Thomas Ades is feted from Los Angeles to London from New York to Berlin as the musician who has done more than any other living composer to connect contemporary music with wider audiences. His operas orchestral pieces & chamber works have already stood the test of repeated performances productions & continued critical acclaim. But this celebrated composer conductor & pianist is notoriously secretive about his creative process about what lies behind his compositional impulse. The poetry technique & biography that fuel his most successful & shattering works such as his operas Powder Her Face" & " The Tempest" or his orchestral works " Asyla" & " Tevot" have remained hidden & unexplained. Until now. In conversation with Tom Service
- the writer with whom he has had the closest relationship in his career
- Ades opens up for the first time about how he creates his music where it comes from & what it means. In these provocative & challenging interviews Ades connects his music with influences from a huge historical & cultural spectrum
- from Sephardic Jewish folk music to 80s electronica from the films of Luis Bunuel & pre-Columbian art to the soundtracks of Al-Qaeda training videos
- & offers a unique insight into the crucible of his composition."



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Pierce Brosnan narrates this brand new feature-length Thomas & Friends" story. When Thomas discovers the long-lost town of Great Waterton The Fat Controller says it will be restored to mark Sodor Day. New engine Stanley arrives to help with the restoration but Thomas feels his position as the number 1 engine is under threat & plays a trick on him. When the plan backfires Thomas finds himself lost down a mine braving raging rapids & leaping the gap of a broken bridge. This all-action adventure will keep Thomas fans on the edge of their seats!" ...

Thomas Aquinas an Italian Catholic priest in the early thirteeth century is considered to be one of the great Christian thinkers who had & who still has a profound influence on Western thought. He was a controversial figure who was exposed & engaged in conflict. This Very Short Introduction looks at Aquinas in a historical context & explores the Church & culture into which Aquinas was born. It considers Aquinas as philosopher & looks at the relationship between philosophy & religion in the thirteenth century. Fergus Kerr in this engaging & informative introduction will make The Summa Theologiae Aquinass greatest single work accessible to new readers. It will also reflect on the importance of Thomas Aquinas in modern debates & asks why Aquinas matters now. ...

From the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award John Guy comes Thomas Becket" a lively & enlightening new study that brings a colossal figure of British history vividly to life. Behind the legend there was a man. In 1120 the wife of a Norman drapers merchant gave birth to a baby boy in Londons bustling Cheapside. Despite his sickly constitution middle-class background & unremarkable abilities he rose within the space of thirty-five years to become the most powerful man in the kingdom second only to Henry II himself. At his height he led seven hundred knights into battle brokered peace between nations held the ear of the Pope & brought one of the strongest rulers in Christendom to his knees. & within three years of his bloody assassination he was a saint whose cult had spread the length & breadth of Europe & a legend who remains as controversial & compelling today as he was during his life. The story of " Thomas Becket" is the story of an enigma as well as of one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary records personal letters & first-hand accounts John Guy has reconstructed a psychologically compelling stunningly nuanced & utterly convincing account of this most remarkable man the dramatic times in which he lived & the pivotal role he played in his nations history. " Lively effortlessly readable superb. A triumph". (" The Times"). " Suspenseful meticulously researched.. .however well you think you know the story it is well worth the read". (" Financial Times"). " Wonderfully moving & subtle. Reading of the assassination is almost unbearably intense & brings tears to ones eye". (" Daily Express"). " Compelling marvellously measured entertainingly astute & in places positively moving". (" The Independent"). "A beautifully layered portrait of one of the most complex characters in English history.. .not only corrects many historical errors & uncertainties but merits reading more than once for the sheer joy of its superb storytelling". (" The Times"). " Scintillates with energetic scene-setting giving us a tactile visual feel for early medieval England.. .breathes new life into an oft-told tale". (" Financial Times"). " Vivid & extremely readable. The most accessible " Life of Thomas Becket" to be published in recent years". (" The Times"). " Literary Supplement" John Guy is an award-winning historian accomplished broadcaster & a Fellow of Clare College Cambridge. His previous books include " My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots" winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award the highly acclaimed dual biography "A Daughters Love: Thomas & Margaret More" & a history " Tudor England" which has sold over 250 000 copies worldwide." ...

