The fall of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 has become the commemorative symbol of the French Revolution. But this violent & random act was unrepresentative of the real work of the early revolution, which was taking place ten miles west of Paris, in Versailles. There, the nobles, clergy & commoners of France had just declared themselves a republic, toppling a rotten system of aristocratic privilege & altering the course of history forever. The Revolution was led not by angry mobs, but by the best & brightest of France`s growing bourgeoisie: young, educated, ambitious. Their aim was not to destroy, but to build a better state. In just three months they drew up a Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was to become the archetype of all subsequent Declarations worldwide, & they instituted a system of locally elected administration for France which still survives today. They were determined to create an entirely new system of government, based on rights, equality & the rule of law. In the first three years of the Revolution they went a long way toward doing so. Then came Robespierre, the Terror & unspeakable acts of barbarism. In a clear, dispassionate & fast-moving narrative, Ian Davidson shows how & why the Revolutionaries, in just five years, spiralled from the best of the Enlightenment to tyranny & the Terror. The book reminds us that the Revolution was both an inspiration of the finest principles of a new democracy & an awful warning of what can happen when idealism goes wrong. ...

The fall of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 has become the commemorative symbol of the French Revolution. But this violent & random act was unrepresentative of the real work of the early revolution, which was taking place ten miles west of Paris, in Versailles. There, the nobles, clergy & commoners of France had just declared themselves a republic, toppling a rotten system of aristocratic privilege & altering the course of history forever. The Revolution was led not by angry mobs, but by the best & brightest of France`s growing bourgeoisie: young, educated, ambitious. Their aim was not to destroy, but to build a better state. In just three months they drew up a Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was to become the archetype of all subsequent Declarations worldwide, & they instituted a system of locally elected administration for France which still survives today. They were determined to create an entirely new system of government, based on rights, equality & the rule of law. In the first three years of the Revolution they went a long way toward doing so. Then came Robespierre, the Terror & unspeakable acts of barbarism. In a clear, dispassionate & fast-moving narrative, Ian Davidson shows how & why the Revolutionaries, in just five years, spiralled from the best of the Enlightenment to tyranny & the Terror. The book reminds us that the Revolution was both an inspiration of the finest principles of a new democracy & an awful warning of what can happen when idealism goes wrong. ...

The French Riviera in the Landscapes of the Imagination guide series; providing an in-depth cultural & account of some of the world’s most memorable & evocative landscapes. Presented as a cultural & literary guide, each title in the series explores the cultural history of a landscape, providing an overview of the area’s development from its earliest roots to the modern day. Particular emphasis is placed on the literary, poetic, architectural, cultural & historical elements that make up the landscape & each title is written & researched by an academic expert. An Epilogue offers suggestion for further reading & indices of literary, artistic & historical names & places & landmarks. ...

The sunlight & calm of the French Riviera have been a magnet for writers since the fourteenth century. The Cote d` Azur has provided the inspiration & setting for some of the greatest literature of the nineteenth & twentieth centuries. ” The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers” is a reader`s journey along this fabled coast, from Hyeres & St. Tropez in the west to the Italian border in the east, introducing the lives & work of writers who passed this way, from distinguished Nobel laureates to new authors who found their voices there. Ted Jones`s encyclopaedic work covers them all: writers such as Graham Greene & W. Somerset Maugham, who spent much of their lives there; F. Scott Fitzgerald & Guy de Maupassant, whose work it dominates; & the countless writers who simply lingered there, including Louisa M. Alcott, Hans Christian Anderson, J. G. Ballard, Samuel Beckett, Arnold Bennett, William Boyd, Bertholt Brecht, Anthony Burgess, Albert Camus, Bruce Chatwin, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot, Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, A. A. Milne, Vladimir Nabokov, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Bernard Shaw, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anton Tchekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf & W. B. Yeats
- & many others.
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The French Riviera: A History ranges from the Terra Amata in Nice, occupied from 380, 000 years ago & one of the oldest inhabited prehistoric sites in the world, through to settlement by Greeks, Romans, Franks, Ostrogoths & Visigoths, wars & revolutions, to the establishment of the Silicon Valley of France in Sophia-Antipolis in 1974. Michael Nelson shows the surprisingly cosmopolitan nature of the area in the early middle ages, such as the story of the finishing school run by Frankish kings in the 7th century where Siagrius, the ruler of the region, had studied & where the son of King Edwin of Northumbria in England was also sent. The Riviera was part of Provence in France for much of its history & was often a microcosm of France itself, with many dynastic struggles & horrific blood-letting. Colour maps & plates illustrate The French Riviera: A History, & it is also full of fascinating anecdotes. Examples include the loan of a guillotine by Nice to Grasse in the French Revolution (Nice had no victims & Grasse had thirty) & the occasion when Jean Moulin, the leader of the French Resistance in World War II, invited the Germans to the opening of an art gallery in Nice which he was using as a front. In the nineteenth & twentieth century the British & Americans led tourism, & the Riviera was described by Somerset Maugham as `a sunny place for shady people`. The French Riviera: A History is a fascinating look back over the Riviera`s rich history. Perfect to dip into, or follow the whole historical journey in one sitting, it will make the perfect addition to any history buff`s bookcase. ...

