Search results for ""author nicholas""

These two great books of conjuring tricks: includes illusions, puzzles and stunts with 300 step-by-step projects for you to try, in over 2300 photographs. This title includes two fun and accessible step-by-step guides to more than 300 brilliant illusions, tricks, puzzles and stunts, including close-up magic and party tricks. Each fantastic trick is fully illustrated and expertly described, enabling you to amaze your audience with feats such as making someone levitate, walking through a postcard and defying gravity It includes a fascinating history of magic from its origins in ancient Egypt through the 19th and 20th centuries to today, featuring magicians such as David Copperfield and David Blaine. It provides more than 2300 specially-commissioned photographs that guide you through each illusion, trick and stunt, with information on preparation, patter and the performance itself. It is engagingly written by an expert, professional magician and member of 'The Inner Magic Circle'. Nothing delights and amazes more than brilliantly performed magic tricks and this comprehensive new box set contains everything the budding magician needs to put on a dazzling show. From the history of magic to card tricks, stage illusions and much more, these two expertly written books will help you to wow your friends and family. Step-by-step instructions show you how to perform each trick, and close-up secret views show exactly how each is done, along with tips on preparation and the patter you need to accompany it. With these books you can appear to have superhuman strength and x-ray vision, cut a volunteer in two, make everyday objects vanish and reappear, and restore torn-up paper napkins. It provides a special section on putting on a show provides invaluable advice on planning your performance, from selecting a venue to choosing running orders and sample programmes. This exciting and inspiring book collection will provide hours of entertainment for performer and audience alike!

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It is said that asphyxiation brings on a state of hallucinatory intoxication...in which case the 71 year old artist who lay in his sprawling Provencal villa died happy. In the early afternoon of Monday 4 October 1999, wracked with Parkinson's, and unable to paint because of a fall in which he had broken his wrist, Bernard Buffet calmly placed a plastic bag over his head, taped it tight around his neck and patiently waited the few minutes it took for death to arrive. Bernard Buffet:The Invention of the Modern Mega-artist tells the remarkable story of a French figurative painter who tasted unprecedented critical and commercial success at an age when his contemporaries were still at art school. Then, with almost equal suddenness the fruits of fame turned sour and he found himself an outcast. Scarred with the contagion of immense commercial success no leper was more untouchable. He was the first artist of the television age and the jet age and his role in creating the idea of a post-war France is not to be underestimated. As the first of the so-called Fabulous Five (Francoise Sagan, Roger Vadim, Brigitte Bardot and Yves Saint Laurent) he was a leader of the cultural revolution that seemed to forge a new France from the shattered remains of a discredited and demoralized country. Rich in incident Buffet’s remarkable story of bisexual love affairs, betrayal, vendettas lasting half a century, shattered reputations, alcoholism, and drug abuse, is played out against the backdrop of the beau monde of the 1950s and 1960s in locations as diverse as St Tropez, Japan, Paris, Dallas, St Petersburg and New York, before coming to its miserable conclusion alone in his studio.

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Nicholas Ellis examines the interplay present in early Jewish literature between authors' theological assumptions on divine agency in evil and their readings of biblical testing narratives. Ellis takes as a starting point the Epistle of James, and compares this early Christian work against other examples of ancient Jewish interpretation. Ellis shows how varying perspectives on the divine, satanic, and human roles of testing exercised a direct influence on the interpretation of popular biblical testing narratives such as Abraham and Isaac, Job, and the Trials in the Wilderness. Read in light of the broader Jewish literature, Ellis argues that the theology and hermeneutic found in the Epistle of James as such relate to divine testing are closely paralleled by the so-called 'Rewritten Bible' tradition. Within James' cosmic drama, God stands as righteous judge, with the satanic prosecutor indicting both divine integrity and human religious loyalty.

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On Charles II's restoration to the throne in 1660, four of his supporters were provided with plots of land in a leafy suburb of London, on which to build their extravagant town palaces. The only one to survive - built for the poet and courtier Sir John Denham (1615-1669) and now situated in the heart of Piccadilly - became the home of the Royal Academy of Arts, its exhibitions and its Schools. This important study charts the history of the estate through its many owners, including the 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753), who gave the house not only its name but also its distinctive and influential architecture. In his day, the house was host to leading scholars and celebrities, who met within Burlington's cutting-edge creation, which remains an unparalleled example of the Palladian style in England. Nicholas Savage's meticulous research examines 350 years of social and architectural history, as well as revealing the next phase in the life of the estate, as the Royal Academy opens up Burlington House as never before in an exciting redevelopment led by Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA to celebrate the institution's 250th anniversary.

