Search results for ""author thames"

In recognition of the town’s long history and rich heritage, the poems gathered in this anthology celebrate Reading’s connections with poetry, both past and present. Written by poets who live or have lived in the area, many of the poems are set in Reading and the Thames Valley and make reference to poems and writers associated with the town over the years: Coleridge in flight from his university debts, Rimbaud’s association with a language school in King’s Road, Oscar Wilde’s ‘Ballad of Reading Gaol’, Jane Austen’s only formal schooling, and Dickens’s many visits to the town. The anthology is also an essential introduction to reading poetry. Each poet has provided his or her own account of their relation to the anthology’s theme, their inspiration, their muse. The poets represented are Paul Bavister, Adrian Blamires, David Cooke, Jane Draycott, Claire Dyer, John Froy, A.F. Harrold, Ian House, Wendy Klein, Gill Learner, Allison McVety, Kate Noakes, Victoria Pugh, Peter Robinson, Lesley Saunders, Susan Utting, and Jean Watkins. Specially commissioned illustrations from Sally Castle round off this refreshingly approachable collection.

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The world’s best hikes and walks in one volume with breathtaking photography, detailed terrain and route guides, maps, and expert descriptions—whether you need to unplug for an afternoon or get away for longer.A carefully selected collection of 200 routes designed to appeal to perambulatory enthusiasts of all stripes. From vigorous hikes around Lake Tahoe to enjoying the charms of England’s Thames Valley, there is something for everyone.Itineraries cover a range of sights sure to appeal to a diverse audience: pastoral countrysides, dramatic mountain views, soothing seaside panoramas, and historical landscapes such as famous battle sites or medieval pilgrimage routes. Expert descriptions include facts and trivia only locals would know and call out special not-to-be-missed features. Some routes are easy and take a few hours, while others might require a few days to complete.The book is organized into 50 main itineraries that link to three to five additional similar or related routes. Sample entries include New England’s Franconia Ridge Loop, Washington’s Mount Rainier Trail, the pilgrimage route of Saint Francis in Italy, and Mont Blanc, where France, Italy, and Switzerland meet.

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The Regent's Canal, the Limehouse Cut, the Hertford Union and the Lee Navigation collectively cut a swathe through north and east London. This 14-mile path, cycle and waterway is a journey full of intriguing contrasts: - From the amateur sports fields of Regent's Park to London's new Olympic Park. - From the studio where Hitchcock directed some of his early films to MTV in Camden Lock. - From fine period housing to industrial wasteland, social housing and new canalside builds. - From the pleasure boats chugging to Camden to the sleek Eurostars roaring off to Paris. The use of canals has changed dramatically over the past fifty years from one of industrial transportation to waterfront living and leisure activities. The canals in this book have undergone major phases of rebirth with new developments at King's Cross, Limehouse and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Newham. Illustrator and writer David Fathers offers a snapshot of how the canals were formed and how they appear today, in a series of arresting and information-packed pages following a course from Little Venice to the River Thames at Limehouse, and on to the Olympic Park.

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Everyone has something interesting to say if you take the time to listen. The Interview Chain is a series of conversations-each interviewee was asked to nominate someone they admire as the next link. Starting from a casual conversation on a boat on the Thames, the chain wended its way for over 23,000 miles, alighting on three continents and gathering up personal perspectives on issues that really matter in the world today. The interviewees include a theatre director, a rabbi, a philanthropist, a sculptor, a New York Mayoral candidate, a pioneering documentary maker, and a man who rescues giant trees. Some have worked in challenging places-Kabul in the time of the Taliban, a Romanian orphanage, immigration detention centres, remote Indian villages-while others have found themselves caught up in extraordinary situations such as the Rwandan genocide, the Ferguson uprising, and the UN Climate Change Negotiations. This is the most lovely approach to tell social change stories that I have read about ever, and it is an overwhelming honor to be part of this book. Ruth Messinger, Global Ambassador to the American Jewish World Service and former New York City political leader.

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The history of Greenwich in South East London is defined by its location on the Southbank of the River Thames and its proximity to central London. Since its foundation, the people of Greenwich have worked in maritime industries and served the great metropolis, as well as everyday occupations and trades in the town. Greenwich Palace was the home of the Tudor monarchs, later becoming the Royal Naval Hospital then the Royal Naval College, and at the other end of the social scale the Greenwich peninsula has been home to many of those who worked in Londonʼs industries and in the docks nearby, accessible through the foot tunnel under the river. Greenwich Power Station was built to power Londonʼs trams and underground railways and today the old industrial area of North and East Greenwich is home to the O2 Arena and the Millennium Village built on the site of a submarine cable manufacturer. The centre of Greenwich is today a mixture of old and new, the centuries-old market continuing to attract many new visitors. Greenwich at Work explores the working life of this South East London town and its people, and the industries that have characterised it. The book will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of Greenwich.

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Women’s participation in parliaments, high courts, and executive offices worldwide has reached record high numbers, but this global increase in women’s representation masks significant variation among different democratic political systems. For example, in December of 2009, Rwanda’s legislature contained 56% women, while the U.S. Congress contained only about 17% and the Japanese Diet had only 11%. Since 2000, only twenty-seven women have achieved executive office worldwide. Contagious Representation is a comprehensive look at women’s participation in all aspects of public life in the main democratic political institutions—the executive, the judiciary, the legislature, and within political parties. Moving beyond studies of single countries and institutions, Contagious Representation presents original data from 159 democratic countries spanning 50 years, providing a comprehensive understanding of women in democracies worldwide. The first volume to offer an analysis on all avenues for women’s participation for such a lengthy time period, Contagious Representation examines not only the causes of women’s representation in the main democratic political institutions but also how women’s representation in one institution affects the others. Each chapter contains case studies and examples of the change in women’s participation over time from around the world. Thames and Williams definitively explain the rise, decline, or stagnant levels of women’s political participation, considering how representation is contagious across political institutions and gaining a better understanding of what factors affect women’s political participation.

