Search results for ""Author Roy"

Roger Keyes was the archetype of 19th to 20th century Royal Navy officers. A superb seaman, inspiring leader and fearless fighter he immediately caught the eye of senior figures in the naval establishment as well as the up and coming politician, Winston Churchill. The relationship between these two brave men survived disappointment, disagreement and eventually disillusion. Unlike some of his contemporaries Keyes was unable to make the transition from sailor to politician and was inclined to embarrass his friends and allies by his intemperate language and total lack of political acumen. Always eager to lead from the front and hurl himself at the enemy his mind set tended to be that of a junior officer trying to prove himself, not that of a senior Admiral. Trained in some of the last of Britain's sailing warships, Keyes served in submarines in the North Sea, destroyers in China and as a senior staff officer in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. As commander of the Dover Patrol he planned and led the highly controversial Zeebrugge Raid and successfully combated U-boats passing along the English Channel. In World War II he begged to be given a combat command but, in spite of their close personal friendship, Churchill realised that he was too old to be suitable for a front line role and his undisguised contempt for many senior Naval and Airforce officers made him extremely unpopular in official circles. To his credit, Churchill did not let his personal friendship and admiration of Keyes blind him to his temperamental and intellectual limitations. Both men were big enough not to let professional conflict destroy mutual personal admiration and friendship.

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"A sequel that builds in both thrills and enchantment." —Kirkus ReviewsIn The Bone Witch, Tea mastered resurrection—now she's after revenge...No one knows death like Tea. A bone witch who can resurrect the dead, she has the power to take life…and return it. And she is done with her self-imposed exile. Her heart is set on vengeance, and she now possesses all she needs to command the mighty daeva. With the help of these terrifying beasts, she can finally enact revenge against the royals who wronged her—and took the life of her one true love. But there are those who plot against her, those who would use Tea's dark power for their own nefarious ends. Because you can't kill someone who can never die… War is brewing among the kingdoms, and when dark magic is at play, no one is safe.Thrilling and atmospheric, this bestselling series is perfect for readers looking for teen fiction bestsellers dark fantasy young adult series stories with diverse representation and multicultural influences original worldbuilding and captivating writing books about witches Praise for The Heart Forger:"Rin's beautifully crafted world from The Bone Witch (2017) expands in this sequel, which joins dark asha Tea on her crusade of revenge...Dark and entrancing with a third volume to come." —Booklist, STARRED review"A wonderfully original tale — even better than the first...." —RT Book Reviews"A dark, engaging fantasy series." —School Library JournalThe Bone Witch Trilogy: The Bone Witch (Book 1) The Heart Forger (Book 2) The Shadowglass (Book 3)

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Roger Keyes was the archetype of 19th to 20th century Royal Navy officers. A superb seaman, inspiring leader and fearless fighter he immediately caught the eye of senior figures in the naval establishment as well as the up and coming politician, Winston Churchill. The relationship between these two brave men survived disappointment, disagreement and eventually disillusion. Unlike some of his contemporaries Keyes was unable to make the transition from sailor to politician and was inclined to embarrass his friends and allies by his intemperate language and total lack of political acumen. Always eager to lead from the front and hurl himself at the enemy his mind set tended to be that of a junior officer trying to prove himself, not that of a senior Admiral. Trained in some of the last of Britain's sailing warships, Keyes served in submarines in the North Sea, destroyers in China and as a senior staff officer in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. As commander of the Dover Patrol he planned and led the highly controversial Zeebrugge Raid and successfully combated U-boats passing along the English Channel. In World War II he begged to be given a combat command but, in spite of their close personal friendship, Churchill realised that he was too old to be suitable for a front line role and his undisguised contempt for many senior Naval and Airforce officers made him extremely unpopular in official circles. To his credit, Churchill did not let his personal friendship and admiration of Keyes blind him to his temperamental and intellectual limitations. Both men were big enough not to let professional conflict destroy mutual personal admiration and friendship.

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The definitive biography of the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan, whose death at the hands of his younger brother Aurangzeb changed the course of South Asian history.Dara Shukoh was the eldest son of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, best known for commissioning the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Although the Mughals did not practice primogeniture, Dara, a Sufi who studied Hindu thought, was the presumed heir to the throne and prepared himself to be India’s next ruler. In this exquisite narrative biography, the most comprehensive ever written, Supriya Gandhi draws on archival sources to tell the story of the four brothers—Dara, Shuja, Murad, and Aurangzeb—who with their older sister Jahanara Begum clashed during a war of succession. Emerging victorious, Aurangzeb executed his brothers, jailed his father, and became the sixth and last great Mughal. After Aurangzeb’s reign, the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate. Endless battles with rival rulers depleted the royal coffers, until by the end of the seventeenth century Europeans would start gaining a foothold along the edges of the subcontinent.Historians have long wondered whether the Mughal Empire would have crumbled when it did, allowing European traders to seize control of India, if Dara Shukoh had ascended the throne. To many in South Asia, Aurangzeb is the scholastic bigot who imposed a strict form of Islam and alienated his non-Muslim subjects. Dara, by contrast, is mythologized as a poet and mystic. Gandhi’s nuanced biography gives us a more complex and revealing portrait of this Mughal prince than we have ever had.

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Let multi-million copy seller Alexander Kent transport you right to the heart of the action in this high-octane, pacy and gripping naval adventure. Fans of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester will not be disappointed.'One of our foremost writers of naval fiction' - Sunday Times'As a former naval officer, Alexander Kent knows what it is like to be at sea' -- The Times'Engrossing' -- ***** Reader review'Great action, great characters, great adventure' -- ***** Reader review'Unexpected twists and turns, fascinating plot lines and gripping descriptions of naval battles' -- ***** Reader review'A difficult book to put down!' -- ***** Reader review*****************************************************************************************1792: A troubled peace with France means that the English royal fleet has been left to rot.Even a frigate captain as famous as Richard Bolitho is forced to swallow his pride and visit the Admiralty daily to plead for a ship. As the clouds of war begin to rise once more over the Channel, he has no choice but to accept an appointment to the Nore.With his small flotilla of three topsail cutters, Bolitho sets out to search the coast for seamen who have fled the harsh discipline of His Majesty's Navy for the more tempting rewards of smuggling. But the 'Brotherhood' he comes up against are brutal and dangerous with a secret, sinister trade in human misery.So when a King's ransom is in peril and Bolitho is ordered to proceed 'with all despatch' to recover it, he has no choice but to rely on the loyalty and courage of his three gallant cutters.If anyone fulfil this mission, it's Bolitho - but he'll need all his wits, wisdom, might and mettle to succeed...Bolitho's adventures continue in Form Line of Battle.

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Multi-million copy seller Alexander Kent, brings us another all-action Bolitho adventure. If you're a fan of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, then this is the book for you!'Alexander Kent is certainly as good as Forester was in action, and in the wheeling movement of sails.' -- Sunday Times'A salty testament to the mystique and the brutality of the square-rigger.' -- New York Times Book Review'Alexander Kent...is, above all, a superb story-teller.' -- Manchester Evening News'This is a classic story of triumph over adversity and I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it' -- ***** Reader review'Couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review'It's action from start to finish with twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and wanting more' -- ***** Reader review'A brilliant, exciting read'-- ***** Reader review************************************************************************************1782: British Captain Richard Bolitho is ordered to take the frigate Phalarope to the Caribbean, where the hard-pressed royal squadrons are fighting for their lives against the combined fleets of France and Spain and the upstart American privateers. It should have been a proud moment for so young and junior a captain - but the Phalarope has already been driven to near mutiny and she is regarded with shame and suspicion.But Bolitho is no ordinary man and his efforts to give the ship back her pride mark him apart from his contemporaries. As the little frigate sails under the blazing sun and battles enemies within and without, Bolitho spares neither himself nor his men - and in the final great battle of the Saintes, the chance comes to prove what both he and the Phalarope can achieve.Bolitho's adventures continue in Command a King's Ship.

