Search results for ""Author Christo"

Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.It was not his war.The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe starts down a path that can only end in fire. He flees his father and a future as a torturer only to be left stranded on a strange, backwater world.Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, Hadrian must fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

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If you are a leader - or aspiring to be one - then tools like PowerPoint detract, not add, to how your performance will be received. In fact, leadership and the ability to speak and sell yourself and your ideas are inextricably intertwined. Successful leaders speak to help listeners know themselves as well as to influence and inspire them. Chris Witt has helped hundreds of executives take their game to another level. Because, when you are a leader, being a good speaker isn't enough. You have to be a great speaker. Your reputation and the success of your business depend on being able to speak to a variety of audiences confidently and persuasively. Through contemporary and historical examples, Chris provides practical advice on how his readers can take their game to another level by understanding ideas such as:* You are the message - it's your experience, vision and character that audiences want* As a leader, you have only three speeches: to identify, to influence and to inspire* Speak less to say more. Fewer, shorter speeches have greater impact* Dare to be different. Leaders don't play by the rules; they take risks

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Learn about scales of measurement used in everything from meteorology to music notation in this comprehensive and informative reference guide.Measurement is constantly all around us. It forms the foundations of science – the ohms and amps of physics and the moles and isotopes of chemistry – and shapes our every day. Our relationships with measurement start the moment we wake and check the day’s temperature and continue until the precise second we go to sleep. But beyond the familiar measurements, hundreds more are listed in this entertaining and revealing reference book. Packed with unusual and fascinating facts ranging from everyday amounts, such as how much salt is there in a pinch (1/8 teaspoon), to key scientific measurements, including the parsec, which is equivalent to 3.26 light-years, or just over 19.26 trillion miles, How to Measure Anything’s entries are accompanied by diagrams, symbols and illustrations to help demonstrate these concepts and measurements in action. The methods used to measure food, photography, finance, commerce, magnetism, atomic physics are just a fraction of the areas covered in this essential guide that helps us to better understand how our world works.

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Drawing was central to Cézanne’s indefatigable search for solutions to the problems posed by the depiction of reality. Many of his watercolours are equal to his paintings, and he himself made no real distinction between painting and drawing. This book’s six chapters are arranged thematically covering the whole range of Cézanne’s œuvre: works after the Old Masters such as Michelangelo and Rubens; his period as one of the Impressionists; his exploration of both portraiture and the human figure, including the magnificent bathers; his interaction with landscape, particularly in his native Provence and the dominating form of Mont Sainte-Victoire; and finally the magisterial still lifes. In the Introduction, as well as throughout the book, Lloyd sets the drawings and watercolours in the context of Cézanne’s life and overall artistic development. The result is a greater understanding of the process that led to some of the most absorbing art ever produced.

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A man must confront a terrifying evil in this captivating horror novel that’s “as much F. Scott Fitzgerald as Dean Koontz.”*Haunted by memories of the Great War, failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family’s old estate—the Savoyard Plantation—and the horrors that occurred there. At first their new life seems to be everything they wanted. But under the facade of summer socials and small-town charm, there is an unspoken dread that the townsfolk have lived with for generations. A presence that demands sacrifice. It comes from the shadowy woods across the river, where the ruins of the Savoyard Plantation still stand. Where a long-smoldering debt of blood has never been forgotten. Where it has been waiting for Frank Nichols....

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Jack Priday, down-at-heel and almost down and out, returns to his hometown towards the end of the 1970s after a decade's absence, just looking for a way to get by. His life becomes entangled with those of old friends Keith, Judith and O, and with the slow death throes of the male-dominated heavy industries that have shaped and defined the region and its people for almost two centuries. As circumstances shift around them, the principals are forced to find some understanding of them and to confront their own secret natures. From multiple viewpoints, Shifts is a slowburning, controlled and intense examination of the relationship between our inner lives, the people around us and the forces of history.