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'This is to my shame the first Mark Ellis book I've read. If the others evoke a vanished London so impressively, are graced with such complex plots and deep characterisation, and, above all, are written so well I shall have to read them all.' THE TIMES 'An atmospheric, compelling evocation of war-torn London in the wake of the Blitz, where DCI Frank Merlin fights against a tidal wave of crime' GEOFFREY WANSELL, Crime and Thriller Reviewer, DAILY MAILSummer, 1942.The Second World War rages on but Britain now faces the Nazi threat with America at its side.In a bombed-out London swarming with gangsters and spies, DCI Frank Merlin continues his battle against rampant wartime crime. A mangled body is found in the Thames just as some items of priceless art go mysteriously missing. What sinister connection links the two?Merlin and his team follow a twisting trail of secrets and lies as they investigate a baffling and deadly puzzle .'Unputdownable' ROBERT LYMAN'Mark Ellis delivers diamonds - an intriguing, masterly juggling of an intricate plot and an enviable command of detail.' JOHN LAWTON'Extraordinarily atmospheric and compelling, DEAD IN THE WATER is a wonderfully intelligent and complex story' CHRIS LLOYD, HWA Gold Crown Award winner.'...historical noir at its best. Mark Ellis's talents as a writer are many; finely embroidered plotting, a meticulously researched historical context and place, and rounded characters whose lives and capers become real for a reader' GARY DONNELLY'A very satisfying puzzle, expertly crafted' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETYPraise for the DCI Frank Merlin series:'Masterly . . . compelling . . . one of the most attractive characters to emerge in recent detective-thriller fiction' ANDREW ROBERTS, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR'Against the backdrop of Blitz-hit London, this stylish thriller sees Scotland Yard's Frank Merlin investigate a tangled conspiracy' SUNDAY MIRROR

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‘I don’t know how I became so filled with hate. I find it shocking that I did. Somebody said to me that war affects us in all kinds of ways, and that drinking is only one of them. Perhaps hating people is another. Perhaps sex is too.’ 1943, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Roach is forced by the war to flee London for the Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house, a place as grey and lonely as its residents. From the safety of these new quarters, her war effort now consists of a thousand petty humiliations, of which the most burdensome is sharing her daily life with the unbearable Mr Thwaites. But a breath of fresh air arrives in the form of a handsome American lieutenant and things start to look distinctly brighter. Until a new boarder moves into the room next to Miss Roach’s – outwardly friendly, she soon starts upsetting the precarious balance in the house. Nicholas Wright’s play The Slaves of Solitude weaves a fascinating blend of dark hilarity and melancholy from Patrick Hamilton’s much-loved story about an improbable heroine in wartime Britain. The play premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2017.

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In the 1920s, an upstart West Coast college began to challenge the Eastern universities in the ancient sport of crew racing. Sportswriters scoffed at the “crude western boats” and their crews. But for the next forty years, the University of Washington dominated rowing around the world. The secret of the Huskies’ success was George Pocock, a soft-spoken English immigrant raised on the banks of the Thames. Pocock combined perfectionism with innovation to make the lightest, best-balanced, fastest shells the world had ever seen. After studying the magnificent canoes built by Northwest Indians, he broke with tradition and began to make shells of native cedar. Pocock, who had been a champion sculler in his youth, never credited his boats for the accomplishments of a crew. He wanted every rower to share his vision of discipline and teamwork. As rowers from the University of Washington went on to become coaches at major universities across the country, Pocock’s philosophy—and his shells—became nationally famous in the world of crew. Drawing on documents provided by Pocock’s family, photographs from the University of Washington Crew Archives, and interviews with rowers who revered the man, Newell evokes the times as well as the life of this unique figure in American sport.

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To catch an enemy with nothing to lose, MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle must venture into dangerous waters. When pirates attack a cargo ship off the Somalian coast and one of them is found to be a British-born Pakistani, alarm bells start ringing at London's Thames House. MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is brought in to establish how and why a young British Muslim could go missing from his well-to-do family in Birmingham and end up onboard a pirate skiff in the Indian Ocean, armed with a Kalashnikov. After an undercover operative connected to the case turns up dead in the shipping office of an NGO in Athens it looks like piracy may be the least of the Service's problems. Liz and her team must unravel the connections between Pakistan, Greece and Somalia, relying on their wits - and the judicious use of force - to get to the truth. And they don't have long, as trouble is brewing closer to home: the kind of explosive trouble that MI5 could do without ... In this tense and heart-stopping spy thriller, the secrets are deep, the stakes are high and the enemy is always just out of sight... THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN, the brand-new thriller from Stella Rimington, is out now.

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A must-have guide for any walker looking for a challenge and wanting to escape the city, this explores the London LOOP London Outer Orbital Path (The London LOOP ) which follows a green corridor right around the capital. This spectacular route offers a circular walk among secret countryside that will make you forget you're within a few miles of Heathrow Airport, the A13, or the suburban sprawl of Croydon, Watford or Dagenham. Here is rolling downland near Coulsdon, the forest of Enfield Chase, the lonely Thames marshes at Rainham, the classical parkland of Bushy Park and a canalside stroll at Uxbridge. London could not seem further away. Split into 15 sections that each represent a day's walk of reasonable length, this walker's companion gives detailed descriptions of each walk, including numerous points of interest and key sites numbered in the text and on the maps for easy identification. With background information on everything from local history, architecture, archaeology, industry, land-use and wildlife plus full information on public transport access to the start and finish of each walk, this book shows you how to escape the Big Smoke for the day – without going too far!

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A direct rail link from east to west across London was a vision for over 35 years, and with the arrival of the Elizabeth Line it finally became a reality. The opening of this line, with its improved connectivity and shorter journeys, is great news for walkers - never before has it been so easy to get out and explore new places and see new sights. This book covers the entirety of the line's sweep, from Shenfield in the east to Reading in the west. There are 23 walks, all starting at an Elizabeth Line station. Along the way you'll explore the very best that London and the south-east has to offer, from fascinating urban landscapes and must-see historic sites to serene countryside and meandering waterways. Highlights include: * Hidden alleyways & dreamy squares in central London * Panoramic views of the London skyline at Abbey Wood * History & architectural splendour at the likes of Greenwich & Whitechapel * Wide-open spaces & waterways of the Loddon Valley, Richmond & Reading * London's iconic green spaces including Green Park, Hyde Park & more * Peaceful countryside around Brentwood, Ealing & Romford * Classic routes along the River Thames at Maidenhead & Taplow * The impressive modern architecture & waterways of Olympic Park