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Lying at the very heart of Libby Clegg's life and achievements is the relationship with her Labrador Retriever cross guide dog, Hatti. A relationship primarily based on trust, with a healthy dose of respect and adoration.Libby Clegg is one of the UK's most popular, recognisable and respected Paralympic athletes, having won ten major gold medals, including two at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. As a sprinter who has only peripheral vision in her left eye, Libby runs with a guide runner while wearing a blindfold and, in 2021, she will defend her 100m and 200m titles at the Tokyo Paralympics.Libby is also well-known to the public from her ground-breaking appearance in Dancing on Ice where, in addition to her being the first registered blind person ever appear on the show, she managed to reach the final, winning her millions of new fans and making her a national hero all over again.From the moment Libby wakes up until the moment she goes to bed, Hatti will either be lying at her feet, sitting by her side or guiding Libby to wherever she needs to be. Hatti is there for Libby through both the highs and the lows and they have shared countless adventures together, from spending the day in the Royal Box at Wimbledon where Hatti overdid it on strawberries and cream to Libby trying to overcome a severe bout depression after the Rio Paralympic Games.Theirs is a partnership that works on every single level and, while its circumstances may be unique, its story will be reassuring and familiar to any dog lover. Libby and Hatti are a devoted couple helping each other through life.

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Condensing centuries of history into one volume, "Cities of the World" traces the historic form and special character of the world's greatest cities through a breathtaking collection of maps and panoramic views. Peter Whitfield focuses on more than sixty cities - from Athens to Brasilia, Washington to Moscow, San Francisco to Saigon, and Venice to Lhasa. He presents an extremely wide range of maps, historic prints, and photographs from many periods that show how the architectural form and the social life of our cities have been shaped--not only by their geographical setting, but also by religion, royal power, commerce, social ideals, and occasionally artistic vision. These images illustrate the historic heart of the cities: the ancient harbors, the hilltop fortresses, the encircling walls, and the houses, churches, and palaces that have been added over the centuries. For the armchair traveler or anyone passionate about the history of human civilization, this beautiful, unique book captures the richness of the urban fabric and reflects the collective memory of each metropolis. Cities of the World demonstrates how the city was linked to the birth and progress of civilization itself, how it has acted as a focus for ideas and technologies, arts and sciences, and even religious devotion. It shows the ways that some cities grew slowly into haphazard, unplanned beauties, while others were shaped by the will of masterful individuals. Whitfield chose the cities featured here not only because they are richly and beautifully illustrated, but also because they demonstrate a notion of spirit--an outward and inward uniqueness. Many of these historic maps have a pictorial quality that vanished long ago from the functional town-plan. Depicting the classical city-state, the medieval fortress, the baroque capital, and the industrial metropolis, the sumptuous illustrations in this book chronicle how simple outlines found on Babylonian clay tablets evolved into the stylized pictures of medieval times and spectacular bird's-eye panoramic views, finally culminating in the highly functional mass-produced maps of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Wonderfully evocative of the places they depict and the artistic tastes of their time, these maps shed new light on civilization itself, with all of its contradictions, shortcomings, energy, and aspirations.

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The federal Department of Justice was established by John A. Macdonald as part of the Conservative party's program for reform of the parliamentary system following Confederation. Among other things, it was charged with establishing national institutions such as the Supreme Court and the North West Mounted Police and with centralizing the penitentiary system. In the process, the department took on a position of primary importance in post-Confederation politics. This was particularly so up to 1878, when Confederation was "completed."Jonathan Swainger considers the growth and development of the ostensibly apolitical Department of Justice in the eleven years after the union of 1867. Drawing on legal records and other archival documents, he details the complex interactions between law and politics, exploring how expectations both inside and outside the legal system created an environment in which the department acted as an advisor to the government. He concludes by considering the post-1878 legacy of the department's approach to governance, wherein any problem, legal or otherwise, was made amenable to politicized solutions. Unfortunately for the department and the federal government, this left them ill-prepared for the constitutional battles to come.One crucial task was to establish responsibilities within the federal government, rather than just duplicate offices which had existed prior to union. Others were the establishment of national or quasi- national institutions such as the Supreme Court (1875) and the North-West Mounted Police (1873), the redrafting of the Governor-General's instructions (which was done between 1875 and 1877), and centralization of the penitentiary system (completed by 1875).The Department benefited from a deeply rooted expectation that law was both apolitical and necessary. This ideology functioned in a variety of ways: it gave the Department considerable latitude for setting policy and solving problems, but rationalized the appearance of politicized legal decisions. It also legitimized Department officials' claim that it was especially suited to review all legislation, advise on the royal prerogative of mercy, administer national penitentiaries, and appoint judges to the bench. Ultimately, the fictional notion of law as apolitical and necessary placed the Department of Justice squarely in the midst of the completion of Confederation.The Canadian Department of Justice and the Completion of Confederation will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Canadian legal and political history.

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Since Freud, the study of dreams has typically involved inquiry into past and present emotional states. The ancients, unfamiliar with the intricate byways of the human soul revealed by modern psychology, typically saw dreams as channels of communication between human beings and external sources. Shaul Bar explores the etymology of key terms for dreams in the Hebrew Bible, presents dozens of examples of biblical dreams and visions, and categorizes them as prophetic, symbolic, or incubation. He studies biblical dreams and visions in the context of similar phenomena in the literature of neighboring cultures and analyzes the functions of dream reports in the biblical corpus. The literature of dream interpretation in Egypt and Mesopotamia informs Bar's treatment of the structure of dream accounts as conforming to the three-part model (setting, message, response) proposed for ancient Near Eastern dream accounts in A. Leo Oppenheim's classic work on dream interpretation. Symbolic dreams, whether or not God is their source, contain no divine appearance and require interpretation to be understood. While oneiro-criticism was a significant profession in ancient Near Eastern cultures, the Hebrew Bible presents only two such experts, Joseph and Daniel. Both were active in royal courts, and the success of both in interpreting the rulers' dreams served to confirm the superiority of the God of Israel. Ambivalence characterizes the attitude toward dreams and visions in prophetic literature. Joel and Job allow that they have some value. But Jeremiah, Zechariah, Isaiah, and Ecclesiates find no religious significance in them and even treat them as tools of deceit. The Talmud presents no consensus about whether dreams are a legitimate form of communication from God. Although a guild of professional interpreters existed in Jerusalem and the Talmud includes a short dream book, many Sages expressed skepticism about such alleged divine messages. Dreams also serve important functions within the literary world of the Hebrew Bible. Bar shows how Jacob's dream at Bethel serves to explain the sanctity of the place and detach it from its Canaanite context, how the dreams in the Joseph cycle show the hand of divine providence in the descent to Egypt followed by the ascent to the Promised Land, how Solomon's dream at Gibeon serves to legitimate Solomon's rule, and how Nebuchadnezzar's dreams served to emphasize once again that it is the Lord who guides universal history.

