The world`s most iconic chateau has welcomed tourists the world over, yet this handsome slipcased volume offers up the charm of a thousand & one hidden places in the chateau, its gardens, & pavilions. All were designed to surprise & delight the eye & all the senses at every turn, their exquisite decoration forming an integral part of the elite lifestyle of the eighteenth-century. This comprehensive volume captures the exquisite setting & inimitable ambiance of Versailles & its gardens, from its intimate private spaces usually closed to the general public to the charming Petit Trianon & dairy farm created for the pure pleasure of Marie-Antoinette. Concise, informative, & evocative texts describe the practical, social, & aesthetic considerations that informed the creation of the home to three kings, while newly commissioned photography features the chateau`s architecture, gardens, paintings, drawings, & decorative arts that bring to life the beauty & the daily routines of this golden age of French culture. This jewel of a volume is a rich homage to Versailles & the perfect souvenir for visitors & armchair travelers alike who, while turning these pages, will embark on a private tour of the lavish chateau & grounds. ...

The island of the Great Blasket lies three miles off the Kerry coast of Irel&, at the westernmost tip of Europe. Virtually unknown before this century, it was to produce a rich & extraordinary flowering of literature that has made it famous throughout the world. The newest in the series of native chronicles on the Blaskets, A Day in the Life is something of an epilogue, telling how, in the island's dying days, the islanders settled on the nearby mainl&. O' Crohan provides vivid sketches of West Kerry after World War II, surveying the mainland scene with the ironical eye of the islander, & a robust humor & immediacy that derives from the oral tradition out of which he came. ...

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy is the third novel in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland & Vera Stanhope crime series. For Dorothea Cassidy Thursdays were special. Every week she would look forward to the one day she could call her own, & would plan to visit people she wanted to see as a welcome respite from the routine duties that being a vicar`s wife entailed. But one Thursday in June was to be more special than any other. It was the day that Dorothea Cassidy was strangled. As the small town of Otterbridge prepares for its summer carnival, Inspector Stephen Ramsay begins a painstaking reconstruction of Dorothea`s last hours. He soon discovers that she had taken on a number of deserving cases
- a sick & lonely old woman, a disturbed adolescent, a compulsive gambler, a single mother with a violent boyfriend & a child in care
- & even her close family have their secrets to hide. All these people are haunted, in one way or another, by Dorothea`s goodness. But which of them could have possibly wanted her dead? It is not until a second body is discovered that Ramsay starts to understand how Dorothea lived
- & why she died. With the carnival festivities in full swing & dusk falling in Otterbridge, Ramsay`s murder investigation reaches its chilling climax...


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On the night of 10-11 May 1996, eight climbers perished in what remains the worst disaster in Everest's history. Following the tragedy, numerous accounts were published, with Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air becoming an international bestseller. But has the whole story been told? A Day to Die For reveals for the first time the full, startling facts that led to the tragedy. Graham Ratcliffe, the first British climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest twice, was a first-hand witness, having spent the night on Everest's South Col at 26, 000 ft, sheltering from the deadly storm. For years, he has shouldered a burden of guilt, feeling that he & his teammates could have saved lives that fateful night. His quest for answers has led to discoveries so important to an understanding of the disaster that he now questions why these facts were not made public sooner. History is dotted with highprofile disasters that both horrify & capture the attention of the public, but very rarely is our view of them revised to such devastating effect. ...

On the night of 10-11 May 1996, eight climbers perished in what remains the worst disaster in Everest`s history. Following the tragedy, numerous accounts were published, with Jon Krakauer`s ” Into Thin Air” becoming an international bestseller. But has the whole story been told? ”A Day to Die For” reveals the full, startling facts that led to the tragedy. Graham Ratcliffe, the first British climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest twice, was a first-hand witness, having spent the night on Everest`s South Col at 26, 000 ft, sheltering from the deadly storm. For years, he has shouldered a burden of guilt, feeling that he & his teammates could have saved lives that fateful night. His quest for answers has led to discoveries so important to an understanding of the disaster that he now questions why these facts were not made public sooner. History is dotted with high-profile disasters that both horrify & capture the attention of the public, but very rarely is our view of them revised to such devastating effect. ...

Jerry Delfont is a travel writer with writer`s block. When he receives a letter from an American philanthropist with news of a scandal involving an Indian friend of her son`s, he is intrigued. Who is the dead boy found on the floor of a cheap hotel room? How did he die? & why? As Delfont becomes more & more drawn into these mysteries, he simultaneously becomes increasingly entangled with the seductive philanthropist & her tantric massages. But she is also hiding something & it becomes swiftly apparent that all is not what it seems. ...

Barcelona, 1912. A city still recovering from the dramatic incidents of the so-called ` Tragic Week` when Catalonian conscripts bound for the unpopular war in Spanish Morocco had rebelled at the city`s dockside against the royalist forces. In the fighting, many were killed, & afterwards, even more put in prison. Including an Englishman, who was later found dead in his cell. The dead man had been a prominent businessman in Gibraltar, so what had he been doing in Barcelona? What part did he play in the illicit three-way trade between Gibraltar, Spanish Morocco & Barcelona? & just how did he really meet his end
- murdered, in a prison cell? The case, in Gibraltar`s view, crys out for investigation
- & by someone independent of the Spanish authorities. So Scotland Yard are summoned to send out one of their men
- but who? Seymour ticks all the right boxes
- he has experience of the tangled diplomatic world of that part of the Mediterranean. He speaks foreign languages. & possibly most importantly of all
- he grew up near the docks of London`s East End so with any luck, knows how to swim if pushed in the water...PRAISE FOR MICHAEL PEARCE`S A DEAD MAN IN...SERIES ` His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail & entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading.` Sunday Telegraph ` The steady pace, atmospheric design, & detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series.` Library Journal ` Sheer fun.` The Times




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The third exciting crime thriller in Michael Pearces Dead Man series. Why is Seymour of Scotland Yard summoned to somewhere so exotic as North Africa? Isn`t the death of a Frenchman there something for the local police? Well, yes & no. The local police are answerable to the International Committee, of which the chairman is the British Consul. So naturally the ensuing investigation has to be above board. & so Seymour is bought in as he has had experience of this sort of thing before. & if he fails
- well he is expendable, after all.. . Praise for Michael Pearce`s A Dead Man in.. .series ` The steady pace, atmospheric design, & detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series` Library Journal ` Sheer fun` The Times ` His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail & entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading` Sunday Telegraph
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Autumn 2004. In Bampton, Derbyshire, Lena Fisher is arrested for suffocating her husb&, Andrew. Spring 2016 A year after Lena`s release from prison, Andrew is found dead in a disused mortuary. Who was the man Lena killed twelve years ago, & who committed the second murder? When Lena disappears, her sister, Kat, sets out to follow a trail of clues delivered by a mysterious teenage boy. Kat must uncover the truth
- before there`s another death...A Deadly Thaw confirms Sarah Ward`s place as one of the most exciting new crime writers.
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Late spring, 1728 & Thomas Hawkins has left London for the wild beauty of Yorkshire
- forced on a mission he can`t refuse. John
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