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'A rich jewel of a story, full of desire and danger' - Julie Cohen. A dark tale of love and obsession, perfect for fans of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock and The Wicked Cometh. London, 1853. Annie Stride has nothing left to live for - she is a penniless prostitute, newly evicted from her home and pregnant. On the night she plans to cast herself from Waterloo Bridge into the icy waters of the Thames, her life is saved by Francis Maybrick Gill, a talented pre-Raphaelite painter - and her world is changed forever.Francis takes Annie as his artist's muse, elevating her from fallen woman to society's darling. With her otherworldly beauty now the toast of London, her dark past is left far behind. But Annie's lavish new life is not all it seems - and there are some who won't let her forget where she came from...'A thrilling tale of love, lust and revenge' The Lady'A captivating gothic blend of mystery and romance' Sunday Mirror'Exquisite...this is historical fiction at its best' - Book Literarti Reviews'Gothic, dark [and] rich with atmosphere' - Louise Loves books'A glorious story of art and passion' - Tea Party Princess'Dazzling' Goodreads Reviewer'Captivating' Goodreads Reviewer

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Based on a true story, London Lies Beneath is a compelling historical novel from the award-winning writer Stella Duffy.'As gloriously alive as the turn of the century south London streets it portrays' REDIn August 1912, three friends set out on an adventure. Two of them come home. Tom, Jimmy and Itzhak have grown up together in the crowded slums of Walworth. All three boys are expected to follow their father's trades and stay close to home. But Tom has wider dreams. So when he hears of a scouting trip, sailing from Waterloo to Sheppey and the mouth of the Thames - he is determined to go. And Itzhak and Jimmy go with him.Inspired by real events, this is the story of three friends, and a tragedy that will change them for ever. It is also a song of south London, of working class families with hidden histories, of a bright and complex world long neglected. London Lies Beneath is a powerful and compelling novel, rich with life and full of wisdom.'Vivid and full of heart, Duffy's new novel is a fitting hymn to the city that inspired it' FINANCIAL TIMES'A paean not just to South London, but to a vanished way of working-class life . . . Duffy's narrative is as fluid as a costermonger's patter, carrying the reader along' DAILY MAIL

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Explore the treasures of The Frick Collection through the eyes of a diverse group of contemporary writers, artists and other cultural figures, from George Condo, Lydia Davis and Julie Mehretu to Abbi Jacobson and Edmund White A cultural haven for museumgoers in New York and beyond, The Frick Collection holds masterpieces by some of the most celebrated artists in the Western tradition—among them Bellini, Gainsborough, Goya, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Whistler—installed in a Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue. This book includes 61 reflections on the Frick’s preeminent collection, with the contributors writing about an artwork that has personal significance, sharing how it has moved, challenged, puzzled or inspired them. Each text is accompanied by an illustration of the artwork. For example, writer Jonathan Lethem tells how he started going to the Frick as a teenager, to gaze at Hans Holbein’s portraits of Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More. Historian Simon Schama revels in Turner’s Mortlake Terrace: Early Summer Morning, which reminds him of his own childhood growing up next to the River Thames. This engaging anthology attests to the inspirational power of art and reminds us that there is no one way to look. Authors include: André Aciman, Ida Applebroog, Firelei Báez, Victoria Beckham, Tom Bianchi, Carter Brey, Rosanne Cash, Jerome Charyn, Roz Chast, George Condo, Gregory Crewdson, Joan K. Davidson, Lydia Davis, Edmund de Waal, Rineke Dijkstra, Mark Doty, Lena Dunham, Stephen Ellcock, Donald Fagen, Rachel Feinstein and John Currin, Teresita Fernández, Bryan Ferry, Michael Frank, Moeko Fujii, Adam Gopnik, Vivian Gornick, Agnes Gund, Carolina Herrera, Alexandra Horowitz, Abbi Jacobson, Bill T. Jones, Maira Kalman, Nina Katchadourian, Susanna Kaysen, Jonathan Lethem, Kate D. Levin, David Masello, Julie Mehretu, Daniel Mendelsohn, Rick Meyerowitz, Duane Michals, Susan Minot, Mark Morris, Nico Muhly, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu, Catherine Opie, Jed Perl, Taylor M. Polites, Diana Rigg, Jenny Saville, Simon Schama, Lloyd Schwartz, Annabelle Selldorf, Arlene Shechet, Judith Thurman, Colm Tóibín, Chris Ware, Darren Waterston, Edmund White and Robert Wilson.

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This Insight Guide is a lavishly illustrated inspirational travel guide to England and a beautiful souvenir of your trip. Perfect for travellers looking for a deeper dive into the destination's history and culture, it's ideal to inspire and help you plan your travels. With its great selection of places to see and colourful magazine-style layout, this England guidebook is just the tool you need to accompany you before or during your trip. Whether it's deciding when to go, choosing what to see or creating a travel plan to cover key places like the Lake District, Stonehenge, it will answer all the questions you might have along the way. It will also help guide you when you'll be exploring Stratford-upon-Avon or discovering the Cotswolds on the ground. Our England travel guide was fully-updated post-COVID-19.The Insight Guide ENGLAND covers: Central London, the City and Southwark, Kensington and Chelsea, day trips along the Thames, the Thames Valley, Oxford, the Cotswolds, Shakespeare Country, Cambridge, East Anglia, Canterbury and the Southeast, Brighton and the Downs, Hampshire, Wiltshire.In this guide book to England you will find: IN-DEPTH CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL FEATURES Created to provide a deeper dive into the culture and the history of England to get a greater understanding of its modern-day life, people and politics. BEST OFThe top attractions and Editor's Choice featured in this England guide book highlight the most special places to visit.TIPS AND FACTSUp-to-date historical timeline and in-depth cultural background to England as well as an introduction to England's food and drink, and fun destination-specific features. PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION A-Z of useful advice on everything, from when to go to England, how to get there and how to get around, to England's climate, advice on tipping, etiquette and more.COLOUR-CODED CHAPTERS Every part of the destination, from Central London to Canterbury and the Southeast has its own colour assigned for easy navigation of this England travel guide.CURATED PLACES, HIGH-QUALITY MAPSGeographically organised text, cross-referenced against full-colour, high-quality travel maps for quick orientation in Oxford, Cambridge and many other locations in England.STRIKING PICTURESThis guide book to England features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning York Minster and the spectacular Tower of London.FREE EBOOK Free eBook download with every purchase of this travel guide to England to access all the content from your phone or tablet, for on-the-road exploration.

