The International Bestseller ` Barney White-Spunner`s book stands out for its judicious & unsparing look at events from a British perspective.` Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Review` This book is at its most powerful in its month-by-month narrative of how Partition tore apart northern & eastern India, with the new state of Pakistan carved out of communities who had lived together for the past millennium.` Zareer Masani BBC History Magazine `A highly readable account... ` Times Literary Review Between January & August 1947 the conflicting political, religious & social tensions in India culminated in independence from Britain & the creation of Pakistan. Those months saw the end of ninety years of the British Raj, & the effective power of the Maharajahs, as the Congress Party established itself commanding a democratic government in Delhi. They also witnessed the rushed creation of Pakistan as a country in two halves whose capitals were two thousand kilometers apart. From September to December 1947 the euphoria surrounding the realization of the dream of independence dissipated into shame & incrimination; nearly 1 million people died & countless more lost their homes & their livelihoods as partition was realized. The events of those months would dictate the history of South Asia for the next seventy years, leading to three wars, countless acts of terrorism, polarization around the Cold War powers & to two nations with millions living in poverty spending disproportionate amounts on their military. The roots of much of the violence in the region today, & worldwide, are in the decisions taken that year. Not only were those decisions controversial but the people who made them were themselves to become some of the most enduring characters of the twentieth century. Gandhi & Nehru enjoyed almost saint like status in India, & still do, whilst Jinnah is lionized in Pakistan. The British cast, from Churchill to Attlee & Mountbatten, find their contribution praised & damned in equal measure. Yet it is not only the national players whose stories fascinate. Many of those ordinary people who witnessed the events of that year are still alive. Although most were, predictably, only children, there are still some in their late eighties & nineties who have a clear recollection of the excitement & the horror. Illustrating the story of 1947 with their experiences & what independence & partition meant to the farmers of the Punjab, those living in Lahore & Calcutta, or what it felt like to be a soldier in a divided & largely passive army, makes the story real. Partition will bring to life this terrible era for the Indian Sub Continent. ...

As India is rent overnight into two nations, sectarian violence explodes on both sides of the new border, with tidal waves of refugees fleeing the blood & chaos. Fighting to board the last train to Delhi, Shankar & Keshav, six-year-old Hindu twins, lose sight of their mother & plunge into the whirling human mass to find her. A young Sikh woman, Simran Kaur, flees her father, who would rather poison his daughter than see her defiled. & Ibrahim Masud, an elderly Muslim doctor driven from the town of his birth, limps towards the new Muslim state of Pakistan. As the displaced face a variety of horrors, this unlikely quartet come together, defying every rule of self-preservation to forge a future of hope. A luminous story of families & nations broken & formed, Partitions introduces an extraordinary novelist who writes with the power & lyricism of poetry. ...

In July 1961, just before David Aaronovitch`s seventh birthday, Yuri Gagarin came to London. The Russian cosmonaut was everything the Aaronovitch family wished for
- a popular & handsome embodiment of modern communism. But who were they, these ever hopeful, defiant & (had they but known it) historically doomed people? Like a non-magical version of the wizards of J. K. Rowling`s world, they lived secretly with & parallel to the non-communist majority, sometimes persecuted, sometimes ignored, but carrying on their own ways & traditions. Where others went to church they went to Socialist Sunday School, society`s up was their down & its heroes were their villains. Who wanted American TV when you could have Russian movies? A memoir of early life among communists, Party Animals first took David Aaronovitch back through his own memories of belief & action. But there was much more to it. He found himself studying the old secret service files, uncovering the unspoken shame & fears that provided the unconscious background to his own existence as a party animal. Only then did he begin to understand what had come before
- both the obstinate heroism & the monstrous cowardice. And the elements that shape our fondest beliefs.

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From the award-winning author of STAY: THE LAST DOG IN ANTARCTICA comes a moving tale inspired by the true story of the Kimberley brumbies & their journey to Dubai. From deep in the Kimberley Desert comes a legend of wild brumbies with Arabian bloodlines, who can run like the wind. Paruku, the young bay stallion, flees from humans who invade his desert sanctuary, but is haunted by an ancient memory of being ridden. Thirteen-year-old Rachel is fast outgrowing her first pony. When her father, an equine vet, is offered the job of capturing wild brumbies for the endurance stables of Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai, Rachel travels with him into the remote desert landscape of the Kimberley. Captivated by the wild power & majesty of Paruku & his kin, she is torn by the prospect of taking away their freedom. But is there a chance she could keep Paruku for herself? From the award-winning author of STAY: THE LAST DOG IN ANTARCTICA comes a moving tale inspired by the true story of the Kimberley brumbies & their journey to Dubai. ...

