After the attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Navy knew it would need vital information from the Pacific. After a meeting & a handshake agreement with Chiang Kai-shek the Sino-American Cooperative Organization was born. This top-secret network worked hand in hand with the Nationalist Chinese to fight the Japanese occupation of China while it intercepted Japanese code laid mines & trained Chinese peasants in guerrilla warfare. Its work supplied critical information to the U.S. & contributed to the felling of more than 70 000 Japanese
- while losing only five of their own men. SACO
- the rice paddy navy
- was one of the best-kept secrets of the war. Linda Kush uncovers the military accomplishments & political wrangling that colored one of the most successful
- & little known
- efforts of World War II.




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RICE'S ARCHITECTURAL PRIMER covers the grammar & vocabulary of British buildings explaining the evolution of styles from Norman castles to Norman Foster. Its aim is to enable the reader to recognise understand & date any British building. As Matthew Rice says ' Once you can speak any language conversation can begin but without it communications can only be brief & brutish. The same is the case with Architecture: an inability to describe the component parts of a building leaves one tongue-tied & unable to begin to discuss what is or is not exciting dull or peculiar about it.' RICE'S ARCHITECTURAL PRIMER will explain the language of architecture. With it in your hand pocket or car buildings will break down beguilingly into their component parts ready for inspection & discussion. There will be no more references to that curly bit on top of the thing with the square protrusions. Ungainly & inept descriptions will be a thing of the past & fluent in the world of volutes hood moulds lobed architraves & bucrania you will be able to leave a cathedral or country house with as much to talk about as a film or play.R ICE'S ARCHITECTURAL PRIMER starts with an explanation of the basic ' Grammar' of buildings: elevation plan roof gable & eave. This will enable the reader to better make use of what is to follow. It will also cover the Orders of Architecture
- Doric Tuscan Ionic Corinthian & Composite
- so that the vital basics of Classicism are covered. Following this is the ' Vocabulary'. This will be a chronological reference section covering period by period the windows doors & doorcases columns chimneys arches balustrades & pediments that make up the built environment.

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The countryside towns & cities of Britain are full of churches. They represent some of the most iconic beautiful & occasionally bizarre buildings in the country. They have a lot to say about our history our art & our ideas. But how do you read them? Through charming illustrations Rice's Church Primer reveals the basic grammar & vocabulary of church architecture throughout the United Kingdom. As Matthew Rice says ' Once you can speak any language conversations can begin but without it communications can only be brief & brutish. The same is the case with Architecture: an inability to describe the component parts of a building leaves one tongue-tied & unable to begin to discuss what is or is not exciting dull or peculiar about it.' Rice's Church Primer explains the language of architecture in churches from the restrained Norman style of William the Conqueror to the gilded excesses of the Baroque. The primer begins with an explanation of the basic ' Grammar' of churches: elevation plan fronts vaults & towers. This allows the reader to easily understand what follows. Next comes the ' Vocabulary' of styles in chronological order from ancient Saxon churches to modern cathedrals. Each period covers component parts like doors windows towers pews panelling & pulpits. Finally there is a map pinpointing some of the best churches around the country so you can practise your newfound fluency in real life. With Matthew Rice's elegant & witty illustrations to guide you suddenly you'll understand why naves are necessary why towers are built as tall as possible & why sometimes even the most respectable church needs a good flying buttress. ...

Richard Burton: star. The roaring boy from the Welsh coal valleys who came to sport on the banks of the old Nile playing great Antony to Elizabeth Taylors Cleopatra. From the West End to Hollywood from Camelot to Shakespeare he drank dazzled & despaired playing out his life on the public stage. But there was another quieter off-stage Richard Burton a face hidden from the multitude. Melvyn Bragg allowed free access to the never-before-revealed Burton private notebooks & with the cooperation of friends who have never spoken about him before has brought together the private & public sides for the first time. Rich is the complete Richard Burton: a revelation. ...

