Climate change is one of the greatest threats that humankind faces in the 21st century. The next hundred years could see coastlines & islands submerged & a surge in heatwaves hurricanes droughts floods & therefore in pests disease famine & displacement. While government & industry dither this book argues we could all cut our personal greenhouse gas emissions by 60%
- the level necessary to halt the current trend according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After summarising today's state of affairs scientifically & politically climatologist Dave Reay explores the climate impact of housing gardening food money work transport death even. Packed with provocative case studies calculations & lifestyle comparisons this entertaining & authoritative book makes the complexities of climatology tractable & challenges readers to rethink their notions of 'doing their bit'.
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Insightful & refreshingly level-headed this book tackles all of the major climate change issues facing today's world. From global warming & expanding populations to renewable energy & sustainability this study examines each issue with an objectivity & grace rarely seen in an arena fraught with dissent & extremism. ...

In May 1996 a number of expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route. Crowded conditions slowed their progress & late in the day 23 men & women including the expedition leaders were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disorientated & out of oxygen climbers struggled to find their way to safety. Alone & climbing blind Anatoli Boukreev rescued a number of climbers from certain death. This honest & gripping account

Includes:: the transcript of the Mountain Madness debriefing recorded five days after the tragedy as well as G. Weston de Walts response to Jon Krakauer. Powerful.. .a breath of brisk sometimes bitter clarity.. . Boukreev did the one thing that denies the void. He took action. He chose danger & he saved lives. New York Times Book Review The best book Ive read this year.. . The Climb has a story that will grip & haunt you. Alex Garland author of The Beach & The Tesseract

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The boxy spiky monkey puzzle tree stands tall & imposing outside the dormitory window of Woodmaston House For Girls a forbidding guardian to the schools young charges. Nancy Cameron is a new arrival not just to Woodmaston but to Engl&. Shes rolled up from the backwoods of Canada eager for a new life brimming with adventure. But boarding school isnt the Famous Five fantasy that Nancy had imagined. It is an austere loveless world where budding relationships are soon put to the test. Nancy wins friends & finds solace by telling stories but spinning stories for others cant hide the fact that Nancy feels horribly alone inside. & when she leads her dorm in a special fund-raising event that goes tragically wrong things go from bad to worse. Nancy longs to meet the glamorous brother of her friend Caroline & as her troubles build its an encounter that cant come soon enough
- until a shocking revelation comes to light...
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In Climbing Everest George Mallory (18 June 1886
- 8/9 June 1924) possibly the first man to summit Everest takes us with him on
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In Climbing Mount Improbable" Richard Dawkins author of " The God Delusion" builds a powerful & carefully reasoned argument for evolutionary adaptation as the force behind all life on earth. What drives species to evolve? How can intricate structures such as the human eye the spiders web or the wings of birds develop seemingly by chance? Regarding evolutions most complex achievements as peaks on a metaphorical mountain " Climbing Mount Improbable" reveals the ways in which the theory of natural selection can precisely explain the beautiful bizarre & seemingly designed complexity of living things. & through it all runs the thread of DNA the molecule of life responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Accompanied by evocative illustrations Dawkins eloquent descriptions of the living worlds astonishing adaptations throw back the curtain on the mysteries of Mount Improbable. "A beautiful barnstorming thunderclap of a book". (Michael White " Mail on Sunday"). " Exhilarating
- a perfect elegant riposte to a great deal of fuzzy thinking about natural selection & evolution". (" Observer"). " Dawkins has done more than anyone else now writing to make evolutionary biology comprehensible & acceptable". (" Sunday Times"). " Dazzling". (David Attenborough). "A cracking good book on evolution". (John Gribbin). Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society & the Royal Society of Literature & Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with " The Selfish Gene" which he followed with a string of bestselling books: " The Extended Phenotype" " The Blind Watchmaker" " River Out of Eden" " Unweaving the Rainbow" & an impassioned defence of atheism " The God Delusion"."
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I was born in a sprawling house by the Yamuna River in Delhi. When I was a few minutes old Grandmother welcomed me into the world by writing Om" which means "I am" in Sanskrit on my tongue with a little finger dipped in honey. When the family priest arrived to draw up my horoscope he scribbled astrological symbols on a long scroll & set down a name for me Indrani or "queen of the heavens". My father ignored him completely & proclaimed my name was to be Madhur ("sweet as honey"). So begins Madhur Jaffreys enchanting memoir of her childhood in India. Her description of growing up a in a very large wealthy family (half a train was booked to transport the family from Delhi to the mountains for the summer) conjures up the spirit of a long lost age. Whether climbing the mango trees in her grandparents orchard armed with a mixture of salt pepper red chillies & roasted cumin or enjoying picnics in the foothills of the Himalayas reached by foot rickshaw palanquin or horse where meatballs stuffed with sultanas & mint leaves cauliflowers flavoured with ginger & coriander & spiced pooris with hot green mango pickle were devoured food forms a major leitmotiv of this beautifully written memoir. With recipes drawn from memories of dinners lunches breakfasts weddings & picnics moving effortlessly from the lamb meatballs of Moghul emperors to the tamarind chutneys of the streets this book will appeal to keen armchair cooks as well as fans of Madhur the world over." ...

Aconcagua; Denali; Elbrus; Everest; Kilimanjaro; Kosciuszko; Vinson. To a climber these mountains are known as the Seven Summits"
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From the grand houses of Brighton to imposing London mansions life as a kitchen maid could be exhausting & demoralising. It's not just being at the beck & call of the people upstairs when even the children of the family can treat you like dirt but having to deal with temperamental cooks starchy butlers & chauffeurs with a roving eye. Marriage is the only escape but with one evening off a week Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor (who brings his mother on dates) & Mr Hailsham the fishmonger (who looks -- & smells -- a bit like his wares) her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams. But then she meets Albert; a butcher boy-turned-milkman. Could he be the perfect husband? & can she make the perfect wife when as she soon discovers years spent serving others don't prepare you for managing your own life? Soon Margaret begins to wonder -- how can someone like her ever improve their station? Told with her trademark wit & warmth Climbing the Stairs is a unique sharp-eyed tale of a time when the idea of masters & servants began to lose its sway & of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands. ' Margaret Powell was the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world so near & yet seemingly so far away where servants & their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof. Her memories funny & poignant angry & charming haunted me until many years later I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera. I certainly owe her a great debt' Julian Fellowes ...

Clinging to the Wreckage"
- the first part of John Mortimers hilarious & moving autobiography. "A true masterpiece of
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