Imagine if you lost your parents
- not just in place but in time Jake Djones' mum & dad have gone missing & they could be anywhere
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With an introduction by James Naughtie Take a Valium Have a party Go on a demo Shoot a soldier Make a bang Bed a friend That's your problem-solving system But haven't we tried all that? Howard Kirk product of the Swinging Sixties radical university lecturer & one half of a very modern marriage is throwing a party The night will have all sorts of repercussions for Henry Beamish Howard's desperate & easily neglected friend & for Howard's wife Barbara promiscuous '70s liberal & exhausted victim of motherhood The History Man is Malcolm Bradbury's masterpiece the definitive campus novel & one of the most influential novels of the 1970s Funny disconcerting & provocative Bradbury brilliantly satirizes a world of academic power struggles as his anti-hero seduces his away around campus But beneath the surface is an altogether more affecting portrait it reveals a marriage in crisis & demonstrates the fragility of the human heart ...

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) who led the Macedonian army to victory in Egypt Syria Persia & India was perhaps the most successful conqueror the world has ever seen Yet although no other individual has attracted so much speculation across the centuries Alexander himself remains an enigma Curtius' History offers a great deal of information unobtainable from other sources of the time A compelling narrative of a turbulent era the work recounts events on a heroic scale detailing court intrigue stirring speeches & brutal battles
- among them those of Macedonia's great war with Persia which was to culminate in Alexander's final triumph over King Darius & the defeat of an ancient & mighty empire It also provides by far the most plausible & haunting portrait of Alexander we possess a brilliantly realized image of a man ruined by constant good fortune in his youth
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Come Undone Tame Keep Wondering Special Girl Jamais Vu Puzzles Don't You Wanna Be Mine? Ordinary Boy Snowball Just Like This Shake ...

Offers an account of how armour developed through the Medieval Tudor Elizabethan & Civil War eras In this title each chapter focuses on an individual area of body protection charting the evolution of each piece over time from helmets & chest protection to arm guards gauntlets leg guards & sabatons 128 pages 275 colour photographs & illustrations Walker Paul F ...

The Age of the Silk Roads (c 200 BC- c 900 AD) shaped the course of the future The foundation by the Han dynasty of an extensive network of interlinking trade routes collectively known as the Silk Road led to an explosion of cultural & commercial transactions across Central Asia that had a profound impact on civilization In this second volume of his authoritative history of the region Christoph Baumer explores the unique flow of goods peoples & ideas along the dusty tracks & wandering caravan routes that brought European & Mediterranean orbits into contact with Asia The Silk Roads the author shows enabled the spread across the known world of Christianity Manichaeism Buddhism & Islam just as earlier they had caused Roman citizens to crave the exotic silk goods of the mysterious Far East Tracing the rise & fall of empires this richly illustrated book charts the ebb & flow of epic history the bitter rivalry of Rome & Parthia; the lucrative mercantile empire of the Sogdians; the founding of Samarkand; & Chinese defeat at the Battle of Talas (751 AD) by the forces of Islam ...

The latest instalments in this ambitious series exploring the Golden Age of Islam & the Mongols 392 pages 266 colour 11 maps Baumer Christoph ...

Cinema was the first & is arguably still the greatest of the industrialized art forms that came to dominate the cultural life of the twentieth century Today it continues to adapt & grow as new technologies & viewing platforms become available & remains an integral cultural & aesthetic entertainment experience for people the world over Cinema developed against the backdrop of the two world wars & over the years has seen smaller wars revolutions & profound social changes Its history reflects this changing landscape & more than any other art form developments in technology In this Very Short Introduction Nowell-Smith looks at the defining moments of the industry from silent to sound black & white to colour & considers its genres from intellectual art house to mass market entertainment ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly Our expert authors combine facts analysis perspective new ideas & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable ...

A superb crossover title of enormous appeal to the vast selection of the population that enjoys classical music but would like ...

For an invention that has only been around for 200 years the simple bicycle has changed the world in many ways It democratised travel for the first time allowing ordinary people to travel at reasonable speed without need of a horse to commute further afield to work & to enjoy the benefits of the countryside It has challenged social conventions granting women a new-found freedom & it has played an important role in wartime whether used by British paratroopers or in Vietnamese supply lines Today despite the prevalence of the car the bicycle is as important as ever with more cycles appear on city streets each year Bikes come in all shapes & sizes & the history of cycling is on of innovation in design from Macmillan's first pedal-driven cycle to the eccentric Dursley Pedersen & from the 1960s iconic Moulton to the free-styling BMX the humble cycle continues to surprise & delight in equal measure Illustrated in full colour with a wide range of photographs The History of Cycling in Fifty bikes tells the story of the bicycle through 50 iconic machines starting with the first primitive wooden two-wheelers through to carbon-fibre super bikes & the designs of the future celebrating sporting achievements technological advances & world records along with way ...