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THE FINAL COMPELLING TUDOR NOVEL FROM SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER PHILIPPA GREGORY ‘How long do I have?’ I force a laugh.‘Not long,’ he says very quietly. ‘They have confirmed your sentence of death. You are to be beheaded tomorrow. We don’t have long at all.’ Jane Grey was Queen of England for nine days. Using her position as cousin to the deceased king, her father and his conspirators put her on the throne ahead of the king’s half-sister Mary, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her crown and locked Jane in the Tower. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block. There Jane turned her father’s greedy, failed grab for power into her own brave and tragic martyrdom. ‘Learn you to die’ is the advice that Jane gives in a letter to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and find love. But her lineage makes her a threat to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and, when Mary dies, to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a potential royal heir before she does. So when Katherine’s secret marriage is revealed by her pregnancy, she too must go to the Tower. ‘Farewell, my sister,’ writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary finds it easy to keep secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After watching her sisters defy the queen, Mary is aware of her own perilous position as a possible heir to the throne. But she is determined to command her own destiny and be the last Tudor to risk her life in matching wits with her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Elizabeth. Praise for Philippa Gregory: ‘Meticulously researched and deeply entertaining, this story of betrayal and divided loyalties is Gregory on top form’ Good Housekeeping ‘Gregory has popularised Tudor history perhaps more than any other living fiction writer…all of her books feature strong, complex women, doing their best to improve their lives in worlds dominated by men’ Sunday Times ‘Engrossing’ Sunday Express ‘Popular historical fiction at its finest, immaculately researched and superbly told’ The Times

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** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **THE DEBUT POETRY COLLECTION FROM THE ORIGINAL MUMMY'S BOY, HUSSAIN MANAWER.'I remember the day I wrote my first ever poem, I was sitting on my bed in the attic and started jotting down lines on this little notepad, little did I know where it would lead me professionally, personally and also psychologically. This is my life's work to this date, all my notes, my favourite pieces that have served me through my darkest nights and carried me through every moment of pain, suffering, anxiety, panic and hardship.'Hussain's debut poetry collection will invite readers on his journey through depression and grief, and out the other side to a better place - there will be joy, hope, tears and laughter - the emotions that make up the fabric of human experience. His words will remind readers, that even in your lowest moments you can find the gold dust, Life is Sad and Beautiful will shift outlooks and stand as a powerful vehicle for growth and change.ABOUT HUSSAIN:Hussain Manawer is a globally acclaimed Poet, Mental Health Advocate and Producer - who was born in Newham and shortly after grew up in Ilford, Essex. Tagged 'The Original Mummy's Boy', Hussain derives much of his inspiration from his own experiences and intense grief at the sudden loss of his mother. Dignitaries, major brands and broadcasters seek him out to articulate the mental health struggles our world is facing. Amongst the credits to his name, commissions and collaborations include The Royal Family, The BAFTAs, The FA, Global Citizen, One Young World, Burberry, Anthony Joshua, Marcus Rashford, Tyson Fury, England FC, Peaky Blinders, Soccer Aid For UNICEF, Apple TV+ and many more.He most recently appeared alongside Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey in the mental health docu-series, 'The Me You Can't See', alongside Lady Gaga, Glen Close and others. Hussain's poetry can also be heard on the Archewell Audio Podcast Christmas Special with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Manawer was called upon earlier this year by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to create the 'Mental Health Minute' which was broadcast on all radio stations with an all-star line-up including David Beckham, Joanna Lumley, Shirley Bassey, Jessie Lingard, Jamie Oliver, Anne Marie and Charles Dance.

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The Armistice of November 1918 ended four years of slaughter that left armies exhausted and populations weary of war - but the fighting was not over. In Russia, civil war and revolution had divided the nation and the Allies sought to intervene on behalf of the White' Russians against the Bolsheviks and this conflict continued long after the war had finished elsewhere in Europe. A vital source of information from inside the Bolshevik-held territory came from British secret agents in Petrograd, the main one being Paul Dukes. Known as the Man of a Hundred Faces', Dukes had managed to infiltrate both the Communist Party and the political police. The problem which faced the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Maurice Smith-Cummings, was getting Dukes' information back to London. Carrying information overland was proving far too problematical, so Smith-Cummings hit upon the idea of using one of the Royal Navy's new fast Coastal Motor Boat which was revealed just before the end of the war. He recruited Lieutenant Augustus Agar and through him he found five men, all unmarried, who could handle the two CMBs. Using an inlet on the Finnish coast as a base, Agar slipped past a series of forts, submerged breakwaters and the Russian Baltic Fleet to reach Petrograd and made contact with Dukes. A frequent courier service was soon established, with Agar carrying couriers in and out of Petrograd under the very noses of the Russians. So confident did Agar become, he even torpedoed the Russian cruiser Oleg. He followed this with support from Admiral Sir Walter Cowan in an all-out raid upon the Russian ships with eight larger CMBs and a bombing raid by the RAF. The raid resulted in the sinking of two battleships and the submarine depot ship Pamiet Azova. Agar was quietly given the Victoria Cross but told not to publish his memoirs until 1963. As for Paul Dukes, his cover was eventually blown, and he had to escape via Latvia in a number of hair-raising escapades. In 1920 he was knighted by King George V, who called Dukes the greatest of all soldiers'. To this day, Dukes is the only person knighted based entirely on his exploits in espionage. This is their remarkable story.

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Canonized in 1297 as Saint Louis, King Louis IX of France (1214-1270) was the central figure of Christendom in the thirteenth century. He ruled when France was at the height of power; he commanded the largest army in Europe and controlled the wealthiest kingdom. Renowned for his patronage of the arts, Louis was equally famous for his choice to imitate the suffering Christ as a humbly attired, bearded penitent. Armed with the considerable resources of the nouvel historien, Jacques Le Goff mines existing materials about Saint Louis to forge a new historical biography of the king. Part of his ambitious project is to reconstruct the mental universe of the thirteenth century: Le Goff describes the scholastic and intellectual background of Louis’s reign and, most importantly, he discusses methodology and the interpretation of written sources—their composition, provenance, and reliability. Le Goff divides his unconventional biography into three parts. In the first, he gives us the contours of Louis’s life from birth to death in the usual context of family dynamics and genealogy, courtly and regional politics, and shifts in economic, social, and cultural life. In sifting through the historical accounts of the king’s life, Le Goff determines that it is Louis IX’s profound sense of moral and religious purpose—his desire to become the ideal Christian ruler—that colors his every action from boyhood on; it is also, for Le Goff, what renders contemporary accounts problematic and what necessitates further scrutiny. That dissection of sources occupies the second part. Le Goff’s intention is to pare away the layers of homily and anecdote produced by the king’s early biographers to discover the true St. Louis. Questioning whether St. Louis was merely the invention of his eulogists, Le Goff penetrates beyond the literary and hagiographical evidence to the human behind the legend. He brilliantly analyzes Louis’s progression toward his unique self-creation and its subsequent mythologizing. In the third part, Le Goff highlights the contradictions within Louis and his historical image that previous chroniclers have elided and overlooked. In the end, he leaves us with the saint, rather than the king, with all the paradoxes embedded within that dual role. A prolific medievalist of international renown, Jacques Le Goff (1924- ) is the former director of studies at the L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Among his honors is the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for History, bestowed in 2004 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences to Le Goff for “fundamentally changing our view of the Middle Ages.” He was also among the recipients of the 2007 Dan David Prize in recognition of contributions to his discipline. of Louis’ life from birth to death in the usual context of family dynamics and genealogy, courtly and regional politics, and shifts in economic, social, and cultural life. In sifting through the historical accounts of the king’s life, Le Goff determines that it is Louis IX’s profound sense of moral and religious purpose—his desire to become the ideal Christian ruler—that colors his every action from boyhood on; it is also, for Le Goff, what renders contemporary accounts problematic and what necessitates further scrutiny. That dissection of sources occupies the second part. Le Goff’s intention is to pare away the layers of homily and anecdote produced by the king’s early biographers to discover the true Saint Louis. Questioning whether Saint Louis was merely the invention of his eulogists, Le Goff penetrates beyond the literary and hagiographical evidence to the human behind the legend. He brilliantly analyzes Louis’ progress toward his unique self-creation and its subsequent mythologizing. In the third part, Le Goff highlights the contradictions within Louis and his historical image that previous chroniclers have elided or overlooked. In the end, he leaves us with the saint, rather than the king, with all the paradoxes embedded in that role.

