Any newspaper anywhere in the world, any day, carries news about illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods The intense media coverage devoted to the war on terrorism has helped to obscure the other new wars of globalisation. Illicit international trade pits governments against agile, well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. Religious zeal or political goals drive terrorists, but profit is no less a motivator for murder, mayhem, & global insecurity than religious fanaticism.

Illicit is the first book to reveal the full scale of this dark underground. It uncovers the connections between illegal industries & shows how they join forces to breed new lines of business, feed off political instability, foster violence & enable terrorism. How do pirated movies or CD's find their way to illegal markets worldwide even before they are released? & how, in our free, modern world, have over 30 million women & children

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Vonny lives on the island of Martha's Vineyard with her husband Andre & son Simon. Their neighbour Elizabeth, a woman in her seventies, falls from an upstairs window & her granddaughter Jody is summoned to nurse her through her convalescence. So the players are assembled for a magical story of love & loneliness, of terror & human frailty, of the mystery & grace of ordinary experience. Alice Hoffman's ability to fuse the domestic & the mythic in a narrative of such gentle yet magnetic force confirms her stature as one of the most gifted of American novelists. ...

Isabel Merton is a renowned concert pianist whose playing is marked by rare intensity. At the height of her career, she feels increasingly torn between the expressive musical realm she inhabits, & the fragmented life she leads as an itinerant artist, with its frequent flights, anonymous hotels & arbitrary encounters.
Then Isabel meets Anzor Islikhanov, a political exile from war-torn Chechnya driven by a powerful desire to help & avenge his people. As their paths cross in several cities, they are drawn to each other
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The literary-philosophical works of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) rank among the most quietly influential of the post-war era, though only since his death had Benjamin achieved the fame & critical currency outside his native Germany accorded him by a select few during his lifetime. Now he is widely held to have possessed one of the most acute & original minds of the Central European culture decimated by the Nazis. Illuminations contains his two most celebrated essays, ' The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' & ' Theses on the Philosophy of History', as well as others on the art of translation, Kafka, storytelling, Baudelaire, Brecht's epic theatre, Proust & an anatomy of his own obsession, book collecting. The essay is Benjamin's domain; those collected in this now legendary volume offer the best possible access to his singular & significant achievement. In a stimulating introduction, Hannah Arendt reveals how Benjamin's life & work are a prism to his times, & identifies him as possessing the rare ability to think poetically. ...

Isabel Merton is a renowned concert pianist, whose playing is marked by rare intensity, & for whom each performance is a plunge into the compelling world of the music. At the height of her career, she feels increasingly torn between the expressive musical realm she inhabits, & the fragmented life she leads as an itinerant artist, with its frequent flights, anonymous hotels & fortuitous, arbitrary encounters.

Away from her New York home on a European tour, Isabel meets Anzor Islikhanov, a political exile from war-torn Chechnya driven by a bitter sense of injustice & a powerful desire to help & avenge his people. As their paths cross in several cities, they are drawn to each other both by their differences, & their seemingly parallel passions

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Discovered by Dr Edward Bach in the 1930s, the thirty-eight Bach Flower Remedies form a system of healing for the negative emotions & attitudes that may interfere with health & happiness. This book provides an in-depth & detailed description of each remedy, together with case histories relating to each one to help the reader appreciate how they may be put into practice. The descriptions & cases have been compiled from the Bach Remedy Newsletter, originally edited by Nora Weeks, Dr Bach ...

How intelligent are horses? Why do they toss their heads, & what makes them paw the ground? Why do they swish their tails, & what makes them flare their nostrils? In Illustrated Horsewatching Desmond Morris gets out to answer these & numerous other questions of consuming interest to horse-lovers. As a zoologist & a lifelong student of animal behaviour, Desond Morris approaches the horse world in an unusual way, dealing with topics often ignored in the equine literature. In addition to examining the details of horse behaviour he answers a wealth of fascinating cultural & sociological questions, such as why horseshoes bring good luck, why we (at least in this country) don't eat horses, why jockeys are allowed to whip their mounts, & why we call a bad dream a nightmare. Desmond Morris even applies his zoological mind, & his superb writing skills, to the all-important question why some horses run faster than others. ...

Intended for young children, this book presents opposites in a clear & simple way, making the most of the old truth that one picture can tell a thousand words.

Ruth Brown's luminous & famously painterly illustration perfectly balance the simple & rhythmic text.

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THE BOOK: A narrative counterpoint between to women, two South Africas. Kristien Muller returns from London to her homeland to fulfil a promise. Her grandmother lies on her deathbed unleashing a turmult of myth, legend & brute fact. Confronted by the realities of a land hurtling towards change, Kristien discovers that the present holds its own momentss of savagery. A searing panorama of South Africa's experience, reminiscent in its political &imaginative scope of Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitu de. ...