A landmark book from a remarkable new historian, on a subject that has never been more important
- or imperilled Today, everybody
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Breadstreet Ward & Cordwainers Ward With Their Divisions..., an original antique map by B. Cole, published in London 1756. A copperplate engraving, coloured. Map size 36 x 23.5 cm, overall mounted size 51.5 x 38.5 cm. An attractive map of the Watling Street area, modern-day Mansion House. Views of two local churches appear in the lower half of the page. This map was originally published as part of Maitland's History Of London, sponsored by the aldermen of the city. Accordingly the arms of the aldermen of Bread Street & Cordwainers Wards are shown in the upper corners, although the dedication gives the aldermen's titles the wrong way round. Important buildings are shown pictorially. Adams, London Illustrated, 38. Antique maps from various original publishers are presented on the Stanford ...

No sport demands & celebrates the suffering of its participants like road racing, yet the pursuit of cycling was formed out of a spirit of emancipation, freedom, invention & revolution. It started with Victorian adventurers who took their new machine across continents, up unscaled peaks & into the first races, followed by those who saw the potential of the bicycle as a radical mode of transport, before the twentieth-century sun shone on a golden age of cycling, bringing fame & fortune to its glamorous new sporting superstars. Through fifty key riders, from early pioneers like Mark Twain to modern superstars like Eddy Merckx, Break Away is a fascinating & arresting new history of road cycling. ...

Paralysis. Stuttering. The `shakes`. Inability to stand or walk. Temporary blindness or deafness. When strange symptoms like these began appearing in men at Casualty Clearing Stations in 1915, a debate began in army & medical circles as to what it was, what had caused it & what could be done to cure it. But the numbers were never large. Then in July 1916 with the start of the Somme battle the incidence of shell shock rocketed. The high command of the British army began to panic. An increasingly large number of men seemed to have simply lost the will to fight. As entire battalions had to be withdrawn from the front, commanders & military doctors desperately tried to come up with explanations as to what was going wrong. ` Shell shock`
- what we would now refer to as battle trauma
- was sweeping the Western Front. By the beginning of August 1916, nearly 200, 000 British soldiers had been killed or wounded during the first month of fighting along the Somme. Another 300, 000 would be lost before the battle was over. But the army always said it could not calculate the exact number of those suffering from shell shock. Re-assessing the official casualty figures, Taylor Downing for the first time comes up with an accurate estimate of the total numbers who were taken out of action by psychological wounds. It is a shocking figure. Taylor Downing`s revelatory new book follows units & individuals from signing up to the Pals Battalions of 1914, through to the horrors of their experiences on the Somme which led to the shell shock that, unrelated to weakness or cowardice, left the men unable to continue fighting. He shines a light on the official
- & brutal
- response to the epidemic, even against those officers & doctors who looked on it sympathetically. It was, they believed, a form of hysteria. It was contagious. & it had to be stopped. Breakdown brings an entirely new perspective to bear on one of the iconic battles of the First World War.



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Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day & nowhere is that fact more appreciated than at the Wolseley restaurant in London`s Piccadilly. The brainchild of Jeremy King & Chris Corbin
- celebrated restaurateurs & founders of three of London`s most iconic dining destinations: The Ivy, The Caprice & J Sheekey
- the Wolseley is a cross between the traditional robustness of the Parisian brasserie & the gloriously grand but cosy comfort of the Viennese cafe. Breakfast is an institution at the Wolseley & whether you want a healthy breakfast of fruit, cereal & yoghurt, or a full no-fuss English, every need is catered for using the finest ingredients from the best of British & European producers. ” Breakfast at the Wolseley” serves up the ultimate guide to producing & enjoying a superb breakfast in the Wolseley style. There is a host of delicious recipes, whether it`s fresh fruit & crisp croissants or a full English with steaming high-grade Arabica blend coffee. You can also learn more about the background & ethos of the Wolseley with a description of the building & how it became the icon it is today, including an intriguing look at how breakfast service is run at the Wolseley both at front of house & behind the scenes.

