In 1914 a train pulled into a provincial British railway station. The porter, a curious chap, asked the regiment of soldiers where they were from. ` Ross-shire, ` one called down, but the porter heard ` Russia`. & so began a rumour that led to Germany losing the First World War. Often the history we learn at school is only half the story. We hear of heroic deeds & visionary leaders, but we never hear about the people who turned up late for court & thereby changed the law, or who stood in the wrong queue at university & accidentally won a Nobel Prize. The Great Cat Massacre: A History of Britain in 100 Mistakes demonstrates that the nation is as much a product of error as design. Through chapters on religion, law, culture, war, science & politics, it reveals such things as how an edict from Pope Gregory IX helped spread the Black Death, how the sister of cricketer John Willes invented overarm bowling, & how, had a letter not been lost, Disraeli might never have become prime minister. This book is history told through human failings, schoolboy errors, bad luck & extraordinary consequences; a history of mishearing, misdiagnosis & misinterpretation
- a history that you won`t find in the textbooks.
...

Jelly & her family live in Chompton-on-de-Lyte, where everyone loves a Chocablocka bar or two. So when the end of chocolate is announced, she can`t believe it. Determined to investigate, Jelly & her gran follow a trail of clues to a posh chocolate shop & its owner, the pompous Garibaldi Chocolati. Gari`s suspiciously smug, despite his failing business & yucky chocolate. Is it really the chocopocalypse, or is there a chocoplot afoot? ...

Stanfords Adult Book of the Month July 2016 From the origins of urbanization in Mesopotamia to the global metropolises of today, great cities have marked the development of human civilization. The Great Cities in History tells their stories, from Uruk & Memphis to Tokyo & Sao Paulo. A galaxy of distinguished contributors evoke the character of each place
- its people, its art & architecture, its government
- & explain the reasons for its success. Richly illustrated with photographs, paintings, maps & plans, this volume is nothing less than a portrait of world civilization.

...

John Kenneth Galbraith`s now-classic account of the 1929 stock market collapse, ” The Great Crash” remains the definitive book on the most disastrous cycle of boom & bust in modern times. ” The Great Crash 1929” examines the causes, effects, aftermath & long-term consequences of America`s infamous financial meltdown, showing how rampant speculation & blind optimism sustained a market mania, & led to its terrible downward spiral. Galbraith also describes the people & the corporations at the heart of the financial community, & how they were affected by the disaster. With its depiction of the `gold-rush fantasy` ingrained in America`s psychology, this penetrating study of human greed & folly contains lessons that are still vital today
- & are now more relevant than ever. ” Lively & highly readable”. (” Financial Times”). ” Galbraith is a considerable writer
- admonitory, ironic, patrician, funny”. (” Guardian”). ” The definitive work on the subject”. (” Daily Mail”). ”A book you will read at a single sitting”. (” Prospect”). ” One of the most engrossing books I have ever read”. (” Daily Telegraph”). John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) was a Canadian-American economist.A Keynesian & an institutionalist, Galbraith was a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism & progressivism. Galbraith was the author of 30 books, including ” The Economics of Innocent Fraud”, ” The Great Crash: 1929”, & ”A History of Economics”.

...

Here`s a book to hurl at the culinary barbarian on your crew, though it`s a lot more than a simple defense against digestion... John Payne, who writes with wit & clarity, makes the business of learning to be a good sea cook much more entertaining than it might otherwise be... All in all, this is an excellent guide to the task of providing good food afloat. Payne

Includes:: a lot of basic-but-need-to-know stuff, like: what kind of fruits & vegetables keep & how long, how to (really!) catch fish, galley equipment, safety, on board gardening (sprouting), & hundreds of really excellent recipes. Living Aboard

...

Niall Ferguson`s bold, pithy & insightful analysis of the degeneration of the West. The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied. Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, aging populations. But what exactly is amiss with Western civilization? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, is that our institutions
- the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail
- are degenerating. Representative government, the free market, the rule of law & civil society were once the four pillars of West European & North American societies. In our time, however, these institutions have deteriorated. The Great Degeneration is a powerful indictment of an era of negligence & complacency. While the Arab world struggles to adopt democracy, & while China struggles to move from economic liberalization to the rule of law, the West is frittering away the institutional inheritance of centuries. To arrest the decline, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership & radical reform. Reviews: ”A refreshing perspective on the economic decline of advanced countries & the origins of the crisis”. (Samuel Brittan, Financial Times).”A compelling & cogently argued work”. (Times Higher Education). About the author: Niall Ferguson is one of Britain`s most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper & Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier & Civilization. He has written & presented six highly successful television series for Channel Four: Empire, American Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, Civilization & China: Triumph & Turmoil.

...

Between 1846 & 1940, more than 50 million Europeans moved to the Americas, irrevocably changing both their new lands & the ones they left behind. Their immigration fostered an idea of the ”land of the free” & yet more than a third returned home again. In a ground-breaking study, Tara Zahra explores the deeper story of this movement of people. As villages emptied, some blamed traffickers in human labour. Others saw opportunity: to seed colonies like the Polish community in Argentina or to reshape their populations by encouraging the emigration of minorities. These precedents would shape the Holocaust, the closing of the Iron Curtain & tragedies of ethnic cleansing while also forming notions of social solidarity, human rights & freedom. ...

Why has inequality increased in the Western world
- & what can we do about it? In The Great Divide, Joseph E. Stiglitz argues
...

Seasonal recipes & expert planting guides from Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd`s quintessential English country garden The Great Dixter Cookbook features seventy simple & delicious seasonal recipes from the kitchen garden at Great Dixter, the historic house & garden located on the borders of Kent & Sussex. Dishes included range from English classics such as chicken & leek pie, apple crumble, & beetroot chutney, to contemporary recipes like crispy kale with sea salt & shakshuka. Dixter was home to the revered & highly influential gardener & writer, Christopher Lloyd, & a number of this book`s recipes have been taken from the Lloyd family`s personal kitchen notebooks. With growing guides to more than twenty varieties of vegetables & fruit to accompany the recipes, this practical, accessible book enriches the kitchens & lives of home cooks & gardeners worldwide. ...

Subdivided into hundreds of domaines, often family-run & sometimes covering no more than a few hectares, Burgundy can be offputtingly fragmented even to wine experts. In compiling this revised edition the authors revisited all the domaines that appeared in previous editions plus scores of `rising stars`, to select the very best & most interesting of them
- & remove those that no longer come up to scratch. They have spoken to winemakers about their grapes, their soil & their techniques
- &, of course, sampled their wines. Following on from the domaine-by-domaine guide are descriptions of the microclimates of the region, the most important grapes & wine styles, as well as tips on buying, storing & tasting wine & a rundown of recent vintages.

...