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The incredible inside story of the world's most extraordinary covert operation.Air America - a secret airline run by the CIA - flew missions no one else would touch, from General Claire Cennault's legendary Flying Tigers in WW II to two brutal decades cruising over the bomb-savaged jungles of Southeast Asia. Their pilots dared all and did all - a high-rolling, fast-playing bunch of has-beens and hellraisers whose motto was 'Anything, Anywhere, Anytime'. Whether it was delivering food and weapons or spooks and opium, Air America was the one airline where you didn't need reservations - just a hell of a lot of courage and a willingness to fly to the bitter end.

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Norfolk Summer presents the story about the making of a film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates Joseph Losey's award-winning movie The Go-Between was filmed entirely on location in Norfolk in 1970. The film charts the tragic story of a young boy's loss of innocence during a hot summer and stars Julie Christie and Alan Bates as a pair of lovers crossing class boundaries in late Victorian England. The production brought together the playwright Harold Pinter, who adapted L.P. Hartley's elegant novel for the screen, the acclaimed director Joseph Losey and a cast of international stars for ten weeks' filming in and around Melton Constable Hall in north Norfolk - a time of happy creativity, some tension and a good deal of comedy. But the idyllic summer only came about after years of bitter battling over the rights of the book, and it was to be followed by yet more intrigue and high drama, which culminated in the film's triumph at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Palme d'Or.

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Young Bartholomew, just out of university, finds himself charged with the task of going out to Thailand to sort and possibly edit and publish the papers of his dead grandfather, Ta. Whilst he knew that his Ta was gay, Bart is initially a little shocked by the material he finds. He becomes caught up in the task of piecing together the man who wrote them and begins to ask himself new questions about how we perceive and understand ourselves. Bart decides to publish the book about his grandfather’s journey growing up as a closeted gay boy in 1950’s and 1960’s England. It follows his journey in finding other possible selves both in the very different society of Greece in the 60’s and in the transformative possibilities of amateur acting. And after getting lost in the stifling atmosphere of an academic career and trying, through marriage and fatherhood, to mould himself into a ‘self’ which he could not maintain, Ta ostensibly finds release and a new sense of possibilities in Thailand. But was the new self any less fictive than earlier ones? In A Life in Pieces follow Bart and his grandfather, Ta, as they journey to find their true selves and understand their identities.

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Do you need help raising money for your charity? Not sure where to start? A Blueprint for Fundraising is going to help. In these pages, it will focus fundraiser’s attention on the detailed steps needed for success in raising money for any charity. The book draws together thirty-five years of practical experience in how to make fundraising work and work hard, based on campaigns that date back from 1985 to last week. It is an up to date, genuine blueprint that any user or team can apply in step-by-step implementation. Getting the best from digital, social, online and offline channels are all detailed, as well as many other aspects such as: How to build a donor base of loyal followers who actually respond to appeals How to attract large, lump sum donations from wealthy benefactors you are yet to meet How to build powerful In Memoriam giving programmes How to achieve definite, valuable returns from Gifts in Wills And how to gain success in Grant applications and requests for support from companies. Turning willing volunteers into powerful advocates, A Blueprint for Fundraising delivers tools and resources that will boost any fundraiser’s skills and will help charity leadership to “stop running just to stand still”.

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An exhilarating real-life Cold War thriller about the Americans who fought for Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution - then switched sides to try to bring him down Back in 1957, Castro was a hero to many in the USA for taking up arms against Cuba's dictatorial regime. Two dozen American adventurers joined his rebel band in the mountains, including fervent idealists, a trio of teens from the Guantanamo Bay naval base, a sleazy ex-con who liked underage girls, and at least two future murderers. Castro's eventual victory delighted the world - but then he ran up the red flag and some started wondering if they'd supported the wrong side. A gang of disillusioned American volunteers - including future Watergate burglar Frank Fiorini and journalist Alex Rorke, whose 1963 disappearance remains unsolved - changed allegiances and joined the Cuban exiles, CIA agents and soldiers of fortune who had washed up in Miami ready to fight Castro's regime by any means necessary. These larger-than-life characters wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and went on to be implicated in President Kennedy's assassination, a failed invasion of 'Papa Doc' Duvalier's Haiti and the downfall of Richard Nixon. The Cold War had arrived in Miami, and things would never be the same again.

