The best-selling first edition of The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland included essays from Senator George J. Mitchell, Sir David Goodall, Sir George Quigley, Lord Owen & Niall ODowd among others, & demonstrated the evolution of peace in Irel&, culminating in the Good Friday Agreement. Now Marianne Elliott, one of the worlds leading historians of Irel&, has updated the book & commissioned new essays to ensure that this vital resource for students, scholars, politicians & the interested general reader continues to illuminate the peace process through the words of some of its pivotal figures. The essays all relate to the nature of peacemaking as a process rather than an event signalled by the signing of an agreement. The significant role of third party diplomacy is touched on by many contributors, as is the need for pragmatism, compromise, & a recognition that it is those people at the polar extremes of any dispute that have to be drawn in if a lasting agreement is to be achieved. 22.9 x 15.5 x 2 cm, pages 317 ...

At only thirteen, Mikey Quinn is arrested for stealing a rabbit to feed his family. Despite his age, he’s shown no mercy by

...

Slavomir Rawicz was a young Polish cavalry officer. On 19 November 1939 he was arrested by the Russians &, after brutal interrogation & a farce of a trial, he was sentenced to 25 years’ hard labour in the Gulags. After a three-month journey to Siberia in the depths of winter he escaped with six companions, realizing that to stay in the camp meant almost certain death. In June 1941 they crossed the trans-Siberian railway & headed south, climbing into Tibet &, finally, freedom nine months later in March 1942 after travelling on foot through some of the harshest regions in the world, including the Gobi Desert. This is one of the world’s greatest true stories of adventure, survival & escape. ...

Details: Amy Pearson's family is desperately poor
- even by the standards of Edwardian Liverpool
- but they have


...

Lydia Middleton faces a bright future, secure in the knowledge that her childhood sweetheart, David Drayton, will one day be her husb&. Their parents heartily approve of a match between Whitby's foremost ship-owning families. But then Mr Middleton loses his fortune & later his life, & the Draytons reconsider. Lydia's uncle repossesses the family home & she is forced to leave Whitby. Her brother Luke finds a job in the new town of Middlesbrough & Lydia decides to accompany him & make her own way in life. But she vows that when her fortunes have changed she will return to her beloved home & exact a fitting revenge on her uncle. Driven by this desire, Lydia prospers but risks losing the most precious thing of all: the love of David, who has stayed faithful to her throughout their enforced separation. Vengeance or the path of true love
- which will Lydia choose?
...

Sometimes going home is the only way to go forward... As the only child of a wealthy investment manager, Ellie Chapman has never known anything besides a life of perfect privilege. But her years of good fortune come to an abrupt end when her father is exposed for swindling billions of dollars from innocent investors. Just like that, Ellie loses everything: money, job, home-even her fianc?, who's jailed as her father's partner in crime. With her family name in tatters, Ellie has only one place to go... Sleepy St. Dennis, Maryl&, is hardly where Ellie intends to stay, however. Keeping her identity a secret, she plans to sell the house her late mother left her in the small town & use the proceeds to move on with her life. Unfortunately, her ticket to a new beginning is in dire need of pricey improvements, most of which she'll have to do herself. Until the house on Bay View Road is fit to be sold, the sole place Ellie will be traveling is the hardware store. But as the many charms of St. Dennis-not to mention Cameron O' Connor, the handsome local contractor who has secrets of his own-begin to work their magic, what begins as a lesson in do-it-yourself renovations might just end up as Ellie's very own rejuvenation. ...

For nearly 60 years, since the arrival of the long-playing record in 1948, the album has provided the soundtrack to our lives. Our record collections, even if they're on CD, or these days, an iPod, are personal treasure, revealing our loves, errors of jugdement & lapses in taste. Self-confessed music obsessive, Travis Elborough, explores the way in which particular albums are deeply embedded in cultural history, revered as works of art or so ubiqitous as to be almost invisible. But in the age of the iPod, when we can download an infinite number of single tracks & need never listen to a whole album ever again, does the concept of an album still mean anything? THE LONG-PLAYER GOODBYE is a brilliant piece of popular history & a celebration of the joy of records. If you've ever had a favourite album, you'll love Travis Elborough's warm & witty take on how vinyl changed our world. ...

According to G. K. Chesterton, the act of getting to & from a pub is central to an understanding of British life & landscape. With around 60, 000 to choose form, he may have had a point. So bon viveur, pub singer & writer Ian Marchant set off with photographer Perry Venus on a gruelling month-long British pub crawl, to go to & from a lot of pubs in order to test Chesterton's hypothesis. The two friends meander along the roads of Britain, meeting up for a drink with low comedians, award-winning poets, chavs, hedonists, Europe's foremost pub philosopher & Ian's Uncle Tony. Along the way unearth the origins of gin & tonic, find out how pork-scratching are made, learn how to distil moonshine & reveal how Pub Quiz is the new freemasonry. ...

Lasting for 242 days, the siege of Tobruk
- the longest of the British Empire
- is a mesmerising tale of human endurance &

...

In his debut bestseller Marley & Me, John Grogan showed how a dog can become an extraordinary presence in the life of one family. Now in his highly anticipated follow-up, Grogan again works his magic, bringing us the true story of what came first. Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy growing up in a devout Catholic home outside Detroit in the 1960s & 70s. Despite his loving parents ...