As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian the scholar Suetonius had access to the imperial archives & used them (along with eyewitness accounts) to produce one of the most colourful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars" chronicles the public careers & private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar & Augustus to the decline into depravity & civil war under Nero & the recovery that came with his successors. A masterpiece of observation anecdote & detailed physical description " The Twelve Caesars" presents us with a gallery of vividly drawn
- & all too human
- individuals."

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One of them was a military genius; one murdered his mother & fiddled while Rome burned; another earned the nickname sphincter artist. Six of their number were assassinated two committed suicide
- & five of them were elevated to the status of gods. They have come down to posterity as the twelve Caesars
- Julius Caesar Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus & Domitian. Under their rule from 49 BC to AD 96 Rome was transformed from a republic to an empire whose model of regal autocracy would survive in the West for more than a thousand years. Matthew Dennison offers a beautifully crafted sequence of colourful biographies of each emperor triumphantly evoking the luxury licence brutality & sophistication of imperial Rome at its zenith. But as well as vividly recreating the lives loves & vices of this motley group of despots psychopaths & perverts he paints a portrait of an erao of political & social revolution of the bloody overthrow of a proud 500-year-old political system & its replacement by a dictatorship which against all the odds succeeded more convincingly than oligarchic democracy in governing a vast international landmass.

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In The Twelve Caesars Matthew Dennison offers a beautifully crafted sequence of colourful biographies of each emperor triumphantly evoking the luxury licence brutality & sophistication of imperial Rome at its zenith. But as well as vividly recreating the lives loves & vices of this motley group of despots psychopaths & perverts he paints a portrait of an erao of political & social revolution of the bloody overthrow of a proud 500-year-old political system & its replacement by a dictatorship which against all the odds succeeded more convincingly than oligarchic democracy in governing a vast international landmass. ...

Paris August 23rd 1572. What do you do when your wife disappears. In the middle of the bloodiest massacre in European history & you know she is about to give birth to your only child? Three wars of religion have turned Paris into a fetid cauldron of hatred intrigue & corruption. The Royal Wedding intended to heal the wounds has served only to further poison the fanatics of either creed. But Carla could not have known that when she accepted an invitation to the ceremony. When Mattias Tannhauser rides into town on Saint Bartholomew's Eve his only intention is to find her & take her home. But as the massacre of tens of thousands of Huguenots begins & the city plunges into anarchy Carla is abducted by Grymonde the grotesque gang leader of the Yards & Tannhauser finds himself imprisoned in the Louvre at the centre of a vicious conspiracy. Wanted by the law the assassins' guild & a militant army who call themselves the Pilgrims of Saint-Jacques Tannhauser must rise to pitiless extremes even he has never known before. With no one to help him but a stable boy he wades into a river of blood without knowing what lies on the other side. As he harrows Hell in search of his beloved His destiny is changed forever by The Twelve Children Of Paris. ...

Christmas has always been a sad time for young widow Holly Brown so being asked to look after a remote house on the Lancashire moors is the perfect excuse to forget about the festivities. Sculptor Jude Martland is determined that this year there will be no Christmas after his brother ran off with his fiancee. He's keen to avoid the family home. However he will have to return by the twelfth night of the festivities when the hamlet of Little Mumming hold their historic festivities & all of his family are required to attend. Meanwhile Holly is finding that if she wants to avoid Christmas she has come to the wrong place. When Jude unexpectedly returns on Christmas Eve he is far from delighted to discover that Holly seems to be holding the very family party he had hoped to avoid. Suddenly the blizzards come out of nowhere & the whole village is snowed in. With no escape Holly & Jude get much more than they bargained for
- it looks like the twelve days of Christmas are going to be very interesting indeed!
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Now as well as singing the song you can knit the characters. The Twelve Knits of Christmas brings together 12 charming knitting patterns for making all of the objects birds & people mentioned in the song & a beautifully illustrated book containing the words for each verse. Children will love to play with your knitted creations as you sing along together. & the projects can double up as Christmas decorations around your home centering on the colourful & easy-to-assemble cardboard pear tree tucked into the back of the book
- a ready made roosting spot fit for the finest partridge to enjoy.
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Penelope Tredwell is the feisty thirteen-year-old orphan heiress of the bestselling magazine The Penny Dreadful. Her masterly tales of the macabre are gripping Victorian Britain even if no one knows she's the real author. One day a letter she receives from the governor of the notorious Bedlam madhouse plunges her into an adventure more terrifying than anything she ever imagined
- A thriller with a fast-paced cinematic style Twelve Minutes to Midnight is an electrifying story from an exciting new author.
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For each Sunday of the year there is a brief commentary & reflection taken from Tom Wrights weekly Church Times column on the Common Worship lectionary readings. Each section gives the lectionary references & gives a starting-point for thinking about the readings drawing out points of connection between them. The book can be used for regular Bible study throughout the year or for sermon preparation. It covers all Sundays in the year using track 1 (Daily Eucharistic Lectionary) for the Sundays after Trinity. ...

TOM WRIGHT offers reflections on the Sunday readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Years A B & C. This volume which brings together his widely read columns in the Church Times & also contains new material covers all the Sundays & major festivals. Scholarship history & insights into the world & language of the Bible are woven together to give a deeper understanding of the Word of the Lord. Twelve Months of Sundays will be invaluable to anyone who wants to gather their thoughts in preparation for Sunday worship or for regular Bible study throughout the year. ...

An imprisoned man is certain that his supposed murder victim is very much alive.. .A female driver is pursued relentlessly by a menacing figure in another vehicle.. .A young artist gets the biggest break of her career.. .A restless beauty manages the perfect birthday celebration.. . An escaped Iraqi on Saddam Hussein's death list pays an involuntary visit to his homeland.. . How will they react? How would you? Twelve Red Herrings is the third collection of irresistible short stories from a master storyteller. Cleverly styled with richly drawn characters & ingeniously plotted story lines each of the twelve tales ends with a delightfully unexpected turn of events. ' Outstanding.. .white-knuckle suspense & witty denouements' DAILY EXPRESS ' Archer hits the bull's eye with an exemplary collection of short stories' DAILY MAIL ...