A moving family drama of one young womans fight to survive & to find a place to call home 1938: Sixteen-year-old Kate Monroe is living in Birmingham far away from her family in Irel&. Her parents have always doted on her siblings Sally & James leaving no time for her. Kate harbours a dark secret a deep longing for her cousin. Feelings she must suppress in this deeply staunch Irish-Catholic community -- even if they are reciprocated. Crazed by her infatuation Kate is left with no option other than to up-roots once more & seek out a new life far away from the temptation of Tim Monroe. Will Kate find true love or will distance make the heart grow fonder? ...

When Georgiana Gregory & her maid Kitty make the long sea journey from their native Hull for New York they are expecting to begin a new life in the heady freedom of the newly-formed United States of America. Georgiana wants to escape from the confines of English life & to savour a land of emancipation & opportunity. But in New York she encounters a man passing himself off as her brother-in-law Edward Newmarch a local mill-owners son who has abandoned Georgianas sister & fled to America. Georgiana recognises the man standing before her as Edward Newmarchs valet Robert Allen
- Edward himself appears to have vanished. But Edward having escaped from a disastrous marriage in England is now in further trouble with women having agreed to marry the difficult daughter of a powerful landowner & businessman while pursuing his beautiful wife Sofia. As Georgiana & Kitty pursue the adventures of the frontier & Edward tries to flee his enemies the dangers of this new country seem too much to cope with.
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Saga magazine" ' Life Story' competition winner. From the streets of London to the Welsh countryside evacuee Iris Simantel tells of her desperate search for somewhere to belong in Far " From the East End". Born in 1938 under threat of looming war Iris spent her early years playing in the rubble of bombed buildings in Dagenham by day & cowering in a dusty shelter at night. But the hardships of poverty & the dreaded Blitz could not match the pain she felt at her parents' indifference. She prayed that just once her mother would hold her when the bombs rained down. But loneliness only intensified when she was evacuated. Finding the nurturing home she had always dreamt of in her adopted Welsh parents she wonders what when she returns to London after the war will be waiting for her. Will she ever be able to love her philandering father depressive mother & an angry bullying brother? Will her family even survive? Or will she have to look farther afield for the affection she so longs for? Prepare to be taken on a beautiful & emotional journey with Iris Simantel's nostalgic memoir " Far from the East End". Iris Simantel is the acclaimed winner of the " Saga Magazine" ' Life Story' competition telling of her evacuation from Dagenham to Wales & her family's post-War move to South Oxney. She now lives in Devon." ...

If you currently employ knowledge workers who do most of their work on computers or with computers access the Internet utilize internal & external databases use e-mail or other new messaging technology then this book is for you. Quite simply this handbook is for any organization with a lot of Web DNA that wishes to cut costs improve performance & stay perpetually competitive. It is for change agents or managers within those organizations who work with information & want to leverage the latest crop of tool sets to deliver on the promise of Lean for the modern information-rich office...packed with new ideas.. .breaks new ground in so many directions.. .- John Bicheno Director Lean Enterprise Research Centre Cardiff Business School.. .excellent.. .on several levels.. .teaches us how to visualize the depth of hidden wastes in our complex information flows & the large opportunity for improvement that this suggests.
- Keith Russell Ph D Global Continuous Improvement Leader R&D Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Very interesting view on operational excellence helpful to readers without a background in this area of expertise.
- Bert Nordberg President & CEO. Sony Ericsson Congratulations to all the readers holding this book!.. . These Lean ideas must be an integral part of the daily operations of your business. I am going to get each & every one of my management team a copy of this brilliant book at the start for our own Lean journey.
- Lennart Kall CEO Wasa Kredit Its one thing to develop a concept. Its another to make it sing. This is the hymnal.
- Dr. Don V. Steward CEO Problematics Professor Emeritus Sacramento State University inventor of DSM.. .a must read for CIOs everywhere.
- Julian Amey Principal Fellow Warwick University"




