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. ...

Few people have had as great an impact on Bath as Brunel. He changed the face of the city & brought the coaching trade
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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 ...

The crisis of 2008 ended the illusion of a golden era in which many people imagined that prosperity & political calm would continue to spread indefinitely. In a world now racked by slowing growth & mounting unrest, how can we discern which nations will thrive & which will fail? Shaped by prize-winning author Ruchir Sharma`s twenty-five years travelling the world, The Rise & Fall of Nations rethinks economics as a practical art. By narrowing down the thousands of factors that can shape a country`s future, it spells out ten clear rules for identifying the next big winners & losers in the global economy. Each rule looks at a nation`s political, economic, & social conditions in real time to filter out the hype & noise. ` People Matters` shows how slow population growth is eroding economic growth, & ranks nations by how well they respond. The `circle of life` describes the way cycles of political complacency & revolt fuel economic booms & bust. Amid growing tensions over inequality, ` Good Billionaires, Bad Billionaires` demonstrates how billionaire lists yield clues to which economies are most or least threatened by extreme wealth. In a period when the world is struggling with trillions of dollars in new debt, the ` Kiss of Debt` explains which nations are most likely to avert this threat or buckle under it. Together, the ten rules are instructive for anyone who wants to know which nations are most likely to rise or fall in our own time. The final chapter takes the reader on a surprising world tour of the likely winners & losers in the near future. Enlivened by Sharma`s encounters with presidents, tycoons, & villagers from Rio to Beijing, this book is a pioneering field guide to understanding our impermanent world. ...