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'Move over Morse. Simon Mason Oxford crime novel breathes fresh life into the police procedural' Val McDermid'There is no one else like him' Mark Sanderson The Times/Sunday Times Crime ClubA DI RYAN WILKINS MYSTERYA SHOCKING DISAPPEARANCEA four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area,her mother only a stones-throw away.A TRIGGERING RESPONSERyan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.A DARK WEBRay begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of criminal forces in the local area. But while Ray's investigation stalls Ryan brings his unique talents to unofficial and quite illegal inquiries which will bring him into a confrontation with the very officials who have thrown him out of the force.Praise for the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries'Mason has reformulated Inspector Morse for the 2020s' The Times'Start now and avoid the rush' Guardian

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'Ohe banks of the Thames it is a tremendous chapter of accidents'. As Henry James surveys London in 1888, he sums up what had fascinated urban observers for a century: the random and even accidental development of this unprecedented form of human settlement, the modern metropolis. By Accident or Design: Writing the Victorian Metropolis takes James at his word, arguing that accident was both a powerful metaphor and material context through which the Victorians arrested the paradoxes of metropolitan modernity and reconfigured understandings of form and change. Paul Fyfe shows how the material conditions of urban accidents offer new and compelling modes of analysis for intellectual and literary history. Through extensive archival study and interdisciplinary analysis of urban-industrial accidents, risk management, and civic improvements, By Accident or Design reclaims the metropolis as ground zero for some of the most important thinking about causation in the nineteenth century. It demonstrates the centrality of interdependent concepts of design and accident not only to metropolitan discourse, but also to current critical discourse about the formal and circulatory dynamics of Victorian metropolitan writing. Thus, this book offers a new vocabulary for the dialectics of the modern city and the signature forms of writing about it, including the newspaper, the illustrated periodical, the industrial novel, and urban broadsheets.

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London, 1716. Revenge is a dish best served ice-cold…’An immersive, action-packed thriller with intrigue in the air and threats around every corner’ The Herald’Great fun ... the language is colourful and the action never stops’ Laura Shepherd-RobinsonThe city is caught in the vice-like grip of a savage winter. Even the Thames has frozen over. But for Jonas Flynt – thief, gambler, killer – the chilling elements are the least of his worries…Justice Geoffrey Dumont has been found dead at the base of St Paul’s cathedral, and a young male sex-worker, Sam Yates, has been taken into custody for the murder. Yates denies all charges, claiming he had received a message to meet the judge at the exact time of death.The young man is a friend of courtesan Belle St Clair, and she asks Flynt to investigate. As Sam endures the horrors of Newgate prison, they must do everything in their power to uncover the truth and save an innocent life, before the bodies begin to pile up.But time is running out. And the gallows are beckoning...A totally enrapturing portrayal of eighteenth-century London, and a rapier-like crime thriller, perfect for fans of Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Antonia Hodgson and Ambrose Parry.

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Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history . . . Relocated to Victorian London, the TimeRiders joy-ride back to 1666 to witness the Great Fire of London. In the ensuing chaos, Liam and their newest recruit, Rashim, find themselves trapped between the fire and the Thames. They escape onboard a river boat, only to be confronted by an unscrupulous captain with his heart set on treasures of the high seas . . . Back in 1888, Maddy and the rest of the team are frantically trying to track them down. But with limited resources at their new base, can Liam and Rashim survive the bloodthirsty and barbaric age of piracy long enough to be rescued?** Book seven in the bestselling TimeRiders series by Alex Scarrow. ** The Golden Age of Piracy get a time-travel makeover!** Perfect for fans of Doctor Who and Pirates of the Caribbean. ** TimeRiders (Book 1) won the Red House Book Award older readers category, and was Penguin UK's first ever number one on the iBookstore. ** www.time-riders.co.uk

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The revised edition of the classic cycling guide by Harold Briercliffe of 1950. Used as the inspiration for the Britain by Bike television series and a vital part of the award-winning Britain by Bike book by Jane Eastoe, the original book is reproduced along with suggested cycling routes in the Central England region for today's cyclists. Harold Briercliffe was the Alfred Wainwright of cycling and his books provide great insight into cycling in various parts of the UK in the 1940s. Harold's fascinating description of the towns, villages and roads of Britain at the time is a joy for all those who love these isles and especially for cyclists looking for inspiration. Many roads have changed over the decades and are now too busy for enjoyable cycling, so Mark Jarman, along with Sustrans, have made suggestions for alternative routes in the region for today's cyclists. The book includes the original photographs taken by Harold Briercliffe and the original illustrations. The Cycling Touring Guide: Southern England covers cycle routes in the Thames Valley and the Cotswolds, The Isle of Wight, The New Forest, between London and the South Coast, and routes along the South Coast. The cycle routes vary in length from half day and day-long trips to weekend and week-long tours.

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Excavations conducted between 1981 and 1986 in advance of gravel extraction in Gravelly Guy field, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, revealed archaeological evidence spanning from the Neolithic through to the Saxon period. Neolithic and early Bronze Age activity is represented by pit scatters and a series of ring ditches with associated burials. The Iron Age and early Roman periods witnessed the continuous development of a linear settlement, consisting of a dense area of pits, gullies, circular structures, four-posters and boundary ditches in the mid to late Iron Age phase and a series of rectilinear enclosures and unusual 'ramped hollows' and wells in the late Iron Age/early Roman period. Excavation of a section at the junction of the floodplain and the gravel terrace has also provided information regarding the changing land use and contemporary environment in the vicinity of the site. Gravelly Guy remains one of the most thoroughly excavated sites of this period in the Thames Valley. As well as the vast amount of structural evidence, the considerable quantities of artefacts and environmental information recovered, together with a series of ten radiocarbon dates, have resulted in a detailed study of the site, its position in the landscape and relationship to the contemporary archaeology of the surrounding area.

