What happens when we attempt to exchange the life we are given for something better? Five people, in very different circumstances, from a domestic cook in Mumbai, to a vagrant & his dancing bear, & a girl who escapes terror in her home village for a new life in the city, find out the meanings of dislocation, & the desire for more. Set in contemporary India & moving between the reality of this world & the shadow of another, this novel delivers a devastating & haunting exploration of the unquenchable human urge to strive for a different life. ...

What happens when we attempt to exchange the life we are given for something better? Can we transform the possibilities we are born into? A State of Freedom prises open the central, defining events of our century
- displacement & migration
- but not as you imagine them. Five characters, in very different circumstances, from a domestic cook in Mumbai, to a vagrant & his dancing bear, & a girl who escapes terror in her home village for a new life in the city, find out the meanings of dislocation, & the desire for more. Set in contemporary India & moving between the reality of this world & the shadow of another, this novel of multiple narratives
- formally daring, fierce but full of pity
- delivers a devastating & haunting exploration of the unquenchable human urge to strive for a different life.



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` Wood takes the passing, shabby details of mundane landscapes & makes them jitter & throb with yearning & menace. A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better is his best work yet
- a novel written from the gut, & with a correspondingly visceral power. A superbly unsettling account of trauma & cautious recovery` SARAH WATERSThe acclaimed author of The Ecliptic, Benjamin Wood writes a novel of exceptional force & beauty about the bond between fathers & sons, about the invention & reconciliation of self
- weaving a haunting story of violence & love. For twenty years, Daniel Hardesty has borne the emotional scars of a childhood trauma which he is powerless to undo, which leaves him no peace. One August morning in 1995, the young Daniel & his estranged father Francis
- a character of `two weathers`, of irresistible charm & roiling self-pity
- set out on a road trip to the North that seems to represent a chance to salvage their relationship. But with every passing mile, the layers of Fran`s mendacity & desperation are exposed, pushing him to acts of violence that will define the rest of his son`s life. ` Tenderly dissecting the limits of love between parent & child while wriggling with a rich, thrilling tension, this palpably atmospheric story found its way beneath my skin & now lives there. Tell anyone who`ll listen, Benjamin Wood is one of the best novelists in Britain` DAVID WHITEHOUSE `A shocking account of extreme violence & its complicated after-effects. It is a vivid & unsettling novel filled with surprises & insights` IAN Mc GUIRE `A heart-breaking & heart-stopping new novel; a dark Northern noir that moves at breakneck speed but never fails to be tender & vulnerable as well as visceral & terrifying` ANDREW Mc MILLAN `A novelist to watch` The Times Praise for The Ecliptic, shortlisted for the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award: `A resounding achievement... Rich, beautiful & written by an author of great depth & resource` Edward Docx, Guardian ` Full of suspense & beautifully written, superbly imagined & constructed... A terrifically gripping & playful book` Sunday Times ` Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank & unflinching... A masterfully paced & suspenseful read` Independent `A rich, intricate & layered work` Observer ` Haunts the imagination long after the final page` Independent on Sunday `A gorgeous & harrowing work` Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven



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Anthony Burton has travelled from the Highlands of Scotl&, to the south west of England in pursuit of his passion for the steam engine in all its different forms. He has travelled on narrow gauge railways in Wales & enjoyed the splendour of main line journeys behind some of the grandest locomotives ever built. He has shovelled coal into the boiler of an old Clyde Puffer, while steaming down Scotland`s west coast, & luxuriated in the elegance of a Windermere steam launch. He has marvelled at the magnificence of the great Victorian pumping engines & their elaborately decorated engine houses
- & spends time every year helping to oil & polish an old mill engine to get it ready to receive visitors. He has revelled in the fun of the steam fair & shared a ride in a replica of Richard Trevithick`s extraordinary steam carriage with a direct descendant of the great engineer. All these experiences & more are brought together in this lively narrative, in which the author shares his own sense of excitement & places each visit within its historical context. Above all, this book is a tribute to all those anonymous volunteers whose hard work & dedication have kept this great tradition alive.
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Unlike previous volumes among Norton`s celebrated publications on railway photography, Steam Odyssey has an international bent: Victor Hand has taken photographs in more than fifty countries over the past fifty-five years. These photographs present his best work from around the world & show what a compelling subject the railway is. An introduction by well-known transport reporter & columnist Don Phillips explains how Hand became interested in railways & how his approach to the subject developed; extended captions provide historical context. The book

Includes:: an afterword by rail & photography historian Jeff Brouws.

