Long before his finest hour as Britain`s wartime leader, Winston Churchill emerged on the world stage as a brazen foreign correspondent, covering wars of empire in Cuba, India, the Sudan, & South Africa. In those far-flung corners of the world, reporting from the front lines between 1895 & 1900, Churchill mastered his celebrated command of language & formed strong opinions about war. He thought little of his own personal safety, so convinced was he of his destiny, jumping at any chance to be where bullets flew & canons roared. ”I have faith in my star-that I am intended to do something in the world, ” he wrote to his mother at the age of twenty-three before heading into battle. Based on his private letters & war reportage, Winston Churchill Reporting intertwines young Winston`s daring exploits in combat, adventures in distant corners of the globe, & rise as a major literary talent-experiences that shaped the world leader he was to become. ...

The dazzling second novel in Ali Smith`s essential Seasonal Quartet -- from the Baileys Prize-winning, Man Booker-shortlisted author of Autumn & How to be both. Winter? Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare & shivering. The summer`s leaves? Dead litter. The world shrinks; the sap sinks. But winter makes things visible. & if there`s ice, there`ll be fire. In Ali Smith`s Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her sensational Autumn, Smith`s shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory & warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter. It`s the season that teaches us survival. Here comes Winter. ...

This unique guide covers over two dozen winter sports. From snowshoeing, snowboarding & winter camping to dog sledding, skijoring & animal tracking.

Includes:: sections on staying warm, equipment, technique, safety & such natural science questions as why ice is slippy. Every winter outdoors person will find something new here.

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Around the end of the 16th century, several expeditions had undertaken to establish a north-east passage, but sea-fogs, pack-ice & the confusing geography of the coast of Russia consistently frustrated them. No-one pursued the idea of a north-east passage with such tenacious skill as the Dutch sailing-master William Barents. The glory & failure of his third voyage, with which this book is concerned, was the last major attempt to open up such a route until, nearly 300 years later, success came in the age of steam. ...

In this stunning book, Lars Jonsson celebrates & explores the beauty of the birds that surround him during the Swedish winter ...

Winter Games is a dazzling tale of secrets & betrayal, & the perfect novel for fans of The Bolter by Frances Osborne, & all those fascinated by the Mitford sisters. Munich, 1936. She doesn't know it, but eighteen-year old Daphne Linden has a seat in the front row of history. Along with her best friend, Betsy Barton-Hill, & a whole bevy of other young English upper-class girls, Daphne is in Bavaria to improve her German, to go to the Opera, to be 'finished'. It may be the Third Reich, but another war is unthinkable, & the girls are having the time of their lives. Aren't they? London, 2006. Seventy years later & Daphne's granddaughter, Francie Fitzsimon has all the boxes ticked: large flat, successful husb&, cushy job writing up holistic spas... The hardest decision she has to make is where to go for brunch
- until, that is, events conspire to send her on a quest to discover what really happened to her grandmother in Germany, all those years ago. Praise for Rachel Johnson: Wonderfully readable. (Guardian). Shiveringly brilliant. (Jilly Cooper). Very funny, relentlessly observant. (Daily Mail). Sharp, funny & knowing. (India Knight). Rachel Johnson is a journalist who has written two previous novels & two volumes of diaries. The Mummy Diaries, Notting Hell, Shire Hell & A Diary of The Lady are all available now from Penguin.
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` Well, ` said Nancy, ` You know what it`s like. Dark at teatime & sleeping indoors: nothing ever happens in the winter holidays.` Nothing
- except a polar expedition, full of mountain rescues, blizzards, igloos, ice sailing & heroic work amidst the frozen wastes. For Dick & Dorothea, newcomers to the lake, meeting up with the Swallows & Amazons sweeps them into a wild adventure where they must prove their worth to the team
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Freya Stark is most famous for her travels in Arabia at a time when very few men, let alone women, had fully explored its vast hinterlands. In 1934, she made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen
- the first woman to do so alone. Even though that journey ended in disappointment, sickness & a forced rescue, Stark, undeterred, returned to Yemen two years later. Starting in Mukalla & skirting the fringes of the legendary & unexplored Empty Quarter, she spent the winter searching for Shabwa
- ancient capital of the Hadhramaut & a holy grail for generations of explorers. From within Stark`s beautifully-crafted & deeply knowledgeable narrative emerges a rare & exquisitely-rendered portrait of the customs & cultures of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. ”A Winter in Arabia” is one of the most important pieces of literature on the region & a book that placed Freya Stark in the pantheon of great writers & explorers of the Arab World. To listen to her voice is to hear the rich echoes of a land whose `nakedness is clothed in shreds of departed splendour`.

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1940: The Spanish Civil War is over, & Madrid lies ruined, its people starving, while the Germans continue their relentless march through Europe. Britain now stands alone while General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality & enter the war. Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett: a traumatised veteran of Dunkirk turned reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of old schoolfriend Sandy Forsyth, now a shady Madrid businessman, Harry finds himself involved in a dangerous game
- & surrounded by memories. Meanwhile Sandy`s girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged on a secret mission of her own
- to find her former lover Bernie Piper, a passionate Communist in the International Brigades, who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama. In a vivid & haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid is an intimate & compelling tale which offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding, & the profound impact of impossible choices.

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A special 10th anniversary edition of the standalone bestseller, Winter in Madrid, by the author of the much-loved Shardlake series, C. J. Sansom. 1940: The Spanish Civil War is over, & Madrid lies ruined, its people starving, while the Germans continue their relentless march through Europe. Britain now stands alone while General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality & enter the war. Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett: a traumatized veteran of Dunkirk turned reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of old school friend Sandy Forsyth, now a shady Madrid businessman, Harry finds himself involved in a dangerous game
- & surrounded by memories. Meanwhile Sandy`s girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged in a secret mission of her own
- to find her former lover Bernie Piper, a passionate Communist in the International Brigades, who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama. In a vivid & haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom is an intimate & compelling tale which offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding, & the profound impact of impossible choices.

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