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Sherwood Forest is arguably the most famous historic landscape in the world, immortalized through storytelling, mythology, romantic books, and ultimately by Hollywood. This is the setting for Robin Hood, Little John and the rest of the 'Merry Men'. Yet behind the glamorous legends are equally fascinating places, people and histories. An important and vast medieval 'Forest' and extensive heath, the area was farmed and settled before that time. After the break-up of the Royal Hunting Forest came the famous establishment of great halls, houses and parks of the aristocracy, the so-called 'Dukeries', and then industry, with deep coal mining, wartime military training, and twentieth-century forestry. From the nineteenth century onwards, the region was a notable tourism and leisure destination, and the sites of famous oak trees such as the Major Oak were places one could visit to touch the past. Tourism continues today as visitors from around the world come to experience the forest's nature, history and myth. This book is not a guide to the region but a companion to the area, its history, its people and its landscape. As such, this volume will be of great interest to visitors to the region, to residents and to all those fascinated by the history and the legends of Sherwood and the Dukeries. The book focuses on Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries area, but in the context of the surrounding towns and villages and is richly illustrated with images from the past, including photographs, postcards, paintings and antique prints from over two hundred years.

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A major contribution to the history of Parliament, to medieval English history, and to the study of the English constitution. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of thelords, and, somewhat later, the commons. The nine parliaments held during the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413) witnessed some of the most dramatic encounters between king and commons of the middle ages, especially those of the first seven years of the reign. Principles which were to become staples of parliamentary debate, such as the demand for redress of grievances before grant of supply, insistence on the accountability to parliament of royal ministers, and the right of those who granted taxes to determine how they should be used (appropriation of supply) were openly demanded and to some extent conceded by the king. These demands reached a climax in the Long Parliament of 1406,which lasted for nine months, twice as long as any previous English parliament, and witnessed a prolonged stand-off between king and commons. The second half of the reign saw more docile parliaments, although the struggle betweenthe king and his son, the future Henry V, for control of the executive produced some dramatic parliamentary moments such as an attempt to force the king to abdicate. These early fifteenth-century parliaments also witnessed the passing of some extremely interesting social and religious legislation on matters such as heresy, law and order and the regulation of labour. The rolls from the period are reproduced in their entirely, complented by a full translation of all the texts from the three languages used by the medieval clerks (Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle English). Chris Given-Wilson is Professor of Late Medieval History, University of St Andrews.

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Entertainment Weekly's BIG FALL BOOKS PREVIEW SelectionBest Book of 2019 -- Publisher's WeeklyBased on new and revelatory material from Brando’s own private archives, an award-winning film biographer presents a deeply-textured, ambitious, and definitive portrait of the greatest movie actor of the twentieth century, the elusive Marlon Brando, bringing his extraordinarily complex life into view as never before.The most influential movie actor of his era, Marlon Brando changed the way other actors perceived their craft. His approach was natural, honest, and deeply personal, resulting in performances—most notably in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront—that are without parallel. Brando was heralded as the American Hamlet—the Yank who surpassed British stage royalty Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson as the standard of greatness in the mid-twentieth century. Brando’s impact on American culture matches his professional significance; he both challenged and codified our ideas of masculinity and sexuality. Brando was also one of the first stars to use his fame as a platform to address social, political, and moral issues, courageously calling out America’s deeply rooted racism.William Mann’s brilliant biography of the Hollywood legend illuminates this culture icon for a new age. Mann astutely argues that Brando was not only a great actor but also a cultural soothsayer, a Cassandra warning us about the challenges to come. Brando’s admonitions against the monetization of nearly every aspect of the culture were prescient. His public protests against racial segregation and discrimination at the height of the Civil Rights movement—getting himself arrested at least once—were criticized as being needlessly provocative. Yet those actions of fifty years ago have become a model many actors follow today.Psychologically astute and masterfully researched, based on new and revelatory material, The Contender explores the star and the man in full, including the childhood traumas that reverberated through his professional and personal life. It is a dazzling biography of our nation’s greatest actor that is sure to become an instant classic.The Contender includes sixteen pages of photographs.

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This volume completes Becontree hundred by providing histories of East Ham, West Ham, Little Ilford, Leyton, Walthamstow, Wanstead, and Woodford. The region, rural until the 19th century, is now part of Greater London. Though mainly residen-tial it includes, at Silvertown, Canning Town, and Stratford, one of the largest manufacturing centres in southern England, as well as the Royal Docks. Until 1965 the region remained outside London for admin-istrative purposes. This strongly influenced urban development, especially in East Ham and West Ham, which, as county boroughs, had sole responsibility for local government services and planning in a period of remark-able growth. West Ham, in 1898, was one of the first English towns to come under socialist control. Throughout the region the expanding population demanded the pro-vision of many new schools and churches, each of which is briefly treated in the vol-ume.In dealing with churches an attempt is made to assess the relative strength of the various denominations. Urbanization has swept away most of the visible remains of earlier history. Until the 19th century the region was fashionable with the gentry, and this is reflected in the size of some of the older parish churches, notably at Walthamstow and West Ham. At Little Ilford, by contrast, is one of the smallest churches in Essex. Wanstead House, the palladian mansion designed by Colen Campbell, was demolished in 1823, though much of its park has survived. The northern part of the region, bordering on Epping Forest, retains some attractive wood-land, especially at Walthamstow, Wanstead, and Woodford, where several 18th-century houses also survive. Notable modern build-ings include Wanstead hospital, built as an orphanage (1861), Sir Joseph Bazalgette's metropolitan sewage pumping station at Stratford (1868),and the town halls at East Ham (1903) and Walthamstow (1941). During the Second World War the south part of the region was heavily bombed, and since 1945 there has been large-scale redevelopment, especially at Canning Town, wherethe sky-line is increasingly dominated by tower blocks of council flats.

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Entertainment Weekly's BIG FALL BOOKS PREVIEW SelectionBest Book of 2019 -- Publisher's WeeklyBased on new and revelatory material from Brando’s own private archives, an award-winning film biographer presents a deeply-textured, ambitious, and definitive portrait of the greatest movie actor of the twentieth century, the elusive Marlon Brando, bringing his extraordinarily complex life into view as never before.The most influential movie actor of his era, Marlon Brando changed the way other actors perceived their craft. His approach was natural, honest, and deeply personal, resulting in performances—most notably in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront—that are without parallel. Brando was heralded as the American Hamlet—the Yank who surpassed British stage royalty Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson as the standard of greatness in the mid-twentieth century. Brando’s impact on American culture matches his professional significance; he both challenged and codified our ideas of masculinity and sexuality. Brando was also one of the first stars to use his fame as a platform to address social, political, and moral issues, courageously calling out America’s deeply rooted racism.William Mann’s brilliant biography of the Hollywood legend illuminates this culture icon for a new age. Mann astutely argues that Brando was not only a great actor but also a cultural soothsayer, a Cassandra warning us about the challenges to come. Brando’s admonitions against the monetization of nearly every aspect of the culture were prescient. His public protests against racial segregation and discrimination at the height of the Civil Rights movement—getting himself arrested at least once—were criticized as being needlessly provocative. Yet those actions of fifty years ago have become a model many actors follow today.Psychologically astute and masterfully researched, based on new and revelatory material, The Contender explores the star and the man in full, including the childhood traumas that reverberated through his professional and personal life. It is a dazzling biography of our nation’s greatest actor that is sure to become an instant classic.The Contender includes sixteen pages of photographs.

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Through an extraordinary selection from the Beken Marine Photography Archive of the work of four generations of famous photographers (the Beken family), this book retraces the fundamental stages of the evolution of the unsurpassable 'Beken style', bringing together some of the most artistic images of sailboats ever shot. These wonderful and legendary pictures, accompanied by detailed texts and plentiful information, will lead the reader through time, to discover the wonderful world of yachting photography. The Bekens began their love affair with marine photography in 1888, when Alfred Edward (1855–1915) moved from Canterbury (Kent) to the Isle of Wight with his son Frank (1880–1970). He purchased a pharmacy in Birmingham Road in the seaport of Cowes, a town that was already famous for international yacht racing and for the world's oldest regular regatta, the renowned Cowes Week. Alfred and young Frank started shooting photographs to capture sailing yachts at their best, and racing yachts in action, a real challenge at that time as it still is today. These beautiful photographs started being sold in the pharmacy as souvenirs, and in the space of a few years they would have caught the attention of the world of yacht racing and sailing aficionados, earning the Beken family a large number of followers all over the world for the extraordinary quality of their images. Queen Victoria, King George V, and most recently the Duke of Edinburgh awarded the company a Royal Warrant for excellence. Frank's artistic inheritance was carried on by his son Keith (1914– 2007), who succeeded him in the creation of fantastic sailboats photographs. Today, Kenneth Beken (b. 1951, the fourth in the line of family photographers), together with yacht master Peter Mumford, is leading the way in the latest digital photography, and creating wonderful colour images: "Now that digital cameras and printers are as good as the traditional darkroom methods," he says, "the company has gone totally digital." Today the Beken Marine Photography Archive features more than 200,000 different photographs of incalculable value, from historical monochrome masterpieces to contemporary digital images of the highest quality and technical perfection.

