Imagine the brilliant colours & smells of fruits in a Caribbean market, the vast variety of tins & jars in a North American supermarket. Imagine how many kinds of street music there are, the different ways children play with swings & kites & boats. Imagine the different seasons. Then imagine things that are the same worldwide
- land & trees & creatures being destroyed, wealth & poverty spreading. Imagine believing in good hope, a future when life will be better...
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All the Countries We Ever Invaded (and the Few We Never Got Round to), written by Stewart Laycock & published by The History Press, is a fascinating book, if perhaps somewhat uncomfortable to read in these post-imperial days! According to the author’s introduction, out of the 193 UN members in 2012 Britain invaded, had some control of or fought conflicts in the territory of something like 171. The relevant countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe are listed alphabetically, each with interesting, informative text. Inter-GB squabbles are not included so, who knows, maybe come autumn 2014 the 171 will become 172?“I’ve tried to be objective, but sometimes the question of what constitutes an invasion can be a little subjective” says the author, & indeed, some of the “invasions”, of Belarus, Hungary or Pol&, hardly merit such a negative designation, so the figures need to be taken with a pinch of salt & the post-imperial angst can be reduced! But the book is interesting, whether you want to use it to learn more about the past or to win a quiz in your local pub. ...

Out of 193 countries that are currently UN member states, we`ve invaded or fought conflicts in the territory of 171. That`s not far off a massive, jaw-dropping 90 per cent. Not too many Britons know that we invaded Iran in the Second World War with the Soviets. You can be fairly sure a lot more Iranians do. Or what about the time we arrived with elephants to invade Ethiopia? Every summer, hordes of British tourists now occupy Corfu & the other Ionian islands. Find out how we first invaded them armed with cannon instead of camera & set up the United States of the Ionian Islands. Think the Philippines have always been outside our zone of influence? Think again. Read the surprising story of our eighteenth-century occupation of Manila & how we demanded a ransom of millions of dollars for the city. This book takes a look at some of the truly awe-inspiring ways our country has been a force, for good & for bad, right across the world. A lot of people are vaguely aware that a quarter of the globe was once pink, but that`s not even half the story. We`re a stroppy, dynamic, irrepressible nation & this is how we changed the world, often when it didn`t ask to be changed! ...

A tale of police corruption, underworld power struggles & killers with an insatiable lust for violence... All the Devils are here. Crime journalist Doug Mc Gregor is struggling to recover from a clash with a psychotic killer. A dead-of-night encounter with a seedy blackmailer is enough to send Doug feral. With his demons threatening to engulf him, he & DS Susie Drummond are tested to the limit as they uncover a conspiracy that reaches deeper than even they can imagine. ...

David Seabrook takes the reader on a deranged exploration of the coast towns of Thanet & the Medway. He fuses his observation of these depressing landscapes, city centres full of unemployed men & asylum seekers & dodgy characters, with literary & historical associations that seem through his eyes more like bad dreams than heritage advertisements for the local tourist board. ...

All the King`s Men is considered the finest novel ever written on American politics. Set in the 1930s, this book traces the rise & fall of Willie Stark, who resembles the real-life Huey ” Kingfish” Long of Louisiana. Stark begins his political career as an idealistic man of the people but soon becomes corrupted by success. ...

”I read this book in one night, truly a page-turner. It leaves a profoundly scary impression: [ Putin`s court is the] real House of Cards.” --Lev Lurie, writer & historian All the Kremlin`s Men is a gripping narrative of an accidental king & a court out of control. Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putin`s inner circle, this book presents a radically different view of power & politics in Russia. The image of Putin as a strongman is dissolved. In its place is a weary figurehead buffeted-if not controlled-by the men who at once advise & deceive him. The regional governors & bureaucratic leaders are immovable objects, far more powerful in their fiefdoms than the president himself. So are the gatekeepers-those officials who guard the pathways to power-on whom Putin depends as much as they rely on him. The tenuous edifice is filled with all of the intrigue & plotting of a Medici court, as enemies of the state are invented & wars begun to justify personal gains, internal rivalries, or one faction`s biased advantage.A bestseller in Russia, All the Kremlin`s Men is a shocking revisionist portrait of the Putin era & a dazzling reconstruction of the machinations of courtiers running riot. ...

WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONA beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl & a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II Open your eyes & see what you can with them before they close forever.` For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father & daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. & a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility & brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth. In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure & Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. ...

A man bets all he has on a horserace to pay for an expensive operation for his dog. A young refugee wants to box her way straight off the boat to the top of the sport. Old friends talk all night after meeting up by chance. She imagines their future together... Stories about people who have lost out in life & in love, & about their hopes for one really big win, the chance to make something of their lives. In silent apartments, desolate warehouses, prisons & down by the river, Meyer strikes the tone of our harsh times, & finds the grace notes, the bright lights shining in the dark. ...

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- 12/09/2018. Celebrated yacht designer Ron Holland drew his first yacht at 19 years of
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