The character of the last Tsar, Nicholas II (1868-1918) is crucial to understanding the overthrow of tsarist Russia, the most significant event in Russian history. Nicholas became Tsar at the age of 26. Though a conscientious man who was passionate in his devotion to his country, he was weak, sentimental, dogmatic & indecisive. Ironically he could have made an effective constitutional monarch, but these flaws rendered him fatally unsuited to be the sole ruler of a nation that was in the throes of painful modernisation. That he failed is not surprising, for many abler monarchs could not have succeeded. Rather to be wondered at is that he managed, for 23 years, to hold on to power despite the overwhelming force of circumstances. Though Nicholas was exasperating, he had many endearing qualities. A modern audience, aware
- as contemporaries were not
- of the private pressures under which he lived, can empathise with him & forgive some of his errors of judgement. To some readers he seems a fool, to others a monster, but many are touched by the story of a well-meaning man doing his best under impossible conditions. He is, in other words, a biographical subject that engages readers whatever their viewpoint. His family was of great importance to Nicholas. He & his wife, Alexandra, married for love & retained this affection to the end of their lives. His four daughters, all different & intriguing personalities, were beautiful & charming. His son, the family`s
- & the nation`s
- hope for the future, was disabled by an illness that had to be concealed from Russia & from the world. It was this circumstance that made possible the nefarious influence of Rasputin, which in turn hastened the end of the dynasty. This story has everything: romance & tragedy, grandeur & misery, human frailty & an international catastrophe that would not only bring down the Tsar but put an end to the glittering era of European monarchies.



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A reformatted, redesigned edition of this popular title. We are all fascinated by, & often wary of, the tiny creatures that creep & crawl in our gardens or lurk in the dark corners of our homes, but how much do we really know about insects & their relatives? For instance, could you identify the larvae of a ladybird, which each eat 50 aphids a day? & did you know that some species of snail are hairy? This book aims to encourage our understanding of all types of bugs that can be found in our back gardens & beyond
- worms, snails, ants, woodlice, centipedes, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, bees, wasps, spiders & butterflies (to name but a few)
- by offering practical information & fun activities for the whole family. Learn how to determine the sex of a spider, how to look after ants in a home-made formicarium & even how to rear your own dragonflies! Packed with details on essential equipment for bug watching & collecting, clear annotated diagrams on bug anatomy & amazing full-colour close-up photographs, as well as astonishing facts on insect behaviour & identification, this book is essential reading for budding entomologists of all ages.

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Three years after the conclusion of his trilogy, On This Earth, A Shadow Falls Across the Ravaged L&, Nick Brandt returns to East Africa to photograph the escalating changes to the continent`s natural world. In a series of epic panoramas, Brandt records the impact of man in places where animals used to roam, but no longer do. In each location, Brandt erects a life size panel of one of his animal portrait photographs, setting the panels within a world of explosive urban development, factories, wasteland & quarries. The people within the photographs are oblivious to the presence of the panels & the animals featured in them, who are now no more than ghosts in the landscape. Some of the animals in the panels appear to be looking out at these destroyed landscapes with sadness, as if lamenting the loss of the world they once inhabited. By the end, we see that it is not just the animals who are the victims in this out of control world, but also the humans. Inherit the Dust also

Includes:: plates of the original portraits of the animals that are featured in the life-size panels, the unique emotional animal portraiture for which Brandt is recognized. There are also two essays by the artist: a text about the crisis facing the conservation of the natural world in East Africa, & behind-the-scenes descriptions of Brandt`s elaborate production process, with accompanying documentary photographs.

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Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty level wages. Distinguished journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them, in order to find out how anyone survives on six to seven dollars an hour. Ehrenreich left home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find & accepted whatever job she was offered, from cleaning to care work, waitressing to folding clothes at Wal-Mart. So began a gruelling, hair-raising & darkly funny odyssey through the underside of working America. ...

Nickel-plated brass, rosewood finished handle. Magnification 3x. For proverbial fine print & thumbnail-sized road maps. Classic accessory for any coffee table or end table. If we do not have this item in stock we will order it for you from our supplier. Delivery generally takes 3 weeks within the UK. For overseas delivery queries please email sales@stanfords.co.uk ...

Handy pocket street plan of Nicosia at 1:8, 000 from Selas; one way streets are marked, with points of interests such as the Cyprus Archaeological Museum & markets are displayed as well as local facilities including hotels & petrol stations. Areas under Turkish occupation are indicated. The map is fully indexed with an added index detailing archaeological sites, museums, churches, hotels & more. Map text & index is in Roman alphabet only. The map legend is in both English & Cyrillic. ...

