A broken heart & a moment of drunken bravado inspires middle-aged & typically rather cautious journalist Mike Carter to take off on a life-changing six month motorcycle trip around Europe. Never mind that he hadn't been on two wheels since an inglorious three-month teenage chapter involving a Lambretta four crashes & an 18-month ban for drink-driving a plan had begun to loosely form... And so having completed a six day residential motorcycle course & hastily re-mortgaged his flat Mike sets off alone resolving to go wherever the road takes him & enjoy the adventure of heading off into the unknown. He ends up travelling almost 20 000 miles & reaching the four extremes of Europe: the Arctic Circle in the north the Mediterranean coast in the south the Portuguese Atlantic to the west & the Iraqi border of Turkey in the east. But really it's a journey inwards as on the way Mike finds his post-divorce scars starting to heal & attempts to discover what he as a man in his forties who hasn't quite found his place in the world should be doing. Self-deprecating poetic & utterly engaging his is a heroic journey taken for the rest of us too scared to leave our 9 to 5 office-bound existence. ...

In Uneven Development" a classic in its field Neil Smith offers the first full theory of uneven geographical development expanding on established ideas regarding space & nature & combining these with a critique of capitalist economics. In his groundbreaking analyses of the production of nature & the politics of scale Smith anticipated many of the asymmetrical contours that now mark neoliberal globalization." ...

The new blockbuster from one of the world's greatest storytellers continues the legacy of A Woman of Substance. The great-grandaughters of Emma Harte the heroine of A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE & EMMA'S SECRET follow in her legendary footsteps... Evan Hughes Emma's American great-grandaughter is trying to integrate into the powerful Harte family. She is caught between her estranged parents her new family & new love. Meanwhile a dangerous enemy hovers in the background. Tessa Longden Evan's cousin is battling her husband for custody of their daughter Adele. When Adele suddenly goes missing Tessa seeks her sister Linnet's help. Linnet O' Neill the most brilliant businesswoman of the four great-granddaughters is the natural heir to her mother Paula. But her glittering future at the helm of the vast Harte empire means many sacrifices. India Standish the traditionalist in the family falls in love with a famous British artist from a working-class background. Madly in love India is determined to marry him. When Evan discovers letters from Emma Harte to her grandmother the story is swept back to the 1950s. But it is the revelations in Emma's letters to her grandmother that give Evan a new perspective & help to set her free from her own past. This latest dramatic story in the on-going saga of an extraordinary family dynasty is full of love passion & jealousy & is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her inimitable best. ...

Cecilia Banks has a great deal on her plate. But when her son Ian turns up on her doostep with the unexpected consequence of a brief fling she feels she has no choice but to take the baby into her life. Cephas's arrival is the latest of many challenges Cecilia has to face. There is the matter of her cancer for a start an illness shared with her novelist friend Helen. Then there is Helen herself whose observations of Cecilia's family life reveal a somewhat ambivalent attitude to motherhood. Meanwhile Tim Cecilia's husband is taking self-effacement to extremes & Ian unless he gets on with it will throw away his best chance at happiness. Cecilia however does not have to manage alone. In a convent in Hastings sits Sister Diana Clegg who holds the ties that bind everyone not only to each other but to strangers as yet unmet. As events unfold & as the truth about Cephas is revealed we are invited to look closely at madness guilt mortal dread & the gift of resilience. No one will remain unchanged. ' Frank courageous & entertaining. I felt better for reading it' Margaret Drabble ...

When Elizabeth Price engages private detective Roland ' Orlando' Gibbons to find out the truth about her husband's suspected affair she unwittingly sets off a chain of correspondence that reunites four formerly close-knit couples. They all live just a few suburban streets away from each other; they are all still married; so how
- & why
- did they become so estranged? In a series of letters
- from love notes to condolence messages (the latter one arriving some years late)
- each protagonist is far more self-revealing than they would ever be in person. The result is an uproarious & poignant portrait of four marriages & a story about how little we know those we think we know best. Nigel Williams' new novel of suburban intrigue & late-flowering lust (and love) Unfaithfully Yours heralds the return of one of the country's finest comic writers in peak condition: all hail Nigel Williams chronicler of England's sleepy suburbs where all is not quite as cricket as it seems...



