Stef Penney, COSTA WINNING AUTHOR of THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES, returns to the Arctic with `A dazzling tale of romance & survival` (Guardian.) Perfect for fans of THE ESSEX SERPENT & TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD. `[ Penney writes] with a persuasive & appealing hunger... there is a touch of Donna Tartt here` The Times` In the masterfully evoked Arctic landscape & in her depictions of sex... she finds her true, dazzling stride` Guardian Flora Mackie first crossed the Arctic Circle at the age of twelve. In 1889, the whaler`s daughter from Dundee
- dubbed by the press ` The Snow Queen`
- sets out to become a scientist & explorer. She struggles to be taken seriously but determination & chance lead her back to northern Greenland at the head of a British expedition, despite the many who believe that a young woman has no place in this harsh world of men. Geologist Jakob de Beyn was raised in Manhattan. Yearning for wider horizons, he joins a rival expedition, led by the furiously driven Lester Armitage. When Jakob & Flora`s paths cross, it is a fateful meeting. All three become obsessed with the north, a place where violent extremes exist side by side: perpetual night & endless day; frozen seas & coastal meadows; heroism & lies. Armitage`s ruthless desire to be the true leader of polar discovery takes him & his men on a mission whose tragic outcome will reverberate for years to come. Set against the stark, timeless beauty of northern Greenl&, & fin-de-siecle New York & London, Under a Pole Star is a compelling look at the dark side of the `golden age` of exploration, a study of the corrosive power of ambition, & an epic, incendiary love story. It shows that sometimes you have to travel to the furthest edge of the world in order to find your true place in it.

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The Sahel
- the `shore` of the Sahara
- is where cultures, customs & climates meet, merge & clash. Through the numerous

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This is shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize. This is a book about the encounter with Roman Britain: about what the idea of ` Roman Britain` has meant to those who came after Britain`s 400-year stint as province of Rome
- from the medieval mythographer-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edward Elgar & W.H. Auden. What does Roman Britain mean to us now? How were its physical remains rediscovered & made sense of? How has it been reimagined, in story & song & verse? Charlotte Higgins has traced these tales by setting out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a splendid, though not particularly reliable, VW camper van. Via accounts of some of Britain`s most intriguing, & often unjustly overlooked ancient monuments, Under Another Sky invites us to see the British landscape, & British history, in an entirely fresh way: as indelibly marked by how the Romans first imagined, & wrote, these strange & exotic islands, perched on the edge of the known world, into existence.
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This is a book about the encounter with Roman Britain: about what the idea of ` Roman Britain` has meant to those who came after Britain`s 400-year stint as province of Rome
- from the medieval mythographer-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edward Elgar & W.H. Auden. What does Roman Britain mean to us now? How were its physical remains rediscovered & made sense of? How has it been reimagined, in story & song & verse? Charlotte Higgins has traced these tales by setting out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a splendid, though not particularly reliable, VW camper van. Via accounts of some of Britain`s most intriguing, & often unjustly overlooked ancient monuments, Under Another Sky invites us to see the British landscape, & British history, in an entirely fresh way: as indelibly marked by how the Romans first imagined, & wrote, these strange & exotic islands, perched on the edge of the known world, into existence.
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Following on from Mizielinski`s Under Earth Under Water comes this beautiful book packed with fascinating facts & activities ranging from mazes to complete the scene & colouring in. Will keep children entertained for hours. stunning artwork drawing on animals & objects found beneath the surface. ...

