Clive James`s reputation as a poet has become impossible to ignore. His recent poems looking back over his extraordinarily rich life with a clear-eyed & unflinching honesty, such as ` Japanese Maple` (first published in the New Yorker in 2014), became global news events upon their publication. His most recent collection, Sentenced to Life, was a phenomenal bestseller in the UK & in Australia, & his translation of Dante`s The Divine Comedy was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller in 2013. In this book, James makes his own rich selection from over fifty years` work in verse: from his early satires to these heart-stopping valedictory poems, he proves himself to be as well suited to the intense demands of the tight lyric as he is to the longer mock-epic. Collected Poems displays James`s fluency & apparently effortless style, his technical skill & thematic scope, his lightly worn erudition & his emotional power; it will undoubtedly cement his reputation as one of the most versatile & accomplished of contemporary writers. ...

The definitive edition of Dylan Thomas`s five published volumes of poems: 18 POEMS, TWENTY-FIVE POEMS, THE MAP OF LOVE, DEATHS & ENTRANCES & IN COUNTRY SLEEP. Dylan Thomas wrote passionately about life in all its moods & moments: from the first thrilling moments of childbirth to the darker moments of death & loss. COLLECTED POEMS is introduced by the poet himself with a passionate seashore ` Prologue`, in which the self-styled Noah of poetry builds his ark against ruin. This edition

Includes:: his last, unfinished poem ` Elegy`, & the opening of ` In Country Heaven`
- an ambitious project conceived after the dropping of the atom bomb.


...

This is a recipe book dedicated to all the wonderful people we meet throughout our lives. Sometimes we are introduced to people who influence us; who change us ever so slightly. They have a different past, a different life story, but we still connect. Still we bond. We call them friends & they all touch us in some way, big or small. & hopefully, in the process, we also pass on a small piece of ourselves. This book contains a collection of Kristin`s favourite recipes from a few friends from all over the world. Try Norwegian Crisp bread for breakfast, enjoy a snack of Latvian Beetroot gazpacho & share a Persian Casserole with friends at dinner. Kristin`s recipes are meant to be shared & enjoyed in the company of someone you love & care about. ...

Sweeping through crumbling towns, travelling fairs & windswept ports, Gabriel Garcia Marquez introduces a host of extraordinary characters & communities in his mesmerising tales of everyday life: smugglers, bagpipers, the President & Pope at the funeral of Macondo's revered matriarch; a very old angel with enormous wings, stranded in a young couple's back garden; a town plagued by dying birds that fall from the sky & an awestruck village captivated by a beautiful drowned sailor. Teeming with the magical oddities for which his novels are loved, Marquez's stories are a delight. ...

This is the definitive collection of short stories by Saul Bellow. Abundant, precise, various, rich & exuberant, the stories display the stylistic & emotional brilliance which characterizes this master of prose. Some stories recount the events of a single day, some are contained in a wider frame; each story is a characteristic combination of observation & a celebration of humanity. ...

Melding his native Irish sensibilities to those of his adopted west-coast Scotl&, these tales attend to life`s big events: love & loss, separation & violence, death & betrayal. But the stories teem with smaller significant moments too
- private epiphanies, chilling exchanges, intimate encounters. Each of these extraordinary stories
- with their wry, self-deprecating humour, their elegance & subtle wisdom
- gets to the very heart of life.


...

Collecting Antique Maps combines a general history of printed cartography with extensive information for potential & established collectors: copiously illustrated with over 100 colour & numerous black & white photographs; describes maps from the 15th to late 19th centuries covering all areas of the world, including the British counties; sections detailing the history of town plans, sea & celestial charts; discusses the work of most major European mapmakers & even a collectors' price guide index The book is divided into three main sections:- LOOKING AT MAPS: deals with collecting; how to look after maps & begin a collection.- MAPPING THE WORLD & ITS COUNTRIES: focuses on the great variety of printed maps, charts & plans of all areas of Britain & the world by most British & European mapmakers.- GLOBES, CURIOSITIES & MINIATURES: looks at maps with a difference; maps as objects, celestial & thematic charts, & maps of amusement. The newly added ...

` Nothing so fully displays the grandeur of his mind as his immense & rare collections.. .perhaps the fullest & most curious in the world`, National Gazette, 1753 Hans Sloane (1660-1753) was the greatest collector of his time, & one of the greatest of all time. His name is familiar today through the London streets & squares named after him on land he once owned (Sloane Square, Hans Place), but the man himself, & his achievements, are almost forgotten. Born in the north of Irel&, Sloane made his fortune as a physician to London`s wealthiest residents & through investment in land & slavery. He became one of the eighteenth century`s preeminent natural historians, ultimately succeeding his rival Isaac Newton as President of the Royal Society, & assembled an astonishing collection of specimens, artefacts & oddities
- the most famous curiosity cabinet of the age. Sloane`s dream of universal knowledge, of a gathering together of every kind of thing in the world, was enabled by Britain`s rise to global ascendancy. In 1687 he travelled to Jamaica, then at the heart of Britain`s commercial empire, to survey its natural history, & later organised a network of correspondents who sent him curiosities from across the world. Shortly after his death, Sloane`s vast collection was then acquired
- as he had hoped
- by the nation. It became the nucleus of the world`s first national public museum, the British Museum, which opened in 1759. This is the first biography of Sloane in over sixty years & the first based on his surviving collections. Early modern science & collecting are shown to be global endeavours intertwined with imperial enterprise & slavery but which nonetheless gave rise to one of the great public institutions of the Enlightenment, as the cabinet of curiosities gave way to the encyclopaedic museum. Collecting the World describes this pivotal moment in the emergence of modern knowledge, & brings this totemic figure back to life.


...

Discover the wonderful world of animals, in this lavishly illustrated activity book! Entertaining & educational in equal measure, this activity book is packed with fabulous facts, animal puzzles, stunning stickers & a pull-out poster to test your animal knowledge. This title covers all different types of mammals & marsupials! Astonishing elephants, amazing monkeys, incredible insect eaters & many more weird & wonderful animals are explored. From slow moving sloths to super swimming seals this book is full of fabulous animal kingdom facts & activities. The new titles from the Collection of Curiosities series are: Dinosaurs: 978-1-78493-342-5 Animals: 978-1-78493-343-2 ...