BookOdyssey

In 1918, the RAF was established as the world\'s first independent air force. To mark the 100th anniversary of its creation, Penguin are publishing the Centenary Collection, a series of six classic books highlighting the skill, heroism esprit de corps that have characterised the Royal Air Force throughout its first century.Anglo-American James Goodson\'s war began on Sept 3rd 1939, when the SS Athenia was torpedoed and sank off the Hebrides. Surviving the sinking and distinguishing himself rescuing survivors, Goodson immediately signed on with the RAF. He was an American, but he wanted to fight.Goodson flew Spitfires with an RAF Eagle Squadron before later joining his countrymen with the Fourth Fighter Group to get behind the controls of Thunderbolts and Mustangs where he became known as \'King of the Strafers\'.Chock full of breathtaking descriptions of aerial dogfights as well as the stories of others of the heroic \'few\', Tumult in the Clouds is the ultimate story of War in the air, told by the one of the Second World War\'s outstanding fighter pilots.The Centenary Collection:1. The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary2. Tumult in the Clouds by James Goodson3. Going Solo by Roald Dahl4. First Light by Geoffrey Wellum5. Tornado Down by John Peters & John Nichol6. Immediate Response by Mark Hammond Σελίδες: 256, Διαστάσεις: 11.1x11.1cm

28 January 1457. England is in the grip of the Wars of the Roses. Inside the walls of Pembroke Castle a thirteen-year-old girl gives birth to a boy. The ordeal nearly kills them both, forging a powerful bond that will see mother and son work together to found the most famous dynasty in British history: the Tudors.___________‘A compelling portrayal of a woman of extraordinary courage, vision and passion. A must read.’ – Tracy Borman‘A pacy narrative, written with a clear love for and detailed knowledge of her subject.’ – Spectator ___________As the battle for royal supremacy raged between the houses of Lancaster and York, Margaret Beaufort, who was descended from Edward III and proved to be a critical threat to the Yorkist cause, was forced to give up her son – she would be separated from him for fourteen years. Surrounded by conspiracies in the enemy Yorkist court, Margaret remained steadfast, only just escaping the headman’s axe as she plotted to overthrow Richard III and secure her son the throne. Against all odds, in 1485 Henry Tudor was victorious on the battlefield at Bosworth. Margaret’s unceasing efforts and royal blood saw her son crowned King Henry VII, and Margaret became the most powerful woman in England.Nicola Tallis unmasks the many myths that have attached themselves to Margaret and reveals the real woman: an independent and vibrant character, who would risk everything to become Queen in all but name. Σελίδες: 400, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

This brief history of America will span the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer\'s interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It will reflect his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements--political, economic, social, and cultural--he will also discuss the United States\'s failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals; although America has figured in the world\'s imagination (and its own self-image) as a \"land of opportunity\" offering \"liberty and justice for all,\" the reality has often fallen short. For example, the establishment of the North American colonies had very different meanings for colonists from the British Isles and Europe, for Native peoples, and for enslaved Africans brought against their will. The late nineteenth century saw not only impressive industrial expansion and the creation of vast fortunes but also appalling conditions in urban-immigrant slums and a degraded, exploited labor force. The twentieth-century emergence of a suburban society of consumer abundance meant a better life for many and laid the groundwork for impressive cultural creativity, yet left behind crime-ridden inner cities and spawned a stultifying mass culture. The immigrants who have renewed and revitalized the nation have also stirred hostility and resentment. While American popular culture has demonstrated global appeal, the projection of U.S. military power abroad, from the Philippines early in the twentieth century to Iraq early in the twenty-first, has sometimes failed in its purpose and damaged the nation\'s international standing. Although this book will not be a muckraking exposé or anachronistic moral tract, neither will it be a celebratory panegyric or a bland recital of facts. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. Σελίδες: 184, Διαστάσεις: 11.5x11.5cm

A lucid guide to humankind\'s greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Peter Singer    Philosophy begins with the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them just how little they genuinely understood.   This engaging Little History introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas about the universe and our place in it. Nigel Warburton guides us on a tour of the lives and work of thought-provoking philosophers – from the certainty of Descartes (‘I think, therefore I am’) to Hannah Arendt who examined crimes against humanity and taught us ‘the banality of evil’.  Little Histories – Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds Σελίδες: 272, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0506, Διαστάσεις: 12.7x12.7cm

