No English king has suffered a worse press than King John: but how to disentangle legend & reality? The youngest of the five sons of Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, the empire builders of the Angevin dynasty, John had small hope of securing any significant inheritance. Then, in 1199, on the death of his older brother Richard, John took possession of the vast Angevin lands in England & on the continent. But by his death in 1216, he had lost almost all that he inherited, & had come perilously close to losing his English kingdom, too. Drawing on thousands of contemporary sources, Stephen Church tells John`s story
- from boyhood & the succession crises of his early adulthood, to accession, rebellion & civil war. In doing so, he reveals exactly why John`s reign went so disastrously wrong & how John`s failure led to the great cornerstone of Britain`s constitution: Magna Carta. Vivid & authoritative, this is history at its visceral best.
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WINNER OF THE 1999 DUFF COOPER PRIZE. ` Brilliant.. this book must be read & re-read` Neal Ascherson`. `A hundred years ago, enlightened people in the western world were outraged by a holocaust in Africa which left millions dead. Denunciations thundered from speaker`s platforms around the US & Europe. One open letter to The Times was signed by 11 peers, 19 bishops & 75 MPs. Viscount Grey, Britain`s foreign secretary, declared that no overseas issue had so intensely aroused the British public for 30 years. Conan Doyle wrote a pamphlet on the Congo atrocities which sold 25, 000 copies in the first week alone. Yet today not one person in a thousand could say what the fuss was all about, unless, of course, they have read this amazing book.` Tariq Ali, Financial Times ` Fascinating.. .brilliant & gripping` Mail on Sunday ` An exemplary piece of history writing: urgent, vivid & compelling` Literary Review ...

This book is the winner of the 1999 duff cooper prize. ` Brilliant.. this book must be read & re-read`
- Neal Ascherson. `A hundred
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El Comandante, an aging Castro-like dictator shambles about his mansion in Havana, visits a dying friend, tortures hunger strikers in one of his prisons, & grapples with the stale end of his life that is as devoid of grandeur as his nearly sixty-year-old revolution. Across the waters in Florida, Goyo Herrera, a Miami exile in his eighties, plots revenge against the very same El Comandante whom he blames for stealing his beloved, ruining his homel&, & taking his father`s life. Shifting between the two men with great resonance & humour, & peppered with the rabble of other Cuban voices to create a patchwork of history`s unofficial stories, Cristina Garcia`s novel plumbs the passions & realities of these two Cubas
- on the isl&, & off. Writing with wit & insight, & very much at the top of her form, she returns to the territory of her Cuban homel&.
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Haile Selassie I, the last emperor of Ethiopia, was as brilliant as he was formidable. An early proponent of African unity & independence who claimed to be a descendant of King Solomon, he fought with the Allies against the Axis powers during World War II & was a messianic figure for the Jamaican Rastafarians. But the final years of his empire saw turmoil & revolution, & he was ultimately overthrown & assassinated in a communist coup. Written by Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haile Selassie s grandnephew, this is the first major biography on this final king of kings. Asserate, who spent his childhood & adolescence in Ethiopia before fleeing the revolution of 1974, knew Selassie personally & gained intimate insights into life at the imperial court. Introducing him as a reformer & an autocrat whose personal history with all of its upheavals, promises, & horrors reflects in many ways the history of the twentieth century itself, Asserate uses his own experiences & painstaking research in family & public archives to achieve a colorful & even-handed portrait of the emperor.” ...

The new novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of ` The Northern Clemency`. Hanmouth: a quiet, picturesque English seaside town. But behind closed, Georgian front doors & the within the artisan cheese shop, its residents live lives that are anything but. When an 8-year-old girl goes missing from the estate on the fringes of the town, Hanmouth becomes the centre of national attention. Under the scrutiny of the investigation the extraordinary individual lives of the community are laid bare: the passions of a quiet international aid worker; a recently widowed old woman`s late discovery of sexual gratification; & a memorable party, held by the Bears. Through the apparent civility & spiralling paranoia a small town, Philip Hensher brings us another brilliantly funny & perfectly observed slice of contemporary English life. ...

Moorcock`s second great London novel
- & thematic sequel to MOTHER LONDON
- returns to print in a newly revised edition. The

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A classic & heartfelt war story from War Horse author & former Children`s Laureate, Michael Morpurgo. Escaping from China as the Japanese invade, Ashley & Uncle Sung embark on a perilous journey across the Himalayas. Then Ashley finds himself alone in the hostile mountains, battling for his life. He is just about to give up all hope, when he has a mysterious & terrifying encounter.. . Author of Private Peaceful & Friend or Foe, Michael Morpurgo again demonstrates why he is considered to be the master storyteller with another of his beautifully crafted war stories. In the tradition of Goodnight Mr Tom, Carrie`s War, & The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, King of the Cloud Forests is a novel that takes children to the heart of a tumultuous period in history.-- ---- Former Children`s Laureate Michael Morpurgo needs no introduction. He is one of the most successful children`s authors in the country, loved by children, teachers & parents alike. Michael has written more than forty books for children including the global hit War Horse, which was made into a Hollywood film by Steven Spielberg in 2011. Several of his other stories have been adapted for screen & stage, including My Friend Walter, Why the Whales Came & Kensuke`s Kingdom. Michael has won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children`s Book Award & has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times. He started the charity Farms for City Children in 1976 with his wife, Clare, aimed at relieving the ”poverty of experience” many young children feel in inner city & urban areas. Michael is also a patron of over a dozen other charities. Living in Devon, listening to Mozart & working with children have provided Michael with the ideas & incentive to write his stories. He spends half his life mucking out sheds with the children, feeding sheep or milking cows; the other half he spends dreaming up & writing stories for children. ” For me, the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out
- the writing down of it I always find hard. But I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hand & sharing my dream with my readers.” Michael received an OBE in December 2006 for his services to literature.
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From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Isaac Bashevis Singer, comes a fictional exploration of primitive history. Singer`s novel portrays an era of superstition & violence in a country emerging from the darkness of savagery. Set in Poland in the dark ages, it describes the brutality, prejudice & subjugation that occur when hunter-gatherers & farmers struggle for supremacy over the l&. Part parable of modern civilization, part fascinating historical novel, this modern myth is a philosophical examination of man & his beliefs, & reaffirms the author`s reputation as a master of narrative invention. ...

Inside one of the world's most dangerous jobs with the star of History's top-rated reality show, Ice Road Truckers The highest-rated reality show ever to hit the History channel, Ice Road Truckers follows the heart-pounding adventures of the tough-as-nails truckers who risk peril every day to deliver goods & supplies in Alaska & across Canada's frozen north. Alex shares tales of his adventures-and misadventures-in the north, & explain, in his own entertaining voice, how he got to where he is today-working class hero, bona-fide celebrity, & the improbable star of a smash-hit television show. Alex is a natural storyteller who knows how to spin tales about his colorful life growing up in the backwoods. Whether he's recounting tales about his hair-raising confrontations with bears, calculating the strength of newly formed ice, divulging the secrets of providing security in a bar room full of combative, drunken miners, or saving the life of another trucker, he keeps you wanting more. The first inside look at industry legend & fan favorite Alex Debogorski, a devout Christian, father of 11 children, & the world's best known truck driver

Includes:: thrilling adventures & behind-the-scenes insights that you won't find on the show Features sidebars that explain the facts about ice roads, from how they're made to when & why they splinter & break King of the Road gives fans of Ice Road Truckers a deep look inside the life & times of the show's biggest rising star.

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