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As the columns of French infantry marched up the slopes of the Mont St Jean at Waterloo, the British heavy cavalry, the Royal Scots Greys to the fore, crashed into the packed ranks of the enemy. This was not the first time the Greys had drawn their swords during the Napoleonic Wars - but it was their first against Napoleon's troops. Three years earlier they had attacked workers in Halifax protesting at the introduction of machinery in the wool trade. Taking their name from Ned Ludd, who had smashed up knitting frames in Nottingham, the Luddites saw the emergence of mechanisation as a threat to their livelihood, with men replacing machines. In response they took matters into their own hands by wrecking the new equipment. Industrial unrest had gathered pace throughout the 18th century and exploded in an unpresented wave of violence in 1799\. Outbreaks of machine-breaking developed rapidly into strikes in a battle of capital against labour. A court battle ensued, culminating in new legislation in 1806 that backed the capitalists. This act, coupled with the impact of the Continental system introduced by Napoleon, which closed European and American ports to British merchants, heralded the largest economic depression of the era. Famine, pestilence and rising employment all fuelled the fires of Luddism. Months of violence swept across the West Midlands, Lancashire and Yorkshire which saw one factory boss murdered; other factory owners began shooting protesting workers. The disturbances resulted in the mobilising of thousands of regular soldiers - at one time there were as many British soldiers fighting the Luddites than there were fighting Napoleon on the Iberian Peninsula. As well as exploring these events, Paul L. Dawson also uncovers the origins of Luddism and their allies in the middle classes. The Napoleonic Wars marked the end of centuries old way of life in agriculture, textile production and the wider economy. The dramatic changes in Britain between 1790 and 1815 created a unique set of social grievances by those left behind by the unprecedented changes that were surging through the Britain which exploded into bitter fighting across large swathes of the country. With present day concerns over computerisation replacing labour, this is a story that echoes down the centuries.

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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 1830, with France's colonial empire in ruins, Charles X ordered his army to invade Ottoman Algiers. Victory did not salvage his regime from revolution, but it began the French conquest of Algeria, which was continued and consolidated by the succeeding July Monarchy. In By Sword and Plow, Jennifer E. Sessions explains why France chose first to conquer Algeria and then to transform it into its only large-scale settler colony. Deftly reconstructing the political culture of mid-nineteenth-century France, she also sheds light on policies whose long-term consequences remain a source of social, cultural, and political tensions in France and its former colony. In Sessions's view, French expansion in North Africa was rooted in contests over sovereignty and male citizenship in the wake of the Atlantic revolutions of the eighteenth century. The French monarchy embraced warfare as a means to legitimize new forms of rule, incorporating the Algerian army into royal iconography and public festivals. Colorful broadsides, songs, and plays depicted the men of the Armée d’Afrique as citizen soldiers. Social reformers and colonial theorists formulated plans to settle Algeria with European emigrants. The propaganda used to recruit settlers featured imagery celebrating Algeria's agricultural potential, but the male emigrants who responded were primarily poor, urban laborers who saw the colony as a place to exercise what they saw as their right to work. Generously illustrated with examples of this imperialist iconography, Sessions's work connects a wide-ranging culture of empire to specific policies of colonization during a pivotal period in the genesis of modern France.

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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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Read all about - his early life and struggle to support the family after his father's death - his move to Britain and the establishment of his first UK business - his company Noon Products and the catastrophic fire that became his finest hour - the recent 'cash for honours' scandal which embroiled Tony Blair, Lord Levy and many others - his dealings with premiers and world statesmen, royalty and business leaders - his views on the issues of immigration and nationality - not to mention his love of cricket!This is a candid story from a man who values his family, friends and country - both his birthplace and his adopted home. Despite many setbacks his indomitable spirit enabled him to meet challenges and succeed. Throughout his life he has made many friends and helped innumerable people, and when he needed help, particularly when his Noon Products factory was destroyed by fire, both friends and clients were there to help him recover. After selling the business to WT Foods, his own charitable company, the Noon Foundation was established and for his many efforts in this sector he was awarded an MBE.Increasingly, his time was spent working with many different charities and the Queen honoured him with a knighthood. Sir Gulam accepted nomination for a peerage but the 'cash for honours' storm erupted. He relates the incident from his personal perspective - his anger, humiliation, frustration and depression. He considers his relations with the police, the media, the Government, Tony Blair and other senior members of the Labour Party. He also reflects upon the tough questions facing Britain today, such as education, immigration, terrorism, and the role of the government and private citizens. He pulls no punches but his story demands respect - it deamds to be read.

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The Looniness of the Long Distance Runner is one comparatively unfit 39-year old Londoner's humorous account of his attempt to run the New York marathon from scratch. (He chose the pre-Thanksgiving race in the Big Apple to avoid adding to his ordeal by having to train during the British winter.) Inspired by the charity running of friends, Russell Taylor set himself the challenge of doing what Pheidippides first had done. But to spare himself the post-event trauma of trying to extract money from the reluctant grasp of his sponsors, he decided to write a book about his experiences and donate the royalties to charity instead. This book follows our intrepid road-runner from the treadmills of a north London gymnasium via his first tentative fun run to the mean streets of the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan. Along the way, we encounter indescribably tasteless isotonic drinks, sweaty singlets, sports injuries, personal bests, split times, anxious queuing for the public toilets and an unfeasibly large quantity of bananas. We also discover what lurks within the breast of the endurance athlete: an unreasonable hatred of his fellow runner (except the nubile females of the species), a contempt for the idiocy of stadium announcers and a strange fear of spectators who line the route inanely shouting "Keep Going!" by way of encouragement. The narrative is interspersed by jocular reviews of films about running - not least The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - and a tongue-in-cheek description of the history of the marathon from its Ancient Greek origins to its modern-day revival as an Olympic event. Written with considerable panache and a self-deprecating sense of humour, this illuminating tale of obsessive and foolhardy sporting endeavour will make entertaining reading for (in descending order of athletic accomplishment) manic ultra-marathon runners, dedicated pavement pounders, occasional joggers and the simply curious alike.

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Text in German & English. Schinkel's Look towards India discusses a subject to which little attention has been paid to date: Schinkel's interest in Indian architecture and culture. This interest was first aroused by the English traveller to India William Hodges, who proposed the thesis that Greek and Indian architecture were of equal value. Later, the English landscape painters Thomas and William Daniell were to become even more important for Schinkel. Oriental Scenery, the book that described their travels, left its mark on Europe's image of India for decades and inspired longing for that country, which was considered almost magical. The cultural elite of Prussia were also caught up in this fascination. At the royal court of Prussia, Lalla Rookh, based on Thomas Moore's romance, was celebrated in 1821 as an oriental festival. In 1822 the Indian-themed pageant Nurmahalwas performed at the opera. For both productions Schinkel created enchantingly beautiful stage sets. His interest in exotic architecture was lifelong. The sketches he based on the work of the Daniells were preliminary studies for a huge round panorama that was to show the buildings of various periods and nations in their particular setting. His unrealised project for the summer palace Orianda on the Crimea, at the geographical interface of eastern and western culture, was Schinkel's convincing and timeless memorial to his dream of the unity of world cultures. The style of the exterior is classical, while that of the interior is Indian and Islamic. The work is character-ized by the hall of caryatids that lies in front of the building, with a view of the Black Sea, and the museum of Caucasian antiquities, its counterpart in the interior of the palace. Schinkel found the idea for the museum in Oriental Scenery, in the drawings of the legendary 1000-Pillar Hall in Madurai, in southern India, which the Daniells had toured full of admiration and included in their book.

