Jean-Marie can`t believe his luck when he has a passionate triste with a beautiful young Englishwoman, Marjory, who is holidaying in the Cote d` Azur. However, when he discovers his lover is married he is crestfallen, & when she returns to her home in rainy Edinburgh he is heartbroken. He takes a fateful decision: to follow her. He arrives in Scotl&. but soon the jealous husband appears, & a deadly encounter is only the beginning of a nightmarish, disorienting drama. ...

Haile Selassie I, the last emperor of Ethiopia, was as brilliant as he was formidable. A descendant of King Solomon & an early proponent of African unity & independence, Haile Selassie fought with the Allies against the Axis powers during World War II & was a messianic figure for the Jamaican Rastafarians. Written by Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haile Selassie s grandnephew, this is the first major biography on this final king of kings. Asserate introduces Haile Selassie as a reformer & an autocrat whose personal history with all of its upheavals, promises, & horrors reflects in many ways the history of the twentieth century itself. Chosen as ” Time” s Man of the Year in 1936 for resisting Mussolini s invasion of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie was celebrated by many as the anti-colonialist father of Africa. But the final years of his empire saw turmoil & revolution, & he was ultimately overthrown & assassinated in a communist coup. Asserate, who spent his childhood & adolescence in Ethiopia before fleeing the revolution of 1974, knew Haile Selassie personally & gained intimate insights into life at the imperial court. Using his own personal experiences & painstaking research in family & public archives, Asserate has achieved a colorful & even-handed portrait of the emperor & his tumultuous reign.” ...

There was once a little boy who was afraid of the dark. There`s nothing unusual about that. Most children are afraid of the dark at one time of another. But this little boy was a Prince, & he decided that when he became King, he would do something about the dark. He would ban it. When a King bans the dark completely, installing an artificial sun, & enforcing ”anti-dark” laws, it seems like a good idea. The citizens don`t need to worry about monsters, crime, or any of the other scary things that might live in the dark. But what happens when nobody can sleep, & the citizens revolt? Will the King face his fears & turn the lights off? The King Who Banned the Dark is a beautiful story about how we need the dark in order to enjoy the light. ...

One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century
- he wasn't a prime minister or an archbishop of
...

` This is a brilliant, shocking book.. . also witty, painfully self-critical & humane.. . it is a work of great literature` Tim Whitmarsh, Guardian` The Kingdom, already a huge bestseller in France, is thrilling, magnificent & strange` Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times The sensational international bestseller from one of France`s most fêted writers
- an epic novel telling the story of Christianity as it has never been told before, & one man`s crisis of faith. Corinth, ancient Greece, two thousand years ago. An itinerant preacher, poor, wracked by illness, tells the story of a prophet who was crucified in Judea, who came back from the dead, & whose return is a sign of something enormous. Like a contagion, the story will spread over the city, the country &, eventually, the world. Emmanuel Carrère`s astonishing historical epic tells the story of the mysterious beginnings of Christianity, bringing to life a distant, primeval past of strange sects, apocalyptic beliefs & political turmoil. In doing so Carrère, once himself a fervent believer, questions his own faith, asks why we believe in resurrection, & what it means. The Kingdom is his masterpiece.` An utterly brilliant book` Catherine Nixey, The Times
...

When on Christmas Day, 1130, Roger de Hauteville was crowned first King of Sicily, the island entered a golden age. Norman & Italian, Greek & Arab, Lombard, Englishman & Jew all contributed to a culture that was fantastically cosmopolitan; & to an atmosphere of racial & religious toleration unparalleled in Europe. But sixty-four years later, to the day, when the bastard King Tancred was defeated, the sun set on the Sicilian Kingdom. In this second volume of John Julius Norwich`s scintillating history of the Normans in Sicily, Norwich describes the `happiest & most glorious chapter of the island`s history.` ...

Jonathan Kingdon, one of the world`s foremost authorities on African mammals, has both written & illustrated this landmark field guide. The unique combination of his extensive field experience & artistic talent has produced a stunning work that sets new standards. The concise text provides full information on identification, distribution, ecology, relationships & conservation status, with introductory profiles that summarise the characteristics of each mammal group. All known species of African land mammal are covered, with coverage of several of the more complex groups of small mammals simplified by reference to genera. Classification has been fully updated & this new edition

Includes:: many newly recognised species. With over 780 colour illustrations, numerous line drawings & more than 520 maps, this book will be an essential companion to anyone visiting Africa or with an interest in the mammals of the continent. Competition note: There are regional mammal books covering southern Africa, for example, but none that covers the whole continent in a portable format. The smaller-format & more concise Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals may be more appealing to a more general safari market, but is much less comprehensive & more out of date.

...

Jonathan Kingdon, one of the world`s foremost authorities on African mammals, has both written & illustrated this landmark field guide. The unique combination of his extensive field experience & artistic talent has produced a stunning work that sets new standards. The concise text provides full information on identification, distribution, ecology, relationships & conservation status, with introductory profiles that summarise the characteristics of each mammal group. All known species of African land mammal are covered, with coverage of several of the more complex groups of small mammals simplified by reference to genera. Classification has been fully updated & this new edition

Includes:: many newly recognised species. With over 780 colour illustrations, numerous line drawings & more than 520 maps, this book will be an essential companion to anyone visiting Africa or with an interest in the mammals of the continent. Competition note: There are regional mammal books covering southern Africa, for example, but none that covers the whole continent in a portable format. The smaller-format & more concise Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals may be more appealing to a more general safari market, but is much less comprehensive & more out of date.

...

During the reign of Charles II, London was a city in flux. After years of civil war & political turmoil, England`s capital became the centre for major advances in the sciences, the theatre, architecture, trade & ship-building that paved the way for the creation of the British Empire. At the heart of this activity was the King, whose return to power from exile in 1660 lit the fuse for an explosion in activity in all spheres of city life. London flourished, its wealth, vibrancy & success due to many figures famous today including Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys & John Dryden
- & others whom history has overlooked until now. Throughout the quarter-century Charles was on the throne, London suffered several serious reverses: the plague in 1665 & the Great Fire in 1666, & severe defeat in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which brought about notable economic decline. But thanks to the genius & resilience of the people of London, & the occasionally wavering stewardship of the King, the city rose from the ashes to become the economic capital of Europe. The King`s City tells the gripping story of a city that defined a nation & birthed modern Britain
- & how the vision of great individuals helped to build the richly diverse place we know today.

...

The riveting story of Margaret Pole, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, & was one of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses. Plantagenet, once carried proudly by Margaret like a crown upon her head, is now, at the end of the 15th century, the most dangerous name in Engl&... ...