Identifying the murderer of the Chancellor of the University is not the only challenge facing physician Matthew Bartholomew. Many of his patients have been made worse by the ministrations of a `surgeon` recently arrived from Nottingham, his sister is being rooked by the mason she has commissioned to build her husband`s tomb, & his friend, Brother Michael, has been offered a Bishopric which will cause him to leave Cambridge. Brother Michael, keen to leave the University in good order, is determined that the new Chancellor will be a man of his choosing. The number of contenders putting themselves forward for election threatens to get out of control, then more deaths in mysterious circumstances make it appear that someone is taking extreme measures to manipulate the competition. With passions running high & a bold killer at large, both Bartholomew & Brother Michael fear the very future of the University is at stake. ...

Two of the biggest names in children`s publishing, Michael Rosen & Chris Riddell, come together in a new poetry collection. The poems in A Great Big Cuddle fizz off the page with sound & rhythm, energy & laughter, as Rosen captures in the most remarkable way what it means to be very, very young. A child`s world with all its details & feelings
- toys & games, animals & made-up creatures, likes & dislikes
- is vividly conjured up in the most memorable, playful language, & Chris Riddell has produced some his most extraordinary pictures ever to bring this world to life. It`s a book that will be enjoyed by the oldest grown-up & the youngest child
- & a future classic.


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Welcome to London in the late 17th century. After years of Civil War & repressive Puritan rule, King Charles II is back in town & his restoration has brought new life to this great city. The theatres are open again, markets & shops are thriving & the streets are crowded. People are talking about new ideas in science & architecture & experimenting with new fashions. This book takes you on a journey across London at this time, telling you about its `five-star` sights & their history. It also explains the key events of the time: the reasons for the Restoration, the arrival of the Plague &, of course, the Great Fire of 1666 & the new London that arose out of its ashes. Published to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire, this book gives older children a much broader context for this famous event. With a mixture of maps, archive images & present day photography, it acts as a wonderful guide both to London in the 1660s & how its legacy can still be found in the capital today. London on Fire is an ideal resource for readers aged 10+ & supports the history curriculum at Key Stage 3. ...

The untold story of how America`s secret war in Laos in the 1960s transformed the CIA from a loose collection of spies into a military operation & a key player in American foreign policy. January, 1961: Laos, a tiny nation few Americans have heard of, is at risk of falling to communism & triggering a domino effect throughout Southeast Asia. This is what President Eisenhower believed when he approved the CIA`s Operation Momentum, creating an army of ethnic Hmong to fight communist forces there. Largely hidden from the American public-and most of Congress-Momentum became the largest CIA paramilitary operation in the history of the United States. The brutal war lasted more than a decade, left the ground littered with thousands of unexploded bombs, & changed the nature of the CIA forever. With ”revelatory reporting” & ”lucid prose” (The Economist), Kurlantzick provides the definitive account of the Laos war, focusing on the four key people who led the operation: the CIA operative whose idea it was, the Hmong general who led the proxy army in the field, the paramilitary specialist who trained the Hmong forces, & the State Department careerist who took control over the war as it grew. Using recently declassified records & extensive interviews, Kurlantzick shows for the first time how the CIA`s clandestine adventures in one small, Southeast Asian country became the template for how the United States has conducted war ever since-all the way to today`s war on terrorism. ...

The UK's most influential food & drink journalist shoots a few of the sacred cows of the food world. The doctrine of local food is dead. Farmers' markets are merely a lifestyle choice for the affluent middle classes. & 'organic' has become little more than a marketing label that is way past its sell by date. That may be a little hard to swallow for the ethically-aware food shopper but it doesn't make it any less true. & now the UK's most outspoken & entertaining food writer is ready to explain why. This engaging, witty & honest narrative is driven by the appetite of one large man: Jay Rayner
- someone who lives to eat, but also understands that there is a world beyond the high-end obsessions of the farmers' market. Combining sharply-observed memoir
- growing up with the UK's most famous agony aunt who also happened to be a bloody good TV chef; witnessing the arrival of Mc Donald's & Dayville's ice cream in Seventies London; working as a butcher's boy
- with hard-nosed reportage, Jay Rayner will blow conventional foodie wisdom apart. For here is the reality: within a few decades we will have nine billion mouths to feed, & we won't be doing that by flogging free-range eggs from a stall in Borough market. Jay explains why the doctrine of organic has been eclipsed by the need for sustainable intensification; & why the future lies in large-scale food production rather than the cottage industries that foodies often cheer for. From the the cornfields of Illinois to the killing lines of Yorkshire abattoirs, Rayner takes us on a journey that will change the way we shop, cook & eat forever. & give us a few belly laughs along the way.


