The world known as the ` Dark Ages`, often seen as a time of barbarism, was in fact the crucible in which modern Europe would be created. Chris Wickham`s acclaimed history shows how this period, encompassing people such as Goths, Franks, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Anglo-Saxons & Vikings, was central to the development of our history & culture. From the collapse of the Roman Empire to the establishment of new European states, & from Ireland to Constantinople, the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this landmark work makes sense of a time of invasion & turbulence, but also of continuity, creativity & achievement. ...

Adlard Coles is renowned for its beautifully produced logbooks, & with nothing else on the market specifically for inland waterways boaters, the new Inland Waterways Logbook will be a very welcome addition to the range. This handy, paperback logbook is designed specifically for inland waterways boaters, & contains useful pages of data, including: helpful knots sound signals Rule of the Road how a lock works tunnel procedure man overboard data on the boat (fuel, water capacity, spares, part nos etc) visitor pages The author is a well-known inland waterways enthusiast & expert, & the book even features an unlaminated area on the cover, so readers can write in their boat`s name. ...

The delightful tale of a young couple who in the late 1970s, on impulse, became the new landlords of the most remote, bleak & lonely pub
- The Tan Hill Inn
- located in the bleak landscape of the Yorkshire Dales. Having seen an article in the newspaper about the pub`s search for a new manager, they arrived just three weeks later as the new landlords of the The Tan Hill Inn. It is a wild, wind-swept place, set alone in a sea of peat bog & heather moorland that stretches unbroken as far as the eye can see. With only sheep & grouse for company, their closest neighbour was four miles away & the nearest town twelve. They had no experience of licensed trade or running a pub, no knowledge of farming & a complete inability to understand the dialect of the sheep farmers who were their local customers. Eager, well-meaning, but in over their heads, our two heroes embarked on a disaster-strewn career that somehow also turned into a lifelong love affair with the Dales. The Inn at the Top is an entertaining ramble around the Inn, the breath-taking Dales countryside & a remarkable array of local characters, giving an insight into life in a very different time & place.

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This is a long distance (84 miles/135 km), 6-day circular walk through the Peak District via 53 traditional country pubs. It



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FROM THE AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES Mother deer that grieve? Horses that feel shamesquirrels that adopt their grandchildren? We humans tend to assume that we are the only living things able to experience feelings intensely & consciously. But have you ever wondered what`s going on in an animal`s head? From the leafy forest floor to the inside of a bee hive, The Inner Life of Animals takes us microscopic levels of observation to the big philosophical, ethical & scientific questions. We hear the stories of a grateful humpback whale, of a hedgehog who has nightmares, & of a magpie who commits adultery; we meet bees that plan for the future, pigs who learn their own names & crows that go tobogganing for fun. & at last we find out why wasps exist. As more & more researchers are discovering, animals experience a rich emotional life that is ready to be explored. The Inner Life of Animals will show you these living things in a new light & will open up the animal kingdom like never before. ...

This is the first volume of Chesterton`s brilliant, ingenious Father Brown stories. Ahead of a new series of the popular BBC adaptation starring Mark Williams, all five of the original Father Brown books have been republished with charming & collectible Penguin covers. With his round face, pipe & umbrella, the shambling, bespectacled priest Father Brown is an unlikely detective
- yet his innocent air hides a razor-sharp understanding of the criminal mind. As this first volume of his adventures shows, the wise, worldly clerical sleuth has an uncanny ability to bring even the most elusive wrongdoer to justice. G. K. Chesterton was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best- known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) & the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 & died in 1938.
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Orhan Pamuk`s Museum of Innocence in Istanbul is the culmination of decades of omnivorous collecting that seeks to capture the city of Pamuk`s youth through everyday objects: The ephemera, bric-a-brac, & clutter that adheres to every life. These particular objects are intimately tied to The Museum of Innocence, Pamuk`s novel of lost love, which lends its narrative structure to their arrangement in the museum. Eighty beautifully designed vitrines, or boxes, carry the visitor along the arc of the story, on a journey through time & space as well as into the mind of the collector himself, ambiguously identified with both Pamuk & his novel`s lovelorn narrator. The Innocence of Objects, Pamuk`s catalogue of his museum, explores the many meanings of this remarkable project. While it offers a rich visual guide to the exhibitions, it also allows Pamuk to write about things that matter deeply to him, including the psychology of the collector, the proper role of the museum, the uses of photography in modernising societies (illustrated with Pamuk`s superb collection of haunting photographs & movie stills of old Istanbul) & of course the customs & traditions of his beloved Istanbul. The book`s imagery is equally evocative, ranging from the pop ephemera that has become ”collectible” throughout the chronically nostalgic developed world to the superb photographs of Turkish photographer Ara Guler. Combining compelling art & writing, The Innocence of Objects is an original work that will appeal to readers with a wide range of interests. ...

The setting is Berlin. Into this divided city, wrenched between East & West, between past & present; comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life
- & to lose his unwanted innocence. The promise of his new life begins to be fulfilled as Leonard becomes a crucial part of the surveillance team, while simultaneously being initiated into a new world of love & sex by Maria, a beautiful young German woman. It is a promise that turns to horror in the course of one terrible evening
- a night when Leonard Marnham learns just how much of his innocence he`s willing to shed.

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The wittiest introduction to the life of a social anthropologist ever written. Studying in the Cameroons for his first experience of fieldwork, Barley discovers that the society of the Dowayo people refuses to conform to the rules of his new discipline. Although set amongst a little-known tribe in the Cameroons, this slim volume reaches out to a vast audience who would otherwise never look at a travel book about West Africa, let alone an anthropological field study. A seminal text for any student in search of a laugh. Witty, hilarious & unconventional, but also a remarkable intellectual achievement; Barley manages to turn the western science of anthropology on its head, so that for once the laugh is on the professional practitioners not the observed. ...

` As five we were mighty, the points on a star... Once we five joined, it was never boys against girls... Two of our triangles cut themselves off & ran away together, & we were never whole again. Never.` ` As five we were mighty, the points on a star... Once we five joined, it was never boys against girls... Two of our triangles cut themselves off & ran away together, & we were never whole again. Never.` Years ago, they were the best of friends. But as time passed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, & began to forget about the past
- & the terrible lies they shared. But now Gordon, the youngest & wildest of the five, has died & the others are thrown together for the first time in years. Could their long-ago lie be the reason for their troubles today? Is it more dangerous to admit to what they`d done or is it the strain of keeping the secret that is beginning to wear down on their souls. Dark, provocative & beautifully written, Laura Lippman`s genre defying novel will appeal to fans of Lionel Shriver, Megan Abbott & Kate Atkinson.
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