The Greatest show on earth has arrived. The year 2012 sees the Olympic Games coming to the UK for the third time in their history. They have been seven years in the making & it will be many years before their sporting & cultural inheritance fades. This book celebrates Britain`s achievement in winning the XXX Olympiad by presenting a concise but thorough chronicle of the Games from Ancient Greece to London 2012. It is often forgotten that London previously hosted the Games in 1908 & 1948, & the progress of the Olympic dream very much matches the turbulent annals of that entire century. The book chronicles those years of international sporting achievement, particularly from London 1948 to the present day. But this account is not justabout athletic prowess. Each Olympics has had its own particular story of rivalry, infighting, political chicanery or financial disaster
- &, on occasions, violent tragedy. The thrills, joys & dramas of the past are all in this concise handbook, to be used as a companion to the spectacular sporting saga being enacted in London 2012.
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This is a stunningly illustrated journey through the spectacular wildlife of Spain, Portugal & Gibraltar. A Guide to Wild Spain, Portugal & Gibraltar is a unique book that brings together the history of exploration of the Iberian Peninsula in the 19th Century with the current state of its wild places & wildlife. The authors re-trace the footsteps taken by British naturalists based in Gibraltar & Jerez over a hundred years ago. They explore the length & breadth of the peninsula, from the Strait of Gibraltar in the south to the Pyrenees in the north. This exquisitely illustrated book is intended for all those with an interest in the natural history of Spain, Portugal & Gibraltar. It tells the reader where to go to find particular species & to witness natural phenomena like the migration of birds of prey. But it also tells how this has changed, often for the worse, but happily sometimes also for the better. In essence, this book is a 21st Century snapshot of one of Europe`s ecologically richest lands. ...

Fur & fiction combine in this retelling of Charles Dickens`s most famous novel, adorably adapted with an all-star cast of guinea pigs. In the misery of a workhouse, a poor, fluffy little orphan called Oliver Twist is fed on nothing but thin air & even thinner gruel. By squeaking a fateful question
- ` Please, sir, I want some more`
- he unwittingly sparks a series of events that lead him to the smoke & grime of the big city, where he encounters a host of four-legged friends & foes such as the crafty Fagin, mischievous Artful Dodger, faithful Nancy & treacherous Bill Sikes, who sweep young Oliver off of his paws & into the underworld of Victorian London.

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This handbook offers an inspirational resource for those who want to discover more about the thousands of miles of Scotland`s spectacular coastline
- from its stunning geology & diverse marine & bird life to its coastal culture, with its fishing ports, fresh cuisine, arts communities, ancient monuments & colourful local traditions. Featuring achingly beautiful pristine coves & beaches, quirky highlights of island life & sites for exploring our history or spotting wildlife, this handbook is for beachcombers, rockpoolers, wild swimmers, birdwatchers, hikers, history buffs, sailors, walkers, dreamers...
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The Essential Guide to Scottish History. Scotland has more history than you can shake a spurtle at, or a shinty stick, or a sporran
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Taking its title from T S Eliot`s modernist poem The Waste L&, Evelyn Waugh`s A Handful of Dust is a chronicle of Britain`s decadence & social disintegration between the First & Second World Wars. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited with an introduction & notes by Robert Murray Davis. After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride & joy of her husb&, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver & forsakes Tony for the Belgravia set. Brilliantly combining tragedy, comedy & savage irony, A Handful of Dust captures the irresponsible mood of the `crazy & sterile generation` between the wars. This breakdown of the Last marriage is a painful, comic re-working of Waugh`s own divorce, & a symbol of the disintegration of society. If you enjouyed A Handful of Dust, you might like Waugh`s Vile Bodies, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. ” One of the twentieth century`s most chilling & bitter novels; & one of its best.” (Nicholas Lezard, Guardian). ” One of the most distinguished novels of the century.” (Frank Kermode).” This is a masterpiece of stylish satire, & is funny, too...a marvellous book.” (John Banville, Irish Times). ...

Aiming to track down a small oasis town deep in the Sahara, some of whose generous inhabitants came to her rescue on a black day in her adolescence, Annie Hawes leaves her home in the olive groves of Italy & sets off along the south coast of the Mediterranean. Travelling through Morocco & Algeria she eats pigeon pie with a family of cannabis farmers, & learns about the habits of djinns; she encounters citizens whose protest against the tyrannical King Hassan takes the form of attaching colanders to their television aerials
- a practice he soon outlaws
- & comes across a stone-age method of making olive-oil, still going strong. She allows a ten-year-old to lead her into the fundamentalist strongholds of the suburbs of Algiers
- where she makes a good friend. Plunging southwards, regardless, into the desert, she at last shares a lunch of salt-cured Saharan haggis with her old friends, in a green & pleasant palm grove perfumed by flowering henna: once, it seems, the favourite scent of the Prophet Mohammed. She discovers at journey`s end that life in a date-farming oasis, haunting though its songs may be, is not so simple & uncomplicated as she has imagined. Annie Hawes has legions of fans. Her writing has the well-built flow of fiction & the self-effacing honesty of a journal.


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Tiffany Aching is going `into service`: to be a lady, no less, a maid in a big house. At least, this is what she tells her parents. Really, Tiffany is going away to learn magic. But making friends with fellow witches is always difficult when an invisible-being-that-cannot-be-killed takes over your body
- stealing money, & threatening violence. Tiffany must use all her witchy cunning to reclaim what`s hers. Luckily, she has a bit of help. What`s tiny, Scottish & blue all over? A Nac Mac Feegle of course
- the rudest type of fairy, & handy to have in a tight spot...

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We seeo you. Now we are you. No real witch would casually step out of their body, leaving it empty. Tiffany Aching does. & there`s something just waiting for a handy body to take over. Something ancient & horrible, which can`t die. To deal with it, Tiffany has to go to the very heart of what makes her a witch...” Fantastically inventive.” (Sunday Times). ...

A Haunting Place explores both mysterious & ghostly encounters in locations around the world. Glen Williams talks to the people who swear they have been visited by the dead; he visits the places of these confrontations with the supernatural to uncover the story of the `ghosts` & the people & places they haunt. He interviews teams of ghost busters using technology to solve the mystery of ghosts & talks to film makers who can`t leave the theme of hauntings alone. The author visits houses, hotels, schools, castles, hospitals, cellars, sheds, stables & all manner of buildings
- ghostly apparitions run rampant in the seemingly normal everyday. Eerie locations such as old mills, windswept quarantine stations, run-down & abandoned mental hospitals, derelict pubs, lonely roads & empty houses reveal their terrifying secrets. Why is it that people are so fascinated with the unknown? The mysterious? The supernatural? Our captivation With the paranormal & the unexplained is never ending. The thought of ghosts floating about within our existence arouses fear, a sense of wonder & the longing for logical explanations that never quite make sense.A 2005 Gallup survey revealed three out of four Americans profess at least one paranormal belief. The most popular belief is extrasensory perception (ESP) mentioned by 41%, followed closely by belief in haunted houses (37%) & that ghosts/spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/ situations (32%). Supernatural ideology exists in many different cultures & a belief in ghosts is one of the most common; this, in part, relates to a belief, or hope in the afterlife, a tenet of most major religions.
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