The Inheritance of Loss is Kiran Desai's extraordinary Man Booker Prize winning novel High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion home to three people each dreaming of another time The judge broken by a world too messy for justice is haunted by his past His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor despite their different backgrounds & ideals The cook's heart is with his son who is working in a New York restaurant mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home Around the house swirl the forces of revolution & change Civil unrest is making itself felt stirring up inner conflicts as powerful as those dividing the community pitting the past against the present nationalism against love a small place against the troubles of a big world 'A Magnificent novel of humane breadth & wisdom comic tenderness & political acuteness' Hermione Lee chair of the Man Booker Prize judges' Poised elegant & assured breaks out into extraordinary beauty' The Times' Desai's bold original voice & her ability to deal in a grand narratives with a deft comic touch that affectionately recalls some of the masters of Indian fiction makes hers a novel to reread & remembered' Independent Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971 was educated in India England & the United States & now lives in New York She is the author of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard which was published to unanimous acclaim in over twenty-two countries & The Inheritance of Loss which won the Man Book Prize for Fiction & the National Book Critics Circle Award was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction ...

' The Penguin History of Europe series is one of contemporary publishing's great projects' New Statesman The world known as the ' Dark Ages' often seen as a time of barbarism was in fact the crucible in which modern Europe would be created Chris Wickham's acclaimed history shows how this period encompassing peoples such as Goths Franks Vandals Byzantines Arabs Anglo-Saxons & Vikings was central to the development of our history & culture From the collapse of the Roman Empire to the establishment of new European states & from Ireland to Constantinople the Baltic to the Mediterranean this landmark work makes sense of a time of invasion & turbulence but also of continuity creativity & achievement ...

Critically acclaimed award-winning biography of CS Lewis JRR Tolkien & the brilliant group of writers to come out of Oxford during the Second World War CS Lewis JRR Tolkien & their friends were a regular feature of the Oxford scenery in the years during & after the Second World War They drank beer on Tuesdays at the Bird & Baby' & on Thursday nights they met in Lewis' Magdalen College rooms to read aloud from the books they were writing; jokingly they called themselves The Inklings' CS Lewis & JRR Tolkien first introduced The Screwtape Letters & The Lord of the Rings to an audience in this company & Charles Williams poet & writer of supernatural thrillers was another prominent member of the group Humphrey Carpenter who wrote the acclaimed biography of JRR Tolkien draws upon unpublished letters & diaries to which he was given special access in this engrossing story ...

The delightful tale of a young couple who in the late 1970s on impulse became the new landlords of the most remote bleak & lonely pub
- The Tan Hill Inn
- located in the desolate landscape of the Yorkshire Dales Having seen an article in the newspaper about the pub's search for a new manager they arrived just three weeks later as the new landlords of the The Tan Hill Inn It is a wild wind-swept place set alone in a sea of peat bog & heather moorland that stretches unbroken as far as the eye can see With only sheep & grouse for company their closest neighbour was four miles away & the nearest town twelve They had no experience of licensed trade or running a pub no knowledge of farming & a complete inability to understand the dialect of the sheep farmers who were their local customers Eager well-meaning but in over their heads our two heroes embarked on a disaster-strewn career that somehow also turned into a lifelong love affair with the Dales The Inn at the Top is an entertaining ramble around the Inn the breath-taking Dales countryside & a remarkable array of local characters giving an insight into life in a very different different time & place

...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play The true story of an English missionary (Ingrid Bergman) who led a hundred children over enemy territory in pre-WWII China Robert Donat plays a Chinese mandarin in his final screen performance & North Wales stands in for the Chinese countryside ...

How to improve your game & discover your true potential by increasing your concentration willpower & confidence Every golfer whether amateur or pro who has ever picked up a club knows what it's like to get the yips
- that feeling when you inexplicably lose control of your shot & become overwhelmed by self-doubt tension fear of failure & anxiety With a new introduction from golf performance pro Peter Hudson the multi-million bestselling The Inner Game of Golf resolves this mental interference It is not a book about how to play golf; it is a book about how to learn golf & its lessons can be applied to any sport Putting aside the mechanics of golfing technique & laborious debates about strategy this classic handbook for golfers of all levels tackles the psychological aspects of the game & reveals how you can perform to your true potential for more than brief moments at a time Using only his Inner Game principles without taking a single lesson & playing only once a week Timothy Gallwey knocked 15 strokes off his game in a year There is no physical reason why you can't hit perfect drives or sink long putts more consistently By applying the Inner Game approach to your own game you too can see phenomenal improvements to your scorecard
...

The bestselling guide to improving musical performance The Inner Game of Music is the battle that all musicians have to fight against elusive opponents such as nervousness self-doubt & fear of failure Using the world-famous Inner Game principles developed by bestselling author Timothy Gallwey acclaimed musician Barry Green explains the basic principles of 'natural learning' & shows how you can apply them to reach a new level of musical application & performance In precise easy to understand language Green & Gallwey explain how natural skills
- such as awareness trust & willpower
- can be nurtured & enhanced Through a series of tailored exercises The Inner Game of Music demonstrates the ways in which musicians can achieve exact intonations artistic phrasing & enhanced technique There are also chapters on ensemble playing improvisation composition & creativity as well as listening skills
- an essential part of the Inner Game Following a methodology with a proven track record for generations of aspiring & professional musicians The Inner Game of Music is invaluable to anyone seriously interested in music & is guaranteed to deliver positive results whether you are a student teacher performer or simply an appreciative listener


...

How to improve your game & discover your true potential by increasing your concentration willpower & confidence Described by Billie Jean King as her 'tennis bible' Timothy Gallwey's multi-million bestseller including a new introduction from acclaimed sports psychologist Geoff Beattie has been a phenomenon for players of all abilities since it was first published in 1972 Instead of concentrating on how to improve your technique it starts from the understanding that 'every game is composed of two parts an outer game & an inner game' The former is played against opponents on the court but the latter is a battle within ourselves as we try & overcome self-doubt & anxiety It is often won or lost before a ball has been hit Gallwey's revolutionary approach built on a foundation of Zen thinking & humanistic psychology will teach you how to develop your concentration work on your gamesmanship & help you break bad habits You will also learn how to trust yourself on the court & how to maintain clarity of mind throughout the match giving you a clear psychological advantage over your opponent Whether you are an amateur or a pro The Inner Game of Tennis is essential reading for overcoming the self-doubt nervousness & lapses of concentration that can keep a player from winning It is guaranteed to change the way you play tennis forever ...

FROM THE AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES Mother deer that grieve? Horses that feel shamesquirrels that adopt their grandchildren? We humans tend to assume that we are the only living things able to experience feelings intensely & consciously But have you ever wondered what's going on in an animal's head? From the leafy forest floor to the inside of a bee hive The Inner Life of Animals takes us microscopic levels of observation to the big philosophical ethical & scientific questions We hear the stories of a grateful humpback whale of a hedgehog who has nightmares & of a magpie who commits adultery; we meet bees that plan for the future pigs who learn their own names & crows that go tobogganing for fun & at last we find out why wasps exist As more & more researchers are discovering animals experience a rich emotional life that is ready to be explored The Inner Life of Animals will show you these living things in a new light & will open up the animal kingdom like never before ...

We tend to assume that we are the only living things able to experience feelings but have you ever wondered what's going on in an animal's head? From the leafy forest floor to the inside of a bee hive The Inner Life of Animals opens up the animal kingdom like never before 288 pages Wohlleben Peter ...