For humans the sea is, & always has been, an alien environment. Ever moving & ever changing in mood, it is a place without time, in contrast to the land which is fixed & scarred by human activity giving it a visible history. While the land is familiar, even reassuring, the sea is unknown & threatening. By taking to the sea humans put themselves at its mercy. It has often been perceived to be an alien power teasing & cajoling. The sea may give but it takes. Why, then, did humans become seafarers? Part of the answer is that we are conditioned by our genetics to be acquisitive animals: we like to acquire rare materials & we are eager for esoteric knowledge, & society rewards us well for both. Looking out to sea most will be curious as to what is out there
- a mysterious island perhaps but what lies beyond? Our innate inquisitiveness drives us to explore. Barry Cunliffe looks at the development of seafaring on the Mediterranean & the Atlantic, two contrasting seas
- the Mediterranean without a significant tide, enclosed & soon to become familiar, the Atlantic with its frightening tidal ranges, an ocean without end. We begin with the Middle Palaeolithic hunter gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean building simple vessels to make their remarkable crossing to Crete & we end in the early years of the sixteenth century with sailors from Spain, Portugal & England establishing the limits of the ocean from Labrador to Patagonia. The message is that the contest between humans & the sea has been a driving force, perhaps the driving force, in human history.

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Watch a plane get ready for take-off with this beautifully illustrated interactive book! By simply holding the book up to the light, or shining a torch behind each page, young readers will be able to discover the hidden secrets of an airport, how pilots prepare a plane for flight, & how cabin crew help passengers to enjoy their journey. The innovative see-through feature fulfils a similar function to lift-the-flap books, but has the added interactive dimension of the child being able to see both the surface & the hidden picture at the same time. ...

SCHOLASTIC ACTIVITIES
- a br&-new range of full-colour sticker-activity books for ages 3+, 5+ & 7. Collect them all! A fun-filled
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Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves & each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war & revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked & comforted. They have enriched lives & destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals & visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, & helped make us who we are. ...

If you have ever dreamed about growing & cooking your own food, living the good life & getting close to nature, then this is the book for you! Gardening & natural history enthusiast Joe Hashman (alias ` Dirty Nails` of the Blackmore Vale Magazine) serves up another absorbing helping of practical tips, advice, observations & recipes from his vegetable plot & kitchen. In this week-by-week account of the fruit & vegetable gardener`s year, you are invited to join Joe on the plot & get stuck in to the important jobs of the day. The finer points of crop husbandry are beautifully & clearly presented using simple step-by-step colour photographs. With poetic licence in his writing, the author takes readers on a wonderful journey of discovery through the changing seasons. A wealth of easy to follow but unusual recipes will keep the chef in you busy & satisfied too! ...

With an exciting new format that

Includes:: graduated pages, whimsical art, & sturdy, shaped pages, STEPLets`

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Ned Boulting has noticed something. It's to do with bikes. They're everywhere. & so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns & a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. & what, exactly is 'this'. In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. Ned's search puts him in contact with some of the wonderful & wonderfully idiosyncratic people who have contributed to this nation's two-wheeled history. It's a journey that takes him from the velodrome at Herne Hill to the Tour of Britain at Stoke-on-Trent via Bradley Wiggins, Chris Boardman, David Millar (and David's mum), Ken Livingstone, both Tommy Godwins, Gary Kemp (yes, him from Spandau Ballet) & many, many more. The result is an amusing & personal exploration of the austere, nutty soul of British cycling. ...

` British cyclist. It used to be an oxymoron, a sort of silliness. Like French Cricket.` Ned Boulting has noticed something. It`s to do with bikes. They`re everywhere. & so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns & a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. & what, exactly is `this`. In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. His journey takes him from the velodrome at Herne Hill to the Tour of Britain at Stoke-on-Trent via Bradley Wiggins, Chris Boardman, David Millar (and David`s mum), Ken Livingstone, both Tommy Godwins, Gary Kemp (yes, him from Spandau Ballet) & many, many more. The result is an amusing & personal exploration of the austere, nutty soul of British cycling. ...

The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth`s surface & encompasses many thousands of islands, the home to numerous human societies & cultures. Among these indigenous Oceanic cultures are the intrepid Polynesian double-hulled canoe navigators, the atoll dwellers of Micronesia, the statue carvers of remote Easter Isl&, & the famed traders of Melanesia. Recent archaeological excavations, combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, & comparative ethnography, have begun to reveal much new information about the long-term history of these Pacific Island societies & cultures. ” On the Road of the Winds” synthesizes the grand sweep of human history in the Pacific Islands, beginning with the movement of early people out from Asia more than 40, 000 years ago, & tracing the development of myriad indigenous cultures up to the time of European contact in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Questions that scholars have posed & puzzled over for two centuries or more are illuminated here: Where did the Pacific Islanders come from? How did they discover & settle the thousands of islands? Why did they build great monuments like Nan Madol on Pohnpei Island in Micronesia or the famous Easter Island statues? This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological & historical anthropological knowledge of these fascinating indigenous cultures. In particular, Kirch focuses on human ecology & island adaptations, the complexities of island trading & exchange systems, voyaging technology & skills, & the development of intensive economic systems linked to the growth of large populations. He also draws on his own original field research conducted on many islands, ranging from the Solomons to Hawai`i, as he takes us on an intellectual voyage into the Oceanic past. ...

Andrzej Stasiuk is a restless & indefatigable traveller. His journeys
- by car, train, bus, ferry
- take him from his native

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