After the oil company that employs Arthur Dashwood fails to protect him from a kidnap attempt in Baghdad, he returns to his traumatised family in London. But everything is not as it should be. Having quit the blistering heat & swimming pool luxury of Saudi Arabia for fear of terrorist attack, Arthur finds that danger is closer to home. Arthur's young son Timothy is struggling in the hostile terrain of his new public school. Bullied by other pupils & neglected by his preoccupied parents, he withdraws into a fantasy world, a hybrid of computer-generated guerrilla warzone & exotic dreams of his time in Saudi Arabia, a place where boys can fight & escape their teachers & families. As one middle-class boy from Timothy's school & then another disappears, so evidence emerges of an extreme & disturbing rejection of the adult world. & then it is Timothy's turn to disappear. Haunted by memories of post-Saddam Baghdad, Arthur embarks on a terrifying search for his son, one that will reveal his own complicity in the brutal consequences of Western power. ...

Bristol for centuries was England's second city &, as a thriving port, its past is steeped in its involvement in trade, whether of cloth, wine, pottery, glass
- or slaves. This book presents an exploration of Bristol's hidden past, its ways of life, legends, relationship with the sea, & its role in English history.
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Clinging to a rugged hillside in the lush valley of Sparta lies Mistra, one of the dramatically beautiful Byzantine cities in Greece, a place steeped in history, myth & romance. This title tells the story of this once-great city
- its rise & fall & its place in the history of the Peloponnese & the Byzantine empire.
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A victim? Or a killer?

One icy cold morning, the remains of a woman are discovered. She has been abused, then butchered.

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The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups Christians claimed that there was just not one God. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine; & others that he was divine but not human. This book offers a study of these forms of Christianity, & how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. ...

Explore the history of vanished empires & forgotten cultures from the oldest, prehistoric civilisations to the mysterious lost

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This work presents Stone Age civilization as far more sophisticated than previously believed in terms of its technology, mathematics, medicine, communications (which were worldwide) & art. The author attempts to re-establish Rousseau's notion of the " Noble Savage". ...

An account of one man's rediscovery of America & his search for the perfect small town. Instead he finds a continent that is doubly lost: lost to itself because it is blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes & television; & lost to him because he has become a foreigner in his own country. ...

Cornwall's spectacular shoreline, with its brutal cliffs, desolate moors & pre-historic coastal settlements, has long held a source of fascination for those who cross the Duchy's boundary line. Yet despite the endurance of seascapes & ancient landscapes, which remain hidden from mainstream tourist routes, there are, throughout Cornwall, stories of change. Patterns of life have adapted to a shifting world, & whole communities have been affected as traditions are gradually subsumed in the struggle for 'progress'. However, remnants of recent history are still evident in Cornwall's architecture, its redundant transport systems & its cultural relics. This book is an exploration of some of the region's hidden facets & lesser known places which are testament to a way of life experienced just a couple of generations ago. ...

Pick up an old stamp album & flick through it.

You’ll find a host of exotic & unfamiliar names: Cyrenaica, Fernando Poo,

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