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SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERDAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEKTHE FIRST OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE RED ARROWS'Heart-pounding, exhilarating . . . A fascinating testimony of jeopardy, cool heads and the sheer exultant addiction of flying.' SINCLAIR MCKAY'Fantastic . . . It was wonderful to read about so many old chums and truly legendary aviators. Highly recommended.' JOHN NICHOL (Twitter)'An exhilarating read! The next-best thing to taking the controls of a Hawk fast-jet. And you're much less likely to throw up.' BEN MILLER'Inspirational . . . Precision, style and dedication. The Red Arrows are the ultimate in teamwork.' TIM PEAKE'Perfectly enjoyable . . . As the Red Arrows head towards their 60th anniversary, it's clear the team's place in our hearts is secure.' DAILY MAIL'A wild ride . . . The ultimate insider guide, relating with great enthusiasm and insight what it means to be inside the cockpit as you scream through the skies at 350 to 450 miles per hour, within what feels like touching distance of your wingman, making continual nanosecond decisions that will result in certain death if you get them wrong.' TELEGRAPH, Patrick Bishop_________________________________________"Occasionally, you and the team come within read of perfection, up there in the rarefied air of the skies. You never know when those moments will come, but it's what you yearn for as a pilot."The Red Arrows represent the very best speed, agility and precision aerobatic flying in the Royal Air Force, and the people who wear those iconic red flight suits are rigorously selected not just for their flying skills, lightning-fast reflexes and nerves of steel, but for their mental resilience, courage and humility.Written by the Officer Commanding and former Red 1 Team Leader, Wing Commander David Montenegro, and full of never-before-shared tales from pilots past and present, this thrilling history is both a faithful record and a fascinating account of not only what it takes, but what it means, to be a Red Arrow._________________________________________Praise for the Red Arrows:'A lifetime's ambition . . . I still can't believe I've been in a fighter jet. It was fantastic - just to feel the G-force was spectacular.' LEWIS HAMILTON'So tight, crisp and professional' CHRIS HADFIELD'I can never quite believe that anyone can fly and aircraft with such precision' PROF. BRIAN COX'The skill level they have is just off the scale. The Red Arrows is an amazing display of quality' DAVID COULTHARD

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In early September 1939, the 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment were one of the first complete infantry units of the BEF to land in France. The first months of World War Two were relatively quiet but after deploying to the Maginot Line sector during January 1940 they came into contact with those Germans manning the West Wall or Seigfried Line. A patrol led by Captain Peter Barclay entered German territory and was attacked. As a result, the first decorations of the war were awarded. Barclay received the Military Cross and Lance-Corporal Davis the Military Medal while the remaining members of the patrol were mentioned in despatches. Two days later, the battalion suffered a tragic first when Lieutenant Patrick Everitt was mortally wounded while leading a daylight patrol. Everitt was the first British officer to be killed in action in the Second World War. When the Germans launched their offensive on 10 May, the BEF advanced to the River Dyle in Belgium. Within days the Allied Armies had been forced onto the back foot by the speed and ferocity of the German breakthrough. The Norfolks withdrew to the River Escaut where the BEF was to make a stand. On 21 May, the Company Sergeant Major George Gristock courageously destroyed some German machine-gun posts and won a posthumous Victoria Cross. As the Allies withdrew towards the Channel, the Norfolks were ordered to defend a section of the Canal Line between Bthune and Le Cornet Malo. Already down to around half strength, the Norfolks held their sector from 24 to 27 May. By the time the order was issued for them to withdraw, it was too late, Battalion HQ at Duries Farm, Le Paradis was surrounded and they had no alternative but to surrender, although C Company held out until the following morning. After the surrender, ninety-nine men of the Battalion were marched to a paddock where they were machine-gunned in cold blood by their SS captors. Miraculously, two men survived and were instrumental in bringing the SS officer responsible, Fritz Knoechlien, to justice after the war. When the remnants of the battalion reassembled in England, its strength was just five officers and 134 other ranks. The remainder had either been killed or captured as POWs.

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Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo exhibited at the Venice Biennial in 2004 and 2008, and was honored by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2012. That same year she won a gold medal for her life's work at the Milan Triennial, and has been nominated twice for the Mies van der Rohe Prize. Nevertheless, she's still considered an insider's tip. She lives in Vittoria, a small city in southern Sicily, where she realizes the majority of her architecture, including many transformations of historical buildings, single and multiple-family housing, or projects such as the control tower in Marina di Ragusa. Grasso Cannizzo's special design methods are based on her analyses of the urban context and the landscape, as well as her examination of the specific "story" behind each project. She translates the knowledge gained into minimal, self-aware, and sometimes radical concepts, which are ultimately always open to any changes that life and the passage of time may bring. At the same time, this first comprehensive monograph is also a conceptual manifesto by Grasso Cannizzo. Collected in a black box, loose prints provide insight into her most important buildings and make it possible to see the architect's general design methods.

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Winner of the Shimada Prize for Outstanding Work of East Asian Art History By the end of the sixth century CE, both the royal courts and the educated elite in China were collecting works of art, particularly scrolls of calligraphy and paintings done by known artists. By the time of Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) of the Song dynasty (960-1279), both scholars and the imperial court were cataloguing their collections and also collecting ancient bronzes and rubbings of ancient inscriptions. The catalogues of Huizong's painting, calligraphy, and antiquities collections list over 9,000 items, and the tiny fraction of the listed items that survive today are all among the masterpieces of early Chinese art. Patricia Ebrey's study of Huizong's collections places them in both political and art historical context. The acts of adding to and cataloguing the imperial collections were political ones, among the strategies that the Song court used to demonstrate its patronage of the culture of the brush, and they need to be seen in the context of contemporary political divisions and controversies. At the same time, court intervention in the art market was both influenced by, and had an impact on, the production, circulation, and imagination of art outside the court. Accumulating Culture provides a rich context for interpreting the three book-length catalogues of Huizong's collection and specific objects that have survived. It contributes to a rethinking of the cultural side of Chinese imperial rule and of the court as a patron of scholars and the arts, neither glorifying Huizong as a man of the arts nor castigating him as a megalomaniac, but rather taking a hardheaded look at the political and cultural ramifications of collecting and the reasons for choices made by Huizong and his curators. The reader is offered glimpses of the magnificence of the collections he formed and the disparate fates of the objects after they were seized as booty by the Jurchen invaders in 1127. The heart of the book examines in detail the primary fields of collecting -- antiquities, calligraphy, and painting. Chapters devoted to each of these use Huizong's catalogues to reconstruct what was in his collection and to probe choices made by the cataloguers. The acts of inclusion, exclusion, and sequencing that they performed allowed them to influence how people thought of the collection, and to attempt to promote or demote particular artists and styles. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Chinese art history, social history, and culture, as well as art collectors. Published with the assistance of The Getty Foundation.

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The volume describes thirteen hundred years in the life of the city of Gloucester from the late 7th century A.D. to the mid 1980s. William the Conqueror's order for the Domesday survey at his Christmas council at Gloucester in 1085, the spectacu-lar architectural achievements of the monks and their masons at St. Peter's abbey in the 14th century, and the city's resistance to the siege which turned the course of the Civil War in 1643 are events of nationalsignificance familiar to students of English history. Less well known is the complex story of development in which those events are landmarks. The volume describes how the Saxon borough, formed in the shell of Roman colonia at a crossing of the river Severn, became in the early Middle Ages a royal administrative centre, military base, and seat of religious foundations; it exam-ines the variety of economic functions which sustained the city throughout the medieval and early modern periods, with at different times ironworking, clothmaking, the trade on the river, pinmaking, market trade, and banking coming to the fore; and it traces the efforts of the townspeople to gain control of their own affairs and recounts how the system of government which they secured from the Crown in 1483 hardened into oligarchy in the 16th century, fuelled politi-cal dissension in the 17th, and proved surprisingly effective as a force for city improvement in the 18th. It tells how in the 19th century railways and the trade brought by the Gloucester and Berkeley ship canal gave a new direction to the Georgian cathedral city, bringing new industries and rapidgrowth, and how an array of public bodies grappled with the consequent need for better public services, new churches, and schools. The story of Gloucester is continued into the later 20th century when changing patterns of employment and major redevelopment removed many familiar landmarks, leaving the ornate Perpendicular cathedral and the extensive Victorian docks as the most substantial reminders of a rich and varied history. The account of Gloucester'shistory is divided into three parts. The first is a sequence of five chapters, divided chrono-logically. The second deals with particular features and institutions of the city, topic by topic. The third describes topographicallythe outlying hamlets and parishes that have been taken into the modern city.

