The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east... For centuries, fame & fortune was to be found in the west
- in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure & riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe & sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China & India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce & culture
- & is shaping the modern world. This region, the true centre of the earth, is obscure to many in the English-speaking world. Yet this is where civilization itself began, where the world`s great religions were born & took root. The Silk Roads were no exotic series of connections, but networks that linked continents & oceans together. Along them flowed ideas, goods, disease & death. This was where empires were won
- & where they were lost. As a new era emerges, the patterns of exchange are mirroring those that have criss-crossed Asia for millennia. The Silk Roads are rising again.A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is an important account of the forces that have shaped the global economy & the political renaissance in the re-emerging east.


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For centuries, fame & fortune were to be found in the west- in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of riches & adventure. Sweeping right across Central Asia & deep into China & India, a region that once took centre stage is again rising to dominate global politics, commerce & culture.A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is a dazzling exploration of the forces that have driven the rise & fall of empires, determined the flow of ideas & goods & are now heralding a new dawn in international affairs. ...

The revised edition of the No. 1 Sunday Times & international bestseller with a new epilogue, covering recent world events, & additional illustrative material` Immensely entertaining.. . so ambitious, so detailed, so fascinating` The Times For centuries, fame & fortune were to be found in the west
- in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of riches & adventure. Sweeping right across Central Asia & deep into China & India, a region that once took centre stage is again rising to dominate global politics, commerce & culture. A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is a dazzling exploration of the forces that have driven the rise & fall of empires, determined the flow of ideas & goods & are now heralding a new dawn in international affairs. This up-to-date edition of the international bestseller

Includes:: an epilogue examining recent world events, along with new maps & illustrations.


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Set your sails east with this stunningly original new history of the world. Peter Frankopan, number one bestselling author & historian explores the connections made by people, trade, disease, war, religion, adventure, science & technology in this extraordinary book about how the east married the west with a remarkable voyage at its heart
- the journey along the Silk Roads. From ancient world laws laid down by King Hammurabi & the mighty Persian empire, to terrifying huns, the rise of Europe, two world wars & politics today, The Silk Roads moves through time & history sewing together the threads from different peoples, empires & continents into a phenomenal history of the globe. With stories from each & every corner of society, Frankopan`s magnificent brand new illustrated edition of his award-winning literary triumph The Silk Roads, sumptuously illustrated by Neil Packer, is a must-have world history.
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When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days
- as he has done before
- & she wants Strike to find him & bring him home. But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine`s disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives
- so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him. & when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before.. .A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike & his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.


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This laugh-out-loud book is bursting with lists, facts, jokes & funny true stories all about silly people, silly animals, silly inventions, silly names & much more. Discover The Great Stink, the man who ate a bike, a girl really called Lorna Mower & a sofa that can do 87mph. Find out about famous pranks, crazy festivals, nutty cats, gross foods, epic sports fails, ludicrously silly words & really rubbish predictions. There are even lots of great silly things to do. Unmissable! ...

Do you know what `park your jam on the frog` means? Fancy some ognib? What rhymes with `circus`?.. .plus many more amazing things you never knew about words. Have hours of fun wixing up your murds with this hilarious book, packed full of rhymes, puns, games, jokes, gibberish & more. ...

This powerful novel from the award-winning author of Richard & Judy pick ` Eve Green` is a tale of love & the lore of the sea. The islanders of Parla are still mourning the loss of one of their own. Four years since that loss, & a man
- un-named, unclothed
- is washed onto their shores. Some say he is a mythical man from the sea
- potent, kind & beautiful; others suspect him. For the bereft Maggie, this stranger brings love back to the isle. But as the days pass he changes every one of them
- & the time comes for his story to be told... Tender, lyrical & redemptive, ` The Silver Dark Sea` is the dazzling new novel from the author of ` Eve Green` (winner of Whitbred First Novel award). It is a story about what life can give & take from us, when we least expect it
- & how love, in all its forms, is the greatest gift of all.




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The Pyramid Texts were carved onto the walls of burial chambers in royal pyramids 4, 000 years ago. They have intrigued scholars, mystics & historians ever since they were discovered in 1881. They have usually been misconstrued as a garbled collection of primitive myths & incantations, relegating their radiant fusion of philosophy, scientific inquiry, & religion to obscurity. Translations of the texts often reduce them to gibberish. Yet these writings are in fact among the world`s oldest poetry, cosmological speculations & reflections on nature. Susan Brind Morrow has recast The Pyramid Texts as a coherent work of art, arguing that they should be recognized as a formative event in the evolution of human thought. The result is a work of beautiful & intelligent literature, alongside a persuasive argument for The Pyramid Texts` central importance to the history of language. ...

When Anna Lavinia`s father put a hole in the garden wall, it was only to give her another point of view. He had no thought that the point of view would stretch all the way to an entirely new land on the other side of Dew Pond. But that`s exactly what Anna Lavinia discovers one very dull, very dry day, after tossing acorns into the pond & finding them tossed right back up to her. They are being thrown by a boy named Toby, who invites Anna to join him in his looking-glass world. Here there is no such thing as gravity, only a much weaker force that feels like ”the tickle that comes before a sneeze, or the thrill that comes when the knot in a ribbon just begins to loosen, ” & allows for floating & spectacular feats of tree-climbing (but mind your household goods don`t drift away!). Toby introduces Anna Lavinia to an uncanny fortuneteller & to his aunt Cornelia, who has never gotten over the disappearance of her beloved into Anna Lavinia`s own world. The Silver Nutmeg continues the adventures begun in Beyond the Pawpaw Trees, & features loads of sense, a little nonsense, & more delightful verses from Anna Lavinia`s beloved Songs from Nowhere. Best of all, fans of Palmer Brown`s intricate drawings will find every page a delight for the eyes. ...