A Cotswold vicarage, a former girls' boarding school in Surrey & a Jacobean house now buried in inner London -- these three houses represent the changing face of England over four centuries through the lives of the many people who lived in them. Many lives indeed, from the wealthiest to the poorest. The pages of Gillian Tindall's fascinating new book teem with pen portraits, from Eugenia Stanhope who sold Lord Chesterfield's scandalous letters, to the autocratic vicar who held the same parish from age 28 to 82, from the just-literate wife of a parish clerk who wrote riddles in his registers, to the cow-keeper who farmed 226 acres in Hornsey till he sold them profitably when the railways came through. The railways bypassed the Cotswold village, famous for its stone-masons, which remains rural to this day; whereas some Surrey inhabitants were, like the Jane Austen characters they resembled, already commuting to London in coaching days. Each house has gone through a series of physical transformations, most of all the seventeenth century merchant's house which eventually became the Conservative Club & then a drinking club for lorry drivers. Gillian Tindall is a master of miniaturist history, making a particular place, person or situation stand for a much larger picture, & it is with the skill of an accomplished researcher & elegant writer that she paints this panorama, from the Reformation to the Oxford Movement, from poor relief run by church vestries to the age of the blogger. ...

This book is the result of what happened when three best friends left their wallets & their trepidation at home
- Tim, Thom &
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Three Kingdoms is a blackly entertaining & unsettling detective story cum parable about the devil in us all, international human trafficking & the changing state of Europe. As the severed human head of an Estonian woman is found in a river in Hammersmith, two British detectives set off in search of her origins in Europe & how she came to be found dead. Accompanied by a mephistophelian German detective acting as their guide, they gradually sink deeper & deeper into the world of prostitution & international human trafficking. Fighting to cross international borders & language barriers, they enter a nightmarish world that will change one of them forever. Three Kingdoms tells the stories of trafficked women, the gangs & the police forces across Europe that attempt to control them. This dark new thriller by Simon Stephens, set across three countries, explores an international business where the goods are not products, but people. Questioning & undermining not just tenets about the nature of Europe with its old & new borders, Three Kingdoms also explodes moral certainties. With good & evil presented not as polarised forces but as disturbingly shifting, overlapping & contradictory, the play provocatively unbalances convictions of truth, ethical codes, violence & justice. This edition also

Includes:: a preface with contributions from playwright Simon Stephens, German director Sebastian Nuebling & Estonian dramaturg Eero Epner, discussing this uniquely collaborative & tri-lingual project.

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This is the tragic story of the short-lived Iraqi monarchy. The first king of Iraq, Faisal I, was installed by the British in 1921. Faisal, who had led the Arab Revolt & fought alongside T.E. Lawrence, was a major player in the politics of the Middle East. He was also, most importantly, pro-British & thus `suitable` to lead an independent Iraq. His son & successor, Ghazi, a strong pan-Arab nationalist, felt very differently. He supported the first military coup in the Arab world & was said to hold German sympathies. Ghazi`s suspicious death in a car accident left his son, also named Faisal, King at the age of four. So Iraq was ruled by his uncle, Abdulillah, as regent until the boy came of age. Iraq`s artificially-imposed monarchy came to an abrupt & bloody end in July 1958 when Faisal II & Abdulillah, along with the Prime Minister, Nuri al Said, & many members of Faisal`s family, were gunned down & the country was declared a republic. ” Three Kings in Baghdad” is a unique & timely account of this portentous moment in Iraq`s history. ...

“ Three Letters From the Andes” is Patrick Leigh Fermor’s wonderful & very much personally accurate look at a trip to South America made over forty years ago. In 1971 Fermor accompanied five friends on a remarkable journey into the high Andes of Peru. His adventure took him from Cuzco to Urubamba, on to Puno & Juli on Lake Titicaca, down to Arequipa & finally back to Lima. The expedition was led by a writer & poet & the party included a Swiss international skier & jeweller, a social anthropologist from Provence & a Nottinghamshire farming squire
- all seasoned mountaineers. The other two participants
- the author himself & a botany-loving duke
- were complete novices. As the group travelled from Lima into increasingly remote parts of the country, Leigh Fermor captured their experiences in a series of letters to his wife. Whether recounting the thrill of crossing a glacier, the rigours of campsite life under a blanket of snow, their lively encounters with locals or the strangely moving sight of a lone condor circling in the sky, the author vividly conveys the excitement of discovery & the intense uniqueness of the l&.


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Three Little Owls is a charming rhyming story by the Italian artist Emanuele Luzzati, & presented here in an English version by John Yeoman & with gorgeous new illustrations by Quentin Blake. Three irrepressible little owls take us on their journey round the world, from one Christmas Day to the next
- fishing, dancing, snoozing, & NOT behaving. Blake`s delightful drawings combine with this fantastical poetic treat to create a story that young & old will enjoy reading again & again.
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Wryly humorous & quintessentially British, Three Men & a Bradshaw collects the previously unpublished holiday journals of John Freeman, who travelled Britain with his brothers during the 1870s. Each year the trio would settle upon a destination, buy their tickets & set off
- armed, of course, with their trusty Bradshaw`s Descriptive Railway H&-book. John`s delightful records of their trips contain much that will resonate with the modern traveller, from the eccentricities of fellow passengers & locals to the tender mercies of the British climate. At the same time they offer insights into the experiences particular to a Victorian tourist, & are full of valuable local history on everywhere from Devon & Jersey to Scotland & Wales. Beautifully illustrated throughout with John`s original drawings, this is a fascinating & uniquely personal historical artefact, as well as an enchanting & frequently hilarious evocation of a distant but still wholly recognisable Britain.
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` Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need
- a homely home & simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth
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A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome`s Three Men in a Boat

Includes:: an introduction & notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin Classics. Martyrs to hypochondria & general seediness, J. & his friends George & Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a `T`. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts & tins of pineapple chunks
- not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.`s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, &, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions & wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian `clerking classes`, it hilariously captured the spirit of its age. In his introduction, Jeremy Lewis examines Jerome K. Jerome`s life & times, & the changing world of Victorian England he depicts
- from the rise of a new mass-culture of tabloids & bestselling novels to crazes for daytripping & bicycling. Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) was born in Walstall, Staffordshire, & educated at Marylebone Grammar School. He left school at fourteen to become a railway clerk, the first in a long line of jobs that included actor, teacher & journalist. His first book, On Stage & Off, a collection of humorous pieces about the theatre, was published in 1885, & was followed the year after with the more commercially-successful The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; but it was with Three Men in a Boat (1889) that Jerome achieved lasting fame. He later went on to become one of the founders of the humorous magazine, The Idler, & continued to write articles & plays. If you enjoyed Three Men in a Boat, you might like Stella Gibbons`s Cold Comfort Farm, also available in Penguin Classics.



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What could be more relaxing than a refreshing holiday on the river with your two best friends & faithful canine companion, Montmorency? However, as J. discovers, there is more to life on the waves than meets the eye
- including navigational challenges, culinary disasters, & heroic battles with swans, kettles & tins of pineapple. Jerome K. Jerome`s delightful novel has kept readers smiling for years & his prose has found a perfect partner in Vic Reeves`s glorious & witty illustrations. ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY COMEDIAN & ARTIST VIC REEVES
- EXCLUSIVE TO VINTAGE CLASSICS

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