The Age of Jihad is the most in-depth analysis of the regional crisis in the Middle East to date. 2001 heralded a new age of disintegration in the Middle East. This has had a murderous impact on the people who live there but also the world beyond. Beginning with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, Cockburn explores the vast geopolitical struggle that is the Sunni-Shia conflict, a clash that shapes the war on terror, western military interventions, the evolution of the insurgency, the civil wars in Yemen, Libya & Syria, the Arab Spring, the fall of regional dictators, & the rise of Islamic State. ...

In The Age of Kali, William Dalrymple travels around the Indian subcontinent, journeying to places that few travellers ever get to see & often he goes at great personal risk. The name of the book comes from the author’s belief that the region is falling into the most fearsome of all epochs, known as, “the Kali Yug”, a time of strife, corruption, darkness & disintegration. Through his love for the subcontinent Dalrymple is able to convey the diversity of cultural identity in every page, making the chronicling of political corruption, ethnic violence & social disintegration ever more poignant. The series of essays sees him interview drug barons on the North-West Frontier as well as Imran Khan & Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. He even makes an encounter with the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. This disquieting book, written when the region needed to start asking tough questions, won the French Prix D` Astrolabe in 2005. ...

This novel takes us on a journey, a magical, & a literal one. A tightly knit group of filmmakers travel from Paris together to make a documentary. Unknown to themselves they carry a lot of unwanted baggage
- fear, anger, jealousy, love. When they arrive in an idyllic Swiss village ringed by mountains & reflected in a lake, they discover a haunted world that will compel them to confront the demons they have been trying to escape. A mind-blowingly beautiful book, full of unexpected, poetic & metaphysical revelations.
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From Booker Prize-Winner Ben Okri. A group of world-weary travellers discover the meaning of life in a mysterious mountain village. Eight film-makers arrive at a small Swiss hotel on the shores of a luminous lake. Above them, strewn with lights that twinkle in the darkness, looms the towering Rigi mountain. Over the course of three days & two nights, the travellers will find themselves drawn in to the mystery of the mountain reflected in the lake. One by one, they will be disturbed, enlightened, & transformed, each in a different way. The Age of Magic has begun. Unveil your eyes. ALSO BY BEN OKRI: Astonishing the Gods, In Arcadia, A Way of Being Free, Dangerous Love. ...

Ray & Co.’s “ The Age of Pirates” is perfect for children who have even a passing interest in tales of the high seas of old. Full of superbly realised pirate illustrations, the map itself is filled with facts & legends alike, such as the Pirate’s Code of Conduct, the different kinds of swords they used & why, recreations of original engravings of notorious pates, a brief history of the period & much more. Whether it’s Captain Jack, Blackbeard or even Anne Bonny, fans of pirates both real & fictional will adore this wall map.PLEASE NOTE:this is the encapsulated edition of the map; this title is also available on paper without the encapsulation.LAMINATED & ENCAPSULATED WALL MAPS:- LAMINATED wall maps have a thin layer of plastic usually applied to the printed side only. They can be written on with suitable marker pens without any damage to the map but, unless laminated on both sides, they are not damp-proof.- ENCAPSULATED wall maps are sealed between two sheets of plastic. They are more rigid & heavier than laminated maps of the same size. They are damp-proof & do not crinkle in humid conditions. Encapsulation gives the map a shiny surface, similar to being displayed behind glass.- PLEASE NOTE: many publishers & retailers often use these two terms interchangeably. Our map titles & descriptions follow the definitions provided above. ...

Set in the volatile Paris summer of 1938, ” The Age of Reason” follows two days in the life of Mathieu Delarue, a philosophy teacher, & his circle in the cafes & bars of Montparnasse. Mathieu has so far managed to contain sex & personal freedom in conveniently separate compartments. But now he is in trouble, urgently trying to raise 4, 000 francs to procure a safe abortion for his mistress, Marcelle. Beyond all this, filtering an uneasy light on his predicament, rises the distant threat of the coming of the Second World War. ...

”` How are you?` said Mathieu. `I thought you were dead.`” Following a Parisian philosophy teacher through the cafes & bars of Montparnasse over two days in the sweltering summer of 1938, Sartre`s searing novel explores what it truly means to be free. ...

