The culture of the Shan peoples of Burma & their rulers is extensively explored in this volume. Shan courts flourished in the late British colonial period & in this book rare early photographs, never before published, document life in the courts & in the hill regions of Shan dominion. Susan Conway focuses again on dress & the use of textiles in the Shan states, as well as on historical chronicles, to define a fascinating people of old Burma. Lavish illustrations bring to life a rich cultural tradition of mainland Southeast Asia. ...

From one of Brazil`s foremost literary voices comes a gripping, visceral new novel about youth, power & the nature of manhood A man rises at 5 a.m. & leaves his home. He does not wake his wife or child to bid them goodbye. He starts his car
- an SUV filled with survival gear
- but does not drive to his friend`s house as planned. Instead he glides through the sleeping streets of Porto Alegre, haunted by ghosts of himself: the fearless boy riding a battered stunt bike, the silent adolescent fascinated by bodies & violence, the obsessive young surgeon, the distant husb&. As the dawn comes on & people slowly fill the streets, the man drives unthinkingly, inexorably, toward the old neighbourhood of his youth. What is pulling him back there? Perhaps the need to make something happen, perhaps just nostalgia. Or perhaps the search for absolution
- from a crime he has carried in his heart for fifteen years.


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From one of Brazil`s foremost literary voices comes a gripping, visceral new novel about youth, power & the nature of manhood A man rises at 5 a.m. & leaves his home. He does not wake his wife or child to bid them goodbye. He starts his car
- an SUV filled with survival gear
- but does not drive to his friend`s house as planned. Instead, gliding through the sleeping streets of Porto Alegre, he is haunted by ghosts of himself: the fearless boy riding a battered stunt bike, the silent adolescent fascinated by violence, the obsessive young surgeon, the distant husb&. As the dawn comes on & people slowly fill the streets, the man drives unthinkingly, inexorably, back to the old neighbourhood of his youth. What is pulling him back there? Perhaps the need to make something happen, perhaps just nostalgia. Or perhaps he is looking for absolution
- from a crime he has carried in his heart for fifteen years.


...

The Shape of the Ruins by the Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vasquez, whose recent novel, the best-selling Sound of Things Falling won Spain`s Alfaguara Prize, Italy`s Von Rezzori Prize & the 2014 Dublin IMPAC literary Award, was published to acclaim in Colombia last year & has just appeared in Spain. It takes the form of personal & formal investigations into two political assassinations
- the murders of Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914, the man who inspired Garcia Marquez`s General Buendia in One Hundred Years of Solitude, & of the charismatic Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the man who might have been Colombia`s J.F.K., gunned down on the brink of success in the presidential elections of 1948. Separated by more than 30 years, the two murders at first appear unconnected, but as the novel progresses Vasquez reveals how between them they contain the seeds of the violence that has bedevilled Colombia ever since. The Shape of the Ruins is Vasquez`s most ambitious, challenging & rewarding novel to date.
...

The goats of Vigata once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers & prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers & shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner`s verdict is death from natural causes
- refreshingly unusual for Sicily. But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise & as scathing to fools & villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case
- even though he`s being pressured by Vigata`s police chief, judge, & bishop. Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, & carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.

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Designed by the internationally renowned architect Renzo Piano & developed by Irvine Sellar, The Shard is one of the worlds most striking new skyscrapers & is now, at 310m, the tallest building in Western Europe. Almost twice the height of any other viewing gallery in London, the View on floors 68, 69 & 72 offers visitors a 360-degree, 40-mile view over one of the worlds most historic & exciting cities. Organized spread by spread, easy to navigate & as elegantly designed as the building itself, the official guidebook sets The Shard in the context of Southwark, before outlining the design principles & construction story of the building. Also included are Q& As with both the architect & the developer & fascinating facts & stats relating to this extraordinary building. Central to the books purpose as the official guidebook is a series of twelve double-page panoramic photographs of the view from The Shard, all of them new to this edition. An informative souvenir for visitors to The Shard, the book will also be available in the trade, making it available to all Londoners & visitors to the capital. ...