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Public-private partnership (PPP) projects have been used throughout the world for many years to facilitate major public projects. Post credit crunch, many governments remain committed to this form of finance as part of their strategy to stimulate their economies and maintain public services. This wholly updated second edition once again examines from a commercial perspective the major sectors where PPP structures have been successfully employed. The second edition features new chapters on social housing, waste management and the use of PPP across continental Europe. Leading practitioners analyze structures and topical developments, and address overarching issues such as the role of financing institutions and EU procurement rules. If you need to understand the latest techniques relevant to a particular sector in PPP or to understand how responses developed in jurisdictions where PPP is firmly established might be applied to new markets, this book will be an invaluable tool in your research. This forthcoming new edition is essential reading for in-house and private practice lawyers, facility managers, technical advisers and those working in government departments and agencies.

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Anthropogenic radionuclides have been introduced into the environment by incidents such as nuclear weapon tests, accidents in nuclear power plants, transport accidents and accidental or authorised discharges from nuclear facilities. Scientists need accurate analysis of these radionuclides in order to estimate the risk to the public from released radioactivity. This book is a snapshot of the work of leading scientists from across the globe on environmental radiochemistry and radioecology, nuclear forensics and radiation detection, radioanalytical techniques and nuclear industry applications. The research contributions were first presented at the 13th International Symposium on Nuclear and Environmental Radiochemical Analysis in September 2018. This essential work provides a key reference for graduates and professionals who work across fields involving analytical chemistry, radiochemistry, environmental science and technology, and waste disposal.

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Frommer's guides aren't written by committee, or by travel writers who simply pop in briefly to a destination and then consider the job done. Frommer's authors Nicholas Gill and Caroline Lascom have been covering Colombia for over a decade and this book hits all the highlights, from the Amazon to the Andes. Gill and Lascom provide insights and detailed information so you can better explore the exquisite colonial core of Cartagena; enjoy the nightlife and museums of Bogota and Medellin; visit the coffee plantations of Zona Cafetera; trek through the Sierra Nevada's to see the country's famed Ciudad Perdida (Lost City); and more. Inside this Colombia guide you'll find: * Exact pricing for all lodgings, attractions, adventure outfitters, restaurants, tours, and shops, so there won't be nasty surprises * Straight-shooting, opinionated reviews introducing you to the country's best beaches, rain-forest preserves, eco-lodges, restaurants, hotels, tours and attractions--in all price ranges, from budget to luxury * Detailed maps throughout, plus a handy pullout map * Helpful suggested itineraries so you can make the most out of your vacation time

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Jason is a scriptwriter working on a film about Masada--the fortress where a thousand Jews killed themselves rather than be taken prisoner by the Romans in A. D. 73. He doubts that a film both honest and popular on such a subject can be made, and, while en route to the production site (Jason, producers and stars in first class--his wife and child in tourist), a dispute about the film and a crisis aboard the plane forces Jason to look at his life, his art, and the world around him in several different ways at once.

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FDR Skatepark began its life in 1996 with a few small obstacles built by the City of Philadelphia in an attempt to meet the needs of a growing community. In true D-I-Y fashion, local skaters soon gathered their resources and began the ongoing construction of a space of their own design. As the world’s largest D-I-Y skateboard park, today FDR is recognized throughout the world as a landmark in the skateboarding community. A photographic history of FDR, this book contains work from more than 25 contributors, from amateurs with disposable cameras to professional photographers. Side by side with the actual skateboarding are photos of wildfires, box cutter wounds, riot police, and drunks shooting sewer rats. Complete with oral histories gathered from park locals, this one-of-a-kind record documents the legend and landscape of the past fifteen years under the bridge.

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Boston after dark is the town that scared and repulsed even Edgar Allan Poe, inspired H.P. Lovecraft, and brought the hunting of witches and murder of hapless innocents to American shores. Come to the Boston Common and walk over a thousand bodies of the long-dead. Take in some theater and be sure to excuse yourself when passing by the seat that only seems empty. Head out to the swampy suburbs, dance with the Will o' the Wisps and hike along the lost paths of Dogtown, where witches once extracted tolls on passersby. Welcome to Boston's eerie environs, and watch out for stranglers.

