The City of London is where London began 2, 000 years ago when the Romans invaded. Today it is one of the most important financial centres in the world. With much destruction during the bombing of the Second World War, the city has reinvented itself into a high-tech business city, & through these photographic postcards you can see how ` The Square Mile` was over the past 100 years. Fred Judge, an early twentieth-century photographer, was one of the pioneers of early postcard publishing; he set new standards with high-quality artistic photographic images. This lavish book of stunning & atmospheric photographs & sketches of the historic & ancient City of London is complimented by photographs of scenes of London`s villages including Kensington & Chelsea. Produced in sepia & monotone, with sketches drawn by Fred Judge & his artists, this book is the perfect gift for Londoners & visitors alike. Warren Grynberg, the author, has dedicated his career to the history of London & its people. He is a City of London guide-lecturer & a London Blue Badge Guide; the blue badge is recognised internationally as a benchmark of excellence in tourist guiding. ...

Jaffa
- famed for its orange groves
- was for centuries a city of traders, merchants, teachers & administrators, home to

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An exploration of Los Angeles, told with passion, wit & a sharp eye for the absurd, the unjust & the dangerous. The author tells a lurid tale of greed, manipulation, power & prejudice that has made LA one of the most cosmopolitan & class-divided cities in the United States. ...

The tales tell that Charles the Second feared ` Britain will fall` if the ravens ever left the ” Tower of London”. Yet the truth is that they arrived in Victorian times as props in gory tales for tourists. The legend began in 1944 when a raven spotted bombers over London. But the ravens` past has far more high drama. From the plains of the North American Indians to the Arctic tundra, all the way to the ” Tower of London”, they have been symbols of cruelty, of survival through adversity, & a loveable icon. Boria Sax shows how our attitudes to the raven & to the natural world in general have changed enormously over the centuries. By describing the distinct place of this special bird in Anglo-Saxon culture, he shows how blurred the lines between myth & history can be. This is a unique & brilliantly readable story of the entwined lives of people & animals. ...

The Hunger Games meets The Thief Lord in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya. In the shadows of Sangui City, a street-thief called Tina patiently plots her revenge. Her mother has been shot dead at the home of one of Kenya`s richest businessmen, & Tina is sure she knows who`s to blame. When a local gang asks her to steal from his home, it`s the chance Tina has been waiting for. But as she steps inside, old wounds resurface & she is caught red-handed by his son, Michael. The pair set in motion a cascade of dangerous events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. The desire to uncover the incredible truth about who killed her mother
- & why
- keeps her holding on in this fast-paced, nail-biting thriller.

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If Paris is the city of love, then London is the city of lust. For over a thousand years, England`s capital has been associated with desire, avarice & the sins of the flesh. Richard of Devises, a monk writing in 1180, warned that `every quarter [of the city] abounds in great obscenities`. As early as the second century AD, London was notorious for its raucous festivities & disorderly houses, & throughout the centuries the bawdy side of life has taken easy root & flourished. In the third book of her fascinating London trilogy, award-winning popular historian Catharine Arnold turns her gaze to the city`s relationship with vice through the ages. From the bath houses & brothels of Roman Londinium, to the stews & Molly houses of the 17th & 18th centuries, London has always traded in the currency of sex. Whether pornographic publishers on Fleet Street, or fancy courtesans parading in Haymarket, its streets have long been witness to colourful sexual behaviour. In her usual accessible & entertaining style, Arnold takes us on a journey through the fleshpots of London from earliest times to present day. Here are buxom strumpets, louche aristocrats, popinjay politicians & Victorian flagellants -- all vying for their place in London`s league of licentiousness. From sexual exuberance to moral panic, the city has seen the pendulum swing from Puritanism to hedonism & back again. With later chapters looking at Victorian London & the sexual underground of the 20th century & beyond, this is a fascinating & vibrant chronicle of London at its most raw & ribald. ...

Behind the headlines, the strategies, the surges, what is life really like in Afghanistan? What is it like to live & work there as a civilian on state-building with its people, fighting the Taliban with flip-charts & pens, not guns? In her account of sixteen months in the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah, working for the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team, Kate Fearon records everyday life on the frontline. Amidst the violence she unearths extraordinary stories of how ordinary Afghans live & what they think, both inside & outside the walls of military bases. From the thrills & risks of getting there to exploring Helmand & its history this book follows the author`s daily life she gets to know the people behind the war. She learns Pashto, visits the Districts, meets the US Marines, observes elections & evades suspected suicide bombers. She describes working with the tribal Elders on informal justice & policing issues, & building local democracy with them. She also listens to the musings of young men on marriage (and nightclubs), discovers what Afghan women really think of their burquas, & discusses poppy growing, pornography, forbidden love-notes, drinking & dancing. Tragic & touching but also wryly observed, City of Soldiers tells of the camaraderie & courage of those working under extreme conditions, foreigners & locals, civilians & military alike. It evokes the despair--and the guilt--that comes with targeted political murders in response to the process of democratization. Kate Fearon explains how the key driver for Afghans is pragmatism, their overriding goal survival, & reveals how women--and men--assert themselves in a seemingly impossibly restrictive culture with humour & hope. ...

Paul Metzger`s life is in a state of disrepair; a writer in his mid-thirties, he is divorced & underacheiving. One winter afternoon he travels into New York to visit three people; an elder half-brother who wants little to do with him; a disgraced, dying father, once infamous as a Nazi sympathiser; & an ex-wife whom Paul still loves. But Paul soon realises that he is being watched, & it is this fourth, unplanned & violent, encounter that will chanage more than one life, forever. ...

An ecological romance with a pulsing heart, equal parts Rider Haggard & Chico Buarque
- one of the world`s greatest & most beloved
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New Orleans, & Vic Willing, Assistant District Attorney for the prosecutors' office, has been missing since Hurricane Katrina hit. Called in from San Francisco is Claire De Witt, a detective whose expertise & methods derive from some unique sources. What Claire discovers takes us into the heart of the crime-ravaged, deeply wounded city, where those who can afford it live behind fences & those who can't are slain daily on the streets. & it's there she discovers that the only thing worse than an unsolved case, maybe, is a solved one. From the acclaimed author of Dope & Come Closer, & City of the Dead is the first novel of a detective series unlike any you have read before, one that is sure to inspire a passionate & devoted following. ...