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Truman Capote`s dazzling New York novel Breakfast at Tiffany`s that inspired the classic 1961 film starring Audrey Hepburn is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. ` What I`ve found does the most good is just to get into a taxi & go to Tiffany`s. It calms me down right away, the quietness & the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits...` Meet Holly Golightly
- a free spirited, lop-sided romantic girl about town. With her tousled blond hair & upturned nose, dark glasses & chic black dresses, Holly is a style sensation wherever she goes. Her apartment rocks to Martini-soaked parties & she plays hostess to millionaires & gangsters alike. Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate dream
- to find a real life place like Tiffany`s that makes her feel at home. Full of sharp wit & exuberant, larger-than-life characters which vividly capture the restless, madcap era of 1940s New York, Breakfast at Tiffany`s will make you fall in love, perhaps for the first time, with a book.

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For ten years Geordie Greig was among a very small group of friends who regularly met Lucian Freud for breakfast at Clarke`s restaurant on Kensington Church Street. Over tea & the morning papers, Freud would recount stories of his past & discuss art. It was, in effect, Freud`s private salon. In this kaleidoscopic memoir, Greig remembers Freud`s stories: of death threats; escaping from Nazi Germany; falling out with his brother Clement; loathing his mother; painting David Hockney; sleeping with horses; escaping the Krays; painting the Queen; his controversial role as a father; & why Velazquez was the greatest painter. It is revelatory about his art, his lovers, his children, his enemies & his love of gambling. Freud dared never to do dull, speaking candidly of dancing with Garbo as well as painting Kate Moss naked. Those closest to him, after decades of silence & secrecy, have spoken frankly about what life was like living, loving or sitting for the greatest figurative portraitist of the twentieth century. Partly based on hours of taped conversations with the artist & his circle, & drawing on interviews with those who knew Freud intimately
- including many girlfriends, models, dealers & bookmakers
- Breakfast with Lucian is an intimate portrait of the artist as a young & old man. Illustrated with many unseen photographs of Freud, it is a uniquely fascinating, personal & authoritative account of one of the greatest British painters of this century & the last, & a profile of a man who makes everyone else`s life seem less lived.

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` Hell is other people.` This is a chilling, page-turning Hammer novella by the Booker-Prize-winning author of Vernon God Little. The setting: a faded, lonely guesthouse on the Essex coast. Outside, it`s dark, & very foggy. Inside there`s no phone or internet reception, no connection with the outside world. Enter Ariel Panek, a promising young academic en route from the USA to an important convention in Amsterdam. With his plane grounded by fog at Stanstead, he has been booked in for the night at the guesthouse. Discombobulated & jetlagged, he falls in with a family who appear to be commemorating an event. But this is no ordinary celebration. & this is no ordinary family. As evening becomes night, Panek realises that he has become caught in an insidious web of other people`s secrets & lies, a Sartrian hell from which for him there may be no escape. ...

For Emily Pool, India is a magical place where she has the freedom to escape her mother`s suffocating influence. Her days are spent exploring the canals & gardens of East Bengal, & admiringly observing her glamorous, dignified neighbours, the Nikolides. But just as the cracks in Emily`s family home are papered over, so do the Pools strive to maintain an outward impression of respectability, & it is through the Nikolides that Emily is exposed to a world of adult deceit & attrition. & when her beloved dog dies, the event forces a confrontation & reveals to Emily that nothing in the town is quite as it seems.. . ...

I hadn't even sat down yet, one buttock still hovering, my hand on the car door, & already my sister-in-law was on the attack: At last! Didn't you hear the horn? We've been waiting here for ten minutes! Good morning, I replied. On the car journey to a family wedding, Garance reflects on how adult life, with its disappointments & responsibilities, has not always gone to plan for herself or her three siblings. But just around the corner lies the chance for them to revisit their younger, carefree selves in a delightfully unplanned escapade. ...