As seen on TV: now a major BBC4 television series. A chance encounter with a strange young woman leads Inspector Montalbano to Vigata harbour -- & into a puzzling new mystery. The crew of a mysterious yacht
- the Vanna
- due to dock in the area have discovered a corpse floating in the water the dead mans face badly disfigured. It isnt long before Montalbano begins to become suspicious of the Vannas inhabitants. Who is the yachts owner the glamorous & short-tempered Livia Giovannini? How has she accrued her riches? & why does she spend so much time at sea? Meanwhile Montalbano finds himself getting into tangles with the dreaded Commissioner the exasperating Dr Lattes & a very beautiful young woman at the harbour with whom he becomes dangerously besotted.. . Can the Inspector clear his head long enough to unravel this murky mystery?

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As seen on TV: now a major BBC4 television series. A chance encounter with a strange young woman leads Inspector Montalbano to Vigata harbour -- & into a puzzling new mystery. The crew of a mysterious yacht
- the Vanna
- due to dock in the area have discovered a corpse floating in the water the dead man's face badly disfigured. It isn't long before Montalbano begins to become suspicious of the Vanna's inhabitants. Who is the yacht's owner the glamorous & short-tempered Livia Giovannini? How has she accrued her riches? & why does she spend so much time at sea? Meanwhile Montalbano finds himself getting into tangles with the dreaded Commissioner the exasperating Dr Lattes & a very beautiful young woman at the harbour with whom he becomes dangerously besotted.. . Can the Inspector clear his head long enough to unravel this murky mystery?

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THE AGE OF EXTREMES is eminent historian Eric Hobsbawms personal vision of the twentieth century. Remarkable in its scope & breathtaking in its depth of knowledge this immensely rewarding book reviews the uniquely destructive & creative nature of the troubled twentieth century & makes challenging predicitions for the future. ...

Rachel Carson's epoch-creating Silent Spring marked the beginnings of the environmental movement in the 1960s its ' First Wave' peaking at the 1972 Stockholm Conference. The invention of sustainable development by Barbara Ward along with Rachel Carson the founder of the environmental movement created an alliance of convenience between First World environmentalism & a Third World set on rapid industrialisation. The First Wave crashed in 1973 with the Yom Kippur War & decade-long energy crisis. Revived by a warming economy of the 1980s environmentalism found a new political champion in 1988: Margaret Thatcher. Four years later at the Rio Earth Summit politics settled the science. One hundred & ninety-two nations agreed that mankind was causing global warming & carbon dioxide emissions should be cut. Rio launched rounds of climate change meetings & summits with developing nations refusing to countenance any agreement restraining their greenhouse gas emissions
- their blanket exemption from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol leading to its rejection by the United States that year & again twelve years later in Copenhagen. This therefore marked not just the collapse of the climate change negotiations but something larger
- an unprecedented humiliation for the West at the hands of the rising powers of the East.

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Set in turn-of-the-century New York Edith Wharton's classic novel The Age of Innocence reveals a society governed by the dictates of taste & form manners & morals & intricate social ceremonies. Newland Archer soon to marry the lovely May Welland is a man torn between his respect for tradition & family & his attraction to May's strongly independent cousin the Countess Ellen Olenska. Plagued by the desire to live in a world where two people can love each other free from condemnation & judgment by the group Newland views the artful delicacy of the world he lives in as a comforting security one moment & at another as an oppressive fiction masking true human nature. The Age of Innocence is at once a richly drawn portrait of the elegant lifestyles luxurious brownstones & fascinating culture of bygone New York society & a compelling look at the conflict between human passions & the social tribe that tries to control them. ...

The story of HMS Invincible a ship whose eventful life story it is argued embodies that of the Royal Navy itself during the second half of the 20th century & into the 21st. From her conception & design through her various deployments (including the Falklands) & her evolving role & technical adaptation to meet changing strategic requirements her fluctuating fortunes have been intertwined with those of the Royal Navy as a whole. Now as a new breed of carriers is being commissioned to replace her this thoroughly researched analysis of her career is the perfect platform from which to ask the important questions regarding the future role of the Royal Navy & Britains place in the world. ...

It is never what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophes are always different
- unimagined unprepared
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' It is never what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophies are always different
- unimagined unprepared
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Eric Hobsbawm traces with brilliant anlytical clarity the transformation brought about in evry sphere of European life by the Dual revolution
- the 1789 French revolution & the Industrial Revolution that originated in Britain. This enthralling & original account highlights the significant sixty years when industrial capitalism established itself in Western Europe & when Europe established the domination over the rest of the world it was to hold for half a century.
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Somewhere between 40 & 50 the ageing process starts in most men. It impacts negatively on their mood energy levels & their sex drive. It's a downward spiral that most men notice with dread & which influences the rest of their lives. Michael Hogg spent the first 40 years of his life learning how to live building his career & creating wealth. As he hit his 40s not only did Mother Nature start ageing him but he is also went through a classic middle-age crisis" that saw him lose his family & high-powered job. This book is partly about Michael's journey of rejuvenation & his obsession with getting fit & healthy as he got older. In doing so it also describes the various treatments & preventative solutions to help men fight the ageing process with expert input from medical doctors & psychologists. Ultimately the book is an inspiration to any middle-age man wanting to enjoy the best years of their life in a healthy & fit state." ...