This book is a fascinating discussion of the development of the military equipment of the earliest organized armies. Dan Howard describes the development of weapons armour & chariots how they were made & their tactical use in battle. Spanning from the introduction of massed infantry by the Sumerians (c. 26th century BC) through to the collapse of the chariot civilizations (c. 12th century BC) this is the period of the epic struggles described in the Old Testament & Homers Iliad the clashes of mighty empires like those of the Babylonians Egyptians & Hittites. rn The author draws on the latest research & archaeology as well as his own experiences of using & making replica weapons & armour to challenge established views & bring fresh insights to this fascinating period of military history. The main regions of discussion are the Aegean the Near East & the Middle East but some reference is also made to other relevant cultures such as the Aryan Indians & the Shang Chinese. ...

Chariots the first mobile fighting vehicle seem to have originated in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. The highly mobile two-wheeled war chariot carrying a driver & an archer armed with a short compound bow revolutionized military tactics after 1700 BC. This expensive weapon spread throughout the Middle East & is thought to have reached Egypt with the conquering Hyksos. It spread into Asia Minor Greece & was known in Northern Europe by 1500 BC. This book covers the evolution of the War Chariot throughout the Bronze Age including the design development & combat history B in particular its fundamental involvement at the battle of Qadesh. ...

A magnificent epic of love war & Russia from the international bestselling author of TULLY & ROAD TO PARADISE Leningrad 1941: the white nights of summer illuminate a city of fallen grandeur whose palaces & avenues speak of a different age when Leningrad was known as St Petersburg. Two sisters Tatiana & Dasha share the same bed living in one room with their brother & parents. The routine of their hard impoverished life is shattered on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invades Russia. For the Metanov family for Leningrad & particularly for Tatiana life will never be the same again. On that fateful day Tatiana meets a brash young man named Alexander. The family suffers as Hitler's army advances on Leningrad & the Russian winter closes in. With bombs falling & the city under siege Tatiana & Alexander are drawn inexorably to each other but theirs is a love that could tear Tatiana's family apart & at its heart lies a secret that could mean death to anyone who hears it. Confronted on the one hand by Hitler's vast war machine & on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit Tatiana & Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history at a turning point in the century that made the modern world. ...

Every child who grew up in the Fifties & Sixties remembers the Brooke Bond collecting cards that came with every packet of tea. Some were lucky enough to have the specially-produced albums in which to collect the cards that had either come with the latest packet of tea or been traded in the school playground. This beautifully printed nostalgic book presents the best 12 original albums reproduced slightly larger than they were forty years ago to bring out the best in the wonderfully detailed illustrations. Collecting original Brooke Bond tea cards is a hobby that has a huge following with serious collectors never daring actually to glue the cards into the albums as was originally intended
- that would mean losing the information on the back & devaluing the card. In this book however you can see how each album was intended to look with every card printed in its correct position making every page an enormously colourful feast for the eyes. The albums that have been included are: Out Into Space" " British Wild Life" " Wild Flowers series 2" " Freshwater Fish" " African Wild Life" " Asian Wild Life" " British Butterflies" " Wild Birds In Britain" " Transport Through The Ages" " Trees in Britain" " Flags & Emblems of the World" & " History of the Motor Car"."
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Kirsty & Rachel are excited to be entering a charity fashion show where children get to show off their own designs. Unfortunately Jack Frost thinks everyone in the world should dress like him & steals the Fashion Fairies' seven magical items to put his naughty plan into action! Kirsty & Rachel must find Brooke the Photographer Fairy's magic camera or every picture taken at tomorrow's charity fashion show will be an ugly blur! ...

I was looking for a quiet place to die. Someone recommended Brooklyn & so the next morning I travelled down there from Westchester to scope out the terrain.. . So begins Paul Austers remarkable novel The Brooklyn Follies". Set against the backdrop of the contested US election of 2000 it tells the story of Nathan & Tom an uncle & nephew double-act. One in remission from lung cancer divorced & estranged from his only daughter the other hiding away from his once-promising academic career & indeed from life in general. Having accidentally ended up in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood they discover a community teeming with life & passion. When Lucy a little girl who refuses to speak comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge from their pasts that offers them the possibility of redemption." ...

A visionary a craftsman a comedian & as serious as it is possible to be without accidentally writing a religious text. He can do anything with a piece of prose & it is a humbling experience to see him go to work on what has passed up till now as modern fiction". Hes so modern hes in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us. Goddamn him Zadie Smith The mysterious disappearance of her great- grandmother & twenty-five other elderly inmates from a Shaker Heights nursing home has left Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman emotionally stranded on the edge of the Great Ohio Desert. But that is simply one problem of many for the hapless switchboard operator seriously compounded by her ongoing affair with boss Rick Vigorous; the TV stardom of her talking cockatiel Vlad the Impaler; & other minor catastrophes that threaten to elevate Lenores search for love & self-detemination to new heights of spasmodic weirdness." ...

Scotlands longest-established & best loved family are celebrated in this calendar. Since 1936 the Broon family have entertained us weekly in The Sunday Post. A national institution the calendar is a must-have for every fan of The Broons. The Sunday Post circulation is 314 482 (ABC fi gures April 2011). Readership is estimated to be over one million. Canadian Australian & New Zealand key holiday dates are included this year in addition to those of the UK & Irel&. ...

A funny useful week-to-view diary from Scotlands favourite family. Full of Scots sayings favourite Broons pictures & moments captured from The Sunday Posts long-running (75 years) comic strip. Week-to-view diary grids Key 2013 Scottish dates Useful personal information space to record important & useful names & numbers including the Glebe Street Week (steamie coalman bucket day rag & bone windaes etc) & the Broons sizes (for claes an bunnets an the like) Scottish interest information (and Broons humour throughout) Full colour Clans & Tartans Appendix (including the Broons & Oor Wullie tartans) Full colour Map of Scotland World map with Scotland at the centre & relevant time zone information. A useful week-to-view working diary for Scots folk from Scotlands favourite family with illustrations sayings & moments captured from The Sunday Posts long-running (75 years) comic strip. Diary pages are printed pale cream with light blue lines. Left-hand page is the week right-hand page is ruled feint for notes. Monthly feature spreads include appropriate recipes & hints from the Broons & space for addresses & telephone numbers. The must-have item for every Broons fan. The Broons were launched in 1936 in The Sunday Post in Scotland & are still going strong. They are undoubtedly Scotlands First Family & the Nations Favourites with a readership covering all generations. ...

The Broons & Oor Wullie have appeared in the Sunday Post in Scotland since the 1930s & still have a huge following today with the annual selling over 100 000 copies every year. This is a slip-cased facsimile of the first ever Broons & Oor Wullie annuals. Collecting together the first few years of publication the annual shows the stylistic development of the characters during this formative period of the classic cartoons lives. Now over 70 years since their original publication this brilliant two-in-one annual has saved a small piece of Scottish heritage from obscurity. Appealing to all generations who have read the strips the book offers a great insight to the early days of the Broons & Oor Wullie as well as fulfilling the promise of all annuals: to make you laugh. ...