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On 20 July 1969, US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. NASA Mission AS-506 Apollo 11 Owners' Workshop Manual is the story of the Apollo 11 mission and the 'space hardware' that made it all possible. This manual looks at the evolution and design of the mighty Saturn V rocket, the Command and Service Modules, and the Lunar Module. It describes the space suits worn by the crew and their special life support and communications systems. We learn about how the Apollo 11 mission was flown - from launch procedures to 'flying' the Saturn V and the 'LEM', and from moon walking to the earth re-entry procedure. This new edition of the book celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

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Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian return in this essential novel set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.The Empire is dead. Nearly two decades after the Battle of Endor, the tattered remnants of Palpatine's forces have fled to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. But for the heroes of the New Republic, danger and loss are ever-present companions, even in this newly forged era of peace.Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is haunted by visions of the dark side, foretelling an ominous secret growing somewhere in the depths of space, on a dead world called Exegol. The disturbance in the Force is undeniable . . . and Luke's worst fears are confirmed when his old friend Lando Calrissian comes to him with reports of a new Sith menace.After Lando's daughter was stolen from his arms, he searched the stars for any trace of his lost child. But every new rumor leads only to dead ends and fading hopes-until he crosses paths with Ochi of Bestoon, a Sith assassin tasked with kidnapping a young girl.Ochi's true motives remain shrouded to Luke and Lando. For on a junkyard moon, a mysterious envoy of the Sith Eternal has bequeathed a sacred blade to the assassin, promising that it will answer the questions that have haunted him since the Empire fell. In exchange, he must complete a final mission: Return to Exegol with the key to the Sith's glorious rebirth-Rey, the granddaughter of Darth Sidious himself.As Ochi hunts Rey and her parents to the edge of the galaxy, Luke and Lando race into the mystery of the Sith's lingering shadow and aid a young family running for their lives.

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In 1948, Hawker Aircraft, faced with new jet projects that could not use their existing airfield at Langley, began the process of searching for alternative accommodation for their flight-testing requirements. It would, however, take three hard years before Dunsfold Aerodrome would be made available by a reluctant Air Ministry and the company was able to launch its first jet aircraft design - the Sea Hawk - into series production for the Royal Navy, closely followed by the superlative Hunter. Hawker Aircraft would go on to produce nearly 2,000 Hunters before other projects came to the fore. As Hunter production continued in the late 1950s, the company looked to its successor - the Mach 2 capable air superiority fighter designated P.1121, though this would stall before flight in the wake of serious national financial short-falls. With the loss of its premier project, the company came upon a radical new engine proposal and schemed an aircraft around it capable of vertical take-off and landing. While many decried the proposal, claiming it would never amount to anything, the Harrier would go on to prove the nay-sayers wrong as it came into its own during the Falklands War. Following the Harrier, Hawker Siddeley stepped into the competitive trainer aircraft market with the Hawk for the RAF. After completion of the RAF requirement, Hawk was sold into air arms across the world, including the US Navy, an incredible achievement for a UK design. British Aerospace then brought forth the Harrier GR.5, the UK version of the US AV-8B, a completely upgraded and improved Harrier. One might expect that this prolific output was the result of some massive industrial plant in the Midlands rather than an isolated aerodrome tucked in the rural hinterland of south Surrey. Surrounded for most of its existence by secrecy, due to the nature of its work, Dunsfold has largely escaped the notice of the general public. This work shines a light on the remarkable work carried out there.

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The compelling story of one man, one company and one country. If you are interacting with Chinese businesses, doing business in China, hoping to understand more about this incredible country, or simply wanting to see what can be achieved through passion, commitment, and integrity, this is the book for you. Unlocking the Emperor's Door documents the life of a man who has been at the heart of Chinese innovation for decades, whose story shows how small things matter, how big risks pay off, and how business and government intertwine in China.Demonstrating the impact of vision and persistence, you will meet Li Jinyuan, the founder and Chairman of Tiens Group - known locally as Tianshi - and uncover his story of success. You will gain profound insights into the people of China, including its younger generation - and better understand the nation which is driving the World economy.Set against the stunning backdrop of modern China, this rags to riches tale of triumph over tragedy, restless adaptation, and individual courage in a complex system, reveals truths about business in China that are vitally relevant today and will be essential tomorrow.

