The visitors from downriver had strange pale skin & blue eyes, but they left a deadly sickness of red spots & fever. Thirteen-year-old Millie & her younger sister Maura were the only survivors. As the first snowflakes fell the dogs were turning wild, & it was clear that the two girls must leave to find a new home. They loaded up a raft to take them away, & so began an epic journey through the harsh snowy landscape. This is an extraordinary story of courage, commitment & survival. ...

Niall Ferguson`s bold, pithy & insightful analysis of the degeneration of the West. The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied. Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, aging populations. But what exactly is amiss with Western civilization? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, is that our institutions
- the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail
- are degenerating. Representative government, the free market, the rule of law & civil society were once the four pillars of West European & North American societies. In our time, however, these institutions have deteriorated. The Great Degeneration is a powerful indictment of an era of negligence & complacency. While the Arab world struggles to adopt democracy, & while China struggles to move from economic liberalization to the rule of law, the West is frittering away the institutional inheritance of centuries. To arrest the decline, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership & radical reform. Reviews: ”A refreshing perspective on the economic decline of advanced countries & the origins of the crisis”. (Samuel Brittan, Financial Times).”A compelling & cogently argued work”. (Times Higher Education). About the author: Niall Ferguson is one of Britain`s most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper & Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier & Civilization. He has written & presented six highly successful television series for Channel Four: Empire, American Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, Civilization & China: Triumph & Turmoil.

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Between 1846 & 1940, more than 50 million Europeans moved to the Americas, irrevocably changing both their new lands & the ones they left behind. Their immigration fostered an idea of the ”land of the free” & yet more than a third returned home again. In a ground-breaking study, Tara Zahra explores the deeper story of this movement of people. As villages emptied, some blamed traffickers in human labour. Others saw opportunity: to seed colonies like the Polish community in Argentina or to reshape their populations by encouraging the emigration of minorities. These precedents would shape the Holocaust, the closing of the Iron Curtain & tragedies of ethnic cleansing while also forming notions of social solidarity, human rights & freedom. ...

Why has inequality increased in the Western world
- & what can we do about it? In The Great Divide, Joseph E. Stiglitz argues
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Seasonal recipes & expert planting guides from Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd`s quintessential English country garden The Great Dixter Cookbook features seventy simple & delicious seasonal recipes from the kitchen garden at Great Dixter, the historic house & garden located on the borders of Kent & Sussex. Dishes included range from English classics such as chicken & leek pie, apple crumble, & beetroot chutney, to contemporary recipes like crispy kale with sea salt & shakshuka. Dixter was home to the revered & highly influential gardener & writer, Christopher Lloyd, & a number of this book`s recipes have been taken from the Lloyd family`s personal kitchen notebooks. With growing guides to more than twenty varieties of vegetables & fruit to accompany the recipes, this practical, accessible book enriches the kitchens & lives of home cooks & gardeners worldwide. ...

At the Ferocious Dragon Academy, dragons-in-training learn the arts of bone crunching & teeth sharpening. But there is one dragon who harbours a passion for a most undragon-like pastime.. . Meet Flamie Oliver. To look at, Flamie is as terrifying as a dragon can get. But behind closed doors, Flamie is.. .a stupendously spectacular Star Baker! That`s right
- choux, rough, salty, sweet & puff
- Flamie loves it all. In fact, he loves baking so much that his studies at the Ferocious Dragon Academy are starting to suffer, & there`s a chance he won`t graduate! Flamie`s going to need a real showstopper to get out of this one. On your marks, get set.. .BAKE! Fabulously funny & perfect for fans of BBCs Great British Bake Off

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What can the ideas of history`s greatest economists tell us about the most important issues of our time?` The best place to start to learn about the very greatest economists of all time` Professor Tyler Cowen, author of The Complacent Class & The Great Stagnation Since the days of Adam Smith, economists have grappled with a series of familiar problems
- but often their ideas are hard to digest, before we even try to apply them to today`s issues. Linda Yueh is renowned for her combination of erudition, as an accomplished economist herself, & accessibility, as a leading writer & broadcaster in this field; & in The Great Economists she explains the key thoughts of history`s greatest economists, how their lives & times affected their ideas, how our lives have been influenced by their work, & how they could help with the policy challenges that we face today. In the light of current economic problems, & in particular economic growth, Yueh explores the thoughts of economists from Adam Smith & David Ricardo through Joan Robinson & Milton Friedman to Douglass North & Robert Solow. Along the way she asks, for example: what do the ideas of Karl Marx tell us about the likely future for the Chinese economy? How does the work of John Maynard Keynes, who argued for government spending to create full employment, help us think about state investment? & with globalization in trouble, what can we learn about handling Brexit & Trumpism? In one accessible volume, this expert new voice provides an overarching guide to the biggest questions of our time. The Great Economists
Includes:: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, Irving Fisher, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek, Joan Robinson, Milton Friedman, Douglass North, Robert Solow` Economics students, like others, can learn a lot from this book`
- Professor Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion` An extremely engaging survey of the lifetimes & ideas of the great thinkers of economic history.`
- Professor Kenneth Rogoff, author of The Curse of Cash & co-author of This Time is Different` This book is a very readable introduction to the lives & thinking of the greats.`
- Professor Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, & author of I Do What I Do & Fault Lines` Read it not only to learn about the world`s great economists, but also to see how consequential thought innovations can be, & have been.`
- Mohamed el-Erian, Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz, former CEO of PIMCO





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In this highly illustrated book, a team of internationally renowned scholars surveys the greatest of Asia`s empires from 800 AD to the mid-20th century, from the Far East to the fringes of Europe. ” The Great Empires of Asia” shows how those seven empires played a key role in forming todays global civilization. Illuminated by maps showing the growth of each empire & lists of key events, this book will be of interest to students, historians & everybody concerned with understanding the role of Asia in todays world. ...

Asian empires led the world economically, scientifically & culturally for hundreds of years, & posed a constant challenge to the countries of Europe. How & why did those empires gain such power, & lose it? What legacies did they leave? This major book brings together a team of distinguished historians & 200 illustrations to survey seven great Asian empires that rose & fell between 800 CE & the mid-20th century: the Mongol Empire, Ming Dynasty of China, Khmer Empire, Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire of Persia, Mughal Empire of India & the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Splendidly illustrated & compellingly written, The Great Empires of Asia shows how those seven empires played a key role in forming today`s global civilization
- & how, with the renewed ascendancy of Asia, their legacies will help shape the continent`s future.
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A distinguished team of internationally renowned scholars surveys the great empires from 1600 bc to ad 500, from the ancient Mediterranean to China. In ten masterly chapters, the authors take in the empires of New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittites, Assyria & Babylonia, Achaemenid through to Sassanid Persia, Athens & Alexander, Rome, India & Qin & Han China. Superbly illustrated & underpinned by deep scholarship attractively conveyed, ” The Great Empires of the Ancient World” is an original & highly appealing work that makes these past societies resonate with, & fully relevant to, the modern age. ...