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Voices from the Napoleonic Wars reveals in telling detail the harsh lives of soldiers at the turn of the eighteenth century and in the early years of the nineteenth - the poor food and brutal discipline they endured, along with the forced marches and bloody, hand-to-hand combat. Contemporaries were mesmerised by Napoleon, and with good reason: in 1812, he had an unprecedented million men and more under arms. His new model army of volunteers and conscripts at epic battles such as Austerlitz, Salamanca, Borodino, Jena and, of course, Waterloo marked the beginning of modern warfare, the road to the Sommes and Stalingrad. The citizen-in-arms of Napoleon's Grande Armée and other armies of the time gave rise to a distinct body of soldiers' personal memoirs. The personal accounts that Jon E. Lewis has selected from these memoirs, as well as from letters and diaries, include those of Rifleman Harris fighting in the Peninsular Wars, and Captain Alexander Cavalie Mercer of the Royal Horse Artillery at Waterloo. They cover the land campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars (1739-1802), the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) and the War of 1812 (1812-1815), in North America. This was the age of cavalry charges, of horse-drawn artillery, of muskets and hand-to-hand combat with sabres and bayonets. It was an era in which inspirational leadership and patriotic common cause counted for much at close quarters on chaotic and bloody battlefields. The men who wrote these accounts were directly involved in the sweeping campaigns and climactic battles that set Europe and America alight at the turn of the eighteenth century and in the years that followed. Alongside recollections of the ferocity of hard-fought battles are the equally telling details of the common soldier's daily life - short rations, forced marches in the searing heat of the Iberian summer and the bitter cold of the Russian winter, debilitating illnesses and crippling wounds, looting and the lash, but also the compensations of hard-won comradeship in the face of ever-present death. Collectively, these personal accounts give us the most vivid picture of warfare 200 and more years ago, in the evocative language of those who knew it at first hand - the men and officers of the British, French and American armies. They let us know exactly what it was like to be an infantryman, a cavalryman, an artilleryman of the time.

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This book investigates the life and work, and the literary and historical background, of the most popular Armenian poet and minstrel of the early modern era, Arut'in called Sayat'-Nova (c. 1712-1795). The most important of his songs in Armenian, Tiflis Armenian, Georgian and Azeri Turkish, one in four languages (these plus Persian), are edited in a unified transliteration from the original Georgian and Armenian scripts on the texts in the Tetrak, a 1765/6 MS in at least partly his own hand, and versions made in 1823 at St. Petersburg by his youngest son Ioane, with notes on variants, loanwords, cryptica ("trobar clus"), puns, etc. Six odes in poor Russian, hitherto ignored, are examined for motive and sentiments. Chapters are devoted to versification, genres and influences (mainly Persian), an attempt being made to analyse the attraction of his verse. Comparisons are drawn with the work, and where relevant the lives of Sappho, Ovid (fellow exile), Hafiz, Bernard de Ventadorn (fellow victim of the backbiter), Shakespeare (and his Dark Lady), etc. Sayat'-Nova's poems are mainly love-songs, others, mainly in Georgian, are complaints to his patron (eulogised as "the Emperor of China", etc.) concerning injustices at his hand and those of Georgian courtiers who held him, and Armenian Orthodox (which he was proud to be, as he declared in Azeri) among Georgian Orthodox and Muslims, for an unwelcome upstart. His religious odes (ilahis) and his religious views, to some extent coloured by Islam, are discussed. According to tradition, he died a martyr, refusing to apostasize when challenged by the troops of Agha Mahmad Khan on the invasion of Tiflis in 1795. Sayat'-Nova considered himself a builder of bridges between the various ethnic cultures of Georgia in whose languages he sang, reflecting the statesman-like aspirations of his royal patron. The present work is one of the few to treat the poems in each language on an equal basis.

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Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile examines the changes in Jewish-Christian relations in the Iberian kingdom of Castile during the pivotal period of the reconquest and the hundred years that followed the end of its most active phase (eleventh to mid-fourteenth century). The study’s focus on the Christian heartland north of the Duero River, known as Old Castile, allows for a detailed investigation of the Jews’ changing relations with the area’s main power players—the monarchy, the church, and the towns. In a departure from previous assessments, Soifer Irish shows that the institutional and legal norms of toleration for the Jewish minority were forged not along the military frontier with Islam, but in the north of Castile. She argues that the Jews’ relationship with the Castilian monarchy was by far the most significant factor that influenced their situation in the kingdom, but also demonstrates that this relationship was inherently problematic. Although during the earlycenturies of Christian expansion the Jewish communities benefitedfrom a strong royal power, after about 1250 helping maintain it proved to be costly to the Jewish communities in economic and human terms. Soifer Irish demonstrates that while some Castilian clergymen were vehemently anti-Jewish, the Castilian Church as a whole never developeda coordinated strategy on the Jews, or even showed much interest in the issue. The opposite is true about the townsmen, whose relations with their Jewish neighbors vacillated between cooperation and conflict. In the late thirteenth century, the Crown’s heavy-handed tactics in enforcing the collection of outstanding debts to Jewish moneylenders led to the breakdown in the negotiations between the Jewish and Christian communities, creating a fertile ground for the formation of an anti-Jewish discourse in Castilian towns. Soifer Irish also examines the Jews’ attitudes toward the various powers in the Christian society and shows that they were active players in the kingdom’s politics. Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile breaks new ground in helping us understand more fully the tensions, and commonalities, between groups of different faiths in the late medieval period

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Professional certification has become a very popular topic and a significant number of individuals are making it a priority. Some people are torn on whether or not to obtain a certification to bolster their career. Others see the advantage of diversifying their professional portfolio and pursuing popular certifications in the areas of Project Management, Information Technology, Quality, or Human Resources. The Basics of Achieving Professional Certification: Enhancing Your Credentials provides clear-cut guidance on how to select a certification that is right for you and how you can continue to build your credentials in support of personal and professional goals. This easy-to-use guide can help anyone looking to achieve professional certification make informed decisions about the many options available. It can also help avoid the pitfalls of making the wrong choice as a result of being incorrectly informed. Examining the range of professional certifications offered by associations and organizations, it explains how to select the right professional certification and outlines best practices for completing the certification process. The book includes a CD that represents more than a year of development between resources in the U.S. and Europe. Packed with tools, it supplies permanent access to a suite of helpful training and development software, including: Library management system to track training material, books, and related items (created in MS Access) Learning management system to ensure training compliance (created in MS Access) A number of project management resources, including a comprehensive exam preparation program Royalty free multimedia resources to add pizzazz to your e-learning programs Forms, templates, and checklists to support training administration Tools to help evaluate training programs Software to make training and certification more interactive and enjoyable Winner of a Cleland Publication Award, Willis H. Thomas, PhD, PMP, CPT, not only outlines the requirements for obtaining professional certification, but also provides a framework for training and development that supports the range of professional certifications. The book includes helpful test-taking tips for oral and written exams and also describes how to find supporting resources for study group participation.Filled with illustrative examples, the text includes testimonials from professional associations on how professional certification has benefited their members—making it helpful to professional associations as a means to encourage association membership and participation.