Nicosia Street Atlas from Selas in an A5 paperback format with an extensive index listing all streets with names of their municipalities & full postal codes, plus listings of various useful addresses: ministries & other governmental & municipal offices, banks, embassies & consulates, schools & academic institutions, churches, sport & recreational facilities, etc. An enlargement shows the Greek part of the Old Town in greater detail & a separate map highlight eight nature trails in the Athalassa Park. All place names are shown in Latin alphabet only. The areas under Turkish administration, including the northern part of the Old Town, are shown without street names. Map legend & all the text is in English. ...

From the much acclaimed author of MISLAID & THE WALLCREEPER, a fierce & audaciously funny novel of families-both the ones we`re born into & the ones we create-a story of obsession, idealism, & ownership, centered around a young woman who inherits her bohemian late father`s childhood home. ” She wills her body to be equally wraithlike. Not sodden, not heavy, not dead, but filled with crackling, electric life, like a stale Marlboro on fire.” Unemployed business major, Penny, has rebelled against her family her whole life
- by being the conventional one. Her mother was a member of a South American tribe; her father was a Jewish Shamanist with a psychedelic `healing centre`. But everything changes when her father dies & Penny inherits his childhood home. Left weightless & unmoored after being the only member of her family with time for her dying father, Penny then finds his property occupied by a group of squatters, united in defence of smokers` rights
- & herself unexpectedly besotted with them, particularly Rob, the hot bicycle-&-tobacco activist. Totally addictive & dangerously good, ` Nicotine` is a fiercely funny novel in which passion is politics & nonviolence is the opposite of surrender.

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Nida River (Ponidzie) in a series of detailed maps of Poland’s most popular recreational areas, showing waymarked hiking & cycling routes & various types of overnight accommodation, including local hotels, youth hostels, shelters & mountain huts, campsites, camping on local farms, etc. The maps also show various sport & recreational facilities: swimming pools, equestrian & watersport centres, etc. A wide range of other symbols highlight places of interest, local restaurants & bars, fuels supplies & other facilities. The base map is contoured (interval 5m, 10m, or 20m depending on the terrain), with, where appropriate, relief shading & graphic relief to enhance the presentation of the terrain. The maps also indicate various types of vegetation or land use. Road network

Includes:: unsurfaced country tracks & railway lines show local stations. The maps have 1km UTM grid. * Map legend

Includes:: English.** In this title:* a lovely area along the Nida river, from the southern suburbs of Kielce in the north to Nowy Korczyn & Kazimierza Wielka in the south, & from Miechów in the west to Stopnica in the west.



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A detailed topographic map of Nidderdale from the Ordnance Survey Explorer series, covering Fountains Abbey, Ripon & Pateley Bridge. Edition B1 with minor changes; Publication date May 2008 About this series: These highly detailed maps show all the administrative boundaries, settlements as small as isolated farms, the road network down to unfenced roads & country tracks, & field boundaries (hedges & drystone walls) which make navigation across the countryside much easier. Steep gradients on roads are indicated. Various landmarks, e.g. powerlines, archaeological sites, windmills, churches & lighthouses are shown & additional graphics indicate natural terrain features such as cliffs, scree, mud & vegetation variations. The contour interval is 5 metres in the lower parts of the country & 10 metres in the uplands, & spot heights are marked. Each map covers an area of 30 x 20km (i.e. approx. 19 x 12 miles), with some double-sided maps covering more, as indicated in the individual descriptions. The maps are fully GPS compatible, with the National Grid shown at 1km intervals & latitude & longitude indicated by margin ticks at 1'. The Explorer series has replaced the earlier, green-cover Pathfinder maps. The Explorer series is now complete & covers all of Engl&, Wales & Scotl&. Some sheets for popular areas like the National Parks are still branded as Outdoor Leisure (OL) maps, but are now included in this series as the cartography is the same as that in the Explorer Maps. The Explorer maps offer a substantial improvement on the Pathfinder series, with greater use of colour, larger area per map, & stronger emphasis on information for ramblers & tourists. This series is ideal for walking & other outdoor pursuits & each map shows a large amount of information for ramblers & tourists. Public rights of way are shown (except in Scotland), together with other routes with public access: National Trails & Recreational Paths, permitted paths & bridleways, & selected cycle routes. Open access land created under the Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000 is marked. Tourist information

Includes:: caravan & camp sites, Park & Ride locations, recreation/leisure/sport centres, museums, historic buildings, English Heritage & National Trust sites, rural pubs, etc. The map legend is in English only, except for the tourist information content which is also in French & German.

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