Pas-de-Calais & Somme départments at 1:150, 000 in Michelin’s Local Series of France, with highlighting for scenic routes, an index, a special panel with best sights & recommended driving tours, & street plans of central Arras & Amiens. Coverage extends along the coast from Oostende to Le Trépot & inland east to Lille, Cambrai & St-Quentin, &

Includes:: Boulogne-sur-Mer, Le Touquet, Abbeville, St-Omer, etc. The map covers WWI battlefields near Albert & Bapaume, indicating locations of numerous cemeteries, & extends north to include Ypres. PLEASE NOTE: our coverage image, provided by the publishers, does not take into account which areas along the edge of the map are blocked by the index & the additional features. Maps in Michelin’s Local Series of France have the same cartography (road network & place names shown on the maps) as the publishers’ Regional Series at 1;200, 000 but enlarged here to 1:150, 000 to provide greater clarity & larger, easier to read print size. Road network is presented in great detail, indicating width, motorway services & rest areas, dangerous or restricted entry roads, steep gradients, height & weight restrictions, etc. Scenic sections are highlighted. The maps also show selected cycle paths & nature trails. Railway lines are shown with stations & local airports are marked. Symbols indicate various places of interest, with additional star rating for best sights, based on the publishers’ Green Guides for French regions. Satellite-derived base with colouring for the forested areas & boundaries of national or regional parks shows the topography. In the mountainous regions the maps have bold, very effective relief shading, with a large number of names of peaks, passes, & other topographic features. The maps have latitude & longitude lines at 10’ intervals & are indexed. Map legend

Includes:: English. Each title in addition

Includes:: a panel showing the area’s principal roads & places of interest, plus recommendations for sightseeing tours. Also provided are town centre maps of main cities, indicating principal traffic arteries, one way streets & places of interest. Only selected streets are named & listed in the accompanying index. Please click on the series link to see all the titles in this series.





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Long before they came as occupiers, the British were drawn to the Middle East by the fabled riches of its trade & the enlightened tolerance of its people. The Pashas, merchants & travellers from Europe, discovered an Islamic world that was alluring, dynamic, & diverse. Ranging across two & a half centuries & through the great cities of Istanbul, Aleppo, & Alexandria, James Mather tells the forgotten story of the men of the Levant Company who sought their fortunes in the Ottoman Empire. Their trade brought to the region not only merchants but also ambassadors & envoys, pilgrims & chaplains, families & servants, aristocratic tourists & roving antiquarians. Unlike the nabobs who gathered their fortunes in Bengal, they both respected & learned from the culture they encountered, & their lives provide a fascinating insight into the meeting of East & West before the age of European imperialism. Intriguing, intimate, & original, ” Pashas” brings to life an extraordinary tale of faraway visitors beguiled by a mysterious world of Islam. ...

These oral tales were collected in the tribal areas on the Pakistan-Afghan frontier, a region described as the last free place on earth. It was here that the caravan routes from Persia, India & China once converged. With their blend of wit, fantasy, comedy & romance, they reflect the Pashtun code of honour & way of life that are now seriously threatened by social changes & recent political events. Most of them, such as the epic tale of Hazrat Ali, have never been recorded before, & might otherwise have been lost forever. Some are recognisable as universal types, such as a version of ” Androcles & the Lion” & of the tale that provided Shakespeare with the plot of ” King Lear”. ...

A platoon of inexperienced British soldiers crosses to France, in excited & nervous anticipation of what is to come; they find themselves at Ypres where the battle-weary Allied troops are dug in, & slaughter surrounds them. With their young, upright officer Freddy Mann, they are soon in the thick of it, burying the dead, experiencing the terror of bombardment, being picked off by snipers, with some unable to cope & refusing to go over the top. We see the action through their eyes, from privates to the senior officers of the wider battalion, with a focus on Freddy Mann`s journey from idealistic officer barely out of school, to battle-hardened cynic, barely hanging on as those around him are cut down, maimed or crack. Freddy suffers a crisis of faith & loses his belief in the war & everything he once stood for; as he wrestles with his conscience he finds that for all `always at the end, is Ypres`. ...

In Pass The Butterworms Cahill takes us to the steppes of Mongolia, where he spends weeks on horseback alongside the descendants of Genghis Khan & masters the ” Mongolian death trot”; to the North Pole, where he goes for a pleasure dip in 36-degree water; to Irian Jaya New Guinea, where he spends a companionable evening with members of one of the last head-hunting tribes. Whether observing family values among the Stone Age Dani people, or sampling delicacies like sauteed sago beetle & premasticated manioc beer, Cahill is a fount of arcane information & a master of self-deprecating humour. ...

This classic pocket game challenges players to accumulate points by throwing pairs of plastic pigs & racking up scores based on the positions they land in. The less likely the position, the higher the score. The wrong position can even cut down or wipe out your score. This pocket-sized travel case contains a rulebook, 2 plastic pigs, 2 pencils, & scorecards. Suitable for 2 to 4 players. ...