Edwin Lutyens` Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval in Northern France, visited annually by tens of thousands of tourists, is arguably the finest structure erected by any British architect in the twentieth century. It is the principal, tangible expression of the defining event in Britain`s experience & memory of the Great War, the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, & it bears the names of 73, 000 soldiers whose bodies were never found at the end of that bloody & futile campaign. This brilliant study by an acclaimed architectural historian tells the origin of the memorial in the context of commemorating the war dead; it considers the giant classical brick arch in architectural terms, & also explores its wider historical significance & its resonances today. So much of the meaning of the twentieth century is concentrated here; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing casts a shadow into the future, a shadow which extends beyond the dead of the Holocaust, to the Gulag, to the `disappeared` of South America & of Tianenmen. Reissued in a beautiful & striking new edition for the centenary of the Somme. ...

You are going to die. You can preserve a handful of special memories for ever. Which ones would you choose? True death is a thing of the past. Now you can spend the rest of eternity re-living your happiest memories: that first kiss, falling in love, the birth of your children, enjoyed on loop for ever & ever. Isobel is a Heaven Architect, & she helps dying people create afterlives from these memories. So when she falls for Jarek, one of her terminal
- & married
- clients, she knows that while she cannot save him, she can create the most beautiful of heavens, just for him. But when Jarek`s wife is found dead, Isobel uncovers a darker side of the world she works within, & she can trust no one with what she finds. The Memory Chamber is a thrilling & original story which vaults the reader into a world that is terrifyingly close to our own, where we can avoid everything we fear
- even death itself. But can we ever escape the truth? Perfect for fans of Black Mirror.


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In ancient, pre-literate cultures across the globe, tribal elders had encyclopedic memories. They could name all the animals & plants across a landscape, identify the stars in the sky & recite the history of their people. Yet today, most of us struggle to memorize more than a short poem. Using traditional Aboriginal Australian song lines as a starting point, Lynne Kelly has since identified the powerful memory technique used by our ancestors & indigenous people around the world. In turn, she has then discovered that this ancient memory technique is the secret purpose behind the great prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge, which have puzzled archaeologists for so long. The stone circles across Britain & northern Europe, the elaborate stone houses of New Mexico, huge animal shapes in Peru, the statues of Easter Island
- these all serve as the most effective memory system ever invented by humans. They allowed people in non-literate cultures to memorize the vast amounts of information they needed to survive. But how? For the first time, Lynne Kelly reveals the purpose of these monuments & their uses as `memory places`, & shows how we can use this ancient technique to train our minds.
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Freetown, Sierra Leone: a devastating civil war has left an entire populace with terrible secrets to keep. In the capital`s hospital Kai, a gifted young surgeon is plagued by demons that are beginning to threaten his livelihood. Elsewhere in the hospital lies Elias Cole, a university professor who recalls the love that obsessed him & drove him to acts that are far from heroic. As past & present intersect, Kai & Elias are drawn unwittingly closer by Adrian, a British psychiatrist with good intentions, & into the path of one woman at the centre of their stories. The Memory of Love is a heartbreaking story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. ...

The rooms we live in are always more than just four walls. As we decorate these spaces & fill them with objects & friends, they shape our lives & become the backdrop to our sense of self. One day, the houses will be gone, but even then, traces of the stories & the memories they contained will remain. In this dazzling work of imaginative re-construction, Edward Hollis takes us to the sites of five great spaces now lost to history & pieces together the fragments he finds there to re-create their vanished chambers. From Rome`s Palatine to the old Palace of Westminster & the Petit Trianon at Versailles, & from the sets of the MGM studios in Hollywood to the pavilions of the Crystal Palace & his own grandmother`s sitting room, The Memory Palace is a glittering treasure trove of luminous forgotten places & the people who, for a short time, made them their home. ...

