Born in 1901 into a troubled childhood in rural Devon, he suffered through the sadism of the English public school system, then in 1918 left for New Zealand where he made his first fortune. There he took up flying & in 1930 became one of the first aviators to fly from London to Sydney. After being the first solo flyer across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand to Austria, he set off to circle the world, only to crash, nearly fatally, in Japan. After serving in the RAF in the Second World War, he took up sailing at the age of fifty-four & in twelve years became the most famous yachtsman in the world. Along the way there are struggles & triumphs, climaxing in being knighted with Sir Francis Drake`s sword in Greenwich. Ian Strathcarron, himself an aviator, yachtsman & adventurer, follows him all the way, comparing what Sir Francis found then to what he finds now, meeting the descendants of the people who played important parts in his life & getting under the skin of what made the man, the man. ...

Sally & Joe discover a mysterious set of footprints leading out into their garden & beyond
- & they are convinced the footprints
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In one of the most memorable novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary Engl&. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, & with the fate that has always awaited her & her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship & memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life. If you enjoyed Never Let Me Go, you might also like Ishiguro`s The Remains of the Day, now available in Faber Modern Classics. ...

Unlike some small towns that gradually peter out into the wilderness, this one just ends. On the west edge of town sits the Iceberg Tavern; behind it there's a steel-mesh garbage cage, rusted by the salt air & battered by encounters with something even more inhospitable & frightening than the Arctic elements. Beyond that...there's nothing. Standing on the roof of the bar you can throw a rock that would land in Hudson Bay. Nearby, a signpost is planted in the ground, with a picture of a polar bear & an admonition not to go any further. Take one step backwards & you can be inside enjoying caribou steaks & Canadian whiskey. One step forward & you're in bear country--over a million square kilometers of frozen sea ice, dotted with blood stains where the largest land predators on earth have dragged their prey from the water. Welcome to Churchill, Manitoba, Polar Bear Capital of the World. Human population: 943. In Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye, Zac Unger takes us to an utterly unique & remote place like no other--a realm once reserved exclusively for one of the most majestic predators on earth, & where now the line between man's territory & mother nature's has become perilously blurred. It is one man's journey to develop a deeper understanding of an animal that has become a lightning rod for environmental debate, as well as the uneasy relationship between polar bears & the people whose presence is both at odds with & dependent on the bears' survival. ...

From the folklore of Nigeria to the connivery of Wall Street, a vibrant cross-cultural memoir from acclaimed Nigerian-American author Okey Ndibe. Okey Ndibe`s funny, charming, & penetrating memoir tells of his move from Nigeria to America, where he came to edit the influential
- but forever teetering on the verge of insolvency
- African Commentary magazine. It recounts stories of Ndibe`s relationships with Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, & other literary figures; examines the differences between Nigerian & American etiquette & politics; recalls an incident of racial profiling just thirteen days after he arrived in the US, in which he was mistaken for a bank robber; considers American stereotypes about Africa (and vice-versa); & juxtaposes African folk tales with Wall Street trickery. All these stories & more come together in a generous, encompassing book about the making of a writer & a new American.

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As enlightening as The Facebook Effect, Elon Musk, & Chaos Monkeys-the compelling, behind-the-scenes story of the creation of one of the most essential applications ever devised, & the rag-tag team that built it & changed how we navigate the world Never Lost Again chronicles the evolution of mapping technology-the ”overnight success twenty years in the making.” Bill Kilday takes us behind the scenes of the tech`s development, & introduces to the team that gave us not only Google Maps but Google Earth, & most recently, Pokemon GO. He takes us back to the beginning to Keyhole-a cash-strapped startup mapping company started by a small-town Texas boy named John Hanke, that nearly folded when the tech bubble burst. While a contract with the CIA kept them afloat, the company`s big break came with the first invasion of Iraq; CNN used their technology to cover the war & made it famous. Then Google came on the scene, buying the company & relaunching the software as Google Maps & Google Earth. Eventually, Hanke`s original company was spun back out of Google, & is now responsible for Pokemon GO & the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Kilday, the marketing director for Keyhole & Google Maps, was there from the earliest days, & offers a personal look behind the scenes at the tech & the minds developing it. But this book isn`t only a look back at the past; it is also a glimpse of what`s to come. Kilday reveals how emerging map-based technologies including virtual reality & driverless cars are going to upend our lives once again. Never Lost Again shows us how our worldview changed dramatically as a result of vision, imagination, & implementation. It`s a crazy story. & it all started with a really good map. ...

One Girl`s 10, 000km Adventure Around India in the World`s Cheapest Car. What does it take for one woman to drive 10, 000 km around India
- a land where bullock carts vie for space with SUVs on eight-lane super-highways, where GPS systems fail to give directions, & where a blessing from the gods is considered better road insurance than safer driving? As Vanessa Able learnt, all it takes is a little bit of gumption, a whole lot of patience, & the world`s cheapest car
- the Tata Nano. From the gleaming towers of Mumbai to the badlands of Hampi, the croissants of Pondicherry & all the way down & back round again, Vanessa`s little yellow Nano takes her on a voyage of discovery. En route, she learns the unwritten rules of horn & full-beam etiquette, of vehicle pecking order, & what to do when the SH11T hits the fan. She also finds love, in the form of red-headed American, & occasional reluctant co-driver, Thor. Richly entertaining, Never Mind the Bullocks is an adventure unlike any other. Filled with wisdom gleaned from the dusty highways
- where `speed thrills but kills`
- it is an ode to the road, & to the unparalleled, often chaotic experience that is driving in India.



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Alex Rider is back in this brand new, explosive mission in the number one bestselling series. In this adrenaline-fueled, action-packed adventure, Alex Rider is trying to get his life back on track after the traumatic events of his last mission. But even Alex can`t fight the past.. .especially when it holds a deadly secret. ...

Drawing on the War Cabinet papers, other government documents, private diaries, newspaper accounts, & memoirs, Never Surrender tells the story of summer of 1940, the summer of the ` Supreme Question` of whether or not the British were to surrender to the impending threat of Hitler`s invasion. The events, individuals, & institutions that influenced the War Cabinet`s deliberations offer a panoramic view of the summer of 1940. Impressive in scope but attentive to detail, Kelly takes readers from the battlefield to Parliament, to the government ministries, to the British high comm&, to the desperate Anglo-French conference in Paris & London, to the American embassy in London, & to life with the ordinary Britons. Bringing vividly to life one of the most heroic moments of the twentieth century & intimately portraying some of its largest players
- Churchill, Lord Halifax, FDR, Joe Kennedy, Hitler, Stalin & others
- Never Surrenderis a character-driven narrative of a crucial period in World War II history & the men & women who shaped it.

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Bears are clumsy. They don`t sit still. They`re much, much bigger than teachers
- & they eat SUCH a lot of lunch! Yes, taking
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