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Focusing on the crisis of transition marked by the English Revolution (1640–1660), this collection of essays also places it in the context of a long seventeenth century.Leading experts in the field explore this theme with special reference to developments in politics, religion and society, at both national and local levels. The volume breaks decisively with recent historiography, in emphasising both the long-term nature and revolutionary implications of the seventeenth-century events in question. Features of the crisis include the growing challenge to the confessional state from within the ranks of Protestantism itself and the enlargement of the public sphere of politics, fuelled increasingly by the role of print, along with the painful emergence of a new style parliamentary monarchy and associated fiscal-military apparatus. The explosive role of religion especially is highlighted, in chapters ranging from the popularity politics engaged in under Elizabeth I to the escalating party strife of Charles II's reign and beyond. At the same time the epicentre of the revolution is firmly located in the two tumultous decades of civil war and interregnum. The volume will be essential reading for both students and teachers working on this period.

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Nicholas Searle is the author of three novels. His first novel, The Good Liar, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for the best debut crime novel. Before becoming a writer, Nicholas worked in British intelligence for more than twenty-five years. He lives in Yorkshire.

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This best-selling series is now in its sixth edition. Written by Maths expert, Nicholas Goldberg, this book has been updated to cover the latest syllabuses and provides extensive worked examples and practice. With a clear, discovery-oriented approach that brings mathematics to life, this is a title that can be relied upon.

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We all know about giving and receiving gifts: they can be touching or puzzling, either strengthening bonds of friendship or becoming a burden. Gifts are an integral part of human societies and this volume explores how, over the centuries, books and writing describe gifts in all their complexity, but also become precious gifts themselves. In a series of thought-provoking essays, richly illustrated from the Bodleian Library’s collections and beyond, the contributors illuminate some of the striking ways in which writing interacts with those fundamental impulses to give, receive and reciprocate. Each chapter draws on a particular perspective, including archaeology and religion, history, literature and anthropology. From an ancient Sumerian tablet recording the founding of a temple to contemporary children’s literature that highlights the pleasures and troubling histories of exchange and inheritance, the dynamics of the gift are at work across space and time. This book features gorgeous medieval manuscripts, gifts made by and for Queen Elizabeth I, Victorian Christmas tales and a mysterious Scottish book sculpture. Stories of sacrifice, love, loyalty and friendship are woven into these books and objects, showing the ongoing power of the gift to shape the stories we tell about ourselves.

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A beautifully illustrated and packaged study of the cigar - its history, its production and its joys - from world-renowned expert Nicholas Foulkes and written in conjunction with Davidoff, the world's leading cigar importer. A fascinating gift for anyone wanting to be educated and entertained...'I would recommend it for every cigar-smoker's stocking this Christmas' -- The Field'Entertained, informed and kept me interested throughout' -- ***** Reader review'Amazingly entertaining' -- ***** Reader review'Encyclopaedic, scholarly, elegant, fun' -- ***** Reader review'A superb book' -- ***** Reader review******************************************************************************************"The most futile and disastrous day seems well spent when it is reviewed through the blue, fragrant smoke of a Cigar." Evelyn WaughExploring not just the extraordinary story of tobacco and cigars but also a history that has been instrumental in the foundations of societies and cultures, Cigars will take you on an astonishing journey through landscapes, scents and an incredible roll call of the great, the good and the not-so good. The cigar has provided solace and a chance for worldly contemplation to generations of thinkers, businessmen, writers, entrepreneurs and connoisseurs.In this elegiac offering to the pinnacles of hand-rolled tobacco, world-renowned expert Nicholas Foulkes guides you through the myths, legends, nuances and delicious realities of the smoke-savouring universe, serving as an introduction for the novice and a reference for the connoisseur.A stunning, fully-illustrated gift package, perfect for anyone wishing to be educated and entertained..."A cigar ought not to be smoked solely with the mouth, but with the hand, the eyes, and with the spirit." Zino Davidoff