` We were told we would never get planning consent & we did. We were told we would never be able to fund it & we did. Then we were told we would never be able to build it & we did.` Irvine Sellar In 2000, Irvine Sellar, a former market trader famous for helping to create the look of the Swinging Sixties on Carnaby Street, stood on a rooftop in Southwark, London, & decided to build the tallest building in western Europe. He had virtually no experience, & he wanted to build at the wrong height, in the wrong place, on the wrong side of the river & at the wrong time. Twelve years later, the Shard, a `vertical city` designed by one of the world`s leading architects, Renzo Piano, changed the skyline of London. It immediately became one of the most instantly recognizable & admired contemporary buildings in the world. This is the story of one man`s vision for London & his determination to redefine an ancient but maligned part of the city despite seemingly insurmountable challenges including mass opposition, a huge planning inquiry, the financial crash, & major construction issues that required radical improvisation at every turn. At every twist in the tale, Sellar refused to give up. The Shard is a tale of extreme ambition, innovation & a relentless desire to recast the skyscraper as a force for good. ...

For twenty years John Aitchison has been travelling the world to film wildlife for the BBC & other broadcasters, taking him to far-away places on every continent. The Shark & the Albatross is the story of these journeys of discovery, of his encounters with animals & occasional enterprising individuals in remote & sometimes dangerous places. His destinations include the far north & the far south, expeditions to film for Frozen Planet & other natural history series, in Svalbard, Alaska, the remote Atlantic island of South Georgia & the Antarctic. They also encompass wild places in India, China & the United States. In all he finds & describes key moments in the lives of animals, among them polar bears & penguins, seals & whales, sharks & birds, & wolves & lynxes. He reveals what happens behind the scenes & beyond the camera. He explains the practicalities & challenges of the filming process, & the problems of survival in perilous places. He records touching moments & dramatic incidents, some ending in success, others desperately sad. There are times when a hunted animal triumphs against the odds, & others when, in spite of preparation for every outcome, disaster strikes. &, as the author shows in several incidents that combine nail-biting tension with hair-raising hilarity, disaster can strike for film-makers too. This is natural history writing at its absolute best: evocative, informative & gripping from first to last. ...

For twenty years John Aitchison has been travelling the world to film wildlife for the BBC & other broadcasters, taking him to far-away places on every continent. The Shark & the Albatross is the story of these journeys of discovery, of his encounters with animals & occasional enterprising individuals in remote & sometimes dangerous places. His destinations include the far north & the far south, expeditions to film for Frozen Planet & other natural history series, in Svalbard, Alaska, the remote Atlantic island of South Georgia, & the Antarctic. They also encompass wild places in India, China & the United States. In all he finds & describes key moments in the lives of animals, among them polar bears & penguins, seals & whales, sharks & birds, & wolves & lynxes. He reveals what happens behind the scenes & beyond the camera. He explains the practicalities & challenges of the filming process, & the problems of survival in perilous places. He records touching moments & dramatic incidents, some ending in success, others desperately sad. There are times when a hunted animal triumphs against the odds, & others when, in spite of preparation for every outcome, disaster strikes. &, as the author shows in several incidents that combine nail-biting tension with hair-raising hilarity, disaster can strike for film-makers too. This is natural history writing at its absolute best, evocative, informative & gripping from first to last. ...

A true story of food, Paris, & the fulfilment of a lifelong dream In 2003, Kathleen Flinn, a thirty-six-year-old American living in London, returned from holiday to find that her corporate job had been terminated. Ignoring her mother`s concern that she get another job immediately or never get hired anywhere ever again, Flinn cleared out her savings & moved to Paris to pursue a dream
- a diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is the touching & remarkably funny account of Flinn`s transformation as she moves through the school`s intense programme & falls deeply in love along the way. More than two dozen recipes are interwoven within this unique look inside Le Cordon Bleu amid battles with demanding chefs, competitive classmates & her `wretchedly inadequate` French. Flinn offers a vibrant portrait of Paris, one in which the sights & sounds of the city`s street markets & purveyors come alive in rich detail. The ultimate wish fulfilment book, her story is a true testament to pursuing a dream.
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