First Life is Sir David Attenborough’s account of the grandest story of all – the story of the beginning of life on earth. Travelling on a ground breaking investigation, Attenborough provides a deeper understanding of the first living creatures to inhabit the planet. Using the latest technology, the BBC bring us face to face with how these early creatures would have looked & lived, showing that some of the evolutionary features of these most primitive creatures are still very much alive today in modern animals, including us humans. Attenborough shows us how the evolution of the first eyes, the first solid body parts & the first feet & backbones came to be. Looking at global ice ages & volcanic eruptions he also shows how evolution is heavily connected with the history of the planet. The book is expertly illustrated with stills from the television series & detailed colour photographs. ...

Drawing on decades of experience, Joe Cornish, one of Britain`s most distinguished landscape photographers, has distilled the key elements of his craft into a collection of thought-provoking essays accompanied by a stunning selection of his photographs. From his beloved North Yorkshire, to the rocky canyons of the Colorado Plateau, the photos in First Light have been chosen to reflect the breadth of Joe`s work & to illustrate how he puts his working philosophy into practice. Each picture is accompanied by text describing the conditions that must be taken into consideration before taking a photo; the composition of the image, including viewpoint, selection of film & filters; & post production treatments. First Light is replete with supporting technical data & Joe`s own explanations of the thought processes that lay behind the creation of each of these wonderful photographs. These fluent & very personal accounts are full of practical advice on subjects ranging from anticipating changes in the weather or lighting conditions, to the relative advantages of using colour filters. For all photographers, whether amateur or professional, First Light is a source of on-going inspiration & advice. With a foreword from renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite, it will also appeal to anyone who appreciates natural beauty & loves landscape for its own sake. ...

This vivid, sensitive tale of adolescent love follows a 16-year-old boy who falls in love with a beautiful, older woman & experiences a whirlwind of changing emotions, from exaltation & jealousy to despair & devotion. This beautifully packaged series of classic novellas

Includes:: the works of masterful writers. Inexpensive & collectible, they are the first single-volume publications of these classic tales, offering a closer look at this under-appreciated literary form & providing a fresh take on the world`s most celebrated authors.

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Neve is a writer in her mid-30s married to an older man, Edwyn. For now they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that led her to this marriage, she tells of other loves & other debts, from her bullying father & her self-involved mother to a musician who played her & a series of lonely flights from place to place. Drawing the reader into the battleground of her relationship, Neve spins a story of helplessness & hostility, an ongoing conflict in which both husband & wife have played a part. But is this, nonetheless, also a story of love? ...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN`S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017 Neve is a writer in her mid-30s married to an older man, Edwyn. For now they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that led her to this marriage, she tells of other loves & other debts, from her bullying father & her self-involved mother to a musician who played her & a series of lonely flights from place to place. Drawing the reader into the battleground of her relationship, Neve spins a story of helplessness & hostility, an ongoing conflict in which both husband & wife have played a part. But is this, nonetheless, also a story of love? ...

Soon to be a major motion picture, First Man by James Hansen offers the only authorized glimpse into the life of America`s most famous astronaut, Neil Armstrong
- the man whose ”one small step” changed history. In First Man, Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong. Based on over 50 hours of interviews with the intensely private Armstrong, who also gave Hansen exclusive access to private documents & family sources, this ”magnificent panorama of the second half of the American twentieth century” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review) is an unparalleled biography of an American icon. When Apollo 11 touched down on the moon`s surface in 1969, the first man on the moon became a legend. Hansen vividly recreates Armstrong`s career in flying, from his seventy-eight combat missions as a naval aviator flying over North Korea to his formative transatmospheric flights in the rocket-powered X-15 to his piloting Gemini VIII to the first-ever docking in space. For a pilot who cared more about flying to the Moon than he did about walking on it, Hansen asserts, Armstrong`s storied vocation exacted a dear personal toll, paid in kind by his wife & children. In the years since the Moon landing, rumors swirled around Armstrong concerning his dreams of space travel, his religious beliefs, & his private life. This book reveals the man behind the myth. In a penetrating exploration of American hero worship, Hansen addresses the complex legacy of the First Man, as an astronaut & as an individual. In First Man, the personal, technological, epic, & iconic blend to form the portrait of a great but reluctant hero who will forever be known as history`s most famous space traveler.
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Why not? After all, no-one had ever done it before. It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys half-way round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore. They knew that several expeditions had already tried it. Some had got as far as the deserts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no-one had managed to go on from there: over the jungle-clad mountains of Assam & across northern Burma to Thailand & Malaya. Over the last 3, 000 miles it seemed there were just too many rivers & too few roads. But no-one really knew... In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, no nothing. But with a cool audacity, which was to become characteristic, they set to work wheedling & cajoling. First, they coaxed the BBC to come up with some film for a possible TV series. Then they gently persuaded Rovers to lend them two factory-fresh Land Rovers. A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80 of them) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets. In late 1955, they set off. Seven months & 12, 000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers, escorted by police outriders, rolled into Singapore to flash-bulbs & champagne. Now, fifty years on, their bestselling book, First Overl&, is republished with an introduction by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film. ...

Why not? After all, no-one had ever done it before. It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys-half-way round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore. They knew that several expeditions had already tried it. Some had got as far as the deserts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no-one had managed to go on from there: over the jungle-clad mountains of Assam & across northern Burma to Thailand & Malaya. Over the last 3, 000 miles it seemed there were ”just too many rivers & too few roads”. But no-one really knew... In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, no nothing. But with a cool audacity, which was to become characteristic, they set to work-wheedling & cajoling. First, they coaxed the BBC to come up with some film for a possible TV series. Then they gently ”persuaded” Rover to lend them two factory-fresh Land Rovers. A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80 of them) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets. In late 1955, they set off. Seven months & 12, 000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers, escorted by police outriders, rolled into Singapore-to flash-bulbs & champagne. Now, fifty years on, their bestselling book, First Overl&, is republished-with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film. ...

The Great Wall of China is the largest man-made structure ever built, stretching for over 4, 000 kilometres from central Asia, across the Gobi Desert, through the remote, cold mountains of northern China to end on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Nathan Gray, a young New Zealand lawyer, wanted to be the first person in history to walk the entire length of the Great Wall. In October 2000 he set off with four fellow travellers
- a Buddhist monk from Singapore, a Jewish photojournalist from Argentina, a Catholic recording artist from Italy & a Mormon golfer. Conceived as an idealistic trek to mark the millennium in cultural, racial & religious harmony, one month in reality bit. Blizzards, lightning strikes, thirst, starvation, snakes & police detention all took their toll. After 3, 000 kilometres, having witnessed the fatal stabbing of a Chinese friend & being chased at gunpoint by soldiers, Nathan succumbed to physical & mental fatigue & returned to New Zeal&. Unable to accept defeat, he returned three months later to complete the challenge; the final 1, 000 kilometres.
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Young & penniless, Kif Kehlmann, is rung in the middle of the night by notorious con man & corporate criminal, Siegfried Heidl. About to go to trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million, Heidl proposes a deal: $10, 000 for Kehlmann to ghostwrite his memoir in six weeks. Kehlmann accepts but soon begins to fear that he is being corrupted by Heidl. Is he ghostwriting a memoir, or is Heidl is rewriting him? As the deadline draws closer everything that is certain grows uncertain as he begins to wonder: who is Ziggy Heidl
- & who is Kif Kehlmann?
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