From the Foreword by Professor Tom Devine: Arnold Kemp one of the greatest of Scottish journalists & editors of the 20th century died prematurely at the age of 63 in 2002. He edited The Herald with memorable elan & panache between 1981 & 1994 & his prolific writings also regularly graced the pages of the Scotsman the Guardian & the Observer in a career which spanned more than four decades from the year he began his first job in journalism in 1959 as a sub-editor on the Scotsman fresh out of Edinburgh University. Kemp left behind him a rich personal but un-catalogued archive of newspaper articles chapters in books & opinion pieces. These have now been expertly harvested & selected by his daughter Jackie. Reading them it is clear that her father was a master of his trade & that his published work provides a perceptive & illuminating guide to the key historical events of his lifetime in Scotl&. This book encompasses the arly rise of nationalism the traumatic de-industrialisation & then transformation of the economy in the 1980s the impact of the Thatcher governments on Scotland the halting progress toward devolution & then the successful establishment of the Scottish Parliament in the last decade of the century. These events & others are all recorded here not in the arid descriptive prose of the chronicler but with the eloquence punch & insight for which Kemp was noted. As a result the recent Scottish past is brought alive in an engaging & highly readable fashion. The immediacy of the reportage the sense of a writer who because of his journalistic & editorial eminence knew all the principal actors involved & was close to the unfolding of great events are all plainly evident to the reader. But Kemp also scorns mediocrity incompetence humbug & hypocrisy in the political & cultural life of the nation & several of the excerpts are also fair & balanced judgements perhaps most notably in the evaluation of the impact of Margaret Thatcher on Scotl&. There is a liveliness & breadth in the writing redolent of Kemps own personal wide international horizons his travels in America & Europe love of conviviality & the craic. The passion for life shines through. This is an important text for anyone wishing to come to a fuller understanding of how Scotland developed from the dark days of the Second World War to the current debates over independence. It is also a hugely enjoyable read which many will savour with interest & delight for its own sake. ...

The political & military struggles of post-independence Congo Post-independence events in the Republic of the Congo are a veritable Gordian knot. The ambitions of Congolese political leaders Cold War rivalry Pan-Africanism Belgium's continued economic interests in the country's mineral wealth & the strategic perceptions of other southern African states all conspired to wrack Africa's second largest country with uprisings rebellions & military interventions for almost a decade. Congo Unravelled solves the intractable complexity of this violent period by dispassionately outlining the sequence of political & military events that took place in the troubled country. The reader is systematically taken through the first military attempts to stabilise the country after independence & the two distinguishing military campaigns of the decade; the United Nations military operations to end the secession of the Katanga Province & the Dragon Operations led by Belgian paratroopers supported by the US Air Force launched to end the insurgency in the east of the country. Finally the mercenary revolt an event that tainted the reputation of the modern mercenary in Africa is described. Lesser known military events such as the Irish UN forces cut off from the outside world by Katangese gendarmes & mercenaries & a combined military operation in which Belgian paratroopers were dropped from US Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft & supported by a mercenary ground force to achieve humanitarian ends go far toward resolving the enigma surrounding post-independence Congo. ...

A sparkly 50th Birthday card with 50 in silver 3D lettering against a sparkly violet background embellished with sparkles & more stars further down the card on a white background. The greeting inside this card reads &8216; Wishing you a very Happy Birthday&8217; & the card comes complete with a silver envelope ready for posting. Approximate dimensions: 14.5x 20.5cm Not suitable for children under 3 years contains small parts which may cause a choking hazard. ...

A sparkly 60th Birthday card with 60 in gold 3D lettering against a sparkly gold background embellished with sparkles & more stars further down the card on a white background.

The greeting inside this card reads ‘ May this special day be filled with happy & memorable moments’ & the card comes complete with a gold envelope ready for posting. Approximate dimensions: 14.5x 20.5cm

Not suitable for children under 3 years contains small parts which may cause a choking hazard.



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A sparkly 80th Birthday card with 80 in silver 3D lettering against a sparkly violet background embellished with sparkles & more stars further down the card on a white background.

The greeting inside this card reads ‘ May this special day be filled with happy & memorable moments’ & the card comes complete with a silver envelope ready for posting. Approximate dimensions: 14.5x 20.5cm

Not suitable for children under 3 years contains small parts which may cause a choking hazard.



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Get this wonderful Wedding Day card to congratulate the newly married couple on their wedding! Has the word Wedding raised above the rest of the cards cover against a silver glitter strip. The rest of the card is white with silver glittery hearts pattern. To make it really stand out the card has stick on clear diamantes on the W & on the heart above the i. Card says Congratulatuions on Your Wedding Day & inside With Love on Your Big Day.

Includes:: matching silver envelope. Approximate dimensions: 20.5 x 20.5cm Not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts.

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This starry congratulations card features the message &8216; Yippee! Congratulations you&8217;re an absolute STAR!&8217; in silver writing along with silver stars with sparkles on a white background. This card is blank inside for your own message & comes complete with a cream envelope ready for posting. Approximate dimensions: 14x 14cm. Not suitable for children under 3 years contains small parts which may cause a choking hazard. ...

Cass Pennant was one of the best-known figures of the I.C.F. He has used his unique position as a West Ham insider to bring together these first-hand accounts of the men who were at the eye of the storm both on & off the terraces. These tales from the terraces range from the inflamed East End rivalry with Millwall to the shed-end-battles with Chelsea from aggravation at Anfields Kop to the disaster at Heysel. The stories unfold against a backdrop of sharp fashion & music such as The Cockney Rejects & Sham 69 that became the hallmark of the hoolifans. ...

It seems a long time ago that Fitz & Gabby were together with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now its his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly though the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated
- & dangerous
- than the search for a stuffed bird. To solve the puzzle he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved
- a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting. THE CONJURORS BIRD is the perfect mixture of detection romance & history.


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When a school teacher put a modest advertisement in Private Eye as a painter of genuine fakes he had no idea that it would lead to him becoming a willing part of the biggest art fraud in Britain. Among one of the few people who responded was the mysterious & magnetic John Drewe apparently a Professor & inventor with impressive connections. But really Drewe was a conman who was soon to take in the British Modern Art World with a scam that would last a decade. Drewe who knew at first little about the art world discovered that the art itself didnt really make any difference but it was the documentation of a work that mattered. He commissioned some 200 works from Myatt who worked with B&Q emulsion paint mixed in with KY jelly over a decade. It was only a naked a woman & a microwaved goldfish that would end the scam! ...