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‘What is Montmartre? Nothing. What must it be? Everything’, proclaimed Rodolphe Salis in 1881, when his cabaret Le Chat Noir launched an entertainment boom in the 9th and 18th Arrondissements of Paris which would dominate the worlds of popular and high culture until the First World War. Montmartre’s music-halls, circuses, cinemas, accompanied by extra frisson of crime and prostitution, coexisted with burgeoning art movements sprung from the cabarets, which spearheaded the avant-garde in painting, theatre and literature. The story, however, did not end in 1914 and Montmartre retained its role as a magnet for tourists, lured by the Moulin-Rouge and the Sacré-Coeur, and, despite the competition from Montparnasse, as a major centre for artistic creativity in the inter-war years. Crucial to this continuity was, not merely the survival of many of the most important players from the pre-War period, but especially the role of the humorous press and the Montmartre caricaturists and illustrators who congregated in the Restaurant Manière. In this new study, Nicholas Hewitt charts the continuity of Montmartre culture from the Belle Epoque to the Occupation through its many overlapping frontiers and explores its vital ingredients of sexuality, kitsch, bohemia, mass culture and the political and social ambiguities of such a mixture.

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Modern Singapore is a miracle. Half a century ago, it was thrown out of the Malay Federation and unwillingly became an independent nation. It was tiny, poor, almost devoid of resources, and in a hostile neighbourhood. Now, this unlikely country is at the top of almost every global national index, from high wealth and low crime to superb education and much-envied stability. But have these achievements bred a dangerous sense of complacency? Singapore now faces challenges from the constraints of authoritarian democracy to changing geographic realities and migration. Walking across this tiny island state, Nicholas Walton teases out its story from British rule and the war years to independence and beyond, exploring the problems and prosperity of the real Singapore.

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The importance of data analytics is well known, but how can you get end users to engage with analytics and business intelligence (BI) when adoption of new technology can be frustratingly slow or may not happen at all? Avoid wasting time on dashboards and reports that no one uses with this practical guide to increasing analytics adoption by focusing on people and process, not technology. Pulling together agile, UX and change management principles, Delivering Data Analytics outlines a step-by-step, technology agnostic process designed to shift the organizational data culture and gain buy-in from users and stakeholders at every stage of the project. This book outlines how to succeed and build trust with stakeholders amid the politics, ambiguity and lack of engagement in business. With case studies, templates, checklists and scripts based on the author's considerable experience in analytics and data visualisation, this book covers the full cycle from requirements gathering and data assessment to training and launch. Ensure lasting adoption, trust and, most importantly, actionable business value with this roadmap to creating user-centric analytics projects.

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In Birth of an Industry, Nicholas Sammond describes how popular early American cartoon characters were derived from blackface minstrelsy. He charts the industrialization of animation in the early twentieth century, its representation in the cartoons themselves, and how important blackface minstrels were to that performance, standing in for the frustrations of animation workers. Cherished cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat, were conceived and developed using blackface minstrelsy's visual and performative conventions: these characters are not like minstrels; they are minstrels. They play out the social, cultural, political, and racial anxieties and desires that link race to the laboring body, just as live minstrel show performers did. Carefully examining how early animation helped to naturalize virulent racial formations, Sammond explores how cartoons used laughter and sentimentality to make those stereotypes seem not only less cruel, but actually pleasurable. Although the visible links between cartoon characters and the minstrel stage faded long ago, Sammond shows how important those links are to thinking about animation then and now, and about how cartoons continue to help to illuminate the central place of race in American cultural and social life.

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TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE meets Nicholas Sparks, THE BOOK OF WHY is an original, arresting love story about a self-help author struggling to find his way.Eric Newborn is used to dealing with people whose lives are in crisis; he's the bestselling author of several motivational books, and an inspirational speaker. When Eric's wife dies, he finds that grief renders him helpless. There is no easy cure, no platitude to comfort him, no replacement with which to fill the deep trough of his loss. So he retreats, with his female dog, Ralph, to his isolated home on Martha's Vineyard. Five years later, on a wild, storm-wracked night, a car crashes at the end of Eric's lane and a woman turns up at his door, seeking help. Sam is a fan who has tracked him down, convinced that Eric will sort out the co-incidences that have both destroyed and coloured her life. As Eric and Sam spin around one another like constellations in a greater universe, they set out to search for answers to their questions, and to find some meaning in the signs that we all see. A powerful love story and an evocative exploration of the mechanics of the soul, THE BOOK OF WHY is a tender, thought-provoking novel which also addresses intricate questions about the nature of human joy.

