Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...

Human exploration has been an unceasing engine of technological progress, from the first homo sapiens to leave our African cradle to a future in which mankind promises to settle another world. Beyond tells the epic story of humanity leaving home-and how humans will soon thrive in the vast universe beyond the earth. A dazzling & propulsive voyage through space & time, Beyond reveals how centuries of space explorers-from the earliest stargazers to today`s cutting-edge researchers-all draw inspiration from an innate human emotion: wanderlust. This urge to explore led us to multiply around the globe, & it can be traced in our DNA. Today, the urge to discover manifests itself in jaw-dropping ways: plans for space elevators poised to replace rockets at a fraction of the cost; experiments in suspending & reanimating life for ultra-long-distance travel; prototypes for solar sails that coast through space on the momentum of microwaves released from the Earth. With these ventures, private companies & entrepreneurs have the potential to outpace NASA as the leaders in a new space race. Combining expert knowledge of astronomy & avant-garde technology, Chris Impey guides us through the heady possibilities for the next century of exploration. In twenty years, a vibrant commercial space industry will be operating. In thirty years, there will be small but viable colonies on the Moon & Mars. In fifty years, mining technology will have advanced enough to harvest resources from asteroids. In a hundred years, a cohort of humans born off-Earth will come of age without ever visiting humanity`s home planet. This is not the stuff of science fiction but rather the logical extension of already available technologies. Beyond shows that space exploration is not just the domain of technocrats, but the birthright of everyone & the destiny of generations to come. To continue exploration is to ensure our survival. Outer space, a limitless unknown, awaits us. ...

A comically sinister tale of wicked spirits & suburban mediums from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of ` Wolf Hall` & ` Bring Up the Bodies`. Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory towns of London`s orbital ring road with her flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, passing on messages from beloved dead ancestors. But behind her plump, smiling persona hides a desperate woman: she knows the terrors the next life holds but must conceal them from her wide-eyed clients. At the same time she is plagued by spirits from her own past, who infiltrate her body & home, becoming stronger & nastier the more she resists... Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Hilary Mantel`s supremely suspenseful novel is a masterpiece of dark humour & even darker secrets. ...

This book explores the Emirates beyond the beaches & shopping malls of Dubai
- focusing in particular on the remarkably rich historical
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One of the most iconoclastic philosophers of all time, Nietzsche dramatically rejected notions of good & evil, truth & God. Beyond Good & Evil demonstrates that the world is steeped in false piety & infected with a `slave morality`. With wit & subversive energy, Nietzsche demands that the individual impose their own `will to power` upon the world. ...

Beyond Limits is the autobiography of Steve Mc Clure, one of the world`s top rock climbers. From his childhood encounters with the sandstone outcrops of the North York Moors right up to his cutting-edge first ascents such as Overshadow (F9a+) at Malham & Mutation (F9a) at Raven Tor, Steve explores his deep passion for climbing & how it has dictated & shaped his life. Introduced to climbing by his parents at an early age, Steve quickly progressed as a climber, developing a fascination with movement & technical difficulty. Rapidly reaching a high standard, Steve became torn between the desire to climb increasingly bold routes & his hesitant approach to danger, with a series of close calls forcing him to seriously question his motivations. Searching for a balance between risk & reward, he struggled to find his place as a climber. Having dropped out of the scene, a chance encounter led to his discovery of sport climbing. Free from fear, Steve plunged headlong into this new style & surged through the grades. Pushing everything else aside, he allowed climbing to take over his life. He reached world-class levels of performance, but once again found himself searching for a balance between risk & reward, yet this time the risk was of losing what is truly important in life. As he searches for what really makes him tick, his climbing comes full circle & returns to where it started
- climbing for the love of it. Beyond Limits is the story of a climber & his obsessive exploration of the sport, of finding a true passion, taking it to the limits & attempting to delicately balance this passion against other aspects of life to give the greatest rewards.
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Harriet`s parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school & doing `the Season`, she would meet & marry a suitable young man. But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, & was sent by UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan`s last remaining silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the KHAD, narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis in a Kabul hospital, & rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who became her devoted companion. At the end of the first Gulf War she travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly-liberated Iraqi Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders & decorators driving convoys of food & aid from Croydon to the Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats & military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about young woman from a sheltered & privileged background travelling & working alone, in & around war zones, frequently with no financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic fundamentalism. Harriet left her traditional, comfortable home & chose to live a life of adventure & danger helping refugees who had nowhere else to turn. She continues to raise money for charity through her business selling oriental textiles & remains friends with the refugees she helped in Afghanistan. However, she is now married, to just the sort of husband her parents always hoped for. ...

The sudden thought reverberated to the centre of Gin's being. It filled the emptiness in her nineteen-year-old heart, that of a girl whose marriage had failed & who was faced with a future devoid of hope. As a young girl from a wealthy family, Ginko Ogino seems set for a conventional life in the male-dominated society of nineteenth-century Japan. But when she contracts gonorrhoea from her husb&, she suffers the ignominy of divorce. Forced to bear the humiliation of being treated by male doctors, she resolves to become a doctor herself in order to treat fellow female sufferers & spare them some of the shame she had to endure. As more & more obstacles are placed before her, will she give in to social pressure or continue to fight against her world & her times? ...

In Beyond The Blue Horizon Alexander Frater reveals & relives the romance & breathtaking excitement of the legendary Imperial Airways Eastbound Empire service -- the world`s longest & most adventurous scheduled air route. Written with an infectious passion, this is an extraordinarily original & genre-defining piece of travel writing by one of our most highly respected travel correspondents. ` Whether being mown down by stampeding Baghdad-bound passengers in Cairo airport, or battling with Indian Airline staff (and failing) to reconfirm six vital going-on flights from Delhi, or being lured unwittingly into a souvenir shop selling pornographic wood carvings in Lombok, or hitting tropical cyclones Ferdinand in a 748 en route from Sumba to Bali, Frater rises above it all with humour, style & a wonderfully sharp eye` Evening Standard ...

The Huautla Caves system in Mexico has long been the Holy Grail of cavers. Fighting floods, cave-ins & Mazatec Indians who believe the caves are holy, caving teams have competed every year to be the first to prove the cave's depth. No-one has gone further than Bill Stone, the world's foremost caver, whose 20-year obsession nearly ended in disaster. He first explored Huautla in 1976 during the frontier days of caving. Over the next 15 years he stayed at the top, inventing clothing & equipment to help in his obsession. Finally, in 1994, after years of preparation, Stone & his 44-member team entered the Sotano de San Augustin sinkhole at Huautla. It was the beginning of a journey that would untimately claim the life of one diver & force every member of the team back
- except Bill Stone & team member Barbara am Ende, who forged on alone, with no hope of rescue, to set the record for the deepest cave dive in the Western Hemisphere.
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