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A petty thief who called himself John Smith was arrested in 1877, for theft through fraudulent behaviour. He was convicted and sent to prison. In 1852, Adler and Adolf Beck's father died on a glacier, and their lives separated. One became a respected climate scientist; the other a globally renowned opera singer, or so he claimed. They remained in touch, to share details of the mysterious voices only they could hear. In 2050, Charles Ramsey also has a twin. Greg is a climate journalist. Charles used to be a police profiler, but his redundancy leads to him being sent home with an experimental chip in his head. His brother urges him to explore a little-known aspect of their family history. All these people are connected, impossibly, inexorably. All their lives will intersect. And the climate of their world will keep on changing.

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Summer 1553: A time of danger and deceit. Brendan Prescott, an orphan, is reared in the household of the powerful Dudley family. Brought to court, he finds himself sent on an illicit mission to the King's brilliant but enigmatic sister, Princess Elizabeth. But Brendan is soon compelled to work as a double agent by Elizabeth's protector, William Cecil--who promises in exchange to help him unravel the secret of his own mysterious past.A dark plot swirls around Elizabeth's quest to unravel the truth about the ominous disappearance of her seriously ill brother, King Edward VI. With Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting at his side, Brendan plunges into a ruthless gambit of half-truths, lies, and murder. Filled with the intrigue and pageantry of Tudor England, THE TUDOR SECRET is the first book in the Elizabeth's Spymaster series.

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Do you believe in monsters? We dare you to take a look inside this cursed tome containing some of the most iconic and obscure monsters from the history of cinema. Cower in fear of Count Dracula and his dreaded children of the night. Abandon hope as the mightiest kaiju ever seen on film decimate all around them. Pray that silhouette at the end of your bed is just a shadow and not the dreaded Babadook. Spanning nearly a century of cinematic terrors, The Ultimate Book of Movie Monsters showcases creatures from genres such as horror, fantasy, B-movies and even musicals. Along with legendary beasts like Frankenstein's monster, Godzilla, the Living Dead and the (mostly) friendly creatures of Monsters Inc., you'll find film facts, creature strengths and weaknesses and over 150 full-colour pictures of the monsters themselves. From the era of stop-motion beasties to the cinematic showdown of the century in Godzilla vs. Kong, film lovers and horror aficionados will find plenty to keep their lust for terror satiated. But beware, for the beasts that dwell within these forsaken pages may just keep you up all night. You have been warned

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Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime! Adventure video games have provided players with epic and hilarious storytelling for over fifty years. What started from the humble beginnings of text adventures led to a blast of point-and-click and graphic adventure games throughout the 80s and 90s. Trailblazers like Roberta and Ken Williams, Ron Gilbert, Tim Schaffer and Dave Grossman brought timeless characters, stories and puzzles to life, lighting the imaginations and wracking the brains of gamers around the world. This book showcases the companies, games and creators that have made the adventure video game one of the most passionately-adored genres in the medium. In these pages you'll find histories on influential companies such as Sierra On-Line, LucasArts and Telltale Games, as well as some of the most revered games in the genre. With a bright future emerging as veterans and newcomers forge ahead with new ideas and visual flourishes for adventure games, there's never been a better time to become acquainted (or reacquainted!) with a colourful and exciting part of gaming history. So point your cursor over the start button and click that mouse!