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As winter closes its grip on snow-bound London, a cleaner determines to solve the case that her detective father never could. A Kindle number one bestseller. It was the murder that shocked the nation. Kate Rokesmith, a young mother, walked to the banks of the Thames with her three-year-old son. She never came home. For three decades, the case file has lain, unsolved, in the corner of an attic. Until the detective's daughter, Stella Darnell, starts to clear out her father's house after his death... Reviews for The Detective's Daughter: 'A haunting novel about loss and reconciliation, driven by a simple but clever plot' Sunday Times 'This book has a clever mystery plot – but its excellence is in the characters, all credible and memorable, and in its setting in a real West London street, exactly described' Literary Review 'A thoughtful, well-observed story... It reminded me of Kate Atkinson' Scott Pack 'A cerebral thriller... Evokes chills from more than just the frigid winter nights' Forward Reviews Magazine 'Lesley Thomson gets better and better' Ian Rankin

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This timely follow-up to Conway’s highly successful Marine Art of Geoff Hunt (2004) presents the considerable artistic output of Britain’s leading marine painter since 2003. This new volume is heavily illustrated with images ranging from large paintings to sketchbook drawings with text written by the artist himself. The new book reflects Hunt's developing career during a time in which he served a five-year term as President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, worked on large-scale paintings such as the definitive Mary Rose,and also completed numerous outdoor sketches and paintings. The book is divided into six sections: 1. The Sea Painter's World, an introduction to the artist's studio work at Merton Place, London and his plein air work on the River Thames; 2. Home Waters; 3. The Mediterranean; 4. In the Wake of Nelson; 5. North America and 6. The West Indies and Beyond. This concept sets Geoff's work in a broadly geographical context, showcasing the artist's freer plein air style alongside the exhaustively researched maritime history paintings to which he owes his standing as Britain’s leading marine artist.

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The people of Oxfordshire certainly know how to enjoy themselves, and take part in many varied and remarkable customs, sports and traditions that are held annually around the county. Some of these, like the May Morning and Beating the Bounds, go back for centuries but have been altered and adapted over the years. Others are relatively recent revivals, such as the agricultural show at Thame, which is Victorian in origin. The last fifty years has seen an unprecedented number of new celebrations, which have become traditions in their own right. Foremost among these are the Cropredy and Towersey folk festivals. Above all, these events are community-based and often also charity fund-raisers. Some of those featured here include the Bampton Great Shirt race, egg jarping at Chinnor, the Banbury Hobby Horse festival, Abingdon Morris Dancers Mock Mayor Elections, the Pumpkin Club, and the pub game Aunt Sally, which is virtually unknown outside of the county, among many others. Illustrated with 180 superb photographs, this book features funfairs and fêtes, celebrations and carnivals, games and shows, each one a unique celebration of Oxfordshire’s heritage.

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First full-length account of St Stephen's Chapel, bringing out its full importance and influence throughout the Middle Ages. In St Stephen's College, the royally-favoured religious institution at the heart of the busy administrative world of the Palace of Westminster, church and state met and collaborated for two centuries, from its foundation to pray for the royal dead by Edward III in 1348, until it was swept away by the second wave of the Reformation in 1548. Monarchs and visitors worshipped in the distinctive chapel on the Thames riverfront. Even when the king and his household were absent, the college's architecture, liturgy and musical strength proclaimed royal piety and royal support for the Church to all who passed by. This monograph recreates a lost institution, whose spectacular cloister still survives deep within the modern Houses of Parliament. It examines its relationship with every English king from Edward III to Edward VI, how it defined itself as the "king's chief chapel" through turbulent dynastic politics,and its contributions to the early years of the English Reformation. It offers a new perspective on the workings of political, administrative and court life in medieval and early modern Westminster.

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It is January 2017. E.G. Rawlings, a noted foreign correspondent forced into retirement after a serious injury in the field, arrives by boat at a vacant mooring on the Thames. To his surprise, he finds it is owned by an old friend from Afghanistan, Isobel Mallinson, the widow of a British diplomat. On learning that Rawlings is now writing an account of his war experiences, Isobel allows him to use her mooring for the year he needs to finish his memoir. During the months that follow, Rawlings, suffering from PTSD and in terrible emotional and physical pain, finds solace in the peaceful life of the river and the community he finds there. Although a loner by nature, he becomes particularly close to Marnie, a middle-aged art teacher with a fragile heart who lives near him in the boathouse. He begins to tell Marnie his story, explaining the unexpected events that have resulted in what he calls 'turning points' in his life, taking him in surprising and new directions. Little does the jaded reporter realise that another turning point is just around the corner that will not only profoundly affect his life, but also the lives of all those around him.

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The queen of the Victorian mystery, New York Times bestseller Anne Perry returns with the 22nd novel in the William Monk series REVENGE IN A COLD RIVER. An adversary Monk cannot remember threatens everything he holds dear - will he survive what is to come?London, 1869: The body of a middle-aged man is found tangled in a mass of rope and wooden wreckage near the dockside of the River Thames.Commander William Monk of the River Police is called when initial investigations reveal the man was shot in the back. When he learns that the man was a master forger who had just escaped prison, Monk's interest is immediately piqued. But as his investigations lead him ever deeper into the murky world of smuggling and forgery, Monk is forced to confront his own forgotten past.The unsolicited interference of an old foe takes precedence as it becomes clear to Monk that a bitter enemy is back for revenge and has him in his sights. With his life and career in imminent danger, can Monk navigate his way to the truth before it is too late?Commander William Monk - A man with no past has only his conscience and instinct to guide him.

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A unique, colorful view of Victorian London when residents both famous and now-forgotten endured “the Great Stink” across one hot summer​ While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. And yet, historian Rosemary Ashton reveals in this compelling microhistory, 1858 was marked by significant, if unrecognized, turning points. For ordinary people, and also for the rich, famous, and powerful, the months from May to August turned out to be a summer of consequence. Ashton mines Victorian letters and gossip, diaries, court records, newspapers, and other contemporary sources to uncover historically crucial moments in the lives of three protagonists—Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli. She also introduces others who gained renown in the headlines of the day, among them George Eliot, Karl Marx, William Thackeray, and Edward Bulwer Lytton. Ashton reveals invisible threads of connection among Londoners at every social level in 1858, bringing the celebrated city and its citizens vibrantly to life.

