1919, Siberia.. . Deep in the unforgiving landscape a town lies under military rule, awaiting the remorseless assault of Bolsheviks along the Trans-Siberian railway. One night a stranger, Samarin, appears from the woods with a tale of escape from an Arctic prison, insisting a cannibal is on his trail. Only Anna, a beautiful young widow, trusts his story. When a local shaman is found dead suspicion & terror engulf the isolated community, which harbours a secret of its own.. . ...

Administrative Map of China at 1:6, 000, 000 from the Beijing based China Cartographic Publishing House showing the country’s provinces in bright colours. All place names are given transliterated into Latin alphabet. An inset shows the area of the South China Sea claimed by China. Each province is shown in a different colour, with town symbols indicating their administrative status. The map shows the network of main road & rail connections. Also marked are coastal & international ferry & shipping lines. The base map, in addition to showing rivers & main lakes, also indicates deserts & swamps areas, plus gives names of main mountain ranges, peaks, etc. The map has latitude & longitude lines drawn at 5° intervals. Map legend is on English. Current edition of this title was published in 2002. ...

These are the songs that we have listened to, laughed to, loved to & laboured to, as well as downed tools & danced to. Covering the last seven decades, Stuart Maconie looks at the songs that have sound tracked our changing times, &
- just sometimes
- changed the way we feel. Beginning with Vera Lynn`s ` We`ll Meet Again`, a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war, & culminating with the manic energy of ` Bonkers`, Dizzee Rascal`s anthem for the push & rush of the 21st century inner city, The People`s Songs takes a tour of our island`s pop music, & asks what it means to us. This is not a rock critique about the 50 greatest tracks ever recorded. Rather, it is a celebration of songs that tell us something about a changing Britain during the dramatic & kaleidoscopic period from the Second World War to the present day. Here are songs about work, war, class, leisure, race, family, drugs, sex, patriotism & more, recorded in times of prosperity or poverty. This is the music that inspired haircuts & dance crazes, but also protest & social change. The companion to Stuart Maconie`s landmark Radio 2 series, The People`s Songs shows us the power of `cheap` pop music, - one of Britain`s greatest exports. These are the songs we worked to & partied to, & grown up & grown old to
- from `A Whiter Shade of Pale` to ` Rehab`, ` She Loves You` to ` Star Man`, ` Dedicated Follower of Fashion` to ` Radio Ga Ga`.


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After a long, dangerous escape from Tsarist Russia, Artem Samsurov might have reached sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia, but that doesn`t stop him trying to create a socialist paradise with his fellow emigres & workmates. & despite getting entangled with an attractive female lawyer, then charged with the murder of an informer, he never loses hope that one day the revolution will come. But when he returns to Russia in 1917 to fight alongside his comrades, he cannot know whether it will succeed, or at what cost. In this enthralling novel, Thomas Keneally brings to life a seismic episode in world history from an unusual, intimate perspective. Basing his story on a real figure, he captures what it was like moment by dramatic moment for the men & women caught up in the maelstrom, & explores the passions, ideals & terrible compromises that fuelled it. ...

Jonathan Phang grew up in a hectic Chinese/ Caribbean household in London that was always packed with waifs & strays as well as the wonderful, rich smells of the next delicious meal. The Pepperpot Club is a stunning collection of Carribbean recipes & Jonathan recounts his childhood which was defined by tales from the homel&, loud music, booming laughter, & his mother`s spicy aromatic cooking. Jonathan`s Nanny Phang had a theory: if you cook food people love to eat, you will gain all you want from life. In this book he shares recipes from family & friends from all six races of the Caribbean u East Indian, Chinese, Mixed European, African, North American & indigenous Amerindian u are celebrated & include Meatball & glass noodle soup, Chinese ribs, Jerk Chicken, Coconut cream pie & a kicker of a Rum punch. Peppered throughout are Jonathan`s family photographs as well as stunning shots of the Caribbean. ...

In Paris 1890, Lady`s maid Denise le Louarn fears the worst when her mistress, Odette de Valois, vanishes from the Pere-Lachaise cemetery during a visit to her husband`s grave. All alone in the great metropolis, Denise knows just one person she can go to for help: Odette`s former lover, Victor Legris. When the frightened girl turns up at his bookshop & tells him her story, Victor feels there must be a simple explanation for Odette`s disappearance. But as he begins to look into the matter, it soon becomes clear that something sinister lies behind events at the Pere-Lachaise. ...