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Health care reform is within our reach. According to George Halvorson, CEO of the nation's largest private health care plan, only by improving the intent, quality, and reach of services will we achieve a health system that is economically feasible into the future. This year, Americans will spend 2.5 trillion for health services that are poorly coordinated, inconsistent, and most typically focused on the belated care of chronic conditions. What we have to show for that expenditure is a nation that continues to become more obese, less healthy, and more depressed. In Health Care Will Not Reform Itself, Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson proves beyond a doubt that the tragically inconsistent care that currently defines the state of U.S. health services is irresponsible, irrational, but more importantly, fixable. With detail that might shock you, he shows why the nonsystem we now use is failing. Then, applying the same sensible leadership that makes Kaiser the most progressive health care organization in the world, he answers President Obama’s mandate for reform with a profound incentive-based, system-supported, goal-focused, care-improvement plan.Halvorson draws from respected studies, including his own, and the examples of successful systems across the world to show that while good health care is expensive, it is nowhere near as costly as bad health care. To immediately curb care costs and bring us in line with President Obama's projected parameters, he recommends that we: Take a preventive approach to the chronic conditions that account for the lion’s share of medical costs Coordinate patient care through a full commitment to information technology Increase the pool of contributors by mandating universal insurance Rearrange priorities by making health maintenance profitable Convene a national committee to "figure out the right thing" and "make it easy to do" While this book offers sage advice to policy makers, it is also written to educate the 260 million stakeholders and invite their participation in the debate that is now shaping. What makes this plan so easy to understand and so compelling is that it never strays from a profound truth: that the best health system is one that actually focuses on good health for everyone.All royalties from the sale of this book go to Oakland Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved

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Inland fisheries are vital for the livelihoods and food resources of humans worldwide but their importance is underestimated, probably because large numbers of small, local operators are involved. Freshwater Fisheries Ecology defines what we have globally, what we are going to lose and mitigate for, and what, given the right tools, we can save. To estimate potential production, the dynamics of freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes and estuaries) need to be understood. These dynamics are diverse, as are the earth�s freshwater fisheries resources (from boreal to tropical regions), and these influence how fisheries are both utilized and abused. Three main types of fisheries are illustrated within the book: artisanal, commercial and recreational, and the tools which have evolved for fisheries governance and management, including assessment methods, are described. The book also covers in detail fisheries development, providing information on improving fisheries through environmental and habitat evaluation, enhancement and rehabilitation, aquaculture, genetically modified fishes and sustainability. The book thoroughly reviews the negative impacts on fisheries including excessive harvesting, climate change, toxicology, impoundments, barriers and abstractions, non-native species and eutrophication. Finally, key areas of future research are outlined. Freshwater Fisheries Ecology is truly a landmark publication, containing contributions from over 100 leading experts and supported by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles. The global approach makes this book essential reading for fish biologists, fisheries scientists and ecologists and upper level students in these disciplines. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where biological and fisheries sciences are studied and taught should have multiple copies of this hugely valuable resource. About the EditorJohn Craig is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Fish Biology and has an enormous range of expertise and a wealth of knowledge of freshwater fishes and their ecology, having studied them around the globe, including in Asia, North America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. His particular interests have been in population dynamics and life history strategies. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and the Royal Society of Biology.

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In a secluded valley high in the Andes Mountains, long before thetime of the Incas and the Aztecs, the empire of the Aymara rosefrom the shores of Lake Titicaca and flourished for nearly athousand years. The secrets of the Aymara civilization, one of thefirst great empires of the Americas, have only recently beendeciphered from the haunting ruins of their splendid temples, amongwhich their contemporary descendants still live and worktoday. In Valley of the Spirits, Alan Kolata takes us deep into themystical world of the Aymara, where past and present come togetherand the spirits of ancient ancestors still speak to shamans in thevoices of mountain springs. Kolata's unique knowledge of the Aymarais based on 17 years of research at the site of the ancientempire. Its crown jewel was the dazzling ancient capital of Tiahuanaco,whose gold and silver-appointed temples and "monumental stonesculptures intensified the mythic aura of the city, imbuing it witha quality of the supernatural." From A.D. 400-1100, it was thespiritual center of the Andean world. According to Aymara myth, thecreator god Viracocha brought man to life from the springs androcks of Tiahuanaco's sacred landscape. The city's rich symbolism linked man inextricably to the majesticplan--and the cyclical fates--of nature. Royal priests performedelaborate animal and human sacrifices and buried human trophy headsand the mummified remains of Aymara kings in lavish religiouspageants. So impressive was the legacy of Tiahuanaco that the Incarulers claimed descent from the Aymara kings more than 500 yearsafter the empire's mysterious catastrophic demise. Kolata deciphers the mysteries of the ancient monuments, from themassive Akapana pyramid, the symbol of sacred mountains, and offertility and abundance, to the imposing archway known as theGateway of the Sun, among the most exquisite artistic monuments ofthe ancient Americas. And he takes us into the contemporary worldof the Aymara as well, where shamans recite the names of ancestralspirits in a hypnotic protocol of remembrance and homage to LadyEarth and Lord Sky. "To anyone fascinated by the total experience of humans, to anyonewho wishes to go beyond the familiar world, to anyone wanting topush the envelope of their own perceptions, a sojourn into the mindand history of the Aymara is disturbing, exhilarating, andultimately unforgettable."--Alan Kolata, in his Introduction toValley of the Spirits

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Robert Best and his younger brother Frank were born into privileged middle-class Birmingham in the 1890s, where their father owned one of the UK's most successful lighting factories, supplying fashionable fittings to offices, hotels, restaurants and opera houses all over the word. Sent to the most enlightened new school of its day - Bedales - the boys not early enjoyed the freedom to explore their own interests but also absorbed the inspirational moral thinking of the school's founder and headmaster, J.H. Badley. "From Bedales to the Boche" charts their history at the school during its early years, and shows what Badley's idea of a progressive education consisted of. It also shows how the boys honed their ambitions to become music-hall entertainers, writing and performing their own material at home and at school, and eventually showing it to London impresarios. Their plans for the stage were interrupted, however, by their father's insistence that they study design at another progressive institution, the art school in Duesseldorf headed until 1907 by Peter Behrens. Best's account of his year there, and of Frank's the following year, provides an amusing interlude ahead of the First World War. When war broke out, the brothers enlisted at once into the Army Service Corps (ASC), which took them to the battlefields of northern France and to Dublin in 1916 to help quell the Easter Rising. Their passion, however, going back to their experiments with flight while at Bedales, was for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps, which they entered in late 1916, joining the Corps' new school and embarking on a training programme that Best describes in fascinating detail. After six months of training, the brothers were sent to France where the life expectancy of a pilot was about 4 months. Frank lasted five weeks; his plane was shot down, his body never found. In respect of his death, "From Bedales to the Boche" is rich in pathos. Best ends by showing how he and his parents responded to Frank's loss, and how he tried to rediscover and make sense of Germany after the war was over.

