A shocking investigative journey into the way the resource trade wreaks havoc on Africa, ` The Looting Machine` explores the dark underbelly of the global economy. Africa: the world`s poorest continent &, arguably, its richest. While accounting for just 2 percent of global GDP, it is home to 15 per cent of the planet`s crude oil, 40 per cent of its gold & 80 per cent of its platinum. A third of the earth`s mineral deposits lie beneath its soil. But far from being a salvation, this buried treasure has been a curse. ` The Looting Machine` takes you on a gripping & shocking journey through anonymous boardrooms & glittering headquarters to expose a new form of financialized colonialism. Africa`s booming growth is driven by the voracious hunger for natural resources from rapidly emerging economics such as China. But in the shadows a network of traders, bankers & corporate raiders has sprung up to grease the palms of venal local political elites. What is happening in Africa`s resource states is systematic looting. In country after country across the continent, the resource industry is tearing at the very fabric of society. But, like its victims, the beneficiaries of this looting machine have names. For six years Tom Burgis has been on a mission to expose corruption & give voice to the millions of Africans who suffer the consequences of living under this curse. Combining deep reporting with an action-packed narrative, he travels to the heart of Africa`s resource states, meeting a warlord in Nigeria`s oil-soaked Niger Delta & crossing a warzone to reach a remote mineral mine in eastern Congo. The result is a blistering investigation that throws a completely fresh light on the workings of the global economy & will make you think twice about what goes into the mobile phone in your pocket & the tank of your car. ...

A shocking investigative journey into the way the resource trade wreaks havoc on Africa, ` The Looting Machine` explores the dark underbelly of the global economy. Africa: the world`s poorest continent &, arguably, its richest. While accounting for just 2 percent of global GDP, it is home to 15 per cent of the planet`s crude oil, 40 per cent of its gold & 80 per cent of its platinum. A third of the earth`s mineral deposits lie beneath its soil. But far from being a salvation, this buried treasure has been a curse. ` The Looting Machine` takes you on a gripping & shocking journey through anonymous boardrooms & glittering headquarters to expose a new form of financialized colonialism. Africa`s booming growth is driven by the voracious hunger for natural resources from rapidly emerging economics such as China. But in the shadows a network of traders, bankers & corporate raiders has sprung up to grease the palms of venal local political elites. What is happening in Africa`s resource states is systematic looting. In country after country across the continent, the resource industry is tearing at the very fabric of society. But, like its victims, the beneficiaries of this looting machine have names. For six years Tom Burgis has been on a mission to expose corruption & give voice to the millions of Africans who suffer the consequences of living under this curse. Combining deep reporting with an action-packed narrative, he travels to the heart of Africa`s resource states, meeting a warlord in Nigeria`s oil-soaked Niger Delta & crossing a warzone to reach a remote mineral mine in eastern Congo. The result is a blistering investigation that throws a completely fresh light on the workings of the global economy & will make you think twice about what goes into the mobile phone in your pocket & the tank of your car. ...

” Mister! He said with a sawdusty sneeze, I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.” The Lorax is the original eco warrior & his message rings loud today. In this fable about the dangers of destroying our forests, he tries to save the Truffula trees from the greedy once-ler`s axe. The Lorax is a hilarious story with typical zany humour & silly rhymes, that packs a punch with its ecological message without feeling heavy-handed or worthy. The Dr Seuss blend of zany pictures & unique rhyme, rhythm & repetition mean that all ages will love & learn from this wonderful book. ...

Continuing the story begun in The Hobbit, all three parts of the epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, in one paperback. Features the definitive edition of the text, fold-out flaps with the original two-colour maps, & a revised & expanded index. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power
- the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring
- the ring that rules them all
- which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as the Ring is entrusted to his care. He must leave his home & make a perilous journey across the realms of Middle-earth to the Crack of Doom, deep inside the territories of the Dark Lord. There he must destroy the Ring forever & foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose. Since it was first published in 1954, The Lord of the Rings has been a book people have treasured. Steeped in unrivalled magic & otherworldliness, its sweeping fantasy has touched the hearts of young & old alike. This single-volume paperback edition is the definitive text, fully restored with almost 400 corrections
- with the full co-operation of Christopher Tolkien
- & features a striking new cover.




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Four-volume boxed-set edition of The Lord of the Rings in hardback, featuring Tolkien`s original unused dust-jacket designs, together with fourth hardback volume, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader`s Companion.

Includes:: special features & the definitive edition of the text. Since it was first published in 1954, The Lord of the Rings has been a book people have treasured. Steeped in unrivalled magic & otherworldliness, its sweeping fantasy has touched the hearts of young & old alike, with one hundred & fifty million copies of its many editions sold around the world. In 2005 Tolkien`s text was fully restored
- with the full co-operation of Christopher Tolkien
- with almost 400 corrections, the original red & black maps as fold-out sheets, a fully revised & enlarged index, & for the first time a special plate section containing the pages from the Book of Mazarbul, making this set as close as possible to the version that J.R.R. Tolkien intended. This Diamond Anniversary reissue of the prized boxed set marks 60 years since the first publication of The Fellowship of the Ring. These hardback editions feature Tolkien`s original unused dust-jacket designs from the 1950s, reworked for this edition, & some additional text corrections. The four-volume boxed set

Includes:: The Lord of the Rings: A Reader`s Companion, a unique annotated guide to the text, fully updated since its first publication in 2005, & is a book which will enhance the reader`s enjoyment & understanding of one of the most influential books of the 20th century.





