A young boy is entranced by his father`s ambition to fly. When his father goes off to war & doesn`t return, the boy takes up that dream & makes it come true. Grown up, & with a son of his own, he then wonders to what amazing places this dream, passed down from generation to generation, will take his son
- perhaps to the stars?
...

Europe in 1884 on a cloth-backed reproduction of a map published by Edward Stanford, presenting the continent at the height of its great empires: imperial Russia with Finland & much of Pol&, united Germany including Alsace & part of Lorraine, the Austro-Hungarian Empire (although already post the Compromise, still shown here as one country) with north-western Balkans, & the Ottomans still with Albania & much of the present-day Greece. Hachures indicating the mountain ranges are in most places printed very faintly so names of towns & numerous geographical region marked on the map are easy to read. The map also has an unusually large number of names of smaller rivers. Latitude & longitude lines are drawn at 5° intervals. Each individual cloth-backed map is sold folded in a colourful case covered with a unique design marbled paper – no two cases are identical.PLEASE NOTE: this title is also available as a wall map in two different sizes in the “ Stanfords Classics Collection of Historical Maps”. To see the list of all the titles in this series from the Old Folding Maps please click on the series link. ...

Europe in 1884 on a cloth-backed reproduction of a map published by Edward Stanford, presenting the continent at the height of its great empires: imperial Russia with Finland & much of Pol&, united Germany including Alsace & part of Lorraine, the Austro-Hungarian Empire (although already post the Compromise, still shown here as one country) with north-western Balkans, & the Ottomans still with Albania & much of the present-day Greece. Hachures indicating the mountain ranges are in most places printed very faintly so names of towns & numerous geographical region marked on the map are easy to read. The map also has an unusually large number of names of smaller rivers. Latitude & longitude lines are drawn at 5° intervals. Each individual cloth-backed map is sold folded in a colourful case covered with a unique design marbled paper – no two cases are identical.PLEASE NOTE: this title is also available as a wall map in two different sizes in the “ Stanfords Classics Collection of Historical Maps”. To see the list of all the titles in this series from the Old Folding Maps please click on the series link. ...

The debut of a brilliant young writer, Farthest Field tells the lost history of India`s Second World War narrated through the joys & tragedies of a single family, the author`s own. If you loved The English Patient or Rohinton Mistry`s Fine Balance or Katherine Boo`s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, you will love this book. Three young men gazed at him from silver-framed photographs in his grandmother`s house, `beheld but not noticed, as angels are in a frieze full of mortal strugglers`. They had all been in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India
- & he thought that he had a good idea of both. One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo-frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces & onto the front line. Manek, dashing & confident, was a pilot with India`s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby`s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq & the green hell of the Burma battlefront. The years 1939-45 might be the most revered, deplored & replayed in modern history. Yet India`s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself & from the world. In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family
- a story of love, rebellion, loyalty & uncertainty
- & with it, the greatest revelation that is India`s Second World War. Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India`s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma
- unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world & swept up in its violence.



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Described as `a masterpiece` by critics, this remarkable book tells the story of war through the lives, heartbreaks & deaths of a single family. If you loved The English Patient or Rohinton Mistry`s Fine Balance or Katherine Boo`s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, you will love this book. Three young men gazed at him from silver-framed photographs in his grandmother`s house, `beheld but not noticed, as angels are in a frieze full of mortal strugglers`. They had all been in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India
- & he thought that he had a good idea of both. One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo-frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces & onto the front line. Manek, dashing & confident, was a pilot with India`s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby`s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq & the green hell of the Burma battlefront. The years 1939-45 might be the most revered, deplored & replayed in modern history. Yet India`s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself & from the world. In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family
- a story of love, rebellion, loyalty & uncertainty
- & with it, the greatest revelation that is India`s Second World War. Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India`s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma
- unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world & swept up in its violence.



...

Like a modern Viking 32-year-old Nansen set sail from Norway in 1893 to reach the North Pole. Experts warned him that his voyage was tantamount to suicide. Compact & nimble, his ship the Fram had been specially built to withstand the relentless, devastating pressure of the polar ice cap. At the right moment, he intended to strike out into the polar desert & finish the final leg by sledge. Nansen`s vivid memoir became an international phenomenon when, having been given up for dead, he emerged three years later. His epic struggle against snowdrifts, ice floes, polar bears, scurvy, gnawing hunger & the loneliness of the polar night would inspire young explorers such as Scott & Amundsen a generation later to make new conquests. This first unabridged edition since 1897

Includes:: photographs not previously published.

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Eight years after they overthrew Churchill & led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler, the upper-crust families of the ” Farthing set” are gathered for a weekend retreat. Among them is estranged Farthing scion Lucy Kahn, who can`t understand why her & her husband David`s presence was so forcefully requested. Then the country-house idyll is interrupted when the eminent Sir James Thirkie is found murdered
- with a yellow Star of David pinned to his chest. Lucy begins to realize that her Jewish husband is about to be framed for the crime
- an outcome that would be convenient for altogether too many of the various political machinations underway in Parliament in the coming week. But whoever`s behind the murder, & the frame-up, didn`t reckon on the principal investigator from Scotland Yard being a man with very private reasons for sympathizing with outcasts & underdogs
- & prone to look beyond the obvious as a result. As the trap slowly shuts on Lucy & David, they begin to see a way out
- a way fraught with peril in a darkening world.



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Farts Around the World may not be War & Peace but it is perfectly made for it`s intended readership
- childish readers, both big
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From tiny bubble-popping goldfish toots to thunderously loud elephant gas, learn how to spot the funniest (and smelliest) farts in the animal kingdom. Hilarious tidbits identify the odour, range, frequency & aftereffects of ten different types of gassy expulsions, while the attached battery-powered fart machine reproduces each emanation with astounding accuracy. This is pure, unbridled entertainment for the giggling child in all of us. ...

Bird photographer extraordinaire Markus Varesvuo has picked his 100 favourite species, & in this sumptuous book they are illustrated using his stunning camerawork & shown as never seen before by readers. Markus has selected the very best images from the thousands he has taken over the decades, & in the accompanying text he explains why they are so special as well as the stories around them. Species covered range from the spectacular Golden Eagle that adorns the front cover through more familiar wildfowl & garden birds to eye-catching owls & exotic bee-eaters. ” Fascinating Birds” showcases 150 amazing photographs of birds in the wild. The book is a celebration of birds that is sure to captivate any bird lover or wildlife photography enthusiast. ...