\'A talented writer with much to say\' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE\'Witty and accessible\' ANGELA SAINI\'A vital piece of work in our challenging times\' ROMA AGRAWAL\'Stunning\' DAN HICKSWestern civilisation is a powerful brand, full of accepted wisdoms like \'knowledge is power\', \'time is money\', and \'justice is blind\' that we rarely question. Taking cues from Greek philosophy and honed in the Enlightenment, certain notions about humanity and society grew into the tenets many of us still live by today.But when we take a closer look at these ideas, it seems they\'re not all they are cracked up to be. In fact, some of them are outright lies - and we can start to ask who really benefits from them. What is the value of a scientific worldview that conjured up \'race\'? Are the Western concepts of \'saving\' and \'wasting\' time really the best ways to live? Who are our laws actually designed to serve? And the real question: is the West as civilised as it likes to think it is? Σελίδες: 304, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0513, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

Shortlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown Award 2023The history of a demonic tradition that was stolen from women – and then won back again.\'Remarkable work... Extraordinary, meticulous detail\' Literary Review\'Deftly fuses scholarly rigour, control of literary and archaeological sources\' BBC History MagazineCreatures like Lilith, the seductive first wife of Adam, and mermaids, who lured sailors to their death, are familiar figures in the genre of monstrous temptresses who use their charms to entice men to their doom.But if we go back 4,000 years, the roots of these demons lie in horrific creatures like Lamashtu, a lion-headed Mesopotamian demon who strangled infants and murdered pregnant women, and Gello, a virgin ghost of ancient Greece who killed expectant mothers and babies out of jealousy. Far from enticing men into danger and destruction, these monsters were part of women’s ritual practices surrounding childbirth and pregnancy. So how did their mythology evolve into one focused on the seduction of men?Sarah Clegg takes us on an absorbing and witty journey from ancient Mesopotamia to the present day, encountering a multitude of serpentine succubi, a child-eating wolf-monster of ancient Greece, the Queen of Sheba and a host of vampires. Clegg shows how these demons were appropriated by male-centred societies, before they were eventually recast as symbols of women’s liberation, offering new insights into attitudes towards womanhood, sexuality and women’s rights. Σελίδες: 304, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0604, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

**NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING ROBERT PATTINSON, CHARLIE HUNNAM AND SIENNA MILLER**The story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, the inspiration behind Conan Doyle\'s The Lost World Fawcett was among the last of a legendary breed of British explorers. For years he explored the Amazon and came to believe that its jungle concealed a large, complex civilization, like El Dorado. Obsessed with its discovery, he christened it the City of Z. In 1925, Fawcett headed into the wilderness with his son Jack, vowing to make history. They vanished without a trace. For the next eighty years, hordes of explorers plunged into the jungle, trying to find evidence of Fawcett\'s party or Z. Some died from disease and starvation; others simply disappeared. In this spellbinding true tale of lethal obsession, David Grann retraces the footsteps of Fawcett and his followers as he unravels one of the greatest mysteries of exploration.‘A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure’ JOHN GRISHAM ‘A wonderful story of a lost age of heroic exploration’ Sunday Times ‘Marvellous ... An engrossing book whose protagonist could out-think Indiana Jones’ Daily Telegraph‘The best story in the world, told perfectly’ Evening Standard Σελίδες: 352, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0613, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year ‘One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation.’ Tracy Borman In this groundbreaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ‘loyal and most assured servant’ of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature, but now with life-and-death consequences for the protagonists. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling obsessions that have shaped the history of this nation. ‘A riveting, pacy page-turner… the Tudors as you’ve never seen them before.’ Alison Weir Σελίδες: 400, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1129, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

A New Statesman Best Book of the Year 2023. A Waterstones Book of the Year 2023. An Economist Book of the Year. One of Smithsonian Magazine\'s Ten Best History Books of 2023. A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 2023. Winner of the Voltaire Medal.\'An untold story of colonial history, both epic and intimate, and a thrilling revelation\' Adam Rutherford\'Mind-blowing . . . this is how history should be told\' Benjamin ZephaniahIn this groundbreaking new history, Caroline Dodds Pennock recovers the long-marginalised stories of the Indigenous Americans who - as enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants and traders - left a profound impact on European civilisation in the \'Age of Discovery\'. On Savage Shores is a sweeping account of power and influence in America and Europe - one which could forever change the way we understand our global history. Σελίδες: 320, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0611, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

Winner of the Royal Society Science Book.\'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer\' - The Times4.6 billion years of the story of life on Earth, in twelve concise chapters. Brief, brilliant and entirely gripping.For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place – covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape through volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again.From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you’ve never seen it before.Dr Henry Gee presents creatures from ‘gregarious’ bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period, to magnificent mammals with the future in their grasp. Life’s evolutionary steps – from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight – are conveyed with an up-close intimacy.\'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting.\' – Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel Σελίδες: 336, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1213, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

*FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH*\'I really can\'t recommend this enough - especially if you are going on holiday\' Tom Holland\'Delightful ... Lucy Lethbridge has written a glorious romp of a book\' Kathryn Hughes, The Mail on Sunday‘It is the paramount wish of every English heart, ever addicted to vagabondizing, to hasten to the Continent…’In 1815 the Battle of Waterloo brought to an end the Napoleonic Wars and the European continent opened up once again to British tourists. The nineteenth century was to be an age driven by steam technology, mass-industrialisation and movement, and, in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists a hundred years earlier, the British middle-classes flocked to Europe to see the sights.In Tourists, the voices of these travellers – puzzled, shocked, delighted and amazed – are brought vividly to life. From the discomfort of the stagecoach to the ‘self-contained pleasure palace’ of the beach resort, Lucy Lethbridge brilliantly examines two centuries of tourists’ experience. Among a range of disparate characters, we meet the commercial titans of Victorian tourism, Albert Smith, Henry Gaze and Thomas Cook, as well as their successor, Vladimir Raitz, the creator of the modern beach holiday. The growth of popular tourism introduced new markets in guidebooks, souvenirs, cuisine and health cures. It smoothed over class differences but also exacerbated them. It destroyed traditional cultures while at the same time preserving them.From portable cameras to postcards and suntans, Tourists explores how tourism has reflected changing attitudes to modernity and how, from the grand hotel to the campsite, the foreign holiday exposes deep fears, hopes and even longings for home. Σελίδες: 320, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1128, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

Is today\'s youth over sensitive, mollycoddled and intellectually pathetic? Does the scourge of political correctness threaten the very fabric of our nations? Yes, and yes! comes the cry of the incensed politician, columnist, comedian, disgruntled father, and baby boomer. Dubbed the \'snowflake generation\', these hypersensitive cowards are up in arms about silly things like bathrooms smeared with faeces in the shape of Swastikas, climate change, and statues of colonisers being kept in their natural habitats of universities and town squares. They make obstinate requests like wondering if a vegan option might be available, or if you could (please) use their correct pronouns. In response to this outrage, writer and Washington Post pop culture host Hannah Jewell has decided to write a book to explain why being a snowflake might not be a bad thing. It might even make the world a better place. Subversive, provocative and very funny, Hannah explains how, shockingly, despising the generation that comes after your own isn\'t actually a new thing, and why it\'s good for students (and indeed the rest of us) to kick off. She shows how you can instill resilience in children without having to live through a war or be made to eat octopus; and provides a handy guide to how you - yes, you! - can also become a snowflake and help to make the world a kinder, more empathetic place. Σελίδες: 320, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0216, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

A brief and original prehistory of the worldPrehistory covers human existence before written records, i.e. most of human existence. But it also refers to the discipline through which we scrutinize prehistoric times. PREHISTORY begins by looking at the discovery of a remote human past and the subsequent dramatic growth of the study of prehistory: early archaeology; geology; Darwin\'s ideas of evolution; cave paintings; fossil discoveries of human ancestors; museums and collections; radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis.Renfrew challenges the conventional assumption of an all-important \'human revolution\' 40,000 years ago - when Homo Sapiens first appeared in Europe - and suggests that the key developments were much later. The author\'s case-studies range widely, from Orkney to the Balkans, from the Indus Valley to Peru, from Ireland to China, and provide fresh insights on landmark monuments such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, Stonehenge and the sacrificial burial pyramids at Teotihuacan in Mexico. The book closes with a fascinating chapter on the transition from Prehistory to History, on early writing systems. Σελίδες: 272, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1101, Διαστάσεις: 19.9x19.9cm

