This book is all about a sense of place about our fascination with the fact that wherever we are in the world were living breathing feeling & thinking where thousands of other people have done so before us. That fascination is heightened when the location in question has been the scene of great events
- sometimes joyous sometimes calamitous
- a place where history was made. Colin Philpott Director of the National Media Museum takes us on a personal journey around Great Britain to visit destinations such as sports stadiums that were built to stage great events or places made famous by a single event such as a disaster or an event of social political or cultural significance. It also examines what has happened to those places touched by history how changing uses reflect changes in society particularly in economic circumstances & in leisure time. Above all it is a journey to inspire further exploration & discovery & an enduring sense of place.

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From the author of the critically-acclaimed Austerlitz" & " Across the Land & Water comes". "A Place in the Country" the much anticipated translation of one of W.G. Sebald's most brilliant works. When W. G. Sebald the prize-winning author of " Austerlitz" travelled to Manchester in 1966 he packed in his bags certain literary favourites which would remain central to him throughout the rest of his life & during the years when he was settled in Engl&. In "A Place in the Country" he reflects on six of the figures who shaped him as a person & as a writer from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Jan Peter Tripp. Fusing biography & essay & finding as ever inspiration in place
- as when he journeys to the Ile St. Pierre the tiny lonely Swiss island where Jean-Jacques Rousseau found solace & inspiration
- Sebald lovingly brings his subjects to life in his distinctive inimitable voice. A " Place in the Country" is a window into the mind of this much loved & much missed writer. Praise for W.G. Sebald: "A new kind of writing combining fiction memoir travelogue philosophy & much else besides...greatness in literature is still possible". (John Banville " Irish Times"). " When you read Sebald you are transported to another realm. Reading him is a truly sublime experience". (" Literary Review"). " Is literary greatness still possible? One of the few answers available to English-Language readers is the work of W.G. Sebald". (Susan Sontag). W.G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgau Germany in 1944. He studied German language & literature in Freiburg Switzerland & Manchester. In 1966 he took up a position as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester & settled permanently in England in 1970. He was Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia & the author of " Austerlitz"; " The Emmigrants" which won a series of major awards including the Berlin Literature Prize the Heinrich Boll Prize the Heinrich Heine Prize & the Joseph Breitbach Prize."

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Dido Kent's sister-in-law Margaret is attempting to marry her off to the ghastly clergyman Doctor Prowdlee with his abominable side-whiskers. Dido however is determined to refuse him. As punishment she is sent on a journey as companion to her rich hypochondriac Aunt Manners
- whom the family wants to keep on the right side of. When they arrive at Charcombe Manor Aunt Manners' childhood home they find a mystery lying in wait for them. The rich heiress Letitia Verney has disappeared while visiting the house & Mr Tom Lomax is suspected of abducting her. Dido upon hearing his story is inclined to believe in his innocence
- but how is she to explain the impossibility of Miss Verney vanishing into thin air? & there is also the abandoned wing of Charcombe Manor to be considered. Why do lights appear there at night? The house is full of enigmas with its memories of old family quarrels & its crying ghost that keeps visitors awake. As the mystery intensifies Miss Dido Kent embarks on her most intriguing investigation yet.. .

