The Wars Against Saddam is a startling frontline depiction of conflicts that few journalists have been as close to as John Simpson. He has spent more that twenty years reporting from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, most recently in defiance of the Iraqi authorities, who barred him after the Gulf War of 1990-1. This is his compelling & cogent analysis of the West’s troubled relationship with the country. He examines the period leading up to the first Gulf War, the increasing tyranny of Saddam’s regime in the years that followed, & the reality of his weapons programme. With characteristic candour he addresses the apparent threat from iraq in the wake of 11 September, showing in detail how & why the US, with the support of Tony Blair & the British forces, went to war in March 2003. Taking us right up to the arrest of Saddam & its aftermath, this is the definitive account of the rise & fall of a regime from the journalist who has experienced it first-h&. ...

Plans: King's Lynn Wells-next-the-Sea Brancaster Harbour & Overy Staithe Blakeney Boston Wisbech Yacht Harbour Current edition revised using the latest depth surveys (changes in Boston Deep, Wainfleet Sand & the approaches to King's Lynn). Also displays the latest windfarm details, plus has revised sketch plans of Wells & Blakeney. ...

` Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different reasons than I`d disposed of Blyth, & then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That`s my score to date. Three. I haven`t killed anybody for years, & don`t intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.` Enter
- if you can bear it
- the extraordinary private world of Frank, just sixteen, & unconventional, to say the least.

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A Russian woman named Lara arrives in Afghanistan at the house of Marcus Caldwell, an Englishman & widower living in the shadow of the Tora Bora mountains. Marcus` daughter, Zameen, may have known Lara`s brother, a Soviet soldier who disappeared in the area many years previously. But like Marcus` wife, Zameen is dead; a victim of the age in which she was born. In the days that follow, further people arrive at the house: two Americans who have spent much of their adult lives in the area; a young Afghan teacher; & a radicalized young man intent on his own path. & Nadeem Aslam paints a moving, beautiful & powerful portrait of a land & a people torn apart through love & war. ...

Acclaimed naturalist Alex Shoumatoff issues a worldwide call to protect the drastically endangered rainforests of Borneo In his eleventh book, but his first in almost two decades, seasoned travel writer Alex Shoumatoff takes readers on a journey from the woods of rural New York to the rain forests of the Amazon & Borneo, documenting both the abundance of life & the threats to these vanishing Edens in a wide-ranging narrative. Alex & his best friend, Davie, spent their formative years in the forest of Bedford, New York. As adults they grew apart, but bonded by the ”imaginary jungle” of their childhood, Alex & Davie reunited fifty years later for a trip to a real jungle, in the heart of Borneo. During the intervening years, Alex had become an author & literary journalist, traveling the world to bring to light places, animals, & indigenous cultures in peril. The two reconnect & spend three weeks together on Borneo, one of the most imperiled ecosystems on earth. Insatiable demand for the palm oil ubiquitous in consumer goods is wiping out the world`s most ancient & species-rich rain forest, home to the orangutan & countless other life-forms, including the Penan people, with whom Alex & Davie camp. The Penan have been living in Borneo`s rain forest for millennia, but 90 percent of the lowland rain forest has already been logged & burned to make way for vast oil-palm plantations. Among the most endangered tribal people on earth, the Penan are fighting for their right to exist. Shoumatoff condenses a lifetime of learning about what binds humans to animals, nature, & each other, culminating in a celebration of the Penan & a call for Westerners to address the palm-oil crisis & protect the biodiversity that sustains us all. ...

A mysterious toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the magical beings he has created...A sickly wife locked away in a hidden room... An enigma involving strange lights that shine out from the small island on which an old, disused lighthouse stands...A shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods... These are the elements of a mystery will bind 14-year-old Irene to Ismael during one magical summer spent in Blue Bay when her mother takes a job as a housekeeper for the enigmatic toymaker, Lazarus Jann. A novel of mystery, intrigue & romance from the author of THE PRINCE OF MIST & THE SHADOW OF THE WIND. ...

A chilling tale based on true events from the bestselling author of The Ghost Hunters
- now a major ITV drama starring Rafe Spall
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The acclaimed & enthralling story of the dark side of Elizabethan rule, from Stephen Alford Elizabeth I`s reign is known as a golden age, yet to much of Europe she was a ` Jezebel` & heretic who had to be destroyed. The Watchers is a thrilling portrayal of the secret state that sought to protect the Queen; a shadow world of spies, codebreakers, agent provocateurs & confidence-men who would stop at nothing to defend the realm. Reviews: ” Forget Le Carre, Deighton & the rest
- this is more enthralling than any modern spy fiction”. (Daily Telegraph). ” Absorbing & closely documented... Alford vividly evokes this murky world of codes, ciphers, invisible ink, intercepted letters, aliases, disguises, forgeries & instructions to burn after reading.. .flowing narrative [and] crisp judments.. .engrossing”. (Guardian). ”[ Alford] has brought a dash of le Carre to the 16th century”. (The Times (Book of the Week)). ”A vivid & staggeringly well-researched portrait of the sinister side of Elizabethan Engl&... This is a spectacular book. It sheds new light on plots that most historians have ceased to explore & brings less famous conspiracies to the attention of the general reading public”. (Herald). ” Fascinating... If you want to know the inside story of this struggle, the dark heart of calculation & the fight for survival, then this is the book to read. I know no better”. (Spectator). About the author: Stephen Alford is the author of the acclaimed biography Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I & a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He taught for fifteen years at Cambridge University, where he was a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of History & a Fellow of King`s College. He is now Professor of Early Modern British History in the University of Leeds.
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS` CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2016 FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2016 An International Bestseller
- A Guardian Summer Read
- An Amazon Best Book of the Month
- A Goodreads Best Book of the Month
- A Buzzfeed Summer Read
- A Foyles Book of the Month
- A Huffington Post Summer Read
- A Yorkshire Post Book of the Week In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. But he has worse fears than generous burglars; he is a telegraphist at the Home Office, which has just received a threat for what could be the largest-scale Fenian bombing in history. When the watch saves Thaniel`s life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori
- a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork & music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of unexpected slips soon proves that he must be hiding something. Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library dressed as a man.A theoretical physicist, she is desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry. As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control until Thaniel is torn between loyalties, futures & opposing geniuses. Utterly beguiling, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street blends historical events with dazzling flights of fancy to plunge readers into a strange & magical past, where time, destiny, genius
- & a clockwork octopus
- collide.









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Water is the most every day of substances. It pours from our taps & falls from the sky. We drink it, wash with it, & couldn`t live without it. Yet, on closer examination it is also a very strange substance (it is one of only a very small number of molecules which expand when cooled). Look closer again & water reveals itself as a key to a scientific story on the biggest of canvases. Water is crucial to our survival
- life depends on it
- but it was also fundamental in the origins of life on Earth. The millions of gallons of water which make up our rivers, lakes & oceans, originated in outer space. How it arrived here & how those molecules of water were formed, is a story which takes us back to the beginning of the universe. Indeed, we know more about the depths of space than we do about the furthest reaches of the oceans. Water has also shaped the world we live in. Whether it is by gently carving the Grand Canyon over millennia, or in shaping how civilisations were built; we have settled our cities along rivers & coasts. Scientific studies show how we feel calmer & more relaxed when next to water. We holiday by the seas & lakes. Yet one day soon wars may be fought over access to water. The Water Book will change the way you look at water. After reading it you will be able to hold a glass of water up to the light & see within it a strange molecule that connects you to the origins of life, the birth (and death) of the universe, & to everyone who ever lived.

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