There`s so much to digest when it comes to History
- how do you know where to begin? These incredible short introductions are just
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There`s so much to digest when it comes to History
- how do you know where to begin? These incredible short introductions are just
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You may think your parents just boss you around & tell you what to do. & there`s no getting away from it
- they do have to do quite
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As well as being an incredible stage performer, a brilliant writer & a talented painter, Derren Brown is also a fantastic street photographer. Here, for the first time, is a selection of his work. As he writes of his passion:` Street photography is a fitting refuge for those who look at life from a distance. It both sanctifies our remoteness (by offering the standpoint of the observer) & challenges it, insisting we approach with a spritely curiosity. It offers a safe route back into the world: the camera is an entry ticket to daunting social situations & extraordinary environments where we might otherwise feel entirely out of place. Suddenly we have a role: a reason to be present. & for those of us smitten by its appeal, it provides a means of fortifying & forgetting ourselves, while extending out into the world with a controlled compassion.` ...

When Yannick learns that he is to stay with his Aunt Mathilde in the South of France, he cannot believe his luck. If the paintings of his mother`s beloved Cezanne are to be believed, surely Provence is paradise itself. So begins an idyllic month for the young boy: roaming the gentle hills & rolling valleys of Aix-en-Provence; daydreaming about his beautiful cousin Amandine; helping in his aunt & uncle`s bustling village inn; feeling that he has come to the most wonderful place in the world. Then the idyll is spoilt when an important local comes for dinner & Yannick accidentally destroys a precious drawing the man leaves behind. Yannick is devastated by what he has done, & resolves to put things right. But in so doing he makes a surprising discovery... ...

`I thoroughly endorse this book & I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did`
- From the foreword by Emerson Jackson Sr, Navajo
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” Meetings On The Edge” is a travel memoir by a once-frustrated journalist for the BBC, who took the plunge & abandoned a ten year career to follow her dream to become a mountaineer. This book explores the impact of a solitary journey as well as unexpected encounters with fascinating people along the way. The different natural environments mirror the demands of an evolving quest. The many lessons of nature`s classroom are against a background of adventure, discovery & considerable personal risk. Like all quests, the incidental insights & surprising events challenge the romantic idea of adventure. Stories from Alaska, the Pacific North West, the Himalaya & New Zealand`s Southern Alps are interwoven into the central adventure of traversing the French & Spanish Pyrenees alone. Tales to highlight include encountering a naked & all too aroused flasher far off the beaten track, a colourful relationship with Nepal`s most famous civilian, a film star, two weeks after the royal massacre, & summiting Denali, North America`s highest peak, while the expedition dwindled from 9 to just 4 due to life-threatening illness & mishap. But it was after a chance meeting with a wise Maori man & a solitary encounter with a 2000 year old Kauri tree in an ancient forest, that the author experiences an epiphany: that a restless, goal-driven life is not the most fulfilling. This book ends in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where the freedom she has experienced is in marked contrast to the security-conscious existence of those living there. The electric gates, fencing & hedgerows project a community in fear of those very open spaces which had broadened her horizons. ...

Stephen Venables, the acclaimed mountaineer & first Briton to scale Everest without oxygen, brings together climbers, walkers, historians & journalists to provide accounts of some of the most fantastic feats of human endurance. These fascinating tales are littered with intriguing facts about the planet ...

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE & THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION` Endlessly fascinating & enjoyable` Neil Mac Gregor`A marvellous book` David Attenborough` Full of delights` Tom Stoppard An extraordinary exploration of the medieval world
- the most beguiling history book of the year This is a book about why medieval manuscripts matter. Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is like meeting a very famous person. We may all pretend that a well-known celebrity is no different from anyone else, & yet there is an undeniable thrill in actually meeting & talking to a person of world stature. The idea for the book, which is entirely new, is to invite the reader into intimate conversations with twelve of the most famous manuscripts in existence & to explore with the author what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history
- & sometimes about the modern world too. Christopher de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, collectors & the international community of manuscript scholars, showing us how he & his fellows piece together evidence to reach unexpected conclusions. He traces the elaborate journeys which these exceptionally precious artefacts have made through time & space, shows us how they have been copied, who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell), how they have been embroiled in politics & scholarly disputes, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty & luxury & as symbols of national identity. The book touches on religion, art, literature, music, science & the history of taste. Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts conveys the fascination & excitement of encountering some of the greatest works of art in our culture which, in the originals, are to most people completely inaccessible. At the end, we have a slightly different perspective on history & how we come by knowledge. It is a most unusual book.

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This is a book about why medieval manuscripts matter. Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is like meeting a very famous person. We may all pretend that a well-known celebrity is no different from anyone else, & yet there is an undeniable thrill in actually meeting & talking to a person of world stature. The idea for the book, which is entirely new, is to invite the reader into intimate conversations with twelve of the most famous manuscripts in existence & to explore with the author what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history
- & sometimes about the modern world too. Christopher de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, collectors & the international community of manuscript scholars, showing us how he & his fellows piece together evidence to reach unexpected conclusions. He traces the elaborate journeys which these exceptionally precious artefacts have made through time & space, shows us how they have been copied, who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell), how they have been embroiled in politics & scholarly disputes, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty & luxury & as symbols of national identity. The book touches on religion, art, literature, music, science & the history of taste. Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts conveys the fascination & excitement of encountering some of the greatest works of art in our culture which, in the originals, are to most people completely inaccessible. At the end, we have a slightly different perspective on history & how we come by knowledge. It is a most unusual book.
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