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The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril - Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill, as a former First Lord of the Admiralty, was well versed in the importance of Britain protecting itself at sea. In the opening years of the Second World War, Germany s U-boat (submarine) fleet was tasked with attacking and destroying the supply ships that Britain depended upon for its survival. The U-boats were under the command of Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz who, for much of the war, effectively guided that strategy. There was a very real possibility that the British people would starve if the U-boats succeeded in their campaign. When France fell to the German forces in 1940, Hitler s Ubootwaffe gained a significant asset in five important ports along the Brittany coast - Brest, Lorient, St. Nazaire, La Palace and Bordeaux. The use of these ports put Germany s submarine force hundreds of miles closer to the action in the North Atlantic, the routes of the Allied supply convoys which were operating mainly between Halifax, Nova Scotia and various English port cities. This afforded the U-boats several more days at sea on their deadly patrols than was possible while they had been based in Germany and German-occupied Norway. In this new publication from Philip Kaplan, the massive bunkers or pens constructed in Brittany by the labourers of the German Organisation Todt are revisited. These giant structures, some of which sheltered more than a dozen submarines at a time, still exist because they were built with concrete ceilings more than three metres thick. With equally impressive supporting walls, they suffered relatively little damage in the wartime bombing raids of the Royal Air Force and the US Eighth Army Air Force. Illustrated with more than 150 rare and compelling photo images, this book is a richly rewarding journey back across time to some of the most intriguing and electrifying sites from the war years. The story of the pen shelters and their part in that war is both fascinating and enduring.

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Move over, Marley: here comes Zelda, a scruffy, high-spirited dog struggling to survive in the mean streets of India -- until she charms her way into an American family and goes on to fame and glory in Paris, Italy, and California Wine Country. In India, wild scavenging street dogs are considered the lowest of the low. Shopkeepers swat them away with brooms. Mothers scream at them and kick them away from their kids. Taxi drivers often drive straight at them and even run them down. After a little time in India you can understand why: These dogs can be vicious, and many carry nasty infections and disease, including rabies. Not surprisingly, most of these dogs come to a miserable end. This is the story of one lowly street dog who was determined to do better. One day, while roaming the streets of New Delhi and begging for something, anything to eat, she found her way to the backdoor of Paul Chutkow and his very pregnant wife Eda. Paul wanted no part of this mangy mutt; India was in the throes of a major political crisis, their first child was on the way, and this dog promised to be nothing but trouble. But this little beast had charm, humor, and a magnificent spirit: if beg she must, she would do so with dignity and her best paw forward. For Paul and Eda, there was simply no resisting her. Soon, Zelda was an essential part of their young family, and before long she was on her way to Paris and a life far beyond anyone’s dreams: with royal care, gourmet meals, and heavenly summers on the island of Sardinia. At first, her Parisian neighbors shunned the lowly mutt and wished she’d go away. But when Zelda alertly captured a very high-end wine thief -- only in France! -- she won every heart in the neighborhood and was promptly crowned “The Queen of Paris.” What a girl! What a story! And what a delightful addition to the wealth of dog books that so many American readers love and cherish!

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'...His ambition and desire to experiment are without parallel in the last 40 years of structural engineering...Within the pages of this book you'll find yourself enthralled by the effectiveness and originality of his work. Time and again he has brought structures of astounding ingenuity to life. Structural engineers that dream on the scale of Tony Hunt are few and far between'. Extract from Foreword by Sir James Dyson Tony Hunt spent the six decades of his professional and personal life interacting with the elite in the fields of engineering, architecture and industrial design - this is his story. His life and career are described, showing how he formed lasting relationships with architects, patrons, artists, photographers, industrial designers, writers, critics and with his own staff. Connexions demonstrates the way in which he was able to adapt his engineering solutions in collaboration with architects in the formative stages of the design process to find structural solutions sympathetic to their architectural aspirations.It examines the quest for technological advance and Hunt's passion for industrial and product design which led him to favour an industrialized component-based approach to engineering in architecture. He showed an unerring ability to identify and express key components within a design, concentrating on the way they connected together, and demonstrated a practical knowledge and experience of the technology required for their manufacture. The results of Hunt's contribution, and the many prestigious commissions he received, when working with the generation of acclaimed architects emerging from the Architectural Association, the Royal College of Art and from Yale University scholarships in the early period of his career, are well-documented and publicised. Direct comparisons with the great European and American architect engineers such as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Charles Eames, Fritz Haller and Jean Prouve are justifiably made. Connexions also concentrates on the personal and professional relationships that Hunt formed during his career and, by reference to past and contemporary architects, engineers, industrial designers, artists, etc., the place that Tony Hunt occupies in the history of UK design.

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A passionate, illuminating exploration of Shakespeare's greatest plays and characters, by the director of acclaimed theatre company Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory. Combining close textual analysis with practical insights based on his extensive experience of directing Shakespeare's plays, Andrew Hilton delves into a fascinating range of topics such as emotional truth in the comedies, the importance of the plays' social dynamics, the choice of settings and periods, making and withholding moral judgements, working with different versions of the texts, and even adapting them. Throughout, Hilton urges us as audiences and theatre-makers to set aside our preconceived notions, and instead to approach Shakespeare's plays with an open mind, moment by moment, so that we can connect with them in fresh and vital ways. 'The clear-sightedness, wit and depth of knowledge and insight into the plays and their worlds is unparalleled... should be required reading for everyone approaching these plays... A fabulous book, brimful of wisdom and revelations and a gift to anyone interested in Shakespeare or, quite frankly, in people' John Heffernan, actor 'Andrew Hilton's Tobacco Factory Shakespeares were an inspiration... What audiences saw and heard was not a display but an uncovering. His productions did not add to the drama: they revealed it... In Shakespeare on the Factory Floor, Hilton has once again lit up Shakespeare: lucid and penetrating on the page and on the stage' Susannah Clapp, theatre critic of the Observer 'The detail and simplicity of Andrew Hilton's directing is as potent in his writing as it is in the rehearsal room... A wonderful book' Dorothea Myer-Bennett, actor 'Andrew Hilton has used his rich experience of many years to create a penetrating, timely and distinctive study of the plays… I only wish this book had been around when first I read Shakespeare. It would have opened my eyes and my mind much earlier' Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Former Rector of the Royal College of Art and Chair of Arts Council England 'Andrew Hilton's fascinating book reveals how theatrical performance offers insights into longstanding questions of literary interpretation… Written in an engaging and readable style, it will be of interest to actors, directors, scholars and anyone who enjoys reading Shakespeare's plays or seeing them performed' Lesel Dawson, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Bristol

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Maristow House in West Devon has a rich, remarkable yet little-known history. In the seventeenth century two sons from a family of Exeter merchants helped establish the sugar plantations of Jamaica and the resulting trade in African slaves. One became the island's governor while the other married the daughter of a Civil War hero and one of the first owners of the house. His Jamaican grandson took over the estate in the 1730s and produced an heir who rebuilt the mansion to reflect the style and architecture of Georgian England. These changes were paid for largely by the proceeds of slave plantations, even though this family never visited the source of their wealth. Instead, they frequented he fashionable salons of Bath and London arranging the marriages of their four daughters. The eldest, Sophia, married off against her will to an immensely rich but boring husband, spent all her adult life in the fashion-conscious court of the Prince of Wales. Another sister helped to save the life of a distant member of the family indicted as a mutineer on the infamous HMS Bounty. Finally, the house and its thousands of acres were bought by another West Indian, this time from a family of successful financiers and traders. Their Jewish heritage placed obstacles in their path but despite widespread antisemitism the buyer created an astonishing political career in the House of Commons and played an important role in the career of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. Equally remarkably, Manasseh Lopes, despite having no children of his own, founded a dynasty of successful men and women who to this day are close to Britain's royal family. Slave-generated wealth impacted both urban and rural areas of Britain. Many of the country's finest country houses owe their origins to this wellspring of money. What this book reveals is that even in one house, this wealth fuelled an extraordinary range of political and cultural activity. Maristow House, as Malcolm Cross explains, remains a portal through which to appreciate economic and social change on a much larger canvas.

