Dal is to India what pasta is to Italy. Cheap to produce, highly nutritional, suitable for long storage & capable of being cooked in a basic pot on an open fire, dal has been providing nourishment to millions of Indians for millennia. It truly is a pan-Indian dish consumed by rich & poor alike. It is high protein & has practically no sugar
- in fact it is known as `poor man`s meat` in India
- hence doctors now include this as an essential item in a diet for diabetics. Dal is a genuinely impressive dish of infinite variety
- there are at least 50 recipes for this humble food. There are multiple ways of cooking it, wide-ranging seasonings are used & there are diverse supplements to serve with it. Over the centuries Indian cooks became innovative & with locally available ingredients they dished out dal to satisfy a regional palate. In the process they also invented new dishes using dal lentils such as kedgeree (khichari
- a risotto made with lentil), dosas (pancakes mixed with lentil flower), vadas (lentil cakes), dhokla (baked lentil cakes), papadam (dried lentil snack) & pakoras (fritters dipped in lentil batter).



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A special edition of The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan`s 70th anniversary. On 17 May 1943, nearly 350 million tons of water crashed into the valleys of the Ruhr when the Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron breached the giant Moehne & Eder Dams with colossal `blockbuster` bombs. The Dam Busters tells the story of the raid & the squadron of fearless airmen who carried it through. Again & again, the crews of 617 Squadron Bomber Command used their flying skills, their tremendous courage & Barnes Wallis` highly accurate bouncing bombs to deal devastating blows to Nazi Germany. One of the most daring true stories to emerge from the Second World War, Paul Brickhill`s The Dam Busters inspired the famous 1955 film starring Michael Redgrave & Richard Todd. ...

Think about the most wretched day of your life. Maybe it was when someone you loved died, or when you were badly hurt in an accident, or a day when you were so terrified you could scarcely bear it. No imagine 4, 000 of those days in one big chunk. In 1978, Warren Fellows was convicted in Thailand of heroin trafficking & was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Damage Done is his story of an unthinkable nightmare in a place where sewer rats & cockroaches are the only nutritious food, & where the worst punishment is the khun deo
- solitary confinement, Thai style. Fellows was certainly guilty of his crime, but he endured & survived human-rights abuses beyond imagination. This is not his plea for forgiveness, nor his denial of guilt; it is the story of an ordeal that no one would wish on their worst enemy. It is an essential read: heartbreaking, fascinating & impossible to put down.
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The earliest & most influential expeditions of the man now considered to be the greatest living explorer. The Danakil Diary is the account of two journeys Thesiger made into the Danakil country in Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, in 1930-34 at the age of 24
- which, today, he still regards as the most dangerous he undertook. It was an extraordinary journey & a remarkable achievement. Thesiger succeeded in penetrating country that had wiped out two Italian expeditions & an Egyptian army before him, discovered what happened to the Awash River (one of the area`s last geographical mysteries to be solved) & managed to survive amongst the Danakil tribesmen, to whom a man`s status depended on the number of men he had killed & castrated. Besides giving early proof of Thesiger`s descriptive genius
- with his portrayal of the beautiful, savage landscapes, & their varied wildlife
- The Danakil Diary reveals youthful evidence of his fierce motivation & uncompromising will, which are familiar hallmarks of his sixty years of travel among primitive peoples in some of the harshest & remotest areas of the world.


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As seen on TV: now a major BBC4 television series. Inspector Montalbano is awake at dawn, sitting on his porch, when his attention is caught by a seagull which falls from the sky, performing a strange dance, before lying down to die. Montalbano is perplexed by what he has witnessed & the scene hangs over him like an omen. About to depart for a holiday with his girlfriend Livia, Montalbano makes a quick trip to the police station to tie up loose ends. But when his dear colleague Fazio is discovered missing -- & it transpires that the policeman has been involved in his own secret investigations -- Montalbano instead launches a desperate search for his lost friend, as time begins to run out.. . Navigating a shadowy maze of smuggling, blackmail & the darkest murder, & moving from the docks of Vigata to its deep, dry wells where the mafia hide their terrible crimes, Inspector Montalbano must have his wits about him to unravel this tangled mystery. ...

The city of Simenon`s youth comes to life in this new translation of this disturbing novel set in Liege, book ten in the new Penguin Maigret series. In the darkness, the main room is as vast as a cathedral. A great empty space. Some warmth is still seeps from the radiators. Delfosse strikes a match. They stop a moment to catch their breath, & work out how far they have still to go. & suddenly the match falls to the ground, as Delfosse gives a sharp cry & rushes back towards the washroom door. In the dark, he loses his way, returns & bumps into Chabot. Maigret observes from a distance as two boys are accused of killing a rich foreigner in Liege. Their loyalty, which binds them together through their adventures, is put to the test, & seemingly irrelevant social differences threaten their friendship & their freedom. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels. ” Compelling, remorseless, brilliant”. (John Gray). ” One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century... Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories”. (Guardian). ”A supreme writer.. .unforgettable vividness”. (Independent). Georges Simenon was born in Liege, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels & short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerl&, where he had lived for the latter part of his life. ...

This novel explores one of the most astonishing stories in the whole history of twentieth century terrorism. Colonel Rejas was the policeman charged with the task of capturing the Peruvian guerrilla leader Ezequiel, but having been dismissed he finds the burden of silence & secrecy too heavy. On meeting Dyer, a foreign correspondent, he is moved to relate the tortuous progress of the manhunt for the first time. The Dancer Upstairs is a story reminiscent of Graham Greene & John le Carre
- tense, intricate & heartbreaking.
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The Danes, in the Xenophobe guide series; consisting of a range of pocket-sized guides which take a humorous & irreverent approach to a wide range of world cultures. Each guide explores the characteristics of a country’s people in a series of dedicated sections, encompassing nationalism & identity, behaviour, manners, character, obsessions, beliefs & values, leisure & pleasure, culture, custom & tradition, business, systems, health & hygiene, crime & punishment, government & bureaucracy, conversation & gestures & language. Written in a wholly irreverent style, Xenophobes guides attempt to forewarn readers of the main stereotypes & foibles that are associated with individual nationalities. ...

Alice & Louise are sisters united by a distant tragedy
- the house fire fourteen years ago which their brother lit & burned to
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Conn Iggulden’s Dangerous Book for Boys is destined to become a publishing classic. Writing for Harper Collins in his first non-fiction work, Iggulden writes with the verve & passion that his readers have come to expect. This book has been written with his brother as a celebration of the long summers of their youth & as a compendium of information so vital to men of all ages. Lavishly designed & fully illustrated in colour & black & white throughout, it is a wonderful gift for any occasion & for father or son. Dealing with activities as diverse as thrashing someone at conkers, racing your own go-cart, & identify the best"ations from Shakespearem, Iggulden provides the answers! The Dangerous Book for Boys gives you facts & figures at your fingertips
- swot up on the solar system, learn about famous battles & read inspiring stories of incredible courage & bravery. Teach your old dog new tricks. Make a pinhole camera. Understand the laws of cricket. If ever there was a book to make you switch off your television set, The Dangerous Book for Boys is it. There`s a whole world out there: with this book, anyone can get out & explore it. The book features chapters on The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, Conkers, Laws of Football, Dinosaurs, Fishing, Juggling, Timers & Tripwires, Kings & Queens, Famous Battles, Spies, Making Crystals, Insects & Spiders, Astronomy, Girls, The Golden Age of Piracy, Secret Inks, Patron Saints of Britain, Skimming Stones, Dog Tricks, Making a Periscope, Coin Tricks, Marbles, Artillery, The Origin of Words & The Solar System.
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