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This is the first book-length study of the uncanny, an important topic for contemporary thinking on literature, film, philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminism and queer history. Much of this importance can be traced back to Freud’s extraordinary essay of 1919, ‘The Uncanny’ (Das Unheimliche).As a ghostly feeling and concept, however, the uncanny has a complex history going back to at least the Enlightenment. Royle offers a detailed account of the emergence of the uncanny, together with a series of close readings of different aspects of the topic. Following a major introductory historical and critical overview, there are chapters on literature, teaching, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, film, the death drive, déjà vu, silence, solitude and darkness, the fear of being buried alive, the double, ghosts, cannibalism, telepathy, madness and religion.

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A fully updated and revised edition of a classic bestseller: the definitive guide to Tutankhamun and his tomb – what it contained, why, and what it means today. On 4 November 1922, Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter’s long search in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings drew to a triumphant close: Tutankhamun’s tomb had been found. As news of the discovery spread, and as images of the breathtaking treasures began to circulate, this once-obscure pharaoh would capture the imagination of the entire world. A hundred years on, and both the fascination and the drama continue. Scientific research has pushed forward, and the results have been impressive: the tomb’s ground-plan and setting are now fully remapped; CT-scanning and aDNA have begun to shed their unique light on Tutankhamun in life and in death; super-accurate recordings have been secured of the Burial Chamber’s decorated walls; and we possess at last high-quality photography of Pharaoh’s possessions. Our access to Carnarvon and Carter’s extraordinary find is greater today than it has ever been, and from this fuller evidence comes one new realization among many – that both the tomb and its treasures had been intended for someone else. In this new edition of his landmark book Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves revisits Tutankhamun in the context of his time, the excavators in the context of theirs, and every aspect, old and new, of the tomb’s discovery, archaeology, architecture and art. If what was discovered in 1922 had the ability to amaze, then what has been discovered since will simply astonish.

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Drawing lessons from writers of all ages and writing across genres, a distinguished teacher and writer reveals the enduring importance of writing for our time In this new contribution to Yale University Press’s Why X Matters series, a distinguished writer and scholar tackles central questions of the discipline of writing. Drawing on his own experience with such mentors as John Updike, John Gardner, and James Baldwin, and in turn having taught such rising stars as Jesmyn Ward, Delbanco looks in particular at questions of influence and the contradictory, simultaneous impulses toward imitation and originality. Part memoir, part literary history, and part analysis, this unique text will resonate with students, writers, writing teachers, and bibliophiles.

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An unusual and authoritative 'natural history of languages' that narrates the ways in which one language has superseded or outlasted another at different times in history. The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together, and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. Yet the history of the world’s great languages has rarely been examined. ‘Empires of the Word’ is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing innovations – in education, culture and diplomacy – devised by speakers in the Middle East; the uncanny resilience of Chinese throughout twenty centuries of invasions; the progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the struggle that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English. Besides these epic achievements, language failures are equally fascinating: why did Germany get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed’s Arabic? Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, given that the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India? As this book engagingly reveals, the language history of the world shows eloquently the real characters of peoples; it also shows that the language of the future will, like the languages of the past, be full of surprises.

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Nicolas Joly is responsible for producing some of the finest and most highly esteemed wines of France at his Coulee de Serrant vineyard. Practising the biodynamic method of agriculture - sometimes referred to as 'premium organic' - he is at the forefront of a movement to return to the concept of terroir, as full expression and embodiment of a particular grape-growing locality, or appelation. Today even expensive wines, made under strictly regulated controls and standards, are tainted by the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and manipulated in the cellar through the use of osmosis and the additions of aromatic yeasts and enzymes. To counter such trends, a new 'Charter of Quality', run by organic and biodynamic viticulturists, guarantees that the appelation comes to full, authentic expression. To aid this process, biodynamic winegrowers like Joly use special planting methods and preparations that enhance and invigorate the soil, bringing it into harmony with the forces of sun, moon and cosmos to embed the vine in a rich, living context.

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This volume contains astrological and historical data relating to the formation of countries and governments.