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Far from the Madding Crowd" was Thomas Hardys first major literary success & it edited with an introduction & notes by Rosemarie Morgan & Shannon Russell in " Penguin Classics". Independent & spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy & the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each in contrasting ways unsettles her decisions & complicates her life & tragedy ensues threatening the stability of the whole community. The first of his works set in the fictional county of Wessex Hardys novel of swift passion & slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life & landscapes & with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships. This edition based on Hardys original 1874 manuscript is the complete novel he never saw published & restores its full candour & innovation. Rosemarie Morgans introduction discusses the history of its publication & the Biblical & Classical allusions that permeate the novel. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) born Higher Brockhampton near Dorchester originally trained as an architect before earning his living as a writer. Though he saw himself primarily as a poet Hardy was the author of some of the late eighteenth centurys major novels: " The Mayor of Casterbridge" (1886) " Tess of the DUrbervilles" (1891) " Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874) & " Jude the Obscure" (1895). Amidst the controversy caused by " Jude the Obscure" he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life. In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems & his epic drama in verse " The Dynasts". If you enjoyed " Far from the Madding Crowd" you might also like Elizabeth Gaskells " Mary Barton". " Wonderful...a landscape which satisfies every stir of the imagination & which ravishes the senses". (Ronald Blythe)." ...

This is the Penguin English Library Edition" of " Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. 'I cannot allow any man to
- to
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Harper Collins is proud to present its new range of best-loved essential classics. Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness. Beautiful impulsive & spirited Bathsheba Everdenes fortunes are changed forever when she inherits her own farm & becomes a woman of independent means. Set in Hardys evocative Wessex countryside Bathsheba is pursued by three very different suitors. The reliable & humble Gabriel Oak the vain & impetuous Troy & the reserved yet determined Boldwood. With the morals of rural society weighing heavily upon her it is through these relationships that Bathsheba experiences the torture of unrequited love & betrayal & discovers how random acts of chance & tragedy can alter the pathway of a life dramatically. ...

Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak & his love for & pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene whose wayward nature leads her to both tragedy & true love. It tells of the dashing Sergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was '...the past was yesterday; never the day after'. & lastly of the introverted & reclusive gentleman farmer Mr Boldwood whose love fills him with '...a fearful sense of exposure' when he first sets eyes on Bathsheba. The background of this tale is the Wessex countryside in all its moods. ...

* * * * * * * BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week * * * * * * * ' Andrew Solomon's investigation of many of the most intense challenges that parenthood can bring compels us all to re-examine how we understand human difference. Perhaps the greatest gift of this monumental book full of facts & full of feelings is that it constantly makes one think & think again.' Philip Gourevitch. In this seminal new study of family Andrew Solomon tells the stories of parents who learn to deal with their exceptional children & find profound meaning in doing so. He introduces us to families coping with deafness dwarfism Down syndrome autism schizophrenia disability with children who are prodigies who are conceived in rape who become criminals who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating Solomon documents repeated triumphs of human love & compassion to show that the shared experience of difference is what unites us. ' Reading Far from the Tree is a mind-opening experience.' Eric Kandel. Drawing on interviews with over three hundred families Solomon documents ordinary people making courageous choices whether considering prenatal screening for genetic disorders cochlear implants for the deaf or gender reassignment surgery. Parents & children are challenged to their limits but often grow closer as a result; many discover supportive communities of others similarly affected; some are inspired to become activists celebrating the conditions they once feared. Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original thinker Far From The Tree explores themes of generosity acceptance & tolerance
- & shows how love for one's children can transcend every prejudice. This crucial & revelatory book expands our definition of what it is to be human. 'A brave & ambitious work bringing together science culture & a powerful empathy. Solomon tells us that we have more in common with each other
- even with those who seem anything but normal
- than we would ever have imagined.' Malcolm Gladwell.


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Lost on a remote Sumatran volcano...pursued through a Tokyo backstreet by a Japanese gangster...picnicking with the French Foreign Legion in the Horn of Africa: Frank Gardner's idea of a holiday is not everyone's. But ever since his student days the BBC security correspondent has done some epicly hard travelling in a remarkable number of countries. Drawing on the diaries sketches & photos he kept during his travels his immaculately observed accounts of these often strange sometimes daring adventures form the backbone of his new book. In June 2004 while on what should have been a routine assignment in Riyadh his life
- never mind his ability to travel the world
- was nearly brought to a violent end by Islamist gunmen. Frank survived against all the odds & through force of will has found himself looking towards far horizons once more. He's not only been skiing in the Alps scuba diving in the Red Sea & explored the jungles of Cambodia he is also reporting once more from far-flung destinations like Afghanistan & Colombia
- & this is a man who no longer has the use of his legs... This is Frank Gardner's compelling personal account of the myriad adventures that made him the man he was on that fateful day
- & of the journeys he's made since & how they've helped him to become the remarkable & inspiring individual he is today.



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