' It is with great concern that I must still acquaint your Lordships of the daily complaints I receive of piracies & robberies committed in these parts, insomuch that there is hardly one ship or vessel, coming in or going out of this island that is not plundered. (Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica, June 1718) Sir Nicholas Lawes was writing to the British Government during the early 18th century, a time that later became known as the golden age of piracy. In the following two centuries fictional works about pirates became increasingly popular, colouring the public perception of this terror of the seas into a romantic, swashbuckling anti-hero who forced prisoners to walk the plank & sought buried treasure where X marked the spot. & yet the reality was far more intriguing & terrible. Ruthless fighters, often horrifically violent, pirates were also outstanding sailors, cunning planners & democratic equal opportunists. Their articles, signed by all crew members (sometimes forcibly), shared the spoils fairly & demanded consideration to each other. Their treatment of prisoners, however, was another matter. In ' The Pirates Pocket-Book', the true savage story of the pirates comes to light through extracts taken from contemporary books, documents, news articles, witness accounts, & trial reports. From diaries, logbooks, letters & depositions comes the full fascinating take of a pirates life & death. The truth about wooden legs, parrots & the jolly rodger, treasure maps, pirate attacks & infamous trials, is told through the vivid accounts of those who encountered the pirates personally, as victims, crew members or arresting officers. ...

I've been thinking of an adventure more along the lines of pearl-smuggling in the South Seas or discovering a lost continent. We're being sponsored, you see, so it's got to be full of glamorous locations & scantily clad women. He's conquered the seven seas, hunted Moby Dick & rescued Charles Darwin; now the Pirate Captain & his crew are off on another adventure. Their mission this time: to sail to London, buy a new suit for the Pirate Captain & maybe have some sort of adventure in a barnyard. But nothing is ever straightforward for the hapless pirates. In no time at all, the Pirate Captain is incarcerated at Scotland Yard in a case of mistaken identity. Discovering that his doppelganger is none other than Karl Marx, the Captain & his crew are unwittingly caught up in a sinister plot involving communists, enormous beards & a quest to discover whether ham might really be the opium of the people. ...

' But, Pirate Captain, you love being a pirate', said Jennifer.' That's because I was looking at piracy through rose-tinted spectacles, ' the Captain replied. ' There's very little job security. The hours are terrible. & I keep finding barnacles in my belly button.' The Pirate Captain has finally had enough. Still reeling from his crushing disappointment at the Pirate of the Year Awards, he decides it's time to hang up his hat & ditch his cutlass. Begrudgingly followed by his sceptical but loyal crew, the Captain fixes his sights on a quiet life on the island of St Helena. But his retirement plan is rudely disrupted by the arrival of another visitor to the island
- the recently deposed Napoleon Bonaparte. Has the Pirate Captain finally met his match? Is the island's twenty-eight-mile circumference big enough to contain two of history's greatest egos? & will the pirates be able to settle the biggest question of all: who has the best hat?
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The year is 1717. The newly discovered island of Pangaea is the most dangerous place on Earth, where dinosaurs still walk the land
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It is with great concern that I must still acquaint your Lordships of the daily complaints I receive of piracies & robberies committed in these parts, insomuch that there is hardly one ship or vessel, coming in or going out of this island that is not plundered.` (Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica, June 1718) Sir Nicholas Lawes was writing to the British Government during the early 18th century, a time that later became known as the `golden age of piracy`. In the following two centuries fictional works about pirates became increasingly popular, colouring the public perception of this terror of the seas into a romantic, swashbuckling anti-hero who forced prisoners to walk the plank & sought buried treasure where X marked the spot. & yet the reality was far more intriguing & terrible. Ruthless fighters, often horrifically violent, pirates were also outstanding sailors, cunning planners & democratic equal opportunists. Their articles, signed by all crew members (sometimes forcibly), shared the spoils fairly & demanded consideration to each other. Their treatment of prisoners, however, was another matter. In ` The Pirates Pocket-Book`, the true savage story of the pirates comes to light through extracts taken from contemporary books, documents, news articles, witness accounts, & trial reports. From diaries, logbooks, letters & depositions comes the full fascinating take of a pirate`s life & death. The truth about wooden legs, parrots & the `jolly rodger`, treasure maps, pirate attacks & infamous trials, is told through the vivid accounts of those who encountered the pirates personally, as victims, crew members or arresting officers. ...

` Read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss` Sunday Times Captain Lannec has finally managed to buy his own ship with the financial help of his in-laws, the Pitards
- & they`ve never let him forget it. When his temperamental wife Mathilde insists on coming along on the ship`s first voyage, Lannec becomes increasingly unnerved by her presence, especially when he receives an anonymous note saying he won`t make it back to port. As they hit a storm in the Atlantic, jealousy, spite, snobbery & suspicion are churned up in the boat`s stiflingly close quarters... First published in 1935, The Pitards was one of the first novels Simenon wrote when he shelved his famous Maigret series in order to strike out in a new direction & make a name for himself as a literary writer rather than a creator of genre fiction. This gripping evocation of life at sea revolves around class & the tense unravelling of relationships, powerful themes that Simenon would return to throughout his writing career.
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In 1934, a group of Ashington miners & a dental mechanic hired a professor from Newcastle University to teach an Art Appreciation evening class. Unable to understand each other, they embarked on one of the most unusual experiments in British art as the pitmen learned to become painters. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists became their friends, their work was taken for prestigious collections & they were celebrated throughout the British art world; but every day they worked, as before, down the mine. ” The Pitmen Painters” premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in September 2007, before transferring to the National Theatre in 2008. ...

” The Pity of It All” is a passionate & poignant history of German Jews, tracing the journey of a people & their culture from the mid eighteenth century to the eve of the Third Reich. As it is usually told, the story of the Jews in Germany starts at the end, overshadowed by their tragic demise in Hitler`s Reich. Now, in this important work of historical restoration, the acclaimed historian & social critic Amos Elon takes us back to the beginning, chronicling a 150-year period of achievement & integration that at its peak produced a golden age second only to the Renaissance. ...

In 2001, Rory Stewart set off from Herat to walk to Kabul via the mountains of Ghor in central Afghanistan. Caught between hostile nations, warring factions & competing ideologies, at the time, Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot & following the inaccessible, mountainous route once taken by the Mohgul Emperor, Babur the Great, Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions. Only due to the help of an unexpected companion & the generosity of the people he met on the way, did he survive to report back with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war. This is literary travel writing, but with a greater element of adventure & danger. It is an account of what it is like to travel painfully & slowly on foot in an alien & hostile landscape. Stewart's moving, sparsely poetic account of his walk across Afghanistan has been immediately hailed as a classic. The Places In Between won the Royal Society of Literature Oondatje Award & the Spirit of Scotland Award, & was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize & the Scottish Book of the Year Prize. ...

In 2001, Rory Stewart set off from Herat to walk to Kabul via the mountains of Ghor in central Afghanistan. Caught between hostile nations, warring factions & competing ideologies, at the time, Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot & following the inaccessible, mountainous route once taken by the Mohgul Emperor, Babur the Great, Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions. Only due to the help of an unexpected companion & the generosity of the people he met on the way, did he survive to report back with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war. This is literary travel writing, but with a greater element of adventure & danger. It is an account of what it is like to travel painfully & slowly on foot in an alien & hostile landscape. Stewart`s moving, sparsely poetic account of his walk across Afghanistan has been immediately hailed as a classic. The Places In Between won the Royal Society of Literature Oondatje Award & the Spirit of Scotland Award, & was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize & the Scottish Book of the Year Prize. ...