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A revelatory and exhilarating tour de force, Nicholas Ostler's The Last Lingua Franca: The Rise and Fall of World Languages explores the rise of a linguistic diversity we could never before have imagined. In the twenty-first century, can we really take the dominance of English for granted? In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. And yet they have all been displaced, just as Nicholas Ostler predicts English will be. What forces drive these linguistic currents? What characteristics do lingua francas share? And most importantly, how do they lose their power? 'Frequently jaw-dropping and never less than convincing' Henry Hitchings, Financial Times 'Sweepingly learned and engagingly garrulous' Sunday Times 'A much-needed challenge to conventional wisdom' Guardian A linguist of astonishing voracity ... the predictions are striking' Economist Nicholas Ostler is the author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World and Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. He studied Greek, Latin and Philosophy at the University of Oxford and holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from MIT. With a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas now runs an institute for the protection of endangered languages.

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One should either wear a work or art, or be a work of art', Wilde once declared. In The Invention of Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel explores Wilde's self-creation as a 'work of art' and a carefully constructed cultural icon. Frankel takes readers on a journey through Wilde's inventive, provocative life, from his Irish origins - and their public erasure - through his challenges to traditional concepts of masculinity and male sexuality, to his criminal conviction and final years of exile in France. Along the way, Frankel takes a deep look at Wilde's writings, paradoxical wit and intellectual convictions, as well as his marriage and affairs with a series of attractive young men, including his great love Lord Alfred Douglas.

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In this riotous rhyme from Nicholas Allan, the queue for the loo gets very long indeed, as a series of multi-coloured animals impatiently join!Count, spot colours, spot animals, and all join in to find out who's in the loo...

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Dill the dog knows his time is up so he packs his case and tells Lily, his owner, that he's off "up there". "Can I come too?" asks Lily. "Er . . . not yet," replies Dill. While he is waiting for the angels to collect him, Dill explains to Lily what he thinks heaven is like: hundreds of lampposts to pee against, lots of whiffy things to smell and bones everywhere - with meat on them! But Lily completely disagrees, she thinks heaven is quite different. Luckily, they agree to disagree just in time for a fond, and very poignant, last goodbye. Nicholas Allan is unique among picture book creators for his combination of off-beat humour and child appeal.

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From the acclaimed author of The Sandpit, an exhilarating literary thriller about the hunt for a missing terrorist in South America.Out of a job but in search of one last scoop from South America, journalist John Dyer strikes gold when he chances upon Agustín Rejas, a former police colonel whose dogged pursuit - and eventual capture - of murderous guerrilla leader Ezequiel made him a national hero.Over many nights, Rejas recounts his story of the years-long manhunt. So too emerges the tale of his own poor upbringing, his turbulent marriage and the passion he once felt for Yolanda, his daughter's ballet teacher - an all-consuming obsession that would ultimately lead him straight to the elusive Ezequiel...'Astoundingly good... Demands you put your life on hold until it is finished' Guardian'A genuinely fine novel from a writer who possesses real heart and flair' Louis de Bernières, Sunday Times

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Told for the very first time, this is the true story of the adventure that shaped the world . . .'A thrilling story of courage, survival and science. It's an extraordinary, visceral and vivid read' Geographical Magazine________Three hundred years ago no one knew the true shape of the world.It wasn't a sphere - but did it bulge at the equator or was it pointed at the poles? Until we found out no map could ever be truly accurate. So a team of scientists was sent to South America - to measure one full degree of latitude.But South America was a land of erupting volcanoes, sodden rainforests, earthquakes, deadly diseases, tropical storms and violent unrest. And the misfit scientists had an unfortunate tendency to squander funds, fight duels, stumble into mutinies or die horribly.The tale of their ten-year odyssey of exploration, discovery, flirtations with failure and ultimate triumph becomes in Nicholas Crane's hands the greatest scientific adventure story ever told.________'Pace, rigour and attention to enticing detail . . . Crane has a rare knack for showing people things without them having to get out of their chair' Joe Smith, director of The Royal Geographic society

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Sand dunes are a globally important depositional landform and sedimentary system. Their origins and dynamics are important in understanding how deserts have evolved in response to climate change and changes in sand supply and mobility, and how they will continue to evolve in the future. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of the characteristics of desert dunes and their sediments, and explores their dynamics on timescales from days to millennia as they respond to changes in wind speed and direction, precipitation and sand supply. This extensively revised edition reflects the advances in our understanding of desert dunes, their dynamics and history; and covers recent developments including the luminescence dating revolution, ground penetrating radar and advances in numerical modeling. Also covering dunes on Mars and Titan, this authoritative reference is a must-have for researchers and graduate students working on desert dunes and aeolian geomorphology.

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