In 1981 a young semi-professional footballer
- known as ` Imam Beckenbauer` for his piety & his dominant style of play
- has

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Are you tired of all those colouring books claiming that they are the answer to your inner peace & sense of calm? Do you twitch at the thought of yoga mums, bikini diets, excessive coffee choices & people who just have the whole thing under control? Then this book is your antidote. We don`t mind if you want to give The Passive-Aggressive Colouring Book to your dog to chew; feel free to use it to light the fire or prop up the table leg. If you feel really desperate you may even want to colour it in...or scribble it out. The choice is yours. Whatever you choose to do we advise you first to enjoy the fabulous, humorous illustrations by the inspiringly angry Charlotte Farmer. & if her brilliance & talent drives you round the twist, you know what to do. Just warn us to duck first. ...

The passport is one of the most widespread documents in worldwide use & yet, paradoxically, it has no basis in law: one state cannot demand another to do something
- give access
- simply by issuing a document. Yet, by insisting on the requirement of holding a passport the state has provided itself with a neat self-financing, data collection & surveillance system. This well illustrated book tells, for the first time, the story of the passport, from earliest times to the present day. When the Roman Empire was spread across Europe, those wishing to travel could only do so with the authority of the king or emperor. The passport`s power to facilitate passage was, then, embodied in it from the beginning. But the passport is also connected with territorial & population control by the State. Today, the machine readable passport enables swift checks against lists of names, enabling customs control to sift out undesirables, & the question of identity cards (used throughout continental Europe) is again an issue in British politics. Using individual stories of the use of false passports & secret passage, & revealing the mechanism of the passport system, including the secrets of the machine-readable passport, as well as looking at special diplomatic & royal passports, this book provides an accessible & engaging history of this most widespread of documents

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` Just as the father in the house in which we live is our father, so Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu is the father of our country. & just as the mother in the house in which we live is our mother, so Comrade Elena Ceausescu is the mother of our country. Comrade Nicolae Ceasescu is the father of our children. All the children love comrade Nicolae & comrade Elena, because they are their parents.` The Passport is a beautiful, haunting novel whose subject is a German village in Romania caught between the stifling hopelessness of Ceaucescu`s dictatorship & the glittering temptations of the West. Stories from the past are woven together with the problems Windisch, the village miller, faces after he applies for permission to migrate to West Germany. Herta Muller describes with poetic attention the dreams & superstitions, conflicts & oppression of a forgotten region, the Banat, in the Danube Plain. In sparse, poetic language, Herta Muller captures the forlorn plight of a trapped people. Translated by Martin Chalmers. With a new foreword by Paul Bailey. ...

This highly entertaining, fact-filled book reproduces the passport covers of every single country that issues its own travel document. It clearly illustrates how varied passports can be, despite the guidelines established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Arranged by continent, each country`s entry

Includes:: a full-color reproduction of its passport cover as well as brief information, including its location on the world map, flag, population, population density, political status, GDP & per capita income, official languages, & visa index. In an increasingly globalized world in which a passport has become one of the most important credentials we possess, this compendium conveys the symbolic power of these documents, & the fascinating stories behind their designs & development.

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” Few writers give me such consistent pleasure”. (Zadie Smith). Four siblings meet up in their grandparents` old house for three long, hot summer weeks. But under the idyllic surface lie shattering tensions. Roland has come with his new wife, & his sisters don`t like her. Fran has brought her children, who soon uncover an ugly secret in a ruined cottage in the woods. Alice has invited Kasim, an outsider, who makes plans to seduce Roland`s teenage daughter. & Harriet, the eldest, finds her quiet self-possession ripped apart when passion erupts unexpectedly. Over the course of the holiday, a familiar way of life falls apart forever. ” Exquisite”. (The Times). ” Wonderful”. (Guardian). ” Magnificent”. (Sunday Times). ...

For more than 40 years, Georg Gerster has been travelling the world photographing archaeological sites from the air. In The Past from Above, archaeologist Charlotte Trumpler introduces 250 of his photographs, taken in more than 50 countries in Europe, North & South America, Asia, Australia, & Africa. Each is accompanied by a detailed explanatory description. Gerster's subjects range from the temple complex at Karnak to the Great Wall of China, from the Acropolis in Athens to the temples of Abu Simbel, from Aztec cult places in Mexico to monumental designs in the Californian desert. These colour photographs are not only precise, technical achievements
- often produced under hair-raising circumstances
- but also fascinating, unique views of our world. The result is a spectacular photographic book & a visual history of mankind that stretches back to the very beginnings of civilization.

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Tibet has suffered extreme political turmoil & upheaval over the last 50 odd years. Occupied in 1950, Red Guards destroyed thousands of official buildings & holy places during the Cultural Revolution, & religious freedom & traditional education are still severely under threat. Due to the strength of Tibetan faith in Buddha, in the Dalai Lama, & against the odds, many buildings have been reconstructed, their devotion & belief remain extraordinarily strong. Buddhism permeates every aspect of a Tibetan`s life, whether living in Tibet or in exile in Nepal, India or the United States. A magnificent & time-stopping work, The Path to Buddha is divided into five parts, in which we see the monks in animated discussion, meditation & prayer; & we follow the devout believers on their arduous journeys to prayer. The two main chapters are interspersed with sections of portraits of this proud & dignified people whose own innate sense of their own being can be seen in the simplest of things, such as the way they dress & adorn themselves. ...

Italo Calvino`s ” The Path to the Spiders` Nest” looks at Pin, a bawdy & adolescent cobbler`s assistant, both arrogant & insecure who
- while the Second World War rages
- sings songs & tells jokes to endear himself to the grown-ups of his town
- particularly jokes about his sister, who they all know as the town`s `mattress`. Among those his sister sleeps with is a German sailor, & Pin dares to steal his pistol, hiding it among the spiders` nests in an act of rebellion that entangles him in the adults` war.


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Chief Inspector Montalbano is on enforced sick leave. But when a local girl goes mysteriously missing, the whole community takes an interest in the case. Why are the kidnappers so sure that the girl`s impoverished father & dying mother will be able to find a fortune? The ever-inquisitive Montalbano steps in, to get to the heart of the matter in his own inimitable style. ...