An international bestseller & finalist for the Prix Goncourt; a suspenseful tale of a tangled love triangle in the long shadow of the war on terror. Manhattan attorney Sam Tahar appears to have it all: fame, fortune, an enviable marriage to a prominent socialite, & two children. But his charmed life is built on a lie
- he isn`t the person he pretends to be. As the son of a Tunisian immigrant growing up in a grimy Paris tower block, Samir Tahar seemed destined to stay on the margins
- until he decided to `cut through the bars of his social jail cell, even if he had to do it with his teeth`. At law school, he became friends with Jewish student Samuel Baron. The two were inseparable until the irresistible Nina, torn between the men, chose Samuel. Samir fled to America, where he assumed Samuel`s identity while his former friend remained trapped in a French suburb, a failed writer seething at Samir`s triumphs. Years later, the three meet again & Samir`s carefully constructed existence is blown apart, with disastrous consequences. The Age of Reinvention is a smart, captivating story about the temptations & terrible costs of remaking oneself.

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`A great storyteller... you would be hard pushed to find a more knowledgeable or entertaining [guide]` Icon` Such an interesting book... I cannot recommend it enough.` Lauren Laverne In Dubai, a luxury apartment block is built in the shape of a giant iPod. In China, President Xi Jinping denounces the trend of constructing `bizarre` new buildings in wacky shapes & colours. In Cincinnati, celebrity architect Zaha Hadid is paid millions to design a single `iconic` structure
- with the hope of single-handedly transforming the region`s ailing fortunes. These incidents are all part of the same story: the rise of the age of spectacle. Over the last fifty years, there has been a revolution in how our cities operate. In The Age of Spectacle, Tom Dyckhoff tells the story of how architecture became obsessed with the flashy, the monumental & the ostentatious
- & how we all have to live with the consequences. Exploring cityscapes from New York to Beijing, & from Bilbao to Portsmouth, Dyckhoff shows that we are not just witnessing a new kind of building: we are living through a fundamental transformation in how our urban spaces work. The corporate explosion of the last few decades has fundamentally shifted the relationship between architects, politicians & cities` inhabitants, fostering innovative new kinds of engineering & design, but also facilitating ill-conceived vanity projects & commercial power-grabs. Timely, passionate & bursting with new ideas, The Age of Spectacle is both an examination of how twenty-first century cities work, & a manifesto for a radically new kind of urbanism. Our cities, Dyckhoff shows, can thrive in the age of spectacle
- but only if they engage us not just with dazzling structures, but by responding to the needs of the people who inhabit them.` Engaging... The ”iconic” building is the most obvious architectural phenomenon of our age yet, somehow, no one has quite done what Tom Dyckhoff does with The Age of Spectacle, which is to tell its story clearly & plainly.` Rowan Moore, Observer` First class. Finally, a book that nails the iconic movement
- Tom Dyckhoff`s The Age of Spectacle is the book that I wish I had written.` Simon Jenkins` Unusually accessible [and] well argued.` Evening Standard



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Man has always been fascinated by Equus caballus, recasting horse power into many forms: a hunk of meat, an industrial & agricultural machine, a luxury good, a cherished dancer, a comrade in arms & a symbol of a mythical past. From the wild tarpans sought by the Nazis to jade-laden treasure steeds in Ancient China, broken-down nags recycled into sausages & furniture stuffing, stallions that face fighting bulls & brewery horses that charmed the founder of the Sikh Empire, The Age of the Horse knits the history of the horse into that of humans, through revolution, war, social change & uneasy peace. It also uncovers new roles for the horse in the twenty-first century as a tool in the fight against climate change & as a therapist for soldiers damaged in unwinnable conflicts. In this captivating book, Susanna Forrest takes a journey through time & around the world, from the Mongolian steppes to a mirrored manege at Versailles, an elegant polo club in Beijing & a farm, a fort & an auction house in America, exploring the horse`s crucial role & revealing how our culture & economy were generated, nourished & shaped by horse power & its gifts & limits. ...