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The only study guide you’ll need for the AP Physics 2 test—updated to address all changes to the latest examConfidence is key when taking any exam, and it will come easier if you spend your test prep time wisely—even if you’ve been so busy that you’ve put off preparing until the last weeks before the exam. You’ll find the smartest, most effective test prep available in 5 Steps to a 5: 500 AP Physics 2 Questions to Know by Test Day, Second Edition. Written by an expert AP teacher and consultant for the College Board, the questions closely resemble those you’ll face on exam day, and include detailed review explanations for both right and wrong answers.5 Steps to a 5: 500 AP Physics 2 Questions to Know by Test Day, Second Edition fills the gaps where the College Board’s Physics course split into 3 courses (Physics 1, 2, and C), and addresses all the changes to match the latest AP Physics 2 exam. This edition also features a new, 20-question Diagnostic Quiz to test your knowledge, so you’ll get the effective last-minute practice you need to help build your skills in a minimal amount of time.Features: 500 AP-style questions and answers referenced to core AP materials, organized for easy reference and crucial practice NEW! 20 Question Diagnostic Quiz to test your knowledge Fills the gaps where the College Board’s Physics course split into 3 courses, addressing all changes to match the latest AP Physics 2 exam Questions parallel the topic, format, and degree of difficulty of those in the AP exam, followed by answers with comprehensive, easy-to-understand explanations Detailed review explanations for right and wrong answers Ideal and effective last-minute practice to help build the skills you need in a minimal amount of time

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Clare Mallory has a Victorian mourning locket with the photograph of a girl and a curl of her hair. When Clare loses the locket in a fortune-teller's tent her quest to find it draws her into a dark episode of the family's past and the true circumstances of the girl's untimely death at Danby Hall, her Norfolk home. The locket has been taken by the fortune-teller herself, sensing a troubled history and danger ahead. But her attempts to understand the warning signs release forces long held at bay. Events of the past seep into the present until the reappearance of a man who vanished from Danby Hall in 1887 threatens not only her life but Clare's too. 'It was lying on the rug with the chain curled round. It must have come off when the girl had grabbed her hat and basket and marched off with barely a word. As soon as she picked the thing up she had felt it and once she had prised it open there was no doubt at all.'

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A couple of friends can't keep from laughing during class on the first day of school, in this companion to The Yawns Are Coming from the illustrator of the Ordinary People Change the World series!Two best friends are so excited to go back to school. They're in the same class, their classroom is full of art supplies, and they've even made a new friend. But then it happens: Just as the teacher introduces herself, the GIGGLES show up! They're everywhere and impossible to escape. And as if that wasn't embarrassing enough, soon a GUFFAW shows up, and then the CHUCKLES! What will their teacher think if they can't avoid laughing in the middle of her first lesson?

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The unthinkable has happened at London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In the bitter depths of winter, a member of the team has been murdered, and everyone who works there is a suspect. With the exception of Arthur Bryant and John May that is, for the eccentric detectives who run London's strangest crime division are stranded on a desolate snowbound road somewhere in the West Country on their way to a spiritualists' convention. As the snows worsen, Bryant & May attempt to solve the crime long distance. And their situation is about to get much. much worse. Unknown to the elderly detectives, an obsessed killer has travelled from the Riviera to Dartmoor, and is stalking the stranded vehicles, searching for one particular victim and edging ever closer with each passing minute...Two murderers, two incapacitated detectives, just six hours to solve two crimes and save the unit. Armed only with their wits, woolly coats, a mobile phone with a fading battery and some dubious veal and ham pies, Bryant & May are bracing themselves for a strange and very dangerous day...

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'The newspapers referred to it as the case of the seventy-seven clocks. There was quite a fuss at the time. We got into terrible trouble. Dear fellow, it was one of our most truly peculiar cases. I remember as if it was yesterday.' In fact, Arthur Bryant remembers very little about yesterday, but he does remember the oddest investigation of his career...It was late in 1973. As strikes and blackouts ravaged the country during Edward Heath's 'Winter of Discontent', sundry members of a wealthy, aristocratic family were being disposed of in a variety of grotesque ways - by reptile, by bomb, by haircut. As the hours of daylight diminish towards Christmas, Bryant & May, the irascible detectives of London's controversial Peculiar Crimes Unit, know that time is the key - and time is running out for both the family and the police. Their investigations lead them into a hidden world of class conflict, craftsmanship and the secret loyalties of big business. But what have seventy seven ticking clocks to do with it?Now the full story can at last be revealed, in this most eerie of adventures that features Arthur Bryant at his rudest, John May at his most exasperated and a gallery of colourful, bizarre characters who could only make their home in a city like London...