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A new survey of major Templar landholdings offers fresh insights into key questions about their medieval history. Much has been written about the history of the Knights Templar, the legendary Order of military monks. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the Templar estates in Western Christendom which supported their endeavours. Set within the context of the turbulent history of medieval and Tudor England, the book follows the fate of the Templar estates in the county of Lincolnshire. Beginning with the survey of Templar property undertaken by Geoffrey FitzStephen in 1185, the story of the estates is followed through the primary sources of the estate accounts of 1307-1312, the Report of Philip de Thame of 1338, the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 and the 1557 letter patent of Mary Tudor. What emerges is the previously untold tale of the characteristics of the estates, the personnel who were involved and the nature of Templar agriculture in the early fourteenth century. A number of major questions are addressed, including how Edward II dealt with the Templar estates after the arrest of the Order in 1308; whether all the Templar estates were transferred to the Hospitallers as is widely supposed; and what happened to the Hospitaller inheritance of Templar lands during the English Reformation.

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Cleansing the City: Sanitary Geographies in Victorian Londonexplores not only the challenges faced by reformers as they strove toclean up an increasingly filthy city but the resistance to their efforts.Beginning in the 1830s, reform-minded citizens, under the banner of sanitaryimprovement, plunged into London’s dark and dirty spaces and returned withthe material they needed to promote public health legislation and magnificentprojects of sanitary engineering. Sanitary reform, however, was not alwaysmet with unqualified enthusiasm. While some improvements, such as slumclearances, the development of sewerage, and the embankment of the Thames,may have made London a cleaner place to live, these projects also destroyedand reshaped the built environment, and in doing so, altered the meanings andexperiences of the city. From the novels of Charles Dickens and George Gissing to anonymous magazinearticles and pamphlets, resistance to reform found expression in the nostalgicappreciation of a threatened urban landscape and anxiety about domestic autonomyin an era of networked sanitary services. Cleansing the City emphasizes the disruptions and disorientation occasioned by purification—a process we are generally inclined to see as positive. By recovering these sometimes oppositional, sometimes ambivalent responses, Michelle Allen elevates a significant undercurrent of Victorian thought into the mainstream and thus provides insight into the contested nature of sanitary modernization.

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In her famous speech to rouse the English troops staking out Tilbury at the mouth of the Thames during the Spanish Armada's campaign, Queen Elizabeth I is said to have proclaimed, "I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king." Whether or not the transcription is accurate, the persistent attribution of this provocative statement to England's most studied and celebrated queen illustrates some of the contradictions and cultural anxieties that dominated the collective consciousness of England during a reign that lasted from 1558 until 1603. In The Heart and Stomach of a King, Carole Levin explores the myriad ways the unmarried, childless Elizabeth represented herself and the ways members of her court, foreign ambassadors, and subjects represented and responded to her as a public figure. In particular, Levin interrogates the gender constructions, role expectations, and beliefs about sexuality that influenced her public persona and the way she was perceived as a female Protestant ruler. With a new introduction that situates the book within the emerging genre of cultural biography, the second edition of The Heart and Stomach of a King offers insight into the continued fascination with Elizabeth I and her reign.

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Tudor London was a vibrant capital city, the very hub of English cultural and political life. The thriving metropolis had a strong royal presence, at the long established Tower of London and Westminster, and later at the palaces of Whitehall, Bridewell and St James’s, built by Henry VIII to host his glittering court. Anne Boleyn was assigned a house in the Strand, with gardens running down to the river, while Elizabeth I stayed occasionally at Somerset House. The great and the good gravitated to the city too: Erasmus lodged with Sir Thomas More and his family in Bucklesbury, off Cheapside; Sir Walter Raleigh wrote poetry in his study in Durham House, overlooking the Thames and William Shakespeare lodged in Silver Street. Like today, streets and areas grew up with their own distinct personality: Bankside and Shoreditch were the first theatre and entertainment districts where the Globe Theatre was built to sit alongside the bear-baiting rings. Londoners themselves, and the many immigrants who flocked from the continent, created a lively, raucous society in the streets, markets and the hundreds of inns and ale-houses. Everyday Life in Tudor London vividly recreates this colourful city.

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May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth is a privileged glimpse into the private correspondence of the officers and sailors who set out in May 1845 on the Erebus and Terror for Sir John Franklin’s fateful expedition to the Arctic.The letters of the crew and their correspondents begin with the journey’s inception and early planning, going on to recount the ships’ departure from the river Thames, their progress up the eastern coast of Great Britain to Stromness in Orkney, and the crew’s exploits as far as the Whalefish Islands off the western coast of Greenland, from where the ships forever departed the society that sent them forth. As the realization dawned that something was amiss, heartfelt letters to the missing were sent with search expeditions; those letters, returned unread, tell poignant stories of hope. Assembled completely and conclusively from extensive archival research, including in far-flung family and private collections, the correspondence allows the reader to peer over the shoulders of these men, to experience their excitement and anticipation, their foolhardiness, and their fears.The Franklin expedition continues to excite enthusiasts and scholars worldwide. May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth provides new insights into the personalities of those on board, the significance of the voyage as they saw it, and the dawning awareness of the possibility that they would never return to British shores or their families.

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The English Romantic artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was hailed as the "painter of light" for his brilliantly colored landscapes and seascapes. He drew much influence from the French painter Claude Lorrain (c. 1604/5?–1682), who was a vital force in Turner's artistic practice from his formative years until the end of his working life. So great was Claude's influence that Turner stipulated in his will that his works hang alongside Claude's in the National Gallery, London.This book examines the ways in which Turner consistently strove to confront Claude's achievement and legacy. He had encountered Claude's works in salerooms and in the collections of his aristocratic patrons, and applied what he had learned to the British countryside, producing views of the Thames valley that transform it into an idyllic pastoral scene reminiscent of the Roman Campagna. For the balance of his career, Turner continued to pit himself against Claude, paying homage even as he continually sought to go beyond the accomplishments of his master.Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The National Gallery, London(03/14/12-06/05/12)

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It is early summer in 1953, and the friends and neighbours of Magnolia Square are looking forward to celebrating the Coronation. The war has become a memory; the future seems rosy. Kate Emmerson looks on with pride at her growing family, including Matthew, whose father was killed during the war. But Matthew's wealthy relations have never really forgiven Kate for marrying Leon, a West Indian who works as a Thames lighterman, and when Matthew runs away from his smart boarding school in Somerset the tensions which exist between the two families come to a head. Meanwhile Zac, the wonderfully talented and handsome new signing at the local boxing club, is being eyed hopefully by all the young women of Magnolia Square. But he has eyes for only one woman - Carrie Collins, who has teenage children of her own and whose husband, Danny, seems more interested in the boxing club and his market stall than in her.In the weeks leading up to the Coronation festivities, drama and tragedy threaten to haunt Magnolia Square, but by the time the great day dawns, the bells ring out in celebration as the Londoners enjoy themselves as only they know how.