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An extraordinary illustrated biography of a Métis man and Anishinaabe woman navigating great changes in their homeland along the U.S.–Canada border in the early twentieth century John Linklater, of Anishinaabeg, Cree, and Scottish ancestry, and his wife, Tchi-Ki-Wis, of the Lac La Croix First Nation, lived in the canoe and border country of Ontario and Minnesota from the 1870s until the 1930s. During that time, the couple experienced radical upheavals in the Quetico–Superior region, including the cutting of white and red pine forests, the creation of Indian reserves/reservations and conservation areas, and the rise of towns, tourism, and mining. With broad geographical sweep, historical significance, and biographical depth, Making the Carry tells their story, overlooked for far too long.John Linklater, a renowned game warden and skilled woodsman, was also the bearer of traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous heritage, both of which he was deeply committed to teaching others. He was sought by professors, newspaper reporters, museum personnel, and conservationists—among them Sigurd Olson, who considered Linklater a mentor. Tchi-Ki-Wis, an extraordinary craftswoman, made a sweeping array of necessary yet beautiful objects, from sled dog harnesses to moose calls to birch bark canoes. She was an expert weaver of large Anishinaabeg cedar bark mats with complicated geometric designs, a virtually lost art.Making the Carry traces the routes by which the couple came to live on Basswood Lake on the international border. John’s Métis ancestors with deep Hudson’s Bay Company roots originally came from Orkney Islands, Scotland, by way of Hudson Bay and Red River, or what is now Winnipeg. His family lived in Manitoba, northwest Ontario, northern Minnesota, and, in the case ofJohn and Tchi-Ki-Wis, on Isle Royale. A journey through little-known Canadian history, the book provides an intimate portrait of Métis people.Complete with rarely seen photographs of activities from dog mushing to guiding to lumbering, as well as of many objects made by Tchi-Ki-Wis, such as canoes, moccasins, and cedar mats, Making the Carry is a window on a traditional way of life and a restoration of two fascinating Indigenous people to their rightful place in our collective past.

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Words sting. Songs kill.'Everything about Burton's debut is razor-sharp' NATASHA NGANThe Cruel Prince meets To Kill a Kingdom in this seductive YA fantasy debut, in which a siren must choose between protecting her family and following her heart in a prejudiced kingdom where her existence is illegal. Saoirse Sorkova survives on secrets. As the last siren in her kingdom, she can sing any man to an early grave - but her very existence is illegal, and if her true identity were ever discovered, it would be her life on the line.By day, Saoirse disguises herself as a fae, pretending to be the perfect soldier-in-training. By night, she satisfies her darker urges working as an assassin for dangerous mercenaries. And all the while, she keeps the biggest secret of all: that she is not always in control of her Siren powers, or her desire to kill.Then a blackmailer threatens her sister, and Saoirse's investigation takes her to the royal palace, and her most dangerous job yet: personal bodyguard to the Crown Prince.Saoirse expects to despise Prince Hayes. But he is kind, thoughtful, and charming, and she finds herself increasingly drawn to him . . . until he tasks her with investigating a killer plaguing the kingdom. The problem: the killer is Saoirse.Trapped by her deadly double life, Saoirse can't leave the palace until she saves her sister . . . but who will save her from herself?*** READERS LOVE SING ME TO SLEEP ***'OH MY GOD THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!' Netgalley - 5 star review'I would recommend it to fans of sirens and readers who enjoyed The Cruel Prince and To Kill A Kingdom' Netgalley - 5 star review'Mesmerizing faes, sirens, enchanting siren song - you will feel pulled into this story right from the beginning! Sing Me to Sleep was beautiful, terrific, magical and extremely unique!' Netgalley - 5 star review'Oh my freaking god I loved this book! I read it in under 24 hours it was so damn good. A captivating story of hidden identities, secrets, betrayals and a slow burn romance to die for' Netgalley - 5 star review'I looooved this book! I never knew who was trustworthy' Netgalley - 5 star review'WOW WOW WOW!' Netgalley - 5 star review

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'I will be thinking about Penny, Josephine and Archie for a while yet!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'A fun and entertaining story that made me laugh out loud!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Highly recommend!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐_____________________________________________________________A charming, uplifting and cosy mystery about two national treasures hiding official secrets and double lives - perfect for fans of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB.Revenge is a dish best served old...Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain's most treasured World War II veterans. Now in their nineties, Josephine and Penny are in demand, popping up at commemorative events all over the country. Despite their age, they're in great form-sprightly and sparky, and always in search of their next "excitement." This time it's a trip to Paris to receive the Légion d'honneur, accompanied by their devoted great-nephew, Archie.Keen historian Archie believes his great aunts had minor roles in the Women's Royal Navy and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but that's only half the story. There's a reason sweet Auntie Penny can dispatch a would-be mugger with a brolly. This trip to Paris is not what it seems either. Scandal and crime have quietly trailed the sisters since the war. Now armed with new information about an old adversary, these much decorated (but admittedly ancient) veterans intend to settle scores, avenge lost friends, and pull off one last heist before the curtain comes down on their illustrious careers.Penny and Josephine will return for more adventures in Jinx, coming in Spring 2025._____________________________________________________________ 'Funny, thrilling and brilliantly researched.' SJ Bennett'It's P.G. Wodehouse meets Dear Mrs Bird and it's utterly wonderful.' Annie Lyons 'Utterly charming and engrossing' Jenny Colgan 'A glorious, rip-roaring adventure, so funny and charming, yet laced with unexpected moments of real tenderness and reflection' Lucy Dillon'The literary equivalent to a perfect Martini, The Excitements is sharp, delicious, instantly mood-lifting and utterly intoxicating.' Kate Eberlen'Not all heroes wear capes, some wear M&S cardigans! A triumph!' Mike Gayle'A sublime mix of comedy, drama and adventure' Jill Mansell'Just pure joy from start to finish.' Alexandra Potter'I couldn't get enough of the wonderful Williamsons. More please!' Holly Hepburn

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THE 10-MINUTE CLINICAL ASSESSMENT Clinical assessment is at the heart of medicine. Health professionals working in busy clinical settings, such as general practitioners, nurse practitioners and hospital doctors on-call, often have to assess patients under considerable time constraints. This book teaches the reader how to gather clinical information effectively, accurately and safely even when time is at a premium. Using a focused and evidence-based approach, it provides step-by-step assessment strategies for common and important clinical scenarios, particularly those that require ‘lateral’and holistic thinking, such as falls in the elderly, weight loss, ‘tired all the time’and assessment of diabetic or homeless people. This second edition of The 10-Minute Clinical Assessment is fully updated in line with the latest guidelines and includes brand new general chapters on focused clinical assessment, red flags, and useful consultation tools. It covers a wide range of common and important topics, including cardiovascular, respiratory, haematology, musculoskeletal, neurology, mental health, gynaecology, obstetrics, urology, ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat. This new edition also includes sectionson undifferentiated and miscellaneous presentations, on paediatrics and adolescent health; and on problems in older people. Each of the individual disease sections is uniformly structured to provide rapid reference, including: Key features of the history, including questions relevant to patientsand important for making a diagnosis Common patient ideas, concerns and expectations The ‘value’ of present or absent symptoms for diagnosis and prognosis What should be examined, and why A summary of ‘red flags’ – issues that must be assessed Important differential diagnoses and their clinical features Useful tips, tricks and hints for effective patient assessment Written by an experienced medical educator and practicing GP, in consultation with a multidisciplinary team of medical students, GPs, PG trainees, hospital doctors and nurses, this title specifically covers the clinical skills assessment (CSA) part of the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) examination. New to this edition is a refreshed approach to the methodology employed inclinical assessment, to reflect recent trends in the teaching of clinical assessment. This edition also includes the latest evidence-based recommendations (including the latest NICE guidelines) and recent developments in order to provide the reader with a concise yet comprehensive resource for clinical reference.

