In the spring of 1932, with Londoners terrorised by a series of brutal murders, the private detective agency of Messrs. Singleton & Trelawney quietly opens its doors in Bloomsbury. The first person to call on their services is a worried Lady Arthur Conan Doyle. She tells of mysterious events at 221 Baker Street
- & a premonition that the London murders signal terrible danger for mankind. Their investigation will take our intrepid heroes into a world of seances & spirits. Aided by the most famous detective of all time, they must draw on their knowledge of the imaginary to find the perpetrators of some very real & bloody crimes before they strike again.
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1775. Commissioner Nicolas Le Floch is on a diplomatic mission to Vienna, ostensibly to deliver a bust of Marie Antoinette to her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa. His real task, however, is to investigate the breakdown of French secret intelligence in Austria. The city is a hotbed of plotting
- & Nicolas only just survives an attempt on his life. On his return to France, Paris is in turmoil. The soaring price of grain & bread is causing widespread social unrest, & Nicolas` first police case is the unexplained death of a baker. Could it be that events in the French capital are somehow connected to his experiences in Vienna...?
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In nineteenth-century Istanbul, a Polish prince has been kidnapped. His assassination has been bungled & his captors have taken him to an unused farmhouse. Little do they realize that their revolutionary cell has been penetrated by their enemies, who use the code name La Piuma (the Feather). Yashim is convinced that the prince is alive. But he has no idea where, or who La Piuma is
- & has become dangerously distracted by falling in love. As he draws closer to the prince`s whereabouts & to the true identity of La Piuma, Yashim finds himself in the most treacherous situation of his career: can he rescue the prince along with his romantic dreams? Jason Goodwin`s bestselling ` Yashim` series has been published across the globe & received huge critical acclaim. In The Baklava Club, Goodwin takes Yashim on an adventure like no other, through the stylish, sensual world of Ottoman Istanbul.
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What if our homes could tell the stories of others who lived there before us? To those who have ventured past it over the years, this small estate in a village outside Paris has always seemed calm & poised. But should you open the gates & enter inside, you will find rooms which have become the silent witnesses to a century of human drama: from the young American au pair developing a crush on her brilliant employer to the ex-courtesan shocking the servants, & the Jewish couple in hiding from the Gestapo to the housewife who begins an affair while renovating her downstairs. The stories of those who have lived within the estate have been many & varied. But as the years unfold, their lives inevitably come to haunt the same spaces & intertwine, creating a rich tapestry of the relationships, life-altering choices, & fleeting moments which have kept the house alive through the last hundred years... ` Sweeping, suspenseful, rich with surprises & eerie atmosphere` Jennifer Egan ...

In the middle of the First World War, the British War Cabinet approved & issued a statement in the form of a letter that encouraged the settlement of the Jewish people in Palestine. Signed by the Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, the Balfour Declaration remains one of the most important documents of the last hundred years. Jonathan Schneer explores the story behind the declaration & its unforeseen consequences that have shaped the modern world, placing it in context paying attention to the fascinating characters who conceived, opposed & plotted around it
- among them Lloyd George, Lord Rothschild, T.E. Lawrence, Prince Faisal & Aubrey Herbert (the man who was ` Greenmantle`). The Balfour Declaration brings vividly to life the origins of one of the world`s longest lasting & most damaging conflicts.
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Glenny investigates the roots of the bloodshed, invasions & nationalist fervour that have come to define our understanding of the south-eastern edge of Europe, & presents sharply observed portraits of its kings, guerrillas, bandits, generals, & politicians. Glenny shows that groups we think of as implacable enemies have, over the centuries, formed unlikely alliances, thereby disputing the idea that conflict in the Balkans is the ineluctable product of ancient grudges. He explores the often-catastrophic relationship between the Balkans & the rest of Europe, raising some disturbing questions about Western intervention. ...

A survey of two centuries of history, by Britain's commentator on the Balkans, Misha Glenny. It offers general readers a single narrative that explains the background to the terrible events on their television screens & provides insights into the roots of the region's reputation for violence. It also explores the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria & Albania. ...

The Balkans on an interesting & informative wall map from the NGS combining a political map of the region with information on different ethnic groups & the history of this much-troubled part of Europe. The main map at 1:2, 850, 000 covers an area from Slovenia, Hungary & Romania to Greece. Countries are in different colours corresponding to the present political boundaries (Kosovo is still shown as part of Serbia) but within them areas with over 50% of ethnic minorities are coloured accordingly, e.g. Turks & Pomaks in Bulgaria, Hungarians in Transylvania, different groupings in Bosnia-Herzegovina, etc. Each country & each ethnic group has notes and/or pie charts providing further information. Also included are three historical insets showing the Balkans in the Ottoman Era, during World War I, & during World War II & its aftermath. ...

In this celebrated, landmark history of the Balkans, Misha Glenny investigates the roots of the bloodshed, invasions & nationalist fervour that have come to define our understanding of the south-eastern edge of Europe. In doing so, he reveals that groups we think of as implacable enemies have, over the centuries, formed unlikely alliances, thereby disputing the idea that conflict in the Balkans is the ineluctable product of ancient grudges. & he exposes the often-catastrophic relationship between the Balkans & the rest of Europe, raising profound questions about recent Western intervention. Updated to cover the last decade`s brutal conflicts in Kosovo & Macedonia, the surge of organised crime in the region, the rise of Turkey & the rocky road to EU membership, The Balkans remains the essential & peerless study of Europe`s most complex & least understood region. ...

A dazzling short history of the Balkans from the Romans to the present, which provides vital historical & cultural background to contemporary Balkan politics. At the end of the twentieth century people spoke as if the Balkans had plagued Europe for ever. But two hundred years earlier, the Balkans did not exist. It was not the Balkans but the ` Rumeli` that the Ottomans ruled, the formerly Roman lands they had conquered from Byzantium, together with their Christian inhabitants. In this original account of the region Mark Mazower dispels current Western cliches & replaces stereotypes with a vivid account of how mountains, empires & religions have shaped its inhabitants` lives. As a bridge between Europe & Asia it has been exposed to a constant incursion of nomadic peoples across the centuries. Mazower`s narrative ranges broadly both in time & in space, treating the former Turkish domains in Europe as part of a common if complex historical inheritance. ...