Packed with fantastic facts, figures & stories about the world we live in & the galaxies beyond, this single volume contains 288 colour pages of pure Comic Strip genius. Learn about everything
- from the smallest amoeba to the secrets of the furthest corners of the known Universe, & the myths that shaped the way we see the world. This Big Fat Book is an irresistibly humorous & accessible source of knowledge (with pictures) for the whole family to enjoy.
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A sweeping historical novel of the American West that follows the dramatic life of Daytime Smoke, Nez Perce son of explorer William Clark. The Coming is an epic novel of native-white relations in North America, intimately told through the life of Daytime Smoke--the real-life red-haired son of William Clark & a Nez Perce woman. In 1805, Lewis & Clark stumble out of the Rockies on the edge of starvation. The Nez Perce help the explorers build canoes & navigate the rapids of the Columbia, then spend two months hosting them the following spring before leading them back across the snowbound mountains. Daytime Smoke is born not long after, & the tribe of his youth continues a deep friendship with white Americans, from fur trappers to missionaries, even aiding the United States government in wars with neighboring tribes. But when gold is discovered on Nez Perce land in 1860, it sets an inevitable tragedy in motion. Daytime Smoke`s life spanned the seven decades between first contact & the last great Indian war. Capturing the trajectory experienced by so many native peoples--from friendship & cooperation to betrayal, war, & genocide--this sweeping novel, with its large cast of characters & vast geography, braids historical events with the drama of one man`s remarkable life. Rigorously researched & cinematically rendered, The Coming is a page-turning, heart-stopping American novel in a classic mode. ...

Replogle’s 40cm (16”) floor-standing Commander globe oozes attractive practicality. This stylish raised-relief globe sits atop a sturdy brush-finish metal base & a rich walnut-finished pedestal & complementary gyro-matic assembly, allowing for all areas of the globe to be viewed easily. As well as this, it boasts the fantastic ability to be a convenient table globe, simply by removing the centre-post. ...

Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabitte, brilliantly coached by Joel ` The Lips` Fagan, their twin assault on Motown & Barrytown takes them by leaps & bounds from Paris Hall to immortality on vinyl. But can The Commitments live up to their name? ...

1812 & the fate of Europe lies in the hands of newly appointed Commodore Hornblower... Dispatched to northern waters to protect Britain`s Baltic interests, Horatio Hornblower must halt the advance of Napoleon`s empire into Sweden & Russia. But first he must battle the terrible Baltic weather: fog, snow & icebound waterways; overcome Russian political & commercial intrigues; avoid the seductive charms of royalty as well as the deadly reach of assassins in the imperial palace; & contend with hostile armies & French privateers. With the fate of Europe balanced on a knife edge, the responsibility lies heavy on a Commodore`s shoulders... This is the eighth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester`s inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower. ...

Walter Ferranini has been born & bred a man of the left. His father was a worker & an anarchist; Walter himself is a Communist. In the 1930s, he left Mussolini`s Italy to fight Franco in Spain. After Franco`s victory, he left Spain for exile in the United States. With the end of the war, he returned to Italy to work as a labor organizer & to build a new revolutionary order. Now, in the late 1950s, Walter is a deputy in the Italian parliament. He is not happy about it. Parliamentary proceedings are too boring for words: the Communist Party seems to be filling up with ward heelers, timeservers, & profiteers. For Walter, the political has always taken precedence over the personal, but now there seems to be no refuge for him anywhere. The puritanical party disapproves of his relationship with Nuccia, a tender, quizzical, deeply intelligent editor who is separated but not divorced, while Walter is worried about his health, haunted by his past, & increasingly troubled by knotty questions of both theory & practice. Walter is, always has been, & always will be a Communist, he has no doubt about that, & yet something has changed. Communism no longer explains the life he is living, the future he hoped for, or, perhaps most troubling of all, the life he has led. ...

As the Second World War draws to a close, George Clark finds himself posted to Bajapur to begin his life with the British Army. Worn out & broken-hearted, it isn't long before he is caught up in an impossible tangle. When George is tasked with spying on local nationalist activists in a bid to curry favour with the paranoid, communist-obsessed Captain Dennis Porter, he is not only forced to betray his close friend Deborah Sunderl&, but his new love Anna Benson too. Only Anna can infiltrate the local Congress networks to extract the information that George is required to turn up. Set amidst the political unrest of India in the 1940s, The Communist Cookbook is a compelling tale of espionage & divided loyalties. ...

This book travels through the history of the whole world, from the emergence of hominids millions of years ago, up to the present day, in a huge compilation of facts, features & images. The first section records significant world events, presented as chronologically listed entries, running down each spread. Covered are wars, scientific discoveries, art & architecture, births, deaths, & other major milestones. Juxtaposed with the timeline, on the same spread, are narratives & features on broader aspects of history. As an example, one spread on ` Early Civilizations 5000-1500 BCE` has the timeline on the right, & describes the Egyptian & Minoan civilizations in general on the left. in addition, `box` features take a close look at ` Egyptian Pyramids` & a Neolithic Scottish settlement, dating from the same period. The second section of the book is dedicated to individual countries & continental regions. According to its historical & current importance, a country may be accorded a few spreads (for example, the USA), or a few countries may be grouped as one region on one spread (for example, East Africa). The treatment is similar to Section I: timelines of key events, general history, & micro features. High-quality maps provide extra value. ...

This is the complete history of Chamonix`s Compagnie des Guides, brought together for the first time in one book. The work chronicles the exploits & tragedies, great names, early travellers & the traditional working life of the guides. Previously unseen material provided by local families & five years research, Mario Colonel presents, in collaboration with the Compagnie des Guides, the remarkable & hitherto unknown history of a unique professional body. This book covers the whole history of mountaineering in the Mont Blanc Massif as well as that of Chamonix itself. ...

The guide is organized in thematic chapters. Themes include particular historical institutions, such as the scuola, or quarters, such as perpetually crowded with tourists San Marco & the more quiet Cannaregio. This allows the author to space between history, art & traditions & gives the reader the possibility to choose a specific aspect of Venice to explore. ...