Having sacked her handyman, newly-widowed Mrs Emerson finds a replacement in Elizabeth, a lanky, awkward girl. The Emersons have a reputation for craziness, there are seven adult children, & Elizabeth finds herself drawn into their disorderly lives against her will. But in the end it is hard to tell whether she is a victim of the needy Emersons, or the de facto ruler of the family. ...

The conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity in 368 AD brought a transformation to Christianity & to western civilization, the effects of which we still feel today. Previously, the Roman empire had absorbed & sustained the Greek intellectual tradition which, in the astronomy of Ptolemy, the medicine of Galen & the philosophy of Plotinus, reached new heights. Constantine turned Rome from the relatively open, tolerant & pluralistic civilisation of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority. The century after Constantine's conversion saw the development of an alliance between church & state which stifled freedom of thought & the tradition of Greek rationalism which was intrinsic to it. The churches enjoyed enormous patronage & exemptions from tax, & in return allowed the emperors to take on the definition & enforcement of an increasingly narrow religious orthodoxy. This book explores how the European mind was closed by the revolution of the fourth century. It looks at the rise of the 'divine' monarch, the struggle as Christianity painfully separated itself from Judaism, the conflict between faith & reason, & the problems in finding any kind of rational basis for Christian theology. In these centuries, a turning-point for Western civilisation, we see the development of Christian anti-Semitism, the origins of the opposition of religion & science & the roots of Christianity's discomfort with sex, issues which haunt the Christian churches to this day. The Closing of the Western Mind is a major work of history. Wide-ranging & ambitious, its central theme is the relationship between the two wellsprings of our civilisation, the Judaeo-Christian & the Greco-Roman, & how the tensions between them have created the culture in which we continue to live, think & believe. ...

The conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity in 368 AD brought a transformation to Christianity & to western civilization, the effects of which we still feel today. Previously, the Roman empire had absorbed & sustained the Greek intellectual tradition which, in the astronomy of Ptolemy, the medicine of Galen & the philosophy of Plotinus, reached new heights. Constantine turned Rome from the relatively open, tolerant & pluralistic civilisation of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority. The century after Constantine's conversion saw the development of an alliance between church & state which stifled freedom of thought & the tradition of Greek rationalism which was intrinsic to it. The churches enjoyed enormous patronage & exemptions from tax, & in return allowed the emperors to take on the definition & enforcement of an increasingly narrow religious orthodoxy. This book explores how the European mind was closed by the revolution of the fourth century. It looks at the rise of the 'divine' monarch, the struggle as Christianity painfully separated itself from Judaism, the conflict between faith & reason, & the problems in finding any kind of rational basis for Christian theology. In these centuries, a turning-point for Western civilisation, we see the development of Christian anti-Semitism, the origins of the opposition of religion & science & the roots of Christianity's discomfort with sex, issues which haunt the Christian churches to this day. The Closing of the Western Mind is a major work of history. Wide-ranging & ambitious, its central theme is the relationship between the two wellsprings of our civilisation, the Judaeo-Christian & the Greco-Roman, & how the tensions between them have created the culture in which we continue to live, think & believe. ...

Peter Mattiessen has long been known for his travels to some of the remotest lands on earth, most notably recorded in The Snow ...

The Darién Gap is a place of legend. The only break in the Pan-American highway, which runs from Alaska to the tip of South America, it is an almost impregnable strip of swamp, jungle & cloud forest between the vast landmasses of North & South America. Stories of abduction & murder there are rife & in recent years more people have successfully climbed Everest or trekked to the South Pole than have crossed the Darién Gap.

In 2000, Tom Hart Dyke, a young botanist, set off to Central America with one thing on his mind: orchids. He knew that in order to find the rare & beautiful species he so fervently admired, he would have to visit some of the most inhospitable places on earth. Unbeknown to Tom, another young explorer, Paul Winder, was backpacking through the area at the same time. Though he sometimes worked freelance in the City of London, Paul was a fearless & intrepid traveller, happier scaling volcanoes than lounging on beaches. In every bar & café along his route, rumours abounded of the Darién Gap

...

The Darién Gap is a place of legend. The only break in the Pan-American highway, which runs from Alaska to the tip of South America, it is an almost impregnable strip of swamp, jungle & cloud forest between the vast landmasses of North & South America. Stories of abduction & murder there are rife & in recent years more people have successfully climbed Everest or trekked to the South Pole than have crossed the Darién Gap.

In 2000, Tom Hart Dyke, a young botanist, set off to Central America with one thing on his mind: orchids. He knew that in order to find the rare & beautiful species he so fervently admired, he would have to visit some of the most inhospitable places on earth. Unbeknown to Tom, another young explorer, Paul Winder, was backpacking through the area at the same time. Though he sometimes worked freelance in the City of London, Paul was a fearless & intrepid traveller, happier scaling volcanoes than lounging on beaches. In every bar & café along his route, rumours abounded of the Darién Gap

...

This short novella is the story of a love affair. A young man goes up to Edinburgh University. Lonely, he writes letters to his mother & to his best friend Paul. He tells them about the city, about the people he has met, the books he has read. Then one day he meets a girl, Kate. Almost from that moment he is lost. Intoxicated, agonized, his love for Kate becomes all consuming, obsessive. He believes she loves him too, but she is already committed to another, & his focus changes to an intense exploration of what love really means. Astonishing in its intensity & the beauty of its language, The Cloud of Dust has all the makings of a cult bestseller ...