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.
...

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. ...

Buenos Aires, 1976. Osvaldo Ferrero, a distinguished doctor, & his wife Yolanda escape the city with their daughters, sensible Julieta & wilful Graciela, who is nineteen & madly in love. On their return, the Argentine military stages a coup. Friends disappear overnight, & Osvaldo is forced to flee to Europe. When her fiance is abducted, Graciela goes into hiding, then she vanishes in turn. As Yolanda fights on the ground for some trace of their beloved daughter, she soon realises she may be fighting for an unknown grandchild as well... ...

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 ...

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.



...

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. ...

This extraordinary re-creation of the life of a medieval Italian merchant, Francesco di Marco Datini, is one of the greatest historical portraits written in the twentieth century. Drawing on an astonishing cache of letters unearthed centuries after Datini`s death, it reveals to us a shrewd, enterprising, anxious man, as he makes deals, furnishes his sumptuous house, buys silks for his outspoken young wife & broods on his legacy. It is an unequalled source of knowledge about the texture of daily life in the small, earthy, violent, striving world of fourteenth-century Tuscany. ` Datini has now probably become most intimately accessible figure of the later Middle Ages.. .brilliant & intricate` The Times ` As a picture of Tuscany before the dawn of the Renaissance it is a complement to The Decameron` Sunday Times ...

What hope is there for Syria? Clues can be found in the story of the Syrian cloth merchant Abu Chaker & his success against the odds. Barely literate, & supporting his mother & sisters from the age of ten, Abu Chaker built up a business empire--despite twice losing everything he had. Diana Darke follows his tumultuous journey, from instability in Syria & civil war in Lebanon, to his arrival in England in the 1970s, where he rescued a failing Yorkshire textile mill, Hield Bros, & transformed it into a global br&. The Merchant of Syria tells two parallel stories: the life of a cloth merchant & his resilience, & the rich history of a nation built on trade. Over millennia Syria has seen great conflict & turmoil, but like the remarkable story of Abu Chaker, it continues to survive. ...