Established in June 1940, the Long Range Desert Group was the inspiration of scientist & soldier Major Ralph Bagnold, a contemporary of T.E Lawrence who, in the inter-war years, explored the North African desert in a Model T Ford automobile. Mortimer takes us from the founding of the LRDG, through their treacherous journey across the Egyptian Sand Sea & beyond, offering a hitherto unseen glimpse into the heart of this most courageous organisation, whose unique & valiant contributions to the war effort can now finally be recognized & appreciated. Praise for Gavin Mortimer: ” With unparalleled access to SBS`s archive, Mortimer draws on private papers to produce the definitive account of the SBS`s extraordinary exploits in WWII.” Sunday Telegraph ” The SBS is finally being recognised thanks to a remarkable new book. Author Gavin Mortimer spent more than a decade interviewing veterans, scrutinising SBS archives & poring over recently declassified documents to write The SBS in World War 2.” Daily Mirror ” This gripping first-hand account of the raid is one of many previously unpublished resources that Mortimer`s book draws on.” The Times ” Mortimer deserves full credit for assembling a mountain of material & presenting it with lucidity & balance” Philip Ziegler, Daily Mail ...

The Men Who Mapped the World by Beau Riffenburgh, historian & author of many books particularly on Polar explorations, tells the story of philosophers, travellers, artists & scientists who brought together their skills & knowledge to produce some of the most interesting or intriguing examples of cartography. The book’s five chapters, each with several sections, deal with mapping in the ancient & medieval world, cartography in the age of discovery, filling in the missing gaps as the knowledge of the world expanded, maps in the age of empires & nationalism, & mapping the modern world. Lavishly illustrated throughout by maps & map extracts, the book also

Includes:: an imaginative innovation: five envelopes with 15 reproductions of maps from the archives of the Royal Geographical Society. The selected examples beautifully illustrate the development of cartographic styles from early pictorial mapping to modern aerial photography.

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From bestselling author Simon Winchester, the extraordinary story of how America was united into a single nation. For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum
- out of many, one
- has been featured on America`s official government seals & stamped on its currency. But how did America become `one nation, indivisible`? In this monumental history, Simon Winchester addresses this question, introducing the fearless trailblazers whose achievements forged & unified America. Winchester follows in the footsteps of America`s most essential explorers, thinkers, & innovators. He treks vast swaths of territory, introducing these fascinating pioneers
- some, such as Washington & Jefferson, Lewis & Clark being familiar, some forgotten, some hardly known
- who played a pivotal role in creating today`s United States. Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, & to what degree. ` The Men Who United the States` is a fresh, lively, & erudite look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together, from one of our most entertaining, probing, & insightful observers.



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The Mendips in 1897 in a series of reproductions of Ordnance Survey’s famous ” Inch to the Mile” maps published in the Alan Godfrey Editions to provide a historical record of England & Wales in the second half of 19th & early 20th century. The map covers the area from Wells & Shepton Mallet northward to Chew Stoke & westward to Axbridge & Wavering Down. Other locations include Ashwick, Badgworth, Banwell, Biddisham, Binegar, Blagdon, Burrington, Butcombe, Cameley, Chapel Allerton, Charterhouse on Mendip, Cheddar, Chelwood, Chewton Mendip, Chilcompton, Christon, Clutton, Compton Bishop, Compton Martin, Croscombe, Dinder, Doulting, East Harptre, Emborrow, Farrington Gurney, Hih Littleton, Hinton Blewett, Litton, Loxton, Mark, Nempnett Thrubwell, North Widcombe, Nyland cum Batcombe, Paulton, Priddy, Rodney Stoke, Rowberrow, Shipham, Stowey, Ubley, Wedmore, West Harptree, Westbury, Winscombe & Wookey. On the reverse is a more detailed map of Chilcompton. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the OS Inch to the Mile Maps: the maps provide an invaluable overview of a wider area, typically 18 x 12 miles (29 x 19 kms approx.), & offer historical mapping for small towns & villages not covered by the more detailed series for which the Godfrey Editions are better known. On the reverse all the maps have historical notes & most titles also include a more detailed, large scale map of a small town or a village in the area. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

For as long as civilizations have known how to ascribe numerical values to quantities, there have been number puzzles; ancient Egyptian scrolls have been found with difficult problems for the reader to solve. Now Mensa, the leading high IQ society, have created a book which will challenge even the most adept puzzle-solver. A wide variety of puzzle types have been included from societies around the world in The Mensa Number Puzzle Book. Many include a historical introduction & advice on how to solve them from Mensa`s top puzzle-setters. ...