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. ...

This is the first text to examine the principal elements of service user involvement & participation across both adult & children's services. A valuable learning resource it draws together information from research service users carers & practitioners across both groups. In addition it gives an overview of the specific knowledge attitude & skills that social workers need for training at qualifying level & integrates theory with evidence to inform everyday social work practice. Furthermore case studies & activities encourage reflection & the application of this knowledge to practice situations. ...

This is a Blandings novel. As a peer of the realm Clarence Ninth Earl of Emsworth has an occasional duty to leave the Empress of Blandings surely the most considerable pig in the whole world & travel to London for the opening of parliament. It comes hard to him for he has a proper sense of the priorities in life which rate pigs & flowerbeds higher than politicians. But no sooner has he returned to Blandings than his real problems begin: the dastardly Duke of Dunstable is out to steal the Empress. His sister Lady Constance has inflicted on him a particularly nasty new secretary. & the Church Lads Brigade are camped all over his lawns. Thank God for the Earl of Ickenham better known as Uncle Fred whose own particularly devious brand of sweetness & light aims to banish blackmailers & pig-stealers & restore true love all over the castle grounds. ...

With the Duke of Dunstable trying to steal his pig to sell to Lord Tilbury mischievous Church Lads camping in his park his sister Constance bossing him unmercifully & Lavender Briggs his secretary making life miserable Lord Emsworth has little time to concentrate on the invasion of Blandings Castle by yet another impostor. But Bill Bailey a.k.a. Cuthbert Meriwether has inveigled himself into the castle to be with his beloved Myra Schoonmaker who is staying there under the eagle eye of Lady Constance & Lady Constance is determined to thwart him. In the end virtue conquers vice: the lovers are united Dunstable defeated & Tilbury trounced but only through the brilliant plotting of Frederick Earl of Ickenham whose greatest triumph is to marry off Lady Constance to an old admirer Myra's father. In the end everyone is happy who deserves to be none more so than Lord Emsworth who at one fell swoop frees himself from the tyranny of a duke a secretary & a sister. ...

This book offers a look at the issues models & theories behind Services Marketing supported by a range of international case studies across a raft of industries. The previous edition sold well. The book has strong pedagogical features & a broad range of case studies. A Companion Website will be updated to further complement the book. This is a specialized subject area in which the authors are well known. Marketing is crucial in any industry: for service based organisations its absolutely critical. This textbook looks at the issues models & theories behind services marketing. It is supported by a range of substantial international case studies & offers an insight into the operation of many different service industries. ...

Your first duty is to God; your second to your Sovereign; your third to yourself. During the sixty-odd years of her reign Queen Victoria gathered around her a household dedicated to her service. For some royal service was the defining experience of their lives for others it came as an unwelcome duty or a prelude to greater things. Serving Victoria" follows the lives of six members of her household from the governess to the royal children to her maid-of-honour chaplain & personal physician. Drawing on their letters & diaries
- many hitherto unpublished
- " Serving Victoria" offers a unique insight into the Victorian court with all its frustrations & absurdities as well as the Queen herself sitting squarely at its centre. Seen through the eyes of her household as she traveled between Windsor Osborne & Balmoral & to the French & Belgian courts Victoria emerges as more vulnerable more emotional more selfish more comical than is generally supposed. We see a woman who was prone to fits of giggles who wept easily & often who gobbled her food & shrank from confrontation but insisted on controlling the lives of those around her. We witness her extraordinary & debilitating grief at the death of Albert & her sympathy towards the tragedies that afflicted her household. Witty astute & moving " Serving Victoria" is a perfect foil to the pomp & circumstance
- & prudery & conservatism
- associated with Victorias reign & gives an unforgettable glimpse of what it meant to serve the Queen."



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