The Irish famine that began in 1845 was one of the nineteenth centurys greatest disasters. By its end the islands population of eight million had shrunk by a third through starvation disease & emigration. This is a brilliant compassionate retelling of that awful story for a new generation
- the first account for the general reader for many years & a triumphant example of narrative non-fiction at its best. The immediate cause of the famine was a bacterial infection of the potato crop on which too many the Irish poor depended. What turned a natural disaster into a human disaster was the determination of senior British officials to use relief policy as an instrument of nation
- building in their oldest & most recalcitrant colony. Well-meaning civil servants were eager to modernise Irish agriculture & to improve the Irish moral character which was utterly lacking in the virtues of the new age of triumphant capitalism. The result was a relief programme more concerned with fostering change than of saving lives. This is history that resonates powerfully with our own times.

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During the last hundred years or so Gravesend has grown from a small community with a population of 22 000 in 1881 to the present Borough of Gravesham with a population of over 90 000. Robert H. Hiscocks book illustrates this development of a small but busy waterside town dependent on the Thames for much of its wealth growing into a vast commercial & residential area with many of its inhabitants commuting to London & elsewhere. This book celebrates the area from the chalk cliffs along the waterside from Botany Marsh & the Creek at Northfleet to the marshes at Denton. It is split into accessible sections devoted to the river the main road including Rochester Road East Milton Road Milton Road King Street New Road Overcliffe London Road The Hill Northfleet High Street & Stonebridge Hill & Old Road Gravesend from the Lion Garage which continues as Dover Road to Northfleet to where it joins the main road at the Leather Bottle. It is a journey that will delight anyone who is familiar with the area. ...

OS Explorer Map is the Ordnance Surveys most detailed map & is recommended for anyone enjoying outdoor activities like walking horse riding & off-road cycling. Providing complete GB coverage the series details essential information such as youth hostels pubs & visitor information as well as rights of way permissive paths & bridleways. ...

If you explore Englands churchyards & cemeteries you will be astonished at how much you can discover not only about the people who are buried there & their standing in the local community but also about the history of the area. Trevor Yorke explains burial practices down the ages & details the development of the churchyard & the cemetery. He looks at the period styles of gravestones & tombs & the shapes & features that help to date them. Using a wide range of photographs & line illustrations he examines the carvings & symbols that can be found & offers clues to their possible meanings. ...

When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family who would have thought it would find safety & security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts ghouls & spectres Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him
- after all he is the last remaining member of the family. A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters featuring every second year of Bod's life from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?
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Gravity & Grace was the first ever publication by the remarkable thinker & activist Simone Weil. In it Gustave Thibon the farmer to whom she had entrusted her notebooks before her untimely death compiled in one remarkable volume a compendium of her writings that have become a source of spiritual guidance & wisdom for countless individuals. On the fiftieth anniversary of the first English edition
- by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1952
- this Routledge Classics edition offers English readers the complete text of this landmark work for the first time ever by incorporating a specially commissioned translation of the controversial chapter on Israel. Also previously untranslated is Gustave Thibons postscript of 1990 which reminds us how privileged we are to be able to read a work which offers each reader such light for the spirit & nourishment for the soul. This is a book that no one with a serious interest in the spiritual life can afford to be without.

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Tyrone Slothrop a GI in London in 1944 has a big problem. Whenever he gets an erection a Blitz bomb hits. Slothrop gets excited & then (as Thomas Pynchon puts it in his sinister insinuatingly sibilant opening sentence) a screaming comes across the sky " heralding an angel of death a V-2 rocket. The novels title " Gravitys Rainbow" refers to the rockets vapor arc a cruel dark parody of what God sent Noah to symbolize his promise never to destroy humanity again. Soon Tyrone is on the run from legions of bizarre enemies through the phantasmagoric horrors of Germany. " Gravitys Rainbow" however doesnt follow such a standard plot; one must have faith that each manic episode is connected with the great plot to blow up the world with the ultimate rocket. There is not one story but a proliferation of characters (Pirate Prentice Teddy Bloat Tantivy Mucker-Maffick Saure Bummer & more) & events that tantalize the reader with suggestions of vast patterns only just past our comprehension. " Gravitys Rainbow" is a blizzard of references to science history high culture & the lowest of jokes." ...

We have long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end
- mysterious chasms so
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Richly illustrated with the images from observatories on the ground & in space & computer simulations this book shows how black holes were discovered & discusses our current understanding of their role in cosmic evolution. This second edition covers new discoveries made in the past decade including definitive proof of a black hole at the center of the Milky Way evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating & the new appreciation of the connection between black holes & galaxy formation. There are entirely new chapters on gamma-ray bursts & cosmic feedback. Begelman & Rees blend theoretical arguments with observational results to demonstrate how both approaches contributed to this subject. Clear illustrations & photographs reveal the strange & amazing workings of our universe. The engaging style makes this book suitable for introductory undergraduate courses amateur astronomers & all readers interested in astronomy & physics. ...

The greatest wildest author of his generation". (" Guardian"). We could tell you the year is 1944 that the main character is called Tyrone Slothrop & that he has a problem because bombs are falling across Europe & crashing to earth at the exact locations of his sexual conquests. But that doesn't really begin to cover it. Reading this book is like falling down a rabbit hole into an outlandish sinister mysterious absurd compulsive netherworld. As the " Financial Times" said 'you must forget earlier notions about life & letters & even the Novel.' Forty years since publication " Gravity's Rainbow" has lost none of its power to enthral." ...