Elisabeth`s Bowen account of a time spent in Rome between February & Easter is both an introduction for visitors & an attempt to capture the ”mood” of the Eternal City. It is no ordinary guidebook but an evocation of a city
- its history, its architecture &, above all, its atmosphere. She describes the famous classical sites, conjuring from the ruins visions of former inhabitants & their often bloody activities. She speculates about the immense noise of ancient Rome, the problems caused by the Romans` dining posture, & the Roman temperament, which blended ”constructive will with supine fatalism”. She envies the Vestal Virgins & admires the Empress Livia, who survived a barren marriage. She evokes the city`s moods
- by day, when it is characterized by golden sunlight, & at night, when the blaze of the moon ”annihilates history, turning everything into a spectacle for Tonight”. Elegant & amusing, A Time in Rome is an unusual portrait of this glorious city into which Bowen has woven her personal meditations on religion, politics, love & life.” Rome is a continuity, called `eternal`. What has accumulated in this place acts on everyone day & night, like an extra climate”, Elisabeth Bowen

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In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot
- from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople.
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AUTHOR OF THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB BESTSELLER BETTER OFF DEADFrom hot thriller author Tom Wood comes the latest breathtaking Victor novel
- The Day of the Jackal meets Jason Bourne, with a thoroughly modern twist.` Terrifically fun & explosively propulsive` Gregg Hurwitz, author of Orphan XEven a killer can be a hero If the assassin known only as Victor once had a moral compass, it is long since buried, along with his many victims. Yet some men are so evil even Victor accepts they must die for reasons other than just money. One such is Milan Rados, a former commander in the Serbian army who has escaped trial at The Hague to become a formidable criminal power. Tracking down & killing this brutal man will win Victor a reprieve for his own recent crimes on British soil. But Victor isn`t the only one who wants Rados dead. A woman, whose family was butchered on the tyrant`s orders, will do anything to see Rados` blood spilled on the snow of Eastern Europe. Now Victor has an unlikely ally
- but an army stands between them & justice.

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First published in 1969, ”A Time to Keep” has a vast cast of characters drawn from Orkney`s past & present. The stories offer a range of emotions & incidents, exploring how the new & old collide & crash in a community as deeply rooted as Orkney`s. ` Celia` portrays a woman who is shutting out the contemporary world, losing herself in an alcohol-fuelled haze which helps her rejects the horrors of Apartheid & the Vietnam War. In ` The Wireless Set`, an old couple begins to fear the implications of new technology, as they associate the loss of their son during the war with the radio he brought to them before he left. ”A Time to Keep” reflects Brown`s recent conversion five years earlier to Roman Catholicism, which is both reflected in the title & in the spiritual content of the tales. ...

From the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Red House Children`s Book Award, the Waterstones Children`s Book Prize & the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award 2013, comes the seventh amazing instalment of Tom Gates` adventures
- now in paperback! Will Tom & his band DOGZOMBIES be LUCKY enough to win the Rockweekly Bandbattle competition? They just might be if they could find time to practice! But with inspectors in the school, an amazing new cartoon on TV, caramel wafers to eat & a stray cat getting in the way, Tom`s a bit too busy having FUN!
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The A to Z Atlas & Guide to London & Suburbs 1938/9 is a historical reproduction atlas that affords a nostalgic look back to a time now rapidly becoming beyond living memory. This was a city of trams & trolley buses, still cloaked in the black sooty grime of Victorian industry, bedeviled by winter smogs. This edition of the Geographer’s A to Z is particularly intriguing since it affords a glimpse of London prior to the World War II bombings & the massive redevelopments that were to change the character of whole localities almost beyond recognition. Geographer’s Map Company was founded in 1936 by Phyllis Pearsall MBE 1906-1996 with the ambition of publishing an up-to-date street atlas of London. Over 70 years later the A-Z of London has established itself as a market leader, becoming a household name & the logo a recognized graphic icon. This simple book is where it all began… ...

Abbreviations, Agriculture, Architecture, Areas of Outstanding Beauty, Art, Astrology & Astronomy
- & that's just the letter
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With a trip to Stonehenge, a Punch & Judy show on the beach & playing at the Royal Albert Hall, children will love discovering some of the famous sites & experiences that make up this wonderful country. Written by Jo & Hugh Evans & beautifully illustrated by Liza Lewis. The book is complemented by a free pull out A to Z wall poster to decorate a child`s room & encourage continued learning. A wonderful gift for birthdays, Christmas or just because you care. ...

When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo as a young film student in 1975, he found a feverish & surreal metropolis in the midst of an economic boom, where everything seemed new & history only remained in fragments. Through his adventures in the world of avant-garde theatre, his encounters with carnival acts, fashion photographers & moments on-set with Akira Kurosawa, Buruma came of age. For an outsider, unattached to the cultural burdens placed on the Japanese, this was a place to be truly free. A Tokyo Romance is a portrait of a young artist & the fantastical city that shaped him, & a timeless story about the desire to transgress boundaries: cultural, artistic & sexual. ...

Mont Blanc, or ` Il Bianco` as it is sometimes known as in Italy; The White One. It sits, regally, upon pleated glacial folds gathered together around a timeless, grey-rock body, high above the French town of Chamonix, lord of all that it surveys. It beguiles, bewitches & charms the lesser folk who seek to frolic & play amongst the buttressed foothills of its ancient frame, but exudes also a sense of foreboding; a warning to the one hundred or so climbers that die each year attempting to reach the gleaming, domed summit of this great snow-encrusted mountain. Framed by the cobalt blue sky & golden alpine sun, Western Europe`s highest mountain has held a certain allure over explorers & hikers for centuries, playing host to the likes of Hannibal, Napoleon & the early pioneers of alpine exploration. In a muddy field somewhere in Cornwall on New Year`s Day, two men make a pact to tackle it. Call it a mid-life crisis, with not only his daughter about to leave for university but also the rapidly approaching prospect of his fiftieth birthday to consider: walking 170 kilometres across a mountain range seems the perfect antidote. Humorous, reflective & poignant, this is the story of a journey around one of the world`s most iconic mountains, through an area that is full to bursting with stories to remember. ...