Many moons ago, a foolhardy attempt to win a drunken bet resulted in Tony Hawks embarking on one of the most unforgettable experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty travelling companion-cum-domestic appliance
- i.e. his fridge
- he found himself in the midst of a remarkable, inspirational &, at times, downright silly adventure. His journey was chronicled in a book that would go on to be an international bestseller
- ” Round Ireland with a Fridge”. In ” The Fridge-Hiker`s Guide to Life”, Tony looks back on what he learnt on his quixotic quest. Namely: if all you have between birth & death is a journey, & if the journey is all we have, then wouldn`t it be best to make it fun? Such is the Philosophy of the Fridge. Reflecting on the many encounters he had along the way
- occasionally fraught, frequently hilarious & sometimes poignant
- & the colourful cast of characters he met, Tony realises that following mantras as simple as ` Do something silly` or ` Find the courage to follow your intuition` can make a huge difference in making life that little bit more enjoyable. Witty, charming & uplifting, ” The Fridge-Hiker`s Guide” will make you look at both life & your kitchen appliances in a whole new way...




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Tibet was not just on the horizon, it capped it. Four thousand metres above this city was a country of stone & ice, &, even though it was officially closed, there was still a way in. This is a compelling & unforgettable encounter on the roof of the world... Hoping to reach Tibet after a twenty-year obsession, Charlie Carroll travelled to China. Contending with Chinese bureaucracy, unforgiving terrain & sickness-inducing altitude, Charlie experienced twenty-first-century Tibet in all its heartbreaking beauty. Tibetan-born Lobsang fled the volatile region over the Himalayas, on foot, as a child in 1989. An exile in Nepal, then a student in India, he was called back to Tibet by love. At the end of the road known as the Friendship Highway, he met Charlie & recounted his extraordinary life story, exemplifying the hardship, resilience & hope of modern Tibetan life. ...

Friedrich Engels is one of the most attractive & contradictory figures of the nineteenth century. Born to a prosperous mercantile family in west Germany, he spent his career working in the Manchester cotton industry, riding to the Cheshire hounds, & enjoying the comfortable, middle-class life of a Victorian gentleman. Yet Engels was also the co-founder of international communism
- the philosophy which in the 20th century came to control one third of the human race. He was the co-author of ” The Communist Manifesto”, a ruthless party tactician, & the man who sacrificed his best years so Karl Marx could write ” Das Kapital”. Tristram Hunt relishes the diversity & exuberance of Engels` era: how one of the great bon viveurs of Victorian Britain reconciled his raucous personal life with this uncompromising political philosophy.
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Early Readers are stepping stones from picture books to reading books. A blue Early Reader is perfect for sharing & reading together. A red Early Reader is the next step on your reading journey. When she loses her beautiful golden ball at the bottom of the fountain, the princess is very upset. Then an ugly frog offers to help
- for a kiss. Yuck! What will the princess decide?
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On 9 April 2010, Dave Crisp found 21 coins while metal detecting on farmland near Frome. Two days later, he returned to the site & discovered a huge pot filled with more coins. Archaeologists believe the hoard will rewrite the history books. One of the most important aspects of the hoard is that it contains a large group of coins of Carausius, who ruled Britain independently from AD 286 to AD 293 & who was the first Roman emperor ever to strike coins in Britain. The hoard contains more than 760 of his coins, making it the largest group ever found. Among these coins are five rare examples of his silver denarii, the only coins of their type being struck anywhere in the Roman Empire at the time. This accessible book is written by experts from the British Museum & the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Packed with photography of the coins as well as images of the hoard in situ, this book will shed new light on 3rd-century Roman Britain. ” This find presents us with an opportunity to put Carausius on the map. School children across the country have been studying Roman Britain for decades, but are never taught about Carausius
- our lost British emperor.” (Roger Bland).
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