Why did London Underground once employ a one-legged man to ride up & down the escalators at Earl`s Court tube station? What did Hitler plan to do with Nelson`s Column? Why is London`s only medieval mummy a prostitute named Clarice la Claterballock? How did a beer flood in Tottenham Court Road drown nine people? Where can you see a pair of Queen Victoria`s knickers? Containing chapters covering London past & present; buildings & streets; famous & unexpected Londoners; arts, literature & crime; plus much much more, the 180 lists will amaze, amuse & inform. More than simply a keepsake for tourists, every self-respecting Londoner needs this book. ...

Ever wondered if Cheapside really is cheap, what you do in Threadneedle Street, or who the knights of Knightsbridge were? Did you know that Piccadilly is actually an insult? & that Euston Road was built because there were too many cows on Oxford Street? Or that the River Fleet was covered over partly because of a drunken butcher? Take a trip down narrow lanes, through cobbled streets & crowded markets to discover the meanings behind the city`s place names. Meet forgotten residents whose names survive in the places where they lived & uncover tales from London`s murky past that have shaped the modern city. From famous landmarks to forgotten rivers, grand thoroughfares to lost palaces, & ancient villages swallowed up as the city grew, Caroline Taggart explains the hidden meanings behind familiar places. If you have ever wanted to learn more about the history of London & discover the people, events & stories that shaped our capital city, then come on a journey that will show you London in a new light... ...

Ever wondered if Cheapside really is cheap, what you do in Threadneedle Street, or who the knights of Knightsbridge were? Did you know that Piccadilly is actually an insult? & that Euston Road was built because there were too many cows on Oxford Street? Or that the River Fleet was covered over partly because of a drunken butcher? Take a trip down narrow lanes, through cobbled streets & crowded markets to discover the meanings behind the city`s place names. Meet forgotten residents whose names survive in the places where they lived, such as Sir George Downing of Downing Street, & uncover tales from London`s murky past that have shaped the modern city. From famous landmarks to forgotten rivers, grand thoroughfares to lost palaces, & ancient villages swallowed up as the city grew, Sunday Times bestselling author Caroline Taggart explains the hidden meanings behind familiar places. If you have ever wanted to learn more about the history of London & discover the people, events & stories that shaped our capital city, then come on a journey that will show you London in a new light... ...

In many ways, my life has been rather like a record of the lost & found. Perhaps all lives are like that. It`s when life started in earnest HERTFORDSHIRE, 1928 The paths of Tom & Alice collide against a haze of youthful, carefree exuberance. & so begins a love story that finds its feet by a lake one silvery moonlit evening.. . It`s when there were no happy endings PARIS, 1939 Alice is living in the City of Light, but the pain of the last decade has already left its mark. There`s a shadow creeping across Europe when she & Thomas Stafford
- now a world famous artist
- find each other once more.. . It`s when the story begins LONDON, 1986 Bequeathed an old portrait from her grandmother, Kate Darling uncovers a legacy that takes her to Corsica, Paris & beyond. & as the secrets of time fall away, a love story as epic as it is life-changing slowly reveals itself.. . Sweeping & heartrending
- the perfect read for fans of Victoria Hislop & Kate Morton.


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`...as when iron is drawn to a magnet, camphor is sucked into hot air, crystal lights up in the Sun, sulfur & a volatile liquid are kindled by flame, an empty eggshell filled with dew is raised towards the Sun.. .` The Bible is full of stories featuring forms of magic & possession
- from Moses battling with Pharaoh`s wizards to the supernatural actions of Jesus & his disciples. As, over the following centuries, the Christian church attempted to stamp out `deviant` practices, a persistent interest in magic drew strength from this Biblical validation. A strange blend of mumbo-jumbo, fear, fraud & deeply serious study, magic was at the heart of the European Renaissance, fascinating many of its greatest figures. This is a book filled with incantations, charms, curses, summonings, cures & descriptions of extraordinary, shadowy, only half-understood happenings from long ago. It features writers as various as Thomas Aquinas, John Milton, John Dee, Ptolemy & Paracelsus along with anonymous ancient & medieval works which were, in some cases, viewed as simply too dangerous even to open. Brian Copenhaver`s wonderful anthology will be welcomed by everyone from those with the most casual interest in the magical tradition to anyone drawn to the Renaissance & the tangled, arcane roots of the scientific tradition.
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Are you ready for another EPIC book from the winner of the Blue Peter Book Award 2016 (Best Book with Facts)? If you ran your school, what would the rules be? Would you rather talk to animals, or speak every language in the world? How fast can you run? Answer these questions & much more, with real life comparisons
- how do you compare to an animal, another human, or even your parents? Collect your own data & enjoy silly facts, quizzes, & scrapbook activities. Write, draw, cut-out & fully make this book about you!
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This is the story you have asked me to tell begins not with the ignominious ugliness of Lloyd`s death but on a long-ago day in April when the sun seared my blistered face & I was nine years old & my father & mother sold me to a strange man. I say my father & my mother, but really it was just my mother. Memory, the narrator of The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder. As part of her appeal her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, & Memory is, both literally & metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried & convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? & did everything happen exactly as she remembers? Moving between the townships of the poor & the suburbs of the rich, & between the past & the present, Memory weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate & the treachery of memory. ...

The story you have asked me to tell begins not with the ignominious ugliness of Lloyd`s death but on a long-ago day in April when the sun seared my blistered face & I was nine years old & my father & mother sold me to a strange man. I say my father & my mother, but really it was just my mother. Memory, the narrator of ” The Book of Memory”, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder. As part of her appeal her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, & Memory is, both literally & metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried & convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? & did everything happen exactly as she remembers? Moving between the townships of the poor & the suburbs of the rich, & between the past & the present, Memory weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate & the treachery of memory. ...

` If you are vacillating over whether a couple of bottles of pinot blanc might, in the short run, prove more fun than a poetry book, then just flick to the first page & the title poem of this volume. James writes with exquisite perception & surgical precision; he is a poet of powerful argument & emotional force` The Times The reputation of Clive James as a poet was slow to form, perhaps because he was too famous as a star journalist & television entertainer. There was also the drawback that his poetry was so entertaining it was hard for many critics to take seriously. But after the notoriety achieved by a single self-satirizing poem, ` The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered`, one of the most anthologized poems of recent times, James`s poetic output became impossible to ignore, & his 1985 collection Other Passports was greeted with praise for its thematic scope & technical accomplishment, even by critics who still doubted his seriousness. Since then, James has emerged unarguably as one of the most prominent poets of his generation -- & The Book of My Enemy (which

Includes:: Other Passports) shows why.

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Abducted from her West African village at the age of eleven & sold as a slave in the American South, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom
- & of finding her way home again. After escaping the plantation, torn from her husband & child, she passes through Manhattan in the chaos of the Revolutionary War, is shipped to Nova Scotia, & then joins a group of freed slaves on a harrowing return odyssey to Africa. Based on a true story, Lawrence Hill`s epic novel spans three continents & six decades to bring to life a dark & shameful chapter in our history through the story of one brave & resourceful woman.
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