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Discover the inspiring spiritual legacy of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Sharing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of this notoriously private monarch, The Faith of Queen Elizabeth features intimate stories and inspiring reflections on the personal faith behind the Crown.An icon, matriarch, reformer, and the longest-reigning monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II intrigued millions around the world with her royal heritage, inspirational character, and profound faith, especially as depicted in award-winning films such as The Queen and the wildly popular Netflix series The Crown.But throughout all her trials and triumphs, Her Majesty credited her personal faith in Jesus Christ as the steadying anchor to her life and reign. In The Faith of Queen Elizabeth, Dudley Delffs unpacks the secret behind Her Majesty's personal devotion and public service, giving you a fuller, richer picture of the woman who led a nation with unwavering faith and resolve, teaching us how we can all: Leave a legacy of faith for future generations Answer the call to serve Align our behavior with our beliefs With testimonies from historic figures such as Winston Churchill, Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, and Margaret Thatcher, this magnificent tribute explores the faith of the world's most famous Queen--and the King she served.Praise for The Faith of Queen Elizabeth:"The faith of Her Majesty the Queen is the diamond in the crown: forged under extreme pressure, a 'beacon of inspiration' the world over, reflecting the light of the Lord she serves. Delffs's book foregrounds this faith with fluency and respect: an absorbing read."--Right Reverend Dr. Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster"This book is a wonderful tribute to the life of Queen Elizabeth II and to her devotion to the people of the UK, the Commonwealth, and the Church of England. It describes her clear and authentic Christian faith that has inspired me and many others in following Jesus's example."--Andrew R. Pratt, interfaith advisor to the Bishop of Blackburn

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The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller It’s time we get back to common sense. It’s time to cancel the cancel culture. It’s time to Wake Up. If, like me, you’re sick and tired of being told how to think, speak, eat and behave, then this book is for you. If, like me, you think the world’s going absolutely nuts, then this book is for you. If, like me, you think NHS heroes and Captain Tom are the real stars of our society, not self-obsessed tone-deaf celebrities (and royal renegades!), then this book is for you. If, like me, you’re sickened by the cancel culture bullies destroying people’s careers and lives, then this book is for you. From feminism to masculinity, racism to gender, body image to veganism, mental health to competitiveness at school, the right to free speech and expressing an honestly held opinion is being crushed at the altar of ‘woke’ political correctness. In 2020, the world faced its biggest crisis in a generation: a global pandemic. In the UK, it exposed deep divisions within society and laid bare a toxic culture war that had been raging beneath the surface. From the outset, Piers Morgan urged the nation to come to its senses, once and for all, and held the Government to often ferocious account over its handling of the crisis. COVID-19 shed shocking light on the problems that plague our country. Stockpilers and lockdown-cheats revealed our grotesque levels of self-interest and the virtue-signalling woke brigade continued their furious assault on free speech, shutting down debate on important issues like gender, racism and feminism. Yet just as coronavirus exposed our flaws, it also showcased our strengths. We saw selfless bravery in the heroic efforts of our healthcare staff. A greater appreciation of migrant workers. A return of local community spirit. And inspiring, noble acts from members of the public such as Captain Sir Tom Moore. Wake Up is Piers’ rallying cry for a united future in which we reconsider what really matters in life. It is a plea for the return of true liberalism, where freedom of speech is king. Most of all, it is a powerful account of how the world finally started to wake up, and why it mustn’t go back to sleep again.

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See firsthand how war photography is used to sway public opinion.In the autumn of 2014, the Royal Air Force released blurry video of a missile blowing up a pick-up truck which may have had a weapon attached to its flatbed. This was a lethal form of gesture politics: to send a £9-million bomber from Cyprus to Iraq and back, burning £35,000 an hour in fuel, to launch a smart missile costing £100,000 to destroy a truck or, rather, to create a video that shows it being destroyed. Some lives are ended—it is impossible to tell whose—so that the government can pretend that it taking effective action by creating a high-budget snuff movie. This is killing for show.Since the Vietnam War the way we see conflict—through film, photographs, and pixels—has had a powerful impact on the political fortunes of the campaign, and the way that war has been conducted. In this fully illustrated and passionately argued account of war imagery, Julian Stallabrass tells the story of post-war conflict, how it was recorded and remembered through its iconic photography.The relationship between war and photograph is constantly in transition, forming new perspectives, provoking new challenges: what is allowed to be seen? Does an image have the power to change political opinion? How are images used to wage war? Stallabrass shows how photographs have become a vital weapon in the modern war: as propaganda—from close-quarters fighting to the drone’s electronic vision—as well as a witness to the barbarity of events such as the My Lai massacre, the violent suppression of insurgent Fallujah or the atrocities in Abu Ghraib.Through these accounts Stallabrass maps a comprehensive theoretical re-evaluation of the relationship between war, politics and visual culture. Killing for Show offers: 190 photographs encompassing photojournalism, artists’ images, photographs by soldiers and amateurs and drones A comprehensive comparison of the role of photography in the Vietnam and Iraq Wars An explanation of the waning power of iconic images in collective memory An analysis of the failure of military PR and the public display of killing A focus on what can and cannot be seen, photographed and published An exploration of the power and limits of amateur photography Arguments about how violent images act on democracy This full-color book is an essential volume in the history of warfare and photography

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Develop a strong understanding of legal issues and recent developments in Public Law Constitutional and Administrative Law, 10th Edition, by Alex Carroll is a popular, student-friendly text that can be relied upon to give you a solid understanding of the essential legal and political issues that underpin the British system of government and the rights and freedoms of those subject to it. Designed specifically for LLB students, its content provides an effortless knowledge both of modern controversies and other key topics falling within Public law. Some of the recent developments given detailed consideration include: • The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018; • The EU- UK Withdrawal Agreement 2020; • The EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2021; • The convention of Ministerial responsibility in the Brexit crisis; • The role of referendums in the British political and constitutional system; • Enhanced coverage and analysis of the doctrines of the Rule of Law, the Separation of Powers, and the Sovereignty of Parliament; • Parliamentary Privilege and the meaning of parliamentary proceedings (R ( Miller) v The Prime Minister [2019]); • Contempt of Parliament and government failure to comply with resolutions of the House of Commons; • Suspension of sittings of the House of Commons for improper purposes. Abuse of the prerogative (R (Miller) v The Prime Minister [2019]); • Brexit and refusal of the Royal Assent; • Public bodies, liability in negligence (Poole Borough Council v GN and Another [2019]); • Liability of the police in damages, (Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [2018]); • Electronic surveillance. Legality (Big Brother Watch v United Kingdom [2019]); • Kidnapping and the right to life (Olewnik-Cieplinska v Poland [2019]); • Detention of football fans to prevent breaches of the peace. Legality (SV and A v Denmark [2018]); • State of emergency, Turkish insurrection and the imprisonment of political dissidents (Alparslan v Turkey [2019]); • Civil Partnerships and mixed sex couples (Steinfeld and Keiden v Secretary of State for International Development [2018]) ; • Police retention of DNA samples and profi les. Legality (Gaughran v United Kingdom [2020]); • Legality of pro-life protest (Dulgheriu v London Borough Council [2019]). Alex Carroll, MPhil, LLB, Cert Ed, was formerly Senior Lecturer in Law at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has also taught at the University of Manchester, Keele University and the University of Hong Kong.

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On 27 April 2005, an aircraft lifted away from the runway of Toulouse-Blagnac Airport under the power of six massive Rolls-Royce Trent 900 turbofan engines. It carried a six-man crew, it was making its first flight, and it was making history. For this was the Airbus A380, the largest passenger aircraft in the world. Airbus Industrie was a latecomer to the commercial airliner market, and initially struggled to win orders away from the well-established US giants, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. Part of Airbus's strategy for success was to offer customers distinct families of aircraft that could be tailored to meet a wide range of performance and capacity demands. Before 2005, the largest and arguably most important members of this family strategy were the Airbus A330 and 340 high-capacity airliners; then along came the A380. With air traffic continuing to double every 15 years, the A380 was designed to meet the needs of the passengers and airports, while also delivering the level of efficiency necessary to protect the environment for future generations. The design incorporated two full-length decks with wide-body dimensions, meaning its two passenger levels offered an entire deck's worth of additional space compared to the next largest twin-engine jetliner. With more seats than any other aircraft, the A380 offered solutions to overcrowding; needing fewer journeys to carry 60 percent more passengers, making it the perfect solution to airport congestion, fleet planning optimization and traffic growth. Typical seating capacity was 525, although the aircraft was certified to carry up to 853 passengers. By mid-2019, fifteen airlines were operating 238 aircraft throughout the world, the original customer being Singapore Airlines, which launched its first A380 service in October 2007\. Production of the A380 peaked at 30 aircraft per year in 2012 and 2014\. Then, in February 2019, the biggest customer, Emirates, announced that it was to reduce its latest order by 39 aircraft in favour of two other Airbus Models, the A350 and A330neo, a version using the same engines as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. For Airbus, it was the last act. The Company announced that production of the A380 would cease by 2021.

