help clinicians improve the lives of their patients—and patients to improve their own lives—by identifying these secrets and taking action in ways that can work immediately, closing the science-to-practice gap. In addition to mental health and primary care clinicians, patients and their families will find the book's many stories, clinical examples and cultural references fascinating and illuminating. The book's four foundational truths, all hiding in plain sight and all eminently actionable, are • Behavior serves a purpose. The search for meaning and the identification and communication value of a behavior are too often overlooked aspects of mental health care and a lost opportunity with and for patients and their families. • The power of attachment. The force of attachment as a human need and drive must be harnessed if we are to change painful and problem behaviors. Relationships are the royal road to remedying human suffering—both individual and collective. • As a rule, less is more. Mental health treatments, both medical and psychosocial, have often been aggressive, from high doses of drugs to intensive sessions and psychic confrontation in individual and group psychotherapy. Unfortunately, these high risk efforts infrequently provide help and often have unwanted and problematic effects. Primum non nocere—first, do no harm—is the first law of medicine. • Chronic stress is the enemy. From adverse childhood experiences to posttraumatic stress, chronic stress can be an underlying factor in the development of many mental and physical disorders. However, chronic stress can be understood and contained, thereby reducing its damage. Dr. Sederer synthesizes the knowledge gained through his considerable experience as a psychiatrist with insights gleaned from history, research and literature to address the four truths in a systematic, yet lively, manner. The result is a book of rare grace. Improving Mental Health: Four Secrets in Plain Sight will be a touchstone for the clinician and general reader alike.

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THE VOLUME relates the history of the south-east corner of Somerset. The area comprises the outliers of Salisbury Plain on the east and part of a clay vale to the west. It included a natural route followed by the two principal roads from London to Exeter and by the railway. Of the towns, Milborne Port and Wincanton each owed its prosperity to one of those roads. Bruton and Milborne Port were royal urban centres in the late 11th century, both centres of minster parishes. Milborne Port, a borough in 1086, returned members to parliament for some years from 1298; at Wincanton a borough had been created by the mid 14th century. Settlement in nucleated villages was dense in the clay valebut ancient scattered farmsteads were found both south of Wincanton and west of Selwood forest. Quarries in most parishes provided local building stone; millstones from the Upper Greensand at Penselwood were widely distributed inthe 13th and 14th centuries. The area remains chiefly agricultural. Arable farming was at first often in paired open fields, mostly inclosed and consolidated by private agreement before 1800. Acts between 1771 and 1821 inclosed and allotted surviving common meadow and pasture. Dairying, significant by 1600, predominated by 1700. The heart of Selwood forest, still heavily wooded, supported a timber industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Deer parks preceded two 18th century landscaped parks at Redlynch and Bruton Abbey. Textiles were long made in the countryside as well as in the three towns. Milborne Port, from the 1670s a centre for tanning, was from the early 19th century to the late 20th an important gloving town, employing outworkers in surrounding villages. PARISHES: BLACKFORD, BRATTON SEYMOUR, BREWHAM, BREWHAM LODGE, BRUTON, CHARLTON HORETHORNE, CHARLTON MUSGROVE, NORTH CHERITON, ABBAS AND TEMPLECOMBE, CORTON DENHAM, CUCKLINGTON, EASTRIP, HENSTRIDGE, HOLTON, HORSINGTON, MARSTON MAGNA, MILBORNE PORT, MILTON CLEVEDON, PENSELWOOD, PITCOMBE, RIMPTON, SHEPTON MONTAGUE, STOKE TRISTER, STOWELL, UPTON NOBLE, WINCANTON, YARLINGTON

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‘So funny. And the sex is amazing – makes me feel like a nun!’ Jilly Cooper ‘Light, fizzy and as snort-inducing as a pint of Prosecco.’ Evening Standard Magazine ‘Hilarious and compelling.’ Daily Mail ‘Perfect summer reading for fans of Jilly Cooper and Bridget Jones.’ HELLO! ‘Bridget Jones trapped inside a Jilly Cooper novel. A beach cocktail in book form.’ METRO ‘Gloriously cheering.’ Red Magazine ‘Howlingly funny.’ India Knight, Sunday Times Magazine ‘This saucy read is great sun-lounger fodder.’ Heat ‘Sexy and very funny…perfect for fans of Jilly Cooper.’ Closer ‘Cheerful, saucy and fun!’ The Sunday Mirror ‘As fun and fizzy as a chilled glass of prosecco…this is the perfect read for your holiday.’The Daily Express ‘This book has it all – love, romance, sadness and sex – a rare find that is funny at times and moving at others.’ Marie Claire The Plus One [n] informal a person who accompanies an invited person to a wedding or a reminder of being single, alone and absolutely plus none Polly’s not looking for ‘the one’, just the plus one… Polly Spencer is fine. She’s single, turning thirty and only managed to have sex twice last year (both times with a Swedish banker called Fred), but seriously, she’s fine. Even if she’s still stuck at Posh! magazine writing about royal babies and the chances of finding a plus one to her best friend’s summer wedding are looking worryingly slim. But it’s a New Year, a new leaf and all that. Polly’s determined that over the next 365 days she’ll remember to shave her legs, drink less wine and generally get her s**t together. Her latest piece is on the infamous Jasper, Marquess of Milton, undoubtedly neither a plus one nor ‘the one’. She’s heard the stories, there’s no way she’ll succumb to his charms… A laugh-out-loud, toe-curlingly honest debut for fans of Helen Fielding, Bryony Gordon and Jilly Cooper. Don’t miss the hottest book of 2018!

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This book addresses perceived lacunae in the historiography of the Land War in late nineteenth-century Ireland, particularly deficiencies or omissions relating to the themes of the title: famine, humanitarianism, and the activities of agrarian secret societies, commonly referred to as Moonlighting. The famine that afflicted the country in 1879-80, one generation removed from the catastrophic Great Famine of the 1840s, prompted different social responses. The wealthier sectors of society, their consciousness and humanitarianism awakened, provided the bulk of the financial and administrative support for the famine-stricken peasantry. Others, drawn from the same broad social stratum as the latter, vented their anger and frustration on the government and the landlords, whom they blamed for the crisis. The concern of marginal men and women for the welfare of their less fortunate brethren was not so much the antithesis of altruism, as a different, more rudimentary way of expressing it.The volume's opening chapter introduces the famine that tormented Ireland's Atlantic seaboard counties in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The four chapters that follow develop the famine theme, concentrating on the role of civic and religious relief agencies, and the local and international humanitarian response to appeals for assistance. The 1879-80 famine kindled benevolence among the diasporic Irish and the charitable worldwide, but it also provoked a more primal reaction, and the book's two closing chapters are devoted to the activities of secret societies. The first features the incongruously named Royal Irish Republic, a neo-Fenian combination in north-west County Cork. The volume's concluding essay links history and literature, positing a connection between agrarian secret society activity during the Land War years and the Kerry playwright George Fitzmaurice's neglected 1914 drama The Moonlighter. This original and engaging work makes a significant contribution to our understanding of modern Irish history and literature.

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