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A riveting psychological thriller now a major ITV drama from the Number One bestselling Queen of crime fiction Val Mc Dermid. In the Peak District village of Scarsdale thirteen-year-old girls didn't just run away. So when Alison Carter vanished in the winter of '63 everyone knew it was a murder. Catherine Heathcote remembers the case well. A child herself when Alison vanished decades on she still recalls the sense of fear as parents kept their children close terrified of strangers. Now a journalist she persuades DI George Bennett to speak of the hunt for Alison the tantalizing leads & harrowing dead ends. But when a fresh lead emerges Bennett tries to stop the story
- plunging Catherine into a world of buried secrets & revelations. Decades later he finally tells his story to journalist Catherine Heathcote but just when the book is poised for publication Bennett unaccountably tries to pull the plug. He has new information which he refuses to divulge new information that threatens the very foundations of his existence. Catherine is forced to reinvestigate the past with results that turn the world upside down. A Greek tragedy in modern England A Place of Execution is a taut psychological suspense thriller that uniquely explores exposes & explodes the border between reality & illusion in a multi-layered narrative that turns expectations on their head & reminds us that what we know is what we do not know. A monstrous tale of deception the technique of the telling is the greatest deception of all.
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From the double Man Booker prize-winner comes an extraordinary work of historical imagination
- this is Hilary Mantels epic novel
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Ex-vicar Lionel Lawrence believes that everyone deserves a second chance which is why he decides to open the old rectory to a stream of young offenders. All Lionel wants is to help these poor lost souls to find the right path
- he has no idea that the consequences of his good deed will include blackmail murder & a missing teenager. But Chief Inspector Barnaby is sure he knows whos behind the worrying disappearance of Lionels latest young charge -- a defiantly elusive suspect hes convinced is the incarnation of evil.
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When the world has failed you you need a place of safety... Hard-hitting crime from the author of Damaged Goods. The rape of a young asylum seeker plunges family care lawyer Lilly Valentine into the toughest case of her life. 14-year-old Anna lives in Hounds Place a hostel in Bedfordshire for youngsters seeking refuge from the atrocities being carried out in their homelands. A chance meeting with three public schoolboys ends in her being horrifically assaulted. When Artan Anna's friend & a fellow asylum seeker approaches Lilly about seeking justice through the courts she warns him that the law may not be on their side. Who will believe the words of an asylum seeker over the account of three privileged English boys? Despite this Lilly is loath to get involved. After all she is supposed to be putting her family & work commitments first. But Lilly quickly lives to regret that decision when Artan & Anna turn up at a school armed with guns determined to take matters into their own hands. The day turns to tragedy & Anna is arrested. Wracked with guilt Lilly is compelled to take on Anna's case despite the objections of her boyfriend Jack boss & most importantly her own son Sam
- a pupil at the school. Her decision to defend Anna attracts a huge backlash from the press & the community. & when local racist groups pick up on the story Lilly's family & friends become a target. Can Lilly follow her conscience & defend Anna
- or is this case just too close to home?

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The night before it all begins Jude has the dream again.. . Can dreams be passed down through families? As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest crying for her mother. Now her six-year-old niece Summer is having the same dream & Jude is frightened for her. A successful auctioneer Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husb&. When shes asked to value a collection of scientific instruments & manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham a lonely 18th century astronomer she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk where she grew up. As Jude untangles Wickhams tragic story she discovers threatening links to the present. What have Summers nightmares to do with Starbrough folly the eerie crumbling tower in the forest from which Wickham & his adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky? With the help of Euan a local naturalist Jude searches for answers in the wild haunting splendour of the Norfolk woods. Dare she leave behind the sadness in her own life & learn to love again? ...

Are you unsure about your medical nursing placement? Do you need guidance on what to prepare to get the most out of your practice learning? Will you have the range of clinical skills to care for individual patients? What learning opportunities will there be to meet your competencies? How can you maximise your learning during this placement? This book will help you with all these concerns. It will advise you on what to expect from the placement what you can learn how to link theory & practice & how to make the most of your learning opportunities & meet your competencies. ...

Rory Stewarts moving sparsely poetic account of his walk across Afghanistan in January 2002 has been immediately hailed as a classic. Caught between hostile nations warring factions & competing ideologies at the time Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot & following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mohgul Emperor Babur the Great Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme hostile conditions. Only due to the help of an unexpected companion & the generosity of the people he met on the way did he survive to report back with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war. This is traveling at its hardest & travel-writing at its best
- David Gilmour an astonishing achievement: a unique journey of great courage
- Colin Thubron wise funny & marvelously humane
- Michael Ignatieff [this] evocative book feels like a long lost relic of the great age of exploration -- Guardian His encounters with Afghans are tragic touching & terrifying.
- Daily Telegraph



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