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To date, little has been written about the Territorial Air Force as a voluntary military organisation and no sustained analysis of its recruitment and social composition undertaken. Made up of three different parts, the Auxiliary Air Force, the Special Reserve and the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, these three separate and different groups have not featured significantly in existing literature. Current historiography of the AAF and SR is dominated by the experiences of Nos. 600 and 601 Squadrons, which were based in London, and presents a popular image of a gentlemen's flying club, whilst that of the RAFVR presents an image of a much more egalitarian institution, intended to be a citizens' air force. This book will present the history of the Territorial Air Force from its creation in the early 1920s until 1957\. It will consider the ideas behind the formation of two different types of reserve for the RAF and it will examine the way in which men were recruited for the three different groups. Woven throughout the text will be an analysis of how the volunteers joined, and what kinds of men were accepted into the organisations as both pilots and officers. It will also analyse the influences class and social status had on recruitment in the run up to the Second World War. It will explore the key differences between the Auxiliary squadrons and the SR squadrons, as well as the main reasons for the idea of merging the SR squadrons into the AAF squadrons. It will briefly discuss the newly formed University Air Squadrons which were set up to promote air mindedness and to stimulate an interest and research on matters aeronautical. Military voluntarism continued to play a key role in the defence of twentieth-century Britain, but the underlying tensions and weaknesses associated with a class-based voluntary culture meant that the TAF had to change in response to new pressures. Class ceased to be the key determining factor in the recruitment of officers as the organisations faced new challenges. Within both the AAF and the RAFVR the pre-war impression of a gentlemen's flying club finally gave way to a more meritocratic culture in the post-war world.

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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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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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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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Dark Forces Have Gathered and the Final Battle for Illustra Has Begun Their journey to Merakh should have made Errol and his companions heroes of the realm. Instead, they've been branded enemies of the kingdom. In the wake of the king's death, Duke Weir is ruling the country--and he intends to marry Adora to bring an heir from the royal line. With Errol and the others imprisoned and the identity of the rightful heir to the throne still hidden in secrecy, Illustra is on the verge of civil war--and threatened by hostile forces gathering on every side. A dangerous mission to free Errol is attempted, but the dangers facing the kingdom mount with every passing moment. The barrier has fallen, ferrals are swarming toward the land, and their enemies draw ever closer. Will the discovery of the true heir turn back the tide of Illustra's destruction? Praise for The Staff and the Sword series "This fast-paced fantasy debut set in a medieval world is a winner. Both main and secondary characters are fully drawn and endearing...Fans of epic Christian fantasies will enjoy discovering a new voice." Library Journal (starred review) on A Cast of Stones "The adrenaline level remains high..." Publishers Weekly on The Hero's Lot "The Hero's Lot is a spellbinding, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will leave you breathless and reeling from the truly masterful and immensely pleasurable writing of Patrick W. Carr." Radiant Lit

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Shaped by eighteenth-century assumptions, Liverpool nonetheless laid the foundations for the nineteenth-century Britain that emerged from the Reform era. Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770-1828), 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was Britain's longest serving prime minister since William Pitt the Younger. Liverpool's tenure in office oversaw a series of seismic events including the War of 1812 withthe United States, the endgame of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Corn Laws, the Peterloo Massacre, and escalating contention over the issue of Catholic Emancipation. However, Liverpool's overall standing within British political history has been overshadowed by contemporaries such as Castlereagh and Canning, and his reputation and achievements were downplayed by the Reform period that followed. This new political biography explores Liverpool's career and puts his efforts at resisting change into context, bringing this period of transformation into sharp focus. It shows Liverpool as a defender of the eighteenth-century British constitution, documentinghis efforts at adapting institutions to the challenges of war and then the very different post-1815 world. Shaped by eighteenth-century assumptions, Liverpool nonetheless laid the foundations for the nineteenth-century Britain that emerged from the Reform era. This book uses his career and outlook as a way of exploring the crucial transition from the Georgian to the Victorian era. WILLIAM ANTHONY HAY is Associate Professor of history at Mississippi State University and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

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Drawing on more than 20 years of archaeological study and investigation at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham by a team from the University of Liverpool (led by Professor Steven Snape), this book paints a nuanced picture of daily life not only at this liminal military site, but also in Ramesside Egypt more broadly. Constructed during the reign of Ramesses II, the fortified settlement was situated 300 kilometres west of Alexandria and represents the furthest western outpost of the Egyptian New Kingdom empire. Excavations in Area K of the fortress have uncovered extensive evidence for the living arrangements, minor industries, food production and daily life of the fort’s inhabitants. This previously unpublished material forms the bedrock of this volume, which focuses on analysing the various subsistence and craft production strategies that were conducted alongside each other in this area, from baking, brewing and butchery to lithics working, bone-carving and weaving. These traces of the activities of the soldiers and their families shed new light on what life was like at this military installation and for ordinary Egyptians more widely, shifting away from a focus on elite social groups. The archaeological evidence covered in this book prompts a re-evaluation of the realities of the relationship between Egyptians and Libyans at the close of the Late Bronze Age. The purpose of the fortress' construction was primarily defensive, however the surviving material points to co-operation by means of collaborative farming and trading, and provides a direct counterpoint to the more belligerent contemporary royal monumental inscriptions describing Egypto-Libyan relations.

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In Hungary at War, Cecil Eby has compiled a historical chronicle of Hungary’s wartime experiences based on interviews with nearly one hundred people who lived through those years. Here are officers and common soldiers, Jewish survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, pilots of the Royal Hungarian Air Force, Hungarian prisoners of war in Russian labor camps, and a host of others. We meet the apologists for the Horthy regime installed by Hitler and the activists who sought to overthrow it, and we relive the Red Army’s siege of Budapest during the harsh winter of 1944–45 through the memories of ordinary citizens trapped there.Most of the accounts shared here have never been told to anyone outside the subjects’ families. We learn of a woman, Ilona Joó, who survived in a cellar while German and Russian armies used her house and garden as a battleground, and of the remarkable Merényi sisters, who trekked home to Budapest after being freed from Bergen-Belsen. Eby has also included a rare interview with a former member of the Arrow Cross, Hungary’s fascist party, that sheds new light on its leadership. From these personal accounts, Eby draws readers into the larger themes of the tragedy of war and the consequences of individual actions in moments of crisis.Skillfully integrating oral testimony with historical exposition, Hungary at War reveals the knot of ideological, economic, and ethnic attachments that entangled the lives of so many Hungarians. The result is an absorbing narrative that is a fitting testament to a nation buffeted by external forces beyond its capacity to control.

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This superb reference book achieved the status of classic soon after its first publication in 1986; it remains the most popular book on this era of battleship development. It presents, in one superb volume, the complete technical history of British capital ship design and construction during the dreadnought era. One hundred years ago at Jutland, Dogger Bank, Heligoland Bight and the first battle for the Falklands, mighty squadrons of these great armoured ships fought their German counterparts for command of the seas. Beginning with _Dreadnought_, the book continues to the end of the First World War, and all of the fifty dreadnoughts, super-dreadnoughts and battlecruisers that served the Royal Navy during this era are described and superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings. Each class of ship is described in detail so that design origins, and technical and operational factors, are discussed alongside characteristics, with special emphasis on armament, armour and machinery. Fully detailed data tables are included for every class, and more than 500 photographs and line drawings illustrate the text. A delight for the historian, enthusiast and ship modeller, it is a volume that is already regarded as an essential reference work for this most significant era in naval history and ship design, and this new softcover edition will delight a new generation of readers. **'As a reference work he has produced a volume that is destined to be the standard for the subject.' **_International Journal of Maritime History_

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Every sneaker has a story to tell, and this encyclopedic book features 1,000 full-color images of the sneakers that have most influenced global sneaker culture with examples to engage sneaker aficionados of all stripes. Trainers, tennis shoes, kicks whatever you call them, the sneaker has risen to global popularity with a huge international audience clamoring for the rarest, the latest, or the reissued classics. This book comprehensively showcases sneakers through time from early Air Jordans, the original Air Force 1, and Adidas Superstars to iconic contemporary designs by pop culture figures like Kanye West and cool fashion designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Martin Margiela. Every angle is covered throwbacks and new shoes alike with legendary sneakers, groundbreaking designs, and technical advancements, as well as the athletes and celebrities who made the shoe famous. Included are the Adidas Jabbar, the Puma Clyde, the Nike Air Force 1, the Reebok Question, the Nike Zoom Kobe IV, and many others from acknowledged classics, along with less remembered styles worthy of recognition, such as the Royal Master Pro-Keds or the Sk8 High Vans, and one-of-a-kind limited releases like the 1971 Kareem- Abdul-Jabbar Adidas. 1000 Sneakers features detailed reference sections for collectors, histories of leading brands and designers, and anecdotes from the worlds of sports, fashion, hip- hop, and popular culture, making this book the perfect gift for sports, design, and street fashion enthusiasts alike.

