In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angb&. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwe, chief of the Valar. Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable. It was built & peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule & fled to Middle-earth. Turgon King of Gondolin is hated & feared above all his enemies by Morgoth, who seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city, while the gods in Valinor in heated debate largely refuse to intervene in support of Ulmo`s desires & designs. Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Turin, the instrument of Ulmo`s designs. Guided unseen by him Tuor sets out from the land of his birth on the fearful journey to Gondolin, & in one of the most arresting moments in the history of Middle-earth the sea-god himself appears to him, rising out of the ocean in the midst of a storm. In Gondolin he becomes great; he is wedded to Idril, Turgon`s daughter, & their son is Earendel, whose birth & profound importance in days to come is foreseen by Ulmo. At last comes the terrible ending. Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs & dragons & numberless Orcs. After a minutely observed account of the fall of Gondolin, the tale ends with the escape of Tuor & Idril, with the child Earendel, looking back from a cleft in the mountains as they flee southward, at the blazing wreckage of their city. They were journeying into a new story, the Tale of Earendel, which Tolkien never wrote, but which is sketched out in this book from other sources. Following his presentation of Beren & Luthien Christopher Tolkien has used the same `history in sequence` mode in the writing of this edition of The Fall of Gondolin. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was `the first real story of this imaginary world` &, together with Beren & Luthien & The Children of Hurin, he regarded it as one of the three ` Great Tales` of the Elder Days. ...

The collapse of France in 1870 had an overwhelming impact – on Paris, on France & on the rest of the world. People everywhere saw Paris as the centre of Europe & the hub of culture, fashion & invention. Suddenly France, not least to the disbelief of her own citizens, was gripped in the vice of the Iron Chancellor’s armies & forced to surrender on humiliating terms. In this brilliant study of the Siege & its aftermath, Alistair Horne evokes the high drama of those ten fantastic months & the spiritual agony which Paris & the Parisians suffered. ...

” The Fall of the House of Usher & Other Writings” is a collection that displays the full force of Edgar Allen Poe`s mastery of both Gothic horror & the short story form. This ” Penguin Classics” edition is edited with an introduction & notes by David Galloway. This selection of Poe`s critical writings, short fiction & poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues, & the astonishing power & imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. ” The Fall of the House of Usher” is a slow-burning Gothic horror, describing the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy & the legacy of the past. In ” The Tell-Tale Heart”, a murderer`s insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as ” The Pit & the Pendulum”, ” The Raven” & ” The Cask of Amontillado” explore extreme states of decadence, fear & hate. In his introduction David Galloway re-examines the myths surrounding Poe`s life & reputation. This edition

Includes:: a new chronology & suggestions for further reading. Although dissipated in his youth & plagued by mental instability towards the end of his life, Boston-born Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) had a variety of occupations, including service in the US army & magazine editor, as well as his remarkable literary output. If you enjoyed ” The Fall of the House of Usher”, you might like Horace Walpole`s ” The Castle of Otranto”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”. ” The most original genius that America has produced”. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson). ” Poe has entered our popular consciousness as no other American writer”. (” The New York Times Book Review”).

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Oscar Wilde owed his most outstanding characteristics
- his precocious intellectualism, his flamboyance, his hedonism, his recklessness,
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Sunday Times Top Ten Best-seller. The final destruction of the Ottoman Empire
- one of the great epics of the First World War,
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This is shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013. In September 1943, Nazi troops advance on the ancient gates of Gjirokaster, Albania. The very next day, the Germans vanish without a trace. As the townsfolk wonder if they might have dreamt the events of the previous night, rumours circulate of a childhood friendship between a local dignitary & the invading Nazi Colonel, a reunion in the town square & a fateful dinner party that would transform twentieth-century Europe. A captivating novel of resistance in a dictatorship, & steeped in Albanian folklore, The Fall of the Stone City shows Kadare at the height of his powers. ...

Misha Glenny`s acclaimed account of the war in former Yugoslavia contains substantial new material that discusses the end of the five-year conflict & looks ahead to an uneasy future in this turbulent region. Writing in the ” Evening Standard”, Fitzroy Maclean said ` Misha Glenny`s deeply disturbing book is, to my mind, essential reading for anyone trying to underst&, or even just follow, events in what was once Yugoslavia`. ...

“ The Famished Road” was not only the first book in Ben Okri’s hugely acclaimed trilogy, it also won the 1991 Booker Prize; the novel itself was also inspiration for Radiohead’s “ Street Spirit (Fade Out)”. And what a novel it is, mixing the ‘spirit’ world & the real world, we follow Azaro
- a spirit child who is born only to live for a short while before returning to the idyllic world of his spirit companions. Now he has chosen to stay in the world of the living, & this is his story.
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`I`m so famishing I`m vanishing!` The famishing vanishing mahoosive mammoth is a hairy beast who simply can`t think of anything but his tummy. So how, then, can his friend Bug distract him? Find out in this hilarious rhyming picture book about one hairy mammoth with a ridiculously large appetite, & one loyal friend with a clever plan. With oodles of fun & laughter, it`s the perfect picture book for all fans of Julia Donaldson, Neal Layton, Alex T. Smith & Lauren Child. ...

Explore the fascinating family histories of Ada Lovelace, Charlotte Bronte, John F Kennedy & many more with 30 family trees from around the world. This accessible, visually-stunning compendium of family trees features some of history`s most loved
- & loathed
- famous faces & is great fun for the whole family to explore. Genealogy & history combine to make a fascinating, fact-filled treasury of family trees belonging to famous people throughout the ages.

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