From its dawn in the 1660s to its twilight in the 1960s, Cliveden was an emblem of elite misbehaviour & intrigue. Conceived by the Duke of Buckingham as a retreat for his scandalous affair with Anna-Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury, the house later served as the backdrop for the Profumo Affair, which would bring down a government & change the course of British history. In the three hundred years between the Countess & Christine Keeler, the house was occupied by a dynasty of remarkable women: Elizabeth Villiers, an intellectual who brokered the rise & fall of governments; Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, a minor German royal who almost became queen of England; Harriet Duchess of Sutherl&, the glittering society hostess turned political campaigner; & Nancy Astor, the consummate controversialist who became the first woman to take a seat in parliament. Under the direction of these women, Cliveden provided a stage for political plots & artistic premieres, hosted grieving monarchs & republican radicals, was idealised as a family home, & maligned as a threat to national security. The Mistresses of Cliveden is by turns a historical epic, a political thriller, a family drama, & an intimate history of the relationships between people & place. Above all, it is a story about sex & power, & the ways in which exceptional women have evaded, exploited, & confronted the expectations of their times. ...

A Sunday Times bestseller
- Five women. One house. One extraordinary history. From its construction in the 1660s to its heyday
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The Misunderstanding is Irene Nemirovsky's first novel, written when she was just twenty-one & published in a literary journal two years later. An intense story of self-destructive & blighted love, it is also a tragic satire of French society after the Great War. Yves Harteloup, scarred by the war, is a disappointed young man, old money fallen on hard times, who returns for the summer to the rich, comfortable Atlantic resort of Hendaye, where he spent blissful childhood holidays. He becomes infatuated by a beautiful, bored young woman, Denise, whose rich husband is often away on business. Intoxicated by summer nights & Yves' intensity, Denise falls passionately in love, before the idyll has to end & Yves must return to his mundane office job. In the mournful Paris autumn their love founders on mutual misunderstanding, in the apparently unbridgeable gap between a life of idle wealth & the demands of making a living, between a woman's needs & a man's way of loving. As Denise is driven mad with desire & jealous suspicion, Yves, too sure of her, tortures himself & her with his emotional ambivalence. Taking her sophisticated mother's advice, Denise takes action.. .which she may regret forever. With a sharp satirical eye & a characteristic perception for the fault lines in human relationships, Irene Nemirovsky's first novel shows sure signs of the brilliant novelist she was to become. ...

THE MITFORD GIRLS tells the true story behind the gaiety & frivolity of the six Mitford daughters
- & the facts are as sensational
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Mix drinks like a pro with this indispensible collection of 150 of the world`s finest cocktails, all of which can be made from the comfort of your own mixing lab: your kitchen. Dan Jones shares recipes for classic tipples such as the Margarita & Martini to the more modern Thank God it`s Friday & Morning After, in the ultimate format for usefulness
- the manual. Starting with ` Basic Tools`, Dan covers the fundamental kit required to make your moonshine
- the shaker, glassware, bottle opener, spirits & mixers, manly patience & know-how. He then moves on to signature drinks, social occasions, quirky ingredients & designer ice
- no element of the cocktail goes unturned. With a stylish vintage design & illustrations throughout, Mixers Manual is witty & informative, set to become a classic.


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”A masterly work of profound research & reflection, objective & humane”. (Hugh Trevor-Roper, Sunday Telegraph). What would have happened if the Nazis had invaded Britain? How would the British people have responded
- with resistance or collaboration? In Madeleine Bunting`s pioneering study, we begin to find the answers to this age-old question. Though rarely remembered today, the Nazis occupied the British Channel Islands for much of the Second World War. In piecing together the fragments left behind
- from the love affairs between island women & German soldiers, the betrayals & black marketeering, to the individual acts of resistance
- Madeleine Bunting has brought this uncomfortable episode of British history into full view with spellbinding clarity.


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With 16.5 million built between 1908 & 1927, the Model T Ford was, until overtaken in the 1970s by the Volkswagen Beetle, the most popular car in automotive history. Mass-produced in America & throughout the globe, such was the Model T`s market penetration & value-for-money that in 1921 Henry Ford`s deceptively robust Tin Lizzie accounted for every other car on the highways of the world. Illustrated with many rare contemporary photographs from the Ford archives, this album charts the model`s nineteen year evolution & seeks to explain how this quirky, ingenious motor car put the world on wheels. ...

Food has always been a favourite subject of the world`s artists, from still-lifes by Matisse & Picasso to the works of Claes Oldenberg & Andy Warhol. But how do artists eat? The Modern Art Cookbook provides a window into how both great & lesser-known modern artists, writers & poets ate, cooked, depicted & wrote about food. A cornucopia of life in the kitchen & in the studio throughout the twentieth century & beyond, the book explores a wide-ranging panoply of artworks of food, cooking & eating from Europe & the Americas
- from the early moderns through the Impressionists, Symbolists, Cubists, Futurists & Surrealists up to today`s art
- as well as writing about food from contemporary novelists, writers & poets. Mary Ann Caws supplies numerous delicious modern art recipes, from Frida Kahlo`s Veracruz-style red snapper to David Hockney`s strawberry cake & Claude Monet`s madeleines, exploring the parallels between the art of cuisine & the visual & verbal arts. The Modern Art Cookbook illuminates the significance of particular ingredients & dishes in the lives of some of the world`s greatest artists, providing a feast for the eyes & the mind as well as the palate. Beautifully illustrated & often surprising, this compilation is a joyous guide to the art of food.

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An essential addition to every cook`s bookshelf, The Modern Cook`s Year will show you how to make the most of seasonal produce, using simple, hugely inventive flavours & ingredients. Divided into six seasons, Anna Jones`s long-awaited new cook book contains over 250 delicious vegetarian recipes interspersed with tips on everything from seasonal music playlists to flowers to look out for in each month of the year. The Modern Cook`s Year
Includes:: Start of the Year: Spelt with pickled pears & pink leaves & Chocolate & blood orange freezer cake; First Warm Days of Spring: Elderflower dressed broad beans & leaves with burrata & Chickpea farinata with slow cooked courgettes; Herald of Spring: Spring chickpea soup with salted lemons & Rhubarb & rose geranium frozen yoghurt; Summer: Smoked aubergine flatbreads & Beetroot tops tart; Autumn: Orzo with tomatoes & feta & Honey, lemon & coriander seed cake; Winter: Velvet squash broth with miso & soba & Chocolate rye porridge with quick honey pears. Guiding you through the year, from the coldest winter days to the long light summer evenings, The Modern Cook`s Year is set to become a contemporary classic.
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Tired of the dull daily commute to the office, the tedious traipse to & from the school gates? Fed up with the seemingly endless shades of grey that decorate the canvas of modern life? Then the time has come to open your eyes! For in the midst of those soulless sceneries & vacant vistas there lies a wealth of fascinating detail. Look up! Look carefully all around! Where once there was monotony, now there is intrigue in abundance; sights & sounds sure to delight & amuse, amaze & entertain, to brighten each & every day
- for once you spot, you can`t stop. The Modern Day Spotter`s Guide brings together the fun & frustrating, the maddening & the mundane, the good, the bad & the ugly to offer you a list of unlikely things to spot on your daily trudge through life. So be sure to keep your eyes peeled: for whether it be a cat with a moustache, a hopelessly lost tourist, a pigeon with one foot, an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction or the face of Jesus in your soup, the world is waiting to be spotted. See things a little differently. &, remember, life is in the details
- don`t let them pass you by.

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