The Fires of Autumn was written in the last two years of Irene Nemirovsky`s life, after she fled Paris in 1940. The prequel to her masterpiece, Suite Francaise, it is a panoramic exploration of French life & a witness to the greatest horrors of the twentieth century. After four years of bloody warfare Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. No more the naive hopes & dreams of the teenager who went to war. Attracted by the lure of money & success, Bernard embarks on a life of luxuriant delinquency supported by suspect financial dealings & easy virtue. Yet when his lover throws him off, he turns to a wholesome childhood friend for comfort. For ten years he lives the good bourgeois life, but as another war threatens everything Bernard had clung to starts to crumble, & the future for his marriage & for France looks terribly uncertain. First published posthumously in France in 1957, The Fires of Autumn is a coruscating, tragic evocation of the reality of war & its dirty aftermath, & the ugly colour it can turn a man`s soul. ...

What Lila wants to be more than anything else in the world is.. .a Firework-Maker! But firework-making is not just about being able to make Crackle-Dragons & Golden Sneezes. There is also one special secret: every Firework-Maker must make a perilous journey to face the terrifying Fire-Fiend! Not knowing that she needs special protection to survive the Fire-Fiend`s flames, Lila sets off alone. Her friends, Chulak & Hamlet
- the King`s white elephant
- race after her. But can they possibly reach her in time?

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Where do we find the world`s very first art? When, & why, did people begin experimenting with different materials, forms & colours? Were our once-cousins, the Neanderthals, also capable of creating art? Prehistorians have been asking these questions of our ancestors for decades, but only very recently, with the development of cutting-edge scientific & archaeological techniques, have we been able to piece together the first chapter in the story of art. Overturning the traditional Eurocentric vision of our artistic origins, which has focused almost exclusively on the Franco-Spanish cave art, Paul Bahn & Michel Lorblanchet take the reader on a search for the earliest art across the whole world. They show that our earliest ancestors were far from being the creatively impoverished primitives of past accounts, & Europe was by no means the only `cradle` of art; the artistic impulse developed in the human mind wherever it travelled. The long universal history of art mirrors the development of humanity. ...

The Great Western is the least known of Isambard Kingdom Brunel`s three ships, being overshadowed by the later careers of the Great Britain & the Great Eastern. However, the Great Western was the first great success, confounding the critics in becoming the fastest ship to steam continuously across the Atlantic, & began the era of luxury transatlantic liners. It was a bold venture by Brunel & his colleagues, who were testing the limits of known technology. This book examines the businessmen, the shipbuilding committee & Brunel & looks at life on board for the crew & the passengers using diaries from the United States & Engl&. The ship`s first voyage made headline news in New York & London & involved a race with the small steamship Sirius. The Great Western`s maiden voyage was a triumph, & this wooden paddle steamer became the wonder of her age. She linked antebellum New York with the London of Charles Dickens & the youthful Queen Victoria. The ship continued to carry the rich & the famous across the Atlantic for eighteen years. ...

On 7 August 1914, a week before the Battle of Tannenburg & two weeks before the Battle of the Marne, the French army attacked the Germans at Mulhouse in Alsace. Their objective was to recapture territory which had been lost after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, which made it a matter of pride for the French. However, after initial success in capturing Mulhouse, the Germans were able to reinforce more quickly, & drove them back within three days. After forty-three years of peace, this was the first test of strength between France & Germany. In 1929 Karl Deuringer wrote the official history of the battle for the Bavarian Army, an immensely detailed work of 890 pages; First World War expert & former army officer Terence Zuber has translated this study & edited it down to more accessible length, to produce the first account in English of the first major battle of the First World War. ...

The colourful, salacious & sumptuously illustrated story of Covent Garden
- the creative heart of Georgian London
- from Wolfson

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Prior histories of the first Spanish mariners to circumnavigate the globe in the sixteenth century have focused on Ferdinand Magellan & the other illustrious leaders of these daring expeditions. Harry Kelsey`s masterfully researched study is the first to concentrate on the hitherto anonymous sailors, slaves, adventurers, & soldiers who manned the ships. The author contends that these initial transglobal voyages occurred by chance, beginning with the launch of Magellan`s armada in 1519, when the crews dispatched by the king of Spain to claim the Spice Islands in the western Pacific were forced to seek a longer way home, resulting in bitter confrontations with rival Portuguese. Kelsey`s enthralling history, based on more than thirty years of research in European & American archives, offers fascinating stories of treachery, greed, murder, desertion, sickness, & starvation but also of courage, dogged persistence, leadership, & loyalty. ...

