From the author of ” Guns, Germs & Steel”, Jared Diamond`s ” Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive” is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond`s ” Collapse” uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder
- & what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict & overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources & piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond`s ” Collapse” also shows how
- unlike our ancestors
- we can benefit from our knowledge of the past & learn to be survivors. ”A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race”. (” Daily Mail”). ” Riveting, superb, terrifying”. (” Observer”). ” Gripping...the book fulfils its huge ambition, & Diamond is the only man who could have written it”. (” Economist”).” This book shines like all Diamond`s work”. (” Sunday Times”). Jared Diamond (b. 1937) is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Until recently he was Professor of Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the widely acclaimed ” Guns, Germs, & Steel: the Fates of Human Societies”, which also is the winner of Britain`s 1998 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize.


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As well as being one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century & the recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is the greatest lyric poet that Ireland has produced. His early work

Includes:: the beguiling ` When You are Old`, ` The Cloths of Heaven` & ` The Lake Isle of Innisfree` but, unusually for a poet, Yeats`s later works, including ` Parnell`s Funeral`, surpass even those of his youth. All are present in this volume, which reproduces the 1933 edition of W. B. Yeats`s Collected Poems & also contains an illuminating introduction by author & academic Dr Robert Mighall. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector`s Library is a series of beautiful special gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector`s Library are books to love & treasure.

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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.


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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. ...

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. ...

Throughout these seventy-nine stories
- love stories, ghost stories, stories of childhood, of English middle-class life in the
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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.


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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 ...