THE IRISH TOP 10 BESTSELLERA gripping investigation into one of Irish history\'s greatest mysteries, Great Hatred reveals the true story behind one of the most significant political assassinations to ever have been committed on British soil.\'Heart-stopping . . . The book is both forensic and a page-turner, and ultimately deeply tragic, for Ireland as much as for the murder victim.\'MICHAEL PORTILLO\'Gripping from start to finish. McGreevy turns a forensic mind to a political assassination that changed the course of history, uncovering a trove of unseen evidence in the process.\'ANITA ANAND, author of The Patient Assassin\'Invaluable.\' IRISH TIMES\'Intelligent and insightful.\' IRISH INDEPENDENTOn 22 June 1922, Sir Henry Wilson - the former head of the British army and one of those credited with winning the First World War - was shot and killed by two veterans of that war turned IRA members in what was the most significant political murder to have taken place on British soil for more than a century. His assassins were well-educated and pious men. One had lost a leg during the Battle of Passchendaele. Shocking British society to the core, the shooting caused consternation in the government and almost restarted the conflict between Britain and Ireland that had ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty just five months earlier. Wilson\'s assassination triggered the Irish Civil War, which cast the darkest of shadows over the new Irish State. Who ordered the killing? Why did two English-born Irish nationalists kill an Irish-born British imperialist? What was Wilson\'s role in the Northern Ireland government and the violence which matched the intensity of the Troubles fifty years later? Why would Michael Collins, who risked his life to sign a peace treaty with Great Britain, want one of its most famous soldiers dead, and how did the Wilson assassination lead to Collins\' tragic death in an ambush two months later?Drawing upon newly released archival material and never-before-seen documentation, Great Hatred is a revelatory work that sheds light on a moment that changed the course of Irish and British history for ever.\'McGreevy provides more than the anatomy of a political murder; in reconstructing this era of blood, poverty and wartime trauma, he also gives full expression to the terrible forces that WB Yeats once called the \"fanatic heart\" and the \"great hatred\".\'THE TIMES\'Thoughtful and well-researched . . . an important and valuable addition to the library of the Irish Revolution.\'PROFESSOR DIARMAID FERRITER, University College Dublin Σελίδες: 480, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

A New Statesman, Financial Times and Economist Book of the Year ‘Brilliant’ NEW STATESMAN, BOOKS OF THE YEAR ‘Enlightening and a good read’ SPECTATOR ‘Moving and perceptive’ NEW STATESMAN Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Ceausescu, Mengistu of Ethiopia and Duvalier of Haiti. No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the twentieth century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom. In Dictators, Frank Dikötter returns to eight of the most chillingly effective personality cults of the twentieth century. From carefully choreographed parades to the deliberate cultivation of a shroud of mystery through iron censorship, these dictators ceaselessly worked on their own image and encouraged the population at large to glorify them. At a time when democracy is in retreat, are we seeing a revival of the same techniques among some of today’s world leaders? This timely study, told with great narrative verve, examines how a cult takes hold, grows, and sustains itself. It places the cult of personality where it belongs, at the very heart of tyranny. Σελίδες: 320, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0929, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the bestselling author of The Time Traveller\'s Guide to Medieval EnglandWe tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world.We couldn\'t be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, people\'s horizons - their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world - expanded dramatically. Life was utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare.Just as The Time Traveller\'s Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the era as a whole. It outlines the enormous cultural changes that took place - from literacy to living standards, inequality and even the developing sense of self - thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.Praise for Ian Mortimer:\'The endlessly inventive Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time\' - The Times Σελίδες: 256, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZEDrowned. Buried by sand. Decimated by plague. Plunged off a cliff.This is the forgotten history of Britain\'s lost cities, ghost towns and vanished villages: our shadowlands.\'Brilliant.\' TOM HOLLAND\'A beautiful book, truly original . . . It is a marvellous achievement.\'IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time Traveller\'s Guide to Medieval England\'Well researched, beautifully written and packed with interesting detail.\'CLAIRE TOMALIN\'An exquisitely written, moving and elegiac exploration.\'SUZANNAH LIPSCOMB\'Consistently interesting . . . Green\'s passion and historical vision bursts from the page, summoning up the past in surround sound and sensual prose.\'CAL FLYN, THE TIMES, author of Islands of AbandonmentHistorian Matthew Green travels across Britain to tell the forgotten history of our lost cities, ghost towns and vanished villages. Revealing the extraordinary stories of how these places met their fate - and exploring how they have left their mark on our landscape and our imagination - Shadowlands is a deeply evocative and dazzlingly original account of Britain\'s past.\'An eloquent tour of lost communities.\'PD SMITH, GUARDIAN\'A haunting, lyrical tour around the lost places of Britain.\'CHARLOTTE HIGGINS, author of Under Another Sky\'A miraculous work of resurrection, stinging in a perpetual present\'.IAIN SINCLAIR, author of The Gold Machine\'Beautifully written.\' SUNDAY TIMES\'Startling.\' FINANCIAL TIMES\'Splendid.\' THE HERALD\'Compelling.\' HISTORY TODAY\'Excellent.\' THE SPECTATOR\'Fascinating.\' DAILY MAIL\'Accomplished.\' CAUGHT BY THE RIVER\'Outstanding.\' MIRROR Σελίδες: 368, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