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This is a Sunday Times bestseller. It is shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize. Dave Goulson has always been obsessed with wildlife, from his childhood menagerie of exotic pets & dabbling in experimental taxidermy to his groundbreaking research into the mysterious ways of the bumblebee & his mission to protect our rarest bees. Once commonly found in the marshes of Kent, the short-haired bumblebee is now extinct in the UK, but still exists in the wilds of New Zeal&, descended from a few queen bees shipped over in the nineteenth century. A Sting in the Tale tells the story of Goulson`s passionate drive to reintroduce it to its native land & contains groundbreaking research into these curious creatures, history`s relationship with the bumblebee, the disastrous effects intensive farming has had on our bee populations & the potential dangers if we are to continue down this path. ...

The Birds & the Bees series was designed for Vintage Classics by Timorous Beasties, the Scottish studio famous for their designs inspired by the natural world. As a small boy, Dave Goulson was obsessed with wildlife
- from his childhood menagerie of exotic pets to his ill-fated experiments with taxidermy. But it was the bumblebee that fascinated him the most. Once commonly found in the marshes of Kent, the short-haired bumblebee was driven to extinction in Britain by intensive farming practices. With ground-breaking research into these curious creatures, A Sting in the Tale tells the story of Goulson`s passionate drive to reintroduce them to their native l&. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE.
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Ancient & modern landmarks from across the world fill this original & creative design. The Elizabeth Tower (home to Big Ben) rubs shoulders with the Statue of Liberty, Sydney Opera House nestles in front of St Basil`s Cathedral, whilst The Sphinx crouches in front of Stonehenge. There are 50 famous sites to discover
- how many can you identify? Supplied with in-box leaflet listing all 50 landmarks, & additional puzzle picture for reference.
- High quality 1000 piece cardboard jigsaw puzzle.
- The finished puzzle measures 70 x 50cm when complete.
- Suitable for ages 12 years & up.
- Made from strong premium grade cardboard, with linen finish print to minimise glare on puzzle image.




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Many of the world's major cities sprang up on the banks of rivers. Used for water, food, irrigation, transportation & power, rivers sustain life & connect places & countries, but most of us think of them simply as waterways that must be crossed on the way to somewhere else. Relating the biographies of four European & two North American rivers, A Story of Six Rivers considers the place of rivers in our world & emphasizes the inextricable links between their history, culture & ecology. This book gives voice to six bodies of water: the Danube, the second-longest river in Europe; the Spree, which flows through Berlin; the Po, which cuts eastward across northern Italy; the Mersey in northwest England; the Yukon, which runs through Canada & Alaska; & the Los Angeles River in California. Rivers nurture us, provide cultural & economic opportunities & pose threats to our everyday lives. Though recent narratives paint rivers as the victims of abuse, pollution & damage at the hands of humans, this book focuses on change rather than devastation. Though humans & rivers form a symbiotic
- & sometimes mutually destructive
- relationship, rivers also illustrate the limits of human authority, & their capacity to inspire us is as strong as our ability to pollute them. An intimate portrait of the way these watercourses inform our lives, A Story of Six Rivers will make us reconsider the liquid ribbons we traverse each day.

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A Strange Kind of Paradise is an exploration of India's past & present, from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in India for many years. Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans & Americans
- everyone really, except for Indians themselves
- came to imagine India. His account of the engagement between foreigners & India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great to Slumdog Millionaire. It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco da Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, E. M. Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles & Steve Jobs. Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India. The result is a spellbinding, 2, 500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture & society, in the company of an author who informs, educates & entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies & overturns long-held stereotypes about race, identity & migration. At once scholarly & thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric & laugh-out-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic.

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