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A controversial artist is found dead in her own art installation inside a riverside gallery with locked doors and windows - the only witness is a small boy who insists the murderer was a masked man on a horse. A television presenter is struck by lightning while indoors... Two seemingly impossible crimes that only Arthur Bryant and John May of the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit might be able to solve. But Bryant has lost his nerve following a disastrous public appearance, and May is fighting to keep the unit from closure. Worse still, the case of the Leicester Square Vampire, an unsolved mystery from the past that changed both their lives, has returned to haunt them. With a sinister modern-day highwayman bringing terror to the London streets in a series of crimes each more puzzling than the last, the elderly detectives track their suspect to an exclusive private school and a deprived housing estate. But just when they need all the help they can get to uncover a new breed of criminal, the highwayman is hailed a national hero, and the public turns against them... Bryant & May are back on the case in an adventure that explores the dark side of celebrity, the conflicts of youth, age and class, and the peculiar myths of old London.

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The Ultimate Secret. The Ultimate Agent. Nathaniel Cade returns.For 140 years, Nathaniel Cade has been the President's Vampire, sworn by a blood oath to protect the President and America from their supernatural enemies. Cade's existence is the most closely guarded of White House secrets: a superhuman covert agent who is the last line of defense against nightmare scenarios that ordinary citizens can only dream of.When a new outbreak of an ancient evil - one that Cade has seen before - comes to light, he and his human handler, Zach Barrows, must track down its source. To 'protect and serve' often means settling old scores and confronting new betrayals . . . as only a century-old predator can.

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This is the story of a little girl and her small brown dog. They live all alone in a little cave high up on the mountainside in the middle of the great wide wilderness. Then one day in the bitter cold of winter, as they are returning to their cave, they see bear tracks in the snow . . . The ending to this adorable story will melt your heart and make you smile.This is a stunning new edition of this charming children's tale, from the exceptional storyteller and illustrator, Chris Wormell.

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When Molly wakes up in the middle of the night, she hears the sound of a step on the stairs. It could be a crocodile creeping up to catch her . . . Or a giant giraffe outside on the landing . . . Or an enormous elephant turning the doorknob and opening the door . . . Or even a night monster come to gobble her up . . . But when Molly surprises the tiptoeing beast, she gets an even bigger surprise of her own!This edition is a beautiful reissue of a children's modern classic.

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Since the time of Turing, computer scientists have dreamed of building artificial general intelligence (AGI) - a system that can think, learn and act as humans do. Over recent years, the remarkable pace of progress in machine learning research has reawakened discussions about AGI. But what would a generally intelligent agent be able to do? What algorithms, architectures, or cognitive functions would it need? To answer these questions, we turn to the study of natural intelligence. Humans (and many other animals) have evolved precisely the sorts of generality of function that AI researchers see as the defining hallmark of intelligence. The fields of cognitive science and neuroscience have provided us with a language for describing the ingredients of natural intelligence in terms of computational mechanisms and cognitive functions and studied their implementation in neural circuits. Natural General Intelligence describes the algorithms and architectures that are driving progress in AI research in this language, by comparing current AI systems and biological brains side by side. In doing so, it addresses deep conceptual issues concerning how perceptual, memory and control systems work, and discusses the language in which we think and the structure of our knowledge. It also grapples with longstanding controversies about the nature of intelligence, and whether AI researchers should look to biology for inspiration. Ultimately, Summerfield aims to provide a bridge between the theories of those who study biological brains and the practice of those who are seeking to build artificial brains.

