” Well if you have a big life, a lot of stuff happens. Dad had a big life.`
- Peter Hillary Edmund Hillary is a towering figure
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Patrick Paniter was James IV's right-hand man, a diplomatic genius who was in charge of the guns at the disastrous battle of Flodden in September 1513 in which the English annihilated the Scots. After the death of his king he is tormented by guilt as he relives the events that led to war. When Louise Brenier, daughter of a rogue sea trader, asks his help in finding out if her brother Benoit was killed in action, it is the least he can do to salve his conscience. Not satisfied with the news he brings, Louise sets off to find out the truth herself, & swiftly falls foul of one of the lawless clans that rule the ungovernable borderlands. After Flodden is a novel about the consequences of the battle of Flodden, as seen through the eyes of several characters who either had a hand in bringing the country to war, or were profoundly affected by the outcome. There have been very few novels about Flodden, despite its significance, and none from this perspective. It's a racy adventure, combining political intrigue & romance, & its readership will be anyone who loves historical fiction, or is interested in the history of Scotland & the turbulent, ungovernable borderlands between Scotland & Engl&. ...

On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. The following day, his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels also killed himself & the crumbling Third Reich passed to Admiral Karl Donitz. The Nazis` position seemed hopeless. Yet remarkably, the war in the rest of Europe went on for another ten days. After Hitler looks at these days as a narrative day-by-day countdown but also as a broader global history of a European war that had seen some of the most savage battles in history. Relations between the ` Big Three`
- the United States, Great Britain & the Soviet Union
- suddenly plunged to near breaking point. This book reveals that tumultuous story. After Hitler also looks at the wider canvas of the war & the terrible humanitarian catastrophe uncovered in Europe. It describes those who felt the joy of freedom, but also those who faced a highly uncertain future. As Red Army soldiers joined forces with their British & American allies, Stalin`s East finally came face to face with Churchill`s & Truman`s West. After Hitler tells of their growing mistrust, but also of moments of remarkable goodwill & co-operation
- the brief but poignant hope that these great nations could together fashion a new & safer future. This is a fascinating exploration of the brief but crucial period that shaped the emerging post-war world.


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American & British troops are not going to stay in Iraq for ever. But what will happen when they start to leave? In this lucid & enormously readable book, acclaimed analyst Gwynne Dyer predicts that the Middle East will go through the biggest shake-up since the region became part of the Ottoman Empire five centuries ago
- & argues that the rest of the world should stand back & leave them to it. Taking a step back from issues of blame & ideology, Dyer looks at what motivates the key players in the Middle East, from the various Iraqi factions through Iran, Lebanon & Syria to Israel & the Palestinians
- not to mention the United States & the United Kingdom. Along the way, he shatters many myths & identifies the real threats to the status quo
- such as the enormous Iraqi refugee problem, & the demographic & political forces that mean that Israel may be running out of time. Refreshingly direct, entirely non-partisan & frequently disturbing, this is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of the Middle East & the wider world.


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Ireland is suffering a crisis of authority. Catholic Church scandals, political corruption, & economic collapse have shaken the Irish people`s faith in their institutions. The nation`s struggle for independence is thrown into doubt. But, as Declan Kiberd argues in this engaging survey of post-war Irish literature, the country`s creative writers have been alert to this reality from the start. He describes the young Samuel Beckett witnessing the burning of Dublin in 1916 & realising that `the birth of a nation might also seal its doom.` Surveying thirty works by modern Irish writers, Kiberd traces the response to the crisis of Irish Statehood in the work of Seamus Heaney, Edna O` Brien, Joseph O` Connor, Tom Murphy, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Derek Mahon & John Banville, among others. Placing these writers at the centre of Ireland`s on-going exploration of the true meaning of freedom, Kiberd shows how Irish artists preserve & extend a humane culture that imagines a renewed, more plural & open nation. Kiberd`s Inventing Irel&, originally published in 1995 is a dazzlingly ambitious critical history of modern Irish literature & the standard work on the Irish Literary Revival. In After Irel&, Kiberd responds to the next generation of Irish writers, in this second renaissance of Irish literature. ...

When Nelson Mandela & the African National Congress declared victory over the bitter injustice of apartheid, some thought South Africa`s future was assured. But despite Mandela`s mission of reconciliation, rampant inequality remains; race relations are uneasy, violence is endemic & many in the ANC appear to have lost sight of the liberation ideals. With the election in 2009 of Jacob Zuma, a charismatic populist embroiled in scandal, uncertainty over the trajectory of the nation has only intensified. South Africa now stands at a crossroads, & award-winning journalist Alec Russell draws on his deep knowledge of the country to tell us how it got there & to give us a compelling account, revised & updated for this edition, of the journey from Mandela to Zuma. ...

Jo Stoyle is afraid of death. But Stoyle is also a millionaire, & so he pours his riches into scientific research, desperate to find the secret of immortality. This ruthless quest will enmesh everyone around him in a web of greed, seduction, murder & debasement. Written while he was living in California, this is Huxley`s response to Hollywood`s superficiality & obsession with youth, a powerful cautionary tale which employs all his customary wit & merciless insight. ...

The debut novel by the bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENTOne hot summer`s day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He shuts up the bookshop no one ever comes to & drives out of London. When his car breaks down & he becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help, & stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms
- but there`s more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, they`ve prepared a room for him, & claim to have been waiting for him all along. Who are these people? & what do they intend for John? Elegant, gently sinister & psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the author of The Essex Serpent.
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Tamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus, the British, the Soviets, the Japanese & the Nazis. All built empires they hoped would last forever: all were destined to fail. But, as John Darwin shows in his magnificent book, their empire building created the world we know today. From the death of Tamerlane in 1405, last of the ‘world conquerors’, to the rise & fall of European empires, & from America’s growing colonial presence to the resurgence of India & China as global economic powers, ” After Tamerlane” provides a wonderfully intriguing perspective on the past, present & future of empires. ...

After Taste: Expanded Practices in Interior Design is an edited volume comprising texts, interviews & portfolios that collectively document new theories & emerging critical practices in the field of interior design. The material is informed by, but not limited to, the annual After Taste symposia hosted by Parsons The New School of Design. The book`s central argument is that the field of interior design is inadequately served by its historical reliance on taste-making & taste-makers, &, more recently from a set of theoretical concerns derived from architecture; the volume seeks to set an expanded frame by advancing new voices & perspectives in both the theory & practice of interior design, considered as an independent discipline. In 2007, the Department of Architecture, Interior Design & Lighting at Parsons The New School for Design inaugurated an annual international symposium series dedicated to the critical study of the interior. Titled After Taste, these yearly symposia offer expansive views of interior studies, highlight emerging areas of research, identify allied practices, make public its under-explored territory, & attract future designers & scholars to the field. Now in its fourth year, After Taste has proven to be one of the very few venues internationally for critically exploring interior design. The field of interior design is asymmetrically served by the current literature in the field. Too frequently, the current writing & making in interiors emphasize the ineffable, the biographical, & the social elite, & promote a curiously unsubstantiated notion of connoisseurship as the principal basis for design. Other attempts to construct an intellectual agenda for the study of the interior draw heavily from architectural theory, ignoring the discipline`s own specific & autonomous history. After Taste, the book, is intended to adjust this imbalance by introducing interior design material that is theoretically & historically situated, technically grounded, demographically inclusive, & aesthetically adventurous. ...