These days it seems obvious that stupendous constructions like St Pancras Station should be preserved & restored. But as recently as the 1970s Glasgows superb St Enochs Hotel made way for a shopping centre & in the 1960s St Pancras itself was also earmarked for demolition. Victorian was a term of abuse. Add in wartime bombing by the Luftwaffe & town planners eager for ring roads & multi-storeys & the destruction is shocking. This poignant angry book full of stunning images chronicles the catastrophic swathe cut through our architectural heritage by the twentieth centurys sustained antipathy to the nineteenth entirely through buildings that have disappeared. Of the 200 notable examples of Victorian architecture illustrated in this book from the magnificent Imperial Institute in Kensington to the vast country house of Eaton Hall not one still exists. A photograph is all we have left. As well as architectural causes celebres like the Euston Arch & Londons Coal Exchange Gavin Stamp turns up many lesser-known Victorian buildings like the extraordinary Gothic battlements of Columbia Market in East London or Chatsworths soaring glasshouse streamlined like a spaceship. Surprising chastening but also uplifting Lost Victorian Britain is a memorable journey back into a world we should never have lost. ...

There on her forearm next to a small brown birthmark were six tattooed numbers. ' Do you remember me now?' he asked trembling. She looked at him again as if giving weight & bone to a ghost. ' Lenka it's me ' he said. ' Josef. Your husb&.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague Lenka a young art student falls in love with Josef. They marry
- but soon like so many others they are torn apart by the currents of war. In America Josef becomes a successful obstetrician & raises a family though he never forgets the wife he thinks died in the camps. But in the Nazi ghetto of Terez?n
- & later in Auschwitz
- Lenka has survived relying on her skills as an artist & the memories of a husband she believes she will never see again. Now decades later an unexpected encounter in New York brings Lenka & Josef back together. From the comfort of life in Prague before the occupation to the horrors of Nazi Europe The Lost Wife explores the endurance of first love the resilience of the human spirit & our capacity to remember.


...

Philip Howards legendary Lost Words column has been appearing weekly in The Times newspaper for many years regularly & wittily illuminating for readers on the meanings of some of the obscurer more esoteric words the English language has to offer. This unique collection finally brings together the very best of Howards columns. Only here can we learn the significance of words such as maritality; charientism; sardonian; janiform & faticidal
- words which enrich the English language & which would otherwise have been lost to it forever.
...

The notorious Professor Challenger claims that dinosaurs still walk the earth. When the press & the scientific community ridicule him Challenger vows to show them proof. & so he sets off for South America accompanied by a big game hunter a scientist & a young reporter eager to impress the woman he loves. On a remote plateau in the middle of impenetrable jungle they discover the impossible truth but must battle monsters & men before they can bring their testimony home. ...

Dorothy Hartley (1893
- 1985) is an author revered by enthusiasts for old English food & cookery & English country life. Her many
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From outer space the 115 islands that make up the Seychelles archipelago are little more than specks of rock & coral spread in a fan across the western Indian Ocean. This magnificent book is a visual journey into the aquatic world of this remote archipelago & a celebration of its underwater world & spectacular marine wildlife. The Seychelles coral reefs are among the most extensive in the Indian Ocean & Sir David Attenborough described the south-western atoll of Aldabra is one of the wonders of the world. Mangrove forests & sea grass beds are also well represented. With a high level of marine biodiversity
- the Seychelles hosts one of one of the worlds most important hawksbill turtle populations & are a globally important sanctuary for whale sharks. This title is published in association with the Save our Seas Foundation.
...

It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park six years since the extraordinary dream of science & imagination came to a crashing end
- the dinosaurs destroyed the park dismantled the island indefinitely closed to the public. But there are rumours that something survived. & when a team go to investigate they are determined not to give it a chance to escape. Michael Cricton takes the terrifying events of Jurassic Park even further in this unstoppably readable adventure sequel told by a master storyteller.
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These lively varied & thought-provoking science-fiction stories (from the era of Jules Verne & H. G. Wells) are linked by their imposing central character the pugnaciously adventurous & outrageous Professor Challenger. The Lost World (forebear of Jurassic Park) vividly depicts a perilous region in which the explorers confront creatures from the prehistoric era. The Poison Belt presents an eerie doomsday scenario while The Disintegration Machine satirically comments on scientific cynicism. In When the World Screamed the planet responds violently to an experimental incursion. The strangest item is The Land of Mist which seeks to reconcile science with spiritualism. This memorable collection provides imaginative entertainment entrancing escapism & bold provocation. ...

Dr. Jonathan Lyons a well-respected academic has a stroke of luck when a previously missing ancient artefact
- a highly valuable
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Cornwall 1914 ? Perys Tremayne arrives at St Austell to stay with relatives at the ancient family home of Heligan House. But this is not a social visit: Perys is hoping to use his family connections to start a military career with the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry. Perys is a Tremayne but only just: his childhood was coloured by the disgrace of his illegitimacy. While family tensions continue to strain Perys finds friendship with the locals in particular farm girl Annie Rowe. Annie though has long been the subject of a tacit agreement between her parents & neighbours the Rowes that one day she would marry their son Jimmy. & when Jimmy is badly injured in the trenches at Ypres Annie feels unable to refuse. It seems that Perys & Annie are fated to remain apart but in this war to end all wars one can never be sure what is to happen next.. . ...