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This is a fresh and surprising account of Japan's culture from the 'opening up' of the country in the mid-nineteenth century to the present.'How much I admired it, what a lot I learned from it and, above all, how very much I enjoyed it ... Masterly.' Neil MacGregorIt is told through the eyes of people who greeted this change not with the confidence and grasping ambition of Japan's modernizers and nationalists, but with resistance, conflict, distress. We encounter writers of dramas, ghost stories and crime novels where modernity itself is the tragedy, the ghoul and the bad guy; surrealist and avant-garde artists sketching their escape; rebel kamikaze pilots and the put-upon urban poor; hypnotists and gangsters; men in desperate search of the eternal feminine and feminists in search of something more than state-sanctioned subservience; Buddhists without morals; Marxist terror groups; couches full to bursting with the psychological fall-out of breakneck modernization. These people all sprang from the soil of modern Japan, but their personalities and projects failed to fit. They were 'dark blossoms': both East-West hybrids and home-grown varieties that wreathed, probed and sometimes penetrated the new structures of mainstream Japan.

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Breaking a long silence Oliver, a young Englishman, writes to his elder brother, Patrick. Oliver, the idealistic younger brother is living in a Hindu Monastery and has decided to take his final monastic vows. Patrick, a successful, long-married publisher, newly in love with a boy in Los Angeles, decides to visit Oliver to persuade him not renounce the world.First published in 1967, A Meeting by the River exposes the complex rivalries of sibling relationships and dramatises the conflict between sexuality and spirituality.

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An Observer and Spectator Book of the YearShortlisted for the Historical Writing Association Gold Crown AwardMeet Yuri Zipit. A boy who's had a bang on the head in a collision with a Moscow milk truck.He has a kind face, makes friends easily, and likes to help. People want to tell him their secrets.Including the Great Leader himself, who takes a shine to Yuri when he employs him for his natural talents.In his new job, Yuri will witness it all - betrayals, body doubles, buffoonery. Who knew that a man could be in five places at once? That someone could break your nose as a sign of friendship? That people could be disinvented . . .?The Zoo is a brilliantly cutting satire told through the voice of one incredible boy.

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For decades we've known what Ellen Ripley found when she returned to the planet where the original alien was discovered - where the child known as Newt was the only survivor. This book tells the full story of that colony.

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Between 1858 and 1947, twenty British men ruled millions of some of the most remarkable people of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.From the Indian Mutiny to the cruel religious partition of India and the newly formed and named Pakistan, the Viceroy had absolute power, more than the monarch who had sent him. Selected from that exclusive class of English, Scottish and Irish breeding, the aristocracy, the Viceroys were plumed, rode elephants, shot tigers. Even their wives stood when they entered the room. Nevertheless, many of them gave everything for India. The first Viceroy, Canning, exhausted by the Mutiny, buried his wife in Calcutta before he left the subcontinent to die shortly afterwards.The average Viceroy lasted five years and was granted an earldom but rarely a sense of triumph. Did these Viceroys behave as badly as twenty-first century moralists would have us believe? When the Raj was over, the legacy of Empire continued, as the new rulers slipped easily into the offices and styles of the British who had gone. Being 'British' was now a caste.Viceroys is the tale of the British Raj, the last fling of British aristocracy. It is the supreme view of the British in India, portraying the sort of people who went out and the sort of people they were on their return. It is the story of utter power and what men did with it. Moreover, it is also the story of how modern British identity was established and in part the answer to how it was that such a small offshore European island people believed themselves to have the right to sit at the highest institutional tables and judge what was right and unacceptable in other nations and institutions.

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'I'm the type which every man imagines he wants, until he gets me; and then he finds he doesn't really, after all'Goodbye to Berlin is the novella that inspired Cabaret, evoking the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood shows the lives of people under threat from the rise of the Nazis: a wealthy Jewish heiress, Natalia Landauer, a gay couple, Peter and Otto, and an English upper-class waif, the divinely decadent Sally Bowles.VINTAGE DECO: Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on.

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Thirty Years Ago On a camping trip by a remote lake, the Mercer family enjoyed the vacation of a lifetime - until a violent tragedy forced them to make a decision that would haunt them for ever. This Summer When the younger Mercers learn their father is dying, the family reunites at the lake, seeking a second chance to put their lives back together. But something is waiting ...Four Days of Hell Also arriving at the lake are estranged son Raymond Mercer and an alluring stranger, Megan, both ignorant of the family's secrets. Within hours, they are all trapped in a relentless nightmare and fighting for their lives. Some places are better left. Some secrets are better forgotten. Some people are better dead.

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