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A concise, accessible and up-to-date overview of the arts of Africa from prehistoric times to the present day. This indispensable introductory guide explores the art of the African continent from its early origins over 150,000 years ago to the contemporary, set in the context of post-colonial debates, the restitution of cultural objects and artefacts, and the challenges of the present. This enormous and complex field of study, once under-appreciated by the Western art world, is now of global importance and an essential subject of education in art history. For ease of reference and analysis, this indispensable guide is structured chronologically into manageable and meaningful chapters covering ancient art, the Middle Ages, travel and trade, encounters with Europe in the age of exploration, the colonial era, the rebuilding of the continent in recent times, and contemporary art. It addresses core, continent-wide themes in African visual and cultural expression, from the life-cycle (motherhood, children, initiation, religion) to the body and representations of power dynamics. Important regional artistic expressions are also explored, such as the cultures of Mali (the Western Sudan), Nigeria (the lower Niger and Benue area), the Congo Basin and various nomadic populations across the continent. Written from an inclusive modern perspective, focusing not only on royal traditions but also the broader global history of the continent and its artistic practices, this is an excellent introduction for students, museum visitors and anyone with an interest in fine art, African history and cultural studies.

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Sir William Davenant (1606-1668) was in his time widely known as 'Davenant the Poet'. The son of an Oxford vintner (or quite possibly the natural son of his godfather, William Shakespeare), he wrote poems for and about the Court of Charles I, and, despite losing his nose to mercury treatment for the clap, which other people thought funny, went on to replace Ben Jonson as Poet Laureate and collaborate with Inigo Jones in composing spectacular Court masques, as well as writing many successful plays -- a few fashionably blood-thirsty, most showing a real comic gift, humanity and sympathy with 'ordinary life'. In the Civil War, he earned a knighthood as an especially successful gun-runner for the Royalists, before escaping to Paris, where he worked on an epic poem. Then sent off by Charles II to colonize Virginia but captured by the Parliamentarians, he escaped execution but was imprisoned for five years. With the Restoration, he practically re-invented English theatre, with the first English opera, women actors, movable scenery and the proscenium arch, as well as reviving interest in Shakespeare with inventive adaptations. Energetic, affable and resilient, he was an appealing and well-liked character. Celebrated and important in his day, Davenant is now surprisingly little known. This enterprising study introduces modern readers to his wit, poetry, and growing scepticism as to Court and aristocratic values, and his developing feminist sympathies. Here, select excerpts and summaries bring this entertaining writer to a new, wider audience.

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VOLUME III contains the history of eccle-siastical organization in Cheshire, both before and after the Reformation, medi-eval religious houses, Chester cathedral, education before 1903, and the more historically important endowedgrammar schools in the county. In the Middle Ages the organization of the church in Cheshire was based on parishes which in the east of the county were exceptionally large, while those of the west resembled more closely the nor-mal English parish. Between 1075 and 1102 Chester was the seat of a bishop; for the rest of the Middle Ages the county lay in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield. In 15411 the vast but poorly endowed diocese of Chester was formed, extending into Westmorland and the North Riding of Yorkshire. In the 19th century it was reduced in size until it included little more than the county of Cheshire. The county produced both protestant and Catholic martyrs, and the nonconformist sects were well represented. The largest and most important of the religious houses were St. Werburgh's abbey at Chester, which became the cathedral church of the new diocese in 1541, and Vale Royal, a Cistercianhouse founded by Edward I. Recent archaeological work has revealed much about some of the smaller houses, especially Norton. The city of Chester contained, in addition to St Werburgh's, a nunnery, friaries, and hospitals. Like thediocese, Chester cathedral suffered from an inadequate endowment, but its standing among English cathedrals improved under ener-getic deans in the late 19th and the 20th century. The rapid growth of industrial towns, especiallyin north-east Cheshire, created a pressing need for schools, bur the institution of school boards, the late 19th-century solution favoured by central government, failed to make headway. Grammar schools were endowed in many of thetowns and villages in the 16th cen-tury and later, and the histories of seven-teen of them are described in the volume.

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"A fantastic read for foodies and a luscious culinary reference."-Booklist From the same team that created Let's Eat France! comes this celebration of Italian food in the form of an oversized, obsessively complete, visual feast of a book. With a mix of gastronomy, food science, history, cultural references, legend, lore, charts, graphs, photos, and illustrations, every one of the 400 pages in Let's Eat Italy! is an alluring and amusing journey into Italian food.Readers will find recipes for classic Italian dishes spanning all regions, like pappa al pomodoro, Bolognese, risi e bisi, risotto, focaccia, frittata, and so much more-all accompanied by photos and delightfully entertaining information on the origins and modern uses of the foods. There's an ode to the panettone, the traditional Christmas sweet delight. A dedication to the magic of basil, Italy's "royal" herb. A love story between pasta and potatoes that examines the many dishes that marry these two starches in delicious harmony. And, of course, pasta information aplenty; it's featured in guides like that on the ultimate noodle, spaghetti, which includes all the different forms, the top spaghetti artisans in Italy, and the semolina flour mills and farmers. True Italians speak espresso, so readers will delight in the poster-like graphic that depicts 27 different types of espresso drinks. Tips for the kitchen include cooking beans in a chianti bottle-a trick Tuscan nonnas have been using for ages in the dish known as fagioli al fiasco. Learn how contemporary food trends (like the oh-so-hip orange wine, which Italians have been drinking for nearly 8,000 years) trace their roots to Italy. But the influence of Italian food doesn't stop at the table-an entire spread looks at the Italian Mafia's favourite dishes as seen in Hollywood, through the lenses of Scorsese, Leone, and Coppola. Let's Eat Italy! is a splendid exploration of this beloved cuisine, from pizza to gelato, Milan to Sicily, and from the many kitchens of Italy to your own.

