On 13 November 2015 Paris suffered the second wave of brutal terrorist attacks in a year leaving 130 dead & many more seriously injured How are we to make sense of these violent acts & what do they tell us about the forces shaping our world today? In this short book the influential philosopher Alain Badiou argues that while these violent events are commonly portrayed as acts of Islamic terrorism in fact they attest to a much deeper malaise that is connected to the triumph of global capitalism & to new forms of imperialism that involve the weakening of states such that whole regions of the world have been turned into ungovernable zones run by armed gangs in which ordinary people are forced to live the most precarious lives These zones have become the breeding ground for a new kind of nihilism that seeks revenge for the domination of the West & it is this new nihilism on to which Islam has been grafted that exerts a particular appeal to the young men & women on the margins who carried out the atrocities in Paris The tragedy of 13 November might appear at first sight to be rooted in immigration & Islam but our wound is not so recent it is rooted in a deeper set of transformations that have reshaped our world creating small islands of privilege amidst large masses of the destitute & depriving us of a politics that would offer a serious alternative to the present ...

The gritty & engaging story of two brothers Chuck & Tom Hagel who went to war in Vietnam fought in the same unit & saved each other's life One supported the war the other detested it but they fought it together 1968 It was the worst year of America's most divisive war Flag-draped caskets came home by the thousands Riots ravaged our cities Assassins shot our political leaders Black fought white young fought old fathers fought sons & it was the year that two brothers from Nebraska went to war In Vietnam Chuck & Tom Hagel served side by side in the same rifle platoon Together they fought in the Tet Offensive battled snipers in Saigon chased the enemy through the jungle & each saved the other's life under fire Yet like so many American families one brother supported the war while the other detested it Tom & former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel never set out to be heroes but they epitomized the best & lived through the worst of the most tumultuous amazing & consequential year in the last half century Following the brothers' paths from the prairie heartland through a war on the far side of the world & back to a divided America Our Year of War tells the story of two brothers at war serving their divided country It is a story that resonates to this day an American story ...

Has everyone always been in love with you? Of course they have who am I kidding? What did they say about Helen of Troy? That her face launched a thousand ships? That's you you're that beautiful A thousand ships' New York City in the eighties & at its decadent heart is Guy The darling of Fire Island's gay community & one of New York's top male models Guy is gliding his way to riches that are a world away from his modest provincial upbringing back home in France Like some modern-day Dorian Gray he seems untouched by time the decades pass fashions change yet his beauty remains as transcendent & captivating as ever Such looks cannot help but bring him adoration From sweet yet pathetic Fred to the wealthy & masochistic Baron from the acerbic & cynical Pierre-Georges to Andre fabricating Dali fakes & hurtling towards prison & the abyss all are in some way fixated on him In return for the devotion & expensive gifts they lavish on him he plays with unswerving loyalty whatever role they project onto him unattainable idol passionate lover malleable client But just as the years are catching up on his smooth skin & perfect body so his way of life is closing in on him & destroying the men he loves Edmund White has in Our Young Man created some of the richest representations of gay male identity from the disco era to the age of AIDs What links them all is the allure & enchantment they find in beauty Revelling in its magic Our Young Man nonetheless slips beneath the seductive surface to examine its dangerous depths exploring its power to fascinate enslave & deceive Mesmerising blackly comic & delicately crafted this is an exquisite novel from a contemporary master ...

When George Mottershead moved to the village of Upton-by-Chester in 1930 to realise his dream of opening a zoo without bars his four-year-old daughter June had no idea how extraordinary her life would become Soon her best friend was a chimpanzee called Mary lion cubs & parrots were vying for her attention in the kitchen & finding a bear tucked up in bed was no more unusual than talking to a tapir about granny's lemon curd Pelican penguin or polar bear
- for June they were simply family The early years were not without their obstacles for the Mottersheads They were shunned by the local community bankruptcy threatened & then World War Two began Nightly bombing raids turned the dream into a nightmare & finding food for the animals became a constant challenge Yet George's resilience resourcefulness & tenacity eventually paid off Now over 80 years since June first set foot in the echoing house Chester Zoo has achieved worldwide renown Here in her enthralling memoir June Mottershead chronicles the heartbreak the humour the trials & triumphs above all the characters both human & animal who shaped her childhood
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play This is the incredible true story of the man who created Chester Zoo in the 1930s & the impact it had on his family Our Zoo is based on the extraordinary & inspiring real story of the eccentric Mottershead family who despite huge opposition & personal sacrifice established Chester Zoo in the 1930s With a single-mindedness bordering on madness George Mottershead drove himself & his family to realise his ambition to transform a ramshackle house on the outskirts of Chester into a unique institution that would forever change the way zoos house animals ...

One day Haruhi a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School breaks an 80000 vase that belongs to the ' Host Club' a mysterious campus group consisting of six super-rich (and gorgeous) guys To pay back the damages she is forced to work for the club & it's there that she discovers just how wealthy the boys are & how different they are from everybody else ...

Sunjeev Sahota's Ours are the Streets is a poignant & powerful story of political radicalization When Imtiaz Raina leaves England for the first time to bury his father on his family's land near Lahore he exchanges his uncertain life in Sheffield for a road that leads to the mountains of Kashmir & Afghanistan Once back in Yorkshire he writes through the night to his young wife Becka & baby daughter Noor & tries to explain in a story full of affection & yearning what has happened to him
- & why he has a devastating new sense of home
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In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the draining graveyard shift at a boxed-lunch factory Burdened with chores & heavy debts & isolated from husbands & children they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives A young mother among them finally cracks & strangles her philandering gambling husband then confesses her crime to Masako the closest of her colleagues For reasons of her own Masako agrees to assist her friend & seeks the help of the other co-workers to dismember & dispose of the body The body parts are discovered the police start asking questions but the women have far more dangerous enemies -a yakuza connected loan shark who discovers their secret & has a business proposition & a ruthless nightclub owner the police are convinced is guilty of the murder He has lost everything as a result of their crime & he is out for revenge OUT is a psychologically taut & unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable ...

A beautiful first collection of poems by two-time Kate Greenaway Medal-winner Shirley Hughes In this wonderful collection of poems by best-loved & Kate Greenaway Medal-winner Shirley Hughes Katie & her little brother Olly go out & about romping through the changing seasons They take pleasure in the different elements & weather conditions
- sunshine wind rain mist & even snow From the joys of the seaside to the miseries of the sickbed this exuberant volume captures to perfection the world of childhood
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A serial killer is leaving a rather horrible trail of messy murders across London & William Shakespeare crime scene cleaner is on his tail armed with a mop determination & an inquiring mind After cleaning the room in which his half-brother Kit Marlow had been knifed to death Shakespeare starts up his own crime scene cleaning business Incarnadine picking up know-how from the net & on the job Following a series of clues gleaned from other crime scenes Shakespeare is soon piecing together suspect profiles & likely modus operandi " Out Damned Spot!" has our hero cleaning up after every crime committed in the works of William Shakespeare but given contemporary settings The masterminds behind the actual crimes are based on the writers whose stories Shakespeare "stole" ...