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John Darwin won the Wolfson History Prize for his book After Tamerlane: The Rise & Fall of Global Empires". In " Unfinished Empire" he examines the enormous influence of the British Empire. It has shaped the world in countless ways: repopulating continents carving out modern nations imposing its own language technology & values. For perhaps two centuries its existence expansion & final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events. Now that it has gone it seems to us baffling that such a strange entity should ever have existed. What was the dynamic that led to English-speakers standing on the shores of the Pacific controlling the worlds sea transport & creating a financial system that revolutionized the worlds economies? John Darwins provocative & richly enjoyable new book is an attempt to make us see anew how diverse strange & in many ways chaotic the British Empire really was controlled by a range of interests often at loggerheads with each other & as much driven on by others weaknesses as by its own strength. By understanding the different phases of imperial conquest the wildly different types of colonist (with soldiers & farmers merchants & government officials often barely on speaking terms) & what made the Empire ultimately collapse in ruins " Unfinished Empire" is a surprising original & often critical account of an extraordinary phenomenon. Reviews: "A breadth of perspective few other imperial historians can boast. The British Empire really does look different in the light of it... Breadth of vision fizzing ideas & a brilliant style as well as superb scholarship... It deserves to supplant every other book on this topic including
- though my publisher & bank manager wont thank me for saying this
- my own. It is British imperial history at last without hang-ups; the one weve been waiting for". (Bernard Porter " History Today"). "A brilliantly perceptive analysis of the forces & ideas that drove the creation of an extraordinary enterprise... Bringing together his huge erudition scrupulous fairness & elegant prose Mr Darwin has produced a wonderfully stimulating account of something that today seems almost incredibly yet was in historical terms only yesterday. It is also a much-needed antidote both to the leftish consensus of the past 50 years that Britains empire was unrelievedly awful...and the recent triumphalist revisionism of more conservative historians". (" Economist"). " Engrossing... What Darwin adds to this subject is a rare wonderful capacity for comparison... Seeing the imperial experience in the round like this does gives us a clearer more subtle appreciation of the range of power & violence at play. It raises the historical writing on empire to another level". ("BBC History Magazine"). " Balanced original & impressive... Subtle...intelligent". (" Literary Review"). " Comprehensive... Darwins erudition allows him to skirt around the narrow orthodoxies of apologist v critic & provide an insightful account of Britains unlikely period of global hegemony". (" Sunday Times"). " How incredibly refreshing it is when as distinguished an historian as John Darwin...writes something as thoughtful well-researched & persuasive as " Unfinished Empire" which explains the half-millennium-long expansion of Britain across the globe in terms that genuinely make sense... The authors deep familiarity with all the key sources of this vast subject allows him to pluck examples for his arguments from across the centuries & continents... Best of all...is the thought that Darwins book might at long last herald the victory of the post-Marxist phase of imperial historiography & not a moment too soon". (Andrew Roberts " Sunday Telegraph"). Book of the Week About the author: John Darwins interest lies in the history of empires both their rise & fall. He has written extensively on the decline of Britains empire & teaches imperial & global history at "

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A newly reissued edition of Agatha Christie's ' Mary Westmacott' novel a Crime of the Heart novel about a woman on the verge of suicide. ' In Celia we have more nearly than anywhere else a portrait of Agatha.' Max Mallowan Bereft of the three people she has held most dear
- her mother her husband & her daughter
- Celia is on the verge of suicide. Then one night on an exotic island she meets Larraby a successful portrait painter & through a long night of talk reveals how she is afraid to commit herself to a second chance of happiness with another person yet is not brave enough to face life alone. Can Larraby help Celia come to terms with the past or will they part her outcome still uncertain?

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The popular paperback edition of this fascinating collection of stories which continue the tales of The Lord of the Rings & The Silmarillion & contains an alternative version of The Children of Hurin. Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring & provides those who have read The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background & new stories from the twentieth century's most acclaimed popular author. The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth & comprises such elements as Gandalf's lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand & an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan. Unfinished Tales also contains the only story about the long ages of Numenor before its downfall & all that is known about such matters as the Five Wizards the Palantiri & the legend of Amroth. The tales were collated & edited by JRR Tolkien's son & literary heir Christopher Tolkien who provides a short commentary on each story helping the reader to fill in the gaps & put each story into the context of the rest of his father's writings. ...

Classic hardback edition of this fascinating collection of stories featuring Tolkiens own painting of the dragon Glaurung on the cover which continues the tales of The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings & The Silmarillion & contains an alternative version of The Children of Hurin. Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring & provides those who have read The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background & new stories from the twentieth centurys most acclaimed popular author. The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth & comprises such elements as Gandalfs lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand & an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan. Unfinished Tales also contains the only story about the long ages of Numenor before its downfall & all that is known about such matters as the Five Wizards the Palantiri & the legend of Amroth. The tales were collated & edited by JRR Tolkiens son & literary heir Christopher Tolkien who provides a short commentary on each story helping the reader to fill in the gaps & put each story into the context of the rest of his fathers writings. ...

This book surveys all the Soviet/ Russian aircraft that either remained 'paper projects' (the work progressed no further than the design documents or even merely a design proposal) or were abandoned at the prototype construction stage. Over many years the authors have unearthed a mass of unpublished material on these aircraft projects. These include such aircraft as the Isayev/ Shevchenko 'bi-monoplane' fighters with retractable lower wings developed in the 1930s early Soviet jet fighter projects of the Second World War period the twin-boom fighters & attack aircraft developed by Semyon M. Alekseyev in the late 1940s Aleksandr S. Yakovlev's high-altitude 'balloon killer' fighters developed in the mid-1950s specifically for use against NATO reconnaissance balloons the jet fighters of the Antonov design bureau which specialised primarily in transports & airliners the various unbuilt fighter & bomber projects of Artyom I. Mikoyan Pavel O. Sukhoi Vladimir M. Myasishchev & Roberto Bartini. Wherever possible images of the aircraft are shown including pictures of models line & cutaway drawings from the project documents giving the readers the maximum available information on Soviet aircraft projects developed over a large time scale. The book is richly illustrated with numerous photos drawings & diagrams as well as colour side views of the unbuilt aircraft which will be of interest not only to the numerous Soviet/ Russian aviation enthusiasts but also to scale modellers. ...