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Emily Andersen has been making photographic portraits of the international avant-garde since graduating from the Royal College of Art in the early 1980s. Having started out by finding her way into some pretty cool-sounding private parties in London and New York, she began convincing artists and musicians to pose for her – from Nan Goldin to Nico. Over the past thirty-five years, she has built up a remarkable and beautiful portfolio that includes many high-profile writers, poets, film directors, actors and architects, with Peter Blake, Michael Caine, Derek Jarman, Zaha Hadid, Arthur Miller, Helen Mirren, Michael Nyman and Eduardo Paolozzi among those featured in this new publication devoted to her black-and-white portraits.In addition to celebrities, Andersen has documented many interesting and inspiring figures who are celebrated and respected within their fields, offering an invaluable insight into the lives of people who have made significant contributions to the wider cultural and creative life of the USA, Britain and Europe over the current and recent generations. An illuminating essay by critic Jonathan P. Watts not only explores the lives of some of Andersen’s many sitters and the photographs she has taken of them, but also get to grips with ideas such as the nature of portraiture, photojournalism and the limitations of the documentary photograph, framing them within debates of the late 1980s onwards. ‘While all of these portraits may not be recognisably activist images’, asserts Watts, ‘they’re rooted in the belief of a micro-politics of everyday lives and relationships.’ Readers can discover more about the background, circumstances and dynamics of many of the shoots by means of notes prepared by Andersen herself to accompany each image, which are regularly entertaining and thought-provoking as well as informative.Beyond capturing the essence of these figures and of the times in which they are living, Andersen has a particular talent for entering into their private lives and private spaces, often being invited into her sitters’ own homes. By photographing family members and friends, she gets an angle on them that is often deeply personal, sensitive and honest. Creating works that are carefully composed and choreographed and yet regularly informal and relaxed, there is always, somehow, a sense that Andersen is more interested in encouraging her subjects to speak through her images than in imposing her own impressions upon them. It is also fascinating to note how Andersen is often keen to document the young children of celebrities, especially girls, and has made a substantial body of work of fathers and daughters. She is always interested to know what these young women grew up to be, and sometimes returns to photograph the same people years, if not decades, later.Andersen has been commissioned for innumerable magazines and newspapers including the New Musical Express (NME), The Face, Elle Deco, Domus, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Sunday Telegraph and The Economist, and has been commissioned by publishers such as Quadrille, Simon and Schuster, Oxford University Press, Hachette, Random House and Harper Collins. Her works have been exhibited internationally in venues including The Photographers’ Gallery, London; The Institute of Contemporary Art, London; The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; and China Arts Museum, Shanghai. A winner of the John Kobal prize for portraiture, she has a number of works in The National Portrait Gallery, London and in other public collections including The British Library, London, and The Contemporary Art Society, London. Andersen is a senior lecturer in photography at Nottingham Trent University.Designed by Melanie Mues of Mues Design, London, with reprography by DPM, London, and printed by EBS, Verona, this stunning hardback monograph has been released in both a trade edition published by Anomie and as an artist’s limited edition of fifty signed and numbered copies, accompanied by an original print.The cover image is of the Chilean-French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and his son, Axel, in London in 1989.

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A chronicle of the American experience during World War I and the unexpected changes that rocked the country in its immediate aftermath.The Great War’s bitter outcome left the experience largely overlooked and forgotten in American history. This timely book is a reexamination of America’s first global experience as we commemorate World War I's centennial. The U.S. had steered clear of the European conflagration known as the Great War for more than two years, but President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly led the divided country into the conflict with the goal of making the world “safe for democracy.” The country assumed a global role for the first time and attempted to build the foundations for world peace, only to witness the experience go badly awry and it retreated into isolationism. Though overshadowed by the tens of millions of deaths and catastrophic destruction of World War II, the Great War was the most important war of the twentieth century. It was the first continent-wide conflagration in a century, and it drew much of the world into its fire. By the end of it, four empires and their royal houses had fallen, communism was unleashed, the map of the Middle East was redrawn, and the United States emerged as a global power – only to withdraw from the world’s stage. The Great War is often overlooked, especially compared to World War II, which is considered the “last good war.” The United States was disillusioned with what it achieved in the earlier war and withdrew into itself. Americans have tried to forget about it ever since. The Great War in America presents an opportunity to reexamine the country’s role on the global stage and the tremendous political and social changes that overtook the nation because of the war.

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In this new series, set in the bestselling world of Valdemar, Heralds Mags and Amily must continue to protect the realm of Valdemar while raising their children and preparing them to follow in their footsteps.Mags, Herald Spy of Valdemar, and his wife, Amily, the King’s Own Herald, are happily married with three kids. The oldest, Peregrine, has the Gift of Animal Mindspeech—he can talk to animals and persuade them to act as he wishes. Perry's dream is to follow in his father's footsteps as a Herald Spy, but he has yet to be Chosen by a Companion. Mags is more than happy to teach Perry all he knows. He regularly trains his children, including Perry, with tests and exercises, preparing them for the complicated and dangerous lives they will likely lead. Perry has already held positions in the Royal Palace as a runner and in the kitchen, useful places where he can learn to listen and collect information. But there is growing rural unrest in a community on the border of Valdemar. A report filled with tales of strange disappearances and missing peddlers is sent to Haven by a Herald from the Pelagirs. To let Perry experience life away from home and out in the world, Mags proposes that his son accompany him on an expedition to discover what is really going on. During their travels, Perry’s Animal Mindspeech allows him to communicate with the local wildlife of the Pelagirs, whose connection to the land aids in their investigation. But the details he gleans from the creatures only deepen the mystery. As Perry, Mags, and their animal companions draw closer to the heart of the danger, they must discover the truth behind the disappearances at the border—before those disappearances turn deadly.

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Sci-fi action meets steamy paranormal romance in Gini Koch’s Alien novels, as Katherine “Kitty” Katt faces off against aliens, conspiracies, and deadly secrets. • “Futuristic high-jinks and gripping adventure.” —RT Reviews The President and First Lady, aka Jeff and Kitty Katt-Martini, don’t get any downtime once the Mastermind has been revealed to the world. Not only do they have myriad high-level government positions to fill, but the scrutiny and pressure on this Administration has gone into overdrive.The sudden reappearance of a long-forgotten adversary turns out to be the tip of the iceberg. New robots and androids attacking, old enemies making new alliances, and new aliens with interesting abilities almost overshadow the fact that the U.S. still has to host a peace summit at Camp David between Israel and Iraq. It’s clear that while the Mastermind may be down, there are plenty of others ready to take his place—and all that stands between them and success are Kitty and Company.Kidnappings, rescues, creepy hideouts, a hidden black site, and a domestic dispute that could end Jeff and Kitty’s marriage are nothing compared to finding not one but two hidden labs where dangerous and deadly things are brewing. But when the President and his entourage finally get to the peace talks, things are no better. Mossad rightly suspects something’s wrong with both their Prime Minister and the President of Iraq. A hidden in-control superbeing, an android replacement, and an army of Fem-Bots turn the peace talks into a Battle Royale that the team might not actually survive. And if they don’t make it, Earth won’t make it, either.But no pressure.

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This is the first book to describe Arturo Toscanini's activities - the life he led, his concerts and recording sessions - during his visits to London and elsewhere in Britain in the years 1900-1952. During the 1930s Arturo Toscanini conducted many concerts broadcast by the BBC from London's Queen's Hall, where he also made some unsurpassed recordings. Drawing on newly researched material in British and American archives, Christopher Dyment reveals how the most renowned and influential conductor of the twentieth century, notoriously microphone-shy though he was, came to conduct so frequently in London, a tale replete with unexpected twists, turns and ingenious stratagems. Toscanini's dominating influence on London critics and audiences in the period covered by the narrative, extending through to his final appearances at the Royal Festival Hall in 1952, is copiously documented from contemporary sources. Dyment also presents fresh evidence showing how the remarkable combination of passionate conviction and architectural mastery that characterised Toscanini's conducting was grounded not only in his obsessive study of the score but also in his awareness of performing traditions dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. This book will fascinate those with a particular interest in Toscanini's career and recorded legacy. It is also essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of conducting and recording in the first half of the twentieth century, set against the vividly evoked backdrop of London's concert scene of the period. This comprehensive study includes both an annotated table of all Toscanini's London concerts and his EMI discography. CHRISTOPHER DYMENT has written extensively about historic conductors since the 1970s, particularly Felix Weingartner and Arturo Toscanini. His first book, on Weingartner, was published in 1976.

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