What is a caliphate? What is the history of the idea? How is the term used & abused today? In the first modern account of a subject of critical importance today, acclaimed historian Hugh Kennedy answers these questions by chronicling the rich history of the caliphate, from the death of Muhammad to the present. At its height, the caliphate stretched from Spain to the borders of China & was the most powerful political entity in western Eurasia. In an era when Paris & London boasted a few thousand inhabitants, Baghdad & Cairo were sophisticated centres of trade & culture, & the Umayyad & Abbasid caliphates were distinguished by major advances in science, medicine & architecture. By ending with the recent re-emergence of caliphal ideology within fundamentalist Islam, The Caliphate underscores why it is crucial that we know about this form of Islamic government to understand the political ideas of the so-called Islamic State & other Islamist groups in the twenty first century. ...

Writer & film maker Tahir Shah moved his family away from draining British life to start again in Casablanca
- a place of colour,
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` What has risen may sink, & what has sunk may rise...` Mad, macabre tales of demonic spirits, hideous rites, ancient curses & alien entities lurking beneath the surface of rural New Engl&, from the man who created the modern horror story. This is a new series of twenty distinctive, unforgettable Penguin Classics in a beautiful new design & pocket-sized format, with coloured jackets echoing Penguin`s original covers. ...

A definitive collection of stories from the unrivaled master of twentieth-century horror in a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition with cover art by Travis Louie. Frequently imitated & widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts & witches & instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic & malevolent universe. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft`s preeminent interpreter, presents a selection of the master`s fiction, from the early tales of nightmares & madness such as ” The Outsider” to the overpowering cosmic terror of ” The Call of Cthulhu.” More than just a collection of terrifying tales, this volume reveals the development of Lovecraft`s mesmerizing narrative style & establishes him as a canonical- & visionary-American writer. ...

Collecting uniquely uncanny tales from the master of American horror, H.P. Lovecraft`s The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories is edited with an introduction & notes by S.T. Joshi in Penguin Modern Classics. Credited with inventing the modern horror tradition, H.P. Lovecraft remade the genre in the early twentieth century. Discarding ghosts & witches, & instead envisaging mankind at the mercy of a chaotic & malevolent universe, Lovecraft`s unique works would prove to be a huge influence on modern horror writers such as Stephen King. This selection of short stories ranges from early tales of nightmares & insanity such as ` The Outsider` & ` The Rats in the Walls` through the grotesquely comic ` Herbert West
- Reanimator` & ` The Hound`, to the extraterrestrial terror of ` The Call of Cthulhu`, which fuses traditional supernaturalism with science fiction. Including the definitive corrected texts, this collection reveals the development of Lovecraft`s mesmerising narrative style & establishes him as a hugely influential
- & visionary
- American writer. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), born in Providence, Rhode Island was self-educated & lived in his birthplace all his life, working as a freelance writer, journalist, & ghostwriter. Using many pen names, he contributed his supernatural/horror & science fiction/fantasy stories to various pulp magazines but his reputation as a writer rests mainly on the 60 or so stories he published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales starting in 1923. If you enjoyed The Call of Cthulhu, you might also like Arthur Machen`s The White People & Other Weird Stories, available in Penguin Classics. ` The twentieth century horror story`s dark & baroque prince` Stephen King


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Eddy Merckx. Fausto Coppi. Jacques Anquetil. Bernard Hinault. Beryl Burton. Marianne Vos. A sole cyclist battling over a pass high in the mountains is one of the most romantic of sporting images. In the past 150 years road cycling has been dominated by a series of iconic people who have redefined endurance & fortitude. Every decade has pushed human limits, until limits were extended by inhuman pharmacology. & these battles have not been fought over just one race, but an annual series beginning with the Spring Classics & then culminating in the three great tours
- the Giro d` Italia, Vuelta d` Espagne & the Tour de France
- before the cyclists retire to lick their wounds & start on another winter of training. The Call of the Road is the definitive story of cycle road racing, from the first race in 1868 to the present day. It is a story that has never been told as the professionals experience it
- as a whole energy-sapping year. It looks at the beginning & development of the sport, it explains the tactics & looks at the different physical types that succeed. It explains why some nations have dominated this sport & why, until recently, British riders have underperformed. It also looks at the way the great races were founded & developed, & how the great riders stamped their authority on them through the ages. Sidwells doesn`t shy away from controversy: dissecting the vexed & seemingly ever-present question of doping. The final chapter brings the story of road racing completely up to date with insight into jiffy bags & salbutamol levels. Truly international in scope, looking at road racing in North & Latin America, Australia, Africa & Asia, as well as continental Europe, The Call of the Road is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the history, tactics or personalities of cycle road racing.


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Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating & sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, & he is forced into a life of toil & danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh & freezing cold Yukon, Buck must fight for his survival. Can he rise above his enemies & become the master of his realm once again? The Call of the Wild is one of the twenty wonderful classic stories being reissued in Puffin Classics in March 2015, this edition features additional material, an inspirational introduction by award-winning author Melvyn Burgess, & behind-the-scenes journey including an author profile, a guide to who’s who, activities & more… ...

One mild summer evening Lily & her husband are enjoying a meal while their baby daughter sleeps peacefully in her pram beneath a maple tree. But when Lily steps outside she is paralysed with terror. The child is bathed in blood. Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to meet the family. Mercifully, the baby is unharmed, but her parents are deeply shaken, & Sejer spends the evening trying to comprehend why anyone would carry out such a sinister prank. Then, just before midnight, somebody rings his doorbell. The corridor is empty, but the caller has left a small grey envelope on the mat. From his living room window, the inspector watches a figure slip across the car park & disappear into the darkness. Inside the envelope Sejer finds a postcard bearing a short message. Hell begins now. ...