This is chosen 16 times as a ' Book of the Year'
- the top non-fiction pick of 2012. The best work of modern history I have ever
...

Half Summer faery princess half human Meghan has never fitted in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer & Winter Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey
- ironbound faeries that only she & her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her. Worse Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting the prince who betrayed her deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.
...

Edie said George were going to do this together. Ill be right there with you. Anything anyone trying to get you is going to have to come past me first. But when George makes his promise he is not aware that high on the rooftops an unseen gargoyle is watching them hungrily quivering with anticipation for the moment when it will unfold its stone wings & pounce. The thing on the roof knows that nothing is over; nothing is finished. Ironhand takes us deeper into the layers of un-London the place where the good & the bad statues the spits & the taints walk & war. George & Edie must repay the debt which they owe the Gunner for his sacrifice. They must face unspeakable danger & doubt if they are to save him. This second title in the Stoneheart sequence by Charlie Fletcher will shake you with its imaginative grasp & vision. It is an epic excitement not to be missed.. . ...

AD 71. Germania Libera: dark dripping forests inhabited by bloodthirsty barbarians & legendary wild beasts a furious prophetess who terrorises Rome & the ghostly spirits of slaughtered Roman legionaries. Enter Marcus Didius Falco an Imperial agent on a special mission: to find the absconding commander of a legion whose loyalty is suspect. Easier said than done thinks Marcus as he makes his uneasy way down the Rhenus trying to forget that back in sunny Rome his girlfriend Helena Justina is being hotly pursued by Titus Caesar. His mood is not enhanced when he discovers his only allies are a woefully inadequate bunch of recruits their embittered centurion a rogue dog & its innocent young master; just the right kind of support for an agent unwillingly trying to tame the Celtic hordes. ...

In many ways this book tells a familiar story in British industry: of innovation & enterprise in the early decades.. .of worldwide dominance at a time when Britain was the workshop of the world.. .of wars & economic downturns.. .of foreign competition.. .and of relative & absolute decline on the path of de-industrialisation in the latter part of the twentieth century. For most of this period the farm machine industry grew & matured. It is an inspiring story of technological achievement & of industrial success as farmers & engineers brought iron & steel to fields which had previously been the domain of locally made timber implements & power provided by horses. Agricultural technology moved on inexorably from broad-cast seed & the sound of the threshing flail via the portable steam engine & the threshing machine right through to the modern world of giant tractors
- each with the power of 200 horses
- combine harvesters & impressively efficient farming methods. This book traces the broad sweep of the whole industry over 200 years looking at many individual companies & products to explain how & why the farm machinery industry developed in the way it did. Important individual machines are described & illustrated in detail. The British farm machine industry is unlikely ever again to be large by world standards nor to dominate the world stage as once it did. Yet the author traces a rich vein of innovation enterprise & technological inspiration often taking place within the large number of relatively small-scale craft-based workshops which were so prevalent in the early decades. Rather than mere manufacturing therefore perhaps it is this tradition of technical innovation & invention which marked out the British farm machinery industry for historical greatness & perhaps it is this tradition which will continue to mark it out in the future.

...

Iron House is the remarkable story of two orphaned brothers separated by violence at a tender age. When a boy is savagely killed in their brutal orphanage one brother runs & takes the blame with him eventually finding his way to New York & into the heart of organized crime. Two decades later
- a seasoned killer
- he returns to North Carolina with a sentence on his head the mob in hot pursuit & his long-lost brother in trouble of a different kind. With vast sums in play political fortunes at risk & bodies piling up the brothers reunite to solve the mystery of their shared past in a tour de force narrative of loss courage & the aftermath of violence. A dark atmospheric thriller with a plot that will keep you guessing until the last moment.

...

Things are finally looking good for Captain Frey & his crew. The Ketty Jay has been fixed up good as new. They've got their first taste of fortune & fame. & just for once nobody is trying to kill them. Even Trinica Dracken Frey's ex-fiancee & long-time nemesis has given up her quest for revenge. In fact she's offered them a job
- one that will take them deep into the desert heart of Samarla the land of their ancient enemies. To a place where the secrets of the past lie in wait for the unwary. Secrets that might very well cost Frey everything. Join the crew of the Ketty Jay on their greatest adventure yet: a story of mayhem & mischief roof-top chases & death-defying races murderous daemons psychopathic golems & a particularly cranky cat. The first time was to clear his name. The second time was for money. This time Frey's in a race against the clock for the ultimate prize: to save his own life.
...

My name is Meghan Chase. In less than twenty-four hours I'll be sixteen. Countless stories songs & poems have been written about this wonderful age when a girl finds true love & the stars shine for her & the handsome prince carries her off into the sunset. I don't think it will be that way for me. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school...or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar & her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth
- that she is the daughter of a mythical fairy king & is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face...and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.
...

' This was the original game of thrones' George R.R. Martin From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin's epic work. Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation!" The Iron King
- Philip the Fair
- is as cold & silent as handsome & unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak & their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men. A web of scandal murder & intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich & powerful Knights Templar Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques Molay to be burned at the stake thus drawing down upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty..."

...

Winner of the Wolfson History Prize Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom: The Rise & Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947" is a compelling account of a country that played a pivotal role in Europe's fortunes & fundamentally shaped our world. Prussia began as a medieval backwater but transformed itself into a major European power & the force behind the creation of the German empire until it was finally abolished by the Allies after the Second World War. With great flair & authority Christopher Clark describes Prussia's great battles dynastic marriages & astonishing reversals of fortune its brilliant & charismatic leaders from the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg to Bismarck & Frederick the Great the military machine & the progressive enlightened values on which it was built. " Fascinating.. .masterly.. .littered with intriguing detail & wry observation". (Richard Overy " Daily Telegraph"). "A terrific book.. .the definitive history of this much-maligned state". (" Daily Telegraph Books of the Year"). " You couldn't have the triumph & the tragedy of Prussia better told". (" Observer"). "A magisterial history of Europe's only extinct power". (" Financial Times"). " Exemplary.. .an illuminating profoundly satisfying work of history". (" The New York Times"). Christopher Clark is a lecturer in Modern European History at St Catharine's College University of Cambridge. He is also the author of " Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Life in Power"." ...