When ambitious exciting Dinah Slade becomes passionately
- & dangerously
- involved in the private & public life of American

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Nic Caryn & Tory: three girls who form a friendship that should last a lifetime. Nic is the daughter of a white Zimbabwean business tycoon. Despite a life of jaw-dropping wealth & privilege all she really wants is a bit of attention from daddy. Caryn never met her father
- but growing up on a tough London sink estate she had other things to worry about. Like getting out & moving on. Tory just yearns for some space to be herself. Living in the shadow of your dead sister is tough particularly when she seemed to be everything youre not. Then beautiful ruthless Estelle Mc Kenzie appears on the scene. Estelle has a secret
- & one way or another shes going to make each woman pay a very high price for it.

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Christmas 1860. Polly already living in grinding poverty finds herself alone on the streets of Hull when her mother dies in childbirth. Rosalie brought up in affluence & comfort on the other side of town loses her own mother in similar circumstances & on the same day. Polly takes a job as scullery maid in Rosalie's lonely house & the two girls form an unlikely friendship. Travelling together to the North Yorkshire Moors they discover a new kind of life & find unexpected joy & fulfilment. ...

A month with Mikhail... Kat Marshall has sacrificed everything for her younger sisters. & with money tighter than ever she's in desperate need of help. Innocent Kat has always hidden her dreams away
- until she meets enigmatic Russian Mikhail Kusnirovich whose outrageous offer could make them all come true... Billionaire Mikhail doesn't have dreams. He has money
- lots of it
- & he always gets what he wants. Bedding Kat should be easy but the tempting redhead is impossible to seduce! So Mikhail offers to pay off her debts in exchange for a month on his yacht in his cabin
- virginity included! ' The imagination of Lynne Graham will keep you warm on the coldest of days!'
- Shelley 53 Teacher




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This is the first ever in-depth biography of Ashcroft the frontman for The Verve & also a highly successful solo artist. As a young singer from Wigan Ashcroft formed The Verve with Nick Mc Cabe & released two critically-acclaimed albums before their third record Urban Hymns" turned them into one of the UKs biggest acts. A legendary apettite for psychedelic drugs & even physical collapses from ecstasy abuse coupled with massive songs such as " Bittersweet Symphony" made Ashcroft one of Britpops biggest names. However The Verve was a deeply volatile band & eventually in 1999 they split acrimoniously following a homecoming gig in front of 40 000 fans in Wigan. Ashcroft had already recorded some aterial on his own & three solo albums duly followed
- with corresponding arena tours that often dwarfed the scale of The Verves own huge venues. Coldplays Chris Martin introduced him at Live 8 as the best singer in the world while Noel Gallagher wrote the song " Cast No shadow" about him. Then in 2006 The Verve announced they were reforming for a late 2007 arena tour
- completely sold out in minutes
- & a brand new album released in the summer of 2008. With Ashcrofts issues with clinical depression suicidal thoughts outspoken political views & celebrity admirers this first-to-the market biography is a tale of rock & roll excess artistic brilliance & a unique starring role in modern British music."


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In his personal diaries Richard Burton is a man quite different from the one we familiarly know" as acclaimed actor international film star & jet-set celebrity. From his private handwritten pages there emerges a different person
- a family man a father a husband a man often troubled & always keenly observing. Understood through his own words day to day & year to year Burton becomes a fully rounded human being who with a wealth of talent & a surprising burden of insecurity confronts the peculiar challenges of a life lived largely in the spotlight. This volume publishes in their entirety the surviving diaries of Richard Burton (born Richard Jenkins 1925-1984). The diaries were written between 1939 & 1983
- throughout his career & the years of his celebrated marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Diary entries appear in their original sequence with annotations to clarify the people places books & events he mentions. At times Burton struggles to come to terms with the unfulfilled potential of his life & talent. In other entries he crows over achievements & hungers for greater challenges. He may be watching his weight watching his drinking or watching other men watch his Elizabeth. Always he is articulate opinionated & fascinating. His diaries offer a rare & fresh perspective on his own life & career Elizabeth Taylor's & the glamorous world of film theatre & celebrity that they inhabited."

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