The Iraq War remains highly controversial, but in all the uncertainty about weapons of mass destruction, the use & misuse of intelligence, it remains an awesome military & political event & a formidable exercise in American power aided by the British army. Throughout the war & beyond it, John Keegan's analysis proved more accurate than any other commentator's, & now he brings his unrivalled knowledge of military history to bear on the war, its conduct & consequences. Written with special access to new sources of information, this book is the most authoritative & challenging account of a war which could both set the pattern for military conflicts in the 21st century & significantly affect the world political order. ...

Vermeer, Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens
- the Beit art collection was worth millions. For decades Sir Alfred & Lady Beit had lived
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Vermeer, Goya, Rembrant, Rubens
- the Beit art collection was worth millions. For twenty-two years, Sir Alfred & Lady Beit
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' Lord Wellington don't know how to lose a battle.' The view of an anonymous soldier at Waterloo became the judgement of the world on the man who was hailed as the first general of his age. At Waterloo he defeated Napoleon, the master of war, & finally checked the disruptive forces of the French Revolution that had troubled Europe for over twenty years. Wellington taught himself the art of war in India where his hard-fought victories helped lay the foundations of the British raj. His armies liberated Portugal & Spain, shattered the myth of French invincibility & inspired the people of Europe to resist Napoleon. Largely drawn from original sources, Lawrence James's biography follows the life of Wellington the soldier & explains how he waged war & why he won battles. This is also the story of a humane, intelligent & acerbic aristocrat who believed that his kind were predestined to lead. It shows how he stamped his iron will on the men he commanded & how they responded. It reveals Wellington the professional fighting man who created the remarkable intelligence & logistical services that were the keys to his victories. But it was as the national hero who beat Napoleon, gave Europe peace & adhered resolutely to the path of duty that he was honoured by his countrymen who saw him as 'the highest incarnation of English character'. ...

Lions legend Bobby Windsor has enjoyed triumphs beyond the dreams of most international players, but has also suffered personal tragedy. His rugby career as the best hooker in the British Isles during the second golden era of Welsh rugby in the 1970s is a turbulent tale of blood & thunder on the pitch. There are riotous incidents off the pitch, including unscheduled fights with professional boxers, revelations about illegal payments during the so-called amateur era & what he did to upset the Establishment & become blackballed by one of the most famous clubs in the world.

Windsor

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AD 71: Germania Libera: dark dripping forests, inhabited by bloodthirsty barbarians & legendary wild beasts, a furious prophetess who terrorises Rome, & the ghostly spirits of slaughtered Roman legionaries.

Enter Marcus Didius Falco, an Impreisal agent on a special mission: to find the absconding commander of a legion whose loyalty is suspect. Easier said than done, thinks Marcus, as he makes his uneasy way down the Rhenus, trying to forget that back in sunny Rome his girlfriend Helena Justina is being hotly pursued by Titus Caesar. His mood is not enhanced when he discovers his only allies are a woefully inadequate bunch of recruits, their embittered centurion, a rogue dog, & its innocent young master; just the right kind of support for an agent unwillingly trying to tame the Celtic hordes.

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AD 71: Germania Libera: dark dripping forests, inhabited by bloodthirsty barbarians & legendary wild beasts, a furious prophetess who terrorises Rome, & the ghostly spirits of slaughtered Roman legionaries.

Enter Marcus Didius Falco, an Impreisal agent on a special mission: to find the absconding commander of a legion whose loyalty is suspect. Easier said than done, thinks Marcus, as he makes his uneasy way down the Rhenus, trying to forget that back in sunny Rome his girlfriend Helena Justina is being hotly pursued by Titus Caesar. His mood is not enhanced when he discovers his only allies are a woefully inadequate bunch of recruits, their embittered centurion, a rogue dog, & its innocent young master; just the right kind of support for an agent unwillingly trying to tame the Celtic hordes.

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Freak.

That's what they call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood at Ironbridge High School. A horrific fey attack

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Freak.

That's what they call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood at Ironbridge High School. A horrific fey attack

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When James Wood's first collection of essays, The Broken Estate, was published in 1999, the reviewers hailed a master critic. John Banville described Wood as a 'a close reader of genius-illuminating & exciting & compelling', & Malcolm Bradbury described him as 'a true critic: an urgent, impassioned reader of literature, a tireless interpreter, a live & learned intelligence'; Adam Begley, in the Financial Times, said that ' Wood is not just a keen critic, our best, but a superb writer'; in the Independent, Natasha Walter described The Broken Estate as 'a book that makes you feel, having closed it, as if your mind has been oxygenated'. The common thread in Wood's latest collection of essays is what makes us laugh
- & the book is an attempt to distinguish between the perhaps rather limited English comedy (as seen in Waugh, for example) & a 'continental' tragic-comedy, which he sees as real, universal & quixotic. A particularly acerbic, & very funny, essay
- which has been widely celebrated
- deals with Zadie Smith, Rushdie, Pynchon & De Lillo; its title, ' Hysterical Realism', has already entered the phrasebook of literary language. With its brilliant studies of Shakespeare, Dickens & Dostoevsky, Naipaul, Pritchett & Bellow, The Irresponsible Self offers more exhilarating despatches from one of our finest living critics.


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