In this richly illustrated book religious historian Eamon Duffy discusses the Book of Hours" unquestionably the most intimate & most widely used book of the later Middle Ages. He examines surviving copies of the personal prayer books which were used for private domestic devotions & in which people commonly left traces of their lives. Manuscript prayers biographical jottings affectionate messages autographs & pious paste-ins often crowd the margins fly-leaves & blank spaces of such books. From these sometimes clumsy jottings viewed by generations of librarians & art historians as blemishes at best vandalism at worst Duffy teases out precious clues to the private thoughts & public contexts of their owners & insights into the times in which they lived & prayed. His analysis has a special relevance for the history of women since women feature very prominently among the identifiable owners & users of the medieval Book of Hours. Books of Hours range from lavish illuminated manuscripts worth a kings ransom to mass-produced & sparsely illustrated volumes costing a few shillings or pence. Some include customized prayers & pictures requested by the purchaser & others handed down from one family member to another bear the often poignant traces of a familys history over several generations. Duffy places these volumes in the context of religious & social change above all the Reformation discusses their significance to Catholics & Protestants & describes the controversy they inspired under successive Tudor regimes. He looks closely at several special volumes including the cherished " Book of Hours" that Sir Thomas More kept with him in the Tower of London as he awaited execution." ...

Home Place Sussex 1939. The English family at war.. . The sunlit days of childish games & familyn meals are over as the shadows of war roll in to cloud the lives of one English family. At Home Place the windows are blacked out & food is becoming scarce as a new generation of Cazalets takes up the story. Louise dreams of being a great actress Clary is an aspiring writer while Polly is burdened with knowledge & the need to share it. Marking Time is the second volume in The Cazalet Chronicle. The next novel in the series is Confusion. ...

The gripping new high-concept thriller from the author of The Genesis Secret perfect for fans of Dan Brown & Sam Bourne. In America a young man inherits a million dollars from a grandfather he thought was poor. Meanwhile across Europe old men & women are being killed in the most barbaric & elaborate of ways. & a brilliant scientist has disappeared from his laboratory in London taking his extraordinary experiments with him. Tying these strange events together is an ancient Biblical curse a medieval French tribe of pariahs & a momentous & terrible revelation: something that will alter the world forever. One couple is intent on discovering this darkest of secrets others will kill & kill again to stop them. Shifting from the forgotten churches of the Pyrenees to the mysterious castles of the SS to the arid & frightening wastes of Namibia Tom Knox weaves together astonishing truths from ancient scripture & contemporary science to create an unputdownable thriller. ...

OS Explorer Map is the Ordnance Survey's most detailed map & is recommended for anyone enjoying outdoor activities like walking horse riding & off-road cycling. Providing complete GB coverage the series details essential information such as youth hostels pubs & visitor information as well as rights of way permissive paths & bridleways. ...

OS Explorer Map is the Ordnance Surveys most detailed map & is recommended for anyone enjoying outdoor activities such as walking horse riding & off-road cycling. The series provides complete GB coverage & can now be used in all weathers thanks to OS Explorer Map
- Active a tough versatile version of the OS Explorer Map.
...

Packed with action & hilarious antics this is the third picture book about Marley who first appeared in the phenomenally bestselling novel Marley & Me. Its the first day of school & Cassie is all set to go. So is her dog Marley! Although hes told to stay Marley digs a tunnel out of the backyard & sniffs his way to school. As he roams the halls looking for Cassie he finds trouble instead. From wolfing down hot dogs in the cafeteria to setting free a bunch of mice in science class Marley wont stop until he locates his best friend. This lovable & rowdy dog may not be much of an academic but hes full of school spirit! ...

Queen Silth rules Castle Marl from behind the curtains of her palanquin. Greedy & vain she has sent her six children into the world to plunder treasure. Stealth & cunning are the traits of the Marlfox. Known only in Redwall country by legend they are said to able to appear & disappear by magic. When the strange creatures begin to appear in Mossflower Woods it is clear that evil is abroad. A kidnapping & a cunning raid to steal the beautiful Redwall tapestry confirm the worst; Redwall is under threat! Three young friends fated by the prophecy of Martin the Warrior pursue the villains in a quest of daring courage & wit to return the beloved tapestry to its home. ...

Hervey Garrett Smith was the foremost marine illustrator of the 1950s & 1960s & his wonderful drawings of traditional ropework quickly propelled The Marlinspike Sailor" to cult classic status when it was published in 1956. With the addition of a section on modern synthetic rope in the 1970s its popularity has continued undiminished to this day. It teaches a few basic knots
- the bowline sheet bend & rolling hitch among others
- & splices in three-strand & braided rope. But its real business is decorative rope & canvaswork
- the traditional arts of the sailor
- & here it has no equal. For a rope mat a rope ladder a sea chest a ditty bag a canvas bucket a mast boot & the best-looking rope fenders or heaving line in the marina this is the book of choice."



...

Marlow is an ancient Thames crossing point a position symbolised by its elegant suspension bridge. Timber wheat & malt were the main cargoes sent down river to London in the days when Marlow merchants built up contacts with trading houses in the capital apprenticed their sons to London tradesmen & forged commercial links. Though never a busy market town it had a market day & two annual fairs. Due to wheat & barley growing the local maltsters prospered & Wethereds brewery become the largest employer in the town. ...

On May 30th 1593 a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London. That at least was the official version. Now Christopher Marlowe reveals the truth: that his death was an elaborate ruse to avoid being convicted of heresy; that he was spirited across the Channel to live on in lonely exile; that he continued to write plays & poetry hiding behind the name of a colourless man from Stratford
- one William Shakespeare. With the grip of a thriller & the emotional force of a sonnet this remarkable novel in verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant passionate & mercurial. A cobblers son who counted nobles among his friends a spy in the Queens service a fickle lover & a declared religious sceptic he was always courting trouble. Memoir love letter confession settling of accounts & a cry for recognition as the creator of some of the most sublime works in the English language The Marlowe Papers brings Christopher Marlowe & his era to vivid life. Written by a poet & scholar it is a work of exceptional art erudition & imagination.
...