The Bible was the first scientific textbook of all; & it got some things right (and plenty more wrong). Steve Jones' new book rewrites it in the light of modern science. Are we all descended from a single couple a real-life Adam & Eve? Was the Bible's great flood really a memory of the end of the Ice Age? Will we ever get back to Methuselah given that British life expectancy is still rising by six hours a day every day? Many people deny the power of faith many more the power of science. In this ground-breaking work geneticist Steve Jones explores their shared mysteries
- from the origins of life & humankind to sex age death & the end of the universe. He steps aside from the noisy debate between believers & unbelievers to show how the same questions preoccupy us today as in biblical times
- & that science offers many of the answers. Erudite & accessible The Serpent's Promise is a witty & thoughtful account of the ability & the limits of science to tell us what we are.

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Esmay Suiza had surprised everyone by becoming the youngest & lowest-ranking member of Fleet ever to win a major battle. Finding herself the senior surviving officer in a mutiny against a treacherous captain shed had no choice
- it was do or die. & shed risen to the challenge saving Heris Serrano & her crew in the process. But instead of congratulations her actions lead to a court martial for treason.. . Esmays boldness continues to reap her as much trouble as reward when a very public argument makes her an enemy at Fleet School. When her classmate is abducted by a fanatical sect Esmay is suspected of collusion. She feels she can formulate a rescue plan
- but will anyone in Fleet listen to her now?

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HUNTING PARTY: Heris Serrano was destined for a life in the Regular Space Service
- until a treacherous superior officer forced
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CHANGE OF COMMAND: The Speaker of the Grand Council has been assassinated & battle lines are quickly drawn. Factions include Families keen to control the new political order & neighbouring states preparing to defend themselves. Even Fleet can no longer be depended on to keep the peace. Young Fleet officers Esmay & Barin want simply to marry. But Barin is a Serrano the most influential of Fleet families & Esmay is Landbride of the planet Altiplano. Their elders see only disaster in the match. & as Esmay & Barin struggle to reconcile their families their very way of life is threatened. AGAINST THE ODDS: The worst has happened & Fleet is tearing itself apart. Some mutineers see injustice in the unequal spread of rejuvenation drugs offering virtual immortality to the rich; others are simply thirsty for power or for blood. & when Esmay Suiza-Serrano is unceremoniously booted out of Fleet the apparent victim of Family politics she has no idea of the whirlwind of conflict that awaits.. . ...

She is the downstairs maid; he is the Master's son... Forced to become a kitchen maid at Fortune Hall Hetty Pearson strikes up an unlikely friendship with the younger son of the house Richard. But Hetty is just a poor servant girl: what hope does she have of either winning Richard's heart or escaping his older brother's more base attentions? Note: previously published as The Jewel Streets by Una Horne. ...

Second in Feist & Wurts wonderful epic trilogy
- one of the most successful fantasy collaborations of all time THE EMPIRE TRILOGY:
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Servants: A Downstairs View of Twentieth-century Britain is the social history of the last century through the eyes of those who served. From the butler the footman the maid & the cook of 1900 to the au pairs cleaners & childminders who took their place seventy years later a previously unheard class offers a fresh perspective on a dramatic century. Here the voices of servants & domestic staff largely ignored by history are at last brought to life: their daily household routines attitudes towards their employers & to each other throw into sharp & intimate relief the period of feverish social change through which they lived. Sweeping in its scope extensively researched & brilliantly observed Servants is an original & fascinating portrait of twentieth-century Britain; an authoritative history that will change & challenge the way we look at society. ...

Downing Street is said to be furious at this book
- & it is easy to understand why. It is the first meticulous chronicle of all
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This is a sexually charged satire of the Cultural Revolution & a huge underground hit in China where it is banned. Slanders Mao Zedong the army & is overflowing with sex & Do not distribute pass around comment on excerpt from it or report on it. Chinese Central Propaganda Bureau. This political satire by one of Chinas most distinguished authors has been banned in its native land for its depiction of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution. Set in 1967 at the peak of the Mao cult when Serve the People was one of the great mans most famous slogans it tells the story of the bored wife of a military commander who artfully seduces a peasant soldier. When the lovers discover that the sacrilegious act of breaking a statue of Mao deliciously increases their desire they compete to see who can destroy the most sacred icons of their Great Leader
- smashing the commanders beloved Mao icons ripping up the Little Red Book" or defacing the Great Helmsmans epigrams. Defacing an image of Mao was punishable by death during the Cultural Revolution. Yan Lianke tramples on the most sacred taboos of the army the revolution sexuality & political etiquette. As a subversive critique of official corruption leadership hypocrisy & the insanity of the Cultural Revolution his book has a huge cult following in China."
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Service Charges: Law & Practice is a best-selling guide to the legal framework in which service charges operate. It is designed to be used by all those who deal with service charges either as landlord tenant agent or professional adviser. This new edition has been substantially revised to take account of over 30 new LVT cases the new RICS Code of Practice for Service Charges in Commercial Property as well as new material on Energy Efficiency Certificates Display Energy Certificates & green leases. The concise & easily understood commentary is supported by specimen service charge clauses model accounts notices & certificates making this book an invaluable & immensely practical guide to this difficult subject. ...