Sardonic wry & wise Aesop's Fables are some of the most enduring & well-loved literary creations in history. In a series of pithy amusing vignettes Aesop created a vivid cast of characters to demonstrate different aspects of human nature. Here we see a wily fox outwitted by a quick-thinking cicada a tortoise triumphing over a self-confident hare & a fable-teller named Aesop silencing those who mock him. Each jewel-like fable provides a warning about the consequences of wrong-doing as well as offering a glimpse into the everyday lives of Ancient Greeks. ...

Theodor Adorno (1903-69) was undoubtedly the foremost thinker of the Frankfurt School the influential group of German thinkers that fled to the US in the 1930s including such thinkers as Herbert Marcuse & Max Horkheimer. His work has proved enormously influential in sociology philosophy & cultural theory. Aesthetic Theory is Adornos posthumous magnum opus & the culmination of a lifetimes investigation. Analysing the sublime the ugly & the beautiful Adorno shows how such concepts frame & distil human experience & that it is human experience that ultimately underlies aesthetics. In Adornos formulation art is the sedimented history of human misery. Edited by Gretel Adorno & Rolf Tiedeman Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. ...

No other country & no other period has produced a tradition of major aesthetic debate to compare with that which unfolded in German culture from the 1930s to the 1950s. In Aesthetics & Politics the key texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature & art during these years are assembled in a single volume. They do not form a disparate collection but a continuous interlinked debate between thinkers who have become giants of twentieth-century intellectual history. ...

In AD 453 Attila with a huge force composed of Huns allies & vassals drawn from his already-vast empire was rampaging westward across Gaul (essentially modern France) then still nominally part of the Western Roman Empire. Laying siege to Orleans he was only a few days march from extending his empire from the Eurasian steppe to the Atlantic. He was brought to battle on the Cataluanian Plain & defeated by a coalition hastily assembled & led by Aetius. Who was this man that saved Western Europe from the Hunnic yoke? While Attila is a household name his nemesis remains relatively obscure. Aetius is one of the major figures in the history of the Late Roman Empire & his actions helped maintain the integrity of the West in the declining years of the Empire. During the course of his life he was a hostage first with Alaric & the Goths & then with Rugila King of the Huns. His stay with these two peoples helped to give him an unparalleled insight into the minds & military techniques of these barbarians which he was to use in later years to halt the depredations of the Huns. That this saviour of Rome was himself half Scythian is indicative of the complexity of the late Roman world. Ian Hughes assesses his fascinating career & campaigns with the same accessible narrative & analysis he brought to bear on Belisarius & Stilicho. This is a long-overdue biography of a major yet neglected player in the Late Classical world. ...

Would you risk everything for love? Bestselling childrens book writer Angelica is amused & flattered at the attention of Jack the owner of a vineyard in South Africa whom she meets at a dinner party. With his easy charm & reputation as a ladies man Jack makes her feel good about herself
- surely it cant do any harm to indulge in a mild email flirtation? After all she wouldnt risk her stable marriage & the happiness of her children. But things dont stop there & when Angelica is sent to Cape Town for a book tour the affair begins in earnest. On their last day together Jack confesses that he has an incurable disease: being with Angelica has enabled him to forget his mortality. Shocked & heartbroken she returns to London determined to save her marriage & put to good use all the emotional lessons she learnt during their brief time together.
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Charlotte Arkendale knew all there was to know about men. After all shed made a career out of steering marriage-minded women away from untrustworthy members of the opposite sex. Yet nothing could have prepared her for Baxter St. Ives
- an arresting stranger too daring too determined too dangerous to be her new man-of-affairs. Still perhaps he was the perfect person to help Charlotte investigate the recent murder of one of her clients. So she gave him a chance never realising that Baxter a gifted scientist would soon conduct a risky exploration into the alchemy of desire with Charlotte as his subject. But even as he sets out to seduce Charlotte a twisted killer lies in wait ready to part the lovers.. .or see them joined together forever
- in death.

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Indulgent & sensual outrageous & taboo but always highly erotic this new collection of Black Lace stories takes the illicit & daring rendezvous with a lover (or lovers) as its theme. Popular Black Lace authors like Portia Da Costa & Janine Ashbless contribute saucy tales as do a number of brand new passionate & edgy voices from the US. Packed with a broad & thrilling range of women's sexual fantasies. ...

March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Carter Crossing Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base. Is the murderer a local guy
- or is he a soldier? Jack Reacher still a major in the military police is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former U.S. Marine
- & a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesnt she really want to find the killer? The adrenaline-pumping high-voltage action in The Affair is set just six months before the opening of Killing Floor & it marks a turning point in Reachers career. If he does what the army wants will he be able to live with himself? & if he doesnt will the army be able to live with him? Is this his last case in uniform? Winner of CWA Best unabridged Crime Audiobook 2012.

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And then there were eight
- Understandably Lord Burford had some misgivings about hosting another house party at Alderley his beautiful
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Charles Henstock rector of Thrush Green has difficulty living up to his predecessor when he moves to the parish of Lulling. He faces opposition from the fearsome Mrs Thurgood & her arty daughter Janet. Everyone in the district seems to be having their share of problems not least Albert Piggott who dreads the return of his wife Nelly. Meanwhile Kit Armitage returns to set elderly hearts fluttering. Could there be wedding bells in Thrush Green? ...