This is the first biography in decades of the ` Father of Singapore`. Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) was the charismatic & persuasive founder of Singapore & Governor of Java. An English adventurer, disobedient employee of the East India Company, utopian imperialist, linguist, zoologist & civil servant, he carved an extraordinary (though brief) life for himself in South East Asia. The tropical, disease-ridden settings of his story are as dramatic as his own trajectory
- an obscure young man with no advantages other than talent & obsessive drive, who changed history by establishing
- without authority
- on the wretchedly unpromising island of Singapore a settlement which has become a world city. After a turbulent time in the East Indies, Raffles returned to the UK & turned to his other great interests
- botany & zoology. He founded London Zoo in 1826, the year of his death. Raffles remains a controversial figure, & in the first biography for over forty years, Victoria Glendinning charts his prodigious rise within the social & historical contexts of his world. His domestic & personal life was vivid & shot through with tragedy. His own end was sad, but his fame immortal.



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Trisuli River on a detailed contoured map of south-central Nepal, with an overprint indicating different classes of rapids along the section from Bidur to the confluence with Kali Gandaki. Campsites are marked & within the adjoining Royal Chitwan National Park hotels & lodges are shown, as well as locations for spotting different types of animals. The map is indexed & has latitude & longitude margin ticks at intervals of 15 ...

Jose Maria, a construction worker, is in love with Rosa, a maid in an exclusive Buenos Aires mansion. Subjected to constant humiliation by his foreman, Jose Maria kills him. He hides on an empty floor in the mansion, & remains there for years without even raising Rosas` suspicion. Jose Maria silently observes his lover in her most intimate moments & watches the decadent behaviour of the owners & their hypocritical relationships. However, Jose Maria will also be privy to more humiliating experiences
- he watches as Rosa is raped by the young son of the family, & later becomes pregnant by a repulsive neighbour. Still, in the midst of all this & from his bizarre, self-imposed imprisonment, Jose Maria will, somehow, be able to reflect upon & understand the joys of fatherhood
- that is, before he meets his final fate. A metaphor for the decline of a social class, a country & the resentment that spreads like a plague penetrating to the core of its people, Rage is also a tale of love & suspense that raises the tension with each successive page until it unavoidably shifts toward an intimate, shattering catastrophe. Humour, misfortune, shrewd social commentary & thrilling erotic fantasy come together, offering the reader an inside vision of contemporary Argentina.

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Based on extensive research in primary sources, Ragged London traces the story of the London poor. It shows how they lived, worked, loved & died. Every aspect of their life is explored, from the homes in which they lived to the food they ate, the entertainment they enjoyed & the occupations in which they engaged. Crime & punishment, the harsh conditions they endured, their bravery, defiance, humour & sense of community are all examined. Many enlightened people were so horrified by the abject poverty, overcrowded & unsanitary accommodation that were the homes of London`s rookeries, that they began both to campaign for change & to assist them directly through private charity. Ultimately the efforts of these philanthropists & reformers led to the beginning of the welfare state. Ragged London shows the triumph of the human spirit over extreme conditions. In spite of their poverty, the insalubrious nature of their dwellings, the casual & dangerous nature of their employment & the ever-present fear of the workhouse, there was a rebelliousness of spirit, a dignity & sense of humour that helped them face a life which otherwise might have seemed unendurable. ...

Raghu Rai is India`s most famous & most lauded photographer. Here, he lends his creative genius to capturing the changing face of Delhi, the place of his birth & India`s capital city, over the last forty years. William Dalrymple says in his introduction to the book that [this is] the work of a sympathetic insider & has a tender & knowing intimacy that no outsider like myself can come close to. That quality is displayed to stunning effect in this spectacular, large format book, which will be prized by anyone with an interest in modern India or photography. ...

Greedy, cruel & foolish, the Gods deserve to die.. . From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession & The Children's Book comes a mesmerising tale of the end of the gods & the destruction of life on this planet. Into her version of Ragnarok, surely one of the most thrilling & apocalyptic of myths, A.S. Byatt weaves the story of a young girl evacuated to the British countryside during the Second World War. Struggling to make sense of her life, she is given a book of Norse myths, & her inner & outer worlds are transformed. ...

