The first single-volume history of the mutual relations between the constituent parts of the UK (Engl&, Scotl&, Wales, Northern Ireland), made topical by the recent devolution developments in Scotland & Wales. By comparison with the United States, the history of the United Kingdom as an undivided entity has been quite short. This book describes the history of each constituent part, their interaction, & the effect of external events. As soon as British history is seen as an integral part of world (especially European) history, the perspective alters drastically. Until 1803 France was optimistically assumed to be part of the realm. Less than a century elapsed between 1829, when the grant of a very restricted franchise to Catholics made the inclusion of Ireland more than a political fiction, to 1922, when the Irish Free State emerged. Scotl&, with England the main constituent of the UK since 1707, has retained its own legal system, administration & established church (the Queen changes her religion each time she passes Berwick). Wales retains a distinctive culture & language, albeit one on an expensive life-support machine. ...

It is short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. It is the winner of the Jerwood Prize. It is a constellation of everyday digital phenomena is rewiring our inner lives. We are increasingly coaxed from the three-dimensional containment of our pre-digital selves into a wonderful & eerie fourth dimension, a world of ceaseless communication, instant information & global connection. Our portals to this new world have been wedged open, & the silhouette of a figure is slowly taking shape. But what does it feel like to be four-dimensional? How do digital technologies influence the rhythms of our thoughts, the style & tilt of our consciousness? What new sensitivities & sensibilities are emerging with our exposure to the delights, sorrows & anxieties of a networked world? & how do we live in public, with these recoded private lives? Tackling ideas of time, space, friendship, commerce, pursuit & escape, & moving from Hamlet to the ghosts of social media, from Seinfeld to the fall of Gaddafi, from Facebook politics to Oedipus, The Four-Dimensional Human is a highly original & pioneering portrait of life in a digital landscape. ...

A mysterious keepsake, a murdered bride, a legacy of secrets... One balmy June evening in 1881, Phoebe Stanbury stands before the guests at her engagement party: this is her moment, when she will join the renowned Raycraft family & ascend to polite society. As she takes her fiance`s h&, a stranger brandishing a knife steps forward & ends the poor girl`s life. Amid the tumult, he turns to her aristocratic groom & mouths: `I promised I would save you.` The following morning, just a few miles away, timid young legal clerk William Lamb meets a reclusive client, whom he was never meant to meet. He finds the old man terrified & in desperate need of aid: William must keep safe a small casket of yellowing papers, & deliver an enigmatic message: The Finder knows. With its labyrinth of unfolding secrets, Claire Evans` riveting debut will be adored by fans of Kate Mosse, Carlos Ruiz Zafon & Jessie Burton. ...

The Waldseemuller Map of 1507 introduced an astonishing collection of cartological firsts. It was the first map to show the New World as a separate continent, alongside Europe, Africa & Asia
- & the first on which the word ' America' appears. It was the first map to suggest the existence of the Pacific. It was, in short, the first map to depict the whole world as we know it today. Beautiful, fascinating & revealing, it arrived on the scene as Europeans were moving out of the Middle Ages & into the Renaissance, thanks to a tiny group of European mapmakers who pieced together ideas going back to the ancients & through Marco Polo to Vespucci. In The Fourth Part of the World, Toby Lester charts the amazing & colourful history of this map, whose profound influence has been neglected for centuries & which changed the world-view of all humankind.
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THE SECOND NOVEL IN THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CHINA SERIES, FROM THE MILLION-SELLING AUTHOR OF THE RICHARD & JUDY BESTSELLER THE BLACKHOUSE. THE SECOND OPINION The Chinese police have once more been forced to enlist the services of American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell: this time to investigate a series of four horrific ritual executions that have taken place in Beijing. THE THIRD DEGREE Detective Li Yan is determined to discover just how one of the victims in particular, an American diplomat, became caught up in the slaying. & he is arguably even more determined to have nothing to do with Campbell. THE FOURTH SACRIFICE The polarity that once attracted Yan & Campbell eventually pulls them back into partnership. Yet the closer they are drawn to the truth, the nearer they come to a killer prepared to use extreme force to conceal it. ...

A delightful tale of victory against all odds from master storyteller, Michael Morpurgo, lavishly illustrated by Michael Foreman. ” Every fox in the whole town, in the whole country just about, is a football fan... And we all have an impossible dream.” In a cosy den under a garden shed lives a family of foxes. They love to watch football
- all foxes do. But their favourite team keeps losing & losing, & it seems like things will never look up. That is, until Daddy Fox finds the ghost of a king, buried underneath a car park. A king who wishes only to be free. ” Release me, ” says the Ghost King, ”and I can do anything. Just tell me your greatest wish.” For these football-loving foxes, might everything be about to change...?
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` The Fox & the Hare` is a Russian folktale retold by Vladimir Dal. This book is based on Francesca Yarbusova`s sketches to the award-winning animated film directed by Yuri Norstein. This beautiful tale is a simple story about the insidious Fox who takes over the Little Hare`s house when her own palace of ice melts in the Spring. After enlisting the help of several animals, still the ferocious fox remains in the Little Hare`s house. Is there anyone who can help him? Also available in the Norstein & Yarbusova Collection
- a beautiful series of children`s picture books based on the art of famous Russian artists & animators Yuri Norstein & Francesca Yarbusova are: ` Mishmash` & ` The Hedgehog in the Fog`.
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From an award-winning designer comes an original fable about need & loss. Once there was a Fox who lived in a deep, dense forest. For as long as Fox could remember, his only friend had been Star, who lit the forest paths each night. But then one night Star was not there, & Fox had to face the forest all alone. The Fox & the Star is a work of prose & design, each page thoughtfully created by Coralie Bickford-Smith ...

Mutual kidnapping between the Maori & the English inhabitants in New Zealand had dated back to the 1760s. In 1869, After an English defeat in battle in the Taranaki forest, one Maori boy, aged five, was captured & adopted by the Prime Minister. Educated to become a lawyer & an ` English gentleman`, Ngataua Omahuru (or little ` William Fox`), had played a crucial role in New Zealand`s history. More surprisingly as Peter Walker followed the little captive out of the forest & into the drawing rooms of Wellington & London, he found himself on a personal journey which converged unexpectedly with tale he had uncovered. ...

A breathtaking escape story that reveals the power of technology to connect people across cultures with life-saving results. Growing up in Yemen, Mohammed Al Samawi was smart, bookish, & committed to his faith. He had little interest in the non-Muslim world, beyond an intense hostility to Islam`s enemies. All that changed when a teacher lent him a copy of the Bible, sparking his interest in other faiths. Venturing online, he began to connect with people of different cultures from all around the world, & started the improbable journey from dreaming of taking vengeance on the `infidels` to devoting his life to inter-faith dialogue. But then Yemen crumbled into war. Trapped & alone under bombardment, he managed to get online & put his life in the hands of a rag-tag group of Facebook friends he barely knew. Near-strangers to each another, with zero experience in military strategy, the team of four, spanning New York, San Francisco, & Tel Aviv, achieved the seemingly impossible. They crowd-sourced escape routes & activated their networks to help save Mohammed from certain death. The Fox Hunt is an exhilarating real-life survival story of faith, curiosity, & the power of human connection in the face of conflict. ...