This book teaches children about five key animals from the savannah. It features fun, educational rhymes & bright illustrations throughout. Pocket in the back of the book contains 5 perforated pop-out animals to construct into 3D figures, plus 1 accessory. Teach your children about the animals of the savannah with this fun & educational books. Five animals are explored: leopard, giraffe, elephant, lion & zebra. With two spreads dedicated to each animal, adults will be able to read the short playful rhyme on each spread to children & look at the bright illustrations. Children are able to pop out the paper animals from the perforated pages contained in a pocket at the back of the book & create 3D figures simply by folding & adding a few dabs of glue. The inside of the dust jacket is printed full colour with a representation of the animals` environment in a style identical to the illustrations within the book. Children have the option of using this as a backdrop & there are also accessories to make & add to the scene. ...

Throughout Britain`s history, one factor above all others has determined the fate of the nation: its navy. N. A. M. Rodger`s definitive account reveals how the political & social progress of Britain has been inextricably intertwined with the strength
- & weakness
- of its sea power, from the desperate early campaigns against the Vikings to the defeat of the great Spanish Armada. Covering policy, strategy, ships, recruitment & weapons, this is a superb tapestry of nearly 1, 000 years of maritime history. ` No other historian has examined the subject in anything like the detail found here. The result is an outstanding example of narrative history` Barry Unsworth, Sunday Telegraph

...

The safety bicycle, with front-wheel steering & pedal-driven rear wheel, has existed in some form since the experiments of Kirkpatrick Macmillan in 1839, but his ideas were almost forgotten when the front-wheel driven boneshakers & penny farthings reigned supreme. Then, in the 1870s, experimental safeties appeared, culminating in Henry Lawson`s Bicyclette of 1879. Within ten years the modern bicycle had developed, to remain basically unchanged for over seventy years. Many specialist & experimental designs have appeared since the late nineteenth century most of which, if they passed the prototype stage, failed to attract the public & now languish in museums. ...

A brief meeting with a Buddhist nun in India made a deep impression on Christine Toomey. It sent her on a two year, 60, 000-mile odyssey to learn more about the contemporary women choosing in their thousands to become part of a long tradition of female spirituality that stretches back through the centuries & now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be female. In The Saffron Road, Toomey follows in the footsteps of earlier generations of Buddhist nuns to trace the routes by which the philosophy has spread, from a solitary order in a remote area of India in the 5th century BC, via 1950s San Francisco where Zen was popularised by the Beat generation, to the globally-renowned practitioners of mindfulness of today. Beginning her journey in the Himalayas, close to the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels from Nepal, to India, through Burma, Japan & on to North America & Europe, along the way visiting contemporary nunneries to meet the women who practise there. Amongst those she talks to are a group of ”kung fu” nuns, an acclaimed novelist, a princess, a concert violinist, a former BBC journalist, & a one-time Washington political aide. Through these conversations, the daily reality of the Buddhist existence is gradually revealed, together with the diverse spiritual paths leading these women towards nirvana. Combining travelogue, history, interviews & personal reflection, The Saffron Road opens the door to a rarely glimpsed world of ritual, discipline & enlightenment. ...

Shortlisted for a 2016 Edward Standford Travel Writing Award.` Barberries, fresh herbs, date molasses, dried limes, saffron; Yasmin`s Persian pantry staples are a roll call of my favourite ingredients. Her recipes are a mouthwatering showcase of a beautiful country` Yotam Ottolenghi ` Not just a great cookbook but a book full of stories
- a love letter to Iran & its people` Diana Henry Armed with little more than a notebook & a bottle of pomegranate molasses, British-Iranian cook Yasmin Khan traversed Iran in search of the country`s most delicious recipes. Her quest took her from the snowy mountains of Tabriz & the paddyfields of Gilan to the cosmopolitan cafes of Tehran & the pomegranate orchards of Isfahan, where she was welcomed into the homes of artists, farmers, electricians & teachers. Through her travels, she gained a unique insight into the culinary secrets of the Persian kitchen & the lives of ordinary Iranians today. In The Saffron Tales, Yasmin weaves together a tapestry of stories from Iranian home kitchens with exclusive photography & fragrant, modern recipes that are rooted in the rich tradition of Persian cooking. All fully accessible for the home cook, Yasmin`s recipes range from the inimitable fesenjoon (chicken with walnuts & pomegranates) to kofte berenji (lamb meatballs stuffed with prunes & barberries) & ghalyieh maygoo (prawn, coriander & tamarind stew). She also offers a wealth of vegetarian dishes, including tahcheen (baked saffron & aubergine rice) & domaj (mixed herb, flatbread & feta salad), as well as sumptuous desserts such as rose & almond cake, & sour cherry & dark chocolate cookies. With stunning photography from all corners of Iran & gorgeous recipe images, this lavish cookbook rejoices in the l&, life, flavours & food of an enigmatic & beautiful country.
...

One hundred years ago, Selma Lagerlof became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She assured her place in Swedish letters with this sweeping historical epic, her first & best-loved novel, & the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo to stardom. Set in 1820s Sweden, it tells the story of a defrocked minister named Gosta Berling. After his appetite for alcohol & previous indiscretions end his career, Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate owned by Margareta Celsing, the ` Majoress`, that also houses & assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. Berling`s defiant & poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under his spell against the backdrop of political intrigue at Margareta`s estate & the magnificent wintry beauty of rural Sweden. ...

The action of the saga takes place at the end of the tenth century, at about the time Scandinavia was converting from worship of Norse gods to Christianity. A masterpiece of medieval literature, the story focuses on two families that of Hoskuld, a prominent farmer with several sons, & that of Gudrun, the most beautiful woman ever born in Icel&. ...

Part of a new series Legends from the Ancient North, The Saga of the Volsungs is one of the classic books that influenced JRR Tolkien`s The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings. ” They summoned their friends, readied their horses, & prepared their helmets, shields, swords, coats of mail”. (J.R.R). Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating & teaching the great epic stories of northern Europe, filled with heroes, dragons, trolls, dwarves & magic. He was hugely influential for his advocacy of Beowulf as a great work of literature &, even if he had never written The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, would be recognised today as a significant figure in the rediscovery of these extraordinary tales. Legends from the Ancient North brings together from Penguin Classics five of the key works behind Tolkien`s fiction. They are startling, brutal, strange pieces of writing, with an elemental power brilliantly preserved in these translations. They plunge the reader into a world of treachery, quests, chivalry, trials of strength. They are the most ancient narratives that exist from northern Europe & bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of the magical landscape of Middle-earth (Midgard) which Tolkien remade in the 20th century. ...

Based on Viking Age poems, ” The Saga of the Volsungs” combines mythology, legend & sheer human drama. At its heart are the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer who acquires magical knowledge from one of Odin`s Valkyries. Yet it is also set in a very human world, incorporating strands from the oral narratives of the fourth & fifth centuries, when Attila the Hun & other warriors fought on the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire. One of the great books of world literature, the saga is an unforgettable tale of princely jealousy, unrequited love, greed & vengeance. With its cursed treasure of the Rhine, sword reforged & magic ring of power, it was a major influence for writers including William Morris & J. R. R. Tolkein & for Wagner`s Ring cycle. ...

In Icel&, the age of the Vikings is also known as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world`s great literary treasures
- as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives & deeds of the Norse men & women who first settled in Iceland & of their descendants, who ventured farther west to Greenland &, ultimately, North America. Sailing as far from the archetypal heroic adventure as the long ships did from home, the Sagas are written with psychological intensity, peopled by characters with depth, & explore perennial human issues like love, hate, fate & freedom.
...