ONE OF THE GREATEST SPY STORIES OF ALL TIME Nothing can stop an enemy from picking wireless messages out of the free air - and nothing did. In England, Room 40 was born . . .In January 1917, with the First World War locked in terrible stalemate and America still neutral, German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman gambled the future of the conflict on a single telegram.But this message was intercepted and decoded in Whitehall\'s legendary Room 40 - and Zimmerman\'s audacious scheme for world domination was exposed, bringing America into the war and changing the course of history.The story of how this happened, and the incalculable consequences are thrillingly told in Barbara Tuchman\'s brilliant exploration. Σελίδες: 256, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

A thought-provoking reflection on pilgrimage past and present, and a compelling exploration of its relevance today. The enormous rise in popularity in recent decades of the Camino, the ancient pilgrim path that stretches from France, across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, is part of a wider phenomenon being witnessed on other time-honoured pilgrim routes around the globe and across the faiths. But this is happening in a world that in many places is self-avowedly ever more sceptical, secular and scientific, with formal religious affiliation in steep decline. Why? Some argue that tourism is the new religion, and that those who today walk in the footsteps of countless past generations of believers do so to enjoy the holiday experience, the escape from their everyday world, the health benefits of so much exercise, and the companionship, without seeking any sort of spiritual enlightenment. Yet by looking at a diverse range of pilgrimage sites that includes Rome, Jerusalem, Lalibela in Ethiopia, the Buddha Trail in northern India, Shikoku in Japan and the self-styled ‘power place’ of Machu Picchu in Peru, Peter Stanford draws on his own experience as a pilgrim to argue that something more complex and challenging is going on. Financial crises, increasing inequality, climate change and worldwide pandemics are causing people to question the very foundations on which their post religion, twenty-first-century lives are built. This book considers how pilgrimage, with its long history, essential intertwining of arduous journey and openness to personal transformation, is providing the modern age with a means to take a longer, slower and hence more profound look at life, stretching all the way back to when the first pilgrim put one foot in front of another. Σελίδες: 256, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0614, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Blackwell\'s Non-Fiction Book of the Month\'A formidable achievement\' Rory Stewart\'Thoughtful [and] heartfelt\' Observer\'Profound [and] compelling\' Spectator\'A noble endeavour\' New StatesmanWithout a permanent home, a wife or a job, and with no clear sense of where his life was going, Anthony Seldon set out on a 35-day pilgrimage from the French-Swiss border to the English Channel.The route of his 1,000 kilometre journey was inspired by a young British soldier of the First World War, Alexander Douglas Gillespie, who dreamed of creating a \'Via Sacra\' that the men, women and children of Europe could walk to honour the fallen. Tragically, Gillespie was killed in action, his vision forgotten for a hundred years, until a chance discovery in the archive of one of England\'s oldest schools galvanised Anthony into seeing the Via Sacra permanently established.Tracing the historic route of the Western Front, he traversed some of Europe\'s most beautiful and evocative scenery, from the Vosges, Argonne and Champagne to the haunting trenches of Arras, the Somme and Ypres. Along the way, he wrestled heat exhaustion, dog bites and blisters as well as a deeper search for inner peace and renewed purpose. Touching on grief, loss and the legacy of war, The Path of Peace is the extraordinary story of Anthony\'s epic walk, an unforgettable act of remembrance and a triumphant rediscovery of what matters most in life.***A WATERSTONES BEST BOOKS OF 2022 PICK***____________________________________________\'The Western Front Way, an idea that waited 100 years for its moment, is the simplest and fittest memorial yet to the agony of the Great War. Anthony Seldon\'s account of how he walked it, and what it means to all of us, will be an inspiration to younger generations.\' Sebastian Faulks\'A deeply informed meditation on the First World War, an exploration of walking\'s healing power, a formidable physical achievement... and above all a moving enactment of a modern pilgrimage.\' Rory Stewart\'A journey of self-discovery and a pilgrimage of peace... A remarkable book by a remarkable man.\' Michael Morpurgo\'An incredible journey that will move and inspire.\' Bear Grylls Σελίδες: 368, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