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In 2021, the world of cooking lost a legendary figure. Albert Roux, together with his brother Michel, transformed the way we eat, cook and appreciate food in this country. It is no exaggeration to say that most of what makes our current culinary landscape so vibrant began with these two brothers and their ground-breaking restaurant, Le Gavroche.Albert first arrived in England in the fifties, at a time of grey and brown food, with a nation still reeling from the effects of war and rationing. Cooking in the grand private houses of the aristocracy, he was to fall in love with the country and, after his military service, which he spent fighting in the Algerian Civil War, he would eventually make it his home for life. He and his brother set up Le Gavroche in 1967. It was to become the first restaurant in the UK to gain first one, and eventually three, Michelin stars. Together with their other restaurants, including the renowned Waterside Inn in Bray, it would go on to revolutionise the industry. The Roux restaurants set on their course an entire generation of award-winning chefs: his protégés include Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing, Rowley Leigh and Monica Galetti, to name just a tiny fraction. He won every plaudit possible in the world of food, and was granted an OBE, a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, and a papal knighthood.Albert's memoir takes us from his childhood in wartime France, where the ever-looming presence of the German troops made it a challenge for his mother to keep the family fed, right up to the almost instant success of Le Gavroche, which welcomed everybody from royalty - the Queen Mother and Princess Diana were both regulars - to Hollywood legends including Charlie Chaplin. He talks frankly about his famed relationship with his brother, and about the encounter which derailed his first boyhood ambition to join the priesthood. His drive, humour and joie de vivre leap off every page, and the insight into what it took to break new ground in the restaurant industry is unmatched.These are the last words from a pioneer, a hero who inspired entire generations of chefs. They tell the story not only of a titan of a man, but of an era that shaped the way we cook and eat today.

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'This captivating account . . . is the story of an ordinary soldier, but an extraordinary man. I commend this book most warmly.'Richard Dannatt, General The Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL, Chief of the General Staff 2006-9'The amazing account of a young man, Neville 'Timber' Wood, who, despite fighting in many of the major engagements of the Second World War, including Dunkirk, El Alamein and D-Day, survived to become a much-loved husband and father . . . brilliantly written . . . I highly recommend it'Eleanor TomlinsonThe son of a Hull butcher, Neville 'Timber' Wood volunteered in 1939, at the age of eighteen, to join the British Army's Tyne-Tees 50th Northumbrian Division. Timber was in many ways an entirely unremarkable soldier - he won no medals for gallantry, though he exhibited conspicuous bravery day after day, for years, and he rose no higher through the ranks than Lance Corporal. Nonetheless, he had an extraordinary war. As a driver for the Royal Army Service Corps, Timber's job was to get ammunition and high explosives to the front line. It was a job with a high casualty rate, sometimes higher than front-line troops. The 50th Division was the principal fighting division of the British Army in the Second World War. Four men of the 50th were awarded Victoria Crosses, more than any other division. It was last off the beach at Dunkirk and the first back on it on D-Day; the division was at the heart of El Alamein and the major actions which followed; it took part in the invasion of Sicily and fought all the way from Normandy to Germany, where Timber saw first-hand the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Timber's story is pretty much the British war experience from the point of view of an ordinary soldier. He was even captured, saw Rommel and escaped. This book, written by his son Mike, is based on Neville's extensive wartime diaries and original documents he retained from the war as well as on long conversations between the two of them when Mike transcribed the diaries as a gift for his father in 2006. Timber died in 2015.

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* "A richly entertaining account of tragic theatre accidents and murders most foul. If theatre walls could talk, what secrets would they reveal? Chris Wood provides fascinating answers with tales of brawling ushers, murderously jealous husbands, stampeding crowds and infant tragedies. A meticulously researched and vivid collection of lives lost in the palaces of dreams. A must-read for all lovers of the theatre, providing shocks and gasps of horror when real life proves to be more dramatic than any play on stage." - Hugh Bonneville * "Immaculately researched and beautifully macabre. This is a real treat for anyone who is either a fan of the theatre or of untimely deaths. I loved it!" - Peter James Britain's theatrical wonderland has been a cornerstone of culture for centuries, delighting and thrilling audiences with an assemblage of exhilarating spectacles. Beyond the trodden boards, and tucked neatly behind the curtain however, lies a catalogue of real life destruction and grisly murder that our greatest tragedians would surely be proud to have presided over. Tread the bloodied boards of Britain's theatres and witness the deathly dramas that have played out so dramatically within them. Death in the Theatre collects an astonishing selection of startling tragedies from Britain's throng of theatres. There is something especially staggering when the player exits life on their adorned stage, and yet, with this by no means an infrequent occurrence, death has made many a fearful cameo appearance - stalking the stalls and grimly reaping the galleries in its macabre and relentless fashion. In 1910 a strange midnight tragedy was enacted in a London theatre, where the brutal murder of an elderly stage carpenter prompted huge excitement among the theatre-going world and indeed wider public. How did a children's magic show descend into such unspeakable horror that would leave 183 youngsters dead in a Sunderland theatre, their tiny bodies brutally laid out in the dress circle for the bleakest of identity parades? Learn of outrageous tragedy such as the young man mauled to death by a lion in a Gloucester theatre, and the unfortunate victim killed in the Dumfries Theatre Royal - quite literally - by the limelight.

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'I will be thinking about Penny, Josephine and Archie for a while yet!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'A fun and entertaining story that made me laugh out loud!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Highly recommend!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐_____________________________________________________________A charming, uplifting and cosy mystery about two national treasures hiding official secrets and double lives - perfect for fans of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB.Revenge is a dish best served old...Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain's most treasured World War II veterans. Now in their nineties, Josephine and Penny are in demand, popping up at commemorative events all over the country. Despite their age, they're in great form-sprightly and sparky, and always in search of their next "excitement." This time it's a trip to Paris to receive the Légion d'honneur, accompanied by their devoted great-nephew, Archie.Keen historian Archie believes his great aunts had minor roles in the Women's Royal Navy and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but that's only half the story. There's a reason sweet Auntie Penny can dispatch a would-be mugger with a brolly. This trip to Paris is not what it seems either. Scandal and crime have quietly trailed the sisters since the war. Now armed with new information about an old adversary, these much decorated (but admittedly ancient) veterans intend to settle scores, avenge lost friends, and pull off one last heist before the curtain comes down on their illustrious careers.Penny and Josephine will return for more adventures in Jinx, coming in Spring 2025._____________________________________________________________ 'Funny, thrilling and brilliantly researched.' SJ Bennett'It's P.G. Wodehouse meets Dear Mrs Bird and it's utterly wonderful.' Annie Lyons 'Utterly charming and engrossing' Jenny Colgan 'A glorious, rip-roaring adventure, so funny and charming, yet laced with unexpected moments of real tenderness and reflection' Lucy Dillon'The literary equivalent to a perfect Martini, The Excitements is sharp, delicious, instantly mood-lifting and utterly intoxicating.' Kate Eberlen'Not all heroes wear capes, some wear M&S cardigans! A triumph!' Mike Gayle'A sublime mix of comedy, drama and adventure' Jill Mansell'Just pure joy from start to finish.' Alexandra Potter'I couldn't get enough of the wonderful Williamsons. More please!' Holly Hepburn

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'This captivating account . . . is the story of an ordinary soldier, but an extraordinary man. I commend this book most warmly.'Richard Dannatt, General The Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL, Chief of the General Staff 2006-9'The amazing account of a young man, Neville 'Timber' Wood, who, despite fighting in many of the major engagements of the Second World War, including Dunkirk, El Alamein and D-Day, survived to become a much-loved husband and father . . . brilliantly written . . . I highly recommend it'Eleanor TomlinsonThe son of a Hull butcher, Neville 'Timber' Wood volunteered in 1939, at the age of eighteen, to join the British Army's Tyne-Tees 50th Northumbrian Division. Timber was in many ways an entirely unremarkable soldier - he won no medals for gallantry, though he exhibited conspicuous bravery day after day, for years, and he rose no higher through the ranks than Lance Corporal. Nonetheless, he had an extraordinary war. As a driver for the Royal Army Service Corps, Timber's job was to get ammunition and high explosives to the front line. It was a job with a high casualty rate, sometimes higher than front-line troops. The 50th Division was the principal fighting division of the British Army in the Second World War. Four men of the 50th were awarded Victoria Crosses, more than any other division. It was last off the beach at Dunkirk and the first back on it on D-Day; the division was at the heart of El Alamein and the major actions which followed; it took part in the invasion of Sicily and fought all the way from Normandy to Germany, where Timber saw first-hand the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Timber's story is pretty much the British war experience from the point of view of an ordinary soldier. He was even captured, saw Rommel and escaped. This book, written by his son Mike, is based on Neville's extensive wartime diaries and original documents he retained from the war as well as on long conversations between the two of them when Mike transcribed the diaries as a gift for his father in 2006. Timber died in 2015.

