This is the guidebook to Turkey`s new long-distance Cultural Route, complete with route description, map, historical background, & places to see. The route follows the Ottoman gentleman adventurer Evliya Celibi on his way to Mecca in 1671; it runs for 600km from the Sea of Marmara via Bursa, Kutahya & Afyon to Usak & Simav. The route follows, as far as possible, ancient paved roads & visits the cities, sights & tiny villages that Evliya rode through & recorded in his ” Seyatname” (” Book of Travels”). It can be explored by walkers, horse-riders & bikers. The UN has declared Evliya ` Man of the Year` for 2011, the 400th anniversary of his birth. This route is a practical addition to these celebrations
- it enables modern travellers to directly experience Evliya`s life, times & travels. It is brought to you by the noted Ottoman historian & author of ” Osman`s Dream”, Caroline Finkel, & the originator of ` The Lycian Way`, Kate Clow.
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A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences--what Darwin termed ”the taste for the beautiful”--create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin`s theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, & what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum--reviving Darwin`s own views--thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances & mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin`s long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons--for the mere pleasure of it--is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, & even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature`s splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution & of ourselves. ...

` If there is one dominant myth about the world, one huge mistake we all make.. .it is that we all go around assuming the world is much more of a planned place than it is.` From the industrial revolution & the rise of China, to urbanisation & the birth of bitcoin, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional assumptions that the great events & trends of our day are dictated by those on high. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the ground up. In this wide-ranging & erudite book, Matt Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our minds, & that even now is shaping our future. As compelling as it is controversial, as authoritative as it is ambitious, Ridley`s deeply thought-provoking book will change the way we think about the world & how it works. ...

It is the year 1852, & the origin of species remains a mystery. In a primitive hut in the remote Amazonian jungle, Alfred Wallace, a brilliant young collector of scientific specimens, lies wasted by tropical illness. He does not expect to survive. Healed by a village shaman, Wallace continues his pioneering fieldwork in the Malay archipelago, crystallising his ideas about evolutionary theory, which were to be independently formulated by Charles Darwin. Why wasn`t Wallace given the credit for his momentous discoveries? & how did he end up in conflict with London`s scientific establishment, including Charles Darwin himself? ...

A Sunday Times bestseller Longlisted for the Guardian first book award A Radio 4 Book of the Week. This book is about learning to live. In simple stories of encounter between a psychoanalyst & his patients, The Examined Life reveals how the art of insight can illuminate the most complicated, confounding & human of experiences. These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love & the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, & the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but how we might find ourselves too. ...

The plague raging through London in 1665 has emptied the city. The only people left are those too poor to flee, or those who selflessly struggle to control the contagion & safeguard the capital`s future. Amongst them, though, are those prepared to risk their health for money
- those who sell dubious `cures` & hawk food at wildly inflated prices. Also amongst them are those who hold in their hands the future of the city`s most iconic building
- St Paul`s Cathedral. The handsome edifice is crumbling from decades of neglect & indecision, giving the current custodians a stark choice
- repair or demolish. Both sides have fanatical adherents who have been fighting each other since the Civil Wars. Large sums of money have disappeared, major players have mysteriously vanished, & then a unidentified skeleton is discovered in another man`s grave.A reluctant Chaloner returns to London to investigate, only to discover that someone is determined to thwart him by any means
- by bullet, poison or bludgeon
- & he fears he has very little time to identify the culprits before he becomes yet another victim in the battle for the Cathedral`s future.




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On a quiet mountain road near Barcelona, a woman steps out in front of a car. When the driver, a well-known artist, stops to come to her aid, he finds she is alive, but without any memory of who she is or where she has come from. The only clue to her identity is the broken violin lying at her side. The artist tries to help her remember her past, & finds himself falling in love, but as secrets from the woman`s forgotten life start to come to light, he finds his new romance turning into a nightmare... ...

In the summer of 1976 Gary Gilmore robbed two men. Then he shot them in cold blood. For those murders Gilmore was sent to languish on Death Row
- & could confidently expect his sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. In America, no one had been executed for ten years. But Gary Gilmore wanted to die, & his ensuing battle with the authorities for the right to do so made him into a world-wide celebrity
- & ensured that his execution turned into the most gruesome media event of the decade.

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What matters most: marriage or friendship? fidelity or art? the wishes of the living or the talents of the dead? Matt Holmes finds himself considering these questions sooner than he thinks when his friend, the poet Robert Pope, dies unexpectedly. Rob had invited Matt to become his literary executor at their annual boozy lunch, pointing out that, at 60, he was likely to be around for some time yet. & Matt, having played devotee & apprentice to `the bow-tie poet` for so long, hadn`t the heart (or the gumption) to deny him. Now, after a frosty welcome from his widow, Matt sits at Rob`s rosewood desk & ponders his friend`s motives. He has never understood Rob`s conventional life with Jill, who seems to have no interest in her late husband`s work. But he soon finds himself in an ethical minefield, making shocking & scabrous discoveries that overturn everything he thought he knew about his friend. As Jill gets to work in the back garden, Matt is forced to weigh up the merits of art & truth. Should he conceal what he has found or share it? After all, it`s not just Rob`s reputation that could be transformed forever... Bestselling novelist & poet Blake Morrison creates a biting portrait of competitive male friendship, sexual obsession & the fragile transactions of married life. The Executor innovatively interweaves poetry & prose to form a gripping literary detective story. ...

Replogle’s 30cm (12”) Exeter globe is the collector’s choice; inspired by the traditional style of Globe stands this model is one of our most popular. The rich walnut stained hardwood base is complemented by a full numbered antique brass plated semi-meridian with an up-to-date, antique style ocean globe. ...