BOOK OF THE YEAR, The Times, Guardian and Prospect\'Fascinating and instructive... his decency and pragmatism shine through.\' The Times\'Candid, valuable and insightful.\' ObserverSince the EU referendum of 2016, British politics has witnessed a barrage of crises, resignations and general elections. Theresa May\'s premiership was the most turbulent of all. In her darkest hour, following the disastrous 2017 election, she turned to Gavin Barwell to help restore her battered authority. He would become her chief of staff for the next two years - a period punctuated by Brexit negotiations, domestic tragedy, and intense political drama.In this gripping insider memoir, Barwell reveals what really went on in the corridors of power - and sheds a vital light on May, the most inscrutable of modern prime ministers. He was by her side when she met Donald Trump, heard about the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, and responded to the Grenfell Tower fire. He was also at the centre of Brexit talks with foreign leaders and MPs from across the house, including Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer. Revealing how government operates during times of crisis, this is the definitive record of a momentous episode in Britain\'s recent political history. Σελίδες: 464, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Second-hand Time is the latest work from Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. Here she brings together the voices of dozens of witnesses to the collapse of the USSR in a formidable attempt to chart the disappearance of a culture and to surmise what new kind of man may emerge from the rubble. Fashioning a singular, polyphonic literary form by combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, Alexievich creates a magnificent requiem to a civilization in ruins, a brilliant, poignant and unique portrait of post-Soviet society out of the stories of ordinary women and men. Σελίδες: 702, Διαστάσεις: 11.4x11.4cm

On 23 May 1988, Paul Baker sat down with his family to eat cake on his sixteenth birthday while The Six O’Clock News played in the background. But something was not quite right. There was muffled shouting – ‘Stop Section 28!’ – and a scuffle. The morning papers would announce: ‘Beeb Man Sits on Lesbian’. The next day Section 28 passed into law, forbidding local authorities from teaching ‘the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. It would send shockwaves through British society, silencing gay pupils and teachers while galvanizing mass protests and the formation of the LGBTQ+ rights groups OutRage! and Stonewall. Now available in paperback, Outrageous! tells the full story: the background to the Act, how the press fanned the flames and what politicians said during debates, how protestors fought back to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s, and its eventual legacy. Based on detailed research, interviews with key figures – including Ian McKellen, Michael Cashman and Angela Mason – and personal recollection, it is an impassioned, warm, often moving account of unthinkable prejudice enshrined within law, and of the power of community to overcome it. Σελίδες: 328, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

The history of Germany is intricately woven. Threaded in time through its struggles and triumphs with religion, industrialisation, enlightenment, politics, unification, and war.In A Brief History of Germany, Jeremy Black questions how the Germany we know today came to be, chronicling the events that shaped its past, present and future in a fascinating new way.From the fall of Rome in the 1500s to the enlightenment in the 1700s, from World War I and World War II to Germany post-unification, Black\'s writing will unlock the places and people that formed Germany and enrich your visit with stories of its society and culture.Concise yet explorative, A Brief History of Germany is an astonishing work from a renowned UK historian. Whether you are a long-term reader of Black\'s expansive history work or are interested in learning more ahead of a short city break or longer trip, this intriguing look at the history of Germany is an essential read. Σελίδες: 320, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0412, Διαστάσεις: 12.6x12.6cm

\'Compelling\' Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times\'A fascinating book\' Daily Mail_______________________________________________________________We think of transplant surgery as one of the medical wonders of the modern world -- but it\'s a lot older than you think. As ancient as the pyramids, its history is even more surprising. In Spare Parts, cultural historian Paul Craddock takes us on a fascinating journey and unearths incredible untold stories, from Indian surgeons regrafting lost noses in the sixth century BC, to the seventeenth century architect who helped pioneer blood transfusions, to the French seamstress whose needlework paved the way for kidney transplants in the early 1900s.Expertly weaving together philosophy, science and cultural history, Spare Parts explores how transplant surgery has constantly tested the boundaries between human, animal and machine. It shows us that the history -- and future -- of transplant surgery is tied up with questions not only about who we are, but also what we are, and what we might become._______________________________________________________________\'By turns delightful and disturbing . . . A thoroughly engrossing read that I couldn\'t put down\' LINDSEY FITZHARRIS, author of The Facemaker and The Butchering Art\'Spare Parts is a fascinating read filled with adventure, delight and surprise\' RAHUL JANDIAL, surgeon and author of Life on a Knife\'s Edge\'This is a joyful romp through a fascinating slice of medical history\' WENDY MOORE, author of The Knife Man Σελίδες: 320, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Based on the powerful true story of Auschwitz prisoner number 3444 Wilhelm Brasse, whose photographs helped to expose the atrocities of the Holocaust.\'Horror in sharp focus... important, because the world must know.\' John Lewis-Stempel, Daily Express__________When Germany invaded Wilhelm Brasse\'s native Poland in 1939, he was asked to swear allegiance to Hitler and join the Wehrmacht. He refused. He was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp as political prisoner number 3444. A trained portrait photographer, he was ordered by the SS to record the inner workings of the camp. He began by taking identification photographs of prisoners as they entered the camp, went on to capture the criminal medical experiments of Josef Mengele, and also recorded executions. Between 1940 and 1945, Brasse took around 50,000 photographs of the horror around him. He took them because he had no choice.Eventually, Brasse\'s conscience wouldn\'t allow him to hide behind his camera. First he risked his life by joining the camp\'s Resistance movement, faking documents for prisoners, trying to smuggle images to the outside world to reveal what was happening. Then, when Soviet troops finally advanced on the camp to liberate it, Brasse refused SS orders to destroy his photographs. \'Because the world must know,\' he said.For readers of The Librarian of Auschwitz and The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz, this powerful true story of hope and courage lies at the very centre of Holocaust history.__________\'A remarkable tale of survival against the odds... an enthralling book.\' The Sydney Morning Herald\'Brasse has left us with a powerful legacy in images. Because of them we can see the victims of the Holocaust as human and not statistics.\' Fergal Keane Σελίδες: 304, Διαστάσεις: 12.7x12.7cm