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ENGLAND IS BORN. BBC2`s major TV series THE LAST KINGDOM is based on Bernard Cornwell`s bestselling novels on the making of England & the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The Lords of the North is the third book in the series. Season 2 of the epic TV series premiers this March. The year is 878. Uhtred of Bebbanburg, fresh from fighting for Alfred the Great, must journey north with a band of men to avenge his father, who has been cut down by the Danish lord Kjartan, Uhtred`s oldest enemy. But the north is a realm of chaos, rebellion & bloody retribution. As he plans his revenge attack, Uhtred is betrayed & ends up on a slave voyage to Icel&. Friends & alliances must unite to free him, & fight once more in the battle for Engl&. ...

Scotland`s rich past & varied landscape have inspired an extraordinary array of legends & beliefs, & in ” The Lore of Scotland” Jennifer Westwood & Sophia Kingshill bring together many of the finest & most intriguing: stories of heroes & bloody feuds, tales of giants, fairies, & witches, & accounts of local customs & traditions. Their range extends right across the country, from the Borders with their haunting ballads, via Glasgow, site of St. Mungo`s miracles, to the fateful battlefield of Culloden, & finally to the Shetlands, home of the seal-people. More than simply retelling these stories, ” The Lore of Scotland” explores their origins, showing how & when they arose & investigating what basis
- if any
- they have in historical fact. In the process, it uncovers the events that inspired Shakespeare`s ” Macbeth, ” probes the claim that Mary King`s Close is the most haunted street in Edinburgh, & examines the surprising truth behind the fame of the Mac Crimmons, Skye`s unsurpassed bagpipers. Moreover, it reveals how generations of Picts, Vikings, Celtic saints & Presbyterian reformers shaped the myriad tales that still circulate, &, from across the country, it gathers together legends of such renowned figures as Sir William Wallace, St Columba, & the great warrior Fingal. The result is a thrilling journey through Scotland`s legendary past & an endlessly fascinating account of the traditions & beliefs that play such an important role in its heritage.

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From conkers to marbles, from British Bulldog to tag, not forgetting `one potato, two potato` & `eeny, meeny, miny, mo`, The Lore of the Playground looks at the games children have enjoyed, the rhymes they have chanted & the rituals & traditions they have observed over the past hundred years & more. Each generation, it emerges, has had its own favourites
- hoops & tops in the 1930s, clapping games more recently. Some pastimes, such as skipping, have proved remarkably resilient, their complicated rules carefully handed down from one class to the next. Many are now the stuff of distant memory. & some traditions have proved to be strongly regional, loved by children in one part of the country, unknown to those elsewhere. All are brilliantly & meticulously recorded by Steve Roud, who has drawn on interviews with hundreds of people aged from 8 to 80 to create a fascinating picture of all our childhoods.
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At the centre of this extraordinary historical narrative are two linked themes: the grinding down of the aborigines during the long rivalries of the quest for El Dorado, the mythical kingdom of gold; &, two hundred years later, the man-made horror of the new slave colony. Naipaul shows how the alchemic delusion of El Dorado drew the small island of Trinidad into the vortex of world events, making it the object of Spanish & English colonial designs & a Mecca for treasure-seekers, slave-traders, & revolutionaries. & through an accumulation of casual, awful detail, he takes us as close as we can get to day-to-day life in the Caribbean slave plantations -- at the time thought to be more brutal than their American equivalents. In this brilliantly researched book, living characters large & small are rescued from the records & set in a larger, guiding narrative -- about the New World, empire, African slavery, revolution -- which is never less than gripping. ` History as literature, meticulously researched & masterfully written` New York Times Book Review `A formidable achievement... No historian has attempted to weave together in so subtle a manner the threads of the most complex & turbulent period of Caribbean history` Times Literary Supplement ` Brilliant... Startling` New Statesman `A remarkable book... Intelligent, humane, brilliantly written` Book World ...

The gripping first-hand narrative of the whaling ship disaster that inspired Melville`s ” Moby-Dick ”and informed Nathaniel Philbrick`s monumental history, ” In the Heart of the Sea.” In 1820, the Nantucket whaleship ” Essex” was rammed by an angry sperm whale thousands of miles from home in the South Pacific. The ” Essex ”sank, leaving twenty crew members drifting in three small open boats for ninety days. Through drastic measures, eight men survived to reveal this astonishing tale. ” The Narrative of the Wreck of the Whaleship Essex, ” by Owen Chase, has long been the essential account of the ” Essex”`s doomed voyage. But in 1980, a new account of the disaster was discovered, penned late in life by Thomas Nickerson, who had been the fifteen-year-old cabin boy of the ship. This discovery has vastly expanded & clarified the history of an event as grandiose in its time as the ” Titanic.” This edition presents Nickerson`s never-before-published chronicle alongside Chase`s version. Also included are the most important other contemporary accounts of the incident, Melville`s notes in his copy of the Chase narrative, & journal entries by Emerson & Thoreau. ...