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Guidebook to the Lea Valley Walk, a 53-mile long-distance path from Luton to the Thames. It follows the River Lea from its source near Leagrave to East India Dock opposite Greenwich, with an alternative finish at Limehouse and an optional tour of the Olympic Park. On the way it passes through a blend of quiet countryside, nature reserves and urban landscapes. The Lea Valley Walk offers level, waymarked walking for all abilities. The complete trek is presented in nine stages, accompanied by clear OS mapping, with suggestions for three, four, five and six day itineraries. For those looking for an easy-to-access traffic-free day or half-day walk, the route is divided into sections with convenient railway stations close to each end. Tracing the river as it passes through Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire towards the bustle of London, this fine and varied walk takes in historical towns and villages, stately homes and castles, including Waltham Abbey and Hertford Castle, Luton Hoo, Brocket Park and Hatfield. Along with suggestions for refreshment stops and accommodation, the guidebook is packed with fascinating snippets of information about wildlife, landscape, history and industrial heritage, making it an ideal companion to exploring the river and its surroundings.

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Oxfordshire, once part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, has always been a wealthy county. Its landscapes vary from the chalk and beechwood Chiltern Hills in the south to the limestone uplands of the Cotswolds in the north-west, which give very fine building stone. The land supports arable and sheep farming, and is watered by the River Thames and its many tributaries. All this is reflected in the variety of its church buildings, architecture that is not necessarily grand but is exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric. This book looks at a small, representative selection of buildings and their contents, some proudly in towns, others settled into their rural landscapes. Since church buildings were almost always modified over the centuries, any that date from the Middle Ages are apt to contain features from several periods. Some have been chosen because they still show their Anglo-Saxon origins. Some are here for their surviving wall paintings, some for remarkable tombs. Work of exceptional Gothic Revival architects is included, as are one or two twentieth-century buildings. Nonconformists are represented by the eighteenth-century Baptist Chapel at Cote and the contemporary Quaker Meeting House at Burford. Illustrated throughout, Churches of Oxfordshire will be of interest to local historians, residents and visitors to the county.

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The steep western ridge of the Cotswolds has a commanding view of the Severn Valley, the Malvern Hills and the Forest of Dean. To the north is an equally impressive view of the Vale of Evesham, the Worcester plain and Bredon Hill. The source of many rivers, including the Windrush and Thames, are found in the high uplands dipping towards the Oxford plain, and in the south sits the city of Bath. The 790 square miles that comprise the Cotswolds formed between 200 to 150 million years ago and were then shifted, twisted and arranged over the next 100 million. Moreover, in the past ten thousand years, human activity has further shaped and altered the land through agriculture, trade, transport, building of towns and cities - constantly changing, but at the same time adding to the stunning appearance of this landscape. Dry stonewalls criss-cross hills and valleys marking out arable fields and pastures for sheep and cattle, farmhouses built in Oolithic weathered limestone, villages and towns built of the same honey-coloured stone all radiate the warm mellow colour of this local bedrock - the very foundation of this range of hills. A Postcard from the Cotswolds describes this outstandingly picturesque region in words and pictures as immortalised by earlier generations of photographers and artists for countless tourists and visitors to this exceptional part of England.

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Women’s participation in parliaments, high courts, and executive offices worldwide has reached record high numbers, but this global increase in women’s representation masks significant variation among different democratic political systems. For example, in December of 2009, Rwanda’s legislature contained 56% women, while the U.S. Congress contained only about 17% and the Japanese Diet had only 11%. Since 2000, only twenty-seven women have achieved executive office worldwide. Contagious Representation is a comprehensive look at women’s participation in all aspects of public life in the main democratic political institutions—the executive, the judiciary, the legislature, and within political parties. Moving beyond studies of single countries and institutions, Contagious Representation presents original data from 159 democratic countries spanning 50 years, providing a comprehensive understanding of women in democracies worldwide. The first volume to offer an analysis on all avenues for women’s participation for such a lengthy time period, Contagious Representation examines not only the causes of women’s representation in the main democratic political institutions but also how women’s representation in one institution affects the others. Each chapter contains case studies and examples of the change in women’s participation over time from around the world. Thames and Williams definitively explain the rise, decline, or stagnant levels of women’s political participation, considering how representation is contagious across political institutions and gaining a better understanding of what factors affect women’s political participation.

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Joseph Farington (1747-1821) was a professional topographical artist and lived most of his life in London. Through his extensive involvement in the affairs of the Royal Academy, his wide circle of friends, and his membership in several clubs and societies, he touched the life of his time at many points. This diary, which he kept from 1793 until his death, provides a meticulous record of his actions and observations and is an invaluable source for the history of English art and artists. It also constitutes an absorbing record of this period’s social, political, and literary developments.These first two volumes cover the time from July 31, 1793, when he visited Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, to August 31, 1796. Apart from recording his constant involvement in Academy business, he describes his visit to Valenciennes and his sketching tour for the History of the River Thames. Such matters as the sale of part of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s collection, the controversies over the Shakespeare forgeries are set down against the background of the French Revolution and the war, and of political turbulence at home. The diary is now for the first time published in full. The unannotated text will be published in successive volumes with a full index and a final volume, A Companion to The Farington Diary, to follow.

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Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror, and latterly, grief. She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books. Luck Is the Hook is her sixth book from Bloodaxe. In these poems, chance plays a part in finding or losing people and places that are loved: a change in the weather, a trick of language, a bomb that misses its mark, six pomegranate seeds eaten by mistake; all these events cast long shadows and raise questions about who is recording them, about believing, not believing, wanting to believe. A knot undone at Loch Lomond snags over Glasgow, a seal swims in the Clyde, a ghost stalks her quarry at a stepped well, an elephant and a cathedral come face to face on the frozen Thames, a return ticket is thrown into the tide of Humber, strangers wash in. Even in an uncertain world, love tangles with luck, flights show up on the radar and technology keeps track of desire. Imtiaz Dharker was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2014 for Over the Moon and for her services to poetry.