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War is the normal occupation of man
- war & gardening` Winston Churchill. A Green & Pleasant Land tells the intriguing & inspiring
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This is the wonderfully evocative story of how Britain`s World War Two gardeners
- with great ingenuity, invincible good humour
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”A Grim Almanac of Bristol” is a day-by-day catalogue of 365 ghastly tales from the city`s past. There are murders & manslaughters, including the case of Thomas Buller, who was killed in 1875 by a man who was married only that morning, & Sarah Skinner, who was thrown out of a window in 1847. There are bizarre deaths, such as the mother who mistakenly fed her child rat poison instead of teething powders, & the deaths of a man & his wife from a gas leak, both of which occurred in 1861. There is an assortment of disasters which include devastating fires, such as the destruction of the Merchant Venturers` College in 1907 & the fire in a city hat shop in 1876, which claimed the lives of the proprietor & two of his children, not to mention mining disasters, rail crashes, explosions, shipwrecks, cases of cruelty & neglect & a plethora of uncanny accidents. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining & readable record of Bristol`s grim past. Read on.. .if you dare! ...

Topographic coverage of mainland Spain at 1:25, 000 published by the Centro Nacional de Información Geograficá, the country’s civilian survey organization. The maps have contours at 10m intervals & colouring and/or graphics to show different types of vegetation or land use. Boundaries of national parks & other protected areas are marked. In addition to all the usual information shown on topographic maps at this scale, detailed presentation of the road & rail networks, rural tracks & paths, etc, the maps also show campsites. The maps have a 1-km UTM grid, with margin ticks for latitude & longitude at 1` intervals. Map legend is in Spanish only.PLEASE NOTE: our grid for the whole of Spain is in preparation
- in the meantime, for areas other than those shown on the attached grid please use CNIG’s topographic survey at 1:50, 000 by searching for ‘SI00000832’. Each 25K map covers one quarter of the corresponding 50K map, with the numbering system: I = NW quarter, II = NE quarter, III = SW quarter & IV = SE quarter. CNIG maps in the Provincial Road Maps series at 1:200, 000 are overprinted with the grid for the 1:50, 000 survey & can be used to see the area covered by each 50K or 25K title in more detail. To see the list of titles in this series please click on the series grid
- for map numbers not yet listed on our website please contact us by email.

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Topographic coverage of mainland Spain at 1:50, 000 in the MTN50 (Mapa Topográfico Nacional) series from the Centro Nacional de Información Geografica, the country’s civilian survey organization. The maps have contours at 20m intervals, enhanced by relief shading, plus colouring and/or graphics to show different types of terrain, vegetation or land use. Boundaries of national parks & other protected areas are marked. In addition to all the usual information featured on topographic mapping at this scale, detailed presentation of the road & rail networks, rural tracks & paths, etc, the maps also show campsites & mountain refuges. On more recent editions some GRs, the official long-distance hiking routes, are also marked (although not as clearly as on hiking maps from other publishers). Each map covers 29.5x 18.5 km (with adjustments in the border or coastal areas). The maps have a 1-km UTM grid, plus margin ticks for latitude & longitude at 1` intervals. Map legend is in Spanish only.HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT 50K MAP: all the titles in CNIG’s 200K Provincial Road Maps series at 1:200, 000 are overprinted with the grid for the 1:50, 000 maps & can be used to see the area covered by each 50K title. TO SEE THE LIST OF TITLES IN THIS SERIES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK.PLEASE NOTE
- MAP TITLES: the grids shown on our website serve both the civilian & the military 1:50, 000 topographic series. Although the areas covered by maps in both series are identical (apart from some border or coastal sheets), occasionally map titles differ – only one title is shown on the grid, usually the military one. In Galicia, the Basque country & in the Catalan speaking areas the tendency now is to use local place names rather than the often better known Castilian ones. Where possible, both versions are included in our titles. Map titles listed on our website are based on information received by us at the time of publication, but sometimes maps arrive showing a completely different title! As long as the map number is as ordered, the correct map has been supplied.
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