From the impact of the first monasteries in the seventh century to the emergence of the local parochial system five hundred years later the Church was a force for change in Anglo-Saxon society. It shaped culture & ideas social & economic behaviour & the organization of landscape & settlement. This book traces how the widespread foundation of monastic sites ('minsters') during c.670-730 gave the recently pagan English new ways of living of exploiting their resources & of absorbing European culture as well as opening new spiritual & intellectual horizons. Through the era of Viking wars & the tenth-century reconstruction of political & economic life the minsters gradually lost their wealth their independence & their role as sites of high culture but grew in stature as foci of local society & eventually towns. After 950 with the increasing prominence of manors manor-houses & village communities a new & much larger category of small churches were founded endowed & rebuilt: the parish churches of the emergent eleventh- & twelfth-century local parochial system. In this innovative study John Blair brings together written topographical & archaeological evidence to build a multi-dimensional picture of what local churches & local communities meant to each other in early Engl&. ...

A wonderful story of good versus evil set in amongst the church mice & their friend the church cat Sampson. Good wins through; the rats come to a very sticky end (finding a new home in a glue factory) & the church mice & Sampson get their home back. Other titles in the series won the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book award & were nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. ...

Another favourite Church Mouse story available for a whole new audience to enjoy. In a bid to save the leaky vestry roof the church mice decide to raise some money by entering Sampson into a cat show. He soon wins when the mice invoke havoc by winding up all of the other cat contestants. Sampson continues to win show after show until he is catnapped & held to ransom. It is up to Arthur & Humphrey to save him & outwit the thieves ...

Tom Cruise & John Travolta say the Church of Scientology is a force for good. Others disagree. Award-winning journalist John Sweeney investigated the Church for more than half a decade. During that time he was intimidated spied on & followed & the results were spectacular: Sweeney lost his temper with the Churchs spokesman on camera & his infamous exploding tomato clip was seen by millions around the world. In THE CHURCH OF FEAR Sweeney tells the full story of his experiences for the first time & paints a devastating picture of this strange organisation from former Scientologists who tell heartbreaking stories of families torn apart & lives ruined to its current followers who say it is the solution to many of mankinds problems. This is the real story of the Church by the reporter who was brave enough to take it on. ...

The essential handbook for everyone in church governance at any level this new edition has been updated to reflect the changes to the church representation rules since 2006 including the 2009 Statutory Instrument & the 2009 update to the Code of Recommended Practice to the Pastoral Measure 1983. Also included are the rules governing: the formation & revision of the electoral roll; the minimum qualifying age for election to the Parochial Church Council; methods of voting at the Annual Parochial Church Meetings; chairmanship of the Parochial Church Council & the number & term of office of its lay members; membership of deanery synods & how the number of lay members to be elected to them is calculated; & membership of & elections to the House of Laity of the General Synod. An essential purchase for all clergy churchwardens PCC & synod members. ...

Winston Churchill attracted far more criticism alive than he has since his death. He was according to Evelyn Waugh always in the wrong surrounded by crooks a terrible father a radio personality. Whatever ones view of the greatest Briton & despite the best efforts of an army of writers who have penned portraits of him Winston Churchill remains splendidly unreduced. In this new biography Ashley Jackson describes the contours of Winston Churchills remarkable life & political career & gives a sense of the man behind the dark eyes & bulldog features. From Cabinet outcast to the greatest war leader ever this is the eternally fascinating story of Winston Churchills appointment with destiny. ...

From the admiralty to the miners strike from the Battle of Britain to the Nobel Prize Churchill oversaw some of the most important events the World has ever seen. Roy Jenkins faithfully presents these events while also managing to convey the contradictions & quirks in Churchills character. In depth analysis & brilliant historical research make this a magnificent one-volume biography of an extraordinary life. In some ways a companion piece to his excellent biography of Gladstone Churchill" is packed with insights that only a fellow politician could convey. " There is no doubt that he has surpassed himself. This is the biography of the year."
- Robert Mc Crum " Observer". " This is a first class well-sustained work of history & a masterpiece of biography "
- Andrew Roberts " Sunday Telegraph". " Lord Jenkins of Hillhead is an outstanding biographer...it has the narrative power sweep & sparkle of the author in his prime."
- John Grigg " Times"."


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This edition of the highly acclaimed one-volume CHURCHILL: A LIFE is the story of adventure. It follows Winston Churchill from his earliest days to his moments of triumph. Here the drama & excitement of his story are ever-present as are his tremendous qualities in peace & war not least as an orator & as a man of vision. Martin Gilbert gives us a vivid portrait using Churchill's most personal letters & the recollections of his contemporaries both friends & enemies to go behind the scenes of some of the stormiest & most fascinating political events of our time dominated by two world wars & culminating in the era of the Iron Curtain & the hydrogen bomb. ...

Winston Churchill is one of the dominating figures of the 20th century. In this stimulating & original book David Dilks presents Churchill not only as a war leader & international statesman but also as a private person with a rich variety of friendships & rivalries. New & penetrating light is directed on Churchill during World War II. This was a period of dramatic relationships: conflicts with General de Gaulle in contrast with respect & affection for Roosevelt (feelings not entirely reciprocated by the American president). In the post-war era relations with Stalin & precoccupation with the Soviet Union & the Cold War all dominated Churchills subsequent career a time when he was able to renew his working relationship with his wartime colleague General
- now President
- Eisenhower. Whether in or out of office Churchills influence was felt in all areas of British politics. David Dilks brings Churchill vividly to life for all those interested in modern British military & international history.

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One of our finest narrative historians & journalist for the SUNDAY TIMES & LITERARY REVIEW Lawrence James has written a genuinely new biography of Winston Churchill set within a fully detailed historical context but solely focusing on his relationship with the British Empire. As a young army officer in the late 19th century Churchill's first experience of the Empire was serving in conflicts in India South Africa & the Sudan. His attitude towards the Empire at the time was the stereotypical Victorian paternalistic approach
- a combination of feeling responsible & feeling superior. Conscious even then of his political career ahead Churchill's natural benevolence towards the Empire was occasionally overruled for political reasons & he found himself reluctantly supporting
- or at least not publicly condemning
- British atrocities. As a politician he consistently relied on the Empire for support during crises but was angered by any demands for nationalisation. He held what many would regard today as racist views in that he felt that some nationalities were superior to others but he didn't regard those positions as fixed. His (some might say obsequious) relationship with America reflected that view. America was a former colony where the natives had become worthy to rule themselves but
- he felt
- still had that tie to Britain. Thus he overlooked the frequently expressed American view that the Empire was a hangover from a bygone era of colonisation & reflected poorly on Britain's ability to conduct herself as a political power in the current world order. This outmoded attitude was one of the reasons the British voters rejected him after a Second World War in which
- it was universally felt
- he had led the country brilliantly. His attitude remained Victorian in a world that was shaping up very differently. However it would be a mistake to consider Churchill merely as an anachronistic soldier. He grasped the problems of the Cold War immediately believing that immature nations prematurely given independence would be more likely to be sucked into the vortex of Communism. This view chimed with American foreign policy & made the Americans rather more pragmatic about their demands for self-governance for Empire countries. Lawrence James has written a fascinating portrait of an endlessly interesting statesman
- & one that

Includes:: tantalising vignettes about his penchants for silk underwear & champagne.









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