From the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award John Guy comes Thomas Becket a lively & enlightening new book that brings a colossal figure of British history vividly to life. This is the man not the legend... Thomas Becket lived at the centre of medieval Engl&. Son of a draper's merchant he was befriended & favoured by Henry II & quickly ascended the rungs of power & privilege. He led 700 knights into battle brokered peace between warring states & advised King & Pope. Yet he lost it all defying his closest friend & King resulting in his own bloody murder & the birth of a legend. In John Guy's masterful account the life death & times of Thomas Becket come splendidly alive. Lively effortlessly readable superb. A triumph". (The Times). " Suspenseful meticulously researched.. .however well you think you know the story it is well worth the read". (Financial Times). " Wonderfully moving & subtle. Reading of the assassination is almost unbearably intense & brings tears to one's eye". (Daily Express). " Compelling marvellously measured entertainingly astute & in places positively moving". (The Independent). "A beautifully layered portrait of one of the most complex characters in English history.. .not only corrects many historical errors & uncertainties but merits reading more than once for the sheer joy of its superb storytelling". (The Times). " Scintillates with energetic scene-setting giving us a tactile visual feel for early medieval England.. .breathes new life into an oft-told tale". (Financial Times). " Vivid & extremely readable. The most accessible Life of Thomas Becket to be published in recent years". (The Times Literary Supplement). John Guy is an award-winning historian accomplished broadcaster & a Fellow of Clare College Cambridge. His previous books include My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots winner of the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award & the Marsh Biography Award the highly acclaimed dual biography A Daughter's Love: Thomas & Margaret More & a history Tudor England which has sold over 250 000 copies worldwide." ...

The son of a brewer Cromwell rose from obscurity to become Earl of Essex Vice-Regent & High Chamberlain of England Keep of the Privy Seal & Chancellor of the Exchequer. He manoeuvred his way to the top by intrigue bribery & sheer force of personality in a court dominated by the malevolent King Henry. Cromwell pursued the interests of the king with single-minded energy & little subtlety. Tasked with engineering the judicial murder of Anne Boleyn when she had worn out her welcome in the royal chamber he tortured her servants & relations then organised a show trial of Stalinist efficiency. He orchestrated the greatest act of privatisation in English history: the seizure of the monasteries. Their enormous wealth was used to cement the loyalty of the English nobility & to enrich the crown. Cromwell made himself a fortune too soliciting colossal bribes & binding the noble families to him with easy loans. He came home from court literally weighed down with gold. ...

From outstanding new graduate talent Thomas Flintham this is a puzzle book with a difference. Beautifully rendered black-&-white intricate mazes will keep children absorbed for hours on end. Children can find their way through the fur of a great big bear help squirrels reach nuts at the top of a tall tree & aid a knight in his quest for the castle. Every child will find themselves delighted to discover the world of Super Amazing Mazes. ...

Thomas Hardy is one of the sacred figures in English writing a great poet & a novelist with a world reputation. His life was also extraordinary: from the poverty of rural Dorset he went on to become the Grand Old Man of English life & letters his last resting place in Westminster Abbey. This seminal biography by our leading biographer covers Hardys illegitimate birth his rural upbringing his escape to London in the 1860s his marriages his status as a bestselling novelist & in later life his supreme achievements as a poet. ...

Paradox ruled Thomas Hardys life. His birth was almost his death; he became one of the great Victorian novelists & reinvented himself as one of the twentieth-centurys greatest poets; he was an unhappy husband but a desolate widower; he wrote bitter attacks on the English class system yet prized the friendship of aristocrats. In the hands of Claire Tomalin Thomas Hardy the novelist poet neglectful husband & mourning lover all come intensely alive. ...

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was born in Dorset. He left school at sixteen to work as an apprentice for an architect who specialized in church restoration. He made his reputation as a novelist & it wasn't until after the publication of his last novel The Well-beloved in 1897 that he dedicated himself to writing poetry. ...