The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia & its five smaller neighbours: the United Arab Emirates Kuwait Qatar Oman & Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic & seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps fast-growing populations & powerful modernising & globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Obituaries for these traditional monarchies have frequently been penned but even now these absolutist almost medieval entities still appear to pose the same conundrum as before: in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring & the fall of incumbent presidents in Egypt Tunisia & Libya the apparently steadfast Gulf monarchies have at first glance re-affirmed their status as the Middle Easts only real bastions of stability. In this book however noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of these kings emirs & sultans is going to happen & was always going to. While the revolutionary movements in North Africa Syria & Yemen will undeniably serve as important if indirect catalysts for the coming upheaval many of the same socio-economic pressures that were building up in the Arab republics are now also very much present in the Gulf monarchies. It is now no longer a matter of if but when the Wests steadfast allies fall. This is a bold claim to make but Davidson who accurately forecast the economic turmoil that afflicted Dubai in 2009 has an enviable record in diagnosing social & political changes afoot in the region. ...

Percy the Park Keeper helps his animal friends in this engaging story from highly-regarded best-selling author-illustrator Nick Butterworth.

Includes:: a fabulous fold-out poster! A storm is raging outside & Percy the Park Keeper is having a sleepless night. When he gets up the following morning Percy finds that the old oak tree has been blown down. It is a disaster for his animal friends who live there but Percy is soon devising a plan to help his little friends find new homes in the best tree house they have ever seen!

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When this book begins in the reign of Edward VII Great Britain commands the mightiest empire the world has ever seen. By the time it ends with the Coronation of Elizabeth II Britain has emerged victorious from a world war but ruined as a world power. How did Britains power & influence decline? This is one of the questions which A. N. Wilson seeks to answer in his masterly follow-up to The Victorians."" ...

Liverpool 1945. Three women strong friends return home from the war trying to fit back into their old lives after they've been demobbed. They've been thrown together by the war & shared all sorts of good & bad times. Now their old lives seem dull in comparison but not for long... The younger women Maggie & Nell are both twenty-one & are full of hope & excitement; Iris on the other hand is feeling apprehensive about returning to civilian life. At the age of thirty her only wish in life is to have a baby but sadly this wish has yet to come true. When one of the women falls pregnant there begins a dramatic sequence of events so wide-reaching that the three friends' lives will become more intricately interwoven than they could ever have imagined. Over the next quarter of a century this story of three remarkable
- & very different
- women unfolds into an uplifting tale of how three ordinary families become extraordinary.

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In 1980 at the age of ten Loung Ung escaped a devastated Cambodia & flew to the US as a refugee. She & her eldest brother with whom she escaped left behind their three surviving siblings & her book is alternately heart-wrenching & heart-warming as it follows the parallel lives of Loung & her closest sister Chou during the 15 years it took for them to be reunited. Their two worlds were very different & Loungs depiction of the contrast between her life in the affluent West & that of her sister who navigated her way through landmine-strewn fields & survived raids by the Khmer Rouge is laced with the guilt she feels about being the lucky one. This powerful story helps us to understand what happens when a family is torn apart by politics adversity & war. It is also the compelling & inspirational tale of a remarkable woman. ...

Natascha Mc Elhone was away filming in LA with her two sons & pregnant with her third child when she received news that her beloved husband Martin had died suddenly of a heart attack. Unable to accept this devastating loss she began writing letters to her husband telling him how she felt & how she & her children were adapting to life without him. The result is After You" a triumphant testament to the resilience of the human spirit. It is a profoundly moving tribute to Natascha Mc Elhones three sons whose appetite for life led the author through her darkest moments & to their remarkable father." ...

The Afterlife is Real is the latest book from much-loved paranormal expert Theresa Cheung & is a captivating collection of true stories from people who have glimpsed the next life. Using as evidence first-hand accounts from ordinary people whose lives have been transformed by near death experiences and/or contact with the other side Theresa will answer the big questions that everyone asks at some point in their lives whether or not they are religious/spiritual. What happens when we die? Will we ever see our loved ones again? Is there an afterlife? Is there a heaven? Its aim is to empower readers with the knowledge that there are answers hope & life in the midst of confusion uncertainty & death. Theresa instructs readers in how to look for signs of spirit communication & how near death experiences can inspire & transform lives. It is a powerful & comforting reminder that there is more waiting for us than we see in the here & now. ...

In AFTERLIVES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS renowned psychic Sylvia Browne explains exactly what happens to our spirits when our bodies stop living. She describes what the Other Side is like & how the celebrities that we have lost are coping in the world beyond. She begins with a brief biography of each celebrity which helps lend important context to what is happening to them now in the afterlife. She then shares whatever information the celebrities care to discuss with her. Her insights include their regrets their private thoughts their role in the afterlife details of who they visit on earth & their plans for reincarnation if they have any. It is also fascinating to discover which celebrities strike up friendships & spend time together on the Other Side! Celebrities featured include: Elvis Presley (Princess) Diana Spencer Patrick Swayze Anna Nicole Smith Brittany Murphy Heath Ledger Marilyn Monroe Paul Newman Clark Gable Cary Grant George Harrison Michael Jackson & John Lennon. ...

The number 35 the Hill is an ordinary house in an ordinary street. But it is about to become infamous. When two police constables are sent to the house following a report of a domestic disturbance they stumble upon a truly horrific scene. A scene which leaves one of them dead & the other fighting for her life & career. The identity of a serial killer the Chameleon has finally been revealed. But his capture is only the beginning of a shocking investigation that will test Inspector Alan Banks to the absolute limit. ' It demonstrates how the crime novel when done right can reach parts that other books can't.. .A considerable achievement'
- Guardian". ' Move over Ian Rankin
- there's a new gunslinger in town looking to take over your role as top British police procedural author. With " Aftermath" Chief Inspector Alan Banks emerges as a definite contender for fiction's new top cop.. .'
- " Independent On Sunday"."


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In the winter of 2009 Rachel Cusks marriage of ten years came to an end. In the months that followed life as she had known it came apart like a jigsaw dismantled into a heap of broken-edged pieces". " Aftermath" chronicles this perilous journey as the author redefines herself as a single woman & creates a new version of family life for her daughters. She discovers previously unknown strengths & freedoms but also finds herself suddenly vulnerable to outsiders unwelcome advice social displacement & the absence of a clear authority. "I cant remember what it feels like to be at ease. This ceaseless effort to manufacture normality is a kind of forgers art so laborious compared with the facility that created the original". The pressure to reconstruct a normal life for her daughters competes with the sense that nothing feels normal at all. " Aftermath" is a masterly work in which the author at her most candid & rigorous charts the largely unwritten journey back to order from the chaos that is left when a family breaks apart." ...