On September 7, 1940, the Blitz began. The strategic bombing of London, by over one thousand planes on that night alone, was recognised at the time as being a direct measure to break the country`s resistance, `softening` Britain`s shores for the planned Operation Sealion. It was a day long feared & anticipated, but the physical, political & personal shockwaves it sent through the British population outstripped all expectations.” The First Day of the Blitz” tells of the enormous impact that this new terror from the skies had on the British people & the course of the war. From bureaucratic preparations, massively underestimating the decimation of housing, through the actual bombs dropped in the later afternoon & early evening, to the individual, collective & official responses, Peter Stansky argues that the first twelve hours of bombing determined much of the future of Britain. Not only was the country`s ultimate victory over Germany in evidence; so too was the need for a transformation of British society. The wave of terror designed to crush morale quite literally put into question what the British people were made from. The fact & idea of their stoicism & courage was fused into myth; with the intense feeling of camaraderie came a new consciousness of national identity, which paved the way towards the New Jerusalem of Beveridge & the 1945 Labour victory. The bombardment that so radically altered the physical face of London also changed the whole conception of what it meant
- & means
- to be ` British`.

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An easter EGGS-travaganza from bestselling authors Adam & Charlotte Guillain with illustrations by rising star, Pippa Curnick. Poor Easter Chick works so hard to make Easter eggs for everyone, but the Easter Bunny always gets all the credit. It`s time for Chick to hatch a cunning plan... which accidentally turns into the first ever Easter egg hunt! It`s three cheers for chick in this deliciously chocolatey tale. This rhyming picture book is choc full of Easter fun & has a brilliant message about teamwork that is great for reading all year round. Pippa Curnick`s bright illustrations are packed with humour & bring this Easter story to life. Perfect for anyone who loved We`re Going on an Egg Hunt, this un-eggs-pected story will delight children age 3 years & up. Adam Guillain is a performance storyteller & was the Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre Writer in Residence. Charlotte Guillain taught English to air traffic-controllers & nurses before deciding a career in publishing would endanger fewer lives. They have written several children`s picture books together including Supermarket Gremlins, School for Dads & the George`s Amazing Adventures series. Pippa Curnick is an illustrator & freelance designer who grew up in rural Essex & spent most of her childhood climbing trees, jumping over ditches & daydreaming in her treehouse. She studied at Camberwell College of Art before graduating from the University of Derby with a degree in illustration. She also enjoys puppet & model-making. She lives in Derbyshire with her partner, their little boy & an ever-expanding menagerie of pets. ...

This is a unique book to accompany an extraordinary new exhibition of one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th centuries, the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China. The Terracotta Army is evidence of the organisational power of the Qin Dynasty that unified China in 221 BC. It has become a symbol of China's long & coherent cultural history &, now that China is rapidly developing, it reminds the world of China's future potential. This book unfolds the historical & archaeological context of the Terracotta Warriors, & explores the new research & excavation that has been carried out in the years since the first discovery in 1974. The book is divided into five sections, all written by experts in the field. The first chapter concentrates on the Qin's rise & military conquest & unification of the Warring States. The second chapter explores the Qin Empire, its ideology & practices, & the emperor's achievements & legacy. The third chapter examines imperial tours & mountain inscriptions, & the fourth focuses on the mausoleum itself & the rituals that surrounded it. The fifth & final chapter, the crux of the book, examines the site itself, the Terracotta Army, the various new excavations that have taken place & future plans. Large numbers of the Terracotta Army's men & horses, displayed in military formation, are illustrated with striking photography. Their manufacture is explained & demonstrated with moulds, inscriptions, broken warriors & heads of warriors. Also illustrated & discussed are fascinating new discoveries such as terracotta bureaucrats, acrobats & strong men, life-size bronze birds, hundreds of suits of stone armour & terracotta warriors with coloured faces preserved with new technology. ...