The Spanish Ambassador`s Suitcase is a hilarious new collection of diplomatic tales by Matthew Parris & Andrew Bryson Heard the one about the Spanish Ambassador who arrived in the scorching Saharan desert fully suited & with a mysteriously enormous suitcase? Or the horse they gave Prime Minister John Major in Turkmenistan
- which hapless embassy officials had to rescue from the clutches of the Moscow railway? These & other `funnies`, as they are known in Whitehall, are included in Matthew Parris & Andrew Bryson`s glorious new volume of not so diplomatic writing, which accompanies a new BBC Radio 4 series is a follow up to their acclaimed collection of ambassadors` final despatches, Parting Shots. Drawn from Freedom of Information requests & previously overlooked Valedictories these startling despatches throw a revealing light on how the British have viewed the world
- &, unwittingly perhaps, on how the world has viewed the British. Praise for Parting Shots: ” Parting Shots is unbuttoned, indiscreet & very funny”. (Yorkshire Post). ” Fascinating, if sometimes uncomfortable, reading”. (Financial Times). ” Very funny”. (Guardian). After working in the Foreign Office then serving as a Conservative MP, Matthew Parris joined The Times in 1988. He writes two weekly columns for The Times & one for the Spectator, & in 2011 won the Best Columnist Award at the British Press awards. His acclaimed autobiography Chance Witness was published by Penguin in 2003. He is a frequent broadcaster. Andrew Bryson is a radio journalist working in the BBC`s Business & Economic Unit. He frequently works as a producer on Radio 4`s Today programme & on Radio 5 Live.

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After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe
- not least
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After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe
- not least
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This title

Includes:: fresh & bold flavours from Spain. With over 120 recipes, Spanish Bible provides an easy-to-follow

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Between 1936 & 1945, tens of thousands of people across Spain were executed at the hands of General Franco. With the country only recently coming to terms with the scale of his reign of terror, Paul Preston
- the leading expert on 20th century Spain
- attempts to assess the General

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Eliciting comparisons to Orwell`s Homage to Catalonia, Pritchett`s meditative work on Spain is comprised of a string of sketches, woven around the author`s musings on the Spanish character. Having lived in Spain for four years during the 1920s, Pritchett is well placed to deliver such a report, & his resulting narrative is both well informed & delightfully written. ...

Helen has little idea what lies ahead when she offers her spare room to an old friend of fifteen years. Nicola has arrived in the city for treatment for cancer. Sceptical of the medical establishment, placing all her faith in an alternative health centre, Nicola is determined to find her own way to deal with her illness, regardless of the advice that Helen can offer. In the weeks that follow, Nicola`s battle against her cancer will turn not only her own life upside down but also those of everyone around her. ” The Spare Room” is a magical gem of a book that packs a huge punch, charting a friendship as it is tested by the threat of death. ...

In October 1940, the handsome young David Sparsholt arrives in Oxford. A keen athlete & oarsman, he at first seems unaware of the effect he has on others
- particularly on the lonely & romantic Evert Dax, son of a celebrated novelist & destined to become a writer himself. While the Blitz rages in London, Oxford exists at a strange remove: an ephemeral, uncertain place, in which nightly blackouts conceal secret liaisons. Over the course of one momentous term, David & Evert forge an unlikely friendship that will colour their lives for decades to come... Alan Hollinghurst`s masterly new novel evokes the intimate relationships of a group of friends bound together by art, literature & love across three generations. It explores the social & sexual revolutions of the most pivotal years of the past century, whose life-changing consequences are still being played out to this day. Richly observed, disarmingly witty & emotionally charged, The Sparsholt Affair is an unmissable achievement from one of our finest writers.
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In October 1940, the handsome young David Sparsholt arrives in Oxford. A keen athlete & oarsman, he at first seems unaware of the effect he has on others – particularly on the lonely & romantic Evert Dax, son of a celebrated novelist & destined to become a writer himself. While the Blitz rages in London, Oxford exists at a strange remove: an ephemeral, uncertain place, in which nightly blackouts conceal secret liaisons. Over the course of one momentous term, David & Evert forge an unlikely friendship that will colour their lives for decades to come... Alan Hollinghurst’s masterly new novel evokes the intimate relationships of a group of friends bound together by art, literature & love across three generations. It explores the social & sexual revolutions of the most pivotal years of the past century, whose life-changing consequences are still being played out to this day. Richly observed, disarmingly witty & emotionally charged, The Sparsholt Affair is an unmissable achievement from one of our finest writers. ...

This is the story of the adventurers who risked death to discover strange life forms in the farthest corners of Earth. Beginning with Linnaeus, a colourful band of explorers made it their mission to travel & bring back astonishing new life forms. Acclaimed science writer Richard Conniff brings these daredevil ”species seekers” to life. Alongside their globe-spanning tales of adventure, he recounts some of the most dramatic shifts in the history of human thought. At the start, everyone accepted that the Earth had been created for our benefit. People weren`t sure where vegetable ended & animal began, they couldn`t classify species & didn`t understand the causes of disease. But all that changed as the species seekers introduced us to the pantheon of life on Earth-and our place within it. ...