Cocaine has started wars, prompted invasions, embarrassed politicians, toppled governments, filled prisons, created billionaires, fuelled parties, bankrupted countries & taken thousands of lives. All because of a small, unremarkable-looking shrub. Dominic Streatfeild`s highly-praised & comprehensive study examines the history of the world`s most popular, most problematic drug, from its origins with the Incas, to early enthusiasts including Freud, & the multi-million pound industry it is today. His journey takes him from the darkest corners of the British Library to the isolation cells of America`s most secure prisons, from the crack houses of New York to the deepest jungles of South America, as he meets the economists, scientists, law enforcers, historians & traffickers who are involved in policing
- & running
- the cocaine trade.

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From South American coca in the fifth century BC, to Queen Victoria's endorsement of cocaine wine & Freud's use of cocaine in his discoveries, to the discovery of crack in 1983, cocaine has played a very important political, economic & social role. In the US, in one year alone, cocaine-related business costs the best part of $125 billion: cocaine as a commodity has an economic importance that far outweighs its intrinsic value. & now there's a new strand to this story
- the possible discovery of a vaccine. Is this the end of the line for cocaine? In Cocaine, Dominic Streatfeild sets out to discover not the history of organized drug crime, but the story of the drug itself. His research takes him from the arcane reaches of the British Library to the isolation cells of America's most secure prisons; from the crack houses of New York to the jungles of Bolivia & Colombia.
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Cocaine is the world`s most notorious narcotic. It underpins a vast, multi-billion pound underworld with a dark & deadly side. But who really are the shadowy people behind this chilling network? The coca farmers, the jungle sweat-shop workers, the smugglers, the suppliers, &, ultimately, the dealers who provide for the world`s hundreds of millions of users. Cocaine Confidential goes inside the lives of all these characters to reveal their stories for the first time. Along the way you`ll meet hitmen, pimps, desperate former international footballers, coke barons, mules, hardened traffickers & corrupt cops as the truth is unravelled in a roller coaster ride through this secret world. ...

' It won't happen to me. That's what I thought when I got on the plane to Venezuela. But it did
- I got caught.' Caught smuggling
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Stephen Smith`s Cocaine Train is an extremely personal piece of travel writing that takes place in one of the most violent countries on earth, where the cause of death is regularly `massacre`, drink drivers play chicken & kidnap stories pass for dinner party conversation; nine times more dangerous than the United States, Colombia is no place for the nervous traveller. So it is much against his better judgement that, in the summer of 1998, coinciding with a World Cup & a general election, journalist Stephen Smith finds himself boarding the Cocaine Train out of Cali, home of Colombia`s infamous drugs cartel. Its passengers prey to thieves, extortionists & a dozen different varieties of paramilitary, the Cocaine Train is one of the last remnants of a once great railway system, & Smith is riding in it in search of a grandfather he barely knew: Fred Leslie Frost, pioneering railway man, upright citizen & diplomat, with a Colombian mistress & an illegitimate son. As remote from his suburban British origins as it is possible to imagine, the Colombia Smith uncovers on his extraordinary journey is surreally beautiful, unfathomably savage, seedily glamorous & mercilessly corroded by the trade in drugs. ...

In the fascinating “ Cochineal Red” Hugh Thomson`s details his extensive travels through the principal sites of Ancient Peru, intelligently weaving five turbulent millennia of Peruvian history, expert archaeological knowledge & the author’s personal accounts. Peru wears its ancient cultures wrapped around in layers, like one of the mummified bodies so well preserved by the nitrates of its deserts. After his acclaimed book on the Incas, _ The White Rock_, Hugh Thomson unwraps those layers to show how civilisation emerged so early & so spectacularly in this toughest & most arid of terrains. Many of the extraordinary cultures of Ancient Peru, from the lines of Nasca to the temple-cult of Chavín, buried in the mountains, & the great pyramids of the coast, have only started to give up their secrets & antiquity in just the last few years. Hugh Thomson has been at the forefront of some of these discoveries himself, having made headlines with his work near Machu Picchu. Now he takes the reader on a journey back from the world of the Incas to the first dawn of Andean civilisation, to give an immensely personal & accessible guide to the wonders that have been revealed.‘A fascinating, intelligently told tale, full of intriguing revelations, that penetrates deeper into the Andean past than previously attempted`
- *TRAVELLER MAGAZINE*‘[ Hugh Thomson] artfully blends technical archaeological knowledge with a readable & exciting account of his own Peruvian odyssey, from the search for lost ruins to life in modern Peru & even Lima`s politics... [ Thomson has] a deft touch & an evocative style`
- *GEOGRAPHICAL*

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In 1818, the revolutionary government of Chile was poised to attack Peru, the last bastion of Spanish power on the continent. The new ruler, the half-Irish Bernardo O` Higgins, threw his energies into creating a navy. Short of local naval manpower, the Chileans looked to Britain & the United States for the sailors needed to man & command their squadrons, many of them unemployed veterans of the Royal Navy. &, to be the new navy`s commander-in-chief, they recruited one of the most fearless & controversial officers of the age: Thomas, Lord Cochrane. The story of the naval war in the Pacific is an exciting one. Under Cochrane`s audacious leadership, coasts were blockaded, fortresses stormed & ships seized in bloody h&-to-hand fighting. The result was that Chile & Peru gained their freedom from Spain, while Cochrane enhanced his reputation & made a fortune in pay & prize money. For one hundred & fifty years, the accepted story of the war has been based on Cochrane`s own version of events. But how accurate is Cochrane`s account? To find out, Brian Vale goes back to the original documents, despatches, diaries & newspapers. The result is a new & vivid account of the war in the Pacific & a reassessment of one of Britain`s legendary naval heroes seen at the peak of his career. ...

Explore the tropical flavors & rich culinary traditions of America`s island paradise. Puerto Rico, a land of gorgeous beaches & luxurious ...

” First floor grill room of The Cock overlooking Fleet Street” in a series of prints of sepia photos of some of old London’s best loved landmarks, presented by Soho Publishing in an A3 (29.6 x 39.6 cm) format. Under the photo are brief notes about tavern which is mentioned in the Pepys’s diaries. Ideal for framing, these reproductions show many long gone or much changed sites & offer a unique way of decorating your home or office with photos of near by or close-to-your-heart parts of the capital. Please note: the prints are supplied flat rather than rolled, with an A3 protective piece of cardboard, so the package will be larger than the standard size letterbox. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Cockermouth in 1898 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. The map is double-sided. The main map covers the town centre, extending northward to Bell Vue & Hamesbottom Wood, & from Derwent Lodge & The Fitz eastward to St Helen`s Tannery. Features include Hames Hall, Goatmill Bridge, Derwent Mills, River Derwent, Cockermouth Castle, Goat area, Fitz Mill, Agricultural Hall, railway with goods station, Workhouse, Main Street area, All Saints church, Drill Hall, Castle Brewery etc. On the reverse is part of adjacent sheet 54.08 extending coverage southward to include railway station, Atlas Works, cemetery, Tanneries, Double Mills, golf course, Rubbybanks Mill, The Moor & River Cocker. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series: Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK. ...