Recently evacuated to the British countryside & with World War Two raging around her, one young girl is struggling to make sense of her life. Then she is given a book of ancient Norse legends & her inner & outer worlds are transformed. Intensely autobigraphical & linguistically stunning, this book is a landmark work of fiction from one of Britain's truly great writers. Intensely timely it is a book about how stories can give us the courage to face our own demise. The Ragnarok myth, otherwise known as the Twilight of the Gods, plays out the endgame of Norse mythology. It is the myth in which the gods Odin, Freya & Thor die, the sun & moon are swallowed by the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Midgard eats his own tale as he crushes the world & the seas boil with poison. It is only after such monstrous death & destruction that the world can begin anew. This epic struggle provided the fitting climax to Wagner's Ring Cycle & just as Wagner was inspired by Norse myth so Byatt has taken this remarkable finale & used it as the underpinning of this highly personal & politically charged retelling ...

Set in turn-of-the-century New York, E.L. Doctorow`s ” Ragtime” seamlessly blends fictional characters & realistic depictions of historical figures to bring to life the events that defined American history in the years before the First World War. This ” Penguin Modern Classics” edition

Includes:: an introduction by Al Alvarez. Welcome to America at the turn of the twentieth century, where the rhythms of ragtime set the beat. Harry Houdini astonishes audiences with magical feats of escape, the mighty J. P. Morgan dominates the financial world & Henry Ford manufactures cars by making men into machines. Emma Goldman preaches free love & feminism, while ex-chorus girl Evelyn Nesbitt inspires a mad millionaire to murder the architect Stanford White. In this stunningly original chronicle of an age, such real-life characters intermingle with three remarkable families, one black, one Jewish & one prosperous WASP, to create a dazzling literary mosaic that brings to life an era of dire poverty, fabulous wealth, & incredible change
- in short, the era of ragtime. E.L. Doctorow (b.1931) is one of America`s most accomplished & acclaimed living writers. Winner of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), the PEN/ Faulkner Award, & the National Humanities Medal, he is the author of nine novels that have explored the drama of American life from the late 19th century to the 21st, including ” Ragtime”, ” The Book of Daniel” & ” Billy Bathgate”. If you enjoyed ” Ragtime”, you might like John Dos Passos` ”U.S.A.”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”. ” In its perfection it stuns & holds from beginning to end”. (” Daily Mail”). ” Witty, lyrical, put together with admirable craft.. .dazzling economy & insight... Mr Doctorow knows what he is doing & has done it beautifully”. (” Guardian”). ” One of the best American novels for years”. (” Economist”).


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Ragusa at 1: 7, 000 on an indexed street plan from Litografia Artistica Cartografica in their Globalmap imprint, with a detailed enlargement of the city centre with Ragusa Ibla at 1:4, 000. 28 monuments including historic buildings & churches, cultural or educational institutions, & important municipal buildings or facilities are numbered & listed next to the plan. An inset at 1:10, 000 extends coverage south to include the town’s industrial zone & on the reverse a separately indexed plan also at 1:10, 000 covers Marina di Ragusa. Litografia Artistica Cartografica (LAC) are Italy’s leading publishers of street plans with an extensive range of titles. Where appropriate, the plans include an enlargement showing the historic centre in greater detail. On each plan monuments including historic buildings & churches, archaeological sites, cultural or educational institutions, & important municipal buildings or facilities are numbered & listed next to the plan. Unless indicated to the contrary in the individual description, one way streets are not marked. Street index is on the reverse. ...

Ragusa Province in a series of handy size road maps from Litografia Artistica Cartografica (LAC) with more minor local roads & tracks than can be found on most regional maps. The series is gradually being changed to a new style of digitally derived cartography, so presentation of adjoining titles may vary. All the maps have hill shading to represent the general relief with spot heights for selected peaks, & show a few more local roads & rough tracks than the other road map series. Intermediate road distances are indicated. Regional, provincial & communal borders are marked, & railways, funiculars, airports, sea ferry links & campsites are shown. The legend is in Italian only. The new, digitally produced editions are indexed & have enhanced, more finely drawn cartography: the hill-shading is less bold, motorway service areas are marked, natural parks are highlighted & an expanded range of symbols indicates various landmarks & sites, e.g. antiquities, churches, etc. Two styles of the new cartography are produced, differing only in the colour of the predominant background shading: grey or yellow/green. Some of the new editions include geographical coordinates for the map corners. The index of localities is on the reverse. This title is still produced in the traditional cartographic style. ...