A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton, published by Allen Lane to much praise from its reviewers, takes us on a time journey showing how maps reflected our view of the world & our place in it. Using twelve maps drawn from global history, from the mystical representations of ancient times to the modern satellite-derived imagery, the author ...

Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, & our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological & subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power & authority of particular times & places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps
- from the almost mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite-derived imagery of today. He vividly recreates the environments & circumstances in which each of the maps was made, showing how each conveys a highly individual view of the world. Brotton shows how each of his maps both influenced & reflected contemporary events & how, by reading it, we can better understand the worlds that produced it. Although the way we map our surroundings is changing, Brotton argues that maps today are no more definitive or objective than they have ever been, but that they continue to define, shape & recreate the world. Readers of this book will never look at a map in quite the same way again.
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Renowned historian, & author of ”A Short History of Byzantium”, John Julius Norwich`s classic history of Venice ”A History of Venice” tells the story of this most remarkable of cities from its founding in the fifth century, through its unrivalled status for over a thousand years as one of the world`s busiest & most powerful city states, until its fall at the hands of Napoleon in 1797. Rich in fascinating historical detail, populated by extraordinary characters & packed with a wealth of incident & intrigue, this is a brilliant testament to a great city
- & a great & gripping read. ” Norwich has loved & understood Venice as well as any other Englishman has ever done.” (” Sunday Times”). ” Will become the standard English work of Venetian history.” (” Financial Times”). ” The standard Venetian history in English.” (” The Times”). ” Norwich has the gift of historical perspective, as well as clarity & wit. Few can tell a good story better than he.” (” Spectator” John Julius Norwich was born in 1929). He was educated at Upper Canada College, Toronto, at Eton, at the University of Strasbourg &, after a spell of National Service in the Navy, at New College, Oxford, where he took a degree in French & Russian. In 1952 he joined the Foreign Service, where he remained for twelve years, serving at the embassies in Belgrade & Beirut. In 1964 he resigned from the service to write. He is the author of histories of Norman Sicily, the Republic of Venice & the Byzantine Empire. He has written & presented some thirty historical documentaries on television, & is a regular lecturer on Venice & numerous other subjects.
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This edition of John Davies` History of Wales brings this remarkable history into the new era of the Welsh Assembly. Stretching from the Ice Ages to the present day, this masterful account traces the political, social & cultural history of the land that has come to be called Wales. Spanning prehistoric hill forts & Roman ruins to the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution & the series of strikes by Welsh miners in the late twentieth century, this is the definitive history of an enduring people: a unique & compelling exploration of the origins of the Welsh nation, its development & its role in the modern world. An essential read for anyone with an interest in Welsh & British history. ...

A history of warfare distilled into 100 momentous battles
- epic moments that have shaped our world. From the earliest recorded
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New from Dave Eggers, National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King. In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter`s college tuition, & finally do something great. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself & his splintering family together in the face of the global economy`s gale-force winds. This taut, richly layered, & elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment
- & a moving story of how we got here. Praise for A Hologram for the King: ” Absorbing.. .modest & equally satisfying: the writing of a comic but deeply affecting tale about one man`s travails that also provides a bright, digital snapshot of our times”. (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times). ”A fascinating novel”. (New Yorker). ”A spare but moving elegy for the American century”. (Publishers Weekly). ” Eggers understands the pressures of American downward-mobility, & in the protagonist of his novel, Alan Clay, has created an Everyman, a post-modern Willy Loman... The novel operates on a grand & global scale, but it also is intimate”. (Chicago Tribune). ” Completely engrossing”. (Fortune). ” Eggers can do fiction as well as he likes”. (Los Angeles Times). Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, How We Are Hungry, You Shall Know Our Velocity, What is the What, The Wild Things & Zeitoun. Zeitoun was the winner of the American Book Award & the Dayton Literary Peace Prize & What is the What was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award & won France`s Prix Medicis. Eggers is the founder & editor of Mc Sweeney`s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco. A native of Chicago, he lives in Northern California with his wife & two children.
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` It was the start of my second new life, in a city that had a spin of its own
- a wilder orbit inside the earth`s calm blue-green
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When George Alagiah was dropped off at a Hampshire boarding school as a child back in 1967 he was confronted with an extreme version of the private struggle faced by all immigrants
- the battle to leave the past behind & fit into a new culture. His arrival in Britain coincided with the unhappy intrusion of race into politics. A key part of the ensuing fight against racism was the concept of multiculturalism. But in a closely argued & forthright chapter, Alagiah suggests that, far from improving the prospects for some immigrants, multiculturalism may be an impediment to integration. All too often these are the poor & isolated communities who most need the help of the state to break out of what is fast becoming a version of ghetto life. Above all, this book is a tender & evocative portrayal of the immigrant experience. Alagiah brings colour & life to a subject that is too often reduced to screaming tabloid headlines, & sheds light on the controversial question of British identity.
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A young refugee`s story of terror, love & survival. Melissa Fleming`s tale of a young Syrian woman`s search for peace & safety is a book written for our times. Fleming captures the unremitting fear, the crushing despair, & the glint of hope for a better life that drive families to risk everything & sail the treacherous seas. On every page, loss & hope tangle. On every page, the human toll of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time is painfully, heartbreakingly brought home. This is an emotional read, at times painful, but it is above all a poignant tribute to hope, to resilience, & to the capacity for grace & generosity that dwells deep in the human heart (Khaled Hosseini, bestselling author of The Kite Runner) ...

This is the story of Doaa, an ordinary girl from a village in Syria, who in 2015 became one of five hundred people crammed on to a fishing boat setting sail for Europe. The boat was deliberately capsized, & of those five hundred people, eleven survived; they were rescued four days after the boat sank. Doaa was one of them
- her fiancee Bassem, with whom she had fled, was not; he drowned in front of her. Melissa Fleming, the Chief Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, heard about Doaa & the death of 489 of her fellow refugees on the day she was pulled out of the water. She decided to fly to Crete to meet this extraordinary girl, who had rescued a toddler when she was nearly dead herself. They struck an instant bond, & Melissa saw in Doaa the story of the war in Syria embodied by one young woman. She has decided to tell Doaa`s story
- the dangers she fled, & the journey she risked to escape the conflagration in her homel&. Doaa is the face of the millions of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters & sons who risk everything as they try to escape war, violence & death. Doaa`s story will revolutionize how we see the thousands of people who die every year in search of a home. It will squarely face one of the greatest moral questions of our age: will we let more people die in boats & trucks, or will we find a way to help them?

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