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. ...

A diary of adventure in picturesque Sand Bay, The Great Escape: Adventures on the Wild West Coast takes readers on an extraordinary journey as writer & explorer Monty Halls follows his dream of becoming a crofter. With his gigantic (possibly insane) dog Reuben as his companion, Monty raises sheep, pigs & chickens, grows his own vegetables, explores the wildlife, meets the locals, & learns all about life on Scotland`s wild west coast. Living his dream is not without its challenges
- whether it`s renovating an ancient bothy, climbing a mountain called The Inaccessible Pinnacle, or surviving the daily onslaught of midges
- but it`s a life-changing experience, set in the most beautiful & dramatic landscape in Europe. The Great Escape is a book for anyone who has longed to leave the rat race behind.

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When a famous explorer goes missing in the North Pole, his son, Tom, decides he must find him. & so a daring adventure begins across the treacherous icy terrain of the North Pole. Will Tom be able overcome the many challenges ahead & find his father? ...

What inspires explorers to push back the boundaries of the known world? Why do they risk their lives in unforgiving conditions far from home? How do they survive at the limits of human endurance? Who are the great pioneers of l&, sea & space? Where next? This book charts the great expeditions of forty of the world`s most intrepid explorers, from da Gama to Gagarin. Gertrude Bell plotted the desert sands, politics & poetry of Arabia; Francis Garnier was driven almost insane on the banks of the Mekong; Edward Wilson twice tried to reach the South Pole with Scott; Nain Singh mapped the vast spaces of Tibet, counting every step. Written by a host of distinguished travel writers, broadcasters & historians, here are journeys to savour from every corner of the earth
- & beyond.
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This is the Great Explosion by Brian Dillon: a masterful account of a terrible disaster in a remarkable place. In April 1916, shortly before the commencement of the Battle of the Somme, a fire started in a vast munitions works located in the Kentish marshes. The resulting series of explosions killed 108 people & injured many more. In a brilliant piece of storytelling, Brian Dillon recreates the events of that terrible day
- &, in so doing, sheds a fresh & unexpected light on the British home front in the Great War. He offers a chilling natural history of explosives & their effects on the earth, on buildings, & on human & animal bodies. & he evokes with vivid clarity one of Britain`s strangest & most remarkable landscapes
- where he has been a habitual explorer for many years. The Great Explosion is a profound work of narrative, exploration & inquiry from one of our most brilliant writers. ” The Great Explosion is exhilarating & moving & lyrical. It is a quiet evisceration of a landscape through the discovery of a lost history of destructiveness, a meditation on Englishness, an autobiography, a mapping of absences. I loved it.” (Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes). ” What a fascinating, unclassifiable, brilliant book, confirming Brian Dillon`s reputation as one of our most innovative & elegant non-fictioneers. No one else could have written it.” (Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways). ” Forensic, fascinating, endlessly interesting.” (Philip Hoare, Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author of Leviathan & The Sea Inside). ”A subtle, human history of the early twentieth century... Explosions are a fruitful subject in Dillon`s hands, one that enables him to reflect movingly on the instant between life & death, on the frailty of human endeavour, & on the readiness of nations to tear one another apart. The Great Explosion deftly covers a tumultuous period of history while centring on the tiniest moments
- just punctuation marks in time.” (Financial Times). ”[ Dillon`s] account of the Faversham explosion is as bold as it is dramatic, while his descriptive passages about the marshlands of Kent are so evocative that you can practically feel the mud sticking at your feet.” (Evening Standard). ”A brilliant evocation of place grasped in its modernity.” (Guardian). ” Dillon...has a WG Sebald-like gift for interrogating the landscape...a work of real elegiac seriousness that goes to the heart of a case of human loss & destruction in England`s sinister pastures green.” (Ian Thomson, Irish Times). ” Exhilarating...utterly beguiling.” (Literary Review).


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Seven huge, extendable scenes to unfold & colour in. Including: Safari, Under the Sea, In the Jungle, In Space, Fashion Show, Sports in the Sun & an Arty Street Party. Colour in creatively or chaotically! Great fun on your own or with friends & family. Each colouring scene extends to a fantastic 72cm! ...

This is an engaging & moving account of this most destructive event in Irish history. Over one million people died in the Great Famine, & more than one million more emigrated on the coffin ships to America & beyond. Drawing on contemporary eyewitness accounts & diaries, the book charts the arrival of the potato blight in 1845 & the total destruction of the harvests in 1846 which brought a sense of numbing shock to the populace. Far from meeting the relief needs of the poor, the Liberal public works programme was a first example of how relief policies would themselves lead to mortality. Workhouses were swamped with thousands who had subsisted on public works & soup kitchens earlier, & who now gathered in ragged crowds. Unable to cope, workhouse staff were forced to witness hundreds die where they lay, outside the walls. The next phase of degradation was the clearances, or exterminations in popular parlance which took place on a colossal scale. From late 1847 an exodus had begun. The Famine slowly came to an end from late 1849 but the longer term consequences were to reverberate through future decades. ...

In 1666, London`s citizens woke to see the skyline above their city`s cramped wooden houses ablaze. The Great Fire of London is a hauntingly beautiful visual re-telling of one of the most well-known disasters in the city`s history. To commemorate the 350th anniversary of the fire, powerful & sumptuous drawings from the new east London illustrator, James Weston Lewis, bring the events of November 1666 to life. Lewis`s drawings take readers on a journey, from the single smouldering coal that falls out of the baker`s oven to the swirling clouds of ash that engulf the city & then in to the very heart of the fire itself. As the pages turn, you can witness London burning to the ground & then rebuilding again. Children will love examining the rich detail of each spread, from the detailed city map to the drawings of London before, during & after the fire took hold. This book takes the dramatic historical information surrounding the Great Fire of London & transforms it into a breathtaking story that will transfix readers of all ages. ...