” Completely absorbing”. (Amanda Foreman). ” Enthralling”. (Guardian). ” The Three Musketeers! The Count of Monte Cristo! The stories of course are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for the swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas` own father, Alex
- the son of a marquis & a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown up among slaves, he was all for Liberty & Equality. Alex Dumas was the stuff of legend”. (Daily Mail). So how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why are there no statues of ` Monsieur Humanity` as his troops called him? The Black Count uncovers what happened & the role Napoleon played in Dumas` downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas
- from Haiti to the Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto
- Reiss, like the novelist before him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero. ” Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud”. (Independent). ” Brilliant”. (Glasgow Herald).


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` The Black Door` explores the evolving relationship between successive British prime ministers & the intelligence agencies, from Asquith`s Secret Service Bureau to Cameron`s National Security Council. At the beginning of the 20th Century the British intelligence system was underfunded & lacked influence in government. But as the new millennium dawned, intelligence had become so integral to policy that it was used to make the case for war. Now, covert action is incorporated seamlessly into government policy, & the Prime Minister is kept constantly updated by intelligence agencies. But how did intelligence come to influence our government so completely? ` The Black Door` explores the murkier corridors of No. 10 Downing Street, chronicling the relationships between intelligence agencies & the Prime Ministers of the last century. From Churchill`s code-breakers feeding information to the Soviets to Eden`s attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, from Wilson`s paranoia of an MI5-led coup d`etat to Thatcher`s covert wars in Central America, Aldrich & Cormac entertain & enlighten as they explain how our government came to rely on intelligence to the extent that it does today. ...

Maybe it was time I forgot about Nico Peterson, & his sister, & the Cahuilla Club, & Clare Cavendish. Clare? The rest would be easy to put out of my mind, but not the black-eyed blonde.. . It is the early 1950s. In Los Angeles, Private Detective Philip Marlowe is as restless & lonely as ever, & business is a little slow. Then a new client arrives: young, beautiful, & expensively dressed, Clare Cavendish wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Soon Marlowe will find himself not only under the spell of the Black-Eyed Blonde; but tangling with one of Bay City`s richest families
- & developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune.. .
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This exquisite 40cm (16) illuminated globe is constructed from a glass-like material, held in a stainless steel half meridian & base. The sturdy globe is modelled to show raised relief for land areas & is coloured to portray the physical geography/land vegetation & the bathymetric detail of the ocean floor. Illumination accentuates the colour contrast but does not reveal any further detail. ...

Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, & then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, & dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, & society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent & invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black h&. The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press & heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public & the Black Hand`s lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the ” Italian Sherlock Holmes, ” he was a famously dogged & ingenious detective, & a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre & the Black Hand`s activities spread far beyond New York`s borders, Petrosino & the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country`s anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino`s quest to root out the source of the Black Hand`s power would take him all the way to Sicily-but at a terrible cost. Unfolding a story rich with resonance in our own era, The Black Hand is fast-paced narrative history at its very best. ...

In 1789 the West Indian colony of San Domingo supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France. The entire structure of what was arguably the most profitable colony in the world rested on the labour of half a million slaves. In 1791 the waves of unrest inspired by the French Revolution reached across the Atlantic dividing the loyalties of the white population of the isl&. The brutally treated slaves of Saint Domingo seized at this confusion & rose up in rebellion against masters. In thisclassic work, CLR James chronicles the only successful slave revolt in history & provides a critical portrait of their leader, Toussaint L` Ouverture, `one of the most remarkable men of a period rich in remarkable men`. ...

Amid the lush abundance of Java`s landscape, two boys spend their days exploring the vast lakes & teeming forests. But as time passes the boys come to realize that their shared sense of adventure cannot bridge the gulf between their backgrounds, for one is the son of a Dutch plantation owner, & the other the son of a servant. Inevitably, as they grow up, they grow estranged & it is not until years later that they meet again. It will be an explosive & emblematic meeting that marks them even more deeply than their childhood friendship did. ...

In ruins on the outskirts of Gaza, the war-torn Palestinian city that had been a metropolis since the times of the pharaohs, a plucky young female archaeologist has made a remarkable find: possibly the earliest known image of the Virgin Mary, created during her lifetime. But before she can reveal it to the world, it is stolen from her in a brutal personal assault amidst the chaos of an Israeli airstrike. But who has stolen it & why? What dark hidden secret did it conceal? With her former lover, an Oxford professor of comparative historiography
- the science of comparing alternative versions of the past
- she sets out on a dangerous quest to some of the holiest sites in Christendom, from the plains of Bavaria to the mountains of central Spain & an ignored ancient temple in the heart of London. In a tale of murder, treason, intrigue & geopolitics, they uncover a web of conspiracy, cover-ups, confused mythology & interlinked religion that dates back to the last pagan Roman emperor, & maybe even to the very origins of life on earth. Astonishingly well-researched, this is a gripping yarn that is at the same time intellectually challenging.A book to make Dan Brown turn green with envy.

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When Nikos, a detective in the final years of his career, is persuaded back to his home town he is faced with the gory murder of a young boy near the old monastery. Echoing two murders committed 33 years previously in the exact same spot, & a mass cult suicide, it brings back a part of the island`s history that it has tried hard to forget. There is a lot at stake
- the island`s lucrative tourist trade & the open secret of the drugs trade that goes hand in hand with the hordes of mainly young British holiday makers. As Nikos begins his investigation, two British crime writers arrive on the isl&. The best selling Kitty Carson, on a break from the pressures of writing & her strained relationship, & Jason an aspiring writer whose aim is to strike up a friendship with her & convince her to help him get published. As the two writers are thrown together in an unexpected way, another murder is committed & Jason & Kitty are drawn into an investigation of their own. As they discover more about the island`s dark past what began as a diversion becomes a dangerous pursuit...
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The Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park, including a part of the Offa’s Dyke Path, on a waterproof & tear-resistant OS Active version of map No. 161 from the Ordnance Survey’s Landranger series at 1:50, 000, with contoured & GPS compatible topographic mapping plus tourist information.MOBILE DOWNLOADS: As well as the physical edition of the map, each Landranger title now

Includes:: a code for downloading after purchase its digital version onto your smartphone or tablet for viewing on the OS smartphone app.OS LANDRANGER SERIES: to see the list of all the titles in the OS Landranger series, both paper & waterproof versions, please click on the series link. Maps in the Landranger series provide plenty of recreational & tourist information, indicating the traditional public right of way paths (except in Scotland where different laws apply), including bridleways & byways restricted or open to motorized traffic. National Trails & selected other long-distance paths are marked, as well as on-road & traffic-free cycle routes with their National/ Regional Cycle Network numbers. National Trust/ National Trust for Scotland & Forestry Commission land is clearly marked, indicating open or restricted access. A range of symbols highlights camping & caravanning sites, youth hostels, tourist information offices & visitors’ centres, parking & picnicking places, World Heritage sites, sport & recreational facilities, etc. The maps provide detailed presentation of topography with contours at 10m intervals, numerous spot heights & additional colouring and/or graphics for different types of woodlands, orchards or parkl&, rock features including scree & cliffs, water features inland & along the sea shore with marshl&, dunes, s&, mud, shingle & the high water mark. All the standard information expected of survey mapping at this scale is included: finely graded road network, railway lines with stations, cuttings, embankments, etc; individual isolated buildings; archaeological & historical sites, etc. For GPS users the British National Grid is shown at 1km intervals, with latitude & longitude given by margin ticks at 1` & cross hairs on the map at 5`. Each map covers an area of 40 x 40km, (approx. 25 x 25 miles).

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