No British statesman of the nineteenth century reached the same level of international fame as Lord Castlereagh or won as much respect from the great powers of Europe or America. Yet no British statesman has been so maligned by his contemporaries or hated by the public. His career took him from the brutal suppression of a bloody rebellion in Ireland to the splendour of Vienna & Paris. He imprisoned his former friends abolished the Irish parliament created the biggest British army in history & redrew the map of Europe. At a time when the West turns from idealism to realism in its foreign policy Castlereaghs reputation is being revived. Yet neither his detractors nor his defenders have truly understood this shy inarticulate but sometimes passionate man. In this book John Bew tells the story of Castlereagh from the French Revolution through the Irish rebellion the Napoleonic Wars the diplomatic power struggles of 1814-5 & the mental breakdown that ended his life. John Bew paints a magisterial portrait not only of his subject but the tumultuous times in which he acted. Rather than the tyrant of legend Castlereagh was a man whose mind captured the complexity of the European Enlightenment as much as any other. His mind was conservative & enlightened at the same time
- & no less the one for being the other.
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Orpahned & besieged Princess Alesandra knew that only hasty marriage to an Englishman could protect her from the turmoil in her own l&. To the amusement of her makeshift guardian Colin younger brother of the Marquess of Cainwood the bold raven-haired beauty instantly captivated London society. But when Alesandra was nearly abducted by her unscrupulous countrymen the fighting instincts that won Colin a knighthood for valor were kindled. Deceiving himself that he wanted only to protect her Colin swept her into a union meant to be a marriage in name alone... yet Alesandras tender first kiss & hesitant caress ignited a wildfire in his soul. As the lovely princess dashed headlong into unforseen dangers Colin would follow knowing he must claim her as his own forever. Now he would risk life itself before he would lose this sweet tempestuous angel. ...

Wales a small country is littered with the relics of war
- Iron Age forts Roman ruins medieval castles & the coastal forts of
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Castles in the Air is a beautifully written autobiographical story of rescuing an ancient mansion. Gwydir Castle was inhabited by ravers & rats until Judy Corbett & her husband Peter Welford found & acquired this 500-year-old house mouldering in the foothills of Snowdonia. Despite the toads strange smells & squatters they decided to mortgage themselves to the hilt to bring the castle back to life. This is an evocatively written & genuinely moving book & is infused with an extraordinary sense of place. The couples adventures in a gothic wonderland lead them through plots both supernatural & historical. In a museum storeroom in a Bronx warehouse they find a missing room in the castles Solar Tower the ghost of a young woman appears & from the far edges of the woods a silent man called Sven emerges to befriend the couple & their beloved castle. For everyone who has ever wanted to live in a glorious house or escape from the mundanity of life
- Castles in the Air is pure magic.
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To many medieval castles are the essence of Britain & Irelands fascinating past. Immersed in history & centuries old each one tells a story of Kings Queens & feuding lords; war & bloody conflict; treason revenge & murder. In Castles of Britain & Ireland Rodney Castleden weaves a fascinating & detailed narrative of 115 of the grandest & most historically significant castles in the British Isles including Balmoral in Scotland Bunratty in Ireland Caernarfon in Wales & St Michaels Mount in Engl&. As well as the details of the construction function & often the destruction of these magnificent buildings each chapter also tells the human stories behind these ancient walls with fascinating details of everyday life within. ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils&8230; Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? Blackly comic thought-provoking & constantly surprising The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling&8217;s first novel for adults. Q&A with J.K Rowling " The Casual Vacancy" is radically different from Harry Potter. What made you want to write it? I had the idea on a plane this time- not on a train- & was immediately very excited by it. It is another novel about morality & mortality as Harry Potter was but contemporary. Its set in a small community which involves writing characters who are adolescents all the way up to people in their sixties. I love nineteenth century novels that centre on a town or village. This is my attempt to do a modern version. Why is it called " The Casual Vacancy"? Were there other possible titles? The working title was Responsible because a central theme is how much responsibility each of us has for where we are in life
- our happiness our health & our wealth
- & also the responsibility we have towards other people
- our partners our children & wider society. However when I came across the phrase a casual vacancy which is the correct term for a seat left empty on a council by the death of one of its members I knew at once that I had my new title. The title speaks to me on many different levels. First of all it seemed to me that the greatest casual vacancy is death itself which often arrives with no fanfare & creates unfillable vacuums. I was also aware that all of my characters have lacks & deficiencies in their lives that they are attempting to fill in a variety of ways: with food drink drugs fantasies or rebellious behaviour. These too could be called casual vacancies: those little emptinesss that we are perhaps not entirely conscious that we possess & yet we still feel the need to assuage. The novel has been described as blackly comic? Can you tell us a little more about the humour in the book? The humours rather dark. I wouldnt have described it as a black comedy personally. Perhaps a comic tragedy! Do you think its a particularly British novel? How much is it specifically about Britain today & how much does it contain universal themes? While the setting & characters are I think quintessentially English I am dealing with universal themes. My social issues are relevant anywhere: family & marital conflict the tensions between parents & their children the ideological conflict between an emphasis on self-reliance & state provided support. Its a book about a divided community
- & one of those divisions is between adults & children
- why? As families in developed western soc"




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When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. ...

In the beginning God created man but seeing him so feeble He gave him the cat
- Warren Eckstein. Combining gorgeous & characterful
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