Pirates of Barbary is an extraordinary record of the European renegades & Islamic sea-rovers who terrorised the Mediterranean ...

Twelve fascinating tales about the adventurers who travelled all over the globe, finding new plants & the amazing things they produce. Join Joseph Banks as he gets stranded on the Australian Great Barrier Reef whilst searching for new botanical specimens. Battle with the Mexican Emperor Montezuma against the invading Hernando Cortes
- & watch as Cortes introduces chocolate to the rest of the world! Struggle with other travellers as they fight starvation, bears, strange diseases & tropical storms.

Exciting, witty & wacky, these true-life tales span centuries & the globe, feature famous historical figures such as Captain Bligh, Darwin & Columbus & put the origins of 'everyday' plants into perspective.


...

Personal rivalry is the very stuff of politics. The causes & controversies, the parties & the technology have changed, but political conflict is still dramatised by the competition of ambitious individuals for the highest offices. Over the past two hundred years, the size of the electorate has grown enormously & the means of reaching it transformed out of all recognition; the chamber of the House of Commons has been usurped as the forum for national debate first by public meetings, press & television & now by the Internet. But human nature does not change. The lure of power still attracts men, & now women, keen to cross swords & bandy arguments, scheme & manoeuvre for advancement, clothing ambition in a cloak of high principle & public service. In almost every period, outstanding champions arise to embody the dominating movements & ideas of the time, defining themselves against each other & shaping the political argument of the day in their own image. Peace or war; protection or free trade; capitalism or socialism -- in every case ideology is inextricably entwined with personality.

John Campbell

...

Benjamin Disraeli & William Gladstone. Edward Heath & Margaret Thatcher. Gordon Brown & Tony Blair. Personal rivalry is the very stuff of politics. The causes & controversies, the parties & technology may have changed over time but political conflict is still dramatised by the competition of ambitious individuals for the highest offices. Over the past two hundred years the size of the electorate has grown enormously & the means of reaching it transformed out of all recognition but human nature itself hasn ...

Benjamin Disraeli & William Gladstone. Edward Heath & Margaret Thatcher. Gordon Brown & Tony Blair. Personal rivalry is the very stuff of politics. The causes & controversies, the parties & technology may have changed over time but political conflict is still dramatised by the competition of ambitious individuals for the highest offices. Over the past two hundred years the size of the electorate has grown enormously & the means of reaching it transformed out of all recognition but human nature itself hasn ...

Affairs of honour between bucks & blades, rakes & rascals; & affairs of the heart between heirs & orphans, beauties & bachelors; romance, intrigue, escapades & duels at dawn: all the gallantry, villainy & elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in these eleven stories of the Regency. ...

Affairs of honour between bucks & blades, rakes & rascals; & affairs of the heart between heirs & orphans, beauties & bachelors; romance, intrigue, escapades & duels at dawn: all the gallantry, villainy & elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in these eleven stories of the Regency. ...