This is a searing, unflinchingly realist novel about life at war, written during the First World War. ` Men are made to be husbands, fathers
- men, in short! Not animals that hunt one another down.` Under Fire follows the fortune of a French battalion during the First World War. For this group of ordinary men, thrown together from all over France & longing for home, war is simply a matter of survival, & the arrival of their rations, a glimpse of a pretty girl or a brief reprieve in hospital is all they can hope for. Based directly on Henri Barbusse`s experiences of the trenches, Under Fire is the most famous French novel of the First World War, starkly evoking the mud, stench & monotony of an eternal battlefield. It is also a powerful critique of inequality between ranks, the incomprehension of those who have not experienced battle, & of war itself.
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Under Fire, first published in French as Le Feu, was one of the first novels about WWI, appearing in December 1916, before the outcome of the war was clear. Set in early 1916, it follows a squad of French volunteer soldiers through the eyes of an unnamed foot soldier, who participates in & also observes the action. It combines soaring, poetic descriptions with the mundane, messy, human reality of soldiers living in their own excrement. Then slowly names & features are given to the men who emerge from the mud, from the dignified leader Corporal Bertr&, to the ebullient Volpatte & the obsessive Cocon. Intermingled with details of how they navigate daily life in the putrified atmosphere of the trenches are both harrowing descriptions & a political, pacifist argument about this war & war more generally. Caught up in events they cannot control, the soldiers go through their daily routines: foraging for food, reading letters from wives & mothers, drinking, fighting in battle, & in heavily realistic scenes which the novel is noted for, discovering dead bodies in advanced stages of decomposition; the human detritus of a brutal conflict. Through it all, they talk about the war, attempting to make sense of the altered world in which they find themselves. Under Fire drew criticism at the time of its publication for its harsh realism, but won the Prix Goncourt. The original translation by Fitzwater Wray which first appeared in 1917 is published here. It captures the essence of the era; a glossary is also provided to help with unfamiliar vocabulary. ...

” Under Fishbone Clouds” is a love story & family saga interwoven with traditional folktales & stories from ancient Chinese history. Set against the backdrop of dramatic events of recent Chinese political history, we follow the lives of Jinyi & his wife Yuying. ...

These days, an underground railway is an integral part of a city`s heritage & a key feature of the urban landscape used by passengers. But these subways are also full of history & art. They reflect a city`s personality & its past & future, & are worthy of exploration, even for those not boarding a train. It`s safe to say that a great many subways have overcome a reputation for unpleasant shadiness. Under Ground is a tour of the most fascinating subterranean city railways viewed through the filters of urban planning, ethnology, art, & history. More than 100 subway stations & train cars are described in informative text & stunning colour photographs. The book opens with a chapter on the origins of the subway, the story as told by four subways in particular. London`s Underground was the world`s first subway. The Paris Metro was a product of the Industrial Revolution & the first modern subway. New York City`s subway is the largest & busiest subway in America. Buenos Aires pioneered South American subway systems. Today, however, the designs & technology of these trailblazing rail systems have been far surpassed. Under Ground organizes its world tour by continent, starting in North America (New York, Rochester, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto), crossing the ocean to Europe (London, Paris, Brussels, Barcelona, Lisbon, Naples, Valencia, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Warsaw), travelling into Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Russia, & Republic of Tatarstan, home to some of the world`s most exciting modern subways), further to Asia (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Istanbul), making a stop in Dubai, & ending in the Far East (Japan, Shanghai, Taiwan, North Korea). The 100 subways include: * The Stockholm metro, considered to be `the longest museum in the world`; * New York City`s Art Deco City Hall Station, now closed to the public; * Russia`s many underground Cold War palaces that double as fallout shelters; * Prague`s Dalek-skinned walls; * The blue-lit passenger halls of Dubai`s metro, a cool sea in the desert; * Paris` Concorde station tiled with one gigantic word search puzzle that spells out the Declaration of the Rights of Man from the French Revolution; * The candy-coloured kaleidoscopic University station in Naples, the vision of American designer Karim Rashid; * Olaias station in Lisbon, lit almost exclusively by chandeliers; * Shanghai`s Sund sightseeing tunnel, a mind-bending ride in transparent cars with a 360-degree view which races through a psychedelic laser-lit tunnel, one of the city`s top five tourist attractions; * Kyoto`s immense 15-story multi-use rail station; * Istanbul`s underwater Marmaray tunnel, the deepest in the world. Under Ground is a unique trip to the railways beneath the world`s great cities. Readers don`t need a token or a monthly pass, only a comfortable seat
- perhaps on the tube?- to enjoy the engaging text & gorgeous photographs.
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Crypts, catacombs, tunnels, tombs, cellars, bunkers, vaults & underground chambers hidden beneath the city conjure up a mixture of fascination, eeriness & foreboding for many people. What dark mysteries lurk beneath the busy roads, pavements & shops? The fact that London has an underground network of tunnels that stretch for hundreds of miles is well known
- but what is this other London? This guide lists themany itriguing sites that can be visited &

Includes:: three guided walks, a locator map & gazetteer.


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