Nanase cannot remember when she first realized she could read people`s minds, but not once during her eighteen years has she ever questioned her particularly unusual ability. Yet, working as a live-in maid, she is inevitably drawn into the lives, thoughts & desires of her employers, with dangerous & at times hilarious consequences. From the sexual rapaciousness of her first boss to the grime & stench of the house where she works next & her third employer`s inability to accept she`s no longer young, Nanase`s adventures are a picaresque journey into the inner sanctum of the lives & psyches of ordinary Japanese people. ...

How did an illiterate seventeen-year-old peasant girl manage to become one of histories most salient females? It is almost 600 years since Joan of Arc heard the voices of angels that would change her life for ever: in a breathtaking story her quest saved France from English domination & restored France`s hereditary monarchy. Just thirteen when her life was turned upside down, Joan`s holy guidance led her on an arduous eleven-day journey into the unknown, restoring the Dauphin back to his original birthright in an official coronation, allowing him to resume his rule as France`s legitimate king. Joan summoned & led an impressive army of French loyalists against the English; the siege at Orleans was an exhilarating English defeat that liberated the city. The following year witnessed Joan`s capture by the enemy. After a series of heroic endeavours to escape cruel adversaries, she was subjected to trial by inquisition & then in Rouen, the heart of France, Joan`s courageous journey came to a heartbreaking conclusion. This is the story at the core of centuries of myth-making. But what if we no longer accept this tale? What if we question whether the Heavens & their angels were truly Joan`s only source of strength & power? What if we demand a different narrative? This revisionist biography unearths the secular & verifiable basis for Joan`s heroic exploits: Yolande of Aragon, a forgotten mentor. This is a story of not one life, but two; two lives that together were intertwined in the restoration of France`s greatness. ...

Set in the blistering heat of Singapore, THE MAID`S ROOM follows the lives of two Filipina maids
- sisters Dolly & Tala who are
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`A modern-day The Help`
- Emerald Street` It`s a book to read & then read again.` The Book Bag`I loved The Maid`s Room with its
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This collection contains the first six Maigret novels, which appeared in 1931-2: Pietr the Latvian, The Late Monsieur Gallet, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, The Carter of ` La Providence`, The Yellow Dog, Night at the Crossroads. These early novels range in setting from Maigret`s home turf in Paris, to sleepy coastal towns & Liege, the city where Simenon himself grew up. Each unforgettable novel takes the inspector into an unfamiliar world with a distinct atmosphere, be it rich expats, international criminal gangs, isolated boating communities or secret societies. Penguin Classics is publishing all seventy-five Maigret novels, in their original publication order in authentic new translations that bring the reader closer than ever to Simenon`s gritty originals. ” One of literature`s most exceptional characters.” (Ian Sansom, New Statesman). ` Compelling, remorseless, brilliant` John Gray ` One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century... Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” (Guardian). ”A supreme writer.. .unforgettable vividness.” (Independent). ...

The terror & purges of Stalin`s Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 & 1943. This selection from Maisky`s diary, never before published in English, grippingly documents Britain`s drift to war during the 1930s, appeasement in the Munich era, negotiations leading to the signature of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Churchill`s rise to power, the German invasion of Russia, & the intense debate over the opening of the second front. Maisky was distinguished by his great sociability & access to the key players in British public life. Among his range of regular contacts were politicians (including Churchill, Chamberlain, Eden, & Halifax), press barons (Beaverbrook), ambassadors (Joseph Kennedy), intellectuals (Keynes, Sidney & Beatrice Webb), writers (George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells), & indeed royalty. His diary further reveals the role personal rivalries within the Kremlin played in the formulation of Soviet policy at the time. Scrupulously edited & checked against a vast range of Russian & Western archival evidence, this extraordinary narrative diary offers a fascinating revision of the events surrounding the Second World War. ...

A foreign bachelor living in Peking`s Chinese quarter finds himself guardian to the young daughter of an Italian railway worker. Through his stewardship, he catches a glimpse of an entirely different side of life. As Kuniang grows up, his feelings for her change, & he must compete with motley cast of characters for her attentions. These include a shadowy former mistress of Rasputin, a flamboyant American fashion designer, & an English millionaire. But when Kuniang unwittingly falls under a form of Eastern hypnosis, a terrifying vision threatens their prospects. Set against the mysterious & turbulent backdrop of Peking with its disparate inhabitants in the early twentieth century, ” The Maker of Heavenly Trousers” is a charming, & at times tragic, story of love & family. ...

One day, out of the blue, Henry Nagel inherits a sumptuous apartment in St John`s Wood. Divine intervention? Or his late father`s love nest? Henry doesn`t know, but he is glad to escape the North. After nearly sixty years of angry disappointment, Henry`s life is about to change. Not that the ghosts of Henry`s past are prepared to disappear without a struggle
- his old school-friend & rival Osmond ` Hovis` Belkin, currently enjoying success in Hollywood; his tragic great aunt Marghanita for whom Henry once entertained a dangerous passion; & his father Izzi, upholsterer turned illusionist, fire-eater & origamist, whose shade Henry interrogates relentlessly. But the present clamours as loudly as the past. His dyspeptic neighbour Lachlan wants his sympathy; Lachlan`s sloppy red setter, Angus, wants a walk; & Moira, the waitress with the crooked smile & custard hair, seems to want him. Kicking & screaming every inch of the way, Henry realises he might finally be falling in love.
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The story of The Making of India begins in the seventeenth century, when a small seafaring isl&, one tenth the size of the Indian subcontinent, despatched sailing ships over 11, 000 miles on a five-month trading journey in search of new opportunities. In the end they helped build a new nation. The sheer audacity & scale of such an endeavour, the courage & enterprise, have no parallel in world history. This book is the first to assess in a single volume almost all aspects of Britain`s remarkable contribution in providing India with its lasting institutional & physical infrastructure, which continues to underpin the world`s largest democracy in the twenty-first century. ...

In ” The Making of Modern Britain”, Andrew Marr paints a fascinating portrait of life in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century as the country recovered from the grand wreckage of the British Empire. Between the death of Queen Victoria & the end of the Second World War, the nation was shaken by war & peace. The two wars were the worst we had ever known & the episodes of peace among the most turbulent & surprising. As the political forum moved from Edwardian smoking rooms to an increasingly democratic Westminster, the people of Britain experimented with extreme ideas as they struggled to answer the question ` How should we live?` Socialism? Fascism? Feminism? Meanwhile, fads such as eugenics, vegetarianism & nudism were gripping the nation, while the popularity of the music hall soared. It was also a time that witnessed the birth of the media as we know it today & the beginnings of the welfare state. Beyond trenches, flappers & Spitfires, this is a story of strange cults & economic madness, of revolutionaries & heroic inventors, sexual experiments & raucous stage heroines. From organic food to drugs, nightclubs & celebrities to package holidays, crooked bankers to sleazy politicians, the echoes of today`s Britain ring from almost every page. ...