At last, a clear manual for managing slaves the Roman way. In How to Manage Your Slaves, Marcus Sidonius Falx offers practical advice, showing where & how to buy slaves & how to get the best out of them. He explains how to tell good slaves from bad, offers guidance on the punishment of miscreants, & reveals the secrets of command & authority. He covers the delicate subjects of when you should let your slaves have sex & whether to engage in sex with them yourself
- & considers when to set them free. Armed with this guide you will be master in your own home: your household will be a comfort to your family, its running the envy of your neighbours. Slavery was a core institution in the Roman world for all its long existence. As they conquered, the Romans enslaved millions & then bred from this stock to maintain their numbers in times of peace. It almost never occurred to anyone that slavery might be dispensed with & to no one at all that it was morally reprehensible. Up to now ancient slavery may have been difficult to fathom: this Roman`s-eye view takes us to the heart of the matter &, based on a wealth of original sources, lets us understand just why slaves meant so much to the Romans.
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A laugh-out-loud book from bestselling author Claire Freedman, illustrated by the brilliant Monika Filipina For hungry wolves, this book is a winner, It shows you how to catch your dinner. Love bunny pie & rabbit stew? They`ll soon become your dream come true. Full of foolproof tips, written by the Big Bad Wolf himself, this book is an essential guide for anyone looking to nab a rabbit. But make sure you keep an eye out for bears, springs with too much hop, &, of course, your own traps... ...

This illustrated guide shows readers how to plan strategically for a trip in a whole new way. Written by a former consultant who has travelled more than 500, 000 cumulative miles around the world, How to Pack

Includes:: guidelines for narrowing down one`s wardrobe, how many pairs of shoes are really necessary & best practices for storing toiletries & makeup. Here, too, are instructions on selecting the right luggage, when to fold vs. roll clothing, & trip-specific packing lists. Hitha`s tips are for today`s modern traveller who doesn`t want to sacrifice style for space, but who still wants to fit a 2-week vacation wardrobe into a carry-on bag.

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It`s Italy in the early 1960s: a dying painter considers the sacrifices & losses that have made him an enigma, both to strangers & those closest to him. He begins his last life painting, using the same objects he has painted obsessively for his entire career
- a small group of bottles. In Cumbria 30 years later, a landscape artist
- & admirer of the Italian recluse
- finds himself trapped in the extreme terrain that has made him famous. & in present-day London, his daughter, an art curator struggling with the sudden loss of her twin brother while trying to curate an exhibition about the lives of the twentieth-century European masters, is drawn into a world of darkness & sexual abandon. Covering half a century, this is a luminous & searching novel, & Hall`s most accomplished work to date.


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This is a Booker-longlisted novel of art, absence, loss & passion, from Britain`s most exciting contemporary writer. Moving between Italy & Engl&, the lives of four people intertwine across half a century: a dying painter considers the sacrifices & losses that have made him an enigma; a blind girl tries to make sense of a world she can no longer see; a landscape artist finds himself trapped in dangerous terrain, & a young woman embarks on a dangerous affair of darkness & sexual abandon. ...

` Wonderfully written & characteristically brilliant` Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads ` Elegant, readable.. .an impressive synthesis.. . Not many historians could have done it`
- Jonathan Sumption, Spectator ` Tyerman`s book is fascinating not just for what it has to tell us about the Crusades, but for the mirror it holds up to today`s religious extremism`
- Tom Holl&, Spectator Thousands left their homelands in the Middle Ages to fight wars abroad. But how did the Crusades actually happen? From recruitment propaganda to raising money, ships to siege engines, medicine to the power of prayer, this vivid, surprising history shows holy war
- & medieval society
- in a new light.



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This book presents a lively & compelling account of how the crusades really worked, & a revolutionary attempt to rethink how we understand the Middle Ages. The story of the wars & conquests initiated by the First Crusade & its successors is itself so compelling that most accounts move quickly from describing the Pope`s calls to arms to the battlefield. In this highly original & enjoyable new book, Christopher Tyerman focuses on something obvious but overlooked: the massive, all-encompassing & hugely costly business of actually preparing a crusade. The efforts of many thousands of men & women, who left their lands & families in Western Europe, & marched off to a highly uncertain future in the Holy Land & elsewhere have never been sufficiently understood. Their actions raise a host of compelling questions about the nature of medieval society. How to Plan a Crusade is fascinating on diplomacy, communications, propaganda, the use of mass media, medical care, equipment, voyages, money, weapons, credit, wills, ransoms, animals, & the power of prayer. It brings to life an extraordinary era in a novel & surprising way. ...

Learn to play one of Bach`s most exquisite preludes in just 6 weeks, even if you have never played the piano before. An accessible & inspiring book by the pianist & international bestselling writer James Rhodes, who promises that it gives anyone with two hands, a piano or an electric keyboard & just 45 minutes a day the tools they need to learn to play Bach`s Prelude No. 1 in C Major in 6 weeks, even if they know nothing about music & have never even touched a piano before. How often do we convince ourselves that it`s just too late
- too late to learn how to ride a bike, too late to know how to meditate, too late to travel the world... As we get older & time slips through our fingers like water, we become resigned, almost defeatist, about abandoning our dreams. For James Rhodes, after the inevitable ” How many hours a day do you practice?” & ” Show me your hands”, the most common thing people say to him when they hear he`s a pianist is ”I used to play the piano as a kid. I really regret giving it up”. Where does this mourned & misplaced creativity go? For Rhodes, it`s still there to be tapped into by all of us, at any point. This inspirational book gives us the means to do this, by breaking up Bach`s seminal Prelude No. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier into manageable segments, teaching us the basics of piano playing
- how to read music, the difference between the treble & the bass clef, sharp & flat notes, how to practice etc..
- & encouraging personal interpretation in a way that is guaranteed to soothe the mind, feed the soul & unleash creative powers we didn`t know we still had. All of this will culminate in an ability to perform one of Bach`s masterpieces.” If listening to music is soothing for the soul, then playing music is achieving enlightenment. It`s going from kicking a ball around with a few pals to playing alongside Ronaldo.”


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Mats & Enzo are back
- offering even more poo-related advice. They`ve saved your career in How to Poo at Work, eased your burden
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Thanks to Mats & Enzo you know what to do at work (How to Poo at Work, How to Bonk at Work). But what about when you are farther afield? ` Abroad` is far away & mysterious & famous for toilet confusion so this incredibly useful little book will be a godsend as you wonder how to ask Loic for the preveziou or Jesus for the banheiro or as you struggle to flush Tokyo`s finest electro-loo or even how to avoid falling into a dunny heap when you`re in the outback. Filled with fun advice & real-life situations, you`d be mad to go to the toilet on holiday without this amazing book. ...