From the slums of London to the riches of an Edwardian country house; from the hot, dark seams of a Yorkshire coalmine to the exposed terrors of the trenches, Adam Raine`s journey from boy to man is set against the backdrop of a society violently entering the modern world. Adam Raine is a boy cursed by misfortune. His impoverished childhood in the slums of Islington is brought to an end by a tragedy that sends him north to Scarsdale, a hard-living coalmining town where his father finds work as a union organizer. But it isn`t long before the escalating tensions between the miners & their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, explode with terrible consequences. In the aftermath, Adam meets Miriam, the Rector`s beautiful daughter, & moves into Scarsdale Hall, an opulent paradise compared with the life he has been used to before. But he makes an enemy of Sir John`s son, Brice, who subjects him to endless petty cruelties for daring to step above his station. When love & an Oxford education beckon, Adam feels that his life is finally starting to come together
- until the outbreak of war threatens to tear everything apart.
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No Man`s Land tells the story of George Monbiot`s journeys among some of the tribal peoples of East Africa, showing how they are confronting the forces which threaten to deprive both them & us of the life that civilization has tried to suppress. In northern Kenya he saw how bandits, equipped by the corrupt governments of both Kenya itself & some of its neighbours, have been massacring the nomads, driving the survivors into famine zones where first the cattle then the humans die. Further south he watched the open savannahs on which the nomads rely being divided up & reduced by ploughing. But he also saw that the nomads of East Africa are finding ways to survive. All nomads are opportunists, & the adaptability, the cultural flexibility that opportunism demands means that they are possibly better equipped than any other of the world`s traditional peoples to withstand dramatic change. ...

No Man`s Nightingale: the eagerly anticipated twenty-fourth title in Ruth Rendell`s bestselling Detective Chief Inspector Wexford series. The woman vicar of St Peter`s Church may not be popular among the community of Kingsmarkham. But it still comes as a profound shock when she is found strangled in her vicarage. Inspector Wexford is retired, but he retains a relish for solving mysteries especially when they are as close to home as this one is. So when he`s asked whether he will assist on the case, he readily agrees. But why did the vicar die? & is anyone else in Kingsmarkham in danger? What Wexford doesn`t know is that the killer is far closer than he, or anyone else, thinks. ...

` When we climb alone en cordee feminine, we are magicians of the Alps
- we make the routes we follow disappear`. The poems of
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No book is more associated with the city of Glasgow than No Mean City. First published in 1935, it is the story of Johnnie Stark, son of a violent father & a downtrodden mother, the ` Razor King` of Glasgow`s pre-war slum underworld, the Gorbals. The savage, near-truth descriptions, the raw character portrayals, bring to life a story that is fascinating, authentic & convincing. ...

The untold story of Winston Churchill`s precarious finances
- & the most original & surprising book about Churchill to emerge for
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The untold story of Winston Churchill`s precarious finances
- & the most original & surprising book about Churchill to emerge for
...

With the summer beckoning, life in France seems the ultimate dream for all of us rosbifs. But behind the sun, the wine, & the beautifully honey-coloured houses what is the reality of actually living in France? Based on her own experiences, those of her friends & of the many readers who write in to her Sunday Times column French Mistress, Powell tells the story of the daily passions in La Douce France warts & all in a fresh, fast & humorous narrative. ...

7 July 2005. Simon Weekes is travelling on the London underground. Shortly into the journey, his carriage is wrecked by a bomb. Virtually everyone is killed & almost all the survivors are injured. Simon is among the few to have escaped relatively unharmed. He quickly organises the band of survivors into a rescue team & together they help the maimed & the mutilated. In the days following, word of his heroics gets out & he finds himself under the media spotlight. The only thing is, he doesn`t want the attention. He can`t afford it. He has too much to lose. ...

Frank Ritz is a television critic. His partner, Melissa Paul, is the author of pornographic novels for liberated women. He watches crap all day; she writes crap all day. It`s a life. Or it was a life. But now they`re fighting, locked in oral combat. He won`t shut up & she is putting her finger down her throat again. So there`s only one thing for it
- Frank has to go. But go where? & do what? Frank Ritz has been on heat more or less continuously since he could speak his own name. Let him out of the house & his first instinct is to go looking for sex. Deviant sex, treacherous sex, even straight sex, so long as it`s immoderate
- he`s never been choosy. But what happens when sex is all you know but no longer what you want?

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