When a man is found murdered on the doorstep of a respectable house in Bedford Square Victorian Englands finest & most controversial policeman Thomas Pitt is called immediately to the scene. The only clue to the victims identity is a silver snuff box found on the body curiously at odds with the mans dishevelled appearance. Pitt soon discovers that the box & the house where the body was found belong to General Balantyne a man Pitt knows to be a pillar of the community. He is dismayed to learn that Balantyne can barely recall the evening let alone account for his movements. ...

The varied architecture of this east Midland area ranges from the Norman glory of Peterborough cathedral & notable Early English churches to many fine Elizabethan & Jacobean mansions. The finest of these is Houghton House but the most spectacular is Burghley of palatial proportions in a perfect landscape setting by Capability Brown. Southill & Woburn Abbey display the range & excellence of Georgian houses & landscaped gardens while Wrest Park & Luton Hoo look back to eighteenth-century French architecture from opposite ends of the nineteenth-century. More recently Whipsnade Zoo exemplifies fine work of the 1930s by Berthold Lubetkin. ...

' Bedlam!' The very name conjures up graphic images of naked patients chained among filthy straw or parading untended wards deluded that they are Napoleon or Jesus Christ. We owe this image of madness to William Hogarth who in plate eight of his 1735 Rake's Progress series depicts the anti-hero in Bedlam the latest addition to a freak show providing entertainment for Londoners between trips to the Tower Zoo puppet shows & public executions. That this is still the most powerful image of Bedlam over two centuries later says much about our attitude to mental illness although the Bedlam of the popular imagination is long gone. The hospital was relocated to the suburbs of Kent in 1930 & Sydney Smirke's impressive Victorian building in Southwark took on a new role as the Imperial War Museum. Following the historical narrative structure of her acclaimed Necropolis BEDLAM examines the capital's treatment of the insane over the centuries from the founding of Bethlehem Hospital in 1247 through the heyday of the great Victorian asylums to the more enlightened attitudes that prevail today. ...

Heaven is a prison. Hell is a playground. Would it be your ultimate fantasy to enter the world of a video game? A realm where you don't have to go to work or worry about your health; where you can look like a hero or a goddess; where you can fly space-ships slay dragons yet all of it feels completely real. A realm where there are no consequences & no responsibilities. Or would it be your worst nightmare? Stuck in an endless state of war & chaos where the pain & fear feels real & from which not even death can offer an escape. Prison or playground. Heaven or hell. This is where you find out. This is white-knuckle action sprawling adventure merciless satire & outrageous humour like you've never experienced. This is Bedlam. ...

We all know the word 'bedlam' as a term of madness & confusion but few of us really know the story of how this term was coined or how the real history of Bethlem Hospital in London came to epitomise the brutality long associated with lunatic asylums all over the country. Dr Paul Chambers a published historian has done some detailed research to bring the whole story of Bethlem Hospital to a new audience & he provides a coherent overview of the entire 800 year history of this famous hospital from its well-intended beginnings to its final disgrace & reform. ...

In my dreams I was always in some vast landscape on a long straight road. Driving. Always driving. Gwenda had always loved the open road but her home town of Newcastle didnt really offer the sort of adventure she longed for. So in 1957 with friend & fellow nurse Pat in tow she left the dismal British winter behind & embarked on an amazing American adventure. After a year nursing in Cleveland Gwenda Pat & three new friends set off on a road trip around North America driving in a rickety 1949 Ford. What follows is the charming true story of five remarkable young women. Over the course of eighteen months the girls go to a 4th July rodeo visit San Francisco & Las Vegas learn to surf in Hawaii spot movie stars in Hollywood & celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Wherever they go the travelling nurses cause a sensation. This is a delightfully nostalgic memoir of friendship & the romance of the open road. ...

There are times when we simply wish to read about our hobby & not be badgered by advice. If you enjoy reading about plants whether or not you can grow them or enjoy discovering gardens you may never visit & could never hope to match or are keen to learn how people gardened in the past & what they have contributed to our gardens today then this is the book for you. It

Includes:: sections on the great gardeners in history; extraordinary & surprising plants; remarkable gardens around the world; key gardening moments in history; the wildlife in our gardens; things for the plant lover to do indoors & other this & that trivia statistics & fascinating things you never knew all illustrated with charming line drawings. The perfect gift & as the title says the perfect bedside read for a nation of gardeners.

...

What will we remember of 2012? The Olympic & Paralympic Games? The Queens Diamond Jubilee? The faltering of the Arab Spring & the unfolding tragedy of Syria? Occupy London? The Bankers (again)? Leveson? Whatever the news Guardian" writers were there every step of the way with their unique & incisive takes on the events of the year. The 61st annual " Bedside Guardian"

Includes:: some of their best articles from around the world. Witty quirky original passionate.. .the very quintessence of the " Guardian"."

...

I was only sixteen when I bought an electric guitar & joined a b&. A year later I formed an all-girl band called the Marine Girls & played gigs & signed to an indie label & started releasing records. Then for eighteen years between 1982 & 2000 I was one half of the group Everything But the Girl. In that time we released nine albums & sold nine million records. We went on countless tours had hit singles & flop singles were reviewed & interviewed to within an inch of our lives. I've been in the charts out of them back in. I've seen myself described as an indie darling a middle-of-the-road nobody & a disco diva. I haven't always fitted in you see & that's made me face up to the realities of a pop career
- there are thrills & wonders to be experienced yes but also moments of doubt mistakes violent lifestyle changes from luxury to squalor & back again sometimes within minutes.
...

This is a charmingly illustrated bedtime board book for babies & toddlers that is perfect for sharing or for children to enjoy by themselves. Talking about the familiar scenes encourages vocabulary building & speech development. It

Includes:: scenes such as teatime tidying away toys bathtime & storytime with labels to promote word recognition.

...