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'Seymour produces the most intelligent writing in the thriller genre' Financial Times***He had been to the limit. Then they sent him further.Gary - 'Gaz' - Baldwin is a watcher, not a killer. Operating with a special forces unit deep in Syria, he is to sit in a hide, observe a village, report back and leave.But the appalling atrocity he witnesses will change his life forever.Before long, he is living as a handyman on the Orkney islands, far from Syria, far from the army, not far enough from the memories that have all but destroyed him.'Knacker' is one of the last old-school operators at the modern MI6 fortress on the Thames. He presides over the Round Table, a little group who meet in a pub and yearn for simpler, less bureaucratic times.When news reaches Knacker that the Russian officer responsible for the Syrian incident may be in Murmansk, northern Russia, he sets in motion a plan to kill him. It will involve a sleeper cell, a marksman and other resources - all unlikely to be sanctioned by the MI6 top brass, so it must be done off the books.But first, he will need a sure identification. And for that, he needs a watcher...Full of surprise, suspense and betrayal, Beyond Recall is a searching novel of moral complexity and a story of desperate survival.

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A captivating journey along the iconic River Po and through Italian history, society and culture. 'Delightful... A wonderful cornucopia of history' TLS 'Uncovers the Po's fascinating history' Guardian The Po is the longest river in Italy, travelling for 652 kilometres from one end of the country to the other. It rises by the French border in the Alps and meanders the width of the entire peninsula to the Adriatic Sea in the east. Flowing next to many of Italy's most exquisite cities – Ferrara, Mantova, Parma, Cremona, Pavia and Torino – the river is a part of the national psyche, as iconic to Italy as the Thames is to England or the Mississippi to the USA. For millennia, the Po was a vital trading route and a valuable source of tax revenue, fiercely fought over by rival powers. It was also a moat protecting Italy from invaders from the north, from Hannibal to Holy Roman Emperors. But as humans radically altered the river's hydrology, those floodplains became important places of major industries and agricultures, the source of bricks, timber, silk, hemp, cement, flour and risotto rice. Tobias Jones travels the length of the river against the current, gathering stories of battles, writers, cuisines, entertainers, religious minorities and music. Both an ecological lament and a celebration of the resourcefulness and resilience of the people of the Po, the book opens a window onto a stunning, but now neglected, part of Italy.

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'Move over Morse. Simon Mason Oxford crime novel breathes fresh life into the police procedural' Val McDermid'There is no one else like him' Mark Sanderson The Times/Sunday Times Crime ClubA DI RYAN WILKINS MYSTERYA SHOCKING DISAPPEARANCEA four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area,her mother only a stones-throw away.A TRIGGERING RESPONSERyan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.A DARK WEBRay begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of criminal forces in the local area. But while Ray's investigation stalls Ryan brings his unique talents to unofficial and quite illegal inquiries which will bring him into a confrontation with the very officials who have thrown him out of the force.Praise for the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries'Mason has reformulated Inspector Morse for the 2020s' The Times'Start now and avoid the rush' Guardian

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'Historical fiction at its very best' ELLY GRIFFITHS. A Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month. They will see me hang for this. London, 1855. In the grey mist of the early morning a body is dumped on the shore of the Thames by a boatman in a metal canoe. Talk soon spreads of the killer and his striking accomplice: a young widow in mourning dress. Birdie Quinn's sleeplessness led her to the river that morning. She has always been wilful, haughty, different... but is she a murderess? To clear her name, she must retrace the dead man's footsteps to Orkney and the far north. A dangerous journey for a woman alone, but one she must make to save her life. This gripping, richly layered historical thriller is perfect for fans of The Familiars, The House Between Tides and The Confessions of Franny Langton. 'Historical fiction at its very best. Mesmerising setting, fantastic characters and a fascinating insight into a ruthless trade' ELLY GRIFFITHS. 'What a joy! Reads like a classic nineteenth-century mystery with a twist, richly dark and full of gaslit menace' LESLEY THOMSON. 'Unearths startling truths about death and corruption in the transatlantic fur trade' THE TIMES. 'A top quality piece of historical fiction' iSCOT MAGAZINE.

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London, 1716. Revenge is a dish best served ice-cold…’An immersive, action-packed thriller with intrigue in the air and threats around every corner’ The Herald’Great fun ... the language is colourful and the action never stops’ Laura Shepherd-RobinsonThe city is caught in the vice-like grip of a savage winter. Even the Thames has frozen over. But for Jonas Flynt – thief, gambler, killer – the chilling elements are the least of his worries…Justice Geoffrey Dumont has been found dead at the base of St Paul’s cathedral, and a young male sex-worker, Sam Yates, has been taken into custody for the murder. Yates denies all charges, claiming he had received a message to meet the judge at the exact time of death.The young man is a friend of courtesan Belle St Clair, and she asks Flynt to investigate. As Sam endures the horrors of Newgate prison, they must do everything in their power to uncover the truth and save an innocent life, before the bodies begin to pile up.But time is running out. And the gallows are beckoning...A totally enrapturing portrayal of eighteenth-century London, and a rapier-like crime thriller, perfect for fans of Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Antonia Hodgson and Ambrose Parry.

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Free spirits or conflicted souls? Three friends embark on a journey but where they end up is their choice. You would expect when you divorced a woman, it meant she would go away. Not so for Eliot, self-made businessman, whose faithless ex-wife is pursuing him once more. She seeks not his heart but a job for her fawned-upon son by a later marriage. But neither she, nor soft-hearted Eliot, suspect the menace that lurks behind the debts the son has accrued. Mike, an ex-soldier, for better or worse decisive in word and deed, is newly remarried but too euphoric to notice how mention of his silly wife kills conversation. And their friend Chris, a professor of history, is toiling deep in error at an official eulogy for his beloved and famous uncle, unknowing of the detestable role his uncle played at reducing his own daughter to madness. On reaching London, each man will have to face his own demons and decisions. Their voyage down the waters of the Thames has reflected back their lives in ways that force them to perceive a wider horizon. But will each of them break free of the past or be dragged down and overwhelmed by his own history?

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