The best stained glass windows are masterpieces of colour & narrative. They tell Biblical & didactic tales display images of saints & armorial crests memorialise the dead & enhance the devotional ambience of Englands churches & cathedrals. Roger Rosewell here traces the history of stained glass from the rare extant Anglo-Saxon works through to some major examples from the last fifty years exploring the various styles & contexts & affording the reader fascinating insights into how medieval people saw stained glass. Illustrated with a hundred breathtaking photographs & a helpful gazetteer of outstanding examples this book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in church or art history. ...

This book is the worlds first scholarly account of any regions nineteenth & twentieth-century stained glass & is written by one of the few specialists trained in the field. The author presents a comprehensive catalogue of the 711 ecclesiastical stained glass windows in Canterbury many of which are of international significance. She shows the shift from imported to local work the development of New Zealand imagery & how stained glass windows can be powerful social indicators. She argues that stained glass in Canterbury not only represents the most important regional collection of windows in New Zealand but that the exportation of nineteenth & twentieth-century stained glass from Britain is represented in microcosm in Canterbury thus necessitating a reappraisal of the history of British stained glass. The book also presents much new information about British stained glass artists & is of great relevance to any country with glass from Britain. ...

A bullet shot through the window of Weldon Sonniers house propels Dave Robicheaux back into the lives of a family hes not sure he wants to be reacquainted with.. . Weldon Sonniers CIA-influenced past has led to dangerous connections & commitments including debts to local mob boss Joey Meatballs Gouza. As Weldon puts himself in the line of fire Lyle Sonnier television evangelist & faith healer reveals to Dave a violent family history that intersects menacingly with Daves own. But overshadowing the manoeuvres of Gouzas gang is the spectre of racial politics & it is former Klansman Bobby Earl who will prove to be Dave Robicheauxs most elusive enemy. ...

The Stainmore line was the most spectacular of the trans-Pennine crossings. Memories of the magnificent viaducts at Deepdale & at Belah carrying this marvellous railway from the River Tees to the Eden Valley still remain 50 years after their destruction. The line between Barnard Castle & Tebay together with its associated branches was completed during the 1860s & remained in operation for almost a century. However from about 1960 the now familiar 'closure by stealth' tactics became painfully evident & the last passenger train ran on 20 January 1962. The transition from a fully operational route to a memory took place in an unbelievably short time. In the summer of 1961 thousands of north-eastern holidaymakers were transported by train in time-honoured fashion over the rooftop of England to Blackpool enjoying unrivalled views of Westmorland as their trains rumbled over Belah Viaduct & brushed through the woodlands at Smardale. Little did those passengers realise that less than one year later most of the track over which they were travelling would be gone & demolition would be well under way. ...

Since earliest times humanity has pondered the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe life...and the afterlife. Was there somewhere on Earth where after death mortal man could join the immortal Gods? Where was this place? By whom was it established? & does it still exist today? After years of painstaking research--combining recent archaeological discoveries with ancient texts & artifacts--noted scholar Zecharia Sitchin has identified the legendary Land of the Gods & provided astounding new revelations about the Great Pyramids the Sphinx & other mysterious monuments whose true meanings & purposes have been lost for eons. Since earliest times humanity has pondered the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe life & the afterlife. In The Stairway to Heaven the second book of Zecharia Sitchins Earth Chronicles series the author answers these fundamental questions: Was there somewhere on Earth where after death mortal man could join the immortal Gods? Where was this place? By whom was it established? & does it still exist today? The Earth Chronicles deal with the history & prehistory of Earth & humankind. Each book in the series is based upon information written on clay tablets by the ancient civilizations of the Near East. For the first time the entire Earth Chronicles series is now available in a hardcover collectors edition. ...

In an abandoned hotel in a California ghost town horror writer Larry & his friends make a chilling discovery. By chance they stumble across a naked woman in a coffin with a stake driven through her heart. Was she a vampire or the victim of a gruesome murder? ...

A funny super-girly story with a vampire bite to it. Sink your teeth into Olivia & Ivy's twelfth fright-time adventure. ' We're on a mission!' Ivy & Olivia are together again
- & not a moment too soon. The whole vampire community is in a flap. Can the twins discover the identity of the mystery blogger who's determined to expose Franklin Grove's biggest secret? Hold on to your fangs vamp fans. It's time to go undercover! A killer story to sink your teeth into!
...

This title is a best-seller. It is an explosive expose of how British military intelligence really works from the inside. The stories of two undercover agents
- Brian Nelson who worked for the Force Research Unit (FRU) aiding loyalist terrorists & murderers in their bloody work; & the man known as Stakeknife deputy head of the IRAs infamous Nutting Squad the internal security force which tortured & killed suspected informers.
...

There have been many biographies of Stalin but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag Montefiore acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Greats lover prime minister & general Potemkin has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not only ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria but men & women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge. Spectacular...an impressive & compelling work Philip Mansel Spectator This magnificent portrait of the dictator Richard Overy Literary Review ...

There have been many biographies of Stalin but the court that surrounded him is untravelled ground. Simon Sebag-Montefiore acclaimed biographer of Catherine the Greats lover prime minister & general Potemkin has unearthed the vast underpinning that sustained Stalin. Not only ministers such as Molotov or secret service chiefs such as Beria but men & women whose loyalty he trusted only until the next purge. Here is the Stalin story from the inside full of revelations. How the death of Stalins wife was hushed up
- was it suicide? How the Soviet leaders & their families lived & partied inside the Kremlin walls. What happened on the first day of war with Germany in 1941. The fullest account of the meeting between Stalin Roosevelt & Churchill that settled the fate of the axis powers. & how the Great Terror in which 10 million died actually happened. Robert Service (St Antonys Oxford) former head of Russian history at the School of Slavonic Studies U. of London: Simon Sebag Montefiore has pulled it off. His book succeeds in giving us an intimate picture of daily life in the Kremlin under Stalin. The arrests & killings are not ignored; indeed Montefiore supplies extra chapters & verses on the process by which the Soviet dictator moved against his enemies real & potential. An abundance of the sources are wholly new. The result is a gripping account. Stalin was a vengeful conspirator & a murderous leader. But he was also normal in many ways. He was convivial solicitous & even flirtatious. When he wanted he could be quite a charmer. This duality has long been under-appreciated but it helps to explain why Stalin was admired as well as feared by his associates
- & indeed why his power endured. This is a fundamental theme & it is one of Montefiores that he handles it with excitement & cogency.

...