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The King’s kitchen garden was created by La Quintinie in 1678 on a plot of land nearby the Château de Versailles to provide fruit and vegetables for Louis XIV’s dinner table to the Sun King’s great delight. The whole garden covers nine hectares and is composed of a sequence of smaller plots, garden chambers whose walls and terraces control exposure to the sun and create microclimates to diversify production. La Quintinie was able to cultivate and harvest figs, melons, asparagus, peaches, plums, pears and more, sometimes even out-of-season. The King’s kitchen garden is also a secluded haven, sheltered by high stone walls and foliage, conducive to daydreaming and letting time stand still. A listed national monument, it has been open to the public since 1991. Today the ethos of the King’s kitchen garden is to protect the living world and the diversity of species. It contains roughly four hundred and fifty varieties of fruit and four hundred varieties of vegetable. It has conserved its triple function as a place of cultivation, experimentation into new techniques and training in gardening. Today it welcomes students from the national school of gardening, who are allotted plots for their own practical endeavors, as well as courses in gardening theory and practice. The garden has been growing and teaching for more than three hundred years without interruption. Walking the alleys between the plots we sense the history of this magnificent royal garden and the people who have made it what it is over the centuries. This extensively illustrated book tells that story and brings the garden alive to readers. The first edition dates back to 2003. This new bilingual edition takes into account recent intervening evolutions at the garden.

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A FLAME TREE NOTEBOOK. Beautiful and luxurious the journals combine high-quality production with magnificent art. Perfect as a gift, and an essential personal choice for writers, notetakers, travellers, students, poets and diarists. Features a wide range of well-known and modern artists, with new artworks published throughout the year. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED. The highly crafted covers are printed on foil paper, embossed then foil stamped, complemented by the luxury binding and rose red end-papers. The covers are created by our artists and designers who spend many hours transforming original artwork into gorgeous 3d masterpieces that feel good in the hand, and look wonderful on a desk or table. PRACTICAL, EASY TO USE. Flame Tree Notebooks come with practical features too: a pocket at the back for scraps and receipts; two ribbon markers to help keep track of more than just a to-do list; robust ivory text paper, printed with lines; and when you need to collect other notes or scraps of paper the magnetic side flap keeps everything neat and tidy. THE ARTIST. Very little is known of Charlotte Cowan Pearson's life but it is known that she was admitted as a lady member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (now Botanical Society of Scotland) in 1894 and that she was an enthusiastic botanical artist. An album of Charlotte’s beautiful botanical paintings of British plants is held in the Library of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and pays witness to her talents as an artist. The artwork on this journal shows 'Stellaria nemorum, Lepidium campestre, Asperula odorata, Stellaria holostea' painted in 1871. THE FINAL WORD. As William Morris said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

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Ovid tells the story of Latona, the mother by Jupiter of Apollo and Diana. In her flight from the jealous Juno, she arrives faint and parched on the coast of Asia Minor. Kneeling to sip from a pond, Latona is met by the local peasants, who not only deny her effort but muddy the water in pure malice. Enraged, Latona calls a curse down upon the stingy peasants, turning them to frogs. In his masterful study, Thomas F. Hedin reveals how and why a fountain of this strange legend was installed in the heart of Versailles in the 1660s, the inaugural decade of Louis XIV’s patronage there. The natural supply of water was scarce and unwieldy, and it took the genius of the king’s hydraulic engineers, working in partnership with the landscape architect André Le Nôtre, to exploit it. If Ovid’s peasants were punished for their stubborn denial of water, so too the obstacles of coarse nature at Versailles were conquered; the aquatic iconography of the fountain was equivalent to the aquatic reality of the gardens. Latona was designed by Charles Le Brun, the most powerful artist at the court of Louis XIV, and carried out by Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy. The 1660s were rich in artistic theory in France, and the artists of the fountain delivered substantial lectures at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on subjects of central concern to their current work. What they professed was what they were visualizing in the gardens. As such, the fountain is an insider’s guide to the leading artistic ideals of the moment. Louis XIV was viewed as the reincarnation of Apollo, the god of creativity, the inspiration of artists and scientists. Hedin’s original argument is that Latona was a double declaration: a glorification of the king and a proud manifesto by artists.

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A fresh perspective on the global economic influences that shaped modern Egypt through the history of an affluent Cairo suburb, MaadiIn the early years of the twentieth century, a group of Egypt’s real-estate and transportation moguls embarked on the creation of a new residential establishment south of Cairo. The development was to epitomize the latest in community planning, merging attributes of town and country to create an idyllic domestic retreat just a short train ride away from the busy city center. They called the new community Maadi, after the ancient village that had long stood on the eastern bank of the Nile.Over the fifty years that followed, this new, modern Maadi would be associated with what many believed to be the best of modern Egypt: spacious villas, lush gardens, popular athleticism, and, most of all, profitability. Maadi: The Making and Unmaking of a Cairo Suburb, 1878–1962 explores Maadi's foundation and development, identifying how foreign economic privileges were integral to fashioning its idyllic qualities. While Maadi became home to influential Egyptians, including nationalists and royalty, it always remained exclusive—too exclusive to appeal to the growing number of lower-income Egyptians making homes in the capital. Annalise DeVries shows how Maadi’s history offers a fresh perspective on the global economic influences that shaped modern Egyptian history, as they helped configure not only the country’s politics but also the social and cultural practices of the well-to-do.Ultimately the means of Maadi’s appeal also paved the path for its undoing. When foreign tax and legal privileges were abolished, Maadi, too, became untethered from a vision for Egypt’s future and instead appeared more and more as a figure of the country’s past.

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They were supposed to be pious, fruitful and submissive. The wealthiest women in the kingdom, Anne Beauchamp and her daughters were at the heart of bitter inheritance disputes. Well educated and extravagant, they lived in style and splendour but were forced to navigate their lives around the unpredictable clashes of the Cousins' War. Were they pawns or did they exert an influence of their own? The twists and turns of Fate as well as the dynastic ambitions of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick saw Isabel married without royal permission to the Yorkist heir presumptive, George Duke of Clarence. Anne Neville was married to Edward of Lancaster, the only son of King Henry VI when her father turned his coat. One or the other was destined to become queen. Even so, the Countess of Warwick, heiress to one of the richest titles in England, could not avoid being declared legally dead so that her sons-in-law could take control of her titles and estates. Tragic Isabel, beloved by her husband, would experience the dangers of childbirth and on her death, her midwife was accused of witchcraft and murder. Her children both faced a traitor's death because of their Plantagenet blood. Anne Neville became the wife of Richard, Duke of Gloucester having survived a forced march, widowhood and the ambitions of Isabel's husband. When Gloucester took the throne as Richard III, she would become Shakespeare's tragic queen. The women behind the myth suffered misfortune and loss but fulfilled their domestic duties in the brutal world they inhabited and fought by the means available to them for what they believed to be rightfully their own. The lives of Countess Anne and her daughters have much to say about marriage, childbirth and survival of aristocratic women in the fifteenth century.

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'A dazzling chronicle, a bracing challenge to modernity's smug assumptions' - Bryce Christensen, Booklist'O what a world of profit and delightOf power, of honour and omnipotenceIs promised to the studious artisan.'Christopher Marlowe, Dr FaustusBetween the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Europe changed out of all recognition. Particularly transformative was the ardent quest for knowledge and the astounding discoveries and inventions which resulted from it. The movement of blood round the body; the movement of the earth round the sun; the velocity of falling objects (and, indeed, why objects fall) - these and numerous other mysteries had been solved by scholars in earnest pursuit of scientia. This fascinating account of the profound changes undergone by Europe between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment will cover ground including folk religion and its pagan past; Catholicism and its saintly dogma; alchemy, astrology and natural philosophy; Islamic and Jewish traditions; and the discovery of new countries and cultures.By the mid-seventeenth century 'science mania' had set in; the quest for knowledge had become a pursuit of cultured gentlemen. In 1663 The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge received its charter. Three years later the French Academy of Sciences was founded. Most other European capitals were not slow to follow suit. In 1725 we encounter the first use of the word 'science' meaning 'a branch of study concerned either with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts systematically classified'. Yet, it was only nine years since the last witch had been executed in Britain - a reminder that, although the relationship of people to their environment was changing profoundly, deep-rooted fears and attitudes remained strong.

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