When was the last time you spoke to a stranger?In our cities, we barely acknowledge one another on public transport, even as rates of loneliness skyrocket. Online, we carefully curate who we interact with. In our politics, we are increasingly consumed by a fear of people we\'ve never met. But what if strangers, long believed to be the cause of many of our problems, were actually the solution?In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane discovers the surprising benefits that come from talking to strangers, examining how even passing interactions can enhance empathy, happiness and cognitive development, ease loneliness and isolation, and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging. Warm, witty, erudite and profound, this deeply researched book will make you reconsider how you perceive and approach strangers, showing you how talking to strangers isn\'t just not a way to live, it\'s a way to survive. Σελίδες: 352, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

\'Grayling brings satisfying order to daunting subjects\' Steven Pinker_________________________In very recent times humanity has learnt a vast amount about the universe, the past, and itself. But through our remarkable successes in acquiring knowledge we have learned how much we have yet to learn: the science we have, for example, addresses just 5 per cent of the universe; pre-history is still being revealed, with thousands of historical sites yet to be explored; and the new neurosciences of mind and brain are just beginning. What do we know, and how do we know it? What do we now know that we don\'t know? And what have we learnt about the obstacles to knowing more? In a time of deepening battles over what knowledge and truth mean, these questions matter more than ever. Bestselling polymath and philosopher A. C. Grayling seeks to answer them in three crucial areas at the frontiers of knowledge: science, history and psychology. A remarkable history of science, life on earth, and the human mind itself, this is a compelling and fascinating tour de force, written with verve, clarity and remarkable breadth of knowledge._________________________\'Remarkable, readable and authoritative. How he has mastered so much, so thoroughly, is nothing short of amazing\' Lawrence M. Krauss, author of A Universe from Nothing\'This book hums with the excitement of the great human project of discovery\' Adam Zeman, author of Aphantasia Σελίδες: 432, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Winner of the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing 2017 Journeying around the globe, through past and present, Emma Tarlo unravels the intriguing story of human hair and what it tells us about ourselves and society. When it’s not attached to your head, your very own hair takes on a disconcerting quality. Suddenly, it is strange. And yet hair finds its way into all manner of unexpected places, far from our heads, including cosmetics, clothes, ropes, personal and public collections, and even food. Whether treated as waste or as gift, relic, sacred offering or product in a billion-dollar industry for wigs and hair extensions, hair has many stories to tell. Collected from Hindu temples and Buddhist nunneries and salvaged by the strand from waste heaps and the combs of long-haired women, hair flows into the industry from many sources. Entering this strange world, Emma Tarlo tracks hair’s movement across India, Myanmar, China, Africa, the United States, Britain and Europe, meeting people whose livelihoods depend on this singular commodity. Whether its journey ends in an Afro hair fair, a Jewish wig parlour, fashion salon or hair loss clinic, hair is oddly revealing of the lives it touches. Σελίδες: 416, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1001, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

A Book of the Year for The Economist and the Observer Our world seems to be collapsing. The daily news cycle reports the deterioration: divisive politics across the Western world, racism, poverty, war, inequality, hunger. While politicians, journalists and activists from all sides talk about the damage done, Johan Norberg offers an illuminating and heartening analysis of just how far we have come in tackling the greatest problems facing humanity. In the face of fear-mongering, darkness and division, the facts are unequivocal: the golden age is now. Σελίδες: 256, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0601, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Twenty years ago, in a series of mysterious, incandescent writings, David Seabrook told of the places he knew best: the declining resort towns of the Kent coast. The pieces were no advert for the local tourist board. Here, the ghosts of murderers and mad artists crawl the streets. Septuagenarian rent boys recall the good old days and Carry On stars go to seed. Clandestine fascist networks emerge. And all the time, there is Seabrook himself - desperate perhaps, and in danger. Dark, strange and immediate, this is a classic work of sui generis British literature. There are devils here, and the reader will remember them. Σελίδες: 192, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