Reissue of J. A. Baker, s extraordinary classic of British nature writing Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J A Baker spent a long winter looking & writing about the visitors from the uplands
- peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons & waders that share the desolate landscape with them. Including original diaries from which The Peregrine was written & its companion volume The Hill of Summer, this is a beautiful compendium of lyrical nature writing at its absolute best. Such luminaries as Richard Mabey, Robert Macfarlane, Ted Hughes & Andrew Motion have cited this as one of the most important books in 20th Century nature writing, & the bestselling author Mark Cocker has provided an introduction on the importance of Baker, his writings & the diaries
- creating the essential volume of Baker's writings. Since the hardback was published in 2010, papers, maps, & letters have come to light which in turn provide a little more background into J A Baker, s history. Contemporaries
- particularly from while he was at school in Chelmsford
- have kindly provided insights, remembering a school friend who clearly made an impact on his generation. In the longer term, there is hope of an archive of these papers being established, but in the meantime, & with the arrival of this paperback edition, there is a chance to reveal a little more of what has been learned. Among fragments of letters to Baker was one from a reader who praised a piece that Baker had written in RSPB Birds magazine in 1971. Apart from a paper on peregrines which Baker wrote for the Essex Bird Report, this article
- entitled On the Essex Coast
- appears to be his only other published piece of writing, &, with the kind agreement of the RSPB, it has been included in this updated new paperback edition of Baker, s astounding work.





...

Reissue of J. A. Baker`s extraordinary classic of British nature writing, with an exclusive new afterword by Robert Macfarlane.J. A. Baker`s extraordinary classic of British nature writing was first published in 1967. Greeted with acclaim, it went on to win the Duff Cooper Prize, the pre-eminent literary prize of the time. Luminaries such as Ted Hughes, Barry Lopez & Andrew Motion have cited it as one of the most important books in twentieth-century nature writing. Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent long winters looking & writing about the visitors from the uplands
- peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons & waders that share the desolate landscape with them. This new edition of the timeless classic, published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first publication, features an afterword by one of the book`s greatest admirers, Robert Macfarlane.
...

Reissue of J. A. Baker`s extraordinary classic of British nature writing Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J A Baker spent a long winter looking & writing about the visitors from the uplands
- peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons & waders that share the desolate landscape with them. Including original diaries from which The Peregrine was written & its companion volume The Hill of Summer, this is a beautiful compendium of lyrical nature writing at its absolute best. Such luminaries as Richard Mabey, Robert Macfarlane, Ted Hughes & Andrew Motion have cited this as one of the most important books in 20th Century nature writing, & the bestselling author Mark Cocker has provided an introduction on the importance of Baker, his writings & the diaries
- creating the essential volume of Baker`s writings. Papers, maps, & letters have recently come to light which in turn provide a little more background into J A Baker`s history. Contemporaries
- particularly from his time at school in Chelmsford
- have provided insights, remembering a school friend who clearly made an impact on his generation. Among fragments of letters to Baker was one from a reader who praised a piece that Baker had written in RSPB Birds magazine in 1971. Apart from a paper on peregrines which Baker wrote for the Essex Bird Report, this article
- entitled On the Essex Coast
- appears to be his only other published piece of writing, &, with the agreement of the RSPB, it has been included in this updated new paperback edition of Baker`s astounding work.





...

Renaissance master Andrea Palladio's architectural DNA can be seen on modern-day icons from Buckingham Palace to the White House, from numerous English stately homes to Virginian plantation houses. In THE PERFECT HOUSE Witold Rybczynski travels along the Brenta River in north-eastern Italy to experience the surviving original Palladian villas for himself. He sets out to discover how a rustic sixteenth-century stonemason, born Andrea di Pietro, first had to become 'cultured' before he could be one of the most respected architects of all time, & how Palladio managed to bring the elegance of Ancient Rome to the Venetian countryside. Out of the chaos of hired cars & cheap flights, towns packed with ' Ristoranti Palladio' & herds of tourists, Rybczynski savours moments of epiphany as he contemplates Palladio's perfect houses. Part travelogue, part historical biography, part architectural guide, THE PERFECT HOUSE is a delightful & enlightening exploration of the birth of domestic architecture & the man who spawned it. ...