In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer & builder of aircraft
- a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric.
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The epic story of the rise & fall of one of the most powerful & opulent dynasties in history. It is 1494 when the ruler of Ferghana dies in an extraordinary accident. His only son, twelve-year-old Babur, faces a seemingly impossible challenge. Young Babur is determined to live up to the example of his great ancestor, Tamburlaine -- Timur the Warrior -- whose conquests transformed the face of the earth from Delhi to the Mediterranean, from wealthy Persia to the wildernesses along the Volga. But he is dangerously young to inherit a kingdom. Before Babur can summon enough warlords to declare him the rightful king of Ferghana, plots against his crown, even his life, are hatching. & soon, as his obsession with Timur's legacy & the fabled city of Samarkand grows, & Babur becomes a man, he will discover that even the bravest & most fearless leader can be betrayed. With the wisest of advisers & most courageous of warriors by his side, Babur can achieve a great destiny & found an empire in India, but every step of his journey will be fraught with danger, in a world of tribal rivalries, rampaging armies & ruthlessly ambitious enemies. ...

The year 1588 marked a turning point in our national story. Victory over the Armada transformed us into a seafaring nation & it sparked a myth that one day would become a reality
- that the nation's new destiny, the source of her future wealth & power lay out on the oceans. This book tells the story of how the navy expanded from a tiny force to become the most complex industrial enterprise on earth; how the need to organise it laid the foundations of our civil service & our economy; & how it transformed our culture, our sense of national identity & our democracy. Exploring deeper into the themes raised by the television series, Brian Lavery documents the progress of the Royal Navy from late Tudor times to the First World War. He discusses its relationship with the state & the British people, analyses the tactics & initiative that created dramatic victories, & the failures and incompetence that lead to disaster. Rising through the administrative brilliance of Pepys, Anson & Lord Sandwich & the inspirational leadership of Blake, Hawke & Nelson, the Royal Navy became the most powerful force in the world. But the conviction of Britain's navy as undisputed ruler of the waves encouraged a sterility in strategic thinking & complacency during the 'long peace' of the nineteenth century leading to the bruising experience of the Battle of Jutl&.
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Traces the rise & fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. This title presents the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker & her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last & greatest chief of the Comanches. ...

From the master of dystopia, comes his heartrending story of a British boy's four year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. Based on J. G. Ballard's own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai
- a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation & survival, of internment camps & death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint. Rooted as it is in the author's own disturbing experience of war in our time, it is one of a handful of novels by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered but judged.
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Motivate your team to go the extra mile.

New managers, experienced managers or aspiring managers – learn how to understand

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Outrageous, ingenious & indomitable, Teresa Cornelys was a unique figure in 18th century Europe whose private life & professional dealings scandalized society. A Venetian opera singer & adventuress, she arrived in England in 1759, leaving a trail of debts & lovers across Europe. She was 36 years old, destitute & the mother of Casanova's child. Within months, she had acquired one of the finest mansions in London's West End
- Carlisle House, Soho Square
- where she successfully launched the captital's first night-club. For two decades her extravagant concerts, balls & masquerades were frequented by royalty, aristocrats & politicians. She defied conventional morality, the law, the limitations of her sex, & even old age.

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In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker, investigated a woman's claim that, aged four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret discovered that this was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. ...

The summer of 1898 finds Austria transfixed by a series of brutal murders. When renowned painter Gustav Klimt's female model becomes the fifth victim, the artist is fingered as the culprit. Klimt's lawyer Karl Werthen & the famed criminologist Inspector Gross must delve into a nationwide conspiracy in order to acquit the eccentric artiste. ...

Explores the issues facing theatrical performances. This work describes important developments in theatre from the last century, as well as smaller scale events, from productions by Stanislavsky to the rise of Method Acting. It also shows how theatre defies rules, builds & shatters illusions & creates lasting memories for its audiences. ...