During a single winter, between November 1932 and April 1933, so much went wrong: Hitler came to power; Japan invaded Jehol and left the league of Nations; Mussolini looked towards Africa; Roosevelt was elected; France changed governments three times; and the victors of 1918 fell out acrimoniously over war debts, arms, currency, tariffs and Germany. New hopes flickered but not for long: a world economic conference was planned, only to collapse when the US went its own way. All Against All reveals that collective mentalities and popular beliefs drove this crucial period and set nations on the path to war, as much as the rational calculus of \'national interest\'. Weaving together stories from across the world, historian Paul Jankowski offers a cautionary tale relevant for Western democracies today. The rising threat from dictatorial regimes and the ideological challenges from communism and fascism gave the 1930s a unique face, just as global environmental and demographic crises are shaping our own precious age. Σελίδες: 480, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0701, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

The untold story of Bletchley Park\'s key role in the success of the Normandy campaign Since the secret of Bletchley Park was revealed in the 1970s, the work of its codebreakers has become one of the most famous stories of the Second World War. But cracking the Nazis’ codes was only the start of the process. Thousands of secret intelligence workers were then involved in making crucial information available to the Allied leaders and commanders who desperately needed it.   Using previously classified documents, David Kenyon casts the work of Bletchley Park in a new light, as not just a codebreaking establishment, but as a fully developed intelligence agency. He shows how preparations for the war’s turning point—the Normandy Landings in 1944—had started at Bletchley years earlier, in 1942, with the careful collation of information extracted from enemy signals traffic. This account reveals the true character of Bletchley\'s vital contribution to success in Normandy, and ultimately, Allied victory. Σελίδες: 336, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0510, Διαστάσεις: 12.7x12.7cm

In this book Jacques Rancière radicalises his critique of modernism and its postmodern appendix. He contrasts their unilinear and exclusive time with the interweaving of temporalities at play in modern processes of emancipation and artistic revolutions, showing how this plurality itself refers to the double dimension of time. Time is more than a line drawn from the past to the future. It is a form of life, marked by the ancient hierarchy between those who have time and those who do not. This hierarchy, continued in the Marxist notion of the vanguard and nakedly exhibited in Clement Greenberg\'s modernism, still governs a present which clings to the fable of historical necessity and its experts. In opposition to this, Rancière shows how the break with the hierarchical conception of time, formulated by Emerson in his vision of the new poet, implies a completely different idea of the modern. He sees the fulfilment of this in the two arts of movement, cinema and dance, which at the beginning of the twentieth century abolished the opposition between free and mechanical people, at the price of exposing the rift between the revolution of artists and that of strategists. Σελίδες: 144, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0503, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Like every era, the Renaissance brims with stories. In this book, Robert Davis and Beth Lindsmith highlight dozens of notable lives from between 1400 and 1600. They bring to life wily politicians, eccentric scientists, fiery rebels and stolid reactionaries, as well as a pornographer, an acrobat, an actress, a poetic prostitute, a star comedian and a least one very fretful mother. Some names – Leonardo, Luther, Medici and Machiavelli – are famous, but many others will be new to general readers. Their stories, ninety-four in all, remind us that history is more than dates and abstract concepts: it also arises from the lives of countless individual men and women. Σελίδες: 376, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0401, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERDiscover the incredible true story of WW2\'s most extraordinary spy - from the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor. \'His best book yet\' The Times________________From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula Kuczynski Burton conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century.Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis\' power. A fanatical opponent of the fascism that ravaged her homeland, she was drawn to communism as a young woman, motivated by the promise of a fair and peaceful society. She eventually became a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent.In Agent Sonya, Britain\'s most acclaimed historian vividly reveals the fascinating tale of a life that would change the course of history. Classic Ben Macintyre - a gripping ride, based on meticulous research, that reads like a novel - this is the greatest spy story never told.________________\'Macintyre has found a real-life heroine worthy of his gifts as John le Carré\'s nonfiction counterpart\' New York Times\'This book is classic Ben Macintyre . . . quirky human details enliven every page\' Clare Mulley, Spectator\'She is the strongest character of all in Macintyre\'s bestselling series of wartime tales . . . I raced through the pages to keep up with the plot\' Julian Glover, Evening StandardBEN MACINTYRE\'S NEXT BOOK COLDITZ: PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE IS AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW! Σελίδες: 400, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm