On 1 July 1916, after a five-day bombardment, 11 British & 5 French divisions launched their long-awaited ` Big Push` on German positions on high ground above the Rivers Ancre & Somme on the Western Front. Some ground was gained, but at a terrible cost. In killing-grounds whose names are indelibly imprinted on 20th-century memory, German machine-guns
- manned by troops who had sat out the storm of shellfire in deep dugouts
- inflicted terrible losses on the British infantry. The British Fourth Army lost 57, 470 casualties, the French Sixth Army suffered 1, 590 casualties & the German 2nd Army 10, 000. & this was but the prelude to 141 days of slaughter that would witness the deaths of between 750, 000 & 1 million troops. Andrew Roberts evokes the pity & the horror of the blackest day in the history of the British army
- a summer`s day-turned-hell-on-earth by modern military technology
- in the words of casualties, survivors, & the bereaved.



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Did you know that without the `lead` in your pencil, there would be no life on Earth? Just about everything in the universe is made from only 92 elements
- & from aluminium to zinc, many of them are hiding in your very own home! This funny & fascinating guide is bursting with brilliant facts about the atomic ingredients that make up everything around us. Join scientific sleuth Sherlock Ohms as he investigates the elements, & help his enquiries with explosive experiments.
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This is the original edition of the classic book on yacht design & one of the most famous books on yacht design ever written. This book is a practical & concise presentation of some of the operations involved in designing yachts of all types. At last this book will be available for boatbuilders, aspiring naval architects & sailors who need it for frequent reference. The index has been completely revised & expanded. ...

The Elements 2013 Wall Calendar by Colin Prior offers 12 magnificent colour photographs of natural compositions found in the Scottish wilderness, from Snowdrops to Torridonian Sandstone. Here, Colin Prior, acclaimed photographer, distils beauty in a showcase of pictures as inspiring as paintings. The calendar displays the names of days & months below the pictures. At the back you will find details for each image, type of camera, lens & film used. This is a real treat for anyone interested in the outdoors & photography. ...

A son`s quest to avenge his mother`s murder. In 1948, in a Greek mountain village, Eleni Gatzoyiannis was arrested, tortured & shot. She was one of the 158, 000 victims of the Greek Civil War. Her crime had been to help her children escape from the Communist guerrillas who occupied their village. Her son, Nicholas Gage, was then eight years old. Eleni is the story of his obsessive & harrowing reconstruction of his mother`s life & death & his pursuit of his mother`s killer. ...

This handcrafted wooden elephant jigsaw is ideal for children that are learning to count. Children will learn the number sequence as they slot each interlocking piece of the puzzle together to form an elephant. A fair trade toy handcrafted from sustainable rubber wood.WARNING! not suitable for children under three years, choking hazard due to small parts. ...

Elephant & Castle area of London in 1872 in a series of exceptionally detailed reproductions of old Ordnance Survey street plans for areas of larger cities which have undergone substantial redevelopment in the late 19th or the early 20th century, published in the Alan Godfrey Editions. The plans, printed in back & white, have been taken from the original Ordnance Survey mapping at 1:1, 056 & reproduced at 1:1, 760 – the equivalent of 36 inches (or one yard) to a mile. The maps provide an unrivalled, house-by-house picture of streets & individual buildings with inner courtyards, outbuildings, pavements, covered passages, etc. Many important institutions are named; within the National Galley on Trafalgar Square even the individual rooms (the map is from 1871, so no French Impressionists as yet!). On the reverse are historical notes about the area covered by the map, plus extracts from contemporary street directories. These maps provide a fascinating addition to Alan Godfrey’s huge series of some 2, 000 titles presenting reproductions of street plans at taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping at 1:2, 500 (25” to 1 mile) & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). ...

Everyone has wanted a piece of paradise Sri Lanka is a small island with a long, violent & enthralling history. Home to thousands of wild elephants, this is a place where natural beauty has endured, indifferent to human tragedy. Journeying through its many regions
- some haunted by war, many rarely seen by our eyes
- award-winning travel writer John Gimlette interviews ex-presidents & cricketers, tea planters & terrorists, negotiating the complex relationships of Sinhalese, Tamil & Muslim communities & the more sinister forms of tourism. Each city raises the ghosts of old colonies: Portuguese, Dutch & British armies striving to claim the most significant ports in the southern seas; each site resurrects a civilization that preceded, & sometimes, outfaced them. The political families of Colombo lead Gimlette through recent years of turmoil, survivors of the tsunami tell of their recovery &, tale by tale, scrap by scrap, the thorny truths of the civil war emerge
- a war whose wounds have yet to heal. As he walks in the steps of old conquerors, follows the secret paths of elephants & marches alongside pilgrims, Gimlette seeks the soul of a country that is struggling to free itself from trauma & embody an identity to match its vitality, its power & its people.


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Stanfords Adult Book of the Month August 2016 Sri Lanka is a small island with a long, violent & enthralling history. Home to thousands of wild elephants, this is a place where natural beauty has endured, indifferent to human tragedy. Journeying through its regions
- some haunted by war, many rarely seen by our eyes
- award-winning travel writer John Gimlette interviews ex-presidents & cricketers, tea planters & terrorists, negotiating the complex relationships of diverse communities & the more sinister forms of tourism. Each city raises the ghosts of Portuguese, Dutch or British colonies; each site resurrects a civilization that preceded, & sometimes, outfaced them. The political families of Colombo lead Gimlette through years of turmoil, survivors of the tsunami tell of their recovery & the thorny truths of the civil war emerge
- a war whose wounds have yet to heal. As he walks in the steps of old conquerors, follows the secret paths of elephants & marches alongside pilgrims, Gimlette seeks the soul of a country that is striving to free itself from trauma & embody an identity to match its vitality, its power & its people.


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Ravi is fascinated by his grandfather's stories of India & descriptions of a sun like a ferocious tiger, wind like a wild horse, & monsoon rains which cascade like waterfalls from the sky. Ravi also loves to hear the story of Divaali, where the parading elephants play a key role, & dreams of having an elephant dance to the sound of his flute. This is a beautifully written exploration of India through the conversation between a grandparent & grandchild, & also has informative endnotes on Indian culture, animals & peoples. ...