All ghosts wear white sheets. That`s just what ghosts do. White sheets are good for haunting people & they make the ghosts feel like part of one big family. But one little ghost wants to wear something different. He tries all sorts of things
- a bag, a rug, a boot. Can he find the right one? A colourful picture book from talented debut author & illustrator, violeta Noy.
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From all points of the world I see man rising with the promptness of electricity, soaring in the air, & descending like a bird when & where he wishes The Right to Fly is part of ` Found on the Shelves`, published with The London Library. The books in this series have been chosen to give a fascinating insight into the treasures that can be found while browsing in The London Library. Now celebrating its 175th anniversary, with over 17 miles of shelving & more than a million books, The London Library has become an unrivalled archive of the modes, manners & thoughts of each generation which has helped to form it. ...

This title comes with an introduction by Marina Warner & illustrations by Mervyn Peake. Coleridge`s celebrated poem was written at the suggestion of William Wordsworth in the early days of their friendship, & published for the first time in 1798. It is the story of a nightmare voyage to the South Pole told by the sole survivor, the bright-eyed ancient mariner whose wanton killing of an albatross, a bird of good omen, brought misfortune on the ship & all its crew. The poem is brilliantly illustrated by Mervyn Peake. His powerful, arresting images perfectly express the qualities of the text, its gothic atmosphere & supernatural terrors, ultimately softened by pity & the hope of redemption. ...

Fifty years ago Gavin Maxwell went to live in an abandoned house on a shingle beach on the west coast of Scotl&. A haven for wildlife
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In Italy`s impoverished south, choices are limited. Rules & traditions are more powerful than the lives of individuals, & young Italians who stand on the right side of the law still find themselves on the frontline. In ` The Opposite of Death`, Maria is a seventeen-year-old widow before she has even made it to the altar; her fiance enlisted & died in Afghanistan to avoid a life controlled by the mafia. In ` The Ring`, a tale of bloody vengeance, a young woman comes to visit from the north, bringing with her ignorance & prejudice. Two women at separate poles of experience. Roberto Saviano has become a symbol of a whole generation of lost young Italians; these stories demonstrate once more the commitment to truth & justice that made Gomorrah such an exceptionally brave book. ...

” The Rings of Saturn” begins as the record of a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia. From Lowestoft to Bungay, Sebald`s own story becomes the conductor of evocations of people & cultures past & present: of Chateaubri&, Thomas Browne, Swinburne & Conrad, of fishing fleets, skulls & silkworms. The result is an intricately patterned & haunting book on the transience of all things human. ...

For most people giving up the day job & moving to a beautiful area of France & living off the vines is an impossible but delicious dream. In 1990, Patricia Atkinson & her husband decided to sell up in Britain & emigrate to the Dordogne. Their idea was to buy a house with a few vines attached & employ someone to tend to the wine while they earned their living with some financial consultancy work. There followed a series of disasters: the stock market crashed leaving their small holding as their sole source of income; the first red wine harvest turned to vinegar; & Patricia`s husband returned to Britain, unable to cope with the stress. He never returned. Patricia Atkinson, whose only knowledge of wine up to that moment was `that it came from a bottle` & who had not a word of French, was left to salvage their life savings form the vineyards. What follows is a remarkable story of struggle & transformation whereby her tiny 4 hectare plot has become a major estate of 21 hectares, where her Clos d` Yvigne wines have won awards & been adopted by wine merchants throughout the world & where she has been hailed as a superstar by UK wine writers. ...

THE RISE & FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE covers the history of British expansion overseas from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Narrative & analysis are interwoven with revealing eyewitness"ation to provide keen insight into the minds of those involved in conquering, settling & ruling the greatest Empire the world has seen. Throughout, there are consistant themes; the search for profit & the moral misgivings it generated; domestic developments which made imperial expansion desirable; & the sense of national & personal destiny felt by the empire-builders. Spanning four centuries & six continents, James` magnificent survey examines the imperial experience & its legacy with tremendous verve. Informed, comprehensive & perceptive, it is the essential summary of the era. ` James` epic is not only a first-rate narrative, but also a penetrating portrait of the British... Having largely, if often inadvertently, selfishly or ham-fistedly, engineered the world we live in, we need the courage now to face up to our record as coolly & intelligently as Lawrence James has done`
- John Spurling, TLS
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This is a story studded with extraordinary achievements & historic moments, from the building of the pyramids & the conquest of Nubia, through Akhenaten`s religious revolution, the power & beauty of Nefertiti, the glory of Tutankhamun`s burial chamber, & the ruthlessness of Ramesses, to Alexander the Great`s invasion, & Cleopatra`s fatal entanglement with Rome. As the world`s first nation-state, the history of Ancient Egypt is above all the story of the attempt to unite a disparate realm & defend it against hostile forces from within & without. Combining grand narrative sweep with detailed knowledge of hieroglyphs & the iconography of power, Toby Wilkinson reveals Ancient Egypt in all its complexity. ...

Paul Kennedy`s classic naval history, now updated with a new introduction by the author This acclaimed book traces Britain`s rise & fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural `sons of the waves`, he suggests instead that the country`s fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between `continental` & `maritime` schools of strategy over Britain`s policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political & strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history. A new introduction extends his analysis into the twenty-first century & reflects on current American & Chinese ambitions for naval mastery. ` Excellent & stimulating` Correlli Barnett ` The first scholar to have set the sweep of British Naval history against the background of economic history` Michael Howard, Sunday Times ` By far the best study that has ever been done on the subject.. .a sparkling & apt"ation on practically every page` Daniel A. Baugh, International History Review ` The best single-volume study of Britain & her naval past now available to us` Jon Sumida, Journal of Modern History ...